Worship
Service for July 5, 2026
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
P: Let us come into God’s presence with
thanksgiving: let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
L: For the Lord is a great God, and a great
King above all gods.
P: O come, let us worship and bow down, let
us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
Opening
Hymn – Lift Every Voice and Sing #563
Prayer of Confession
Gracious and loving God,
forgive us when we turn a deaf ear to Your call in Jesus Christ; when we turn
away from the cries of those in the world who need Your love and our help. Forgive us when we treat discipleship as a
yoke of oppression. Help us learn that
it is a blessing and gift for leading a faithful life as Your people. O Lord, forgive our sin. Help us know and love You with all that we
are. Help us learn to love our neighbors
as we love ourselves. We pray for the
strength of Your Holy Spirit to equip us for our calling as followers of Jesus
Christ, in whom we have our hope and put our trust. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in
Galatia, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use
your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become
slaves to one another. For the whole law
is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Hear and believe the good news:
P: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. AMEN!
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
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
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Gracious and loving God,
You are the One who knows us completely. You see the
burdens we carry that others never notice, the worries that keep us awake at
night, the grief we hide behind polite smiles, and the responsibilities that
sometimes seem too heavy to bear. Yet before we ever call upon You, Christ
speaks these gracious words: "Come to me, all you who are weary and
carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
So today we come.
We come not because we have everything together, but
because we need Your mercy. We come not because we are strong, but because we
know our weakness. We come trusting that Your grace is greater than our
failures, Your peace stronger than our fears, and Your love deeper than our
understanding.
Lord, teach us what it means to take upon ourselves the
gentle yoke of Christ. In a world that demands more, pushes harder, and
measures our worth by what we accomplish, remind us that our identity is found
not in our achievements but in being Your beloved children. Help us to learn
from Jesus, whose strength was clothed in humility and whose power was revealed
through love.
We pray for those who are especially weary today.
Comfort those whose bodies are weakened by illness, whose minds are weighed
down by anxiety, whose hearts are broken by loss, and whose spirits are
exhausted from carrying responsibilities that seem never-ending. Give rest to
caregivers, encouragement to those seeking work, hope to those facing uncertain
futures, and courage to all who wonder how they will make it through another
day. We especially pray for…
We pray for Your Church. May we become a place where
burdens are shared rather than ignored, where the lonely find friendship, the
wounded discover healing, and those who have grown tired in faith find renewed
hope. Make us instruments of Christ's compassion so that others may experience
His welcome through our words and actions.
We pray for our community, our nation, and our world.
Where there is conflict, bring peace. Where there is injustice, awaken
righteousness. Where there is despair, plant seeds of hope. Guide those who
lead in positions of authority, granting them wisdom, humility, and a sincere
desire to seek the common good.
Lord, hear now the prayers that remain unspoken, the
burdens too deep for words, and the concerns we quietly lift before You in this
time of silence….
We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our
Savior and Lord, who taught us to pray, saying:
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. 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.
Hymn – Let Us Break Bread Together #513
Scripture Reading(s):
Psalm
47
Matthew 11:1-30
Sermon – Come to Me
There are few words in all of
Scripture that sound as comforting as these:
"Come to me, all you who are
weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light."
Those words sound almost too good to
be true. They come to us in a world that
seems to know very little about rest. We
are constantly connected but increasingly lonely. We have more conveniences than any generation
before us, yet we seem more exhausted than ever. Our calendars are full, our phones never stop
buzzing, our minds race long after we've gone to bed, and even on vacation many
of us find ourselves checking email or worrying about what waits for us when we
get home.
We know what physical exhaustion
feels like. After a long day of work, a
demanding week, or caring for family members, our bodies remind us that we have
limits. But Jesus isn't simply talking
about tired muscles or the need for a good night's sleep. He's speaking to something much deeper. He's talking about soul weariness—that kind
of exhaustion that sleep cannot fix.
Perhaps you've felt it
yourself. It comes after carrying grief
for months. It comes after making
difficult decisions. It comes from
trying to hold a family together, worrying about aging parents, raising
children, managing finances, dealing with illness, or wondering what the future
will hold. Sometimes the greatest burden
isn't what we're doing but what we're carrying inside us—the fear, the guilt,
the uncertainty, the constant pressure to keep everything together.
Jesus sees and knows all about that
before He ever says to us and to his disciples, "Come."
