The Eleventh Sunday

After Pentecost

August 12, 2007 9:00am

Thank You for sharing this time of worship with us. We're glad you're here! Please sign the Friendship Register. Do come again! If you do not have a local church home, we invite you to make your home with us. Here you will find Christian love, opportunities for spiritual growth, warm friendships, and a feeling of being part of the family of God.

Assisting Us In Worship This Morning

Bob & Berdella Cooper, greeters

Joel Meier, head usher

Nicole Burkhardt, organ and clavinova

We Gather To Worship The Lord

Order of Service: Service of the Word, page 38 in front of the hymnal

Hymns: 192 157 141 298 (all in Praise Songbook)

Message: Colossians 3:1-11

“Thermometer Or Thermostat – Which Are You?”

This Week At Mt. Olive

Today: 8:45am Prayer Time in the Fireside Room

9:00am Family Worship

10:00am Social Time

7:00pm Coordinating Council Meets

Monday: 7:00pm “Time of Grace” Bible Study

Tuesday: 11:30am Senior Luncheon at St. John’s, Minneapolis

7:00pm “More Than Rubies” Bible Study

Saturday: 8:30am “Fix It Morning” Church Projects/Repairs

Next Sunday: 6:30am “Time of Grace” on KMSP, Channel 9

9:00am Family Worship with Holy Communion

A Door Offering for the renovation of the main lodge at Camp Croix will be taken this morning. Offerings up to $800 will be matched by Thrivent. There are pictures of Camp Croix displayed in the Fellowship Hall this morning.

A Special Chapel Service will be held this morning at 11:00am at St. Croix Lutheran High School celebrating God’s 50 years of blessing upon our high school. Pastor David Huebner will preach. Organist Eric Mueller (SCLHS class of 1998) will introduce the new anniversary song, “Celebrate Your Abundant Goodness” by Peter Durow, Ph.D. (SCLHS class of 1995). Lunch and extended visiting will follow the service. All welcome!

Join Us Monday Evening For Bible Study. Called “Time of Grace,” it begins with a viewing of the weekly “Time of Grace” church service with Pastor Mark Jeske, and continues with a discussion of that week’s text and topic. We meet in the air-conditioned Fireside Room at 7:00pm. All welcome!

Senior Luncheon

DATE: Tuesday, August 14^th, 11:30 am

WHERE: St. John’s Lutheran Church

610 Broadway Street NE

Minneapolis, MN

MENU: State Fair Cuisine

COST: Freewill Offering

Entertainment provided by Senior Moments Quartet

Come join us for food, friendship and trivia!

Contact Bonnie at 612-379-4296 for more information or to sign up.

Everyone is welcome (bring a friend!)

Mark Tuesday, August 21, 2007 on your calendar to attend the Women’s Guild outing. We are going to Pippins Restaurant (2905 N. Snelling Ave.) at 11:30am for lunch, games and socializing. All men and women of the congregation are invited. Please sign the sheet in the narthex.

Last Call! Take me out to the BALL GAME!!! That's right, it's time again for "Lutheran Night at the Twins"! The game is at 7:10pm on Tuesday, August 21^st against the Seattle Mariners. The Crossroad Associates and the South Ramsey County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans have teamed up to provide two buses to the game at NO cost to you! The bus will leave from Our Saviour's Lutheran Church (674 Johnson Pkwy) at 6pm sharp. General admission tickets are available for only $6 (with one dollar of each ticket going to Habitat for Humanity). Space is limited and the deadline to order your tickets is Monday, August 13th, so reserve your spot TODAY by calling Audrey Gilman or Kevin Bonine at 651-738-1767.

The State Fair Is Coming! That means we’ll need volunteers to park cars in our parking lot. There is a sign-up sheet on the narthex bulletin board. Please sign up today! There are three shifts per day, beginning at 8:00am and ending at 8:00pm. Thank you for your help!

THE FIRST LESSON: Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:18-26

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaning-less! Everything is meaningless."

...I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

To the man who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

THE SECOND LESSON: Colossians 3:1-11

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

THE GOSPEL LESSON: Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed Me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then He said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

And He told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have

no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."