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Open my heart to the joy and pain of living. As you love I love and receive in giving spirit my heart with a heart that's kind and tender to your grace I now surrender. Earth to the joy and pain of living.

As you love I love receiving my heart. I'd invite you to stand as you're able and join me as we give thanks for baptism. >> Hallelujah.

Christ is risen. >> Christ is risen indeed. >> Hallelujah.

>> Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the lamb. >> Amen. Let us give thanks for the gifts of baptism.

Merciful God, you are the one who was, who is, and who is to come. You lead us beside still waters. We thank you for the waters of creation, morning dew, gentle rain, roaring waves.

We thank you for the waters that nourish us. Blessed are you. >> You are the faithful witness who accompanies us on our journeys.

We give you thanks for your lifegiving death and resurrection. We praise you for joining us in joy and sorrow. Blessed are you >> Holy Spirit.

You anoint our head with oil and our cup overflows. Break down barriers that divide us. Fill us with a breath of peace.

Blessed are you. >> Holy one. We thank you for the gifts and grace of baptism and for making us a new creation.

We join with saints and angels giving you honor and praise now and forever. >> Amen. ventures in the life of faith to bring good tidy over Christ and all of life is new.

God's word is pure and it is true. Come drown your sins beneath the light flows from the granite rock. The stone from which our Lord has risen.

Our cornerstone building block. Christ speaks and raises from the dead. All those who hear the living word.

Come in to the people soon will share. Shouts of joy. and spirit.

King of yours glory to you for yours is the earth was the anointing The radant world as the rejoicing for spirits of pain as the thanksgiving to your holy names be the glor. >> The Lord be with you. and also with you.

>> Let us pray together. Almighty God, your son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Give us grace to love one another, to follow in the ways of his commandments, and to share his risen life with all the world.

For he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Please be seated.

I invite any of God's children to visit with me for a moment. Uh, God's child and I are going to be sitting here, but all God's children are there maybe, I hope, are listening. So, I'm glad you're here.

Are you glad you're here? Yes. Yes.

That's God's message to each of us because there's on this fifth Sunday of Easter. There's going to be a a wonderful letter. We've been listening to a letter by um by a guy named Peter.

And today he's trying to talk not to a particular group of people, but anybody that will listen wherever this letter goes. And he's going to say in just a few minutes, like living stones, let yourself be built into a spiritual house. Like living stones.

Well, one of the things that always struck me about this church is when I walk around the outside, it looks like this church was built out of some stones. Have you ever noticed that? >> Yep.

That's a And that makes it, you know, that that's a big deal. Not just because it makes the place strong. stacking stones does that.

But stacking stones is also a sign of something else. A long time ago when I was um when I was doing some special study, I went over to Jordan and I traced through the wilderness where the Israelites came. I mean, everywhere we'd go, I'd see a little a pile of stones somewhere.

We There was a pile of stones. Then we'd go another couple miles. There would be a pile of stones.

There'd be And finally, I just said, "So, why are these stones out here in the desert stacked up?" And the guy that was leading the study said, "Well," and he told me something special happened at that place where some people found God when God is like, "God came to me and so I want to make sure I rem I make that place." So, they'd stack stones. Well, we don't stack stones all over the place, but we we do a lot of building with stones, and that's a big deal. But I want us to think about what Peter says, you, me, because I'm going to say in a minute, every time Peter uses that pronoun you, it's always plural.

It's never just you alone. It's you and me and all of these people. He says like living stones, I want you to be build yourself into a spiritual house.

The wonderful thing is you do some pretty important stuff here in God's house. And I think God is God is showing us some important stuff through the work you do. Well, that's true for all of us everywhere we go.

We are God's living stones. And the world looks at us and says, "So what's special about you or why why do you do the good stuff you do?" And it's because Christ lives in me. Christ has come to me and Christ lives in me.

That's why I do the things I do. That's why I live the things I do. And that's you and that's me and that's all of us.

What a wonderful gift. What a wonderful blessing. Let's pray.

Thank you, God. >> That you chose me >> before I was born to be a living example of your wonderful love for all the world. Thank you.

Amen. Thank you so much. A reading from the book of Acts of the Apostles.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Steven gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they covered their ears and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.

Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Steven, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

>> The word of the Lord. >> Thanks be to God. >> We continue with the song.

your hands. Into your hands, oh Lord, I command my spirit refuge. Let me never be plucked to shame.

Deliver me in your rightous. that they have secretly set for me. For you are my tower of strength into your hands.

