St Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

313 4th Street, Manistee, MI 49660

www.StPaulsManistee.com

facebook.com/SPLCManistee

November 16, 2025 Pentecost 23

JESUS GIVES US A CERTAIN HOPE

WELCOME – All responses will be spoken today.

HYMN 250 “From All that Dwell below the Skies” (Please stand for last stanza)

INVOCATION & CALL TO WORSHIP

L: We gather in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

C: Amen.

L: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in our troubles,

C: So that we can comfort others in their troubles with the same comfort we ourselves have received from God.

L: For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives,

C: So also through Christ our comfort overflows to others.

L: Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.

C: One generation will commend Your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.

L: Our God is a God who saves.

C: He does not treat us as our sins deserve.

L: For God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

C: So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

L: Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died.

C: And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

L: May His Spirit inspire our giving thanks for all of His blessings to us,

C: And make us able to serve Him throughout our lives.

L: Let us pray

PRAYER OF THE DAY:

Living God, your almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy and pity. Grant us the fullness of your grace to lay hold of your promises and live forever in your presence through

your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

FIRST LESSON: Isaiah 65:17–25

The second half of Isaiah is written to a people whose world had crumbled to pieces. The Lord gives his people the certain hope of a better world that is to come.

17 Watch this! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered. They will not come to mind. 18 Instead, rejoice and celebrate forever, because of what I am creating. Watch this! I am about to create Jerusalem to be a source of gladness, and her people will be a source of joy. 19 I also will be glad because of Jerusalem, and I will rejoice over my people. The sound of weeping will not be heard in her again, nor will the sound of crying. 20 There will never again be an infant there who lives for only a few days, or an elderly man who does not fill out all his days, for one who dies at a hundred will be considered a young man, and one who fails to attain the age of one hundred will be regarded as cursed. 21 Then they will build houses and live in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They will not build a house and have another person live in it. They will not plant and have another person eat the crop, for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen ones will enjoy all the work of their hands. 23 They will not labor only to receive nothing, and they will not give birth to children doomed to disaster, for they will be offspring who are blessed by the Lord, and their descendants will be with them. 24 Then even before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and lions will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent will eat dust as its food. They will not harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, says the Lord.

P: The Word of the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God.

SECOND LESSON: Revelation 22:1–5

St. John is given a vision of our future. The effect? We delight in the certainty of hope provided by the promise of this life to come.

1 The angel showed me the river of the water of life, which was as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. 2In the middle of the city’s street and on each side of the river was a tree of life that yielded twelve kinds of fruit. The tree yields its fruit every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face. His name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will no longer be any night or any need for lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

P: The Word of the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God.

VERSE OF THE DAY:

Alleluia. Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Alleluia.

GOSPEL: Luke 20:27–38

To the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, Jesus gives this promise: Our God is the God of the living, because to him all are alive.

27 Some of the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to him. 28 They asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother. 29 So there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless. 30 The second took her as a wife, 31 and so did the third, and in the same way the seven died and left no children. 32 Finally the woman died too. 33 So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.” 34 Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to experience that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 In fact, they cannot die any more, for they are like the angels. They are sons of God, because they are sons of the resurrection. 37 “Even Moses showed in the account about the burning bush that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

P: The Gospel of the Lord.

C: Praise be to you, O Christ!

HYMN 391 “God Loved the World So That He Gave”

SERMON: Luke 20:27-38 - written by Circuit Pastor John Eich

The Living Have a Certain Hope

APOSTLES’ CREED - page 41

PRAYER & LORD’S PRAYER - page 42

HYMN 385 “Chief of Sinners Though I Be”

PRAYER - page 43 C: Amen.

BLESSING - page 44 C: Amen.

HYMN 379 “Amazing Grace”

ANNOUNCEMENTS & REFRESHMENTS

THANKOFFERING BASKET BY DOOR

The members of St Paul's & the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) have joined together to do the Lord’s work here and around the world. Our guests may but are not expected to participate in this offering which supports our church’s ministry.

PLEASE SIGN OUR GUEST BOOK IF YOU ARE VISITING.

It’s located in the entryway by the stairs going to the basement.

Join us this Wednesday at 1 pm for our annual Thanksgiving Worship Service.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version ® (EHV ®)