GOOD GOD
Call to Worship: Psalm 68:4-6, 19-20
Good morning and welcome to worship on this Lord’s Day, and this fifth Sunday in the season of Lent. During Lent, we remember our death and the sin that has won for us death. But more than that, we remember the life of Christ - the life that is ours through Christ - because God is a God of salvation.
GRACE ALONE
TRISAGION
BCP Corporate Confession
Sermon: Galatians 4:4-7
If you want to know what God the Father is like - look to the Son. Scripture says we see the glory of God in the face of the Son, and Jesus says in the gospels: if you know me you know the Father, because I have done nothing that I have not first heard and seen from the Father. And if you want to know the Son, look to the Spirit - who leads us into all truth, which is Jesus, who seals and guarantees our salvation, and who reminds us of who we are. Let’s use these next few songs as prayers of invitation, inviting the Spirit to move the truth we may know in our heads, down into our hearts, and to be embodied in our lives.
HOLY (JESUS YOU ARE)
HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US
Benediction
Guest Worship Leaders
Whether leading worship for a specific event, filling in at the last minute because of an illness or joining the rotating of worship leaders for a church I did not attend, I have had the opportunity to lead worship as a guest many times over the years. It is a gift to be reminded that the Church is larger than my church. That the body of Christ is diverse, global, and growing down the street, across the country, and around the world. Here are a few things I have learned that I hope will help worship leaders who are leading as a guest, but also those churches who are hosting guest worship leaders:
A word to the worship leader.
You are there to serve. I know this might seem obvious, but in serving we must consider others more highly than we consider ourselves. Be willing to be inconvenienced, or to go with the flow of another style, setup, structure, or rhythm to a rehearsal and gathering. Practically, this might mean choosing songs that this body will know that are less familiar to you. Asking good questions about the team, the congregation, and the sermon. Offering yourself whatever is required and expected of others who serve weekly. Engaging relationally with the team - taking time to learn their names, and thank them for serving.
Be gracious. It can be disorienting and uncomfortable to play music for the first time with someone you have just met. Be as gracious to the team as you hope they will be with you.
Be a blessing. How can you encourage and speak life to the team, the leaders, and the congregation? How might you leave a blessing behind (Joel 2:14)?
Communicate ahead of time. What is the gear you need? What is the expectation as far as speaking, leading, prayer, transitions, etc? How can you be prepared walking into rehearsal as well as the service?
A word to the host.
Set Lists. If you are giving the guest worship leader the freedom to build the set list, provide them a master song list, as well as the last three to five weeks of songs. I once led worship for a church whose worship leader accepted a position and moved between Sundays. This church had no one to lead worship for the foreseeable future and was filling every week during their search for a new worship leader with guest worship leaders. In a situation like that, pair down a master song list to 12 songs or so - the band and the people will have enough change as you fill spots, do not also make them bear the weight of new songs every week in the in-between.
Over-communicate. What do you want? What do you need? What is the expectation of the worship leader? Will you be giving them access to Planning Center, and communication to the team? Will you distribute songs, keys, communication and all you need to do is have the worship leader plug and play? Are paying the worship leader for their time, or the travel?
Be generous. This does not necessarily mean financially - but how might you be generous in your encouragement and appreciation? Whether down the road or across the globe, taking time outside of your normal responsibilities, time away from your own community, and family is costly - can you celebrate and honor the people who are serving your community? Several times I have had people thank my wife and children or send me back with gifts for them because of their willingness to allow me to serve.
What would you add?
Lent 5 Thursday
Take a few moments to reflect on the God who is both humble and high and lifted up...
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name...” - Philippians 2:9
Father, might I encounter and respond to the one upon whom you have bestow the name above every name?
Jesus, you are high and lifted up, may I worship you on bended knee now and always.
Spirit, would you reveal to me the ways in which I have encountered Jesus and responded wrongly?
