August 17, 2025
Prelude - The Wicked Tenants
Call to Worship
Heavenly Father and God of mercy, seek to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil. We seek to witness to Your grace by serving others. We seek to invite all people to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. May Your grace fill us and embrace us and may the presence of the Spirit empower us to worship and praise You. Hallelujah, Amen.
Hymn - Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Invocation and Lord's Prayer
O God, we gather together in Your presence with expectation, hungry for an encounter with You, and eager to hear Your Word. Bless us with Your presence as together we honor You in the prayer Your Son, our Lord, taught us to say: 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Scripture Reading - Mark 12:1-12
1 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. 6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
Joys and Concerns
Lord Jesus Christ, we remember with gratitude those people who generously sowed the seeds of faith in our lives. Above all. we recognize how you have blessed our lives with the gift of the Holy Spirit so that our faith has miraculously and mysteriously grown. Bless and renew our lives, we pray, so that we remain connected to you at all times and in all places, strengthening our faith to expand and, growing strongly and vigorously, to bear the fruit of your mercy, your love, your undying life. Amen.
Hymn - For the Beauty of the Earth
Sermon - Accepting Jesus
For Video version, click below.
Hymn - The Church’s One Foundation
Benediction
Let us go now desiring God's expectations, being fulfilled by Him, and knowing we are saved by Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. Amen.
Postlude - Find Us Faithful