Prelude Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier Wayne L. Wold
Dearest Jesus, we are here,
Gladly your command obeying.
Call to Worship
Hymn # 501 O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (Gray Psalter Hymnal)
Psalter: Psalm 98 (Please read responsively) Nancy Dunn
1O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.
2The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
3He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
4Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
5Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.
6With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.
7Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.
8Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy
9at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
Prayer for Illumination
Old Testament Reading: Ezekiel 31:1-14 NRSV
31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2Mortal, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:
Whom are you like in your greatness?
3Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade, and of great height, its top among the clouds. 4The waters nourished it, the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place it was planted, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field. 5So it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long, from abundant water in its shoots. 6All the birds of the air made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth to their young; and in its shade all great nations lived. 7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down to abundant water. 8The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor the fir trees equal its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared with its branches; no tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty. 9I made it beautiful with its mass of branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God.
10Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11I gave it into the hand of the prince of the nations; he has dealt with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. 12Foreigners from the most
terrible of the nations have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth went away from its shade and left it.
13On its fallen trunk settle all the birds of the air, and among its boughs lodge all the wild animals.
14All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to lofty height or set their tops among the clouds, that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height.
For all of them are handed over to death, to the world below; along with all mortals, with those who go down to the Pit.
Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.
Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.
Choral Anthem: Arise and Come to Jesus
Come ye sinners poor and needy
Weak and wounded sick and sore
Jesus ready stands to save you
Full of pity love and power
Arise and come to Jesus
He’ll embrace you in his arms
In the arms of our dear Savior
O there are ten thousand charms
Come ye thirsty come and welcome
God’s free bounty glorify
True belief and true repentance
Every grace that brings you nigh
Arise and come to Jesus
He’ll embrace you in his arms
In the arms of our dear Savior
O there are ten thousand charms
Come ye weary heavy lane
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry till you’re better
You will never come at all
Blessed are the eyes that see him
Blest are ears that hear his voice
Blessed are the souls that trust him
And in him alone rejoice
Arise and come to Jesus
He’ll embrace you in his arms
In the arms of our dear Savior
O there are ten thousand charms
Children’s Sermon
Hymn # 534 Come, You Sinners, Poor and Needy (Gray Psalter Hymnal)
New Testament Reading: James 1:9-18
9A lowly brother should boast in his exaltation, 10but the rich person in his humiliation, because he, like the flower of the grass, will fade away. 11For the sun rises with heat and dries up the grass. Its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance is ruined. In the same way also, the rich person will wither away in his journeys.
12Blessed is the one who endures tests, because the one who becomes approved by testing will receive the crown of life, which he promised to the ones who love him. 13Let no one say when he is tested, “I am tempted by God,” because God is not tempted with evil, and he tempts no one. 14But each one is tempted, when he is lured away and enticed by his own desires. 15Then desire, when it has become pregnant, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is completed, gives birth to death.
16Do not be led astray, my dearly loved brothers and sisters. 17All good giving and every completed gift is from above, coming down from the father of heavenly lights, with whom there is no variation or hint of change. 18By his plan, he gives birth to us by the word of truth so that we might be one of the firstfruits of his creation.
Sermon “He Gives Birth to Us” Pastor Andrew Winter
