JOIN US FOR WORSHIP
Worship isn’t about performance; it’s about participation.
This Worship Guide serves as a weekly resource as we join in singing, praying, and celebrating the work God is doing in our community.
Whether you’re at the Lyric Theatre or tuning into our live stream, we’re so glad you are joining us!
Let’s jump in.
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”[f] 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
Luke 2:41-52 NIV
PRAYING TOGETHER
Key Thoughts:
The incarnation means that for whatever reason God chose to let us fall into a condition of being limited, to suffer, to be subject to sorrows and death—he has nonetheless had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine… He himself has gone through the whole of human experience—from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death… He was born in poverty and… suffered infinite pain—all for us—and thought it well worth his while.
Dorothy Sayers
GROWING TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY
Start your time together by having a few people share where they’ve seen God at work in their lives throughout the week.
God is not contained to a service or a building. We want to live with the expectation that God is present and at work in the everyday stuff of our lives. We listen, join him in his work, and share stories of how he’s moving!
Talk It Over
1. Church Father Athanasius tells us, “‘He became what we are that we might become what He is.” As you’ve pondered the Christmas story, what aspects of God becoming human like us move you? Surprise you? Challenge you?
2. How we view God matters immensely. As our High Priest, Jesus has made a way for us to come before the “throne of grace” with confidence. When you find yourself struggling with sin or some struggle, do you see God as welcoming? Or do you picture him being hesitant to welcome and forgive you?
NEXT STEPS AND RESOURCES
