This weekend we continued in the fifth week of our series, "Obedience," and Joe shared about the life of Elijah and how he stood with the Lord to confront evil in his lifetime. You can listen to or watch the entire message and service here.
Here's our service plan:
Pre-Service - "Suffering Servant" (A - B) [Dustin Kensrue]
"Sing to the King" (D) [Billy Foote, Charles Silvester Horne]
Greeting Time Child Dedications (at 5 PM & 9:15 AM services)
Announcements
Message - "Obedience: Confrontation" [Joe Hishmeh]
"Always" (Bb) [Kristian Stanfill, Jason Ingram]
"Hosanna" (Eb) [Brooke Ligertwood]
"This Is Amazing Grace" (Bb) [Phil Wickham, Josh Farro, Jeremy Riddle]
Dismissal
Thoughts: This was a powerful weekend. Once again, Joe's message was a powerful challenge to follow Christ with all of our lives, and to confront the evil in our world and lives with the power of the gospel. We started out our weekend in the pre-service time with Dustin Kensrue's "Suffering Servant," which is a fantastic song from his new record, coming almost directly from Isaiah 52 & 53. This song has brought me to tears several times over the past month, as I have been overwhelmed with the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made for our redemption. It is powerful in both its words and in its music. There are quite a few words to the song, so it may remain a song for special occasions, but I would love to sing it more often. We continued into the service with Becky leading us in "Sing to the King," which gives us great words by which to celebrate Christ's victory, and which is one of our church's favorites. In response to the message, we expressed our confidence and trust in the Lord through singing "Always." We hadn't sung this song in quite a while, and it was great to sing it again, as it is a powerful statement of our faith. From there, Becky led us in singing "Hosanna," and then we closed out the service with "This Is Amazing Grace." This song has been one of my favorites lately, mainly for the chorus: "This is amazing grace/ This is unfailing love/ That You would take my place/ That You would bear my cross/ You would lay down Your life/ That I would be set free/ Jesus, I sing for/ All that You've done for me!"
THAT is why we sing. THAT is why we worship. Jesus has been so good to us.
Your turn: what were your experiences, observations, or take-aways from this past weekend?
- Bill