Since taking on the worship director role at HBC, one recurring feedback that comes through is that a list of songs we did each Sunday would be useful, for people to look them up at a later stage and get to know them better. So I think I will at least try to put up the order of service for each Sunday.

This morning, Craig Starrenburg led the worship service, and Jono Macfarlane preached from Psalm 73.

Order of Service

(If you click each title, you’ll get a link to a video of each song or item in the service.)

1. From Everlasting – Brian Doerkson. A favourite call to worship at HBC. We picked it up off Denys when he introduced it at Impact 2009, and we’ve kept singing it ever since. It’s particularly useful as its lyrics help us to declare God’s sovereignty over “culture’s shifting sands”, and to affirm that He is “unchanged by all the vanities of man”.  This is one example of a good song, intentionally taught, that quickly became part of HBC’s worship music furniture!

2. You Are My All In All – Dennis Jernigan. This was new for the church. Craig tried to lead the church into a round where one half of the church sang the chorus, while the other sang the verse. It worked to some extent, though we had a bit of a mismatch with the lyric projection, where only verse 2 was put up for most of the round. Overall, nice lyrics that fit well with the theme – though from memory, the chorus was easier to pick up than the verse.

3. Wonderful Merciful Saviour – Dawn Rodgers, Eric Wyse. In a lost and broken world, I find singing these words give me incredible hope:

“You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace
Our hearts always hunger for
Oh, our hearts always hunger for!”

4. By Faith – Keith & Kristyn Getty, Stuart Townend. I’m always surprised at how the Lord ties together the song and the theme of the service. With the sermon and readings revolving around trusting in the Lord despite difficulties and perceived injustices, it helped me to sing this song about “walking by faith and not by sight” afresh. The instrumentation was a bit on the light side, as without drums or the rhythmic drive of a bass, the pace of the song threatened to drag. In any case, this is one the church knows well now, so it was sung with plenty of gusto!

5. Grace Unmeasured – Bob Kauflin. The chorus of this song says it all, really:

“Grace paid for my sins
And brought me to life
Grace clothes me with power
To do what is right
Grace will lead me to heaven
Where I’ll see Your face
And never cease
To thank You for Your grace!”

Sermon – It is Good to be Near God – Jono Macfarlane. Awesome Wookie power, we were blessed with a sensitive and encouraging exposition of the latter verses of Psalm 73. Check out the full sermon here.

6. Be Thou My Vision – Eleanor Hull, Mary Elizabeth Byrne. We closed the service with this fantastic hymn. Being encouraged that God is all we need to endure and strive on the straight and narrow path helped me to sing this hymn afresh, as I considered:

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise

Thou mine inheritance now and always;

Thou and thou only first in my heart

High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art!

All in all, it was a great morning of worship. I left being really encouraged of God’s amazing grace and kindness towards me!

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William Chong