Worship is Life - Life is Worship

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

Credo - I believe

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions The Apostles’ Creed

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

From where did these ideas come? From Scripture!

Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Commenting on this, Dr. Luther wrote,

Luther’s Works, Volume 9 1. These are the Words of the Covenant Which the Lord Commanded Moses to Make.

This also belongs to his sharp admonition, as though he were to say: “Those secret things that God thinks about us, that He curses the godless and blesses the godly, and whatever He wants us to do, are revealed to us, and not to other nations, but not in vain.” He means to say: “Therefore be afraid. He who reveals such things reveals them to frighten you, that you may be certain that all this will happen if you do not keep all the things of this Law.”

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

What is Worship?

The Lutheran Cyclopedia Worship, Luth. Idea Of

Worship, Luth. Idea of. According to the Luth. view, worship is not merely an approach to God in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving (sacrificial elements), but it is chiefly an acceptance of God’s gift to men, through the Word and sacraments (sacramental elements). This view thus differs from the Romish position, which makes all worship, even the Lord’s Supper, a sacrifice to be rendered to God. It also differs from the Reformed view in that it emphasizes the use of the sacramental elements and regards them as means of grace.

Thus, worship is spiritual (John 4:23), but through outward expression the inner life is strengthened and maintained; hence outward forms and ceremonies are to be used.

John 4:23–24 ESV

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Worship begins in the Sanctuary - the Holy Place - but it is not contained there. It begins there because it is there that we hear the Word of grace, the Gospel.

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions Article IV: Justification

1 Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. 2 People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. 3 God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4 [3:21–26; 4:5].

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions Article V: The Ministry

1 So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. 2 Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. 3 This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.

Nowhere, however, do we believe, teach or confess, that this is to be contained within the walls of the sanctuary. The Divine Service closes, not with the Benediction, although that is what terminates the various settings. We are dismissed, however with the following words:

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord!

The proper response, “Thanks be to God,” confesses that our strength to do what we are commanded comes, not from ourselves, but from God.

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions Article VI: New Obedience

1 Our churches teach that this faith is bound to bring forth good fruit [Galatians 5:22–23]. It is necessary to do good works commanded by God [Ephesians 2:10], because of God’s will. We should not rely on those works to merit justification before God. 2 The forgiveness of sins and justification is received through faith. The voice of Christ testifies, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’ ” (Luke 17:10). 3 The Fathers teach the same thing. Ambrose says, “It is ordained of God that he who believes in Christ is saved, freely receiving forgiveness of sins, without works, through faith alone.”

Sadly, today it seems that the “New Obedience” is such, not only in terms of its relationship to our former obedience under the Law, it is “new” to many who feel neither need nor desire for obedience at all. The World declares the “death of God,” and there are those on the church rolls who say “no” in the sanctuary, but say “amen” everywhere else.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church ‘Death of God’ Theology

The phrase ‘God is dead’ has been used in a number of ways. It occurs in a Good Friday hymn by M. *Luther with reference to the death of Christ, an extreme example of *communicatio idiomatum. G. W. F. *Hegel quoted the words, but gave them a new sense, namely that Absolute Spirit has given up its transcendence in order to enter the finite reality of history. Other German writers (e.g. the poet H. Heine and the novelist Jean Paul) spoke of the death of God in a cultural sense, meaning that man had now entered on a stage of civilization to which the concept of God had no relevance (see ATHEISM). This atheistic meaning was taken up by F. W. *Nietzsche, who proclaimed the death of God as a human act: to achieve their full stature as autonomous beings, men must abolish God and become responsible for the world and creators of moral values.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church ‘Death of God’ Theology

The phrase ‘God is dead’ has been used in a number of ways. It occurs in a Good Friday hymn by M. *Luther with reference to the death of Christ, an extreme example of *communicatio idiomatum.

The hymn to which the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church refers is Hymn #437 - “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?” Verse 3 says,

Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, when God the mighty Maker died for His own creatures’ sin.

In the modern era, as the Oxford dictionary continues,

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church ‘Death of God’ Theology

Other German writers (e.g. the poet H. Heine and the novelist Jean Paul) spoke of the death of God in a cultural sense, meaning that man had now entered on a stage of civilization to which the concept of God had no relevance (see ATHEISM). This atheistic meaning was taken up by F. W. *Nietzsche, who proclaimed the death of God as a human act: to achieve their full stature as autonomous beings, men must abolish God and become responsible for the world and creators of moral values.

We now live in a time when the fool is seen, not as the one who declares in his heart that “there is no God” (), but as the one who declares the glory of God in the face of Christ. As Paul wrote in his 2nd Epistle to the Church at Corinth:

2 Corinthians 4:3–6 ESV

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For 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.

They have been deceived into searching into that which God has hidden, and therefore thinking that God is not there, because He won’t be unveiled according to our wills, but according to His will.

This also means that we cannot boast in our knowledge, since it is not self-developed. Back in , Paul says to us”

Romans 12:3–5 ESV

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

We are workers together, helpers of one-another. None of us knows everything, none of us possesses all things in terms of spiritual gifts, wisdom, or knowledge. We need one another, supporting one another, encouraging one another, helping one another; as members of a body cannot function when severed from the body, nor can we when we attempt to live out the life of the church while living independent of the church.

Further, when looking at the teaching in which we were confirmed in our faith, and comparing it with what we have heard from others who speak contrary to our confessions in Christ’s name, what improvements have they made to our Confessional faith? What teachings have they given that justify us more completely than the pure Gospel of justification, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone?

Having begun by faith, will you be made perfect by works? By experiences? By sacrifices determined and demanded by men? Can Jakes, Dollar, Hilliard, or anyone else who rejects our historic confessional teachings bring you closer to Christ than when He comes to you in Word and Sacrament?

Christ died for us! What can men add to that, whether by passion or by eloquence? Christ is risen! What declaration from the minds of men surpasses that? Everything that is of benefit to the Church and to the world is given to us as a gift by God our Father, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Therefore:

Romans 12:6–8 ESV

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Loving service to our neighbor, and especially to those who are of the household of faith, is not an obligation that we grind through in hopes that God will be pleased with us and therefore bless us - it is the fruit of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It is the result of the baptismal life that we have by grace through faith. It is the response of a good conscience towards God (), that flows outward like a fountain into service to one another.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

We do not look at obstacles before us to determine whether we will fulfill the ministry that has been given to us by Christ. Our confidence as Christ’s vessels of honor is not related to the weakness of the strongholds within this community. Our strength is not determined by the weakness of the world. The oldest church in Gary is the purchased possession of the God Whose mercies are new every morning. Our message doesn’t have to be contemporary, or relevant - it is transcendent! It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ - the only name given under heaven whereby we must be saved!

So, as this Word settles in your spirits, and energizes your service as a living sacrifice, let the peace of God, let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

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