The Order of Worship – August 23rd, 2026
This is the 235th Day of 2026.
There are 121 more days remaining in 2025.
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.
Prelude:
Welcome & Announcements:
This month’s mission focus is the Leland Food Pantry
Bible Study is all new at afaithtalk.com on Tuesday!
Call to Worship: Abide with Me
Responsive Reading: Psalm 124
We have escaped like a bird
1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side
— let Israel now say –
2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
5 then over us would have gone the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
Praise the Lord!
Opening Hymn: Come Thou Fount …No. 400 (Eb)
Verse 1
Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.
Verse 2
Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood.
Verse 3
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
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: Grace Like Rain (Dm)
Verse 1
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
was blind but now I see so clearly
Chorus
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away
Verse 2
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Chorus
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away
Verse 3
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun
Chorus
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away
Chorus
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
Hallelujah grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away
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: Jesus, Lover of My Soul Medley (Em)
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
Children: I Will Call Upon the Lord (D)
I will call upon the Lord
Who is worthy to be praised.
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
I will call upon the Lord.
I will call upon the Lord
Who is worthy to be praised.
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
I will call upon the Lord.
The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock;
and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock;
and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
I will call upon the Lord
[I will call upon the Lord]
Who is worthy to be praised.
[who is worthy to be praised]
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
[so shall I be saved from my enemies]
I will call upon the Lord.
I will call upon the Lord
[I will call upon the Lord]
Who is worthy to be praised.
[who is worthy to be praised]
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
[so shall I be saved from my enemies]
I will call upon the Lord.
The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock;
and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock;
and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
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.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 16:13-20
The profession of Peter’s faith
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God
New Testament Reading: Romans 12:1-8
One body in Christ, with gifts that differ
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God–what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God
Sermon Text: Exodus 1:8-2:10
Pharaoh’s daughter takes Moses in
8 Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
13 The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.
18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
20 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months.
3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said.
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it.
10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God
Sermon Title: “Prevenient Grace”
Closing Hymn: Amazing Grace…No. 378 (F)
Verse 1
Amazing grace!
How sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
was blind, but now I see.
Verse 6
When we’ve been there
ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we’d first begun.
Filled Up and Poured Out
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