Preparing for Worship: May 30, 2010

Pastor Todd and I posted our fourth "This Sunday @ Crossroads" video blog this week, and I don't think we really expected it to be so hard to come up with ideas for our videos, so we just decided to be honest about it and ask for help. If you haven't watched it yet, please CLICK HERE.  It's a good thing we don't have to come up with new ideas each and every week for our worship services! We'd be in trouble really quick.

This Sunday is still notable however, because we are going to finish our expositional study through the book of Ephesians. Pastor Todd has been so faithful to study and prepare sermons each week that help us understand the heart of this letter from a loving pastor to a faithful church. Through this time each week, the Spirit has helped us understand the nature of the new life we've been given when we surrender to the Lordship of Christ. He's helped us to pursue love and unity within the body of Christ; the church for which Jesus laid down his life. He's taught us that day in and day out we're in a spiritual battle, and the importance of dressing ourselves spiritually.

So we're sad to end this valuable study, but we're excited to move ahead to our next study in the book of Nehemiah called "Arise and Build." So come hear the apostle Paul's final thoughts to his beloved church at Ephesus!

As for the rest of the morning, it's gonna be familiar to ya, so prepare yourself to come and contribute. Ask the Spirit to guide you as you engage in conversation, as you sing, pray, study, and give, that through your participation others might be built up in love, and God might be honored!

We're going to start with the song "Here I am to Worship" which might seem like we're stating the obvious to God: "Hey God, we've come to church this morning to worship." I've found that sometimes you need to remind yourself of the purpose of whatever you're doing in order to really do it well and with the right motivation. Why do we worship God?? Because he's "altogether lovely" and "altogether worthy" are good reasons to start. It's an older tune these days, but the truth is still just as real. AND you should know it by heart by now! ;-)

We'll roll right into the hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" which is one of my all-time favorite hymns because it is just chock-full-to-the-brim-and-even-overflowing-a-little with rich doctrine and truth about God. Truth that, when it cuts to your heart and soul, is enough to weather any storm and persevere any trial. "SURELY his goodness and mercy here DAILY attend thee!!!"

Todd comes up to do his usual prayer and welcome shtick and I thought it'd be fun to have all you blog readers mess with him a little during this time (I'll do it too). Wouldn't it be funny if we were all like a little too excited for his "routine" welcome and instructions to visitors? Like if we all got up on the edges of our seats and opened our eyes real big like we had no idea what he was going to say, and that any moment he might choose one of us to receive $10,000? It has to be subtle, but if enough of us do it, I think it could freak him out a little. Leave me a comment at the end of the blog if you're IN. And if you don't want to, then FINE!

After a quick greeting, we'll sing some more as we learn the new song I posted yesterday "Exalted (Yahweh)" from Chris Tomlin. This is a cool tune that is right outta Scripture, and the way it builds up in intensity as it goes into the bridge is truly a superb musical moment; thank God for the marriage of words of truth and music! Then we'll take a scene out of Revelation where all the ruling elders of the world throw their crowns down at the feet of Jesus and cry holy, holy, holy with "We Fall Down."

Then Pastor Todd will come and share the "series finale" of Ephesians. As I expressed in the video blog, I closed the door on a significant chapter of my life this week as I watched the final episode of LOST. I think the writers of that show were tremendous storytellers, and though there were mysteries left unsolved, the finale was very satisfying to me. I hope Todd's sermon measures up! CLICK HERE to read Paul's final words to his friends in Ephesus.

We'll respond with one closing song, which is actually just going to be the same song we learned and sung earlier: "Exalted (Yahweh)" so you'll really have a chance to learn this one and belt it out with everyone!

That's what's happening this weekend at Crossroads so I hope you're not going away for the holiday weekend; we need ya! Happy prep!