Forgotten God: Sunday Setlist

This week marks the start of a new sermon series here at maiden Lane entitled “Forgotten God”.  Like the Francis Chan book of the same titled this series will address the vital importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and the church.  It is fitting that the series begins on Pentecost Sunday with Pastor Mark’s message titled “The Day That Changed the Church”.  Here then are some thoughts to ponder about the songs chosen for worship this week. 

• Prayer is Rising- Ferguson, Shuster & Stone
• Open Up the Heavens- Rozier, McDonald, Ingram, Andrews & Garrard
• Great I Am- Anderson
• Man of Sorrows- Ligertwood & Crocker
• Holy Spirit- Torwalt & Torwalt
• Holy Spirit Rain Down- Fragar

Psalm 100:4 calls on God’s people to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”  These words lie at the heart of our worship choir’s Call to Worship for Sunday.  The opening line of the song proclaims “Lord we come with thanks to the throne of grace”  As we gather in for worship we gather in the name of and in the presence of our great and gracious God.  This theme continues in the words of the next song, “Open Up the Heavens” as we sing “we’ve waited for this day, we gathered in Your name, calling out to You.” The lyric goes on with words that remind us of God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Just as the disciples of old experienced the fire and rushing mighty wind of God’s Spirit there in the upper room so we in the present day sing and ask for the fire of God’s presence to stir our hearts and cause our hearts to burn with His Truth.

“Great I Am” is a song of praise that not only sings of the greatness of God but also sings of things pertaining to the working of the Spirit.  When Christ spoke of the coming of the Spirit He stated that not only would the Spirit be with us but also in us. This song speaks of the desire to draw close to God we can be assured that this is possible because of the indwelling Holy Spirit  Furthermore, It is the power of the Spirit that transforms our heart so that it becomes like the heart of God.  The song goes on to speak of the great power of our God and so too we must remember that God’s Word has promised that “greater is He (the Spirit) that is in us than he that is in the world” 

“Man of Sorrows” is the song that will lead us to our celebration of the Lord’s Table.  The lyrics of the song are a powerful remembrance of Christ’ redemptive work, His death on the cross and His rising triumphantly from the tomb.  Regarding our salvation through Christ and the importance role of the Holy Spirit, God’s Word tells us that “His Spirit  testifies with our spirit hat we are children of God” and so we can boldly sing “Now my debt is paid, it is paid in full by the precious blood that my Jesus spilled.  Now the curse of sin has no hold on me.  Whom the Son sets free oh is free indeed.” 

The last song we will sing before our season of prayer together is entitled simply “Holy Spirit”.  There is a line in the song that alludes to one of the final points of Pastor Mark’s sermon.  You see, God gave the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and has not taken it back.  It is not so much that we need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives or on God’s church.  It is not for us to ask the question “how much of the Holy Spirit do I possess?”  Rather we must ask “how much of our lives does the Holy Spirit possess?”  So as we sing and ask God to help us become “more aware of Your presence” that is only possible as we surrender ourselves more fully to Him.  Our desire must be for His glory, for His agenda and purpose in our lives and in the world if we are to experience the moving of the Spirit as on the day of Pentecost.  May God find those kinds of hearts within all believers who gather here at Maiden Lane on Sunday and may we come to know more of the presence, power and purpose of the Spirit in our lives over these next weeks together.

 

The Power of Prayer (Family): Sunday Setlist

This week marks a return to writing after a few weeks off during the Easter season.  This Sunday also marks the start of a new preaching series here at Maiden Lane entitled “The Power of Prayer”.  Our first week will focus on a call to pray powerfully for our family.  I am very excited about this series and believe that prayer is essential not only to the individual journey of faith but for our families.  Oswald Chambers once said, “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.” If we are to see lasting change in family relationships whether with our spouses, with our children or with our extended family it must begin with seeking the Lord in prayer.

With that little bit of a backdrop here is our Sunday setlist:

• Our God Saves- Baloche & Brown
• Blessed Be Your Name- Redman & Redman
• God is Able- Fielding & Morgan
• Great is Thy Faithfulness- Chisholm & Runyon
• The Family Payer Song -Chapman

The opening lyric of Our God Saves serves as a call to worship and a reminder of why it is we gather together each week.  We are gathering to worship our God who exists in three distinct and inseparable persons.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  When we meet together it is for the purpose of lifting up His name and to cry out afresh for the work of His grace and mercy in our lives.

Beyond that initial call to worship the first four songs of our worship gathering share a common overarching theme which is very important when we consider the practice of prayer.  As Christ-followers we believe that prayer allows us to converse and commune with the God of all creation.  However, this would be a meaningless pursuit if the God we serve was in fact not listening or was incapable of hearing, responding or powerless to provide.  As we sing these songs we will declare the greatness and faithfulness of the God to whom we sing.  The lyrics of the songs reflect the truths we find in God’s Word.  He is a God who has promised to never leave us or forsake.  He is the God whose mercies are new every morning.  His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.  He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.  The very same power than was exerted in raising Christ from grave is available to us as His children.  In light of His greatness and steadfast love we lift our voices to sing His praise.  it is also in light of His greatness and steadfast love that we have boldness to come to Him in prayer knowing that He sees, knows and is delights to show Himself strong to those whose hearts are completely his.

The Family Prayer Song serves as our sung response to the Word for the day.  Its lyric echoes the Old Testament text “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”.  The song calls us to a fresh commitment that or families will live in light of God’s Truth and for His glory.  Oh that we as God’s people would set such an example for our world today.  There are so many broken and hurting families in our world today.  Many try and pursue a fix and some sadly just abandon their family and try and start over with someone else.  May our lives demonstrate the only lasting and true change that is found in Christ alone.