This hymn sing is meant to replace the sermon portion of an order of worship. There is also an accopmanying Call to Worship.
Call to Worship for Gratitude & Generosity Hymn Sing:
Leader: Scripture tells us to sing hymns to God with gratitude in our hearts.
People: We’ve come today, ready to sing praises to God.
L: We want to live lives of gratitude and praise.
P: We give thanks to God with hearts and hands and voices!
L: Gratitude pushes us towards generosity -
P: With eyes on God, we care for one another.
L: May all that we have, all that we are, all that we give - bring glory to God!
P: And so today we gather with gratitude in our hearts.
All: Let us sing praises to God. Amen.
God Comes First
Colossians 3:1-4:
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
What are you focused on? Where is your energy going?
There are many voices in this world that compete for our attention. Some are good - those who love us well; good causes that help one another; those that push us to live more holy lives of love; the voice of the Spirit urging us to spend time with God.
Some are…not so good - a thousand advertisements vying for our attention and wallet; ideologies that want us to buy what they’re selling hook, line, and sinker without thinking for ourselves or thinking of the needs of others; the voices that come when we doom scroll that trap us into anxiety, depression, and apathy; the voices that tell us to only care for me, myself, and I; that bog us down in all the things of this world.
Colossians tells us to set our minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth - for our very life is in Christ. Our life is not made up in the abundance of possessions or in the achievements of this life. Our very life is in Christ who has died for us to give us a new, eternal life. A life of hope. A life of glory. A life of love.
The issue is - the things of this world, all those voices that vie for our attention, they confuse our hearts about the things that are really important. We get bogged down, worn down, and left unfulfilled - always searching for more. And so - we need to turn our eyes upon Jesus. Keeping our eyes, hearts, minds, and souls oriented on the things above, helps us keep everything else in its proper place, helps us know what really matters in this life. Jesus, the God who loves us and fills us with the gift of the Holy Spirit comes first - for it is in Christ that our very lives are found.
The issue is - the things of this world, all those voices that vie for our attention, they confuse our hearts about the things that are really important. We get bogged down, worn down, and left unfulfilled - always searching for more. And so - we need to turn our eyes upon Jesus. Keeping our eyes, hearts, minds, and souls oriented on the things above, helps us keep everything else in its proper place, helps us know what really matters in this life. Jesus, the God who loves us and fills us with the gift of the Holy Spirit comes first - for it is in Christ that our very lives are found.
In a moment we will sing “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” - many may not know that the author of this hymn, Helen Lemmel, had a serious illness and was left blinded. Her husband, unwilling to take care of a blind wife, left her. It was then, in about 1918, she wrote this hymn. At a time of uncertainty, pain, and darkness in her own life - she penned “turn your eyes upon Jesus.” In doing so, she found what really matters. May we too turn our minds to the things of above.
Let us sing.
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, x2, UMH 349
Gratitude Follows
Colossians 3:15-17:
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
When our eyes and our hearts are focused upon Jesus, our priorities fall into place, and we make room for gratitude in our lives.
The exhortation to give thanks or participate in thankfulness, appears about 150 times in the Bible. If our eyes are focused on the things of this earth, we will not experience true gratitude as we will always be seeking for the endless “more.” We will never have “enough” by the standards of the world. We will never be satisfied.
And yet, when Christ dwells in us richly - that is, when we listen to the wisdom of Christ, rely on the peace that the Spirit gives, when we recognize that we are not just ourselves but that we all are one body in Christ - we realize that we have “enough” - for Jesus is all we ever need.
I am not sure that there is a more counter-cultural message than this in our current consumer obsessed world. Can you imagine that Christmas commercial this holiday season, “We’re not selling you anything. You don’t need to buy anything. There is nothing you need but Christ.”
When we focus on God first, it makes room for gratitude in our lives. When we focus on God first, our priorities are in line and we can see all that we have - and all that we share with one another in the body of Christ, comes from God. We can know we are loved and held - and give thanks with psalms, hymns, and voices raised to God.
In a moment we will sing thing hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God” - a hymn we often associate with the holiday of Thanksgiving - which, for many, is a holiday of excess - although there are many in our country who scrimp and save and sacrifice in in order to put food on the table to celebrate that holiday. And that is more in line with the circumstances in which this hymn was written.
Martin Rinckart likely wrote this hymn during or soon after the Thirty Years’ War in about 1636. He was one of the sole surviving ministers in a refugee city - he spent most of his resources in order to be able to feed refugees - meaning he often ate only scraps. It was the time of the plague and he reportedly did over 50 funerals a day. It is under these circumstances that he wrote the words, “Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices…”
Would we be giving thanks in the circumstances that Rinckart and his congregation would be in? A life filled with uncertainty, war, loss, hunger, death… Perhaps we would if our eyes were fixed upon Jesus. If we relied solely on Jesus - who gives us peace, keeps us in grace, guides us and frees us - in this world and the next.
