AUDIO: Announcements, Readings and Sermon - Sunday September 6, 2020
View the Bulletin for Sunday September 6, 2020
View the Children’s Bulletin for Sunday September 6, 2020
Service Times: 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
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SPECIAL WORSHIP OPPORTUNITY: Saturday morning service (10:00 a.m.) Participant number will be limited to a total of TWENTY FIVE (23 worshippers, 1 elder, pastor). Saturday’s readings and sermon will be the same as the following Sunday’s (these services are currently different from one another). REGISTER FOR SATURDAY.
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Old Testament Reading -- Ezekiel 33:7–9
“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”
Epistle -- Romans 13:1–10Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the eighteenth chapter
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I
say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom
of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven.
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one
of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great
millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come,
but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot
causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or
lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye
causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one
eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven
their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man came
to save the lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has
gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the
one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than
over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in
heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
