OCTOBER 22, 2023

Prelude     Improvisation on Come, Sing for Joy to the Lord God          # 173 Gray Psalter Hymnal          Mark Johnson

Welcome and Greeting

Preparation of Our Hearts

Call to Worship 

Hymn    # 244     God Himself Is with Us          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon     

     Psalm 51:1-5, 10-12     In Unison          (NRSVUE)          

       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.

       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.

Psalter     Psalm 99          Grieke Toebes

1The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!

2The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.

3Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!

4Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

5Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!

6Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.

7He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees and the statutes that he gave them.

8O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

9Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

Prayer for Illumination      

Old Testament Reading     1 Kings 17:17-24

       17After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18She then said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19But he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. 20He cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” 21Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” 24So the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Choral Anthem          Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly

While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high

Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past

Safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last

Thou, O Christ art all I want, more than all in Thee I find

Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind

Just and holy is Thy name, I am all unrighteousness

False and full of sin I am, Thou art full of truth and grace

Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee

Leave, ah, leave me not alone, still support and comfort me

All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring

Cover my defenseless head, with the shadow of Thy wing

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin

Let the healing stream abound, make and keep me pure within

Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee

Spring Thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity

Jesus, lover of my soul

Children’s Sermon

Hymn     # 442     Abide with Me          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

New Testament Reading     Romans 8:18-25

       18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Sermon          Pastor Andrew Winter