Welcome & Opening Prayer

Good morning church!

I am Russell Clark and I am the senior minister here at Azle Christian Church. We’re so thrilled you all are here with us in worship – both here in the sanctuary and online! May we throw away that which hinders us so we can see who God says we are this morning! You are a beloved child of God!

We like for everyone to know a few things before we begin worship every week.

(1) If you’re a guest today, we’re so happy you’re here! Filling out the attendance registration in your pew helps us connect names with faces and sharing your e-mail helps us to connect you to our weekly newsletter. There are information brochures in your pew to get to know us more and there is information about our weekly activities and calendar in your bulletin.

(2) Second, we love our children here in worship and we always welcome them here. There is a kids corner in the back if your children need a space to move around. There is also a nursery available if you’d like.

(3) Finally, our liturgy is posted each week on the website if you would like to follow along with our service.

Now, may we take a moment to pray as we enter this time of worship.

Loving God – May you reach the innermost pain and suffering in our lives and take it from us so we may live new lives in you this day. Amen.

May we take a moment before we get started to greet those next to us with a hug or high five.

Opening Songs:

Gather Us In #284

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 just in buildings small and 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 bones

Holy is The Lord by Chris Tomlin

We stand and lift up our hands

For the joy of the Lord is our strength

We bow down and worship Him now

How great, how awesome is He

And together we sing

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty

The earth is filled with His glory

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty

The earth is filled with His glory

We stand and lift up our hands

For the joy of the Lord is our strength

We bow down and worship Him now

How great, how awesome is He

And together we sing

And everyone sing

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty

The earth is filled with His glory

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty

The earth is filled with His glory

Yeah, it's rising up all around

It's the anthem of the Lord's renown

It's rising up all around

It's the anthem of the Lord's renown

Together we sing

And everyone sing

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty

The earth is filled with His glory

Litany of Faith – Susie Hiles

One: Lord, may the volatile, hurtful words and actions that have caused trauma to your people be thrown in the garbage.

All: May we trade our sorrows for triumph as we speak only of your love and grace.

One: Lord, may our pain and suffering become nothing compared to the new life we have in you.

All: May we find strength to stomp out that which hinders us from seeing more of you.

One: Lord, may we seek out your people who need healing and a place to call home.

All: May this place bring peace in extravagant ways. And may your Spirit of grace be poured out on everyone we meet this week. Amen.

Scripture Meditation Psalm 30:1,3; Philippians 3:10-11 – Rev. Russell Clark

“I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths…O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit.” – Psalm 30:1, 3

“I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.” – Philippians 3:10-11

One: This is the word of God for the people of God.

All: Thanks be to God.

The book of Psalms is a song of someone who has escaped the grave and seen new life after a messy existence. Paul in Philippians says this suffering and death are worth it because it leads to resurrection and this new life in Christ.

That might not be **exactly** the message you heard in your tradition or church growing up. We get anxious about a sermon on hell because hell has been used by Christians to entice fear or to shame someone, but the way Jesus talks about a hell is it is this place of sin that we throw away. Death loses its sting. This sin no longer has dominion or control over us. Hell or sin or shame or fear are all things that have NO value in our lives.

Instead of putting “the fear of God” in someone by scaring them with thoughts of hell or shaming them, we share the love and grace of God. When we do that, hell is no longer a word in our vocabulary.

And if you’re a new guest at our church, I’m sorry that you’re here for hell week.

I see everyone’s anxiety about a sermon on hell and I hope by the end of this service, you can say, “Hell…NO!” because this anxiety and fear and shame no longer has a place in our lives!

Think about this as we get ready for our sermon and enter our time of prayer.

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you. And Also with you. Let us pray.

God of grace – we repent from the ways we have been asked to repent that have only led to more guilt than grace.

For those who have loved what they call sin more than seeing the sinner in all of us, we pray.

May we empower your beloved children of God to see who they are through you.

May they see the name you call your children: Forgiven, Free, Grace-Filled, Loved completely, OWESOME, welcomed home.

We praise you for bringing us out of our mess, for showing us new ways to see you.

May we die to the traumatic experiences we’ve had in the past and only see the freedom and true nature of your will and your ways.

Open our eyes to see who you truly are. Open our ears to hear the cries of your people. Open our hands to welcome the prodigal sons and daughters home. Open our lives to see the real, true, OWESOME lives you have waiting for us that starts TODAY.

And Lord, will you hear us as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us…

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

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.

