Church Blog

October 11 2010 at 3:34 pm

How To Come To Church: Eager, Expectant, and Early

1 Comments


Yesterday, Joshua Harris preached a message from Psalm 63 titled, “Earnestly I Seek You.”  This video clip is from the end of Joshua’s message where he speaks about changes in the Sunday morning schedule and some practical things we can all apply.

In his sermon, Joshua posed four questions and explained how the Psalm answers them:

1. Who is the God I am to earnestly seek?
2. Why earnestly seek him if he is already my God?
3. How do I earnestly seek God?
4. What if I am not earnestly seeking him?

Joshua then gave two ways to apply the teaching of the Psalm: 1) by making extra room in our day to remember God, and 2) by coming each Sunday eager to behold God.

On this second point, he highlighted three words for us to remember:

1. Come Eager to sing to him, fellowship with other Christians, hear his word.
2. Come Expectant that he will speak, change us and refresh us.
3. Come Early —not walking in late, but in our seats and ready to go at 9 a.m. or 11:30 a.m.

Finally, Joshua went on to give some specific guidance about Sunday mornings as follows (Covenant Life members: heads up for this part!):

Starting Sunday, October 17, we’ll set aside the auditorium as a place for prayer one half-hour before each service. You can pray with others in small groups (or, if you prefer to pray quietly in your seat, that’s great, too), but the goal is to focus on praying for God to work in and through our church, while keeping casual conversation in the lobby.

The prayer time will last 20 minutes. When we hit the 10-minute mark prior to the meeting time (8:50 for first service and 11:20 a.m. for the second), we will break and allow for the normal hustle and bustle of everyone greeting one another and finding their seats. Then, we’ll all be poised and ready when the band calls us to worship at either 9 or 11:30.

A thorough outline of the sermon is available in the Resource Library.





Josh,

Thank you so much for your empathetic honesty and faithful exhortation in this past Sunday’s sermon.  God bless you for your passion to honor God and to glorify Him in our midst. 

Thank you, thank you, for pouring out your life for the sake of the gospel and for the flock.  Thank you to you Shannon for supporting your husband, our pastor with your God given and empowered role as his wife which enables him to care for us, the church.

Jennifer

By Jennifer Breitenbach on 10/13/2010
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