Let us sing.
Now Thank We All Our God, UMH 102
Simplicity & Contentment Go Hand in Hand
Philippians 4:11-13:
“Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
As we sang that last hymn, we can imagine that Rinckart felt gratitude and contentment even as he lived a hard and simple life.
It may be that simplicity and contentment go hand in hand - this is the secret of Paul’s contentment in times of plenty and in times of need - keep things simple by focusing on God with gratitude and contentment follows.
The lure of abundance and the accumulation of things and wealth has a gravity that weighs us down. Often the more we have, the less content we are. The more we fear losing what we have. The more we place our hope in things that rust, that moths destroy, that thieves can steal.
Simplicity that is rooted in our hearts being oriented toward God, brings contentment. For what do we truly need? What really carries value? Simplicity breaks the pull of the endless drive for more and allows us to focus on what really matters.
Let us sing.
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, x2, UMH 349
Gratitude Follows
Colossians 3:15-17:
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
When our eyes and our hearts are focused upon Jesus, our priorities fall into place, and we make room for gratitude in our lives.
The exhortation to give thanks or participate in thankfulness, appears about 150 times in the Bible. If our eyes are focused on the things of this earth, we will not experience true gratitude as we will always be seeking for the endless “more.” We will never have “enough” by the standards of the world. We will never be satisfied.
And yet, when Christ dwells in us richly - that is, when we listen to the wisdom of Christ, rely on the peace that the Spirit gives, when we recognize that we are not just ourselves but that we all are one body in Christ - we realize that we have “enough” - for Jesus is all we ever need.
I am not sure that there is a more counter-cultural message than this in our current consumer obsessed world. Can you imagine that Christmas commercial this holiday season, “We’re not selling you anything. You don’t need to buy anything. There is nothing you need but Christ.”
When we focus on God first, it makes room for gratitude in our lives. When we focus on God first, our priorities are in line and we can see all that we have - and all that we share with one another in the body of Christ, comes from God. We can know we are loved and held - and give thanks with psalms, hymns, and voices raised to God.
In a moment we will sing thing hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God” - a hymn we often associate with the holiday of Thanksgiving - which, for many, is a holiday of excess - although there are many in our country who scrimp and save and sacrifice in in order to put food on the table to celebrate that holiday. And that is more in line with the circumstances in which this hymn was written.
Martin Rinckart likely wrote this hymn during or soon after the Thirty Years’ War in about 1636. He was one of the sole surviving ministers in a refugee city - he spent most of his resources in order to be able to feed refugees - meaning he often ate only scraps. It was the time of the plague and he reportedly did over 50 funerals a day. It is under these circumstances that he wrote the words, “Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices…”
Would we be giving thanks in the circumstances that Rinckart and his congregation would be in? A life filled with uncertainty, war, loss, hunger, death… Perhaps we would if our eyes were fixed upon Jesus. If we relied solely on Jesus - who gives us peace, keeps us in grace, guides us and frees us - in this world and the next.
Let us sing.
Now Thank We All Our God, UMH 102
Simplicity & Contentment Go Hand in Hand
Philippians 4:11-13:
“Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
As we sang that last hymn, we can imagine that Rinckart felt gratitude and contentment even as he lived a hard and simple life.
It may be that simplicity and contentment go hand in hand - this is the secret of Paul’s contentment in times of plenty and in times of need - keep things simple by focusing on God with gratitude and contentment follows.
The lure of abundance and the accumulation of things and wealth has a gravity that weighs us down. Often the more we have, the less content we are. The more we fear losing what we have. The more we place our hope in things that rust, that moths destroy, that thieves can steal.
Simplicity that is rooted in our hearts being oriented toward God, brings contentment. For what do we truly need? What really carries value? Simplicity breaks the pull of the endless drive for more and allows us to focus on what really matters.
In a moment we will sing the hymn, “Simple Gifts.” This hymn comes to us from the Shaker movement of the 1800s that sought to make little utopias here on earth - they believed in communal living, equality between the sexes, and, above all, simplicity. For them, simple living was the absolute key for being able to connect with God. Free from distractions of this world, simplicity allows us to focus on what really matters - loving God and loving one another.
Simple Gifts, x2, Insert (http://gbod.org.s3.amazonaws.com/legacy/kintera/entry_14599/66/simplegifts.pdf)
Generosity Pours Out to Care of Neighbor
Matthew 25:31-40:
“‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’”
Simple Gifts, x2, Insert (http://gbod.org.s3.amazonaws.com/legacy/kintera/entry_14599/66/simplegifts.pdf)
Generosity Pours Out to Care of Neighbor
Matthew 25:31-40:
“‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’”
When we turn our eyes on Jesus, when we practice gratitude, when we cultivate contentment through simplicity - it is not just about us and God. It’s about our neighbors too.
