FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
                                                                  ORDER OF WORSHIP
                                                              13th Sunday of Pentecost
                                                                   September 7, 2025
 
 
PRELUDE   Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ - J.S. Bach
 
 
                                                      ANNOUNCEMENTS
-PANCAKE BRUNCH hosted by Men’s Brotherhood and CE/Fellowship is today following worship, with a presentation by Harlan Moss, Chaplain at the Prison in Sioux Falls.
-WORSHIP AT PEACEFUL PINES is today at 2:00.  Please join us for a brief worship service and music.
-TUESDAY MORNING COFFEE GROUP at 9:30ish AM at First Lutheran Mission Coffee House.  
-FINANCE MEETING on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 6:30 PM via Zoom
-THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY at 9:30 AM in the FPC Center Meeting Room
-SESSION MEETING on Thursday, Sept. 11, 7:00 PM in the FPC Center Meeting Room
-THANK YOU to Andrew L’Amour for staffing the office while Rozanne works from home.
-SPECIAL OFFERING Peace and Global Witness Offering begins Sept. 7- Oct. 5. Please use envelopes provided by the offering plates or write Peace Offering in check memo for your donations.   
-HYMN SING SUNDAY is Sunday September 21st. Put your favorite hymn in the basket on the coffee table before September 16th.
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CALL TO WORSHIP
Come with your questions, your hopes, your doubts, and your joys.
     God knows every part of who we are.
Come with the past week’s weariness and the day’s new beginnings.
     God welcomes us just as we are and shapes us into what we can  
     become.
Come, for we are God’s beloved creation; formed in love, held in grace, and made new in Christ.
     Let us worship God together.
 
 
 
*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
 
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION 
Merciful God, You shaped us with care and called us your own, yet we confess that we resist your hand upon our lives. We cling to old ways, even when they do not give life. We prefer what is familiar, even when it keeps us from your new creation. We do what we should not, and we fail to do what we should. Forgive us, Lord. Reform us by your Spirit, restore us through your mercy, and remake us in the image of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
 
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
  
*GLORIA PATRI (on screen)
                 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.
 
  
MINUTE FOR MISSION   Harlan Moss, Chaplain, SD State Penitentiary
  
CHILDREN’S SERMON
  
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
 
SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 139:1-4, 13-14   (responsive)
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
     2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
     you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
     4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
     O LORD, you know it completely.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
     14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
 
 
Old Testament Reading Jeremiah 18:1-6 
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 "Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words."
3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.
4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.
9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.
11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
 
 
SERMON    Shaped by Grace     Donna Flint
John 15: 1-2
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vintner. 2 He cuts off every branch that does not produce fruit in me, and he cuts back every branch that does produce fruit, so that it might produce more fruit.
 
Philemon 1-3, 10-12, 15-17
Greetings
1 From: Paul, a prisoner of the Messiah Jesus, and Timothy our brother.
To: Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. 3 May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, be yours!
10 I appeal to you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. 11 Once he was useless to you, but now he is very useful both to you and to me. 12 As I send him back, it’s like I’m coming along with him.
 
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
We believe in the one God who formed us in the womb, who knit us together with care, purpose and love. We believe in the one God who knows us completely, before we speak, before we act, before we even think. We believe that nothing in life can separate us from God’s presence, and all our days are held within God’s grace. We are God’s beloved creation, known, formed, and cherished now and always; continually reshaped by God’s hands. In response, we seek to live faithfully, loving God and neighbor, and offering our lives as a reflection of that grace.
 
 
*HYMN OF RESPONSE  (on screen/handout) “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay!
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still.
 
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me,  Master today!
Brighter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
as in Thy presence humbly I bow.
 
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power all power surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!
 
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
 

OFFERING OF OURSELVES AND OUR RESOURCES
 
*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.
 
 
SERVICE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
 
INVITATION TO THE TABLE
 
HYMN #507 (blue) (vs. 1,2,3)  “ I Come with Joy”
I come with joy to meet my Lord,
forgiven, loved and free,
in awe and wonder  to recall,
His life laid down for me,
His life laid down for me.

I come with Christians far and near
to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love
in Christ's communion bread,
in Christ’s communion bread.
 
As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share,
each proud division ends.
The love that made us, makes us one,
and strangers now are friends,
and strangers now are friends.
 
 
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you   And also with you
Lift up your hearts        We lift them to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God   It is right to give our thanks and praise.
 
… we praise You, joining our voices with all creation, saying:         
         Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might.
          Heaven and earth are full of your glory!
          Hosanna in the highest.
          Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
          Hosanna in the highest.

…… Draw us near, O God, and let your presence among us strengthen and shape us as your faithful people.
     As we break bread together, may our eyes be opened
     to see your glory.
     As we lift the cup of salvation, may we be strengthened
     to follow your Way.
 
…we pray as Jesus taught his disciples 
                                  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.
 
WORDS OF INSTITUTION AND BREAKING OF THE BREAD
 
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
  
 
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Those Who Mourn: prayers for Carrie VB and family at the passing of her sister Michelle on August 26
 
Concerns: JoAnn G, Dean H, Jan J, Rozanne M, Lee P, Judy Se
 
Our homebound or in care members: Richard & Dolores C, Bob F (Pat caregiver), Jan J, Darwin L (Jeanne caregiver), Marlys M, Bob O (Nancy caregiver), Rose P, Joyce R, Steve VB, Dee W  (Please reach out and call)
 
This Week’s Prayer Families: Dean & Sharon H, Nelda H, Dennis H & Carolyn C
 
 
*CLOSING HYMN   #507 (blue) (vs. 4,5) “ I Come with Joy”
And thus with joy we meet our Lord.
His presence, always near,
is in such friendship better known:
we see and praise Him here,
we see and praise Him here.
 
Together met, together bound,
we’ll go our different ways,
and as His people in the world,
we’ll live and speak His praise,
we’ll live and speak His praise.
 
 
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
 
 
POSTLUDE   O Gott, du frommer Gott - Johannes Brahms