How To Do Worship

Sunday 6 MAY 2024

Neutral Bay Uniting

Order of Service

WELCOME

CALL TO WORSHIP

L:               This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

All:            No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

L:               Look and see. Christ has given us his ultimate commandment. To love as we are loved. To forgive as we have been forgiven.     

All:            No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

L:               In our worship we lay down our ego. We lay down our fears. We lay down our need for control and we walk with Christ. As we walk with Christ may our love be infectious and may we lay down ourselves to love others.        

All:            No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Amen 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

L: The Cammeraygal people are the original custodians of the land on which our church stands. The Cammeraygals were spiritual leaders amongst the Indigenous clans of Sydney, leaving us art and rock carvings that have lasted millennia. They manged the land so well, there was food and drink enough for all.  

All: We pay our respects to their Elders: past and present. 

L: We honour the deep spiritual traditions of the indigenous peoples; their gifts of lore and culture, and their holistic understanding of country and community.

We honour the wisdom of the Elders and the Dreaming of the First Peoples of these lands now called Australia.

All: We commit to walking respectfully in this country, and to journeying with them in their quest for justice and reconciliation.

SONG – HERE I AM LORD 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Giving God, you put at the centre of your desire for us, Christ’s commandment, that we love one another as Christ loves us. 

You put the ultimate form of giving and love in the centre of faith. 

We confess that too often we baptise our selfishness with faith that closes its eyes to the suffering of others. 

Laying down our life for others falls to the very end of our to do list. 

Forgive us and sanctify us we pray. May God transform our selfishness into sacrificial love, that never stops giving and caring. 

Amen

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

One:         Hear the Good News: You don’t have to be perfect to follow walk with Christ. Taking a step towards Christ transforms us even in the midst sin.  

All:            In the name of Christ, Amen. 

SONG – TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS    

SCRIPTURE READING 

John 15:9-17

⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

For the word of God in scripture 

For the Word of God among us 

For the Word of God within us 

We say, Thanks be to God!

SONG OF ACCLAMATION 

I will listen to Your words O Lord 

I will listen to Your words

I will go where you want to go, I will seek very path 

Please Lord, lead me the way to my home in Your heart

SERMON

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE –

Please join me in the prayers of the people. When I say Lord in Your mercy, you are invited to respond, Hear our Prayer. 

Let us pray. 

Jesus, you told us what the greatest form of love in the world is. To lay down your life for a friend. We acknowledge that chasing after lesser loves lead to so much of the suffering in the world. 

We pray for people in power who chase the lesser loves control, domination and fame. We pray that the greater loves justice, compassion and peace making would guide decision makers around the world. 

Lord in Your mercy 

Hear our prayer 

We pray for the lesser love of money. For our world that believes the more money we have the happier we will be. We know that the greater love is found only in You, in what we give to the poor and not what we hoard for ourselves. 

Lord in Your mercy 

Hear our prayer 

We pray for the lesser love keeping the status quo in place. The status quo which keeps housing un-affordable, especially for mature women and young people in crisis and the status quo which leads to no lasting change for gender-based violence. 

We pray we would be like Jesus who gave himself to crucifixion to save others. Let us be sacrificial in the way we stand up for a world with no gender based violence. 

Lord in Your mercy 

Hear our prayer 

We pray for lesser love of seeing your side win. Jesus showed us that the way of God is the way of peace making. We pray that in Gaza, Ukraine and all places of war, swords would be turned into tools of peace. 

Let us love our enemies, let our goal be not to defeat the other side in all conflict, but to love, protect and defend all people. Let reconciliation and peace making rule the world. 

Lord in Your mercy 

Hear our prayer 

We ask these things as we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us in the language of our hearts. 

Our Father in heaven, 

   hallowed be your name, 

   your kingdom come, 

   your will be done, 

     on earth as in heaven. 

Give us today our daily bread. 

Forgive us our sins, 

   as we forgive those who sin against us. 

Save us from the time of trial 

   and deliver us from evil. 

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours 

   now and for ever. Amen.

OFFERING

BLESSING 

L:           Go now, and bear fruit for God, fruit that will last.

              As Christ has loved you, so love one another,

              and abide always in God’s love,

              that your joy may be complete.

All:        We go in peace to love and serve the Lord, 

              In the name of Christ. Amen.   

SONG – GREAT IS THY FAITHFULLNESS  

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father

There is no shadow of turning with Thee

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me 

SetiaMu Tuhanku tiada bertara

Dikala suka disaat gelap

KasihMu Allahku tidak berubah

Kaulah pelindung abadi tetap

Chorus:

SetiaMu Tuhanku mengharu hatiku

Setiap pagi bertambah jelas

Yang kuperlukan tetap kau berikan

Sehingga akupun puas lelas

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, 

Great is Thy faithfulness 

Great is Thy faithfulness 

Lord, unto me