10/04/26

As We Gather

Like a building, we have a foundation stone on which we rest, a cornerstone on which we build, a capstone that holds it all together. Christ is each of those stones—the foundation on which our faith is established, the cornerstone on which our faith is built, and the capstone that holds us up. He is also a stone of stumbling. Those who reject His foundation, His cornerstone, and His capstone are broken into pieces in the day of judgment. All of this is revealed in the surprise of a parable about a master who built a vineyard, planted the vines, and set it out for tenants to produce the wine. It is a story of warning, but it is also a story of grace.

Children Activity Bags We value children in our worship services. If needed, there is a family room available for families with children. The family room has a diaper changing table, a closed-circuit TV to watch the worship service, toys and books for children. The family room is located across from the kitchen in the long hallway, the first door on the right, just past the bathrooms. There are “King’s Kids” bags with activities for children to help them worship. They are near the usher’s station on a small rack. Please return the bag to the rack after the service.

Holy Communion The Scripture teaches the Lord’s Supper is a precious gift of God in which Christ gives us His true body and blood (in a miraculous way), together with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. Because the Bible teaches that this Sacrament may also be spiritually harmful if misused ( 1 Cor: 11:27), and that participation in the Lord’s Supper is an act of confession of faith, we ordinarily commune those who have been instructed in the teachings of our church and who have confessed their faith in these teachings. If you have a question, please speak to Pastor Ralph before the service. For those who prefer a non-alcoholic alternative, there is grape juice at the center of each tray. Those not receiving the Sacrament, including children, are invited to come to the altar, cross their arms over their chest, and receive a special blessing.

“For a Helmut, the Hope of Salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8) 

“To those who believe and enjoy the divine promise, this life is merely a pilgrimage during which they are preserved by hope for that future and better life.”   What Luther Says # 2078

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

October 4, 2026

Welcome

Opening Hymn                                  Built on the Rock                           LSB 545 vs 1-3

Invocation, Confession and Absolution (Psalm 118: 22-24 )

P:   In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C:   Amen.

P:   Open for me the gates of righteousness; 

C:   I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. 

P:   The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; 

C:   the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 

All:   This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

P:   Holy and gracious God,

C:   we confess to You that we have sinned against You through our fears and failure to live according to Your will and design. Because our love for You has faltered, so also have we not loved those whom You would have us call our neighbor. So certain are we of our sin that we have even wondered at times how You could still love us. Because of Your merciful invitation alone, we come before You, seeking Your forgiveness  for the sake of the sacrifice of Your Son. Amen.

Silence is kept for meditation and reflection.

P: Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a servant of Christ, and by His authority, I declare  your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C:   Amen.

Hymn of Praise                                   Built on the Rock                                 LSB 645  vs 4-5

Prayer of the Day

All:  Loving Lord God, reveal to us the depth of Your love that we grow greater love for You in return and that we grow in love toward our neighbors and one another; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

OT Lesson                  (The Lord planted His people to be His vineyard)              Isaiah 5:1–7

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight.

NT Lesson             (“I press on toward towards the upward call of Christ.”)  Phil. 3:4b–14

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

Gospel Lesson                 (The  builders reject the cornerstone.)     Matthew 21:33–46

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. 

Message Song                                           Cornerstone                                                     Hillsong 

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.

                I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.   Repeat

Chorus    Christ alone.  Cornerstone. Weak made strong in the Savior’s love.

Through the storm, He is Lord. Lord of all.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

                  My anchor holds within the veil.    Chorus

              Bridge               He is Lord. Lord of all.        Chorus, 3^rd verse

When He shall come with trumpet sound,  O may I then in Him be found.

Dressed in His righteousness alone.  Faultless stand before the throne. 

                         Faultless stand before the throne.          Chorus

CCLI Song # 6158927 ©Hillsong Music Pub. CCLI License # 11390779

Message                         Fruitful Living Comes from Faith in Christ

Faith in Jesus

1.      recognizes God as creator and sustainer of all life and rightly ordered human endeavors.

2.      seeks to live in the blessed hope that God offers to all in Jesus.

3.      lives to be fruitful in the Gospel of forgiveness and peace of Jesus.

Catechism understanding of the 2^nd Article of the Apostles Creed

P:   We confess the Second Article of the Creed from Luther’s Small Catechism.

C:   And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, …

P:   What does this mean?

C:   I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.

Offering

Offertory                          Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow                  LSB  805      

Prayers of the Church  

After each petition:

 L:  Lord, in your mercy,

 C:  hear our prayer.   

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 forever and ever. Amen.

The Lord’s Supper

Preface                                                                      page 194 in the hymnal

L:  The Lord be with you.

C:  ♪ And with thy spirit.

L:  Lift up your hearts.

C:  ♪ We lift them up unto the Lord.

L:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

C:  ♪ It is meet and right so to do.

L:  It is truly good, right, and salutary …. And with the host of heaven we sing:

Sanctus — Holy, Holy, Holy                                          page 195 in the hymnal

C:  ♪ Ho -ly, ho-ly, ho-ly Lord God of Sa – ba – oth. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.   

          Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, blessed is He, blessed is

          He who cometh in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.

The Words of Institution (Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper)

Pax Domini—The Peace of the Lord                    page 197 in the hymnal

L:  The peace of the Lord be with you always.

C:  ♪ Amen. 

Agnus Dei – Lamb of God                                                            page 198 in the hymnal                                      

C:  ♪ O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy upon us.

         O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy upon us.

         O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world; 

         grant us Thy peace.  A – men.

Distribution Hymn                      The Church’s One Foundation                         LSB 644

Nunc Dimittis                                                                                   page 199 in the hymnal        

C: ♪ Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.                                                                                                                                          

 Post Communion Collect

All:  We give thanks to You, almighty God, both for Your command to believe and for the faith to receive this salutary gift, and we pray that as Christ’s redeemed people we show forth the light of Your grace and love to our neighbors; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Benediction                                                                                                            

P:   The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and ✠ give you peace.

C:   Amen.

Sending Hymn                            Christ is Our Cornerstone                                     LSB 912 
Announcements
Dismissal

P:  Go in peace as you serve the Lord.

C:  Thanks be to God!

Postlude 

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”