The 4th Sunday in Lent March 19, 2023
Welcome & Announcements
*Call to Worship: Psalm 142 (pg. 619)
*Opening Prayer …………………………………………….. pg. 2
OPENING HYMN ------------------------------------------------- # 262
“How a Firm Foundation”
*Confession of Sins ……………………………..................... pg. 2
*Kyrie …………………………………………………….…. pg. 3
*Declaration of Grace …………………………………..…… pg. 3
Scripture Lessons: 1st Reading: Isaiah 42:14-21 (pg. 716)
2nd Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14 (pg. 1162)
*The Gospel: John 9:1-41 (pg. 1064)
*Response to the Gospel …………………………………..… pg. 3
*Confession of Faith – The Apostles’ Creed ………………... pg. 4
*Gloria Patri …………………………………………………. pg. 4
The Offering
*Response: “Create in Me A Clean Heart O God” ……..….. pg. 17
*Prayers of the Church
HYMN --------------------------------------------------------------- # 316
“Thou, Whose Almighty Word”
Sermon: “Enlightened Perceptions, Clouded Deceptions”
THE CLOSING HYMN ------------------------------------------- # 542
“Victory in Jesus”
*The Lord’s Prayer ………………………………………….. pg. 5
*The Benediction ………………………………..…………... pg. 5
*Three-fold Amen ………………………………...…………. pg. 5
THE DOXOLOGY ……………………………...………….. # 390
Organ Postlude
(* Indicates where congregation should stand if possible)
WE CORDIALLY WELCOME all who have come to worship with us this morning, especially our guests and visitors. May our Father’s mercy in Jesus assure you of the forgiveness of all your sins. If you have not established your church home in our area, we are anxious to share with you all the blessings which God gives us through His Word. We ask that you please sign our guest book, and we hope that you return to worship with us again soon.
Announcements
Wednesday Lenten Service, 7:00 p.m. This week’s Service will be led by Pastor Czymbor with the theme of “Door of the Sheep”. Ladies with first names beginning in letters A – J are asked to bring bars/cookies for the fellowship time to follow the service.
Registration for the 2023 AFLC Annual Conference will be available here: https://www.aflc.org/about-us/conferences/
Hotel information is available there as well.
St. Peter online, on YouTube search for "stpeter7310". Weekly emails and monthly newsletters here: https://czymbor.net/Blog/
This week’s activities:
22nd – Wed. – Lenten Worship Service, 7:00 p.m.
26th – Sun. – Worship, 9:00 a.m. Sunday School, 10:00 a.m.
*Call to Worship: Psalm 142
142 With my voice I cry out to the Lord;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord.
2 I pour
out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.
3 When my spirit faints
within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
4 Look
to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.
5 I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the
living.”
6 Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
7 Bring
me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The
righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully
with me.
1st Reading: Isaiah 42:14-21
14 For a long time I have held my
peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry
out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. 15 I
will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.
16 And I will lead the blind in a way that
they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide
them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough
places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not
forsake them. 17 They are turned back
and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to
metal images, “You are our gods.” 18 Hear,
you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! 19 Who
is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who
is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord?
20 He sees many things, but does not
observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.
21 The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness'
sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.
2nd Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
*The Gospel: John 9:1-41
9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” 18 The Jews[a] did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus[b] to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.