Creative A Seasonof CommunicationsPsalmsSample A Series of Services

SWD Creative

CommunicationsSample ASeason Psalmsof A Series of Services

Index

About A Season Of ...... 4

Service One: ...... 5-29

Service Two: ...... 30-54 Service Three:Creative ...... 55-79 Service Four: ...... 80-104

Service Five: ...... 105-128

Service Six: ...... 129-151 GuideCommunications...... Sample152-211

Orders of service, and children’s sermons by Carol Geisler. Sermons by Tom Eggebrecht. Cover image: iStock Photo. © 2013 by Creative Communications for the Parish, 1564 Fencorp Dr., Fenton, MO 63026. 1-800-325-9414. creativecommunications.com. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

A Series Of Services 3 ASeason Psalmsof A Series of Services

About This Series

A Season of Psalms is a spiral-bound series of six worship services that can be offered in the summer or at any time of year. Each service begins with a recitation of the highlighted psalm and then continues with readings, hymns, prayers, a children’s sermon and a sermon that focuses on the themes present in the selected psalm. The psalms celebrated in this series are Psalms 3, 27, 30, 41, 100Creative and 138. The spiral-bound kit includes order of service, prayers, sermon, a children’s sermon, music, as well as a CD-ROM (Mac/PC) with the text of the entire kit in .rtf (rich text format) and a PowerPoint document of all six services with text (with a copyright release) for use on screens. Kits are not returnable. CommunicationsSample

4 A Season Of Psalms ASeason Psalmsof A Series of Services

Joy Comes In The Morning Service One: Psalm 30 Complete Script For Worship Leaders • The OpeningCreative Litany of Psalm 30 is spoken responsively by the pas- tor and the congregation, interspersed with verses of a hymn, sung by the congregation to the melody Morning Hymn LM: Awake, my , and with the sun Thy daily stage of duty run; Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise, To pay thy morning sacrifice. P I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O LORD my , I cried toSample you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD,Communications you have brought up my soul from Sheol; C You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. All praise to thee, who safe hast kept And hast refreshed me while I slept; Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake, I may of endless light partake.

10 A Season Of Psalms P Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. C For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor for a lifetime. P Weeping may tarry for the night, C But joy comes with the morning. Lord, I my vows to thee renew; Disperse my sins as morning dew; Guard my first springs of thought and will And with thyself my spirit fill. P As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong; C You hid your face; I was dismayed. P Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? C Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!” Direct, control, suggest this day All I design or do or say That all my pow’rs with all their might In thy sole glory may unite. P You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, C “You have turnedCreative for me my mourning into dancing. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host: Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. • The Confession and Absolution is spoken responsively by the pastor and the congregation: Sample P The darknessCommunications of sin overwhelms us and we are lost and helpless. With , we cry out, “To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy.” C Almighty God, we confess that we are lost in sin. We live in the darkness of our sinful desires and turn away from the light of your will. Do not hide your face from us. For Jesus’ sake, forgive our sins. David’s plea is our : “Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!” P God is our helper. He hears and answers for the sake of Jesus, who died on

A Series Of Services 11 the cross and rose from the dead to set us free from the darkness of sin and guilt. I announce to you that your sins are forgiven, in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. . C “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing…O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”

• The Prayer of the Day is spoken responsively by the pastor:

P Heavenly Father, you sent Jesus our Savior to bring the light of your love into this sin-darkened world. By his death and resurrection, he scattered the dark powers of sin and death to set us free. Help us now to walk in the light of your forgiveness. Give us opportunities to tell others about Jesus, the Light of the world, so that they too can be set free from the darkness to walk in your light. Hear our prayer for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

• The Hymn of Praise is sung by the congregation to the melody Freut Euch, Ihr Lieben 76 76 D:

Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater Son! Hail, in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun! He Creativecomes to break oppression, to set the captive free, To take away transgression and rule in equity.

He comes with rescue speedy to those who suffer wrong, To help the poor and needy and bid the weak be strong; To give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light, Whose , condemned and dying, were precious in his sight. • The Children’s Sermon is given by theSample pastor or other worship leader: Communications(Needed: a small flashlight or night light) L Good morning! I’m glad it’s morning, because sometimes the darkness during the night can be scary! It’s good to see the sun come up! Why do you think people are afraid of the dark? (Let children answer.) Sometimes crimes hap- pen at night, because criminals like to hide in the darkness. Sometimes the night is scary just because it is dark and we can’t see where we are or what might be hiding in the shadows!

12 A Season Of Psalms If it’s too dark to see the things around you, what do you need? (Let children answer.) You need a light, like this flashlight/nightlight. Even a little light like this helps a lot because it chases the darkness away.

