Christ Presbyterian Church

Worship Service

June 25, 2023

Facebook Live: @christpc
Call and Listen: 351-888-7756
Sanctuary Parking Area: FM105.3
 Welcome to Sunday Worship Service
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
June 25, 2023 10:00AM
* Please stand if you are able.

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
GATHERING AROUND THE WORD

Call to Worship
One: To you, O God, we lift our hearts.
All: Hear our voices and answer.
One: The Lord is good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love.
All: God does wondrous things with grace and mercy.
One: So let us glorify God’s holy name together!
All: We come to worship God in love and loyalty.

Prayer of Adoration
God of grace, you created our minds to grow in wisdom. You created our hearts to
expand with love for you and your world. You created our voices to sing your praises
forever. Fill us to overflowing with your Holy Spirit, so we may worship you in spirit and
in truth, bold and unafraid to follow Jesus, even when challenges confront us. In this
time of worship, assure us of your presence with us and reveal to us the path you open
before us, for we live to serve as your people wherever you lead. Amen.

*Hymn
We Gather Together
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
he chastens and hastens his will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own.

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 Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
so from the beginning the fight we were winning;
thou, Lord, wast at our side; all glory be thine!
We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation;
thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Prayer of Confession
God who creates the future, you call us to follow you, yet we prefer familiar paths. You
offer us new beginnings, yet change makes us uncomfortable. You invite us into the
fullness of life, yet we resist more than we already know. Forgive us, O God, and make
of us courageous disciples ready to serve in Jesus’ name. AMEN

Silent Confession
Assurance of Pardon
*Affirmation of Faith 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
I believe Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice
in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come
to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete
comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I
thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to
childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And
now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Special Music
Servant Song
Solo – Susan Taylor

PROCLAIMING THE WORD

Prayer of Illumination
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Reading from the Old Testament
Psalms 86:1-10
Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my life, for I am
devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; 3 be gracious to me, O
Lord, for to you do I cry all day long. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I
lift up my soul. 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all
who call on you. 6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. 7 In the day
of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me. 8 There is none like you among the gods,
O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. 9 All the nations you have made shall come and
bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. 10 For you are great and do
wondrous things; you alone are God.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989)

Reading from the New Testament

Romans 6:1-11
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no
means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried
with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death
like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self
was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be
enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never
die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for
all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989)

One: This is the Word of the Lord.

All: Thanks be to God!

Family Choir
Take My Life
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.
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 Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love;
take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee, swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King;
take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from thee, filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold;
take my intellect and use
every power as thou shalt choose, every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne, it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store;
take myself and I will be
ever, only, all for thee, ever, only, all for thee.
Reading from the Gospel
Matthew 10:24-42
‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the
disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of
the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! 26 ‘So have no
fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will
not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear
whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill
the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows
sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. 30
And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value
than many sparrows. 32 ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will
acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will
deny before my Father in heaven. 34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the
earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against
his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-
law; 36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 37 Whoever loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy
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of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find
it. 40 ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one
who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a
prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous
person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their
reward.’
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989)

One: This is the Gospel of the Lord.

All: Thanks be to God!

Sermon Rev. William Cowfer

“Love Life; Live Love”

RESPONDING TO THE WORD

Hymn
God of the Ages
God of the ages, whose almighty hand
leads forth in beauty all the starry band
of shining worlds in splendor through the skies,
our grateful songs before thy throne arise.
Thy love divine hath led us in the past.
In this free land by thee our lot is cast.
Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay:
thy word our law, thy paths our chosen way.
Refresh thy people on their toilsome way.
Lead us from night to never-ending day.
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
and glory, laud, and praise be ever thine.

Invitation to Giving
Offertory

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*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
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
GOING OUT INTO THE WORLD

*Hymn
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
There's a wideness in God's mercy,
like the wideness of the sea.
There's a kindness in God's justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven.
There is no place where earth's failings
have such kindly judgment given.
For the love of God is broader
than the measures of the mind.
And the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we would gladly trust God's Word,
and our lives reflect thanksgiving
for the goodness of our Lord.
Benediction
Postlude

Please join us for coffee fellowship today in Narthex E after worship.

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 ANNOUNCEMENTS
CPC Night Out on The Town
Join us on Thursday July 13th at 5 PM for dinner at Hibachi Buffett on Gulf to Bay Blvd. If interested, please
contact the church office at 727-584-8695 or Chad at 727-304-7577 by Monday July 10th to make a reservation.
Neighborhood Ministries
Our “Blessing Box” food pantry delivery method has changed to a bag distribution on Wednesdays from 5PM
to 6PM. These bags provide additional food items to supplement caring for the families in need. Food items can
continue to be dropped off on Sunday mornings and placed in the wheeled grocery cart or at the church office.
The Neighborhood Meals continue to provide bagged meals on Tuesdays at 5PM in front of the church.
Pak-a-Snack currently has ended but will continue once the school year resumes in the fall.
*Financial contributions to support the food ministries will be welcomed.*
Donation of Toiletries
If you have traveled lately and have unused toiletries articles that can donated to one of mission groups at St
Vincent de Paul in their work with homeless. Please contact Jeanne Gres.
Pastor Bill Cowfer’s Schedule and Contact Information
Tuesdays and most Thursdays in the Church Office from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM.
Appointments, Office Visits & Phone Calls ; invited and welcome.
Home & Residence Pastoral Visitation, generally in the afternoons.
Emergency or Special Pastoral Care as needed or requested.
Email address - cowferwj@gmail.com and Cell Phone # 727-434-2768
Ways to support your church in tithes and offerings
1. Online at www.largocpc.org
2. Through Vanco Mobile Faith Engagement App on Apple or Android devices
3. Mail a gift directly to the church or drop in office mail slot
4. Use the bill pay option through your bank
5. Scan the QR code to the right using your phone

CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Phone: 727-584-8695 • Fax: 727-585-1079 • 3115 Dryer Ave, Largo FL 33770
www.LargoCPC.org • email: Office.largocpc@gmail.com •
Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 9 AM – 11:30 AM or by appointment.
Pastor Cowfer will be in the office on Tuesdays and most Thursdays from 9:00 AM – 12:00PM,
if you would like to reach him, please call 727-434-2768 or the church office.

Pastor Rev. William Cowfer email: Cowferwj@gmail.com

Secretary Sarah Reeves email: Office.largocpc@gmail.com
Director of Music Steven Radeck email: StevenRadeck@gmail.com
Custodian June Sanchez email: JuBug616@aol.com
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All songs used by permission CCLI #863215 and streaming CPSL 139714, Expiration date 7/31/2023
FYI - Video and audio equipment are used for the livestreaming & recording of the worship service.