Bulletin

03/17/24

As we Gather

Today’s Epistle speaks of Jesus, our High Priest. High priests are called to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people as well as themselves. Jesus is a different sort of high priest who offers Himself as sacrifice, once for all, that we might be forgiven and granted eternal salvation. In the Gospel, Jesus proclaims that He came not to be served, but to serve. He came to offer His life as a ransom for us. As we follow Jesus, we are called to reflect His actions and attitude of service and sacrifice. May we likewise go to serve and sacrifice for others.

Family Room & Children Activity Bags- 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 the LCMS ordinarily communes only those who have been instructed in the teachings of our church and who have confessed their faith in these teachings. Please speak to Pastor Ralph before the service if you have a question about this. 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.


Sincere Love Must Rebuke Sin “Christian love cannot hold its tongue nor bear to see its neighbor err and sin. It must rebuke and improve wherever it can.” What Luther Says #2591

Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 17, 2024

Welcome

Opening Hymn                        Christ Sits at God’s Right Hand         LSB 564 vs 1,4-6

Invocation, Confession and Absolution    

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:   What a priest we have in Jesus!

C:   He is our source of eternal salvation.

P:   He sympathizes with us in our weakness.

C:   He offers prayers and supplications for us.

P:   He serves us and sacrifices Himself for us.

C:   What a priest we have in Jesus!

P:   Though Jesus is our great High Priest, we have lived as if we did not need Him, as though our sin was not dire and deadly. Despite our self-centered failures, our heavenly Father is merciful, and because of Jesus, He invites us to draw near to His throne in confidence to ask for forgiveness.

C:   Heavenly Father, we have sinned against our neighbors and against You. We have sought to be served. We have demanded others sacrifice for us. Forgive us, renew us, and humble us, for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

(Silence for reflection.)

P:   Almighty God in His mercy sent Jesus into our world to be our great High Priest, who came to serve and offer His life as a ransom for us. Christ died and is risen for you. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C:   Amen. We are forgiven. Christ has sacrificed His life for us.

Hymn of Praise                           Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain                       LSB 435

Prayer of the Day

All:   Lord Jesus, You are our great High Priest. Teach us to follow Your example of service and sacrifice for others, so that more people may know of the forgiveness that can only be found in You; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

OT Lesson                                   (God’s new covenant)                             Jeremiah 31:31–34

“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

 NT  Lesson                              (Jesus is our great High Priest.)                      Hebrews 5:1–10

Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 

Gospel Lesson            (The Son of Man came to serve and give His life.)       Mark 10:32–45

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” 38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39 “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Message Song                     My Worth is Not in What I Own                   Getty/Kendrick 

My worth is not in what I own    Not in the strength of flesh and bone
But in the costly wounds of love   At the cross

My worth is not in skill or name  In win or lose, in pride or shame
But in the blood of Christ that flowed  At the cross

Chorus:         I rejoice in my Redeemer   Greatest Treasure,
Wellspring of my soul  I will trust in Him, no other.
My soul is satisfied in Him alone.

As summer flowers we fade and die  Fame, youth and beauty hurry by
But life eternal calls to us  At the cross

I will not boast in wealth or might   Or human wisdom’s fleeting light
                                But I will boast in knowing Christ  At the cross.                      Chorus

Two wonders here that I confess  My worth and my unworthiness
                                My value fixed – my ransom paid  At the cross.                Chorus

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Message                                      Serving is the Way of Christ

  1. Christ service is ___________ in His priestly work, ___________________ for believers.            1 Tim.  4:4-10
  1. Our call to belong includes the call ______________ in _________________ to others.   Gal. 5: 6
  1. Drinking the cup Jesus drank can mean ___________________ the persecution which Jesus Himself ____________________at the hands of evil men.              

Notes:

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                                         O Bless the Lord, My Soul                LSB 814 vs 1,6

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 160 in the hymnal

P:  The Lord be with you.

C:  And also with you.

P:   Lift up your hearts.

C:  We lift them to the Lord.

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

C:   It is right to give Him thanks and praise.

P:   It is truly good, right, and salutary …. And ever more praising You and singing:

Sanctus — Holy, Holy, Holy                                         page 161 in the hymnal

C:  Holy, holy, holy Lord God of pow’r and might: Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

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

Pax DominiThe Peace of the Lord                                               page 163 in the hymnal

Agnus Dei – Lamb of God                                                              page 163 in the hymnal

C:  Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.

         Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.

         Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; grant us peace.

Distribution of Communion

Distribution Hymn                         My Song Is Love Unknown       LSB 430 vs 1, 5-7

                                                                   In the Garden                  (Ascension Choir)  (10:30)

Post Communion Canticle                                                  page 164 in the hymnal

C:  Thank the Lord and sing His praise; tell ev’ryone what He has done.  Let all who seek the Lord rejoice and proudly bear His name.  He recalls His promises and leads His people forth in joy with shouts of thanksgiving. Alleluia, alleluia

Post Communion Thanksgiving

AllWe give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this Meal. We ask that You would strengthen us as we journey toward Holy Week, trusting in Jesus, the source of eternal salvation; through the same 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                              Lord, Take My Hand and Lead Me                      LSB 722

P:   The peace of the Lord be with you always.C:   Amen.

Announcements

Dismissal 

P: Go in peace and serve the Lord.

C:  Thanks be to God.                                                                                            

Postlude