Next Sunday, we will be worshipping together at Bethesda United Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth at 11:15am with a time of fellowship prior. Come for refreshments, coffee/tea around 10:30. See you then
Worship
Service for July 26, 2026
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Why have you come to this place?
P: We have come to find Christ.
L: Why have you come today?
P: We are tired in body and spirit.
L: Come, rest awhile and be fed through music
and word.
P: We are here to worship and to be renewed.
L: Then let us worship God together.
Opening Hymn – Morning Has
Broken #469 Blue
Prayer of Confession
God of steadfast love, fools
say in their hearts: “There is no God.”
How often, O Lord, are we the fools who confess You with our lips, but
deny You with our actions? How often do
we act as if You sleep, O God confident that You know not what we do? How often do we cause others to stumble, when
we act hypocritically in our faith? Help
us be constant as the north star, O God, that others have no occasion to
witness our example and say: “I’d be a Christian if it weren’t for the
Christians.” Forgive us, O Lord. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: God’s love is lavished upon you. It is always there for you, offering healing
and hope.
P: Thanks
be to God for God’s steadfast love.
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
God, we give you thanks for all the blessings that come from your hand,
especially for the invitation to live as your holy people, the body of
Christ. We lift in prayer today your
church, in all its various forms, as it struggles to proclaim your gracious
reign in a world dedicated to wealth and possessions. Strengthen the people of this planet for an
attitude of peace and goodwill and all who lead them. For the nations that struggle with war,
violence, and injustice, grant your full measure of peace and
righteousness.
We
especially lift up to you the people of other countries that have been torn
apart by violence, civil war, invasions, and radical ideologies that hurt and
destroy, but we also must include our own country in the midst of so many acts
of violence against one another.
For the
sick and those facing death, we pray that you send your Spirit and your people
to bring comfort and hope. We pray for…
For this
congregation, as we endeavor to let Christ rule our hearts, open those hearts
that we may give and serve gladly; that the witness of those who have gone
before us is a guiding hand.
In this
time of silence, we lift our personal petitions to you…
These and
all other things you know we need, we ask in the name of Jesus, the only name
that matters 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 – Alleluia! Sing to Jesus #144/377 Brown/Blue
Scripture Readings:
First Scripture Reading – Genesis 29:15-28
Second Scripture Reading – Romans
8:26-30
Sermon
When We Don't Have the Words
Romans 8:26–30
I think that most of us who grew up
going to church and being a Christian, we grew up thinking that following
Christ means having answers, knowing the right prayers to pray, and being able
to explain why things happen the way they do.
But eventually life has a way of humbling us, even for seasoned pastors
who were supposedly taught what to say and how to say it. But then a diagnosis comes that no one
expected. A relationship that seemed
solid begins to unravel. A child makes
choices that keep us awake at night. Someone
we love dies far too soon. Suddenly all
of our carefully chosen words seem inadequate, and we find ourselves standing
before God with little more than silence.
In Romans, Paul seems to understand
that experience. In fact, Romans 8 is
one of the most honest chapters in all of Scripture because it refuses to
pretend that Christians are somehow exempt from weakness. Earlier in the chapter Paul reminds us that
creation itself is groaning, that humanity is groaning, and that we ourselves
are waiting for the fullness of God's redemption. The Christian life is not lived above suffering
but rather in the middle of it. We live
with hope, but we also live with unanswered questions, and it is precisely
there, in that place between God's promises and their final fulfillment, that
Paul offers these words:
"Likewise the Spirit helps us
in our weakness."
The Spirit meets us exactly where we
are—in our weakness. Most of us spend a
great deal of energy trying to hide our weaknesses. We would much rather present ourselves as
capable, composed, and in control. We
don't like admitting that we are afraid, or confused, or exhausted. We often think that if our faith were
stronger, we would never doubt, we would never worry, and we would never
struggle just to pray.
Yet Paul says weakness is not the
exception to the Christian life; it is one of the places where God does some of
His deepest work.
I think of a young man learning to
ride a bicycle. His father runs beside
him, one hand lightly resting on the back of the seat. The child is pedaling with all his might,
convinced that he is doing it alone, but every time he begins to wobble, his
father steadies him before he falls. The
child may not even realize how much help he is receiving, but the father never
stops supporting him until he is ready.
That image reminds me of what Paul
is describing here. The Holy Spirit does
not merely watch us from a distance and cheer us on. The Spirit comes alongside us. The Greek word Paul uses, synantilambanomai,
means to take hold of a burden with another person. It is not that the Spirit carries everything
while we do nothing, nor that we carry everything by ourselves. Rather, the Spirit stoops down, takes hold of
what is too heavy for us, and bears it with us – similar to our previous week’s
idea of Christ telling us to “take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Here, the Spirit actually takes the burden
from and us and bears it with us, even when we don’t have the words to ask.
That is why Paul continues by
saying, "We do not know how to pray as we ought."
