Preparing for Sunday, 10/28/12

Hi guys,
we're preparing to gather as a church family tomorrow morning, for a time of gathered, corporate worship. Hope you're thinking ahead, to make the most of that time. If you look back one post, there's a quote from David Mathis, about coming to church ready to serve others rather than be served. Always good to consider in our process of preparation how we'll serve and edify our brothers and sisters. Hope this post can be a short resource to help you prepare in other ways too.

Start with the Scripture passage that Jordan will be preaching on. Follow the link to read the passage ahead of time, hopefully making some observations and prayerfully asking God to reveal new treasure from this passage tomorrow morning. Jordan will be preaching on 1 Corinthians 7:25-35, focusing on being single and serving Christ. Keep this in mind for tomorrow: being single is not a second-best option for a Christian's life.

In addition, we'll take communion together after the preaching tomorrow, as a response to the proclamation of God's Word.

We'll sing the following songs:

1. Blessed Be Your Name
2. Before The Throne Of God Above
3. The Wonderful Cross
4. Christ Is Risen (after communion)

I want to point out something in just one of the songs this week. In "The Wonderful Cross," we'll sing the sometimes-neglected 3rd verse, that says, "Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast/Save in the death of Christ, my God/All the vain things that charm me most/I sacrifice them to His blood." This verse is a prayer for God to help us never boast in anything, except what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross. Our righteousness is not ours, but Christ's, that is substituted to us if our faith is in Him as our Savior. And so, the verse ends saying that the vain things in life that we like to boast in and find pleasure in, we sacrifice them to God. We give control over all things to Christ, holding everything loosely because whether we have blessings in this life or not, we have the ultimate blessing - life in Christ - that cannot be shaken or removed. 

Let's rejoice together tomorrow in the abundant life that Christ secured for His own, by His death and resurrection. See you then.

David Mathis on Corporate Gatherings

A few posts ago I put up a quote by David Mathis, elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church in MN, and executive editor at DesiringGod. His thoughts here are just great, on the mindset we should have as we enter a time of corporate worship as a church. Give this a ponder:

We're prone to get this backwards. We come to worship thinking that we're somehow giving to God, and we subtly expect we'll be receiving from others. We desperately need to turn that pattern on its head.

The God we worship is one not "served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25). And when he came in the flesh, he did so "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Beware coming to corporate worship to serve God. But by all means, come on the lookout to serve others. Worshiping God and building up others aren't mutually exclusive but come to their fullness together.

We give to one another as we together come to receive from God our soul's satisfaction. We kill both the vertical and horizontal of corporate worship when we come looking to give to God and receive from others.

Preparing for Sunday, 10/14/12

Hey everyone,
been a couple weeks since I've blogged. Hope this post finds you well and ready to prepare a little bit for tomorrow's worship gathering. Jordan will be preaching on 1 Corinthians 7:10-16, a part 2 of last weeks sermon dealing with marriage and divorce, and how Christians are especially called to live in light of these situations. Click the link above to read the passage ahead of time, so our time in Scripture is as rich as possible. The more preaching I listen to, the more I'm convinced I need to regularly prepare my heart ahead of time to listen and be taught, edified and convicted by the proclaiming of God's Word.

We'll sing the following songs tomorrow:

1. Happy Day
A rousing tune, calling our hearts to rejoice in "the greatest day in history" when Christ accomplished his sacrifice and payment for our sin, for all who come to Him by faith. The song also looks forward to the "endless joy" and "perfect peace" prepared for us, that Christ will bring us into one day as we spend eternity in glory with our King.

2. How Great Is Our God
This one is especially valuable as a setup for our 3rd song of the morning. We'll also tag a chorus of "How Great Thou Art" on the end of this one, so be ready to belt that out when we come to it.

3. The Power Of The Cross
Here's how "How Great Is Our God" sets us up for this hymn. "How Great" talks about God's splendor and majesty, His greatness, and the fact that God is also triune, "Father, Spirit, Son." Then our 3rd song here will say in its 3rd verse, that the earth became dark and the ground "quaked as its Maker bowed His head." God the glorious Creator, the Name above all names, became flesh, dwelt among us, and bore all of the wrath we deserved for our sin and rebellion against Him. Hopefully the order of songs this morning gets us fairly deep into the Gospel truths of what Jesus accomplished as God's sacrificed Son.

Hope to see you tomorrow morning! Get your voice and your Bible ready.