Preparing for Sunday, 7/22/12

Hey folks,
for your reading pleasure, exhortation and edification, Jordan will be preaching on 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 tomorrow. He'll be addressing faithfulness to the Gospel as a steward appointed by God, and not fearing the judgement of men but fearing God alone. Hopefully the mindset Paul reveals in this passage keeps us from being wimpy Christians in our witness to the Gospel, and in how we process and respond to the criticism of others. Give the passage a few reads before tomorrow's preaching to get ready!

We'll sing the following songs tomorrow morning:

1. Forever
Our "call to worship" for the morning, with this song we call each other to sing praise to our God who has promised to always be faithful to His people. The songs says, "For the life that's been reborn, His love endures forever." God promises never to desert the ones He has caused to be born again to new life in Christ. What a great truth to spark some hearty singing as we gather tomorrow!

2. O Worship The King
This is a "reworking" of a classic hymn, that rejoices in more of God's character. In the 3rd verse, there's a unique description of God's attributes: "Immeasurable might, ineffable love." "Ineffable" means something is so great, it is beyond adequate description. Not many songs employ this word to describe God's love, but I think this is appropriate here, that the God of infinite, sovereign might would love us to the point of giving His Son as a sacrifice, to pay for our sins.

3. Come Thou Fount
One of our church favorites, this hymn meditates on several aspects of the Gospel. One to be aware of for tomorrow is the prayer in verse 3, for God to bind our "wandering hearts" to Himself. We know that our hearts would wander from God if He, in His grace, didn't hold us close, planted and rooted in the work of Jesus for us on the cross.

4. Behold Our God
A new song we introduced about a month ago. We'll end our whole set tomorrow by proclaiming "Behold our God, seated on His throne/Come let us adore Him!" God is worthy of all of our adoration. He is supremely valuable, and the source of joy. And because of the Gospel, we can draw near to Him and behold His full character with joy.

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Also, we hope you're planning on being there tomorrow night for RENEW. Counting tomorrow night, we have 2 more RENEW summer nights. Lets make the most of these, and come out for a time of fellowship/food, singing, and teaching from the Word. Tomorrow night is "bring your own family picnic" night, and Joe Keller will be teaching us. See you there!