Sermon Tone Analysis

*Prelude*

Ushers will collect Prayer cards during the first hymn.

*Welcome*

*Call to Worship*

“/It is good for me to draw near to God:/

*I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works” (Ps.

73:28 KJV).*

*~*Praise                         *# 526        God of our Fathers

*~*Invocation (Lord’s Prayer)        *Father, we approach you in worship trembling, for we are sinners, yet in bold gladness, for we are your beloved children.

May our time together mold us even closer to the image of your dear Son, Jesus.

Strengthen us in our walk with you that we will be able servants this week.

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 debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen

*~*Gloria Patri** (*Sung together)*                                       *#575

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

Amen.

*Psalm for Today                                                                      **Psalm 113 NRSV*

/1//     //Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord./

2     *Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time on and forevermore.*

3     /From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised.

/

4     *The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.*

5     /Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, /

6     *who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

*

7     /He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, /

*8**     to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.

*

9     /He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.*

*/

*/Praise the Lord! /*

* *

*Our Offering to God         *“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Pet.

1:22 NIV).

*      *

*~*Doxology          #572*

*~*Prayer of Dedication          *O God, give us today keen insight to see the work of Christ among us and around us.

May we choose him, steadfastly follow him, and be good stewards of your gifts to us.

We give these offerings in his name.

*Scripture Reading                                                          **1 Timothy 2:1-7* NRSV

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God;

   there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all —this was attested at the right time.

7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

*          *

*~*Hymn of Prayer                   *# 486        Jesus Saves

*Pastoral Prayer  *Loving God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer of everything, we thank you for the joy of all creation on this holy day.

As we have come to worship you today, Lord, each of us comes with our own deep feelings and inner thoughts that sometimes only you know.

So we bring these feelings and thoughts to you, seeking your comfort and wisdom, and also bringing them as one of the ways of acknowledging your participation in our lives.

We know that we are all your children and that we find our meaning and reason for being within you.

We pray for persons who are in situations of oppression and abuse.

We ask that you give these persons strength to rise up in your name and to free themselves.

We pray for persons who are ill and perhaps are in treatment.

We pray for them, as their bodies fight whatever is invading their body.

We pray for persons who have lost loved ones and ask that you help them to know your presence and give them comfort in their grief.

We pray, Lord, for relationships where there is conflict between or among any persons, for we know that it is your will that peace be present.

We ask that your healing grace be wherever there is conflict.

We have come together today in your name.

Free us from whatever binds us, so we may worship you in spirit and in truth.

These things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.—Peggy

Goochey

*~*Hymn of Praise                                                                                             # 463*

Once to Every Man and Nation

*Scripture Text                                                                      Luke 16:1-13 NRSV*

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.

2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you?

Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.

3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?

I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.

~/ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’

He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’

7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’

He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’

He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’

~/ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

~/ 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

~/~/

10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.

11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth.”

*Message                                 *A Smart Man—Good or Bad

Jesus tells a story about a manager who may be fired.

The manager is being investigated by his employer, who wants an account of his work.

Realizing he is certain to lose his job, the manager gets various customers to mark down their bills!

In this way he hopes to make friends who will look after him in the future.

Although the manager is a thoroughly bad character, Jesus commends his realism.

At least he faces the crisis and takes immediate action.[1]~/~/~/~/

The interviewer had traveled all the way to New York to interview him about preaching.

Sitting in his living room, the young man was thrilled to be visiting with one of the most effective media ministers of all times.

When television was young, he appeared in prime time on Sunday evenings, teaching the Bible.

He was fully sponsored by Admiral Corp.

His broadcasts appeared opposite Frank Sinatra and Milton Berle, the biggest stars of his day.

His audience was between fifteen to twenty million viewers.

In 1952, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences named Fulton Sheen the most outstanding personality of television.

When accepting the award, he said, "I want to thank my writers .... Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John." \\ "You have come to New York to talk to me about preaching?

I cannot talk to you about preaching.

I do not know what to say.

Preaching is a gift.

It is like being a beautiful woman.