Welcome
Suddenly, everything is different. The global response to COVID-19 has people engaging in everything in new ways, including church. This week, we’re putting the Spotlight on the fact that the method of delivery might change, but the love of God and his desire to deliver it to your heart never will.
Watch & Get Started: Welcome
Watch, Listen & Decompress: PSalm 62
Take a few minutes to decompress using the Psalm 62 video below. You can sing along if you’d like (you’re likely at home in quarantine, so nobody will complain).
Psalm 62 by Aaron Keyes and Stuart Townend as recorded on "Not Guilty Anymore" (Aaron Keyes). http://aaronkeyes.com/home/#!/ss:facebook
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Worship
Watch: Where is God?
Read & watch: A HOle in the Wall
1 Kings 8:27-30 | “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
Listen & PRAY: Hearts Turned to God
1 Kings 8:56-61 | “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”
Learn
Read & Do: CONTAINING THE GOSPEL
There’s an old hymn called “The Love of God” that describes the vastness of God’s love like this:
Could we, with ink, the ocean fill
and were the skies of parchment made,
were every reed on earth a quill
and every man a scribe by trade -
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry
the scroll could not contain the whole
though stretched from sky to sky.
The love of God (the Gospel) can’t be fully contained in one thing - but nevertheless, it always comes in a container. Here’s a a powerful metaphor:
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 | “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
The point? You and I are containers for the Gospel. And it’s more than just us. It can be nearly everyone and nearly everything - from t-shirts to bumper-stickers to you-name-it. In fact, YOU name it.
DO THIS…
Grab a piece of paper or note-taking app.
Take 2 minutes & brainstorm as many possible containers/jars of clay for the gospel as you possibly can.
Click here once you have your list to compare it with ours!
Children, Watch:
Watch:
Discuss:
Events like the Coronavirus Pandemic have a way of simplifying life by causing us to focus on that which is most important.
Q: How can you use your home, your relationships, your work, your health, and your citizenship (containers) to share God’s promises (content) in your life?
Read & Engage:
Use the small down-arrow on the right side of the image to proceed through the slides.
Listen & Do:
BEFORE YOU LISTEN: Write down (in a notes app, or on a piece of paper) one fear you’ve had in the past week. Okay, now listen to this audio:
DO THIS…
God says, “Do not be afraid, for __ ____ ______ _____.”
Mike got into the wrong ________ &_____________!
God’s people will _______ his ________.
Takeaway question: Remember that fear you wrote down? How does the fact that “God is here” calm that fear?
Serve
Watch & DO: COUPONS OF CARE
DO THIS:
Select at least 2 of the 5 coupons we’ve provided.
Deliver/send/email them to people. If you do 2 coupons, you should deliver them to at least 2 people.
Make a note in your calendar to follow up on them in 2 weeks.
Farewell
Read & DO:
Pray through the prayer requests you/your group submitted earlier.
Pray that all who are seeking God through different media and methods this week would be reminded that he is HERE with them.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.
God is good to provide ways for the church to keep doing its work even when things seem upside down. In fact, the uniqueness of this moment means that people who are worried or overwhelmed or frustrated are especially in need of the truth that God loves them and holds them in his arms. When you support Illumine, you support our part in God’s effort to show himself to the world - in fact, you are God’s effort to show himself. Thank you for considering a gift to this ministry.
