Latham Community Baptist Church

May 25, 2025

Prelude - God Is Love

Call to Worship

Father God, Your extravagant love has called us together.  Long before we even knew You, You already knew us, and had chosen us to be part of Your own family— sisters and brothers with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  We ask that You now receive our worship—our praise and prayers and offerings—through the intercession of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

Hymn - O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Invocation and Lord's Prayer

Merciful God, we gather together to offer You our praise and thanksgiving for the unfailing love You have shown toward us.  Receive from us our loving response as we pray as Jesus taught us saying: 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.  And 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.

Scripture Reading - 1 John 4:7-16

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

Joys and Concerns

God, you loved this world so much that you sent your own son, Jesus Christ to live and die among us, in order that we might have life.  Forgive us for keeping that abundant life to ourselves, for jealously hoarding your generous gifts, for choosing self-interest over compassion and justice.  Teach us what it means to live as children of the light, generously sharing your abundance
with our brothers and sisters in need.  Amen.

Hymn - The Love of God

Sermon - Thrive - Love Like Jesus

For Video version, click below.

Hymn - More Love to Thee

Benediction

Let us go now and be like Jesus to this world.  Amen.

Postlude - Love Lifted Me