As Good as it Gets

July 22, 2018 Rev. Dr. Jennifer Blake Baptism, Faith, Good Works, Grace, Transformation

Dr. Jennifer Blake gives a sermon about the transition from death into life. Based on Ephesians 2:1-10

The Service for the Lord’s Day

July 22, 2018    10:30 a.m.

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WE GATHER TO PRAISE GOD, THE LORD OF LIFE

Prelude                                  Variations on “Puer Nobis”                                    M Burkhardt

News of the Church

Please complete the attendance form found in the red Welcome book in your pew.  Prayer request forms are also available in the Welcome book.  Thank you.

*The Greeting and Welcoming of One Another

(There are no strangers in God’s House, just friends we have not yet met.

Greet your neighbor with Christian love and let them know that you’re glad to see them!)

*Praise Song                                         “River”                                                        L Bridges

*Call to Worship

Leader:     This morning we come to praise the God who created us; and the

Lord who gives us grace.

People:    We give glory to the God who saves us!

Leader:     Once dead in sin, we are now alive in Christ.

People:    Praise the God who calls each of us a masterpiece!

       Leader:     Let us shout with thanksgiving and give unending praise; let us use our

works to point to Christ and His great plan for us,

       ALL:      Let us worship God with thanks and praise!

*Hymn #35                                                                     “Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty”

*Prayer of Confession (Unison)                                                                             AJ Baratta

Dear Lord, we all have days when we feel like sin has buried us so deep there is no hope, yet we continue to be disobedient to You. We know we deserve your wrath when we are merely satisfying our own desires instead of Yours; yet we beg forgiveness as we walk toward the next temptation.  We use our good works as a means to show off and make us feel important.  Help us to reach out to You when the hole we have dug becomes immeasurable, to guide us away from that which will harm us and to humbly help others as a small way to thank You for Your love and grace.   (Silent time of prayer)

*Assurance of Pardon

Leader:    We are created for a purpose already known to God.  As we seek answers,

we stray and we sin, but God’s great love for us provides us forgiveness in

Christ.

ALL:         Thanks be to God!

*The Gloria

                                    Glory be to God the father, Glory be to God the son, 

                                    Glory be to God the spirit, All glory to the one.

WE HEAR GOD’S WORD

 Children’s Message

After the Children’s Message, preschoolers through 1^st graders may continue to Millard Hall for Children’s Church.  All other students are asked to remain in worship.

Baptism

Hymn #487                                                                              “These Treasured Children”

Message                “As Good As It Gets”               Dr. Blake

Ephesians 2:1-10

From Death to Life
1 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*Anthem                                            “In Christ Alone”                     Getty & Townend, arr. Allen

Adonai Singers

Prayers of the People and The Lord’s Prayer (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 the

       power and the glory, forever. Amen.

Offertory                                          Redeemer Medley                                         arr. M Ham

“I Will Sing of my Redeemer”, “Redeemed, How I love to Proclaim It”, “Since I Have Been Redeemed”

*Doxology (The Hymnal, p. 606)

*Prayer of Dedication

WE GO FORTH TO SERVE

*Hymn                                                                                              “My Chains Are Gone”

*Benediction

Postlude                              “God of Grace and God of Glory”                                  P Manz

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*Please stand, in body or in spirit