Yearly Archives: 2021

Call to Worship: Psalm 103: 1-5

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and all that is within me,

    bless his holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits,

3 who forgives all your iniquity,

    who heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit,

    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who satisfies you with good

    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Sermon: Mark 5: 1-20

1They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.

2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 

3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 

4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.

5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 

6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 

7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 

8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 

9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 

10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 

11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 

12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 

13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 

15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 

16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.

17 And they began to beg Jesus[d] to depart from their region. 

18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 

19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 

20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Mark 4:35-41

Call to Worship - Romans 8:1
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Sermon - The Faithful Sower - 
Mark 4:1-34
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 

3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 

4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 

5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 

6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 

8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 

9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 

11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 

12 so that

“‘they may indeed see but not perceive,

    and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 

14 The sower sows the word. 

15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 

16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 

17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 

19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 

20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 

22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 

23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 

25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 

27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 

28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 

29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 
32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Call to Worship: Titus 3: 4-6

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 

6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Sermon: Mark 3:31-35

31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 

32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers[a] are outside, seeking you.” 

33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 

34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 

35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Call to Worship - Psalm 119.68:

68 You are good and do only good; teach me your decrees.

Sermon - Mark 3.22-30:

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 

23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 

24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 

25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 

26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 

27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 

28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 

29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 

30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”