GATHERING
GREETINGAND ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you.
PRELUDE Kathy Nash
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: The long arm of the Lord reaches out to you and bids you welcome to this house of worship.
People: We are thankful for this shelter of God’s love, which is always ours.
Leader: The loving heart of the Lord is open to you.
People: We open our hearts to receive God’s love.
All: Let us lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving. As we are loved, so let us love.
*PRAISE MUSIC “Open My Eyes That I May See” UMH 454
INVOCATION
Holy God, as we move away from Christmas and settle back into our everyday routines, we ask you to help us retain that sense of anticipation and awe that comes with Advent and Christmas. May our worship this morning, and our lives, be filled with the eager anticipation of your return, the wonder of your birth, and the Easter joy the promise of resurrection brings. As we sing your praise this morning along with the heavenly host, may it be pleasing to you. Amen.
TIME WITH THE YOUTH
PSALM 139:1-6, 13-18
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
HYMN “Be Thou My Vision” UMH 451
PRAYERS AND OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE: Joys and Concerns
PASTORAL PRAYER Most gracious God, we offer our thanks for the gift of
your extravagant love given to us in your Son. Grant us the grace to respond
in thanksgiving by living in the power of your love. Help us extend the hand
of forgiveness over and over and again and again that we might love as Jesus
loved. Help us grow in our love for each other and in our relationship with
you. Let us not count the cost but instead revel in the joy as we experience the
power of a nurturing and sustaining love. Amen.
OFFERING PRAYER
In gratitude for your love which never lets us go, we bring you our gifts, O God. Help us to give with generous grace and to love lavishly as you have so loved us. We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ who came that we might know what a life of love looks like. Amen.
* PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERING
“Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow” UMH 95
PROCLAIMING GOD’S WORD
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
We gather humbly, O God, to hear your Word read and proclaimed. Settle our minds and calm our fidgets so we do not distract ourselves. Open both our ears and hearts and fill us with longing to hear with both body and soul. Amen
EPISTLE LESSON: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 PB, pg 159
GOSPEL LESSON: John 1:43-51 PB, pg. 88
THE MESSAGE Pastor Vicki Lerdahl
HYMN RESPONSE “Here I Am Lord” UMH 593
SENDING FORTH
*BLESSING