Both churches will gather together this morning at 11:15am at Bethesda United Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth for Joint Worship and Communion. There will be a time of fellowship prior to worship in our Fellowship Hall.
Worship
Service for October 5, 2025
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Welcome to God’s house, a place of faith.
P: From our homes, we come seeking God’s
word.
L: Here you will find nourishment and hope.
P: But may we also learn lessons of courage
and peace.
L: Here you will find rest from your
struggles.
P: Lord, prepare our hearts to receive Your
words that we may leave this Holy House of faith and return to our homes,
encouraged, and challenged to be Your people.
AMEN.
Opening Hymn – Spirit of the Living God #322/389
Prayer of Confession
Most
merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and
deed; by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us,
that we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your
name. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Hear the Good News: Paul writes to
Timothy, “Do not be ashamed of testifying to God, who saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of God’s own
purpose and the grace God gave us in Christ Jesus years ago.”
P: By that grace we are saved. Let us believe the good news of the
gospel! In Jesus Christ we are
forgiven. 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
God of all nations, you called your people to be a light to the world,
to draw to yourself all who seek peace.
Lord, we ask that you use us, your church, to be instruments of that
peace, so that justice and compassion might be known in every land.
We pray for your hurting and broken world. We pray that conflict, wherever it may be,
comes to an end, that wars might cease and peace can truly be realized. We pray for our enemies, as much as we pray
for our friends and allies.
Lord, give our nation’s leaders a spirit of wisdom and a heart of
reconciliation, that we might be guided to provide for the well-being of the
hungry and homeless. We especially think
of those refugees and migrants who have left their homes to find a place of
comfort and rest; away from the disasters and tragedies, conflicts and poverty
in their homelands.
We pray for your church and its leaders. Give us pastors and church leaders who are
eager to hear your voice and to follow your call. Make us as community models of righteousness
for all who seek to know your ways.
Teach us to rejoice in all things and to seek what is honorable, just,
pure, pleasing, commendable, and praiseworthy, that we might be worthy
ambassadors of your good news to those whose hearts are restless for you.
Lay your healing hand on those we have named this morning who struggle
with sickness of body, mind, or spirit.
We especially pray for…
Hear also our unspoken and silent prayers this morning.
Lord, by your healing and comforting, reveal your power and love, and
give us a taste of the feast to come as we 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 – Precious
Lord, Take My Hand #404/684
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Psalm 37
NT – 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Sermon –
A
Call to Faith and Action
(based
on Psalm 37)
Psalm
37 is considered one of the Wisdom Psalms in the Book of Psalms. And I think it is a timeless Psalm for our
own living today. David wrote it when he
was an older man. He had lived through
his youth and his propensity to overindulge in his earthly desires. He had broken some of God’s commands and
faced their consequences. He had come
face to face with his own sinfulness and been humbled. So, this Psalm comes from the heart of a man
who had some wisdom to impart to the people of God who were facing great
distress for their nation. I believe
that this Psalm also provides us with some guidance in times of uncertainty and
strife, most especially in the face of evil and injustice. A time when we must remain steadfast in our
faith and committed to the long haul of Christian faith for the world.
This
Psalm implores us to do 5 things: Trust in the Lord, Delight in the Lord,
Commit our Ways to the Lord, Rest or Be Still in the Lord and finally, to Wait
for the Lord. These five things are set
or laid on top of an overarching theme of David’s day – an increased culture
that often exalts wickedness, greed, power, deceitfulness and arrogance. David, the Psalmist, reminds us not to fret,
not to worry, to not become overly emotional over the seeming successfulness of
those who do what’s wrong.
This
psalm urges us to be careful about our immediate emotional responses which
could lead to despair and bitterness.
David implores us to take a step back and we’re invited to take a
broader view of what’s happening, understanding that the success of the wicked
and those that do evil is temporary.
Like grass, it will wither away!
So,
taking that step back, we need to first; Trust in the Lord. But trusting in God is not a passive
activity, it is one of action, because what immediately follows that command to
Trust in God? And do good. It’s an active choice. We are urged to align our actions with our
faith. So, with that said, how do we
trust in God?
