Prelude
Welcome
Call to Worship
Leader: The light of Christ does not only comfort us; it also reveals what must change.
People: We come willing to see, even when the truth unsettles us.
Leader: Jesus enters the places we hold most sacred and calls us back to God’s purpose.
People: We open our hearts, our lives, and our worship to Christ.
Leader: Come, not to protect what is familiar, but to encounter the living God.
People: We come to worship, ready to be transformed. Amen.
Opening Hymn
Open the Eyes of My Heart
Why This Song:
This opening song invites worshipers to begin with a prayer for clarity and openness, asking God to help us truly see Christ and respond to God’s presence with trust and humility.
Prayer of Confession
Holy God, we confess that we are quick to turn gifts into obligations and grace into something that must be earned. We measure worth, success, and faithfulness by standards that do not come from you.
We confess that we build barriers—sometimes without noticing— barriers of habit, expectation, and fear. We forget that your presence is not bought, sold, or controlled, but freely given in love.
Forgive us when we make faith complicated and belonging conditional. Wash us clean of all that distorts your grace. Renew us as living temples of your Spirit.
Hear the silent confessions of our hearts…
(silence)
By your mercy, restore us, and lead us again into the freedom of your love. Amen.
Words of Assurance
Leader: God’s grace is not earned or withheld; in Christ, forgiveness is freely given and barriers are removed.
People: We receive mercy, renewal, and the freedom to live as God’s beloved people. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Passing of the Peace
First Reading:
John 2:13-25
Sermon:
When Faith Flips the Tables by Pastor Kevin Rutledge
Hymn of Response
Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters UMH 605
Why This Song:
Following the reading and proclamation of Scripture, this hymn serves as a prayer for renewal, reminding us that God’s grace is freely given and that we are continually shaped and restored by God’s love.
Tithes and Offerings
Offertory Response
Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow UMH 95
Offertory Prayer
Gracious God, all that we have and all that we are comes from your hand. Your grace is not bought or sold, and your presence is not sustained by our giving.
Receive these gifts not as payment, but as signs of gratitude and trust. Use them to open doors, not build barriers; to serve your purposes, not preserve our comfort.
Shape us, and the offerings we bring, into instruments of your mercy and love, that our lives and our resources may reflect your generous grace in the world. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer and Lord's Prayer
The Great Thanksgiving
Communion
Announcements
Closing Hymn
Jesus Paid It All
Why This Song:
This closing hymn sends the congregation out with assurance, affirming that our relationship with God rests in Christ’s grace rather than our own efforts, and that we live and serve in response to that gift.
Benediction
Said Each Week as A Communal Prayer:
Send to us all the people who feel unwanted and unloved in other places, and if they can't come to us, send us to them.
Postlude