King David wrote the psalm we said at the beginning of the service. David was not exactly afraid of the dark, but he was afraid that God had turned away from him. David did not want to be lost in the darkness of his sins. He cried out to God for help. We are sinners, too, just like David. We are sorry for our sins and ask God to forgive us. God did not leave David—or us—lost in the darkness of sin. He sent his Son Jesus into the world to die on the cross for our sins. On the day Jesus died, the world turned very dark, but it didn’t stay that way. On the wonderful, bright morning of the first Easter, Jesus came alive again. Because Jesus died and rose from the dead, the light of his love surrounds us and our sins are forgiven. We don’t have to be afraid, at night or during the day, because Jesus is with us all the time with his love and for- giveness.

Let’s pray: Jesus, you are the Light of the world. Help us not to be afraid at night or during the day because we know you are always with us. Amen.

• The Lesson, Genesis 1:1-5, is read by the pastor or other worshipCreative leader: L In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. • The Epistle Lesson, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18,Sample is read by the pastor or other worshipCommunications leader: L So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 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.

A Series Of Services 13 • The Gospel Lesson, John 16:19-22, is read by the pastor or other worship leader: L Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sor- row because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. • The Sermon Hymn is sung by the congregation to the melody Ratis- bon 77 77 77: Christ, whose glory fills the skies, Christ the true and only light, Sun of righteousness, arise; triumph o’er the shades of night. Dayspring from on high be near; Daystar, in my heart appear. • The Sermon is delivered by the pastor: P So…did you get a good night’s sleep last night? Or were you interrupted by a “visitor”?Creative You know…the visitor that comes in the middle of the night and won’t let you sleep? He is sinister. He wakes you up. He gets into your head. He affects your heart, body, and mind. He is an unwelcome visitor. He dredges up things from the past, and makes you worry about the future. And he always comes under the cover of darkness.

That visitor is identified by any number of names: Weeping; Sorrow; Stress; Distress; Worry; Depression; or Fear. He’s a visitor that comes at night and won’t let you rest. He’s an uninvited guest. You just wish he would go away and let youCommunications sleep. But he tarries for the night.Sample A friend of mine who lives in Houston had an unwelcome visitor tarry through a night a few years ago. The visitor’s name was Ike. He blew winds of 120 miles per hour or more. He spat torrential rain. He picked things up and threw them around. He cut off the electricity. And all night my friend and his family sat in the basement of their home wondering if Hurricane Ike was tearing their house apart. They heard things being battered. They heard things slamming

14 A Season Of Psalms against their house. They wondered all night what they were going to find in the morning when it was all over.

By the time morning came, Ike had fled away for good. The sun was shining. The clouds were nowhere to be seen. My friend went outside in the light of the morning to find that their home had sustained no severe damage. It was then that the visitor named Joy truly came in the morning.

This morning we begin our Season of Psalms series by taking a closer look at Psalm 30, a psalm of David that he wrote on the occasion of dedicating the land that he had purchased for the Temple in Jerusalem. But there is, of course, more to the story.

1 Chronicles 21 tells us that toward the end of his reign, King David had pro- duced a huge army to defend the land. Yet David was still worried about his enemies, so he commanded that a census be taken to count them all. God wasn’t happy about this because David was relying on human strength rather than on the power of God. So the Lord sent a plague which resulted in the deaths of 70,000 men. To show his repentance, David bought land, built an altar, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord. This is the place where the temple later ended upCreative being built. And it was for this occasion that David is said to have written this psalm. Talk about sorrow “tarrying” for a night. Can you imagine having the responsibility of the deaths of 70,000 people fall upon your shoulders? When the Lord finally took away the plague, can you imagine the joy that came in the morning?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a morning person at all. It takes me a while to get going in the morning. My most productive times are later in the evening. I’m happier later in the day. It’s hard for me to identify with joy com- ing in the morning.CommunicationsSample Sometimes, indeed, “weeping may tarry for the night,” in a very literal sense. We’ve all been there. There are those nights when sorrow and weeping simply take over. It seems like daylight will never come. But then the morning ap- pears and the worries and tossing and turning of the night have turned into new perspective with the rising of the sun and a new day.

A Series Of Services 15 It’s easier for me to identify with all of this if we think of the “night” as any dark period in our lives. For Israel and King David it was a three-day “night.” Over the course of three days the Lord sent a plague on Israel that killed 70,000 men. Turn to 1 Chronicles 21:15. After those three days: “…God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, ‘It is enough; now stay your hand.’ And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.” And David confessed his sins, built an altar, made a sacrifice, and dedicated land for the Temple.