God wants us to love one another. This is the second greatest commandment - love neighbor as self. When we live lives orientated toward God, God will orient us toward our neighbors and in our neighbors, in the least of these, we will encounter Jesus.
Lives of simplicity and gratitude free our resources and our hearts to serve one another. To feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger. This is the ultimate sign of a life based in Christ - a life of gratitude and generosity where love overflows to all we meet. Where we consider their needs as our own. Where we see the face of Jesus in every outstretched hand.
Love of God and love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin - together they are the wholeness of the life we are called to live as followers of Christ. We love God and thus we love our neighbors and serve them. We love and serve our neighbors and in them, we encounter Jesus, which pushes us back to better love God.
In a moment we will sing the hymn, “Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service” which was written by Abert Bayly. He wrote this hymn in response to a call for hymns focused on social welfare. Having lived through The Great Depression and both world wars, Bayly knew how important it was to serve one another, to support one another, to love neighbor as self, to serve Christ through serving our neighbor. Thankfully, Christ lived his life in such a way that wholly pointed toward God and serving our neighbors. When we are generous - with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness - we follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Let us sing.
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service, vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 581
It All Comes Back to God
James 4:7-10:
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Ultimately, a life that is fully oriented in Christ, recognizing that our life is in Jesus, pushes us to realize that everything in our lives is not ours - it is God’s. There is nothing in our lives that we can hold back from God. We are called to give God everything. Everything in our lives is both a gift from God and belongs to God. We are but stewards - using our lives and resources in such a way that brings glory and is pleasing to the one to whom they belong.
We should hold all that we have loosely - so that it doesn’t hold us back from drawing near to God. As we draw near God, God draws near to us. As we give all that we have to God, God consecrates it and makes our lives holy.
In a moment we will close out of hymn sing with the hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be,” this hymn reflects all the things in our lives that we are called to give over to God. The hymn includes: My moments, my days, my hands, my feet, my voice, my lips, my silver, and my gold, my intellect, my will, my heart, my love, myself - my life - take it all Lord, and let it be.
Singing this hymn causes us to pause and reflect - what in our lives are we holding back from God, what in our lives is keeping us from gratitude, simplicity, and contentment? What in our lives is keeping us from generosity and service? What in our lives is coming between us and God? May we give it all to God - that our whole lives would be in our God. May it be so.
Let us sing.
Take My Life and Let It Be, UMH 399
God wants us to love one another. This is the second greatest commandment - love neighbor as self. When we live lives orientated toward God, God will orient us toward our neighbors and in our neighbors, in the least of these, we will encounter Jesus.
Lives of simplicity and gratitude free our resources and our hearts to serve one another. To feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger. This is the ultimate sign of a life based in Christ - a life of gratitude and generosity where love overflows to all we meet. Where we consider their needs as our own. Where we see the face of Jesus in every outstretched hand.
Love of God and love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin - together they are the wholeness of the life we are called to live as followers of Christ. We love God and thus we love our neighbors and serve them. We love and serve our neighbors and in them, we encounter Jesus, which pushes us back to better love God.
In a moment we will sing the hymn, “Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service” which was written by Abert Bayly. He wrote this hymn in response to a call for hymns focused on social welfare. Having lived through The Great Depression and both world wars, Bayly knew how important it was to serve one another, to support one another, to love neighbor as self, to serve Christ through serving our neighbor. Thankfully, Christ lived his life in such a way that wholly pointed toward God and serving our neighbors. When we are generous - with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness - we follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Let us sing.
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service, vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 581
It All Comes Back to God
James 4:7-10:
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Ultimately, a life that is fully oriented in Christ, recognizing that our life is in Jesus, pushes us to realize that everything in our lives is not ours - it is God’s. There is nothing in our lives that we can hold back from God. We are called to give God everything. Everything in our lives is both a gift from God and belongs to God. We are but stewards - using our lives and resources in such a way that brings glory and is pleasing to the one to whom they belong.
We should hold all that we have loosely - so that it doesn’t hold us back from drawing near to God. As we draw near God, God draws near to us. As we give all that we have to God, God consecrates it and makes our lives holy.
In a moment we will close out of hymn sing with the hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be,” this hymn reflects all the things in our lives that we are called to give over to God. The hymn includes: My moments, my days, my hands, my feet, my voice, my lips, my silver, and my gold, my intellect, my will, my heart, my love, myself - my life - take it all Lord, and let it be.
Singing this hymn causes us to pause and reflect - what in our lives are we holding back from God, what in our lives is keeping us from gratitude, simplicity, and contentment? What in our lives is keeping us from generosity and service? What in our lives is coming between us and God? May we give it all to God - that our whole lives would be in our God. May it be so.
Let us sing.
Take My Life and Let It Be, UMH 399
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