Lent: March 12
Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
John 18:4-11
Encountering Christ demands a response. Indifference or obedience. Betrayal or belonging. In the garden those who pursued Jesus to put him to death encountered Christ and their first response was to draw back and fall to the ground. But there is a day coming when every creature in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth will all bow the knee in worship and confession. There is a day coming when the question, who do you seek? will become a statement: You are the highly exalted One! The name above every name!
10 March: Liturgy & Set List
TRISAGION
Call to worship: Psalm 150
Welcome to this fourth Sunday during Lent, and this family worship weekend. Throughout the Psalms, the Psalmist speaks to his own heart reminding it of what is true, because our hearts do not always tell us the truth we need to tell them what to believe. This next song is a new one that speaks to our hearts about who God is, what He has done, and who he has called us to be…
GOOD GOD
HOLY FOREVER
Every week during the season of Lent we have taken time to confess our sins to God and to one another. Many times people believe they only need to confess their sin to God when they first accept they need a rescuer in Jesus. But the act of confession is not a one-time act, but the continual act of followers of Jesus. The Bible tells us that we are to confess our sins to God so that we might be forgiven and to our brothers and sisters so that we might be healed. Let’s confess our sins to God and one another:
LEADER:
Merciful God, for the wrong things that we have done,
ALL:
Forgive us
LEADER:
For the right things that we have failed to do,
ALL:
Forgive us
LEADER:
For the times we have acted without love
ALL:
Forgive us
LEADER:
For the times we have reacted without thought
ALL:
Forgive us
LEADER:
For the ways we have not loved You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
ALL:
Forgive us
A prayer of confession, especially mindful of Children, The Worship Sourcebook
Brothers and sisters, hear the Good News: if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise the Lord, amen.
Sermon: John 17:24
In the 1700s, Jonathan Edwards said:
God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light.
The apostle tells us that "God is love"; and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love.
Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and overflowing, an inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.
There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear, and incomprehensible, and mutual and eternal love...
And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of
the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love.
Would you stand if you’re able as we sing to the fountain of all love…
DOXOLOGY (English/Spanish)
HYMN OF HEAVEN
Benediction
Lent: March 10
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me.
St. Patrick
Priesthood of All Believers
Before sin entered the world, worship was unbroken in its aim and purity. After sin infected every corner of creation, worship did not cease, it turned in on itself. We worship created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25-26), but even our ‘right worship,’ is not something we can produce by our own force of will. Right worship is our response to God’s revelation of Himself. Worship begins with God, but it also must be mediated by God because sin cannot stand in the presence of a holy God. From the beginning of history, and throughout Scripture we see that God has always made provision for His people to return to Him. Killing an animal to cover the nakedness of our first parents, instituting the priesthood, and the temple and sacrificial system were all temporary shadows of what was to come.
This, in part, is why priest to worship leader is not a fair comparison. For lack of a specific job description found in Scripture, people will often point to priests of the Old Testament as some of the first worship leaders - leading the right worship of God through sacrifice. But what we know living on this side of the cross, Jesus is the Great High Priest to whom all priests and sacrifices have always been but an arrow. Jesus is the one who continues forever, is able to save to the uttermost, lives to make intercession, is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted in the heavens, has no need to offer sacrifice for his own sin because he is without sin, and has offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sin (Hebrews 7:24-27).
People do not mediate the presence of God to man, because there is One mediator between God and men: the God man, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). But what we see in Revelation that God has made all of His people priests - small arrows of God’s provision who can intercede for others:
“…To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Revelation 1:5-6
So while worship leaders are not modern-day priests, the people of God do make up a priesthood of all believers.
This is why I will often encourage our people - do not just stand silently, do not just close your eyes, do not just stare directly at the screen - instead, sing out, look around, sing for your brothers and sisters around the room, hold their stories of joy and sorrow in your mind as you declare the truths of God’s Word to God and to one another.
In this way, we remind one another how the Lord daily bears us up, but also are used as priests to bear up one another (Psalm 68:19).
