Fourth Sunday After Pentecost Order of Service

St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
PENTECOST 4                     Coronavirus
06-28-2020     10:00AM Worship

(Welcome / Greeting by the Pastors) 

THE OPENING RITE (based on PSALM 89):

L   Always and forever, O Lord!

Always and forever I will sing and shout about, I will praise and proclaim your steadfast love!

C    Always and forever, O Lord!

Always and forever you are loving, you are kind, you are faithful to your people! 

L   Always and forever, O Lord!

Always and forever I will walk in the light of your presence, I will rejoice daily in your name!

C    Always and forever, O Lord!

Always and forever you are my strength and my shield, my peace and my promise!

PRAYER OF THE DAY:

Almighty God, here we are, flesh and blood, spirit and life – created, redeemed, and empowered by your love!

Because you have freed us from the power of sin and death, help us live faithful lives of mercy and justice.

Teach us to overcome fear with hope, meet hate with love, and welcome little ones with cups of cold water.

Amen.

SONG SELECTION

FIRST READING:   JEREMIAH 28:5-9

[Jeremiah vs. Hananiah. Two prophets proclaiming the Word of the Lord. One speaks of God’s judgment, of submitting to the invaders and accepting the punishment it brings. The other speaks glowingly of God’s love and mercy and promises an imminent deliverance from the threat of Babylon, lasting peace, and a restoration to national greatness. Only one can be speaking the truth – God’s word – for that moment in history.]

Jeremiah 28:5-9
28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD;

28:6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles.

28:7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.

28:8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.

28:9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”

SONG SELECTION

SECOND READING:   ROMANS 6:12-23

[Paul asserts that sin is an enslaving power that motivates us to live self-serving and disobedient lives. Sin’s final payoff is death. In Christ, however, we have been set free from sin’s slavery to live obediently under God’s grace, whose end is the free gift of eternal life.]

Romans 6:12-23
6:12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

6:13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

6:15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

6:17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,

6:18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

6:20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.

6:22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.

6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

GOSPEL VERSE:     “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

      Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

      Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.

      Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.” 

HOLY GOSPEL:   MATTHEW 10:40-42

[Last Sunday, Jesus warned his disciples then and now that their ministry in his name will surely meet with persecution and hardships. This week, he promises to reward those who aid his followers and support his ministry.]

Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

10:41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;

10:42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

THE SERMON:        Pastor GWEN

SONG SELECTION

THE APOSTLES’ CREED: 

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.   Amen.

MUSIC SELECTION     Dennis Fortune

THE PRAYERS

THE LORD’S PRAYER

SONG SELECTION

THE BENEDICTION:

L   The Spirit-fire is burning in your life – don’t let it go out!

The Spirit-wind blows where it will – don’t seek to divert it!

You have a message to share – don’t silence it!

Go out, sisters and brothers, into the world with courage and conviction, bearing the love of God, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit in every word you speak, and in everything you do.

C    This is our day. This is our time. This is our mission. 

    Let us be faithful in our living and fervent in our loving! ALLELUIA AND AMEN!