A Series of Special Services for Lent by Mark Zimmermann and Rev. Jerry Hays LEADER S GUIDE
FACING the CROSS FACING TEMPTATION A Service For Lent Complete Script For Worship Leaders The Opening Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune Wem In Leidenstagen 65 65: Face the cross of Jesus, who was tempted thrice, But resisted Satan, took our sacrifice. When we face temptation from the evil one, Shun the words of Satan; heed God s only Son. Let us face our Savior, he the Holy Lord, Who the Father s kingdom perfectly restored. The Confession and Absolution is read responsively by the pastor and the congregation: L When the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem to die on the cross for us. C So we set our faces to the cross of Christ this day, and there we face our temptations. L We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. C Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. L For we are in a time of need this day and seek the help of Christ. C We confess, O Lord, that there are times when we did not face up to our temptations, but gave into them. 3
(Silence for self-reflection) L Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. C For he has passed through death on the cross and gone to speak to the Father on our behalf to grant us forgiveness. L Your sins are forgiven because of Christ. And since he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. C We thank you, Jesus, for facing the cross, and not giving in to temptation, so that we might have the power to resist temptations by your strength. Amen. The Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune O Du Liebe Meiner Liebe 87 87 D: Jesus, Refuge of the weary, Blest redeemer, whom we love, Fountain in life s desert dreary, Savior from the world above. Often have your eyes, offended, Gazed upon the sinner s fall; Yet upon the cross extended, You have borne the pain of all. Do we pass that cross unheeding, Breathing no repentant vow, Though we see you wounded, bleeding, See your thorn-encircled brow? Yet your sinless death has brought us Life eternal, peace, and rest; Only what your grace has taught us Calms the sinner s deep distress. 4
Jesus, may our hearts be burning With more fervent love for you; May our eyes be ever turning To behold your cross anew: Till in glory, parted never From the blessèd Savior s side, Graven in our hearts forever, Dwell the cross, the Crucified. The Prayer of the Day is read by the pastor: P Let us pray: O Lord, we face temptation every day of our lives, and there is no denying that. Adam and Eve learned how easy it is to give in to temptation, and we admit that we can fall victim to temptation so easily at time as well. But you proved when you were in the desert forty days, dear Jesus, that you can face temptation and triumph over the devil. You showed the world and Satan himself that you have the power over temptation, and you give us that power every day of our lives. Help us to model you in our resistance to temptation that we might live lives that are pleasing to you Amen. The Children s Sermon is read by the pastor or other worship leader: (Item needed: a large chocolate bar.) P Hello, boys and girls. We are now in the season of Lent, and in our service today we are talking about facing temptation. So we re going to do a little experiment today that will help us to understand this theme more. How many of you here like chocolate bars? (Allow the children to respond.) Chocolate bars can be pretty tempting, can t they? I happen to have one right here with me. Can I have a volunteer come up and help me? (Invite a child forward.) (Say to the volunteer:) OK, I want you to stand here and hold this chocolate bar right in front of your face, and I want you to follow my instructions, but I don t want you to eat it. Ready? OK, could you unwrap this chocolate bar? (Have the child do so.) I love that crinkling sound a wrapper makes when you open it. It almost makes my mouth water just hearing that sound. You re not eating any of the chocolate bar, 5
are you? Now could you break off a piece and wave it right in front of your mouth? (Have the child do so.) Boy, I can smell that delicious chocolate all the way over here. It is making me so hungry. None of that chocolate is in your mouth, is it? OK, you can sit down now. Good job facing a temptation and not giving in to it. This experiment was a lot like what happens in our daily lives when we face temptation from the devil. In this experiment, I was playing the part of the devil. He likes to put things that tempt us right in front of our faces. He likes to dangle something that is bad for us before our eyes and tell us how great giving in to temptation would be and that it would be no big deal to give in to temptation. But we know the truth. We know that giving in to temptation is bad for us, and giving in to temptation is a very big deal because when we do it, we are disobeying God, and we are committing a sin against him. The Bible tells us about a time when the devil dangled some temptations in front of Jesus s face. And while these temptations were very tempting to Jesus, he did not give in to them. He told the devil that things like earthly food and fame and power were not worth the consequences of being separated from God forever because of disobedience. And the devil went away from him. We can chase the devil away when he puts temptations in front of our faces, by turning away and putting our hands in front of our faces and saying, Stop, Satan! (like the man on the cover of the bulletin for this service is doing). Let s practice right now. (Have all the children turn their heads to the side, put up their hands, and say Stop, Satan! ) Good job. So the next time you are tempted to eat a chocolate bar that your mom or dad says you shouldn t have, turn away and say Stop, Satan! just like that. And Satan will flee from you. And Jesus will help you every step of the way. You can go back to your seats now. The Old Testament Reading, Genesis 3:1-13, is read by the pastor: P Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the 6
woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. The Epistle Reading, 1 Cor. 10:12-14, is read by the pastor: P Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. The Gospel Reading, Matthew 4:1-11, is read by the pastor: P Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but 7
by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. The Sermon Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune Converse 87 87 D: What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer. Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer! In His arms He ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there. The Sermon is delivered by the pastor: P When we think about Adam and Eve being tempted in the Garden of Eden, we sometimes want to shake our heads and say, How could they? How could they disobey their Lord in this wonderful paradise where all their needs were being taken care of and they were living in harmony with God and each other? We might wish we could have 8
looked Eve straight in the face when she was about ready to take a bite out of that fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that they were forbidden to eat and say, Stop it! But the truth is that we find ourselves in similar situations when we are tempted to do something to disobey the God and we have disobeyed him, just as Adam and Eve did. We have disobeyed this God who has so lovingly given us everything we need on this beautiful earth. We are reminded on this day that temptation is not a thing of the past or something that we don t need to worry about anymore. It is something that is a part of our current sinful existence in the fallen world, and it is something we must face head-on. We, too, like Adam and Eve, are drawn to what looks pretty, what is pleasing to the eye, but what is ultimately not good for us spiritually and is not in line with what God desires for our lives. The devil knows just how to trip us up, too. He knows our weaknesses. For some of us it is eating something we know we shouldn t, for others it is looking at something online we know is not healthy for us. Whatever it is that trips you up, put your guard up extra high. For some things are easy for us to turn away from and say, No! to. But other things keep our heads turning back and keep our eyes distracted. And those are the things that we can try our best to keep away from this Lent. Specifically committing to giving up chocolate or the Internet during these forty days of Lent is one very good way to approach it. Another way is the come up with a strategy for dealing with temptations when they come our way, no matter what they are. When we are drawn to look at something tempting,for example, have a Bible close at hand to look at and read instead of engaging in the temptation before you. Or when tempting thoughts start entering your head, you might also want to have a list of happy, holy thoughts that you can ponder instead: times you felt close to God, a favorite hymn, people who have helped you in your faith. A guiding principle in making a list like this is to consider the words of Philippians 4:8-9: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is 9
just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Living with these thoughts in our minds and dwelling on the fact that the God of peace is with us always have the added benefit of helping us resist the urge to fall into temptation because our focus has shifted from us and our needs to God and what he desires and what we can do to bring glory to him. But for the times when temptations do creep into our lives, even at our strongest periods of faith, we know we have our Savior, Jesus, who can provide us with the strength we need to emerge victorious from any battle we might have with Satan. We are reminded of the words of Hebrews 4:15-16, which say, We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. His triumph over the devil becomes our triumph today because of the cross. Christ s death on the cross, even more than his resistance to temptation in the wilderness, strips Satan of the power of his tricky, tempting ways. Because of the cross, we have the confidence of knowing that the power of Jesus is within us to face temptation and we will come out as winners. There is no longer a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness when it comes to dealing with temptation, because the death of Christ has done away with its hold on us. Because of Christ, it becomes easier and easier for us to turn away from temptation and move on. So move on and move away from the wiles of Satan, and be energized in your ability to live a life that is superimposed with the cross. By Mark Zimmermann and Rev. Jerry Hays. Art and design by Lindsay Galvin. 2012 by for the Parish, 1564 Fencorp Dr., Fenton, MO 63026. 800-325-9414. www.creativecommunications.com. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 10