Second Presbyterian Church

Second Presbyterian Church Oil City

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Second Presbyterian Church Oil City

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Order of Service March 30, 2025@11am Eastern

Second Presbyterian Church Oil City, Pennsylvania
March 30, 2025 4th Sunday in Lent

Prelude Tech Crew
Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship (Based on Psalm 15)
L/ Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who are those that are allowed to live on God’s holy Hill? Only those who walk in a righteous way, who speak truth, who refrain from slander and do only good toward neighbors.
P/ God’s chosen love the righteous and refrain from supporting the vile man. The righteous keep their vows even if it hurts. The People of God do God’s commandments.
L/ Examples of righteous living are lending money without interest, helping the poor as if they were their own family, welcoming aliens and seeing to the orphan and widow. The righteous protects the innocent and those without voice. Only he who does these things is firm in the Lord.

Hymn of Praise: #292 God of Grace and God of Glory

Prayer of Confession
L/ Let us take a moment to be silent before God, recalling to mind how we have gone against the image of God’s covenant community and confessing our guilt.

<silent confession>

P/Father, we have hated those who have reproved us over our sin and abhorred those who have spoken the truth to us in love. We are quick to sin and call it good or how the world works. We exploit those who have no defense, ignore those at the margins, and think you are a God of the rich and powerful. Lord, have mercy upon us. You alone know how many are our transgressions and how great are our sins, and you alone can save us. There is no offering that we can bring before you, and no sacrifice that you would accept save the gift of your Son Jesus. Teach us to hear your prophets and intentionally seek to follow your way, forsaking our own. Teach us to listen to and do your Word!

L/ Be assured in your heart by these words of scripture and strive to follow: “Never boast except in the cross of Jesus, through which we have been crucified to the world. Legal or ritual acts mean nothing. We are a new creation. Peace and mercy are to those who follow God’s rule instead.” (Galatians 6: 14-16) You and I are saved by the blood of Jesus and given New Life in Him.

Special Music

Passing Peace

Children’s Chat Tammy Botts

Reading Scripture
Prayer for Illumination
Old Testament: Amos 8: 4-14

Sermon “Famine for the Word” Rev. Dr. Tim Harmon

Affirmation of Faith Confession of Belhar (1986, PCUSA Book of Confessions, 10.1 – 10.9)
ALL: We believe in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who gathers, protects, and cares for the church through Word and Spirit. This God has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end of time. We believe in the one, holy, Christian church, the communion of saints called from the entire human family. We believe that Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and one another and that unity as believers is both a gift from God and an obligation for the church of Jesus Christ; that through the working of God’s Spirit it is a binding force yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly pursued and sought; one which the people of God must continually be built up to attain. We believe that the church is called to be the salt and the light, that the church is blessed because it is a witness both by word and deed to the new heaven and new earth in which God has conquered sin and death by Jesus. We believe that God wishes to bring justice and true peace among people. We believe as God considers the pure and undefiled religion to be of service specifically to orphans, widows, and the downtrodden that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only head, the church is called to confess and to do this service of justice even if authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be our consequence. For Jesus is Lord. To the one and only God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever and ever.

We Offer Our Tithes of Time, Talent, and Resources
Special Music
Praise God from Whom All Blessing Flow

Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer (using debts)

Prayer of Thanksgiving (from our Reformed Heritage)
L/ Lord, it is easy to mouth the words, “I love” but not practice what those words mean. When we see the love of one who is willing to give up all for the one they love, we know our love is self-seeking, a denial of your Word. When we see your love, the love shown in the cross, in the pursuit of us even when we rejected you, the love of even your descent into Hell to save us, we know our love is cheap, our forgiveness only given with strings attached, our default is to judge and be merciless. Thank you for your love and grace in Jesus: teach us to love you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Teach us to love our neighbors as ourselves. (John DeGruchy, 1986, pastor in United Congregational Church of Southern Africa)

Benediction
Closing Hymn: # 366 I Surrender All ... See MoreSee Less

Second Presbyterian Church Oil City

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