18th Sunday After Pentecost – 10/4/20

In The Know – Philippians 3.4b-14
Philippians
Available Here
To support Cokesbury financially, you can give online here: http://cokesburyumc.church/about/

GATHERING

Prayer:
Lord, our God, you know who we are: People with good and bad consciences; satisfied and dissatisfied, sure and unsure people; Christians out of conviction and Christians out of habit; believers, half-believers, and unbelievers. But now we are before you: in all our inequality equal in this, that we are all in the wrong before you and against each other; that we all must die some day; that we all would be lost without your grace; but also in that your grace is promised to and turn toward all of us through your beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Announcements:
The number of COVID19 cases in our immediate area is such that we will continue to only offer worship online until it is reasonably safe for us to reopen.
Until that time, we will continue to offer mid-week prayers, live videos, and email devotionals.
Online giving can be made on our About page on the church website, cokesburyumc.church which will be linked in the video description for live worship as well as checks through the mail.

Hymn 249 – Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of his glory and grace.

Prayer:
Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that, as the Scriptures are read and your Word proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today…

And as you taught us, so now we pray… 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, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

PROCLAIMING

Scripture – Philippians 3.4b-14:
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Hymn 369 – Blessed Assurance:
V1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
Refrain
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
V2. Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Refrain
V3. Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Refrain

Sermon: In The Know

RESPONDING

Prayer:
Lord, help us find our life in you so that we might be free from our fear of death. Our deaths have died in the death of your Son so that, like him, we might rise to life made perfect by your love. Help us name our lives as gifts so we will not jealously try to ensure, through coercion and violence, the regard and envy of others. For we fear without such notice we will be dead. Such a living is not joy, and we know we were created for joy and life. Let us therefore learn to live as gifts so that others might rejoice in our existence.

Offering – Reminder for online giving, through the mail, or the drop slot at the church.

Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Five Ways To Help Your Church:

  1. Support the church with your financial gifts
  2. Share information about the church with others
  3. Contact someone from the church
  4. Share your ideas with the pastor
  5. Pray-Pray-Pray

SENDING FORTH

Blessing and Benediction