Second Sunday after Pentecost — June 14, 2020

Today’s Theme for Worship: Our focus today is on the importance of faithfulness to the Word of God, in doctrine and practice.

Opening Hymn: 382 My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

1 My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare to make no other claim But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

Refrain:

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace;

In ev’ry high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

3 His oath, his covenant and blood Support me in the raging flood;

When ev’ry earthly prop gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

Refrain

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

4 When he shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in him be found,

Clothed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before his throne.

Refrain

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

Text: Edward Mote, 1797-1874, alt.

P: The grace of our Lord + Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

C: And also with you.

Confession of Sins

P: We have come into the presence of God, who created us to love and serve him as his dear children. But we have disobeyed him and deserve only his wrath and punishment. Therefore, let us confess our sins to him and plead for his mercy.

C: Merciful Father in heaven, I am altogether sinful from birth. In countless ways I have sinned against you and do not deserve to be called your child. But trusting in Jesus, my Savior, I pray: have mercy on me according to your unfailing love. Cleanse me from my sin, and take away my guilt.

P: God, our heavenly Father, has forgiven all your sins. By the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt forever. You are his own dear child. May God give you strength to live according to his will.

C: Amen.

P: In the peace of forgiveness, let us praise the Lord.

♬ Oh Taste And See

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Bless-ed are they who take re-fuge in him.

Your Word, O Lord, is e-ter-nal;

it stands firm in the heav-ens.

Your faith-ful-ness con-tin-ues for-ev-er.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Bless-ed are they who take re-fuge in him.

Prayer of the Day

P: Let us Pray.

O God, you rule over all things in wisdom and kindness. Take away everything that may be harmful and give us whatever is good; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. C: ♬ Amen.

First Lesson: Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28

Moses urges the people of Israel to keep the Word of God in their hearts and minds, and to teach it to their children.

¹⁸Put these words of mine in your hearts and in your soul, and tie them on your wrists as signs and as symbols on your forehead. ¹⁹Teach them to your children by talking about them when you sit in your house and when you travel on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹so that your days and the days of your children may be many on the land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, as many as the days that the heavens remain over the earth.

²⁶You see, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, ²⁸or the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God and you turn away from the path that I am commanding you today by walking after other gods whom you did not know.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 78

Refrain

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

O my people, hear my teaching;*

listen to the words of my mouth.

I will utter things from of old,*

what we have heard and what our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from our children;*

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD.

Refrain

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

The LORD decreed statutes for Jacob*

and established the law in Israel,

so the next generation would know them,*

and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God*

and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son*

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,*

is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Refrain

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Second Lesson: Romans 3:21-25a, 27-28

Paul summarizes the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Martin Luther called the doctrine of justification “the doctrine upon which the Christian Church stands or falls.”

²¹But now, completely apart from the law, a righteousness from God has been made known. The Law and the Prophets testify to it. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and over all who believe.

In fact, there is no difference, ²³because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God publicly displayed as the atonement seat through faith in his blood.

²⁷What happens to boasting then? It has been eliminated. By what principle—by the principle of works? No, but by the principle of faith. ²⁸For we conclude that a person is justified by faith without the works of the law.

Special Music – By Your Great Love – Special Music sings the verses, congregation joins in the refrain

[Refrain]

By your great love I can come into your house;

I bow to you in worship.

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;

In the morning I send my prayers to you.

[Refrain]

By your great love I can come into your house;

I bow to you in worship.

O Lord, bless all who take refuge in your name;

Let those who love you be glad and sing for joy!

[Refrain]

By your great love I can come into your house;

I bow to you in worship.

Surely, Lord, You bless the righteous;

You surround them with your favor as a shield.

[Refrain]

By your great love I can come into your house;

I bow to you in worship.

Glory be to the Father and the Son

And Holy Spirit; forever three in one.

[Refrain]

By your great love I can come into your house;

I bow to you in worship.

Gospel: Matthew 7:15-29

Jesus pictures God’s Word as the foundation for life with the parable of the wise builder, who builds his house on a rock. His house will hold up even during the worst storms

¹⁵“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. You do not gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do you? ¹⁷So then, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰So then, by their fruit you will recognize them. ²¹Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

²⁴“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on bedrock. ²⁵The rain came down, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was founded on bedrock. ²⁶Everyone who hears these words of mine but does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain came down, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—it was completely destroyed.”

²⁸When Jesus finished speaking these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹because he taught them as one who had authority, and not like their experts in the law.

C: ♬ Praise be to you, O Christ!

Hymn of the Day: 190 We Now Implore God the Holy Ghost

1 We now implore God the Holy Ghost

For the true faith which we need the most,

That in our last moments he may befriend us

And, as homeward we journey, attend us.

Lord, have mercy!

2 Shine in our hearts, O most precious Light,

That we Jesus Christ may know aright,

Clinging to our Savior, whose blood has bought us,

Who again to our homeland has brought us.

