Thursday, February 18, 2010

Preparing for Worship: February 21st, 2010

Well I'm headed outta town with my wife and some friends tomorrow, so I wanted to update the blog with what's going on this weekend so you can prepare for worship.

My friend Dan Kush will be leading in worship this Sunday in my absence. Dan is a passionate brother who loves the Lord, who has lots of experience leading worship singing, and who will be a blessing to have at Crossroads, as he and his wife, Arlene, have attended a Pastor's Coffee, and are confident that this is where the Lord has called them for this season of their lives.

Pastor Todd continues preaching from the book of Ephesians as we learn how to live by the Spirit. Todd even mentioned that he wasn't sure he could preach this passage any more straightforwardly than the apostle Paul lays it out for the Ephesians! CLICK HERE to read this "how-to" on living the Christian life as you prepare for the Spirit to teach and enable YOU to live this life!

We'll kick off the morning with the song "Beautiful One" as we refocus our eyes on the glory, majesty, and of course, beauty, of the God that has redeemed us from sin through His Son.

We'll take a few moments to worship by ask God's blessing and guidance through His Spirit, as we seek to honor him in our time together. Then we'll talk about a few things that are going on in various ministries at Crossroads; specifically an update on our Haiti Relief fund, and our upcoming family outreach event: "Crossroads Live!"

We'll continue worshiping in song as we reflect on the glory and holiness of God. "Glorious and Mighty," "Be Unto Your Name," and "Holy, Holy, Holy" will all honor God through the words we sing, and will minister to each of us as we are reminded of who God is, and what that means for us! Those truths become our motivation and empowerment for living the life the apostle Paul describes in our sermon passage. Because God is almighty and glorious, he demands obedience and worship. Because God is holy and righteous, His own character required that he punish sin with His wrath. Because God is merciful and loving, He gave His Son to be punished in our place that we might be set free from death in sin!

Pastor Todd will then come and preach to us, and if you didn't do it before, you're going to forget if you don't CLICK HERE to read the passage right now, so don't put it off!

After the sermon, Dan will lead in "All I Have is Christ" which is one of my favorite new tunes; and which I will be missing singing with you! It's a perfect sum up of the morning, and of the sermon, as Paul ends the passage by explaining our motivation to live the way he's described: "forgiving one another as God, in Christ, forgave you." So we'll sing about that wonderful forgiveness that God offers us IN CHRIST!

That's the deal for this week. I'll be back with you the following week, so BE GOOD! :)

Happy prep!


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