Welcoming Guests and Announcements – Pastor Ross

Prelude – Someone’s Praying/Crying, Lord ‐ Setting, Behnke

Meditation:

Prayer can be described as time exposure of the soul to God. When film is exposed it is changed. It reflects that to which it has been exposed. ~Megan Hill

Call to Worship – Pastor Linda

Opening Hymn                – Holy, Holy, Holy! – Hymnal #64

Prayer Concerns – Pastor Linda

Prayer Song – Take Time to Be Holy ‐ Hymnal #395

Silent Prayer, Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer

Anthem – How Long Has it Been ‐ The Lakeview Choir

Scripture Reading  – Psalm 139: 1‐12, 23‐24 [responsive] – Jackie Mobed

Offering – Pastor Ross

Preparation Hymn – Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Hymnal #358

Message – Search Me

Closing Hymn – He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought – Hymnal #128

Benediction & Response  

Postlude – Kum Ba Yah #3 ‐ Setting, Behnke

Psalm 139: 1‐12, 23‐24   [responsive – Leader in italics – All in bold print]

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

³ You searched out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it altogether.

⁵ You pursue me behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.

⁷ Whither shall I go from your spirit?

Or whither shall I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

⁹ If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.

¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

¹¹ If I say, “Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,”

¹² even the darkness is not dark to you, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with you.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts;

²⁴ and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

God wants to hear us and speak directly to us. God wants intimate, personal conversations with us. Our prayers matter. How we pray matters. What we pray matters. Our honest prayers move us & God. What if we approached God with a boldness that invites God to search our hearts, to uncover depths that we were unaware of, to offer not only the polite and tidy prayer, but offer the full, robust, and sometimes messy prayer to the all- knowing, all-loving God?

Take the risk! A proactive approach to prayers puts it all on the line. Do you dare to pray with all your heart, mind, soul, mind, and to the full extent of your being? We give it all to God, inviting God to know our joy, our pain, our doubts and uncertainties, all the places where we and those we care about need great help.

What would happen in your life and the lives of those around you if you started praying proactive prayers that invite God to search you. Do you dare to find out?  Take the next step in prayer. Boldly invite God to search your heart, maybe offer a messy prayer when life is especially messy for us? Prayer can be a raw place that sometimes takes us into dangerous zone of real life and honest need. And God can work with that!