The Rev. Dr. Albert Potgieter, Pastor Elizabeth Frank, Music Director Reuven Aristigueta, Tenor Prelude: Più Mosso Domenico Zipoli - Steven Frank, organ WE APPROACH OUR GOD Welcome and Announcements Call to Worship L: God has given us this day for praise! P: Praise be to God for this most generous gift! L: God has given his Son to us that we might learn ways of peace and mercy. P: Let the words of God’s own Son, Jesus, enter our hearts and transform our lives! L: Come, let us worship this great God of abundant mercy and love! P: Let our songs, our words, and our thoughts reflect God’s healing and restoring love. Amen! Hymn of Praise: I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer - Art Toulon I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art, my only trust and Savior of my heart, who pain didst undergo for my poor sake; I pray Thee, from our hearts all cares to take. Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness, no harshness hast thou and no bitterness: O grant to us the grace we find in thee, that we may dwell in perfect unity. Call to Confession In the midst of our daily lives, Jesus Christ calls us to follow him. Before we continue on the path with Jesus, we must first confess what we lack for the journey, in recognition of the power of sin in our lives. Prayer of Confession God of justice and righteousness, your call beckons to us: to live faithful lives, to turn from wickedness, to walk in your ways; yet it is so easy to turn aside: to speak a thoughtless word, to ignore those in need, to strike out in anger, to forget your ways. Forgive us. Help us to look intently into the mirror of your word and see the ways in which we need change. Implant your word in our hearts, and cleanse us from all evil. By the power of your love, save our souls, that we might faithfully serve you. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Words of Assurance L: God’s word has the power to save your soul. P: God has anointed us with gladness. We are forgiven to live in joy. L: Be at peace. God is with you. The Law of God: Deuteronomy 10:12-13 So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. Passing the Peace You are God’s beloved children. Look into one another’s face to see the beauty of God’s presence. Share the Lord’s peace with gladness. WE LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD Children’s Sermon - Pastor Albert Scripture Reading: James 1:17-27 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Hearing and Doing the Word 19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves[c] in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. 26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Message: The Most Amazing Mirror - Pastor Albert WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD Celebration of the Lord’s Supper Hymn of Preparation: Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness - Schmucke Dich Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness; leave the gloomy haunts of sadness. come into the daylight's splendour, there with joy thy praises render unto him whose grace unbounded hath this wondrous banquet founded: high o’er all the heav’ns he reigneth, yet to dwell with thee he deigneth. “Jesus, Bread of life, I pray thee, let me gladly here obey thee; never to my hurt invited, be thy love with love requited; from this banquet let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep its treasure; through the gifts thou here dost give me, as thy guest in heav’n receive me.” 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 Your offering may be placed in the plate near the entrance door or sent to the church via check in the mail to: CCD, 39-50 Douglaston Parkway, Douglaston, NY 11363, or digitally through Tithe.ly: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1332203 Offertory Music: Sostenuto Urban Lorenz Kirnberger - Steven Frank, organ Prayer of Dedication/Offering The Prayers - Concluding with The Lord’s Prayer in unison: 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: Great is Thy Faithfulness Faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father there is no shadow of turning with thee thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not; as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide; strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! Blessing