WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

PRELUDE “Lo, How A Rose/Once In David’s Royal City” Albin Whitworth

LIGHTING THE ADVENT CANDLES

HYMN “O Lord, How Shall I Meet You?” #11 (vss. 1, 2)

CALL TO CONFESSION

Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against him.

Let us then renounce our willfulness and seek his mercy by confessing our sins in humility and faith.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Emmanuel, you love us, but we do not love you fully. You call, but we do not listen. In these hectic days we easily become wrapped in our own concerns, we rush by those in need, and miss the sounds of heaven rejoicing. We are lost in a fever of busyness that has separated us from you. Confront us with our sin, that we may repent and receive the forgiveness that carries us home to you...

Silent Prayers of confession

WORDS OF ASSURANCE

The Psalmist declared that God’s steadfast love was established forever – to all generations. (Psalm 89: v 1, 2) The evidence of that love is surely found in God’s entry into the world in Jesus Christ, “not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned” (John 3:17, 18).

Thanks be to God!

GLORIA

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Speak to us, Lord. Speak to us in the waiting, the watching, the hoping, the longing, the sorrow, the sighing, the rejoicing. Speak to us by your Word in these Advent days, and walk with us until the day of your coming. Amen.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS: John 15: 1-11

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. ¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

SERMON: “Finding Love” Rev. Barrett Ingram

HYMN “People, Look East” #12 (vss. 1, 5)

*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

BENEDICTION

*POSTLUDE “The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came” Annie L. Page

Announcements

December 24^th – Christmas Eve Communion service

--- The Christmas Joy Gift Offering can be given anytime up till December 27^th.

--- All contributions for the church need to be in the office by December 27^th to be recorded for the year 2020.

Prayer List:

Marguerite Hufham, Sarah Melvin, Louise Quick, Ronnie Rush, Juanita McGraw, 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, Ted Johnson, 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, Carey King, Sammy Hatcher, Kim Worley Sellers, Carmen McQueen, Claudia Hester, Wynn Hair family, Lin Weeks, Billy Hester, Nellie Macon, Richard and Mary Jane Howell, Susan Priest, David Callihan, Family of Randall Collins, Family of Margaret Pope, Family of Andy Chavis, Family of Jane Minard