Worship Debrief – What Amazes Jesus? (May 16-17)

So, after a week of dealing with the missing equipment, thinking about security, and beginning weekly set up and take down of some of our equipment (which is already growing old!), Pastor talked to us this morning about control. Great. Just what I needed to hear. We normally think that being in control is good. In fact, being in control feels good. But too often, our need for control replaces our faith. And it’s faith – or the lack thereof – that amazes Jesus.

In the Bible, there are only two passages that record Jesus being “amazed” at anything. The first is when he visits His hometown and preaches at the synagogue. The people there could not believe because they knew His family and had known Him growing up – He was amazed by their lack of faith. The second was the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant, but didn’t ask Jesus to come. Here, He was amazed at the man’s faith.

Faith is trusting God with control. If we are to have faith, we have to – with the help of the Holy Spirit – give God control or we will not be able to please Him. The steps to faith that Pastor outlined are:

1. Believe in Jesus
2. Follow Jesus
3. Get to know Jesus (and His word.)
4. Watch the works of God
5. Obey Jesus

Production Notes:
Saturday, 5/16 – 7:00pm:

•          We had kids at the service! Okay, most of them were mine, but there were kids running all over the place just before and up until we started the service. It was rather chaotic.
•          Caleb likes to be up in the Media Booth when he is there on Saturday nights (we didn’t let him last night). We have teens working the booth, and they sometimes get lost in being teenagers and “phase out” of the service. I’ve mentioned that at home…and Caleb saw fit to mention it to them last night. Hmm…
•          I think the service itself went pretty well.
•          Did I mention we had kids at the service?

Sunday, 5/17 – 11:15am:

•          I need to hear from you how the band sounded this week. I was using a different guitar rig and we had to totally rework the mix. My in-ear monitor mix was bad…but that’s not what’s important.
•          Band timing was off on the opener. Fortunately, we fixed that for the rest of the service.
•          There was noise on Sue Steege’s mic during the children’s message. Don’t know what was up with that. It sounded like breathing noise, but that’s unusual for Sue’s mic.
•          The overall sound seemed loud to me. How about you? 

Prepare for Worship – What Amazes Jesus? (May 16-17

An interesting question: What Amazes Jesus? I tend to thing that nothing would amaze our Lord and Savior because he was there for creation, the fall, the cross (obviously!), and will be there for the end of all things as we know it. But the Bible says on occasion that Jesus was amazed. Mark 6: 5-6 from our Gospel reading this week says:

“He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith.” (emphasis mine)

So, what do you think amazed Jesus? Give it some thought as you study the scriptures below and then come this weekend prepared to hear from God.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Psalm 119: 81-88
New Testament:  Hebrews 6: 1-6
Gospel:  Mark 6: 1-6

Sunday
Gathering:  “In the Secret”
Opening:      “We Come to Praise You”
                     “Kindness”
Communion: “We Are Hungry”
                        “Breathe”
                        “I’m Counting on You”
Offering:    “Thy Kingdom Come”
Closing:      “Mighty to Save”
Sending:     “Rock of Ages”

Saturday
Opening:  “In the Secret” 
                  “We Are Hungry”
Prayer:    “I’m Counting on You”
Closing:    “Mighty to Save”
Sending:  “Rock of Ages”