Good morning! This page is intended to both serve as a continuing worship option for those participating in our worship service from home, and to serve in place of print resources during our in-person worship. Following the worship service on Sunday, one or more video recordings from the service will be placed on this page, including the sermon. This may take several hours, due to the time needed to process the videos. We will email the congregation when the recordings have been posted. If you would like to be added to our congregational email list, please contact pvcob.alive@gmail.com.
- Stay after worship fellowship in our soup and sandwich lunch, then help decorate the church for Advent and Christmas. Even if you can’t stay the whole time, please take time to eat with your brothers and sisters.
- This evening is the Community Thanksgiving Worship at 7:00 pm. We will be gathering at the Weyers Cave Community Center. Clergy from a variety of churches are leading.
- December 11 is our Christmas Program during Sunday School. Make sure to be here to join in the festivities. Invite friends and family too!
- Jimmy Fortune Tickets are now on sale for concerts on December 7 & 8. You can get tickets online, by going to our website, pleasantvalleyalive.org, or by stopping by to see Josh during office hours.
- Backpack Pals are in need of pudding cups, ramen noodles, and we ask that you continue to donate your plastic grocery bags. Thank you!
Gathering Prayer
Amazing God, we come with grateful hearts, glorifying your name and singing your praise. This week we join with others around our nation to intentionally remember the many blessings of our lives over this past year. Open us to see your beauty and greatness all around us, in all creation. May this time of worship be a blessing to you as you are always a blessing to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Praise Offerings in Observance of Thanksgiving Sunday
At this time of year we remember the many blessings in our lives: Food, shelter, loved ones, comfort, care, a sense of belonging, freedom in Christ, the promises of God that have been fulfilled, and those yet to be that give us hope for the future. We give thanks and praise to God. As we join together in singing praise, you are invited to bring forward your token of Thanksgiving to become part of our Worship Center this morning. These represent just some of the praises we lift to God. Let’s sing and present our Praise Offerings.
Sharing Our Gifts
Today we make a joyful noise to God. We have come into God’s presence with singing, we worship with gladness, we celebrate with joy with all creation. Let us continue our praising through our giving, offering our lives and our love, glorifying God in all we do. Would the Ushers please come forward to receive our offerings.
Prayer
Gracious and bountiful God, you bring us the seasons and food for the harvest. You bring rain and sun, day and night, rivers and streams to enrich and nourish us.
In gratitude, we bring our gifts to you. We bring our resources and talents, our time and energies, our love and devotion, and our financial gifts to you and the ministries we do in your name. Direct us and these gifts to your loving service and ministry. Amen.
Litany of Celebration and Appreciation
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above,
so we lift our hearts up to you, God,
in praise and thanksgiving.
Your generosity is evident in all creation,
So we would bring thanks for our blessings:
As we count our blessings, and acknowledge your goodness,
our hearts go out to those who do not have,
and who are in need.
We thank you for plentiful harvests and full refrigerators
and ask that you supply the needs of those who are hungry.
We thank you for jobs that provide for our families
and supply the needs of our society,
and pray that you would care for those who have no work,
or the dignity and purpose it brings.
We thank you for opportunities and choices,
for meaning and challenges,
and pray that you would give a sense of purpose
to those who feel trapped.
We thank you for family and friends who love us and care for us
and pray that you would befriend those who are alone.
We thank you for the church that supports and
shows compassion and mercy,
And we pray for those who have been mentioned this morning:
The abundance of the harvest
is a symbol of the abundance of your love in our lives.
May we live in a spirit of gratitude to you
and generosity to our neighbor.
Loving God, in this season and all year long,
give to us the gift of a thankful heart,
so that we may acknowledge you as the giver
of all that is good in our lives.
In the name of Jesus we ask it.
Amen.
http://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/08/litany-for-thanksgiving.html
2 Cor. 9:6-15
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”[a]
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
