Worship

God’s Benediction: Grace to You

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What is the benediction? Why does the pastor raise his hands? How should I receive the benediction?

A benediction is a blessing from God. Benediction comes from two words bene, which means ‘good,’ and dicere, which means ‘to speak.’ It is the good speech, or the blessing. 

The benediction is not a prayer. A prayer is our speaking to God and asking for a blessing. A benediction is the actual pronouncement of blessing in God’s name.

A benediction is not an ascription of praise to God or Christ. Many, wrongly, praise God thinking it is a benediction. They are aiming in the wrong direction. A benediction conveys the blessing of God, from God. What is the blessing of God? It is the grace of God – not promised, not merely prayed for, but actually conveyed to us.

Since the blessing comes from God it is conveyed by one who has been set apart to speak for God. It is a function of ordination.

Why does the pastor raise his hands for the benediction?  The OT priests did, Leviticus 9:22, “Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.” Jesus raised his hand in the Ascension, Luke 24:50, “And (Jesus) led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.”  So the minister lifts his hands to pronounce and convey the blessing in the name of Jesus.

How should we receive the benediction? The blessing is given regardless of your physical posture. But, many fix their eyes on the hands that convey the blessing and lift their hands to receive grace acknowledging their dependence on God.

“This is God’s final word to us in the covenant assembly of worship: those who belong to him are not under his judgment, but under his grace. They are not objects of his wrath, but the objects of his love. The benediction is his holy announcement that we are sealed with his name and our whole life is covered by his grace.”

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit. Amen.

The Sabbath Keeps You!

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“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8  Oh, no! Here is comes. A long list of things that I should not be doing on the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s Day. Whatever you enjoy, stop doing right now. God demands it. Wrong! I am here, not to place a burden on your shoulders, but to grant you a blessed relief and to point you to pure joy. I am a hungry beggar showing other hungry beggars where I found bread.  I found bread for my soul and to spare on the Sabbath Day.

In Mark 2:27 we read, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” We do not serve God’s day by keeping a list of rules, God’s day serves us with rest, joy, and peace.  It is designed by God to be a blessed day of rest and worship.  It is the Market Day for the soul.  It is a whole day reserved to walk and talk with God, and to rest in what He has accomplished for us.

God has scattered his blessing throughout the day. He says to us, “I will give you rest.” “I have completed my work, and now you can rest, and look forward to greater rest.”  We are commanded to “Call the Sabbath a delight!” Isaiah 58:13  It is a day of blessing, joy, rest, worship, and delight.

But many people do not find it so. They call it a burden. They see it is a duty and not a delight. Over 150 years ago, J.C. Ryle said, “Our Sundays and how we use them is one of the most sure signs of our spiritual condition.” If it is the Market Day of the soul, and it is, we have too much supply and not enough demand.  We work 5 days a week, run errands on Saturday, but Sunday is finally our day – a day to do whatever we want, to pursue our highest pleasure.

Yes it is! And what is your highest pleasure? Knowing and enjoying God. Pursuing God on the Sabbath day is our delight. We find it a treasure. It conveys the greatest blessings. J. C. Ryle again writes, “The Sabbath is God’s merciful appointment for the common benefit of all mankind…It is not a yoke, but a blessing. It is not a burden, but a mercy…Above all, it is good for souls.”

So, call the Sabbath a delight, for the Sabbath was made for man.

The Sermon Sponge

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Profiting from Sermons

I love a good sponge.  They can soak up insane amount of water, and, it seems, you can alway

s squeeze a little more water from a sponge.  Sermons are like a sponge, and profiting from a sermon is like squeezing a sponge for more water.

A preacher was once asked how long it took to prepare a sermon. He answered, truthfully, but a little tongue in cheek – all my life.  A great deal of study, effort and prayer goes into a sermon. The preacher digs into the text, checks out issues of translation, consults the wisdom of others contained in commentaries, filters it through his own understanding and experiences of our Great God and Savior, and seeks to share the truth about Christ and life from the Biblical text in an accessible and practical manner.  A sermon can soak up a great deal of knowledge and wisdom.

