You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and lot parking is available. Stay for our Hospitality Table following worship. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!
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You can worship with us anytime on our YouTube Live channel. Enjoy the previous week’s messages and music, too, or share worship with a friend!
Read the Message and Music preview!
Message Preview
Happy birthday, football! Football is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Football League (NFL) today. Football is any game where you kick a ball with your foot on a linear field of play, including soccer and rugby. The goal is to get the ball to your opponent’s end zone for a touchdown. The NFL generated 15.26 billion dollars in revenue in 2019 and is the most profitable sports league in the United States. Total attendance at NFL games reached a record 18.29 million fans across the regular season in 2021. Increasingly football is beating out baseball as America’s favorite sport. This week football may also become your favorite metaphor for our spiritual life in Christ!
Living rooms and stadiums will erupt with shouts and cheers for a touchdown. But like watching the football move up and down the field, the forces of good and evil can be seen to compete. Sin can seem on the offense, putting the most points on the scoreboard. Too infrequently, though, spiritual goodness appears to be winning. The Apostle Paul spoke about the personal struggle of wanting to do good (Romans 7:18-19). Paul told Timothy about his spiritual progress as he learned to grow and mature, make better choices, living his best life in Christ (1 Timothy 1:12-17).
In our Gospel reading from Luke 15, we celebrate when God’s goodness wins. In the story about the lost sheep, Jesus wants us to realize that more important than a football crossing into the end zone is when even one person responds in faith to Jesus. With Jesus, a touchdown is an expression of repentance, and a pattern of repentance and faith, that elicits huge cheers in heaven! There is joy in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents, then for the ninth-nine righteous who need no repentance (Luke 15). The faith community can be a place of celebration as we discover The Gridiron Gospel and pick up the ball of faith this week at Cold Spring Church.
Music Preview
We begin with our countdown to worship video that sets the theme for our experience today. God welcomes all of us, right now, without exception! Barbara Cain will sing I Could Never Outlove the Lord, accompanied by Jayne McDonough. Following the message we will be moved by an energetic music lyric video, Chief of Sinners Though I Be, recalling our New Testament Reading where the Apostle Paul uses that phrase to describe himself and the astonishing good news that by God’s grace he celebrates all that Christ is doing for him. We will put our faith into action singing our sending hymn, O For a World. Everything longed for in the lyrics is a reminder of how far our present world is from what God wants. Yet this is not just wishful thinking; it is a call to action, a summons to participate in the fulfillment of God’s desire for all earth’s people to live in radical shalom because Christ lives in and through us.
Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!
Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.
Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)
Physical distancing and masks are recommended but are not required!
You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!
Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.
We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.
