Crandall United Methodist Church

Worship Guide

September 7, 2025

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Creating Disciples of Jesus who Transform the World

ENTRANCE WITH PRAISE

Greeting:

Minister: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

People: And also with you!

Special Music: Charles

Centering Words:

God knows us better than anyone and loves us more deeply than we can fathom. Even when we become less than God created us to be, God continues to love us and have faith in us.

*Call to Worship:

Leader:    Did you hear the whisper of God calling us to worship?

People:   God, help us listen as you call.

Leader:    Do you sense the beautiful people God is creating us to become?

People:   God, help us to see your image within.

Leader:    Are we ready to listen, learn, and grow?

People:   God, open our hearts and minds to your loving and challenging guidance.

Leader:    Let us pray.

ALL: Creator God, you have crafted us in your image and created us for greatness, as we share your love, justice, and compassion. Help us to live into this creation. Strengthen us, as we seek to answer your call. When we go astray, guide us back to your ways. When we fall apart, put us back together again. When we shrink in fear, lift our heads, that we may see your love and grace welcoming us home. Amen

Hymn: “Take My Life, and Let it Be”

Take my life, and let it be

consecrated, Lord, to thee.

Take my moments and my days;

let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move

at the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be

swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing

always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be

filled with messages from thee.

Take my silver and my gold:

not a mite would I withhold.

Take my intellect, and use

every power as thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it thine;

it shall be no longer mine.

Take my heart, it is thine own;

it shall be thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour

at thy feet its treasure store.

Take myself, and I will be,

ever, only, all for thee.

PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD

Words of Assurance

Marvelously set apart, we are created in God’s own image.

Marvelously saved by grace, we are re-created in Christ’s love.

Marvelously sustained in faith, we are new creations in the Spirit.

Thanks be to God!

*Gospel Reading:  Luke 14:25-33

²⁵ Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This fellow  began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Leader:    This is the Word of God for the people of God

People:   Thanks be to God.

WORD AND RESPONSE

Time with Young Friends: “Jesus Loves Me”

Children’s Message:  “God ___ Me”

Hymn: “Change My Heart, O God”

Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.

Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.

Your are the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.

Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.

Change my heart, O God, May I be like you.

Your are the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.

Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.

Change my heart, O God, May I be like you.

Change my heart, O God, May I be like you.

Sermon: “God Knows My Name” Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

¹      O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

²      You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

³      You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴      Even before a word is on my tongue,

O Lord, you know it completely.

⁵      You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

⁶      Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

¹³     For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴     I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

¹⁵     My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶     Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

¹⁷     How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸     I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

I come to the end—I am still with you.

RESPONSE TO THE WORD 

Prayers of the People: Joys and concerns

   Silent Prayer, Pastoral Prayer     

 THE SACRAMENTS OF HOLY COMMUNION

Invitation, Prayer of Confession and Pardon:

 Christ our Lord invites to his table

       all who love him,

who earnestly repent of their sin

and seek to live in peace with one another.

Therefore, let us confess our sin before God

and one another.

Merciful God,

we confess that we have not loved you

with our whole hearts.

We have failed to be an obedient church.

We have not done your will,

we have broken your law,

we have rebelled against your love,

we have not loved our neighbors,

and we have not heard the

cry of the needy.

Forgive us, we pray.

Free us for joyful obedience,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Hear the good news:

Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;

that proves God's love toward us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.

Glory to God. Amen

The Great Thanksgiving   

     The Lord be with you

And also with you. 

Lift up your hearts

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,

always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

You formed us in your image and

breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away, and our love failed,

your love remained steadfast.

You delivered us from captivity,

made covenant to be our sovereign God,

and spoke to us through your prophets.

And so, with your people on earth

and all the company of heaven

we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord,

God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes

in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people.

He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. 

When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over, he took the cup,

gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this all of you;

this is my blood of the new covenant,

poured out for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it

in remembrance of me."

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith 

Christ has died;

Christ is risen;

Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever.   Amen

And now with the confidence of children of God, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever.

Amen

Sharing of the Cup and Loaf

Moment of Prayer and Meditation

Prayer of Thanks 

Eternal God, we give you thanks

for this holy mystery

in which you have given yourself to us. 

Grant that we may go into the world

in the strength of your Spirit,

to give ourselves to others,

in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen

SENDING FORTH

Hymn: “Since Jesus Came into My Heart”          

What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought

since Jesus came into my heart!

I have light in my soul for which long I had sought,

since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart,

since Jesus came into my heart,

floods of joy o’er my soul

like the sea billows roll,

since Jesus came into my heart.

I have ceased from my wandering and going astray,

since Jesus came into my heart!

And my sins, which were many, are all washed away,

since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart,

since Jesus came into my heart,

floods of joy o’er my soul

like the sea billows roll,

since Jesus came into my heart.

I’m possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure,

since Jesus came into my heart!

And no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure,

since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart,

since Jesus came into my heart,

floods of joy o’er my soul

like the sea billows roll,

since Jesus came into my heart.

There’s a light in the valley of death now for me,

since Jesus came into my heart!

And the gates of the City beyond I can see,

since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart,

since Jesus came into my heart,

floods of joy o’er my soul

like the sea billows roll,

since Jesus came into my heart.

I shall go there to dwell in that City, I know,

since Jesus came into my heart!

And I’m happy, so happy, as onward I go,

since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart,

since Jesus came into my heart,

floods of joy o’er my soul

like the sea billows roll,

since Jesus came into my heart.

Benediction

Hymn: “Go Now In Peace”            

Go now in peace, Never be afraid.

God will go with you each hour of ev-ry day.

Go now in faith, stead-fast, strong and true.

Know He will guide you in all you do.

Go now in love, and show you be-lieve.

Reach out to others so all the world can see.

God will be there watching from above.

Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.

    Amen! Amen! Amen!