OCT 4, 2026 ORDER OF WORSHIP - World Communion Sunday

 

THE FIRST WORD Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

 

Pastor: Give thanks to the God of heaven

People: His steadfast love endures forever.

 

WELCOME Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS Liturgist

 

PRELUDE Dr. Troy Banks

 

INVOCATION (Remain Seated) Liturgist

 

Faithful and loving God,

 

You are the keeper of the vineyard. You have planted your people with love, cleared away every obstacle, and provided all that is needed for life and growth. You have watched over your vineyard with patience and care, longing for it to bear the fruit of justice, righteousness, and faithful obedience.

 

As we gather in your presence today, remind us that we are your people, called to grow together in your grace. Remove from our hearts the stones that hinder our faith. Prune away all that keeps us from bearing good fruit. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, that our lives may reflect your love and your Church may be united in your purpose.

 

May this time of worship draw us closer to you and to one another, so that when you look upon your vineyard, you find a people who seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with you, and bear fruit for your kingdom.

 

We ask this through Jesus Christ, the true vine, who calls us to abide in him. Amen.

 

**CALL TO WORSHIP Liturgist

 

Leader: The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

People: Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

 

Leader: Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

People: We join all creation in giving glory to the Lord.

 

Leader: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

People: The decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple.

 

Leader: Let us seek the Lord with humble hearts, asking to be cleansed from hidden faults and kept from sin.

People: Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

 

**UMH #662 “Stand Up and Bless the Lord”

Stand up and bless the Lord

Ye people of his choice

Stand up and bless the Lord

Your God with heart and soul and voice

 

Though high above all praise

Above all blessing high

Who would not fear his holy name

And laud and magnify

 

O for the living flame 

From his own altar brought

To touch our lips our minds inspire

And wing to heaven our thought

 

God is our strength and song

And his salvation ours

Then be his love in Christ proclaimed 

With all our ransomed powers

 

Stand up and bless the Lord

The Lord your God adore

Stand up and bless his glorious name

Hence-forth for ever more

WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY OFFERING EXPLANATION Outreach Rep

 

OFFERING & OFFERTORY

 

**DOXOLOGY    

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him all creatures here below;

Praise Him above ye heav’nly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

 

OFFERTORY PRAYER Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

 

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Matthew 21:35-39 Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 

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36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 

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37 Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 

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38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 

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39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

 

JOYS AND CONCERNS Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

PASTORAL PRAYER

LORD’S PRAYER

 

SCRIPTURE READING Philippians 3:4b–14 NRSV Liturgist

4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 

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5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 

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6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 

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7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 

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8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 

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9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 

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10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 

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11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 

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12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. 

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13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 

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14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

RESPONSE TO SCRIPTURE Liturgist

Leader:  The Word of God for the people of God.

Congregation:  Thanks be to God.

 

SPECIAL MUSIC Dr. Troy Banks

 

SCRIPTURE READING Matthew 21:33–46 NRSV Pastor

33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. 

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34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 

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35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 

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36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 

--

37 Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 

--

38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 

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39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 

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40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 

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41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” 

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42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? 

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43 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. 

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44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” 

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45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 

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46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

RESPONSE TO SCRIPTURE Pastor

Leader:  The Word of God for the people of God.

Congregation:  Thanks be to God.

 

SERMON “Pressing on Together” Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

 

**TFWS HYMN #2226 “Bind Us Together”

Chorus

Bind us together Lord

Bind us together with cords

That cannot be broken

Bind us together Lord

Bind us together Lord

Bind us together in love

 

Verse 1

There is only one God

There is only one King

There is only one body

That is why we can sing

 

Chorus

Bind us together Lord

Bind us together with cords

That cannot be broken

Bind us together Lord

Bind us together Lord

Bind us together in love

HOLY COMMUNION

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

 

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

 

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,

always and everywhere to give thanks to you,

Father Almighty (almighty God), creator of heaven and earth.

You have made from one every nation and people

to live on all the face of the earth.

 

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven

we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

 

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

 

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection

you gave birth to your Church,

delivered us from slavery to sin and death,

and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

He commissioned us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth

and to make disciples of all nations,

and today his family in all the world is joining at his holy table.

 

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread,

gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

 

When the supper was over he took the cup,

gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,

poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

 

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,

we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving

as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,

as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

 

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

 

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,

and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,

that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

 

Renew our communion with your Church throughout the world,

and strengthen it in every nation and among every people

to witness faithfully in your name.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,

one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,

until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

 

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,

all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever.

 

Amen.

 

CLOSING SONG “Just as I Am - I Come Broken”

Just as I am without one plea

But that thy blood was shed for me

And that thou bidst me come to thee

O Lamb of God I come, I come

 

I come broken to be mended

I come wounded to be healed

I come desp’rate to be rescued

I come empty to be filled

 

I come guilty to be pardoned 

By the blood of Christ, the lamb

And I’m welcomed with open arms

Praise God just as I am

 

Just as I am and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot

To thee whose blood 

can cleanse each spot

O Lamb of God I come, I come

 

I come broken to be mended

I come wounded to be healed

I come desp’rate to be rescued

I come empty to be filled

 

I come guilty to be pardoned 

By the blood of Christ, the lamb

And I’m welcomed with open arms

Praise God just as I am

 

Just as I am I would be lost

But mercy and grace 

my freedom bought

And now to glory in your cross

O Lamb of God I come

 

I come broken to be mended

I come wounded to be healed

I come desp’rate to be rescued

I come empty to be filled

 

I come guilty to be pardoned 

By the blood of Christ, the lamb

And I’m welcomed with open arms

Praise God just as I am

Praise God just as I am

 

FELLOWSHIP BLESSING Youth Representative

 

God of every nation and every people,

thank you for welcoming us today.

As Christians around the world share one bread and one cup,

help us remember that we are one family in Christ.

 

Bless the food we are about to share,

the people gathered here,

and all of our brothers and sisters around the world.

 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

**BENEDICTION Rev. Jacob T. Jackson

 

POSTLUDE Dr. Troy Banks

(Please be seated as the postlude closes our service)