JANUARY 7, 2024

Prelude     Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme          J.S. Bach

For his marriage feast prepare,

For ye must go to meet Him there

Welcome and Greeting

Preparation of Our Hearts

Call to Worship 

Hymn     # 253     Praise to the Lord, the Almighty          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Prayer of Confession     Front of Gray Psalter Hymnal    

Prayer for Illumination          Mike Lockwood                                                        

Old Testament Reading     Numbers 19:1-9     (NRSVUE)

       19 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2“This is a statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid. 3You shall give it to the priest Eleazar, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. 4The priest Eleazar shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. 5Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its entrails, shall be burned. 6The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is burning. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest shall remain unclean until evening. 8The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water; he shall remain unclean until evening. 9Then someone who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and they shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water for cleansing. It is a purification offering.

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Choral Anthem     We Rejoice in All Your Ways

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

Your righteousness, what joy abounds

Your holiness, your mercy free

Your mighty hand protecting me

A firm foundation, thou art Christ

The ever-living sacrifice

The Prince of Peace you are to me

And King of kings you’ll ever be

O Lord, we thank you for your love

For life and breath and heav’n above

For you alone are worthy

Of our hymn of joy and grateful praise

Lord, we rejoice in all your ways

Amazing pow’r and majesty

True wisdom only comes from thee

Your sweet, sweet Spirit fills the air

Your loving presence everywhere

O Lord, we thank you for your love

For life and breath and heav’n above

For you alone are worthy

Of our hymn of joy and grateful praise

We lift our hymn of grateful praise

Lord, we rejoice in all your ways

Praise you

Alleluia, how we praise you

Children’s Sermon 

Psalm     # 23     The Lord, My Shepherd, Rules My Life, vs 1, 2, 5 

(Gray Psalter Hymnal)

New Testament Reading     John 3:22-30

       22After this Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. 23John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there, and people kept coming and were being baptized. 24(John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.)

       25Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. 26They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. 28You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ 29He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. 30He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Sermon          Pastor Andrew Winter