What is the darkness of night that you have been facing recently, or are en- during even now as we sit here this morning? Maybe it’s your own prolonged illness, or that of a loved one; maybe it’s a strained relationship; could it be a particular sin that burdens you and won’t let you go?; or maybe, like David, it’s the realization that reliance on the things of this world for security will only prolong the darkness and make things worse. We need light.Creative We need forgiveness that brings light. We need hope. We need a Savior who grants perfect hope. We need joy. We need a God who sends joy both in the morning when the sun rises, or in the morning that lights up our lives after a period of darkness. “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

I tried an interesting experiment this week. I informed my friends on Face- book that I was preparing my sermon, and asked them what the phrase “joy comes in the morning” means to them. I got some wonderful responses. One of them went like this: “There are all thoseSample metaphors like ‘long day’s journey into night’ Communicationsthat eventually gives you the ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ But when you are through what ‘night’ brings…there is a joy. Not always a hap- piness—but an inner joy. You grew, survived, perhaps were ‘still in Him,’ and joy comes with the light—or shall we say THE Light.”

Those last words are the key. Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ Himself is the bright Morning Star. He is the One who brings a new dawn into the world and

16 A Season Of Psalms into our lives. The key is to remember that worldly, earthly joy is as tempo- rary as the dawn. It lasts for a moment and it is gone. But as one of my other Facebook friends put it: “The oppression and fear of the night finds relief, hope, and joy at the first signs of the light. The light holds life, promise, and truth. Jesus is the light of the world. That is why even the darkness is a light to Him. In Him there is no darkness at all. Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Our joy is found in the light and truth of who He is. He is the bright morning star.”

And the reason He is light is because He faced—and went through—the ul- timate darkness of spiritual death for us. The night entered that Good Friday afternoon as the Light of the world was snuffed out for us, only to rise with the sun on the third day. In this world there is only momentary joy. But in Jesus there is eternal joy. St. Paul says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” And Jesus Himself says, “You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy…So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

There is no greater light, and no greater joy, than sins forgiven. Happiness lasts only for a moment;Creative but sins forgiven last forever. That’s why encourages us to wake up each morning in remembrance of our baptism. It is through that Sacrament that forgiveness, life, and light come new every morning. And it is through that Sacrament that temporary happiness becomes eternal joy. Because our sins are forgiven in baptism, we have life and salva- tion. It means that we will wake up on the last day to a new dawn that will never end, to a new morning where the sun will shine eternally, to a new day where the praise for God’s deliverance that He has brought to us through Jesus will ring on and sing on forever! Sample We could paraphraseCommunications the psalm like this: “The sorrow of death may visit us for a night, but joy comes in the morning light of the new heaven and the new earth.” David showed that joy by dancing before the Lord. On another occasion he showed his joy by sitting quietly before the Lord. Either/both are appropriate. Joy comes from the Lord, and it is meant to be given back to Him and shared with others. When that sinister visitor comes to you in the night, remind him of the Morning Star who has brought light into your life through the forgiveness of sins.

A Series Of Services 17 “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” How will you show, share, and express that incredible joy this morning, every morn- ing, and on the morning when you wake up to see your Savior face to face? Think about it. Because in Jesus, joy comes in the morning. Amen. • The Hymn of Response is sung by the congregation to the melody Ratisbon 77 77 77: Dark and cheerless is the morn unaccompanied by thee; Joyless is the day’s return till thy mercy’s beams I see, Till they inward light impart, glad my eyes and warm my heart

Visit then this soul of mine, pierce the gloom of sin and grief; Fill me, radiancy divine, scatter all my unbelief; More and more thyself display, shining to the perfect day.

• The Offering is gathered at this time.

• The Prayers are spoken responsively by the pastor and the congre- gation: P Jesus, Light of the world, when we are lost in the darkness of sin, C Forgive us andCreative lift us up from guilt and fear. P Jesus, Light of the world, when we wait through dark nights of illness, worry, broken relationships and sadness, C Fill us with the comfort of your presence. P Jesus, Light of the world, for those in need of your light today, especially… and for all those we name in our hearts, C Be present with your light and love. P Jesus, Light of the world, we look forward to the dawn of that endless day when we will be with you forever! C Jesus, withCommunications you we know that joy will comeSample in the morning! Amen. •e Th Lord’s Prayer is spoken in unison by the pastor and the congre- gation. • Holy Communion, if celebrated, takes place at this time, according to local custom.

18 A Season Of Psalms • The Benediction is spoken by the pastor: P The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and + give you peace. Amen.

• The Closing Hymn is sung by the congregation to the melody Nun Danket All CM:

This is the day the Lord has made; He calls the hours his own. Let heav’n rejoice, let earth be glad And praise surround the throne.

Today he rose and left the dead, And Satan’s empire fell; Today the saints his triumphs spread And all his wonders tell.

Hosanna in the highest strains The Church on earth can raise. CreativeThe highest heav’ns, in which he reigns, Shall give him nobler praise.

CommunicationsSample

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