God is leading us to a better understanding of His plan for our congregation (and for all of us) in the coming year. Last week we learned about five pursuits. Here, in these five things, we are desperately and prayerfully seeking Him, both individually and as a church. Let’s remember the five pursuits Pastor Chuck helped us with last week:
1. Faithful to scripture
2. Gospel-centered
3. Devoted to each other
4. Transformation minded
5. Passionately concerned for both our immediate community and the world.
This week, God is going to check our hearts and prepare us for these five foci. Psalms 51:17 says that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Our plans, our great ideas, and our focus on these five concepts are all empty unless we do so with a contrite heart. Our “sacrifice of praise” means nothing to God when we come with proud, sinful and worldly hearts.
As we worship this week, my prayer is for God to rid me of sin and distraction from His plan and that I come broken. Such preparation seems exactly opposite of how we gear up for earthly pursuits. Expecting church to always “pump us up” or for a Sunday service to be like a pep rally is misguided and limits what God can do when we gather together. Our worship this week and God’s message to us will center around coming to Him with that broken and contrite heart.
Here’s this week’s set list.
Call to Worship – A Mighty Fortress (Jarnagin, Neale)
None of us would care to come to expose the depths our depravity if we were not first reminded of God’s protection and security. Salvation has delivered us from death and now we can come to God unfettered by the yoke of sin. This song prepares us to worship God in total dependence upon Him.
O Praise Him (Crowder) – This song puts us in a right position as we worship. He is so holy and blameless, we have no other choice but praise his name. This song is a reminder of God’s transcendence and holiness. That means He is higher than all things and he cannot even look upon sin.
Create in Me a Clean Heart (Green) – Straight from Psalm 51, this 1980s classic so simply reminds us to fall on our knees and ask that God work in us. We are helpless and sinful.
Lead Me to the Cross (Fraser (Hillsong)) – Our only hope in this helplessness begins and ironically was completed at the cross. This prayerful song is a cry to God to push us to confronting and confessing that of “first importance” – the work and of Christ on the cross.
All I Have is Yours (Elliott/Giles) – My new-found fondness for some of Sojourn Music’s worship stuff continues and why/how someone hasn’t written this song before, I do not know. So often we simply sing a song about God’s sovereignty and providence, and do not really think about the words. But few songs help us better understand His sovereignty and our humble position as His creation. Even fewer songs help teach us about how we show our thankfulness and humility in our giving. This is a song puts our giving into a rich and wonderful perspective as we commit and acknowledge that all we have belongs to God.
Worship In Our Giving – All I Have Is Yours
Join us as we worship God in spirit and in truth.
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