Service Outline for Sunday, October 11, 2026

                                         Welcome to worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church!

PRELUDE                                    “Nearer, My God, To Thee”                           M. Kim

Confession and Forgiveness

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.

Silence is kept for reflection

Most merciful God,

we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.

Amen.

In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

HYMN                             As We Gather at Your Table                                   #522

 

 GREETING

The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

 

 

KYRIE

 

HYMN OF PRAISE            

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Children's message

First Reading: Isaiah 25:1-9

 ¹ O Lord, you are my God;
  I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
 for you have done wonderful things,
  plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
 ² For you have made the city a heap,
  the fortified city a ruin;
 the palace of foreigners is a city no more;
  it will never be rebuilt.
 ³ Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
  cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
 ⁴ For you have been a refuge to the poor,
  a refuge to the needy in their distress,
  a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
 When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,
  ⁵ the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry place,
 you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
  the song of the ruthless was stilled.

 ⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
  a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
  of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
 ⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain
  the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
  the covering that is spread over all nations;
  ⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
 Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
  and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
  for the Lord has spoken.
 ⁹ It will be said on that day,
  “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
  This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
  let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Psalm: Psalm 23

 ¹ The Lord ^| is my shepherd;
  I shall not ^| be in want.
 ² The Lord makes me lie down ^| in green pastures
  and leads me be- ^| side still waters.
 ³ You restore my ^| soul, O Lord,
  and guide me along right pathways ^| for your name’s sake.
 ⁴ Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall ^| fear no evil;
  for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they ^| comfort me. R
 ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence ^| of my enemies;
  you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is ^| running over.
 ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days ^| of my life,
  and I will dwell in the house of the ^| Lord forever. R

Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9

¹ My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

  ² I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³ Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.
  ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

  ⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.

 GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

 

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

¹ Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. ⁴ Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ ⁵ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶ while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
  ¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, ¹² and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

 

SERMON

HYMN                                       Let Us go Now to the Banquet                             #523

 

APOSTLES CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's 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 to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended  into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

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

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE, PEACE, OFFERING

COMMUNION PRAYER

LORD'S PRAYER

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

DISTRIBUTION OF COMMUNION

  

HYMN                                   Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us                              #789

POST COMMUNION PROCLAMATION AND PRAYER

 

BLESSING

HYMN                                                Sent Forth by God’s Blessing                           #547

                               

 

DISMISSAL 

 

POSTLUDE                          Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise“”                

 

 Liturgy and hymns printed and streamed with permission through OneLicense. A-710659

Service Outline for Sunday, October 4, 2026

                                     Welcome to worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church!

PRELUDE                            “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”           John Kraus

Confession and Forgiveness

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.

Silence is kept for reflection

Most merciful God,

we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.

Amen.

In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

HYMN                      When I Survey the Wondrous Cross                        #803

 

 GREETING

The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

KYRIE

 

HYMN OF PRAISE            

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Children's message

First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7

 ¹ I will sing for my beloved
  my love song concerning his vineyard:
 My beloved had a vineyard
  on a very fertile hill.
 ² He dug it and cleared it of stones
  and planted it with choice vines;
 he built a watchtower in the midst of it
  and hewed out a wine vat in it;
 he expected it to yield grapes,
  but it yielded rotten grapes.

 ³ And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
  and people of Judah,
 judge between me
  and my vineyard.
 ⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard
  that I have not done in it?
 When I expected it to yield grapes,
  why did it yield rotten grapes?

 ⁵ And now I will tell you
  what I will do to my vineyard.
 I will remove its hedge,
  and it shall be devoured;
 I will break down its wall,
  and it shall be trampled down.
 ⁶ I will make it a wasteland;
  it shall not be pruned or hoed,
  and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
 I will also command the clouds
  that they rain no rain upon it.

 ⁷ For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
  is the house of Israel,
 and the people of Judah
  are his cherished garden;
 he expected justice
  but saw bloodshed;
 righteousness
  but heard a cry!

Psalm: Psalm 80:7-15

 ⁷ Restore us, O ^| God of hosts;
  let your face shine upon us, and we ^| shall be saved.
 ⁸ You have brought a vine ^| out of Egypt;
  you cast out the nations and ^| planted it.
 ⁹ You cleared the ^| ground for it;
  it took root and ^| filled the land.
 ¹⁰ The mountains were covered ^| by its shadow
  and the towering cedar trees ^| by its boughs. R
 ¹¹ You stretched out its tendrils ^| to the sea
  and its branches ^| to the river.
 ¹² Why have you broken ^| down its wall,
  so that all who pass by pluck ^| off its grapes?
 ¹³ The wild boar of the forest has ^| ravaged it,
  and the beasts of the field have ^| grazed upon it.
 ¹⁴ Turn now, O ^| God of hosts,
  look ^| down from heaven;
 ¹⁵ behold and ^| tend this vine;
  preserve what your right ^| hand has planted. R

Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

[Paul writes:] ^4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
  ⁷ Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

  ¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

 GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

 

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46

[Jesus said:] ³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. ³⁴ When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵ But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷ Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ ³⁹ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
  ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
 ‘The stone that the builders rejected
  has become the cornerstone;
 this was the Lord’s doing,
  and it is amazing in our eyes’?
⁴³ “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. ⁴⁴ The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
  ⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

SERMON

HYMN                               The Church of Christ in Every Age                           #729

 

 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 truly 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 with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic 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.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE, PEACE, OFFERING

COMMUNION PRAYER

LORD'S PRAYER

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

DISTRIBUTION OF COMMUNION

HYMN                                     Jesus Loves Me!                                  #595

POST COMMUNION PROCLAMATION AND PRAYER

BLESSING

HYMN                                 I Love to Tell the Story                                          #661

                 

DISMISSAL 

POSTLUDE                          “The Church of Christ in Every Age”                   C.S.Lang                

 Liturgy and hymns printed and streamed with permission through OneLicense. A-710659