April 6, 2025 Order of Worship

Because He Lives – Pat Gray

Welcome – Terry Bolender

Opening Prayer – Luke Coffland

Leader: Listen up, all you people of God, hear the truth! The Lord is our God – the Lord alone.

People: We belong to you, God. Each day we will love you with our whole heart and our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

Leader: With all of our soul and all of our might, with all that we are and everything we’ve got we honor you, God!

People: We will keep our promises to you, to our neighbors, and to all of creation.

Leader: Write your ways and your expectations upon our hearts that we might never forget the path that leads to love and life.

People: In our homes and in public, your words of wisdom will shape our every thought, every word, and every act.

Leader: We will teach our children to walk in your ways, God.

People: In every part of our lives, we promise to shine and share your steadfast love and faithfulness.

All: In Jesus’ name and for his coming kingdom’s sake we pray. Amen!

He Knows My Name – Congregational Singing

Time with Young Disciples – Stephanie McIlwain Miller

Noisy Offering

Scripture Reading – Luke Coffland

Introduction to the First Scripture Reading

Jeremiah was a prophet who lived at the end of southern kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem about 600 years before Jesus. His messages warn about God’s judgement over broken promises and hope for a new promise that God would make by writing God’s law on our hearts so that we could never again forget how to live God’s ways. Our first scripture comes from Jeremiah chapter 31…

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was like their beloved and faithful spouse, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

Introduction to the Second Scripture Reading

Proverbs are short wisdom sayings meant to teach us special skills for living a godly life with humility, reverence, and moral ethics in harmony with God and our neighbors. Our second reading is 4 verses of one of 10 speeches in the Book of Proverbs from a father to a son.

Proverbs 4:23-26

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put far away all crooked speech, devious talk, and all lies. Keep your eyes only on the Lord your God. And keep your paths straight in God’s promises and God’s ways.

Introduction to the Third Scripture Reading

Of all the 613 laws in the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus was asked which was most important of all. His answer was short and fast. It all comes from the heart. Here’s the answer Jesus gives in Matthew chapter 22…

Matthew 22:36-40

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Message – The Promise of the Heart – Pastor Jim

Offering Our Gifts to God – I Want Jesus to Walk with Me – Pat Gray

Doxology – How Shall I Come Before the Lord – W&S #3124, vs.1

Prayer of Dedication

Pastor: All that we have, we have from you, Creator and Preserver of all.

People: Accept these gifts which we now offer.  Help us to make the whole of life an offering and every thought a prayer.

Holy Communion

The Great Thanksgiving (with invitation, confession, and pardon)

Sharing the Bread and the Cup

Music During Communion

In Remembrance of Me – Sanctuary Choir

The Summons – TFWS #2130

Blessing – Pastor Jim

Jesus Shall Reign (arr. by Mark Hayes) – Pat Gray

Resources for Worship

Opening Prayer is by Jim Head-Corliss for worship at Kent UMC April 6, 2025 from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This prayer echoes the Shema which is the most central prayer in all of Judaism, recited at least twice daily – morning and evening – as an affirmation of God’s sovereignty over our lives and all that is.