1 John 4:7-21

3 August 2014Worship at 10:30am

www.riverofhopehutchinson.org

ShareMusic to Prepare Us for Worship

Gathering Songs- “The Power of Your Love” on pages 3-4 and “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” on pages 5-6.

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Welcome, Worship Orientation 101, You Are Here Clipboards

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No Longer Strangers PrayerGod of community,You made us to live together in community. Help us to see and grab hold of your work in our lives; through friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and strangers. Open our eyes to your presence in people we don’t know or even like. Open their eyes to seeing you at work in us. Bring us together in your name. Amen.

Meet Someone NewShare a high and a low about being alive this week.

Greetings of grace through God, Jesus Christ, & the Holy SpiritThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the community of the Holy Spirit is with you all.And also with you.

Confession and ForgivenessLet us confess that God is God and we are not.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Silence for prayer and contemplation.Most merciful God,we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,by what we have done and by what we have left undone.We have not loved you with our whole heart;we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your willand walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen

If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;  Jesus meets us in this meal and we are forever changed, forgiven and made new!I have the best news to tell you. Fear not sisters and brothers. God, who is full of grace and abounding in steadfast love,meets us in our sin and transforms us for God’s glory and the healing of God’s world.In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, your sins are forgiven. Be now at peace.And we say, thanks be to God.Thanks be to God! Amen!And now, a vocabulary lesson. Kyrie Eleison (keer-ee-ey e-ley-uh-sawn) is Greek for Lord, have mercy and pre-dates the earliest Christian worship. The prayer is simultaneously a petition and a prayer of thanksgiving; an acknowledgment of what

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God has done, what God is doing, and what God will continue to do.

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ReadPastor Laura: Our story and God’s story continues today in a reading from 1 John 4:1-6

***Sing “Beloved” before and after the reading***

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Reading the WordNote to reader(s): You’re only one of a few people who have a bulletin in their hand. Before you introduce the reading, please be sure to tell the congregation what is coming. For example: “Please join in reading the bold parts from today’s scripture reading.” Or, if the reading is divided up according to sides, take time to do that and to explain what their part is called, like “side 1” or “Jesus” or whatever.

Readers: Reader, All

Reader: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 

ALL: Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 

Reader: God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 

ALL: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

Reader: Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 

ALL: By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Reader: And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

ALL: God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

Reader: Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

ALL: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 

Reader: We love because God first loved us. 

ALL: Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 

Reader: The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Reader: Our story and God’s story, to be continued.

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ALL: Thanks be to God!

***Sing “Beloved”

Children’s Time

Sermon

“Chalk Talk” hymn Sing “Bind Us Together” on pages 14-15.During this song, you are invited to go to a chalkboard and write down names and places we are called to love.

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Prayers for All People – Chalk Talk PrayersPrayers will conclude with "God, you are love" your prayer response is Help us to love others.

OfferingIf you like River of Hope and want it to be around for a long, long time, please consider giving consistently to this ministry. Set up automatic giving on our website. Click “give” and go from there.

Offering Song ”Let the Vineyards Be Fruitful, Lord” on page 16 (With One Voice 35).

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Setting the TableAs the kids help set the table, they make a circle around the table and lead the congregation in the table prayer written by Martin Luther:Let’s pray: Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest. And let these gifts to us be blest. Amen.

The Great Prayer of ThanksgivingThe Lord is with youAnd also with youLift up your hearts!We lift them to the Lord.Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.It is right to give God thanks and praise.

Words to bless the mealIn the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks; broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, Take and eat, this is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.

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Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying: this cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.

O God of resurrection and new life:Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts of bread and wine.Bless this feast.Grace our table with your presence.

The Lord’s PrayerYou are invited to join hands with those around you in prayer. If you are not the hand-holding type, then simply fold your hands in front of you or hang onto this bulletin as you pray.

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.Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Invitation to The Meal

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You are welcome to this meal. If you hunger and thirst for grace and mercy that comes through Jesus Christ, then Christ has set this table just for you.

Communion Songs/Hymns- “Lamb of God” (With One Voice 39) and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” on page 19.

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BlessBlessing May God be revealed in each of us and raise us up as the body of Christ for the world.You are the blest hands and feet of Christ to the world.Amen.

Why does our church exist? What is our purpose? We go out to transform lives through Jesus Christ.

Spotlight on where we’re going out to, then.

Sending Song – “Every Move I Make” on pages 21-23.Go in peace – serve the Lord!

Thanks be to God

Music to Send You Out

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