(Clicking on the text underlined in blue will take you to Youtube videos. Most are songs, except for the Sermon, “Gotta Serve Somebody”)
All Prayers are from the Book of Common Worship (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018) and The Worship Sourcebook, Second Edition (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Faith Alive Christian Resources and Baker Books, 2013)
Pray: We praise you for creating this world in all beauty, for redeeming the world through Christ, our Lord, and for sending us the gift of your Spirit to encourage, instruct, and sustain us. We long for your Spirit to work among us now, to inspire our praise, to challenge us with your truth, and to equip us for service in your world. Amen.
Sing or Listen: Traditional: Will You Come and Follow Me?
Contemporary: Blessed Be Your Name
Confess: Eternal and merciful God, you have loved us with a love beyond our understanding, and you have set us on paths of righteousness for your name’s sake. Yet we have strayed from your way; we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, through what we have done and what we have left undone. As we remember the lavish gift of your grace symbolized in baptism, O God, we praise you and give you thanks that you forgive us yet again. Grant us now, we pray, the grace to die daily to sin, and to rise daily to new life in Christ, who lives and reigns with you, and in whose strong name we pray. Amen.
Be: Sit (or stand) in silence for one minute.
Be Assured: While it is true that we have sinned, it is a greater truth that we are forgiven through God’s love in Jesus Christ. To all who humbly seek the mercy of God I say, in Jesus Christ your sin is forgiven. Amen.
Read God’s Word: Psalm 13 (New Revised Standard Version)
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Read God’s Word: Romans 6:12-23 (New Revised Standard Edition)
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Watch the Sermon: “Gotta Serve Somebody”
Think or Discuss: Other than Jesus Christ, what forces or people have tried to claim dominion or mastery over you? Did you resist them?
Do: Take some time to do some reading or research on Anti-Slavery efforts, both historically and modern, and Christianity’s role in them.
Pray: Use this time to pray, silently, at first, and then for others who need your prayers.
Finally, pray the Lord’s Prayer. (Our Father…)
Sing or Listen: Traditional: Amazing Grace
Contemporary: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever
Bless and Be Blessed: May the God of Peace and the Peace of God be with you always.