Worship Guide
May 7, 2023
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Creating Disciples of Jesus who Transform the World
ENTRANCE WITH PRAISE
Greetings:
Minister: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
People: And also with you!
Special Music: “Because He Lives” Charles
Centering Words:
Christ, the living stone and cornerstone of our faith, is building us into spiritual houses and holy priesthood. Let us open ourselves to the master builder.
*Call to Worship:
Leader: Once we were not a people.
People: Now we are God’s people.
Leader: Once we ate food that did not satisfy.
People: Now we drink the spiritual milk of our Lord.
Leader: Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Leader: Let us pray.
ALL: Merciful God, our refuge and our strength, train our hearts on the words of your Son: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Feed our souls with your spiritual milk, and build our very lives into spiritual houses that neither famine nor storm can shake the foundation of our faith. In the name of the master builder and the living stone, we pray. Amen
Hymn: “My Hope is Built”
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean in Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in him be found.
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD
Words of Assurance
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and place your faith in Christ.
Make your petitions known and the one who is faithful will answer.
Amen
*New Testament Reading: Acts 7:55-60
55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.
WORD AND RESPONSE
Time with Young Friends: “Jesus Loves Me”
Children’s Message: “Living Stone”
Hymn: “His Eye is on the Sparrow”
Why should I feel discouraged?
Why should the shadows come?
Why should my heart be lonely,
and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant friend is he:
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me;
his eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
for his eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.
“Let not your heart be troubled,"
his tender word I hear,
and resting on his goodness,
I lose my doubts and fears;
though by the path he leadeth,
but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me;
his eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
for his eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.
Whenever I am tempted,
whenever clouds arise,
when songs give place to sighing,
when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to him,
from care he sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me;
his eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
for his eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.
Sermon: “Like Living Stones” 1 Peter 2:2-10
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”
8 and
“A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
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: “Victory in Jesus”
I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,
how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;
I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood's atoning,
then I repented of my sins and won the victory.
O victory in Jesus, my Savior for ever!
He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood;
he loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him;
he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
I heard about his healing, of his cleansing power revealing,
how he made the lame to walk again
and caused the blind to see;
and then I cried, "Dear Jesus,
came and heal my broken spirit,"
and some how Jesus came and brought to me the victory.
O victory in Jesus, my Savior for ever!
He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood;
he loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him;
he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory,
and I heard about the streets of gold
beyond the crystal sea;
about the angels singing and the old redemption story,
and some sweet day I'll sing up there
the song of victory.
O victory in Jesus, my Savior for ever!
He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood;
he loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him;
he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
Benediction
