AUDIO: Readings & Sermon for Wednesday June 5, 2024

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m.
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m.
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

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Titus 3:1-11 
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own 

mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

John 11:17-37 
Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” 

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” 

The Sacrament of Holy Baptism 
How can water do such great things? 
Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Titus 3:5–8)

Bulletin: Wednesday June 5, 2024

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m.
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m.
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

Visit our YouTube channel — Click the red “subscribe” box, and then click on the “bell” next to that box to receive Live Streaming notifications. You must be logged into YouTube to activate these features.

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Food Bank Sunday - Sunday June 9, 2024

The June collection for the Bridgeville Area Food Bank is Sunday, June 9th. The “items of the month” are PAPER PRODUCTS. Items may be placed in the wicker receptacle in the narthex near the coat rack. 

DID YOU KNOW … thanks to the generosity of the local community, each month the Food Bank serves more than 100 neighbors in need?

Youth Group: BBQ Fundraiser

Youth Group BBQ Fundraiser Coming Soon …
Just in time for summer barbecues, our youth group is once again selling "ready to heat & eat" pulled pork, baby back ribs, and sauces from the South Fayette company Rib Raiser BBQ. A portion of sales will help fund our trip to the 2025 LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans.
Sale runs through Sunday June 16, 2024; distribution Sunday June 30, 2024.

Pastor’s Corner

Morning Prayer . . . A Great Way to Start the Day! 
For many Christians, starting a good habit like daily prayer may feel hard to do. Sometimes we may not even know where to start. We Christians know the Lord’s Prayer (always a great prayer to say at any time and any place), but we may not know other prayers, and feel intimidated to “make up” our own. 

Aside from the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther also suggested a Morning and Evening Prayer. The morning prayer is as follows: 

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen. (Small Catechism, pg. 30) 

This prayer is often my “go to” prayer over morning coffee, or when I get into the office. The prayer can do so much for us as we start our day. 

First, the prayer reminds us this past evening we survived not by our own powers, or by sheer luck. We survived the night because our bodies are a gift from God who continues to sustain us through all the days He decides we have in this world. What a great way to start our day by recognizing all we have is truly a gift from God. 

Second, in the prayer we ask that God would keep us from “sin and every evil” during this upcoming day. What a wonderful prayer for us to ask from our God who is so gracious in forgiving us when we do sin (John 2:1). 

Third, maybe the sweetest and most powerful phrase is at the end of this prayer. We confess to God we are commending to Him “our body and soul, and all things.” It is very powerful for us to admit that we are commending our lives to God. To “commend” strikes an image of us literally falling into the arms of our Savior in complete trust knowing that He and He alone can, and will, preserve us from all adversities in this life. 

Beginning a habit of prayer does not have to be intimidating. We can start with simple steps like praying the morning prayer above. Try it out for a week. Pray the above prayer every day, for one week, and I would not be surprised if you have it memorized by the end of that week. I assure you, there is no greater way to start your day! 

VIDEO: Sunday June 2, 2024 - Complete Service

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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Bell Choir for Sunday June 2, 2024

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Old Testament Reading -- Deuteronomy 5:12–15 
“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your live-stock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your fe-male servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.’" 

Epistle Reading -- 2 Corinthians 4:5–12 
What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; al-ways carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be mani-fested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the second chapter
One Sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” 

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.