Looking at our Assurance (yes again!!)

Preparing Your Heart for Worship - June 25, 2017

As we continue our series titled “The Great Hymn of Assurance,” we’ll be singing some of the great hymns of our faith and celebrating the security we have in Christ. 

Victory In Jesus

It is because of the victory that Jesus won on the cross that we are saved. As the lyrics so beautifully put it - “He sought me and bought me with His redeeming love.” I’m so thankful for His great work on my behalf. What a joy it always is as we sing this song together! 

Blessed Assurance

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! When we sing together, we get a glimpse of what it will be like when we gather before the Throne in Heaven. The weight of eternal glory far outweighs the difficulties we face in our daily lives. Christ alone is our rock and our salvation. We are heirs of salvation!  

Prayer of Praise

Remember that as we are led in prayer, we are coming before the Father TOGETHER! And at the conclusion of the prayer, when we all say “Amen!” together it is a beautiful indicator of our unity in Christ. 

Worship through Giving

Giving is an act of worship. The New Testament teaches that our giving should be sacrificial and joyous. When we give back to God, we are acknowledging that everything we have is because of His grace toward us.  

As we take up the offering this Sunday, we’ll begin learning a new song titled “Glorious Christ.” This song is a beautiful expression of who He is. You can listen to the song on the Spotify playlist or watch/listen on YouTube. 

Meditating on God’s Word

We’ll hear directly from God as His Word is read. God desires for us to simply hear His Word read when we gather for worship. Let this element of our worship gathering do as the old hymn says “tune my heart to sing Thy praise.” 

Pastoral Prayer of Petition

What a joy and privilege it is to not just pray for you throughout the week, but to come before the Lord, on behalf of the assembled Body, and pray. I’m truly honored and humbled to be your pastor. I love praying for our church in our worship gathering!

The Solid Rock

At the beginning of the sermon last week, we sang just a few lines from this song. We’ll be singing the entire song together this Sunday reminding us that our salvation is built on what Christ has done, not on anything we might do.  It really is who Christ is and what He has done that provides the rock solid foundation for our hope. As we’ll see in verse 31 this coming Sunday, verses 29-30 are the foundation for our hope. It is because God knows us that we can sing of our great assurance. 

It Is Well with My Soul

Pointing back to verse 28 (“all things work together”) and verse 18 (“the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with [heaven]”) we can have a right perspective in the midst of any trials or difficulties in life. Verse 3 has a great phrase reminding me that all of my confidence lies in His personal, intimate knowledge of me: That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood For my soul. Wow! - He did this for ME!

Sermon: The Great Hymn of Assurance, part 2 - Romans 8:30-39

As we near our conclusion of Romans 8, Paul wraps up this great chapter by taking everything he’s said since verse 1 and summarizing it in to what really is an awesome crescendo of assurance. I know we’ve been talking about security and assurance for weeks now - but how can we ever tire of hearing that, as verse 31 says - God is for us - and what hope does anyone or anything that stands against us have? And yes - I LOVE rhetorical questions. 

He Will Hold Me Fast

We’ve sung this song together several times this year - I could sing it every week. What a beautiful reminder of our security this song always is. And my security is not based on my ability to remain true to God or the strength of my own faith. My security comes because HE holds ME!! I’ll be looking forward to singing this song with my church family all weekend!

Galatians

Sunday Nights @ Fellowship returns this week and we’ll be walking through Galatians. If you have a chance to sit down and read through this entire letter in one sitting, it would really help you be prepared for our study this Sunday night. 

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 Mike Walker as he prepares to teach us Galatians Sunday night. 

• Pray for me as I prepare to preach God’s inerrant Word!

I’m truly looking forward, as I do each week, to our time together as the Body. What a joy and privilege is it to be able to gather together as brothers and sisters in Christ and exalt our Lord together. 

Rob