Though I Was Born an Orphan

Though I was born an orphan
Abandoned and alone
Enslaved and bound in darkness
Without a hope or home
The God of grace and mercy
From his eternal throne
Ordained to be my Father
And claim me as His own

That I might be adopted
The Father sent his Son
To live in full obedience
And die for what I’ve done
Now through his resurrection
Through faith, with him I’m one
A member of his household
I am an heir, a son

To soothe my fear and worry
The Spirit from on high
Was sent to be a witness
That “Father!” I might cry
O How I love this Father!
I’m never left alone
He’s come to dwell within me
Until he calls me home

Since we have this adoption
We cannot close our homes
To widows and to orphans
Abandoned and alone
Lord, fill us with compassion
To love the fatherless
That we might show the nations
How great our Father is

Eric Schumacher and David L. Ward © 2009 ReformedPraise.org

Lead Sheet

Sunday Morning Worship Order | 10/20/2013

Call to Worship
Welcome to Grace Fullerton IN FULLERTON. What a blessing the Lord has provided for us here in this space! It’s been quite the journey, with moments of doubt along the way, but we are here. The Lord has provided free furnishings (like the chairs you’re sitting in and the tables your kids are coloring at) and He has stirred up many to give their time and energy generously to make this a beautiful place to gather and worship and grow and reach this city.

Psalm 100 is such an appropriate call for us to worship this morning. (Let’s all read together the underlined parts.)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
     Serve the Lord with gladness!
     Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
     It is he who made us, and we are his;
     We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
     and his courts with praise!
     Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
     His steadfast love endures forever,
     and his faithfulness to all generations.

PSALM 100

Let’s stand and sing.

Song: Praise the Living God

Response of Praise and Thanksgiving (Congregation)

Because of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, we’re gathered here to worship AS the temple of God this morning, not IN the temple of God.

It’s no small thing to realize that when a Christian shows up, God shows up. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)

So when the church gathers, it gathers as a collection of people in whom God dwells. God inhabits the gathered church because these scattered worshipers are all temples, who together make a greater temple.

“You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19-22)

When this temple gathers, something otherworldly takes place. It’s an outpost of hope in a dying world, a fellowship of resurrected sinners, whose presence in the world is a foretaste of a greater transformation to come.

This gathering is an encounter with the people of God, filled with the Spirit of God, spurring one another along in the mission of God. Christ in me meets Christ in you.

MIKE COSPER, Rhythms of Grace

This is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray like He did. Let’s pray the prayer He taught us to pray using this song.

Song: Hallowed Be Your Name

Greeting

Call to Confession
“Hallowed be Your name. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Prayer of Confession

Almighty God,
We confess how hard it is to be your people.
You have made us a chosen race,
     a royal priesthood,
     a holy nation,
     a people for Your own possession
     who are called to proclaim Your excellency.
But we acknowledge that we are often more apathetic than active,
     more indifferent than involved,
     more callous than compassionate,
     more obstinate than obedient,
     and more legalistic than loving.
Forgive us, Lord.
Lead and empower us, Holy Spirit,
     to do your will on earth as it is in heaven.
In the name of Jesus our Savior and Lord.
Amen.

adapted from The Worship Sourcebook

Song: Great God of Glory

Assurance of Pardon
Be encouraged! The same Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sin is the guarantee that Jesus has truly covered our sin.

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

ROMANS 8:14-17

Song: O Fount of Love

Offering Prayer

Offering Song: Speak, O Lord

Sermon (John Rinehart, Jerrel Haugen, Kenny Clark)
How to Wait for God’s Son from Heaven

Closing Song: O Church, Arise

Benediction

Speak, O Lord

Speak O Lord as we come to You
To receive the food of Your holy word
Take Your truth plant it deep in us
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith
Speak O Lord and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory

Teach us Lord full obedience
Holy reverence true humility
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity
Cause our faith to rise
Cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority
Words of power that can never fail
Let their truth prevail over unbelief

Speak O Lord and renew our minds
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us
Speak O Lord till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory

Keith Getty | Stuart Townend
© 2005 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Lead sheet

Hallowed Be Your Name

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name
Your kingdom come, Your will be done
Magnify Your fame in all the earth
Let every tongue declare Your matchless worth
Your awesome deeds proclaim

Hallowed be, hallowed be Your name
Hallowed be, hallowed be Your name

We look to You daily, all-knowing God, provide
Forgive our debts as we forgive though our faith be tried
We humbly pray, keep us from Satan's power
In every way Your name be glorified

Hallowed be, hallowed be Your name
Hallowed be, hallowed be Your name

Creation groans, waiting that final day
When rival thrones are finally put to shame
Then we will see Heaven and earth combined
Your name will be the One and only name

Hallowed be, hallowed be Your name
Hallowed be, hallowed be Your name

Words and music by Walt Harrah
©2008 Seedsower Music
Based on the Lord's Prayer

Lead Sheet

Praise the Living God

Praise the Living God!
Praise the Living God!

