Welcome to Sunday Worship – January 29, 2023
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Welcome & Announcements
Call To Worship
Leader: Come and learn the ways of life.
People: We have come to follow Jesus.
Leader: Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you.
People: We have come to follow Jesus.
Leader: Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who persecute you.
People: We have come to follow Jesus.
Leader: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
People: We have come to follow Jesus.
Leader: Come and learn the ways of life.
All: Let us be known as children of the Most High
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing #400
1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.
2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
Unison Prayer
All: Caring God, nurture the life within us. You have shown us the ways that lead to life. You have challenged us to move beyond easy answers, to embrace the hard choices that come with caring deeply for others. Give us the wisdom and the courage to resist evil and walk in your ways of love. Amen.
Special Music
“10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord),” Praise Band
A Time for Children
Noelle Allison, Director of Children and Families
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:39-41
39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
Pastoral Prayer and The Lord’s Prayer
Offering Our Gifts to The Lord – Breakthrough Prayer
Oh God, Break through our lives with new opportunities, new life and new power to do far more than we can ever imagine. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Offertory
“Song of the Spirit,” Handbells
Doxology
Message: Standing Apart
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.[a]
4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods,whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God;we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling blockto the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
God of Grace and God of Glory #577
1 God of grace and God of glory,
on the people pour thy power;
crown thine ancient church’s story,
bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour,
for the facing of this hour.
2 Lo! the hosts of evil round us
scorn thy Christ, assail his ways!
Fears and doubts too long have bound us;
free our hearts to work and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days.
3 Cure thy children’s warring madness,
bend our pride to thy control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
lest we miss thy kingdom’s goal,
lest we miss thy kingdom’s goal.
4 Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the search for thy salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving thee whom we adore,
serving thee whom we adore.