2025.11.30: Worship Bulletin

Prelude

Welcome and Announcements

Lighting of the Advent Candle

Leader: Why do we light the Advent candle?

Response: Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life.”

Leader: In the days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established. All the nations shall stream out of it.

Response: Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Leader: He shall judge between the nations, and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.

Response: Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Lighting of the Advent candle

Leader: We light this candle as a symbol of expectation. May the light of Christ show us the way of salvation.

Response: Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

The Voluntary for Silent Prayer

*Call to Worship: Revelation 21:1-2, 22-23; Psalm 27:1

Minister: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God….

People: And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

Minister: And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

People: The Lord is my light and my salvation!

Unison: Come, let us worship him!

*Hymn of Adoration: “Let All Moral Flesh Keep Silence” (No. 193)

1 Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded,
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

2 King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood;
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood,
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heav'nly food.

3 Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the pow'rs of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

4 At his feet the six-winged seraph;
cherubim, with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry,
"Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia, Lord Most High!"

*Prayer of Adoration and Congregational Invocation

People: Lord Jesus, Lamb of God: You are worthy, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people to God from every tribe and language and people and nation. How we long for the day when we shall stand in heaven with this throng of the redeemed, our brothers and sisters, and cry out, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory!” Amen.

*Affirmation of Faith: Heidelberg Catechism 37

Minister: What do you confess when you say that he [Jesus] suffered?

People: During all the time he lived on earth, but especially at the end, Christ bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. Thus, by his suffering, as the only atoning sacrifice, he has redeemed our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and obtained for us the grace of God, righteousness, and eternal life.

Gloria (Tune: “Thine the Glory”)

All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
who has borne all our sins and has cleansed ev'ry stain!
Hallelujah! thine the glory, hallelujah! we sing;
hallelujah! thine the glory, our praise now we bring.

Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 53:1-12

Hymn of Response: “What Wondrous Love Is This” (No. 261)

1 What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
what wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

2 To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
to God and to the Lamb, I will sing;
to God and to the Lamb, who is the great I AM,
while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
while millions join the theme, I will sing!

3 And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
and when from death I'm free, I'll sing on;
and when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be,
and through eternity I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
and through eternity I'll sing on!

Prayers of the People

People: Blessed Lord Jesus, no human mind could conceive or invent the gospel. Acting in eternal grace, you are both its messenger and its message, lived out on earth through infinite compassion, applying your life to insult, injury, and death, that I might be redeemed, ransomed, and freed. Blessed are you, O Father, for contriving this way. Eternal thanks to you, O Lamb of God, for opening this way. Praise everlasting to you, O Holy Spirit, for applying this way to my heart. Glorious Trinity, impress the gospel on my soul, until its power fills me. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Private Confession

Pastoral Prayer

Promise of the Gospel

Minister: Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (I Peter 1:18-21)

People: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

*Hymn of Thanksgiving: “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” (No. 253)

1 There is a fountain filled with blood,
drawn from Immanuel's veins;
and sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains:
lose all their guilty stains,
lose all their guilty stains;
and sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains.

2 The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day;
and there have I, as vile as he,
washed all my sins away:
washed all my sins away,
washed all my sins away;
and there have I, as vile as he,
washed all my sins away.

3 E'er since by faith I saw the stream
your flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die:
and shall be till I die,
and shall be till I die;
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.

4 Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing your pow'r to save,
when this poor lisping, stamm'ring tongue
lies silent in the grave:
lies silent in the grave,
lies silent in the grave;
when this poor lisping, stamm'ring tongue
lies silent in the grave.

5 Dear dying Lamb, your precious blood
shall never lose its pow'r,
till all the ransomed church of God
be saved, to sin no more:
be saved, to sin no more,
be saved, to sin no more;
till all the ransomed church of God
be saved to sin no more.

Worship of God through Tithes and Offerings

*Doxology (Tune: “Old Hundredth”)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Amen.

*Reading of The Holy Scriptures: John 1:29-34

Minister: This is the Word of God.

Unison: Thanks be to God for his Word!

*Prayer for Illumination

Sermon: “The Lamb of God” (Rev. Seth Wallace)

*Hymn of Response: “Joy to the World” (No. 195)

1 Joy to the world! The Lord is come:
let earth receive her King;
let every heart prepare him room,
and heav'n and nature sing,
and heav'n and nature sing,
and heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing.

2 Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns:
let men their songs employ;
while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

3 No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

4 He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders, wonders of his love.

*The Benediction

Postlude

*Denotes congregation standing, if able.