Prayer of Confession
O Lord, we have not longed for your coming as our only hope.
We have not lived as citizens of your kingdom as we should.
We have chosen easy belief instead of the fellowship of Your cross.

We have made this world our treasure,
giving our hearts to the creation, instead of You, the Creator.
We are callous to the needs of the poor, the lonely and the suffering.
We have not cried out for justice.
We do not grieve for those who are without Christ in a dying world.

Forgive our offenses and sins
By the Holy Spirit fill us with the light and life in Christ.
In our weakness may Your grace witness to Christ's glory.

Assurance of Pardon
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in our humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15

Order of Worship, January 16 2011

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Gracious Lord, we confess that we have dishonored you in our words, thoughts and deeds.

Depending on our strength, we have stumbled.
Trusting in our goodness, we have become prideful.
Confident in our plans for our lives we have failed to seek your will.

We pray now, Lord, for you to forgive all of our many sins;
to cleanse the unrighteousness from our lives,
and to turn from our faces and our hearts back towards you.
We pray these things in the name of your most precious son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousnesses.  Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  But to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousnesses.  Romans 4:3-5

Order of Worship, January 2 2011

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Father, we come to you this morning as people who need to be redeemed.  We need to be made whole.  We confess that we need you to heal us for we cannot heal ourselves.

We confess our wandering hearts.  We run after acceptance, prestige, wealth, order, pleasure and novelty in a desperate effort to heal our hearts.  None of these can redeem us, none of these can make us whole.  Yet we are slow to learn.  Forgive us we pray.

We confess our faithless hearts.  We have looked for redemption everywhere but in your arms.  We have not looked to you because we doubt your love for us.  Forgive us we pray.

Now, Father, accept our confession and receive us gladly.  We ask this not upon our deserving it, or even the honesty of our confession, but for the sake of Jesus.  You rejected Him, the innocent, in order to embrace us, the guilty. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Romans 8:1

Order of Worship, December 5 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Holy Father and Merciful King
Our lives are not hidden from your sight.
You hear our thoughts, know our hearts, and see every moment of our lives:
Our whining and pride, our laziness and fear of risk, our grumbling and envy.
All that we are, we are before You.  Even so we wrestle against your grace, pretending that we can hide our sin behind our self-righteous deceit.

We confess not only our sin, but the shame of our attempts to fight against the grace of your love for sinners.

Humble us with the gospel.
Father cover us in the righteousness of Christ.
Let us hear Your Spirit assuring us that Christ's sacrifice is our peace
and His resurrection the seal of our adoption as sons.

May the peace of Christ guard our hearts so that we might seve you with feedom and joy, now and forever more.
Amen

Assurance of Pardon
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:8-9

Order of Worship, December 12 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Almighty and most merciful Father, we are thankful that your mercy is
higher than the heavens,
wider than our wanderings,
deeper than all our sin.

Forgive our careless attitudes toward your purposes,
our refusal to relieve the suffering of others,
our envy of those who have more than we have,
our obsession with creating a life of constant pleasure,
our indifference to the treasures of heaven,
our neglect of your wise and gracious law.

Help us to change our way of life
so that we may desire what is good,
love what you love,
and do what you command,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. Job 19:25-27

Prayer of Confession
Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep.  We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us.

But you, O Lord, have mercy upon us.  Grant, O most merciful Father, for Jesus' sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous and joyful life, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Romans 8:31-35

Prayer of Confession
Most merciful Father, we have sinned against and are guilty before you.
Forgive us the sins of our tongues--
For deception and untruthfulness in our dealings with others; for resentment, coldness, impatience, and tempers out of control.
Forgive us the sins of our eyes--
For impurity in our glances and imagination; for pining after more beauty, comfort, status, and wealth than you have given us.
Forgive us the sins of our hearts--
For hard-heartedness toward you and our neighbors; for pride, self-absorption, self-pity; and above all for rebelling against your Lordship and doubting your love.
Now, Holy Father, kill our envy, remove our pride, melt our hearts.  Give us grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, to live for you and not for ourselves, to be transformed into your likeness, to live wholly for your glory.  Take away our mourning and give us music; remove our sacklcloth and give us your beauty.  In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. Psalm 103:11-13

Order of Worship, November 7 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Almighty and Merciful Father, in Christ we are your dearly loved children.
You know us by name.
You have adopted us in love.
You have taught us to love justice, give mercy, and live humbly for our neighbors.

