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. However you come this morning, weary or glad, steady or barely hanging on, you belong here.
We’re in a series called Five Promises, and today we come to the promise of prayers, the promise to stay connected to God. We’ll spend time with Joseph, who found God present with him in the best rooms and the worst, in a foreign household and in a prison cell. Staying connected to God turns out to be less about having the right words and more about keeping the line open. That’s part of what we practice together in worship.
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: In the good days and the hard ones, the word over Joseph never changed.
People: The Lord was with him.
Leader: In the household and in the prison, the same was true.
People: The Lord was with him.
Leader: And this morning that same word is spoken over us.
People: The Lord is with us. We worship the God who stays. Amen.
Welcome Your Neighbor
None of us stays connected to God entirely on our own; we need people who remind us the Lord is with us when we can’t feel it ourselves. Turn to someone near you, and if you’re online, say hello in the comments, and welcome one another. Then look for someone you don’t know yet, because the next person who needs that reminder may be a stranger you haven’t met.
Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.
Opening Prayer
The singing has gathered us; now let it turn to prayer. Pray with me using the words on the screen.
All: Present God, you were with Joseph in the household and in the prison, and you are with us now. Quiet our racing minds, and teach us to keep the line to you open. Meet us in worship, and go with us into the week. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Scripture Reading: Genesis 39:1-6a, 19-23 (CEB)
(Read by a lay reader, seated. The reader introduces themselves and offers one brief sentence of personal connection to the congregation before reading.)
We hear again from Genesis, the book of beginnings. These verses come from the long story of Joseph, sold by his brothers into Egypt, where his life keeps rising and falling.
Listen for a single sentence that returns like a refrain, in the best of times and the worst: the Lord was with Joseph.
Hear now Genesis, chapter 39, verses 1 through 6, and verses 19 through 23.
When Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, Pharaoh’s chief officer, the commander of the royal guard and an Egyptian, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man and served in his Egyptian master’s household. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful. Potiphar thought highly of Joseph, and Joseph became his assistant; he appointed Joseph head of his household and put everything he had under Joseph’s supervision. From the time he appointed Joseph head of his household and of everything he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. The Lord blessed everything he had, both in the household and in the field. So he handed over everything he had to Joseph and didn’t pay attention to anything except the food he ate.
When Joseph’s master heard the thing that his wife told him, “This is what your servant did to me,” he was incensed. Joseph’s master took him and threw him in jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were held. While he was in jail, the Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to him. He caused the jail’s commander to think highly of Joseph. The jail’s commander put all of the prisoners in the jail under Joseph’s supervision, and he was the one who determined everything that happened there. The jail’s commander paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s supervision, because the Lord was with him and made everything he did successful.
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. You can also text PRAYERTEAM to 620-241-3626 to pray along with us through the week.
Will you pray with me?
Present God, you were with Joseph in the household and in the jail, and the story never once says you left. We pause in your presence.
(pause)
We praise you for staying. You were with him when everything was going well, and you were with him when nothing was, and the refrain did not change with his circumstances. You are with us the same way this morning.
We confess that we measure your presence by how our week is going. We stop praying when the answers stop coming. We treat silence as absence, and we let the line go quiet from our end. We offer our prayers of confession to God in this time of quiet.
(pause)
We pray for the sick and the grieving. We pray for the falsely accused, for people held in places they did not choose, and for anyone who has prayed the same prayer for years with nothing yet to show for it. Make your presence known to them. We pray for this congregation, and for a world where so many are waiting.
We give thanks for the people who kept praying for us when we could not pray for ourselves.
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.
All: Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
All: 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 stayed with Joseph and made him a blessing in every place he landed. We give as people who trust that same God with what we have. One way we practice it is with our gifts. To those who give faithfully, month after month, thank you; your generosity keeps this ministry going. And if today is your first time, welcome, and thank you. You can give in the offering plate, online at mcphersonfirst.org/give, or through the Church Center app.
This is also our moment to check in. However you’re worshiping, take a moment to mark your presence with us, on the attendance pad in your row, on the Church Center app, or at mcphersonfirst.org/next.
Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Faithful God, receive these gifts and the lives behind them. Take our gratitude and turn it into service, so that we become, like Joseph, a blessing in whatever place you set us. Keep us connected to you as we go. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Will you please stand as we sing together?
Benediction
Go now, knowing the Lord is with you, in the good stretches and the hard ones alike. Love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously. The God who never left Joseph goes before you. Christ, who was faithful to the end, walks beside you. And the Spirit, who prays in you when the words run out, keeps you connected all week long. And all God’s people said, Amen.