ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
God is TRANSCENDENT
God is not simply the highest in an order of beings (this would be to grant Him eminence). He is transcendent—existing beyond and above the created universe.
Psalm 113:4-5
The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high,
Praise the Transcendent God
Praise Him because He is beyond understanding. Praise Him because He created our universe, but He transcends time and space. He exists beyond our world, but He still enters into our world.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for Christian Challenge as they meet tonight for their summer session. Ask God to increase students’ love for Him, love for one another, love for God’s word, and love for the lost.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Titus 2 – The Message
A God-Filled Life
2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, trustworthy in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
9-10 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
11-14 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15 Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You’re in charge. Don’t let anyone put you down.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Home is ground zero for living out our faith. If you are not married the principle would apply to your family or perhaps your close friends. How we treat those closest to us says much about the condition of our heart. There are several reasons why this is true but one is that when we “let down our guard” the real us can come out. There is a sense in which we need to be able to let down our guard at home; we can’t always be “on.” We need to give each other room to have bad days, and down times. However, there is really never a time when we should be okay with being “unChristlike” in our treatment of one another. We have to pay attention to our attitudes and actions towards each other because this can serve as a sort of “check engine light” to reveal heart issues we aren’t fully aware we have. If we treat a stranger with more care and concern than our spouses then clearly we need examine what is going on in our hearts. We need to ask why Jesus is not showing up more evidently in our relationships at home. We need to get this right because we can and because we want to.