We encourage you to read and reflect on these scriptures, songs, notes, and prayers as we look forward to our time of worship together this coming Sunday.

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Please print this guide or have it handy in digital format for use during the service.

And don’t forget to join us Sunday immediately following the service in our virtual foyer for a group video chat! It’s easy to join! Just click here.

CALL TO WORSHIP

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The Spirit of God bids us, “Come.”
Let everyone who hears within their hearts “Come.”
Hear the whole earth rejoice and
the coastlands sing of our God’s steadfast love.

We come to rejoice in the Holy One, our God.
We give thanks for God sets us free!

Let everyone who is thirsty for the Spirit “Come.”
Let anyone who wishes “Come,”
and receive the water of life as a gift.

We come to rejoice in the Holy One, our God.
We give thanks for God’s steadfast love
that brings joy to our hearts in the night,
lights our lives like the dawn,
and sets us free. Amen.
(Written by Rev. Dr. Cari Jackson)

MUSIC: TREMBLE

CCLI #7065049 | Andres Figueroa, Hank Bentley, Mariah McManus, and Mia Fieldes © 2016
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

CONFESSIONAL PRAYER

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Our Holy Father, we confess the weakness of our lives.
We have often turned away from You to seek our own desires.
And often when we have done no evil,
we have undertaken nothing of good,
and so have been guilty of uselessness and neglect.
From this sin of idleness and indifference set us free.
Lead us into fruitful effort,
and deliver us from profitless lives.
We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(Adapted from “Thou, Dear God” by Martin Luther King, Jr.)

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who revere him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who love him. (Psalm 103:10-13 adapted)

All: Thanks be to God

MUSIC: THE NEARNESS OF YOU

Written by Asher Seevinck, Dave Wilton, Copyright © 2014
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

WORD

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Holy – Week Six

Sermon Scriptures:
Revelation 21:1-5 (NRSV)
Revelation 21:22-27 (NRSV)
Revelation 22:1-2 (NRSV)

RECAP

Holy means unique and set apart. God’s 

Two visions in the Old Testament anchor our understanding of holiness:

First, the holiness cleanses impurity. This is first seen in Isaiah’s temple vision and then embodied in Jesus who spends his life and ministry touching impure people bringing restoration, healing, and wholeness.   

Second, it is in God’s nature to go out. This is first seen in Ezekiel’s vision of a life-giving river flowing out of the temple. This reality is to be embodied by the Church who is called to go out into the world to bring the healing news of Jesus Christ.  

Holiness is not so much about personal morality (although it includes that); it is primarily about being transformed by God and then bringing the good news of God to bear on the world around us.

The final two chapters of the Bible are a tour of the Holy City of God.

TEMPLE

First, notice the absence of the temple. The temple was the dwelling place of God’s presence and the center of life, worship, art, and culture.

What could a temple-less city possibly mean? The holy presence of God fills all the universe where Jesus sits on the throne as Ruler over all the Nations. 

Notice also that there is no sun or moon. What point is trying to be made through a moonless and sunless city? That God himself illuminates our way. He is the light we are to follow!

In the vision, the temple, sun, and moon are stripped away to point us to a reality where Jesus’ presence fills the earth as he sits as Ruler of the Nations and the light of His presence illuminates our way. 

These are the very realities to which the Church has been called to bear witness. In this final vision, those realities are made clear for all to see! 

RIVER OF LIFE

The river of life flows from the throne through the middle of the city. On its shores is the tree of life that bears fruit continually.  

The movement of this life-giving river points us to the reality that the holy and healing presence of God is dynamic, not static. 

Holiness is not a state you reach, it is a life you enter into.  

Twice in the closing chapters of the Bible there is an invitation to drink from the life-giving water “without cost.” (21:6 & 22:17) Why emphasize that this life-giving water costs nothing? 

“For people to whom even the cost of water is unaffordable, the fact that God gives the water of life without payment comes as good news. As a healing contrast to the exploitive economy of Babylon, New Jerusalem offers a gift economy in which water and other essentials of life are given ‘without cost.” -Barbara Rossing, The Rapture Exposed

TREE OF LIFE

Along the bank of the river is the Tree of Life. Amazingly, this tree bears a different fruit each month. It is in a continual cycle of fruit-bearing. 

In New Jerusalem, there is food for everyone and no one goes hungry. 

“The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (vs. 22:2) 

The invitation of Revelation is to lay the healing leaves of the Tree of Life onto every wound we carry, whether physical or spiritual. What wounds do you carry that need healing?

Our tour of the heavenly city began with the One seated on the throne saying, “I am making all things new.” That statement is in the present active (am making), not anticipation (I will) or retrospective (I have). The vision unveils what is most true about the world: the One who sits on the throne is making all things new. Amen!

TABLE

Prepare the elements of “bread” and “wine” for use as we gather around The Lord’s Table. These can be any items convenient around the home that symbolize these for you. 

CONFESSION OF THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

Christ has died.
Christ is risen. 
Christ will come again.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

As we pray together, we invite you to share your own requests and testimonies with us this week. If you have a request you can share it live in our video stream chat, or you may email us at emmausroadfc@gmail.com

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven,
        hallowed be your Name,
        your kingdom come,
        your will be done,
        on earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins
        as we forgive those
        who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, 
        and deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, 
        and the power,
        and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

BENEDICTION

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We are the church that lives into God’s future today.
A church united across space and time.
A church of many races, languages and ethnicities.
A church that lives by the work of God in Christ
that was, is now, and is still to come.
The one who is seated on the throne says to us:

“See, I am making all things new!”
A new heaven and a new earth,
where the home of God is among God’s people.
God’s future is epic, and it’s good news.
Remember God’s future, for this is our story!
(Inspired by Revelation 21: 1-6)