05/10/26

As We Gather

Finally Free: How the Father Deals With His Children

We wander through life looking for freedom, only to realize we have listened to the devil’s call to serve ourselves, our pleasures, and our lusts. Instead of freedom we find ourselves enslaved to sin. We wonder if we have sinned too often, too deep to ever be welcomed back to the Father’s home, back into His loving embrace. Have we lost our inheritance as children of God? The three freedoms we will look at these three weeks will help us understand how God’s grace in Christ Jesus keeps our focus on the good, right and true things God has instore for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes! Adult Sunday classes will focus more closely on each of the three temptations to being a ‘Belly Slave”, Live in Despair”, “Prideful”. 

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, 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.

Inability to Save Ourselves Keeps Us Humble “A man cannot be thoroughly humbled unless he gets to know that his salvation lies utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works and depends absolutely on the pleasure, counsel will and work of another, namely, God     alone. For if man, convinced that he is able to do the least thing toward his own salvation, retains confidence in himself and does not utterly despair of himself, he is not humble before God.”   What Luther Says # 2087

Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 10, 2026

Welcome

Opening Hymn                  Now all the Vault of Heaven Resounds                 LSB 465 vs 1-2

Invocation, Confession and Absolution (Psalm 105: 1-7)

P:   We gather in the name and at the invitation of our great and gracious triune God;

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

P:   Alleluia! Christ is risen!

C:   He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

P:   Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; 

C:   make known among the nations what he has done. 

P:   Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. 

C:   Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 

P:   Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. 

C:   Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, 

P:   O descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. 

C:   He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. 

P:   Gracious Lord,

C: We indeed, Lord God, confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Let us not lose hope in our salvation which was earned for us by Your Son Jesus. Forgive and renew us as You lead us in Your ways of life everlasting. Amen.

(Silence for Meditation)

P:   Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word announce the grace of God to you, that all your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C:   Amen.

Hymn                                         Now all the Vault of Heaven Resounds               LSB 465 vs 3-4

Prayer of the Day

All: Gracious heavenly Father, You sent Your Son Jesus into this world to do the very thing we could never accomplish for ourselves – save us from our sins.  Because of this great salvation that brings to us forgiveness and life everlasting, we are mindful of all You continue to do by the Spirit’s work to keep us in the one true faith; through Christ our Lord and in the strength of His resurrection power. Amen.

O T Lesson                      (Jonah finally goes where God wants him to go)                      Jonah 3 – 4:3

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” ³ Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days. ⁴ On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” ⁵ The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. ⁶ When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. ⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. ⁹ Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” ¹⁰ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.  4 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. ² He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

N T Lesson                              (Instructions on a God pleasing life)                                 1 Thess 4: 1-12

Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. ² For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.  ³ It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, ⁵ not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; ⁶ and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. ⁷ For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. ⁸ Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. ⁹ Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. ¹⁰ And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. ¹¹ Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, ¹² so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Gospel Lesson         (Rejoicing over that which is found) Luke 15: 1-2, 8-10; 11-12b, 14-20

Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”… ⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”…  ¹⁴ After he (the prodigal) had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Message Song                                         Just As I Am (I Come Broken)     

Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee, Whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Chorus              I come broken to be mended      I come wounded to be healed.

I come desperate, to be rescued      I come empty to be filled

I come guilty to be pardoned  by the blood of Christ, the Lamb.  

And I am welcomed with open arms Praise God, Just as I am.

Just as I am I would be lost, but mercy and grace my freedom bought

    And now to glory in Your cross, O Lamb of God I come, I come                 

Chorus

Message                                        Despair: The Absence of Peace       

1.      Despair is the hope         that is lost due to circumstances within          or             beyond       our control. Peace seems possible even when we settle to just get by.   Psalm 32: 3-4

2.      The father’s compassion overrides           what the son was willing to settle for.

                                                                                                        Luke 15: 20; 19: 10     

3.      The father had different    ideas       for his son that his son could not comprehend.

                                                                                                    Eph 3: 20; Is. 42: 1-4

Nicene Creed

C:   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 men 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.

Offering     

Offertory                                    Fruitful Trees, the Spirit Sowing                            LSB 691 vs 2

Prayers of the Church  

 After each petition:

 P:  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

P:  The Lord be with you.

C:  ♪ And with thy spirit.

P:  Lift up your hearts.

C:  ♪ We lift them up unto the Lord.

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

C:  ♪ It is meet and right so to do.

P:  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

P:  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 takest away the sin of the world; 

         grant us Thy peace.  A – men. 

Distribution of Communion 

Distribution Hymn                     Renew Me, O Eternal Light                                            LSB 704

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:   Almighty, everlasting God, Your Son has assured forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit that our faith in Christ may increase daily and that we may hold fast to the hope that on the Last Day we shall be raised in glory to eternal life; through Jesus Christ, 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                            Go, My Children With My Blessing                                LSB 922

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.”