Pastor's Corner - Invocation
| Dear Friends, Continuing in this series of discussion in the Pastor's Corner on the Order of Worship or Liturgy, we come now to the Invocation. The Invocation is the opening prayer in our service whereby we are invoking the presence of God to superintend our worship of Him. This prayer is about God and to God. There are several things that should be noted about this prayer. First, this prayer is modeled after Jesus's prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. The opening of the Lord's Prayer states, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." This opening line teaches us that prayer is to be made to God the Father and His name is to be revered or hallowed. Secondly, the Invocation points us away from ourselves and strives to center our worship on our Triune God. David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:10-11 is an excellent example of this, “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” The Invocation is specifically and purposively God-centered. Thirdly, you will notice that this prayer often times echoes themes that we find in the Call to Worship. The reason the Invocation does this is to use the beauty of the language of Holy Scripture to pray back to God. Often times we use the psalms in our Call to Worship and, incidentally, these psalms give us words to exalt our majestic God in prayer. Last, this prayer serves as a cry to God to be present with us in worship. Jesus promised us “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matthew 18:20 ESV). We desperately need the focus to be off ourselves and off our circumstances in corporate worship to enable us worship the Lord our God in spirit and in truth. The Invocation serves as a reminder of who we are and why we are gathered together to worship -- the praise of our great God! See you Sunday! by His grace and to His praise, Wilson |
| Preparation for Worship - May 26, 2019 |
| This Sunday's sermon: Not One Promise Failed: You Gotta Serve Somebody! Joshua 24 In preparation for the sermon: “Obedience to the law for the believer has always been in the context of a loving committed relationship of divine blessing established by God by grace.” - Ligon Duncan Click here for this week's bulletin. Hymn for the Week: On Jordan's Stormy Banks We are podcasting! Catch up on sermons on iTunes or on the Cornerstone App. We are LIVE STREAMING! Click here. |
| Wilson's Weekly |
| How We Worshipped One Sunday in May A Few Suggestions for Your Worship Services The Beauty of Reformed Worship |