Tranquility
United Methodist
Church
Sunday Worship Service 10:00 AM
Come Join US in Worship
Do not miss our 77th Lord’s auction August 31 Rain or Shine
Tranquility United Methodist Church Sunday, December 6, 2020
Pastor Fred Laux
Welcoming Words
As we enter Advent, we are called upon to wake up from our sleep, disregard our actions that lead to darkness, to have faith the night is almost over and the day is about to dawn.
Pastor Fred
Opening Hymn
O, Come Emmanuel
Click to hear (click on skip ad if required)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQP0JsxEdPo
Call to Worship
Call To Worship:
Leader: in the darkness of hopelessness, hate and fear, God longs to comfort us.
People: come thou Long expected Jesus and make a way where there seems to be no way.
Leader: as we worship and praise you, prepare our hearts to hear the voices of your profits once more.
People: come thou Long expected Jesus and challenge us with truth once more.
Leader: As we wait for the light to be born in our world and lives:
All: come thou Long expected Jesus and deliver us again in the sacred season.
Opening Prayer
God of love and mercy, deliver us! As we celebrate this joyous season, we can’t help but to reflect upon the trying times of this year. We can’t help but to think of the hate, the division, oppression, illness and tragedy that sweeps through our land. Father deliver us! Change our hearts and heal our land. In these times and the days to come, may we be your instrument to change the world, to fix what is broken, to reach out to those in need. May we find comfort and hope in your Christ knowing that through you, the world might be saved.
Scripture Reading
Romans 8:1-11
Life in the Spirit
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Hymn
Trust and Obey
Click to hear (click on skip ad if required)
Prayer for Illumination
Do not give up on us, O God, for we are here to follow your precepts and return to your ways. Speak to us again of your ways of life and death, that we may grow strong in our faith and bear the fruit of eternal life.
And the Congregation says “Amen”
Gospel Reading
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
The Parable of the Sower
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!”
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
The Word of God for The People of God
Thanks Be to God
Junior Sermon
We have a box and what you think we have in this box? Well this box contains gifts to each one of us that God has given us,
open the box,
show a picture of people,
show some food like fruit
show some change,
show a little picture of the church,
and show flashlight,
these are all gifts from God, some of them cost us nothing, while others cost a bit. But everything that we have, are gifts from God to each and every one of us. And we need to say thank you and we need to appreciate and trust in God.
That God will give us everything we need.
Let’s pray thank you father, thank you father God, for all that we have, that all that we see here is a gift from you and thank you father for all those things that we don’t say that we know you have freely given us. Amen
Copyright sermons4kids
Hymn of Preparation
Thy Word
Click to hear (click on skip ad if required)
Peace and Light of Advent
This Sunday we are in the second week of Advent. Our Advent candle that we lit symbolizes peace.
The world has been seemingly forever in a constant turmoil. However, we celebrate receiving a precious gift from God. The gift of the Christ child, the Prince of Peace, who came in a time over 2000 years ago, while the world was in a great upheaval.
We remember the story of Christmas with Mary and Joseph who were forced to Bethlehem from Nazareth, so that they could register for Rome’s population census and taxation. This was a mandatory requirement. They did not have a choice. This was a command given the Roman government that they had to go to Bethlehem.
This was a time of uprising and insurrection, our Lord placed our Savior into this time so that the world could see the coming of the Prince of Peace. One small child that rocked the world.
To be born from the poorest of families which today we would call a low class, blue-collar family.
To be born in perhaps one of the worst conditions and places. But Jesus was to be born for the people. Jesus the Prince of Peace and the light of the world was on his way.
Today, we have choices. In this season of Advent, we have a choice to honor, love and respect each other. This Covid-19 virus is daunting. We need to peacefully respect and love our neighbors. We must do all we can do to protect and respect everyone.
In our candle lighting service this morning we said, ”Now as we light the candle of peace we remember how our Mighty God has given us the Prince of Peace through the birth of a small child. We remember at Christ’s baptism how the Holy Spirit landed on him like a dove.
We remember how the Christmas child grew, so God might give anyone who believes in Jesus the Christ eternal and everlasting peace”.
During the season of Advent, we are focused on the birth of the Christ child. Many of us love to hear the story of Christmas over and over again. It gives us hope and an understanding of God’s true feelings toward us - that God gave his only son the forgiveness of our sins.
As we enter this Advent season,
as we do every year, we look for hope, love, peace, generosity and goodwill.
Many of us, tend to look toward the good
that we see in people.
We have come to expect that this season will give us a feeling of optimism and happiness.
This season gives us a want,
and a need, to make people happy. We all see the peace and light of the season,
we can make a difference,
by being the bearers of the Light from God, by shining our light in the places that are filled with darkness.
Many of us symbolically try.
We string lights on our house,
we put up Christmas trees,
we watch a lot of fun shows,
we go Christmas caroling,
we put antlers on our cars try to make them look like a reindeer.
and we laugh and we giggle at the silly things that we do.
