ORDER OF WORSHIP
3rd Sunday in Lent
March 12, 2023
PRELUDE ‘I Need Thee Every Hour,’ Robert Lowry
WELCOME
CALL TO WORSHIP
Come into God’s presence with thanksgiving!
Let us sing to the rock of our salvation.
Even in the deserts of our lives,
God is among us.
Come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
*OPENING HYMN #356 (Blue) ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing’
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 God’s unchanging love!
Here I raise my 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.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, 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.
CALL TO CONFESSION
God does not wait for us to be righteous, or pure, or perfect. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. We do not have to hide our sin from God, but can face it with Jesus, who heals us, teaches us, and leads us to new life.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (in unison)
Jesus, friend of all, once again, we come to you knowing our words have stung, our actions have harmed, and our indifference has let evil have its day. Our hearts yearn for you, our souls thirst for you, yet we do not imitate you in our lives. We scorn those who are different from us, and relish our own comfort. Once again, forgive us, O God. Give us your living water, that we might tell the world all you have done for us. (silent reflection)
ASSURANCE OF GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS
We know that God is with us even in our sufferings, for suffering produces endurance,
endurance produces character, character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
Thanks be to God!
*GLORIA PATRI
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.
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Gracious God, our way in the wilderness, guide us by your Word through these forty days, and minister to us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may be reformed, restored, and renewed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Psalm 51:15
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Exodus 17:1–7
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Psalm 95 (read responsively)
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
Romans 5:1–11
1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
John 4:5–42
5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
We proclaim Christ crucified— the wisdom and power of God.
Thanks be to God. 1 Corinthians 1:23–25
SERMON ‘Water from the Throne” Steve Van Buren, pulpit supply
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH -THE APOSTLES’ CREED (in unison)
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 Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on 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 Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
*SERMON HYMN #379 (Blue) ‘My Hope is Built on Nothing Less’
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found:
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]
CALL TO OFFERING
All shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. (Deuteronomy 16:17)
*DOXOLOGY
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
O God, our gifts are so minute in comparison to your bounty. Transform our simple offering into ministries that quench parched lives with the water of eternal life. Nurture our need to share your water and your spirit through the gifts that you have given us so freely. In the name of the One who is the Messiah, we pray. Amen. (John 4:5-42 David S. Bell)
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Continued Health Requests:
-Jim, Dianne L’s husband
-Delores K
-Paige F
-Nelda H (recovery in the Neighborhoods)
-Betty G
-Carol G (recovery)
-Bob J and Jan as caregiver
-Bob O and Nancy as caregiver
-Darwin L (Jeanne’s husband) and Jeanne as caregiver
-Andrew & Beth L
-Laura (Linda’s niece)
-Gwen B (Lee P’s friend)
-Patty (friend of Michele)
-Harry (Bonnie S’s father)
Our homebound or in care members: Bob J, Delores K, Rose P, Cliff R, Art V, Dee W (Please reach out and call)
This Week’s Prayer Families: Jeanne & Darwin L, Martin & Sally M
Those who mourn: We pray for the Canaday, Spitzenberger, Barnett, Fee, VanderWaal, Peterson, Goodale, McCann, and Webster families and all who have lost loved ones.
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 debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
CLOSING HYMN #125 (Blue) ‘Come, Holy Spirit, Our Souls Inspire’
Come, Holy Spirit, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire;
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost Thy seven-fold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above
Is comfort, life, and fire of love;
Enable with perpetual light
The dullness of our mortal sight.
Teach us to know the Father, Son,
And Thee, of both, to be but one;
That through the ages all along
This may be our endless song.
Praise to Thine eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
LENTEN POTLUCK MEAL will be held after worship today Sunday, March 12. Thank you for bringing a dish to share if you are able, but please plan to attend in any case as there is always plenty of food. The Christian Education Committee will provide a short program after the meals.
TUESDAY MORNING COFFEE GROUP meets at First Lutheran Mission Coffee House at 9:30ish.
PIECES & PRAYERS will be meeting at the church on Tuesdays at 1:30 PM. All are welcomed to help with quilting.
BLADE ARTICLES ARE DUE on Wednesday, March 15.
THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY will be meeting at 9:30 AM at the church.
SISTERHOOD will meet on Thursday, March 15 at 11:30 AM at the First Lutheran Mission Coffee House.
MEN’S BROTHERHOOD will meet on Thursday, March 15 at 5:30 PM in the church lounge.
FELLOWSHIP/OUTREACH COMMITTEE will be meeting next Sunday, March 19, after worship service.
THE PC(USA) ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING SPECIAL OFFERING is from Feb. 22 until April 9. Please put donations in the offering plate and write ‘One Great Hour’ on the memo line or use envelopes by offering plate. Thank you for your generosity!
BENEDICTION
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)
POSTLUDE ‘Come, Thou Fount,’ Wyeth/Payne
Sources: Call to Worship Lectionary Aids for 2022-2023 Year A Vo.56.1 PCUSA; Copyright © 2023 David S. Bell. Reprinted with permission from www.DavidSBell.org.
