Service Sunday February 8, 2026
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
All are Welcome!
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube below.
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
The Gathering
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF LAND:
As we begin today, we acknowledge the history, spirituality, culture, and stewardship of the territory of the Indigenous People of this region, most recently the Anishinaabe people. We seek to live in respect, peace, and right relations as we live, work and worship upon Traditional Territory. We are mindful of broken covenants and the need to strive to make right with all our relations. Written by Cheryl Stenson, Glebe Road U.C., Toronto, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2021, p.25. Used with permission.
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: What does our God require of you?
ALL: What does our God require of you?
One: My heart.
ALL: My hands.
One: My love.
ALL: My Life.
One: What does our God require of us?
ALL: That we use all of our gifts to do justice, to love kindness, and to travel humbly with our God!
One: Let us find inspiration and encouragement in God’s presence.
ALL: Let us worship our God.
Written by Richard Bott, Vancouver, B.C.
Gathering, Advent/Christmas/Easter 2022-2023, p.44. Used with permission.
HYMN: “Like a Rock” MV #92 – repeat 3 times
Like a rock, like a rock, God is under our feet.
Like the starry night sky God is over our head.
Like the sun on the horizon God is ever before.
Like the river runs to ocean, our home is in God evermore
OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison
We are not alone; we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church: to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
THE WORD
Scripture: Isaiah 58:6-9
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“What Does God Want?”
Listen to an audio recording of the Message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
HYMN: “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” VU #684
1 Make me a channel of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me bring your love;
where there is injury, your healing power,
and where there's doubt, true faith in you:
Refrain: O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love with all my soul.
2 Make me a channel of your peace:
where there's despair in life, let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, only light;
and where there's sadness, ever joy. R
3 Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving to all that we receive,
and in dying that we're born to eternal life. R
CANDLE LIGHTING LITURGY
OUR RESPONSE
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER: spoken VU#921
HYMN: “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me” VU #575
1 I'm gonna live so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I'm gonna live so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
2 I'm gonna work so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I'm gonna work so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
3 I'm gonna pray so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I'm gonna pray so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
4 I'm gonna sing so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I'm gonna sing so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Each gift we give we give of our time, our talent, and our treasure seems not enough. Yet by your blessing, O God, you weave these gifts of generosity into a whole fabric—a tapestry of cheerful stewardship that transforms. Thank you for your inspiration flowing from this offered bounty. Amen.
Written by Gord Dunbar, while at Kincardine P.C., Kincardine, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.46. Used with permission
SUNG BLESSING: (VU #701)
1 What does the Lord require of you?
What does the Lord require of you?
2 Justice, kindness,
walk humbly with your God.
3 To seek justice, and love kindness,
and walk humbly with your God. ©
SENDING FORTH:
A Time of Fellowship
© Music Reproduced with permission under License number A-605748, Valid for: 26/10/2025 - 25/10/2026; One License - Copyright Cleared Music for Churches.
Sermon 2026 02 08
“What Does God Want?”
Isaiah 58:6-9
Gracious God, be with us today in this place, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
Two sisters were walking along the beach when they both spotted something half buried in the sand.
It was some kind of brass bottle or even an old oil lamp.
They both raced to grab it.
The first one to grab it started to rub it vigorously.
Suddenly, there were sparks and a cloud of purple mist started streaming out of the lamp before their very eyes!
Next, a Genie appeared out of the mist.
With a snap of his fingers, he turned the first sister holding the lamp into a small crab.
The crab dropped the lamp and scuttled away into the water.
The other sister cried, “What did you do that for?”
The Genie simply replied, “She rubbed me the wrong way!”
Moral…recycle…carefully!
Throughout the centuries people have tried to figure out what God wants.
Ancient people’s came up with all kinds of rituals and ceremonies designed to please their gods.
Archaeologists have uncovered proof that many ancient civilizations practiced human sacrifice to please their gods.
Those who didn’t practice human sacrifice certainly practiced animal sacrifice.
And that wasn’t the only kind of sacrifice there were also personal sacrifices.
Fasting is one example: a person forgoes eating or drinking or sleeping in an attempt to demonstrate their devotion to God.
Sounds sort of like the season of Lent!
Ancient Israel was much the same.
They practiced animal sacrifice and fasting in an attempt to please God.
The story of Abraham offering up Isaac shows us that they had the potential to sacrifice humans.
It took that drama, orchestrated by God, to show them that human sacrifice was not what God wanted.
By the time of Isaiah the prophet, Israel had an elaborate system of sacrifice and ritual.
At the center of their religious lives was the periodic sacrifice of animals.
They also regularly fasted and tithed.
All in an attempt to please God and win God’s favour.
But is that what God really wanted - sacrifices and fasting, rituals and ceremonies?
No! At least that is what God’s prophets said over and over again.
But didn’t God instruct them to offer sacrifices?
Yes, if you read the Bible you will see that their elaborate system of sacrifices was instituted by God.
But God has no use for fatted calves and rams.
God is already the Creator and owner of every animal.
It wasn’t the burnt carcass of an animal that God desired.
What God really wanted was the hearts of the people.
The rituals and sacrifices and fasting were only meant as a means of leading people to devote their hearts to God.
By the time of the prophets the people had lost sight of that truth.
They thought God was like some genie in a bottle.
If they rubbed it with the right sacrifices and words they could get what they wanted.
So they fasted, and on the same day they oppressed and mistreated their workers.(Isaiah 58:3)
They offered food to God, but failed to feed the hungry here on earth.
So God sent them prophets to teach them and help them get their priorities straight.
Micah declared, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”(Micah 6:8)
And Isaiah said “This is the fast that God requires: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to let the oppressed go free, to feed the hungry, to bring the homeless into your house, to cloth the naked.”(Isaiah 58:6-7)
“Then,” said the prophet, God will be pleased.(Isaiah 58:8-9)
Isaiah wasn’t saying that the people of his day should stop making sacrifices to God.
He was telling them that devotion to God and righteousness toward their sisters and brothers was what mattered.
Without that devotion and righteousness all their sacrifices and rituals were empty and meaningless.
God no longer asks us to sacrifice animals.
I see that none of you brought any fatted calves today!
But God still wants our hearts.
God wants us to offer devotion and worship that grows out of a genuine faith.
God wants us to give a sacrifice of love for one another.
We still perform rituals and ceremonies and make gifts and offerings to God.
But those actions should be expressions of a deeper devotion.
All our rituals and gifts are meaningless if our hearts are not right with God.
What does God want?
God wants justice and mercy.
God wants righteousness and love.
We cannot buy God’s favour.
God has given it to us and all we can do is respond in faith and love.
In the meantime we Christians gather in our warm churches and eat our holy meals.
We offer up prayers and praise and countless rituals and ceremonies while outside people are being sacrificed to the powers of unemployment, homelessness and hunger.
Does that please God?
No! God doesn’t want empty rituals.
God wants our hearts given in service and love.
Jesus said that we are the light of the world.
It is our job to shine the light of God’s love and justice for all to see.
With the Holy Spirit to guide us, let us…
Pray for the lost and the oppressed.
Love our neighbours with the same intensity that God loves us.
Feed the hungry and clothe the naked in whatever ways we can.
THAT is what God really wants.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
