September 7, 2025

Our September mission is Care & Share. The year ahead brings new challenges for Care and Share. Reductions in federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), changes to how food from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is acquired and reimbursed, and the elimination of Local Food Purchasing Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA) funding are all contributing to a difficult and shifting landscape.

These changes mean fewer resources and less food when more neighbors than ever are turning to Care and Share for help. Care and Share’s network – and the charitable food system nationwide – must now do more with less to meet the growing need.
Just $2 provides 5 meals to neighbors in need across Southern Colorado. Last year 25.2 million pounds of food were distributed across 29 counties with 294,994 people receiving the food they so desperately needed. 9,939 children took nutritious food home through Care and Share’s Children’s programs.

The support of the Southern Colorado Community is a powerful thing, making it possible to take on the months ahead.

“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;…and the Lord will reward you.” Pr 25:21-22
Thank you from your Mission Team

September 7, 2025 9:30 am Worship Service

Gathering

Prelude
Cynthia Hibbetts

Welcome
Rev. David Petty

Crossing the Threshold

Call to Worship
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Leader: Come, people of God, ready to be shaped and shaped and shaped again.

People: We are clay in the potter’s hands, open to God’s design.

Leader: Come, disciples and followers of Christ, ready to be challenged, changed, and empowered.

People: We are counting the cost and trusting the One who calls.

Leader: This is the day that the Lord has made.

People: We will rejoice and be glad in it!

*Worship Hymn
Jesus Calls Us
Vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH #398
 
1. Jesus calls us
o’er the tumult
of our life’s
wild, restless sea;
 
day by day
his sweet voice soundeth,
saying, “Christian,
follow me!”
 
3. Jesus calls us
from the worship
of the vain
world’s golden store,
 
from each idol
that would keep us,
saying, “Christian,
love me more!”
 
4. In our joys
and in our sorrows,
days of toil
and hours of ease,
 
still he calls, in
cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love me
more than these!”
 
*Greet Your Neighbor – Passing the Peace of Christ
Mystery Box

Prayer
 

 
Pastoral Prayer, Silent Prayer, The Lord’s Prayer
Rev. David Petty
 
The Lord’s Prayer
     
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 trespasses,
 
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
Lead us not
into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
 
For Thine is the Kingdom,
and the Power
and the Glory forever.
Amen

Giving Back

Invitation to Offering
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Offertory
Glory, Hallelujah!
Sanctuary Choir

Prayer of Thanksgiving
Rev. David Petty

Doxology
Praise God from Who All Blessings Flow
UMH #94
 
Praise God, from whom
all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures
here below: Alleluia! Alleluia!
 
Praise God, the source
of all our gifts!
Praise Jesus Christ,
whose power uplifts!
 
Praise the Spirit,
Holy Spirit!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Luke 14:25-33
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Jeremiah 18:1-11
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Prayer for Illumination
Leader: May the words of my mouth,
People: and the meditations of all of our hearts
All: be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our rock and our redeemer.
Psalm 19:14

Message
Can You Afford to Follow Jesus?
Rev. David Petty

Communion
Rev. David Petty
 
Leader: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Leader: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Leader: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and set before us the way of life. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
 
People: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Leader: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

By your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of your Son from the dead and to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
Once we were no people, but now we are your people, declaring your wonderful deeds in Christ, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

On the day you raised him from the dead he was recognized by his disciples in the breaking of the bread, and in the power of your Holy Spirit your Church has continued in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
 
People: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Leader: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and for ever.
 
All: Amen.
 
Take Time to Be Holy
UMH #395
WORDS: William D. Longstaff, ca. 1882 (1 Pet. 1:16)
 
1. Take time to be holy,
speak oft with thy Lord;
abide in Him always,
and feed on His word.
Make friends of
God’s children,
help those who are weak,
forgetting in nothing
His blessing to seek.
 
2. Take time to be holy,
the world rushes on;
spend much time
in secret
with Jesus alone.
 
By looking to Jesus,
like Him thou shalt be;
thy friends in thy conduct
His likeness shall see.
 
3. Take time to be holy,
let Him be thy guide,
and run not before Him,
whatever betide.
 
In joy or in sorrow,
still follow the Lord,
and, looking to Jesus,
still trust in His word.
 
4. Take time to be holy,
be calm in thy soul,
each thought
and each motive
beneath His control.
 
Thus led by His spirit
to fountains of love,
thou soon shall be fitted
for service above.
 
*Benediction
Rev. David Petty

Postlude
Cynthia Hibbetts