June 21st, Sermon & Ministry Resources

"Dead and Alive" (Romans 6:1-11)

Jun 15, 2026

∙ Paid

Lectionary Readings — Proper 7 — June 21, 2026

Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39)

Call to Worship (based on Romans 6:1-11)

Leader: Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We have died to sin — how can we live in it any longer?

People: We have been baptized into Christ Jesus. We were baptized into His death. We were buried with Him — and we have been raised to walk in newness of life.

Leader: Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too have been united with Him — not only in His death, but in His resurrection.

People: Our old self was crucified with Him. The body of sin has been done away with. We are no longer slaves to what once held us.

Leader: For whoever has died has been set free from sin. And if we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with Him.

People: Christ was raised from the dead and will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him — and because we are united to Him, it no longer has the final word over us.

Leader: So consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

People: This is who we are. Not who we are trying to become — who we already are, in Him. Dead to sin. Alive to God.

All: We gather this morning as a resurrection people — marked by the waters of baptism, united to the risen Christ, and called to walk in the newness of life He has given us. To Him be all glory, now and forever. Amen.

Opening Prayer (based on Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17)

Let us pray:

Lord God, our Father,

We come to You this morning as David came — not with polished credentials or an impressive spiritual resume, but with honest need and an outstretched hand. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer us. We are poor and needy — not merely in material things, but in the deeper poverty only You can see: the insufficiency of our own strength, the thinness of our own reserves. We have learned, sometimes painfully, that the end of ourselves is precisely where You meet us.

You are good, and You are forgiving. Your steadfast love toward all who call on You is not a theological abstraction — it is the lived experience of every soul in this room who has called on Your name in desperation and found You faithful. We call on You again this morning — not with the polite, measured portion we reserve for public occasions, but with the whole of what we are: the fears we haven’t spoken aloud, the burdens carried through the week, the questions that don’t have easy answers.

Teach us Your way, O Lord, that we may walk in Your truth. We confess how easily we drift, how naturally we incline toward our own understanding. We do not need more information about You so much as we need formation by You. Unite our hearts to fear Your name — one direction, one devotion, one great desire: to glorify You.

Be near today to those among us who are bent low under hard circumstances, those looking for a sign of Your goodness in the midst of what feels like unrelenting difficulty. Turn to them with Your favor. Give them strength, and let the evidence of Your grace be visible enough that those around them take note.

You are Lord — abounding in steadfast love, faithful to every generation. We do not deserve Your attention, and yet You give it freely. We do not deserve Your grace, and yet here we are — standing in it, worshiping in it.

May Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, be honored above all else in this place today. In His name we pray.

Amen