Below you will find the words that we’ll be using in worship this Sunday. You’re welcome to join us in the sanctuary (with a mask) or online. If you’d like to download and print a copy, you can do that here.

PRELUDE – Grace Greater Than Our Sin

CALL TO WORSHIP – Jonah 2

‘I called to the Lord out of my distress,

   and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

   and you heard my voice.

You cast me into the deep,

   into the heart of the seas,

   and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

   passed over me.

Then I said, “I am driven away

   from your sight;

how shall I look again

   upon your holy temple?”

The waters closed in over me;

   the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped around my head

   at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land

   whose bars closed upon me for ever;

yet you brought up my life from the Pit,

   O Lord my God.

As my life was ebbing away,

   I remembered the Lord;

and my prayer came to you,

   into your holy temple.

Those who worship vain idols

   forsake their true loyalty.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving

   will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

   Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’

SONG – Song Of the Prophets  #53  vv. 1, 10, 18

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Most High and Holy God, you have called us. You have sent us. Yet, we try to run. We try to hide. You have made known your will to us. You have revealed your desires for us. Yet, we have a will of our own. We have our own desires that compete with yours. We confess that we don’t always know the difference between them. We confess that even when we do, we choose our will and our desires over yours. So, we vow once again to genuinely and earnestly seek your will and your desire first. Grateful for your patience, we ask also for your Spirit heal our wounds and guide our steps. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

SONG – God Be Merciful To Me  #622

WORDS OF ASSURANCE

But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for God makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have…Do not even the nations do the same? Be complete in love, therefore, as your heavenly Father is complete.

SONG – Ten Thousand Reasons  #559

SCRIPTURE – Jonah 3:7-4:8

Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’

SERMON

SONG – Will You Come and Follow Me  #742

PRAYERS

OFFERTORY – Down To the River To Pray

BENEDICTION

SONG – Hallelujah! Salvation & Glory!  #491