Preparing for Worship: January 24th, 2010

Hey everyone; I hope you are enjoying the rain more than I am. I can only truly enjoy the rain when I am inside by the fire with my wife and a hot cup of coffee. Once I have to go out INTO the rain, it's not quite as enjoyable.

I suppose this week of non-stop rain is completely unusual though, and I should remember that we suffer from droughts almost every year from the normal California LACK of rain.

So with that fresh perspective in mind, let's look at what's going on at Crossroads this Sunday!

Try this: click HERE to check out our Order of Worship directly from our Online Planning Center!

This is what Pastor Todd and I craft during the week as we consider the sermon text/theme, any special announcements or videos we are showing, and all the songs we'll sing together.

Pastor Todd has invited Pastor Jeff Noe of Oak Hill Bible Church in Castaic to come and preach God's Word to us this week. Pastor Todd likes to try and bring in guest speakers semi-frequently because as he says: "it gives people a break from me!"

Whether you need a break from Pastor Todd or not; why not let him know how thankful you are for his constant care and ministry to the body here at Crossroads? He spends a LOT of hours studying and preparing to preach and teach us on Sunday mornings, but he also spends a LOT of hours on the phone with people and meeting with people in his office as he shepherds and cares for people on a personal and individual basis. Whether he is up on the stage preaching, or stacking chairs in the worship center (we are both Pros at this), he loves Crossroads, and more importantly he loves the PEOPLE of Crossroads. So make sure he knows that you appreciate him whether you catch him after church, shoot him an email (tsmith@lifeatcrossroads.org), or call him at the church office (661-775-9502).

So yeah, Pastor Todd is giving everyone a break from his preaching this week as Jeff comes and teaches us from the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel. He's preaching from all of chapter 27 (it's short), and the choice of text may seem strange to you, so CLICK HERE to read it and prepare for what God will teach you from this "road less travelled" text.

We'll kick off our morning with a pair of songs that express our joyful confidence in the never-changing, never-failing character of God with "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" and "Everlasting God."

From there, Pastor Todd will come and pray, welcome everyone, and introduce a short promo video for the next Financial Peace University course we're offering at Crossroads starting on February 11th. CLICK HERE to go to our calendar page for more information on being a part of this life changing class.

After a short greeting time to shake a few hands and give a few hugs, we'll take it up a notch as we sing and teach each other to be joyful and excited about the hope that we have because of Christ's death and resurrection by singing "I Have a Hope." The funny thing about us humans is that we need to constantly be reminded of this hope because we have such tendency to forget it and to doubt it. We will help ourselves in the area of doubt by singing "Completely Done"(follow the directions for a FREE download of this great song!) which reminds us that the work of the cross is not dependent on how perfect we can become (since we CAN'T become perfect), but that Jesus completed the work of redemption once and for all, and it cannot be added to or undone by any thing or anyone!!

Pastor Jeff will come and preach from 1 Samuel at this point in our meeting, and he will help us realize when we are falling into spiritual depression due to doubting God, and how we can fight spiritual discouragement in the face of difficulty in life. Have you ever experienced this? If you answered "No" then you're LYING!! This is going to be a timely and helpful message, so don't miss it!

We'll respond with a song that is straight from a key passage of scripture that relates to this idea: "Psalm 62" where David confronts his own soul, and commands it to find rest and shelter in God alone amidst the trials and temptations of the world. May it become stuck in all our heads this week as we seek to apply the message to our lives outside the walls of Crossroads!

That's what's going on so check out all the songs, and read up on the biblical text. See you Sunday!

Preparing for Worship: January 17th, 2010

Well last Sunday was yet another "first" for Crossroads, as Pastor Todd led in singing! After our opening set, he led our people in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" in celebration of my, not 18th as he "guessed," but 27th birthday. What a cool church family! THANK YOU!

I'm sure most of you have heard by now of the catastrophic earthquake that shook the country of Haiti earlier this week. What grace we were shown in that our short-term missions team returned from there just two days before the quake! Still, we mourn the destruction and havoc that has turned the country on its head. Even before the quake, Haiti was in shambles; weak, corrupted government; extreme poverty (Haiti is among the poorest countries in the world!); and a deep, deep need for the love of the Savior both in the knowledge of the gospel, and through his people as we reach out to meet their needs.

We are going to take a special offering on Sunday for the relief efforts that are being mobilized to get medical supplies and other necessities to the Haitian people. Please consider giving sacrificially to help bless these people who, for the small percentage that have jobs, live on about $2 a day, and who are even more in need now.

As you prepare to come and worship God with the body at Crossroads, here's what we'll be sharing together Sunday morning.

