of the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
To help you follow along, the Order of Worship for today's service is available under the radio tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org.
The Lord bless you today through the hearing of His word.
Politans I know are not always easy to follow our service and we probably tweak these a little bit, but especially for those visiting want you to know it's intended to have the side stick out so you can see what page we're on and which hymn we're singing.
Page 184 is the page we start with for divine service setting three and then those are the hymns listed underneath.
We also have printed it here, intro it, colic, opposite.
Psalms the epistle and gospel which will be read during the service again If you're new and it's awkward just give a little time The idea is that we repeat these services for the sake that they become so familiar that you don't have to Be distracted by thinking where am I like you're able to engage with the worship and the Lord coming to you through his word and
But there's a bit of a learning for so If you would let's begin with our opening hymn.
It's 9 13.
Oh, Holy Spirit enter in
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
Oh, Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them.
And I pray you of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the holy, innocent,
bitter sufferings and death of your beloved son, Jesus Christ.
Be gracious and merciful to me, the poor sinful being.
Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the word, announce the grace of God unto all of you.
And in this stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.
In the name of the Father.
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Glory be to God on...
The Lord be with you.
Let us pray.
for you live and reign with him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Old Testament reading is from Ezekiel chapter 36.
Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake or house of Israel that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations and which you have profaned among them.
And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God.
When through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannessness and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my just decrees.
You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God.
This is the word of the Lord.
created me huckly high for God.
I'm renewing a right spirit with me and me.
I've mercy upon the poor heart to stead fast love.
According to abundant mercy, blood of my trans
Wash me.
I miss you, you only
The epistle is from 1 Peter 4.
Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God.
Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies.
In order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
To him belong all glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice, and so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
This is the word of the Lord.
Please stand in honor of the gospel.
The Holy Gospel according to Saint John the 15th and 16th chapters.
Jesus said, when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father he will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.
I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.
They will put you out of the synagogues.
Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
And they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me.
But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith is written in the words of the Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light.
very God, very God.
Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and descended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian at Apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead in the light of the world to come.
Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
On the 40th day after his resurrection, our Lord ascended to his proper place, sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where he reigns, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.
The ascension was the coronation of Jesus after he had returned victorious, successfully completing the mission that his Father sent him to accomplish.
In obedience to the Father and out of love for creation, Jesus' head set aside the glory of heaven.
He entered into creation as man, taking on human flesh, and he came to vanquish the enemies of sin, death, and the devil through his own sacrificial life and death on the cross.
His mission was accomplished, the resurrection proof of his victory.
And the apostles rejoiced with their resurrected Christ when he was with them for a period of time.
But after 40 days, Jesus ascended, ascended to his rightful place to reign over all heaven and earth.
Well, we did celebrate this in the church last Thursday.
That was the celebration of the ascension of our Lord.
And of course, we get to celebrate every day.
as baptized Christians that Jesus Christ is king.
He's our king.
He is reigning over heaven and earth because he's our Lord.
Jesus has purchased and won us from all sin, from death, from the power of the devil.
He's done this with his own holy, precious blood, with his innocent suffering and death that we may be his own, that we may live under him in his kingdom.
and serve him, and everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, words you may know from the small catechism, right?
So as Christians, we are waiting.
We're waiting for Christ to return from where he ascended.
As he said he would return in the way he left, we just don't know when.
He's going to return in glory and judgment.
So in the meantime, to help us while we wait, he has sent the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has various titles, including the helper, the comforter, the spirit of truth.
He may have picked up in our Ezekiel reading the promise, even given back in the Old Testament, the promise of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, promised in baptism.
And as baptized Christians, we know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
It's through the work of the Holy Spirit that you are cleansed again using words that we hear from Ezekiel you're cleansed from your idols You're actually giving it given a new heart and a new spirit the spirit of Christ himself The Lord says I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my just decrees And the Holy Spirit continues to come to you through his
word, that living active word of God.
And there we have his statutes and his just decrees.
And while the work of the Holy Spirit is mysterious, he's not ambiguous about his will.
God's will is clear.
It's succinctly laid out in the Ten Commandments, but his will is further explained and developed throughout Holy Scripture.
Today's epistle from Peter is an example.
He states, the end of all things is at hand.
Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
Peter watched Jesus ascent.
He was filled 10 days later with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write these words that we have today written for you until the Lord returns.
And we Christians are to wait with this eager anticipation that the Lord will return imminently.
We don't know the day or time we know He's coming in glory and judgment to bring an end to this evil age.
We also know that our Lord may call us home individually through death at any moment.
And so we're to live with the awareness that Jesus or our own death may occur at any moment.
Therefore, Peter says,
We are to be self-controlled and sober-minded.
Another way to say it is to be balanced in our thoughts and in our disposition.
And we are to be disciplined.
Pay attention to the Lord and pay attention to the people around us.
Otherwise, we will not be praying or maybe not praying as we ought.
We do pray as our Lord has instructed us.
trying to avoid getting caught up in the pleasures of this quickly passing world, and we're remaining watchful against temptation, looking for the signs of our Lord's return.
Now, we do have inserted in your bulletin a new help to guide you in prayer.
These are intended to help you individually and as a household to be attending to prayer and the word of the Lord, helping each other.
And you're doing this together with others in the church here at Zion and throughout the world.
Christians, we need each other, and so we draw close together as the author of Hebrews states.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching.
Loving is the greatest preparation for the day of the Lord's return because the loving are always ready as you're loving others attending to their needs.
The loving are able to suffer and bear with the sins of others for the sake of others.
Not to say you dismiss their sins.
As it says in Corinthians, love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
You know this from somebody who's loved you, how they bear with you, or somebody you love, you will bear with them.
