20 Jun Worship Bulletin: 6/23/24
Welcome to Worship at the McPherson Church of the Brethren
We invite your active participation in the life of this congregation, as together we continue to grow in grace and seek justice for God’s creation.
Sunday, June 23, 2024 @ 10:15 a.m.
♫Gathering Music | Hymn Sing
Lois Grove, piano
Video Welcome
Sharing Time – Joys and Concerns | Ann Stover
♫Centering Music | “Shepherd Psalm Medley” | arr. Dan Wyrtzen
Lois Grove, piano
Opening Unison Scripture | Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from?
My help comes from God, the Maker of heaven and earth.
God will not let your foot slip – God, who watches over you, will not slumber;
indeed, God, who watches over Israel will not slumber or sleep.
God watches over you – God is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
God will keep you from all harm – God will watch over your life;
God will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
♫Opening Song | “God of the Earth, the Sky, the Sea” | #53
Story for the Children | Barbara Wagoner
Video Invitation to Give
♫Musical Offering | “Total Praise” | arr. Joel Raney
Cara Hudson, Becky Snell; Vocals; Lois Grove, piano
Scripture Focus | I Samuel 17:1, 4-47 (I Samuel 17:1a; 4-11; 19-23 – Lectionary Text)
David and Goliath
17 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah.
They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah.
4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp.
His height was six cubits and a span (9 feet, 6 inches).
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (a little over 181 pounds);
6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels (15 pounds). His shield bearer went ahead of him.
8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel,
“Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul?
Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects;
but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”
10 Then the Philistine said,
“This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”
11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah.
Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old.
13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war:
The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah.
14 David was the youngest.
The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem
16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
17 Now Jesse said to his son David,
“Take this ephah of roasted grain [an ephah is equivalent to a bushel. therefore equal to 8 dry gallons.
a dry gallon is 8 pounds of grain. so an ephah is 1024 ounces or 64 pounds of grain].
and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.
18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them.
19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”
20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed.
He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.
21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other.
22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were.
23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.
24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.
25 Now the Israelites had been saying,
“Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him.
He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”
26 David asked the men standing near him,
“What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?
Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him,
“This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked,
“Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29 David said,
“Now what have I done? Can’t I even speak?”
30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
32 David said to Saul,
“Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied,
“You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul,
“Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a
sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned
on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear;
this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.
37 God who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David,
“Go, and God be with you.”
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.
39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. He said to Saul,
“I cannot go in these, because I am not used to them.”
So he took them off.
40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and,
with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.
42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.
43 He said to David,
“Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?”
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods and said,
44 “Come here and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”
45 David said to the Philistine,
“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of God Almighty,
the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day God will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head.
This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals,
and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that God saves; for the battle is God’s, and God will give all of you into our hands.”
♫Scripture Song | “In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful”
sing three times
Message | “I Would Have Been Shaking Too!” | Jerry Bowen
♫Sending Song | “God of Grace and God of Glory” | #366
Sending Words
♫Sending Music | “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” | African American Traditional
Lois Grove, piano
Videography and Editing: Eric Goering
Music Coordinator: Ellen Gilbert
Choir Director: Becky Snell
Technical Crew: Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Shane Kirchner, Steve Lolling & Chris Whitacre
Chancel Decoration Team: Jill Brax, Colleen Gustafson, Michele Johnson, Shane Kirchner & Lara Schoming