We, in effect, create a good amount of the light we see in the Christmas season.
We push aside the darkness by shining the light of our life into our environment.
We create goodwill with our Light.
This light is welcoming, and reminds us of the original bearer of light.
The Christ child, Jesus.
As we celebrate the birthday of our savior, our celebration creates this season of happiness for Christians.
We do things for each other that maybe we wouldn’t do normally during the year.
We are Christians.
From the gospel of Mark we learn
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.”
We are Christ’s symbol of light and peace on earth and we need to be bright so that all can see.
We are all unique and wonderful in God’s eyes
Peace and love is our choice.
We have to lead the world, by example just like we lead our children through our example of the love, peace, generosity and goodwill that we show to our neighbors.
8. We have to shine our personal light onto the darkness of the world by being courageous and not allowing darkness to frighten us.
Conquering darkness by shining our own light.
We come to church to be awakened, enlightened, and
to be guided and reminded of God’s love for each and every one of us.
Life is not easy, but life can be grand.
When we follow God’s commandments we will receive treasures beyond our belief,
and some may even be on earth.
Especially in this season of Advent,
this Christmas season, as children of God, we spread God’s peaceful, and glorious light.
We are people that are honest, generous, wholesome, thoughtful, hard-working and loving.
We are the followers of Jesus the Christ, the Prince of Peace and Light of the World.
During this season of light and love, we look forward to the day that we will celebrate the birth of the babe in the manger.
Amen
Let us pray
Amen
Closing Prayer Based on Psalm 85
Lord, you’ve been kind to your land;
you’ve turned away from your burning anger.
You, the God who can save us, restore us!
You bring us back to life again
so that your people can rejoice in you?
Show us your faithful love, Lord!
Give us your salvation!
Let me hear what the Lord God says,
because he speaks peace to his people and to his faithful ones.
Don’t let them return to foolish ways.
God’s salvation is very close to those who honor him
so that his glory can live in our land.
Faithful love and truth have met;
righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth springs up from the ground;
righteousness gazes down from heaven.
Yes, the Lord gives what is good,
and our land yields its produce.
Righteousness walks before God,
making a road for his steps.
A Pastoral Prayer
Lord of hope, you bless our lives every day. Father We Lift up, All in our community that need help in this time of uncertainly. We sometimes forget that all these blessings come from you and we overlook them or decide that we just deserve all the wonderful things that come our way. It seems that every year the push for the commercial holiday expectations comes earlier and earlier. By the time we approach the true Holy Day we are exhausted; we cannot gather the strength to praise you. Make us ready, Lord. Slow us down and help us find release from the demands. Enable us to make decisions that will build hope and community, rather than foster greed and selfishness. Help us reach out to others with gifts of kindness and peace. Enter our hearts, not with demands, but with a gentle reminder of the peace you bring. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
Please Join us in the prayer that Jesus taught up to pray.
THE LORD'S PRAYER. PLAY VIDEO BELOW
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those that 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.
In thanksgiving for the fruitful abundance of God’s creation, let us give back a portion of what we have received. By the Grace from God we will survive this trial. But we will need everybody to chip in, both spiritually, physically, and financially. We cannot afford to hesitate. We must support this church financially.
Please send us your tithes and offerings to the address below, or on-line (see below).
Pastor Fred
Tranquility United Methodist Church
P.O. Box 15
Tranquility, NJ 07879
You can now give on line.
https://www.gnjumc.org/onlinegiving/
Follow the simple directions and click on submit.
Our Church Number is 2058
Doxology
Click to hear (click on skip ad if required)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQUTvMtUhw4
Offering Prayer
God of mercy and hope, we bring our gifts this morning as we prepare our lives for the gift of the Christ Child. We come reflecting on his past coming to a poor family of refugees, born as they spent the night in a stable in Bethlehem. We know there are gifts to come, although we don’t know when he will return, and so we live in that hope. As we dedicate these tithes and offerings to you, we long for him to be born in our hearts again, this year, in this holy season. In the name of the one who came to save us, we pray. Amen.
Closing Hymn
Hark the Herald Angels SingClick to hear
(click on skip ad if required)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slOBjPXqDDM
Benediction
God’s word is a lamp to our feet.
Christ teachings are a light to our path.
May God’s word take root in our lives.
May Christ love nourish us like sunshine and spring rain.
God’s word is a lamp to our feet.
Christ teaching or a light to our path
“Now Let us Go out and show The World who the People of Christ, truly are”
Key Bible Verse this Week
The hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep now our salvation is near than when we first had faith.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
You can now give on line.
https://www.gnjumc.org/onlinegiving/
Follow the simple directions and click on submit. Our Church Number is 2058.
Thank you in advance, Pastor Fred.
Footnotes
{a} Copyright Abington Press
{b} Copyright Sermons4Kids
{c} Copyright Ministry Matters
{d} http://www.caldwellpresby.org/docs/resources/Prayers%20for%20Illumination.pdf
{e} Copyright Prayers of the People -Richard J. Einerson