Welcome to this week's ToGather.church! Few truths are more important to us than Jesus' promise to be at the Father's side, interceding for us (Hebrews 2:14-18, 4:14-16; Galatians 3:7) and presenting us to the Father as "holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation" (Colossians 1:22). In Hebrews 7:25, the Holy Spirit adds to these startling and wonderful promises:

Therefore [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Our focus in ToGather aligns with these promises and helps us understand why we can be seen as holy in God's sight. Our verses also remind us that this grace we have received is why Jesus gave us the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to share this message with all the people of the world. Our verses for today come from our Verse of the Day, 1 John 2:1-2:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

In Phil's message video, he digs into the Scriptures and reminds us of our great assurance in Jesus' advocacy and intercession for us. He also deals with three common lies the devil uses to create doubt in the minds of believers or to give us false assurance. Then, he brings us back to our key verses to identify those lies for what they are — dangerous weapons that are used by the evil one but that are untrue. Our identity is joined to "Jesus Christ, the Righteous One"!

In our full worship video, we sing songs chosen by Demetrius to glorify God and strengthen our faith in Jesus' sacrifice to save us and in his daily intercession for us. Fred Spain reminds us of the drama of the Last Supper and the cost of Jesus' atoning sacrifice as we share in Communion. We close with a reminder of our key verses and receive a blessing from God's Word.

Phil's Message for This Week

Phil's video message is centered on our Verse of the Day passage, 1 John 2:1-2:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Remember, Phil challenged us to refuse to believe these three lies of the evil one. These lies can ultimately destroy us in very different ways, but we don't have to believe them because God has already told us differently!

  1. The lie: You will never be more holy than you are right after you come to Christ.
    But, it is Jesus' righteousness that makes us holy, not anything we do (Titus 3:5) and the Lord continually forgives and purifies us of our sins (1 John 1:5-10).

  2. The lie: God does not want you now that you have messed up the grace you have already received.
    But, Jesus' parable of the father who ran to receive his son back (Luke 15:11-24) tells us that God always wants us back no matter how badly we've messed up.

  3. The lie: You deserve God's grace because you are part of the right group that does the right things and continues to live for him. You've earned your grace!
    But, no one is righteous (Romans 3:10). It is God who saves us through his grace and our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We are God's dear children. God doesn't want us to sin after we have been saved, but we have Jesus as our advocate and defense attorney. Our advocate is Jesus, God the Son. His atoning sacrifice covers our past, present, and future sins as we seek to live for him. Our identity is joined to Jesus' identity, and he is "Jesus Christ, the Righteous One"! He paid the price for our sins so we could be God's righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Here's a promise we can trust: Jesus lives at the Father's side to intercede for us.
The grace we have received comes with the blessings of having Jesus as our advocate. This blessing, however, must not be hoarded. We must share it. Jesus died to save all the world's people (John 3:16-17). He wants us to share his message of grace, hope, and assurance with others from every language, tribe, and people so they can enjoy salvation and the celebration of Jesus as our Lord at the table of God's grace (Revelation 7:9-12, 19:7, 9). God's grace shared with us becomes our mission to share with the world Jesus came to save!

Full ToGather Worship Video

We pray that the Spirit of the living God fills you as we worship together, that Jesus' presence is real to you, and that the Father is honored as we share in this time of praise in God's presence:

Special thanks for the use of images related to Jesus' ministry from The Lumo Project and Free Bible Images for use in both ToGather videos.