Worship on Sunday, August 17
School started this past week here in Rossville. As our crowd gathered together for worship there was much excitement in the air.
Rodney Lawrence led our opening time. Chad D, Olivia L, Conner R and Sharon N each shared moments of how they had seen God at work in their lives. Kelley F, Jodie D, Rusty M, Linda O, Helen D, Sue M, LaVaughn S, and Jennifer L each shared prayer concerns with the congregation.
The worship service was called to order. Phil Burkle was our liturgist of the morning. He read from Philippians 3:12-14 where Paul talks about how our walk of faith is like running a race.
Our opening hymns were “Only Believe” and “Come, Holy Spirit.”
Following the time of prayer Jeff Reach taught the children. He talked about how Satan tries to trick us in order to enter our lives. He called on one of the kids and pretended to knock on the door of their heart. For the first kid he said that he was “Satan.” “Why would anyone open the door for a guy like that?” he asked. For the next kid he said that he was giving away candy bars. The child paused before answering. The pastor yelled out, “Don’t answer the door.” The interaction went on for a bit. Finally Jeff taught the crowd that the best answer to Satan knocking on the door is to send Jesus to answer.
Following the offering we sang, “Reach out to Jesus.”
The Scripture reading was from Hebrews 12:1-13.
The pastor talked about how this image of being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Since there are so many in the faith who want us to succeed in the faith race, we must run the race of faith the best we can. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus. We can’t get distracted by the cloud of witnesses. We can’t get distracted by the world. We can’t carry sin around with us. We must stay focused on Jesus and becoming more like him.
The pastor used several images from the current Olympic games. It was a great call to press on in the faith.
We celebrated Holy Communion together.
The closing hymn was “Living for Jesus.”
About 146 good people enjoyed our day of worship.
