Sunday, July 4, 2021 - Trial - Error & Better Living: in our responses

Theme: Trial-Error & Better Living: in our responses

Welcome

 Prayer

1 Samuel 25:1-3                 Common English Bible Translation

Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then left and went down to the Maon wilderness. There was a man in Maon who did business in Carmel. He was a very important man and owned three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. At that time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and attractive woman, but her husband was a hard man who did evil things. He was a Calebite. (Question: What are the things you value?)

1 Samuel 25:4-8

While in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten servants, telling them, “Go up to Carmel. When you get to Nabal, greet him for me. Say this to him: ‘Peace to you, your household, and all that is yours! I’ve heard that you are now shearing sheep. As you know, your shepherds were with us in the wilderness. We didn’t mistreat them. Moreover, the whole time they were at Carmel, nothing of theirs went missing. Ask your servants; they will tell you the same. So please receive these young men favorably, because we’ve come on a special day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.’” (Question: How do you request, give, and receive help?)

1 Samuel 25:9-13

When David’s young men arrived, they said all this to Nabal on David’s behalf. Then they waited. But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? There are all sorts of slaves running away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread, my water, and the meat I’ve butchered for my shearers and give it to people who came here from who knows where?” So David’s young servants turned around and went back the way they came. When they arrived, they reported every word of this to David. Then David said to his soldiers, “All of you, strap on your swords!” So each of them strapped on their swords, and David did the same. Nearly four hundred men went up with David. Two hundred men remained back with the supplies. (Question: How do you know when you are overreacting?)

1 Samuel 25:14-17

One of Nabal’s servants told his wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he just yelled at them. But the men were very good to us and didn’t mistreat us. Nothing of ours went missing the whole time we were out with them in the fields. In fact, the whole time we were with them, watching our sheep, they were a protective wall around us both night and day. Think about that and see what you can do, because trouble is coming for our master and his whole household. But he’s such a despicable person no one can speak to him.” (Question: How do you try to make things right in difficult situations?)

1 Samuel 25:18-22

Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep ready for cooking, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes. She loaded all this one donkeys and told her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, going down a trail on the hillside, David and his soldiers appeared, descending toward her, and she met up with them. David had just been saying, “What a waste of time – guarding all this man’s stuff in the wilderness so that nothing of his went missing! He has repaid me evil instead of good! May God deal harshly with me, David, and worse still if I leave alive even one single male belonging to him come morning!” (Question: How do you react when you believe you’ve been wronged?)

Reflection Together              (In Person only)

Offering Ourselves to God

       During this time let us quietly reflect upon an excerpt from the Brief Statement of Faith.

In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve. We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world. God raised this Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.

Hymn   Lift Every Voice and Sing       (In Person Only)

Prayers of the People and The 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin 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.  Amen

Benediction

Closing Hymn   O Beautiful for Spacious Skies       (In Person Only)

Hymn List

338 O Beautiful for Spacious Skies

339 Lift Every Voice and Sing

621 I Will Call Upon the Lord

New Sermon Series July 4th – August 1st

Theme: Trial – Error & Better Living

July 11th –  in our relationships

July 18th – TBA

July 25th –  in our responsibilities

August 1st –  in our realities