3rd Sunday in Lent
March 12, 2023
PRELUDE ‘I Need Thee Every Hour,’ Robert Lowry
WELCOME
CALL TO WORSHIP
Come into God’s presence with thanksgiving!
Let us sing to the rock of our salvation.
Even in the deserts of our lives,
God is among us.
Come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
*OPENING HYMN #356 (Blue) ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing’
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 God’s unchanging love!
Here I raise my 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.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, 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.
CALL TO CONFESSION
God does not wait for us to be righteous, or pure, or perfect. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. We do not have to hide our sin from God, but can face it with Jesus, who heals us, teaches us, and leads us to new life.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (in unison)
Jesus, friend of all, once again, we come to you knowing our words have stung, our actions have harmed, and our indifference has let evil have its day. Our hearts yearn for you, our souls thirst for you, yet we do not imitate you in our lives. We scorn those who are different from us, and relish our own comfort. Once again, forgive us, O God. Give us your living water, that we might tell the world all you have done for us. (silent reflection)
ASSURANCE OF GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS
We know that God is with us even in our sufferings, for suffering produces endurance,
endurance produces character, character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
Thanks be to God!
*GLORIA PATRI
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.
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Gracious God, our way in the wilderness, guide us by your Word through these forty days, and minister to us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may be reformed, restored, and renewed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Psalm 51:15
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Exodus 17:1–7
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Psalm 95 (read responsively)
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
Romans 5:1–11
1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
John 4:5–42
5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
We proclaim Christ crucified— the wisdom and power of God.
Thanks be to God. 1 Corinthians 1:23–25
SERMON ‘Water from the Throne” Steve Van Buren, pulpit supply
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH -THE APOSTLES’ CREED (in unison)
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 Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on 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 Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
*SERMON HYMN #379 (Blue) ‘My Hope is Built on Nothing Less’
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found:
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]
CALL TO OFFERING
All shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. (Deuteronomy 16:17)
*DOXOLOGY
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
O God, our gifts are so minute in comparison to your bounty. Transform our simple offering into ministries that quench parched lives with the water of eternal life. Nurture our need to share your water and your spirit through the gifts that you have given us so freely. In the name of the One who is the Messiah, we pray. Amen. (John 4:5-42 David S. Bell)
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Continued Health Requests:
-Jim, Dianne L’s husband
-Delores K
-Paige F
-Nelda H (recovery in the Neighborhoods)
-Betty G
-Carol G (recovery)
-Bob J and Jan as caregiver
-Bob O and Nancy as caregiver
-Darwin L (Jeanne’s husband) and Jeanne as caregiver
-Andrew & Beth L
-Laura (Linda’s niece)
-Gwen B (Lee P’s friend)
-Patty (friend of Michele)
-Harry (Bonnie S’s father)
Our homebound or in care members: Bob J, Delores K, Rose P, Cliff R, Art V, Dee W (Please reach out and call)
This Week’s Prayer Families: Jeanne & Darwin L, Martin & Sally M
Those who mourn: We pray for the Canaday, Spitzenberger, Barnett, Fee, VanderWaal, Peterson, Goodale, McCann, and Webster families and all who have lost loved ones.
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 debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
CLOSING HYMN #125 (Blue) ‘Come, Holy Spirit, Our Souls Inspire’
Come, Holy Spirit, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire;
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost Thy seven-fold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above
Is comfort, life, and fire of love;
Enable with perpetual light
The dullness of our mortal sight.
Teach us to know the Father, Son,
And Thee, of both, to be but one;
That through the ages all along
This may be our endless song.
Praise to Thine eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
LENTEN POTLUCK MEAL will be held after worship today Sunday, March 12. Thank you for bringing a dish to share if you are able, but please plan to attend in any case as there is always plenty of food. The Christian Education Committee will provide a short program after the meals.
TUESDAY MORNING COFFEE GROUP meets at First Lutheran Mission Coffee House at 9:30ish.
PIECES & PRAYERS will be meeting at the church on Tuesdays at 1:30 PM. All are welcomed to help with quilting.
BLADE ARTICLES ARE DUE on Wednesday, March 15.
THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY will be meeting at 9:30 AM at the church.
SISTERHOOD will meet on Thursday, March 15 at 11:30 AM at the First Lutheran Mission Coffee House.
MEN’S BROTHERHOOD will meet on Thursday, March 15 at 5:30 PM in the church lounge.
FELLOWSHIP/OUTREACH COMMITTEE will be meeting next Sunday, March 19, after worship service.
THE PC(USA) ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING SPECIAL OFFERING is from Feb. 22 until April 9. Please put donations in the offering plate and write ‘One Great Hour’ on the memo line or use envelopes by offering plate. Thank you for your generosity!
BENEDICTION
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)
POSTLUDE ‘Come, Thou Fount,’ Wyeth/Payne
Sources: Call to Worship Lectionary Aids for 2022-2023 Year A Vo.56.1 PCUSA; Copyright © 2023 David S. Bell. Reprinted with permission from www.DavidSBell.org.