
Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day — Sunday, and I’m excited!
Every week at Christ Community, we gather because the gospel — the good news about Jesus — is true: He really lived, died, and rose again to save sinners and bring us into life eternally with Him. You see, we don’t gather to prove ourselves, check some religious attendance box, or pretend we have it all together. No, we gather because we need Jesus.
There’s more good news: He came to save. This is clearly seen in some of the verses we will read together in worship.
In John 3:16-17, Jesus tells us:
16For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.
And how did He do that? The apostle Paul puts it plainly, saying it is the most important message, in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:
…Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, …He was buried, …He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures….
This is the most important news, the good news we call the gospel. It is what we proclaim with our mouths and our lives. It is at the heart of everything we sing, read, pray, and preach. Jesus gave Himself for us — not when we are all cleaned up and put together but while we were lost, guilty, and broken.
One of the songs we will sing, “God So Loved”, takes the message of John 3:16 and other passages to give an invitation to come to Jesus. Ponder these words:
Bring all your failures
Bring your addictions
Come lay them down
at the foot of the cross
Jesus is waiting there
with open arms
God so loved the world
If you have never trusted in Jesus as Savior — confessed Him as Lord and believed that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9), we pray that you consider these words today. This is the more important invitation, to come to Him more than coming to church.
We would also like to invite you to gather with us where you will hear this gospel again and again. Even if you have trusted in Him, we invite you to gather with us, praying that your heart might be stirred again by the wonder of His gospel — His love, grace, mercy, and salvation — and respond with fresh joy, worship, and devotion to Him.
This gospel will saturate our songs. When John opens the book of Hebrews, this gospel is at the heart of the book and the sermon. We will read the good news together.
Won’t you join us?
Here are our Scriptures and songs:
- Scripture | John 3:16-21 —
16“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
- Song | God So Loved —
Scripture Inspiration: Matthew 11:28-30, John 7:37-38, John 4:7-15, Matthew 9:10-13, Psalm 28:6, Luke 13:29, John 6:35-40, Isaiah 58:11, Psalm 34:8-9, Proverbs 8:17, Jeremiah 29:13, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 10:11-14, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 55:22, Colossians 1:19-20, Colossians 2:13-14, Isaiah 40:11, Luke 15:20, John 14:3, Matthew 25:23, Revelation 20:14, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, 3 John 2, Galatians 5:13-16, 1 John 4:9-10, Luke 2:14, Psalm 150, Psalm 17:7
- Song | Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) —
Scripture Inspiration: Romans 3:21-24, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 8:1-4, Jeremiah 17:9, Luke 15, John 9:25-29, Psalm 112:1, Psalm 31:5, Ephesians 2:4, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 John 4:18, Matthew 13:44-46, John 8:31-36, Psalm 23:6, Philippians 1:6, Psalm 119:49, Psalm 119:81, Psalm 119:114, 2 Samuel 22:3, Lamentations 3:24, 2 Peter 3:10, Joel 2:31, Revelation 21:3
- Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 —
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
- Song | What He’s Done —
Scripture Inspiration: Matthew 7:33, Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33, John 19:7, Matthew 26:26, Colossians 1:19-20, 1 Peter 1:19, John 8:36, Isaiah 53, Psalm 147:3, John 3:16, John 15:13, Romans 8:5-8, 1 John 1:9-2:2, Acts 4:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, Hebrews 2:14, Philippians 2:5-11, 1 Corinthians 15:50-57, Revelation 4:1-11, 1 John 5:4, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 5:12, Philippians 4:8
- Song | Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me) —
Scripture Inspiration: Daniel 7:13-14, Psalm 51:3-5, Isaiah 7:14, John 1:14, Romans 15:1-3, John 1:4-5, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, John 10:11, Romans 6:6-7, Psalm 103:12, Romans 3:21-26, Revelation 22:20, Luke 23:33-34, Colossians 2:13-14, Psalm 22:16, Isaiah 53:3-4, Isaiah 53:12, John 20:1, Matthew 28:7, 1 Corinthians 15:16-20, Acts 1:9-11, Acts 2:24, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation 11:15-19, Matthew 24:27, Revelation 1:7
- Invitation | O Come All You Unfaithful —
Scripture Inspiration: John 1:38-39, Luke 2:8-20, Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 5:6-13, Revelation 7:9-17, Revelation 12:11, Hebrews 9:22, 1 John 4:16-19, Hebrews 4:15-16, Matthew 11:28-30
- Offertory | Goodness of God —
Scripture Inspiration: Deuteronomy 6:5, Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 64:8, Psalm 139:16, Deuteronomy 6:7, Psalm 113:3, 2 Timothy 2:13, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19, Psalm 145:9, Psalm 150:6, Psalm 107:1, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Hebrews 1:3, Isaiah 43:1-3, Jeremiah 23:23-24, John 15:14-15, Psalm 23:6, Luke 9:23-24