We'll start with joyful singing to help get us all on the same page. This is an important time in the service, as we all come in with different things on our minds, some having had great weeks, some having had terrible weeks, some dealing with great trial, etc. The beginning of the service is where we remind ourselves of the God that we serve, and that as we worship him corporately, we seek his will to be done both in our lives as individuals, and as a local body of believers. In many churches over the years, it's been called the "Call to Worship." I think that's an okay term to use but I prefer to think of it as a "Refocusing of Worship."

Every Sunday, we sing songs filled with truth about God, and we sit under teaching about God, and what he has to say to us. We leave with our thoughts and lives focused on him; living out our worship as a lifestyle.

Throughout the week, our minds are pushed and pulled in every direction, and we often lose focus on God. We still may have our "quiet times" or remember to pray before meals, but so often life just gets so busy that our "worship" refocused on our jobs, or our families, or our _____ (fill in the blank with the things you find take your mind off of God; the Bible calls these things IDOLS!!).

When we come together as a corporate body we often need a bit of a "Spiritual Realignment" so that our minds might be renewed by the Spirit to recognize the supremacy of God in Christ in all things!

So DON'T BE LATE!! Church starts at 9:00 and 10:30, and we need YOU, as a vital part of God's body, to be there with us!

Okay, now that we got that out of the way...

We'll "refocus" our worship together back to the One to whom it rightfully belongs as we share music and melody together with "Holy is the Lord" and "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty."

We have our yearly financial update as we reflect on God's goodness and faithfulness displayed in the faithful giving of his people! We'll talk about the budget for the coming year, and thank God together for blessing Crossroads so immensely. We'll also talk about our "iServe" program and how to get involved in ministry at Crossroads. We'll finish with a few minutes focused on Haiti, and how we can get involved to be God's hands and feet there in the coming weeks as they recover from the disaster. Also, our team that was just there will be sharing a recap of the trip on Sunday, the 31st, for which they will supply the details on Sunday morning.

After a few minutes to greet and encourage each other, we'll resume corporate singing that helps us remember God's sovereignty even in light of the events in Haiti: "We Will Remember" and the old hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness."

Pastor Todd will share his message from Ephesians 4:1-6 where the Apostle Paul calls us to live worthy of the calling we've received as children of God in Christ. The Spirit who dwells in us enables us to live with humility, gentleness, and patience. He calls the church to live in unity with peace, recalling the truth that we all serve the same One God as a part of One Body and One Faith and Baptism. READ (CLICK HERE) the passage Todd's preaching from, and ask the Spirit to teach YOU how to live in this way that none of us are truly capable of apart from Him!

At the end of his message, Todd will invite us to do something NOW about Haiti, and give towards relief efforts there. Will will be setting up more ways to help in the coming weeks, but instead of just waiting around, we thought we should give towards efforts that are already being mobilized.

We'll close with the new song we learned a few weeks ago called "All I Have is Christ." I thought this would be a good way to close, because this perspective is so foreign to us in America: that ALL we have is Christ, and that we're HAPPY about that??? To us, Christ is often something we list (consciously or unconsciously) among other "stuff" that we have that gives us joy and security in life: family, spouse, house, car, etc.

The people in Haiti truly have next to NOTHING. In a sense, they are in the best position to understand that Christ is ALL we need, and that which we should want the most!

"Hallelujah! ALL I have is CHRIST!"

That's what's happening Sunday, see you then!

Preparing for Worship: January 10th, 2010

I received lots of positive feedback from doing a more acoustic, "unplugged" vibe this past Sunday during our worship singing; thank you! That was a planned for a while beforehand, but it ended up being part of God's perfect plan.

Friday evening I came down with a dreaded stomach flu; something that prior to last weekend, I can't ever really remember having, which made it worse. I spent all of Friday night waking up every hour as my body wrenched itself of all water. I spent Saturday sleeping and recovering but by Sunday morning I was still really weak so a mellow worship set while I sat on a stool was an example of God's kindness to me! :)

I also really enjoyed teaching you our new song "All I Have is Christ" and everyone seemed grateful for its truth and power. Looking forward to incorporating that song again often in the coming weeks!

So I feel almost 100% percent again, and am excited to worship with you guys again this weekend!

Here's what's happening:

We'll call our souls to worship with an old faithful: "Open the Eyes of my Heart" and corporately ask God to allow us to experience himself high and lifted up, shining in the light of his glory! Next we'll obediently and joyfully ascribe to the Lord glory and strength (Psalm 29:1) by singing the hymn "To God be the Glory."

Pastor Todd will lead us in prayer for the morning, that it would be done in the power of the Spirit, through the blood of Christ, for the glory of the Father. Then we have a bittersweet portion of morning to share together.

