Sermon Tone Analysis

3~/21~/99

 

ORGAN PRELUDE

ANNOUNCEMENTS                       

Psalm 130:1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

CALL TO WORSHIP

~*OPENING HYMN                            All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name                    #68

~*INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER     Living God, as you released your friend Lazarus from the confines of death, by your living presence among us, free us from fear of death and free us for willing service in your kingdom.

Empower us by your Spirit to raise up your resurrected arms over a dying world.

In the powerful name of Jesus.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever.

AMEN.

~*GLORIA PATRI

SCRIPTURE READING         Ezekiel 37:1-14

1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?"

I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD 7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.

14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act," says the LORD.

READER                 Jim Barker

OFFERING     For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

~*DOXOLOGY

~*PRAYER OF DEDICATION            So great a God, so great a Love, so great a gift, so great a salvation, so great a life, so great a destiny -- how our hearts are overwhelmed by your goodness, Lord.

May others, through us, catch a glimpse of what you are, and may they also come to know the greatness of your name.

AMEN

CHILDREN'S STORY TIME  Sue Barker

CHORAL ANTHEM

PRAYER            O God, You are the Creator of all the Universe and the giver of all life.

We ask You to search the soul of Your church and, where we have need, breathe into us new life and vitality.

Lord, in so many ways we have walked away from the tasks You created us as Your church to be about.

Forgive us, Lord, and where there is need, lead us to be about filling it; and where there are the wounded in our world, help us to be about providing Your healing; and where the darkness of sin abounds, lead us to share Your Light.

~/~/~/    O God, with the gift of the Holy Spirit You have extended to all who would receive it eternal life.

Touch us anew, Lord, and help us to see the areas we need to submit to Your will.

Lord, so often we seem to choose the ways of the world and ignore all of those ways You came to teach us.

So often we would have in our lives the things that bring the temporary pleasures of life and we lose our focus on the values that are eternal.

Forgive us, Lord, and help us keep the focus of our hearts toward the Cross.

~/~/~/    O God, even while we were yet living in the world of darkness and sin You knew us and sent us a Savior.

Restore the wounds of our hearts, God.

Lord, so often we have sought to please those in the world around us and in the process we have little by little allowed the world's standards to become our standards.

Forgive us, Lord, as we come ever closer to Easter we invite You to show us again where we have allowed the ways of the world to replace Your ways and lead us home.

In Christ we pray.

Amen.

~*PREPARATIONAL HYMN             Crown Him with Many Crowns            # 3

SCRIPTURE TEXT                 John 11:1-45

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."

8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight?

Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world.

10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them."

11 After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him."

12 The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right."

13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep.

14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.

15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.

But let us go to him."

16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him."

23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?" 27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."

29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.

30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out.

They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

:32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

34 He said, "Where have you laid him?"

They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35 Jesus began to weep.

36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone."

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days."

40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41 So they took away the stone.

And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me.

42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

SERMON        The Dead ... Live

Just last week the Mid-week service read "because someone prayed" in the Great House of God.  because it applies to today's scripture lesson I would like to share it with you.

(lucado P83 -85)  I'd like you to think about someone.

His name is not important.

His looks are immaterial.

His gender is of no concern.