Sunday, August 1, 2021 - Trial - Error & Better Living: in our realities

Theme: Trial - Error & Better Living: in our realities

Hymn  Open Your Ears, O Faithful People     (In Person Only)

Welcome

Prayer for God’s Presence

2 Samuel 7:1-3                              Common English Bible Translation

When the king was settled in his palace, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “Look! I’m living in a cedar palace, but God’s chest is housed in a tent!” Nathan said to the king, “Go ahead and do whatever you are thinking, because the Lord is with you.” (Question: What are the things that you get excited about planning? Why?)

2 Samuel 7:4-7

But that very night the Lord’s word came to Nathan: Go to my servant David and tell him: This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build the temple for me to live in. In fact, I haven’t lived in a temple from 

the day I brought Israel out of Egypt until now. Instead, I have been traveling around in a tent and in a dwelling. Throughout my traveling around with the Israelites, did I ever ask any of Israel’s tribal leaders I appointed to shepherd my people: Why haven’t you built me a cedar temple? (Question: What are the things that take priority in your life and what should take priority?)

1 Chronicles 22:6-10

David sent for his son Solomon and instructed him to build a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, “My son, I had intended to build a temple for the name of the Lord my God. But the Lord told me: You’ve shed much blood and waged great wars. You won’t build a temple for my name because you’ve spilled so much blood on the ground before me. A son has just been born to you. He’ll be a man of peace, and I’ll give him peace with all his surrounding enemies. In fact, his name will be Solomon, and I’ll give Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He will be the one to build a temple for my name. He’ll become my son, and I’ll become his father, and I’ll establish his royal throne over Israel forever. (Question: What are some consequences that you have had to deal with in life?)

1 Kings 8:22, 24, 28-30a, 54-55

Solomon stood before the Lord’s altar in front of the entire Israelite assembly and, spreading out his hands toward the sky. This is the covenant you kept with your servant David, my father, which you promised him. Today, you have fulfilled what you promised. Lord my God, listen to your servant’s prayer and request, and hear the cry and prayer that your servant prays to you today. Constantly watch over this temple, the place about which you said, “My name will be there,” and listen to the prayer that your servant is praying toward this place. Listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place. As soon as Solomon finished praying and making these requests to the Lord, he got up from before the Lord’s altar, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out to heaven. He stood up and blessed the whole Israelite assembly in a loud voice. (Question: What helps you meet God in your life?)

Isaiah 56:7-8

I will bring them to my holy mountain, and bring them joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their entirely burned offerings and sacrifices on my altar. My house will be known as a house of prayer for all peoples, says the Lord God, who gathers Israel’s outcasts. I will gather still others to those I have already gathered. (Question: How do you experience God’s presence?)

Offering Ourselves to God

       During this time let us quietly reflect upon an excerpt from the Brief Statement of Faith.

We trust in God the Holy Spirit everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the Church. In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

Hymn    Lord, the Light of Your Love is Shining    (In Person Only)

Prayers of the People and The 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin 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.  Amen

Benediction

Closing Hymn  Here I Am, Lord       (In Person Only)