How can you squeeze that knowledge and wisdom from the sermon? 

Prepare – Bring a bucket – read the text, consult a Study Bible or commentary, pray for the p

astor, and for your own understanding.  

Listen – Focus on the message. Drink it all in live and in person.  Take notes. I pro

vide sermon notes for you to follow more closely and to profit more abundantly from the message.  

Meditate – Think on the message. Turn it over in your mind. Ask questions of yourself after the sermon. Squeeze the sponge.  Questions like: 

  1. What did I learn about God and how He works today?
  2. What did I learn about myself, my identity, my purpose?
  3. What did I learn in general? What insights did I gain? 
  4. What will I remember about this message? What sticks with me? An illustration, or a truth that I can write down in a sentence?
  5. How will I respond to the message? What should change in my life?

We are going to help you squeeze the sponge on May 21 at 6pm. We will gather to ask tho

se questions of the sermon and see if we can profit more from the message. Come prepared! Write down you answers to those questions after the sermon. It take a whole life to prepare a single sermon and a single sermon fully received can change a whole life. You too can be a sermon sponge.

Family Worship

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If you want to see most Christian Husbands and Fathers in a speechless panic, ask him how family worship is going.

Now, I always wanted to be a father. The birth of my 5 children gave me lasting joy even 35 years later.  I love being a dad.

I did not realize at the time that being a Dad also meant that I was the prophet, priest, and king in my home.  King, I kinda liked.  I call the shots, I make the decisions. Great! But being a prophet to my wife and kids? Teaching them the truth of God? Or a priest, leading my family in worship and praise?  That was scary to me; so a tended to neglect that duty, that means of grace to those I loved the most.

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  Perhaps I could provoke my children to anger by not giving them instruction in the Lord. I love my kids, but it was so difficult to find the time to gather them for worship, I was busy and things seemed to be going well enough. Plus, I was the pastor. That should be enough.  For the most part, I failed at leading family worship. I also tended not to exhort others on family worship because of my own neglect.  Well, I have repented. And now I am exhorting Christian husbands and fathers, lead your family in worship.

We have a good example of family worship through Timothy’s mom and grandma. 2 Timothy 3:15 “And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Here the mom and grandma filled in the gap caused by an unbelieving father. 

We have an ever better example in Abraham. Genesis 18:19 “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Covenant blessings were funneled to Abraham and his children through his commanding his children to keep the way of the Lord.

Start small, start simple; but start. Read a verse, sing a stanza, say a prayer.  Be the pastor in your own home. Nurture the wife and children that God has given you.

The Benediction: Don’t Leave Church Without It

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Why do we do it? Why does the pastor raise his hands? What should the congregation do during the benediction?

“Where the benediction is an ancient practice in Christian worship and found at the end of every Pauline epistle, many Christ are unclear on its meaning and treat it as little more than a pious way of ending a worship service… The benediction is God’s Word to us, both in Scripture and during the weekly public assembly.  Each week, God pronounces his benediction upon us, telling us that his promise, and not our experience, gets the final word to all who are in Christ.” URNCA  It is as if Jesus were saying to us, ‘‘I have been dead, and in dying made a curse for you; now that curse I have fully removed, and my Father hath acquitted me and you for it; and now I can be bold to bless you, and pronounce all your sins forgiven, and your persons justified.’’ Thomas Goodwin

“The church today should be encouraged to have a richer understanding of receiving Christ’s benediction, which testifies both to the presence of God among the congregation and to the completeness of the atoning work of the Savior.” Kelly Kapic

What does the word mean? Bene = Good; Dicere = to speak. It amounts to blessing; the good word, or speech. Benediction. The real content that is given during the benediction is grace. Paul mentions grace is each of his benedictions. 

The benediction is not a prayer, or a request being made to God; it is a pronouncement from God to us. It is a bestowal of his presence, grace and blessing.  It is not a mere reminder, but an actual giving of grace.

