Today when we can’t be together because of the weather, but we can still worship together as a church family in our homes. We’re praying for a special time for your family, and we’d love for you to send us a picture of your family worship time.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Read this Psalm out loud. Have someone different read each verse if you have more than one reader available.
1 Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we are his —
his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good,
and his faithful love endures forever;
his faithfulness,
through all generations.
-Psalm 100:1-5 (CSB)
Before we sing together….
Look back at the powerful words we just read.
What does it mean to worship triumphantly, with gladness, joyfulness, and thanksgiving?
Are these positive words or negative?
One of the reasons that we sing is because God is GOOD,
and his love endures forever!
How should our faces look if we’re glad, joyful, and thankful?
Let’s remember to have glad, joyful, and thankful hearts as we sing songs of praise and worship to God.
WORSHIP THROUGH SONG
After you are finished singing, let’s pray together.
When we sing, God often speaks to us in our worship. Is there anything or anyone that you thought about while you were singing that you’d like to pray for now?
Let’s pray for those things.
Now, let’s pray together before we study the Bible. Let’s pray that God would continue to speak to us in our time of worship. Let’s pray that we would have eyes to see Him, ears to understand Him, and minds to comprehend what He’s going to speak to us today.
WORSHIP THROUGH
THE WORD
Let’s listen closely to this beautiful prayer from the Apostle Paul in Ephesians. Let’s listen for words that stick out to us. Let’s listen for what connects with our hearts, and let’s remember those things so we can talk about them in a little while.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. 16 I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us — 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
-Ephesians 3:14-21 (CSB)
TEACHING POINTS
Let’s breakdown the different thoughts in this passage of Scripture to help discern what God might be trying to tell us.
Notice Paul’s posture of prayer. In many cultures, kneeling and bowing down is a showing of respect and honor. When we pray to God, it’s important to remember that even though he loves it when we talk to Him, it’s also good to remember that it’s an honor to be able to talk to God, and He deserves our respect. When we bow our heads and close our eyes, it’s also a way to say how important God is to us, and that He deserves all of our attention.
Genesis 1:27 says, that everyone is made in the image of God and that God made us in His likeness.—just like kids usually look their Moms and Dads, and maybe even their grandparents. All humans look like God because we are made in His image. Humanity is a reflection of God. The theological words for this is “Imago Dei.” which is Latin for the “Image of God.” Even on our worst days, those in Christ are the family of Christ made to reflect the beauty and goodness of God.
In verse 16, we see the word “riches.” It’s good for us to remember that God is rich. He made everything which means He has everything. Nobody is richer than God. Nobody has more than He has. God’s riches are even richer than money. Out of his riches, He gives things to us that we need, and we need a lot of things. But on a regular basis, the things we think we need are not the things that God knows we need. We may want a million dollars, but instead, God might give us a million blessings because that’s what we need. Paul prays for Christians that they would be given exactly what God wants them to have, and then He says what some of those things are.
Here’s what we need: to be. STRENGTHENED (with power), for Christ to DWELL (in our hearts through faith), to be ROOTED & ESTABLISHED (in love), to COMPREHEND (the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, to KNOW (Christ’s love), and to be FILLED (with the fullness of God). These things are all important, and it serves us well to think of them in relation to how we are currently experiencing them. We’ll come back and have some discussion about these areas in just a moment.
Verses 20-21 remind us that because of God’s riches, he is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think and that His power is working in us. Because of that, he is glorified to all generations, forever and ever. Amen! Even when we may think God has held back some things from us. He is actually giving us more than we even know that we need. He loves us enough to not give us everything we want. He’s inviting us to trust Him. Like the song said earlier, he knows what He’s doing.
ILLUSTRATION
If you were to go and get a glass from the kitchen (and you can if you want to follow along) and fill it up with water and just kept the water running past the point of it being full, what would be overflowing out of the glass? It would be water. What you’re full of is what will overflow out of you. So, it’s important to look at what’s coming out of you. What’s coming out of your mouth? What do your words say you are full of? What’s coming out of your bank account? What does the way you spend your money say about what you’re full of? What about your time? What are you giving your time and energy too? What’s overflowing there? What is coming out determines how full you are of Christ.
If we are full of other things, then we’re not making room for the things that God wants to give us. So the question is, is there anything we need to get rid of in order to make more room for the fullness of what God wants us to have?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How Strengthened are you feeling? Do you feel God’s power at work in you?
How much do we feel Christ dwelling in our hearts? What does that say about our faith?
Rooted & Established are strong words. How rooted and established are you feeling in God’s love?
How are we currently comprehending God’s love for us? How do you describe the length and width and height and depth of God’s love? How do we know how big it is?
Do you know Christ? How do you know that you know? If you don’t know, do you want to know? (We would love to help you know. Feel free to email one of our Pastors by clicking here.)
Are you filled with the fullness of Christ?
What do you need to do to receive what God wants to give you?
PRAYER
Let’s pray together about what we’ve received in our worship time today. You can pray this, or something else that’s on your heart:
Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a rich God. You have everything we need, and you want to give us what we need. Would you give us the courage to clean out of our hearts and lives what we don’t need in order to make room for what we do need? We want your power that gives us strength. We want Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith. We want to be rooted and established in your love. We want to comprehend the vastness of your love. We want to know You as we are known by You. We wanted to be filled with the fullness of Christ. We want everything you want us to have. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
WORSHIP THROUGH OFFERING
Part of our worship back to God is being generous with what He has given to us. Read this scripture to be reminded what a privilege it is to be able to be generous to the church in order to be a blessing to each other, our community, and the world.
6 The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart — not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.
-2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (CSB)
Prayer:
Thank you, Lord for Your generosity to us. We are grateful for all that we have and all of the blessings you have given us. As a part of our worship, we now give back to You, in order to spread Your love and blessings to our world. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen!
BENEDICTION
As you close your time of worship as a family, read this passage together as a blessing.
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus — the great Shepherd of the sheep — through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
-Hebrews 13:20-21 (CSB)
We love you Grace Family! Stay safe and we will see you next Sunday.
And…don’t forget to send us a photo of your Family Worship time.