Service Preview for March 18

Service Preview for March 18

Call To Worship
We confess the supremacy of God in Christ through both responsive reading and song.

Our Spoken Call to Worship
From Psalm 121 (ESV)

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

Our Sung Call to Worship
Psalm 121

Confession
We confess our need for mercy through both responsive reading and song.

Our Spoken Confession
Everlasting God,
fountain of life and the true home of every heart:
our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Yet we confess that our hearts have been enslaved
by selfish passion and base desire.

We have sought after many things
and have neglected the one thing needful.

We have not loved you with our whole hearts;
help us to turn to you and find forgiveness.

Lead us home, that we may again find in you
our life and joy and peace.

Amen.

TIME OF SILENT CONFESSION

Our Sung Confession
He Will Hold Me Fast

Assurance and Peace
We profess our assurance of salvation and peace in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Remember the Gospel
From Isaiah 51:22 (ESV)

Thus says your Lord, Yahweh,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:

“Behold, I have taken from your hand
the cup of staggering,
the bowl of my wrath.
You shall never drink it again.”

Our Sung Profession of Assurance
Before the Throne of God Above

Thanksgiving and Petition

We Give Thanks in Prayer and Offer Petitions to God
We express our gratitude to God our Father for Christ’s work on the cross for us and bring our requests before him. In bringing our requests, we confess that we believe God truly is a good father, who cares about our needs and gives us what he knows is best.

We Give Thanks by Giving
We give financial offerings to support the work of the church because of our gratitude to God. By giving we confess we are trusting in God’s provision for us as well.
On the first Sunday of each month we have two offerings—one for the general fund and a second one for the benevolence ministry of our church.

We Give Thanks in Song
Gethsemane Hymn

Scripture Reading
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 (ESV)

12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel
in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be
busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done
under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a
striving after wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be made
straight,
and what is lacking cannot be
counted.

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”
17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

18 For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge
increases sorrow.

This is the Word of the Lord.
The grass withers
and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen!

Sermon
Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26 – “Is That All There Is?” – Pastor Eric Schumacher

Sending
Having heard and confessed the Gospel, we are sent into the world on mission in Christ, which we express in both song and spoken word.

Sending Song
Good To Me

Blessing
From Galatians 1:3-5 (ESV)

Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins
to deliver us from the present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.