This weekend, we began a series called "Everything!" Joe is talking through the concepts of a generous life and stewardship with all that we have. It was a really fresh and challenging perspective on generosity, beginning this weekend with a focus on the true owner of the things in this world - God owns everything, and we are stewards of what He owns. You can listen to the entire message here. For our singing, I wanted our songs to remind us that we have nothing to fear when we are in Christ. Many times, the thing that keeps us from obedience and generosity is that fear. He is always with us, and we can trust Him with everything we have and everything we are. He is so good and faithful!
Here's our service plan from this weekend:
"All We Need" (G) [Charlie Hall] Welcome/Greeting Time "Everlasting God" (Bb) [Brenton Brown, Ken Riley] "You Never Let Go" (Bb) [Matt Redman, Beth Redman] "Always" (Bb) [Kristian Stanfill, Jason Ingram] Message - "Everything: Where Your Treasure Is, Your Heart Will Be Also " [Joe Hishmeh] "I Surrender All" (D) [Judson Wheeler Van DeVenter, Winfield Scott Weeden] Offering/Announcements Dismissal
"All We Need" - We reintroduced this song to our congregation this weekend. It has been about three years since they had sung it, and it was a great fit for this message series, as it declares that our sufficiency is in Christ and nothing else.
"Everlasting God" - This song remains a staple for us. We sang this song because I wanted us as a congregation to remember that God is from everlasting to everlasting, and that He is our all-sufficient source of strength and hope.
"You Never Let Go" - We haven't sung this song for a few months, and I felt that this series was a good time to bring it back. I feel it helps us to remember and declare that God will never leave us or forsake us, because He is faithful and unchanging. Matt Redman has a great gift in writing songs in this vein that really resonate with the Church, and which express great faith and trust in the faithfulness of our great God [e.g. "Blessed Be Your Name," "Never Once," "10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)," etc.].
"Always" - This is another song that we haven't sung recently, which was also a good fit for the message this weekend. This song really focuses on how we need not fear because of God's faithfulness and perfect timing. No matter what we face in this life, we will endure and God will see us through. He will be there with us through it all.
"I Surrender All" - We responded to our time in the Word with this song. I felt it was a great statement of faith for us to sing after being challenged to trust God and obey Him completely, even when we feel it is difficult. It is in those times that it truly feels like "surrender," when we have to let go of things that we hold dear or things on which we feel dependent. That is exactly the type of thing that Joe pointed out in the Word this weekend. I tried playing it differently than I had before, in my favorite open tuning, DADGAD. I thought it turned out rather pretty (everything sounds good in DADGAD if one can find good chord voicings...). I will definitely use that again. I was inspired to take a look at some other hymns to try in this tuning, too. I'll keep you posted.
This weekend was another solid and very enjoyable weekend of worship. We also had OVERFLOW on Sunday night, which is our night of worship. I may post the set list from that worship gathering as well, in case people are looking for the info.
I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were!
In the Son, Bill
p.s. don't forget to check out The Worship Community!