We are freed from the guilt and shame of our sins, but not from the presence of sin in our flesh and the daily battle against it. We are already citizens of heaven, but are not yet free from citizenship in whatever political institution holds authority over us. Death has lost its victory, but it still holds a power. Cancer wards remain, as do HIV clinics, mass starvations, famines, plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, and genocides, but one glorious day all these will end. The hospitals, graves, and prisons will be emptied once and for all. Until then the church watches and waits, crying, "Come, Lord Jesus." And in the midst of its waiting, believers gather, acknowledging in one voice that Jesus is the true King and Lord, that death is defeated, and that one day all this madness will end.
I found this passage to be a deeply moving and glorious thought. A line in the same chapter says We gather and we sing defiantly, refusing to let our hopes be crushed by the darkness around us. I found the phrase sing defiantly particularly inspiring and that is how I want to sing and how I want my congregation to sing.
As I began to plan music for Sunday, I knew that it was going to be set against a message of hope and testimony of praise with a significant portion of our service to include Deanna Howell sharing her testimony. Deanna has been diagnosed with incurable cancer yet God has given her incredible grace in this midst of this trial. The idea of grace through trials very quickly became our theme as I began to put songs together.
We will open the service with the hymn Come Christians Join To Sing. It is a call to worship and wonderful song praising God for His grace and for substitutionary atonement. It ends joyfully with a declaration that the praises of God will never end. We are planning to sing the Kristian Stanfill song Always which defiantly declares that God will come through in every circumstance. This song finds its Scriptural roots in Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2 ESV) This video was recorded at Passion 2011.
The next song we will sing comes straight out of Psalm 23. Matt Redman's You Never Let Go reminds us that we can count of God. Although the lyrics come from Psalm 23, I am reminded of Romans 8: 35-39:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:35-39 ESV)
Here is a video of Matt Redman singing this wonderful song.
Before the testimony and message, we will turn our attention to Christ, the Lamb who is seated on the throne as we sing Revelation Song. As all our hope is in Christ, I felt it important to tie our songs together with a focus on Christ. I know that you will be blessed by this video with Kari Jobe singing.
We will close the service singing the simple hymn It Is Well With My Soul. It is my desire that we will sing defiantly at Calvary even when the darkness seems to close in all around.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Trent
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