Call to Worship
How beautiful is the word of the Lord!
How wise are God’s commandments!
Through the Lord’s precepts, we gain understanding.
Through God’s wisdom, we find truth.
The Lord is our God; we are God’s people.
God’s word lives within us,
For it is written on our hearts.
Living Word, Great Teacher, lead us and guide us!
Amen!
Offertory
One: Let us pray…
Forgiving God, the first offering you ask for is the giving of ourselves, loving you and others boldly. Forgive us for the times when you have called us to leave our places of comfort, and we’ve ignored the call. Forgive us when our giving has not grown beyond our safety zone, but you blessed our gifts and us anyway. For those times when we dared to put our foot outside the boat and then sank up to our knees, thank you for not taking your hand away. For all this, we give thanks in the holy name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.
Service August 27th
Genesis 21:8-21
Scripture Lesson
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring[a] will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she[b] began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.