First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport
August 24, 2025
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
Rev. Brian Copeland
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Liturgist
PRELUDE Liturgist
OPENING SENTENCES (Responsive) Liturgist
O Consuming Fire, you spark awe and joy with the work of your hands and the power of your deeds.
You give us an unshakable kin-dom in this ever-shaking world.
So we give thanks and worship you with reverence and awe.
Let us worship God!
HYMN #138 Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
CONFESSION AND PARDON (Responsive) Liturgist
In faith and in hope, turning to the rock of our salvation, let us confess our sin together.
O God of mercy, we confess that we live self-centered lives. We tolerate injustice and cruelty, complacent in our corner of the world. We neglect the needs of others.
In your righteousness, deliver us and rescue us. Turn us to your way and lead us in your light, that we might serve you and care for all of creation.
SILENT PRAYERS OF CONFESSION MAY BE OFFERED
The Lord is our hope and our trust, our light and salvation. Believe the good news!
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
SPECIAL MUSIC
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION (Unison) 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 71:1-6 Liturgist
1In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
3Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.
SECOND SCRIPTURE READING: Jeremiah 1:4-10 Rev. Brian Copeland
4Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." 6Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 9Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
SERMON Rev. Brian Copeland
HYMN #525 Here I Am Lord
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
Trusting in the power of God to deliver us, let us make our prayers of intercession for all,
saying: God our Savior, hear our prayer.
INVITATION TO THE OFFERING (Offering plates are not passed. Offering plates are on the front and back tables.)
PRAYER OF DEDICATION (Unison)
We give you thanks and praise, O God, for you have chosen the poverty of the world to make your people rich in faith. Help us to put our faith into practice through the offering of our lives— giving food to the hungry, clothes to the naked,
and shelter to the poor; all for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, your Word made flesh. Amen.
HYMN #405 What Does the Lord Require
BLESSING AND CHARGE
POSTLUDE
Reminders:
Aug. 31 – Our friends from Marcellus will worship with us at WFPC
Sept. 4 – Blood drive, hosted by WFPC at UMC
Sept. 7 – Children’s Sunday School starts