I spit into your hands. My times are in your hand. Resue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.

Let your face shine up on your save in your steadfast love. A reading from the first letter of Peter. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious in God's sight. And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture.

See, I am laying a in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. This honor then is for you who believe, but for those do not believe. The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner and stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. The word of the Lord. >> Thanks be to God.

Hallelujah. Hallelu to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Hallelujah. Halleluah. Hallelu.

The Holy Gospel according to St. John the 14th chapter. >> Glory to you, Lord.

>> Jesus said to the disciples, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

In my father's house there are many dwelling places. as if it were not so. But I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I'm going? Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied. Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philillip, and you still do not know me?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father?" How can you say, "Show us the Father?" Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.

But if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the work that I do and in fact will do greater works than these because I'm going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that my Father may be glorified in the Son.

If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. The Gospel of the Lord. Please be seated.

August 18, 2020. Sandy Leyon, then playing for Cleveland, had just arrived by bus to the team hotel in Pittsburgh. when he called his wife Liliana at home in Fort Meyers with their two small children.

He was growing concerned after several unanswered calls. He began getting alerts from his home security system and they logged into an app to monitor the cameras in the house. He discovered a horrifying scene with Liliana and their then 15month-old daughter Naomi.

"My wife was screaming and praying," Leon recalled. "Then I saw Naomi on the ground. She was purple.

She was dead." Naomi had wandered outside, had slipped through a gate to the pool. She fell in trying to grab a rubber duck. Jesus disciples were helpless and distressed that night before Passover as the Lord's earthly life slowly worked its way to an end.

Jesus words come from our Lord's last supper. And for John, the focus was on what happened really just before the meal. Jesus our Lord was on his knees, moving from one disciple to another, washing their feet.

When the Lord Jesus had washed the feet of every one of them at the table, he put his robe back on and took his seat. I've given you an example. The master told them and all of us, do as I have done to you.

He announced the time of his betrayal. Judas the Scariot has leaves the room. And I want you to imagine the impact on them that night.

He's going to do what? He's going where? And he's going to leave us here.

What will happen to us? Jesus next words begin today's gospel text with words that we often hear at a funeral service. Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God. Believe also in me. Jesus continued, "You know the way to the place where I'm going." They apparently weren't always listening during his ministry or watching what he did because that last night they don't have a clue what he's really talking about.

Disciple Thomas was honest when he admitted, "Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?" Jesus response was both clear and confusing. I am the way and the truth and the life.

With Jesus talking that night about his death hours away, yes, and more. The time has come for me to enter into his my glory, Jesus had said earlier. But a criminal's death hardly seems like an entrance into glory.

It took them then as it has taken us today all these post Easter resurrection appearances week after week to come to an understanding of what he means by true glory. Jesus was talking about his suffering and death soon to come. They understand later that his suffering and death were the means by which the he would be glorified.

He was crucified, died, and buried. We confess with the whole church in the words of the apostles creed with the whole church we also profess. On the third day, he rose again.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. Jesus returned to his place in the Holy Trinity, God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier. Some 50 years later, John's gospel is written for the church, apparently confused and clueless about what it means to be church.

Influenced by the culture around them, some doubted that Jesus was really human. Others doubted that Jesus was really God. Many adopted the ways of their unbelieving friends and neighbors.

The way they acted, the way they treated others was no different in the church than it was in the world around them. So today's second reading from the first letter of Peter and the second chapter actually began with verse two. But we need verse one to set the context.

To the church of the late first century and to the church of the 21st century. Peter challenges all of us. Rid yourselves.

He had said, "Therefore, of all malice, of all guile, of all insincerity, envy, and slander." Apparently, there were some in the church then, as they are today, guilty of the sin of assaulting fellow members, of attacking them physically and verbally. Others were guilty of the sin of professing to live the Christian life, but yet criticizing fellow members to others, saying unkind things about them behind their backs. We become like the people we associate with.

We talk like the people we listen to. The world out there has become confrontational. abusive and aggressive.

We attack and we assault those who differ from us, who hold a different position or opinion. The Bible simply calls this sin. This spirit is not of God.

It's of the devil. There is no place in the body of Christ, the church, for that spirit. Get rid of it, Peter had declared.

Peter and John write about 50 years after Easter around the same time. Jesus words take on new significance in the life of the church then as they do for us. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." After Easter, the church exists to lead others to him who is the way, the truth, and the life.

In the church, we enter a new reality. They were clueless before Easter. But Easter changed everything.

