Sing To the Lord!

For Wednesday, October 9, 2024:

Jeremiah 20:13 NLT: “Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors.”

Jesus can rescue you from physical, earthly problems, like being poor and needy. And Jesus can stifle your oppressors and buy you some breathing room. If you trust in Jesus, he can also solve your spiritual dilemmas, freeing you from sin and preparing a place for you in the hereafter. That’s why he deserves our praise and worship!

So let’s wrap up our discussion of worship. Q: Are you singing TO the congregation, or leading so that THEY can sing songs of praise? I was taught to maintain 2 different song lists, one for each of those categories. The songs we LEAD – that the congregation sings – are the ones we use in our church service, like hymns in traditional worship. Songs that we sing TO the congregation are used as pre-service walk-in music, offertory, sermon support and exit music. A sermon support song is about a specific topic, reinforcing the message and scripture for the day.

All our music for church should be the best that it can be. We strive for excellence, but keep in mind that there’s a fine line between striving for excellence and OCD. Some days things will go better than others. That’s gonna happen. The important thing is that everyone tries, that everyone gives 100%. After all, this is for the Lord! If everyone tries their best and the performance doesn’t work out, I don’t chew anybody out. That performance is over – it’s history! After all, they gave their best. But next time we hit the platform, we will again give it our best, and it will go better!

As we’re rehearsing music, making suggestions and corrections, someone always comments, “It’s not a show.” True, but we have a program to lead, and it starts at 10AM! (Insert your own number.) People will be coming in, and newcomers will be getting their first impression of our church, and as the saying goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression! As we present Jesus to everyone present, we need to make a strong, positive presentation, creating the impression that we’re happy to be there and that we’ve really got it together. We’re praying that newcomers like what they see, and that they would want to become a part of our church family.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Excellence vs Perfectionism

Sept. 30, 2019 Monday Message:

Doing Kingdom work with excellence honors God and inspires people, but being a nit-picking perfectionist is a sin.

Perhaps we can define ‘excellence’ as ‘each person doing the best they can do.’ The Carnegie Hall pianist and the Church pianist will probably exhibit different levels of competence, but each should be doing his/her best.

Sometimes the challenge is matching the right talent to the right task. A hobby-level guitarist probably shouldn’t serve on the Worship Team in the big room for the main service. But we DO need people to lead folk songs around the campfire. And elementary students love to sing simple songs. We need to find the task that’s the best fit for a person’s talent and skill-level.

If a person is learning a new job and they’ve reached a point where they’re ‘pretty good’ at it, we need to put them in the game. They may not be perfect yet, but their skills will increase as they acclimate to the position.

If you’re leading a Bible study group, there will come a time when MOST of the class will understand MOST of the teaching. You’ll know when. And then for the sake of the entire class, it’s time to move on, knowing you’ve done your best.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets next Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. This week founding Pastor Michael Pilla looks at 1 Cor. 14:1-19 – Tongues and Prophesy.

Good Enough? Not for God!

November 12, 2012 Monday Message:

Sometimes I help songwriters bring their compositions to life in the recording studio. Their song is no longer just a dream; it becomes “real.” We add drums and percussion, guitars, pianos and synthesizers, instrumental solos, and polished vocals, and they can show it to someone, and say, “THIS is how it goes!” – or include it on their own CD of original music.

The songwriter asks, “How much?”

I give them a price.

And then sometimes they respond, “But it’s only for a demo,” implying that if they don’t release it to the public, they don’t need it perfect, and my services should be worth less.

The conflict is explained in Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it wholeheartedly as though you were doing it for the Lord and not merely for people.” (ISV)

God  doesn’t have a “demo” mode. He doesn’t want us to do our life’s work in a slipshod, careless manner. Everything we do should be our best efforts, as though working for the Lord. As a believer, God wouldn’t want me to leave mistakes in the 3^rd verse, and send it out with my name on it.

God’s team does their best in all things. God doesn’t like lukewarm! That’s what the Bible says.

Norton Lawellin

Yesterday was Veterans Day, and we observe the legal holiday today. Thank God some people answer the call to fight for human rights and freedom throughout the world.

Friday, Nov. 16, 7pm I’ll be leading the service and teaching about “Sin and Sin’s Solution” at New Hope Center, 2739 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls, MN 55407. Come join the men in recovery as we worship the Lord.

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) continues in the Gospel of Luke, 10:30 Sunday morning, North end of the Oliver Ministry Building, 27^th Street & Bloomington Avenue, Minneapolis.

NL

Excellence

September 05, 2011 Monday Message:

Nowadays, when we think of an offering to God, our first thought is of the check we drop in the basket each week. That’s important, to be sure; but when we volunteer, serve in our churches, shelters, food-shelves, and go on short-term mission trips, those things too are offerings to God.

Our offerings to God are to be first-class stuff, the best we can bring. 500 years before Jesus, God felt insulted when his people brought defective animals for sacrifice. It’s the same today; God is disrespected if we give less than our best service. Malachi 1:6-14

Frankly, we’re to do our best all the time. Paul writes, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

Years ago I was taught, “Excellence honors God and inspires people.” It’s just as true today, especially in light of our assignment from Jesus, to “go and make disciples of all nations…” If we’re doing church with excellence, people are proud of it, get excited about it, and newcomers want to become a part of it. Therefore excellence ignites evangelism.

“Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus.” Colossians 3:17a

Blessings,

Norton Lawellin