Frist, we need to begin each day by
surrendering our worries and concerns to God. We need to prayerfully entrust our life
circumstances, whatever they may be, to Him.
In the face of overarching chaos in the world, as well as personal
struggles, that is not an easy task. But
it is the first line of defense. To lay
it all out in prayer to God. Even if you
are so overwhelmed that you don’t even know how to pray or what to pray. Ann Lamont’s best response to that is; a
prayer of Help. “I have no clue what’s
going on, God. I have no idea what to do
here. I don’t have any understanding of
what is going on and how to see a way out.
So, Help!” Put all your trust in
God.
But
that trust is demonstrated only through our actions. Yes, we might feel paralyzed by uncertainty or
ineffectual in the face of daunting difficulties, but we are called to “do
good.” This may look like acts of
kindness, serving those in need, or simply exemplifying Christ-like behavior in
our workplaces and communities. And I
have found that when I give of myself to others, my own burdens become lighter,
relieved.
God
promises us that if we trust in him, we will find safe pasture. The most calming of all passages in scripture
begins, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he
leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.” That trust reminds us of the shepherd’s care.
Just as sheep find safety and provision
in their pasture, we find refuge in our relationship with God.
After
trusting in God, we can then find delight in Him. When we delight in God, our desires align
with God’s. What we want begins to align
with what God wants. As we grow closer
to God, our cravings for worldly success and material possessions
diminish. David learned this lesson the
hard way and paid the consequences for not aligning his own hearts’ desires
with that of God’s until he became an older man. In a book that I have referenced many times
before, The Book of Joy, Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama talk about
finding delight and joy by cultivating compassion, generosity, and love. This joy, this delight, sustains us through
any trials or tribulations that we might encounter when we find humor in life, the
miraculous in our everyday surroundings, and in nature. Only when we fully
surrender to God’s amazing creation that surrounds us, can we authentically
delight in the Lord.
Commit
our ways to the Lord. Again, this calls
for action reaching beyond just belief.
To commit our ways to the Lord means that we are willing to submit our
plans and desires to God and to God’s will in our lives. In order to do that we have to let God be in
control, to allow God to shape our paths.
For a control freak like me, that’s one of the hardest things to
do! We want, so hard, to cling to what
we want to do, what we think is best, how we want things to go. However, it always, and I do mean always,
works out better, ok best, when we embrace God’s purpose in our lives, when we
position ourselves to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. Each of us, whether we understand it or
always grasp in the moment, are tasked with a God-given assignment. Committing ourselves to fulfilling that
assignment is our life’s work.
Once
we’ve figured all of that out, God tells us to be still, to rest. When we rest in God or are still before the
Lord, it fosters within us, peace. That
peace that surpasses all understanding.
That while we are in the very midst of difficulties, embroiled in turmoil
and strife, we can find peace.
When
we see injustice blooming and being carried out all around us, when the poor
are neglected, when the foreigner is taken away in chains, when minorities lose
their jobs or opportunities simply because of the color of their skin or the
way they look, it can evoke within us anger, frustration, and we might want to
demand retribution by taking matters into our own hands. But that can lead to unrighteousness. David warns us against such rash
actions. He says, be still, rest in the
Lord. We need to put our trust in God,
do good, delight in him, commit to God’s ways, and find an inner peace while we
remember that God is just and that God sees all. Resting in God allows us to think rationally
and fully in aligning our desires with God’s desires and only then can we act
with righteous justice and be God’s instruments for peace.
And
finally, waiting on God. A number of
years ago Advent resources put out by the church encourages us to use the season
of Advent by focusing on the Theme of Waiting.
That Advent was a season devoted to waiting on God to do the miraculous,
to show God’s purpose in the world, to bring about the Herald of Peace, the
reign of God in the world, the Word made Flesh.