The world out there is of our making. The church came called into being by Jesus and empowered by the spirit of the risen Lord is of God's making. Here we come to know the way.

And the way is not a path. It's a person. When Jesus said, "You know the way to the place where I'm going," he wasn't talking about a location like heaven.

He was talking about a relationship about resuming the glory that was his and the godhead from the beginning. Jesus asked Philillip, "Have I been with you all this time, Philillip, and you still do not know me?" It's not an intellectual exercise Jesus is talking about. It's an intimate personal relationship with Jesus.

It's like Jesus is saying, "You spent all this time with me. You've listened to me. You saw the things I did, and you still don't know who I really am." As Jews, they heard him that might speak the personal divine name given to Moses and applied it to himself.

I am the way. In the Holy Gospels, Jesus never talked in detail about heaven. Every reference to heaven in the New Testament is someone's speculation or someone's vision.

No, the way is not a path to a place like heaven or the good life or whatever. The way is a person, the living Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, the truth is not of the head.

It's of the heart. The truth is not something we engage intellectually. It's not information that we process with our finite minds and then either accept or reject.

The truth Jesus announced claims us. It grasps us. It fills our heart and soul.

The truth given in the gift of holy baptism is within us. The truth is not information. It's transformation.

It's the spirit of the living risen Christ within us enabling us to perceive this new reality in which we are always being changed, immersed in our baptism into the kingdom of God. And the truth works within us, changing us, remaking us, reforming us until we are no longer the people we once were. That's what Peter meant when he says that there is no place in the church for those ways and words of the world that hurt and harm fellow believers.

As I said earlier, Peter's use of the pronoun you is always plural. Religion is not just between you and Jesus. It's between believer and believer and believer in God's church.

Having the spirit of the risen Lord Jesus in you, like newborn infants who ingest lifegiving milk, we grow into the fullness of God's gift of salvation. You, all of us together, Peter says, are God's own people in order that you, all of us together may proclaim the mighty deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The truth is not of the head, it's of the heart.

Thirdly, we come to know the one who is the life here and hereafter. Many faithful Christians facing the diagnosis of a terminal illness have testified to me through the many years of my ministry. I'm not afraid to die.

I am always in God's hands. Some whose efforts to amass all they can, to accumulate all they can, find only too late that it was really never enough to secure their life. The late Harry Emerson Fosdic, beloved preacher of Riverside Church in New York City, authored our ELW hymn number 705, God of Grace and God of Glory.

Fostic died years ago, but his description of people then is painfully accurate even today. Too many here and elsewhere are Fosdic wrote, "Rich in things and poor in soul." Leon's wife, Liliana, discovered Naomi floating face down in the pool. She jumped in, grabbed the child, and called 911 while trying to revive her.

Liliana wasn't trained in CPR, but she tried. Getting no response, she abandoned her efforts. And needing a miracle, she did.

The only thing she thought might help her child. The only one who could do something for her, she said, was God. So I prayed, "Holy Spirit, help me.

Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, help me." Because I knew my daughter was dying. Lana clutched her dying daughter's hand.

Then she noticed a small sign that gave her hope. At the bottom of her fingers, she noticed pink beginning to appear. Then all of her body color began to change.

Naomi had been in the water at least 12 minutes. Doctors warned that should she survive, there would almost certainly be brain damage. Arriving later that night, Sandy Leon awoke early the next morning to find the child on her knees in the bed.

She began talking as soon as the tubes were removed from her throat. She's a perfectly healthy girl who turns six next month. This month, the family believes the truth of St.

Paul's words. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. When the life possesses you, nothing in all creation can separate you.

After Easter, the church exists to lead others to him who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. of heaven in praise of love and still Christ trial.

Hallelu Hallelujah. Eternal is a guilty preeapture sless trial. Hallelu.

Hallelujah. heart and all things above that we coner triulle Hallelujah. Praises now we bless him sing.

Christ has triumphed. Hallelu to the father and the lord to sp most holy god all the glory ever ending. Hallelu.

Hallelu. Hallelu. Please be seated.

David Michael Hicks desires to live in Christ within this community of faith and is now invited to join me here to be received into our congregation. Let us pray. Merciful God, we thank you for Mike whom you've made your own by water and the word in baptism.

You've called him to yourself, enlightened him with the gifts of your spirit, and nourished him in the community of faith. Uphold your servant Mike in the gifts and promises of baptism, and unite the hearts of all whom you've brought to new birth. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. I ask you to join us in professing faith in Christ Jesus and confessing the faith of the church. Do you believe in God the Father?

