FIRST SERVICE
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
The Joy of the Angels
September 14, 2025
AS WE GATHER
The charge against Jesus was always the same—He keeps the wrong company. But Jesus has come for sinners, and if you are not a sinner, He does not have anything for you. To emphasize why He has come, our Lord tells the stories of ninety-nine sheep left behind to find one who is lost and a woman who rejoices over finding one lost coin. You are that lost sheep and lost coin for whom Christ has come and in whom heaven rejoices. Jesus has come for you and for you He has offered Himself upon the cross and been laid in the tomb. This is the heavenly joy of the angels above, and it is our earthly joy as well. Christ came for us!
HYMN Come Thou Fount of Ev’ry Blessing LSB 686
Come Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
While the hope of endless glory Fills my heart with joy and love
Teach me ever to adore Thee May I still Thy goodness prove
Oh to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be
Let that grace now like a fetter
Bind my wond’ring heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart O take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above
Oh that day when freed from sinning I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in the blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy wondrous grace
Come my Lord no longer tarry Take my ransom’d soul away
Send Thine angels soon to carry Me to realms of endless day
INVOCATION
Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
Pastor: O Lord, my God, I cry to You for help.
People: Heal and restore me, O Lord.
Pastor: Most holy and merciful Father,
People: like sheep, O Lord, we have strayed and wandered from You. We have sinned against You and one another. We have done the evil You forbid, and we have not done the good You desire. There is no health in us. O merciful and divine Shepherd, cover our sins with Your forgiveness, clothe us with Your perfect righteousness, and preserve us in this faith and fear, that we may be kept to the day when Your Son comes to judge all people. Have mercy, O Lord, and fulfill Your Word to us in Christ, our Savior. Amen.
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.
+ WORD +
HYMN OF PRAISE Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us LSB 711
Savior like a shepherd lead us Much we need Your tender care
In Your pleasant pastures feed us For our use Your fold prepare
Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus You have bought us we are Yours
Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus You have bought us we are Yours
We are Yours in love befriend us Be the guardian of our way
Keep Your flock from sin defend us Seek us when we go astray
Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Hear Your children when we pray
Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Hear your children when we pray
You have promised to receive us Poor and sinful though we be
You have mercy to relieve us Grace to cleanse and pow’r to free
Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Early let us turn to You
Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Early let us turn to You
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Pastor: Let us pray. Lord Jesus, You are the Good Shepherd, without whom nothing is secure. Rescue and preserve us that we may not be lost forever but follow You, rejoicing in the way that leads to eternal life; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
People: Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Ezekiel 34:11–24 (The Lord promises to rescue His sheep and to set up a shepherd who will lead them to eternal life.)
11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 22 I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.
EPISTLE 1 Timothy 1:5–17 (Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.)
5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
HOLY GOSPEL Luke 15:1–10 (Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.)
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
HYMN Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices LSB 811
Oh that I had a thousand voices
To praise my God with thousand tongues
My heart which in the Lord rejoices
Would then proclaim in grateful songs
To all wherever I might be What great things God has done for me
All creatures that have breath and motion
That throng the earth the sea the sky
Come share with me my heart’s devotion
Help me to sing God’s praises high
My utmost pow’rs can never quite Declare the wonders of His might
Creator humbly I implore You To listen to my earthly song
Until that day when I adore You Together with the angel throng
And learn with choirs of heav’n to sing Eternal anthems to my King
SERMON
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: Let us pray for ourselves and for all people as they have need.
O merciful Shepherd, You came into the world to save sinners. Grant to us forgiveness of our sins, renewal of our lost lives, and the grace to serve You in willing obedience all our days. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, grant us grace that we know Your Word as the sound of Your voice. Grant to us faithful pastors who will rightly divide Your Word of truth and bless all church workers and those in training to serve us in Your name. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, guard against all false doctrine and against those who teach in conflict with Your Word that the sheep of Your flock be preserved in faith to know and believe rightly by the power of Your Spirit. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, give us good and faithful leaders who will govern us according to Your will and lead us and all nations in the ways of peace, justice, and virtue, that we live good, holy, and upright lives without fear or threat. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, You do not abandon Your sheep even when they are wounded and infirm. Deliver the weak, the suffering, the troubled in mind, and those with hearts weighed low with grief, [especially . . .]. We pray that they be healed and comforted according to Your will and delivered from all that afflicts them on the day when You raise Your people to everlasting life. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, You daily and richly supply all things good and beneficial to us and guard us against the evil one. Give us a discerning mind and a generous heart that as You have done for us, we do for others in Your name. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, You set Your Table before us in the presence of our enemies. Grant to all who commune this day repentance and faith that they receive this holy food for their good and keep us united as one in doctrine and life. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: O merciful Shepherd, hear us and grant us all things beneficial to us and profitable for our salvation, but keep from us all things harmful. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Pastor: Into Your hands, O merciful Shepherd, we commend ourselves and all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy, and confident that You will hear and answers us, O Lord.
People: Amen.