Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, July 27

This week we will continue our study on church membership by considering the subject:  I Will Lead My Family to Be Healthy Church Members.  Our text will be Ephesians 5: 22-33 and our application questions is this: How can I lead my family to love Jesus’ family, the church?

I encourage you to read this passage, paying close attention to the deep love Jesus has for His Church.  In his book Stop Dating the Church, Joshua Harris writes,  “the strongest argument I know for why you and I should love and care about the church is that Jesus does.  The greatest motivation we could ever find for being passionately committed to the Church is that Jesus is passionately committed to the Church.”  (p. 31)

From the heart of the Psalmist flows this beautiful confession of faith and declaration of love for God and His place of worship.  Lets pray that our hearts, and the hearts of our family, will be filled with the same song.

How lovely is your dwelling place, 

O LORD of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, faints 

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and flesh sing 

for joy to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, 

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young, at your altars,  

O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house, 

ever singing your praise! Selah

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, 

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

As they go through the Valley of Baca 

they make it a place of springs;

the early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength; 

each one appears before God in Zion.

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; 

give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

Behold our shield, O God; 

look on the face of your anointed!

For a day in your courts 

is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God 

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; 

the LORD bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold 

from those who walk uprightly.

O LORD of hosts, 

blessed is the one who trusts in you!   

(Psalm 84 ESV)