INDEPENDENCE DAY
Our Heavenly Home Makes Us Generous Here
July 3, 2016
AS WE GATHER
Throughout the history of our country, Americans have enjoyed rich gifts granted by our
bountiful God. As Christians, we believe the eternal Promised Land, heaven, still awaits us.
Today, as we thank God for the blessings of our great nation, we have an opportunity to
implore His forgiveness for our personal and national faults, ask His blessings and guidance
for the future of the republic, and then look ahead by faith to the eternal Promised Land, made
sure by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 GATHER 
PRELUDE
PROCESSION of FLAGS (Please Rise)
HYMN
“God Bless America” (insert or on screen)
INVOCATION
Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the  Son and of the Holy Spirit.
People:
Amen.
OPENING SENTENCES Based on 1 Peter 2:13, 15–17
Pastor: Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,
People:
for this is the will of God.
Pastor: Live as people who are free, as servants of God.
People:
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God.
1
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
(Silence of reflection on the Word of God and our own sinfulness.)
Pastor: Gracious God,
People:
we confess that we are sinful by nature and that in life we have ignored
Your many blessings in this land of promise. We have taken our lot in
life as a deserved benefit and let our pride cover our faults and failings.
We have been content to receive the freedom and prosperity of this land
without giving You thanks and praise. We have failed to share Your
bounty with those in our society less fortunate than ourselves,
preferring to put our own comfort before our brothers’ urgent needs. We
have let the morality of the society around us speak louder than Your
Word and will for us. Forgive us for Jesus’ sake. Turn our hearts to Your
will and our eyes to Your eternal promises. Open doors of opportunity in
which we may reflect Your truth, mercy, and love in our sojourn until we
enter the eternal Promised Land.
Pastor: Our Lord Jesus took all our sins with Him to the cross. The Father accepted His
sacrifice on our behalf. By His death Christ destroyed death, and by His rising again
He has restored us to everlasting life. In the mercy of almighty God, all who die in faith
will enter the Promised Land of heaven. 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. Walk as children of promise to the praise of His
holy name each day of your pilgrimage on earth.
People:
Amen.
PEACE OF THE LORD
Pastor: The peace of the Lord be with you all.
People:
And also with you.
 GROW
HYMN OF PRAISE 8:00am “Praise to The Lord, The Almighty 790 vs. 1-3
10:30am “!0,000 Reasons”
2
SALUTATION
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People:
And also with you.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Pastor: Let us pray.
Lord over all, You ordain the powers that be in the kingdoms of this world.
People:
Order our days in peace, guide our leaders, and prosper the Church,
Your kingdom of grace, here in this great land;
Pastor: 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
Isaiah 65:17-25
Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.
People:
Thanks be to God.
EPISTLE
Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18 (Let us do good to all, especially those who
belong to the family of believers. What counts is a new creation.)
Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.
People:
Thanks be to God.
HYMN “God Bless Our Native Land” 965
HOLY GOSPEL
Luke 20:20-25
Pastor: The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the twentieth chapter.
People:
Glory to You, O Lord.
(The Gospel is read.)
Pastor: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
People:
Praise to You, O Christ.
3
HYMN OF THE DAY
Jerusalem"
"America the Beautiful" /"O Mother Dear,
[same tune throughout]
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine!
O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
I wish to see thy cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall I come to thee?
When shall my sorrows have an end,
Thy joys when shall I see?
O happy harbor of the saints!
O sweet and pleasant soil!
In thee no sorrow may be found,
No grief, no care, no toil.
Thy gardens and thy gallant walks
Continually are green;
There grow such sweet and pleasant flow’rs,
As nowhere else are seen.
There trees forever more bear fruit,
And evermore do spring,
4
There evermore the angels sit,
And evermore do sing.
Jerusalem, my happy home,
Would God I were in thee!
Would God my woes were at an end,
Thy joys that I might see!
No murky cloud o'ershadows thee,
nor gloom, nor darksome night;
but every soul shines as the sun,
for God Himself gives light.
by Katharine Lee Bates & F.B.P
Creative Worship for the Lutheran Parish, Series B, Part 3. Copyright © 2015 Concordia Publishing House.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
SERMON “Our Heavenly Home Makes Us Generous Here” Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18
NICENE CREED
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
Pastor: Let us pray for ourselves, this nation, and all people according to their needs.
Pastor: . . . Lord in You mercy.
People:
Hear our prayer
Pastor: These and any other things You would have us ask of You, O God, give us for the
sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
People:
Amen.
OFFERING
5
 SACRAMENT 
PREFACE
Pastor:
People:
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
2 Timothy 4:22
Pastor:
People:
Lift up your hearts.
[Colossians 3:1]
We lift them to the Lord.
Pastor:
People:
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give Him thanks and praise.
[Psalm 136]
PROPER PREFACE
Pastor: It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give
thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, who, having created all things, took on human flesh and was born of the virgin
Mary. For our sake He died on the cross and rose from the dead to put an end to
death, thus fulfilling Your will and gaining for You a holy people. Therefore with angels
and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your
glorious name, evermore praising You and saying:
SANCTUS
“The Lord My God Be Praised” 794 vs.4
6
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Pastor: Blessed are You, Lord our God, for in every age You have provided Your Word, which
calls a sinful humanity to faith in Your Son, who by His death and resurrection has
destroyed death and by His rising again has opened to us eternal life now and in the
eternal Promised Land. Gathered in His name we ask You to keep us strong in faith
as we receive His body and blood in, with, and under this bread and wine. By the
assurance of sins forgiven, grant us to see that heavenly land while we sojourn here
in this earthly kingdom. To You, O Father, with the Son and Holy Spirit, be all glory
now and into eternity.
People:
Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER (Matthew 6:9–13)
People:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.
WORDS OF OUR LORD
Matthew 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19–
20; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25
Pastor: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He
had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is
My  body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.”
In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks,
He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My
 blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you
drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
7
THE PEACE OF THE LORD
Pastor: The peace of the Lord be with you always.
People:
Amen.
AGNUS DEI “Just As I Am” 570 vs. 1,2
DISTRIBUTION HYMNS
“What is This Bread” 629
“O Jesus Blessed Lord to Thee” 632
“O Blessed Spring” 595
 GO 
POST-COMMUNION THANKSGIVING
Pastor: Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.
People:
His steadfast love endures forever.
Pastor: Let us pray.
We give thanks, Lord our God, for You have again refreshed us on our pilgrim way.
Grant us to live each day in this blessed land as citizens of Your kingdom of grace
until we enter the Promised Land in which faith has turned to sight; through Your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever.
People:
Amen.
BENEDICTION
Pastor: The Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with
you all, and the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the  Son, and the Holy Spirit,
abide with you now and forever.
People:
Amen.
CLOSING HYMN
“Before You, Lord, We Bow” 966
8