RESPONSIVE HYMN – It is Well With My Soul #561

When peace like a river, attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul

It is well

With my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

May God haste the day when my faith shall be my sight

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend

Even so, it is well with my soul!

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Children’s Moment – Jessie Button

Stewardship Moment – Emily Harden

Sharing Our Resources

There are many ways to support the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, use the QR code in your bulletin, or place it in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our anthem. You can also put in a prayer request card or information card in the plate.

Anthem – Truth be Told by Matthew West

Doxology - Praise God from whom all blessing flow; praise God, all creatures here below; Praise God above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Offering Prayer – Susie Hiles

Series: Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, & The Fate of Every Person

Sermon: Hell (NO!) – Rev. Russell Clark

Holy Communion Meditation & Prayer – Susie Hiles

Communion Song – Seed, Scattered and Sown #395

Seed, scattered and sown,

Wheat, gathered and grown,

Bread, broken and shared as one,

The Living bread of God.

Vine, fruit of the land,

Wine, work of our hands,

One cup that is shared by all;

The Living Cup, the Living Bread of God.

Is not the bread we break,

A sharing in our Lord?

Is not the cup we bless,

The blood of Christ outpoured?

Seed, scattered and sown,

Wheat, gathered and grown,

Bread, broken and shared as one,

The Living bread of God.

Vine, fruit of the land,

Wine, work of our hands,

One cup that is shared by all;

The Living Cup, the Living Bread of God.

The seed which falls on rock

Will wither and will die,

The seed within good ground

Will flower and have life.

Seed, scattered and sown,

Wheat, gathered and grown,

Bread, broken and shared as one,

The Living bread of God.

Vine, fruit of the land,

Wine, work of our hands,

One cup that is shared by all;

The Living Cup, the Living Bread of God.

As wheat upon the hills

Was gathered and was grown,

So may the Church of God

Be gathered into one.

Seed, scattered and sown,

Wheat, gathered and grown,

Bread, broken and shared as one,

The Living bread of God.

Vine, fruit of the land,

Wine, work of our hands,

One cup that is shared by all;

The Living Cup, the Living Bread of God.

We believe Jesus Christ is the gracious host at this table.

Everyone is welcome to participate in communion. Please pass tray to your neighbor after receiving your communion cups. Please help those who need assistance. Hold cups until instructed by Elder to take in unison.

Holy Communion Words of Institution – Susie Hiles

Invitation – If you would like to make your statement of faith or become a member of ACC, you may come forward after the benediction or talk to our minister after worship.

*Announcements & Benediction – Rev. Russ Clark

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

A few announcements for this week before our benediction:

You can find information on the back of your bulletin about our weekly activities, such as Sunday School, our Ukulele Group, our Wednesday dinner and bible study, and our prayer group. In the insert, you will find our calendar to transfer to your personal calendars. We also have a google calendar on our website to add to your personal calendar.

TONIGHT we will have bible & beer at 5pm at The Harden’s home. Their address is printed in the bulletin. Bible & beer is a laid back time to get together where everyone brings snacks and whatever beverage they like to drink. It does not have to be beer, but it can be beer if you choose. We will be having a discussion centered around our current sermon series and sharing your thoughts on some of the questions that have been asked in this series.

Directly after worship we will have a special leadership meeting to discuss some important items.

Thank you to everyone who helped donated funds for the Night to Shine prom. Our volunteers are looking forward to this Friday and coming back here to share our experience with you.

Again, be sure to check our calendar to see everything that’s coming up this month!

Finally, If you or someone you know needs a visit OR has a prayer request OR would like home communion, you may contact the church office or contact me directly.

BENEDICTION –

Will you please rise for the benediction and receive this blessing?

Next week we will be concluding our “Love Wins” series with “The Good News is Better Than That.” Until then,

There is a word to describe the loaded, volatile, violent, dramatic situations we experience when we suffer the very real consequences of rejecting the good and true and beautiful life that God has for us. There is a word that refers to the big, wide, terrible evil that comes from the secrets hidden deep within our hearts… all the way to the massive, society-wide collapse and chaos that comes when we fail to live in God’s world God’s way.

That word is hell.

…But that word refers to the dump.

Let us, through Christ, do with that hell what it deserves…take it to the dump. Trash that hell that is in your life. Throw it away. Hell? NO!

Don’t let that filth in your lives bring death and destruction any longer.

Today, this week, for the rest of your lives, and for the rest of eternity…LIVE FOR LOVE.

LOVE WINS, my friends.

There is hope. For you. For a new day. Today.

Amen.

*Benediction Response – Spirit Song #352

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

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

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

He'll descend upon your life and make you whole