Preparing for Sunday, 6/9/13

 

Hey guys!
Here's a quote for you to think about as you prepare for corporate worship tomorrow morning. We often come to church on Sunday expecting the wrong things. Ponder this:

We're prone to get this backwards: [w]e 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.

David Mathis, from DesiringGod

We do often get this backwards - we come expecting to be fulfilled by the people at church, leaders or otherwise, in some kind of worship experience. Let's come tomorrow ready to love, encourage, and otherwise serve one another as we worship our Savior with thankfulness. See ya' tomorrow!

Preparing for Sunday, 5/26/13

Hey guys,
as we're thinking about church tomorrow, here are a few things to (hopefully) help our hearts and minds get into the right frame, so we're ready to make the most of the time together!

1. We have communion in service tomorrow, as we do almost every month on the last Sunday. As Jordan always reminds us, we are warned in Scripture not to eat the bread or drink the cup of communion if we have unconfessed sin in our life, or if we have a problem with a brother in the Church. May we examine our hearts in preparation, and benefit hugely from our time together as we celebrate and reflect and remind ourselves of Christ's blood that was shed for us.

Here's a quote to reflect on also, as we do our best to prepare to take communion tomorrow, and celebrate the glories of our Savior and our salvation:

“The blood of Christ gives us a home. The blood of Christ becomes the flag and color under which we stand. The blood of Christ takes those who were once strangers and makes them family. As the Bible says, we are ‘no longer strangers and aliens, but…fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19). Simply put, the blood of Christ brings us near to God.” 

Anthony Carter, from Blood Work

2. Jordan will preach on 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, on Christian love, especially within the context of the life of the Church. Read the passage ahead of time if you can, and be ready to think and worship along with Jordan as he preaches.

3. Here's our song set - give the following tracks a listen ahead of time if anything looks unfamiliar, and prepare your voice to sing loud and well tomorrow! We need all our voices contributing to the one unified voice of the church, singing God's praises tomorrow.

Blessed Be Your Name

God Of Wonders

It Is Well With My Soul

Jesus Paid It All

Not for the "polished."

"When we treat the worship gathering like a performance/production, we inadvertently send the message that the gospel is for the polished."  

Jared Wilson 

 

Don't View A Worship Leader Like A Priest

"We treat our worship leaders as priests, expecting them to lead us into God's presence in a way that is inaccessible apart from their charisma, emotion, and music. Every time we credit a worship leader with 'leading us into God's presence,' we are anointing them as priests, and crediting them with doing something that only Jesus can do." (emphasis added)

Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper, from the book Faithmapping

This book is great by the way - I highly recommend it!

Preparing for Sunday, 4/21/13!

Hey guys, hope you'll be there with us tomorrow. Hebrews 10:23-25 says,

     "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (emphasis added)

Meeting to together as a local church is so important. Not because of individual benefits or what we'll get out of a church "service" (poor terminology anyway - I prefer "gathering"); but we meet together for mutual encouragement, helping each other "hold fast" to our hope in Christ's return, which is "drawing near." We should, ultimately, show up to church for the sake of that encouragement, and to hold fast to our hope without wavering. And we do all this together. And the singing and the preaching and anything else we do together in that gathering should be to help us do these things.

So again, I really hope we'll see each other tomorrow. Here are a few more things to help you prepare to make the most of our Sunday morning gathering:

Jordan will preach on 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, on "The Gifts of the Spirit: Unity in Variety." These passages from 1 Corinthians on spiritual gifts and their use in the life of the Church is controversial stuff, but hugely important for us as believers. It would do us good to read the passage ahead of time.

We'll also sing the following songs tomorrow:
 1. Open The Eyes Of My Heart
An opening call to worship, and a prayer for God to engage with His people in our time of gathered worship of Him. We need Him to sovereignly open our eyes to his glories, and to the glories of Christ tomorrow.

2.  Awesome Is The Lord Most High
We haven't done this one in a little while, and it'll be good to come back to it. This is a song that praises God for his majesty and greatness, and also includes some response for us as worshipers, in light of God's greatness and care for His people - that we will go wherever He sends us to proclaim the Gospel.

3. How Deep The Father's Love For Us
This song is a wonderful modern hymn, that's really a theology of Christ's crucifixion and the atonement that God accomplished there for His people. I love the glories communicated about what Christ accomplished at the end of Verse 2: "His dying breath has brought me life/I know that it is finished!"

4. Near The Cross
A classic hymn, that's a response to what we sang about in "How Deep The Father's Love." This song helps us pray that God will keep us near the cross - that Christ's sacrifice and atonement will forever be our theme, our hope, our joy, and our message to everyone else.

Preparing for Sunday, 3/17/13

Heya folks,
hope you have a chance to think ahead to tomorrow's church gathering. Jordan will be preaching on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, on "Clarifying the Value of Roles." Follow the link to read the passage, and prepare to be an "expository listener" during the sermon tomorrow. Hopefully we come and sit under the preaching of God's word, expectantly that God will reveal his glory, and the glory of His Son to us as Scripture is proclaimed. We want to behold Jesus in God's Word tomorrow, and we can help the condition of our hearts be right for that by reading and studying ahead of time.

We'll sing the following songs tomorrow:
1. Mighty To Save
2. Before The Throne Of God Above
3. Behold Our God
4. You Are My King

Rather than write about all the songs like I usually do, I just want to post the track of "Behold Our God," so you can be sure to listen to it. We've done it quite a few times in church since we introduced it in the Fall, but it's been a month or two since we've sung it. Make sure it's familiar and be ready to raise your voice with us as we sing. This is a great song as we built toward our Easter Sunday gatherings in a few weeks. This song rallies us to "behold our God, seated on His throne," but also to behold the God who has "felt the nails upon His hands, bearing all the guilt of sinful man." Our God has ransomed us from the Fall, and from our sin, and we want to praise Him, and behold Him together tomorrow as a gathered church.

Give the track a few plays. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Preparing for Sunday, 3/3/13

Hi guys,
here's the low-down on tomorrow's church gathering. Jordan will preach from 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, on "Exposing Idolatry." This preaching series has been great, and continues to take us into deeper understanding of the Gospel of Jesus, and how the Gospel can and should play out in our lives as pilgrims in a broken world. Make sure you read the passage a few times before you come to church, and be ready to think through this section with Jordan as he preaches. Also, pray for Jordan that he'll speak in the Holy Spirit's power tomorrow, and that it would be exactly what our church family needs to hear, and process through for our joy in the Gospel to increase!

Tomorrow will also be a little bit of a music-heavy morning, with singing before AND after the preaching. We'll sing the following songs. Give 'em a listen to prepare.

1. Forever
2. Your Grace Is Enough
These are two songs that rejoice in God's faithfulness to His people, and that He supplies the grace we need to live in obedience to Him. We'll proclaim this tomorrow to start off our morning.

2. Christ Is Risen
As we get closer to Easter, we'll ramp up our songs that concentrate on Christ's resurrection, and the absolute victory that it was over sin and death. This song says, "Let no one caught in sin remain inside the lie of inward shame/But fix our eyes upon the cross, and run to Him who showed great love/And bled for us." Christ paid for our sin, and He gave us new life and power to turn from sin because of His finished work.

3. Amazing Grace
4. 10,000 Reasons
We'll sing these two after preaching. We'll rest in God's "amazing grace" and respond to all we've sung and heard preached by singing "Bless the Lord O my soul!" He is our Savior, rich in love toward His people. Tomorrow should be a great day meeting together to remind one another and ourselves of these truths.

See ya' tomorrow!