Drawing Near:

Welcome! Thank you for joining us for this week's ToGather.church. (Find out more.) We hope our 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 from all over the world to join our hearts in worship. Our focus this week is on the key, central truth of our faith: Jesus, our Lord and Christ, is greater than anyone or anything! Or to put this truth in simple symbols:

X > !

Special Note:
As Phil explained in his lesson video, "X" is the the ancient Christian abbreviation for Christ — for example, Xmas is the abbreviation for Christmas! The symbols above are a kind of shorthand for saying:
Christ is greater than everything, and anything, and anyone, ever!

Our first song invites us to celebrate this truth, and it opens with these words of invitation:

Come, let us worship our King.
Come, let us bow at His feet!
He has done great things!

Let's sing and declare with Phil Wickham that our Lord has done "Great Things":

Opening the Scriptures:

Phil's message today is from our Verse of the Day, Matthew 12:6. You will want to have your Bible open to Matthew chapter 12. Phil will help us hear the incredible claims Jesus makes as religious leaders confront him. Notice especially Jesus' challenging words in Matthew 12:6, 8, 41, 42. Jesus' statements challenge us to see him as greater than anything or anyone in the past, present, or future:

Links to devotionals mentioned in Phil's video:
What Jesus Did! on Matthew for 2021 — See subscribe button at the bottom of the devotional.
A Year With Jesus — the subscription link is at the top left or bottom of page!
If you have trouble subscribing, email phil@verseoftheday.com!

Through song, Chris Tomlin helps us proclaim our faith that what Jesus declared is true. Let's sing "Our God" and confess that our God is greater than any other:

Sharing the Supper:

The Lord's Supper is a special time in our worship when we remember Jesus — who he is, what he has done for us, and his promises for our future with him. Before we share in Holy Communion, let's sing our praise and thanksgiving to Jesus, lovingly telling him, "Great Are You Lord." We are led by All Sons & Daughters in this song of worship and adoration:

Phil invites you to the Lord's Table as we continue to think about Christ being greater and what that means for us as God's children:

Closing Blessing:

As we prepare for our closing blessing, let's join Demetrius and the Westover Singers as they lead us in a song so fitting with today's theme, "How Great Is Our God":

Jesus, our Lord and Christ, is greater than anyone or anything, ever!
Our subscription and donation coordinator, Donna Ware, offers this closing blessing from God's word. This blessing summarizes all that we tried to say, sing, and declare in ToGather.church, today. You are invited to say this closing blessing with Donna. It comes from Ephesians 3:20-21:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

The past two weeks have been our annual November donation drive. We want to thank each of you who participated by praying for the ministry, sharing words of encouragement, or contributing financially. Thank you! Each of these kinds of gifts matters and is considered precious to us because it enables and empowers our daily mission with Heartlight.org and VerseoftheDay.com:

Providing free resources to live for Jesus in today's world.

Our prayer for your blessing comes from the apostle Paul as he closes the letter to the Ephesians:

Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. (Ephesians 6:24).

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.