Advent 3, December 12, 8&10AM. Worship Online/In-Person

There is one life-changing promise we celebrate every Christmas: God’s promise of a Savior.
Join us this Christmas season. We look at four of the first people to see this incredible promise fulfilled.

Come and worship – online or in-person.
Let’s discover a God who keeps His promises. The promises gives us hope, peace, joy, and love.

Both of our 8&10AM services continue to be livestreamed https://www.facebook.com/LodiUMC

Order of Worship
December 12, 2021

PRELUDE

ADVENT CANDLE LIGHTING     Josh, Melissa & Chip Hall (8AM), Emma, Ian, & Ayla Bahr (10AM)

OPENING PRAYER
Dear God, you came down to assure us that you bring us life and never-ending joy.
Today, we have come to this place from a world of demands and schedules.
We have sought hope and peace and have found them here in you.
Now we seek the inner joy that only your presence can bring to our lives.
O Lord, let your people experience your provision
as we open our hearts and minds to your Spirit, Amen.

* SONGS OF ADVENT     Joy To The World, Unspeakable Joy
Joy to the world! The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room.
And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let all their songs employ
while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy.
Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy.

Chorus Joy, unspeakable joy! An overflowing well; No tongue can tell! Joy, unspeakable joy!
It rises in my soul, never lets me go!

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love;
And wonders of His love; And wonders, wonders of His love. Repeat Chorus

Heaven Everywhere
I hear the bells, they’re ringing loud and clear. You can’t help but love this time of year
It’s Christmastime, there’s something in the air. There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere
Somehow there’s a little more of love And maybe there’s a little less of us
Or maybe we’re just slightly more aware. There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere

It’s the smile on a man who has finally found hope
It’s the tears of a mother whose child has come home
It’s the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere. There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere.

It’s funny how it takes a holiday to show us how the world could truly change
If we all took the time to really care. There’d be a little more of heaven everywhere
It’s the grace that we show to a world that needs hope
It’s giving our lives knowing they’re not our own
It’s the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere. There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere

Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plains
And the mountains in reply echoing their joyous strains. Hallelujah, halleljuah
It’s the joy that we feel and the love that we share. There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere.
There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere. There’s a little bit of heaven everywhere
Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plain.

PASSING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Anticipating the blessings of the One who is coming, let us offer one another signs of Christ’s peace:
The peace of Christ be with you, always. And also with you.

SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS    Please share your prayer requests and joys. Type them in the comment section.

PASTORAL PRAYER

* TIME OF DEDICATION   Thank you for living your faith by sharing your gifts with God’s world through your church. Online Giving: www.LodiUMC.org/Give
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God, all creatures here below.
Praise God above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Words: Thomas Ken, 1674. Music: 15th Century French. VENI EMMANUEL. LM with Refrain
Text and tune adapted by Dean McIntyre, The United Methodist General Board of Discipleship. public domain.

* PRAYER FOR OUR OFFERINGS
For encouraging the sick, for strengthening the fainthearted,
for touching the untouchable, for bringing faith to the faithless,
for these reasons our gifts are given. Bless them, O God.
Bless them with the Christmas miracle of Jesus. Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC     What a Glorious Night      Praise Team

SCRIPTURE READING    Luke 1:5-23, 57-66    Sherrie Orcholski (8AM), Debra Oetzman (10AM)

MESSAGE    The Promise 3 – Zechariah, Joy Sealed

SONG OF FAITH    Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (United Methodist Hymnal #89)
1 Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

2 All thy works with joy surround thee, earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
stars and angels sing around thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain, call us to rejoice in thee.

3 Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest,
wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our brother, all who live in love are thine;
teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

4 Mortals, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began;
love divine is reigning o’er us, binding all within its span.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward, in the triumph song of life.

DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING

CCLI Copyright License # 475634. Streaming License # 20551633