❖ Adoration

I will praise you my God and exalt your name forever. For the whole earth is full of your goodness, faithfulness, glory, and mercy. Therefore, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Who is gracious concerning all your transgression and heals all your diseases. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in goodness. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our transgression and according to what we deserve. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, and as far as it is from the rising of the sun to its setting, so far his goodness and mercy surpass all our transgression. And as a father shows compassion to his children, so God has shown compassion to us. For when we were still in sin and his enemies, he gave us his only Son, so that we may live through him. He made his flesh and blood into true food for us, and by his death he brought us to eternal life. He is the Lamb of God, the reconciliation for our sin, the only and perfect pledge of grace. For if God gave us his dear Son, and delivered him unto death for us, he will nevermore forsake us, but from then on be gracious, faithful, and merciful. Therefore, my mouth and heart shall proclaim the praise of the Lord and highly exalt him. And all men shall praise his goodness and mercy forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Heinrich Bullinger]

❖ Call to Worship

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

[1 Peter 2:9–10]

❖ Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name;

your kingdom come;

your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

❖ Prayer of Intercession

Write your blessed name, O Lord, upon my heart,

there to remain so indelibly engraved,

that no prosperity, no adversity shall ever move me from your love.

Be to me a strong tower of defense,

a comforter in tribulation,

a deliverer in distress,

a very present help in trouble,

and a guide to heaven through the many temptations and dangers of this life. Amen.

[Thomas à Kempis]

❖ Scripture Reading

• Exodus 7

• Luke 10

• Job 24

• 1 Corinthians 11

❖ Prayer for Illumination

Blessed Lord, you have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning—grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

[Book of Common Prayer]

❖ Catechism

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Question 23

❖ Praise

Glory be to God the Father;

Glory be to God the Son;

Glory be to God the Spirit, ever three and ever one:

As it was in the beginning, now and evermore shall be.

[Gloria Patri]

❖ Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God;

begotten of the Father before all worlds;

God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God;

begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation,

came down from heaven

and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary,

and was made man;

and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered and was buried;

and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures;

and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father;

and he shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead;

whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life;

who proceeds from the Father and the Son;

who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified;

who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.

I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins;

and I look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

❖ Assurance of Pardon

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

[1 John 2:1–2]

❖ Confession of Sin

Almighty and most merciful Father, you hate nothing that you have made, nor desire the death of a sinner—look down with mercy upon me, and grant that I may turn from my wickedness and live. Forgive the days and years which I have passed in folly, idleness, and sin. Fill me with such sorrow for the time misspent, that I may amend my life according to your holy Word; strengthen me against habitual idleness, and enable me to direct my thoughts to the performance of every duty; that while I live I may serve you in the state to which you shall call me, and at last by a holy and happy death be delivered from the struggles and sorrows of this life, and obtain eternal happiness by your mercy, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Samuel Johnson]

❖ Reading of the Law

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children,

and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,

and when you walk by the way,

and when you lie down,

and when you rise.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand,

and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

[Deuteronomy 6:4–9]

❖ Adoration

O Lord, we desire to adore your name, which is excellent in all the earth, and whose glory is above the heavens. You are the maker and disposer of all things; and for your sovereign pleasure it is that they still exist, and were at first created. Your hands have made and fashioned us; and all that we enjoy comes from you. As we are the workmanship of your power, O make us likewise your spiritual workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus, unto holiness and true righteousness. Give proof that you have formed us for yourself, by causing us to show forth your praise, and by making us to live to glory, as we do every day live upon your bounty. Amen.

[Augustus Toplady]

❖ Call to Worship

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

[Psalm 8:1–2]

Matthew 5:3-12