Can you Lend a Hand?

Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 11:45 am we will be filling 165 small Christmas gift bags in the Fellowship Hall for our Zion Preschool students. Bags will contain small treats, a nativity ornament, a Zion sticker and pencil to spread Christmas cheer and build connection between our church and preschool families. Your help is greatly appreciated, please email secretary@zlcb.org if you can lend a hand!

Fall Craft & Vendor Show

Fall Craft & Vendor Show
Saturday, November 22, 2025
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church Lawrenceville
237 37th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
Supports Evangelism in Lawrenceville

Online at: zionevangelicallutheran.org

VIDEO: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 - Complete Service

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m. with communion
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. - Book of Haggai with Pastor Grimenstein
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

Visit our YouTube channel — Click the red “subscribe” box, and then click on the “bell” next to that box to receive Live Streaming notifications. You must be logged into YouTube to activate these features.

Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of BULLETINS

AUDIO: Readings & Sermon for Wednesday, November 5, 2025

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m. with communion
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. - Book of Haggai with Pastor Grimenstein
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

Visit our YouTube channel — Click the red “subscribe” box, and then click on the “bell” next to that box to receive Live Streaming notifications. You must be logged into YouTube to activate these features.

Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of BULLETINS

Jeremiah 7:1-29 
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message: 

“‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. 

“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD. 

“‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’ 

“So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger. But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? 

“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched. 

“‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors.’ 

“When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. 

“‘Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath. 

Matthew 23:1-12 
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 

“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. 

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. 

The Lord’s Prayer - The Fourth Petition 
What is the Fourth Petition? 
Give us this day our daily bread. 
What does this mean?
God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. 
What is meant by daily bread?
Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. 

Sunday School News

Enduring Faith Unit 3 - "Jesus Teaches His Church" 

Date/Lesson Description
November 2 - Lesson1
A Mercy-Full Message: The Good Samaritan 

November 9 - Lesson 2
A Prayer Lesson: The Lord’s Prayer 

November 16 - Lesson 3
A Shepherd Loves: The Good Shepherd 

November 23 - Lesson 4
A Tree View: Zacchaeus 

November 30 - Lesson 5
A Crushing Truth: Jesus Is Crucified 

Sunday School Mission
In October, we rolled out additional information regarding our SS Mission for the year, "Praise Him Africa", sponsored by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. We handed out small jars containing M&M's, "Mission Money". The goal is to raise money to produce Lutheran Song Books ($5.00/book) for African children, printed in Swahili. We have been blessed already with donations from some of our students. 

Bulletin: Wednesday, November 5, 2025

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m. with communion
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. - Book of Haggai with Pastor Grimenstein
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

Visit our YouTube channel — Click the red “subscribe” box, and then click on the “bell” next to that box to receive Live Streaming notifications. You must be logged into YouTube to activate these features.

Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of BULLETINS

What About … Telling the Good News about Jesus

What About …
Telling the Good News about Jesus 

What is our great privilege as Christians? 
Through faith, we become disciples of Jesus Christ and, as such, it is our privilege to tell the good news about Jesus. We share with others the message of the salvation that is ours. And who are the people with whom we are to share the faith? Well, they are certainly our family members: husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, parents and so forth. But it does not stop there. That is only the beginning. It reaches out from there to our friends, to our fellow congregation members, to the people with whom we work, to our neighbors, and to the strangers we meet in our daily lives. Yes, this means actually talking to others about Jesus Christ and His great salvation. 

Our privilege as Christians is to identify and recognize opportunities to tell others the good news about Jesus. And then, having recognized and identified those opportunities, ours is the privilege and responsibility of actually doing it— telling the good news about Jesus. 

Where does telling the good news begin? 
It begins with our personal thankfulness for the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ. Each of us daily sins much and because of that, if left to ourselves, we deserve nothing but God’s wrath and eternal damnation. And so does everyone in the world who has not come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. 

But thanks be to God, something miraculous happened in your life! So great is the Father’s love for all humanity, that He sent His precious Son into this world, to obey God perfectly, and to suffer and die for your sins and the sins of the whole world. Because of Jesus Christ, each and every one of your sins has been washed away. You are cleansed, pardoned and given the peace that passes all human understanding. 

Of all the blessings that God will ever give you in your life, without a doubt the greatest one of all is the forgiveness that is yours in Jesus Christ, and with that forgiveness, the promise that when you die you will spend all eternity with the Lord in heaven. 

