MARCH 17, 2024

Prelude          Mary Heller

Welcome and Greeting

Preparation of Our Hearts

Call to Worship 

Hymn     # 249     Holy, Holy, Holy          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon

Psalter     Psalm 51:1-12     (NRSVUE)          Bert Chapman

1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

4Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

5Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

6You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

11Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Prayer for Illumination                                                       

Old Testament Reading     Leviticus 23:33-44

       33The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34“Speak to the Israelites, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and lasting seven days, there shall be the Festival of Booths to the Lord. 35The first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations.      

       36Seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the eighth day you shall observe a holy convocation and present the Lord’s offerings by fire; it is a solemn assembly; you shall not work at your occupations.

       37“These are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall celebrate as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord offerings by fire—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day—38apart from the Sabbaths of the Lord and apart from your gifts and apart from all your votive offerings and apart from all your freewill offerings that you give to the Lord.

       39“Now, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the festival of the Lord, lasting seven days, a complete rest on the first day and a complete rest on the eighth day. 40On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41You shall keep it as a festival to the Lord lasting seven days in the year; you shall keep it in the seventh month as a statute forever throughout your generations. 42You shall live in booths for seven days; all who are native-born in Israel shall live in booths, 43so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

       44Thus Moses declared to the Israelites the appointed festivals of the Lord.

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Choral Anthem     Speak, O Lord

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You

To receive the food of Your holy Word

Take Your truth, plant it deep in us

Shape and fashion us in Your likeness

That the light of Christ might be seen today

In our acts of love and our deeds of faith

Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us

All Your purposes for Your glory

Teach us, Lord, full obedience

Holy reverence, true humility

Test our thoughts and our attitudes

In the radiance of Your purity

Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see

Your majestic love and authority

Words of pow'r that can never fail

Let their truth prevail over unbelief

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds

Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us

Truths unchanged from the dawn of time

That will echo down through eternity

And by grace, we'll stand on Your promises

And by faith, we'll walk as You walk with us

Speak, O Lord, 'til Your church is built

And the earth is filled with Your glory

​

Children’s Sermon

Hymn     Insert     There Is a Fountain        

New Testament Reading     John 7:1-13, 37-44     (ESV)

       7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. 3So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5For not even his brothers believed in him. 6Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

       10But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

       37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

       40When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43So there was a division among the people over him. 44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

Sermon          Pastor Andrew Winter