2/28/10 worship set

My Savior Lives
Glorified
Nothing But the Blood (Charlie Hall)
Worthy is the Lamb

At the Cross (praise team w/band accompanying)

2/21/10 worship set

Be Glorified
Open the Eyes of My Heart
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Be the Centre

What Faith Can Do (Tommy w/band accompanying -- for offering)
Jesus Paid It All (Tommy w/Adam accompanying)

2/14/10 worship set

My Offering (choir special)

Mighty to Save

Draw Me Close

Follow You (Mack & Tommy w/band accompanying)

perfect praise: part II

In Amos 5, God calls the worship of those who don’t truly seek him “noise”.  “Away with the noise of your songs!  I will not listen to the music of your harps.” (v. 23).  Paul summed it up like this: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (I Corinthians 13:1).  From these passages, we are challenged to search out what God considers perfect praise.  That is the only kind we can be certain God will accept from us.

After his rebuke of the Pharisees in Matthew 21, Jesus lays out three requirements necessary to offering up perfect and acceptable praise to God.

In verse 16, Jesus starts with the words, “out of the mouth”.  During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had already taught an important insight about our mouths.  He said, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart...For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).  He is telling us here that the first requirement for praise to be perfect is this: Perfect praise emerges from a worshipful and passionate heart.  God hated to hear the songs of Israel in Amos 5 because their praise did not spring from love for him; their hearts were evil. 

Next, in Matthew 21:16, Jesus says, “of babes and nursing infants”.  The second requirement of perfect praise, then is that we approach him as little children.  This doesn’t mean we should act childish.  Rather, what God wants to see in us are certain childlike qualities such as humility, trust and total dependence.

That bring us to our third and final aspect of perfect praise.  It’s summed up in one all-important word: “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, You...”  The “You” Jesus was referring to is God himself.  “You have perfected praise”.  We must depend on God to initiate and perfect our praise.  It was God who put it in the hearts of those little ones to celebrate Jesus in the Temple.  The Father was perfectly blessed by their praises because he set up that entire praise moment.  There was no doubt their praise would be accepted by he who matters most -- our audience of One.

[taken from Pure Praise: A Heart-Focused Bible Study on Worship, Dwayne Moore, 29-30.]

2/7/10 worship set

For All You've Done
All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises
He Knows My Name
Rescue

Change My Heart, O God (Tommy w/Sherry accompanying)

perfect praise: part I

We have learned that worship to God should include everything we do.  Our very breathing in and out is an expression of our worship and a testimony to God’s faithfulness in our lives.  We also learned that praise is but one part of worship.  Stated another way, while all acceptable praise is worship, not all worship is praise.  Praise is that upward focus toward God.  You may not even consider some of the things you do to be worship because they flow so naturally from your heart and mind and are almost unconsciously given to God.  However, you are almost sure to know when you’re praising him.  That’s because praise is direct and deliberate adoration.  Praise is a choice.

I was in Salt Lake City a few years ago leading the music for a group of students on their mission trip.  Every morning after our worship service, we would go out on buses and vans into the community to share our faith.  One day as we were riding to our assigned area, everyone in the bus started singing praise songs.  We sang and sang.  The girl beside me was one of those Christians who had the “glow that shows.”  Her smile was contagious.  She kept smiling even while she was singing.  At the end of one of our songs, she looked up at me and said an amazing thing.  She said, “You know, I don’t sing very well.”  She paused for a moment, the whole time maintaining that wonderful smile.  Then she said, “But that’s OK with me, because I figure this: God made my voice.  And since he made my voice, he must like to hear it.”  Now her smile got even bigger and brighter.  “So I’m just gonna sing as loud as I can!”

That girl made a choice to praise God with her voice.  It didn’t matter to her if others thought she was “un-cool” or even fanatical.  What motivated her to praise was nothing less than passionate love for and devotion to her Lord.

Luke 7:36-50 describes another woman who was motivated by a heart full of devotion.  “...and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.  Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (v. 38).  We can see in this passage how this was a deliberate act of praise.  The woman outwardly expressed her love to Christ.   “Do you see this woman?... her many sins have been forgiven -- for she loved much...” (vs. 44 & 47)

[taken from Pure Praise: A Heart-Focused Bible Study on Worship, Dwayne Moore, 27-28.]