Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 Service Summary: How shall we pray? That question is the focus of today’s Readings. With Jacob as a model, our prayer might seem to be a struggle with God’s will. And Jesus’ parable teaches that prayer is a long-term effort. But prayer is more than a monologue; the Epistle reminds us that God started the conversation with His Word. The Spirit has used Word and Sacrament to awaken and guide our faith. Within that relationship, prayer is a conversation begun by God and continued each day. In worship, we do that with our brothers and sisters in Christ, moving from individual concerns to those of the Body of Christ, the Church. And in worship, we take the time to listen as God accuses and then excuses us by grace for Jesus’ sake. So let us pray and worship together.

Speaker: Rev. Raleigh Sims Scripture Focus: Luke 17:11-19 Service Summary: We know a lot about some of the people in today’s Readings. We could write a typical biography of Ruth, for example, because we know her family’s names and even that she was an ancestor of Jesus. Last week we learned that Timothy, the addressee of today’s Epistle, had a Christian mother and grandmother, and is now a young pastor. But all that we know about the leper who thanked Jesus in today’s Gospel is that he was a Samaritan. Yet that is sufficient, for only through his faith in our Lord was he truly saved, not from leprosy only, but from his sins and his sinfulness. He was ready to live in thanks and praise of his Savior and ours. What’s the story of your life? We were dead in sins but now are alive in Christ Jesus. May God strengthen you to share His love as the story of your life continues to unfold.

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: Proverbs 3:1-10, Galatians 6:2-10, & Matthew 16:24-26 Service Summary: Our theme for this year reflects our response to who God is and what He has done for us. Generous giving is comprised of three components, all required to be fully realized. The third side of this triangle is “Giving In.” Giving in, as it relates to generous giving, is not about resignation, but about loving those who journey with you as Jesus’ followers. It is about supporting and sustaining our brothers and sisters in Christ for the benefit of both the individual as well as the whole group. Jesus describes it: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 24:17-22, Colossians 3:2-6, & Luke 19:1-10 Service Summary: Our theme for this year reflects our response to who God is and what He has done for us. Generous giving is comprised of three components, all required to be fully realized. The second side of this triangle is “Giving Out.” As a recipient of Jesus’ generous giving, I want to follow his lead to be an invitational missionary and connect people to Christ.

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: Luke 7:36-50 Service Summary: Our theme for this year reflects our response to who God is and what He has done for us. Generous giving is comprised of three components, all required to be fully realized. The first side of this triangle is “Giving Up” not in the sense of resignation, but a lifestyle of deep love for Jesus Christ and extraordinary generosity toward opportunities of service and the advance of His kingdom. Jesus is first and foremost the generous giver who gives forgiveness of sins.

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: Luke 15:1-10 Service Summary: Many people attend to the tasks associated with the beginning of the service, looking at the order of worship they have received or checking out what the opening hymn will be. There is blessing to be found also in looking around us and acknowledging those gathered with us. Each of us is singularly special to God, and, joined together, we become “the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7).

Speaker: Rev. Raleigh Sims Scripture Focus: Luke 14:25–35 Service Summary: The first issue that naturally comes to mind to many Christians when hearing the phrase “Choose life!” is that of abortion, which chooses death, not life. And indeed, never should our witness to God’s gift of life be silenced! Beyond that, however, are all the other choices we make in our struggles between God’s good and gracious will for all and the universal disability of sin that constantly attempts to lead us away from God and His call to life. Today, God’s Word gives us the assurance that because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has chosen to take our suffering and death into Himself by His cross, all who are baptized into His saving death are given the power of faith to love God and pursue His ways of life according to His good and gracious Law and Gospel. Blessed is the man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalm 1:2).

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: Hebrews 12:28-13:17 Service Summary: Christians do good works most of the time without even thinking about it. That’s because faith is an active, living, real thing. God’s Word for this day is all about how God-given faith shows itself in a Christian’s life—in one’s attitude, relationships, words, and deeds. Those without faith, like many of the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, consider “good works” only as a way to influence or manipulate other people and even God. Such good works are never really good at all but are tainted with sin, selfishness, and pride. True faith, on the other hand, is not even our work alone at all, but the work of God the Holy Spirit who, through the Word of God and His Holy Sacraments, instills and inspires in the Christian the mind of Christ, the faithfulness and righteousness of Jesus. Such faith also endures the cross and all sufferings related to living in the world still disfigured by deadly sin. In faith God equips you with “everything good that you may do His will” (Hebrews 13:21). Offer up the sacrifice of praise to God in thanksgiving for His gift of redemption through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: Revelation 22:1-20 Service Summary: We have come to the end of our “Tree of Life” series. We began with the account of creation in Genesis and today we finish with the last book of the Bible, Revelation. What does all this mean? Is this the end – the end of everything? What happens after we die? These are questions which have troubled mankind from the beginning. God gives John the gift of a vision of heaven to assure him and all believers that lies ahead. We have hope. “’Jesus is coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Speaker: Rev. Mark Mueller Scripture Focus: John 20:1-18 Service Summary: After His death on the cross, Jesus was sealed in a tomb with a large stone. But He didn’t stay dead. In lesson nine, we talk about His empty tomb and what His resurrection means for our lives today and in the future. In Jesus’ death, death itself, which has stalked God’s creation since Adam and Eve’s fall, has been forever defanged.