We Welcome You!

Order of Service for Sunday, March 8, 2026, 10:30 AM

Prelude (Kathleen Jones)

Welcome and Call to Worship 

Hymn: “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (Presbyterian Hymnal #276)

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Assurance of Pardon

Song of Praise: “I Will Sing of the Mercies” (Lift Up Your Hearts #75)

We Greet One Another

Choir Anthem: “I Love You, Lord,” arranged by Stan Pethel (directed by Carol Fassbender)

Scripture Readings:

Psalm 40:1-3, 9-10 (NRSV)

I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;

see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness  

from the great congregation.

John 4:5-30, 39-42 (English Standard Version)

 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.      7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”    16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”    27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.  

 39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Sermon: “What’s Your Story?” (Gale Watkins, Pastor)

Hymn: “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” (Presbyterian Hymnal #466)

A Time of Prayer

Answers to Prayer and Prayer Requests

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

The Lord’s Prayer 

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.

Offertory 

Doxology 

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. Amen.

Prayer

Hymn: “Take My Life” (Presbyterian Hymnal #391)

Benediction

Postlude (Kathleen Jones)

Today: Coffee hour in Fellowship Hall after worship

This week:   

Monday, March 9  Prayer in the Lounge at 3:00 PM

Wednesday, March 11  Deacons meeting in the Lounge at 10:00 AM

Thursday, March 12    Choir practice in the Choir Room at 7:00 PM 

Sunday, March 15  Class in the Lounge at 9:15 AM 

Worship in the Sanctuary at 10:30 AM, followed by coffee hour in Fellowship Hall