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 and you can safely share your worship with your friends, family, home group, and house church. We desperately need each other's love and the Lord's presence during this challenging time!

Our ToGather.church family comes together to join our hearts in worship and be filled by the Holy Spirit as we sing, open the Scriptures, and share in Holy Communion. If you are looking for a larger community to share prayer, fellowship, and discussion, please check out our comments section at the bottom of the Verse of the Day web page!

We find ourselves trying to navigate life in troubled times. Our struggles remind us how much we need God's power shared with us through the Holy Spirit. Let's begin our worship today with Meredith Andrews and invite the Holy Spirit to fill us and touch us as we sing "Spirit Of The Living God":

Sharing the Supper:

Toward the end of the day on Resurrection Sunday, the risen Jesus miraculously entered the locked room where his disciples were hiding in fear. He greeted them with a blessing of peace, then showed them his hands and his side where he had been wounded. Then, Jesus shared these words:

"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:21-22).

The Greek word for "breath" (pneuma) in the New Testament is the same word for "spirit" and "Spirit"! Jesus wants to "breathe" the "Breath of Heaven" — the Holy Spirit — into us so that we have his power to do God's mission in our world. As we prepare to share in the Lord's Supper, let's invite the Holy Spirit to breathe his grace into us. Let's join Demetrius Collins and the Westover Singers as we sing, "Holy Spirit Breathe on Me":

We can make such a tender yet powerful request of the Spirit because we are God's children. We were born of the Spirit (John 3:1-7; Titus 3:1-7) and adopted as God's children (Galatians 4:4-7) and are full heirs of all of God's glory with Jesus (Romans 8:14-17).

What an incredible set of blessings for us to celebrate! We share this holy meal as God's adopted children because of the Holy Spirit. Doug Peters leads us in our Communion thoughts, reminding us that while we may be distant from each other physically, we are gathered together with each other in the Spirit as God's children:

Opening the Scriptures:

As we open our Bibles, let's remember that the Holy Spirit not only inspired the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17) but the "Breath of Heaven" also helps us open our hearts and minds to God's Spirit-inspired truth in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). Let's invite the Spirit to lead us as we seek to honor our Father as his children. We will sing "Spirit Lead Me," with Michael Ketterer and Influence Music. As we do, let's invite the Spirit to move us forward in the will and the direction of God:

As you have seen, our theme and focus today are the Holy Spirit. Phil challenges us to remember the apostle Paul's favorite number and the unity that the Spirit works to bring among followers of Jesus who have been baptized in, through, and by the Spirit into the Lord's body. We are one family, one body, because of the one Spirit that unites us and lives in all of us who belong to Christ:

Closing Blessing:

Let's invite the Holy Spirit to breathe God's grace into us.
Sylvia Rose composed a great song for us we approach the end of our time together today. "Holy Spirit Dwell in Me" is a rousing, spiritual song that invites the Spirit to live and empower us. As we sing this great hymn, let's commit to being led by the Spirit as we enter this new week:

We conclude ToGather.church as Fred Spain leads us in our closing blessing from Romans 15:5-6, 13:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:5-6).

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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

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.