The Order of Worship – June 22, 2025
This is the 173rd Day of 2025.
There are 192 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 Sacred Space.
The first focus of this time between Pentecost and Advent is God’s Call.
Bible Study is at afaithtalk.com
No Five Loaves for the Summer
Call to Worship: Rock of Ages
Responsive Reading: Psalm 42
Send out your light and truth
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan
and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
Praise the LORD!
Opening Hymn: Sing Praise to God Who Reigns…#126(D)
Verse 1
Sing praise to God who reigns above,
the God of all creation,
the God of power, the God of love,
the God of our salvation.
With healing balm my soul is filled
and every faithless murmur stilled:
To God all praise and glory.
Verse 2
The Lord is never far away,
but through all grief distressing,
an ever present help and stay,
our peace and joy and blessing.
As with a mother’s tender hand,
God gently leads the chosen band:
To God all praise and glory.
Verse 3
Thus all my toilsome way along,
I sing aloud thy praises,
that earth may hear the grateful song
my voice unwearied raises.
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart,
both soul and body bear your part:
To God all praise and glory.
Verse 4
Let all who name Christ’s holy name
give God all praise and glory;
let all who own his power proclaim
aloud the wondrous story!
Cast each false idol from its throne,
for Christ is Lord, and Christ alone:
To God all praise and glory.
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: Woke Up This Morning (E)
Verse 1
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah
Verse 2
I’m walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus
I’m walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus
I’m walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah
Verse 3
Satan don’t want to let your mind stay on Jesus
Satan don’t want to let your mind stay on Jesus
Satan don’t want to let your mind stay on Jesus
Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah
Verse 4
Everybody ought to let their mind stay on Jesus
Everybody ought to let their mind stay on Jesus
Everybody ought to let their mind stay on Jesus
Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah
Verse 1
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus
Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah
Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah
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: Children of the Heavenly Father…#141
Verse 1
Children of the heav’nly Father, safely in His bosom gather;
nestling bird nor star in heaven such a refuge e’er was given.
Verse 2
God His own doth tend and nourish;
in His holy courts they flourish.
From all evil things He spares them;
in His mighty arms He bears them.
Verse 3
Neither life nor death shall ever
from the Lord His children sever;
unto them His grace He showeth,
and their sorrows all He knoweth.
Verse 4
Tho’ He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy.
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’s Song (God is So Good)
Verse 1:
God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
he’s so good to me.
Verse 2
He loves me so,
He loves me so,
He loves me so,
he’s so good to me.
Verse 3
He answers prayer,
He answers prayer,
He answers prayer,
he’s so good to me.
Verse 1:
God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
he’s so good to me.
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: Luke 8:26-39
Jesus casts out demons
26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”–29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God
New Testament Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
Clothed with Christ in baptism
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God
Sermon Text: 1 Kings 19:1-15a
Elijah hears God in silence
1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.”8 He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9 At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
15a Then the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.”
Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God
All: Thanks be to God
Sermon: “The Sound of Silence”
Closing Hymn: Near to the Heart of God…No. 472
Verse 1
There is a place of quiet rest,
near to the heart of God,
a place where sin cannot molest,
near to the heart of God.
Refrain:
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
sent from the heart of God,
hold us, who wait before thee,
near to the heart of God.
Verse 3
There is a place of full release,
near to the heart of God,
a place where all is joy and peace,
near to the heart of God.
Refrain:
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
sent from the heart of God,
hold us, who wait before thee,
near to the heart of God.
Filled Up and Poured Out
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