Morning and welcome to the broadcast 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.
Good morning welcome our opening hymn is 794 the Lord my God be praised 794
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.
O 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 deserve 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 the 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.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the
intro.
Yeah.
Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you.
the blessing of Aaron upon your people.
Lord have mercy upon us.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Glory
be to God on high.
Let us pray.
Oh
God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
still testament reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 10.
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good.
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven, the heaven of heavens.
the earth with all that is in it.
That the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and close their offspring after them, you above all peoples as you are this day, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe.
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Love the sojourner, therefore.
For you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
You shall fear the Lord your God.
You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.
He is your praise.
He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Turn to the yellow insert and sing together the
gradual.
If
this list from first Corinthians chapter one Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and her brother brother sastanes to the church of God that is in current those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who are in every place
call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hope their Lord and ours graced you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to you, my God, always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you are enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
We stand in honor of the gospel.
The Holy Gospel, according to St.
Matthew, the 22nd chapter.
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sanctuces, they gathered together.
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him, which is the great commandment in the law.
And he said to him, I love the Lord your God with all your heart.
And with all your soul and with all your mind, this is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
These two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
And while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question saying, what do you think about the Christ?
Who son is he?
They said to him, the son of David.
He said to them, how was it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord?
saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.
If then David calls him Lord, how was he his son?
And no one was able to answer him a word.
Nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith as written in the words of the 19th 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, a very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us meant, 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 and apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
God has given us his word as recorded and preserved in the Bible, and this is very
good.
We hold it sacred.
Glad we hear and learn it.
We also know that it can be interpreted and understood in different ways, and this is nothing new.
And our Lord helps us to understand rightly.
In the Gospel reading today, Jesus is confronting the Pharisees known for their
legalistic interpretation of scripture.
In the verses leading up to today's text, Jesus had an encounter with the Sadducees.
They were known for their more liberal interpretation of scripture and he silenced them with his oritative and accurate interpretation.
Having heard that Jesus silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees had one of their experts in the law put a question to Jesus to test him.
He asked.
teacher, which is the great commandment in the law.
They wanted Jesus to take a side in one of the religious disputes.
They couldn't agree with each other on which of the hundreds of commandments was most important.
So they expected this would invite Jesus into a debate.
They
were
legalists.
They believed God's law could be reduced to rules.
Pharisees had 613 rules, 248 were things they had to do, 365 were things that they were to refrain from doing.
They were asking Jesus, which was the most important of these?
The answer is simple or found.
Rather than speaking about their rules, Jesus went to the scriptures and recited what they all knew.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
You cannot reduce God's law to rules.
The love that God requires for us is far greater than the boundaries that rules set for us.
God's law is not a matter of simply
doing and refraining from doing is a matter of loving with our whole hearts, our whole life, with our whole mind.
What do you desire more than anything else?
What matters to you most?
What occupies your thoughts?
This is your God.
The God who made us, seems us.
Thank defies us demands from us all that we are and have Because all that we are and have is his Giving it back to him is not an option.
It is required But we In ourselves we cannot find the ability the strength to do this So we figure out ways to pretend and act like we've done what we failed to do
We come up with rules to follow that look like we're being obedient.
They ignore the demand to love God above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself.
We put up a good front doing what we're supposed to do and not doing what we're not supposed to do, but underneath deceit, hypocrisy.
We may fool other people, even ourselves, but we do not fool God.
Our love of God and love of neighbor fall far short of God's complete demand.
God's law makes sinners of all of us.
You can obey all the rules that have ever been made and yet not obey God at all if you do not desire him above everything else.
If you do not live for him before living for yourself.
If you do not think of what he has to say to you before thinking of what you have to say to him Love is the requirement of God's law And no matter rules can turn a cold hard heart into a heart that loves God above all things Only Christ can do that But when Jesus asked his questioners who Christ was they didn't know They knew he was David's son
That was clear in Scripture.
But they didn't understand that in addition to being David's son, the Christ was also David's Lord.
They couldn't explain that.
But worse than that, they didn't care.
They didn't want to know how David's son could be David's Lord because their religion was basically a matter of do's and don'ts.
It had nothing to do with Christ, the gospel.
