Prepare For Sunday | September 20th, 2026
My Story…My Song
What Does It Mean to Be Free?
Acts 16:16–34
This Sunday at Trinity, one of our elders, David Lindemulder, will open the Word for us as we continue My Story…My Song.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas meet a girl who is enslaved twice over — owned by men who profit from her, and held by something she cannot shake. And then she says something remarkable. She follows Paul through the streets of Philippi, announcing that these men serve the Most High God and proclaim the way of salvation.
She is right. Every word of it is true.
And she is not free.
Her story raises an uncomfortable question for the rest of us. Is it possible to know the truth — even to believe the truth — and still live out of a very different story?
This Sunday we'll ask what our fears, ambitions, habits, and actions reveal about the story we are actually inhabiting. And we'll return to a question many of us have heard recently: Where is your heart?
Acts 16 points us beyond better information. Beyond greater willpower. Beyond even a better story.
It points us to a name.
And to the freedom that comes from belonging to Jesus Christ.
Join us this Sunday as David walks us through Acts 16:16–34.
My Story…My Song
What Does It Mean to Be Free?
Acts 16:16–34
What do I know?
What story do I inhabit?
What do I serve?
Who has the power to free me?
Call to Worship | Psalm 116:1-2; 5-8; 16-17
I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call upon the name of the LORD.
Confession of Sin
Leader: Almighty and merciful God, we have erred and strayed from Your ways
like lost sheep.
Congregation: We have followed too often the devices and desires of our own hearts.
Leader: We have sinned against you by what we have done
and by what we have left undone.
Congregation: O Lord, have mercy upon us. Restore and strengthen us, Your people, according to the promises declared in Your Word.
And grant, O merciful God, that we may live holy, just, and humble lives
to the glory of Your holy name.
ALL: O Lord, hear our prayers.
Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
We have wandered like sheep, but Christ is the Good Shepherd who came to seek and save the lost. He bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By his wounds we have been healed. Once we were straying like sheep, but now we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
Therefore, to all who repent and trust in Jesus Christ, I declare to you: your sins are forgiven.
All: Thanks be to God!
