Bethany Lutheran Church

06/23/2026

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.
~Micah 7:18-20

06/22/2026

Why do Jesus and his angels rejoice over one repenting sinner? Can they see something we can't? Do they know something we don't? Absolutely! They know what heaven holds. They've seen the banquet table, heard the music, and can't wait to see your face when you arrive. God's work in you will be completed. At last, you will have a heart like his. You will love with perfect love. You will worship with a radiant face. You will hear each word God speaks. Your heart will be pure; your words will be like jewels, and your thoughts will be like treasures. You will be perfect, guiltless, fearless, thrilled and joyous, tirelessly worshipping, flawlessly discerning. Joy comes to us not in an event or party but in the one who defeated death and rose on Easter. All of heaven rejoices at the idea of a celestial celebration with no weeping or gnashing of teeth.

Can you see now why the angels rejoice when one sinner repents? Jesus knows the stakes and what awaits; he wants you to know that, too. As you step into the days ahead, remember this: no matter how lost you may feel, you have a God who seeks you out, celebrates your return, and rejoices over you. Let the joy of heaven anchor your heart, for the same Jesus who bore your sin is preparing a place for you at the ultimate celebration. Take comfort in his grace, rest in his love, and let the party in heaven remind you that in him, you are never lost—you are always found.
~ Seth Moorman

As you step into the days ahead, remember this: no matter how lost you may feel, you have a God who seeks you out, celebrates your return, and rejoices over you.

06/21/2026

Join us for worship today, the Third Sunday after Trinity. Worship begins at 10:30 a.m. Come to receive the gifts of Christ! Also, be sure to tune in today at 8 AM to 106 FM WACD for our weekly "Shepherd's Voice" broadcast.

Jesus told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."
~ Luke 15:3-7

06/21/2026

Dear Father in heaven,

Your great love for Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, has brought forth every human life as Your own precious treasure forever. And though You reign exalted over all the universe, You come near to each of us in the blessing of a father. Thank you that You have bound one such man also to me in an echo of Your own incarnation next to us in the flesh. Thank you that my father protects me and provides for me at Your ordaining. Thank you that he supplies me with shelter and security that teaches me about You. Thank you that his diligence sustains me and his devotion consoles me with Your hand. Thank you that his affirmation expresses Your unconditional acceptance. Thank you that his counsel and his example support me and prepare me to do Your will. I humbly implore You to enfold him this day and unto eternity in the same heavenly grace that he has shown me. Establish him in peace and joy, knowing that His fatherly labors fulfill Your command and that You receive his service as a worship of You. Let Your blessing rest especially with fathers in exceptional circumstances, including single fathers, adoptive and fostering fathers, fathers of large families, and fathers whose sons or daughters have extraordinary needs. Grant special healing and hope also to our brothers who have endured fatherhood’s losses or sorrows and to the ones who have not known the delight of fatherhood. As they have ensured our survival, give them all length of days, and in Your Son’s resurrection to everlasting life gather them into the fellowship of their fathers and the great reward that awaits every one of us who follows in the faith they have maintained, sharing in Your everlasting gladness. Amen.

https://lutheransforlife.org/sermon/a-prayer-for-fathers/

06/20/2026

Jesus said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
~ Luke 14:12-14

06/19/2026

Ephesians 2:19

06/18/2026

Ephesians 2:13

06/17/2026

Psalm 34:14

06/16/2026

Proverbs 9:10-11

06/15/2026

To understand what the good news of Jesus Christ offers to sinners, we can liken it to an invitation to a feast that never ends. “The kingdom of heaven,” the Lord seems to say, “is like a dinner party where everyone’s invited to sit and feast with God forever.” Indeed, the quintessential image of heaven is the endless feast of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9; Isa. 25:6–9), at which the only qualification is to know that this invitation is entirely unearned. We can do nothing to warrant entry into the kingdom of God nor are we getting in if we think a seat at God’s table is something to which we are entitled. Heaven won’t be a party for you if you think it’s about who deserves to be there because no one deserves to be there. You won’t be there because you deserve to be there, because you earned your spot, because you did “enough” to impress the right people, or because you accomplished something worthy of being there. You will be there because the servant of the master went into the “streets and lanes” and hauled your crippled and disheveled body out of the ditch to give you a seat at the table.

Like the servant in the story, Jesus goes into the very worst alleys of sin and death to find sinners to sit at his Father’s table. Christ finds his guests of honor in the gutter and summons them to a dinner that he pays for on his own dime, that is with his own life. “We are saved,” notes Robert Capon in his Parables of Judgment, “only by our acceptance of a party already in progress, and God has paid for that party at the price of his own death”. Therefore, the only way to get a seat at the table is to freely accept the Master’s invitation. After all, it’s not deservedness that gets you in, it’s grace. “This parable,” Capon writes elsewhere, “says that we are going to be dealt with in spite of our deservings, not according to them. Grace as portrayed here works only on the untouchable, the unpardonable, and the unacceptable. It works, in short, by raising the dead, not by rewarding the living”. Those who know they are nothing are the ones who are made to sit and enjoy a meal that never ends.
~ Bradley Gray

We can do nothing to warrant entry into the kingdom of God nor are we getting in if we think a seat at God’s table is something to which we are entitled.