March 21, 2021 - Serving God
March 14, 2021 - Talking with God
February 21, 2021 - First Week of Lent - Knowing God
February 14, 2021 - The Transfiguration of Jesus
February 7, 2021 - Jesus is Tempted
January 17, 2021 - Sanctification
January 10, 2021 - Covenant Renewal
January 3, 2021
Christmas Eve Service 2020
December 20, 2020 - Advent Week 4 - The Shepherd's Dilemma
December 13, 2020 Advent Week 3 - The Innkeeper's Dilemma
December 6, 2020 Advent Week 2 - Mary's Dilemma
June 14, 2020
June 7, 2020
May 31 - Pentecost Sunday
May 24 - Ascension Sunday
May 10 - Joseph of Arimathea
Good afternoon! I pray you are blessed as you watch today's service.
May 3 - Jesus Saves: Peter
April 26 - Jesus Loves: The Woman at the Well
John 4.1-42
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John-- 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John-- 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
April 12 - Easter Sunday
Lent #6 Palm Sunday - April 5, 2020
Call to Worship (based on Revelation 7:9-12)
And I looked,
and there was a great crowd that no one could number.
They were from every nation, tribe, people and language.
They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
And they cried out with a loud voice:
“Victory belongs to our God who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”
And the angels fell facedown before the throne
and worshipped God, saying:
“Amen!
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honour and power and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
And I looked,
and there was a great crowd that no one could number.
They were from every nation, tribe, people and language.
They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
And they cried out with a loud voice:
“Victory belongs to our God who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”
And the angels fell facedown before the throne
and worshipped God, saying:
“Amen!
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honour and power and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
Closing Prayer: Merciful God, as we enter Holy week, turn our hearts again to Jerusalem, and to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Stir up within us the gift of faith that we may not only praise him with our lips, but may follow him in the way of the cross.
—written by John Paarlberg, retired minister of Word and sacrament
—written by John Paarlberg, retired minister of Word and sacrament
Lent #5 - March 29, 2020
Lent Call to Worship
(based on Isaiah 43: 19-21)
Let us worship God, who has done great things.
We rejoice in our God, who made a way
through the desert of this world.
Let us worship God,
who has caused streams of mercy
to flow in the wasteland.
We are the people God has formed through Christ;
we worship him, and we rejoice!
Let us worship God in spirit and in truth.
We praise God for the grace that has saved us.
Alleluia! We rejoice!
— from The Worship Sourcebook, posted on the Sojourn Music website.
Video #1 - Greetings and Scripture
(based on Isaiah 43: 19-21)
Let us worship God, who has done great things.
We rejoice in our God, who made a way
through the desert of this world.
Let us worship God,
who has caused streams of mercy
to flow in the wasteland.
We are the people God has formed through Christ;
we worship him, and we rejoice!
Let us worship God in spirit and in truth.
We praise God for the grace that has saved us.
Alleluia! We rejoice!
— from The Worship Sourcebook, posted on the Sojourn Music website.
Video #1 - Greetings and Scripture
Video #2 - Testimony
Video #3 - Sermon
Lent #4 - March 22, 2020
Good morning! This is the fourth Sunday in Lent. These are troubling times but God is our Deliverer. Remember the words of the Psalmist:
Psalm 9:9-10 (NIV)
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
In the coming weeks, I am going to be using a platform called Zoom, which will allow us to see and talk to one another. In the meantime, view the videos below. Have a blessed week!
Video #1 - Greetings and Introduction
Psalm 9:9-10 (NIV)
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
In the coming weeks, I am going to be using a platform called Zoom, which will allow us to see and talk to one another. In the meantime, view the videos below. Have a blessed week!
Video #1 - Greetings and Introduction
Video #2 - Testimony of Nicodemus
Video #3 - Sermon - John 3.14-21