First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport
July 6, 2025
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Rev. Brian Copeland
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Liturgist
PRELUDE Liturgist
OPENING SENTENCES (Responsive) Liturgist
God hears our cries
and restores our troubled souls.
We can’t keep silent.
We sing God’s praises with joy!
God nurses and comforts us
until our hearts are strong like mountains.
We can’t keep silent.
We sing God’s praises with joy!
God’s love sustains us to flourishing.
We can’t keep silent.
We sing God’s praises with joy!
HYMN: Come Sing to God (insert)
CONFESSION AND PARDON (Responsive) Liturgist
Jesus calls us to enter the joy of discipleship, the joy of following in his way.
But sin clings closely, and we struggle to respond fully to Christ’s invitation.
Let us seek God’s forgiveness so that we may know more deeply the joy God intends.
God of perfect love, you continually bring forth life, transforming sadness to joy,
and despair to hope. We are weak, but you are strong. Our ways are flawed, but your ways are true. We are seldom right, but you are never wrong. Forgive us, redeem us, transform us. Take away the sin that burdens us and restore us to the people you would have us be, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior.
SILENT PRAYERS OF CONFESSION MAY BE OFFERED
Relentlessly God seeks us out. With abundant grace and boundless mercy, God seeks us out. This is good news!
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!
SPECIAL MUSIC
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION Liturgist
Faithful God, how blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Sanctify us by your Word and Spirit so that we may glorify you in the company of the faithful; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
FIRST SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 30 The Message Liturgist
I give you all the credit, God—
you got me out of that mess,
you didn’t let my foes gloat.
2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.
4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.
6-7 When things were going great
I crowed, “I’ve got it made.
I’m God’s favorite.
He made me king of the mountain.”
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.
8-10 I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
“Can you sell me for a profit when I’m dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I’m ‘dust to dust’ my songs
and stories of you won’t sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!”
11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I’m about to burst with song;
I can’t keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can’t thank you enough.
SECOND SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Rev. Brian Copeland
1After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'
16"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
17The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" 18He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
SERMON Rev. Brian Copeland
HYMN #261 God of Compassion, in Mercy Befriend Us
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (Unison) Adapted from the Confession of 1967, 9.32–33
The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ has set the pattern for the church’s mission. His human life involves the church in the common life of all people. His service to men and women commits the church to work for every form of human well-being. His suffering makes the church sensitive to all human suffering
so that it sees the face of Christ in the faces of persons in every kind of need. His crucifixion discloses to the church God’s judgment on the inhumanity that marks human relations, and the awful consequences of the church’s own complicity in injustice. In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming, the church sees the promise of God’s renewal of human life in society and of God’s victory over all wrong. The church follows this pattern in the form of its life and in the method of its action. So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.
JOYS AND CONCERNS
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Holy God, One-in-Three and Three-in-One, hear us as we pray for your blessing, saying: Holy, triune God, have mercy on us.
INVITATION TO THE OFFERING (Offering plates are not passed. Offering plates are on the front and back tables.)
PRAYERS OF DEDICATION (Unison)
Generous God, we give you thanks for all your blessings to us.
Use these gifts we offer as a sign of your great love for the world, so that all may know and share the abundance of your grace; in your holy name we pray. Amen.
HOLY COMMUNION
Holy Communion (Responsive)
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God:
Your realm extends from Israel
to every nation on earth.
You bless the work of the prophets
who labor in your name.
You reach out with healing grace
to strangers and friends.
HYMN #386 O For a World
BLESSING AND CHARGE
POSTLUDE
*LARGE PRINT BULLETINS ARE AVAILABLE. PLEASE ASK GREETER.
Reminders:
July 13 – shared worship with MFPC at WFPC
July 20 – shared worship with MFPC at MFPC
July 28 – our turn to help at the food pantry, 6:30pm
July 31 – Doug’s to Go at our church to benefit WFPC
