Behind the Series: The Good Life
What if the commandments were never restrictions, but an invitation? A look at the planning, scripture, and music behind our late-summer series at McPherson First UMC.
This is a planning preview shared before the series begins. Sermon focus, scripture, music selections, and worship elements may be adapted or revised as the series develops. Pastors and worship planners are welcome to use and adapt this approach for your own context.
Dates: August 16 through September 6, 2026 · Texts: Exodus 19 and 20
Most people hear “the Ten Commandments” and picture rules carved in stone, a list of things you are not supposed to do. This series asks a different question. What if they were never meant as restrictions at all, but as an invitation into the life God imagines for us? Over four weeks we go back to the moment when God said, “I brought you out,” and offered a way of living that leads to freedom rather than less of it. From the covenant invitation at Sinai, to loving God with our whole heart, to building the kind of neighborhood God dreams of, to discovering that enough really is enough. Whether the commandments are familiar ground or new territory, there is a place for you at this open door.
The Look and Feel
The visual theme is warm and human-scaled: golden light streaming through an open doorway. A farmhouse door, a garden gate, a front porch, never grand and never guarded. The palette runs honey gold, warm amber, and soft cream against warm charcoal and deep wood. Each week shifts what is visible through the doorway. Week 1 opens to warm light and landscape, the invitation itself. Week 2 shows a quiet, ordered interior. Week 3 reveals a neighborhood street with neighbors. Week 4 settles on a simple table with just enough. The whole series should feel less like stone tablets and more like someone left the door open for you.
Week 1: August 16 — You Are Invited
Scripture: Exodus 19:1-6; 20:1-2 · Type: Invitation · Promise: Presence · Series launch
Before a single commandment is given, God reminds Israel who brought them out. The Ten Commandments open not with a demand but with a declaration of love and liberation: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out.” Everything that follows is an invitation to live as people who have already been set free. This first week establishes the covenant context that reframes the whole series.
Hymns / Organ
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (UMH 400)
O God, Our Help in Ages Past (UMH 117)
I Surrender All (UMH 354)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Who You Say I Am by Hillsong
Great Are You Lord by All Sons & Daughters
Build My Life by Housefires
Week 2: August 23 — Loving What Matters Most
Scripture: Exodus 20:3-11 · Type: Formation · Promise: Prayers · Blessing of the Backpacks
The first four commandments are not about restriction. They are about ordering our loves. No other gods, no idols, honoring God’s name, keeping Sabbath. Each one shapes us to love what matters most. The Sabbath commandment especially connects to spiritual formation, naming rest as a practice of trust rather than one more thing to manage.
Hymns / Organ
Be Thou My Vision (UMH 451)
Open My Eyes, That I May See (UMH 454)
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (UMH 358)
Contemporary / Praise Team
First Things First by Consumed by Fire
No Longer Slaves by Bethel Music
The Stand by Hillsong
Week 3: August 30 — The Neighborhood God Imagines
Scripture: Exodus 20:12-16 · Type: Justice · Promise: Service
Honor your parents, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Read together, these five commandments paint a picture of the neighborhood God imagines, a community where people are honored, life is sacred, commitments are kept, property is respected, and the truth is told. God’s vision for human community turns out to be generative rather than restrictive. This is also where the “Find Your People” theme opens, the on-ramp toward fall Grace Groups.
Hymns / Organ
O For a World by Miriam Therese Winter (UMH 730)
They’ll Know We Are Christians by Their Love (TFWS 2223)
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service (UMH 581)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Love One Another by We Are Messengers
If We Are the Body by Casting Crowns
Do Something by Matthew West
Week 4: September 6 — Enough
Scripture: Exodus 20:17 · Type: Decision · Promise: Gifts · Communion Sunday, series conclusion
The last commandment moves from outward behavior to the inner life: do not covet. It is the one commandment you can break without anyone knowing, and the one that quietly poisons the rest. The series closes where it began, with invitation. God offers a life where enough really is enough, and at the communion table we practice receiving rather than grasping.
Hymns / Organ
It Is Well with My Soul (UMH 377)
Great Is Thy Faithfulness (UMH 140)
Let Us Break Bread Together (UMH 618)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Gratitude by Brandon Lake
Enough by Chris Tomlin
Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin
How the Series Builds
Four sermon types carry the four weeks with no repeats: Invitation, Formation, Justice, and Decision. The membership promises move alongside them, Presence to Prayers to Service to Gifts, with Witness woven through the invitation posture of the opening week and the welcoming spirit of the whole series.
A Few Planning Notes
The open door is the visual thread, and the worship space builds toward it week by week. “The Good Life” follows Passing the Flame, our July journey through 1 and 2 Timothy, carrying the question of faith handed down into the life God invites us to live. It leads into Five Promises this fall, where the commandments as covenant give way to our own membership promises as covenant. The invitation thread ties all three series together, and the back-to-school timing means these conversations land just as families re-enter their school-year rhythms.