"The Gifts of God"

WE GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF HOMEWOOD
MISSION STATEMENT

Through the grace of God, faith in Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, we prayerfully seek to discern God’s will for this congregation and to reach beyond ourselves to feed the hungry, body and soul. Adopted by Session 7/31/17

PRAYER FOR PEACE Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

PRELUDE

*CALL TO CONTINUING WORSHIP
Come into God’s presence with thanksgiving!
Let us sing to the rock of our salvation.
Even in the deserts of our lives, God is among us.
Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

*HYMN 81 ||| Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken ||| Austrian Hymn 

CALL TO CONFESSION
God does not wait for us to be righteous, or pure, or perfect. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. We do not have to hide our sin from God, but can face it with Jesus, who heals us, teaches us, and leads us to new life.

 *PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Jesus, friend of all, once again, we come to you knowing our words have stung, our actions have harmed, and our indifference has let evil have its day. Our hearts yearn for you, our souls thirst for you, yet we do not imitate you in our lives. We scorn those who are different from us, and relish our own comfort. Once again, forgive us, O God. Give us your living water, that we might tell the world all you have done for us.
(silent prayer)
Amen.

*DECLARATION OF FORGIVENESS
We know that God is with us even in our sufferings, for suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
Thanks be to God! 

*THE GLORIA 581 

MOMENT WITH OUR CHILDREN ||| Rev. Matt Lang 

WELCOME AND CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS

WE HEAR GOD’S WORD

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

FIRST SCRIPTURE READING ||| Exodus 17:1-7
1From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

SPECIAL MUSIC

SECOND SCRIPTURE READING ||| John 4:5-42
5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’ 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30They left the city and were on their way to him.31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God!

SERMON ||| "The Gifts of God" ||| Rev. Matt Lang 

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN 494 ||| Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts ||| Quebec

*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH ||| The Brief Statement of Faith 1983
In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND 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.

OFFERING OF OUR GIFTS

INVITATION TO OFFERING
Jesus says: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Let us offer our lives to the Lord.

OFFERTORY

 
*DOXOLOGY 606 ||| Old Hundredth
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
We give you thanks, Holy One, for the gifts of our Lord, given with
love for the world. Send us out in your Spirit to share the good news of salvation and give ourselves for others; in the name of Christ our
Savior. Amen.

WE GO IN GOD’S NAME

*HYMN 65 ||| Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah ||| CWM Rhondda

BLESSING & CHARGE
Put away the past. God is about to do a new thing! God makes a way where there is no way! God carves a path through the wilderness and sends angels to guard and guide us.

Having been reconciled to God, we are now agents of God’s righteousness and ambassadors for Christ. Live boldly, for Christ welcomes sinners and makes all things new.

POSTLUDE

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Thanks be to God!

Rev. Matt Lang, Pastor
Mrs. Mary Ann Wenzelman, Interim Organist/Pianist

Worship Liturgist: Char Hansen
Usher: Laura Dillman
Web Technicians: Shirley Armistead, Nancy Beaudoin, Phil Dillman, Kathie Hazlett

WELCOME – During this Lenten season, we praise God for his righteous Son, who perfectly kept all of God’s commandments for us and paid the full price of our disobedience. Let us praise him with hearts filled with Christ’s spirit of obedience. 

SCRIPTURES IN WORSHIP – Next Sunday we will be reading 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and John 9:1-41.

PRAYER CHAIN – If you want prayer requests included on the prayer chain, contact Shirley Armistead at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..