For the week of November 9 – 22nd Sunday after Pentecost
Sing along to the Prelude to open our worship: #575 Onward, Christian Soldiers
- Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; forward into battle see His banners go!
Refrain: Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
- At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee; on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise. (Refrain) - Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and doctrine, one in charity. (Refrain) - Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail. (Refrain) - Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King,
this through countless ages men and angels sing. (Refrain)
Morning Prayer: God of faithful surprises, throughout the ages You have made known Your love and power in unexpected ways and places. May we daily perceive the joy and wonder of Your abiding presence and offer our lives in gratitude for our redemption. Amen. (Lectionary Prayers)
Opening Hymn: #89 Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
- Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day! - All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain, call us to rejoice in Thee. - Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest,
well-spring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our brother, all who live in love are Thine;
teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine. - Mortals, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began;
love divine is reigning o'er us, binding all within its span.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward, in the triumph song of life.
Psalm 100
4 Enter His gates with thanks;
enter His courtyards with praise!
Thank Him! Bless His name!
5 Because the Lord is good,
His loyal love lasts forever;
His faithfulness lasts generation after generation.
Children’s Time: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (CEB)
16 Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and a good hope. 17 May He encourage your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do or say.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: Christmas tags are available for the children served by KidsPeace. If you wish to fulfill the joy of Christmas to these children contact the church office to get a tag.
Hymn of preparation: #557 Blest Be the Tie that Binds
- Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. - Before our Father's throne we pour our ardent prayers;
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares. - We share each other's woes, our mutual burdens bear;
and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. - When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain;
but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.
Scripture:
Psalm 1:1-3
1 The truly happy person
doesn’t follow wicked advice,
doesn’t stand on the road of sinners,
and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful.
2 Instead of doing those things,
these persons love the Lord’s Instruction,
and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!
3 They are like a tree replanted by streams of water,
which bears fruit at just the right time
and whose leaves don’t fade.
Whatever they do succeeds.
Luke 10:27
27 [Jesus] responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”[a]
Psalm 23
23 The Lord is my shepherd.
I lack nothing.
2 He lets me rest in grassy meadows;
He leads me to restful waters;
3 He keeps me [a] alive.
He guides me in proper paths
for the sake of His good name.
4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger because You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff—
they protect me.
5 You set a table for me
right in front of my enemies.
You bathe my head in oil;
my cup is so full it spills over!
6 Yes, goodness and faithful love
will pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will live[b] in the Lord’s house
as long as I live.
Message: How do we belong to the Body of Church? Pastor Becky
Can I take you back a couple of weeks? We had begun a conversation about discipleship and what it means to be a disciple. A disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ who is committed to:
Belonging to the body of Christ
Becoming more like Jesus
and Blessing the world.
The key Bible verse for this definition of discipleship is Matthew 4:19, “Come, follow Me and I will make you fishers of people”. I hope this sounds familiar. Because we are going to continue to be in conversation about discipleship.
Now, as I worked through that first sermon series, 2 questions came up:
- Why are we even talking about discipleship?
- How do we do this?
Well, let me start with the first question. Why are we even talking about discipleship? The big answer is discipleship is what Jesus calls us into when we decide to follow Him. It's that new creation we become and the new identity we are known as. The next answer is we've been lost as a fellowship. We've been faithful in gathering, in prayer and in mission, yet it's kind of been all over the place. It's been a broad response, a disconnected response in trying to take care of as many needs as possible, but not really doing it together as a church. Or at least not feeling like a church together.
This has led to hurt feelings, unkind words, and an unfocused approach to community inside and the community outside. We have forgotten our mission and have lost our vision. So now, we reset. We come back to our beginning to be disciples of Jesus Christ. We're starting simply with belonging, becoming, and blessing. As we master the fundamentals and recapture our vision to shine Christ's light our discipleship will deepen and we will again be a church together focused on Jesus Christ. That is the challenge before us.
Which leads to question 2. How do we even do this? How do we belong to the body of Christ?
We belong to the body of Christ in many ways. Individually, we become part of the body of Christ when we accept Christ as our Savior, when we make the decision to follow Him. As a fellowship together, belonging to the body of Christ is a life of worship and a life of hospitality.
A life of worship brings honor and glory to God by the way we live. We remember and proclaim every time we come to the table that we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us. Our lives are a gift from God, for God and to God.
