Preparing Your Heart for Worship - January 15, 2017
This Sunday, we’ll continue our “church” series by looking at the “ordinances.” Why do we baptize people the way we do? Why is the term “Baptist” in our church’s name? What exactly is the Lord’s Supper and what role does it play in our lives as Christians? One of the historic definitions of what a church is includes the practice of the Lord’s Table and Baptism. And that is correct, if we’re not baptizing new believers and celebrating the Lord’s Table, we cannot call ourselves a church. We’ll be looking at what the Bible teaches on these two very important subject this Sunday.
At the conclusion of our gathering, we’ll come to the Lord’s Table together as we celebrate the gospel through this ordinance. Please come with your heart prepared to worship the Lord through this wonderful time together as a Body.
As you prepare for our time together, take a few minutes to read through 1 Corinthians 11:17-33 a time or two.
At the beginning of our Worship Gathering, we’re going to sing the new song we’ve been learning:
Oh How Good it Is
The more I hear this song and think about the lyrics, the more I’m liking it. Listen to this song a few times so that the melody and words are famililar to you. What a joy it will be to join with your brothers and sisters here at Fellowship to sing this song together!
Here’s the iTunes link: https://itun.es/us/fQrFP?i=696065196
I’ve so enjoyed hearing godly men lead us in prayer each week. We’ll continue with our Prayer of Praise and then quote the Fighter Verse. If you haven’t been able to memorize the verse in the past, let me encourage you to not only memorize it weekly, but also to volunteer to quote it one week. It’s such a blessing to our congregation when someone quotes Scripture! Let me know if you want to quote it one week.
Our Choir will be singing “Jesus, the Living Stone” as we continue to worship. I’m thankful for these men and women who spend time praying together and preparing to lead us in worship each week. What a blessing to our body they are!
Before the message, we’re going to sing about the Lord Jesus. What better way to prepare our hearts to hear from God’s Word than to sing about our Savior?
The Solid Rock
This version is a little different than how we sing the song, but it’s a really cool version. As always, pay attention to the words - what a beautiful expression of our hope in Christ this song is!
Jesus, Messiah
This acoustic version of the song has a brief explanation of the song at the beginning by Chris Tomlin, who wrote it.
As you prepare for our time together, take some time this week to read through 1 Corinthians 11:17-33 a time or two. This will help prepare you not only for the teaching, but also for receiving the elements later in the service when we approach the Table.
After the message about the Ordinances that Christ has given us as a church, we’ll come to the Lord’s Table together. As we take the bread and the cup, we’ll sing several songs together.
The Power of the Cross
From the very first time I heard this song, I was captured by the powerful gospel message contained in it. While there are many wonderful songs that contain the message of Christ, this one has always stood out to me for it’s clarity of message. This version ends with “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” - this is six minutes and 48 seconds that will bless you!
Jesus, Thank You
The line in this song, “once your enemy, now seated at Your table, Jesus Thank You” - WOW! Just thinking that He took me, when I was His enemy and not only declared me “not guilty” of my sins, but actually invited me to sit down at His table and commune with Him. That thought truly does overwhelm me every time I sing this song. I look forward to singing this song every time it’s a part of our worship gathering.
Doxology
Growing up, we sang this song at the end of our evening service every single Sunday. As an adult, I’ve grown to appreciate the lyrics much more than I did as a child. What a beautiful expression of praise to our God this song is.
(Before you go, here’s a sneak peek of one of the songs we’ll be learning together in the next week or so: )
Don’t forget to come back to Sunday Nights @ Fellowship as well.
We start at 5:00 and are done by 6:00 p.m., so that you have time to go out for dinner or dessert with someone, or even go home early and get ready for what’s coming up this week.
We’ll be singing Grace Greater Than Our Sin, Blessed Assurance and Jesus Paid It All as well as praying for our church and the new administration leading our country. Our study this Sunday evening is in Matthew’s gospel.
As you spend time in prayer this week, pray for:
Rex and those who lead the music in our time together
Those who will be praying and reading Scripture
Pray for yourself that God prepares your heart for what He wants to teach you through His Word.
Pray for the Body that God places in us a desire to serve Him with all of our lives.
Pray for me as I prepare to preach and lead us to the Lord’s Table.
I truly am looking forward to our time together this Sunday!
Rob
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