Worship on August 3
A smaller than normal crowd gathered together for a morning of worship, it was clear that summer is coming to an end and families are enjoying a few days of vacation before school starts again in a few days.
Al Remaly led the announcement time. Kim N and Linda O had good things happen to them this past week for which they wanted to give God the glory. Lori N and Zoey G. had prayer concerns to share with the congregation.
The worship service was called to order. Jennifer Lawrence was the song leader and the liturgist. The opening songs included “This is Holy Ground” “You Are My Hiding Place” and “The Battle Belongs to the Lord.”
Following the time of prayer the children were called forward for a message just for them. The pastor taught the children this week. This is something that only happens at the Christmas Eve worship service. It was fun to hear him teach on the smaller level.
The pastor asked the children if any of them were wearing shoes. (Does he think he’s taking to a group of kids in Kentucky?) He asked a few questions about shoes. Who was wearing white shoes? Who was wearing black shoes? Who was wearing sandal or other shoe that could slip off easily? Who was wearing a shoe that ties? Has anyone ever tied their shoe and a little later the strings were all untied? (At this point the pastor asked the adults if they had that problem too.) He asked if anyone had gone barefoot and stuck their feet in the sand. Has anyone taken off their shoes stuck their feet in the snow? He asked if it was better to have shoes on when we walk in the snow.
Then he pointed out that the Holy Spirit works something like a shoe. The Holy Spirit protects us. The Holy Spirit watches out that we don’t get hurt. The Holy Spirit also allows us the freedom to walk away from him the same way we can lose our shoes every now and again. The pastor asked us to think about the Holy Spirit’s work in our life when we put on our shoes.
Following the collection of the offering we sang, “Because He Lives”.
The scripture reading was from Hebrews 10:26-39.
Verse 26 talks about how we get ourselves in spiritual hot water when we deliberately continue sinning. The pastor talked about the difference between sin that we deal with in our live that we keep repeating. And taking on the attitude of caring more about ourselves than hurting God as we sin on purpose. In the first case we are working on our spiritual state and falling into sin. In the second we are rebelling against God on purpose.
When we oppose God on purpose we are making ourselves God’s enemy. Verses 27 – 29 talk about the future for those who are God’s enemy.
The rest of the chapter talks about enduring suffering in this life for the promise of a better life in the future. We are called to patient endurance. The future is better than the suffering. We must be patient.
The closing hymn was “Blessed Assurance.”
About 104 folk enjoyed our worship service.
