Drawing Near to Our Father:
Welcome!
We are delighted that you joined us for ToGather.church. (Find out more.) What follows is our home worship guide for you to use on your own or to share with your friends, family, home group, or house church.
We come to our time of worship living in a broken world. COVID-19 has humbled most us, wounded many of us, and claimed the lives hundreds of thousands. We are asking God to bless us with his assurance that he loves us and has adopted us into his eternal family.
Even with our future assured, we live in a world that is decaying. We want to be God's children who bring love and mercy to this dying world, yet we know that we need our Father's help to be the blessing to others that we long to be. Let's begin by confessing that we are "In Need," as the Zoe Group leads us:
We live in a broken world, but we choose to focus on the Lord of our faith, trusting that he will give us the grace that we need to face whatever comes our way. Why? Because we are children of God!
Today, we focus on the Holy Spirit's assurance that are we God's children (Galatians 4:6-7; 1 John 3:1-2). The Spirit is our guarantee that we will each receive the full inheritance of a child of the King (Romans 8:23). The Holy Spirit's presence in us guarantees us a place at God's side in glory! The world around us is in decay. It groans longing for redemption and waits with anticipation of our full adoption into the family of God when Jesus returns. As Paul says earlier in the same chapter (Romans 8:15), we have been adopted, but full adoption means receiving our inheritance as God's children and living eternally in his presence. The world's future is dependent on our future. Our future is determined by God adopting us into his family.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we, ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22-23)
We can sing and shout, "Hallelujah!" All who seek redemption in Jesus can trust that their decaying bodies will be changed into immortal ones when the Lord returns. All God's children will join together in his eternal presence, in their Father's glory, forever. Let's sing as All Sons & Daughters lead us in "All the Poor and Powerless" and declare this truth, together:
Sure of Our Future as God's Children:
God fashioned our identity when he adopted each of us into his family as one of his beloved children. Jesus placed his Spirit within each of us to help us on our journey through our broken world. The Holy Spirit will never leave us and is constantly at work within us. The Spirit's transforming presence within us guarantees our future. Let's declare this truth with Hillsong Worship as we sing, "Who You Say I Am":
Open your Bible to Romans 8:23, as Phil leads us into a deeper understanding of our Verse of the Day. He reminds us of the blessing of our full adoption as God's beloved children and that we can rightfully believe we are who God says we are: his beloved children!
What a wonderful blessing. Let's sing that "Salvation Belongs to Our God," with the Zoe Group, as they lead us in celebrating our Father's work in our lives:
Sharing as Family in the Table of the Lord:
Megan, Donna, and Phil Ware take time on a recent Sunday to share in the Lord's Supper before Megan heads back to teach physical therapy students in Central Texas. They invite you into their time of family remembrance. As they are looking at family pictures, they remember those who had gone home to Jesus before them. The Lord's Supper is their great reminder that Jesus has defeated death and that God's promised future in Christ lies ahead.
Our closing blessing is from 1 John 3:1-3 NLT. These verses beautifully fit our theme of being God's beloved children. John wrote to these early disciples about being children of God. He reminded them that their future is beyond anything they could properly imagine, yet that future should still help shape their present life to become more and more like Jesus.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him. Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3 NLT)
Our closing song is from Elevation Worship (with Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes) and is called the "The Blessing":
Our prayer is that you live with the blessing of knowing that you are a child of God. May the Lord bless you and keep as you live for him.
Postscript:
Shortly after ToGather is posted each weekend, the videos are professionally captioned and posted on YouTube. See all of our ToGather.church videos on our YouTube® Channel.
Special thanks for Multi Transcription Services of America (MTSOA.com) for their fine work. See them for all your questions about marketing YouTube® videos and expanding your online reach. Email Lee for more info.
Special thanks for the use of images related to Jesus' ministry from The Lumo Project and Free Bible Images.
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