CCLI license #1913561
Lakeview Presbyterian Church Service, May 23, 2021
Pentecost
Question for Reflection: What is your own experience of the Holy Spirit? Have you felt/experienced God speaking to you, or through you, or using you to do Christ’s work in the world?
Pentecost Reading: Acts 2:1-21
Prelude “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” Negro Spiritual
Refrain
Every Time I Feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray,
Every Time I feel the Spirit, moving in my heart I will pray.
Upon the mountain, when my God spoke, Out of God’s mouth came fire and smoke.
Refrain
`All around me, it looked so shine, I asked my Lord if all was mine.
Refrain
‘Ol Jordan River, chilly and cold, It chills the body but not the soul.
Refrain
There ain’t but one train that’s on this track, It runs to heaven and runs right back. Refrain
Call to Worship (Pastor/People)
Each day is a gift from God,
each moment is that opportunity to reach out in service to all creation.
Each day is a reminder of the new covenant:
not written on stone tablets easily broken, but inscribed on our hearts filled with joy and hope.
Each day we draw closer to God:
who has forgiven us more than we ever acknowledge.
Opening Prayer
Holy One, when Christ ascended into heaven to reign with you in power and glory, you sent the Spirit of truth to guide us into the way, the truth, and the life of Christ. Let your Spirit, our Advocate, guide us still— preserving us from judgment, protecting us from sin, and leading us into righteousness, so that we may testify to the good news: fullness of life and joy for all; through Jesus Christ our Savior and in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hymn "Here in This Place (Gather Us In)" Mary Haugen, 1979
Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away.
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in - the lost and forsaken,
gather us in - the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name.
We are the young - our lives are a mystery,
we are the old - who yearn for your face.
We have been sung throughout all of history,
called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in - the rich and the haughty,
gather us in - the proud and the strong.
Give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
give us the courage to enter the song.
Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in - and hold us forever,
gather us in - and make us your own.
Gather us in - all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.
Prayer for Illumination
Speak to us this day, O God, through the power of your Holy Spirit, that we may hear these familiar texts in new and fresh ways. Move them from mere words on pages, spoken in this place, and write them on our hearts that we may hear your Word for us today. Amen.
A Reading From the Hebrew Scriptures Genesis 11:1-9 NRS
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the and leads us into the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
A Reading from the Epistles Romans 8:22-27 NRS
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Sermon “Nothing Shall Be Impossible for Them” The Rev. Russell Lehman
Affirmation of Faith (from A Declaration of Faith, PC(USA)
We affirm that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of Life, the Renewer and Perfecter of God’s people, the One who makes real in us what God has done for us…We believer that by the power of the same Spirit, the church can be set on its way again, even when it seems beyond hope of renewal. We are grateful heirs of reformations and awakenings. We are faithful to the reformers of the past when we hold ourselves open in the present to the reforming and renewing work of the Spirit…We testify that today this same Holy Spirit makes us able to respond in faith to the gospel and leads us into the Christian community. The Spirit brings us out of death into life, out of separation into fellowship…The Spirit impels us to make the unity of Christians visible to a divided world and assures us that we shall be one.
Hymn “Come, O Spirit, Dwell Among Us”[1] #280 GtoG Janie Alford 1979
Come, O Spirit, dwell among us, come with Pentecostal power;
give the church a stronger vision, help us face each crucial hour.
Built upon a firm foundation, Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone,
still the church is called to mission that God's love shall be made known.
We would raise our alleluias for the grace of yester years;
for tomorrow's unknown pathway, hear, O God, our humble prayers.
In the church's pilgrim journey you have led us all the way,
still in presence move before us, fire by night and cloud by day.
Come, O Spirit, dwell among us, give us words of fire and flame.
Help our struggling voices praise you. glorify your holy name.
Good Creator, Savior, Spirit, Three in One: what mystery!
We would sing our loud hosannas now and through eternity.
Sharing Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer
Lord’s Prayer (Ecumenical Version)
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 forever. Amen
Statement about Offering our Gifts
All that we have and all that we are is a gift from God. We can hoard our gifts our of greed or fearfulness, or we can share them out of gratitude. One generally finds that one is blessed by sharing.
Donations can be mailed to Lakeview Presbyterian Church at 1310 22 nd Av S, St Petersburg, FL, 33705 or given online through our website lakeviewpresbyterianchurch.org
Special Music Sung by Keisha Prime
Prayer of Dedication
God of every good gift and source of abundance, take these our gifts and tithes and use them in your service. Multiply them by the power of your Holy Spirit that they may kindle faith where it lies dormant, spark compassion for those whose lives are even now being formed and ignite us to action in behalf of the most vulnerable. Amen.
Charge and Blessing
Postlude: “ Spirit Song" AAHH # 321 John Wimber 1979
Oh, let the Son of God enfold you
with his Spirit and his love;
Let him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.
Oh, let him have the things that hold you,
and his Spirit, like a dove,
Will descend upon your life and make you whole.
Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.
Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.
Oh, come and sing the song with gladness
as your hearts are filled with joy.
Lift your hands in sweet surrender to his name.
Oh, give him all your tears and sadness,
give him all your years of pain,
And you'll enter into life in Jesus' name.
Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.
Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.
Oh, let the Son of God enfold you
with his Spirit and his love;
Let him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.
Oh, let him have the things that hold you,
and his Spirit, like a dove,
Will descend upon your life and make you whole.
Will descend upon your life and make you whole.