Sunday August 24, 2025 Worship Service
Livestream at 10:00 a.m.

Gathering in God’s Name

 Prelude — Children of the Heavenly Father — Michael McCabe     
As the prelude begins, you are invited to begin your personal preparation for worship.

Silent Meditation
“May I know you, who know me. May I ‘know as I also am known’ (I Cor. 13:12). Power of my soul, enter into it and fit it for yourself, so that you may have and hold it ‘without spot or blemish’ (Eph. 5:27). This is my hope, and that is why I speak. In this hope I am placing my delight when my delight is in what it ought to be. — Confessions: Book X; Memory, St. Augustine

Choral Call to Worship — Lift Thine Eyes to the Mountains — Felix Mendelssohn

Praise and Adoration

*Hymn #619 — Praise, My Soul, the God of Heaven — LAUDA ANIMA
(*Please stand, if you are able)

Confession and Pardon

Call to Confession 

Prayer of Confession
Gracious and loving God, we come to You admitting that we struggle to make the right choices. At our best, we struggle to know what is right. At other times, we often struggle to choose what is right even when we do know. Forgive us for choosing what is easy or convenient instead. Forgive us for putting our own will before Yours. Help us to follow Your path and not our own. Help us to act in the ways of Your rightness and no other. Amen.

Silent Prayers of Confession

Kyrie Eleison — Lord, Have Mercy — Schubert

Assurance of Pardon

*Congregational Response (#581) — Glory Be to the Father — GLORIA PATRI (Greatorex)

Welcome                                     

*Hymn #439 — O My Soul, Bless Your Redeemer — STUTTGART

Announcements

Moment for Mission — Deacon Patti Sparks, for Meals on Wheels

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 — You Do Not Walk Alone — Elaine Hagenberg    

Proclamation of God’s Word

Scripture Lesson — Luke 13: 10-17 — page 848 of the pew Bible                                                         

Sermon — “Priorities”                                                                                                                                                         

Our Response to God’s Word

*Affirmation of Faith — The Confession of Belhar
We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only head, the church is called to confess and to do all things, even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence. We believe that Jesus is Lord. And we believe, to the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honor and glory forever and ever.

*Sanctus (#562) — Holy, Holy, Holy SANCTUS (Schubert)

Presentation of Tithes and Offerings

Offertory — Wade in the Water — Traditional Spiritual; arr. Rollo Dilworth

*Doxology (#607) — Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow — OLD HUNDREDTH
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise Christ, all people here below; praise Holy Spirit evermore; praise Triune God, whom we adore. Amen.

*Prayer of Dedication                                                                                                                                           
Almighty God, we come to You with these gifts because of Your Son’s most perfect example. Just as Jesus embodied Your work in this world, we ask that our tithes and offerings would be the same. Let what we give be a source of mending and equity, a source of dignity and rightness. Amen.

*Hymn #435 — There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy — IN BABILONE

*Charge and Benediction

*Benediction Response  — Go Now In Peace — Don Besig

Postlude — The God of Abraham Praise — Michael Burkhardt