Emergence

This week,I get the privilege of speaking at Emergence. It's something that happens every 6-8 weeks or so, and I'm always grateful to get the opportunity--as well as give Ryan a much needed break.

Not many preachers get to preach and pick out the worship set. It's kind of fun, honestly. You get to really dial in the music to match what you're preaching. This weekend, I'm speaking on a passage from the book of Judges to set up the beginning of our new series next week.

There's one verse that really sums up all of the book of judges. It's found in a couple of places in the book:

"In those days, Israel had no King. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

With that in mind, as I was praying about the weekend, and discussing it with Gary, who will be leading worship, I found it to be crucial that we spend some time worshipping our true King. So, we're starting off with a great song by Phil Wickham called "I Adore You".

My life is Yours and will be forever. My love is Yours.I adore You.

I could picture even singing that at the feet of the King someday... a great sentiment, which paves the way for "God of this City." We haven't done this one in a while, and it is certainly one of the faves at Emergence. The real root behind wanting to do it this week is to contrast the fact that Israel could not acknowledge God as their King in the period of the judges. If we're ever going to see God do amazing things here, it needs to start by acknowledging God's sovereignty and rule in North Jersey.

You're the God of this city. You're the King of these people. You're the Lord of this nation, You are.

Later in the service, we'll be revisiting the newest song at Emergence, "Beautiful" by Phil Wickham. (you can hear a recording of it here!) It sings of the beauty of the King... especially well summed up in verse three:

I see You there hanging on a tree. You bled and then You died and then You rose again for me.
Now You are sitting on Your heavenly throne. Soon we will be coming home. You're beautiful.

Following the message, there's not much better of a song to close it out than Crowder's "Here Is Our King".

Here is our King. Here is our Love. Here is our God who's come to bring us back to Him.
He is the One. He is Jesus.

In just 10 short hours we'll be starting service. Time to get some rest. Looking forward to the morning tomorrow--and meeting with our King together.