Worship Program  6.22.08

9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philipians 2:9-11 (The Message) 

Song of the redeemed………………………F#m

Spring of life……………………………………Bbmj

Center……………………………………………..Emj

Message on worship

Found………………………………………………Bmj

my favorite verse of the message Revelations 1:12-17 . This verse tells me that when Christ is revealed one comes to realize that He is almighty and powerful and hearts can’t help to but to surrender and human flesh to act “as though dead.”

I just finished reading Stephen’s blog post and was amazed at how his church took on the challenge of raising a great amount of money in one week in order to buy 17 acres of land for orphans and abandoned kids in Haiti. But this praise report is not like your average praise report this one has another element involved which really I won’t say and instead led you see it for yourself: Stephen’s blog post…

Remember today’s Psalm 30 spoke about dependency, and after reading this post once again God confirms that our reliance of joy is not on what we have in this earth but what we have eternally.

Psalm 30

Today’s reading is a reminder that we do not rely on our riches. That is that our money or achievements/accomplishments are not our source of salvation or bright future, but instead it is Jesus and His word that should be more than enough for us.  Many time our riches can easily become idols in our life and there fore we choose to disregard the fact that our future does not rely on our $ or skills but on God alone.

6-7 When things were going great

I crowed, “I’ve got it made.

I’m God’s favorite.

He made me king of the mountain.”

Then you looked the other way

and I fell to pieces. (The Message)

To rely on something and not Jesus as a means of security/success is again “idolatry” which is sin. In this case David acknowledged that he was sinning by relying on his wealth and ruling position (as a king over Israel) and God “hid” his “face” from him. David finally repents and thanks God for restoring relationship w/him: “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing”. Again, this is another example of what makes PraiseWorship so intimate/genuine and that would be repentance, which is what God is looking for b/c in doing so we are recognizing the perfect sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. That it is only through His blood that we have access to salvation.

Something good to think about today as worship directors/leaders would be to ask ourselves if we are relying too much on what we have and and not on who God is or what the Cross signifies God’s ministry of praise and worship. The talent God has given us is not the essence of our worship but it is Christ and His Spirit.

Worship program 6/15/08

Oh worship the King by …………………Fmj

Let us love and sing in wonder……….Fmj

Majesty by Delirious………………………Bbmj

Psalm 145 by Shane & Shane………….Dm 

This service was interesting; I messed up like never B4. I completely forgot the chorus melody of “oh worship the king” and made up my own on stage. Ya, it was one of those moments when you want to just of stage, but I don’t think many really knew the song so it wasn’t as bad. But this service taught me to avoid doing 2 hymns combine, just b/c of the lyrics and the terminology. Also learned that I need to at least give my self 2 weeks in advance B4 presenting a song so that I know the song lyrically well.

 Psalm 145 on the other hand came out better then expected. As ya know Shane sings way up there and so its not done as often b/c of that reason but thanks to God’s Spirit it was sung and it filled the building with a message that God is sovereign and gracious to all, not just His children but to all.

Psalm 86 reminds us that God’s revelation will cause people to leave their gods and come to worship Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6), b/c He is the maker of all the nations: “all the nations you have made”, and He is unlike any other god. He also gives God praise for delivering him from an extremely painful situation: “band of ruthless men seeks my life”. And although the miracle has not yet occurred he knows that it will and thanks God b/c he really does not deserve to be rescued. He is a sinner in need of a true devotion to God, which is why he says: “teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name”.

What I like here is that this section of the psalm reminds us that when God rescues us we ought to see this deliverance as a mean to testify that it wasn’t by our strength but “because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me”.

So when it comes to worship ministry and the necessities involved, do you boast on your skills? Band members? Equipment? According to this psalm we are to recognize that what we have is all thanks to God’s “merciful, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”.  

Psalm 32….this psalm is a reminder of the importance of living a prayer life style. The psalmist (David) here is saying that he has not kept contact with God, he says that he has been “silent”. Or maybe he thinks he’s been in contact but just doing it out of religiosity, just b/c he has to and because he represents the authority over a nation therefore he has to attend meetings and act like he really keeps a relationship with God. But, the story behind the psalm tells us that he hasn’t kept sincere contact w/God through prayer and instead he’s been a fake believer (a fake Christian).

            You know David had so much ruling power, so much to the point where it might have gotten to him and figured he could do whatever he wanted and get away w/out anyone catching him. In this case he had taking a friends wife and slept with her and then figured that all things could get settled by killing the husband. Yes, this was a leader of God. In today’s terms we can compare his title to any church leader like: pastors, evangelists or worship directors. So really God’s leaders are going to make big mistakes too, remember they are human. But the consequence of committing sin still stands…But going back to David, he was refusing to “acknowledge” his sin and figured he could carry on with his life carrying this baggage.

            TO carry baggage of sin around with us is just too painful: “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long”.  Recognizing that we are sinners in need of a savior on the other hand makes us one with God himself. And as a result we can experience God’s forgiveness and “shout for joy” b/c we are only made righteous in Christ. 

Last night’s town hall meeting was LOOONG and there is still no resolution which keeps us clueless where this whole issue of rezoning Unks (restaurant where we have our services) will go….It was pretty cool seeing a great number of people and business leaders supporting that Unks not close and obviously there stood HarmonyChurch supporting a bar to remain open (is that not something?)… We need this bar to remain open, its the place where we meet to draw people to Jesus and worship Jesus. But after reading todays 2:9 devotional on Psalm 14: “for God is whith the generation of the righteous”, therefore we’ll continue to seek His will and favor.  

Chacho (dude!)…So I’m reading the news and I came across an article stating that they found $84 million worth of marijuana plants growing in Harnett County, which is about 1.4 hrs. away from G-vegas….Das alot of dolares….As we say here @ HarmonyChurch office “keep the oil” you never know what your neighbors might be planting on their patio, that is unless you know the smell.  <http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3025668/>

As I was leaving Berni’s &  Mike’s house today (around 3:30 pm) I ran across lots of smoke and little by lil began to realize that our city of Greenville was smoking. Actually it all began to make more sense as hours later we could see more smoke outside the church’s office and its been about 4 hrs. and I just read in DailyReflector that the smoke will continue to worsen through Thursday. They say that what happened was that a fire “consumed more than 40,000 acres or 63 square miles”.  Das crazy dauwg! and in addiition the smoke will spread all the way to Raleigh and Fayetville (alaba al que vive!).