This is part of the worship series,
"Rooted and Established in Love”
Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4—World Communion Sunday
Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8—All Saints /Reformation Sunday
Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12—Christ the King Sunday
Week Ten: The Fruitful Tree
Scripture: Galatians 5:16–26
Faith Practice: Rule of Life
Reflection: What is your “rule of life”—the particular habits, rhythms, and commitments that God has put on your heart? Just 300 years after Christ’s death there were communities that were intentional about how they wanted to live, what their values were, and what habits they needed to put into practice in order to be true to those values. If you haven’t already written a rule of life, the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is a great place to begin your discernment process.
Gathering
Choral Call to Worship
“I Shall Not Be Moved” arr. Parker
Responsive Reading
God calls us to be like trees, planted by the streams of living waters,
a river that flows eternally with cool, sweet water.
Drink in the Word of God and live joyfully in the light of the Holy One.
We let go of the evil that corrupts, and cling to the good that nourishes us.
Then, when the time is right, the fruit of the Spirit will be with us,
and we praise God for the ripeness of life. Amen!
Call to Confession
Galatians 5 calls us to confess our sins: So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
—Galatians 5:16–17 NLT
Prayer of Confession
“Gracious Spirit, Heed Our Pleading”(st. 1–3) Niwaglia
Gracious Spirit, you desire good: good in the world and good in our lives. You have given us ways to know you and ways to know what your will is for us. But we confess that our wants and our desires cause us to turn away, to choose our own will and our own way. We think it will lead us to where we want to be, but God, we know that your way is the way of life eternal. So we pray for your Holy Spirit to work within us, to guide and lead us, to help us bear fruit, to grow and cultivate in us the way of life. Come, Holy Spirit, come.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Peace of Christ
Assurance of Pardon
Word
Scripture
Galatians 5:16–26
Message
The Fruitful Tree
Response
Dedication / Guide to Grateful Living
We believe that true faith,
produced in us by the hearing of God’s Word
and by the work of the Holy Spirit,
regenerates us and makes us new creatures,
causing us to live a new life
and freeing us from the slavery of sin.
It is impossible
for this true faith to be unfruitful in a human being,
seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith
but of what Scripture calls
“faith working through love,”
which moves people to do themselves
the works that God has commanded
in the Word.
These works,
proceeding from the good root of faith,
are good and acceptable to God,
since they are all sanctified by God’s grace.
But they do not count toward our justification—
for by faith in Christ we are justified,
even before we do good works.
Otherwise they could not be good,
any more than the fruit of a tree could be good
if the tree is not good in the first place.
So we do good works,
but not for merit—
for what would we merit?
Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do,
and not God to us,
since God “is at work in [us], enabling [us] both
to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
—Adapted from Belgic Confession 24
Song
“For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free” Dunstan, LUYH 679
Sending
Revised Common Lectionary
Year C: Season after Pentecost—Proper 8 (13)
