This weekend, David Hinkle preached about abiding in Christ from 1 John. This was our second week walking through 1 John together in our "Love In Christ" series, and we have been reading through the entire letter each week to become very familiar with it. In his message, David emphasized the certainty and security that we have because of what Christ has done for us, and our resulting relationship and fellowship with Christ. It was a beautiful and powerful reminder of our covenant relationship with God. You can listen to the entire message here. For the music this week, we focused on God's faithfulness, God's grace toward us, the finished work of the cross, and the call for us to be completely confident in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. We have nothing to fear in Him. Here's our service plan from this weekend:
"Faithful One" (G) [Original] Welcome/Greeting Time "Hallelujah To My King" (E) [Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown] "He Has Done It All" (G) [Andy Cherry, Jason Ingram] "You Have Overcome" (G) [Bill Horn, Erik Oldberg] Message - "Love In Christ: Abide" [David Hinkle] Offering "You Never Let Go" (Bb) [Matt Redman] Announcements Dismissal
"Faithful One" - This is an original song that we introduced to our congregation a few weekends ago. It declares the truth that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). In my mind, this is one of the crucial attributes of our Lord, because it means that He will not change His mind about us when we are in Christ. His Word is binding and unchanging, because it comes from Him. This is the reason that we can trust His promises.
"Hallelujah To My King" - This song is a simple song of praise to God for all that He has done for us. My favorite verse is the second, which sings of God's amazing grace and mercy in adopting us as sons and daughters, even when we were enemies.
"He Has Done It All" - This is a new song that I have been itching to introduce to our church for a few months. I first heard it February at the re:create conference during our night of worship with several Essential Worship artists. One of them was completely new to me: Andy Cherry. I hadn't heard any of his songs before that night, but several of his songs really resonated with me, especially this one. It declares with confidence that we are secure in what Christ has done for us. The chorus sings, "Love tells me/ It is finished, He accomplished/ What no one could, He has done it all/ Everything has been made complete/ In Him I belong, He has done it all." Unfortunately, it's not really streaming anywhere for you to hear it, so you'll have to just pick up the album (it's worth it, believe me). I love this song, and our church joined in singing it pretty well. I think our congregation will participate in it more as we continue singing it together. This one is a keeper.
"You Have Overcome" - This is an original song that we introduced around Easter, and it is one that is simply about the gospel and what Jesus Christ accomplished for us. He has overcome sin and death and redeemed us to everlasting life. We can place our complete trust in Him; He is so worthy of our praise.
"You Never Let Go" - In response to the message, we sang this song of faith. Regardless of the circumstances we face in this life, God is with us, and He is worthy of our praise. He is faithful to His covenant toward us.
This weekend was a pretty good weekend. I didn't feel like we were as tight as I would have liked, but we sang songs that centered on the gospel and that pointed our confidence to Christ alone, which is what ultimately matters most. Christ was exalted, and I feel that we were all encouraged by the reminder that Jesus never fails and never neglects His covenant toward us. We can be assured and confident in our Savior!
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!