First Sunday in Lent Worship Bulletin
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
First Sunday in Lent – Coronavirus
03-06-2022 10:00AM Worship
+ Repentance Through God’s Mercy +
INTRODUCTION TO OUR WORSHIP:
Christian friends, the Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights struggling wiith Satan in the wilderness. During Lent we will journey through our own 40-day wilderness as we seek to die to our old habits and destructive ways. We will journey knowing that resurrection and new life are on the way. Now is the right time, now is the day of God’s salvation!
OPENING SONG: “Lead Me, Guide Me” Brown #71
CONFESSION OF OUR SINS AND FORGIVENESS:
L People of God, during these 40 days of Lent return to God with all your heart, with tears and fasting, with faithful prayers and fervent loving. With humility and honesty, let us confess…
C Almighty and Eternal God, I confess that I am a sinner.
I have no excuses and no one or nothing else to blame.
I have lived as if God did not matter, as if I mattered most.
I have not let God’s love have its way with me, and so my love for others has failed.
There are those whom I have hurt, and those whom I have not helped.
My thoughts, desires, words and deeds have been spoiled with sin.
I am sorry for all this and plead guilty before God. I ask and pray for mercy and grace.
I want to do and be better. Amen.
L Sisters and brothers, the truth is that all of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of God’s glory. No one is righteous. No one deserves or can demand God’s mercy. The greater truth is that God loved the world so much – loved you! – and sent Jesus to live among us, to suffer and die for us, and to deliver us into new and everlasting life. Through (+) Jesus Christ you are forgiven, be at peace, try again, and live a life of faith and love. Amen.
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY:
Let us pray. O God, we pray that you might lead us and guide us through the wilderness of trials, trouble, temptation, and testing. May we always look to Jesus for strength, for courage, and for new life. Amen.
+ Renewal Through God’s Word +
FIRST READING: DEUTERONOMY 26:1-11 [Don’t forget or neglect God’s salvation and blessings – even when all is going well .]
26:1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it,
26:2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.
26:3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.”
26:4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God,
26:5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.
26:6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,
26:7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
26:8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders;
26:9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
26:10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.” You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God.
26:11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 10:8b-13 [Receive your righteousness through faith in the risen Christ.]
10:8b “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
10:9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10:10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
10:11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.
10:13 For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
GOSPEL VERSE:
“Lord, let my heart be good soil, open to the seed of your word.
Lord, let my heart be good soil, where love can grow and peace is understood.
When my heart is hard, break the stone away.
When my heart is cold, warm it with the day.
When my heart is lost, lead me on your way.
Lord, let my heart, Lord, let my heart, Lord, let my heart be good soil.”
THE GOSPEL: LUKE 4:1-13 [Evil is persistent, and Jesus knows all about this world’s enticing lures and the devil’s lies.]
4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,
4:2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
4:3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
4:4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.'”
4:5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.
4:6 And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.
4:7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
4:8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'”
4:9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
4:10 for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’
4:11 and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'”
4:12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”
4:13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
THE SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil
SONG SELECTION
AN AFFIRMATION OF OUR FAITH:
We believe that God has created this world, has created humanity, has created each of us. We believe that God so loved the world, so loved all people, so loved us,
that God gave Jesus, the Son, to save us from sin and death,
to save us from the ways of this world and the Devil in it,
to save us from ourselves.
We believe that Jesus suffered for us in his living,
sacrificed for us in his dying, and
was raised for us in resurrection victory.
We believe that the resurrection victory of Jesus is our resurrection victory,
our only hope and salvation, and
our invitation to new, abundant, and everlasting life.
We believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
OFFERING [It’s tempting to think that we have little to offer and nothing to give in God’s service, and it is also tempting to believe that our very lives and all that we have are not blessings from God. Let’s respond to God and the needs of our neighbor like we have not rejected or forgotten the truth.]
THE OFFERTORY SONG: “I Know It Was the Blood”
- I know it was the blood… I know it was the blood… I know it was the blood for me.
One day when I was lost, he died upon the cross… I know it was the blood for me.
- It was my Savior’s blood…
- They pierced him in the side…
- He’s coming back again…
OFFERING PRAYER (from PSALM 51):
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with your bountiful spirit.
Then I will teach other sinners your ways; and I will eagerly sing of your goodness. Amen.
MUSIC SELECTION Dennis Fortune
THE PRAYERS… We pray that THE WAY OF THE CROSS will continue to impact our lives and transform the world!
THE LORD’S PRAYER
+ Righteousness Through God’s Spirit +
CLOSING SONG: “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”
- I want Jesus to walk with me… I want Jesus to walk with me.
All along my pilgrim journey, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
- In my trials, Lord, walk with me… In my trials, Lord, walk with me.
When my heart is almost breaking, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
- When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me… When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me.
When my head is bowed in sorrow, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
THE BENEDICTION by the Pastor… God calls us to “return home” to faith and discipleship!