Everything you need for Ash Wednesday online worship 2024
Preparations for Worship:
- Do your best to eliminate distractions like the phone, TV, etc.
- Worship actively! Whether you are by yourself or with others, try reading the parts of the service aloud (responses, lessons, and prayers).
- This service is for children too. Help them participate. Ask those who have that ability to read a prayer or lesson aloud. Take a moment to describe what’s happening. Ask questions. Encourage little ones to draw what they are hearing while you all listen. Unlike our more typical Sunday worship at church, you can pause at any time for questions and discussion.
- Before you begin, load each of the videos below. (You might first have to get past a distracting ad.)
- Pause for a moment of quiet meditation. Then pray:
“Heavenly Father, I have come to worship you. Draw near to me in your gracious Word, and assure me of your loving kindness. Curb my wandering thoughts, that with undivided attention I may hear your voice and speak your praise. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.”
INTRODUCTION
I invite you, therefore, to confess your sins, ask our Father for forgiveness, and commit yourselves to this struggle. Let us be silent. Let us be still. Let us pause now for a time of reflection and self-examination.
CONFESSION OF SINS
We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let us search our hearts, the actions of our days, the thoughts of our minds, the words of our mouths. Let us in meditation confess sins that burden our hearts and diminish faith. God’s Word says, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me…Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and You forgave the guilt of my sin.’” (Psalm 32:3-5)
Most holy and merciful Father,
I confess that I am by nature dead in sin. For faithless worrying and selfish pride, for sins of habit and sins of choice, for the evil I have done and the good I have failed to do, you should cast me away from your presence forever. Like the disciples, I have boldly declared loyalty to you only to fail to proclaim your name; I have foolishly listened to the devil’s lies only to be crushed with guilt and shame.
We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven.
Have mercy on us, Lord.
We have been deaf to your call to serve as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved the Holy Spirit.
Have mercy on us, Lord.
We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness. The pride, hypocrisy, and impatience in our lives
We confess to you, O Lord.
Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, our manipulation of other people
We confess to you, O Lord.
Our anger when our selfish aims are denied and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves
We confess to you, O Lord.
Our love of worldly goods and comforts and our dishonesty in daily life and work
We confess to you, O Lord.
Our negligence in worship and prayer and our failure to show the faith that is in us
We confess to you, O Lord.
Forgive us, Lord, for the wrongs we have done. For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward others, and for our prejudice and contempt for those who differ from us,
Forgive us, O Lord.
Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us.
Hear us, Lord, for your mercy is great.
Accomplish in us, O God, the work of your salvation
That we may show forth your glory in the world.
By the cross and suffering of your Son, O Lord,
Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.
Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, does not desire the death of sinners but rather that they turn from their wickedness and live. Therefore, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son † and of the Holy Spirit. During these days of Lent, let us implore God to give us renewal and his Holy Spirit. May we continue to abide in the true faith and at the last be received by him through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
LESSON – JOEL 2:12-19
Even now, declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and grief.
13 Tear your heart and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in mercy,
and he relents from sending disaster.
14 Who knows?
He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.
15 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion.
Set aside a day for fasting.
Call a solemn convocation.
16 Gather the people.
Consecrate the assembly.
Bring together the elders.
Gather the children, even those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say:
Have compassion on your people, O Lord.
Do not subject the inheritance you have given us to the scorn of the nations.
Do not make us notorious among the nations as an object of ridicule.[a]
Why should they say among the peoples,
“Where is their God?”
A Dialogue Between the Lord and the Prophet
The Lord’s Promises
18 The Lord is zealous for his land,
and he will take pity on his people.
19 The Lord will respond to them:
I am sending you grain, new wine, and fresh oil,
enough to satisfy you fully.
Never again will I subject you to scorn among the nations.
LESSON – REVELATION 3:1-3
To the messenger of the church in Sardis write:
The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this:
I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what is left, which is about to die, for I have found that your works are not complete in the sight of my God. 3 Therefore remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and repent! If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come upon you.
GOSPEL – LUKE 12:13-21
Someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me to be a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because a man’s life is not measured by how many possessions he has.” 16 He told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced very well. 17 He was thinking to himself, ‘What will I do, because I do not have anywhere to store my crops?’ 18 He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods. 19 And I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your soul will be demanded from you. Now who will get what you have prepared?’ 21 “That is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
DEVOTION – JOB 40:1-2, 42:1-6
CONFESSION OF FAITH
This is what the Bible teaches and, therefore, what we believe.
We believe in Jesus Christ;
He is the true God from all eternity — almighty, all-knowing, present in all places.
He is a man from Nazareth — weak in the flesh, fearful of future sorrow, tortured by pain.
He was tempted like us, yet like we will never know.
But he triumphed over temptation; he refrained from his full might and glory; he submitted humbly to the Father’s will; he chose death, to give us life.
We believe that our sins anger God, each one of them:
big and small, public and private, those that hurt others,
those that don’t appear to hurt anyone,
those we don’t even remember.
We believe that Jesus lived and died for the sins of the world.
He resisted every temptation; he reached out in love, to anyone in need; he remained pure in every thought, not just to be a good person, not just to be a good example, but to be mankind’s perfect Savior and Substitute, to live the Law in our place, so that the Law will not condemn us.
He submitted to shame; he suffered unjust punishment;
he sacrificed Himself,
not to prove a point,
not just to show us how to obey,
but to take mankind’s sentence for sin,
as our perfect Savior and Substitute.
He is our sure hope and salvation.
This is what the Bible says;
therefore, this is what we believe.
OFFERING
Offerings may be given on-line at tithe.ly/risensavior, mailed to the church, or dropped off at the church.
Our members have joined together in faith and love to do the Lord’s work in this community and around the world. Guests need not feel obligated to participate in this offering which supports our ministry.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
Almighty God, merciful heavenly Father, in Your great and abundant compassion, You sent Your only-begotten Son into our flesh, where He took up our sins and iniquities, our sorrows and infirmities to carry them to the cross in our place and on our behalf.
In our flesh, Your Son revealed Your glory chiefly in showing mercy and pity, revealing to us poor sinners Your love and grace.
We who are but dust confess unto You that we do not deserve the least of all the steadfast love, tender mercy, and abiding truth which You have revealed in the person of Your Son.
For we sinners have rebelled against Your will, turned every one to our own ways, and exalted ourselves more than we have honored You.
Deceiving ourselves, we have confused our plans and purposes for Yours. Relying on our wisdom, we have depended upon our reason and senses instead of your Commandments. Trusting ourselves, we have neglected Your Word, our worship has grown half-hearted, and our prayers have grown cold. Forgive us, renew us, and heal us for the sake of the bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son and the merit that He alone has won for us through His holy life and humble obedience and His innocent suffering and death.
Neither look upon our poor merits nor upon our many iniquities, but remember us solely for the sake of Christ Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.
In this season of Lent that lies before us, grant us humble and contrite hearts, right and willing spirits, and disciplined and obedient bodies. Give us zeal to amend our sinful lives and to live in a manner that befits the grace You have showered upon us.
Enrich us with Your Word of grace, of pardon, and of peace, won for us through the Passion and death of Christ our Savior.
Grant comfort, health, and protection to the sick, weak, the suffering, and the sorrowing.
According to Your good and gracious will, grant healing to them and all who are ill and injured, comfort to the grieving, deliverance to those in peril, and peace to the troubled.
Silence for prayer
Grant us these and all Your gifts out of the fullness of Your fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, remembering us solely according to Your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
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.
LORD’S BLESSING
The grace of our Lord + Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.