This Weeks Sermon


The gathering music for today: Gathering Video: “The Same Love” by Paul Baloche. The video is 4:45 long and the link is located on YouTube (The Same Love – Paul Baloche).

ORDER OF WORSHIP                                        January 30, 2022 ● 10:00 am
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, YOU are welcome here.

PRELUDE                  Improvisation on “New Dimensions”                Jan Bordeleau                                                        
WELCOME                                                                                  Rev. Brian Donovan

CALL TO WORSHIP                                                                       Johnny Stucklen
One:     Fear rips the edges of life!
All:       Come – let us be One in faith. 
One:     Fatigue licks my dull eyes!
All:       Come – let us be refreshed with hope.
One:     Failure stalks my every path!
All:       Come – let us all be enveloped by the Love of God
             who loved us before we were formed
             and who we come to worship – today.

One:      For, God is Love!!!

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHARING “GOD MOMENTS”         Rev. Brian Donovan

PASSING OF THE PEACE

*OPENING HYMN (NCH#102)       “O How Shall I Receive You”              FCC Choir

*OPENING PRAYER(Unison)                                                     Johnny Stucklen
Holy Loving God, inspire within us the enduring Love of Your Son, our Christ. A Love so bright that it shines in us and throughout our entire lives. Invoke these teachings, O God, so, we can continue on Your Way to invigorate all people with the Justice and Mercy of Your Holy Love. Amen.

*GLORIA PATRI
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is  now, and ever shall be, World without end. Amen.


GOD’S MESSAGE FOR ALL AGES AND THE LORD’S PRAYER     Merri Carlson
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 the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

SCRIPTURE              1 Corinthians 13:1-13                                Johnny Stucklen
                     
SERMON                       “Seeing our Way…through”                  Rev. Brian Donovan

CHOIR ANTHEM           “Treasure Each Moment”                                FCC Choir

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

*DOXOLOGY 
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost 


*PRAYER OF DEDICATION (Unison)
God of Love and teacher to all – to You, we dedicate these symbols of our time – talent – and treasure. Accept them and commit these gifts to support Your ministries and Mission revealed in this fellowship. May all that is given and received aid Your teachings and our learning of the generous Love You share with ALL of Creation. In the name of Jesus, who reveals the Way. Amen.


*CLOSING HYMN (NCH#393)     “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds”           FCC Choir

BENEDICTION     
   
                                                                                                 
POSTLUDE                        Improvisation on “Verbum Dei”              Jan Bordeleau  

SCRIPTURE                                                                                                                                                                                                  
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love

Quote of the Day
“While the mind sees only boundaries, Love knows the secret way there.” 
-Rumi 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS                                                                                                  
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING…..SEE WEEKLY EMAIL FOR DETAILS

2/1            TUES       Bible Study, 11:00 am
2/3            THURS    Men’s Fellowship Breakfast, 8:00 am
2/6            SUN         Morning Worship/Online Worship, 10:00 am
2/7            MON        Fun & Games, 1:30 pm                                        
                                     All numbered hymns are from The New Century Hymnal. Permission is granted for this one-time use.
• “Treasure Each Moment” Words & Music by Joseph M. Martin © 1995, Pilgrim Press, All rights reserved. ONELICENSE, License #A-739577

O How Shall I Receive You (NCH#102)
O how shall I receive you,
how meet you on your way,
blessed hope of every people,
my soul’s delight and stay?
O Jesus, Jesus, give me now
by your own pure light,
to know whate’er is pleasing
and welcome in your sight.
 
Love caused your incarnation;
love brought you unto to me;
your thirst for my salvation
procured my liberty.
O love beyond all telling,
that led you to embrace
in love, all love excelling,
our lost and fallen race.
 
You come, O Christ, with gladness,
in mercy and goodwill,
to bring an end to sadness
and bid our fears be still.
In patient expectation
we live for that great day
when a renewed creation
your glory shall display.
 
Blessed Be the Tie That Binds (NCH#393)
Blessed be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
The sharing of a common life
is like to that above.

Before our God we come
and pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.

We share each other’s woes,
each other’s burdens bear.
And often for each other flows
a sympathizing tear.

When we are called to part
it gives us inward pain,
But we shall still be joined in heart,
and hope to meet again.

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Pastor’s Letter, Sept. 11, 2024

Dear Friends in Christ, 

When you think of stewardship, what comes to mind?  If you’re like most, you likely think of money because most churches call their annual pledge drive a stewardship campaign.  

But, stewardship has to do with a lot more than money.  Stewardship refers to careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.   

This means stewardship is the reason for our being because, according to Genesis,  God created us to have oversight and carefully manage the earth and all of its life (Genesis 1:26).  Likewise, Jesus, with his telling of the parables of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20:1-16) and the parable of the vineyard tenants (Luke 20:9-19), implied that we are not so much owners of creation and its elements, but tenants entrusted with their management. 

It may be hard for us to embrace this perspective and our God-given identity because, from our legal and moral heritages, we inherit an understanding of ourselves as owners who have the right to do whatever we choose with our property, our resources, our things.  Hence, it is important for us as Christians to reflect on our stewardship! 

This, we shall do in our worship throughout the coming year.  And, we shall do so under the rubric of “21st Century Stewardship” because, as Jesus taught in his parable of the wineskins (Luke 5:33-39), “new times occasion new tasks.”  I’ll hope you’ll find our reflections timely and relevant for your life, Christ’s church, and the world.  

Blessings of Life-preserving Stewarding, 

Pastor Ed

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