9am Worship Service
Welcome to Worship
Prelude Alisa
Hwang
* Call to Worship
& Lighting the First Candle on the Advent Wreath
Leader: Advent can feel more like a season of
hurry-up-and-get-ready-for-Christmas.
Advent is meant to cause us to slow down, to wait, and seek God – to
look for the coming Light. The prophet
Isaiah speaks of a day when all will be saved.
People: “On this mountain the Lord of Hosts will make for all
peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled
with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.”… “Then the Lord God will wipe
away the tears from all faces and the disgrace of his people he will take away
from all the earth for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for
him, so that he might save us. This is
the Lord for who we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
(Isaiah 25.6, 8-9)
(The first Advent Candle is lit)
Leader: We light this candle to remind us to be
expectantly waiting, just as the prophet Isaiah declares, for the coming of the
Christ child.
People: This is
the Lord for who we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
*Opening Song “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” UMH 196
Kid’s Time
Invocation
Pastor: O Lord, open our lips
People: and our mouth shall show forth thy praise
Pastor: Praise the Lord
People: The Lord’s name be praised.
Pastor: Loving God, you step down into our time and space to
show us that you are love and light and hope and joy and peace. Fill us with your presence as we immerse
ourselves back into your amazing, world changing story. Give us hearts to expect that you will work
and move in us this holy season. In Jesus name. Amen.
Prayer
of Confession
God who is expectant, we thank you that you
judge us not by the perfection of our actions, but by our readiness to live
boldly by faith. Help us, as individuals
and as a congregation to trust you and follow where you will lead us during
this Advent season, that in Christ your name may be glorified in all the
world. Amen
* Statement
of Faith Isaiah
9:6-7 - On Screen
For
to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
* Hymn Gloria
Patri UMH 70
Introductions /
Sharing our Concerns
Community Prayer/Lord’s Prayer
Choral Response “Emmanuel, Emmanuel” Chancel Choir
Celebrating our Joys
Scripture Lesson Luke 1:39-45
At that time Mary got ready and
hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s
home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby
leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are
you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so
favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of
your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is
she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Message “God is Expectant” Rev Malcolm Stranathan
Sacrament of Holy
Communion
You are invited to bring your tithes and offering
forward as your come receive communion this morning. We will also be receiving a special offering
on behalf of the General church for Student Sunday. This funds go toward grants and scholarships
to help defray the financial burden to seminarians and students in United
Methodist Universities and colleges at both home and abroad.
Communion Anthem Chancel
Choir
*Doxology
*Hymn
(Release S.S.) “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates” UMH
213
Touching Lives for
Jesus Christ – Announcements
*Sending Forth
Postlude Alisa Hwang
Enter to worship
God, Leave to serve God’s people
This Sunday
– 11/30
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Next Sunday
– 12/07
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Acolyte
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9:00
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Phoebe Island
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Julia Baskett
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Children’s Time
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9:00
11:00
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Wendy Singer
Wendy Singer
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Pastor Malcolm
Pastor Malcolm
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Counters
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Andrea Smolen, Rob Messerly
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Greeters
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9:00
11:00
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Mark Coffin
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Lynn Jacobson & Jackie
Derr
Mark Coffin
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Liturgist
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Betty Cashmark
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Dave Ball
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Power Point
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9:00
11:00
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Susan Kalbach
Sharon Waligora
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Lori Stewart
Sharon Waligora
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Projection
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9:00
11:00
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Bonnie Luepkes
Sam Hergert
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Sam Hergert
Sam Hergert
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Sound
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9:00
11:00
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Help Needed!!
Bill Ray
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Help Needed!!
Bill Ray
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Ushers
Captains
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9:00
11:00
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Chuck & Sue
Strickland
Gary & Patricia
Heinz
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Steve Reyda
Gary & Patricia
Heinz
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Sermon
Prayer:
Loving God, we are so grateful for your extravagant gift of love, your only
Son, coming into our lives. We are
grateful that you expected to change the world and to break through to even the
hardest of hearts, including our own.
Help us to expect life change.
Help us to expect peace. Help us
to expect joy. Help us to expect
hope. We seek you and wait this Advent.
Amen.
Under Wraps - Leaders Guide
There is something very precious about waiting. In a culture that wants everything in the
here and now, we have lost the excitement of anticipation.” I mean four week of “childlike balled up
excitement when they see a Christmas
Tree surrounded by gifts on Christmas morning” excitement! We have lost the “it is worth the wait”
anticipation! There is something very precious about a couple that goes through
a courtship and waits to consummate their love after the covenant of marriage. Lost the “satisfaction of anticipation”
There is great satisfaction when saving over time and purchasing something for
cash rather than burdening oneself with debt. Lost the “intentionality of anticipation”
It takes great intentionality to seek and find that extra special gift and wait
until the day for a loved one to open it and see their expression of joy. Indeed, there is something precious and
perhaps even greater for us as we wait for that special moment when all things
come together, perhaps, just as God has prepare for us to experience.
