CALL TO WORSHIP
- Opening Choruses
- Opening Prayer
WELCOME and THANKS
The theme for this week is life in the Word.
OPENING SONGS
FIRST READING
Psalm 119:105-112
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.
107 I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word!
108 Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.
109 I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.
111 Your testimonies are my heritage for ever, for they are the joy of my heart.
112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes for ever, to the end.[a]
SPEAKING OF LIFE
- Title: Death is Short
- Presenter: Greg Williams, GCI President
- Text: Psalm 119:105-112
The older I get the more I can relate to the statement, “Life is short!” It seems it was just yesterday I was a child in my parents’ home. Now if there is a child in my home, it is probably one of our grandchildren. Amazing!
It’s a sobering point of reflection to know that most likely, I have fewer days to live ahead of me than the ones I lived behind me. Yes, life is short.
However, for an episode of “Speaking of Life,” this is starting to sound a bit morbid. So, in thinking of the phrase “Life is short” from a Christian perspective, maybe we should change it to say, “Death is short.” After all, that is more accurate to our situation and our theology. As soon as we are conceived in the womb, we begin our inevitable march to the tomb. And, compared to the eternal life waiting for us beyond that point, it is a short march whether it be one year or a hundred years.
This is the biblical way to look at our present time when the clock and calendar seem to speed up. We don’t have to live frantic and fearful lives as if life is short. We can live each day fully in the peace and hope that comes to us in God’s word of resurrection life. That Word has come to us in the life and death of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who took upon himself our march of death from the womb to the tomb and gave death a proper burial in the end. Death no longer has the final word on our lives, God’s word to us in Jesus does.
On that basis, we can live each day, no matter how dark the shadow of death may appear, trusting and being renewed to joyful life by God’s faithful word to us. Here is a portion of Psalm 119 that pictures this orientation in our short march on this side of the grave.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances.
I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word.
Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances.
I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.
The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.
Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”
Psalm 119:105-112 (NRSV)
He does give us life – he gives us eternal life. It is in this life that his decrees and statutes give us joy – forever. Thanks to God’s grace, the older I get, the more I realize, “death is short,” and eternity with Christ is forever.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
SECOND READING
Isaiah 55:10-13
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
SPECIAL MUSIC
SERMON
What’s Is Your Ground Like?
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears,[a] let him hear.”
Matthew 13:18-23
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.[a] 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
SONG OF RESPONSE
SHARING TIME
CLOSING PRAYER
BENEDICTION