SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
August 27th, 2023 Ten Thirty in the morning
Minister: Rev. Aaron Ochart
Lay Leader: Sheryl Wise
Please silence all cell phones.
Bold face indicates congregational participation.
Please stand, in body or spirit
THE PEOPLE ARE GATHERED IN
PRELUDE Improvisation on You Are Mine
PROCESSIONAL HYMN [BLUE#442] [GTG#321]
“The Church’s One Foundation”
1 The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
She is his new creation by water and the word.
From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.
With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.
2 Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth,
her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
WORDS OF WELCOME
ADORATION
CALL TO WORSHIP 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 MESSAGE
ONE: And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us!
MANY: And so we are transfigured much like Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Living God, you call us as your church, as the body of Christ. Help us do better today than we did yesterday, and tomorrow do better still at reflecting your glory! Amen.
HYMN [BLUE #333] [GTG #175]
“Seek Ye First”
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
And His righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu Alleluia
Ask and it shall be given unto you
Seek and ye shall find
Knock and it shall be opened unto you
Allelu Alleluia.
3 You shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Allelu, alleluia!
MESSAGE FOR THE CHILDREN
RESPONSE HYMN [GTG#177] “I Will Come To You”
“I will come to you in the silence; I will lift you from all your fear.
You will hear my voice; I claim you as my choice.
Be still and know I am here.
Do not be afraid I am with you. I have called you each by name.
Come and follow me, I will bring you home;
I love you and you are mine.”
REPENTANCE
CALL TO CONFESSION
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
God of grace, love, and communion, we confess that we have failed to love you with all our heart, soul, and mind; and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We ignore your commandments, stray from your way, and follow other gods. Have mercy on us. Forgive our sin and raise us to new life that we may serve you faithfully and give honor to your holy name. Amen
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
GLORIA PATRI [BLUE#579] [GTG#581]
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end, Amen, Amen.
THE WORD READ AND PROCLAIMED
SCRIPTURE [Pew Bible OT 535 or 566] Psalm 119:9-16
How can young people keep their way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
do not let me stray from your commandments.
I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes.
With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
I delight in the way of your decrees
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts,
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
SCRIPTURE [Pew Bible NT 146 or 156] Romans 6:1-14
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
ONE: The Word of the Lord
MANY: Thanks be to God
SERMON: “Be the Church 12: reviewing and evaluating regularly the integrity of one’s membership, and considering ways in which one’s participation in the worship and service of the church may be increased and made more meaningful.” Reverend Ochart
RESPONSE
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH “A Brief Statement of Faith” – Jesus
In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world. God raised this Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.
With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen
ANNOUNCEMENTS
RECEIVING OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY
DOXOLOGY [*BLUE#592] [GTG#606]
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly hosts;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen
HYMN [BLUE#364] [GTG#730] “I sing a song of the Saints of God”
1 I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green:
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
2 They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and God’s love made them strong;
and they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
and there’s not any reason, no, not the least, why I shouldn’t be one too.
3 They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still;
the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;
for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.
PARTING PRAYER
Grant unto us, O God, the fullness of your promises.
where we have been weak, grant us your strength;
where we have been confused, grant us your guidance;
where we have been distraught, grant us your comfort;
where we have been dead, grant us your life.
Apart from you, O Lord, we are nothing,
in and with you we can do all things. Amen.
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
RESPONSE [GTG# 747] “The Lord Now Sends Us Forth”
The Lord now sends us forth with hands to serve and give,
to make of all the earth a better place to live.
The angels are not sent into our world of pain
to do what we were meant to do in Jesus’ name;
that falls to you and me and all who are made free.
Help us, O lord, we pray, to do your will today.
POSTLUDE Canon in D / Seek Ye First Annika Bergsma
Flowers today were given by Denis McCrea in memory of his parents who passed away.