During the revolutionary war a story was told of a church service on Long Island that was interrupted by British Soldiers. The captain walked to the front of the church and demanded the people sing, “God Save the King”. The patriotic congregation rose to their feet as the organist began to play. But they did not sing the song the captain demanded. Instead they sang “Come Thou Almighty King”. The two songs at that time had the same tune but the words were far different. The colonists God to reign over them not the King of England.
Come Thou Almighty King
Help us Thy Name to sing
Help us to praise
Father all glorious
Over all victorious
Come and reign over us
Ancient of Days

Each verse of this is a great hymn emphasizes a person of the Trinity.
1. The Father
2. The Son
3. The Holy Spirit

The fourth verse is a majestic reminder of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Our God is the Great One in Three. He is great and mighty. And that is our second song of the morning. Great and Mighty is He! The chorus says, ” He is clothed in Glory and arrayed in splendor. Next will sing “He is the King of Glory”.
In the world this Sunday morning 1.5 Billion people will gather to worship our great and mighty God. He knows each one of us and cares about each life. He is greater than any problem we can experience. Our God is greater our God is stronger. Our God is higher than any other. Those are the words to a new song that I will teach you this Sunday. It is simply called “Our God”. Our last congregational song will be How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise.
Remember, the God who walked in the flames with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the God who shut the mouths of the lions, the God who opened the eyes of the blind and made the lame to walk. He is the same God we serve today. How can we keep from singing His praise?. Join me this Sunday to Praise Our Great God!
Pastor Morri

It was early 1930s and this 21-year-old insurance worker was asked to sing in a coast-to-coast radio talent show. He lost to a yodeler but gained nation wide recognition and $15.00. A few weeks after he experienced this wide spread fame, his mother placed a poem, written by Rhea F. Miller, on her piano. She hoped her son, George, would find the poem and read it. George read the poem and almost immediately a tune came flowing out of him. That same Sunday morning he sang “I’d Rather Have Jesus” in church for the first time. The words influenced him so much that when he was offered a singing contract with NBC radio he turned it down. It was in the midst of the great depression and thousands of young singers would have jumped at this chance for fame and wealth. But because his mother placed that poem in his path it changed his life.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to his dear cause;

I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame; I’d rather be true to His holy name.

Of course most of you now know of George Beverly Shea. But not because of NBC radio. You know him because of his work for the Lord with the Billy Graham crusades. George Beverly Shea is still living at the age of 102 years old!

This Sunday morning we will start our time of worship together with I Will Sing of My Redeemer. This song will help us set our minds on what Jesus has done for us.
Then we will sing Come, Now is the Time to Worship. I like the phrase that says, “Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose Him now”. That treasure is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Then, one of my favorite songs, Because We Believe, will unite us in our own belief statements. “We believe in God the Father, We believe in Christ the Son. We believe in the Holy Spirit, we are the Church and we stand as one.
After that we will sing Knowing You, taken from Philippians 3:10 and finally our foundation hymn for the morning, I’d Rather Have Jesus, will bring us to a time of prayer with Pastor Al.
Click below and listen to George Beverly Shea sing I’d Rather Have Jesus.

I hope this will help you prepare for worship.
Pastor Morri

Did you know that How Great Thou Art is a Swedish hymn? It started out as a poem written by 26-year-old Swedish minister, Carl Boberg. The original title was
“O Store Gud” or “O Mighty God”.
His poem was published and forgotten until several years later Carl heard his poem being sung to the tune of a Swedish melody. The hymn became widespread during the Billy Graham Crusade in the 1950s. In the 1957 New York Crusade, it was sung by George Beverly Shea Ninety-Nine times! We will only sing it once this Sunday☺.

How Great Thou Art speaks of His great creation. Then we focus on the fact that this Great God sent His Son to die for you and me. I love the phrase, “I scarce can take it in”. That phrase simply means that I cannot fathom what He was willing to do for me. The fourth verse of this great hymn takes us to our first face-to-face meeting with Christ. “Then I shall bow in humble adoration. And there proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

Then we will continue worshipping in song with “He Is Lord and Because We Believe”. Then we will transition into a modern hymn, “There Is a Redeemer”, written by Melody Green, wife of singer songwriter Keith Green who died in a plane crash in the early 80s. Melody Writes:

There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah Holy One. Thank you, oh, my Father, for giving us Your Son. And leaving your Spirit til the work on earth is done.