How indeed can David's son be David's Lord?
There is only one way the Lord God himself must be born of the seed of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah Jesse and David and Finally a young virgin girl named Mary God had to become a man Only in God becoming a man could man now do what God required of man Only God in the flesh could fulfill what God demanded of all flesh
Sinful flesh neither loved God above all things nor neighbor as self But when the eternal son of the eternal father became flesh and blood It was not sinful flesh and blood God became one of us in order to love The man our dear brother Jesus who loved God with his whole heart and soul and mind Jesus fulfilled the law
He didn't care for human rules that distracted from the true purpose of the divine law.
He cared for the divine law.
It was his desire to love with that perfect love.
In Christ, David's son and David's Lord, we see God and man united in one person.
And we see love like we can see it nowhere else.
Jesus himself fulfills all God's law and commandments.
He does so by loving God above all things and his neighbor is himself.
The religion of the legalistic Pharisees is a threat to Bible believing Christians who are rightly concerned about the moral decay of our culture.
We think we need more rules.
We think we need more legalism to counteract the liberalism that surrounds us.
But legalism is poison for the soul.
We cannot replace God's demand for love with doable rules religious people have invented and substituted in its place.
We must continue to seek our instruction from God on how to love and to see the 10 commandments as requiring that perfect love that only Jesus has fulfilled.
We must continue to see that perfect love of love as describing our lives and when it doesn't,
We must agree with its judgment that we are poor, miserable sinners who rightly deserve God's present and eternal punishment.
Then we must look to Jesus Christ, but Son and David's Lord to find the love that we cannot find in ourselves.
The reason the Pharisees didn't want to understand how the Christ could be David's Son and David's Lord at the same time is because they were too wrapped up in their own
rules to care about their Savior, but we who have found the pure and holy law of love rightly condemning us do care about the one who takes that condemnation away from us.
How can David's son be David's Lord?
We know how our Lord became our brother.
He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man as our brother he loved.
His love is the pure obedience from the heart that God now reckons to us as righteousness.
His love faced the hatred of humanity on the cross and triumphed over it.
The law cannot condemn because Christ was born who has born our condemnation but cannot condemn those who are in Christ.
In Christ we have the love God required of us.
In Christ, we have God's forgiveness for our failure to love.
In Christ, we are blameless.
Christ, we have that love that passes all understanding.
No amount of rules could capture our hearts and teach us how to love God, but God in Christ has.
And so we love Him who first loves us.
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
You
stay.
Take not thy holy spirit from me.
Peace, let us pray to the Lord, Lord, have mercy.
For an increase of love toward God, that in the competence of his love toward us in Christ, we may love our neighbors, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the church that our preachers may be proven faithful, and that all Christians would be glad to enter into the house of the Lord, let us pray to the Lord.
For the sons of our congregations, as they serve their families, that they would follow the way of the Son of God, the faithful bridegroom in his father's house, who blessed the world by his sacrifice.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
That new David's may arise among us to govern our land faithfully under Christ, the Lord of lords.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the needy, the troubled.
the joyful and the expectant, especially the family of Pastor Jones, Dean, Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Lois, Lewis, Marlis, Greg, Grant, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Melissa, Mark, Ethel, Dave, Peter, Fred, Harold, Joan, Jaden, Rick, Thorfinn, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene, George, Anna, Dawn, and Florence, that they may look confidently to Christ.
seated at the Father's right hand and subjecting every enemy under his feet.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For faithful use of the Lord's gifts, that we may be drawn frequently to the Lord's table in true repentance, the taste and seed that the Lord is good.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have
mercy.
For the saints enthroned with Christ in heaven, let us give thanks to the Lord.
And for the joy of entering the Lord's house and joining with the whole company of heaven, let us pray to the Lord.
All these things and whatever else you know that we need grant us father for the sake of him who died and rose again and now lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God.
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
Amen.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God.
It is meet and bright, so
to do.
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, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
who out of love for his fallen creation humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death, even death upon a cross, risen from the death.
He has freed us from eternal death and given us life everlasting.
Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying.
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.
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when 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, all of you.
This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
This was often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
The peace of the Lord be with you
always.
The way, the sin of the world.
you
you
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 Synod.