Clifford Thornton welcomed the congregation and guests for worship. A birthday was celebrated for Marilee Todd and an announcement was made for the upcoming church directory update. The congregation shared in a time of fellowship, followed by Lily Allman and Zoe Thornton lighting the altar candles. Patti Carroll played the prelude to worship.
The congregation sang the hymns "Seek Ye First" and "Spirit of the Living God," accompanied by Patti on the clavinova and the orchestra.
With Pastor Mary Lou Toft away, Casey Stanley led the congregation in the sharing of joys and concerns. Prayer was requested for Alvie Ritter and Polly Ritter, for Marilee Todd, Marilyn Moritz and an unspoken request. Prayer was requested for A.B. Abercrombie's sister, Lana and family.
Clifford read the scripture lesson, from Galatians 5:22-26.
Casey's message to the congregation was about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Fruit trees are continually growing and producing fruit and it is always visible hanging off the tree limbs. What would it be like if our fruits of the spirit were always obviously hanging on to us? Sometime we become burdened with bad fruits; anger to others, selfishness, or complaining. Fruit trees that do not produce good fruit must be pruned. We can prune the bad fruit in ourselves by prayer to God, sharing the scripture with others in a Bible study or by volunteering in our communities to help others. Temptations are everywhere and we make our choices everyday as to what kind of fruit we produce.
We are recognized by others by the fruit we produce; we should work on producing the fruits of the spirit in abundance!
The congregation sang "Spirit Song" and Casey gave the benediction to close the worship service.
You are welcome at worship services, Sunday's at Pineville UMC, 9:30 a.m., Noel UMC 11 a.m., and at Southwest City UMC at 1:30 p.m. Pastor Mary Lou Toft can be reached at 816-729-6767, email [email protected] or visit Noel MO United Methodist Church on Facebook.
Religion on 02/15/2015