i am an offering

As always, another great day at Living Word.  And a fantastic day of rest with the family.  I’ve been attempting to set aside Sundays as a complete day of rest from several things (computer, housework, yardwork).  Of course it has to start after the service, but even to have the majority of the day be restful is extremely helpful.  It’s given benefits already.

Here’s what the service looked like yesterday:

Pre-service gathering song: Let Your Kingdom Come - Sovereign Grace Music.  More on this song in a minute.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord (Strong Tower) - Love this song.  It’s such a great reminder of who God is and so good to repeat these thoughts as we worship.  And, several people started the clapping in the congregation - thank God for worship leaders who don’t even know they’re worship leaders!

Let Your Kingdom Come - we officially taught the song here.  I love this song as it talks about making our desires His desires and making His “glorious cause” our own.  In the midst of our new building project I think this song will play a pivotal role in reminding people that we are about building God’s kingdom, not just having a place to come to church.

I usually like to use a new song as a pre-service song and then do it again during the service after people have it in there heads a bit.  How I taught it was by singing a phrase and then having the congregation repeat the phrase.  We did the whole verse, and one spot in the chorus that has a note that sort of comes out of nowhere.  It seemed like the congregation grasped this song very quickly and it seems like teaching them a new song this way seems to work really well.  Does anyone else have expereince with this?  If you were at Living Word yesterday, did it work for you to learn the song this way, or was it distracting?

Closing song - In Christ Alone - Unfortunately, the words to this song were not right on the screen.  The words we had up were from Brian Litrell’s “In Christ Alone” (which is a great song - just not the one we needed!)  This is a good reminder that we always need to double and triple check things and not rely on the song title alone to enter a song.  Many people knew the first verse and we’re singing along with me as I tried to figure out what to do.  I just simply stopped the music and read the words to the fourth verse, which directly applied to the message that had just been given.  A few people told me how disappointed they were that we didn’t get to actually sing the song.  We’ll do it again soon.

The message was very convicting and encouraging at the same time.  We learned about subtle ways that we steal and how important it is not only to tell the truth about our neighbor but to “build their reputation” as well, as Luther mentioned in his explanation of this commandment.  It was a great morning.

(This post is a part of the Sunday Setlist community at Fred McKinnon’s website.)

Yesterday we talked about what in our own personal lives can hinder us from worshiping God. What kinds of things hinder the corporate congregation from worshiping God?

• First, if there are personal lids going on in the people of the congregation, it’s very difficult to worship corportately as a congregation. The personal lids need to come off first. How?
• By teaching: a lack of teaching on worship is a big lid to corporate worship. Especially if there are people within a congregation who don’t spend the time studying on their own, if there is no teaching on worship, it’s hard to know how to worship! We need to be continually bringing teaching on important subjects like this before the people.
• Lack of teaching on the centrality of Jesus Christ and the Cross. Many churches today have moved away from the authority and Lordship of Jesus and the importance of the Cross. As Luther said, it is impossible to worship God without Jesus.
• Lack of preparation and confidence. While God is the one who we ultimately boast in, there is a reason for Psalm 33:3 (play skillfully.) If the worship team is full of bad, poorly-prepared musicians, the people can get easily distracted. So, too, if the teaching is brought by a poorly-prepared teacher, the congregation can easily be distracted, or worse yet, taught incorrect things.
• Too much preparation and confidence. If there is a slick, perfected production but no humility and no attitude of engaging with God, but rather one of making the service the best production it can be, it’s difficult to worship. I am a firm believer in well-executed, well-produced services, but we can definitely be TOO excellent.

I’m sure there are many more. It is so important for us as worship leaders and teachers to make sure we do all we can to remove any hindrance to worship God from our congregation.

The verse that this blog and ultimately my own life is based on is Romans 12:1-2. These verses are a great summary of how we are to offer our lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Luther sums it up this way:

Where the true obedience of faith toward God is to be found, there everything one’s calling requires to be done is a holy and God-pleasing act of worship.”

Whatever your calling requires you to do, do it with your whole heart, as though working for Jesus and not man, and this is a holy and God-pleasing act of worship. What a way to live life!

This one’s a tough one to read, although it stands today as much as it did when Luther first made the statement:

He who falls from the grace of God upon the Law and imagines that he will be saved through works has as rough a landing as he who falls from grace into idolatry. For outside Christ there is nothing but idolatry and merely a false, imagined notion about God. If you want to be justified before God and saved by that sort of worship, it makes no difference whether you call its basis the Koran of the Turk, the decretal and command of the pope, or even the law of Moses.”

These are some strong words but words that we need to take to heart. So many religions require you to be “good enough” in order to ensure salvation. But how good is “good enough?” How will you ever know?

Even the law of Moses was commanded to be kept perfectly. But, “…whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” We can try and try and try to perfectly keep God’s commandments, but trying and trying becomes idolatry, an idol of work, according to Luther. We must rely on God’s grace in Jesus Christ, for Jesus was the only one that has kept the law absolutely perfectly, fulfilling the “good enough” that we could never become.

Praise God for His grace!

As we looked at Monday, the Word of God must be central in all times of worship. So, also, Jesus Christ must be the focus of all worship. This makes sense of course, because Jesus is the very Word of God Himself. (John 1) Let’s look at these great words from Luther:

“Knowing Christ and knowing the Father are tied together and are one and the same knowledge. This is why I have often said that the Father is known only in Christ and neither will nor can be reached and found, worshiped and invoked, apart form this Mediator.”

What a great promise and warning! Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can know the one true and holy and unreachable God of the universe. He has now become reachable to us through Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 2:5). But what a great warning that we would never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is the only way to know God and the only way to be able to worship God. Without Jesus, it is impossible for us to draw near to God