Lord, have mercy!

3 O sacred Love, grace on us bestow,

Set our hearts with heav’nly fire aglow

That with hearts united we love each other,

Of one mind, in peace with ev’ry brother.

Lord, have mercy!

4 O highest Comfort in ev’ry need,

Grant that neither shame nor death we heed

That e’en then our courage may never fail us

When the foe shall accuse and assail us.

Lord, have mercy!

Text: German hymn, c. 13th century, st. 1; Martin Luther, 1483-1546, st. 2-4; tr. composite.

Sermon Romans 3:21-25a, 27-28

Athanasian Creed

Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all else, hold to the true Christian faith. Whoever does not keep this faith pure in all points will certainly perish forever.

Now this is the true Christian faith:

We worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, without mixing the persons or dividing the divine being.

For each person— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit— is distinct, but the deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory and coeternal in majesty.

What the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit.

The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father is infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal;

yet they are not three who are eternal, but there is one who is eternal, just as they are not three who are uncreated, nor three who are infinite, but there is one who is uncreated and one who is infinite.

In the same way the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty;

yet they are not three who are almighty, but there is one who is almighty,

So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God;

yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord;

yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.

For just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually to be God and Lord,

so the true Christian faith forbids us to speak of three Gods or three Lords.

The Father is neither made nor created nor begotten of anyone.

The Son is neither made nor created, but is begotten of the Father alone.

The Holy Spirit is neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons;

one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.

And within this Trinity none comes before or after; none is greater or inferior, but all three persons are coequal and coeternal,

so that in every way, as stated before, all three persons are to be worshiped as one God and one God worshiped as three persons.

Whoever wishes to be saved must have this conviction of the Trinity.

It is furthermore necessary for eternal salvation truly to believe

that our Lord Jesus Christ also took on human flesh.

Now this is the true Christian faith:

We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man.

He is God, eternally begotten from the nature of the Father, and he is man, born in time from the nature of his mother, fully God, fully man, with rational soul and human flesh,

equal to the Father as to his deity, less than the Father as to his humanity;

and though he is both God and man, Christ is not two persons but one,

one, not by changing the deity into flesh, but by taking the humanity into God;

one, indeed, not by mixture of the natures, but by unity in one person;

for just as the rational soul and flesh are one human being, so God and man are one Christ.

He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose the third day from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, and from there will come to judge the living and the dead.

At his coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.

This is the true Christian faith.

Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.

Offering Prayer

Electronic Giving! You can give your offerings from your smartphone with the GivePlusChurch app, which can be downloaded for free at Google Play or the App Store. You can also give at holytrinitylutheranwyoming.com by clicking the Offerings link at the top of the page or scan the QR code below. If you have any questions about any of these options, please contact Dave Conrad at dconrad765@gmail.com or 616-406-7172

Prayer of the Church

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen

Hymn: 293 God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage

God’s Word is our great heritage

And shall be ours forever;

To spread its light from age to age

Shall be our chief endeavor.

Through life it guides our way;

In death it is our stay.

Lord, grant, while worlds endure,

We keep its teachings pure

Throughout all generations.

Text: Nikolai F. S. Grundtvig, 1783-1872; tr. Ole G. Belsheim, 1861-1925.

Prayer and Blessing

P: O Lord God, our heavenly Father, pour out the Holy Spirit on your faithful people. Keep us strong in your grace and truth, protect and comfort us in all temptation, and bestow on us your saving peace, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

or

P: Almighty God, we thank you for teaching us the things you want us to believe and do. Help us by your Holy Spirit to keep your Word in pure hearts that we may be strengthened in faith, guided in holiness, and comforted in life and in death, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C: ♬ A-men.

P: Brothers and sisters, go in peace. Live in harmony with one another. Serve the Lord with gladness.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

The Lord look on you with favor and + give you peace.

C: ♬ A-men, A-men, A-men

Closing Hymn: 390 Salvation unto Us Has Come vv 1,3,5-6

1 Salvation unto us has come By God’s free grace and favor.

Good works cannot avert our doom; They help and save us never.

Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, Who did for all the world atone;

He is the one Redeemer.

3 It is a false, misleading dream That God his law has given

That sinners can themselves redeem And by their works gain heaven.

The law is but a mirror bright To bring the inbred sin to light

That lurks within our nature.

5 Since Christ has full atonement made And brought to us salvation,

Each Christian therefore may be glad And build on this foundation.

Your grace alone, dear Lord, I plead; Your death is now my life indeed,

For you have paid my ransom.

6 All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise To Father, Son, and Spirit,

The God who saved us by his grace-All glory to his merit!

O Triune God in heav’n above, You have revealed your saving love;

Your blessed name be hallowed!

Text: Paul Speratus, 1484-1551, abr.; tr. composite.

Today’s Organist: Miss Allegra Scott