The Secret to Happiness

Good Morning and Welcome to Worship! Worship is often the first place that new people come into contact with this growing community of faith. And so, if you are joining us for the first time, I say to you what is said every Sunday: You are welcome here. Here is a place where all are welcome. For such is the love of God for God’s Very Good Creation.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below; praise God above, ye Heav'nly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kindom 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. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kindom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

[A time of silence is kept between intercessions — please use that time to lift those on your heart this day.]

God of love, you gave your only Son to reveal your great love for us and to reveal you are not the cause of our suffering. We believe that you understand the sufferings of the world and our own suffering. Believing that you are the source of all love in the world and the way we turn from selfishness, we offer our prayers to you.

We pray for wisdom, that we can communicate effectively with love, shalom, and compassion and strive to live in connectedness and understanding. We pray for courage so that we can live out our faith giving witness with our words and actions that you are the Messiah.

We pray for the will to take up the work of Jesus and to follow wherever you may lead.

And we pray for love, your love in us so that we can live with the intentionality to know each other by name and have the deep relationships that you want us to have with you and with each other.

Through Jesus Christ, who lives in unity with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

You speak to us Lord, with tongues of wisdom. Let your Holy Spirit now open us to hear with greater clarity the teachings of today, that we may hold dear in yet new ways what it is you will for us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

¹Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ²For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. ³If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. ⁴Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! ⁶And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, ⁸but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

²⁷Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” ³⁰And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. ³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” ³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

How do you seek God’s wisdom in your life? What are the signs and symbols of God’s presence that surround your everyday life?

God has given us the sun and made us stewards of all creation. God has given us our lives and our very beings. Let us give to God, from what God has blessed us with. Amen.

God of wisdom, may this offering serve as a powerful witness to this world in need. Guide us as we administer the gifts you have blessed us with for the building of your kin-dom. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

May God, our wisdom, pour out God’s thoughts in you and make God’s words known to you. May Jesus Christ, our Messiah, give you the strength to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And may the Holy Spirit guide our words and actions; as we strive to bless the world and speak the love of God. Amen.