FEBRUARY 4, 2024

The Order for the Worship of God

Follow along by watching our livestream on our YouTube channel at 930a on Sunday.

Let the first tone of the organ be a call to quiet meditation in which all may become aware of God’s presence, and lift up a prayer for yourself and for Faith Church.

Bulletin - February 4, 2024: Text

Prelude Herr Christ der einig Gottes Sohn Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

The only Son from heaven, foretold by ancient seers,

By God the Father given, in human form appears.

Welcome and Greeting

Preparation of Our Hearts

Call to Worship

Psalm # 146 Praise the Lord! Sing Hallelujah! (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Prayer of Confession Front of Gray Psalter Hymnal

Prayer for Illumination Mike Bergmann

Old Testament Reading Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (NRSVUE)

8“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

12“ ‘Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Choral Anthem Lord of the Small

Praise to the Lord of the small, broken things

Who sees the poor sparrow who cannot take wing

Who loves the lame child, and the wretch in the street

Who comforts their sorrow and washes their feet

Praise to the Lord, the faint and afraid

Girds them with courage and lends them his aid

Pours out his spirit on vessels so weak

That the timid can serve and the silent can speak

Praise to the Lord of the frail and the ill

Who heals their afflictions or carries them till

They leave this tired frame and to paradise fly

To never be sick and never to die, never die

Praise him, O praise him, all ye who yet live

Who’ve been given so much and can so little give

Our frail, lisping praise God will never despise

He sees his dear children through mercy-filled eyes

Children’s Sermon

Hymn Insert Nearer, Still Nearer

New Testament Reading John 5:1-18

5 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people.[4] 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7The ill man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.” 8Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a Sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” 18For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

Sermon Pastor Andrew Winter

Bulletin - February 4, 2024: Text

Gathering of Our Tithes and Offerings

Response # 638 The Doxology (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Prayer of Dedication

Merciful Father, we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us—

our selves, our time, and our possessions—signs of your gracious love.

Receive them for the sake of him who offered himself for us—

Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

Hymn # 46 This is the Feast of Victory (Supplemental Hymnal)

The LORD’s Supper

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Invitation to the Table

Q. 96. What is the Lord’s supper?

A. The Lord’s supper is a sacrament in which bread and wine are given and received as Christ directed to proclaim his death. Those who receive the Lord’s supper in the right way share in his body and blood with all his benefits, not physically but by faith, and become spiritually stronger and grow in grace.

Giving & Receiving the Bread and the Cup

Prayer of Consecration:

Almighty Lord: we are thankful for all the benefits given us in this bread and wine, this body and blood. As the grain was harvested and the grapes gathered for this food, so may your church in every place be gathered into your household. And as the grain was ground and the grapes crushed, so may our lives be spent in your service, until you return in triumph to gather to yourself the harvest and call us to the marriage feast of the lamb. Amen.