Worship Service
Services
Lectionary Theme: Freedom in Jesus Christ (12th Sunday after Pentecost)
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Exodus 3:7-14 First Lesson
7. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,
8. and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
10. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11. But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12. He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” The Divine Name Revealed
13. But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14. God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
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Galatians 5:1-14 Second Lesson
1. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. The Nature of Christian Freedom
2. Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
3. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law.
4. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
5. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
7. You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?
8. Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
9. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.
10. I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.
11. But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
12. I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!
13. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
14. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
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Romans 6:15-23 Epistle
15. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17. But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,
18. and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
20. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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John 8:31-36 Gospel
31. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32. and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
33. They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
34. Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
35. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.
36. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.