August 31, 2025 Order of Worship

I Love to Tell the Story (setting by Robert A. Hobby) – Geoffrey Liu

Welcome – Terry Bolender

Opening Prayer – Terry Bolender

Leader: O God, enlarge my heart, that it may be big enough to receive the greatness of your love.

People: Fill my heart to overflowing with your love like living waters flowing out, pouring down!

Leader: Stretch my heart, that it may take into it all those who, with me, around the world, believe in Jesus Christ.

People: Stretch me that I may take in all those who do not know Jesus, but who are my responsibility because I know him.

Leader: And stretch me that I may take in all those who are not lovely in my eyes and whose hands I do not want to touch.

People: Give me eyes to see that all people everywhere are beautiful and worthy because we all belong to you, God.

All: We are one, great, holy, human family. Through Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

This World Is Not My Home – Brian Grassley

Time with Young Disciples (Blessing of the Backpacks) – Stephanie McIlwain Miller

Scripture Readings – Terry Bolender

Introduction to the First Scripture Reading

Hebrews is an anonymous letter written BY someone who knew the apostles well. It is written TO Christians facing persecution and imprisonment because of their loyalty to Jesus. The letter assumes that we know well the stories of the Old Testament. It elevates Jesus as savior and challenges us to remain faithful to him despite difficulty and persecution. Hear now our reading from Hebrews 10:35-11:3…

Hebrews 10:35-11:3

Do not, therefore, abandon that boldness of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised. For yet

“in a very little while,
    the one who is coming will come and will not delay,
but my righteous one will live by faith.
    My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.”

But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost but among those who have faith and so preserve our souls.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Introduction to the Second Scripture Reading

In our second reading, Jesus meets a stranger at the ancient well of Jacob, his ancestor. He asks her for water and offers life in return. 3 chapters later, Jesus says, “Let the thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me will have rivers of living water flow from within them.” Hear now the story of the woman at the well…

John 4:4-15

But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Message – The Power to Live Through – Rev. Rand O’Donnell

Breathe on Me Breath of God – UMH #420

Pastoral Prayer and The Lord’s Prayer – Rev. Rand O’Donnell

Offering Our Gifts to God – Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (J. S. Bach, arr. E. Power Biggs) – Geoffrey Liu

Doxology – Many Gifts, One Spirit – UMH #114, refrain

Prayer of Dedication

Leader: All that we have, we have from you, Creator and Preserver of all.

People: Accept these gifts which we now offer.  Help us to make the whole of life an offering and every thought a prayer.

Come, Christians, Join to Sing – UMH #158

Blessing – Rev. Rand O’Donnell

Sending Music – Geoffrey Liu

Resources for Worship

Opening Prayer was written in Africa and can be found in With All God’s People: The New Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, compiled by John Carden (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1989), adapted for worship at Kent UMC by Jim Head-Corliss, August 31, 2025.