WORSHIP SERVICE
WEEKLY BULLETIN
available here
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP
Prelude
“How Can I Keep from Singing?” (Words and music by Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and Ed Cash)
Gathering of the People: Announcements
Call to Worship
Hear the word of God spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One, your Savior.
Opening Prayer
Dear God, silence all voices within our minds but your own. Help us to seek and be able to follow your will. May our prayers be joined across time and space with our sisters and brothers in the faith, that together we may glorify your name and enjoy your fellowship forever. AMEN
Ministry of Music
“This Is My Father’s World”
performed my Gabby Ciametti
Invitation to Confession
The proof of God’s amazing love is this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Then let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Let us confess our sins together.
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with all our heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbor, nor have we rightly loved ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Through Christ our Lord. AMEN
Assurance of Pardon
With everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. I, even I am the one who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
WE HEAR GOD’S WORD
Dr. Seuss Story
“Horton Hatches the Egg”
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians: 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Sermon
“Horton Hatches an Egg – Perseverance and Love”
Reflection
“Ancient Words” (Words and music by Lynn DeShazo)
WE RESPOND IN FAITH
Prayer
Grant, O Lord, that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
WE GO INTO THE WORLD
Charge + Benediction
Postlude
“Give Thanks” (Words and music by Henry Smith)
arrangements by Lloyd Larsen and Cindy Berry
performed by Greg Rolla