GATHERING TO PRAISE GOD Sunday, January 29, 2023
Prelude
Choral Introit
*Praise Songs*
Here I Am To Worship
Welcome
The People Gather
L: People of God, who do you come to worship?
P: We come to worship the one true God.
L: How will you worship?
P: Not with words alone, but by living lives of justice and love.
L: Come, you who belong to God. Come, you who are foolish in the eyes of the world.
P: Come and abide in the house of God and in God’s heart,
now and forever.
Hymn
The People Pray
Loving God, we come this morning seeking to abide in your presence.
Open our minds to your spirit of wisdom, that we may know how to live as your people.
Open our hearts to the message you have prepared for us.
May this time of worship be authentic and pleasing to you. Amen.
Special Music Revelation Song
Children’s Moment
The People Confess Their Sin
Far too often, O God, we desire to look wise in the eyes of the world.
We have not spoken truth with our hearts.
We have said and done hurtful things to our friends.
We have forgotten our true identity, those created in your image.
We have lost the path of true worship, focusing on form and words rather than deeds.
We have forgotten what true worship is.
And because of this, you have a quarrel with us.
Forgive us and help us to become the people you have created and called us to be: people of justice and love and truth and humility.
May we embracing our true identity, the body of Christ in the world.
Words of Assurance
God has called us and blesses us when we live God’s ways and not the world’s.
God’s love embraces us even when we fall short of what God desires for our lives and actions.
Know that the God of blessing loves and forgives us with a fierce tenderness.
And in so knowing, may our lives and souls be transformed.
The Word of God for the People of God
*Scriptur*e Micah 6:1-8
Hear what the Lord is saying:
Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains;
let the hills hear your voice!
2 Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord!
Hear, eternal foundations of the earth!
The Lord has a lawsuit against his people;
with Israel he will argue.
3 “My people, what did I ever do to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;
I redeemed you from the house of slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.
5 My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,
and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!
Remember everything[a] from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!”
6 With what should I approach the Lord
and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
with year-old calves?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
8 He has told you, human one, what is good and
what the Lord requires from you:
to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
Message What Does God Want From Us?
Pastoral Prayer
The People Bring Their Gifts
Those of you joing worship on-line are encouraged to use any of our electronic methods of giving.
The People Go into The World
Hymn
Gaelic Benediction
Benediction
Postlude
Sermon Notes
What is your reason for attending today’s worship service?
Who is the target audience for worship?
What do we exoect from a worship service?
What does God expect from our worship?
If God were to ask you why your relationship with God is not all it should be, how would you reply?
How has God been faithful to you?
What does the Lord require of you?
Genuine worship is