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ORDER OF WORSHIP for PALM SUNDAY
What is Palm Sunday? Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter that begins the Holy Week. It is a commemoration of the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem as Savior and King. As Jesus rode a donkey into the town of Jerusalem a large crowd gathered and laid palm branches and their cloaks across the road, giving Jesus royal treatment. The hundreds of people shouted "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"
OPENING PSALM (Psalm 118:1, 19-24)
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever...
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
SONG OF ADORATION (WHATE’ER MY GOD ORDAINS IS RIGHT)
This will be a new song to most of you so play through it once and meditate on the rich truths in the lyrics as your try and pick up the melody, then play it through a second time and try sing along with it.
PRAYER OF ADORATION
At this point you can pause to offer your own prayer of adoration and praise to God. To help prompt you to pray a prayer of praise ask yourself one of the following questions:
What Scriptural passage about who God is can I turn into a prayer of praise? (e.g. Job 9:4-12)
What character or attribute of God can I focus on and give Him praise for? (e.g. His Sovereignty, Goodness, Justice, Faithfulness, etc.)
CALL TO CONFESSION (Jeremiah 2:11-13)
Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Reflect on the passage above and ask God 'to search your heart and try your thoughts' and confess the ways that you have fallen short of His glory in thought, word, and deed.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Our Heavenly Father,
Forgive us for we have not loved you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We have not thirsted after you as the deer thirsts for streams of water.
Your presence and Your glory has not been the supreme desire of our hearts.
We have worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator. We have crafted idols in our heart.
Help us to remember that there is nothing on earth that compares with You and that we have no good apart from You.
Keep us from idols and bind our wandering hearts to Thee.
In the Name of Christ we pray, Amen.
ASSURANCE OF GRACE IN CHRIST (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart,
and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules.
SONG OF THANKSGIVING (O Great God)
SCRIPTURE READING (Luke 19:37-40)
37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
SERMON (Blessed is the King)
SONG OF RESPONSE (Crown Him with Many Crowns)
CONFESSION OF FAITH (COLOSSIANS 1:15-20)
Christian, what do you believe concerning the Lord Jesus Christ?
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD
Pray that….
God would use this health epidemic to show people that He is the Father of Compassion and the God of all Comfort.
God would give Christian doctors, nurses, and first responders opportunities to share the Gospel with those who are suffering.
God would enable and give wisdom to the researchers and doctors who are seeking to discover new treatment plans and a vaccine for this virus.
God would use this to teach us that as wonderful as our healthcare system is and as advanced as modern medicine is it cannot ultimately defeat death, only Christ can.
