Sermons
Inside Sojourn
Getting Ready For Sunday: How To Prepare For The 1-24-10 Sojourn Gathered Worship Service
January 21, 2010 by BobbyGilles
Filed under Stories from the Road
This week marks the third of five sermons from the book of Proverbs. Last week Pastor Daniel preached on what Proverbs has to say about friendship. If you missed this sermon (or if you want to hear it again):
Listen to streaming audio of this sermon now at sojournchurch.com
So what will our pastor talk about from Proverbs this week? Well … S — E — X.
As our monthly Proverbs Devotional states, sexuality gets a lot of attention in our culture. But the Church is often silent on the issue. The silence of the Church creates a vacuum that unredeemed culture is all too happy to fill. But fortunately, the Bible calls the Church to speak on sex in way that is far beyond, “Don’t do it.” This week we’ll learn what Proverbs says about:
- Bad sex
- Good sex
- Sexual privacy?
- Necessity of sex?
- Resisting temptation
And of course we’ll worship God through music. Speaking of which … last Sunday during the 11:15 service, one of our worship leaders asked us to clap through “Awake My Soul,” a very “clappable” song (I just made up a new word). Hardly anyone took her up on it.
Of course we always encourage freedom of expression. The Spirit may urge you to raise your hands, close your eyes, or even simply sing louder rather than clap. But in a service of roughly 430 people, surely more than three or four can clap along. This is a way in which “whole body” worship plays out. The Bible talks about it — read more in the short post:
Worship Practices Explained: Why Do Some Christians Clap Hands In Church?
and as an added bonus: Why Many Christians Raise Their Hands While Singing and Praying
Again, there are many ways to fully engage in worship. If you’re doing that, then whether you clap or not isn’t the primary issue. But this is a way to demonstrate our respect and love for the King of Kings, and a way in which we can train our bodies to focus on this King. If you’re not clapping because you’re afraid of being “one of the few” or of looking odd, then I encourage you to put those thoughts aside and take the plunge.
This Sunday we’ll sing “In The Shadow Of The Glorious Cross” together. You can hear the mp3 at sojournmusic.com if you don’t own the Before The Throne CD (click “Preview”). And the two morning services at The 930 we’ll sing “We Are Changed” from Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One to begin the service (the other services will sing the hymn “Give Reviving”). Hear a sample of “We Are Changed” on our iTunes preview page.
Other songs we’ll sing include:
- Beneath The Cross Of Jesus
- Gifted Response (We Will Worship You) — Hear it for free at last.fm
- Abiding City — Hear it for free at last.fm
That’s it for now. See you Sunday!
This CD is the first installment of the Isaac Watts Project: songs inspired by and adapted from his hymns. The record was written and performed entirely by musicians from Sojourn Community Church — 35 in all. It is our hope that this project, like Watts’s hymns, will point us beyond the music and lyrics to see the glorious Savior who inspires them.
Hmm…same thing happened at 7 p.m. Brooks was trying to get the clapping started, but no one took the bait. However I could hear a bunch of people singing the songs. I have to admit that sometimes my hand clapping and singing coordination is a little off!
you know my mom would’ve been clapping it up if she was at that service
Very true.
I would go with Wayne’s explanation, or that maybe some people just aren’t feeling it- they just aren’t that excited or happy.
I think if you have to be told to clap your hands, raise your hands, or kneel or whatever- at a certain point, it’s just not as meaningful.
That can be true to a point but the role of a worship leader at Sojourn is not simply to “model” worship but to lead. There is an element of teaching involved. When they invite us to clap it’s as if to say, “This is another way in which we can use our bodies to worship God. The Bible speaks of this, let’s do it.”
The over-riding rule there is that we always say we have freedom in worship — we’re not being commanded to clap. And if God is moving various worshipers in other ways, then that’s cool. But again, it’s likely that at least some people in a room of 400+ would actually find themselves glad to be clapping if they got past the nervousness, and they’d feel more engaged in the process of worshiping while making music.
How many people out of 400? 100, 200, 23, 6? Don’t know. But it’s something for all of us to think about.
I can either clap or sing and I generally choose to sing. I have tried but I am not able to do both at the same time.
hey… that song ( i think written by brooks and mike?) o gracious God, you’ve heard my plea…. that we sang this morning- is that online anywhere? I’ve been singing it all day, but I only know a few words, and my husband REALLY would like for me to learn the rest…ie he can’t take hearing the one line over and over anymore!
Thanks!!
I was thinking about the hand raising thing last week after I read this and on Sunday morning I realized that I am not intentional enough in my worship. I have thought about the possibility of doing the hand-raising type stuff when I wasn’t feeling it- in hopes that it would push the feelings along a little. I didn’t raise my hands last week, but I noticed a much more meaningful worship experience when I was being purposeful in my worship rather than just singing along and waiting for the feelings to hit.