First Service
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
We Worship What We Know
March 8, 2026
AS WE GATHER
It often seems that life is a debate about the things we do not know. What is truth? What is right and wrong? Where is God? None of these questions are theoretical and all of them are answered in Christ, whom we know as Savior and Redeemer. The Law reveals the depth of our need and our sinful hearts. Christ makes known the love of the Father. Gathered in worship, we meet where Christ is—in His Word and Sacraments. Faith is not about what we do not know but about what we do know. Christ is our all. He fulfills the promise of the Old Testament and completes our redemption. We confess Him who came, who comes to us now through the means of grace, and who will come again to deliver us to the Father. To know Christ is to know everything.
+ PREPARATION +
HYMN Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness CH 293
Praise the One who breaks the darkness with a liberating light.
Praise the One who frees the pris’ners, turning blindness into sight.
Praise the One who preached the Gospel, healing ev’ry dread disease,
Calming storms and feeding thousands with the very bread of peace.
Praise the One who blessed the children with a strong yet gentle word.
Praise the One who drove out demons with a piercing two-edged sword.
Praise the One who brings cool water to the desert’s burning sand.
From this well comes living water quenching thirst in ev’ry land.
Praise the one true love incarnate: Christ, who suffered in our place.
Jesus died and rose for many that we may know God by grace.
Let us sing for joy and gladness, seeing what our God has done.
Praise the one redeeming glory, praise the One who makes us one.
INVOCATION
Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Psalm 84:4–5
Pastor: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house ever singing Your praise!
People: Blessed are those whose strength is in You, in whose hearts are the highways to Zion.
Silence for meditation and reflection.
Pastor: O almighty God, merciful Father,
People: I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your punishment now and forever. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being. Forgive me all my sins and grant me the power of Your Holy Spirit that I may amend my sinful life.
Pastor: Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Pastor: May He who began this good work within you bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
People: Amen.
+ WORD +
KYRIE
Pastor: In peace let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: For the peace from above and for our salvation let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the church of God, and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.
People: Amen.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Pastor: Let us pray. O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
People: Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Exodus 17:1–7 (Moses is commanded to strike the rock from which God will bring forth water.)
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
EPISTLE Romans 5:1–8 (We have peace with God through Jesus Christ.)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
HOLY GOSPEL John 4:5–26 (Jesus shows Himself as the living water to a Samaritan woman at the well.)
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
HYMN It Is Well With My Soul CH 705
When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”
Refrain: It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul. (Refrain)
My sin – O, the bliss of this glorious tho’t –
My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! (Refrain)
And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
Even so – it is well with my soul. (Refrain)
SERMON
CREED Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made: who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe one holy Christian and apostolic Church, I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
GREETING/ANNOUNCEMENTS
OFFERING
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
Pastor: Having been led through the wilderness and brought into the light of God’s presence, let us not fail to pray for the church, for our nation, for all the needs of the people, and for ourselves.
That we long for the true and living water that is Jesus Christ and build our hopes upon Him who is the rock of our salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: That our curiosity for the things we are not given to know not distract us from Him whom we do know and that we dwell on Christ—the glory of the Father and the revelation of the Holy Spirit—that we might believe and be saved, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: That we address all the peoples of every nation with the Word of Christ and that they know with us the blessing of forgiveness, the gift of life, and the joy of everlasting life, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: That the pastors and church workers serve with faithfulness and that many be called and those preparing for church work blessed in their calling, and that all the schools of our church be blessed as they teach and learn God’s Word with joyful hearts, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: That the Lord visit with His mercy those of every need, relieving the suffering, giving peace to the dying, and consoling the grieving, [especially . . .], let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: That we be readied by the Spirit to receive Him who comes to us in His body and blood in this Sacrament and that we live lives worthy of our calling as the people of His promise and the recipients of His mercy, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: That we rejoice at the daily bread supplied to us and remember to be grateful to the Lord who supplies all things needed for this body and life and be generous to those in need, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: Having known the goodness of the Lord in providing what we neither deserve nor dare ask apart from Christ, let us rejoice in His blessing and follow where He leads to everlasting light, as we look forward to the blessed reunion with those whom we love that have departed this life in faith; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
People: Lord, have mercy. Amen.