Lent: March 7
Take a few moments to reflect on the God who sanctifies His people...
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” - 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Spirit, where have I been resistant to your work in my life?
God, would you make me aware of the ways in which you are with me today?
God, would you give me a desire for your sanctifying word?
Lent: March 5
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
John 17:15-19
If the single aim of salvation was heaven alone, why would we not be taken to glory at the moment of conversion? Sanctification is the ongoing work of the Spirit of God in our hearts and lives making us grow up into maturity, growing in us conformity to the image of Christ. There are no shortcuts to maturity - spiritual or otherwise. And perhaps the real gift to the disciples - and us - is not being removed from the pain of the world, the suffering in which sanctification can be accomplished - but being kept by God, and kept from the evil one (Psalm 121:5). But this saving, keeping, and sanctifying is not just for ourselves but is wrought in us to send us out to make disciples - everywhere.
3 March: Liturgy & Set List
TRISAGION
Call to Worship: Psalm 119:25-34
Good morning, welcome to worship on this Lord’s Day, and this third Sunday in the season of Lent. Often one of the ways people observe this season is through fasting. Giving up temporary pleasures, small comforts, little places we seek to find life - but we also feast on the place we find true and abundant life - God’s Word. So let’s sing God’s word, read, pray, preach, and live God’s Word…
THE SOLID ROCK
KING OF KINGS
BCP Corporate Confession
Sermon: 2 Peter 1:16-21
The Apostles’ Creed
Communion
I STAND AMAZED (HOW MARVELOUS)
Benediction
Lent: March 3
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
St. Francis of Assisi
Pastoral & Prayers of the People
Often when our church is exploring the addition of new liturgical rhythms in our corporate gathering, I will be tasked with creating a one sheet for our elders and staff to review. Most recently we’ve been looking at incorporating a Pastoral Prayer - also called, Prayers of the People - during worship. What follows is a one sheet ‘On Pastoral & Prayers of the People’
People do not know how to pray. Even the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1-13). If one of the primary aims of the corporate gathering is the spiritual formation of the people of God, we must learn to incorporate prayer intentionally; and not - as seems to be all too common - use prayer as a transition between various elements of the gathering.
Overview:
The Pastoral Prayer or Prayers of the People is a form of intercessory prayer.
Offered on behalf of the congregation with varied levels of participation and involvement from the congregation depending on the goal.
Structured and purposeful in aim and scope, but can be extemporaneous, with the freedom to engage the unique cultural moment, as well as the needs of the congregation.
Shepherding happens in obvious and subtle ways that outlast the moment.
People are taught a framework to know how to pray, and how to move through prayer.
People are allowed to give voice to the parts of their hearts, lives, experiences, struggles, and joy that they may find difficult to place within any other part of the corporate worship gathering.
Format:
A general, guided framework: (BCP, The Anglican Church in North America #140)
The universal Church, the clergy, and people
The mission of the Church
The nation and all in authority (local, state, federal)
The peoples of the world
The local community
Those who suffer and those in any need or trouble
Thankful remembrance of the faithful departed and of all the blessings of our lives
If guided: The leader reads each framework prompt (e.g.: Lord we pray for the elders of our church: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John…), pausing to allow the congregation to offer prayers silently. To conclude the section the leader offers something like: ‘Lord in your mercy…’ The congregation responds with something like, ‘Hear our prayer.’ These guided prayers rely heavily on the framework, but the content can be adjusted, or added to on the spot (e.g.: ‘We pray for there to be peace between Israel and Gaza…’)
Written: said in unison with the congregation, or as a call and response.
Extemporaneous: the leader prays using the framework as the guide to their extemporaneous prayer offered on behalf of the congregation. Like lines on a highway, the framework is used to shape the direction of this kind of pastoral prayer, without drawing attention to the framework itself - while still keeping the prayer ‘in its lane,’ and intended purpose.