Prayer Before Worship

Heavenly Father, as I begin this new year remind me of my beginning to You through Holy Baptism. Thank you for making me Your dear child. Empower me with the Holy Spirit that I may worship You and live according to my calling in Jesus Christ. Amen.

IN OUR WORSHIP TODAY

We begin a new series of sermon messages, “Killing It!” If you look online, “Killing it” means having a ripped body, a cool fashion style, career success, a high level of achievement, and immense popularity. Everybody wants to be killing it. St. Paul, however, calls us to be completely different.  We follow Jesus as CHRISTians, who lived a humble, self-sacrificing life in order to save you from sin, death, and the devil. In baptism, our first reading tells us today, our sinful nature was drowned in Baptism – killed – so that we live a new – and counter-cultural – life.