Turning toward God in prayer

         Great and awesome God, we see your handiwork all around us. A song of praise is in the air long before we even think to sing in harmony with it. Your creation speaks of you better than any sermon from a preacher’s lips could. And, lo and behold, we are a part of it all. Glory! Hallelujah!
         Lord of love and mercy, of all that is right and good, we come to you because we have heard you calling us. Yes, you speak through a parent’s command to get up, get dressed, and get going. Yes, you invite us in the voice of what we were raised long ago to do every week. Yes, you nudge and cajole us even today to get into a "habit" of faithfulness. When you do, however, you call us each by name to come. And so we are here.
         May worship this day be full of your glory and grace. Through your Holy Spirit, may we lose ourselves in you that we may find ourselves in you. Bless these moments, the words chosen ahead of time as well as those uttered on the spot. May the songs and the prayers, the silences and the actions, be from and toward you. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

         The 145^th Psalm will be our guide for worship today, even as what Jesus said according to the gospel of Matthew will be the Word of God to us later in this service. Stand if you are able, and be led now by the first seven verses of this Psalm:

Unison Prayer of Confession

         Moving toward a time of confession and repentance, please open your hymnal now to #699 in the back, and be prepared to pray it in unison after I read Psalm 145:8-14. (pause until all are ready) Listen and be led now by the next seven verses of this Psalm:
                  (after scripture:) Please join me in the unison confession.

Lord, our God, 
         great, eternal, wonderful
         utterly to be trusted:
                  you give life to us all,
                  you help those who come to you,
                  you give hope to those who cry to you.
Forgive our sins, secret and open,
         and rid us of every habit of thought
         that stands against the gospel.
Set our hearts at peace,
         so we may live our lives before you
                  confidently and without fear,
                  through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN

Hymnal #699. Based on a prayer from
The Liturgy of St. Basil of Caesarea, 4th c.,
adapted from Contemporary Prayers for Public Worship,
ed. Caryl Micklem, copyright © 1956 1967 SCM Press, Ltd.

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

         Listen and be guided again by God speaking through the last seven verses of Psalm 145:
         Will the ushers come now and help us to praise and bless the Lord with our tithes and offerings?