Advent 2010 Edition: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Welcome to sojournmusic.com’s weekly worship music set list review.  This set list is from our first Sunday of Advent, 2010. And if you missed it last week, this is the final day of our “Black Friday/Cyber Monday CD sale.”  You can get all four Sojourn worship CDs, including Advent Songs, for $20 plus $6 shipping.

You can find links to the set lists of this church and many other churches each week in the Worship Blog Carnival at theworshipcommunity.com. And you can learn about some of the songs we sing at Sojourn Gathered each week in advance of the Sunday service by reading my “Getting Ready For Sunday” post each Thursday at Sojourn’s online journal, TravelBlog.

Call to Worship:
It’s the first Sunday in Advent: a season when the church celebrates and anticipates the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
The Christmas season is mostly celebrated as a joyful, happy occasion (and for good reason!) But it’s also a good season to remember the longing, the desperation, and the darkness in which the world awaited its coming Savior, and even now awaits his return.
Each week, we’ll light a candle on this wreath as a sign of the coming light of Christ, the hope that breaks apart the darkness and rescues the world.
Hear the word of the Lord:

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, which means “God is With Us.”

-Based on Isaiah 9:2 and 7:14

Song 1: Joy Joy written by Isaac Wardell, arranged by Wardell and Mason Neely. This was a good way to kick off Advent season and to respond to God’s call to worship.  You can hear a preview of it from the Bifrost Arts album Salvation Is Created: A Christmas Record.

Song 2: O Come, O Come Emmanuel the classic Advent hymn by John Neale and Thomas Helmore. The prayer of Old Testament saints is similar to our prayer, as we await Christ’s Second Coming:

O come, desire of nations, bind

and warm the hearts of all mankind

Bid every strife and quarrel cease

Fill all the world with heaven’s peace

Prayer:
Lord God, we praise you for sending light into this world.
We confess that we live as though the light had never defeated darkness.
We confess that we ignore the Savior you sent to be among us and to live in us.
We’ve kept the birth of your Son confined to the Christmas season and do not yearn for his coming each moment in our waiting hearts.
Forgive us for not opening our eyes to Jesus.
Prepare us for His return. Help us rejoice in the light so that your grace can illuminate the darkened places of our hearts.  Amen.

Song 3: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus written by Charles Wesley, with modern adaptation and arrangement by Bill Mallonee.  This is another classic song for the Advent:

Come, thou long expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee

Reading of Assurance/Peace

The day will come,” says the Lord, “when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land. In that day My people will be saved and will live in peace. And this will be its name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’”
Jesus Christ, our Lord,
whose coming we announce in this season, is our righteousness.
In Christ, we are made right with God!  - Based on Jeremiah 33: 14-16

Christ has brought peace to His people, so let us share peace with each other as we welcome those around us.

Then Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery preached “How To Keep From Falling Away,” from the General Epistle of Jude.  You can hear it now in the Resource Library of sojournchurch.com, or you can download it for free in the iTunes Sojourn Church podcast.

Song: Be Still My Soul written by Katherina A. vonSchlegel and Jean Sibelius.  We sang this as our communion hymn of the week, contemplating on the words as we all came forward to receive the bread and cup.

Song: Come Then, Lord Jesus written by Horatius Bonar with modern adaptation by Katy Bowser and Kenny Hutson.

We long to hear Thy voice

To see Thee face to face

To share Thy crown and glory then

As now we share Thy grace

(Our band then started playing Joy to the World while the worship leader began the reading below)

Reading:
Isaiah the prophet was given this vision of the coming of Christ and the peace He would bring:

In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all—
the most important place on earth.
It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.
People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem.
The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.
– Isaiah 2:1-5
Come people of the Lord, let us rejoice and walk in the light of the Lord!

Song: Joy to the World originally written by Isaac Watts, with arrangement and new melody by Sojourn’s Jamie Barnes.  We recorded this one on our Advent Songs album.  If you missed the announcement last week, you can order Advent Songs and our other three CDs for just $20 plus $6 shipping for a limited time.

Read Jamie Barnes’ story of why he wrote new music for “Joy To The World” at this link.  You can also hear the mp3 on the playlist at either Myspace.com/sojournrecords or Facebook.com/sojournmusic.

Benediction: May the Lord of Peace strengthen you in faith and hope as we anticipate His Return. Go now in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Peace be you.