We are in the middle of our new series entitled “life: living as the body”. This week we’ll be preaching on Romans 12 and I will be preaching on the importance of worshiping together. As part of my message I have been grappling with a working definition of worship. I’d love to have input from those of you who attend Frederick and those of you who do not. I’ll insert my working definition below and you feel free to critique it and offer your definitions as well.

“Worship is a sacrificial expression of our love for, and dedication to, God which seeks to reflect His glory and proclaim His truth.”

I am always impressed with churches that are creative in their attempts to worship. I think our emerging generations are more easily connected when we communicate to them using a multi-sensory approach. I also think that God is an incredibly creative God who loves the incredible diversity in His creation.

One of the Worship leaders at Fellowship Church with Ed Young Jr. recently posted a video highlighting a song they used in their Easter service. I thought you might enjoy seeing what they did in their service. I know it was encouraging to me.

What an amazing Easter service (or couple of services as it were)! Our music is always dynamic but Chad and the Worship Team really outdid themselves this weekend. The choir special was particularly powerful. I also really enjoyed having baptism in the 2nd service. It was special, I thought, to see a visual reminder of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus on the day in which we celebrate His resurrection! Although worship is generally one of my favorite things to be a part of, it seemed so much more vivid this morning, to me at least, as we worshipped together and thought intentionally of the resurrection and the life that was purchased for us on the cross.

The second service was also a bit of a challenge. It really seemed like spiritual warfare was at work when our cameras quit working halfway through the message and then my voice went out and I got a killer headache partway through the service. The message of forgiveness that can be found at the foot of the cross seemed to be one which Satan wanted silenced, but thankfully we serve a risen Savior who has conquered Satan and sin!

It was very exciting to see all the people that were with us today. Both services were almost completely full and, in what I think is an incredible blessing, we surpassed 1,000 in attendance for the first time ever at Frederick Boulevard! Wow! I can’t tell you how excited I am as I watch what God is doing among our church. It is a lot fun to be a part of this. It’s also humbling, to be honest with you, to think about God’s sovereignty as He blesses us in spite of our shortcomings. God grace is so good.

After the service the Fries family took off for the metropolis of DeKalb, MO (pop. 250) and enjoyed hanging out with Tracy’s family for the day. It was nice to take an afternoon off and relax with family this afternoon. We took a picture of my girls that I thought was very good. I posted it below.

All in all it has been a good Easter. What a privilege we have to worship the resurrection of our Savior! I hope your day was blessed as well.

On this Good Friday it is only appropriate to celebrate the cross. The videos below highlight Chris Tomlin along with Matt Redman leading “The Wonderful Cross” from Passion One Day back in 2000. It’s an incredible song that sings of the wonderful love Christ communicated on the cross.

If you will watch the whole video you will be moved, I am certain, as a couple of gentleman carry a cross towards the front of the stage area. Watching as people throw themselves at the foot of the cross is always a powerful reminder, in visual form, of our need to throw ourselves at the cross.

I hope it reminds you today to think about and praise God for the wonderful cross. Have a wonderful Easter!

This week, for Weekend Worship, I want to feature one of my favorite modern day songwriters and worship leaders. David Crowder is the Pastor of Music and Arts at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. He also happens to be the frontman for the David Crowder Band. Finally, and most importantly, he is my daughter, Grace’s favorite worship leader. This video was taken while he was leading worship at the Passion ‘05 gathering in Atlanta, GA. The song speaks, as do many Crowder songs, to the greatness of God.

I’ve been contemplating the sovereignty of God a great deal lately. For a sermon a week or two ago I came across this quote by A.W. Pink:

The Sovereignty of God. What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations” (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the “Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.

What a powerful reminder of the greatness of our God! That is the kind of King that I want to serve! This song serves as a wonderful reminder of God’s greatness. I hope you enjoy it this weekend. I’ll see you in church on Sunday!

I’ve got a couple of videos to throw out there, in case you might be interested. The best one is a video posted on my wife’s blog. That’s right, she’s now a blogger! I’m very excited about this turn of events. We’ve struggled with what to do with our family site for a while and she’s decided to use it to post videos and pictures for our family in particular to see. She posted her first video tonight. It’s a hilarious video of our youngest daughter Kessed singing and then trying to avoid the camera. You need to check it out. You can see it here.

The second video is a recent message from Frederick Boulevard. We’re still trying to work out the glitches with posting videos on our new website. For some reason we cannot get this video formatted to show on that site. So I’m posting it here if you are interested. It’s not the highest quality yet, we’re working on that too, but it’s here if you are interested. This message has been one of the more popular ones that I’ve delivered at Frederick. The monkey story at the beginning seems to have been a big hit with a lot of folks.

Click To Play

This week [Wednesday through Saturday] I am preaching a revival at Lewis & Clark Baptist Church which is between St. Joseph and Kansas City. LCBC is a small rural church that has had some rough times recently but they have a strong desire to reach their community under their new pastor, Roger Howe. One of the more important facts about LCBC is that they are the closest Southern Baptist church to Atchison, KS which happens to be one of the largest unreached areas in this part of the state. They are located in a premium location to make a tremendous Kingdom impact in the Atchison area.

Long ago God gave me a heart for the small church and I know about the unique concerns that they face. Like other smaller churches LCBC is facing some of those concerns, but I am convinced that God is going to use them in unique was, as well, to make a Kingdom impact in their community. I’m hoping that I can help them a bit this week and that we can find ways to continue to encourage their efforts as they attempt to reach their community. If you have an opportunity this week, please spend a moment or two praying for LCBC and pray that God would use them to effectively communicate the gospel in their community and they would see great fruit for the gospel.

What is worship? In our culture we seem to have compartmentalized our lives and in doing so relegated worship to a once weekly activity done within the confines of the church building. Of course, this isn’t a reflection of the biblical pattern of worship. God instructs us that worship is to be reflected in everything that we do. Our lives, in other words, are to sing to God and reflect His glory.

This week’s Weekend Worship is a song and a video that, I think, illustrates our lives in respect to worship. We desire to worship and yet our focus is so easily removed from Christ. We are concerned with the opinions of others over and above God’s desires for our lives. We try and dip our toe into the pool of worship and yet we pull back quickly if we think someone else might be watching. We wouldn’t want to look like a fool, now would we? Yet, that is entirely what God wants. Not necessarily fools, no, but He desires those who will gladly worship KNOWING that others are watching. What greater testimony to the greatness and goodness of our God is there? I hope this video illustrates for you that principle this week, God’s great passion that we would worship Him in all things, in front of all people, to bring Him praise.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1-2