nate raese@narboy96 || worship arts director  Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash. As a worship leader, when I’m planning out one of our worship services (either alone or with one of our other worship leaders), I take both the theme of the Sunday and the series into account and ask myself, “How does this play into the greater narrative of the gospel? Seeing who God is (perfection), seeing who we are (destitute), seeing what Christ has done (reconciliation), and responding to that in surrender or adoration.”
This Sunday, we begin a new series called Overwhelmed that I’m super excited for, in part because Kevin Kausch and I wrote a song a few months ago which will serve as our theme declaration throughout the series. Although we don’t have the privilege of providing you with the music to listen to ahead of time yet, I want to explain a few of the lines and let you read the rest of the lyrics yourself. “When we feel alone and overwhelmed...” It’s funny, because at the time we wrote this song, we didn’t even know the series would be called Overwhelmed. But it starts here: even as Spirit-filled Christ followers, we still feel lonely and fearful at times. It’s what we do with those feelings that matters, however. And so in the chorus, we sing, “We won’t shrink back / Fear and doubt are / Vanquished in the light of you.” Hebrews 10:39 was our inspiration for this phrase, which says, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (ESV). “God, you’re greater / Your freedom’s superior.” The fear and the darkness are strong and formidable, yes. But our God is stronger yet; greater is God living inside us than the evil one in the world. “Our hope is real, our hope is you.” It’s not a hope as in, “Oh, I hope I get a raise this year,” or “I hope the Lions win the Super Bowl” (lol). This is a hope we can bank our lives on; because when our hope is based in Jesus, in the character of God, we have peace knowing—as the bridge says—“You’re never gonna give up on us / You’re never gonna let us down.” This hope isn’t some distant hope for the future. “Eternal life is now, it begins today.” The Spirit gives us the peace and power we need to live victoriously right now, with the confidence of the Lord exuding from our hearts. Join us this Sunday at 11a either in person or online to hear the new song “Superior” by Fellowship Music. SUPERIOR When we feel alone and overwhelmed Afraid of what’s unseen and filled with fear Darkness tries to overcome our souls Yet your hand approaches, pulls us near We won’t shrink back Fear and doubt are Vanquished in the light of you God, you’re greater Your freedom’s superior Our hope is real, our hope is you The claws of doubt have come to pull us back To tempt, to hurt, to turn our hearts away But dark has failed to understand your pow’r Our God dismantles doubt, his strength displayed Eternal life is now, it begins today You’re never gonna give up on us You’re never gonna let us down ----- Fellowship Music Written by Kevin Kausch & Nate Raese
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