Afternoon Church - 19 September 2021

what it's like to be tied and only a shell of yourself you start to believe you don't have what it takes cause it's all you can do just to move much less finish the race [Music] but don't forget what lies ahead oh [Music] sisters [Music] [Applause] this road will be hard but we win in the end [Music] simply because of jesus [Music] is [Music] unfair [Music] [Applause] we are [Music] [Music] i know that the cross has brought heaven to us to make no mistake there's still more to come when i'm flesh and i'm born and no longer between where we are right now and where we're meant to be [Music] as fast as we can [Music] [Music] [Applause] we [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] i once was lost in the darkest night yet thought i knew the way the sin that promised joy in life had led me to the [Music] grave and if you had not loved me first i would refuse you still [Music] [Music] indifferent to the cost you looked upon my helplessness [Music] [Music] for me [Music] is [Music] is christ hallelujah [Music] now lord i would be yours alone and live so all might see the strength to follow your commands could never come from [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] him [Applause] is [Music] all i have is christ hallelujah [Music] jesus is my life [Music] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Music] the servant king [Music] come see his hands and his feet good afternoon everyone and welcome to saint paul's my name is michael and i'm one of the regular members of our afternoon church congregation a warm welcome to our regular members and a big welcome if this is your first week joining us or you're just checking us out it's great you can join us today well i'm not sure what your typical daily routine is for me i'm following one of those read the bible in the year plans and today's passages included psalm 107 it greatly encouraged me so i thought i would share it with you today for those who have a bible close by if you could turn to psalm 107 i'll read verses 1-3 and they say give thanks to the lord for he is good his love endures forever let the redeemed of the lord tell their story those he redeemed from the hand of the foe those who gather from the lands from east and west from north and south the rest of the psalm reminds us we were once bound for death but god redeemed us from death not because of anything we have done or could ever do but because of his goodness and faithfulness and god gathers us as a church to serve others so this afternoon let's remember the goodness and faithfulness of our god as we gather together sing together read god's word together hear it taught and pray so i hope you're ready to engage with our service today and this message of eternal life one of the things we also want to be doing is interacting with you at home so we're going to invite anyone watching to text in what's one thing someone at afternoon church did to serve you this week there's a number there on the screen if you're texting your responses i'll make sure to read them out later in the service i'm going to pray now to ask for god's help in glorifying him in our service today and then we'll continue with our first song for our guests prayer is how we present our request to god trusting that he gives us what is good and necessary for us and not necessarily what we want if you join me in prayer father god we thank you for your goodness and faithful to faithfulness to us in saving us when we do not deserve it father we pray that you might help us focus on what you have to say from your word now we also pray for our world we pray you might give each of us and our governments wisdom in responding to the pandemic we pray this in your son's name amen our first song will be you alone a song that reminds us that there is salvation in god's name alone i invite you to sing along in your homes as we declare god alone deserves all glory [Music] glory [Music] every nation needs to know their salvation in your name allah for your kingdom we must go to all of the earth [Music] sacrifice you rain forever jesus give your kings every nation needs to know their salvation in your name alone for your kingdom we must all of the earth [Music] you are always with us jesus we will go every nation needs to know the salvation in [Music] every nation needs to know [Music] all of the earth so we've already had quite a lot of texts come in so i thought i'd share with you three of them just quickly uh someone gives a shout out to joyce for being my bubble buddy jazz my walking buddy and even for my care package so that's really great to hear uh someone else texted and linda kindly spared her time to walk with me this morning for 45 minutes around effing good job linda and lastly i was texted by a friend who said some words of encouragement said she'd prayed for me i felt loved and served those are just some really great stories of how we can be loving and supporting each other during this lockdown period on that number as well we'll later have some q a so please also remember to text through any questions you have from the passage now we'll be having some time around family news about the life of our church the first announcement is about explore you would have heard about this last week explore is a four-week course that explores the foundations of christianity you don't have to be a christian to come along in fact you can come along and just listen in or better still raise all your questions it actually started last thursday night we had our first explore session looking into who god is and those who came had a really great time the next one will be this coming thursday night if you know a friend or someone that might be interested it's not too late to register so please get in there and you can find registration details by going onto the simples website our second announcement will be about the cemetery where we'll have a short video hi some pools it's raj here in recent weeks i have just been so delighted to be sharing with you a number of things staffing appointments uh the da last week and i really wish we were in person so i could share these things and more with you and uh but look term one next year is our time when god willing will be on the other side of lockdowns and we can talk more but now what i want to share with you is something else in fact i'm filming on location here today to be able to share with you another project that people have been working