Worship
Service for August 29, 2021
Click here (when
highlighted) for the YouTube link for the recorded service.
Prelude
Announcements:
·
Please feel free to join us for in person
worship at Olivet (West Elizabeth, PA) at 9:45am or at Bethesda (Elizabeth, PA)
at 11:15am.
·
We will have a joint service together on Sept
12 at Bethesda at 11:15am followed by a provided luncheon – Potato Salad, Pasta
Salas, Green Salad and various hoagies from DiCarlo’s.
·
We will have another joint service together on
Sept 19 at Olivet followed by a provided breakfast – Fruit, Donuts, Bagels and
Cream Cheese.
·
Both Congregations will have a Congregational
Meeting following their worship services on Sept 26.
Sounding of the Hour (at Bethesda only)
Call to Worship
L: I can hear my Savior calling, “Take thy
cross and follow me.”
P: He will give me grace and glory, and go
with me all the way.
L: Where He leads me I will follow.
P: I’ll go with Him all the way.
L: Let us worship God together!
P: Let us sing our praise to God.
Opening Hymn – Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Prayer of Confession
Gracious
God, we come before You with the cares and concerns of life, and trust that You
will meet us with grace and goodness. We
thank You for renewing and redeeming what we have made of the lives You have
given us. We thank You for the hard
lessons learned from the difficult times in our lives. We thank You for the ways we have grown
through adversity, won out over hardship and developed character through
suffering. We thank You that You have
placed within us not only a capacity to cope with the worst that life offers,
but also to hope for the best that Your Son has to offer us. Give us the strength, the wisdom, and the
courage to follow Your will and Your way through life. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! By God’s great mercy God
has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection and into
an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heave for
you, who are protected by the powers of God.
Frinds, this is the good news.
P: Thanks be to God!
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
God
of creation, Lord of Salvation, and Spirit of Peace, we give you thanks for
calling us to be Your people. We ask
that You would hold Your church firmly in Your hand, strengthening and guiding
it to proclaim Your good news in all the world.
We take up our own responsibility to do that where we live, where we
work, among the people we encounter each day.
Allow us to proclaim Your Good News in word and deed. We ask, Lord, that You would show the leaders
of the nations of the world Your gracious offer of hope and peace that they
might obey and serve You alone. We also
ask, Lord, that You look with kindness upon all who are sick and suffering,
granting them peace and the ministry of Your people. We especially pray for…
But
these are not our only prayers, Lord.
There is much on our hearts that You need to listen to and understand,
to hear and comfort us, so in silence we offer those prayers also up to You.
In
all that we do and say, Lord, bind us to Your word of promise, which has
sustained the saints in every age and points to the world to come and in whose
promise we find comfort, our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together
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 – I
Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Psalm 72
NT – James 1:17-27
Sermon –
Becoming Doers of the Word
(based very
loosely on James 1:17-27)
I want to start my sermon this
morning by asking you a question that I think is appropriate, important, and a
necessary question to ask at this time. What
is the purpose of the church?
I
think over the past year or more, one of the things we have missed the most is
our time of fellowship with one another.
Yes, fellowship is important. At
church we can meet friends of like-mindedness.
We can have a great time over coffee and donuts. Love is cultivated and shared at music
ministries, or during the Apple Dumpling Festival, or a Pancake Breakfast. God wants us to be in community with
believers. God wants us to gather
together and enjoy the fellowship, the uplifting of one another. That’s how we care about each other and pray for
one another. Even though it’s probably
one of the things we’ve missed the most, you can be part of those types of activities
through other clubs and organizations.
So, that can’t be the purpose of the church.
Perhaps it’s about teaching. After all, Jesus said and commanded us to go
make disciples. So, yes, teaching is definitely
important. To learn about the doctrines
of the church. To train people for
various responsibilities in the church, to instruct children in Sunday School,
or adults in Bible Studies, to learn and study the Word of God. God wants us to teach one another. God wants us to be spiritually fit and
knowledgeable in understanding the good news of the gospel. But I’ve known lots of people who study the
Word of God on their own or with the help of great resource material done by
various scholars. Teaching can be done
by YouTube videos and reading books. So
that’s not really the purpose of the church, either.
Perhaps it’s about the presence of
our building. The space that we bring to
honor God. The facility that brings
people together and is a beacon to the rest of the community. That our church building serves as both a
fortress for the believer and a welcome mat for the unchurched. God wants us to be a city set on the hill, a
beacon shining brightly, a lighthouse for the tempest tossed. But church buildings come and go, some are
repurposed to new and different things such as a store, a brewery, a
restaurant, even into condos and people’s homes. Even the great Temple in Jerusalem where God
was supposed to dwell (in the inner sanctum) was torn down but the followers,
the believers, the church, remained and continued to spread. So, even as much as we might love our church
building, the building itself is not the purpose of the church.
I used to believe that the purpose
of the church was simply to glorify and praise God. But, as we’ve seen over the past year and a
half, we can do that from home, tucked away with our tea or coffee, dressed in
our finest pajamas, fuzzy slippers and sit in front of the computer, TV screen,
computer tablet or smart phone and be able to worship from your couch or favorite
lounge chair. And if I was to be
perfectly honest with myself, I’ve worshipped quite adequately and perhaps even
more spiritually centered alone in the middle of the woods or out on a lake, or
somewhere else in nature. The Westminster
Confession of Faith says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy
God forever. But, do we need a church to
do that?
So, if it is not any of those things;
if it is not fellowship, or Bible Study and teaching, if it is not about the
building or even about worshipping God together, what is the purpose of the
church?