What do we do with the good news of Jesus? 
God has not given us this great salvation merely for us to content ourselves with it, and to stick it away and treasure it privately. He has given us this great salvation and then called each one of us to a life of being His witnesses. He gave us this great salvation to rejoice in, to live in and to share—yes, to share with others! He wants us to bring many others into His church, where they too will receive the blessings of God’s Word and Sacraments, where they too will be made part of God’s people—one of His own dear children. And what is more, God has promised that as we do, He will bless. For this fact too, we have every reason to thank and to praise the Lord. 

The first president of our church, Dr. C.F.W. Walther made this extremely important point: 

“Another major duty of a Synod that wants to be and remain an Evangelical Lutheran Synod is that it not seek its own glory, but only the glory of God, being intent not so much on its own growth, but rather on the growth of Christ’s kingdom and the salvation of souls. You see, dear brethren, we are assembled here not for our own sake. We are in the faith, and by this faith we hope to be saved! But there are still many millions who have no faith! This is why we are here—so that we might bring salvation to as many people as we possibly can, so that the sad situation in Christendom and the corruption of the poor, blind heathen might be remedied. Only for this reason does our gracious God allow Christians to live on earth, that they might bring others to the saving faith. Otherwise God would immediately take a Christian to heaven as soon as he is converted.” 

Isn’t evangelism just the pastor’s job? 
Evangelism is one of the pastor’s important duties, but evangelism is not only the pastor’s responsibility. Every Christian, through Baptism, is given the privilege of declaring the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Whenever we speak the Gospel, it is an actual communication of the forgiveness of sins. Telling the good news about Jesus to another person is not merely a casual conversation, nor is it merely expressing pious wishes. When we share with others the good news of Jesus, we are actually conveying to them the forgiveness of sins, for that is what the Gospel is all about. When the Gospel is presented, God the Holy Spirit is present to work faith in the hearts of those who hear it. 

Pastors and laypeople work together in the great task of making disciples of all nations, as together they tell the good news of Jesus. Together they work to make their congregations places where visitors feel welcome and places that have as a priority reaching out boldly with the Gospel. Hand in hand, pastors and congrega-tions tell the good news about Jesus! 

What is the starting place for telling the good news?
It begins with our love for others. Love always takes an interest in the good of our neighbor, our friend, our family member, without trying to figure out what we will receive in return. God’s love is poured out into our hearts and overflows into the lives of others. God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbors, our friends, and our family members certainly do. Once we recognize how great is our own personal salvation and the enormous love of the Father’s heart in saving us, we recognize that this love can remove barriers that stand in the way of our outreach to others. Barriers include apathy on our part and antagonism on the part of those with whom we speak. When we tell the good news of Jesus, following up that witness with love and kindness, there is something here that makes people pause and consider just what it is that makes Christians unique. It can lead people to ask, “What do you have? I need it.” How do we respond to our neighbor’s question? We answer by telling the good news about Jesus. We explain that because of sin we are separated from God, but God loves us so much that He sent a Savior into this world to bring us back to Himself. The Bible says, “Always be ready to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have, but be gentle and respectful” (1 Peter 3:15).Telling the saving Gospel is the greatest service any Christian can perform for a neighbor, or family member, or even the most casual stranger. 

Isn’t it rude for me to impose my beliefs on another? 
Telling the good news about Jesus is certainly not rude, though the way we go about it might be. That we must avoid. The best way to tell the good news about Jesus is to do so gently and kindly. Telling the good news about Jesus is not “imposing our beliefs on another per-son.” We need to shake ourselves free from the myth of our day that all beliefs are equally true, and one is no better than the other. We do respect the beliefs of others, but we can’t give them “equal time” when it comes to the question of where that person is going to spend all eternity. 

Telling the good news of Jesus is more than merely “sharing my opinions.” It is actually giving another person the Word of Life—the powerful, faith-creating Word of God by which God brings that person into His kingdom. So,telling the good news of Jesus is not rude, it is the most wonderful gift you could give to another human being. 

What can be done to prepare ourselves to tell others about Jesus? 
To witness about Jesus we need to be in the Word and Sacraments often. In so doing, we are kept by the Lord in constant contact with the power and strength for witnessing, our Lord Jesus Himself. Receiving forgiveness and peace, we then are able to share it with others. 

Dr. A. L. Barry
Past President (1992-2001)
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod