Immanuel Lutheran Church LCMS

Something Better Someone Better | Sermon for December 8, 2019

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

Rev. Gregory Mech | December 8, 2019 | Sunday Morning | 8:00 am | Immanuel Lutheran Church – Joplin, MO

The worst that humanity can do will not overcome the promise that God has given.Pastor Mech, from today’s sermon

Divine Service, Setting Four

♫ HYMN OF INVOCATION  

Hark the Glad Sound Hymn 349

INVOCATION, CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION page 203

INTROIT

In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His presence continually!

Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He uttered, O offspring of Abraham, His servant, Children of Jacob, His chosen ones!

He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth!

He remembers His covenant forever,

The word that He commanded for a thousand generations.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

♫ KYRIE page 204

SALUTATION AND COLLECT OF THE DAY

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray. Stir up Your power, O Lord, to make ready the way for Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reign with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen. 

KIDS’ TALK

OLD TESTAMENT Isaiah 11:1-10

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

    the Spirit of counsel and might,

    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

    and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

    and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze;

    their young shall lie down together;

    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

    as the waters cover the sea.

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Psalm 72: 6-7

May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, 

like showers that water the earth!

In his day may the righteous flourish,

And peace abound, till the moon is no more!

EPISTLE Romans 15:4-13

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in