Prelude: Adagio, Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck - Steven Frank, organ WE APPROACH OUR GOD Call to Worship L: Let us lift up the name of our God! P: Let us praise the faithfulness of the Lord! L: For just as the Lord's greatness fills the heavens, P: The Lord's love embraces the earth, L: Preserving our life in the midst of trouble. All: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God! Hymn of Praise: Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation, Westminster Abbey - KIMBERLY IANNUZZI AND IZABELA GRAJNER-PARTYKA Christ is made the sure foundation: Christ the head and corner-stone, chosen of the Lord and precious, binding all the church in one, Holy Zion's help forever, and her confidence alone. Laud and honor to the Father, laud and honor to the Son, laud and honor to the Spirit, ever three and ever one; one in might and one in glory while unending ages run. Call to Confession Today we come again to the Table to commune with our Lord. If we are to experience this celebration with our Lord and be nourished by the Spirit, let us examine ourselves first, then eat the bread and drink the cup. Prayer of Confession Almighty God, we have sinned against you and one another, in thought, word, and deed, in what we have done and in what we have left undone. Therefore, we pray in silence before you. Silence… In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen! Words of Assurance L: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. P: Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17) The Christian Way Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matthew 22:37-40 (MSG) Passing the Peace Welcome your brothers and sisters with the peace that God has given us through Christ Jesus. Children’s Sermon WE LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD Hymn of Preparation: My Faith Looks Up to Thee, Olivet - REUVEN ARISTIGUETA My faith looks up to thee, thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine; now hear me while I pray; take all my guilt away; O let me from this day be wholly thine! When life's dark maze I tread and griefs around me spread, be thou my guide; bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow's tears away, nor let me ever stray from thee aside. When ends life's transient dream, when death's cold, sullen stream shall o'er me roll, blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove; O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul! Scripture Reading – 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Message: The Solid Foundation At the end of life, we will all go home. And it won’t be to a tiny house or a spacious mansion. Instead, for those who believe, it will be to a house that is eternal in heaven. Paul - the master builder. 1 Corinthians 3:10-13 (NRSV) Jesus is the only solid foundation. 2 Corinthians 4:14 6 human needs: food, water, shelter, sleep, others, novelty. Matthew 25:35 (NCV) 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NRSV) 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NRSV) Acts 18:3 (NRSV) First Corinthians 12:27 (NLT) 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NRSV) 2 Corinthians 4:18 (LB) What have we learned: We are challenged to for each other in this life. Focus on the building from that is eternal in the heavens. Trust more than the leaders of this world. Work for the good. Value the things that cannot be : honesty, integrity, sacrifice, love. WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD Celebration of the Lord’s Supper Prayer: As the bread broken was first scattered on the hills, then was gathered and became one, so let your church be gathered from the ends of the earth into your kingdom Lord. For yours is glory and power through all ages. Blessed be God, forever and ever. Amen. Great Thanksgiving: L: The Lord be with you. P: And also with you. L: Lift up your hearts. P: We lift them to the Lord. L: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. P: It is right to give our thanks and praise. L: Loving God, the Source of all, we thank you and praise you with our lips and in our lives that having created us and all things through your Word you welcome and accept our prayer and praise. P: For the goodness of creation and the glory of redemption to which you call us, we praise you. L: For the law of holiness inviting our obedience and the call of prophets, rebuking our disobedience we praise you. With all that is, seen and unseen, and with all the faithful of every time and place, we join in this hymn of praise and thanksgiving: All: Holy, holy, Lord most holy, God of power and God of might; Heaven and earth reveal your glory, hail, hosanna, Lord of light! Blessed be the coming Savior, hail, hosanna, Lord of light! L: Loving God, the Holy One, we offer you praise and thanksgiving over this bread and cup because in Jesus Christ, your only begotten you have forever joined yourself to us, uniting heaven and earth. Now therefore we gratefully recall and remember the wonder of his incarnation, his birth as one of us, his baptism for our sin, his compassion for our suffering, his intimacy with our frailty, his rebuke of our pride, his bearing of the cross with its death and his rising from the tomb by the power of God. L: It was he who on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread and gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying: Take, and eat; this is my body given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me. Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to all to drink saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me. L: According to his command and promise of presence, we affirm the mystery of faith: P: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. L: Loving God, Creative Power, blessing your Name, we seek your Spirit. Come to us and bless these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be for us by faith the body and blood of Christ, the sign and seal of our forgiveness in him and our adoption as the children of God. As we eat and drink together make us one with Christ and one in Christ; a sign of his eternal reign in all the world. This sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving we offer you, loving God, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God to ages of ages. P: Amen. Prayer after Communion: L: O God the One God, you have opened wide your hands and satisfied the desire of your living creatures. You have fed us with one food that we may be one. P: You have filled us with your presence that we may be one. L: You have showered on us your Spirit that we may be one. P: You in Christ, and Christ in us, that all may be one. L: Send us into the world as your servants, fed and on fire with the Spirit, that the world may know that you have loved them, through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise with you and the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. P: Amen. Time of Offering and Thanksgiving https://tithe.ly/give?c=1332203 Offertory Music: Pastorale, Eberhard Ludwig Wittmer - Steven Frank, organ Prayer of Dedication/Offering 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 power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Closing Hymn: Blest Be the Tie That Binds, Boyleston - CHERYL WARFIELD Blest be the tie that binds our hearts is Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father's throne we pour our ardent prayers Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one our comforts and our cares. We share each other's woes, our mutual burdens bear And often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. When here our pathways part, we suffer bitter pain; Yet, one in Christ and one in heart, we hope to meet again. Blessing