ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS SOVEREIGN
God presides over every event, great or small, and He is in control of our lives. To be sovereign, He must be all-knowing and all-powerful, and by His sovereignty He rules His entire creation. 1 Chronicles 29:11-13
1 Chronicles 29:11-13
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
Praise God that He is Sovereign
Praise God because He has presided over every event in your life. Praise Him because He is in control of everything that will happen today in the life of every person on earth. Praise Him because He has always been sovereign for every person for all of time.
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 your friends who do not know Jesus. Ask God to strengthen your friendships and to give you opportunities for gospel conversations.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Hebrews 13:1-13 – New Living Translation
Concluding Words
13 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! 3 Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
4 Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,
“I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.”
6 So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper,
so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. 13 So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
These verses compliment Hebrews chapter 11. In chapter 11, the writer gave examples of people in the past who had revealed their faith in acts of faithfulness. They were not perfect, and not all were even great people, but they do serve as examples of what God can do through lives of imperfect faith. Now he directs his readers’ attention to the leaders they have known personally. Leaders who apparently have died or been killed. They are to consider the outcome of these leaders’ way of life and to imitate their faith. Some things to consider here are that these are leaders who had taught the Scriptures to them. They not only taught Scripture, but they lived it out in front of them. What they believed showed up in what they did. Now these leaders are dead and those who remain are able to contemplate the “outcomes” of their lives. What did they see? Evidently it was good, otherwise our author would not have challenged them to model their own lives after their example. Now notice the encouragement that follows the example. Jesus is the same always. How does this encourage life modeling? The examples of Hebrews 11 or the ones they knew personally all followed the same Lord. He has not changed. You don’t have to guess what is most valuable to give your life for, or if the future “what matters most” will change. The outcome of your life, if you live faith expressed in faithfulness, will be the same as theirs was. Our assurance is there because Jesus is the same forever; he never changes. His unchanging nature assures our life outcomes.