Sunday Prayers - Epiphany - January 3

Approaching God

Welcome & announcements

Gathering Song & Prelude

Hymn:

Confessional Prayer

Guide: Everlasting God, to whom this world is just a footstool and the whole universe is a tapestry of Your making, we seek to serve You with our singing and hope to please You with our praises.

People: Almighty Lord, Your power cannot be equaled and Your ways are never thwarted; we humbly approach You as Your people, opening our hearts to Your unending love and focusing our minds upon Your gracious will.

Guide:  Merciful Father, we know our own weaknesses and past mistakes. We acknowledge our faithless ways and inconsistent devotion. We have trampled on the feelings of friends and loved ones with thoughtless words, harmful deeds, and selfish sins. Forgive us now as we humbly and sincerely confess our faults to You alone.

- SILENCE -

Guide: Gracious God, only Jesus can enrich our lives with the fountain of forgiveness that we need to cleanse our lives. Only Your Precious and Holy Son can restore us to Your Favor and reclaim our souls for Your Kingdom. In His Holy Name, we make these prayers, saying, Our Father…THE LORD’S PRAYER (debts/debtors)

Promise of the Gospel

Guide:  Christ speaks to us personally through His teaching and by God’s Holy Word. He calls us to repentance and seeks to save our souls by sacrificing Himself for us. Therefore, if we freely confess our sins and sincerely depend upon Him to rescue us from God’s wrath and rejection, we will be completely forgiven and eternally saved. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen.

Gloria Patri(sung in unison): Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.

Family Sermon (parents and all children, including Elementary school students come forward)

Encountering God

Anthem

Prayers for Health and Healing

Pastor: O Lord, show favor to Your people and restore our health through Your holy power. Forgive our fears and delete our doubts; strengthen our bodies and heal our minds.

People:                        Restore us again, O God our Savior, and place Your peace within our hearts. Show Your unfailing love to our families and friends, O Lord; grant them salvation from illness and anxiety.

Pastor: May Your love rekindle our hopes; may Your faithfulness to us restore our health. May Your righteousness speed our recovery and Your peace promote well being in our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls. Hear us now as we silently pray.

Silent Prayers for ourselves and others. A candle is lit

Pastor: The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our lives will experience healing and strength. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

(Healing Prayer based on words & phrases from Psalm 85)

Singing of ‘Jesus, Draw Me Close’

Prayer for Illumination:

Reader:           Holy Spirit, enable us to recognize and accept that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus, for there is no other name under heaven given to us by which we must be saved. May today’s scriptures enhance our lives and advance this precious teaching. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

Scripture Readings

Sermon  & The Apostles’ Creed

Offering & Offertory

Dedication (unison): Lord Jesus, we do not fully understand all that happens in this world but we know that Your Spirit continues to motivate many people to do good, help the poor, and support the weak. May our gifts be blessed and used to advance Your ministry, life, and work throughout this church, this community, and across the world. In Your Sacred Name, we give and pray. Amen. 

Communion

Hymn:

Benediction (unison):  May Christ’s light illuminate our hearts each day; may the Father’s love protect us from evil every day; and may the Holy Spirit daily guide and bless us to become effective servants of the One, Triune and Living God, both now and evermore. Amen.

Doxology         Praise God, from whom all blessings flow & Postlude