Drawing Near:

Welcome! We are blessed to have you join us for this week's ToGather.church. (Find out more.) We hope you will use our home worship guide to bless your private home worship and share it with your friends, family, home group, or house church. Please gather in as safe a way as possible in these challenging times. If you are looking for a community to share prayer, fellowship, and discussion, please check out our Verse of the Day comments section!

Our ToGather.church family comes together from around the world to honor God, thank Jesus for his sacrifice, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. We join our hearts, coming out of a troubled and sick world, trusting that God will lead us to a better time as we respond in obedience to his love for us.

In our worship today, we push back against the devil's lie that obeying God is something that limits us and keeps us from joy. We believe in the Lord's goodness and grace. We trust that obeying the LORD opens our lives to the new frontiers of his grace! Rather than trying to control or limit us, God wants us to reflect his character, rest in his blessings, and receive his strength as he restores our freedom lost in the fall.

The VerseoftheDay.com focus for our worship comes from Deuteronomy 11:8, and it is a call for Israel to enter the Promised Land, committed to obeying God so that he can bless his people with all that he has promised them:

Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey (Deuteronomy 11:8-9).

Our first song, "Come, Now Is the Time to Worship," reminds us that we are pledging our hearts to God as we worship. If we truly give our hearts to God, we will respond with obedience to God's will for us!

Opening the Scriptures:

Phil's message invites us to see obedience to God's commands as a way we receive God's grace. To prepare our hearts to receive this message, let's first commit to honor God in our lives as we sing "Be Lifted High" with the Zoe Group:

We pray that you are challenged, blessed, and encouraged by Phil's message today about finding the new frontiers of God's grace that are in obeying his commands:

The old hymn, "All to Jesus I Surrender," is a great response to today's message as we pledge ourselves to live for God and live in the grace of his character, blessings, strength, and freedom. Let's sing as we are led by Vineyard Worship:

Here are just two of the promises God has made for those who obey him. The first is specifically a promise to Israel as God's people enter the Promised Land. The second is a general promise for all of us. You are encouraged to read these two promises out loud as part of our worship to the LORD:

[Moses spoke the LORD's will to Israel and said:] See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess (Deuteronomy 30:15—16).

Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
who walk in obedience to him (Psalm 128:1).

Sharing The Supper:

Jesus promises to join us in sweet fellowship as his family if we invite him to join us. Let's first read his promise to join us. Then, we will invite him to the table of grace and welcome him as we share the Lord's Supper as a family:

[Jesus promised us as his family:] "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 3:20-22).

So we join our hearts and voices to say:

[Marana-tha!] Come, Lord!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen (1 Corinthians 16:22-24).

As we prepare our hearts to receive Jesus' grace in Holy Communion, let's sing the old hymn, "Just As I Am," with the Antrim Mennonite Choir. While we sometimes sing this song as an invitation to respond to the Good News of Jesus, today we will sing it as a response to the Lord's promise to join us at the Lord's Table:

You are invited to the Lord's Table by Rubel Shelly as he reflects on the challenges of separation during this time of social distancing and the pandemic. He reminds us that we come to the Table to meet Jesus. We come as a family and bring with us our story, our history, and a future together because of Jesus and the redemption he bought for us with his body and blood:

Closing and Blessing:

As we prepare to face the challenges of a new week, we need to remember that the world we live in is full of people who desperately need grace. We've come together, albeit it virtually, with people from around the world. Let's each make ourselves available to be used by God to bring Jesus to those who need his grace. Let's promise to be "Available" as we sing with Elevation Worship:

We close with the following blessing taken from Psalm 5:11-12 in the Tree of Life Version of the Scriptures:

May the LORD surround you with his favor as your shield!

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.