Pastor's Points for April 4th service
Despite the Corona pandemic, your King comes to you; he comes to you righteous and saved; he comes to you humbly, on the back of a donkey. He comes to bring you the peace of God, which passes all human understanding. Yes, we will still be observing Palm Sunday this year, despite the fact that we are practicing social distancing; doing our part to help end this pandemic and to keep everyone in our community as healthy as possible.
We recorded the Palm Sunday worship service this morning (thank you, Amy Birk!), and it will be available on the Concordia Facebook page and website later today or tomorrow. So, please look for it. Of course, we will be doing the same for our Holy Week worship services, too: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I’ll send out reminders all next week!
As usual, I’ve attached a printable copy of the sermon, titled this week “Expectations Meet Reality.” Feel free to share it with others. The readings for this weekend: Zechariah 9:9-10 (the sermon text); Philippians 2:5-11; and Matthew 21:1-11.
With this being the 1st Sunday of the month, we will NOT offer “drive-thru” communion this weekend. However, we will offer it again on Maundy Thursday, April 9, from 7-8 p.m. Trinity, Altenburg, asked if they might participate with us, because we have the overhang on the west side of our building. Our elders gave the thumbs up to that idea. So, given the fact we will have more cars coming through than usual, we are asking you to come at specific times, based on the first letter of your last name. If your last name begins with:
A-H: please come to partake from 7-7:20 p.m.
I-P: 7:20-7:40 p.m.
Q-Z: 7:40-8 p.m.
We will also have drive-thru communion on Easter Sunday, 9-10 a.m. on April 12. For that, you can come at any time during that hour.
I encourage you to bring your offerings on Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday to continue to generously support the Lord’s work at Concordia. We’ve had a wonderful response to this invitation so far, on March 22 and 29. For that, we praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Stewardship thought for the week: Matthew 21:3 says, “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” Did Jesus really need the donkey? If the man had refused to give the donkey, would the work of salvation have been derailed? Of course not. But what an honor for the man who owned this donkey and foal! Likewise, the Lord needs none of us, but what an honor—for God to choose to use our generosity in the work of His Church.
Mission Minute: Here’s some good news! Christianity is the single fastest growing religion in the world. For example, in AD 100, there were 360 non-believers for every believer. Today, there are only nine non-believers for every believer, and only four of those non-believers are from unreached people groups. Today, at least 6,000 Bible-believing local churches exist to support each of the 10,000 missionary teams that will be needed to finish the task of reaching every people group for Christ. We have over 600 million Bible-believing Christians throughout the world.
The number of people who are being presented the plan of salvation every day is now at least 260,274. Pray for these people, that they will respond to the invitation of the Gospel.
Every day, the number added to the body of Christ worldwide averages 174,000. 3,500 new churches are opening every week worldwide. The annual growth rate of church planting is presently at more than 8% per year. We only need 11% per annum to allow us to place a living Christian fellowship—a local congregation—as a witness in every community in the world. We have seen countries like Singapore have a 10% increase of those who have received Christ as their Savior. (Source: www.thetravelingteam.org)
Don’t forget to pray for our overseas missionaries in the LCMS, including the one that we support, Rev. Gary Schulte and his wife Stephanie, currently serving in the Republic of the Congo, in central Africa.
Did you know…if you are 70½ years old, or older, and have an IRA, you can instruct your IRA trustee to make a distribution directly from your IRA to Concordia Lutheran Church. This distribution is called Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). It counts toward satisfying any required minimum distributions (RMDs) and is excluded from your income for tax purposes. If you have questions, or want to know more, please contact Carol Duggan at 573-824-6060.
