Sunday April 13, 2025 Worship Service
Livestream at 11:10 a.m.

GATHERING IN GOD’S NAME

Prelude — Adagio from Sonata in G — Clara Schumann; transcr. Nathaniel Tighe
As the prelude begins, you are invited to begin your personal preparation for worship.

Silent Meditation   
On Palm Sunday, Christians celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, the week before his death and resurrection.  Palm Sunday begins Holy Week, a time in the church year when we remember how Christ gave his life in love for the world. As this service opens, the crowd waves palm branches, wanting to crown Jesus as king. But as the story of the passion unfolds this week, their shouts of praise turn to demands for his crucifixion; he receives a crown of thorns as he is handed over to be mocked and killed.

Call to Worship – from Psalm 118
O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; let Israel say,           
        His steadfast love endures forever!
Open to us the gates of righteousness,
       That we may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord – let us worship God!

PRAISE AND ADORATION

*Opening Hymn  — Hosanna, Loud Hosanna  ELLACOMBE; arr. Mitchell Covington
(*Please stand, if you are able.)  — Palm Processional with children

Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang;
Through pillared court and temple the joyful anthem rang.
To Jesus, who had blessed them, close folded to his breast,
The children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.

From Olivet they followed ‘mid an exultant crowd,
The victor palm branch waiving, and chanting clear and loud;
The Lord of earth and heaven rode on in lowly state,
Nor scorned that little children should on his bidding wait.

“Hosanna in the highest!” That ancient song we sing,
For Christ is our Redeemer; the Lord of heaven, our King.
O may we ever praise him with heart and life and voice,
And in his blissful presence eternally rejoice.

Call to Confession

Prayer of Confession
Gracious and loving God, we come to you this Palm Sunday asking for Your righteous gates to open. But they are open to us all the time, and we are not always ready to enter in. We pick and choose when to follow You. We pick and choose when to embrace You. Your steadfast love endures forever, and yet ours is often like a fickle flame. Forgive us, Lord. Give us the courage to open our own gates. Give us the faith to let You into our lives. All the time. Amen.

Silent Prayers of Confession

Confessional Response (#417) — Lord Jesus, Think on Me — SOUTHWELL                                              

Assurance of Pardon

*Hymn — It Is a Thing Most Wonderful — from St John Passion

*Welcome                                           
During the welcome, children are invited to come forward for a time with Rev. Garry

Time For Young Disciples

Announcements

The Old Testament Reading — Isaiah 52: 13; 53: 4-12 — page 596 of the pew Bible

FELLOWSHIP OF PRAYER

Joys and Concerns

Prayers of the 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 and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.                           

Anthem — An Offering — Dan Forrest

PROCLAMATION OF GOD’S WORD

Scripture Reading — Luke 19: 28-40 — page 854 of the pew Bible  

Sermon — “A New Hope” — Rev. Garry  

*Affirmation of Faith — The Heidelberg Catechism — Questions 31 & 32
Why is he called “Christ,” meaning, “anointed”?

Because he has been ordained by God the Father, and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher, who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance; our only high priest, who has delivered us by the sacrifice of his own body, and who continually pleads our cause to with the Father; and our eternal king who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us.

Why are you called a Christian?

Because I am a member of Christ and so I share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for eternity.

*Sanctus — Holy, holy, holy!  Lord God Almighty! — NICAEA
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

RECEPTION OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS

Offertory — Lord, On the Night You Were Betrayed — Paul Hofeiter

*Doxology (#608) —  Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow — PRAISE GOD (Hopson)

*Prayer of Dedication
Almighty God, you came down from the Mount of Olives willing to pay for our sins with your life. Throughout your ministry, you saw the needs of others, and you did something about it. So it is that we humbly offer up these gifts to you, asking that your will can be done.  Amen.

*Hymn of Dedication — When I Survey the Wondrous Cross from St John Passion

*Charge and Benediction

Postlude — Fanfare — William Mathias