These worship elements are an early draft being shared as a preview for the upcoming service. The final version used in worship may be adapted or revised. Pastors and worship leaders are welcome to use and adapt these for your own context.
Welcome
Welcome to worship at McPherson First United Methodist Church, in this room and online. Whether this is your first Sunday here or your five-hundredth, you belong here.
Today we close our Five Promises series with the promise of gifts. We’ll go to Mount Sinai, where God opens a covenant not with a demand but with a reminder: I lifted you up on eagles’ wings, and I brought you to me. Everything after that is a response to something already given.
Today we also launch Go and Grow, our annual invitation to invest in the children and youth of this church.
If you’re looking for a next step, you can find one anytime at mcphersonfirst.org/next or on the Church Center app.
(8:30 only, transition to the Call to Worship) I invite you to join in our responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.
Call to Worship (8:30 only)
Leader: Before God asked anything of Israel, God reminded them who carried them out.
People: You lifted us up on eagles’ wings and brought us to yourself.
Leader: Only then came the covenant, and the words to live by.
People: We answer a God who gave first.
Leader: You call us a holy nation, a people who belong to you.
People: We come to give ourselves back to you.
Leader: So come, people carried and claimed.
People: We worship the God who loved us first. Amen.
Welcome Your Neighbor
God told Israel they would be a kingdom of priests, a whole people standing between God and their neighbors. That is witness, and it was never a job for the professionals.
Who is already in your life that you have never once mentioned church to? You don’t have to make a case. Just tell them what this place is to you sometime before next Sunday.
If you’re worshiping online, you’re part of this greeting too.
Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.
Opening Prayer
As our singing comes to rest, turn toward God with me and pray the words on the screen.
All: God who carried us out, you gave before you asked, and you give still. Open our hands and loosen our grip. Teach us to answer your generosity with our own, starting today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 19:3-6; 20:1-11 (CEB)
(Read by a lay reader, seated. The reader introduces themselves and offers one brief sentence of personal connection to the congregation before reading.)
Today’s scripture comes from the book of Exodus, chapter 19, verses 3 through 6, and chapter 20, verses 1 through 11. I invite you to open your hearts and minds as we hear God’s word for us today.
Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him from the mountain, “This is what you should say to Jacob’s household and declare to the Israelites: You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I lifted you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to me. So now, if you faithfully obey me and stay true to my covenant, you will be my most precious possession out of all the peoples, since the whole earth belongs to me. You will be a kingdom of priests for me and a holy nation. These are the words you should say to the Israelites.”
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You must have no other gods before me.
Do not make an idol for yourself—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them or worship them, because I, the Lord your God, am a passionate God. I punish children for their parents’ sins even to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But I am loyal and gracious to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Do not use the Lord your God’s name as if it were of no significance; the Lord won’t forgive anyone who uses his name that way.
Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you. Because the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days, but rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God.
People: Thanks be to God!
Pastoral and Lord’s Prayer
We’re about to pray together. Whether you’re here or joining online, God hears every prayer, spoken aloud or held quietly in your heart. I’ll leave a couple of moments of silence along the way, so use them however you need, to listen, to pray, or simply to rest in God’s presence.
Prayers is one of the promises we make here. To share a prayer request, use the Church Center app anytime, or fill out a prayer request card from the pew back and drop it in the offering plate.
Will you pray with me?
God who gave first, you did not wait for us to deserve you. We pause in your presence.
(pause)
We praise you for carrying your people out before you ever asked them for anything. You freed them, then you gave them a way to live, and the order has never changed. Every good thing we hold came from your hand before it was ours.
We confess that we reverse it. We treat what we have as earned and what we give as loss. We keep the best for ourselves and call the leftovers generosity. We say we will give when there is more, and there is never more. We offer our prayers of confession to God in this time of quiet.
(pause)
We pray for the children and youth of this congregation, and for every adult who shows up for them. We pray for people carrying more than they can afford this month, and for those with plenty who cannot rest. We pray for the sick, the grieving, and the lonely. We pray for this church as we take up the work ahead of us.
We give thanks for the people who gave to this church long before we arrived, and who will never know our names.
Hear all we have brought you, spoken and unspoken.
We pray in Jesus’ name, joining our voices in the prayer he taught us:
All: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Invitation to Give and Check-In
God gave before God asked. That is the whole shape of Sinai, and it is the shape of our giving too. We practice gifts as an answer, never as a payment.
Today we launch Go and Grow, our one annual invitation to invest in the children and youth of this church, one campaign a year instead of a year of fundraisers. It funds camp scholarships to Camp Horizon and sends our youth to Youth 2027 in Dallas next July, and it keeps those experiences affordable for every family. This is a gift above and beyond your regular giving. Mark it Go and Grow in the plate, or give at mcphersonfirst.org/give. The campaign closes November 8.
Thank you to those who give month after month, quietly and steadily; you carry this ministry through every season. And if today is your first time giving, thank you, and welcome.
You can give in the offering plate, online at mcphersonfirst.org/give, or through the Church Center app, which is the easiest way to give right from your phone.
As the offering is received, check in through the Church Center app, at mcphersonfirst.org/next, or by signing the attendance pad next to the center aisle and passing it down the row so others have a chance to sign in as well. Checking in is how we live out presence, telling the church, in person or online, that you were here.
Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
We’ve brought our gifts and offered our prayers. Now we’re sent out to practice service, answering God’s generosity with our hands. Will you pray with me?
Generous God, receive these gifts and the lives behind them. You gave first and you give still. Send us out to give first too, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Will you please stand as we sing together?
Benediction
Go now and give first. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.
God carried you out, Christ gave himself for you, the Spirit opens your hands. And all God’s people said, Amen.