The Gathering
Tolling of the Hour
Welcome and Announcements ** Indicates, please stand.
Whether we are old or young, whether we are first-time or longtime worshipers, whether we come full of doubts or confidence, joy or sorrow, in this place we are all family, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Welcome to all of you today!
Prelude
Prayer of Invocation
God of life, thank you for each person you have placed in this congregation and for the gifts you have given them. We pray that everyone here— rich and poor, men and women, young and old— will find effective ways to use their gifts for the common good. May our worship today encourage and challenge all who come to know and use the gifts you have them given for your purposes in this world. Through Christ we pray. Amen.
**Responsive Call to Worship Please stand in body or spirit as you are able.
Triune God, you have called us to live in unity with each other and with our brothers and sisters around the world.
Let us join hearts and voices in praise of the Lord!
Help us to sense that our love for Jesus binds us together.
Let us join hearts and voices in praise of the Lord!
May our worship today be a witness to the kind of unity that comes only through Christ, our Lord.
Let us join hearts and voices in praise of the Lord! Amen.
**Opening Hymn Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah #281
Call to Confession and Silent Prayer
Christ calls us to share the heavenly banquet of his love with all the saints in earth and heaven. Knowing our unworthiness and sin, let us in silence ask from him both mercy and forgiveness.
Unison Prayer of Confession
Almighty God, we confess that we are often swept up in the tide of our generation. We have failed in our calling to be your holy people, a people set apart for your divine purpose. We live more in apathy born of fatalism than in passion born of hope. We are moved more by private ambition than by social justice. We dream more of privilege and benefits than of service and sacrifice. We try to speak in your name without relinquishing our glories, without nourishing our souls, without relying wholly on your grace. Help us to make room in our hearts and lives for you. By your Holy Spirit, forgive us, revive us, and reshape us in your image. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. People of God, all of us together have received God’s mercy in Christ. In Christ we are forgiven, redeemed, and made to be a community united in faith. Thanks be to God.
** Passing the Peace
The Peace of Christ be with you…
And also with you.
**Gloria Patri #579
Hearing the Word
Prayer of Illumination
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Scripture
Old Testament Reading Psalm 40:1-8
Instrumental Anthem
New Testament Reading 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
Sermon Leaving, Part One Rev. Morris
Prayers of the People and The Lord’s Prayer
...using the prayer Your Son taught us to pray, Our Father...
**Hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness #276
**Affirmation of Faith From Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A’s 54-55
I believe that the Son of God, through his Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community I am and always will be a living member. The communion of saints— believers one and all—as members of this community, share in Christ and in all his treasures and gifts. Each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and cheerfully for the service and enrichment of the other members.
Invitation to Offering
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life— your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life— and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Offertory
**Doxology #592
**Unison Prayer of Dedication
Lord of life, you promise abundant life to all who live together in Christ. We offer these gifts as a sign of our desire to share our resources for the common good and building of your kingdom. We humbly ask that you use them to strengthen our unity and deepen our witness and healing presence in this needy world. Amen.
We Go Out to Serve
**Hymn Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts #510
**Charge Let us say together God’s invitation to a life of Christian discipleship.
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the body of your Son, Christ, our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
**Blessing
May God, who has given us, in the lives of his saints, patterns of holy living and victorious dying, strengthen your faith and devotion and enable you to bear witness to the truth against all adversity. Amen.
Postlude