Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to Worship - Response Text...Psalm 107:1-3+17,19-22

107:1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he redeemed from trouble

107:3 and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

107:17 Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction;

107:19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress;

107:20 he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.

107:21 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

107:22 And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.

NRSV

Mission Moment  AFC

Lord, God, you have given us a vision of who we are to be as your people.

You have called us to share Christ with our country.

You have called us to faithfully care for those in need.

This is not something we can do on our own.

The vision is to great.

So we ask for your wisdom.

We ask for your courage.

We ask for your guidance as we rely on your ability to make the impossible possible.

Bless and multiply our American for Christ gifts and use them to bring Christ to America.

AMEN.

Litany - Our country hungers to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection.*

Lord, give us your vision.

*Our country is full of people who are hurting, helpless, homeless, or heartless.

*Lord, give us your vision.

*Our country is waiting for us, your church, to see the needs with your eyes.

*Lord, give us your vision.

*May we be your hands, your feet, your eyes in this land.*Lord,

let  us live out your vision.*

May our America for Christ gifts make the difference.

*Lord, let  us live out your vision.*

AMEN.

Prayer~/Lord’s Prayer  Father as we come before you this morning we pray that you would Forgive us, O God, ~/~/ we respond to what we think of as mistreatment with anger or with vengeful thoughts and fantasies.

Help us to return wrong with kindness.

Help us, too, to be kind, that others may not need this prayer in dealing with us.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing               # 45

Greetings~/ Praise Songs

Prayer of Praise

         We thank you for getting here long before we arrived, and for waiting for us.

For whatever reason we have come, for whatever expectations we bring, take hold of our minds, hearts, wills....~/~/ help us to see our sin as the continuous falling short of our human existence, with respect to our highest possibilities.

You have called us to live on dead center; we choose to live on the periphery.

You have called us to live in the light; we choose to live in the darkness.

we ask forgiveness for living on the periphery and in the darkness.

Father, you continue to invite us to live on center and in the light.

We can do nothing about our response to the Good News up to this moment, except to allow the Spirit of God to forgive our past.

Help us to be willing to do that!(One

minute of silence.)~/~/Jesus

said, "Be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven."

~/~/Help us to believe that reality.

that we may not only believe that truth intellectually, but that we would  believe it with our whole heart, soul and mind!

God, you promise us that we also can believe that emotionally.

Help us, Lord, to trust you to the point of obeying you, and your promises, with our whole being, with our heart, mind, and will.

Amen!

praises,

troops,

ill,

mourning,

new pastor

Special Music - Palmer Sisters, Soon and Very Soon

Scripture Reading - Numbers 21:4-9

Offertory - Stewardship Challenge

How do we keep our pocketbook in the darkness?

Are we willing to expose it to the light of the Christ?

If so, how will we do this?

Hymn # 204  All Glory, Laud and Honor

Gospel: John 3:14-21 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

        "The Invisible Nails" \\ Jesus’ greatest work wasn’t the work He did in His carpenter shop.~/~/His

greatest work wasn’t even when He performed great miracles of healing.~/~/His

greatest work was accomplished in just a few hours on Calvary when He died for our sins.~/~/~/~/We

know now that Jesus could have come down from the cross.~/~/The

nails driven into His hands and feet by the Roman soldiers couldn’t hold Him on the cross, but that day He chose the nails.

\\ In fact, there were some invisible nails that kept Jesus on the cross.

\\ The first of these invisible nails was the nail of *love*.

\\ In the midst of a world filled with hatred and bitterness, God allowed His only Son to volunteer to be born.~/~/God

became flesh and He dwelt among us.~/~/Although

He lived and worked among us for 33 years of His life, His ultimate goal was Calvary for He said, “for this reason I was born…” (John 18:37).

\\ The world has never again seen such a manifestation of selfless love that Jesus demonstrated for us at Calvary.~/~/For at the cross, Jesus laid down His most basic right, the right to life itself!~/~/It

was the nail of love that held Jesus to the cross!

\\ Jesus, carrying the burden of our sins upon Himself, went to the cross for us that God the Father would judge no condemnation upon us.

Somewhere there's an old sermon illustration about a man in an art museum.

The man walks up to the Mona Lisa, stares at it, and finally mutters that he doesn't think it's such a great painting.

A guard, overhearing this remark, steps over and says to the man: "Sir, it's not the painting which is judged here."

that was a masterpiece, and the man who failed to see that told something about himself, not the painting.

So it is with Jesus.

When we behold him, his majesty is not open for discussion.

It is ourselves about which we learn when we see Jesus.

Jesus came to the world as savior, not as judge.

This raises some troublesome questions.

What constitutes judgment?

Obviously, if I accept Jesus as my savior, I still go on sinning.

For goodness sakes, I catch myself at it all the time.

Even as words came out, I know I have done something wrong.