Some words or pronouncements achieve what they declare.  For instance, “Not guilty.” That conveys a status.  Or, “By the power vested in me, I introduce Greg and Sally, Husband and wife.” Or, “you are hired, or fired.”  In the benediction, we are blessed. That status is conveyed to us.  A spiritual transaction takes place.  We are filled with God’s promise, presence and blessing.

The source of the blessing is Jesus Christ.  It is an application of the person and work of Christ to the lives of his children.  The benefits of God’s plan and Christ’s work are applied to us by the Holy Spirit. This may be why the Spirit is not mentioned in the NT benedictions – the Holy Spirit is the person conveying the blessing from the Father and the Son.

Why does the pastor lift his hands?

Jesus did. In Luke 24:50-51, Jesus was lifting his hands in blessing his people as he ascended.  OT priests would also life their hands to convey a blessing (Lev 9:2).  In the early NT church, the presiding officer would literally lay his hands no the heads of the worshippers as the service ended to convey a blessing. Today, the pastor lifts his hands to bless, and the people raise their hands and eyes to receive the blessing.  It is not a prayer, but a blessing – keep your eyes open!

It is the minister, the one set aside to stand in the place of God, that pronounces the benediction. Elders or ministerial candidates can pray the blessing.  Yet, in families, the husband, as the prophet, priest, and king of his home, can pronounce a blessing on his family.

Interestingly, in Philippians 4:23, “be with your spirit,” your is plural and spirit is singular. This points to our unity in the Spirit.  We are one people.  It also harks back to Phil 1:27, “I will now that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.”

So, don’t leave the worship service without receiving God’s parting blessing.  He sends us out into the world and into the week with his presence, promise, and grace. 

Entering into Rest: Preparing for the Blessing of Worship 

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You always prepare for the biggest, most important events in your life. Remember your first date? You gave it focused time and attention, didn’t you?  Or that job interview, or that difficult conversation with your boss, your in-laws, or your spouse – you mull it over first and clear time to arrange your words ahead of time. Worshipping God is the greatest, most spectacular event in your life. Listen to how worship is described in Hebrews 12:22-24, 

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” 

We gather in God’s house with a distant view of, but also a present participation in, heavenly worship; we gather with angels as they worship with us (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 68:17; 1 Corinthians 11:10; see also, Revelation 4:8; 5:8-14). We gather with the saints, the firstborn, the chosen, the elect; those who are singing next to us, and also with the perfected believers who worship in heaven. Earthly and heavenly worship are mysteriously united. In worship, we are in the presence of the holy, omnipotent, creator God.  We see and hear Jesus in worship. His blood speaks to us. He is the only mediator between God and man. Paul Engle describes it this way, “There is more happening in the worship service than meets the eye. Worship is a supernatural event. As you assemble to lift up praise to God, you are joined by the invisible angelic hosts. Worship is a truly supernatural event. It is a heavenly event” (Discovering the Fullness of Worship, p. 57).

I am seeking to elevate your estimation of Worship so that you will more diligently prepare for it and eagerly participate in it. In worship, heaven and earth are united. In it the breath of heaven and the wisdom of God can lift and heal your heart and mind. 

So, how can we better prepare for the monumental experience of worship? Let me give some very practical suggestions:

