ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS OMNIPOTENT
God is all-powerful. He spoke all things into being, and all things— every cell, every breath, every thought—are sustained by Him. Nothing is too difficult for Him.
Jeremiah 32:17-18 & 26-27
Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the parents’ sins into the laps of their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord Almighty,
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?
Praise the Omnipotent God
He created every living thing from nothing. He sustains everything by His power. He never grows tired. He has broken the curse of sin and death. He has the power to raise the dead.
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 at River. Ask God to grow the student’s faith and grow their community.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Hebrews 13:1-15 – The Message
Jesus Doesn’t Change
13 1-4 Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it’s needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it! Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you. Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.
5-6 Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote,
God is there, ready to help;
I’m fearless no matter what.
Who or what can get to me?
7-8 Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.
9 Don’t be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don’t seem to do much for those who buy them.
10-12 The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot. In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It’s the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God’s altar to cleanse his people.
13-15 So let’s go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This “insider world” is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.
In the New Testament, the letters were written to address real world challenges and problems. Of course the challenges came with opportunity as well, but nonetheless there were continual challenges to biblical belief and practices. These challenges were often tied to strange teachings. Strange doesn’t just mean “weird,” though they often were. It means strange as in “other than orthodox.” Strange means wrong, untrue. There was a continual temptation to run after the strange, the new, the interesting, and the controversial. That temptation remains to this day. Many get bored with the normal stuff of Scripture, like “Love God, love people, be faithful.” They want something more “experiential” more “passionate.” It is hard to imagine anything more experiential or passionate than knowing and loving God and making his love known, but humans are easily distracted. If you find yourself being “carried away” by strange and interesting teaching or tempted to run after rituals and experiences that are other than the normal means of God’s grace, stop! Do not allow yourself to be carried away. This is not some wind or wave that is too powerful to resist. You simply have to say “no!” God’s means of grace are His Word, Spirit, and People. You have all you need. Let the strange stuff go its own way, you stay the course of faithfulness.