Pentecost Nine Worship Service
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
PENTECOST 9
07-30-2023 10:00AM “Hybrid” Worship
+ We Rejoice in the Spirit +
OPENING SONG: “OH, HOW I LOVE JESUS” Brown #250
THE OPENING RITE OF CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS:
L My friends, we gather together – in this sanctuary and online – bearing our joys and our concerns. We are seeking to live with steps ordered by God’s word of love. We are discovering hope through God’s helping Spirit. And we are sensing and trusting that our faith in Jesus Christ makes all the difference in our lives and in our world. But we want to be honest about ourselves. There are times when we falter, fear, and fail. And so we confess.
C O God of mighty power and tender mercy…
Sometimes I forget what really matters, and sometimes I make such dumb decisions.
Sometimes I wander away, and sometimes I do the wrong things on purpose.
Sometimes I reject your will, and sometimes I give up on your love.
Sometimes I am so lonely and afraid, and sometimes I don’t even know how to pray right.
But you keep reaching out to me with your love. And, this very moment, I am reaching back to you.
Search my heart, Lord, and forgive me.
Restore me to a right relationship with you, and send me out to live the good news of your love. Amen.
L My sisters and brothers, united and buried with Christ into his death, you are also forgiven and raised to new life through his resurrection. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord? I assure you that there is NOBODY and NOTHING! By (+) Christ and in Christ, you are forgiven and set free from sin to live as fully as God intends. So keep holding on and trusting in the promises of God! Amen.
PRAYER OF THE DAY (together):
Dear God, I thank you for your grace, your mercy, and the treasure of new life in Jesus Christ.
No matter how high… how heavy… how long… or how deep my problems get, your love is with me.
Help me to hold on to your love, help me to lean on your love, help me to trust your love, and help me to bear your love in a world that is searching, sinning, suffering, and sorrowing. Amen.
+ We Rejoice in God’s Saving Word +
FIRST READING: 1 KINGS 3:5-12
[The best leaders in the world are truly following God! Solomon started out that way in humility… then his heart changed and he made himself stupid.]
3:5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
3:6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.
3:7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.
3:8 And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.
3:9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”
3:10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.
3:11 God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,
3:12 I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 8:26-39
[One of the greatest chapters in the Bible! The Christian is never too low or too lost for God’s love!]
8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
8:27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
8:31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
8:32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?
8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
8:34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
GOSPEL VERSE:
“There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place, and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.
There are sweet expressions on each face, and I know they feel the presence of the Lord.
SWEET HOLY SPIRIT, SWEET HEAVENLY DOVE, STAY RIGHT HERE WITH US, FILLING US WITH YOU LOVE. AND FOR THESE BLESSINGS WE LIFT OUR HEARTS IN PRAISE. WITHOUT A DOUBT WE’LL KNOW THAT WE HAVE BEEN REVIVED WHEN WE SHALL LEAVE THIS PLACE!”
HOLY GOSPEL: MATTHEW 13:31-33, 44-52
[Some people look everywhere for anything, but miss the true treasure and full measure of their life. Turn towards God!]
13:31 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;
13:32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
13:33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
13:45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;
13:46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
13:47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;
13:48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.
13:49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous
13:50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13:51 “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”
13:52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR
THE SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil
SONG RESPONSE: “LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS” Brown #220
THE PRAYERS… We pray for NEW LIFE in the Spirit and for the MISSION of the Church to the world!
+ We Rejoice in God’s Nourishing Meal +
THE OFFERING… May the Spirit of God within us guide us to grateful, generous, and fruitful discipleship!
SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR
THE OFFERTORY SONG:
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG,
PRAISING MY SAVIOR ALL THE DAY LONG! [sing the chorus 2 times]
We are God’s people, we are Christ’s Church, called by God’s Spirit into the world.
We have God’s power from heaven above, we’ll share God’s justice, mercy and love!”
OFFERING PRAYER led by the Communion Assistant:
Lord God, we thank you for making a way out of no way in our life! During this summer may we dedicate our leisure and our work, our rest and our travel, our service and our spending, our health and our wealth, our worship and our witness to glorify You and to extend your Kingdom to others. Someone somewhere is in need of your Good News. Amen.
THE PREFACE:
L The Lord be with you. C And also with you.
L Lift up your hearts! C We lift them up in love for God!
L Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. C It is right to give God our thanks and praise.
L Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful… C … and set us on fire with your love! Alleluia!
L [continues the Preface]… we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
C [singing…] “Holy, holy, holy, holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
and we lift our hearts before you as a token of our love,
holy, holy, holy, holy.
Precious Jesus, precious Jesus,
We’re so glad that you redeemed us, precious Jesus…
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit,
come and fill our hearts anew, O Holy Spirit…”
THE EUCHARISTIC WORDS by the Celebrant, who recalls and re-enacts Jesus’ Holy Meal.
THE LORD’S PRAYER (spoken)
COMMUNION AND BLESSINGS… All believers in Jesus Christ are welcome at the Lord’s Table! The wine may be received from the pouring chalice; we also have grape juice on the tray. You can receive God’s peace, power, and promises for true life!
COMMUNION SONGS: Brown #194
THE COMMUNION BLESSING by the Celebrant after all have communed.
POST-COMMUNION PRAYER by the Communion Assistant.
+ We Rejoice in Our Mission +
THE BENEDICTION by the Pastor:
My sisters, my brothers, if God is FOR us, then who can be AGAINST us?
Hardship, persecution, famine, peril, sword cannot separate us from the love of Christ.
No power on earth, in life or death, can cut us off from God’s salvation.
Live, then, as God’s children, aware of God’s generosity, eager to share the treasure of God’s love with others.
In the name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN… AMEN… A—MEN!
CLOSING SONG: “I’M SO GLAD” Brown #191