  1. Be there. “Ninety percent of life is just showing up,” -Woody Allen. Life is a tug of war for our time, and it pulls us in many, and necessary directions – but none is more important than worship. To know and enjoy God is our created purpose. If we miss or forsake it, we deprive ourselves of the heart of life and the very reason for our existence. So, make worship a priority; your first priority.
  2. Get some sleep. Droopy eyes make for lazy worship. If you burn the midnight oil on Saturday night you cripple yourself for Lord’s Day blessing.
  3. Clear the day. Yes, I mean the whole day. A friend once told me, “I work hard Monday through Friday, Saturday I run errands, but Sunday is my day.” On my calendar, it is the Lord’s Day – the whole day! It belongs to the Lord, and He has made it good for us. The Sabbath was made for man, for his benefit and blessing. Do not allow the rest of the week and all your other necessary duties to leak into the Lord’s Day and rob you of its full blessing. Worship, fellowship with God and His people, study the Word of God, read soul-inspiring books, visit the sick and the elderly, pray with a friend. God gives us each 7 days a week and He only asks for, or should I say commands, one in return.  Give it to Him; all of it.
  4. Prepare to Worship. If you walk with God during the week you can run into His arms on the Lord’s Day. The heart of worship is worship from the heart. Fix your eyes upon Jesus – His life, His death, His wisdom, His love, His presence. Read the bulletin ahead of time. Sing the worship hymns in family worship during the week. Listen to a sermon on the text that the pastor is preaching. Read a commentary. But above all, pray. The Old Covenant people of God used to sing Psalms as they approached Jerusalem for the great worship feasts. We can do the same.
  5. Listen to what God is saying to you in worship. Worship is a dialogue between God and His people. The elements of worship are not optional, haphazard, or unnecessary. They are God speaking and listening to His people. Enter into each element of worship with open ears and a hungry heart and God Himself will feed you. He speaks peace, grace, and blessing to His people throughout worship. Hear Him!
  6. Listen to the sermon as if God were speaking because He is. Romans 10:14 states, “How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” Jesus speaks when His Word is faithfully proclaimed. Be engaged, take notes, give heed. God is speaking to His people in a powerful, life-transforming word.
  7. Sing the hymns.  Listen to the words. Feel the passion and power of the truth that they convey. I sometimes listen in stunned and grateful silence as the truth sung penetrates my soul. God, His love and grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and promises for the future are overwhelming.  Hear the message of the hymns, make them your own. Sing from the bottom of your toes the truth of God. When we worship, we play to an audience of one. Show God your grateful heart.
  8. Pray with the prayers. Listen intently and make the offered prayers your own. Be able and willing to give a hearty Amen! (which means: so be it, I agree) at the end of each prayer.
  9. Receive the Benediction.  In the early church, the apostles or elders would lay their hands on the head of each Christian to communicate a parting blessing. Today, the benediction is given with arms raised and it is to be received by the whole congregation. Some, appropriately, receive it with open arms. Also, the benediction is a pronouncement, a donation, of blessing. It is not wishful thinking, nor is it merely a kind request of God – it is God giving His grace and peace to His children.
  10. Be changed. Exodus 34:29, “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” If you spend time with God, you will shine like His son. The target for our sanctification in this life is to be like Jesus. Worship transforms us into the image of God. Let it. Cooperate with it. We should be different, better, for having been in the presence of God.

So, squeeze all the life that you can out of worship.  Prepare for it, be fully engaged with it, and profit from it.  Worship is entering into rest. God is fitting and equipping you for the heavenly life. And it will be glorious. 

Order of Worship Explanation

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Explanation of the Elements of Worship

Introduction

There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and withal, most just, and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. 

In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: the Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter II:1, 3

God is to be worshipped in “spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). This regulative principle of worship means that He is to be worshipped only according to what He Himself has prescribed for His Own worship in His Word.

The Prelude / Welcome, Announcements, Silent Prayer 

Before the service begins, when men, women and children enter the sanctuary to worship, everyone should realize that they have entered into to a place separated for worship and prayer. Greetings and fellowship should take place outside the sanctuary and every individual should use the quiet to still the thoughts and concerns of daily life in preparation for the coming dialogue with a most Holy God. Announcements, if made, should be brief and not repetitive of what is printed in the bulletin.  The Prelude, whether by organ or piano, provides a suitable atmosphere for the preparation of heart and mind for the exalted activity of worship, which is to occupy the congregation for the next hour.  

Call to Worship

We begin by acknowledging God as the only true God that deserves our worship with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It may be a reading from Scripture, perhaps a Psalm or a song. With this, we focus our hearts and minds upon the task at hand – worship.  It also signals the congregation that the worship service has begun, and that the time is set apart as holy unto The Lord.  (Psalm 95:6, Psalm 5:7–8, Luke 4:8)

Salutation 

This is God’s response to his people invoking his name. He announces his grace and peace to all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. As God’s appointed ambassador, the minister or ruling elder raises his hands and announces God’s blessing from his Word: For example, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 1.7).  

