Sunday - the highlight of my week!!

Preparing Your Heart for Worship - October 1, 2017

I always look forward to being together with my church family every Sunday!. This week, we’ll be turning our thoughts to what it means to be the Body of Christ and the role we are meant to play in each other’s lives. The many elements of our day together have all been put together not only to remind us of the gospel, but to think on and celebrate that God has brought us all together as members of Fellowship Baptist Church. We’ll sing together, study God’s Word together, hear from others as they share about being a part of Fellowship, and take the Lord’s Supper together. The day will culminate in our annual church picnic (at Parr Hill park this year), one of my favorite yearly events. It’s a time to just enjoy being together as brothers and sisters in Christ as well as being “very Baptist” and enjoying a lot of food together!

Preparing Your Heart

Over the next couple of days, as you think toward our time together, read the following passages and think through the list of questions so that we can make the most of our time together. 

Colossians 3:12-17

• How are God’s people described?

• What are we told to put on?

• Who are we supposed to bear with? (what does “bear with” mean?)

• Why do we forgive others?

• What are we to do more than anything?

• What should rule in your heart?

• What should dwell in your heart?

• As a result of that, what two things are you to do for one another?

• What are we to do everything in?

Ephesians 4:29

• What kind of speech is “only” to come out of your mouth?

Hebrews 10:24-25

• What are we to consider?

• What are we not to neglect?

• What are we to do instead? 

The goal of reading the passages and answering these questions is to help you think through the passage I’m preaching on this Sunday. 

Here are the songs we’ll be singing together this week. 

Oh How Good It Is

What an amazing declaration of why we gather each week! As the lyrics of this song say: with one heart we sing to the Lord, and with one voice we live out His Word!  

Trust and Obey

There are two simple words that are repeated over and over in this song, and they summarize very well what our response should always be to God’s instructions to us!

Amazing Grace

There’s a reason that this is considered to be one of the best hymns ever written. What a wonderful expression of what Christ has done for us. Just the first verse alone is something that would be beneficial to meditate on again and again.   

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When Isaac Watts wrote this song in 1707, it was intended to be a communion hymn. It remains to this day, a wonderful meditation on the cross and our response to it. Based on Galatians 6:14 (But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ...) the song begins contemplating the cross and that all of our own accomplishments pale in comparison. He then points us to Christ’s love for us, and, in a powerful image, points to the diety of our Suffering Savior - “Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?" The final verse is our proper response to Christ’s overwhelming love for us.
Here's my favorite version of this song: https://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/track/when-i-survey-the-wondrous-cross

You Are My All In All

The chorus of this song reminds me of John 1:29 when John said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” May Christ’s sacrifice for us ever be on our lips. 

As always, be in prayer for:

• Pray first and foremost for yourself, that you would come with your heart prepared to worship Christ and celebrate the gospel as we come to the Lord’s Table together as the conclusion of our time together this Sunday. 

• 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 God’s inspired, inerrant, sufficient, authoritative Word.

Rob