| Prelude
Greeting and Welcome
Lighting of the Candles
Hymn of Invocation – Lift Every Voice and Sing (LSB 964)
Lift ev’ry voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us; Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast’ning rod Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our parents sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered; We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee; Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land.
+ Preparation +
Invocation P: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. C: Amen.
Opening Sentences - Matthew 10:39–40 P: Our Savior Jesus Christ speaks in today’s Gospel, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, C: and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. P: “Whoever receives you receives Me, C: and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
Confession and Absolution - Matthew 16:24; 22:37; Mark 12:30–31 P: You call us, Lord, to follow, and, as we follow, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” C: We confess that we have put love for other things above You in our hearts, souls, and minds. P: You call us, Lord, to follow, and, as we follow, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” C: We have not loved You with our whole heart, and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserves Your present and eternal punishment. P: You call us, Lord, to follow, and tell us, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” C: We have often failed to take up Christ’s cross in our daily living, our witnessing, and our resisting of temptation. P: As we follow in repentance and humbleness, C: for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen. P: In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for His sake God forgives us all our sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives the power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, who has begun this good work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. C: Amen.
+ Word +
Introit P: I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. C: Blessèd are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, P: who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. C: For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. P: For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel. 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: I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
Salutation and Prayer of the Day P: The Lord be with you. C: And also with you. P: Let us pray. Almighty God, by the working of Your Holy Spirit, grant that we may gladly hear Your Word proclaimed among us and follow its directing; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. C: Amen.
First Reading – 2 Samuel 18:31–33 And behold, the Cushite came, and the Cushite said, “Good news for my lord the king! For the LORD has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you.” The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And the Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man.” And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.
Epistle – Romans 7:1–13 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.
Confirmation of Andrew Hinderliter
Holy Gospel – Matthew 10:34-42 P: The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the tenth chapter. C: Glory to You, O Lord.
[Jesus said:] “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to You, O Christ.
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 of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us 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 ascended 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.
Children’s Hymn – Jesus Loves Me (LSB 588)
Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong. Refrain
Refrain: Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! He who died Heaven’s gates to open wide. He has washed away my sin, Lets His little child come in. Refrain
Children’s Message – Tim Cosby
Hymn of the Day – The Day of Resurrection (LSB 478)
The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad, The passover of gladness, The passover of God. From death to life eternal, From sin’s dominion free, Our Christ has brought us over With hymns of victory.
Let hearts be purged of evil That we may see aright The Lord in rays eternal Of resurrection light And, list’ning to His accents, May hear, so calm and plain, His own “All hail!” and, hearing, May raise the victor strain.
Now let the heav’ns be joyful, Let earth its song begin, Let all the world keep triumph And all that is therein. Let all things, seen and unseen, Their notes of gladness blend; For Christ the Lord has risen, Our joy that has no end!
All praise to God the Father, All praise to God the Son, All praise to God the Spirit, Eternal Three in One! Let all the ransomed number Fall down before the throne And honor, pow’r, and glory Ascribe to God alone!
Sermon
Offertory | 