Invocation

After calling God’s people to be physically and spiritually present in the call to worship, we entreat (invoke) God to be present with us.  While God is omnipresent, there remains a very special sense in which He meets with His people for their acts of worship.  Thus, in this first prayer we praise His greatness, His Glory, His works and His attributes, as we seek the special presence of the Holy Spirit that we might worship the Triune God in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

The Hymn of Worship

The hymn of worship is our response to the greatness of God, magnifying His glorious attributes as we sing to Him.  Having heard God’s blessing and salutation, we respond by lifting up our voices to Him and singing a Psalm or biblical hymn.  The hymn should be vertical- to the God of all creation- not horizontal- not to encourage our brothers and sisters at this time. We “come into his presence with singing!” (Ps 100.2). The words we sing to the Lord are carefully chosen, as the content of each song must conform to Scripture, and should provide us with a deeper understanding of God.  (Colossians 3:16-17, BCO Book of Church Order Chapter 51)  

Confession of Faith

We make use of the great historical creeds in our service. These creeds serve as anchors to our faith. They are the means which unify us in our beliefs and tie us directly with what our fathers in the faith believed.   We also make use of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which also serves as a part of our denominational standards.

We confess together the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed, or a section of the Heidelberg Catechism. We do this not only to be instructed in the Christian faith, but also as a prayer to God in which we declare that we stand united in the truth he has revealed: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4.5-6).

Confession of Sin

God is eternally and perfectly holy, righteous, just, good, moral, and upright.  Thus, He dwells in unapproachable light (I John 1:5, 7).  He cannot have fellowship in the presence of sin.  While His people’s sins have been washed by the blood of the perfectly spotless Lamb of God for eternity, we still commit sins moment by moment and day by day (I John 1:6, 8, 10).  For Him to dwell in our midst in worship, our confession of sins must be immediately “up to date” (I John 1:9).  Thus, one of our first acts in His presence must be to seek his forgiveness to purify us for the worship that follows.

Silent Confession

Our worship must be dignified and orderly (Psalm 46:10).  Confession by dozens of voices would be noisy and distracting, as well as sinful curiosity about my neighbor’s sins!  Further, the mind can confess more rapidly than that which is spoken, and likely, many sins need to be confessed!  Thus, in silence, we confess personal, corporate (as a local body of Christ), and national (as citizens of a nation) sins.  However, this once-a-week  confession does not replace what ought to be our daily and ongoing confession of sins.

Assurance of God’s Pardoning Grace  

Having confessed our sins to God, we hear the joyful announcement of His promise that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1.9). As Christ’s ambassador, the minister (teaching elder) or ruling elder affirms through Scripture God’s pardon to all who trust in Christ and repent of their sins.

Hymn (of Praise)

The hymn of praise is in response to the grace of God in forgiving sin.  This hymn gives the people of God the ability to praise the Lord Jesus Christ as their great Prophet, Priest and King.  This hymn may also be chosen to reflect the sermon topic or the Scripture reading for the week.  Rev. 4:8-11

Tithes and Offerings

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” (James 1:17) “I came that they (His sheep) might have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) Giving back to God what He has so abundantly given to us is also an act of worship.  First, we give Him His tithe of our increase (Malachi 3:1-12), and secondly, we give offerings cheerfully beyond the tithe, according to the bounty that God has given us. (2 Corinthians 9:6-7)

Doxology

The word doxology comes from the Greek – doxologia, a word (logos) of glory (doxa). The doxology is an ancient hymn of praise – and has been a part of the worship service in churches for centuries. It is sung in response to the Lord’s overflowing grace.

