As the Fourth draws near, and as we celebrate all the benefits we enjoy as Americans, let us also remember our salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is “by his stripes” that we are healed (see Isaiah 53:5, NKJV), and we celebrate this foundational truth this and every Sunday.
Front Royal Presbyterian Church
June 29, 2025, 10:30 am
Liturgist – Zach Logan
Minister - Rev. Jaci Smith Patman
Prelude Give Me Jesus Spiritual/Richard Billingham
Welcome and Announcements
Opening Prayer & Gathering #391 Take My Life, vs. 1
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Call to Worship (Psalm 71:3,5)
God is our rock and our fortress, our refuge and our strength.
God is our hope and our trust. Praise the Lord!
Opening Hymn #411 Arise, Your Light is Come!
(Please remain standing through the Gloria Patria)
Call to Confession
Our God is compassionate and merciful, knowing us with an intimacy we cannot comprehend. There is nothing we have done, or left undone, that is not already known by God. This gives us confidence, to be fully ourselves, that we can be fully forgiven.
Prayer of Confession
God of Life, you come to us as a consuming fire, and the one who has consecrated us before time. You promise us a kingdom that cannot be shaken and call us to serve you with praise and thanksgiving. But we forget, and we yield to fear. We trust in the tangible rewards of this world, and neglect your promises. We confess that we are a divided people; we foster separations and widen rifts in our families, our communities, and in the world. Open us to your healing. Free us from all that distances us from your presence and from one another. Give us your grace, and inspire us to serve you with courage; through Jesus Christ who comes to save. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Promising forgiveness and the sustenance we need to amend our lives, God rejoices in our longing for wholeness. Give thanks that we have been known and forgiven, set free to live the resurrected life of faith.
In light of God’s gift of grace, please turn to your neighbor to extend the peace of Christ, saying, “May the Peace of Christ be with you,” and offer the traditional response:
“And also with you.”
Gloria Patria
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end.
Sermon for Faith Builders Children are invited to go to Children’s Worship with our Children’s Worship Leader, Ms. Marisa. Children will return during the final hymn.
Prayers of the People & The Lord's Prayer
Call to Offering
Offertory Battle Hymn of the Republic
William Steffe/Donald Busarow
Doxology
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen
Prayer of Dedication
Hymn #422 God, Whose Giving Knows No End
Scripture Reading John 2:13-22
Anthem Freedom's Prayer Michael Shasberger
Freedom's prayer, Freedom's hope, Freedom's task at hand,
God a heritage has given, God ordained Freedom's plan.
Now at hand, now at stake, Now a call to rise,
To ensure what God has granted To all now equalize.
Freedom's prayer, Freedom's plan.
We the people, We the tool, We among the throng,
Can retreat or rally here, Can dedicate, we the song,
God's own people, God's own plan, God's perfect freedom won,
Only when all can stand, Only then, God's will be done.
Freedom's prayer, Freedom's hope, God's will that all be one.
Sermon Being God’s Person in Messy Times: Say What Now?
Affirmation of Faith - (A Declaration of Faith, 7(1)*)
Gathered around the Word and sacraments, those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, together with their children, have formed a corporate, visible body in pilgrimage with God across the centuries. The church has sought to order its life and ministry in obedience to the teaching of the first apostles. It has attempted to carry out Christ's commission in various institutional forms and structures that demonstrate both continuity and change.
We acknowledge that Christ chooses to be known in the world through this community of ordinary people, therefore we dare not despise or abandon the church. Christ is the head of the church, therefore we are responsible to Christ
when we make policy and decisions in the church. Christ is the foundation of the church, therefore it will not fall despite our weakness. We are confident that the Lord of the church will judge and defeat our sinful intentions and actions, help us in our weakness and blindness, and use the church to accomplish his purposes.
Closing Hymn God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand
Benediction
Postlude Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness
Sacred Harp/Wilbur Held
* Today’s Affirmation of Faith is excerpted from A Declaration of Faith, which originated in the PCUS (Southern Church) in 1977. In 1985, the PC(USA) (reunified church) affirmed the lengthy Declaration as “a reliable aid for Christian study, liturgy, and inspiration.”
