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Order of worship

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LentPrelude                                                                          Qi Qing Thorp, Pianist

Words of Welcome                                                                Pastor Ginger Foster                                                                           
Diminishing Lights Ceremony – 4th Sunday of Lent               Sally Fried, Liturgist
                                                                                       & Pastor Ginger Foster
           Leader 1:  During Lent, we remember …
           Leader 2:   …so he went off again to the hills to be by himself.
All:  Jesus came into the world to change it, not to be made to fit into some mold that others felt was right. When Jesus refused to be what others wanted, they turned their backs on him, and a little of the light that had come into the world was put out.
|”The Service of Diminishing Lights, A Worship Ceremony For Sundays in Lent”|
            By Alexander H. Wales|

Opening Hymn   “Come and Find the Quiet Center”   #2128 (black hymnal)
                                                                                                    Vs. 1 & 2
                                “O How He Loves You and Me”     #2108 (black hymnal)
                                                                                                     Vs. 1 & 2

Offering Our Gifts & Lives to God                                                    
            Invitation to Give   
            Offertory                                                             Qi Qing Thorp, Pianist
            Doxology         “Praise God, from Whom                 #95 (red hymnal)
                                     All Blessings Flow”                       Sing once

Hymn                                “Amazing Grace”                        #378 (red hymnal)
                                                                                                     Vs. 1, 2 & 3

 Offering Our Prayers to God                                                                                   Sharing Our Joys and Concerns :    

          Concerns:     Lord in Your Mercy         “Hear our Prayers”
                  Joys:     In Grateful Praise           “Thanks be to God”
     Time of Personal Prayer                                          Dave Hogge, Guitarist
     Pastoral Prayer / Lord’s Prayer                                                                                       

Hymn of Preparation                “Grace Alone”              #2162 (black hymnal)
                                                                                                     Vs. 1 & 2
 
Scripture Reading                John 2: 14, 16-18                Sally Fried, Liturgist
                                                Romans 3: 21-26

Sermon “Grace–Prevenient, Justifying, Sanctifying”  Pastor Ginger Foster
            What is a Unit  ed Methodist? Sermon Series – Week #6

Reflection on the Scripture Passage(s)/Questions for private worship at home:
              “At the heart of Wesleyan/Methodist theology and practice is a profound understanding and vital experience of Grace. While John and Charles Wesley shared an understanding of grace deeply rooted in Christian teaching and tradition, they provided distinctive emphases, which came to characterize Methodist teaching and preaching…
            John Wesley defined grace as God's "bounty, or favour: his free, undeserved favour, ... man having no claim to the least of his mercies... For there is nothing we are, or have, or do, which can deserve the least thing at God's hand." 
            The Book of Discipline defines grace as "the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit."… Wherever God is present, there is grace!...
              Wesley describes three movements or expressions of grace to create distinctive emphases for living fully in response to God's creating, healing, reconciling and transforming activity. One dynamic or expression of God's grace is prevenience or "preventing" grace. Prevenient grace includes, according to Wesley, "all that is wrought in the soul by…showing every man ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God;'…
            Wesley described prevenient grace as the porch on a house. It is where we prepare to enter the house…
            Prevenient grace prepares us for justifying grace. "Justification," said Wesley, "is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins, and ... our acceptance with God." Justifying grace is the assurance of forgiveness that comes from repentance, from turning toward God's gracious gift of new life. It is being reconciled and realigned with God and the acceptance of God's atoning act in Jesus Christ.
            Wesley considered justification, or justifying grace, as the doorway into the house of God's salvation…
            …sanctifying grace represents the rooms in the expansive dwelling of God's presence with and purposes for humanity. Wesley affirmed that God's grace seeks nothing less than a new creation in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Sanctifying grace is God's freely given presence and power to restore the fullness of God's image in which we are created. … Sanctification, then, is the continuing process of being made perfect in love and of removing the desire to sin.
            As The Book of Discipline affirms, "While the grace of God is undivided, it precedes salvation as ‘prevenient grace,' continues in ‘justifying grace,' and is brought to fruition in ‘sanctifying grace.'"
     |A Wesleyan Understanding of Grace| By Kenneth L. Carder| ResourceUMC – resourceumc.org|

Closing Hymn    “Since Jesus Came Into My Heart”   #2140 (black hymnal)
                                                                                                     Vs. 1 & 3  

Unison Benediction                                                          Sally Fried, Liturgist
  Whatever life situation the Spirit has brought you to:
  walk in boldness, as a beloved child of God
  walk in peace, under the shelter of the Most High
  walk in faith, knowing Christ walks with you. Amen.

|Benediction for Lent| Adapted from Joanna Harader| Posted on her “Spacious Faith” blog| http://spaciousfaith.com|

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