Lutherans for Life life quote for Palm Sunday: “For me, Holy Week offers us a glimpse into the holy and vicarious humanity of Jesus. The human Jesus struggling with His own suffering in agony is a portrait for which I am deeply thankful. Jesus struggled as I do. And while I often reluctantly say to God, ‘Not my will but yours be done,’ I trust that God will generate salvation out of suffering and life from death.” Margaret Manning Shull is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bellingham, Washington – A Life Quote from Lutherans For Life • www.lutheransforlife.org
We recorded the Palm Sunday worship service this morning (thank you, Amy Birk!), and it will be available on the Concordia Facebook page and website later today or tomorrow. So, please look for it. Of course, we will be doing the same for our Holy Week worship services, too: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I’ll send out reminders all next week!
As usual, I’ve attached a printable copy of the sermon, titled this week “Expectations Meet Reality.” Feel free to share it with others. The readings for this weekend: Zechariah 9:9-10 (the sermon text); Philippians 2:5-11; and Matthew 21:1-11.
With this being the 1st Sunday of the month, we will NOT offer “drive-thru” communion this weekend. However, we will offer it again on Maundy Thursday, April 9, from 7-8 p.m. Trinity, Altenburg, asked if they might participate with us, because we have the overhang on the west side of our building. Our elders gave the thumbs up to that idea. So, given the fact we will have more cars coming through than usual, we are asking you to come at specific times, based on the first letter of your last name. If your last name begins with:
A-H: please come to partake from 7-7:20 p.m.
I-P: 7:20-7:40 p.m.
Q-Z: 7:40-8 p.m.
We will also have drive-thru communion on Easter Sunday, 9-10 a.m. on April 12. For that, you can come at any time during that hour.
I encourage you to bring your offerings on Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday to continue to generously support the Lord’s work at Concordia. We’ve had a wonderful response to this invitation so far, on March 22 and 29. For that, we praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Stewardship thought for the week: Matthew 21:3 says, “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” Did Jesus really need the donkey? If the man had refused to give the donkey, would the work of salvation have been derailed? Of course not. But what an honor for the man who owned this donkey and foal! Likewise, the Lord needs none of us, but what an honor—for God to choose to use our generosity in the work of His Church.
Mission Minute: Here’s some good news! Christianity is the single fastest growing religion in the world. For example, in AD 100, there were 360 non-believers for every believer. Today, there are only nine non-believers for every believer, and only four of those non-believers are from unreached people groups. Today, at least 6,000 Bible-believing local churches exist to support each of the 10,000 missionary teams that will be needed to finish the task of reaching every people group for Christ. We have over 600 million Bible-believing Christians throughout the world.
The number of people who are being presented the plan of salvation every day is now at least 260,274. Pray for these people, that they will respond to the invitation of the Gospel.
Every day, the number added to the body of Christ worldwide averages 174,000. 3,500 new churches are opening every week worldwide. The annual growth rate of church planting is presently at more than 8% per year. We only need 11% per annum to allow us to place a living Christian fellowship—a local congregation—as a witness in every community in the world. We have seen countries like Singapore have a 10% increase of those who have received Christ as their Savior. (Source: www.thetravelingteam.org)
Don’t forget to pray for our overseas missionaries in the LCMS, including the one that we support, Rev. Gary Schulte and his wife Stephanie, currently serving in the Republic of the Congo, in central Africa.
Did you know…if you are 70½ years old, or older, and have an IRA, you can instruct your IRA trustee to make a distribution directly from your IRA to Concordia Lutheran Church. This distribution is called Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). It counts toward satisfying any required minimum distributions (RMDs) and is excluded from your income for tax purposes. If you have questions, or want to know more, please contact Carol Duggan at 573-824-6060.
Lutherans for Life life quote for Palm Sunday: “For me, Holy Week offers us a glimpse into the holy and vicarious humanity of Jesus. The human Jesus struggling with His own suffering in agony is a portrait for which I am deeply thankful. Jesus struggled as I do. And while I often reluctantly say to God, ‘Not my will but yours be done,’ I trust that God will generate salvation out of suffering and life from death.” Margaret Manning Shull is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bellingham, Washington – A Life Quote from Lutherans For Life • www.lutheransforlife.org
