Sunday Worship Service
July 4, 2021
We are RECEIVED as the Beloved of God
The actual worship service begins 15 minutes into the recordings.
WELCOME
OPENING SONG – Reverie (Bells of St. Matthew’s)
OPENING PRAYER
SONG – America the Beautiful (UM Hymnal, navy blue book, # 696)
MESSAGE FOR ALL AGES
SONG – This is My Song (St. Matthew’s Summer Singers)
We are TRANSFORMED by the Word of God
Matthew 21:12-13
12 Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”
John 2:13-22
13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” 17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” 18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” 19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
GOOD NEWS – America, We Are the Temple of God. Keep It Holy!
What made Jesus Christ furious at the temple court? What would He say about America today? Jesus Christ, our Lord wants us to honor God and treat other human beings and ourselves with justice and respect for human dignity.
SONG – America (My County, ’Tis of Thees) (UM Hymnal, navy blue book, # 697)
THE HOLY COMMUNION
RESPONSE TO GOD’S GRACE (OFFERING)
Pastor: God wants our love more than God wants our offerings; God cares about our hearts not the amounts of our offerings. (Hosea 6:6).
All: As we count all the blessings God has already given to us, we cheerfully give our offerings to God, the Provider, with grateful hearts. Amen! (2 Corinthians 9:7).
PRAYERS
– BLESSING THE FOOD MINISTRY
– PRAYER FOR OUR COUNTRY (UM Hymnal, navy blue book, # 429)
– PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
We are SENT in the Power of God
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BLESSING AND SENDING
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you, my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.
CLOSING SONG – God Bless the Child (Dennis Cecere)