Additional Worship Resources

Summer: Celebrating Friendship

This sermon outline and prayer, for use in summer, can be used as a stand-alone Friendship Sunday worship or as the culmination of a series of worship services leading up to Friendship Sunday. To be effective, every Friendship Sunday worship celebration should involve preparation  and followup. See “Welcoming Guests Well” and “Developing an Intentional Follow-up Strategy.”

Target: A celebration to take advantage of summer events such as Vacation Bible School, church picnics or other church fellowship events. Members are encouraged to invite friends and neighbors to these special church events.

Text: Psalm 100

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
⁴ Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and His love endures for ever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Theme Development:  The focus of the message should be on celebrating the great friendship we have in God through Jesus and the subsequent friendship we have with each other in Him.

The key to this text and celebration is in verse 3: “We are His; we are His people.”  In Jesus Christ, this is true for all who have faith in Him. The message should emphasize:

• God wants us to know the joy of this special relationship with Him.
• It is our sin that hinders us in realizing friendship with God.
• Jesus is the restorer of our friendship with God.
• Through the word, the Holy Spirit invites us into this friendship.
• The realization of this tremendous friendship with God is the cause of our celebration and the root of our worship.
• It is a friendship that lasts forever.
• We invite our friends to know this special relationship and join us in celebrating our friendship.

Prayer of the Day:
Heavenly Father, Who through the work of Your Son Jesus restored to us Your great friendship, we give You all glory, thanks and praise. Strengthen our friendship with You through Your word and sacraments. Strengthen our relationships with friends here on earth, especially, those who have joined us in this celebration of friendship. We lift before You our friends who do not know the joy of Your friendship. We ask You by Your grace to work in their lives through our friendship that we may share the good news of Your love with them in Jesus Christ. We pray all these things in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

Also in this section:
Four Week Friendship Sunday series, Plan
Four Week Friendship Sunday series, week one
Week One Sermon
Week One Children's Message
Four Week Friendship Sunday series, week two
Week Two Sermon
Week Two Children's Message
Four Week Friendship Sunday series, week three
Week Three Sermon
Week Three Children's Message
Four Week Friendship Sunday series, week four
Week Four Sermon
Week Four Children's Message
Video & Other Sermon Illustration Resources
Invitation Card
Child Invitation Card
Bulletin Inserts on Prayer
Sermon - Start of Year
Sermon - Thanksgiving
Sermon - Christmas
Sermon - Easter
Bulletin Paragraphs

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