Mark 8:36-3736 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
As some of you know, the RFBC worship ministry has been working hard to record songs that will help you facilitate family worship in your home. The idea and hope behind this ongoing project is to equip families with a resource that is connected directly to our worship on Sunday mornings. This is why we record songs that are familiar to our church body, with our church body.
If you haven’t visited our Family Worship page on the website, you can find it here: https://www.rainbowforest.com/familyworship To see all of our recorded lyric videos click the “Family Worship Playlist” link on the page or visit: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7yIMDuiNobkJ3XM9Man8n7_aC28RTaO3&si=QENhv1fMx7VFiQB9
All our recorded songs are also on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and anywhere else you can stream music. Just search “RFBC Worship”
This month we took time to record the song “Build Your Kingdom Here” by Rend Collective.
The NextGen kids are learning the verse; “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can man give in return for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37. There is a strong warning in the verse to not lose sight on what really matters in light of the true value of our soul. Jesus is telling us here that even if we gained the whole world, all of its riches, all of its status, all of its promises and shiny things, it still wouldn’t compare to the value of a soul being renewed by His grace and salvation.
We can take away a strong contrast here where two options are presented to us: live for the things of this world and lose our soul. OR put our faith in Jesus, deny the world, and let our souls be reborn and renewed through Jesus. This resulting in a God’s kingdom focus instead of our focus on the world.
The song we chose focuses strongly on the latter choice and what it means to live in God’s kingdom.
I thought it might be helpful to go through the song from a biblical perspective to help us understand why we sing it together, and to help you explain it to your families as you lead them in worship.
The overall meaning of the song addresses living for and crying out for God’s kingdom to come, and His will be done on earth. (Matthew 6:10)
Verse 1:
The first verse we sing together is a pleading and request to God to do only what He can do in our lives and in the world.
Set Your rule and reign
We know that Christ is working to bring all nations to himself by the work of his church. We invite God to take control, and to use us in his kingdom to further the Gospel. Galatians 2:20, Mark 1:15
Increase in us
We plead with John the Baptist when he requested this same to God, “He must increase, but I must decrease” John 3:30
Unveil why we’re made
Let’s be reminded of why we are made: To Glorify God(Isaiah 43), preform good works (Ephesians 2:10) and love one another as Christ Loved us (John 13:34-35).
Verse 2:
Verse Two moves from a request to action. In other words we answer the question, “What’s our role in His kingdom?”
We seek, hunger and thirst for Your kingdom first
Only from a humble spirit will Jesus satisfy our spiritual hunger for Himself. John 6:35, Matthew 6:33
We lay down our lives for Heaven’s cause
Jesus had some strong and cautious words for those who wished to follow Him Luke 14:25-33 Luke 9:23 again we are reminded that He must increase, I must decrease”.
Verse 3:
By Verse 3 we are confidently declaring God’s promises.
No force of hell can stop Your beauty changing hearts
We are reminded and stand firm in the promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, no matter what kind of persecution we may face. Matthew 16:17-19
We are made for much more than this
Revisiting the NextGen verse, we are reminded that the world has nothing for us to offer, only empty promises and separation from God. We are made to glorify God, to obey his commands through love and to stand apart from the world as a city on a hill. Psalm 1, Matt 5:14-16
I want to invite you, along with the entire worship ministry of RFBC, to sing this song boldly with us as we gather, and to be faithful in taking on the responsibility to lead your families in worship. We recorded this song with our team, with familiar voices, so that you can gather in your homes to sing together. We hope and pray that the truths of this song will bless you and your family as we all strive to grow closer to Christ each day.
-Pastor Jonathan