Sermon Tone Analysis

New Year’s FRESH-START SERVICE - 2019

Adapted from John Wesley by Jeren Rowell

FURTHER ADAPTED by Rev. Dr. Timothy J. Stidham   

Call to worship: The Daily Office

[leader] "Everyone, let’s connect with God in a New Year's covenant which won’t be forgotten."

We come together early in this new year to join in a New Year's service.

Our purpose is to be reminded of our deep need of God's forgiveness and power in our lives through Jesus.

We call this God’s grace.

Grace is both forgiveness we don’t earn and spiritual power given by God to help us live.

God’s plan is for all of us to admit that we are sinful and broken without Jesus.

He also wants us to remember that we can’t experience true salvation through anyone but Jesus; through anything but his forgiveness.

Next, we can realize that our need of his grace is more than forgiveness for sins, or things we’ve done wrong.

It goes deeper.

We need grace to make us clean and holy on the inside.

We call this sanctification.

The Holy Spirit changes us for the better from the inside out.

I invite you to join me in an opportunity for a fresh experience of his grace.

God is inviting you to adventure with Him.

God invites you to put your whole life in His hands.

Let’s embrace this new life adventure together.

Let’s rededicate ourselves to this special relationship God offers to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Historical Background

[leader]: This service comes to us through John Wesley, the forefather of our beliefs and church family heritage.

For him what it meant to be a mature disciple of Christ was the joining of believers in a covenant "to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul."

For us, it is important that we recognize our continuing need for confession.

Confession is speaking out our sins, failures, and need for God.

We have tended to think of confession only at the moment of turning to Jesus for the first time.

But scripture makes clear, even the mature follower of Jesus needs a prayer of confession from time to time.

Read 1 John chapter one to study further.

In John Wesley’s own words: "the most holy among us is subject to a thousand infirmities which spring from our fallenness.”

Our shortcomings and human failings need the work of Jesus as well as our 'properly so-called' sins.

According to the apostle Paul, all of us must live daily recognizing our need of the cleansing work of Jesus.

Today, we recognize again not only our great need of the grace of God, but our need to express our group relationship with God and our personal relationship with God – that in 2019 we will love and serve the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

We need to understand that God is making a commitment to us today as well.

God has promised to forgive our sins and to always be there to help us and correct us if we are faithful to God.

LEADER: Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

PEOPLE: Amen.

PEOPLE: Amen.

LEADER: Come let us worship the Lord who established a new covenant through his Son Jesus Christ.

PEOPLE: We come in Spirit and in truth.

Worship: Be Thou My Vision

PRAYER OF ADORATION

LEADER: Let us pray:

Let us worship our creator, the God of love;

God continually preserves and sustains us; we have been loved with an everlasting love; through Jesus Christ we have been given complete knowledge of God’s glory.

PEOPLE: You are God; we praise you; we acknowledge you to be the Lord.

LEADER: Let us glory in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor; he was tempted in all points as we are, but he was without sin; he went about doing good and preaching the good news of the kingdom; he accepted death, death on the cross; he was dead and is alive forever; he has opened the kingdom of heaven to all who trust in him; he sits in glory at the right hand of God; he will come again to be our Judge.

PEOPLE: You, Christ, are the King of Glory.

LEADER: Let us rejoice in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life.

Through the Spirit we are into the family of God., and made members of the body of Christ; the witness of the Spirit confirms us; the wisdom teaches us; the power enables us; the Spirit will do far more for us than we ask or think.

PEOPLE: We give praise to you, Holy Spirit.

Silent Prayer:

LEADER: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify Your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let’s say the prayer Jesus taught to his disciples, using the word “trespasses”.

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

Scripture:

1 O LORD , our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

    above the heavens.

2 From the lips of children and infants

    you have ordained praise [b]

    because of your enemies,

    to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens,

    the work of your fingers,

    the moon and the stars,

    which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

    the son of man that you care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]

    and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;

    you put everything under his feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

    and the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air,

    and the fish of the sea,

    all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD , our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

   

1 There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,