Justin Nale quotes from Jason Stellman’s book Dual Citizens.

“The prevailing sentiment appears to be that, when ‘out in the world,’ Christians must be as deliberately different as the law (and a small measure of prudence) will allow. For this reason, the church has produced and marketed countless ways for its faithful to display their distinctiveness. Among such products are bumper stickers that read ‘Got Jesus?’, clothing with Christian slogans (like a picture of Jesus dying on the cross with the phrase, ‘This Blood’s For You’ written underneath Him), and many other forms of paraphernalia designed to make saints stand out as obviously as possible.
What is curious, however, is what transpires (or fails to transpire) during the one time when God has actually ordained that His people should be truly different from the world – corporate worship. It would seem from 1 Peter 2:4-17 that if ever there was a time for the saints to placard their counterculturalism and absolute refusal to be identified with the tastes and trends of this passing evil age, their ‘coming to him’ on the Lord’s Day would be that time. Yet, inexplicably, it is during this ninety minutes (or so) of divine worship that many evangelical Christians experience a sudden and overwhelming sense of camaraderie with the unsaved. As a result, we desperately pull out all the stops to manufacture a worship atmosphere that is non-threatening and familiar to the unbelieving target audience. The underlying assumption is that, at the end of the day, doctrines such as sin, judgment, hell, and the cross are irrelevant and unimportant in the ‘real world,’ and that worship practices such as kneeling during confession or raising hands during the Gloria Patri are much too formal and contrived to be able to address the concerns of our hearts.”

Integrity

• All Creatures of our God and King
• Everlasting God
• Jesus Thank You
• Tis So Sweet
• O for a thousand tongues

Mt. Hermon

• Father Long before Creation
• By Thy Mercy
• Tis So Sweet
• O for a thousand tongues

See what others were singing here.

Songs

• My First Love
• All Hail the Power of Jesus Name/His Name is Jesus
• Lord Most High
• How Good It Is
• Make Me Glad

Word

Scripture: Philippians 3:17-4:1
Message: Stand Firm
Speaker: Jason Sessoms

See what songs others sang today by clicking here.

Click here and you can begin downloading Derek’s latest album (Stockholm Syndrome) in a skinny minute.

Related previous posts:

Derek Webb/Predictably Unpredictable

Free Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken’s Ampersand EP

The Future of Ideas

(L) – Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

(A) His mercy endures for ever

(L) – The Lord be with you
(A) – And also with you

(L) – Lift up your hearts
(A) – We lift them to the Lord

(L) – Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
(A) – It is right to give him thanks and praise

Songs
Cannons

Reading of Psalm 24:7-10

Warrior

Come Ye Sinners

Tis So Sweet

Read Isa. 40:28-31

Everlasting God

- Offering –
Tis So Sweet

- Word –
Acts 4:32-37

- Closing Song –
Everlasting God

- Benediction –
2 Thess. 3:18 “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

Check out other set lists from churches participating in “Sunday Setlist” here.

In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to God’s holy name!
I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
God’s greatness is unsearchable.
—from Psalm 22:22; 97:12; 145:1, 3, NRSV

The songs we plan to sing are…

1. How Great is Our God
2. Agnus Dei
3. You Are Holy
4. Sweetly Broken
5. Jesus! What a friend for sinners

You can download demos of all those songs by clicking here.

Dan will be preaching out of Titus 2:11-3:8 as he continues with “Generous Christianity Part 2″. You can listen to part one by subscribing to our podcast here.

1. How great is our God
2. Be Thou my vision
3. You are Holy
4. Sweetly Broken
5. Jesus! What a friend for sinners
6. Cannons
7. Warrior
8. Come Ye Sinners
9. At the Cross
10. Everlasting God

We read Colossians 3:12-17. We then focused on verse 16.

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

I wanted us to take some time to feel the weight of what we are doing when we lead people to sing together. As this verse clearly tells us that part of the purpose of singing together is to teach as well as admonish (gently warn and encourage). Then even when we have left the gathering and we are on our way home in our cars, we tend to (or I do) continue to sing the songs that we have just heard. That is and example of  letting something “dwell” in you. That is why it is all the more important that we see ourselves as teachers who are providing each other with things to dwell on. We will strive to make those things the word of Christ.

Here are some more thoughts along those lines…

“Throughout scripture and church history, songs have been used to convey
truths about God and us. But songs don’t only declare truth, they are a means
for that truth to be embedded deeply into our hearts and minds. The words
we place into people’s mouths through the songs we sing have a life and
significance that we dare not ignore. Our songs not only reflect a theology of
how we should relate to God, they shape it. They exercise a formative power
in our understanding of God.” (from glenabbey)

“Corporate worship has a teaching function through the lyrics of its songs. This was particularly important in the oral culture of Paul’s day.”
(ESV Study Bible)