[Did you miss last Sunday’s services? They can still be found at Worship Archive – March 20th 2022.]
Sunday Service from Connexion for March 27th 2022:
Sunday Service from Hillside Circuit for March 27th 2022:
Theme: God’s love for the lost
Occasion: 4th Sunday in Lent
Lectionary readings:
Psalm 32
Joshua 5: 9-12
2 Corinthians 5: 16-21
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
[Click or tap on a Bible reference above to jump down the page to the Bible reading to listen and/or read it for yourself 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, or go to the Songs for worship webpage to find them embedded.
We want to see Jesus lifted high.
Father God I wonder.
You are my hiding place.
Lord have mercy on us.
I will sing the wondrous story.
In Christ alone.
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:
Luke 15:11-32 God’s love for the Lost
God seeks out lost children and that is the powerful message in the parable of the Prodigal son. The message communicates to kids that God cares greatly for each and every individual, and that He loves us enough to seek us out and even pay the ultimate price to redeem us. It might seem that the prodigal deserves punishment. A child may think of running away as being naughty, and might especially imagine that leaving faith or running from God would have ill effects. The great news of the Gospel is that God does not give up on us or punish us. He will always love us, pursue us, and welcome us with open arms. Nothing we can do will ever separate us from God’s love and He is always waiting with open arms to welcome us back into His family. Lost sinners when they come are worth celebrating, so since God celebrates lost sinners being found, we also should do the same, we help people get to know God and when they do we celebrate when they give their lives to God. God loves us all and he loves the lost this is the unique kind of Love that God is offering to us all
Sermon:
Bible readings:
Psalm 32
1 Our God, you bless everyone
whose sins you forgive and wipe away.
2 You bless them by saying,
“You told me your sins, without trying to hide them,
and now I forgive you.”
3 Before I confessed my sins, my bones felt limp,
and I groaned all day long.
4 Night and day your hand weighed heavily on me,
and my strength was gone as in the summer heat.
5 So I confessed my sins and told them all to you.
I said, “I’ll tell the LORD each one of my sins.”
Then you forgave me and took away my guilt.
6 We worship you, LORD, and we should always pray
whenever we find out that we have sinned.
Then we won’t be swept away by a raging flood.
7 You are my hiding place! You protect me from trouble,
and you put songs in my heart
because you have saved me.
8 You said to me, “I will point out the road
that you should follow.
I will be your teacher and watch over you.
9 Don’t be stupid like horses and mules
that must be led with ropes to make them obey.”
10 All kinds of troubles will strike the wicked,
but your kindness shields those who trust you, LORD.
11 And so your good people should celebrate and shout.
Joshua 5
9 The LORD told Joshua, “It was a disgrace for my people to be slaves in Egypt, but now I have taken away that disgrace.” So the Israelites named the place Gilgal, and it still has that name.
10 Israel continued to camp at Gilgal in the desert near Jericho, and on the fourteenth day of the same month, they celebrated Passover.
11-12 The next day, God stopped sending the Israelites manna to eat each morning, and they started eating food grown in the land of Canaan. They ate roasted grain and thin bread made of the barley they had gathered from nearby fields.
2 Corinthians 5
16 We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in that way. 17 Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. 18 God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
19 What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace. 20 We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God. 21 Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so that Christ could make us acceptable to God.
Luke 15
1 Tax collectors and sinners were all crowding around to listen to Jesus. 2 So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses started grumbling, “This man is friendly with sinners. He even eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this story:
Once a man had two sons. 12 The younger son said to his father, “Give me my share of the property.” So the father divided his property between his two sons.
13 Not long after that, the younger son packed up everything he owned and left for a foreign country, where he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 He had spent everything, when a bad famine spread through that whole land. Soon he had nothing to eat.
15 He went to work for a man in that country, and the man sent him out to take care of his pigs. 16 He would have been glad to eat what the pigs were eating, but no one gave him a thing.
17 Finally, he came to his senses and said, “My father’s workers have plenty to eat, and here I am, starving to death! 18 I will go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against God in heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer good enough to be called your son. Treat me like one of your workers.’ “
20 The younger son got up and started back to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt sorry for him. He ran to his son and hugged and kissed him.
21 The son said, “Father, I have sinned against God in heaven and against you. I am no longer good enough to be called your son.”
22 But his father said to the servants, “Hurry and bring the best clothes and put them on him. Give him a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 Get the best calf and prepare it, so we can eat and celebrate. 24 This son of mine was dead, but has now come back to life. He was lost and has now been found.” And they began to celebrate.
25 The older son had been out in the field. But when he came near the house, he heard the music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants over and asked, “What’s going on here?”
27 The servant answered, “Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father ordered us to kill the best calf.” 28 The older brother got so angry that he would not even go into the house.
His father came out and begged him to go in. 29 But he said to his father, “For years I have worked for you like a slave and have always obeyed you. But you have never even given me a little goat, so that I could give a dinner for my friends. 30 This other son of yours wasted your money on prostitutes. And now that he has come home, you ordered the best calf to be killed for a feast.”
31 His father replied, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we should be glad and celebrate! Your brother was dead, but he is now alive. He was lost and has now been found.”
Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 
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