The Service in PDF format is at: August 21, 2022 Service
Video of service is at: YouTube
Peace Lutheran Church
We welcome you in the name of the Lord Jesus. We are honored with your presence. If you do not have a church home, you are invited to join us regularly. Please introduce yourself to Pastor Jeremy Lucke or one of the Ushers as you leave today and sign the guest book in the entryway. We continue to observe the guidelines for health safety. If you have any questions, please see an usher. Everyone is welcome.
The ringing of the bell and the lighting of the Christ candle mark the beginning of our service and a time for quiet meditation, prayer and inward reflection as we begin our worship.
Children are welcome at our worship services. If you prefer, Peace Lutheran has a playroom equipped for children three years old and younger. The room is unstaffed and can be accessed in the fellowship hall where the service is also being live streamed for your convenience and enjoyment.
Holy Communion is celebrated every first and third Sunday and will follow the order of service in the bulletin. If you are a baptized Christian and share our faith in Jesus as Savior and have been instructed in the meaning and use of the Lord’s Supper, you are invited to partake. We have pre-wrapped communion wine or juice and wafers. We also have gluten-free wafers available. If you desire a gluten-free wafer, ask the server. May the body and blood of Jesus, present in the bread and wine, be a blessing to you.
There are times during the service when you will be asked to stand if you are able. Please feel free to remain seated if standing is difficult.
Offering. Peace Lutheran Church understands and teaches that Offerings are voluntary and to be from the heart. Whether we give or do not give does not determine our salvation. Whether we give much or little does not determine our standing before God. Sharing an Offering is an opportunity to quietly practice generosity with our neighbors. Offerings may be placed in the plates by the doors as we exit the sanctuary.
Serving You
Pastor Pastor Jeremy Lucke
Music Director Colleen Schulze
Choir Director Diane Crocker
Supt. Of Sunday School Brandy Stokes & Karyn Stanley
Admin Assistant Daniel Dusek
Parish Nurse Kathy Durling
Webmaster Jim Holroyd
Audio-Visual Johnathon Holroyd, George Abele, Nicholas Abele, Merv Munster, Haley Bentsen, Caleb Santora, Joyce Long, Aaron Bentsen, Oscar Gutbrod, Sam Worth, Rick Durling, Jim Holroyd
Today, August 21, 2022
Musician Colleen Schulze
Reader Carole Gutbrod
Ushers Lynn & Jim Reams
Children’s Message Pastor Lucke
Flowers Merv & Patricia Munster
THEME: When you think about it, it is a silly question: “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (Luke 13:23). Why do you think you need to know that anyway? Maybe such a person is worried for others—for their family, for their children. Or maybe they are looking for a loophole for themselves. Of course, our Lord sets us straight by turning the question back so that we ask, “Am I going to be saved?” To answer that question, we almost automatically fall into the temptation to believe that the answer has to do with the sufficiency of our own merits and good works. The surprise for us today is that being saved has nothing to do with our merits and good works. The good news is being saved is truly about Jesus’ work done for us! Be reminded of Jesus’ promise of life to those who trust in him.
RINGING OF THE BELL
Silent Prayer: O Lord, my creator, redeemer, and comforter, as I come to worship You in spirit and in truth, I humbly pray that You would open my heart to what You have for me in Your Word so that I may repent of my sins, believe in Jesus, and grow in grace and holiness. Hear me for the sake of Jesus. Amen.
Pastor: In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Pastor: We walk in darkness when the words that we use do not build others up. As we begin our worship today, we do well by recognizing our poor choice in words. Too often our words have brought people low so that we can simply feel better about ourselves. Let’s take some time in silence to reflect upon our past mistakes.
~~~~~ Silence for reflection ~~~~~
Pastor: Let us confess together,
People: We confess, O Lord, that we have fallen short. We are guilty of sharing words that hurt, instead of words that build up. We are guilty too of not using comforting words when we should. As we work in Your kingdom, we sometimes think that we can make little influence. The truth is that we can. We thank you for Your promise of forgiveness. We also ask that we see You in a new way today. You are generous with grace. You have compassion for all.
Pastor: Isaiah 55 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God’s amazing and generous grace is hard for us to imagine. The good news is that He gives it to You freely today in the forgiveness of sins. I announce God’s grace. In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit, your sins are forgiven!
People: Amen.
SONG OF PRAISE “Oh, How I Love Jesus”
By: Fredrick Whitfield, American Melody © Public Domain
There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in my ear,
The sweetest name on earth.
O, how I love Jesus, O,
how I love Jesus,
O, how I love Jesus
Because He first loved me!
It tells me of a Savior’s love,
Who died to set me free;
.
It tells me of His precious blood,
The sinner’s perfect plea.
