December 10 Order of Service and Annouoncements

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT Sunday, December10, 2023 9:00am & 10:30am PLEASE SILENCE OR PLACE YOUR CELL PHONE ON VIBRATE. GATHERING PRELUDE WORDS OF WELCOME MINUTE FOR MISSION

Christian Education Initiative

Brent Benham

ADVENT WREATH CANDLE LIGHTING AND CALL TO WORSHIP 9:00am

10:30am The Moody Family

Reader 1: Today is the second Sunday in the season of Advent. Advent means “coming,” and in this season we prepare for the coming of Christ. We light the candles on the Advent wreath to remind us of the blessings that Christ brings to the world.

Reader 2: Today we light the second candle of the Advent wreath, the candle of SHALOM, that is, the candle of PEACE. The scriptures declare, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thes.

5:23) Congregation: The Peace of Christ restores us.

[Lighting of the candle of Peace.]

PRAYER OF INVOCATION Reader 1: God of peace, form us into your Peace-makers. Fill our hearts with your peace, and our lives with your love, that these may flow from our lives and into our world. We pray that the lost and those living in darkness will turn to you and find an unshakable peace that nothing else in this world can offer. For we ask this in Jesus’ precious name and the true source of our peace. Amen.

Reader 2: Come let us worship the Lord as we raise our voices in song. *HYMN Emmanuel

Text: Verse 1 by Bob McGeer Verse 2: Thea Miller

*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (Apostles’ Creed) I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, The holy catholic church, The communion of saints, The forgiveness of sins, The resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen. *GLORY BE TO THE FATHER

PRAYER OF CONFESSION O God of all the earth, we bow before you with prayers of praise and thanksgiving and confession of need. There is little peace on earth, much less in our own hearts. You have given your Son for our salvation, but our sinfulness has not ceased. You have proclaimed your love for us, but we have often felt unloved and been unloving. Forgive our sinning, we pray, and in Jesus raise us to newness of life. And give us, O God, such love and wonder, that with shepherds and wise men and pilgrims unknown, we may come to adore the holy child, the promised King and Prince of Peace, and with our gifts worship him, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON Leader: Let us declare the grace of the Lord in song…

Leader: All:

Let us assure one another of God’s pardon.

In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.

ANTHEM

Make Me a Channel of Your Peace Chancel Choir

Sebastian Temple arr. Jane Holstein

Make me a channel of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.

Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord, and where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace.

Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, only light, and where there’s sadness, ever joy.

O, Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, in giving of ourselves that we receive, and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

Make me a channel of your peace.

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION Spirit of God, speak once again through the Words of Scripture that our listening ears may hear Your voice. Help us to place Your Word in our minds, treasure it in our hearts, choose it with our wills, and live it through our bodies. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

SCRIPTURE Leader: All:

Isaiah 40:1-11 NIV

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!

CARING PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE THE LORD’S PRAYER 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.

Pg. 1028 Pew Bible

*HYMN

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

OFFERINGS OF THE PEOPLE OFFERTORY

O Little Town of Bethlehem

*DOXOLOGY

Lewis H. Redner OLD HUNDREDTH

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

GROWING SCRIPTURE

Luke 19:28-44 NIV

SERMON “Peace”

Pg. 1497 Pew Bible Rev. Jim Noble

*HYMN

Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing

GOING *BENEDICTION & RESPONSE

Now unto Him

*POSTLUDE The First Nowell Susan Constance, organ

Gordon Phillips