Invitation to Worship
St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston (Missouri City, Westbury, Meyerland)
December 14, 2025
Friends,
Advent has a way of sneaking up on us. One minute you are running errands and juggling calendars, and the next you realize your soul is thirsty and you cannot quite name why. That is where our worship is headed this Sunday.
On December 14, the Third Sunday of Advent, we will gather at St. John’s to hear a promise that feels especially tender this time of year. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. We will light the rose candle of joy, sing old hymns that have carried faith through dark winters, and listen to the story of Jesus sitting at a well, tired, ordinary, and offering living water to someone who did not expect to be seen. The sermon is called “Joy of Living Water,” and it is about the kind of joy that does not shout but stays. The kind you drink slowly and carry with you.
Our worship is thoughtful and participatory. You will hear organ music, sing with a choir that loves what it does, pray honestly, and hear Scripture read without hurry. Children are welcomed and included and we will have a Children's Time during the service. No one is put on the spot. You can come as you are, tired or hopeful or somewhere in between.
We worship at 11:00 AM at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 5020 West Bellfort. After the service, most of us linger for coffee and conversation. It is not fancy. It is real, and it is warm.
If your Advent has felt dry, or rushed, or thin, I would love for you to come and draw from a deeper well with us.
Peace,
Pastor Jon
St. John's Presbyterian Church
5020 West Bellfort Avenue
Houston, TX 77035
(713) 723-6262
P.S. The service will be live-streamed
on our church website
and on our St. John's Facebook page.
Worship Bulletin
December 14, 2024, Third Sunday of Advent
Gathering
Prelude,
Alina Klimaszewska, organ
Lighting the Advent Candle,
Ken and Virginia Krueger
*Call To Worship,
The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham
Leader: Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid.
People: The Lord God is my strength
and my might;
He has become my salvation.
Leader: With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
People: Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name!
Sing praises, for He has done gloriously!
Opening Prayer
*Hymn 88 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
Verses 1, 5, 6 and 7
1 O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain: Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.
5 O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery. (Refrain)
6 O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight. (Refrain)
7 O come, Desire of nations, bind
all peoples in one heart and mind;
bid envy, strife, and discord cease;
fill the whole world with heaven’s peace. (Refrain)
Prayer of Confession, Liturgist Leonie Tchoconte
Generous God, we confess that we have often tried to quench our thirst at wells that run dry.
We have sought satisfaction in possessions,
in achievements, in the approval of others.
We have gulped down shallow pleasures while ignoring the deep well of Your presence.
We have been like the woman at the well, hiding our true selves, ashamed of our failures.
Forgive us, Lord. Lead us back to the living water that truly satisfies. Teach us to drink deeply
of Your grace, Your love, Your joy.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
(Silent Confession).
Assurance of Pardon
*Glory Be to the Father, Hymn 581
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
*Passing the Peace
Children’s Time, Rev. Linda Herron
The Word
Prayer for Illumination
First Scripture Reading, Isaiah 12:2-6
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that
day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One
of Israel.
Anthem
Sermon Scripture, John 4:4-14
But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
The Word of the Lord for us today.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon, “Joy of Living Water”
The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham
*Hymn 129 Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
1 Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung,
of Jesse’s lineage coming,
by faithful prophets sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
amid the cold of winter,
when half spent was the night.
2 Isaiah ‘twas foretold it,
the rose I have in mind;
with Mary we behold it,
the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright
she bore for us a Savior,
when half spent was the night.
3 This flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
dispels with glorious splendor
the darkness everywhere.
Enfleshed, yet very God,
from sin and death he saves us
and lightens every load.
The Apostles Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead,
and buried; he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand
of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come
to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers of the People
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever. Amen.
Welcome and Announcements
Offering
*Doxology, Hymn 609
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
Praise God, all creatures high and low.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise God, in Jesus fully known:
Creator, Word, and Spirit one.
Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
*Prayer after the Offering
Sending
*Hymn 119 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
1 Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn king.
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful all ye nations, rise;
join the triumph of the skies;
with the angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Refrain: Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn king!”
2 Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord,
late in time behold him come,
offspring of the virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail the incarnate deity,
pleased in flesh with us to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel. (Refrain)
3 Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth. (Refrain)
*Blessing
*Postlude
We hope to see you in worship this Sunday at 11 AM!
Peace,
Pastor Jon Burnham
St. John's Presbyterian Church
5020 West Bellfort Avenue
Houston, TX 77035
(713) 723-6262
office.sjpc@gmail.com
Sunday Worship: 11:00 AM |
Bible Study: 9:30 AM
