Happy Father’s Day!
June 20, 2021
Opening
Song
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place,
I can feel His mighty power and his grace.
I can hear the brush of angel’s wings; I see glory on each face.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Call
to Worship
On
this Father’s Day, we think of our own fathers, and we also think of our
Heavenly Father. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He
taught them to pray to “Our Father, who is in heaven.”
We are grateful for our earthly fathers. For most of us, these fathers of ours have since passed on, but we are grateful for the life that they gave to us. We are also grateful that our Heavenly Father is always with us. He is always available to speak with, and he is always ready to help.
Invocation Prayer
Our holy and heavenly Father, today we give you our praise. Despite the years we have lived and the experiences we have had, we are a people who always need a father. Today we come to you as your sons and your daughters to worship and to praise You, and to tell you “Thank you for being our Father.” Amen.
Song of Worship– #14 My Life is in You
Announcements
Selected
Reading – 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 John
3:1-3
There
is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist.
And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and
through whom we exist.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.
Prayer
of Confession
Dear Sovereign Father, we are
grateful for the fact that you are Lord of the earth and of all that it
contains. We are grateful that you hold the very universe in your hands.
We are also grateful that you call all men and women to yourself to be called your children. Not all will heed your call. Many will turn away. But we come today. We worship you as our Father and Lord.
Words
of Assurance
Surely
in this life we struggle with allegiances. While we may desire to follow the
leading of our Heavenly Father, many times we find that we instead are
following the thinking and the ways of the world.
But the encouragement we have is that we can grow in our faithfulness in looking to our Father, and the assurance that we have is that our true selves have yet to be revealed. With this hope as our goal, our lives become increasingly pure.
The Lord’s Prayer
Song of Faith -#183 – Faith of Our Fathers
Scripture
Reading
OT –
Isaiah 64:4-8
From
ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God
besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
You
welcome those who gladly do right and who remember Your ways.
Surely
You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?
Each
of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like
filthy rags;
We
all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
No
one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You.
For
You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our
iniquity.
But
now, O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the potter;
We are all the work of Your hand.
NT –
John 14:9-14
Jesus
replied, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us
the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in
Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father
dwelling in Me, performing His works.
Believe
Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on
account of the works themselves.
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it.
Responsorial
Reading: Selections from Psalm 103
Bless
the LORD, O my soul;
All that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless
the LORD, O my soul,
Do not forget all His kind deeds.
He
who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,
He satisfies you with good things,
So
that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So
great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So
far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
Message –Grocery Shopping for 5000 People
Song of Unity #3 – Breathe
Offering A basket has been provided on the table at the entrance of the church to receive your offerings. Thank you and God bless each of you!
Prayer of Intercession
Dear Father, we are blessed to be able to come to you this morning. Our presence before you is not based upon any righteousness of our own, but only because the blood of Jesus Christ. We come based upon the righteousness of Jesus.
As we call you our Heavenly Father, we come to you with a certain shame because we have allowed our country to fall from our former convictions when we sought to live by your standards. Please forgive us for this.
We do not claim that we were ever perfect or ever can be perfect, but in the past decades we have shifted our focus away from allowing you to guide our thinking. Kindly rekindle our conviction for your directions and help us to walk on your pathways.
Our burden is also a local burden. We pray for those of our own area who have wandered away from your pathways—perhaps even some from our own families. In some ways, most of us could also say that we ourselves have failed in many ways.
We pray for some that are presently enduring difficulties of health, finances, emotion, or what may be some other reason. Please help them and provide for them. Help them also to place their trust in you.
We also pray for our orphanage in Kenya as the kids continue with the present school term. Please provide funding for this and give us guidance as we begin to see how to build lives for these children so that they can have futures of productive service to you. Please also give your guidance as we consider beginning our own school at the orphanage.
Thank you for your gracious answer to all of our prayers.
Thank you Father, for listening to the voices of all of your servants. Amen
Closing Song #26 – O God of Mine
Benediction
and prayer
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