Preparing for Worship: August 15th, 2010

Pastor Todd's sermon this week is ominously entitled "The Day of Confession." I think when most of us think of confession, we think of confessing our sin to the Lord, knowing that he is faithful to forgive us when we do. This is a vital connotation of confession, to be sure, but in addition to this sort, the Israelites also practice another sort of confession in Nehemiah 9. This other kind of confession is also immensely important, and it has to do with declaring who God is, and what he has done. It's a unified, public declaration of their belief in God, and the confidence that they have in him because of his great and mighty acts throughout their history.

I wanted us to mimic this confession of God's character and acts closely this week through the songs we're singing, so I've chosen songs this week that are heavily focused on reciting specific character traits of God, and allow those truths to fuel our spiritual and emotional response to him.

We're starting the service with the old hymn "How Great Thou Art" which consists of four meaty verses reciting God's greatness as expressed in his creation, the cross, and the second coming of Jesus. The chorus (or refrain as they used to be called) ties the verses together by crying out, not just from the lips, but from the very soul: how great Thou art!!

Then we're going to learn a new song called "How Great is Your Faithfulness" which sounds like a magical combination of "How Great Thou Art" and "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and aside from having different music and different lyrics, it sort of is! It's a tune from Matt Redman, and has a super singable chorus...well, why don't you check out the video below and you can see what I mean...


I think it's a great song, and it fits in well with the idea of confessing God's greatness in specific ways.

Then we'll take a few minutes to highlight some really exciting things coming up at Crossroads, including our 4th Anniversary Celebration happening on September 12th! As is becoming our anniversary tradition, we'll have the In-N-Out truck parked in the parking lot ready to serve up burgers all morning long, so if you've been in and out of Crossroads all summer, plan to be back for the 12th!!

Then we'll jump into another set that follows a similar format to the first one. Leading off with "How Great is Our God" which again, recites attributes of God found directly in Scripture. It's like singing God's own perfect word back to him so we can be confident in what we're singing! Sometimes singers/songwriters can write songs in an abstract or overly personal way that becomes ambiguous and unclear when sung by a gathered body of believers, but when we sing Scripture, we know that God will be rightly honored because in a sense, he authored the song himself! We'll follow that tune up with "We Will Remember" as we recount God's faithfulness in sustaining our life, comforting us in trial, and giving us new spiritual life through Christ.

I hope you'll be struck by how incredibly faithful God is after we sing these things; I know I was!

Pastor Todd will then come and teach us from Nehemiah 9 and we'll see how the Israelites confessed in response to revival workings that sprung forth from the power of the declared Word of God in their presence.

We'll respond to the teaching of the Word with "Glorious and Mighty."

So that's what's-a-happening this weekend at Crossroads. Really looking forward to seeing you there, and offering our corporate praise to the Lord through song, study of the Word, giving, prayer, and community!

Happy prep!