2023-12-10

Posted on Dec 9, 2023 in Bulletin |

Promise Made, Promise Kept

  • Welcome | Announcements
    • Tue @ 6:45am – Men’s Bible Study
    • Wed @ 7pm – Choir Practice
    • Sun @ 9am – Sunday School
    • Dec 19 @ 6:30pm – Charge Conference
    • Dec 24 @ 4pm – Family Christmas Eve Service
    • Dec 24 @ 11pm – Christmas Eve Service
  • Welcoming the Light of Christ
  • Opening Prayer
  • Advent Reading
  • Call To Worship – OGRP 696 – Benedictus
    • Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free.
    • He has raised up for us a mighty savior, horn of the house of his servant David.
    • Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us.
    • He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.
    • This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of our enemies
    • free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
    • You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
    • to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.
    • In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
    • to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
  • Worship Hymns
    • UMH 203 – Hail To The Lord’s Anointed
    • UMH 218 – It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
    • UMH 217 – Away In A Manger
  • Offering
  • Prayer Hymn
    • Choir
  • Intercessory Prayer
  • Sermon – “Promise Made, Promise Kept”
    • [Isaiah 40:1-11 ESV]
    • 1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
    • 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
    • 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
    • 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
    • 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
    • 6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
    • 7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.
    • 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
    • 9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
    • 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
    • 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
    •  
    • [Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 ESV] 1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
    • 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah
    • …
    • 8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.
    • 9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
    • 10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
    • 11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.
    • 12 Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
    • 13 Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.
    •  
    • [2 Peter 3:8-15 ESV]
    • 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
    • 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
    • 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
    • 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
    • 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
    • 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
    • 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
    • 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
    •  
    • [Mark 1:1-8 ESV]
    • 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
    • 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,
    • 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'”
    • 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
    • 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
    • 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.
    • 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
    • 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
  • Communion
  • Closing Hymn
    • UMH 234 – O Come All Ye Faithful
  • Benediction
  • Postlude