January 29, 2025

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

— 2 Timothy 3:15–17

Today’s liturgical movement, REVELATION, includes several elements in addition to the sermon and responsive hymn: Scripture Reading, Corporate Prayer, and the Doxology or Gloria Patri, I will write about our scripture reading and prayer this week, and the sermon next week. At this point in our service, we have been called to worship, led in confession, and reassured of God’s grace from Scripture. That means we have read and responded to somewhere between 3 and 5 portions of the Bible and prayed 3 times. So why put a lengthy reading and prayer right in the middle of the service?

Liturgical Movements
Reverence
Reconciliation
Revelation
Response
Renewal

In Matthew 11:25-30, Jesus invites his followers to be yoked to and learn from him. Our time in Scripture and prayer is one of the ways we can accomplish both. We learn from God through his word, so the corporate reading of Scripture allows us to hear and read along with passages we might not read all that often. Likewise, sometimes our hearts are burdened with things we don’t know how to express, but the Congregational and Pastoral Prayer gives voice to things we might not know to say and can guide how we pray throughout the week. Scripture is the chief tool used by God in our lives, so time in the Bible is extremely important. Similarly, prayer is the most common way we relate to God, so being guided in prayer opens up new opportunities to consider and receive the rest that God has extended in Jesus Christ. 

Why do it together on Sunday? Because God has called us into his presence so that we might know and be known by him in the fellowship of the church. We join together in the pursuit of knowing God by listening to the reading of his Word, and we encourage each other to be known by God by praying side by side with thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, and adoration. Once all this is done, our response is to overflow with thanksgiving through the Doxology or Gloria Patri (two of the oldest and most widely sung hymns in the history of the Church). 

Invocation: Psalm 99:1-5
Confession of Sin: James 1:13-15
Assurance of Grace Colossians 2 and Ephesians 2
Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 8:9-18
Sermon Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
Confession of Faith: Heidelberg Catechism 118-119