Intense, Focused Exaltation of God

This Sunday's songs are on Spotify. 

If you've missed any of the sermons in the "church" series, they're all available on the church website: www.fellowshipjoplin.org

Preparing Your Heart for Worship - March 5, 2017

We’ve finished our study of Worship and what a great time it’s been. I’ve truly enjoyed not only studying the subject deeper, but teaching through many elements of what we do when we gather together. What a joy it is each week to meet with my brothers and sisters in Christ for a time of turning our minds and hearts to focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

As we continue through a few more weeks of our series, I’m really looking forward to growing together in our worship of Christ. If we all come to our gathering intentionally and prepared, we can truly make the most of our time together each week. 

As we begin this Sunday, we’ll be singing a song that we learned in January. It’s probably not a song we all know as well as some others, but the lyrics are so perfect for turning our minds and hearts to the One we have gathered to exalt!

Oh, How Good It Is

It is always a joy to come together as brothers and sisters in Christ. As we prepare to look at the dynamic of growing spiritually together, this song is all about us walking together in the Spirit and in the bond of peace. The chorus is so fantastic:

So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord

And with one heart we'll live out His word

Till the whole earth sees

The Redeemer has come

For He dwells in the presence of His people

How Great Thou Art

Who doesn’t love this song? Then sings my soul.... How great Thou art!. Worship begins in the heart, and as we strive or intense, focused exaltation, this is a wonderful way to help our minds lead our hearts in worshiping our awesome Lord!

(the instrumentation on this version is quite different from what we have, but it’s a great version of this beautiful Hymn)

Meditating on God’s Word

Keep up with Psalm 103. Even if you’re not quoting the passage, if you’re working on memorizing it, then in a couple more weeks, you’ll have all of Psalm 103 memorized. This will help you to really meditate on some of the wonderful aspects of who God is. 

My Ransom

I came across this song about a year ago on YouTube and fell in love with it immediately. I can’t wait to hear our choir leading us to the throne with this song! 

Worship through Giving

As I pointed out last week, when we give back to the Lord, it’s an act of worship. Whether you’re giving this week, gave last week, or give once a month, remember that our giving should be sacrificial and joyous. During this time, as you pray, acknowledge the Lord’s provision for you, pray for your own heart and attitude, pray that He would receive your act of worship, and that He would use your gift for the advance of His kingdom.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

As we sing together, may the Spirit enable us to sing praises to Him from our hearts!

This version, from the first David Crowder Band album over 10 years ago remains one of my favorite recordings of the song. 

Grace Greater than Our Sins

Since we started our study of Romans a little more than a year ago, this song has become one of my favorite songs. I love singing about the overwhelming grace of God poured out for us on the cross. 

Sermon: What Is Discipleship?

One of the joys of being a member of a church is that you’re intentionally involved in relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ where we are not only seeking to grow spiritually, but are also committed to helping each other grow. What should we be striving for when it comes to the process of discipleship? What does it look like when a church is rightly committed to a culture of discipleship, where we’re all striving to help each other love Christ more? 

O Church Arise

We should always be striving together toward the advance of the Kingdom of God. As we sing this song, notice that the dominant theme is the church together. We’ll stand, Our Call, We will fight, we know, that we may run... This song is about advancing together as the church - one of the results of true disicpleship. 

We’ll conclude our time by reflecting on our time together. After our time of contemplation, we’ll conclude our time together with a prayer of consecration, and then head out into the mission field!

Sunday Nights @ Fellowship - this Sunday night, our study is an Introduction to Paul’s Letters.  

We start at 5:00 and are done by 6:00 p.m.,

We’ll be singing When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and He Will Hold Me Fast. While we’ve only been singing He Will Hold Me Fast for a short time, this song is one that I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of. We’ll be singing the new verse I mentioned this past Sunday. How coll is it that we’ll be singing a song written over 100 years ago, then added to first several years ago, and finally, just a couple of weeks back!!!    

As always, be in prayer for:

• Rex and all those who lead the music in our time together

• Pray that we all come together on Sunday with hearts prepared to engage in intense, focused exaltation of God. 

• Pray that we demonstrate holiness, unity, and love in both our personal lives as well as together as the Body.

• Pray for me as I prepare to preach this week.

As always, I’m really looking forward to our time together this Sunday - it truly is the highlight of my week. 

Rob