Sermon Tone Analysis

*Prayer of Preparation*

*prelude*

*welcome, announcements, joys and concerns*

*~*Hymn # 3  *A Mighty Fortress

*~*Call to Worship        *Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord is God!

It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Ps.

100:1,3 \\ \\ *~*Invocation* ~/ Lord’s Prayer    Almighty God, your are the protector of all who trust in you, without your grace nothing is strong, nothing is holy; increase and multiply upon us your mercy, that by your holy inspiration we may think the things that are right and by your power may perform the same, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

-Prayer by Martin Luther, 1526.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, at it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever.Amen

*responsive reading     # 587 *Divine Providence

*~*Gloria Patri* \\ *Young’s Peoples Moment *    Have the children stand up and spread out in front of you.

Tell them that you are going to lead them in a jumping game.

On the count of three have them make a short jump forward ... one, two, three, JUMP!

Then have them back up, and tell them that they’ll do it again, but this time with their eyes closed ... one, two, three, JUMP! Have them sit down, and ask them which was harder, jumping with their eyes opened, or closed?

Find out what was hard about jumping with eyes closed ... couldn’t see, didn’t know where they were going, etc. Tell them the story of blind Bartimaeus, who found out that Jesus was close by, and so “he sprang up and came to Jesus” (Mark 10:50) ... even though he couldn’t see! Suggest that Bartimaeus jumped toward Jesus because he had faith - he trusted that Jesus would help him and heal him, and he wasn’t disappointed.

Let them know that Jesus healed Bartimaeus and gave him his sight, and then Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way (v.

52).

Close by encouraging the children to have faith in Jesus during dark and scary times, and to follow Jesus wherever he leads them.

Call to Prayer   The Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

Ps 100:5

Prayer Hymn    # 34 Praise to the Lord, Almighty  v.4

*Pastoral Prayer          *Almighty God, you  sent Jesus to show us how to live.

Grant us the power of your Holy Spirit so that we may follow him in faithfulness all the days of our lives.

“...Father most gracious and full of compassion, have mercy upon us in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as you blot out our sins and stains, magnify and increase in us day by day the grace of your Holy Spirit: that as we acknowledge our unrighteousness with all our heart, we may be moved by that sorrow which shall bring forth true repentance in us, crushing all our sins and producing in us the fruits of righteousness and innocence which are pleasing to you; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

-Prayer by John Calvin, 1542.

*Musical response*

*Offertory sentence  *Enter  his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him and bless His name*.*

*offering*           Doxology

*offertory prayer *

*Hymn # 359 *               Take Thou Our Mind, Dear Lord

*Scripture Text            */Mark 10:46-52/

/Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight / \\ 46Then they came to Jericho.

As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.

47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."

So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up!

On your feet!

He's calling you."

0Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you."

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

\\ *Sermon                       *Here I Stand

*In 1521, a monk named Martin Luther was put on trial by church authorities.

He took a bold stand that started the Protestant Reformation, the movement we remember today.

If we were put on trial for our faith, where would we stand?

Here - or there?

\\ *In April of 1521, a monk named Martin Luther was put on trial by the Roman Catholic Church.

He had been severely critical of the pope, questioning the validity of some of the sacraments and denouncing church corruption.

\\ An archbishop was given the job of examining Luther, and he asked him, “Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of Scripture?

...

You have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox faith.

... I ask you, Martin -answer candidly without horns - do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?”

\\ Luther replied, “Since, then, Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simply reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth.

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God.

I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.

Here I stand.

I cannot do otherwise.

God help me.

Amen.”

Luther’s speech was not a defiant, solitary protest, but a calm, reasoned account of why he had written the books piled on the table before him and why he could not recant their content.

\\ “Luther asserted that his conscience was captive to the word of God and that he could not go against conscience.

This was not, however, a modern plea for the supremacy of the individual conscience or for religious freedom.

Though already excommunicated by Rome, Luther saw himself as a sworn teacher of Scripture who must advocate the right of all Christians to hear and live by the gospel.”

\\ At this trial, Luther was convicted of heresy.

Anyone caught following him was to be condemned.

But Luther and his followers were not crushed - they went on to lead the Protestant Reformation, the movement we commemorate today.

We can be grateful that Luther took a stand for what he believed in and worked tirelessly to bring the word of

God to common people, so that they could develop deeper faith in Jesus Christ.

\\ In his own study and translation of the Bible, he discovered that faith is essential to an everlasting relationship with God.

“We are saved by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ,” he proclaimed.

Faith is the attitude that enables us to hang on to Christ, according to Luther; it is the way we gain access to the saving grace of God.

Faith is best defined as “trust,” he said; it is a willingness to rely on Jesus through all the challenges of life.

\\ Faith is at the heart of today’s Scripture lesson, and it is nothing less than the faith that leads to new life.

In the gospel according to Mark, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus is sitting by the road between Jericho and Jerusalem.

He hears that Jesus is coming, and cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (10:47).

\\ Bartimaeus believes that Jesus has power to make him whole, and he trusts him to work for good in his life.

Jesus stops, and asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?” \\ The blind man answers, “My teacher, let me see again.”

Jesus restores his sight, and he gives Bartimaeus credit by saying, “Your faith has made you well.”

The beggar gets up, and begins his new life not by going home, but by following Jesus on the way to Jerusalem (vv.

51-52).

Faith was the key to Luther.

\\ “With us today are three church members who are going to share their own statements of faith, their own expressions of trust in the Lord, their own stories of how their faith has made them well.

Here they stand.

They cannot do otherwise.”

the first is *Rick Maynert with a FAITH STATEMENT BASED ON MARK 10:46-52.

*

Life is difficult and dangerous, so it is good to have something to hang on to.

About a thousand years before the birth of Christ, a woman named Ruth found herself without a husband.

Her mother-in-law, Naomi, instructed her to return to her family, but Ruth resisted.

“Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!” said Ruth. “Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Ruth decided to hang on to Naomi, and to hang on to Naomi’s God, the God of Israel.

\\ What is it that we hang on to through this difficult and dangerous life?

If we follow Ruth, we hold tight to our loved ones and our God.