WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

PRELUDE

JOURNEY TO THE CROSS

*HYMN 281 “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

O God, when we let you touch the deep places within us, we are moved to tears of remorse. Again and again, we violate the best you intend for us, to pursue our own whims and desires. We labor for food that perishes and ignore the Bread of Life. We settle for fragmentation rather than working for unity. O God, forgive and heal and empower us, we pray…

Silent Prayers of confession

WORDS OF ASSURANCE

We are enabled to be kind to one another, to be tenderhearted, to forgive one another, and to be forgiven, because Jesus feeds us with his life - a life given to save us from sin. Hear, then, the good news: those who are in Christ are a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come.

Thanks be to God!

*GLORIA PATRI

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Gracious God, we do not live by bread alone. Let the heavenly food of the Scripture we are about to hear nourish us today in the ways of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, the bread of heaven. Amen.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS:

Exodus 16: 2-4, 15-18, 31-32

² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” ¹⁷ The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little.¹⁸ And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. ³¹ The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. ³² Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”

John 6:32-40

³² Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” ³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

SERMON “Bread of Heaven” Rev. Barrett Ingram

*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his

only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the

third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right

hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the

dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic* Church; the communion of saints; the

forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

*“catholic” (little c) is translated as “universal” and is not a reference to the Roman Catholic Church.

PASTORAL PRAYER AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

HYMN 404 “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”

BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE

Announcements

Sunday, February 28

12:00 PM –Session Meeting

Prayer List:

Marguerite Hufham, Sarah Melvin, Louise Quick, Ronnie Rush, Betty Johnson, Bill Jackson, Darrel Melvin, Happy Lashlee, Gerry Carey, Becky Regan, Mary Ward, Lucille Hood, Amy Johnson, Bill Marsh, Esther Collier, Madeline NcNeill Long, Shannon Wilcox, Clara Wooten Hunsucker, Ernest Ray Long, Jo Campbell, Linda Smith, Susan and David Butler, Doug Bergeron, Margaret Ingram, Bill Greene, Allison Ward, Jimmy Hickman, Holly Eppley, Betty Faircloth, Susan Deans, Sammy Hatcher, Kim Worley Sellers, Carmen McQueen, Claudia Hester, Lin Weeks, Nellie Macon, Richard and Mary Jane Howell, Susan Priest, David Callihan, Ray Battle, Michael Ann Williamson, James Boswell, Rev. David McKirachan, Molly Cox, Bob Nelson, Ann Burney, Betty Ann McPherson, Alice Waugh, Wendy Marlowe Bowen, Joey Elkins, Mary Pope, Allyn Elkins, Richie Thompson, Rev. Andy Smith, Randy Page