Right. With that, I'll invite the children to join me on the steps. Good [clears throat] morning.
Thank you for joining me up here. So, today we're talking about gathering. And there's no trick question here.
Who can tell me what gathering means? Can you tell me? Collecting things.
Yes. What if I invite you to a gathering? What does that mean?
I'm inviting you to a meeting. So, every Sunday morning on the Lord's day, as we call it in church, God's community gathers. We gather in this church.
We gather in churches all over our community, but we gather for a purpose. We believe that God calls us to do things. And so this summer, we're talking about how important it is that we do the things we believe.
Actions speak louder than words is something that we've said a few times. So my question is, you know, if I have a birthday party and I send out invitations to this gathering and no one comes, it's very sad, but everyone says, you know, I believe it's really important to go to birthday parties when you're invited. Not only that, I believe it's very important that you bring a gift.
Not only that, I believe it's important. Do you care if that do you care if people say they believe the right things but they don't come to your birthday party? When you're sitting alone with a cake and a candle, it's probably more important that they do the things they believe.
So, there's a lot of talk about, you know, what it is do we do at church? Well, we sing hymns. We pray prayers.
We listen to a message. But at its best, church prepares us to do the things our community needs to show love and forgiveness and mercy. And that's what we're trying to do this summer is focus on what it is we do here that equips us to do God's mission in the world.
So with that, let's pray together. Please repeat after me. Dear God, Dear God, thank you for loving us.
Thank you for loving us through your actions. through your actions. Help us to love others.
Help us to love others in how we act. And how we act. Amen.
