Songs for Sunday, April 14, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I’m excited.

This Sunday, I’m particularly excited about grace and mercy.

These are words that show up in Scripture a lot, and because of that, these words show up in the preaching and singing at Christ Community a lot. But just because they show up a lot doesn’t mean we know what they mean (or that it wouldn’t do us good to be reminded).

Grace means undeserved favor. Specifically, it is referencing God’s response to sinners who turn from their sin and trust Him as Savior and Lord. He offers His favor, not because they deserve it but because of who He is.

Mercy means compassionate forgiveness or an offer of help/aid despite one deserving the opposite. Specifically, it is referencing God giving love and grace and salvation despite the death and wrath due for sin.

These words are (and really can be) used kind of interchangeably in English. There are other words in Scripture that convey these ideas, too: lovingkindness, favor, pity, compassion, and steadfast love. These words paint such a beautiful picture picture of what God has done for us.

You see, because of our sin, we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-2, Romans 6:23), and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. But God. BUT. GOD. As a language nerd, I get hung up on words sometimes (if you can’t already tell that in today’s writing). But is a conjunction that takes everything that comes before it, cancelling it out in favor of what comes after it. So when the Bible gives us a BUT GOD (Ephesians 2:4-5, Titus 3:4), we see how God in Christ cancels out our former sin and the reality of our being and deserving death because of it and replaces it with His love — His grace and mercy!

By grace through faith in Jesus and because of the “great love with which He loved us”, we are made alive in Him (Ephesians 2:4-9)!

That’s good news!

By grace through faith in Jesus — not by our righteous deeds (Titus 3:4-7), God saves us from the wrath due our sin and gives us new life in Him!

That’s good news!

God in His mercy withholds the just punishment due our sin and gives us His undeserved grace.

I don’t know if you are seeing a theme here, but that’s good news!

And it’s that good news — the gospel of Jesus Christ — that will be the focus of our singing and preaching tomorrow, just as it is every week.

Won’t you join us?

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

Scripture | Ephesians 2:1-10 —

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Song | His Mercy is More —
Scripture Inspiration: Lamentations 3:22-23, James 2:13, Romans 5:20, Hebrews 8:12, Isaiah 40:28, Hebrews 4:13, 1 John 3:20, Micah 7:18-19, Exodus 34:6, Psalm 145:8-9, 1 Timothy 1:15, Luke 14:21, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Colossians 2:13-14, Psalm 107:9, Ephesians 3:20, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Galatians 2:20-21

Song | Mighty to Save —
Scripture Inspiration: Micah 7:9, Matthew 9:36, 1 Corinthians 13:8, Lamentations 3:22-24, Romans 5:5, Luke 24:47, Titus 3:4-5, Isaiah 11:10, Matthew 12:21, Titus 2:13, Job 9:4-5, Isaiah 63:1, Revelation 1:8, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, 2 Timothy 1:10, Matthew 11:28-30, Ephesians 5:18, Luke 9:23-25, Romans 10:9, Matthew 5:14-16, Philippians 2:15-16

Scripture | Titus 3:3-7 —

³For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. ⁴But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.