And this living out of the love of God,
is simply living out the love he has for you in Christ Jesus, the love that you experience, that you have received in Christ.
And we experience this in the church.
For God daily and richly forgives all our sins.
And we live in the grace of Christ with this undeserved forgiveness and blessings.
And he enables us to sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
In the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin, as we read in 1 John.
Back to Peter's epistle, he tells us to show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
So this is a practical way to show love to one another, this hospitality.
So we open our doors, open our lives to one another, trusting them, showing generosity to one another.
And through this hospitality, relationships are deepened, strengthened.
Holy Spirit has called, gathered us together, calls us around His Word and His sacraments.
And then He enables us and motivates us to love one another.
And this is part of what it means to be a people of God, to live as Christians.
anticipation that he will return momentarily.
And Peter writes, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.
As part of the body of Christ, we have a responsibility toward one another, and we're gifted in various ways each to be a steward of the gifts God has provided.
God has entrusted these gifts to us to use
in service toward others, and we're to recognize our accountability to God as we look for ways to use these gifts for the good of others.
We can't take credit for any of the gifts we receive.
They all belong to God, and we're ultimately accountable to Him for how we steward our gifts.
Some have received gifts of skills and ability, some of position or influence, some of special attributes, and some...
have the gift of available time for others, and some have the gift of income that can be used for the sake of others.
We've been gifted in various ways by God for the purpose of serving others.
And you're to serve the needs of your neighbor in your various vocations, starting with the needs of your family, those closest to you.
And you also use your gifts and the service to the congregation, the people here that you gather with.
And part of your stewardship responsibility includes giving tithes and offerings to the church as God has gifted you.
You're to give first fruits to God and thanksgiving to him and also as an expression of faith, an exercise of faith in him that he will provide for all of your needs.
This simply means that as you receive income, you set aside a percentage that you'll give to the church before
pay the bills and other expenses.
If everybody were to faithfully give a percentage of their first fruits, then our finances would be sound.
You know, our financial condition is a reflection of our spiritual condition here.
And in addition to the financial needs, sign as many other needs and actually provides many opportunities for you to steward your various gifts.
We have so many members that faithfully serve in various ways.
Thank God for these people.
Thank God that he supplies these members with the ability and willingness to serve.
And many you know about, but there are so many that you don't even know about.
People that do things when no one is around and they're taking care of the necessities.
The need says they see them to keep the church operational and looking good.
prepared for worship and study and fellowship.
And I thank God for these people.
I pray that God provide help and support and encouragement for them for what they do.
And I pray that God provide people to meet the needs of the congregation that otherwise are going to go unmet.
And if you would like to steward your gifts, let me know.
I can help you identify ways to serve and where you can serve.
And these are practical things.
Practical things is part of what it means to be living as a Christian in anticipation of Christ's return.
Knowing what Christ has done for us, we get to love others and serve others to the glory of His name.
It all comes from God and He gives us words to speak.
So we hear, we learn, we study His words so that we may speak these words to others.
And he supplies strength and abilities so that we may serve the needs of the people around us as we wait for his return.
And all of this in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
He has ascended to his throne and sits as king overall.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding
Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Please stand for the operator.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord.
For boldness among God's children through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, for freedom from fear of this world, its temptation, ways, and power, and that God would fix our eyes on Jesus alone, keeping us faithful to him, even unto death, as we anticipate the resurrection.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For the holy church, that she would be strengthened to give witness to Christ.
to bear persecution and to live in the confidence that since Christ is for us, nothing could separate us from Him.
And for the ministers and missionaries of the Church, that God would send laborers into His harvest and sustain those He has sent, let us pray to the Lord.
For all the families of God's Church, that husbands, wives, and children would be cleansed from their sins and live together in His peace, let us pray to the Lord.
for Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Lois, Louis, Marlis, Tim, Greg, Grant, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Mark, Ethel, Dave, Peter, Fred, Harold, Joan, Greg, Bertha, Jaden, Rick, Thorfinn, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene, George, Ann, Marge, Dawn, Florence, and Zoe, and all who cry out in the name of Jesus, that as their stronghold, God would preserve them.
through their trials and into eternal life.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all who receive the body and blood of Christ, that they would have the peace that surpasses understanding, the gladness that no man can take from them, and the hope that does not fade away.
Let us pray to the Lord.
That as God has sanctified his saints of old, so he would sanctify us also and bring us with them into eternal life.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we give you thanks that through your Holy Spirit you have appointed us to bear witness to your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since the world cannot endure this testimony and persecutes us in every way, encourage and comfort us.
We implore you that we would not be offended by these crosses, but continue steadfast in your testimony and be found always among those who know you,
and your Son until we obtain eternal salvation through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Continue on page 194 with the service of the sacraments.
The Lord be with you.
Lift up your hearts.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord.
It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, everlasting God, and most especially, are we bound to praise you on this day for the glorious resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ, the very Paschal Lamb who was sacrificed for us and bore the sins of the world.
By his dying, he has destroyed death, and by his rising again, he has restored to us everlasting life.
Therefore, with Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John, and with all the witnesses of the resurrection, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name, ever more praising you and saying.
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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 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 and ever.
Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat.
This is my body, which is given for you.
This do in remembrance of me.
In the same way also, he took the cup after supper.
And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it to all of you.
This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
This too, as often as you drink it, it remembrance of me.
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
Thank you for tuning in to the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
May the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.
You may call us at 715-723-6380 or stop by and visit 110 East Grand Avenue in Chippewa Falls.
If you're looking for a church home, we'll gladly tell you more about Zion or help you find a congregation near you.
These broadcasts are paid for by generous gifts made to our radio fund.
If you'd like to contribute, click the Give tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org, or send a check to Zion Lutheran Church Radio Fund, 110 East Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 54729.
Zion is a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Center.
