Prepare For Sunday | September 13th, 2026
Lydia— The Grand Opening
This Sunday, we continue This Is My Story…My Song with the story of Lydia in Acts 16.
Not every story of grace is dramatic. Lydia’s begins quietly—a Sabbath morning, a river, a few women gathered for prayer, and a conversation about Jesus. No earthquake. No prison doors flying open. Nothing spectacular. And yet, heaven is at work.
Lydia’s story is a story of grand openings:
The Word is opened. Paul sits down beside the river and shows how the Scriptures find their fulfillment in Jesus.
Her heart is opened. Luke tells us, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” A woman who was already religious and spiritually serious sees the beauty of Jesus.
Her home is opened. Grace immediately begins to reshape how Lydia sees everything she has. Her home, her resources, and her life become available to God's people and God’s mission.
And that becomes Lydia’s song, Take My Life and Let It Be: “Jesus, everything I am and everything I have is yours.”
Join us this Sunday as we consider how the risen Jesus still opens hearts—and how an opened heart becomes an open life.
Lydia: The Grand Openings
Acts 16:6–15, 40
Big Idea: When Jesus opens your heart, you begin to hear his Word differently, see Jesus differently, and hold everything you have differently.
1. The Open Word — Acts 16:6–13
2. The Open Heart — Acts 16:14
3. The Open Home — Acts 16:15, 40
The Greatest Opening
Lydia’s Song: Take My Life and Let It Be
Small Group Discussion — Lydia: The Grand Openings
Acts 16:6–15, 40
1. Paul thought he knew where God was leading, but God repeatedly closed doors before bringing him to Lydia. Where have you experienced a closed door that you struggled to understand? Looking back, can you see anything God was doing that you could not see at the time?
2. Lydia’s conversion happens through remarkably ordinary means—a prayer gathering, an open Bible, and a conversation. What “ordinary” practices or people has God used most significantly in your life? Where might you be undervaluing ordinary faithfulness because you are waiting for something more dramatic?
3. Lydia was already religious, morally serious, and interested in God, but she still needed the Lord to “open her heart” to the gospel. What is the difference between knowing things about Jesus and actually having your heart captured by Jesus?
4. The sermon described the difference between Jesus being merely useful and Jesus becoming beautiful. Where are you most tempted to treat Jesus as useful—as someone who helps you get peace, a better family, direction, success, or the life you want? What would it mean for Jesus himself to become the thing you treasure?
5. The first evidence of Lydia’s opened heart is an opened life. Her home and resources immediately become available to Christ and his people. What part of your life is easiest for you to say, “Jesus, this is yours”? What part are you still tempted to label “Mine—do not touch”?
6. Lydia’s song could be summarized: “Jesus, everything I am and everything I have is yours.” From Take My Life And Let It Be…If your life is currently singing a song through the way you use your time, money, home, relationships, gifts, and influence, what song is it actually singing? What is one concrete thing you could open to Jesus this week?
Call to Worship | Psalm 119:18, 33-37
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes;
and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.
Confession of Sin
Congregation: You speak through your Word, but we are slow to listen.
You show us the beauty of Christ, but we are distracted by lesser things.
Leader: We seek Jesus for what he can give us more than we treasure Jesus for who he is.
Congregation: We confess that our hands are often closed as well.
We call our time our own, our possessions our own, our homes our own, and our plans our own.
Leader: Forgive us for receiving your grace while withholding ourselves from you.
By your Word and Spirit, open our hearts again.
Give us eyes to see Christ, hearts to delight in Christ, and lives that are freely offered to Christ.
Congregation: Make us a people who can say with joy: Everything we are, and everything we have, is yours.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Praise be to God!
When our hearts were closed, God was rich in mercy.
When we were dead in sin, God made us alive.
When we could not make our way to him, he came to us in Christ.
The God who opened Lydia’s heart is the God who sovereignly calls sinners out of darkness and into life.
By grace, he has saved us.
By his Spirit, he has made us alive.
By his Son, he has brought us near.
In Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be to God for his sovereign and saving grace! Amen.
