The Rev. Dr. Albert Potgieter, Pastor Elizabeth Frank, Music Director Reuven Aristigueta, Tenor Prelude: Maestoso, Charles Rinck - Steven Frank, organ WE APPROACH OUR GOD Welcome and Announcements Call to Worship L: Just as the heavens burst forth in praise to God… P: We celebrate God’s abundant and powerful love. L: Day by day, and night by night… P: God watches over us, loving and healing us. L: Come, celebrate with joy the love of God. P: Open our hearts and spirits, Lord, and teach us your ways. Amen! Hymn of Praise: Lord of the Worlds Above, Darwall Lord of the worlds above, how pleasant and how fair the dwellings of thy love, thine earthly temples are! To thine abode my heart aspires, with warm desires to see my God. O happy souls that pray where God appoints to hear! O happy those that pay their constant service there! They praise thee still; and happy they that love the way to Zion's hill. God is our sun and shield, our light and our defense; with gifts his hands are filled: we draw our blessings thence. Thrice happy they, O God of hosts, whose spirit trusts alone in thee! Call to Confession When we pray, we speak to God. When we pray, God speaks to us. Let us, therefore, enter into dialogue with our Creator and confess our sins. Prayer of Confession Lord our God, we confess without reservation that our dialogue with you is not really a dialogue. Most often, we are asking without listening and complaining without offering thanksgiving. We pray, and cannot understand why we get no response. Awaken us to wonder: If you called, would we answer? Or would you get a busy signal? Would you leave a message, and get no answer in return? We confess anew our impatience and our unwillingness to sit in the holy stillness of your presence. Forgive us, loving God. Thank you for letting us try again. In this minute of silence, let us be still and listen to what you would say to us this day. Words of Assurance L: Even when we try and fail again and again, God loves us still. P: In the richness of God's grace, we accept the peace of Christ, which passes all understanding. Amen. The Law of God: Matthew 22:37-40 (NRSV) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Affirmation of Faith: We belong to God, eternal and infinite, Creator of all things and all that is to come. We follow Christ, who comes to us from God and reveals God to us. He heals people and transforms lives, and calls us to join in his ministry. He was crucified, died, and was raised again by God, and reigns over all creation, and he bids us to die and rise with him in the service of the healing of the world. We are moved by the Holy Spirit, together with the communion of saints, as members of the body of Christ, God’s holy universal church. We are confident in the forgiveness of sin, the power of the resurrection and the reality of eternal life. In all things, it is our desire to follow Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, for God’s glory. Amen. Passing the Peace L: Peace be with you. P: And also with you. L: Extend the sign of God’s peace to each other. WE LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD Children’s Sermon - Pastor Albert Hymn of Preparation: Take My Life, and Let It Be Consecrated, Hendon Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my voice and let me sing, Always, only, for my King. Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee, Filled with messages from Thee. Take my love, my Lord, I pour At Thy feet, its treasure store. Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee, Ever, only, all for Thee. Amen. Scripture Reading: James 3:1-12 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. Message: How to Manage your Mouth - Pastor Albert Why we must exercise restraint and watch what we say. MY WORDS WHERE I GO. James 3:3 (NRSV) James 3:4-5 (NRSV) MY WORDS CAN WHAT I HAVE. James 3:5-6 (NRSV) Proverbs 21:23 (NRSV) MY WORDS WHO I AM. James 3:9-10 (NRSV) James 3:11-12 (NRSV) Matthew 12:34 (NLT) How can I then manage my mouth? Ask God to create a clean in you. Psalm 51:10 (NRSV) Ask God for every day. Psalm 141:3 (NRSV) before you speak. James 1:19 (NRSV) WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD 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: Trio, Georg Andreas Sorge - 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: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Nettleton Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious measure, sung by flaming tongues above; O the vast, the boundless treasure of my Lord’s unchanging love. O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; take my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Blessing