Everything you need for April 3 online worship.
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.”
CONFESSION OF SINS
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear friends, let us approach God with a true heart and confess our sins, asking him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us.
Lord of life, 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. O Lord, I am sorry for my sins. Forgive me, for Jesus’ sake.
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. In his great mercy, God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our sins. Hear the word of Christ through his called servant: I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord. For the well-being of all people everywhere, that they may receive from you all they need to sustain body and life, hear our prayer, O Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For the spread of your life-giving gospel throughout the world, that all who are lost in sin may be brought to faith in you, hear our prayer, O Christ. Christ, have mercy.
For patience and perseverance in this life, that we may not lose the hope of heaven as we await your return, hear our prayer, O Lord. Lord, have mercy.
Lord of life, live in us that we may live for you. Amen.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Almighty God, by your great goodness, mercifully look upon your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
LESSON – ISAIAH 43:16-21
16This is what the Lord says, who makes a road through the sea and a path through mighty waters, 17who brings out the chariot and the horses, the army and the strong warrior. They will all lie down together. They will not get up. They are extinguished. Like a wick they go out. 18Do not remember the former things. Do not keep thinking about ancient things. 19Watch, I am about to do a new thing. Now it will spring up. Don’t you know about it? Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness. In the wasteland I will make rivers. 20The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me, because I am providing water in the wilderness, rivers in a parched wasteland, water for my chosen people to drink. 21This people that I formed for myself will declare my praise.
LESSON – PHILIPPIANS 3:4-14
4even though I have grounds for confidence also in the flesh. If anyone else thinks that he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised 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; 6in regard to zeal, persecuting the church; in regard to the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. 7But, whatever things were a profit for me, these things I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. 8But even more than that, I consider everything to be a loss because of what is worth far more: knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have lost all things and consider them rubbish, so that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, which comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God by faith. 10I do this so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11in the hope that in some way I may arrive at the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, 14I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
DEVOTION – LUKE 20:9-19
CONFESSION OF FAITH – NICENE CREED
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and became fully human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who in unity with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
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
O Lord, deliver us from contending that we are righteous before You because of who we are and what we have done. Surely we are sinners who only deserve Your wrath.
Cause us to turn from our worthlessness and hold fast to the surpassing worth of Christ Jesus and His righteousness for us.
O Lord, You gave Your Son to be rejected by sinners, that we sinners might be welcomed into Your kingdom. Preserve Your Church in this life won for us by Christ, crucified and risen.
Give faithfulness to the preaching of Your Word and the administration of Your Sacraments, and let Your people receive these gifts with penitence and faith.
O Lord, You sustain us each day, granting us sleep and waking again.
Be the consolation of those who live in anxiety and fear, assuring them of Your mercy and deliverance in Christ.
O Lord, bestow Your kindness to all those in any need, especially Beth Herbst’s future daughter in law in the hospital, friend of Cecelia Kuhn and her family after a friend died suddenly, and for Charlie Hale’s sister in hospice. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus, we give you thanks for each new home mission we have the privilege to start. Thanks for blessing Risen Savior in Lakewood Ranch, FL., with strong growth so that it is now a self-supporting congregation with a thriving early childhood ministry connecting young children and their parents to Jesus. Bless their efforts to start a new home mission just north of them in Parrish, FL.
Guide our church too, in using opportunities to connect families to you.
You have shared Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection with us, that we might be raised. Encourage us to forget what lies behind and strain to what lies ahead; through Jesus who taught us to pray…
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 BLESSING
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. Amen.