Father, we have not lived according to Your gracious love.
We are more ready to resent than to forgive,
more ready to manipulate than to serve,
more ready to fear than to love,
more ready to keep distance than to welcome,
more ready to compete than to help.

We do not love fully because we have forgotten the fullness of Your love for us.
Forgive us our cold unbelief.
Open our eyes again to know Your lovingkindness
so that we can imitate you as sons.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, remake us into a family that acts justly, loves mercy and walks humbly - serving the world for which Jesus died.

Assurance of Pardon
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  1 John 3:1

Prayer of Confession
O Lord, we want to enter your presence, worshiping you face to face, awed by your majesty, greatness, and glory; but encouraged and ravished by your love.

Yet there is a coldness in our hearts, a hardness toward you, an unwillingness to admit our sin and need for you.  Forgive us, for Jesus' sake.  Come near and strengthen us until Christ reigns supreme within us, in every thought, word, and deed; in a faith that purifies the heart, overcomes the world, works by love, fastens us to you, and always clings to the cross.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Order of Worship, October 24 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
My God, You placed my sin on Your Son
And You credited His righteousness to me.
I rest in the Lamb, whose blood has washed me whiter than snow.

But, I confess that I am not holy in my thoughts, words, or deeds.
In my flesh I continue to put on the old rags of sin.
My prayers are stained with grumbling.
My tears are mixed with conceit and unbelief.

Help me to see my life as You see it.
Help me to grieve my sin and to trust the power of your redemption.

I confess my shallow and unthoughtful repentance.
I confess my weak and fickle faith.
Apart from Christ's life in me I can do nothing.

Hear my prayer.
Forgive my sin and continue to transform my life into Christ-like wholeness.
You are my Savior; in You alone I hope for salvation.
Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all --how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who is he that condemns?  Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Romans 8:31-34

Order of Worship, October 10 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession
Eternal God, whose promise to us is never broken; we confess that we fail to follow you.  Though you have bound yourself to us, we run from your embrace.  In Jesus Christ you serve us freely, but we refuse your love and withhold ourselves from others.  We do not love you fully or love one another as you command.

Eternal Father, in your mercy, forgive and cleanse us.  Forgive us and cleanse us not on the basis of our commitment to change, but on the basis of Jesus' work on the cross for us.  Lead us once again into your arms and unite us to Christ, who is the bread of life and the vine from which we grow in grace.  Lord, have mercy on us for Christ's sake. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:2

Order of Worship, October 3 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church

Prayer of Confession

Father, you have called us to follow Jesus and live counter-cultural lives.

You have called us to let the gospel shape our dreams, our goals, our desires and our hearts. 

However, we come to you this morning confessing

that we have allowed our world to shape us instead of Your lovingkindness.

Where you desire us to serve, we have sought to be served. 

Where you desire us to sacrifice, we have pursued comfort. 

Where you have sought us to engage, we have remained aloof. 

Where you have sought us as your children, we have lived as orphans. 

Now, Father, accept our confession and receive us gladly.  

We do not ask for your grace because we deserve it, 

We even doubt our ability to confess with full honesty the depth of our sin. 

Father pardon us for the sake of Jesus. 

You rejected Him, the innocent, in order to embrace us, the guilty. 

Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:27-28

Order of Worship, September 26, 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church 

For us Christians, all truth is "relative," relative to this Jew named Jesus.  We really do not know what the world is, much less where it is headed, until we know him.

William H. Willimon in Exilic Preaching

The repeated promises in the Qu'ran of the forgiveness of a compassionate and merciful Allah are all made to the meritorious, whose merits have been weighed in Allah's scales, whereas the gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving.  The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.

John R. W. Stott

Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died.  If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. 

    We trample the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins.  The only explanation of the forgiveness of God, and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting, is the Death of Jesus Christ.  

    The Death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God.  There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented: His death was the very reason why He came. 

    God could forgive men in no other way. 

    The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross: "It is finished."  That was the last word in the Redemption of man. 

Oswald Chambers

Order of Worship, September 26 2010

Grace Presbyterian Church