| Prelude Greeting and Welcome Lighting of the Candles Hymn of Invocation – Lift High the Cross (LSB 837, verses 1-3) Refrain: Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim Till all the world adore His sacred name. Come, Christians, follow where our Captain trod, Our king victorious, Christ, the Son of God. Refrain Led on their way by this triumphant sign, The hosts of God in conqu’ring ranks combine. Refrain All newborn soldiers of the Crucified Bear on their brows the seal of Him who died. Refrain + Preparation + Invocation P: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. C: Amen. Opening Sentences - Psalm 124:8; Isaiah 2:3, 5 P: Our help is in the name of the Lord, C: who made heaven and earth. P: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, C: that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. Confession and Absolution – Deuteronomy 30:14 P: Since God graciously calls all people to come to Him to receive His love and life through repentance of sin and faith in His gift of forgiveness, let us confess our sin, take refuge in His mercy, and seek His grace for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. C: Most merciful God, we come before You at Your gracious invitation. We repent of our sins in thought, word, and deed, both what we have done against Your Law and what we have failed to do in faithfulness to Your Law. We have not loved You with our whole being. We have failed to love our neighbors. We plead through the deliverance of Your Son’s suffering and death, forgive us our sins, and give us the will to choose life in His name. Amen. P: “The word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, and by His authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. You are free. Choose life! C: Amen. + Word + Introit P: Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. C: My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! P: Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! C: I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your just decrees before me. P: I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! C: I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen P: Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. Salutation and Prayer of the Day P: The Lord be with you. C: And also with you. P: Let us pray. O merciful Lord, You did not spare Your only Son but delivered Him up for us all. Grant us courage and strength to take up the cross and follow Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. C: Amen. First Reading – Deuteronomy 30:15–20 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his just decrees then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.
Epistle – James 2:14-26 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”— and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God. Holy Gospel – Luke 14:25-35 P: The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the fourteenth chapter. C: Glory to You, O Lord. Now great crowds accompanied [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to You, O Christ.
Apostles' Creed I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life + everlasting. Amen. Children’s Hymn – This Is My Commandment (AGPS 240) This is my commandment, That you love one another, That your joy may be full This is my commandment, That you love one another, That your joy may be full That your joy may be full, That your joy may be full, This is my commandment That you love one another That your joy may be full. Children’s Sermon – Pastor Scott Hymn of the Day – Lord of All Hopefulness (LSB 738) Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy, Whose trust, ever childlike, no cares could destroy: Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray, Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day. Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith, Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe: Be there at our labors, and give us, we pray, Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day. Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace, Your hands swift to welcome, Your arms to embrace: Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray, Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day. Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm, Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm: Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray, Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day. Sermon | 