There is something wonderfully
freeing about hearing those words.
The Apostle Paul, who prayed
constantly, who planted churches across the Roman Empire, who knew the
Scriptures better than almost anyone, openly admits that there are moments when
he does not know how to pray. If Paul
could confess that, then surely we can admit it as well.
There are times when the problem is
not that we lack faith but that we simply do not know what to ask for. We pray for healing, yet we do not know what
God's timing will be. We pray for
guidance, yet every option seems uncertain.
We pray for someone we love, but we cannot imagine how God will work in
their life. Anne Lamont writes that sometimes
all we can offer is a sigh, a tear, or a whispered "Lord, Help."
And Paul says that is enough.
The Spirit takes those sighs that
never become sentences, those tears that never become prayers, and carries them
into the presence of God. Before our
words are fully formed, God already knows what we need because His own Spirit
is interceding for us.
That truth changes the way we think
about prayer.
Prayer is not a performance. It is not a test to see whether we can find
exactly the right words. It is not a
speech that succeeds only if it sounds impressive. Prayer is a relationship, and in every
healthy relationship there are moments when words become unnecessary. A husband sitting beside his spouse in a
hospital room doesn’t always know what to say.
A parent holding a frightened child during a storm doesn’t solve
everything with eloquent speeches. Sometimes simply being present communicates
more than language ever could.
God understands those moments
because He is present with us in all of them.
From there Paul moves into one of
the most quoted—and perhaps most misunderstood—verses in the Bible: "We
know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are
called according to his purpose."
This verse has often been used in
ways Paul never intended. Too quickly
people have said, "Everything happens for a reason," as though every
tragedy should immediately make sense or every painful event should somehow be
called good. But Paul never says that
everything is good.
There are things in this world that
grieve the heart of God. Death is not
good. Violence is not good. Disease is not good. Broken families are not good. Paul knows that as well as anyone because he
has suffered all of those realities in one form or another. What he says instead is that God is
continually at work, even in circumstances that appear hopeless to us. God's
providence is greater than our perspective.
We only see isolated moments; while God sees the whole story. We see individual threads; while God sees the
completed tapestry.
A master craftsperson can take
pieces of weathered wood that seem destined for the fireplace and transform
them into a beautiful masterpiece.
Looking at the rough boards individually, you would never imagine what
they could become. Yet the craftsperson
sees possibilities hidden within every piece because he knows what he intends
to build.
God works that way with our
lives. He does not waste our joys, and
He does not waste our sorrows either.
Somehow, through God’s wisdom and grace, He is able to weave even the
hardest chapters into His larger purpose, not because suffering is good, but
because God’s redeeming love is stronger than suffering itself.
That purpose becomes even clearer in
the final verses of our passage. Paul
tells us that those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to
the image of His Son. It is easy to
become tangled in theological debates over those words, but Paul's purpose here
is not to satisfy our curiosity about every mystery of God's eternal plan. His purpose is to reassure frightened
believers that their lives are not drifting aimlessly through history.
God has not simply saved us from
something; He is shaping us into someone.
The goal of the Christian life is not merely getting to heaven one
day. The goal is becoming more like
Jesus today.
Every experience, every blessing,
every disappointment, every season of waiting, every act of grace is being
gathered into that work of transformation.
Even when we cannot see what God is doing, God has not abandoned His
purpose. The God who called us in Christ
is still at work, patiently forming Christ within us.
And perhaps that is the greatest
comfort of all. Our hope does not rest
upon how tightly we can hold onto God.
Our hope rests upon how faithfully God holds onto us.
There will be days when our prayers
are weak, when our faith feels fragile, and when we cannot see beyond the
difficulties immediately in front of us.
Yet the Spirit continues to pray, God the Father continues to work, and
God's purpose continues to unfold.
That does not mean every question
will be answered or every burden immediately lifted. It does however, mean that our weakness is
never the end of the story. God's grace
is always deeper than our weakness, His wisdom is always greater than our
confusion, and His purpose is always larger than the circumstances we happen to
face today.
So, when you find yourself at a loss
for words in times of deep confusion, remember that the “good news” does not
begin with what you are able to say to God.
It begins with what God is already doing for you. The Spirit is praying for you when you
cannot. God is working when you cannot
see it. And the God who called you,
breathed your life into you, is faithfully shaping your life until, by His
grace, you reflect more and more the image of His Son.
That is our hope. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Lord,
you have called us to be the very presence of Christ in this hurting
world. We offer these gifts to you as
symbols of our willingness to spend our time, energy, and material resources to
continue Christ’s ministry of kindness to one another. AMEN.
Closing
Hymn – O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee #357/665
Blue/Brown
Benediction –
Friends, with
sighs too deep for words, God hears our every cry, our every need, our every
unspeakable request. As you leave this
place, know that the Lord is with you.
Go in peace. AMEN.
Postlude
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