Watch Live Services Sunday at 10:45

Prelude   Hannah Barrett, organist

Welcome and Announcements   please pass attendance pads

                 Susan Murithi, Senior Pastor

Announcement:

Silent Reflection and Opening Prayer                      

Greeting Time  (You may stand up and greet those around you with a

hand shake or an elbow bump.)

*Opening Hymn     There’s a Song in the Air (Vs 1-4)                UMH 249  

Vision Recitation      Hays First UMC--------

Mission Recitation at Hays First UMC we----

Advent Candle Lighting: 8:30 Harper family 10:45 Harris/Swanson family  

Theme:   Awakened to Believe  -  Scripture:  Matthew 1: 18-25

Reader 1:  Today we light the fourth candle of Advent – the candle of Love..

                    Joseph believed the angel’s message and obeyed God’s call.

Reader 2:  “Joseph did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him

and took Mary ;home as his wife”

Reader 1:    We light the candle to remind us that love believes, trusts, and

obeys.  In believing God’s word, we prepare room in our hearts

for Christ.

People: Come, Lord Jesus, awaken us to your love!

Children’s Time               Special Guest   

Special Music    Ave Maria  (Bach/Gounod)        Edison Leuschner

Prayer Hymn      Love Came Down at Christmas (Vs 1-3)        UMH 242

Prayers of the People        Troy Miller, Assoc. Pastor            

Lord’s Prayer     UMH 895

Chancel Choir This Child of Light  (Mary McDonald)

Charlotte Rathke, pianist                      

Scripture                Matthew 1:18-25                           Mary Meckenstock                                                             

“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about:  His mother Mary was

 pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found 

to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  Because Joseph her husband was 

faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had 

in mind to divorce her quietly.  But after he had considered this, an angel of the 

Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,  “Joseph son of David, do not be 

afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from 

the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 

Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. ”All this took place to 

fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “’The virgin will conceive 

and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel’ (which means “God 

with us”)  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded 

him and took Mary home as his wife.  And he did not consummate their 

marriage until she gave birth to a son.  And he gave him the name Jesus.”

Sermon    Awakened to Believe              Susan Murithi, Senior Pastor

Faithful Stewardship          1 Chronicles 29:14           Mary Meckenstock

“Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes

from your hand.”

Congregational Prayer:   “Sovereign Lord, Who are we, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from You,  and we have only given what already belongs to You.  Keep us humble and grateful, always remembering that all we have is Yours.  Amen.”  

            Offertory                 “Gesu Bambino”  (Pietro A. Yon)

  Dana Keller, soprano; Jan Dolezal Staab, violin; Sue Dolezal, piano                      

           *Doxology     Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow           UMH 95

Offertory Prayer                                      Troy Miller                     

*Closing Hymn    Angels We Have Heard on High (Vs 1-4)      UMH 238

                 *Benediction                 

             *Postlude