The Order of Worship – February 16, 2025

This is the 47th Day of 2024.
There are 309 days remaining in 2024.

Filled with the Holy Spirit,
we are a people of prayer
committed to love one another
and equipped to share Christ’s love throughout the world.

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Prelude:

Welcome & Announcements:
This month’s mission focus is the Methodist Children’s Home
Bible Study is at afaithtalk.com
Five Loaves 4:30-6:00

Call to Worship: Easter People

Responsive Reading:   Psalm 1  (P. 738)
The way of the righteous

¹ Happy are those who do not 
follow the advice of the wicked, 
or take the path that sinners tread, 
or sit in the seat of scoffers;

² but their delight is in the law of the LORD, 
and on his law they meditate day and night.
³ They are like trees planted by streams of water, 
which yield their fruit in its season, 
and their leaves do not wither. 
In all that they do, they prosper.

⁴ The wicked are not so, 
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

⁶ for the LORD watches over 
the way of the righteous, 
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Praise the Lord

Opening Hymn: Sing With All the Saints in Glory…#702
Verse 1

Sing with all the saints in glory, sing the resurrection song!
Death and sorrow, earth’s dark story,
to the former days belong.
All around the clouds are breaking,
soon the storms of life will cease;
in God’s likeness we, awaking, know the everlasting peace.

Verse 2

O what glory, far exceeding all that eye has yet perceived!
Holiest hearts, for ages pleading, never that full joy conceived.
God has promised, Christ prepares it
there on high our welcome waits.
Every humble spirit shares it;
Christ has passed th’eternal gates.

Verse 3

Life eternal! Heaven rejoices: Jesus lives, who once was dead.
Join we now the deathless voices;
child of God, lift up your head!
Patriarchs from the distant ages, saints all longing
for their heaven, prophets, psalmists, seers, and sages,
all await the glory given.

Verse 4

Life eternal! O what wonders crowd on faith;
what joy unknown, when, amidst earth’s closing thunders,
saints shall stand before the throne!
O to enter that bright portal, see that glowing firmament;
know, with thee, O God Immortal,
“Jesus Christ whom thou has sent!”

Affirmation of Faith:
The Apostle’s Creed..No. 881

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
and 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,
dead,
and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge
the quick 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.

Gloria Patri…Page 70

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.

Praise Song: Sing Alleluia to the Lord 

Sing alleluia to the Lord
Sing alleluia to the Lord
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia to the Lord

Lift up your hearts unto the Lord
Lift up your hearts unto the Lord
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia to the Lord

In Christ the world has been redeemed
In Christ the world has been redeemed
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia to the Lord

His resurrection sets us free
His resurrection sets us free
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia to the Lord

Therefore we celebrate the feast
Therefore we celebrate the feast
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia to the Lord

Sing alleluia to the Lord
Sing alleluia to the Lord
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia
Sing alleluia to the Lord

Pastoral Prayer
Contact us here to add your concern to our prayer list.

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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever. Amen.

Anthem: Glorious Day

Offertory

Doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen

Children’s Moment & Song
Children’s Song: This Little Light of Mine

Verse 1

This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine

Verse 2

Hide it under a bushel? No!
I’m gonna let it shine
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I’m gonna let it shine
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine

Verse 3 

Don’t let Satan blow it out.
I’m gonna let it shine
Don’t let Satan blow it out.
I’m gonna let it shine
Don’t let Satan blow it out.
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine 

Verse 4

Let it shine till Jesus comes
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine till Jesus comes
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine till Jesus comes
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine

Prayer for Illumination
Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

Old Testament Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Those who trust the Lord are like trees

⁵ Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. ⁶ They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. ⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

⁹ The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse– who can understand it?

¹⁰ I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Leader: The Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God

Gospel Reading: Luke 6:17-26
Blessings on the poor, woes on the rich

¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.”

²⁶ “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

Leader: The Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God

Sermon Text:  1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Christ has been raised

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ–whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. ²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Leader: This is The Word of God for the people of God
People: Thanks be to God.

Sermon:  “Resurrection: Our Life, Our Hope, Not Optional”

Closing Hymn: I Know Whom I Have Believed…#714 (1&4)

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
to me he hath made known,
nor why, unworthy, Christ in love redeemed me for his own.
But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.

Verse 4

I know not when my Lord may come,
at night or noonday fair,
nor if I walk the vale with him,
or meet him in the air.
But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.

Filled Up and Poured Out

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