Engage Your Heart | 1-8-23

Each week at Mercyview we enter expecting to meet with God together through the finished work of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit among us. This weekly post is designed to help those who gather with us on Sundays come into the gathering ready to engage in worship through singing, praying, and hearing in meaningful ways. 

We meet at 5p @ Memorial Baptist Church, 2800 S Yale Ave. Our livestream will be available at that time on our website, www.mercyview.com.

Here is how you can engage your heart for worship:

1. Read through the provided text and/or consider the topic that will be preached on that Sunday.
2. Sing, listen or read through the song lyrics that we’ll be singing together and ask the Lord to deepen your understanding of Him through them. Get to know unknown songs or ask for a fresh view of old ones.
3. Pray for the Lord to reveal Himself to you and the gathered church in powerful ways. Pray for those who are serving this week and for the one who is preparing and preaching God’s Word. 

Our worship service is organized into four stages that we call Movements. These movements allow us to focus on specific aspects of worshiping God by giving us context and perspective. 

Movement One: God is God and We are Not

Call to Worship: A time when we look at Scripture and orient our hearts toward God.

Confession of Sin: A time for us to examine our hearts under the light of God's Word and confess our sins to God.

Assurance of Pardon: A reminder that in Christ all our sins are covered, we are forgiven, and we now walk in newness of life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Confessing Our Faith: We read a question and answer from The New City Catechism as a way to help us learn and live out what we believe. 

Question: What is idolatry?

Answer: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.

Movement Two: We Approach God

Sung Worship: 

• Doxology
• Hunger and Thirst
• Be Thou My Vision

Spotify Playlist

Prayer: In response to our time of sung worship, we want to pause before moving into the ministry of the Word and approach God in prayer.

Movement Three: God Instructs Us 

Ministry of the Word: Sermon Series - Anthem of Grace // Text: Romans 12:3-8 

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Movement Four: God Feeds Us  

The Lord's Supper: Each week, following the teaching of God's Word, we come to the table and celebrate the finished work of Christ. We remember his death, rejoice in his resurrection, and in the taking of the elements "taste and see that the Lord is good." 

Sung Worship: Amazing Grace

Spotify Playlist: