Sunday, April 26, 2020
Welcome to Trinity Wellsprings Church.
Video will be available Sunday morning at 9:00 am (and anytime afterwards).
We're thankful to be able to have this Online Worship Experience together with you. You can also find us on Facebook, or, if you'd rather watch the video above directly on YouTube via your Smart TV, please search for Trinity Wellsprings Church. For different ways to GIVE either ONLINE or through the MAIL, go to ONLINE GIVING. For Families with Children, click on the image JAMLAND KIDS ONLINE EXPERIENCE.
Living Room Liturgy
Surprisingly Spectacular Needs for Building a Church
Matthew 16:13-23
Sermon Series: The Life of Peter, the Greatness of Christ
Before the Worship Service:
Lectio (Read the Text with a Listening Ear)
Old Testament Reading: Psalm 13
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
New Testament Reading: Matthew 16:13-23
Meditatio (Meditate)
- Do you identify with the primary question of the Psalmist: “How long, O Lord”? How so?
Oratio (Pray by Yourself or with your Family)
- What has been most life-giving to you over the last week? What has been the most life-draining to you over the last week?
- In prayer, can you praise God for the good and bring before God the hard before the service?
Connecting in Worship
Adoratio (Worship)
We’d love to connect with you…please click the Connect Card image below. How can we pray with you? After you fill out the Connect Card, you’ll be directed to a place to share prayer requests.
After the Worship Service
Meditatio (Meditate on Peter’s failure, his repentance, and his strengthening ministry.)
1. Often preachers draw attention to Peter’s confession. Pastor Jason emphasized the “spectacular work of grace” in Peter’s life: “And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon, Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’” (Matthew 16:17)
What spiritual or practical applications do you draw from the idea that even Peter’s most spectacular confession of faith is preceded by a more spectacular work of the grace of God in his life?
2. Meditate on the symmetry mentioned between creation (Gen. 1) and the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). What does it mean to you that what God does in a human soul in salvation (redemption/new creation) is as magnificent show of grace as the original creation in paradise?
2b. What do you think about Jonathan Edwards thought: “I am bold to say, that the work of God in the conversion of one soul…is a more glorious work of God than the creation of the whole material world.” How does that strike you?
3. What if the Christian life is not about “fixing you” or giving you “inner peace” but helping you to identify and celebrate and be able to trace the grace of God in your life? Would that change the way you live the Christian life?
4. What do you think of this thought by Thomas W. Currie III: “We sometimes find God’s forgiveness to be offensive: ‘It reveals us to be distressingly like everyone else!’ (And we are so special).” What does that mean to you or in your life?
5. Read 1 Peter 3:18. What steps can you take this week to “grow in grace”? How do you think you live that out in your life?
6. What comfort or strength do you take from the promise of Christ: “I will build my church”?
7. What would it take for you to be able to say – with integrity – what author Brennan Manning says: “My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”
8. In Matthew 16:23-33, why do you think Peter was originally against Jesus suffering and taking the path to the cross?
9. Why do you think that A.W. Tozer said, “All great Christians have been wounded souls.” What does the cross have to do with Tozer’s idea? Read 1 Peter 2:21. How is it even possible to live that verse out in your everyday life?
1o. What is one thing or area that you feel God calling you to this next week?
Contemplatio (Contemplate the Love of God in Christ for you.)
Read three times slowly 2 Peter 3:18: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” Then close your eyes and be in the presence of Jesus.
After a couple of minutes, close in prayer.
Oratio (Respond in Prayer to God)
Pray that you (and your family) might rest in the grace of God this week and intentionally practice grace with one another.
Donatio (Give to the Work of the Lord)
Generosity springs from God’s generous love and mercy to us. As Christians, we recognize that no organization on the planet has changed the world in deep, eternal, transformative ways like God has used the local church.
Operatio (Put it into Practice)
What is one thing that I can meditate on or put into practice this week to live more fully for Christ?
For Families with Children:
Click on the Image below and talk with your kids about the Bible Lesson this week!
Thanks for participating in this “Living Room Liturgy” with your Church family! God Bless!