Searching For Connection in These Hard Times
Good morning on this beautiful sunny Sunday morning!
The online service can be found at the following link:
For parents of young children, please click here for a PDF of beautiful colouring pages and activities for this Sixth Sunday of Easter.
Peace and joy be with you this long weekend.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Warmly welcomes everyone to this online audio worship service!
Prelude, Welcome & Announcements
Responsive Call to Worship
One: God who creates, let us see you this day.
All: Come to us as light.
One: God incarnate, let us hear you this day.
All: Come to us as truth.
One: God who abides, let us sense your presence.
All: Come to us as love.
One: Come and let us worship, God.
All: Let us rejoice together in the One who is the way, truth and life!
Opening Hymn – Christ the Lord is risen today
Verse 1
“Christ the Lord is risen today,” all creation join to say.
Raise your joys and triumphs high; sing, ye heavens, and earth,
reply.
Love’s redeeming work is done, fought the fight, the battle won:
Lo! Our sun’s eclipse is o’er; Lo! He sets in blood no more.
Verse 2
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal; Christ hath burst the gates of
hell.
Death in vain forbids Him rise; Christ hath opened paradise.
Lives again our glorious King: where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once He died our souls to save; where thy victory, O grave?
Verse 3
Soar we now where Christ hath led, following our exalted Head;
Made like Him, like Him we rise; ours the cross, the grave, the
skies.
Hail! The Lord of earth and heaven! Praise to thee by both be
given;
Every knee to thee shall bow, Risen Christ triumphant now.
Words by Charles Wesley and Music by George Job Elvey
Prayers of Adoration, Confession & Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray…
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.
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, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever, Amen.
Words of Assurance & Peace of Christ
In every helping hand to sustain life...
One: May the peace of the Lord be always with you.
All: And also with you.
Hymn - Great is Thy faithfulness
Verse 1
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.
Refrain
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.
Verse 2
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in eloquent witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Refrain
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.
Verse 3
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow:
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Refrain
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.
Words by Thomas O. Chisholm and Music by William M. Runyan
(Parents, please remember there is a PDF file for your children for the
psalm.)
1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you;
they sing praises to you,
sing praises to your name.’
8 Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living,
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him,
and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has given heed to the words of my prayer.20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me.Hymn – Draw me close to you
Verse 1
Draw me close to you. Never let me go.
I lay it all down again to hear You say that I’m Your friend.
You are my desire. No one else will do,
‘Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace.
Help me find the way. Bring me back to You.
Chorus
You’re all I want. You’re all I’ve ever needed.
You’re all I want. Help me know You are near.
Verse 1: Draw me close to you. Never let me go.
I lay it all down again to hear You say that I’m Your friend.
You are my desire. No one else will do,
‘Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace.
Help me find the way. Bring me back to You.
Chorus
You’re all I want. You’re all I’ve ever needed.
You’re all I want. Help me know You are near.
Chorus 2
You’re all I want. You’re all I’ve ever needed.
You’re all I want. Help me know You are near.
Help me know You are here.
Words and Music by Kelly Carpenter
Scripture Reading – Acts 17:16-34 (NRSV)
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place every day with those who happened to be there. 18Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’ 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.
22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.”
29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’
32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ 33At that point Paul left them. 34But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
One: The Word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
The Invitation to Offering
Special Music – “With all I am” by Reuben Morgan
Message – Searching connection in these hard times...
(Parents, there is a colouring page in the PDF file for your children on
Acts 17.)
As an activity, parents and children can play hide ‘n seek with an
object.
Ask your children what parts of their body they used to find the object. Ask them if they like hiding or seeking and why.
Tell your children that God likes being sought after.
God likes being found.
Then ask them, “Where we can find God?”
WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD
Hymn - Breath of life, come sweeping through us
O Breath of life, come sweeping through us;
Revive Your church with life and power.
O Breath of life, come cleanse, renew us,
And fit Your church to meet this hour.
O Wind of God, come bend us, break us,
Till humbly we confess our need;
Then in Your tenderness remake us,
Revive, restore for this we plead.
O Breath of love, come breathe within us,
Renewing thought and will and heart;
Come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,
Revive Your church in every part.
O Tongues of fire, come rest upon us,
So we may speak Your word aright;
Kindle the flame of love among us;
Equip Your church to spread the light.
Words by Bessie Porter Head and Music by Mary J. Hammond
Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession
Let us pray...
Verse 1
Now let the vault of heaven resound
In praise of love that doth abound,
“Christ hath triumphed, hallelujah”;
Sing, choirs of angels, loud and clear,
Repeat their song of glory here,
“Christ hath triumphed, Christ hath triumphed!”
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!Verse 2
Eternal is the gift He brings;
Wherefore our heart with rapture sings,
“Christ hath triumphed, Jesus liveth!”
Now doth he come and give us life;
Now doth His presence still all strife
Through His triumph; Jesus reigneth!
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!Verse 3
Oh fill us, Lord, with dauntless love;
Set heart and will on things above,
That we conquer through thy triumph;
Grant grace sufficient for life’s day,
That by our life we ever say,
“Christ hath triumphed, and he liveth!”
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!Verse 4
Adoring praises now we bring,
And with the heavenly blessed sing,
“Christ hath triumphed, hallelujah!”
Be to the Father and our Lord,
To Spirit Blest, most holy God,
Thine the glory never ending!
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!
Words by Paul Zeller Strodach
and Music by Auserlesene Katholische Geistliche
Benediction
Choral Amen
Sing amen. Amen, we praise your name, O God.
Sing amen. Amen, we praise your name, O God.
Sing amen. Amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, we praise your name, O God.
Postlude