Asbury Methodist Cedar Rapids Iowa

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Asbury United Methodist Church

July 26, 2026

All Are Welcome!

Prelude

Joys, Concerns, Announcements

Greeting – Jane Pike

God, Your extravagant love has called us together. Long before we even knew You, You already knew us, and had chosen us to be part of Your own family— sisters and brothers with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. What amazing love You have shown toward us! And so we come before You with praise and thanksgiving, offering You the worship of our hearts and lives, and opening ourselves to the prompting and leading of Your Holy Spirit. Receive our worship—our praise and prayers and offerings— through the intercession of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. May the time we spend here in Your presence bring honour and glory to Your Name. Amen.

Please stand as you are able at *.

*CALL TO WORSHIP (responsive) Jane Pike

One: Beloved, this is the core of our faith: nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

ALL: Thanks be to God!

One: God’s never-ending love surrounds us and calls us, assuring us that through God’s love, all things will work together for God’s good purposes.

ALL: Thanks be to God!

One: God’s never-breaking love empowers us in the face of temptation, distress, division, and scarcity to hold onto our faith and work together for the flourishing of all God’s good creation.

ALL: Thanks be to God!

One: Come, let us worship God who is Love, trusting that through joy and sorrow, happiness and despair, contentment and pain, Love will carry us through.

ALL: Thanks be to God who forms, connects, and guides us through Love. Amen.

(Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, February 2026)

*Hymn UMH #566 “Blest Be the Dear Uniting Love”
Blest be the dear uniting love

That will not let us part;

Our bodies may far off remove,

We still are one in heart.

Joined in one spirit to our Head,

Where he appoints we go,

And still in Jesus’ footsteps tread,

And do his work below.

O may we ever walk in him,

And nothing know beside,

Nothing desire, nothing esteem,

But Jesus crucified!

We all are one who him receive,

And each with each agree,

In him the One, the Truth, we live;

Blest point of unity!

Partakers of the Savior’s grace,

The same in mind and heart,

Not joy, nor grief, nor time nor place,

Nor life, not death can part.

1st READING: 1 Kings 3:5-12 (NRSVUE) Jane Pike

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you.

Psalm 105- UMH Page 828 Jane Pike

Response: They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.

O give thanks to the Lord, call on God’s name,

Make known God’s deeds among the peoples!

Sing to the Lord, sing praises!

Tell of all God’s wonderful works!

Glory in God’s holy name;

Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!

Seek the Lord and his strength;

Seek the Lord’s presence continually!

Remember the wonderful works God has done,

The miracles and judgments God has uttered,

O offspring of Abraham, God’s servant,

Children of Jacob, God’s chose ones. R

The Lord is our God,

Whose judgments are in all the earth.

The Lord is mindful of his everlasting covenant,

Of the word commanded for a thousand generations,

The covenant made with Abraham,

His promise sworn to Isaac,

And confirmed to Jacob as a statute,

To Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying,

“To you I will give the land of Canaan

As your portion for and inheritance.” R

Special Music:

2^nd Reading: Romans 8:26-39 (NRSVUE) Pastor Alison Dix

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 (NRSVUE) Pastor Alison Dix

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Pastor: The word of God for the people of God.

People: Thanks be to God!

SERMON: “We are all in this together!” Message by Pastor Alison Dix

HYMN UMH #77 “How Great Thou Art”

O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds thy hands have made,

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;