Preparing for Sunday, 9/23/12

Hey everybody,
hope you'll be in church with us tomorrow. Make sure you're on-time, as we'll start our corporate worship with a little singing together, followed by 2 baptisms. It's a big deal to share in a time of baptism together as a gathered church, and there is an element of worship and accountability on all of us when one of our own proclaims their adoption into God's family by being baptized. Don't miss out on this opportunity and joy to be a part of the gathered Church this way.

Jordan will preach from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 again this week, doing kind of a PART 2 of last week. He'll be talking about what it actually looks like to flee sexual immorality, and flee to the infinitely better things God gives us in the Gospel, in His Son. Follow the link above to give the passage a read.

We'll sing through the following songs tomorrow. Before I list out our song set, here's a quote by David Mathis of DesiringGod, about considering others and participating heartily in a time of corporate singing. I really encourage reading the whole article, but here's a great thought from it:

"Participate heartily.
Heartily" is an attempt to communicate a balanced kind of engaged participation---not being a mere spectator and not being that guy singing with the out-of-control volume. The problem of over-participating speaks for itself (quite literally), but in regard to under-participating, note that you are actually robbing others of the value of corporate worship when you don't engage. Your presence is a part, and your voice is a part as well. The experience of corporate worship is enriched when all the attendees participate."

We're all responsible to play our part in a corporate worship gathering. Every voice is, indeed, a crucial part, and is hugely important. If we miss your voice in the time of singing, it's really like missing you from a part of what we're doing, in a way.

Here are our songs. Be ready to sing it out with us tomorrow!

1. Blessed Be Your Name

2. Before The Throne Of God Above

3. Behold Our God

Preparing for Sunday, 9/16/12

Tomorrow Jordan will be preaching from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, on sexual immorality in the Church. This is super relevant, seeing as this is a problem in every culture and every time period. God created sex as a good thing within marriage, and it's one of the biggest good things that Satan and sin pervert for their own ends. But the call of Christ is to enjoy the world and the blessings of God on His terms. Make sure, if you can, to prayerfully read the passage ahead of time.

We'll sing the following songs:
1. Mighty To Save
An anthem that proclaims that our King, Christ, has defeated the grave, has conquered sin, and our fullest joy is found in knowing Him and proclaiming His goodness in the world.

2. Glorious and Mighty
This is a great re-working of Psalm 96, continuing the theme of the glory of God and the joy of knowing Him. The last line of the chorus, that we get to repeat several times through the song, says that God is "greatly to be praised." God is to be praised greatly because He is the fullest joy and goodness that there is. We fool ourselves when we turn to anything else to make us happy. We were created to know and enjoy God, and proclaim His worth with our lives.

3. In Christ Alone
This hymn will help us not miss the point tomorrow, that we can't give God proper glory apart from being saved, redeemed, and born-again through the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus. If we were "bought with a price" like 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, then we have new, regenerate hearts to put faith in Christ, and enjoy the fullness of the triune God. The sacrifice of Christ substituted to us by faith is the non-negotiable part of knowing God. We cannot know God apart from what He has done through Christ. We can't know God apart from being enabled by the power of what Christ has done to pay for our sin.

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I'm also going to shamelessly plug my equipping class, mostly as a reminder to everybody that's been there, that we're starting back up tomorrow for the final 6 weeks. We introduced "worship" back on 8/19, and built a broad definition of what churches and Christians often mean by "worship" and what it actually is biblically. Then 3 weeks ago Marshall filled in and taught on worship in the Old Testament, looking at our severed relationship with God because of the Fall, and at examples of wrong worship in the OT.

Tomorrow we're going to transition into the Gospel, and at how Christ changed everything related to worship. We'll look at some passages from the New Testament, and at how we need to think about what it means to be worshipers of God under the New Covenant. Don't miss it - should be a great time of discussion, and I hope that the class continues to be an encouragement and a spark for us to think deeply about what we do when we gather to worship as a church, and as we worship in our individual lives.

Preparing for Sunday, 9/2/12 FAMILY SUNDAY

It's good to be back with our church family this week. We were back in New Hampshire last weekend for Jenny's sister's wedding (which was great). And as I understand it, Eric Durso's music leading was also great. But we missed you guys, and we're looking forward to worshiping together tomorrow.

Jordan will be preaching on 1 Corinthians 6:7-11. Give the passage a read or two ahead of time, so that tomorrow's preaching is a rich avenue of worship. Don't want to give too much away this week. Just be there for the sermon - 'Twill be some good stuff.

Here's our song list - we're doing music before and after preaching tomorrow. Our songs will focus holistically on the Gospel, meaning that we'll start with who God is, and move to what He has done to save us from His wrath, through Christ, including something of the "big picture" of the Gospel. We're a people called out of our sin by God, and we are defined by what God accomplished for us at the cross. So tomorrow we'll rejoice both in our salvation, and ultimately in the God who has brought us to Himself, through His Son.

Songs Before Preaching:
1. Indescribable
A wonderful tune describing the wonder and majesty of the God who created the heavens and earth, and who loves us and gave His Son for us.

2. O Worship The King
Continuing the theme of the last song, we'll rejoice in our Savior-God with this hymn. The lyrics say, "O tell of His might, O sing of His grace!" This song gives us words to proclaim this to one another as a gathered body of singers.

3. My Hope Is Built
This one proclaims the glory of our Savior, and the unshakeable, unbreaking, imperishable eternal life we have if we're Christ's. This hymn is a treasure of the church.

Songs After Preaching:
4. Nothing But The Blood
This is partly a re-worked hymn, that proclaims Christ's blood and His cross as more valuable than anything else we could ever find in this life. God "made a way for us" to be reconciled to Him, forgiven of our sin, all in Christ.

5. Jesus Paid It All
I love the bridge of this song, that we'll sing through a few times tomorrow. It sums everything up we've already sang about today: "O praise the One who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead!"

Lots of good stuff happenin' tomorrow! Lord-willing, we'll see you then. 9:00 AM.