Join us in welcoming Emelia Joseph to the Westminster Staff! Before coming to Westminster, Emelia served as Parish Coordinator and Director of Religious Education at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church. Emelia has lived in Greenwood her entire life and is passionate about investing in her community. Emelia enjoys traveling and loves animals, is passionate about her faith and loves to meet new people. Be sure to stop by the office and introduce yourself!
Sunday, May 28th - Music Team Rehearsal Our Music Team will rehearse this morning at 8:30 a.m.
Sunday, May 28th - Prayer in the Church Office at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday, May 28th - Morning Worship and Sunday School We invite everyone to join us for our morning Worship Service. Watson and Brandi Pillow 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 Morning Worship Service
Monday, May 29th - Church Office Closed The church office will be closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day.
Wednesday, May 31st - NO Mid-Week Studies We will not meet this Wednesday, but will resume our Mid-Week Studies next Wednesday, June 7th, with dinner at 5:30 followed by a brief time of prayer.
On Sunday, we prayed over Brad and Olivia McCay as they prepared for their move this week to the Jackson area. We are very grateful for this family and for the time that they have been a part of our Westminster Family!
Ladies, Mark your calendars! We are continuing our Contentment Series with a 6-week Summer Study, facilitated by a different leader each week, beginning Wednesday, June 7th. We will break the week of July 4th. Books will be available at the church this Sunday for $5/each.
This summer, we plan to continue gathering on Wednesday nights for a time of food, fellowship and prayer. We will resume meeting on Wednesday, June 7th.
We will have a fellowship meal at 5:30pm ($5/person or $15/family). We will then have a brief time of guided prayer. Our Rooted Kids in K4 - 5th grades will break out for a prayer time led by our Deacons and Elders. (Kids in grades 3-5 will have the option to either stay with the adults or go with the children.) A nursery will also be available for younger children.
We are looking forward to this time to continue gathering together throughout the summer.
Our book for June is The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. You can still support Turnrow Books by ordering your copy through them. Click here to order your copy today!
We will be ordering a limited number of Westminster coffee mugs. If you would like to pre-order one (or several!), please email Kathryn Dyksterhouse.
John Downs - Prayers for a successful surgery with God's healing
Weldon Mills - Health Concerns
Eddie Ray - Clear Diagnosis
Darrell and Theresa Belk - Prayers as Darrell works in Idaho
Mike Barth
Dylan Branson - Prayers as she is being treated for benign epilepsy.
Shelby and Joseph Gorman - Prayers after the fire at Turnrow Books.
Michelle Hodges
Cyndi Savage - Prayer for stamina and healing after cancer treatment
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)
Isaiah & Destinie Riley (due August 30, 2023)
Tyler & Gray Blocker (due September 30, 2023)
Alex & Hannah Bush (due October 1, 2023)
Shut-Ins
Betty Morgan (Indywood, Room 127)
Community Prayer Needs
Turnrow Books, Turnrow Cafe, and Turnrow Art Co., their employees and families, after a fire caused damage to the store.
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.
‡The Call to Worship — (From Amos 1, Psalm 79, and Psalm 100)
Pastor: The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem. People: Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
Pastor: Oh come, let us worship and bow down;' People: Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker!
Pastor: We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. People: Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Pastor and People: Give thanks to Him; for the Lord is good and his steadfast love endures forever!
‡The Hymn No. 2 - “O Worship the King”
O worship the King all glorious above, O gratefully sing his pow’r and his love;
Our shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.
O tell of his might, O sing of his grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.
The earth with its store of wonders untold, Almighty, your pow’r has founded of old;
Has ‘stablished it fast by a changeless decree, and round it has cast, like a mantle, the sea.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, in you do we trust, nor find you to fail;
Your mercies how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
O measureless Might! Ineffable Love! While angels delight to hymn you above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays, with true adoration shall lisp to your praise.
‡The Prayer of Invocation
The Old Testament Reading Amos 5:21-27; Micah 6:6-8 --- Luke Uithoven 21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, 27 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. 6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
‡The Hymn – O Day of Rest and Gladness”
O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light
O balm of care and sadness, Most beautiful most bright
On you the high and lowly, Through ages joined in tune
Sing holy holy holy, To the great God Triune
On You at the creation, the light first had its birth
On You for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth
On You our Lord victorious, The Spirit sent from heaven
And thus on You most glorious, A triple light was given
You are a port protected, from storms that round us rise
A garden intersected, with streams of Paradise
You are a cooling fountain, In life's dry dreary sand
From You like Pisgah's mountain, We view the promised land
New graces ever gaining, from this our day of rest
We reach the rest remaining, to spirits of the blest
To Holy Ghost be praises, To Father and to Son
The church her voice upraises, To You blest Three in One
The New Testament Reading and Congregational Prayer 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 --- Trey O’Brien 5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
‡The Apostles 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 No. 726 – “Spirit of the Living God”
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
Break me! Melt me! Mold me! Fill me!
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. (REPEAT)
Children dismissed for Little Worship at this time (K4 – K5)
Reading of the Holy Scripture: Luke 16:19-31 19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
The Sermon – “Luke #68: A Glimpse into the Future" - Richard Owens
‡The Hymn – “Christ Our Hope In Life And Death”
What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone, Christ alone.
What is our only confidence? That our souls to Him belong.
Who holds our days within His hand? What comes apart from His command?
And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand.
(Chorus) O sing hallelujah! Our hope springs eternal; O sing hallelujah! Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death.
What truth can calm the troubled soul? God is good, God is good.
Where is His grace and goodness known? In our great Redeemer's blood.
Who holds our faith when fears arise? Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us nigh unto the shore, the rock of Christ? (Chorus)
Unto the grave, what will we sing? “Christ, He lives; Christ, He lives!”
And what reward will heaven bring? Everlasting life with Him.
There we will rise to meet the Lord, then sin and death will be destroyed,
And we will feast in endless joy, When Christ is ours forevermore. (Chorus)
CCLI Song # 7147502 | Jordan Kauflin | Keith Getty | Matt Boswell | Matt Papa | Matthew Merker
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