What flows out of our fellowship
with one another, what follows our reading and teaching and understanding of
the Word of God, what comes from the use of our building, and is a direct consequence
of our worship together should be a deep sense of mission and ministry.
It
is closely tied with what we read in James this morning. The purpose of the church is to provide
mission and ministry to the world around us both locally and abroad. That’s what should come from our worship, our
teaching, our building, our fellowship together after the scriptures have been read,
the sermon given, the voices sung, and the prayers lifted, to then take up our
listening ears and follow after the way of Christ – to become Doers of the
Word.
It’s not about any endowment funds
that we’ve got tied up in CD’s, Stocks, or Savings Accounts. It’s not about a new 100,000 square foot
facility that needs constant attention and upkeep. Or even a 100 year old building that doesn’t
meet modern needs. It’s not about
managing the weekly programs, the preschool or day care center, or the evening
health groups. It’s not even about
committee meetings or staff meetings.
It’s about our call to mission and ministry and whether or not we choose
to follow Christ when we have heard God’s still small voice calling to us and
actually doing what we’ve heard, learned, taught, spoken about and built a
building for. It’s about being a true
disciple and making disciples of others.
In order for us to get to that,
we’ve got to get back in touch with our basics, the fundamentals of what it
means to be a church and how we get to participate and provide in mission and
ministry; the real purpose of the church.
What is it all here for? Let’s
not lose sight of our purpose. Our
purpose is to become doers of the word and not hearers only, to provide ministry
and mission to those near and far who are in need of something. To actually have our faith become an action
statement to the world around us. We become
better disciples by following Christ and we bring others to Christ by providing
an example of what being a Christian is all about.
In order to do this we have to
really understand the ministry and mission of our pennies and the ministry and
mission of our pews. The accumulated
giving of all those pennies from our members are what enable us to do what we
do; to have a pastor, to have programs, to upkeep our building. But often in just providing that, we lose
sight of the bigger need and the bigger picture.
When a person makes the decision to
give money to the church, whether it comes in an offering envelope neatly
sealed with their pledge number on it, or in a pew envelope, or naked in the
offering plate, whether it comes folded up and is placed softly in with the
others or if it makes a jangling noise with a metallic clang, at that moment it
is a serious commitment by that person.
We call it stewardship, we call it
the weekly offering, we talk about meeting our budget, we talk about giving
back to God some of the blessings that God has given us. But don’t be fooled, the person who decides
to part with that money is doing so with a great amount of trust in us and with
a deep sense of commitment. Whether the
money they give to the church represents 1%, 5%, or 10% of their annual income,
we need to respect that and honor it. We
need to celebrate with joy the commitment of those pennies.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that we
can’t use stewardship programs to increase the member’s giving. We must.
But let’s learn how to celebrate the giving that comes first, before we
encourage people to give more. There is
something psychological about giving.
When what we give is appreciated, we want to give more. When what we give is seen as not enough, we
have no desire to give anything else.
Why should we? It’s not going to
make much of a difference anyway, right?
The second is the mission and ministry
of our pews. The pews in the sanctuary
are where we meet Christ. We come to
know him and learn about him through our worship of God, through the hymns we
sing, the prayers that are said, through the scriptures that are read, and
through the message of the sermon. We
come to know Christ through others who dwell in those pews with us each Sunday
morning. We build relationships, we form
friendships, we become intimate with those that are sitting with us in those
pews. People come to know us as brothers
and sisters in faith. Are we reflecting Christ
in our lives? We need to be genuine
people who are earnestly seeking God, becoming disciples ourselves and making
disciples of others.
Matthew 28:19, 20 says, “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In the English language, it sounds
like a commandment, an imperative to leave whatever it is that you’re doing and
“Go” someplace else. But, actually, a
better translation of the original Greek language would be “as you go”, or
“wherever you go”, meaning to make this part of your life. Jesus isn’t commanding those who would be
willing to take up this task and venture into the unknown world for the sake of
the gospel. Jesus is calling all of us
to this task, wherever we go, as we go, whether that is back home or to work
with us or even to new places and new countries. Every place we go, we should be “making
disciples”. How? By being Doers of the Word.
So, how do we “make disciples”
wherever we go? Well, forget everything
you’ve read or heard about evangelism.
It’s wrong. The church’s mission
is not to “get people saved”. Believing
in Jesus Christ is a process. A process
that we really don’t take seriously enough anymore. Most churches fall into two camps, those that
are outwardly evangelical having altar calls following an emotionally wrenching
testimony and asking people to pray to receive Jesus Christ as their personal
Savior and Lord or those that do nothing in the way of evangelism and expect to
gain new members through what I would call, “member swapping”. Believing in Jesus Christ and becoming a
disciple is a process. It’s a process
that we need to take seriously. We can’t
be all smoke and mirrors with no substance.
And we can’t be a closed social club either. We’ve got to find something in between.
We can’t begin to “make disciples”
and ask people to follow Christ if they don’t know who Christ is. And the only way to know Christ is to see
Christ in you, in us, in our church. We cannot
just sit here and listen and do nothing more, we must become Doers of the Word
and make the best use of our pennies and our pews to encourage us, rejuvenate
us, and energize us for the purpose of the church to provide mission and ministry
to the world around us, making disciples “as we go”.
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Lord, today we lay before you
gifts that you have given to us, and we ask that in the giving, we might be
transformed into generous servants; we ask that in the receiving all will be
blessed and multiplied. We ask this in
the name that is above every name, your son Jesus the Christ. Amen
Closing Hymn – O Jesus, I Have Promised
Benediction
As Christ has redeemed your
life, now go into the world in peace and love offering ministries of hope and
justice. Go in peace and may the peace
of God always be with you. AMEN.
Postlude