Notice that He doesn't begin by
saying, "Get your life together." He doesn't say, "Fix your problems
first." He doesn't demand that we
become stronger, more disciplined, or more faithful before we approach Him. His invitation begins exactly where we
are—with our weariness. We’re the ones
that make excuses. We’re the ones that
often say, “First, let me do this or that.”
We’re the ones that believe we need to get our lives together before we
come to Christ.
Our culture often sends a very
different message. We admire people who
appear to have everything under control.
Social media presents carefully edited lives where everyone else seems
happier, healthier, more successful, and more organized than we are. We compare our ordinary Tuesday with someone
else's highlight reel and wonder why we can't keep up.
Psychologists have even coined the
phrase "the comparison trap." The more we compare ourselves with
others, the more inadequate we feel. We
begin carrying burdens that God never intended us to carry. We worry about appearances. We strive for perfection. We convince ourselves that our value depends
upon our performance.
Many people spend their entire lives
trying to prove they are enough. I’ve
done it myself. I’ve felt the need as a
teenager and a young adult to prove that I was enough; to strive for
perfection, to do and be what everyone else wanted me to do and be. And that desire/that need still creeps into
my life every now and then. But none of
us can live up to everyone’s else standards for us. We each need to be the people that God
created us to be and to live into the person that God is shaping us, not the
person others expect us to be.
And Jesus offers something radically
different. His invitation is not based
upon our accomplishments, but rather upon His grace. Imagine carrying a backpack filled with
rocks. At first, the weight doesn't seem too bad. But as the miles pass, every step becomes
harder. Your shoulders ache. Your back hurts. Eventually you forget what it feels like not
to carry the weight because you've become accustomed to it.
Lots of people walk through life
that way. Every time we fall short of
others’ expectations is one more stone added to the backpack. Every disappointment becomes another stone. Every regret adds another. Every unrealistic expectation, every
unresolved conflict, every fear about tomorrow gets tossed into the pack. We become so accustomed to carrying the
weight that we assume it's simply part of life.
Then Jesus says, "Come to
me." He's not asking us to carry
the burden better. He's inviting us to
lay it all down. The odd thing is that
Jesus doesn't promise relief from our burdens; those that others put on us and
those that we’ve put on ourselves, but He invites us to take up a yoke,
instead.
At first glance that sounds
confusing. Why exchange one burden for
another? Most of us don't have much
experience with yokes today. In Jesus'
day, a yoke was a wooden beam placed across two oxen so they could pull
together. Farmers knew something
important. A young, inexperienced ox was
often yoked beside an older, stronger one.
The younger animal learned where to walk, when to stop, and how to bear
the load by staying alongside the experienced one. The stronger animal carried much of the
weight.
When Jesus says, "Take my yoke
upon you," He isn't saying, "Carry more." He's saying, "Walk with me. I’ll take up much of the weight you are
carrying and I’ll show you where to walk, when to stop, and how to bear the
load.” And that's an important
distinction.
Our belief system in being a
follower of Christ isn’t simply following a list of rules. It’s living in relationship with Christ. We are yoked to Him. He bears the greater weight. He guides the direction. He supplies the strength that we lack. Think about the difference between dragging a
heavy piece of furniture by yourself and having someone much stronger take the
other end. The object hasn't changed,
but everything about carrying it has.
What once felt impossible becomes manageable because you are no longer
doing it alone.
That is supposed to be the Christian
life we emulate for others and work towards ourselves. We’ll still face criticism of others. We’ll still face illness. We’ll still grieve. We’ll still work hard. We’ll still experience disappointment. But we don’t need to carry those burdens by
ourselves.
If you remember in our scripture
readings that Paul discovered this when he prayed repeatedly for God to remove
his “thorn in the flesh.” Whatever that might have been, we don’t actually
know, but it was a burden of some sort that Paul carried. God's answer to him was not immediate
deliverance but rather these words: "My grace is sufficient for you, for
power is made perfect in weakness."
There is another reason why we often
become so weary. We’ve convinced
ourselves that everything depends upon us.
And if we're being honest, many of us live as though we are personally
responsible for holding the whole world together. We worry constantly about things completely
beyond our control. We lie awake
rehearsing conversations that haven't happened yet. We try to solve tomorrow's problems with
today's anxiety.
God gives us grace one day at a
time. Jesus taught us to pray for daily
bread, not a year’s supply, not a month’s supply, not even a week’s
supply. Just a daily supply of
bread. And in that God calls us to
faithfulness today. Not next year. Not ten years from now. Today.
