Sunday Service from Hillside Circuit for January 4th 2026:
Lectionary Theme: Covenant of Grace: Restoration and Redeemed
Occasion: Covenant Sunday
Lectionary readings:
Psalm 147: 12-20
Jeremiah 31: 7-14
Ephesians 1: 3-14
John 1: (1-9), 10-18
[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.
Come, now is the time to worship.
We believe in God the Father.
Lord, I come to you.
Light of the world.
Lord of all good.
Come, let us use the grace divine.
Take my life.
My peace.
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:
[No Children’s Address was received today.]
Sermon:
Bible readings:
Psalm 147
12 Everyone in Jerusalem,
come and praise the LORD your God!
13 He makes your city gates strong
and blesses your people by giving them children.
14 God lets you live in peace,
and he gives you the very best wheat.
15 As soon as God speaks, the earth obeys.
16 He covers the ground with snow like a blanket of wool,
and he scatters frost like ashes on the ground.
17 God sends down hailstones like chips of rocks.
Who can stand the cold?
18 At his command the ice melts, the wind blows,
and streams begin to flow.
19 God gave his laws and teachings
to the descendants of Jacob, the nation of Israel.
20 But he has not given his laws to any other nation.
Shout praises to the LORD!
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Jeremiah 31
7 The LORD says:
Celebrate and sing for Israel, the greatest of nations.
Offer praises and shout,
“Come and rescue your people, LORD!
Save what’s left of Israel.”
8 I, the LORD, will bring my people back from Babylonia
and everywhere else on earth.
The blind and the lame will be there.
Expectant mothers and women about to give birth
will come and be part of that great crowd.
9 They will weep and pray as I bring them home.
I will lead them to streams of water.
They will walk on a level road and not stumble.
I am a father to Israel, my favourite children.
10 Listen to me, you nations nearby or across the sea.
I scattered the people of Israel,
but I will gather them again.
I will protect them like a shepherd guarding a flock;
11 I will rescue them from enemies
who could overpower them.
12 My people will come to Mount Zion and celebrate;
their faces will glow because of my blessings.
I’ll give them grain, grapes, and olive oil,
as well as sheep and cattle.
Israel will be prosperous and grow
like a garden with plenty of water.
13 Young women and young men, together with the elderly,
will celebrate and dance,
because I will comfort them and turn their sorrow
into happiness.
14 I will bless my people with more food than they need,
and the priests will enjoy the choice cuts of meat.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
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Ephesians 1
3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven! 4 Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. 5 God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God’s own adopted children. 6 God was very kind to us because of the Son he dearly loves, and so we should praise God.
7-8 Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means that our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because God was so kind to us. God has great wisdom and understanding, 9 and by what Christ has done, God has shown us his own mysterious ways. 10 Then when the time is right, God will do all that he has planned, and Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth.
11 God always does what he plans, and that’s why he had Christ choose us. 12 He did this so that we Jews would bring honour to him and be the first ones to have hope because of him. 13 Christ also brought you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show that you belong to God. 14 The Spirit also makes us sure that we will be given what God has stored up for his people. Then we will be set free, and God will be honoured and praised.
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John 1
1 In the beginning was the one who is called the Word.
The Word was with God and was truly God.
2 From the very beginning the Word was with God.
3 And with this Word, God created all things.
Nothing was made without the Word.
Everything that was created 4 received its life from him,
and his life gave light to everyone.
5 The light keeps shining in the dark,
and darkness has never put it out.
6 God sent a man named John,
7 who came to tell about the light
and to lead all people to have faith.
8 John wasn’t that light.
He came only to tell about the light.
9 The true light that shines on everyone
was coming into the world.
10 The Word was in the world,
but no one knew him,
though God had made the world with his Word.
11 He came into his own world,
but his own nation did not welcome him.
12 Yet some people accepted him and put their faith in him.
So he gave them the right to be the children of God.
13 They were not God’s children by nature
or because of any human desires.
God himself was the one who made them his children.
14 The Word became a human being and lived here with us.
We saw his true glory,
the glory of the only Son of the Father.
From him all the kindness and all the truth of God
have come down to us.
15 John spoke about him and shouted, “This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born.”
16 Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another. 17 The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like.
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[Did you miss last week’s Sunday Services? They can now be found at Worship Archive – December 28th 2025.
Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 
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