The Penberthy family (Jon, our 1st-6th grade coordinator; his wife Kerri; and their 4 girls) have received the call to a youth pastor position in Washington! We want to take some time as a church to pray for them, and commission them to the work the Lord's calling them to. We'll miss them!

Then we'll have a chance to meet Jon's replacement: Kari Pendleton (who knew there were so many ways to spell that first name??). She'll share her heart for children's ministry with us, and give us a face to go with the name. She's already been very active in our kids ministry by coordinating and directing our kids Christmas program.

Next we'll have a short group announcement for our Life Stage Groups that will be launching/resuming next Sunday, January 17th. Some of these ministries have already been established, but they are moving their meeting time to Sunday morning at our North campus to expand our "Church" experience. Corporate worship is a good and necessary part of the life of the believer, but it's not intensely personal, and you can't minister very much to your brothers and sisters in the Lord just by singing with them and listening to a sermon with them.

These groups will help make our church a little smaller (when do ever hear THAT as a desire of a church?? It SHOULD be!). They are structured to general age demographics, and for more information, you can check out the "Ministries" page of our website. (Click HERE to go there)

Then we'll have a short greeting time, and jump back into worship singing as we continue to reflect on God's glory with "Glorious and Mighty" and then meditate on the profound truth that a glorious and mighty God, whose judgments reign over all nations, would exercise his Kingship not by sentencing us to our just punishment for sin, but by substituting his Son in our place: "You Are My King." What a King he is!

Pastor Todd will then preach God's Word from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Click HERE to read this week's passage where Paul prays for the Ephesian church. Come with soft hearts, ready to apply God's unchanging word to your own life for his glory!

We'll respond with "From the Inside Out" as we process and internalize what it means to be strengthened in the "inner being" Paul talks about in his prayer.

That's what's happening; see you Sunday!

New Song: "All I Have is Christ"

Hey guys, we're learning a new song this week from Sovereign Grace ministries called "All I Have is Christ." The lyrics are honest and God-glorifying, and the melody is beautiful and soul stirring.

Here are the lyrics, and a video is below:

I once was lost in darkest night

Yet thought I new the way

The sin that brought this joy in life

Had led me to the grave

I had no hope that You would own

A rebel to Your will

And if You had not loved me first

I would refuse You still!

But as I ran my hell-bound race

Indifferent to the cost

You looked upon my helpless state

And led me to the cross

And I beheld God's love displayed

You suffered in my place

You bore the wrath reserved for me

Now all I know is grace!

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ!

Hallelujah! Jesus is my life!

Now Lord I would be Yours alone

And live so all might see

The strength to follow Your commands

Could never come from me

O Father use my ransomed life

In any way You choose

And let my song forever be

"My only boast is You!"

Preparing For Worship: December 20th, 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I can't believe 2009 is almost in the history books, and once again, we are poised to celebrate the birth of Christ. How time flies!

This is a year of firsts yet again at Crossroads, and we're excited to celebrate! It's the first Sunday that we will have THREE services! Yes, count them, THREE! This is just a special change for this Sunday, seeing that it's "Christmas Sunday." The times for our three services are 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am, so you have three chances to join us for worship and celebration!

The second "first" is that it's the first time that we will have a CHOIR! The Crossroads Christmas Choir has been hard at work for the past seven weeks preparing to help lead worship with the worship band, and also preparing a special piece of their own for your enjoyment!

Our 8:00am service is for the "most godly" of you (as Pastor Todd would say), since it's the earliest, and most selfless service to attend (selfless because it opens up more seats in the 2nd and 3rd services). We'll be doing it a little bit "candle light" style as we sing carols, and celebrate the birth of the Savior.

The 9:30 and 11:00am services will be identical, and will also feature a short musical presentation from our Kids ministry featuring all of our Crossroads kids called "Come To The Manger!"

Here's what's in store:

All three services will start with a pair of carols: "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Joy To The World." High energy, joy-filled carols that call us to celebrate the reality of God made man to live among us!

Then we'll celebrate the outreach that is taking place as I type this down at the Union Rescue Mission, with a short slide show presentation.

Pastor Todd will come up and welcome everyone and pray for the morning, and then during the second and third services, we'll enjoy "Come To The Manger" presented by our 1st-6th grade kids.

Todd will come back up and dismiss us to a short welcome and greeting time. There are sure to be visitors and visiting family, so use this time to minister to someone who may be there for the first time!

We'll pick up our carol-singing again after that with the first and last verses of "O Holy Night" as we let the majesty and wonder of the night affect us, and hopefully cause us to see the manger with fresh eyes and soft hearts.

