Home Worship - 3/29/20

Greetings! We're trying something a little "extra" for this week's worship. Given we're all still following the "self-isolation" guidelines to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, I thought we'd give you a supplement for doing church at home.

Sermon

This week's message can be accessed on our FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/Milford-First-Brethren-Church-106750154192984/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Or through our website here: https://www.milfordfirstbrethren.org/live.html

Study Guide Questions

After - or even as - you listen to the sermon, try digging deeper into the text by working through these questions:

1.     Paul, a Jew, calls himself an “apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom.1:5). What is his response to the Jewish people rejecting the Gospel – 9:1-3? 

2.     What are the spiritual privileges Israel had – 9:4-5? 

3.     What is the point Paul is making about the true children and descendants of Abraham – 9:6-9? 

4.     Who are the other Old Testament people Paul references in 9:10-18 and what is the truth about God he is teaching? 

5.     In 9:25-26, Paul quotes verses from Hosea that originally were about Israel. Who does he apply them to now here in Romans? 

6.     What does this chapter teach us about God’s larger plan of salvation?

Worship Songs

Had we gathered in person today, here's a sample of what the worship would have been like. Given our passage's focus on God's plan and promises, focus on these hymns that highlight the same sorts of themes.

Originally, our worship teams were planning to introduce a song to our congregation this week called "King of Kings" from Hillsong. We were going to use it as an offertory and then start teaching it to you over the next couple weeks. Ultimately the goal is to incorporate it into our worship service on Easter. It is an incredible worship song that reflects on the meta-story of the Bible that culminates in the beautiful events of Easter (and beyond).

Daily Devotional Reading

Paul traces Israel’s history through this chapter to show how God’s plan has been unfolding in unique and unexpected ways from the beginning. This week, let’s look at the Old Testament background passages to gain a fuller appreciation of Romans 9.

Monday – Abraham & Isaac, Genesis 21, 22:15-19

      Tuesday – Isaac/Rebekah and Jacob/Esau, Genesis 25:19-34

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Wednesday – Moses and Pharaoh, Exodus 9-10:20

Thursday – Moses and Pharaoh, Exodus 10:21-11, 12:29-36

Friday – the Potter and the Clay, Jeremiah 18

Saturday – the Prophets, Isaiah 10:12-34

Music Mondays: God or Girlfriend?

It was the summer of 2000 and I was spending a month as a counselor at Lancer Basketball camp, staying in the venerable Alpha dorm. I brought my portable boombox along with several other creature comforts to entertain myself during down times.

I can't remember if I'd purchased this CD at a store or through my "Power and Glory" Columbia Records membership (remember those?). But it had been recommended to me and decided to check out this new rock worship group Sonicflood. 

What I heard was worship in a rock style that was right up my alley. 

This band along with their debut album became one of the major forerunners of the modern worship movement, incorporating their own songs along with a number of covers. 

One song that I always liked but always gave me some pause was "I Want to Know You".  The song is fine enough yet it sure seems to venture into the "God or Girlfriend" zone. And upon re-listening to it, it seems like a blatant Hanson rip-off. 

The second verse helps save it, quoting Philippians 3. But it's vague and overly-repeated chorus does it no favors. Lots of songs like this tend to be pronoun-heavy - where everyone is supposed to assume we're talking about God or Jesus. The best ones give a little more clarity. The other issue, if you'll allow me a theological rabbit trail,  "touching" and "seeing" the Lord are probably just other ways to describe wanting to "know" him more, but there are a bunch of examples in Scripture where those would not be desirable things to experience in His presence. Jesus solves many of those kinds of problems of course. The song seems to portray entering God's presence as a frivolous thing - which I don't think it means to (again Phil. 3) but is still a little annoying to my theologically-inclined brain.

Ultimately, this seems like a song of it's time. I'm not sure it has had the staying power of other songs of that era. So my conclusion is that this certainly flirts with this problem even if it isn't the worst of examples.

Music Mondays: God or Girlfriend?

There is a built-in tension with Christian music. It seeks to express all the facets of our relationship with our Creator - a relationship based on love and intimacy that is very much true, genuine, and amazing. But depending on how it is expressed, it can easily venture into sappy love-song stuff. 

I'm certainly not the first to point this out, but often times CCM can turn out a product that is eerily similar to secular songs that croon superficially about romance. And every once in awhile, the opposite can be true - a surface-level love song can seem to be speaking of the spiritual. 

So for the next few weeks, I'm going to feature some songs that I've always been confused or conflicted by - songs that teeter on the edge of young-love-sappiness instead of theological wonder.

But to start things off, I want to zig instead of zag. Here are a couple songs from my college days-era that go the opposite direction. These are pop music hits that hint at something deeper if you think real hard.

"Hanging by a Moment" - Lifehouse

A band that has Christian roots, it struck it big with this their first single. It feels like the first hundred times I heard it, I only heard the "love song" part of it. And then when you think of their roots, the rest of their catalog that seems to have spiritual overtones, and then realize the chorus goes: 

Now I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Huh. Makes you wonder...

For the record, the lead singer keeps it ambiguous as well.

"Everywhere" - Michelle Branch

Another single from the early 2000's that launched a career, "Everywhere" was part of Branch's album The Spirit Room. By her own admission, this is a straightforward love song, but Christian detectives all over the U.S. bought into a deeper meaning. And it's easy to see why: 

'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes, it's you I see
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone
I'm not alone

[Verse 2]
I recognize the way you make me feel
It's hard to think that you might not be real
I sense it now, the water's getting deep
I try to wash the pain away from me
Away from me

I'm an authorial-intent kind of guy, not a reader-response interpreter. I embrace the meaning as intended by the author. Sometimes it's easy to cheat and re-interpret a song based on what I feel, know, or have experienced. Probably not much harm in doing that with something like this.