Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost -October 18, 2020

Today’s Theme for Worship: God wants us to produce fruit. Our faith shows itself by fruits of faith, words and actions.

Order of Service: Service of Word and Sacrament

Opening Hymn: 765 Dad by Day

1 Day by day, your mercies, Lord, attend me,

Bringing comfort to my anxious soul.

Day by day, the blessings, Lord, you send me

Draw me nearer to my heav’nly goal.

Love divine, beyond all mortal measure,

Brings to naught the burdens of my quest;

Savior, lead me to the home I treasure,

Where, at last, I’ll find eternal rest.

2 Day by day, I know you will provide me

Strength to serve and wisdom to obey;

I will seek your loving will to guide me

O’er the paths I struggle day by day.

I will fear no evil of the morrow;

I will trust in your enduring grace.

Savior, help me bear life’s pain and sorrow;

Till in glory I behold your face.

3 Oh, what joy to know that you are near me

When my burdens grow too great to bear;

Oh, what joy to know that you will hear me

When I come, O Lord, to you in prayer.

Day by day, no matter what betide me,

You will hold me ever in your hand.

Savior, with your presence here to guide me,

I will reach at last the promised land.

Order of Service: Service of Word and Sacrament

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: God invites us to come into his presence and worship him with humble and penitent hearts. Therefore, let us acknowledge our sinfulness and ask him to forgive us.

C: Holy and merciful Father, I confess that I am by nature sinful, and that I have disobeyed you in my thoughts, words, and actions. I have done what is evil and failed to do what is good. For this I deserve your punishment both now and in eternity. But I am truly sorry for my sins, and trusting in my Savior Jesus Christ, I pray: Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

P: God, our heavenly Father, has been merciful to us and has given his only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Therefore, as a called servant of Christ and by his authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

C: Amen.

Lord, Have Mercy

P: For all that we need in life and for the wisdom to use all your gifts with gratitude and joy, hear our prayer, O Lord.

C: ♬ Lord, have mer-cy.

P: For the steadfast assurance that nothing can separate us from your love and for the courage to stand firm against the assaults of Satan and every evil, hear our prayer, O Christ.

C: ♬ Christ, have mer-cy.

P: For the well-being of your holy Church in all the world and for those who offer here their worship and praise, hear our prayer, O Lord.

C: ♬ Lord, have mer-cy.

P: Merciful God, maker and preserver of life, uphold us by your power and keep us in your tender care:

C: ♬ A-men.

P: The works of the Lord are great and glorious; his name is worthy of praise.

♬ O Lord, Our Lord

O Lord, our Lord, how glo-rious is your name in all the earth.

Al-might-y God, mer-ci-ful Father,

you crown our life with your love.

You take a-way our sin; you com-fort our spir-it;

you make us pure and ho-ly in your sight.

You did not spare your on-ly Son, but gave him up for us all.

O Lord, our Lord, how glo-rious is your name in all the earth.

O Son of God, e-ter-nal Word of the Fa-ther,

you came to live with us;

you made your Fa-ther known;

you washed us from our sins in your own blood.

You are the King of glo-ry; you are the Lord!

O Lord, our Lord, how glo-rious is your name in all the earth.

Prayer of the Day

P: Let us Pray.

Almighty God, in your bountiful goodness keep us safe from every evil of body and soul. Make us ready, with cheerful hearts, to do whatever pleases you; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C: ♬ A-men.

Second Lesson: Philippians 3:12-21

Paul reminds us that “our citizenship is in heaven.

¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Therefore, let all of us who are mature continue to think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you too. ¹⁶Only let us think the same thing and walk in line with what we already have attained.

¹⁷Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. ¹⁸To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. ¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things. ²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.

Psalm 118

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Refrain

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

The LORD is my strength and my song;*

he has become my salvation.

The LORD’S right hand is lifted high;*

the LORD’S right hand has done mighty things!

I will not die but live,*

and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

Refrain

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;*

you have become my salvation.

The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;*

the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day the LORD has made;*

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

Jesus uses the picture of the vineyard to show how God will take his kingdom away from those who reject him and give it to others.
³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. ³⁴When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ³⁵The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. ³⁷Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ ³⁹They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”

⁴¹They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

⁴³“That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit.”

Hymn of the Day: 203 Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word

1 Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word;

Curb those who by deceit or sword

Would seek to overthrow your Son

And to destroy what he has done.

2 Lord Jesus Christ, your pow’r make known,

For you are Lord of lords alone;

Defend your Christendom that we

May sing your praise eternally.

3 O Comforter of priceless worth,

Send peace and unity on earth.

Support us in our final strife,

And lead us out of death to life.

Text: Martin Luther, 1483-1546; tr. composite.

Sermon: Isaiah 5:1-7

5 Let me sing for my loved one a song about my loved one’s vineyard.

My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile ridge.

²He dug it up and gathered the stones out of it.

He planted it with the best vines.

He built a tower in the middle of it.

He also cut a winepress into it.

He expected it to produce clusters of sweet grapes,

but it produced only sour grapes.

³So now, you residents of Jerusalem and you men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What more could have been done for my vineyard

that I have not already done for it?

When I expected it to produce clusters of sweet grapes,

why did it produce sour grapes?

⁵Now, let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will take away its hedge, and it will become a pasture.

I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.

⁶I will make it a wasteland.

It will not be pruned or hoed.

So briers and thorns will shoot up.

I will also command the clouds not to pour rain on it.

⁷Yes, the vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah are the planting that was pleasing to him.

He expected justice, but instead there was oppression.

He expected righteousness, but there was an outcry.

Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and became fully human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who in unity with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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.

The Sacrament

P: The Lord be with you.

C: ♬ And also with you.

P: Lift up your hearts.

C: ♬ We lift them up to the Lord.

P: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

C: ♬ It is right to give him thanks and praise.

P: Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In love he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He sends the Holy Spirit to testify that we are his children and to strengthen us when we are weak. Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and thanks and honor and glory for ever and ever.

♬ Holy, Holy, Holy

Ho-ly, ho-ly, ho-ly is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of your glo-ry.

You are my God, and I will ex-alt you.

I will give you thanks, for you have be-come my sal-va-tion.

Ho-ly, ho-ly, ho-ly is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of your glo-ry.

Words of Institution

P: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take and eat; this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

P: The peace of the Lord be with you always.

C: ♬ A-men.

♬ O Christ, Lamb Of God

O Christ, Lamb of God,

you take a-way the sin of the world;

have mer-cy on us.

O Christ, Lamb of God,

you take a-way the sin of the world;

have mer-cy on us.

O Christ, Lamb of God,

you take a-way the sin of the world;

grant us your peace.

A-men.

Thank the Lord

Thank the Lord and sing his praise.

Tell ev-'ry-one what he has done.

Let all who seek the Lord re-joice

And proud-ly bear his name.

He re-news his prom-is-es and leads his peo-ple forth

in joy with shouts of thanks-giv-ing.

Al-le-lu-ia! Al-le-lu-ia!

Prayer

P: Hear the prayer of your people, O Lord, that the lips which have praised you here may glorify you in the world, that the eyes which have seen the coming of your Son may long for his coming again, and that all who have received in his true body and blood the pledge of your forgiveness may be restored to live a new and holy life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C: A-men.

Blessing

M: 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: (sing) Amen. Amen. Amen.

Closing 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.