For the week of September 28 – 16th Sunday after Pentecost
Morning Prayer: Eternal God, the refuge and help of all Your children, we praise You for all You have given us, for all You have done for us, for all that You are to us. In our weakness, You are strength, in our darkness, You are light, in our sorrow, You are comfort and peace. We cannot number Your blessings, we cannot declare Your love: For all Your blessings, we bless You. May we live in Your presence, and love the things that You love, and serve You in our daily lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Written by St. Boniface (ca. 672-754). Posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/06/prayer-of-saint-boniface.html.
Opening Hymn: #57 O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, verses 1-4
- O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace! - My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim,
to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name. - Jesus! the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease;
'tis music in the sinner's ears, 'tis life, and health, and peace. - He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood availed for me.
Psalm 150
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary!
Praise God in His fortress, the sky!
2 Praise God in His mighty acts!
Praise God as suits His incredible greatness!
3 Praise God with the blast of the ram’s horn!
Praise God with lute and lyre!
4 Praise God with drum and dance!
Praise God with strings and pipe!
5 Praise God with loud cymbals!
Praise God with clashing cymbals!
6 Let every living thing praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
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: Trunk ‘n’ Treat is October 26 – less than one month away! Hope and Dan Dent are decorating The Lighthouse in a Scooby Doo theme. Buddy-up with someone to offer treats and fun sights for neighborhood children and families. Perhaps your booth will go along with Scooby and friends – or perhaps something else. Brainstorm with your family and friends – what games, activities or creations can you contribute to make this a fun evening? If you can’t be present, donate a bag of candy for a back-up stash. Last year, some of the tables and booths ran out of candy before we ran out of kids.
Trunk ‘n’ Treat isn’t just for the kids. Adults: dress up and come to see the kids in their costumes, enjoying the safety and excitement of Trunk ‘n’ Treat. You could have a booth or table – or be part of the kitchen crew, offering drinks and snacks, or set up an activity. The possibilities are as limitless as your imagination.
Offering prayer: Sheltering God, our refuge and relief, You draw near when the wilderness is too much, when the heat of the day drains our hope. Receive these gifts as signs of our trust in Your abiding love, a love that does not always keep us from trouble but never leaves us to face it alone. May what we give today bring shade to the weary, hope to the hurting, and a glimpse of the salvation You are always working out in us and through us. In gratitude and faith, we offer these gifts. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #176 Majesty, Worship His Majesty
Majesty, worship His majesty; unto Jesus be all glory, honor, and praise.
Majesty, kingdom authority, flow from His throne unto His own, His anthem raise.
So exalt, lift up on high the name of Jesus.
Magnify, come glorify Christ Jesus, the King.
Majesty, worship His majesty, Jesus who died, now glorified, King of all kings.
Scripture: Romans 12:1-2 (CEB)
So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. 2 Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.
Affirm your faith by reciting the Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. (UM Hymnal #882)
Message: Pastor Becky
Beloved, we are working our way toward a discipleship path, for ourselves and for our congregational community. The underlying verse of all of this work will be Matthew 4:19, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people.” My hope is, by the time we are done, that verse will be so written upon your hearts that it becomes our purpose, our call statement when it comes to your relationship with Jesus.
Discipleship is the goal, the plan of God long before we even understood who Jesus is. We go back to the prophet Isaiah and recorded there in the 54th chapter 13th verse, we find, “All your children will be disciples of the Lord – I will make peace abound for your children.” Discipleship is about how we live our lives.
We heard Paul's writing in Romans 12:1-2, but I'd really like to point you to Eugene Peterson's interpretation of those verses coming from The Message:
“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. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
We are all called into discipleship in our regular, normal lives. There are some called to vocational ministry and lead churches or head up religious organizations, some that oversee religious orders. There are those that are called into a life separate from the world and their work looks different. It is still ordained by God, but yet we are called to be in the world. We have our regular walkabout lives with work and family and friends and community, in essence, we're called to be surrounded by people.
We are called to live in and amongst God’s people and there's a very specific way God is calling us to live a life that reflects Jesus. This is the heart of discipleship. For us, we will claim three dimensions of discipleship and each of those dimensions has two parts.
The first of dimension is belonging to the body of Christ. In that dimension, we will examine a life of worship and a life of hospitality. The next dimension is becoming more like Jesus, having lives that are opening to God and lives obedient to God. The third dimension is blessing the world with our lives focused on service and generosity. Please understand, it isn’t that one is greater than the other, they are all held on the same level. Yet we're going to examine them piece by piece so that we come out of this with a better understanding. It's not that we focus on one part and not the other. We hold them all in tension and see where each of us is called to go deeper in our relationship with Jesus.
So this morning we're going to explore what it means to belong to the body of Christ. Let me ask you this question: When did you know that you belonged to Jesus? Or maybe even better, the first question we should settle is, do you know that you belong to Jesus? As we look back over our lives and we reflect upon where we have been and what we're headed toward, maybe your realization came when you asked for forgiveness and prayed that Jesus would come into your hearts.
Being part of the body of Christ, we get reminded of our relationship with Jesus and the depth of God's love for us and all creation every time we come to the communion table. All are welcome. All are encouraged to participate and to receive the affirmation of God's love.
Maybe your knowledge of knowing that you belong to Jesus comes to you through the hearing or singing of a particular hymn or praise song. A song which stirs a heartfelt knowledge of belonging. As United Methodists, we know that there is one song that we cannot sing alone. We can only sing it together. It is our anthem, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. It makes real for us everything that Jesus did and does and will do for us. As we sing it together, we claim it for one another. It is one of those hymns that strikes deep into our hearts.
The knowledge of knowing that you belong to Jesus points to the connections we have to Jesus and to each other. These connections establish and support our belonging to the body of Christ. As you prepare yourself for worship on a Sunday morning or fellowship time or a ministry project that we are working on together, who is it that you are looking for? Who is it that you want to see? Who is it that in essence makes your Sunday morning? Is there a particular person that you look forward to seeing, to being reunited with after a long week of being apart?
This is the person who helps you belong to the body of Christ. We each help one another be part of the body of Christ. Because the person that you're looking for, you are that person for someone else. There is someone as they are preparing themselves to come and be together, they're thinking of you. What a grand and awesome thought! You were preparing to come, someone else is preparing to come, both of you seeking to be reunited and remembered in the body of Christ! Paul tells us that we are vital to each other; our belonging to the body is us belonging to each other. In Romans 12 Paul writes this, “In the same way though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. He tells the Corinthians this, “You are the body of Christ and parts of each other (1 Corinthians, 12:12). You see, we know the songs of each other's souls. We sing them to each other when we forget. We remind one another of their value to God and to the rest of us. We see each other through the eyes of Christ, encouraging each other when encouragement is needed. We are loving each other when we feel the most unloved. We instruct and correct each other when it's needed. In our coming together, whether it be in worship or in fellowship, we are pointing each other to God. This is what it means to be a disciple, being a sanctuary to each other and for the world. It is part of our journey of salvation to be in connection with the channels of grace which hold us and remind us of who we are and to whom we belong. Amen.
Closing Hymn #347 Spirit Song
- O let the Son of God enfold you with His Spirit and His love.
Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.
O let Him have the things that hold you, and His Spirit like a dove
will descend upon your life and make you whole.
Refrain: Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill Your lambs. Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill Your lambs.
- O come and sing this song with gladness as your hearts are filled with joy.
Lift your hands in sweet surrender to His name.
O give Him all your tears and sadness; give Him all your years of pain,
And you’ll enter into life in Jesus’ name. Refrain.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