We will sing another great hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, by Isaac Watts with a chorus called Wonderful Cross.

Finally we will sing a song written by a friend of mine, Eugene Gregory, 1965-2009. The song is called Higher. It was Eugene’s prayer that he would draw closer to God. Eugene wrote: “I want to go higher. Take me deeper. I want to go farther. In Your presence Lord. Here’s my life, mold me, change me, make me more like You.”

If you will pray that same prayer this week I believe it will have an impact on how you worship Him on Sunday.

Hebrews 9:12 “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Jesus Paid It All is our foundation hymn for this Sunday, July 31, 2011. It is a result of a board choir member doodling on a flyleaf. The sermon had gone too long for Elvina Hall’s mind to stay focused. She began to let her mind wander and she wrote:
“I hear my Savior say, thy strength indeed is small. Thou has naught My debt to pay, find in Me thy all in all.”
The words fell into the hands of John T. Grape, the organist at Mountain Street Methodist Church. The organ at Mountain Street Methodist had been taken to John’s home for safe keeping while the church was renovated. There he composed the music to “Jesus Paid It All”.

Each one of us had the crimson stain of sin in our hearts. The price to have this stain removed is much too great for any of us to pay. So Jesus came and paid it all. The entire debt has been paid.

In todays economy many people are upside down in their mortgage. The debt owed is far greater than the value of the property. Jesus not only paid our debt in full, He paid a far greater price than any of us could have ever imagined.
“And when before the throne, I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

This week think about how much Jesus paid for you! He gave all as he paid it all.

Our foundation hymn for this Sunday will be Stand up, Stand up for Jesus. Dudley Tyng was the pastor of the Church of the Covenant in Philadelphia in 1858. About two weeks after seeing over 1000 men give their lives to Christ, Dudley sustained a terrible injury while visiting a farm. His arm was ripped from its socket in a corn-thrasher. Four days later it was clear he would not survive the accident. He spoke his last words were to his father. He said “Stand up for Jesus, father, and tell my brethren of the ministry to stand up for Jesus.”
After Dudley’s funeral another pastor in Philadelphia was inspired by his last words and wrote a poem. “Stand up; Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss”. Sometime later, the poem was put to music and was published in a hymnal extending Dudley’s last words.
Ephesians 6:10-17 gives great instruction about standing. That is what our new song for the day is about. It is called Counting on God. The chorus says;
“Joy unspeakable that won’t go away and just enough strength to live for today.
I never have to worry what tomorrow will bring because my faith is on solid rock.
I am counting on God!”
The next songs will be Mighty to Save and Blessed Be Your Name which encourages us to bless His name no matter what happens in our lives.
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) wrote, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be strong men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your power. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”
As you prepare for worship this Sunday ask God to show you how to stand up for Jesus.

In Matthew 27:46 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabachthani – which means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Notice Psalm 22 also starts with this same cry! Read Psalm 22:1-18 and Matthew 27:32-46 and you will see Matthew tells the story of Jesus on the cross from the ground looking up at the cross. Psalm 22 is the story of Jesus from the cross looking down. In Jesus day the Bible was not divided into chapter and verse. If you wanted to draw attention to a passage you would quote the beginning of that passage. Is it possible that Jesus was telling us from the cross to look at Psalm 22?
He did not have to go to the Cross. John 18:1-6 says Six hundred soldiers fell to the ground when Jesus said “I Am He”. Incredible! They just fell to the ground! He did not have to go to the Cross! But He Did! And then He Rose and that is what we will celebrate this Sunday morning. Resurrection Sunday! The Choir will bring three wonderful songs about our Beautiful Savior. Our foundation hymn is “He Lives” followed by “Christ Arose” and then we will proclaim “How Great is Our God”. Finally we will sing a song called “My Savior, My God”. The words to this song come from a poem written in 1873 by Dora Greenwell. Here is the poen.

I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know that at His right hand
Is One Who is my Savior!

I take Him at His word and deed;
“Christ died for sinners”—this I read;
For in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior!

That He should leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? So once did I,
Before I knew my Savior!

Yea, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this Spring;
That He Who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior!

See you Sunday!
The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!