WORSHIPING TOGETHER – Sunday August 23, 2020
We pray that you were encouraged by the Vimeo Worship and our guest’s message, Risking Change. We want to thank all of those who participated in creating this week’s service. We are so grateful for your contributions.
As you continue to worship together in your online and household groups, we offer the following as a guide:
Opening Prayer: (Read by a Single Voice)
Lord, we welcome you here today. We praise you above all else. Please encourage and bless this time together. Forgive us when we do not think to invite you into both the small and the big moments of our life. Help us to remember that your truth will always show us your way and your will. Help us to remember that you call us to follow you, to say yes to you, and that through your grace and by our faith, you will never leave us or forsake us. We know that yours is not always the easy way. The way is narrow. There are days when we need your strength and courage to take the risk to say yes. Yes to follow; yes to serve; yes to pray; yes to trust; yes to knowing you better. In those moments, we are grateful for the Holy Spirit’s counsel. We pray that we will always discern your will for us and that we will always take the risk to say yes and your will be done. Amen.
Reading Scripture: (Take Turns Reading) (All readings today are from Hebrews 11 NIV)
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
Checking In:
- Which risk have you taken that resulted in change in you?
- Can you identify a risk to take in order to see changes that have been hard to make?
Close in prayer for one another and then with these words: (Read by a Single Voice)
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21 (NIV)