Home Service Plan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Home Worship Service Plan May 31, 2020 • Churchwide Bible Study Phase 3: Week 6 (red) • Pentecost (Church’s Birthday) 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 14-24 “Wide Open” As Paul says so well: ‘Don’t suppress the Spirit.’ Preparation Gather these items for worship. If you don’t have a particular item, fret not.. • a piece of red cloth • a glass of water • a lighter or match • a computer or internet- • an end table or stand • as many candles as you • a small fan accessible device • a plate have participants (it can • a Bible • a cup be a scented candle) For each item you have, thank God for the provision. For each piece you do not have, thank God you don’t need it. Place the table/ stand in the area you plan to worship. If more than one person will be present, place the table in the middle of where you will be seating. Drape the cloth over it. Arrange the cup, plate, and glass of water on the table. Put one candle on the table (to light) and keep one for yourself (if more than one participant, each person should have a candle to hold) Keep the Bible in front of you, open to the passage for today. Before we get going, a word about seasons. You may have noticed that throughout the last seven weeks we’ve been concluding sections of the service with “Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!” Starting with this service, we stop saying it. This is NOT because it’s no longer true (of course it is). But with the close of the season of Easter we enter into new territory. This is an important reminder that our faith moves in seasons as well. Make room for your faith to move as the Spirit does and let us keep worshipping together, no matter where we have to do that. Announcements & Service Notes READY TO ACT! CELEBRATING PENTECOST! Worship happens well beyond what happens in a sanctuary Pentecost is the birthday of the Church and a time we or what we’re doing at home. At the end of the service, take celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit! Right now, as a part the opportunity to engage in one or more of the activities of worship, we will use candles as a way to symbolize this suggested (if you aren’t already) as a continuation of our acts event. of worship. CHURCHWIDE BIBLE STUDY OVER ZOOM SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW!! Our churchwide Bible study continues! We are in phase three If anything is clear, it’s this: no one knows everything about of our reading of the New Testament letters. You can get a God. This is why, as a part of worship, a weekly prompt is sent copy of the study guide from the church office, on our out from the church over email to encourage folks to share website, or from our Facebook page. People WITHOUT a their God-knowledge. Whether through stories, a picture or computer can participate (so spread the word!). As long as video, these are collected and displayed on the video during you have a phone you can study with us. Details are available the offertory. Contact the church office with any questions. from the church office. There are two opportunities: 2pm and another at 7:30pm on Wednesdays, whichever is more convenient. If you want to use the accompanying service video, you can find it on the church website, on YouTube and on our Facebook page starting Saturday, May 30th, at 6 p.m. It has the benefit of including the work of our music leaders and the guidance of our church leadership. When you’re ready to begin, silence your devices. Take several deep breaths. And turn the page. page 1 of 7 Opening Sentences (Read aloud, even if alone; the first Be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure no one repays a spoken words of worship are Scripture): wrong with a wrong, but always pursue the good for each 1 THESSALONIANS 5:20-21 - “Don’t brush off Spirit-inspired other and everyone else. 16 Rejoice always. 17 Pray messages, but examine everything carefully and hang on to continually. 18 Give thanks in every situation because this what is good.” is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Don’t suppress the Spirit. 20 Don’t brush off Spirit-inspired messages, 21 but SING: ‘On Pentecost They Gathered’ (lyrics on p.5) examine everything carefully and hang on to what is good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil. 23 Now, may the God of PRAY: Spirit of God, breathe into us. Spirit of God, inspire us. peace himself cause you to be completely dedicated to Spirit pf God, make a church out of us. As only you can, draw him; and may your spirit, soul, and body be kept intact us together, even now. Teach us your presence, and may your and blameless at our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming. 24 The Word not only make us feel good in our thinking, help us feel one who is calling you is faithful and will do this. good about what we’re doing. Thank you for your faith in us and with us. Thank you for seeing us and not rejecting us. Meditation Help us see everything the way you do. In the great name of [Milestones] Jesus Christ we pray this together … One of the things that makes it difficult for some of us to keep up with what day it is can be seen in the absence of the usual PRAY SILENTLY…THEN SAY, “Thank you for listening, God. Amen.” markers. Our calendars are blown up. Our routines are shaken up. The Word • Sing, ‘Mighty to Save’ (lyrics p.5) Heather Berlin, a psychiatry professor at The Icahn School of Medicine, says, ”Our brains tend to track intervals of time PRAY: through distinct events, and we don't have many of those Lord, we celebrate your Word, written. By your Spirit, as we right now. It's very hard to estimate how much time has hear, help us understand that we might be your Word, passed if there's nothing to demarcate it. If it's all the same embodied. Amen. and blends together, then it can feel like just one really long day.” READ: 1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-11; 14-24 Paul teaches the Church about managing expectations. It’s one of the reasons we grieve so much the loss of things 1 We don’t need to write to you about the timing and like senior recognition and graduation ceremonies or church dates, brothers and sisters. 2 You know very well that the attendance in our buildings or time together with friends, day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. family or even strangers at a racetrack or ballfield. They all 3 When they are saying, “There is peace and security,” at represent, in some cases, more than inconveniences. They that time sudden destruction will attack them, like labor are examples of something deeper. pains start with a pregnant woman, and they definitely won’t escape. 4 But you aren’t in darkness, brothers and We leverage these occasions, these marks of time, to sisters, so the day won’t catch you by surprise like a thief. measure almost everything, especially our progress. It’s how 5 All of you are children of light and children of the day. we make the mental maps in our heads that navigate our histories and allow us to be prescient about our futures and We don’t belong to night or darkness. 6 So then, let’s not teach us what has value in our present moments. sleep like the others, but let’s stay awake and stay sober. 7 People who sleep sleep at night, and people who get But we are all experiencing this differently. Some of us feel drunk get drunk at night. 8 Since we belong to the day, busier than ever. Some of us are beyond bored and lonely. A let’s stay sober, wearing faithfulness and love as a piece lot of us are scared and a few of us feel like we’re going crazy. of armor that protects our body and the hope of salvation Some have routines turned inside out and others of us are as a helmet. 9 God didn’t intend for us to suffer his wrath mostly doing things the same as always, watching the world but rather to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus go crazy around them. We are, all of us, searching for a path Christ. 10 Jesus died for us so that, whether we are awake out of this mess we seem to be in. When does it all end? or asleep, we will live together with him. 11 So continue encouraging each other and building each other up, just These are the same kind of questions and angst the like you are doing already. Thessalonians were feeling. 14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are disorderly. Comfort the discouraged. Help the weak. page 2 of 7 [When Is Jesus Coming Back?] Jesus said it. Paul says it. Almost every New Testament writer 1 Thessalonians is thought to be the earliest written of the makes reference to this fact in some fashion: no one knows. New Testament letters. Even though Paul’s letters are in order of longest to shortest in our Bibles, 1 Thessalonians shows us That didn’t stop people from trying.