Sunday April 19, 2026
Prelude
Announcements
Opening Hymn – #304 Easter People, Raise Your Voices (3 verses)
Opening Prayer
1st Scripture Reading – Acts 1:1–11
Choir Anthem – “In My Father’s House”
Mission & Ministry Moment – Prayer Shawls
Children’s Time
Joys & Concerns / Pastoral Prayer / Lord’s Prayer / Choral Response
Hymn – #545 The Church’s One Foundation (5 verses)
Loving the Wider World through Our Giving (Doxology #95)
2nd Scripture Reading – Ephesians 4:7–13
Pastor’s Message “The Season of Tending” – Pastor Devin
Praise Music – Build Your Kingdom Here
Benediction
Postlude
1st Scripture Reading – Acts 1:1–11
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
1
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach
2 until the day
when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the
apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many
convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the
promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5
for John baptized with
water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The Ascension of Jesus
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore
the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the
Father has set by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends
of the earth.”
9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took
him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly
two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking
up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the
same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
2nd Scripture Reading – Ephesians 4:7–13
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said,
“When he ascended on high, he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people.”
9
(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the
lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers
12
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up
the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.