>> Believe in God, creator of heaven and earth. >> Do you believe in Jesus Christ the son of God? I believe in Jesus Christ, >> who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontious Pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried.

>> He descended into hell. >> On the third day, he rose again. >> He ascended into he is seated at the right hand of the father.

He will come to judge the living and the dead. Do you believe in God, the Holy Spirit? >> I believe in the Holy Spirit, >> the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen. >> You've made public profession of your faith and have expressed your desire to join this congregation. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism to live among God's faithful people to hear the word of God and share in the Lord's supper?

To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed and to serve all people following the example of Jesus and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth. If so, declare, I do, and I ask God to help and guide me. >> Do I ask God to help and guide me?

>> People of God, do you promise to support Mike and pray for him in his life in Christ? If so, declare, "We do, and we ask God to help and guide us." >> Let us pray. We give you thanks, oh God, that through water and the Holy Spirit, you give us new birth, cleanse us from sin, and raise us to eternal life.

Stir up in this new member, Mike, of Grace Lutheran Church, the gift of your Holy Spirit, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence both now and forever. >> Amen. >> Let us rejoice with this sibling in Christ.

Together we will give thanks and praise to God and proclaim the good news to all the world. >> Mike was the first face I saw when I came to the campus of Newberry College in 1979 to join the staff and faculty there. Our offices were side by side in the same complex.

It's a joy to be with you. Thank you, Mike. Trusting in the power of Christ's resurrection to heal and redeem our broken world, let us pray for the needs of all creation.

God of glory, you have built your church on Christ the cornstone. Inspire lay leaders, deacons, pastors, and bishops to proclaim forgiveness and your steadfast love to all whom they encounter. Merciful God, >> receive our prayer.

God of majesty, you bring forth plants and animals, skies and seas, mountains and valleys, protect all you have made from the ravages of pollution and climate disaster. Merciful God, >> our pray. >> God of mercy, you intend governments and social service agencies to be instruments of peace and justice.

guide political leaders and organizations to be agents of compassion and raise up advocates for those who seek refuge and assistance. Merciful God, >> receive our pray. >> God of well-being.

You soothe those in distress. Console all who grieve. provide for any in need and comfort those who are sick, especially those we live before you now, whether silently or aloud.

Instill caregivers with the sense of purpose to be your healing hands in this world. Merciful God, >> receive our prayer. God of community, you call us together as your people for mutual support and to witness to your love in the world.

Make your presence known among those unable to attend worship today. Merciful God, >> receive our prayer. >> God of eternal life, you have prepared dwelling places for your people so that we are never separated from you.

We give you thanks for the faithful departed who witness to your mighty acts in word and deed. Merciful God, >> receive our prayer. >> God of resurrection power, use us and these prayers to proclaim the good news of new life to our world through Jesus Christ our risen savior.

>> Amen. >> The peace of the Lord be with you always. As you're comfortable, share a sign of God's peace.

Lord, hear our cry. Come into the dry and thirsty soul. forive us.

And as we call on your name, would you take this place for your glory to dwell? Open the blind eyes. Unlock the dears.

Come to your people as we draw near. Hear us from heaven. Touch our generation.

We are your people crying out of our cry. Your children worship as we sing out your praise. Would you make this a for your glory to dwell?

Open the blind eyes. Unlock the dead. Come to your people as we draw near.

Hear us from heaven. Touch our generation. We are your people crying out in desperation.

Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven.

Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven.

Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven.

Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven. Hear us from heaven.

Open the blind eyes. Unlock the dears. Come to your people as we draw near.

Hear us from heaven. Touch our generation. We are your people.

crying out in desperationless from the sea. that were led with the bread of life. The hopes and the dreams of all them with the prayers we offer our table with your presence and give us a taste of the feast to come.

Let us pray together. Merciful God, accept the fruits of our labor gathered to give you glory. You have set a table before us, a glimpse of that great day when we will hunger and thirst no more.

Nourish us with the body and blood of Jesus that goodness and mercy may follow us and bless the world you love. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Lord be with you. Also with you. >> Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord. >> Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. >> It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right, our duty and our joy that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, Almighty and merciful God, through our Savior Jesus Christ. You call your people to cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the pascal feast that renewed in the gift of baptism, we may come to the fullness of your grace. And so with all the choirs of angels, with the church on earth and the host of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.

>> Holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and God of might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosana in the highest.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lordana. Hosana in the highestana in the highest. >> Blessed are you, oh God of the universe.

