We believe in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one divine essence, eternal, unchanging, almighty, good, and infinite. God in His love created this earth and all that exists and continues to care for and sustain His creation.

Man and woman are the crown of God’s creation, created in His image, to love Him and know Him perfectly, but our first parents fell into sin and plunged the entire human race into corruption and the condemnation of the righteous God. From the fall of the first man and woman till now, all who are born into this world are sinners by nature, without true fear, love, and trust in God or true knowledge of Him.

God, in His infinite love, saw our wretched state and sent His Son into the world to take on our body and soul, live and die in the place of sinful man, and rise again to win us life from the dead. Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the virgin Mary, as the Scriptures clearly teach.

Because the Son of God has taken our place and, by His bitter suffering and death, borne the punishment our sin deserved, we are justified, that is, declared righteous, innocent, and holy before God, by faith in Him, when we believe that we are received into God’s favor and our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who by His death has made satisfaction for our sins (Romans 3-4).

In order for us to obtain faith and believe, God has instituted the ministry of the Word, given us the Gospel and the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, so that by these the Holy Spirit may create and sustain faith in us. The Word of God creates believers by the power of the Holy Spirit, who works through the Word of God to convict us of our sins and present to us our Savior and God’s eternal love for us in Him and His cross.

Our own good works do not make us holy. Faith lays hold on Jesus’ work, points to Him and says, “There is my righteousness.” But at the same time, faith is a living, active thing, which joyfully and constantly produces good works. Good works are necessary for Christians, because God commands them and we as God’s children desire to do what our God commands. But we must always remember that we are saved alone by faith in Christ, that even when our works fail, Christ Himself is our perfect righteousness before God in heaven and the guarantee of our everlasting life.

Christ established His Church on earth by the preaching of Christ crucified and the administration of the Sacraments. Where God’s Word is taught purely and His Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion are administered rightly, there is Christ’s Church.

Baptism is not mere water, but the water connected and included in God’s Word and command. The Word of Christ in Baptism gives the Holy Spirit, creates faith, and forgives sins. Because babies are also sinners and God wishes all to be saved and come to the true faith, babies too should be baptized.

The Holy Communion is Christ’s true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Because it is not simply bread and wine, it should be given only to those who confess and believe it to be what Jesus Himself says it is, His own body and blood, given up and shed for our salvation.

This brief account of the Lutheran and Christian faith summarizes the first ten articles of the Augsburg Confession, which you can find for further reading on what we believe and confess according to Holy Scripture.

The worship service at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church is called the Divine Service, which means “Service of God.” People  usually think of worship as us serving God. And while that certainly happens at Our Redeemer, the focus of the Divine Service is  actually God serving us. In fact, this is the primary purpose of our worship: to be served by God. It’s a beautiful thing that God  actually wants to serve us. Jesus says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). Jesus’ great  service to us, of course, was His suffering and death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. But He continues to serve us  now. Our Lutheran Confessions state it clearly: “God wants Himself to be known, He wants Himself to be worshiped, in such a  way that we receive benefits from Him and receive them because of His mercy, not because of our merits. This is the richest  consolation in all afflictions” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article IV.60). Jesus gathers us together in the Divine  Service to receive His Word, His forgiveness, His body and blood, His mercy; and we respond with prayer, praise, and  thanksgiving.

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church uses the historic liturgy, an order of service that the Christian Church has been using for over  1600 years and that has roots that are over 2000 years old. We are not looking to do something new, cutting edge, or fancy.  Instead we join with the rest of the Holy Christian Church throughout all time and space, singing the words they sang,  confessing the faith they confessed, and possessing the same Lord Jesus Christ as they. Our services are reverent and filled  with singing.

We are celebrating the Lord's Supper this morning, in which Christ miraculously feeds us with His true body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. The Bible teaches that this Sacrament of Holy Communion, if misused, is spiritually harmful, and declares that participation in the Lord's Supper is a common act of proclaiming Christ. Therefore, participation in the Lord's Supper is normally limited to those who have been instructed in and publicly professed their agreement with the confession of faith we make as a congregation of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. If you are visiting today and desire to receive the Lord's Supper, please speak to Pastor or an Elder before the service.