JULY 23, 2023

Prelude     Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy          setting by Herbert Colvin

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,

lost and ruined by the fall; 

if you tarry till you're better,

you will never come at all. 

Welcome and Greeting

Preparation of Our Hearts

Call to Worship

Hymn     # 471     All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name          (Gray Psalter Hymnal)

Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon     

Merciful God,

we confess that we have sinned against you

in thought, word, and deed,

by what we have done,

and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you

with our whole heart and mind and strength

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

In your mercy forgive what we have been,

help us amend what we are,

and direct what we shall be,

so that we may delight in your will

and walk in your ways,

to the glory of your holy name.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen

Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24     (NRSVUE)          Mike Bergmann

1O LORD, you have searched me and known me.

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.

5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

8If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

9If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and night wraps itself around me,”

12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

23Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.

24See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Prayer for Illumination                                                  

New Testament Reading     Matthew 13:24-35    

       24He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, 25but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

       31He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it 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.”

       33He 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.”

       34Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

       “I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden since the foundation.”

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Special Music     Romanza     by Jan Koetsier

  Performed by Jonathan Brooks and Mark Johnson

Children’s Sermon

Hymn     # 93     My Only Comfort          (Supplemental Hymnal)

Old Testament Reading     Daniel 2:20-23, 25, 31-45

       20Daniel said: “Blessed be the name of God from age to age, for wisdom and power are his. 21He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 22He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him. 23To you, O God of my ancestors, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and power and have now revealed to me what we asked of you, for you have revealed to us what the king ordered.”

       25Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king and said to him: “I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who can tell the king the interpretation.”

       31“You were looking, O king, and there appeared a great statue. That statue was huge, its brilliance extraordinary; it was standing before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32The head of that statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its midsection and thighs of bronze, 33its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34As you looked on, a stone was cut out, not by human hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. 35Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

       36“That was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37You, O king, the king of kings—to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory, 38into whose hand he has given human beings wherever they live, the wild animals of the field, and the birds of the air and whom he has established as ruler over them all—you are the head of gold. 39After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth. 40And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; just as iron crushes and smashes everything, it shall crush and shatter all these. 41As you saw the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the strength of iron shall be in it, as you saw the iron mixed with the clay. 42As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so will they mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, 45just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain not by hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has informed the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain and its interpretation trustworthy.”

Sermon          Pastor Andrew Winter