I read an anecdote about a traveler
heading home and crossing the Alps with his young daughter. As evening approached, the mountains looked
dark and intimidating. The little girl
became frightened and asked, "Father, how will we ever get across those
mountains?" He smiled and pointed
toward the lantern he carried. "My
child," he said, "this light only shines a few feet ahead of us. But if we simply walk as far as the light
reaches, it will keep moving forward until we arrive home." When I took my Sabbatical a few years ago,
travelling in Italy, just let me say that everything in Italy is up. Every town and every historical sight is
located on the top of a hill. When I was
staying in the Cinque Terra area which is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight, I
decided one day, rather than take the train, I’d walk the trail to the next
town. It was a constant uphill
climb. I’m not a climber, I’m not a
thrill-seeking hiker. I don’t even like
to walk from the farthest end of a parking lot to a store. But, as I was going to the next town, all I
kept thinking was, I’ll just get to the next turn in the trail and go from
there, of course hoping that the next turn would reveal the town ahead.
That is often how God leads us. He rarely illuminates the whole journey. He simply asks us to trust Him for the next
faithful step. In this passage, Jesus
also tells us something about His own character that is easy to overlook. Jesus says, "I am gentle and humble in
heart." He is not demanding, not
impatient, not easily disappointed, but rather gentle and humble. How often are we gentle and humble when
leading or teaching others?
I think we often lack that skill
because many people imagine God standing over them with folded arms, waiting
for them to fail. But Jesus reveals
something entirely different. The One
who carries divine authority also possesses perfect gentleness. The One who calms storms also comforts broken
hearts. The One who conquered death
welcomes weary travelers with open arms.
This is the heart of the Gospel.
God is not waiting for us to become
worthy of His love, we already are. When
we know that our identity rests securely in Christ rather than in our
achievements, we become free to serve rather than strive. We can admit mistakes without fear. We can forgive because we've been
forgiven. We can rest because we know
that God remains at work even while we take a break or get some much needed
rest.
One of the great spiritual
disciplines that modern Christians need to recover is the practice of genuine
rest. Rest is not laziness. Rest is an act of trust. Every time we pause for worship, every
Sabbath we honor, every moment we spend in prayer instead of frantic activity,
we quietly confess that God can manage the universe without our constant
supervision. That may be one of the
hardest confessions for us to make.
As we gather around the Lord's Table
today, we are reminded again that salvation itself is not something we
accomplish. We do not earn God's grace
by working harder. We receive it with
open hands from a gentle and humble hearted Savior. The table is not a reward for the
strong. It is nourishment for the weary.
Perhaps today you came carrying
burdens no one else knows about. Perhaps
your smile has hidden your exhaustion.
Perhaps you've spent so long trying to be strong that you've forgotten
how to receive help. Listen again to the
voice of Jesus. "Come to
me." Not tomorrow. Not after you've solved every problem. Not after you've become a better
Christian. Come now. Come weary.
Come burdened. Come exactly as
you are.
For the One who calls you is
gentle. The One who walks beside you is
faithful. The One who bears your burdens
has already carried the cross. And the
One who promises rest has never once failed to keep His word.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Offertory – (Call for the Offering)
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
O God, receive these gifts and
use them to bring hope to the burdened, comfort to the hurting, and the good
news of Your love to all who seek You. Dedicate not only these offerings, but
also our lives, that we may serve You faithfully with joy and generosity.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
HOLY COMMUNION
Invitation
to the Table:
Christ's
invitation continues at this table. He
welcomes all who trust in Him, who seek His mercy, and who desire to follow Him
in faith. If you come today carrying
burdens of grief, worry, doubt, or fear, know that Christ invites you. If you come rejoicing, come with thanksgiving.
If you come longing for renewed
strength, come expecting His grace. Here
we do not find perfection, but forgiveness; not condemnation, but mercy; not
empty ritual, but the living presence of our risen Lord.
Come, because
Christ invites you. Come, for all is
ready. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Words of
Institution:
And the
passing of the sacramental elements; the bread and the cup.
Prayer after Communion:
Faithful God, thank You that You do not leave us to
carry life's burdens alone. We give You
thanks that at Your Holy Table we find strength and forgiveness, a place of
renewed community and purpose. As we
leave this place, help us to walk beside Christ each day, trusting that His
yoke is easy, His burden is light, and His grace is sufficient for every
challenge we face. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – My Country ‘Tis of Thee #561
Benediction –
May the blessing of God Almighty—Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit—be with you, remain with you, and go before you, now and always. Amen.
Postlude