A friend of mine is one of those people who starts
purchasing gifts early for the Christmas Holiday. I don’t know how they do it but they are constantly
on the lookout for what they believe will be the perfect item for any
particular family member. Last year, I
was somewhat surprised, maybe a little jealous, when they boldly they declared
that they were all done with the Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Everything was wrapped and ready to go. Wow! I
could only imagine the anticipation that they benefitted from during the weeks
of Advent to Christmas morning when surrounded by their loved ones they would
celebrate and open those perfect gifts, specially chosen for each of them.
Ultimately, the most precious gift of Christmas is
the celebration of God’s Son. God is the
ultimate gift giver prepared the most perfect gift for humanity, to be
delivered at the most perfect moment.
The Gift? Hand
pick by God, in truth is God, and God
expects that this gift will be the biggest game changer of all times. God is expecting that this gift …which is
surprisingly a one gift fits all … is still as exciting, precious, satisfying and intentionally perfect and unique
to every person on the face of the planet. As it always was!
God is expectant … from the very beginning it was God’s
nature to be expectant.
God wants for us to be in relationship with
God. The stories in Genesis establish
this fact. Told we are created in the
image of God, created male and female, God blessed the human beings to be
fruitful, told them they had dominion over creation. (Gen 1.27-28) God expects to be in a relationship with
humanity.
Even when Adam and Eve turned away
from God, God clothed them sent them out of the garden,
God expected them to continue on with their commission
God made a covenant with Abraham and
Sarah that they would be God’s people and they would one day have descendants
more numerous than the stars and when they said yes,
God
expected them to remain faithful to the covenant.
When the Abrahams descendants grew too
numerous in the land of Egypt, and were enslaved by Pharaoh, God sent Moses to
rescue them and who brought them out by multiple displays of God’s power and
might and …
God gave them the law and expected them to follow it.
God is expectant!
For
millennia, God expected the people to remain faithful but with feet of clay and
hearts equally so, the hearts of the people were easily led astray by poor
decisions on the part of their leadership, their priests, and if not for the
prophets of old, they in their exile years would have little to hope for. In
the midst of one such exile the people heard a word from the Prophet Isaiah:
A young woman, will conceive and she will have a son and he will be
named Immanuel “God with us” (Isa 7.14)
This “God with us” this promised one Immanuel
will be called: Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (And who) of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne (the
promise of Messiah) and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness” (Isa 9:6ff)
In our
Luke passage we learn about Mary and Elizabeth; each woman found herself
preparing for a baby that neither had expected.
Listen how God wraps the coming of the God’s greatest gift in the
stories in woman “a beyond her child bearing years” named Elizabeth and “a
young, unmarried, chaste” woman named Mary.
Indeed,
this God who is Expectant, expects Elizabeth’s son to be the one who will call
the Israelite people to repentance and he will be like the one who is the
precursor to the Messiah, pointing the way to the child that Mary will bear who
we are told in in Matthew’s Gospel is to be named Jesus (God saves).
God expects his Son, Jesus, to be
born and to grow into adulthood. And God expects his Son to teach people (first
twelve) who will listen to him and be changed.
God even has a plan for the redemption of the human race. Redemption that comes at great personal
sacrifice, even to death on a cross, but as we said last week, even the grave
was not sufficient to contain him. God expects us to receive this gift of
salvation …
Now you are thinking to yourself,
you’ve got this whole thing figured out.
When we read the Isaiah passage that we used for our
affirmation of faith with the knowledge of the Luke passage. We already know
what God has done? What about what God is doing?
(The prophet Isaiah declares God words) “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it
springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and
streams in the wasteland (Isa 43:19)
Have you ever been surprised by God? What new thing is God doing? Do you suppose
that God is expecting our response to this year’s gift presentation to be
different from other years?
The Psalmist “Let us sing
to the Lord a new song” (Ps 96:1)
How will you sing a new song to God during this Season of preparing?
Before we tear apart the wrapping paper from God’s
gift, let’s live with the hope that God “who is Expectant,” is expecting
something greater for us this season …
God is expecting us to respond, share and prepare:
·
God expects us to respond to the great gift of Jesus. And not in the old tired ways that we have in
the past but with the excitement of this gift that is being presented to us
anew, first balled up excitement of a child, Christmas morning, ANEW!
·
God expects us to share the story of Jesus, a story we
never get tired of telling or hearing.
·
God expects us to prepare by being watchful and waiting. Perhaps
there is a spiritual discipline you might want to practice during Advent this
year …
God
expects us to respond, to share and to prepare
Because
… God is expectant !
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Celebration
and Praise
Worship with a Beat! - 11:00 am
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Announcements
Advent Candle Lighting
“Come, Thou Long
Expected Jesus’
Song Celebration
‘Everlasting God’
‘He is With Us’
Prayerful Conversations
Kids Time
Luke 1:39-45
“God is Expectant”
Rev Malcolm Stranathan
Sacrament of Holy Communion
‘Hope of The Nations’
Announcements
Sending Forth
‘Sing to The King’
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Songs sung during the service are used by permission
with License No. 1415942.
Movie clips are used by permission with License No.
501045180
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Bulletin cover and MS PowerPoint art and graphics
designed by Lori Stewart, 2014
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