And then a couple of years later, we were encouraged to view the Season
of Lent as a time of Waiting. To find
patience in what God was doing, that Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the
wilderness learning patience and to rely on God. To wait for God’s timing to bring about God’s
salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And
then a year or two later, more resources came out for the season of Pentecost,
when God was to send a guide, a Helper; for the disciples to wait until the Day
of Pentecost when the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon them and they
would be able to do miraculous things like stand up in the town square and
preach the word of God, to explain it to the listeners in languages they
understood, to spread the message of the gospel throughout the world.
And
then seasons later, the church resources told us to use the season of Ordinary
Time as a time of waiting. Waiting to
learn what God was up to in the world, waiting to learn new lessons and new
interpretations of age old stories, through the parables and all that Jesus
taught.
We
are perpetually in a time of waiting.
Waiting requires patience of what will be revealed, of what God is
doing, of where God is sending us, of what we are learning from God. We are perpetually in a time of waiting. For God will act in God’s own time. And we can only live in to that timing and be
ready for whatever comes our way when we first put our trust in the Lord.
Trust
in the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord, rest in the
Lord, and wait.
Thanks
be to God. AMEN.
Offertory -
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Lord,
in your faithfulness you provide our every need in ways that surpass our
understanding. We dedicate before you
today the large and the small work of every member of the church, and we ask
that you accomplish great things with our offerings of self and substance. We pray this in the blessed name of our
Savior, Jesus the Christ. AMEN
Communion
Invitation
to The Lord’s Table
Jesus was always the guest.
In the homes of Peter and Jairus,
Martha and Mary, Joanna and Susanna,
he was always the guest.
At the meal tables of the wealthy
where he pled the case of the poor,
he was always the guest.
Upsetting polite company,
befriending isolated people,
welcoming the stranger,
he was always the guest.
But here,
At this table,
Jesus is the host.
Those who wish to serve him
Must first be served by him.
Those who want to follow him
Must first be fed by him.
Those who would wash his feet
must first let him make them clean.
For this is the table
where God intends us to be nourished.
This is the time
when Christ can make us new.
So come, you who hunger and
thirst
for a deeper faith,
for a fuller life,
for a better world.
Jesus Christ,
Who has sat at our tables,
Now invites us to be guests at his.
Prayer
of Thanksgiving
L: The Lord be with you.
P: And also with you.
L: Lift up your hearts.
P: We lift them up to the Lord.
L: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Words
of Institution
Among friends, gathered round a table,
(taking and breaking bread)
Jesus took bread, broke it, and said,
“This is my body, broken for you.”
(holding the cup)
Later he took the cup and said,
“This is the relationship with God
Made possible because of my death.
Take it, all of you, to remember me.”
(pour out the cup)
In this meal
God comes to us
So that we may come to God.
(Distribution
of the Bread and the Cup)
(The Bread)
Christ, whom
the universe could not contain,
Is present to us in the breaking of this bread.
Take and eat.
(The Cup)
Christ, who
redeemed us and called us by name,
Now meets us in the sharing of this cup.
Take and drink.
Closing
Prayer
Holy God,
We praise you,
for you are the One from whom we will return.
You conceived the universe,
wove the world together,
and hold all life in your hand.
You watch us waking or sleeping,
You keep every tear that we shed,
You hear every prayer we make,
You know both our best and our worst,
And you will not let us go.
So with rain, wind, and sunshine,
With all that moves in time with its Maker,
we praise you.
We praise you
for Christ’s life, which informs our living,
for his compassion, which changes our hearts,
for his clear speaking,
for his disturbing presence,
his innocent suffering,
his courageous dying,
his rising to life, breathing forgiveness,
We praise you and worship him.
Merciful God,
Send now,
in kindness,
your Holy Spirit
to rest on
converting us
from the patterns of this passing world,
until we conform to the shape of the One
whose food we shared this day.
Make us one body as we serve you and one another in love.
Amen.
Closing Hymn – In Christ There is no East or
West #439/428
Benediction
Having been healed
and made whole by God’s love, now go out into God’s world to be a healer and
one who brings peace and hope to others. Know always that God is with you. AMEN.
Postlude
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