Currently listening to The Almost, Southern Weather
Here’s our set from yesterday:
“God is Alive” [Steve Fee]
“Say Say” [Kristian Stanfill, Chris Tomlin, and Christy Nockels]
“Our God” [Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin, Chris Tomlin, and Jesse Reeves]
“Jesus Messiah” [Daniel Carson, Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, and Jesse Reeves]
INV: “Center” [Charlie Hall]
OFF: “Chosen Generation” [Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, Daniel Carson, and Jesse Reeves]
Yesterday was our day to celebrate what happened with our high school students at Student Life camp in Daytona Beach two weeks ago. Because of that, we introduced several of the “great” songs from the week’s worship. “Say Say,” “Our God,” “Jesus Messiah,” and “Chosen Generation” were all songs that the students learned while at camp, and God really used them to speak to the students and change their lives. “Our God” and “Jesus Messiah” were songs I had planned on introducing already, but this Sunday gave me the opportunity to do it all at once. I was surprised at how well the people engaged with the songs in singing out to the Lord. I suppose those two have been on the radio enough that people have heard them and know them already. It was really exciting to remember my shared experience with the students at camp as we were singing these new songs. God moved in a major way in all of our lives, and these songs serve as reminders of that event in each of our lives. It’s a beautiful thing. “Our God” is a powerful declaration of the greatness of God, and “Jesus Messiah” comes from my favorite verse in Scripture, 2 Cor. 5:21. Both of them make solid and powerful doctrinal statements about the Lord and what He has done. The bridge of “Our God” (“And if our God is for us/ Then who could ever stop us?/ And if our God is with us/ Then what could stand against?”) is so strong when the church sings it together. It feels like the walls might fall down from the power of that statement. I love it.
“Say Say” was a song that I had heard on the new Passion CD, but I was not previously impressed with it. However, after experiencing it live, I was sold on it. I think I just struggled with the way “Say, Say” was repeated throughout the song. What changed my mind was the rest of the lyric, which I hadn’t really taken the time to read: “Say, say, say You believe it/ Sing for the whole world to hear it/ We know and we declare it/ Jesus is King/ Say, say, say You believe it/ Sing loud, sing like You mean it/ We know and we declare it/ Jesus is King.” Solid and strong. This is another song that takes on new life when the church sings it together. We’ll continue to teach this one over the next few weeks.
“Chosen Generation” is another great new song from the Awakening album. The chorus sings, “We are a chosen generation/ Rise up holy nation/ God we live for You/ You have called us out of darkness/ Into light so glorious/ God we live for You.” One of the highlight moments of camp was when Louie Giglio called all the student leaders on the stage and had them watch their students sing this song. I stayed with our group and turned to watch them sing up close. It was an awesome sight. God is raising up our young people to change this world. Let us continue to hold them up in prayer and help to train them up as mighty disciples for our Lord.
I hope you had a great day of worship wherever you were.
God is working!
Bill
p.s. check out www.theworshipcommunity.com’s Sunday Set Lists to see what other leaders are doing around the world!
