Song 1 – Let Us Be Known

Hear God call you to worship:

Isaiah 54:10

Let us worship the Lord!

Song 2 – King of Kings

Song 3 – His Glory & My Good

Song 4 – At Your Feet (I Surrender)

Our welcome team members will pass an offering basket during this song.

For information about giving online, please visit ucclife.fi/give or follow the QR code on the screen. You can also speak to our pastors or leaders for more information about giving and generosity. You can also ask the welcome team or any of our staff team members for more info on giving online.

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.

Praise God for all that he has done
Praise Him for Jesus’ reign begun!
He came with love to make us one;
He will return, His kingdom come!

Amen

Confession of Sin
Almighty God,
we confess how hard it is to be your people.
You have called us to be the church,
to continue the mission of Jesus Christ
to our lonely and confused world.

Yet we acknowledge we are more lazy than active,
more isolated than involved,
more uncaring than compassionate,
more stubborn than obedient,
more legalistic than loving.

Gracious Lord, have mercy upon us
and forgive our sins.
Remove the obstacles preventing us
from being your representatives to a broken world.

Awaken our hearts
to the promised gift of your indwelling Spirit.
This we pray in Jesus’ powerful name.
Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness
Friend, if you believe and confess that Christ is your Saviour, your sins are forgiven!

The assurance of forgiveness comes from the Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 56, which we will read together:

My sins are forgiven.
I believe that God,
because of Christ’s atonement,
will never hold against me
any of my sins nor my sinful nature,
which I need to struggle against all my life.
Rather, in his grace
God grants me the righteousness of Christ
to free me forever from judgement.

—based on Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 56

A warm welcome to all, and especially to any visitors joining us today – if you’d like to get connected or find out more about UCC, please see our digital visitors card or speak to us after the service!

If you have children, they are welcome to join our Sunday school classes! 

Our Scripture reading today is Colossians 1:1–23 (ESV). Hear the Word of God:

^1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,⁶ which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, ⁷ just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf ⁸ and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation^[g] under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

This is the Word of the Lord.

The Supremacy of Christ
– Colossians 1:1-23 (15-20)

I. Christ in Relation to God
II. Christ in Relation to Creation
III. Christ in Relation to the Church

Song 5 – Yet Not I, But Through Christ In Me

Song 6 – In Christ Alone 

Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name;
your kingdom come;
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. 
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. 
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.

“‘The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’

– Numbers 6:24-26

For all church announcements, please see our digital announcements page: ucclife.fi/announcements