NOVEMBER 26, 2023

Hymn Sing     Gray Psalter Hymnal

     # 453     Let All Things Now Living

     # 494     There is a Balm in Gilead

     Insert     Joy Has Dawned

Call to Worship     

Hymn     # 246     Come Thou Almighty King          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon 

       1Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. 2LORD, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, lORD, who could stand? 4But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

       5I wait for the LORD; my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

6my soul waits for the LORD more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

       7O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

8It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Psalter     Psalm 141     (NRSVUE)          Steve Varys

1I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you.

2Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.

3Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

4Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds

in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5Let the righteous strike me; let the faithful correct me. Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.

6When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.

7Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.

8But my eyes are turned toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.

9Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers.

10Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I alone escape.

Prayer for Illumination

Old Testament Reading     Genesis 18:1-21

       18 The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. 3He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

       9They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” 13The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

       16Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” 20Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Special Music     Thanks to God for My Redeemer

Thanks to God for my redeemer

Thanks for all that you provide

Thanks for times now but a mem’ry

Thanks for Jesus by my side

Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime

Thanks for dark and dreary fall

Thanks for tears by now forgotten

Thanks for peace within my soul

Thanks for prayers that you have answered

Thanks for what you have denied

Thanks for storms that we have weathered

Thanks for all you have supplied

Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure

Thanks for comfort in despair

Thanks for grace that none can measure

Thanks for love beyond compare

Thanks for roses by the wayside

Thanks for thorns their stems contain

Thanks for homes and thanks for fireside

Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain

Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow

Thanks for heaven’s peaceful shore

Thanks for hope in the tomorrow

Thanks to God forevermore 

We thank you God

Children’s Sermon 

Hymn     # 436     This Is My Father’s World          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

New Testament Reading     Luke 7:36-50

       36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and when he went into the Pharisee’s house he reclined to dine. 37And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair, kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” 40Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” 41“A certain moneylender had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” 43Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.” 48Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Sermon          Guest Nate Osner