Bulletin: Wednesday, August 20, 2025

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Worship Service: 2:00 p.m. with communion
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. - Psalm 32 with Pastor Grimenstein
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

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Every Christian’s Vocation as a Child of God

Every Christian’s Vocation as a Child of God 
By Rev. Dr. James A. Baneck, Executive Director, LCMS Office of Pastoral Education 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question children hear all the time. As children grow up, that question becomes “Where do you want to go to college?” or “What do you want to study?” or “What career will you pursue?” 

These sorts of conversations are a natural place to bring up vocation — not just the various God-pleasing vocations of nurses and teachers, electricians and firefighters, but vocation in the sense of God’s calling of every Christian in his or her Baptism to be His child and to believe in Him. In our new baptismal life in Christ, God also works through us to love and serve our neighbors. This is every Christian’s vocation. 

The following points are intended to help you — and the parents you know and serve (at church, at work, in your family, etc.) — to talk to young people about their vocation as baptized children of God: 

• Remember your Baptism every day. When you were baptized, all your sins were washed away, and you were given a new identity in Christ. God loves you and has made you His own child. (See Eph. 5:25–26; Rom. 6:3–5; Titus 3:5–7.) 

• Your identity as a child of God will guide you to best serve Him and your neighbor. All the decisions involved in pursuing a specific vocation, like nursing or teaching, can feel overwhelming. Staying rooted in your baptismal identity in Christ will help you remember that God loves you and will use you to love and serve your neighbor, no matter what godly vocation you pursue. (See Rom. 8:28–29.) 

• What is a godly vocation? Consider Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” Every vocation — as doctor or engineer, mother or father, pastor or teacher — is a godly vocation, because Christ Himself lives in us and works through us! We look not to our own works, but to God’s work — most importantly, to His saving work on the cross. 

• Did you know there is a great need for full-time church workers? Every person needs to hear the Gospel so that they may have saving faith in Jesus. God works through pastors to proclaim the Gospel, and all other church workers, like teachers and deaconesses, support their pastor’s service of the Word. Have you ever thought about serving the Lord in a full-time church work vocation? As you know, this last point is the heart of Set Apart to Serve. Together, we are seeking to build a culture of church work formation and recruitment in every LCMS congregation, family, school, district and entity. 

That culture takes root right here, in the conversations you have with children about their baptismal identity in Christ. Helping our young people consider church work begins with raising them in the knowledge of their Baptism and immersing them in the Word of Christ — telling them continually that they are beloved children of God, and that all their sins are washed away and forgiven by the saving work of Jesus on the cross. I pray that you will find these conversation starters helpful and that you will pass them on to the parents you know and serve, so that they can be supported in raising and forming their children in the faith, and possibly for a full-time church work vocation. 

Set Apart to Serve (SAS) is building a culture of forming and recruiting pastors and commis-sioned church workers in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). Visit Set Apart to Serve to learn more! 

VIDEO: Sunday, August 17, 2025 - Complete Service

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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings & Sermon for Sunday, August 17, 2025

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Old Testament Reading -- Jeremiah 23:16–29 
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” 

For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
Behold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly. 

“I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds. 

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” 

Epistle Reading -- Hebrews 11:17-31; 12:1-3 
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. 

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 

By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the twelfth chapter
[Jesus said:] “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 

Bulletin: Sunday, August 17, 2025 + This Week at Zion

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THIS WEEK AT ZION

Saturday August 16
No Events Scheduled

Sunday August 17
8:00 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m. — Adult/Teen Bible Study & Summer Sunday School
10:30 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
12:00 p.m. - Deaconess Joanna’s Baby Shower (Fellowship Hall) - Additional Information
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)
6:00 p.m. - Youth Group Bonfire

Monday August 18
6:00 p.m. - Grace Bell Choir Practice

Tuesday August 19
6:16 p.m. - Faith Bell Choir Practice

Wednesday August 20
2:00 p.m. - Midweek Worship with Communion
2:30 p.m. - Bible Study (30 min.) Psalm 32 (More Details)
(Wednesday’s service will be streamed on our YouTube channel)

Thursday August 21
No events scheduled

Friday August 22
No events scheduled

Saturday August 23
11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Zion Bridge Builders Booth at SF Community Day (Additional Information)

Sunday August 24
8:00 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m. — Adult/Teen Bible Study & Summer Sunday School
10:30 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)

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Psalms Bible Study — This Coming Wednesday (8/20)

In the Psalms God speaks to us, His people. God speaks to us about many different topics in the Psalms like: His existence, the Messiah, forgiveness, doubt, thanksgiving and many more! Join us each Wednesday for worship at 2:00 p.m. followed by a 30 min. Bible Study hosted by Pastor Grimenstein (starting at 2:30 p.m.) as we study a different Psalm each week for a total of 12 weeks. God truly is speaking to us, come and hear what He is saying!