Praise the Lord from the heavens
Now exalt him in the heights
Praise the Living God!
Cherubim join with angels
Laud and bless him day and night
Praise the Living God!
Stars above in celestial parade
Endless space in such glory arrayed
Now extol your creator
For the wonders he has made
Praise the Living God!
Praise the Living God!

From the depths of the oceans
Every creature of the sea
Praise the Living God!
Lightening hail snow and thunder
Help proclaim his majesty
Praise the Living God!
Give him glory you beasts of the field
Birds and cattle your praise to him yield
Everywhere all around you, there his nature is revealed
Praise the Living God!
Praise the Living God!

Kings and rulers of nations
Bow before the Lord of all
Praise the Living God!
He is worthy of honor
God of gods to whom we call
Praise the Living God!
Rich and poor blend the old with the young
Peoples praise him in every tongue
May his name be exalted, let his praises now be sung
Praise the Living God!
Praise the Living God!

Words and music by Walt Harrah

©2001 Seedsower Music

Lead sheet

Sunday Morning Worship Order | 10/13/2013

Call to Worship
Welcome to Grace. Who here feels like you’ve got it all figured out and all together this morning. Nobody? You’re in the right place. We’re gathered to worship and ask help from the only One who does have it all figured out and together.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.

ROMANS 11:33-36

In Knowing God, J. I. Packer gives this great definition of God’s wisdom:

God’s wisdom is His power to see AND His inclination to choose the best and highest goal, TOGETHER WITH the surest means of attaining it.

J. I. PACKER

What an awesome and assuring combination. Not only does God KNOW the best goals and how best to bring those about… He is also INCLINED TO CHOOSE what is best and to use the surest means of getting there. “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Let’s stand and sing.

Song: You Are Good

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

PSALM 23

Song: Now and Forever

Response of Praise and Thanks
Lord, our cups overflow with your goodness and mercy because of Jesus. Overflowing. All the days of our lives. Forever. We praise you, Heavenly Father, for knowing how to give good gifts to Your children. We thank you for adopting us as Your children in the first place. Thank you, Jesus, for becoming the Lamb who was slain so that we could become the sheep of your hand. Help us this morning to know how secure we are in those hands. We love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Greeting

Call to Confession
“Surely goodness shall follow me all the days of my life.” Surely. All. God sees the best and highest goals TOGETHER WITH the surest means of attaining them. When God told Isaiah He was planning to use Cyrus the Great - the pagan Emperor of Persia - as His “anointed one” to send Israel back home to Jerusalem from exile, Isaiah had His doubts. Listen to God’s response:

Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: “Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

ISAIAH 45:9-12

Prayer of Confession
Lord, we have said in a hundred ways:
     We know better.
     What have You done?
     What are You doing?
     Why this? Why now? Why not?
     Where are the handles?! Surely, my life is supposed to have handles!
     We have doubted Your goodness.
     We have been skeptics of Your love.
     We have been critics of Your plans and purposes.
     We have rolled our eyes at Your wisdom.

You are perfectly wise
     and our complaining,
     our fretting,
     our resentment,
     our envy,
     our disobedience to Your clear commands
     all say in so many words:
 “You don’t know what you’re doing. I know better.”

We confess our ignorance and our arrogance
     and ask You to help us - by Your Spirit -
     to settle back down again into your sure hands.
Thank You, Jesus, for dying for God-critics like us.

Amen.

Song: Why Sinks My Weak, Downheartened Mind?

Assurance
How are these for “healing words that we are God’s and we are blest”?

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
So the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.

PSALM 103:8, 10-14

Song: Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Offering Meditation and Prayer

Offering Music: Be Still My Soul (instrumental, piano)

Sermon (Ralph Wagenet)

Closing Song: Be Still My Soul

Benediction

Be Still My Soul

Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change, He faithful will remain
Be still my soul thy best thy heav’nly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end

Be still my soul thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past
Thy hope thy confidence let nothing shake
All now mysterious shall be bright at last
Be still my soul the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below

Be still my soul the hour is hast'ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord
When disappointment grief and fear are gone
Sorrow forgot love's purest joys restored
Be still my soul when change and tears are past
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last

Jane Laurie Borthwick | Jean Sibelius | Katharina Amalia von Schlegel
© Words: Public Domain

Lead sheet