PARKSIDE GREEN SNOW DAY
A Note From Pastor Adam When I was growing up, my favorite part of winter was a snow day. I would wake up early and watch the scrolling band at the bottom of the local news, waiting to see if Green Local Schools were closed. My brother and I would cling to hope until we finally saw the familiar yellow bus coming down the road.
As I’ve grown older, snow days are no longer something I look forward to in the same way. Instead, I dream of spring and long for the warmth of the sun. This Sunday, we’ve made a decision that brings me no particular joy, canceling our gatherings at Parkside Green.
While we won’t be together in person, I want to encourage you and your family to worship together nonetheless. Below you’ll find a simple resource you can work through on your own or with those in your home. My hope is that, even in the warmth and safety of your living room, you’ll experience the familiar rhythms of a Sunday morning with God’s people.
Warmly,
Pastor Adam
KEY WORDSA call to worship is God’s loving invitation for His people to come before Him and give Him praise. It reminds us that worship begins with God’s grace and that we respond together with thankful hearts for what He has done in Christ.
Call To Worship A confession of sin is a moment when we honestly acknowledge our sins before God and ask for His mercy. It reminds us that forgiveness is found not in ourselves, but in God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
Confession of Sin An assurance of pardon is the reminder that, in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. God’s Word comforts us with the promise that those who trust in Him are fully forgiven and welcomed by grace.
Assurance of PardonA benediction is God’s blessing spoken over His people as they go back into the world. It sends us out with the assurance of His grace, peace, and presence for the week ahead.
Benediction CALL TO
WORSHIP
READ FROM GOD’s WORD
I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Revelation 5:11–13
Adoration Pray this praise to God:
Kindness flows from you, Lord, pure and continual. You had cast us off, as was only just, but mercifully you forgave us; you hated us and you were reconciled to us, you cursed us and you blessed us; you banished us from paradise, and you called us back again; you took from us the fig leaves that had made us so unseemly a garment, and you put on us a cloak of great value; you opened the prison gates and gave the condemned a pardon; you sprinkled us with clean water and washed away the dirt. Never again, after all this, will Adam blush when you call him, never will he try to hide because his conscience reproaches him, never will he seek concealment under the trees in the garden. The flaming sword will nevermore whirl about the walls of paradise and cut off the entrance from those who approach it. For us that were heirs to his sin, all has been changed to rejoicing; for man now has access to paradise and even to heaven itself. The whole creation, heaven and earth, is at one again in friendship, its former differences forgotten; men join their voices with the angels and echo the angels’ praise of God. . . . There is no doubt who it is that dresses the bride in her finery: it is, of course, Christ—he that is and was and will be. Blessed is he, now and throughout the ages. Amen.
Gregory of Nyssa
PRAISE TOGETHER
What are some things you can praise God for from this past week? How did you see God answer prayers or show His blessing? Take a moment to look beyond the surface and offer your praise to Him.
CONFESSION
OF SIN
Reading of the Law Hear God’s law as his will for your life:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4–9
Confession of Sin Confess your sins to God:
I pray you heartily to look upon me with the eyes of your mercy, as you did look upon the evildoer, who was hanged upon the cross beside you, and did open his heart that he confessed his sins; and he was mightily afraid of them, but yet despaired not, but confessed and desired your grace and mercy which you gave to him willing and plentifully. . . . Therefore, dear God and merciful Father, will I strengthen myself so much and more, and doubt nothing thereof. Amen.
Martin Luther
ASSURANCE
OF PARDON
Assurance of Pardon Receive these words of comfort from God:
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
Psalm 32:5
And then this…
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:6-13
PRAYER
Take some time to pray together and close with the Lord’s Prayer
Someone will offer a series of brief petitions from below, ending each one with the words, “We pray to the Lord.” Then you will reply by saying together, “Lord, hear our prayer.”
Heavenly Father, you have called us as Christians to remember to pray for the church, the world, and the ongoing ministry of the gospel, that it might increase and make disciples of all nations. And so we pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer.
For those in need—the poor and the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed, the sick and the lonely—that they may receive help in their distress, we pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer. For those who do not yet believe, and for all those in spiritual need—that they may find faith, hope, and comfort, we pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer. For our nation and for all who govern—that justice and freedom may be preserved for all citizens, and that we may dwell in peace, as so to give a greater opportunity for the spread of the gospel, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
For the church throughout the world, and especially for our missionaries in Africa, Dubai, and Mexico, that these brothers and sisters of ours may remain faithful to their calling (help them to proclaim the gospel boldly even in the midst of much conflict) and so prove to be the light of Christ among the nations, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
And for our own congregation—for parents and children in the home, and for each of us in our vocations, that we may prove to be Christ’s disciples in both word and deed, that we might walk in a manner worthy of God, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Heavenly Father, source of all good and Savior of mankind, grant grace to your people to live as faithful followers of Christ our Lord and worthy witnesses of your gospel. Have mercy on the peoples of the earth, and draw the lost into your gracious kingdom. Help us meet the needs of the poor and suffering through the love of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
PRAY THIS TOGETHER
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name; your kingdom come; your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen
Read The Passage out loud: Mark 2:1-12
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported thathe was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. Andthey came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when theycould not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which theparalytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He isblaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said tothem, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to sayto the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed andwalk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth toforgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, andgo home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out beforethem all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never sawanything like this!”
REVIEW THE MESSAGE BELOW
MESSAGE
QUestions to Consider:
What does it really mean to be a good friend?
How do your actions show that you care for someone’s spiritual and physical well-being?
Who in your life needs to encounter Christ, and how can you pray for them today?
Can you think of a creative or bold way to help bring them closer to Him?
Where do you see humanity’s deepest struggles—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—and how does this story challenge your perspective?
Which is harder to say: that your sins are forgiven or that God can heal your body? Why do you think that is?
In this story, what mattered most, the paralytic’s spiritual heart or his physical body? Why might Jesus care about both?
BENEDICTION
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20–21