Drawing Near:

Welcome! Thank you for joining us for this week's ToGather.church. (Find out more.) We hope our home worship guide blesses your home worship. Feel free to share it with your friends, family, home group, or house church. Gather in as safe a way as possible in these challenging times. If you are looking for a larger community to share prayer, fellowship, and discussion, please check out our Verse of the Day comments section!

Our ToGather.church family comes together to join our hearts. Like you, we come to meet Jesus, recognizing that we live in a troubled world. Let's use this time of worship to remind each other that God will lead us to better times as we respond to his love, mercy, and grace for us. Let's begin our worship today reading aloud Mary's Magnificat, which was her hymn of praise:

And Mary said [to Elizabeth]:

"My soul glorifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me —
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors"
(Luke 1:46-55).

Now let's join Mary in a portion of her hymn as we sing "Magnificat" with the Zoe Group":

Mary praised God for his faithfulness. Today, we will focus on God's faithfulness in our songs and respond with a commitment to be faithful ourselves. Let's remind each other of God's faithfulness as we sing, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," with Maranatha! Music:

Paul shared the following words of blessing and promise as he wrote the mess of a church in Corinth. Even in their sinfulness, rivalry, and division, Paul reminded them that God is faithful and will get them through their messes to his glory:

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way — with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge — God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:4-9).

If God's faithfulness can triumph over the mess of a church in Corinth and bring them to his glorious future for them, imagine what he can do in us! We rest on the certainty of God's faithfulness to the promise that we can leave this life with no unfinished business!

Let's remind each other of God's amazing faithfulness in the song, "Faithful to the End," led by Bethel Music:

Opening the Scriptures:

God is faithful, but will we live faithfully for him?

Will we accomplish all that the Lord has commanded us to do?

Will we leave this life with no unfinished business?

Our VerseoftheDay.com comes from Joshua 11:15. This verse reminds us that we can finish life with no unfinished business if we trust the faithfulness of God to lead us as we invest in others coming after us. Moses invested himself in Joshua, who completed all that God had given Moses.

As the LORD commanded his servant, Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses (Joshua 11:15).

Let the words, "he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses" settle into your heart and fill you with hope! We have a pandemic that has interrupted so many parts of our lives. However, God still has a plan for us to finish this life, completing what we are called to do.

God will be faithful to us and get us through to the end. When our lives are done, the Lord wants us to be able to join Paul in saying:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Hopefully, each of us wants Paul's words, "I have finished the race," to be true for us also.

But how can those words be true of us in a world as messed up as our world? So many things make life challenging. Too many aspects of this world and in our lives seem to be outside our control. So, how can we finish strong? How can we leave this world with no unfinished business? As I listen to people today, more of us seem to feel less like Paul and more like the words from an old Neil Diamond song:

And each one there,
Has one thing shared.
They have sweated beneath the same sun.
Looked up in wonder at the same moon.
And wept when it was all done,
For bein' done too soon.
For bein' done too soon.
("Done Too Soon," by Neil Diamond.)

Isn't that the feeling you have about Moses — that it was all "done too soon"? Doesn't it feel like Moses didn't get to finish what he started even though he had to put up with all the complaining and criticizing of the people he tried to lead? Didn't Moses' sin cost him the opportunity to finish getting Israel into the Promised Land? Didn't he leave this world with unfinished business? And, if Moses failed at accomplishing his life's mission, how can we succeed?

Our verse of the day challenges us to see that Moses did finish what he was supposed to accomplish. Joshua completed the mission because Moses had invested himself in Joshua, so Moses accomplished his mission through Joshua.

Join Phil as he challenges us to not regret that life is "done too soon" but to embrace the opportunity to leave this life with no unfinished business:

Sharing The Supper:

As we prepare our hearts to receive Jesus' grace in Holy Communion, we are going to confess that we are "Overwhelmed" at God's faithfulness, grace, and mercy, as Big Daddy Weave leads us:

Servants of God left can leave behind no unfinished business, just like Moses and Joshua!
You are invited to the Lord's Table with Phil and Donna. They invite us to remember Jesus' personal touch, sacrificial love, and tender future for us because of his death, burial, and resurrection and his return for us:

Closing and Blessing:

As we prepare to faithfully face the challenges of life this week, let's sing the song, "Available," with Elevation Worship:

We close with the following blessing:

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).

May you live this week reassured that God is faithfully accomplishing all his plans for you and through you, as you seek to share your influence faithfully with future generations!

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.