Gloria Patri

Singing The Gloria Patri is fitting after any great statement of faith, for example, after a creed or after the assurance of God’s pardoning grace.  It is a response to God’s love and faithfulness.  The first part is an ancient statement “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost…” that has been used since the beginning of Christendom in the church.  The second statement, “as it was in the beginning, and now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen” was added during the time of the council of Nicea in 325 AD as a statement about the Trinity.  “As it was in the beginning” refers to the Trinity in eternity past, “and now and ever shall be” refers to the Trinity during present and future times, and “world without end” refers to the eternally present (now and in the future) Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally present in the Godhead.  

Choir Anthem

This hymn or song is chosen as praise, as a prayer, or as a means to prepare our hearts to hear His Word in preparation for the sermon.

Pastoral Prayer or Prayer of intercession

In the “pastoral prayer” or the “prayer of intercession”, it is important to remember what it is and what it is not.  This is not the prayer of adoration or confession.  These are covered in other prayers during the service.  This is our chance to have intercession and thanksgiving that is founded in the Gospel, addresses the needs of our own congregation as well as the church universal, and looks out into the world to seek the glory of God amongst the lost and the nations. It is the restored relationship with God that gives us the confidence to ask Him for our needs.  “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).   Ephesians 3:14-21

Scripture Reading

The only truth that we have about God and His instructions for our lives is the Word of God, also known as the Holy Bible or Holy Scriptures.  As such, it is necessary and obligatory, not only to regulate worship, but to be read alone and integrated into every aspect of the worship service.  Such reading is to include both the Old and New Testaments.

Prayer for Illumination  

We petition the Holy Spirit to help us to see the truth in, feel the power of, and accurately apply the Word of God and truth into everyday practice.   We call upon Him to “give [us] the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of [our] hearts enlightened, that [we] may know what is the hope to which he has called [us], what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1.17-19).

Sermon

The sermon is the sound, expositional preaching of the entire inspired, infallible and sufficient Word of God. It is here, more than anywhere else, where God speaks truth to His church.  The message must be discernibly from the Word of God.  The question that the hearers should be able to answer at the end of the sermon is, what does this passage mean and how does it apply to me today.  A Christian sermon is not sharing the wisdom or experience of a wise man; it is God speaking through His Word.  The message must be the message of the text, understood and made relevant for today.  This Word is powerful.  It can give life, change life, and sanctify life.  It can make warriors of the weak, saints out of sinners, and humble servants out of proud rebels.  All our confidence is in the power of the Word itself.

As the apostle Paul told pastor Timothy: “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim 4.2-4).

Hymn of Response

The hymn of response is a song, a Psalm, a hymn or spiritual song that focuses on our response to God’s word from the sermon. (if before the serving of communion, it may be a hymn or song chosen to prepare our hearts for communion).

Benediction

The benediction is God’s good word to his people; His blessing upon the church and it is excerpted from Scripture.  In the worship service, the triune God gets the first word and the final word, both are announcements of his grace. With uplifted hands, the minister or ruling elder blesses the people of God from the Word of God, which is available to all who receive it through faith: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13.14).

Communion Service

Having heard from our covenant God in his Word, we now join Him in a covenant meal. As the preached Word promised us God’s favor in Christ, so also our heavenly Father adds this visible confirmation of his unchangeable promise. We partake together to commune with and participate in the body and blood of Christ (1 Cor 10.16).

Invitation

The Lord’s Supper separates believers from the world, and it sustains and strengthens saints in the midst of the world.  The table is spread for Christians.  Christians are to come in faith, with joy and expectation of receiving grace for the homeward journey.  The table must be fenced.  Unbelievers and those who have never made a profession of faith before the church should not attend.  Christians must be able to examine themselves, discern the body of Christ and come in understanding faith to the table of the Lord.

The Bread and the Cup 

The elements are the signs and seals of our salvation.  They represent the body and blood of Christ willingly given for us and for our salvation.  They are the visible gospel.  They have no power in and of themselves.  However, they point us to Christ and His finished work, and they allow us through faith to commune with the Living God.  We partake of Christ by faith through the bread and the cup.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We give thanks for the greatest of all gifts, the gift of Christ and His salvation.  We pledge ourselves to respond to such a great salvation with living faith, active service, and humble gratitude.