O, how I love Jesus,
O, how I love Jesus,
O, how I love Jesus
Because He first loved me!
.
It tells of One whose loving heart
Can feel my deepest woe,
Who in each sorrow bears a part
That none can bear below.
O, how I love Jesus,
O, how I love Jesus,
O, how I love Jesus
Because He first loved me!
SERVICE OF THE WORD
Pastor: Let us pray.
People: O Lord, thank you for sending a helper in the Holy Spirit to direct my steps. You know everything and will guide me in Your will.
Help me to know Your will. Keep me on the path You have set for me. Give me the desire to stay true to that path, and forgive me for the times I have already strayed from You. Be with my friends and family who are at a crossroads and don’t know what to do next. May Your spirit guide them and make the best decision clear. Thank You for caring about the details of my life, for not believing any request is too small. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
A Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest
19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.
20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Reader: This is the Word of the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.
The narrow door
22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them,
24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Pastor: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to You O Christ.
SERMON HYMN “The Church’s One Foundation”
Samuel John Stone; The Jubilate Group (Admin. by Jubilate Hymns Ltd, sub to Hope Publishing for various regions) (Admin. by Hope Publishing Company)
The church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord
She is his new creation
By water and the word
From heaven he came and sought her
To be his holy bride
With his own blood he bought her
And for her life he died
.
Elect from every nation
Yet one o’er all the earth
Her charter of salvation
One Lord one faith one birth
One holy name she blesses
Partakes one holy food
And to one hope she presses
With every grace endued
.
Though with a scornful wonder
This world sees her oppressed
By schisms rent asunder
By heresies distressed
Yet saints their watch are keeping
Their cry goes up: “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song
.
Through toil and tribulation
And tumult of her war
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest
SERMON
Pastor Jeremy Lucke
People: 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.
Pastor: Almighty God, we give thanks for all Your goodness, and bless You for the love that sustains us from day to day. We praise You for the gift of Your Son, our Savior, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We thank You for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and for the lives of all faithful and just people, and for the hope of the life to come. Help us to remain constant in the struggle of faith empowered by the cross of Christ, filled with hope and confidence. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: Preserve our nation in justice and honor, and grant health and favor to all who bear the offices of government in our land. Guard and protect also all who serve in the armed forces of our country. Give them faithfulness and success in their service and grant that their homecomings be joyful. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: By Your Word and Holy Spirit comfort all who are in sorrow, need, sickness, or adversity, (especially……). Be with those also who suffer persecution of faith. Have mercy on all to whom death draws near. Sustain and bless all who care for those who suffer. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy, through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
People: Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our 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,
DISTRIBUTION
“Jesus Loves Me”
By: Anna B. Warner, alt. & Wm. B. Bradbury; © 1971 by William J. Gaither. The Fellowship Publications Edina, MN 55435
Jesus Loves Me
Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
They are weak, but He is strong.
Chorus: Yes Jesus loves me,
Yes Jesus loves me,
Yes Jesus loves me,
The Bible tells me so.
.
Jesus loves me, Loves me still,
Though I’m very weak and ill.
That I might from sin be free
Bled and died upon the tree.
Chorus
Jesus loves me! He who died,
Heavens gates to open wide
He will wash away my sin,
Let his little child come in.
Chorus
Jesus loves me he will stay,
Close beside me all the way.
That I might from sin be free,
I will henceforth live for thee.
Chorus
“Lamb of God”
Twila Paris; 1985 Jubilee Communications Inc. (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing); Mountain Spring Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
Your only Son no sin to hide
But You have sent Him from Your side
To walk upon this guilty sod
And to become the Lamb of God
Chorus: Oh Lamb of God sweet Lamb of God
I love the holy Lamb of God
Oh wash me in His precious blood
My Jesus Christ the Lamb of God
.
Your gift of love they crucified
They laughed and scorned Him as He died
The humble King they named a fraud
And sacrificed the Lamb of God
Chorus
I was so lost I should have died
But You have brought me to Your side
To be led by Your staff and rod
And to be called a lamb of God
Chorus
Joseph Scriven; Charles C. Converse
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!
.
Have we trials and temptations,
is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
who with all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
take it to the Lord in prayer.
.
Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge,
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise,
forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee,
thou wilt find a solace there.
Pastor: Go in peace. Serve the Lord
People: Thanks be to God.
Announcements
change to Worship Hours. Starting on September 11, Peace will change to our new Worship Hours. These new times will continue throughout the year.
8:00am Choir Practice
9:00am Sunday School
10:00am Worship Service
Bryson and Friends on the Patio. We will welcome back Bryson and Friends for an evening of wonderful music on the patio on August 31st at 7:00pm.