One of the ways that we live lives of worship is attending corporate worship. We sing to God, pray to God, hear a word from God, participate in the sacraments of Baptism and communion. We share these with each other and encourage each other in our worship. In our gathering, we share each other's burdens and joys, lifting them before God. We encourage each other through sharing our stories of where, how, and when we have experienced God. When we proclaim where we have experienced God, we help each other to see how God is with us.
Yet our worship can not be confined to Sunday morning. Are we setting aside time daily to worship God? Maybe it's your daily commute listening to praise music or hymns. I hope that you realize that most of the scripture you know you learned in song. You learned the truths of God, the characteristics of God, your heart knowledge of how God wants us to live our lives comes through song. Maybe the best way we ever understood protection is through the song “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands”. When we speak of God's love, we think of “Amazing Grace”. We see the beauty of forgiveness in the song “Victory in Jesus”. Through the modern songs of “Good Good Father” and “Waymaker”, we learn the many names of God and the relationship God desires to have with us.
But let me back up for a minute. Do you have a place where you worship? Somewhere you feel connected to God? Maybe it's a special chair, or your dining room table, or a spot outside. Claim it and use it to ground yourself and declare it sacred ground.
A life of worship has a time for devotions. Whether you use the Upper Room or another resource for your daily devotions, it is important to set aside time in devotion. Maybe your devotions look like study and you're reading the Bible through book by book. Or you're spending this year concentrating on just one book of the Bible. Know your devotions are worship.
Prayer. We each have our own prayer patterns, times that we set aside to be in communication with God. As you pray, don't forget to listen for God. Spend time in silence as you focus on God's will for your life.
Worship, public and private, prepares us to live a worshipful life, and paired with worship is hospitality.
Hospitality is about how we welcome, accept and engage other people. It's about how we invite them to Kingdom living, how we offer them the Kingdom of God. The best quote I have ever heard describing hospitality comes from Henri Nouwen. He said, “Hospitality is about making room for other people in our lives.”
Are we making room for other people or does it seem like things are becoming claustrophobic? Has our gathering become so small that others can't fit? Whether it's in our personal lives or in our corporate life together, we have to begin to ask the question, is there room for other people? Physically as we look around our worship space, we have space. We have room for more people to take up space with us. But is there the willingness to make room for others who may not do things the same way we do, or eat the same foods as we do, or dress like we do or look like we do? Especially if they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, claiming and believing in the same Savior as us.
Because hospitality is more than fellowship, meals and ushers. Hospitality in the Old Testament was a serious cultural obligation. It is the example that God sets forth, as God reveals how hospitality is to be lived out. We look to Abraham's offering of shelter and food to the travelers, who then bless him with the knowledge of the coming of his son. We know the plight of Lot and his family as they offered hospitality to the angels.
Psalm 23 describes God's hospitality. I point you to the words “You prepare a table in the presence of mine enemies”. In the ancient world, while you were at a table, culture dictated that that space was a sanctuary. You could not be snatched up while in the home of another. You couldn't be dragged off. No harm could come to you while you were in the home of another.
Hospitality invites us into relationship with God, which calls us into relationship with each other, which leads us into relationship with the world. It is a constant cycle. Because as we are in relationship with the world, we're called into relationship to God, which now widens our relationships with new people. And those new relationships invite us into deeper relationships with the world. It is an ever widening circle which draws people to God and draws us closer to God. As we live lives of hospitality, we lead others to lives of worship.
This has been the long way around the barn, so to speak, to say that discipleship brings transformation. Our lives are different because we follow Jesus.
I place before you 2 assignments this week as we step into discipleship.
- The first is to write down 1 instance of where you've seen God at work in your life this week and share it with one person. Whether that's your spouse, your best friend, a sibling we need to acknowledge out loud the small and the large ways we recognize God at work in our lives.
- The second assignment is this: Identify 5 people that you have a relationship with and begin to pray for an opportunity to share your faith. As you pray about those opportunities, God will make a way for this to happen. These aren't soapbox megaphone speeches. They will be the gentle reminder that God loves them and that you love them. Amen.
Closing Hymn: #572 Pass It On
- It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it; you spread His love to everyone;
You want to pass it on.
- What a wondrous time is spring, when all the trees are budding; the birds begin to sing,
The flowers start their blooming. That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it;
You want to sing, it’s fresh like spring, you want to pass it on.
- I wish for you, my friend, this happiness that I’ve found; you can depend on Him,
It matters not where you’re bound. I’ll shout it from the mountaintop;
I want the world to know; the Lord of love has come to me, I want to pass it on.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
