Greetings! It’s good to be with you on this Friday.
As you know we’ve begun a new series, “Rise Again”. It’s not only our new series title, it’s also our stewardship emphasis. Both the series and the emphasis call us to embrace the uplifting grace of Jesus Christ. We are encouraged to let the resurrection of our Lord inspire and empower us as we rise into the ministries ahead in the next month and the coming year.
The series will be built around our four “pillars” of ministry at Spring Valley: “Creating Compelling Worship”, “Raising Up the Next Generation in Faith”, “Building Bridges of Harmony and Care with our Community and World”, and “Growing Deeper in Discipleship”. Each week of October we’ll be centering on one of these focus areas and exploring how it contributes to helping our church rise again in our ministry with Jesus Christ.
This week we’ll begin with worship. Our title is “Rise Again with a New Song”. Our Scripture is Psalm 96.
As you know Thursday is a highlight of our creative process. It’s when we gather our notes, revisit our reflections, lift up a prayer for God’s guidance and seek to discern a message for Sunday.
Here are my talking points:
We’ve all used the expression, “same song, second verse”. Usually we say that when we are tired of hearing what someone is saying. They need to “change their tune”.
We may also say it about ourselves when we know that we need something different in our lives, when we need to “sing a new song”. The Psalmist opens our eyes on how worship brings that blessing to us.
Psalm 96 begins with a summons - “sing to the Lord a new song”. Shout aloud to the God of our salvation. God is great and greatly to be praised. Our worship is grounded in this “greatness of God”.
The psalmist says our God stands over and above all other gods. Everything else we can’t live without, love more than anything else, or center our lives around, God puts all of these in their proper perspective.
God is Spirit and God is Truth. And so the sanctuary we enter for worship is not one of brick and mortar but of spiritual splendor, beauty and majesty. And the offering of worship we bring is one of praise, honor and glory. This is our work of worship – to glorify God- by our participation in song, prayer and active listening. This is what we bring and give to God each week.
Even as we do our “work of worship” we are in God’s workshop. God uses worship to soften hearts, heal hurts, forgive sins, open minds, change perspectives, strengthen wills, and embolden courage.
Through worship God opens us to God’s Kingdom view of the world. It is a vision where God sets all things right. It is a world where all people stand equally in and under the justice, righteousness and truth of God. God works through worship to equip and empower our witness with this vision. God uses worship to give us a “new song”.
And then God calls us to rise from worship and go to the world and sing our new song. The world so needs to hear it! Worship on Sunday strengthens us for witness on Monday through Saturday.
Yes, through worship we are invited to “sing a new song” because God has done marvelous things!
This is my outline. Of course it will be expanded for Sunday.
What are your thoughts? What sermon is the Lord giving you?
I’m glad that we’ve had this week together to focus on Psalm 96. I look forward to being with you on Sunday as we unite in worship and “sing a new song” together, all to the glory of God.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank You for the blessing of this week. You are a great God and greatly to be praised. Thank You for giving us the gift of worship. Thank You for the ways worship fills our hearts with a “new song”. Thank You for how we can live out worship in witness. Lord, let our praise always rise to you whether on Sunday or throughout the week, all to Your glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.