ORDER OF WORSHIP October 5, 2014 World Communion Sunday 17 th Sunday after Pentecost ~ Proper 22 27 th Sunday in Ordinary Time *Congregation Stands (If you prefer, It is acceptable to remain seated.) Welcome to Knox Presbyterian Church! We invite you to sign and pass the Friendship Book located at the end of your pew. If you re a first-time visitor, our prayer is that you will experience the presence of the eternal, as we worship our God together. PRELUDE The Master has Called Us Organ On a Welsh Folk Melody WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS Mike Helland HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Karen Colvin QUESTIONS 105 107 (LORD S DAY 40) 105 Q. What is God s will for you in the sixth commandment? A. I am not to belittle, hate, insult, or kill my neighbor not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds and I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge. I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is also why government is armed with the sword. 106 Q. Does this commandment refer only to murder? A. By forbidding murder God teaches us that he hates the root of murder: envy, hatred, anger, vindictiveness. In God s sight all such are disguised forms of murder. 107 Q. Is it enough then that we do not murder our neighbor in any such way? A. No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly toward them,
to protect them from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies. CALL TO WORSHIP: Karen Colvin There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved. God will help it when the morning dawns. Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. from Psalm 46 (NRSV) INVOCATION *SONG OF WORSHIP: CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART (CHORUS) Create in me a clean heart O Lord my God And renew a right spirit within me Create in me a clean heart O Lord my God And renew a right spirit within me (VERSE) Cast me not away from Thy presence O Lord Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation And renew a right spirit within me (ENDING) Create in me a clean heart O Lord my God And renew a right spirit within me
CCLI Song #96927 1982 Bases Loaded Music Brown Bannister For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use. All rights Reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI License #296507 TIME OF PRAYER Prayers of the People Prayer of Confession Misty Rowley Across the barriers that divide race from race: Across the barriers that divide rich from poor: Across the barriers that divide people of different cultures: Across the barriers that divide Christians: Across the barriers that divide men and women, young and old: Confront us, O Christ, with the hidden prejudices and fears that deny and betray our prayers. Enable us to see the causes of strife, remove from us all senses of superiority. Teach us to grow in unity with all God s children. Amen. Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources [Silent Prayer] Assurance of Pardon: Misty Rowley 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. 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. People of God,
all of us together have received God s mercy in Christ. In Christ we are forgiven, redeemed, and made to be a community united in faith. Thanks be to God. based on 1 Peter 2:9-10, NRSV Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources. OFFERING OF OURSELVES & OUR GIFTS: Anthem One Bread, One Body Choir John Foley/arr.Mark Hayes Prayer of Dedication Misty Rowley God of life, we pray that our unity will be seen not only in what we believe but also in how we work together to be salt and light in this world. May our gifts today be a sign for each other and the world, that we pledge to work together in your name for the healing of this broken and hurting world. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen. Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources *Doxology Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below Praise him above ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. At this time the children are excused to the back of the sanctuary to attend Junior Chapel. For those remaining, please be seated while the ushers pass the offering plates. Offertory Adagio Organ W.A. Mozart OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE READING Patrick Striker Psalm 139:1 24 (NIV) 1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE READING Misty Rowley 1 Corinthians 2:9 13 (NIV) 9 However, as it is written: What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. MESSAGE God s Searching Scan
Sermon Text: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23 24 (NRSV) *SONG OF WORSHIP I COME WITH JOY (Hymn #768) (VERSE 1) I come with joy to meet my Lord, forgiven, loved and free, in awe and wonder to recall his life laid down for me, his life laid down for me (VERSE 2) I come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ s communion bread, in Christ s communion bread. (VERSE 3) As Christ breaks bread and bids us share, each proud division ends. The love that made us, makes us one, and strangers now are friends, and strangers now are friends. (VERSE 4) And thus with joy we meet our Lord, his presence, always near, is in such friendship better known; we see and praise him here, we see and praise him here. (VERSE 5) Together met, together bound, we ll go our different ways, and as his people in the world, we ll live and speak his praise, we ll live and speak his praise.
SHARING AROUND CHRIST S TABLE COMMUNION Christ becomes a part of our flesh through Holy Communion. The Lord s Supper is not an end in itself. It always points beyond itself to celebrate God s grace and covenant faithfulness. This does not mean the physical aspects of the celebration are incidental or unimportant. The Lord s Supper should be a celebration fitting to the abundant grace of God offered in Christ. Invitation to the Lord s Supper Breaking of the Bread & Pouring of the Cup Sharing the Body and Blood of Christ *CLOSING SONG It is the custom at Knox, in celebration of Holy Communion, to hold hands and form a circle around the sanctuary to sing our closing song BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS (Hymn #708) Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. BENEDICTION POSTLUDE Allegro Non Troppo Organ Johannes Brahms * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In the Pulpit Today: Don Meekhof is our Temporary Stated Supply pastor. Those words in quotes are the official title given by Presbytery, because with Shared Ministry there is no full-time pastor. However, Don most definitely has a full-time love for shepherding the flock of Christ and we are blessed to have him with us!