We Gather Together to Worship Our God
Prelude: He Shall Feed His Flock/ Handel’s Messiah
Gathering Hymn: Songs of Faith #21 Your Name (Christmas Version)
Today:
- 9 am, Sunday School for all ages. Preschool-7th meets downstairs, High School meets in the Fireside Room, and the Adult class is studying Christ in the Covenants in the Sanctuary.
- 9 am, New Members’ Class
- 10:30 Worship in the sanctuary.
This Week:
- 5:00 pm, Wednesday, Sonlight Puppeteer practice.
- 5:30 pm, Wednesday, Kids’ Quest for pre-k—7th grade. Meal provided.
- 5:30 pm, Wednesday, J-Curve Study for the adults at the church. Meal provided. See Ron B. for more information.
- 5:30 pm, Wednesdays, New Members’ class for the middle and high schoolers.
- 6:15 pm, Wednesday, High School Youth Group at the Community Center. See Shonda J. for more information.
- 6 am Thursday, Men’s Prayer-time and Bible Study.
- 7:15 pm, Thursday, Prayer Meeting at Daniel and Sarah’s (address in the bulletin). For more information contact Daniel.
- 8 am Saturday, Men’s Prayer-time and Bible Study.
General:
- 6:30 pm, December 6th, Mercy Ministry Team meeting.
- 5:30 pm, December 11th, Small Groups meet at the church. Fellowship meal, hymn sing, and then will break off into three groups for prayer and study.
- 5:30 pm, December 11th, Young Adult Bible Study at Jay and Kayla’s. (Address in bulletin) Meal provided.
- 6:00 pm, December 12th, Session Meeting.
- 6:00 pm, December 18th, Kids’ Quest Program.
- We will be participating in the elementary school’s annual Coat Drive. If you would like to contribute, please bring new or gently used coats, gloves, and hats to the church by the 18th of December.
- We will be placing another FCC T-shirt order in the near future. Available sizes are kids small, medium, and large; and small through 2XL in men and women. Shirts cost $15. If you are interested in ordering, please contact Lydia H.
Responsive Call to Worship: From Zechariah’s Song regarding the birth of his son, John the Baptist Luke 1: 68 – 69, 76 – 79
Leader: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
All: For he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
Leader: And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
All: Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Prayer of Adoration
Hymn of Praise: Hymnal #203 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
We Confess Our Faith
Responsive Reading: Heidelberg Catechism Questions 20 and 21
Leader: Are all people saved through Christ just as they were all lost through Adam?
All: No. Only those are saved who through true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.
Leader: What is true faith?
All: True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted to me forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ’s merit.
We Confess Our Sin
Corporate Prayer of Confession: Adapted from the Valley of Vision page 160
All: My God, faith is a gift that you have given to me, to see you as Father, to know you as a covenant God, and experience the riches of your grace and love.
Faith casts my anchor upwards where I trust in you to be my Lord. Be pleased to live and move within me, breathing in my prayers, inhabiting my praises, speaking in my words, moving in my actions, living in my life, causing me to grow in grace.
Your bountiful goodness has helped me believe, but my faith is often weak and wavering, its light dim, its steps wobbly, its increase slow, its backslidings frequent; it should scale the heavens, but lies grovelling in the dust.
Lord, fan this divine spark into glowing flame. When faith sleeps, my heart becomes an unclean thing, open to Satan’s temptings and the allure of the world.
Lord, awake faith to put forth its strength until all heaven fills my soul and all impurity is cast out.
Silent Confession of Sin
Assurance of Pardon: Galatians 4:4-7
Hymn of Assurance: Hymnal #198 (verses 1, 3, 4, 6) Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates!
We Give Thanks To The Lord
Tithes and Offerings
Offertory: Good King Wenceslas (in the setting of Edward Grieg’s Anitra’s Tanz)
This Christmas carol tells of the king’s journey through harsh winter weather. His intention is to bring food and firewood to a poor man whom he notices from the tower of his castle during the Feast of Stephen on December 26, the second day of Christmas. It is a true story of Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (c. 907-935 AD).
Doxology
We Hear God Speak
Advent Candle Lighting: Hope
Small Talk
*Following this time, a nursery is available, Toddlers’ Church for ages 2-4, and Children’s Church for ages 5-8.
Prayer of God’s People
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
What Is Saving Faith? Romans 10: 5 – 9
A copy of the sermon notes is available: 11-27-22 sermon notes
Audio Only:
Hymn of Response: Songs of Faith #25 Lift High The Name Of Jesus
We Are Dismissed with God’s Blessing
Benediction
Hymnal #224 (refrain only; 2 times) Go Tell It On The Mountain
Postlude: Away in a Manger/Mueller