Welcome, for those of you who are joining us in worship today, whether it is your first time or you’re returning, we are very thankful for this opportunity to share this Lord’s day with you.
Before we move into our worship service this morning, I have just a few announcements I would like to share with you in preparation for what will be going on today.
Number one, I have to say thank you to all the folks who continue to bring in canned food items and fresh foods for People Helping People. As the fresh food comes in, we make sure it gets into our refrigerator downstairs, and then on Monday or Tuesday, as things accumulate, I take all that down. You are a great blessing to people, and I’m really excited by the amount of canned food items and food that’s coming in, but none of it is wasted, so thank you.
Number two, at the end of the order of worship for this worship service that’s listed, you can find a link for that bulletin at the church website under resources. There is a link for how you can connect to this sermon video, and if you have been blessed by this, we simply ask that you might copy and paste that and either text it to people or email it to someone that you think it might be a blessing for.
Number three, prayer requests. Thank you to you folks who have been calling into the office to share your prayer requests and words of praise with Kerry. It’s so important at any time, but especially during these times, to be able to support one another through the ministry of prayer, but also to encourage people through your praises of what God is doing.
And then forth, as you can see through our communion table today, we are set up for virtual communion. We’ve already done this back on April 19th. Our denomination has approved this, and the instructions are in the order of worship at the very end under the announcements. What’s nice about the virtual worship is if you forgot about that, you can pause this video right now, go get those elements and get ready, and then when you are prepared, come on back and just turn the video back on on YouTube. We are thankful that we will be able to celebrate this together today, but those instructions have, I believe, will be helpful.
Before we begin our worship time together, I believe it’s so vitally important that we understand why we come to worship. The worship service is not the end of our week, but really should be the beginning. Through our mission statement that we’ll share with you in this time, it should come up on your video feed. It is part of our preparation to remember that we come in to be sent back out.
So please join with me at this time in our mission statement to confess this together. Ready? We serve to build relationships. We build relationships to share the gospel. Amen.
Now, what I would like us to be able to share with is a part of our preparation in giving ourselves to Jesus. We will use our call to worship from Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 through 14. It sounds very familiar from some other parts of scripture; God is so consistent. Would you join with me right now in confessing this together?
‘And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I command you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.’
As a part of our response to this call to worship and as a part of the preparation and giving ourselves to Jesus in the act of worship, would you please join with me now in our prayer of confession that will be scrolling across your screen?
‘Lord God, we have come to worship you as sinners in need of your forgiveness. We have come tired from our work, in need of refreshment and re-creation. We come with worries, in need of your guidance. But first, please lift us out of preoccupation with our own needs. Allow us to see you with eyes of faith and to hear you with ears of understanding that we may truly belong to you. Forgive us for not being thankful for our many blessings. Help us to remember that you are the giver of every good and perfect gift. Awaken in us the longing to do what is right in your eyes. May we never forget that you and you alone are where the joy is.’
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Let’s pause for a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to show us if there are any other areas or ways that we need to confess to the Lord right now. As you said in the scriptures through your servant David, ‘Search me, O Lord, know my heart; try me. See if there’s any sinful way in me, so that you lead me in the way everlasting.’
Holy Spirit, even now, do as you spoke through King David. If the Lord is showing you anything in particular that He would have you confess to surrender to Him—either things you’re doing that you should stop or things you’re not doing that you should start—lift up your hands to the Lord in surrender and say, ‘Lord Jesus, I present these to you. I surrender these to you.’
And I now declare to you that as you have surrendered yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are promised that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So, in saying Jesus’ name, as you have confessed, be set free in Jesus’ mighty name. And it’s in the precious name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, we pray.
Amen.
I love all the varieties of worship songs that are out there to be able to praise the Lord. What we have the opportunity to do right now is to give a shout to the Lord Jesus Christ. This praise chorus came from Australia, and the word ‘shout’ was one of their ways to say to proclaim loudly or to praise the Lord. It’s called ‘Shout to the Lord.’
[Music]
My Jesus, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days, I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath