For the week of June 16 – 4th Sunday after Pentecost
Morning Prayer: Triune God, We confess that we don’t always like the way Your power works. We forget that You empower us to resist evil. We want Your help in exactly the way we ask and forget we are not the authors of our own salvation. We pray for Your kingdom to come, and don’t listen to Your voice calling us to work so that our neighbors flourish. Forgive us, Holy Trinity, as we seek to cooperate with You in the work of salvation for ourselves, our community and all of creation. Amen. (Adapted from Discipleship Ministries)
Opening Hymn: #160 Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
- Rejoice, ye pure in heart; rejoice, give thanks and sing;
your glorious banner wave on high, the cross of Christ your King.
Refrain: Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, give thanks and sing.
- Your clear hosannas raise, and alleluias loud;
whilst answering echoes upward float, like wreaths of incense cloud. (Refrain) - Yes, on through life's long path, still chanting as ye go;
from youth to age, by night and day, in gladness and in woe. (Refrain) - At last the march shall end; the wearied ones shall rest;
the pilgrims find their heavenly home, Jerusalem the blest. (Refrain) - Praise God who reigns on high, the Lord whom we adore,
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God forevermore. (Refrain)
Psalm 20:1-5
20 I pray that the Lord answers you whenever you are in trouble.
Let the name of Jacob’s God protect you.
2 Let God send help to you from the sanctuary and support you from Zion.
3 Let God recall your many grain offerings;
let Him savor your entirely burned offerings. Selah
4 Let God grant what is in your heart and fulfill all your plans.
5 Then we will rejoice that you’ve been helped.
We will fly our flags in the name of our God. Let the Lord fulfill all your requests!
Children’s Time Micah 6:8
Micah 6:8 He has told you, human one, what is good and
what the Lord requires from you:
to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
Children’s Message
Ben Dodge had a wonderful Father’s Day message based on his father’s favorite Bible verse. He centered the message around the song Day by Day from the musical Godspell. Ben’s mother sang this song when her high school performed it.
Day by Day
Song by Anna Maria Perez de Taglé, Godspell (The New Broadway Cast Recording)
Day by day Day by day Oh Dear Lord Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly Love thee more dearly Follow thee more nearly Day by day
Songwriters: Stephen Schwartz, John Michael Tebelak. For non-commercial use only.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: : Blessings to the fathers who have expended their time, talents, and resources to raise children in the faith. Sanctified offerings are not limited to money. Thank you for being Christian role models.
Offering prayer: Eternal God, the Source of all blessings, As we offer our gifts and reflect on Your word, we ponder our role as stewards of Your blessings. Guide us to bless the fathers of our church and our own fathers with wisdom and compassion. May they lead with justice and righteousness, reflecting Your will. Strengthen our commitment to love and serve others, as we strive to fulfill Your divine purpose in the world. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #545 The Church’s One Foundation
- The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.
- Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
- Though with a scornful wonder we see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
- Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
- Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.
Message Scripture: Mark 4:30-34
30 He [Jesus] continued, “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? 31 Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; 32 but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”
33 With many such parables He continued to give them the word, as much as they were able to hear. 34 He spoke to them only in parables, then explained everything to His disciples when He was alone with them.
Message: Mustard Seed Faith Pastor Ron
Mackie Shilstone is 5’8” and weighs only 137, but he trained some of the largest professional athletes in the country. For example, pro basketball player Ralph Sampson, Former shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals Ozzie Smith, former first baseman for the San Francisco Giants Will Clark and many more.
Mackie is not content just to train athletes physically. He wants to help change their lifestyles and ways of thinking as well. Shilstone says, “I tell my athletes that they do have control over what their attitude will be about life. Their positive attitude and faith in God makes a difference.” He goes on to say, “I will never forget the message on the medallion I received from Dr. Robert Schuller, which had this inscription: ‘When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine with God’s help.’”
This morning, I want to talk about Mustard Seed Faith. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. He said it was “the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.” (4:31-32) On another occasion He told His disciples that if they had as much faith as a grain of mustard seed, they could say to the sycamore tree, “Pluck yourself up by the roots and plant yourself on the sea and it would obey.” (Luke 17:6) Obviously, there is more power to faith than you or I may have ever imagined. There are three elements of Mustard Seed Faith that I want you to consider this morning. These are also three essential elements to successful living.
First of all, mustard seed faith is the celebration of little things. An Ethiopian proverb put it like this: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” Or as the great writer Bruce Barton once said, “I am tempted to think there are nothing but little things.” We just celebrated the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. It was one of the turning points of WWII. Military historians point out that it was really not one big battle but a multitude of smaller battles. These battles were fought out along the Allied lines. In his book, World War II, James Jones describes these battles like this: “Not one of these little road junctions stands could have had a profound effect on the German drive. But hundreds of them, impromptu little battles at nameless bridges and unknown crossroads, has an effect of slowing the Germans. These little diehard ‘one man stands,’ alone in the snow and fog without communications, would prove enormously effective out of all proportion to their size.”
That is how wars are won. That is how great businesses are built. I like what John L. McCaffrey former president of International Harvester once said: “The mechanics of running a business are really not very complicated when you get down to essentials. You have to make some stuff and sell it to somebody for more than it cost you. That’s about all there is to it, except for a few million details.” These million details spell the difference between success and failure. That is true in a business, and it is true in shaping a life. It’s the little things that mount up in consequences. The time spent with our children, the firm handshake, the gentle smile, the extra attention to the nuts and bolts of our job. In the long run these are the things that count. As an unknown poet expressed it:
“Great events we often find, On little things depend,
And very small beginnings Have oft a mighty end.”
The Gospel itself is a unique celebration of the seemingly small and insignificant. Carl Sandburg told of two men exchanging gossip in a general store in Hardin County, Kentucky, one day in February of 1809. “Anything happen over the last week?” one asks. “No,” answers the other, “nothing’s happened, except there’s a new baby down at Tom Lincoln’s house. A boy, I think.” That baby grew to be America’s greatest president. Bethlehem was a small town. Nazareth was too. Calvary was a tiny town on the globe. There was nothing particularly significant about the professions of carpenter or fisherman, or tax collector. The tiny mustard seed planted over 2,000 years ago by Jesus and His disciples must have shown little promise. Life is like that. The little things. The overlooked details of life. Mustard Seed Faith, first of all, celebrates the importance of the little things.
Secondly, Mustard Seed Faith is a matter of attitude. They find this to be true among patients in hospitals. Studies show that patients who have positive feelings about impending surgery recover faster. Those who express fears about post-surgical discomfort not only report more pain, but also take longer to recover. This is also true for residents in nursing homes. In a remarkable study, fifty-five individuals were interviewed as they were being admitted to a nursing home. They were asked how much input they had in coming to the nursing home. They were also asked how many other options were available to them. And they were asked how much pressure the family applied to get them to move to the nursing home. Seventeen of the fifty-five individuals indicated that they had no alternative but to reside in the nursing home. Of this group sixteen died within ten weeks. But for the thirty-eight who were offered other options to nursing home care, there was only one death during the first ten weeks.
Tony Campolo in his book, Who Switched the Price Tags? gives us a beautiful example of the kind of attitude that accompanies Mustard Seed Faith. He tells of Lord Chesterton who suggested that God got a childlike excitement out of His work. “As a matter of fact, he contended that God may be the only one left in the universe who has childlike emotions about work, while the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin. God never tires of what He does. He enjoys it. If you take a five-year-old child, throw her into the air, catch her, bounce her off your knee, and then set her down on the floor, you can expect her to exclaim, “Do it again!” If you repeat the process a dozen times, the child will not tire of these antics. Lord Chesterton believed that God may be that way about creating daisies. He asks us to imagine God creating the first daisy and enjoying it so much that something down inside Him exclaims, “Do it again!” And when He makes the second daisy, He is even more excited and shouts to Himself, “Do it again!” Imagine God continuing to create daisy after daisy, and after making the hundred-billionth daisy being even more filled with excitement than when He began. Obviously, this is an exaggeration, but it makes no difference. The principle is what is valid; God is a God who delights in what He does.”
We are created in God’s image. Mustard Seed Faith says that this is a marvelous world in which God has placed us; it is an exciting and wonderful thing to be alive. We are fortunate when we can get up each morning, take a deep breath, eat some breakfast, and then get on with our day. And in doing so we get to share in the abundance of God’s creation. Take delight and be diligent in the little things, sisters and brothers. Understand the relationship between attitude and accomplishment, believing, and building, daring, and doing.
But one more thing, we are not alone in this universe. Here is the critical factor in Mustard Seed living. We are not alone. When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God being like a mustard seed, He wasn’t talking about our abilities. He was describing the availability of God. This is God’s world, and He is involved in it. “If you would do the best with your life,” said British leader Arthur Wallis, “find out what God is doing in your generation and fling yourself into it.” That is the ultimate key to successful living. God is alive and at work in His world.
We hear about the Kingdom of God, and we think only of some distant reality yet to manifest itself. There is that kingdom to be sure. But there is another Kingdom, that Jesus taught us about. It is already here; it surrounds us. It is like the treasure buried in field; it is the pearl of great price. “It is in your midst,” said Jesus. Brothers and sisters, we are not alone in this world.
Imagine the difference that makes.
A few years a little girl by the name of DeAndra Anrig from Mountain View, California experienced quite an adventure. According to the Associated Press DeAndra and her parents, were picnicking with friends at the shoreline about thirty miles south of San Francisco. It also happened to be about two miles from the Palo Alto Airport. They were taking turns flying a glider-type kite with a twelve-foot wingspan. While DeAndra was taking her turn, a plane descending for the airport snagged the line of the glider. “She said it was just a big jerk that lifted her into the air,” said her mother, Debby. “It carried her right over my husband’s head. I’m just thankful she let go.” DeAndra let go after travelling about one hundred feet and fell ten feet to the ground. She was left with several bruises, but no bones were broken. Obviously, it was a scary experience for a little girl. But there is something exciting about it, too. Who among us would not like to be lifted off the ground and experience a new dimension of living? And to believe that if we said to the oak tree get out of my backyard, “Pull yourself up and be planted at the bottom of the sea," it would happen.
Is that too strong a dose of possibility thinking for you? What then is the alternative? Shall we say with the cynics, “As thing are, so shall they ever be?”
The world will never be made better by realists. Only dreamers can go to the mountain top and see a new tomorrow. And the amazing thing is that these new tomorrows do materialize. Look at the mustard seed. Big surprises come in little packages. Mountains are moved, and sycamore trees are plucked up.
And tired cynical folks like you and me are transformed all because of a Mustard Seed Faith.
Closing Hymn: #383 verses 1-4 This Is the Day of New Beginnings
- This is a day of new beginnings, time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing, laying to rest the pain that’s gone. - For by the life and death of Jesus, God’s mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference, as faith and hope are born again. - Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring, step from the past and leave behind
our disappointment, guilt, and grieving, as faith and hope are born again. - Christ is alive, and goes before us to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings; our God is making all things new.
Go into your week with the blessings of The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.
