Instructions for participating in at-home worship:
Readings and prayer are provided here as suggestions for your family to do together. Even though our church is not physically gathered together in one building, there is a unity in Christ that happens when we all read the same scriptures and say the same prayers separately in our homes. Know that as your family participates in this worship time in your home, you are joining many others doing exactly the same thing in their homes.
You may download and print this entire service BULLETIN as well as sermon NOTES for children from the Download Files section at the bottom of this page.
Call to Worship
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
— Psalm 100:1-5 (NIV)
Praise
Read God's Word Together
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
— Romans 8:18-25 (NIV)
Children's Message
Pray Together
Lord of creation, in this springtime season we come to this place this day to praise you. Your hands, O God, have fashioned whole worlds of wonder. Today we mark that divine craftsmanship in the budding of the daffodil. We see colorful crocuses dotting lawns and gardens and see in this spectacle your very fingerprints. So often when we touch things, we leave behind smudgy residues of our sinfulness. But when you touch the creation, O Father, you leave behind bright traces of glory. There is right now so much that is wrong with this world, so much that causes us anxiety, fear, and deep sadness. Yet the springtime renewal of life reminds us that in your hands there is so much that is right. Help us to see in this spring not simply a natural cycle that repeats itself each year, but instead help us to see deeper down into the dear promise of the gospel itself. Help us to find hope in a hopeless age, peace in a time of war, joy in a world of sorrow, cause to sing in an era of shouting, of confusion, and of chaos. Receive our thanks for all that is right, good, proper, and radiant with hope. We pray today also that you will comfort those whose lives have become what seems to be a series of setbacks and increasing limitations. Remind us that nothing can separate us from your love that is in Christ Jesus. Remind us of your abiding love and grace so that we may always glorify you in all we do. Amen.
Message
Response
Audio only of message
Readings and prayer are provided here as suggestions for your family to do together. Even though our church is not physically gathered together in one building, there is a unity in Christ that happens when we all read the same scriptures and say the same prayers separately in our homes. Know that as your family participates in this worship time in your home, you are joining many others doing exactly the same thing in their homes.
You may download and print this entire service BULLETIN as well as sermon NOTES for children from the Download Files section at the bottom of this page.
Call to Worship
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
— Psalm 100:1-5 (NIV)
Praise
Read God's Word Together
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
— Romans 8:18-25 (NIV)
Children's Message
Pray Together
Lord of creation, in this springtime season we come to this place this day to praise you. Your hands, O God, have fashioned whole worlds of wonder. Today we mark that divine craftsmanship in the budding of the daffodil. We see colorful crocuses dotting lawns and gardens and see in this spectacle your very fingerprints. So often when we touch things, we leave behind smudgy residues of our sinfulness. But when you touch the creation, O Father, you leave behind bright traces of glory. There is right now so much that is wrong with this world, so much that causes us anxiety, fear, and deep sadness. Yet the springtime renewal of life reminds us that in your hands there is so much that is right. Help us to see in this spring not simply a natural cycle that repeats itself each year, but instead help us to see deeper down into the dear promise of the gospel itself. Help us to find hope in a hopeless age, peace in a time of war, joy in a world of sorrow, cause to sing in an era of shouting, of confusion, and of chaos. Receive our thanks for all that is right, good, proper, and radiant with hope. We pray today also that you will comfort those whose lives have become what seems to be a series of setbacks and increasing limitations. Remind us that nothing can separate us from your love that is in Christ Jesus. Remind us of your abiding love and grace so that we may always glorify you in all we do. Amen.
Message
Response
Audio only of message
Bible Text: Leviticus 25 | Preacher: Tom VanderPloeg | God originally established the sabbath as a pattern of rest and restoration for his creation; yet we struggle to see today why it is good for our world to rest
Topics:
Sabbath