Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
July 1, 2012
Worship 10:00 am
 

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)        "The Steadfast Love of the Lord"     (insert)
  Announcements
  Prelude

*Responsive Call to Worship                       Lamentations 3:22-23

*Hymn                                "Great is thy faithfulness"                                   327

*Opening Prayer

  Responsive Scripture           Lamentations 3:24-26 

  A time for Silence

  Scripture                             Lamentations 3:27-33

  A time for Children          "Facing into Trouble"

  Sharing a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise
                                 (please be brief, and aware of God's listening presence)

  Song                           "The Steadfast Love of the Lord"                       (insert)

  Pastoral Prayer

  Hymn                          "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies"                        (insert)

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory                (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  Scripture                               2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

  Message               "When Goliath is not your enemy"

*Hymn                                 "Come, come ye saints"                                  425

*Benediction

*Postlude

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Responsive Call to Worship
Lamentations 3:22-23

One:     The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

All:       God’s mercies never come to an end;

One:     they are new every morning;

All:       great is thy faithfulness.

Opening Prayer

Indeed, O Lord, we can count on your love and faithfulness. At the center of all our varied motivations, that is why we really have gathered together in this place at this time. May all our other reasons for being here, either be pleasing in your sight or forgiven in your mercy, or (perhaps) both. Receive us as we are, and help us to receive you as you are, limited as our ability to fully know you may be. In your greatness and goodness, provide for our needs this day, and empower us through your Spirit to become what you have created us to be, that we might step out by faith into this new day and the week that follows. This we pray in the name of the One who leads us daily toward your Kingdom – Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Responsive Scripture
Lamentations 3:24-26

One:   “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
                        “therefore I will hope in him.”
 All:     The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
                        to the soul that seeks him.
One:     It is good that one should wait quietly
                        for the salvation of the Lord.

A time for Silence

            To “wait quietly” for the Lord can be difficult. That is true when we are little and our bodies just want to move, full of energy. It is also an accurate statement for those of us who are a bit further along the road of life. Impatience plagues us all.

            In the following moments, I encourage you to simply be still and, in the silence, allow God to do what God does when we wait upon the Lord. Become aware of your breathing and your heartbeat, and know that the Spirit is the very wind of God, faithful and steady and consistent. Be still…

Scripture
Lamentations 3:27-33

²⁷It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth, ²⁸to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, ²⁹to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope), ³⁰to give one’s cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults. ³¹For the Lord will not reject forever. ³²Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; ³³for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

A time for Children
“Facing into Trouble”

            Involve the children in remembering the story of David facing Goliath, as recorded in 1 Samuel 17. Make it fun. Have them chose the adult to come forward and portray Goliath. Act it out, all of them pretending to put on (and take off) the armor, pick stones, and fling them.

Pastoral Prayer

written closer to the time (if not at the moment)

Returning our Tithes and Offerings
2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Listen to what the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Yes, in this portion of his letter to them he is asking for money – not for himself, but for the believers in Jerusalem, who were not as well off as their Corinthian brethren. Notice how he shifts the conversation. The focus changes from collecting to emptying, from their abundance to the poverty of Christ. Listen…

⁷Now as you excel in everything —
                        in faith,
                        in speech,
                        in knowledge,
                        in utmost eagerness, and
                        in our love for you —
                                    so we want you to excel also
                                                in this generous undertaking.
⁸I do not say this as a command,
            but I am testing the genuineness of your love
                        against the earnestness of others.
⁹For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
            that though he was rich,
                        yet for your sakes he became poor,
                                                 so that by his poverty
            you might become rich.
¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice:
            it is appropriate for you
                        who began last year not only to do something
                                          but even to desire to do something —
            ¹¹now finish doing it,
                        so that your eagerness may be matched
                                    by completing it according to your means.
            ¹²For if the eagerness is there,
                        the gift is acceptable according to what one has —
                                    not according to what one does not have.
¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others
                                                   and pressure on you,
            but it is a question of a fair balance
                        between ¹⁴your present abundance
                                                            and their need,
                                          so that their abundance
                                                 may be for your need,
            in order that there may be a fair balance.
¹⁵As it is written,
            “The one who had much did not have too much,
                        and the one who had little did not have too little.”

Pray with me.

Spacious skies, waves of grain,
mountains majesties, fruited plain;
Pilgrim feet, freedom beat,
mended flaw, liberty in law.

In these moments, O Lord,
we turn our gaze beyond ourselves.
As we seek to be genuine, earnest,
perhaps even eager in our generosity,
shift our sight to Jesus, who,
though rich, became poor for our sake.

A dream that sees beyond the years,
a gleam, undimmed by human tears.
Shed your grace, O God.
Shed your grace.
Amen.

Ushers?

Benediction

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
God’s mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is the faithfulness of the One
who calls you, and equips you
to face whatever Goliath is ahead of you.
Go in peace.