Engage Your Heart | 8-7-22

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 where we look at Scripture and orient our hearts toward God.

Sung Worship: Eternal King, listen here.

Movement Two: We Approach 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.

Sung Worship: Take My Life and Let It Be, listen here // Abide, listen here.

Movement Three: God Instructs Us 

Ministry of the Word: Sermon Series: Reign of Grace - (Catch up on the series here) // Text: Romans 9:1-13

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

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: Nothing But the Blood, listen here.