Home Worship Guide (5-3-2020)

Overview: This is a guide. It has been designed to help you and can be modified by you however you see fit. Especially for those with younger kids, it might be best to read through this in advance and use elements that will fit the attention span of your kids. 

Main Point: The Gospel frees us to serve one another in love which honors God.   

Read: 1 John 2:3-10

3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 

4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 

5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 

6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 

7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 

8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining. 

9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 

10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.

Encouragement: We love God because he first loved us and our love for God causes us to live differently. God’s love is manifested in us. We love others the way he loves. We obey out of love as Christ did. We can test whether or not we truly love God by looking at how we love one another. If we see that we genuinely love one another, that is a fruit of grace and evidence that we are living in the light.  

Prayer: 

Spend some time praying for the following

1. Pray that God would bless your time with him

2. Pray that God would open your heart and enlarge your love for him

3. Pray that God would show you how he is calling you to respond

Devotion: Gal 5:13-14

Discussion Questions:

1. How often do you find yourself on autopilot as a follower of Christ? How aware are you of your motives behind your actions.  

2. What are some times when you have recently struggled to have an attitude of love? Where was your focus? 

3. How does freedom from sin enable us to live and serve in a way that is marked by love? How have you seen that in your life?  

4. What are some areas where the Spirit is convicting you? How will you respond to that conviction?   

5. How can you grow in love for your brothers and sisters?  

6. Who is someone at Arbor Drive that you love who you can serve in some way this week? How will you act on that?   

Application:

1. Our heart and affections will drive our actions. The beginning point for honoring Christ with our lives is a heart that is captured by him. (Matt 5:18; Prov 4:23; Matt 12:34)

2. Service to God that is honoring to him is motivated by love. We love him more as we see him more clearly and that leads to new, God-honoring actions. (Matt 22:37-40; John 4:7-12; Luke 6:35; Romans 12:10)

3. Look to the gospel. God loved us in order that his love might be shown through us. We see the love of God for us most clearly at the cross where Jesus died to reconcile sinners to God (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 5:1-2; Eph 1:4-5)

Respond in Song: All I Have Is Christ (Consider discussing how the words of this song connect with the truths you saw in the text after singing).

Respond in Prayer (Pray specifically for an increased love and affection for God which overflows into a greater and deeper love for his people)