Sunday Service from Hillside Circuit for December 28th 2025:
Lectionary Theme: God’s faithful providence and protection
Occasion: 1st Sunday after Christmas
Lectionary readings:
Psalm 148
Isaiah 63: 7-9
Hebrews 2: 10-18
Matthew 2: 13-23
[Click or tap on a Bible reference above to jump down the page to the Bible reading to read it for yourself (and/or to listen to it) and then click or tap on Back to top to come back here.]
Songs:
Here are the songs for Sunday morning service. Click or tap on a song to open it in YouTube.
Another year is dawning.
All my days.
Lord make me a mountain.
To be in your presence.
Rejoice! The Lord is King.
It came upon the midnight clear.
Let earth & heaven combine.
Now unto Him.
Prayers:
You can listen and join in with prayers from the English Methodist Service Book. They can be found at the Prayers for worship webpage.
Children’s Address:
Sermon:
Bible readings:
Psalm 148
1 Shout praises to the LORD!
Shout the LORD’S praises in the highest heavens.
2 All of you angels, and all who serve him above,
come and offer praise.
3 Sun and moon, and all of you bright stars,
come and offer praise.
4 Highest heavens,
and the water above the highest heavens,
come and offer praise.
5 Let all things praise the name of the LORD,
because they were created at his command.
6 He made them to last forever,
and nothing can change what he has done.
7 All creatures on earth, you obey his commands,
so come praise the LORD!
8 Sea monsters and the deep sea, fire and hail,
snow and frost, and every stormy wind,
come praise the LORD!
9 All mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars,
10 every wild and tame animal, all reptiles and birds,
come praise the LORD!
11 Every king and every ruler, all nations on earth,
12 every man and every woman, young people and old,
come praise the LORD!
13 All creation, come praise the name of the LORD.
Praise his name alone.
The glory of God is greater than heaven and earth.
14 Like a bull with mighty horns,
the LORD protects his faithful nation Israel,
because they belong to him.
Shout praises to the LORD!
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Isaiah 63
7 I will tell about the kind deeds the LORD has done.
They deserve praise!
The LORD has shown mercy to the people of Israel;
he has been kind and good.
8 The LORD rescued his people, and said,
“They are mine. They won’t betray me.”
9 It troubled the LORD to see them in trouble,
and his angel saved them.
The LORD was truly merciful,
so he rescued his people.
He took them in his arms
and carried them all those years.
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Hebrews 2
10 Everything belongs to God, and all things were created by his power. So God did the right thing when he made Jesus perfect by suffering, as Jesus led many of God’s children to be saved and to share in his glory. 11 Jesus and the people he makes holy all belong to the same family. That is why he isn’t ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. 12 He even said to God,
“I will tell them your name and sing your praises
when they come together to worship.”
13 He also said,
“I will trust God.”
Then he said,
“Here I am with the children
God has given me.”
14 We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. 15 But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying. 16 Jesus clearly did not come to help angels, but he did come to help Abraham’s descendants. 17 He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins. 18 And now that Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help anyone else who is tempted.
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Matthew 2
13 After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him.”
14 That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, 15 where they stayed until Herod died. So the LORD’S promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”
16 When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or near Bethlehem and were two years old and younger. This was based on what he had learned from the wise men.
17 So the LORD’S promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,
18 “In Ramah a voice was heard
crying and weeping loudly.
Rachel was mourning for her children,
and she refused to be comforted,
because they were dead.”
19 After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. 20 The angel said, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead.”
21 Joseph got up and left with them for Israel. 22 But when he heard that Herod’s son Archelaus was now ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Then in a dream he was told to go to Galilee, 23 and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the LORD’S promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
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[Did you miss last week’s Sunday Services? They can now be found at Worship Archive – December 21st 2025 and you can find the Christmas Day Worship at Christmas Day Worship.]
Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 
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