Your mercy is everlasting and your faithfulness endures from age to age. Praise to you for creating the heavens and the earth. Praise to you for saving the earth from the waters of the flood.

Praise to you for bringing the Israelites safely through the sea. Praise to you for leading your people through the wilderness to the land of milk and honey. Praise to you for the words and deeds of Jesus, your anointed one.

Praise to you for the death and resurrection of Christ. Praise to you for your spirit poured out on all nations. In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat.

This is my body given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me. Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people, for the forgiveness of sin.

Do this for the remembrance of me. With this bread and cup, we remember our Lord's Passover from death to life as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died.

Come again. Oh God of resurrection and new life, pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts of bread and wine. Bless this feast.

Grace our table with your presence. >> Reveal yourself to us in the breaking of the bread. Raise us up at the body of Christ for the world.

Breathe new life into us. Send us forth burning with justice, peace, and love. With your holy ones of all times and places, with the earth and all its creatures, with sun and moon and stars, we praise you, oh God, blessed and holy trinity, now and forever.

Amen. >> Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. >> This day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.

Forever and ever. Amen. Come to the table of new life.

Receive the risen Lord. Lamb of God, you take the s of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the s of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take the s of the world, grant us peace. Grant us peace. Boo.

Hey. Hey. Many beautiful and good and Glory in glory living God and host many strong mother God night and day Wonders of creation celebration genius at h andana strong mother god father god every All the strength of human and forana father God, oh king God, pray with endless caregana.

God, the growing God here on the moon, Savior to kindness, crying out for justice, giving all you have and hosana young growing God. Great living God never fully know. Joyful darkness beyond our sea.

Closer yet everlasting home. Hail and hosana. Great living God.

Spitord receiving and in giving spirit. Open my heart. I replace my stormy heart with a heart that's kind and tender.

All my coldness and fear to your grace I surrender. Love my heart as my love story and may my living bring you glory open my heart to the joy and pain of living as you love may I love receive and in giving my heart. May I share the joy of friend and neighbor as I love my finest labor.

Spirit open my heart to the joy and pain of living as you love. May I love in receiving and in giving my heart. The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in his grace.

>> Amen. >> Let us pray together. Holy one, through this meal you have made your home among us and are making all things new.

Send us now to speak peace to anxious hearts, to love our enemies, and to bring your healing to the nations in the name of Jesus. Amen. This is once again our opportunity in a wonderful way to extend the table of God's love to the homebound members.

If you're distributing home communion, I invite you to come forward. Let's pray. Gracious God, loving all your family with a mother's tender care, as you sent the angel to feed Elijah with heavenly bread, assist us in this ministry on which we set forth.

In your love and care, nourish and strengthen those to whom we bring this sacrament, that through the body and blood of your son, we all may know the comfort of your abiding presence. Amen. Receive the blessing.

Almighty God, who is the beginning and the end, Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead, and the spirit, our advocate and peace, bless you now and forever. >> Amen. >> Amen.

World is God's commandment. Are wide open angels on the web for the peace of all creation. Pray for a place where his holy groundless God of many f For the peace of all creation his holy ground and nations all to work together and reaching walls.

for the peace of all creation. Pray for a place where his holy ground. >> Good morning everyone.

Today we welcomed our newest member, Mike Hicks. If you've not already had an opportunity to meet with Mike, please take a moment and introduce yourself personally to him. We also have the following events happening today.

The mission site profile task force requests your presence in the fellowship hall directly after Sorry about that. directly after the service to share your feedback about your experiences, thoughts, and hopes for grace that will be important in creating our the document that will provide prospective pastors the first look at Grace Lutheran Church during the service search process. Please drop off your completed questionnaires in the black box that's on the table in the fellowship hall.

There's also EBS volunteer meeting at 12:15 in the fellowship hall. Young youth meets at 3:30 and youth meets at 4:30. We're pleased to announce that Andrea Wyland, Lorie Brown, and Pam Kirby will also act I'm sorry about this will attend as voting members this in this year's South Carolina Senate Assembly June 13 11th through 13th in Columbia.

Also, please see Teresa Miller and Mary Vil in the fellowship hall if you have any changes to your grace directory. Changes are due by 510. We are also in need of volunteers for posting family promise made 10 through 17.

Um, please consult this past week's email of grace notes for more details. And please think about volunteering. We are always in need of service and it's a heartwarming thing you can give back to people.

share with us. Now, let us read our mission statement together. We share in God's grace by welcoming all people, growing together in faith, and joining God's work in our community.

Thank you. >> Hallelujah.