The Assigned Measure of Faith

October 30, 2022
Pastor Jacob Lee
Worship

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Service of Worship

Sprit of God
Arr. Frederick C. Atkinson
Public Domain

Leader: With the pressing crowds, searching for healing and hope,
People: We wish to see Jesus.
Leader: With the pushed out and cast aside, with the lonely lost, stripped of pride,
People: We wish to see Jesus.
Leader: With those who seek mystery and meaning, wisdom and grace,
People: We wish to see Jesus.

(From Order for Ecumenical Worship, inspired by Luke 19: 1-10)

Opening Hymn — #111 “How Can We Name a Love”

1. How can we name a Love
that wakens heart and mind,
indwelling all we know or think or do or seek or find?
Within our daily world,
in every human face,
Love’s echoes sound and God is found, hid in the common place.

2. If we awoke to life
built on a rock of care
that asked no great reward but firm, assured, was simply there,
we can, with parents’ names,
describe, and thus adore,
Love unconfined, a father kind, a mother strong and sure.

3. When people share a task,
and strength and skills unite
in projects old or new, to make or do with shared delight,
our Friend and Partner’s will
is better understood,
that all should share, create, and care, and know that life is good.

4. So in a hundred names,
each day we all can meet
a presence, sensed and shown at work, at home, or in the street.
Yet every name we see,
shines in a brighter sun:
In Christ alone is Love full grown and life and hope begun.

How Can We Name A Love (Terra Beata)
Brian Arthur Wren | Franklin Lawrence Sheppard
Words: © 1975 Hope Publishing Company
Music: Public Domain
Used by Permission. CCLI License # 656051

Joys and Concerns, Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer

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. And 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, the power, and glory forever. Amen.

Stewardship Testimony

For those who are called and able, gifts and tithes can still be made through online giving, by mailing them in, and by dropping them off to the office through the secure mail slot to the left of the double door entry to the church hallway.

Offertory – P.A.L.A.

Where He Leads Me (Norris)
Edward W. Blandy | John Samuel Norris
Public Domain

Doxology

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow (Old 100th)
Louis Bourgeois | Thomas Ken
© Public Domain

Offertory Prayer

Compassionate God, as Jesus did for Zacchaeus, you reach across the chasms that we’ve created, the ones where we’ve isolated ourselves from the redemptive power of your love. As with Zacchaeus, bridges have been built, and people who believed they were beyond your embrace have been welcomed to the table with open arms! As we give to you this day, may we also follow the example of Zacchaeus–with an explosion of gratitude and generosity–and may we also know his joy! We pray this in the name of Jesus, who invites himself to our table! Amen.

(Luke 19:1-10)

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:1-5 (NRSV)

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

Response
The Word of the Lord:
Thanks be to God.

Congregational Choral Anthem — #430 “O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee” (v. 1, 2, 4)

O Master Let Me Walk With Thee (Maryton)
Henry Percy Smith | Washington Gladden
Public Domain

Sermon — Rev. Jacob Lee
“The Assigned Measure of Faith ”

Closing Hymn — #714 “I Know Whom I Have Believed” (v. 1 – 3)

1. I know not why God’s wondrous grace
to me he hath made known,
nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
redeemed me for his own.

Refrain
But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I’ve committed
unto him against that day.

2. I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart,
nor how believing in his word
wrought peace within my heart.

Refrain

3. I know not how the Spirit moves,
convincing us of sin,
revealing Jesus through the word,
creating faith in him.

Refrain

I Know Whom I Have Believed
Daniel Webster Whittle | James McGranahan
Public Domain

Benediction

Postlude – Hani