Preparing For Worship: October 11th, 2009

I'm looking forward, as always, to the opportunity to worship with all of you as we lift our voices in song, bow our heads in prayer, submit to the power and authority of God's Word, and seek the Holy Spirit's guidance and application of it to our lives!

Before I give you all the goods for this Sunday, I wanted to make you aware that I've posted a recording on the Crossroads homepage that I did just yesterday (Thursday). It's a recording of "The Lord's Prayer" that I did during church a number of months ago. It's an old...I mean "classic" arrangement of the text by Albert Hay Malotte, and a number of people have asked me if I would ever record it. I'm thinking this is mostly because I absolutely BOTCHED IT UP during second service, and they want to hear what it is SUPPOSED to sound like. :) Anyway, I recorded it and added some background vocals that give it a similar feel to Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah." So, enjoy! CLICK HERE to go to the page...but come back!

This Sunday Pastor Todd jumps back in to the first chapter of Ephesians as we wrestle with the centuries-old tension between God's sovereign choice in election, and man's free will. Calvinists and Arminians have debated and argued for hundreds of years over this, but Pastor Todd will finally settle the debate THIS WEEK!

Just kidding. Our human minds will probably never be able to fully reconcile God's sovereign predestination with our free will to choose Christ in salvation. But guess what folks; the Bible teaches both, so somehow, even if it's in the mind of God alone, the two work together. So come, ready to think through, and wrestle with this very significant doctrine.

We're starting with the hymn "Immortal, Invisible God, Only Wise" with a great chorus written by one of my worship leading heroes: Bob Kauflin. Then we have a few announcements and a greeting time.

We'll sing "Holy Is The Lord" and "Grace Unmeasured" as we focus in on what God's sovereign grace means for us in election to salvation, and receiving the Holy Spirit. "Grace Unmeasured" is shaping up to be a really powerful "theme song" of sorts for this series in Ephesians, so hopefully you like it since I'll probably be using it a lot! :)

Todd will come preach from chapter one, verses 11-14, which you should read by CLICKING HERE. Let the text stew in your brain and in your heart for a while, and ask the Spirit to teach you and make the truth of God clear to you, and to apply it in a practical way.

We'll respond "to the praise of his glorious grace" by singing our new song "Glorious and Mighty" together, which I think will be a good way for us to respond; instead of trying to completely figure God out and put it all into nice little categories and acronyms, we'll throw our hands up in surrender and just proclaim that God is too "glorious and mighty" for us to fully comprehend!

We'll close with the tune "Stronger" which brings that truth home to our hearts when we realize that the mighty God we serve conquered and payed for our sin once and for all!

So that's what's going on; see you Sunday!

PS. The video link for "Stronger is from a youth service in Norway! COOL!

New Song: Glorious and Mighty

This week we're going to learn a new song together by Bob Kauflin and friends from Sovereign Grace Ministries. It's a song that celebrates and responds to the sovereignty of God over all of his creation.

The video is from the 2009 Resolved Conference in Palm Springs. If you look really carefully, you'll see me playing the black electric guitar, although whoever filmed it REALLY liked to watch the drummer :)

Here are the lyrics:

Majesty, Your glory is shining

Brighter than the moon and the stars

Marveling, we honor and fear You above all gods!

Glorious and mighty!

You're awesome in beauty

Joyful songs we raise!

Glorious and mighty!

You're awesome in beauty

Greatly to be praised!

Majesty, You fashioned the heavens

Your decrees can never be changed

Over all the plans of the nations Your judgments reign!

Majesty, we sing with creation!

When You come again in the clouds

Every knee will bow down and worship the one true God!

Here's a really cool video of a church choir doing the tune! Maybe someday a choir will sing it at Crossroads!

Preparing For Worship: October 4th, 2009

I think Fall finally arrived this week! The changing of seasons is always an epic reminder of the common grace of God on both the redeemed and the lost. He gives us beautiful changes in the colors, and welcome weather changes that remind us that he is totally in control of his creation. And I'm just talking about Southern California here, we don't even experience the extent of the changes that the rest of the country/world does!

We'll have a little bit of a change ourselves this weekend as we welcome guest speaker Bob Vernon. Bob served as an Assistant Chief of Police with the LAPD for 37 years, and formed the Point Man Leadership Institute after he retired. He'll be giving us a message on missions he calls "What in the World is God Doing?" Take a moment to pray for Bob, that what God's laid on his heart might be edifying and convicting to us as we worship with him through his preaching on Sunday.

As we love to do, we'll spend plenty of time lifting praises to God through song. We'll start with "See What a Morning" which could technically be described as an "Easter song" but I think it's a good idea to celebrate the resurrection more than just once a year huh?!

We'll take a few moments to welcome visitors, and have a few announcements including the SCV Pregnancy Center's "Walk For Life" coming up on October 17th, and a special "Q and A" conclusion to the study that's been taking place in our "Family Matters" ministry.

We'll sing some more: "We Trust Your Will" and "Completely Done" as we thank God for his wisdom and grace in redemption, and for finishing the work we could never accomplish on our own!

Bob will come and speak to us, and we'll have the opportunity to share communion together after his message. We'll sing "Jesus Paid it All" and then finish our time together with "I Surrender All."

That's what's going on; see you Sunday!