Sunday, April 23rd - Music Team Rehearsal Our Music Team will rehearse this morning at 8:30 a.m.
Sunday, April 23rd - Prayer in the Church Office at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday, April 23rd - Sunday Morning Worship We invite everyone to join us for our morning Worship Service. Matthew and Sarah Waldrop will lead Little Worship. If you are unable to attend the Service, please click here to watch our LiveStream. We will have Sunday School for all ages immediately following our Worship Service. We will have a joint Sunday School for our adults as we hear from missionaries Brian and Mandy about the important work that they're doing in South Asia.
Wednesday, April 26th - Mid-Week Studies Join us at 5:30 as we enjoy a meal together and then break into studies for different ages at 6:00. Our meal is $5/person or $15/family.
Dylan Branson - Prayers as she is being treated for benign epilepsy.
Michelle Hodges
Larry Myers and his family - Prayers for comfort after the death of his niece, Kim MacIntosh
Cyndi Savage - Prayer for stamina and healing after cancer treatment
Rebecca Seawright - healing from Shingles and it's complications
Gene & Jere Stansel
Friends of WPC Prayer Needs
Stephen and Jessi Belk (Son and Daughter-in-Law of Darrell and Theresa Belk) - Prayers for a healthy pregnancy after previous complications
Dr. Mike Boler - Treatment for T-Cell Leukemia
Christine Boye, friend of Derek & Elizabeth Hinckley - prayer for Christine and her family during treatment of metastatic breast cancer
Jan Champion (Widow of Bobo, friend of Johnny & Georgeanne Smith) - Prayers for Jan and her family as she battles cancer
Ben Downs, Son of John and Mary Nell Downs - Prayers for recovery from a stroke
Jenna Hoover, Niece of Betty Boyd - Prayers for healing and comfort as she battles renal cancer
Kevin Kendall - Prayers for encouragement, healing and guidance
Sawyer Kimbriel - He has a rare lymphatic abnormality
Page Whites - Cancer treatment
Expecting Parents
Jarrett & Anna Mills (adopting)
Adron & Betsy Belk (due July 15, 2023)
Tyler & Gray Blocker (due September 30, 2023)
Shut-Ins
Betty Morgan (Indywood, Room 127)
Community Prayer Needs
Greenwood-Leflore Hospital - Their employees and families of their employees as they navigate the possibilities of continuing to serve our community.
Praise Psalm 145:14-19 The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.
Introit - “How Majestic”
Mothers come adore His name. Sisters raise your hands in praise.
Lift your heads, taste and see all He's done. Heaven to earth has come.
Fathers shout the victor's cry. Brothers feast upon His life.
Joy has dawned, death has been overthrown. Mercy is on its throne.
Oh, Lord our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Oh, Lord our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth.
Sinners come behold your King. Sufferers rise with hope and sing.
All is well, mercies are new this day. Burdens all met with grace.
All helpless, all secure, all hopeful, and all broken,
All thankless, and all poor, all peaceful, and all violent,
All fearless, all afraid, all angry, all rejoicing,
All doubting, all assured, all joyful, and all mourning,
Come gaze upon His glory. Come receive His love and mercy.
His grace declares His glory. You are loved forever wholly.
CCLI Song # 7071130 Adam Skatula | Brian Eichelberger | Nathan Furtado | Spencer Abbott | Zach Bolen | CCLI License # 2640266
‡The Call to Worship — (From Psalm 91, 95, 96, and 126)
Leader: Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Congregation: I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Leader: Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Congregation: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Leader: Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Congregation: For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Leader and Congregation: Worship the Lord, for he has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!
‡The Hymn No. 457 – “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”
Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s unchanging love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I‘m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wand’ring from the fold of God:
He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be;
Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love:
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.
‡The Prayer of Invocation
Introduction of New Member: Langdon Dyksterhouse
The Old Testament Reading Ezekiel 34:1-6, 11-16 --- Wally Montgomery
The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. 11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
‡The Hymn – “Wonderful, Merciful Savior”
Wonderful merciful Savior, precious Redeemer and Friend.
Who would have thought that a Lamb could rescue the souls of men.
Oh, You rescue the souls of men.
Counselor Comforter Keeper. Spirit we long to embrace.
You offer hope when our hearts have hopelessly lost the way.
Oh we hopelessly lost the way.
Chorus You are the One that we praise. You are the One we adore.
You give the healing and grace our hearts always hunger for.
Oh, our hearts always hunger for.
Almighty infinite Father faithfully loving Your own.
Here in our weakness You find us falling before Your throne.
Oh we're falling before Your throne. (Chorus)
The New Testament Reading and Congregational Prayer: John 10:10-16; 1 Peter 2:24-25 --- John Downs
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
1 Peter 2:24-25 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
‡Confession of Faith: The Apostle’s Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic* church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen. *Universal, world-wide.
Offertory Prayer
‡The Hymn - “Thy Mercy, My God” (RUF)
Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue;
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affections, and bound my soul fast.
Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here;
Sin would reduce me to utter despair;
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.
Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.
Children dismissed for Little Worship at this time (K4 – K5)
Reading of the Holy Scripture: Luke 15:1-10
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The Sermon – “Luke #64: The Lost and Found” - Richard Owens
‡The Hymn No. 246– “Man of Sorrows! What a Name”
Man of Sorrows! what a name for the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim: Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood,
Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Guilty, vile, and helpless, we: spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full atonement! can it be? Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Lifted up was He to die, “It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav'n exalted high: Hallelujah! what a Savior!
When He comes, our glorious King, all His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing: Hallelujah! what a Savior!
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