The choir will then share their song with us entitled "Hope Has Come" which is a great tune from Sovereign Grace Ministries, which by-the-way has a good Christmas album called "Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man" (Click the title to check it out at the Sovereign Grace store).

Then Pastor Todd will come and preach the final message in our Christmas 2009 series called "Looking For Something More?" from Luke 2.

We'll sing one more song together after the sermon "Go Tell It On The Mountain" which is a great way to close our meeting, and take the joy of Christ's birth out into the world.

Lots of really cool stuff happening, so prepare your hearts and minds, and come rejoice in the hope of the Savior with us!

See you there!

Preparing For Worship: December 13th, 2009

Once again, I fell off the blogging wagon, and failed to help you prepare for the last two weeks! My apologies!

This Sunday we go full force towards the celebration of the Savior's birth; I've been thinking of the phrase "savoring the Savior" as I plan and remind myself of the wondrous gift we were given in the babe in the manger.

Pastor Todd will continue his sermon series called "Looking For Something More" leading up to next Sunday, the 20th. This week he's talking about Joy, and unpacking the text of 1 John 1:1-4. CLICK HERE to read through the text as you prepare to come worship together with the saints.

We have a great group of Christmas carols to sing together this week, and we're going to start it off with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." (the video's a really fun cover by Weezer!) Now, this may be something akin to when you first found out that Santa wasn't entirely real, but I can't, in good conscience, lead us in carols that talk about the angels without mentioning that the Bible never tells us that angels sing. It's true; when Christ was born, angels didn't span the night sky with songs and carols. They did spread the news that he'd been born, but Scripture tells us they "told" it, and didn't necessarily "sing" it.

That being said, Scripture doesn't tell us that angels DON'T sing, so we just need to be aware that our beloved carols are taking a bit of artistic license when we talk about angels singing.

We'll see one more video about the Union Rescue Mission as we gear up for our big outreach project there next month, and Pastor Todd will welcome everyone and lead us in prayer for the morning.

Then we'll sing "Angels From the Realms of Glory" which recounts the journey of the angels to the shepherds to tell them of Christ's birth, and to bid them to come and worship him. There are a number of YouTube videos that show this song, but I recorded my own that's closer to what we'll actually sing on Sunday, so enjoy! We'll finish off that set with "What Child is This?" as an intro to Pastor Todd's sermon.

I like the way those two songs fit together, because when the Jewish people were waiting and anticipating the birth of the Messiah, they would have been expecting something very different than a barn and a manger filled with hay. I think sometimes in our own lives, we expect God to look very different than what he really is, and when we come to worship him and respond to his own revelation of himself, we are forced to evaluate our own views and expectations. Coming to worship and really thinking through who we believe God is, is an important process as we come to know him and understand him better.

After Pastor Todd's message, we will sing "The First Noel." This is yet another carol about the proclamation of Christ's birth by the angels to the shepherds. As we respond to God's Word, and the joy that is to be found in proclaiming the gospel, we will more closely relate to the joy of that first Christmas when the angels shouted the good news.

We'll close with the song that Candace and I sang during communion last week: "Jesus Thank You" as we put in perspective that Jesus was born to go to the cross for our sins. His life is an example and a model for us, but more importantly, it was a life that perfectly satisfied the righteous standards of God, and was subsequently sacrificed for us. This is the true joy of Christmas, not just that Christ CAME, but WHY he came; to set us free from the curse of sin, and reconcile us to a restored relationship with the Father!

So that's what's going on; happy prep!

Preparing For Worship November 22nd, 2009

I'm looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving Sunday together with all of you this week!

I'm in the middle of a very busy Friday, so I'll make this quick:

We're starting with two tunes: "God of Wonders" into the new song we learned last week: "The Father's Love"

I really love contrasting the idea of God as almighty, sovereign, Creator God; and loving, compassionate, Father God. I think these two songs will help us to appreciate the idea that "every good and perfect gift comes from the Father," when we understand that he is the master over everything, but he still looks with care and concern at our needs, and is so faithful to provide.

Then we'll sing "Good to Me" and then remember that even though God is good in so many ways to each of us, he was good to all of us in the most powerful way possible: by sending Jesus to die our death on the cross by singing "Once Again."

Pastor Todd will come and preach after that, and he's taking a break from Ephesians and giving a special Thanksgiving message. Next week he'll start a short series that will take us through Christmas called "Looking for Something More?"

We'll respond in song with "Forever" which reminds us that in all things, though everything else may pass away, God's love endures forever. Then we'll close with "We Will Remember" and commit to trusting in God's past faithfulness as a guarantee that he will continue to be faithful in all of our lives; that we might always have reason to be thankful.