on behind the scenes in fact for a period of time and the project is now at a time when we want to bring it before you and tell you more about it and also we have a request for your consideration one of the more interesting things i found out about saint paul's uh quite early on was that we have our very own parish cemetery saint paul's has managed this cemetery for 170 years where generations of church members have been laid to rest it's located a short stroll from the original some paul's church building in carlingford nestled in between some private homes a retirement village and swan's nursery for land was originally granted by local farming identity william mobs right back in 1847 and his father william mob senior was the first person buried there in july 1851. some paul's i'm so thankful for what has been called the cemetery working group for for work that they have been doing prayerfully to think about the best use of this place for the future there's a plan that's come together about how to transform what is this current location into a new phase of life and to tell us more about it now let me introduce to you alan moran from our morning church who's on this cemetery working group as raj said i'm a member of the cemetery working group and we've been putting together a plan to move our current cemetery into full operational mode at the moment the cemetery really is just a drain on the parish in terms of both time and financial resources we have three goals as a cemetery working committee first goal is to fund the maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery both now and into the future the second goal is to fund the removal of some large invasive trees this is an expensive cost the parish will have to cover at any point and finally we hope that we will be able to produce some funds for future parish ministries at some pools we already have a master plan mapped out with phase one starting in the north east corner of the cemetery where there are some unused space the garden will include native tree planting new garden beds some seating and gravel pathways it will of course also include a number of options for ashes such as memorial walls garden edging and the more modern option of ash cylinders if the first phase is successful the garden could be extended section by section around the edge of the cemetery in future years we already have council approval to remove the invasive trees and we have a landscape design ready to go for phase one the reason we're talking with you today is to determine the level of interest that our saint paul's community has in using the cemetery we are inviting formal expressions of interest from people who who would be interested in reserving a place in the new memorial garden it might be for you for you and your partner or for any of your family members if there is sufficient interest we will move to the next phase which involves purchase agreements having payments held in trust and then finally actually building phase one in the next 12 months if you would like more information or have any questions or would like to indicate your interest go to the cemetery information page on the saint paul's website at saint paul's anglican dot org dot a u slash cemetery or scan this qr code and you can download the information brochure or complete an expression of interest form online if you'd like us to mail you a brochure or you'd like to talk to someone in person just call the church office and one of the cemetery working group will get in touch with you you can also look out for the next saint paul's newsletter where we will provide a link to the web page please prayerfully consider working with us in this project we look forward to answering any of your questions please feel free to contact us at any time as we move forward thank you [Music] nations of brothers and sisters from our church who have been trained and equipped for a lifetime of gospel ministry and in fact that's what god has called us to do to take the gospel the message of jesus and to pass it on from generation to generation and we're going to watch a video now about an event that's coming up in just two weeks uh which shows one of the ways that we seek to do this as a community of god's people let's watch the video [Music] every single christian is called to be trained for works of service to be able to speak the truth in love to be able to see god's work playing itself out in the world but some of us may want to consider if we want to do that in a paid full-time capacity that's what mts recruit is for it's an opportunity to gather with all these people as you consider what the next few five 10 years 15 years 20 years 25 years of your life may look like and whether training under a ministry apprenticeship may form a part of that mts recruit is happening in two weeks and we at some poors are going to be participating in our own unique way now let's be honest we don't want tens of hours of of zoom that's not what we want and so the way in which the some poor staff are going to be craft have crafted the conference is we're going to be spending no more than two hours and 15 minutes i think that is right from my memory it might be a bit more but i think it's two hours and 15 minutes on friday night saturday morning and sunday morning together going through some of the conference material and being able to see one another's faces in addition to that over the weekend we're hoping that each and every one of you who attends mts recruit will have the opportunity for a one-to-one mentoring conversation with one of the senior staff here at some pause and so we would love you to consider coming along and participating in mts recruit you know it's a bit weird to talk about coming along when to be honest we don't really know what sydney is going to look like two weeks from now but the conference itself will largely be online we hope that the one-to-one mentoring chats will be able to have some sort of in-person component more details will be laid closer to the date but how do you sign up well if you head to our some poor's website you'll notice on the front page that we have an mts recruit page now there's a funny little quirk okay so this is going to be a bit amusing now if you click the picture or the date it will take you to the page if you click the title mts recruit it'll take you to our building stronger marriages page that's okay we'll fix that up soon but if you if you click the title and you get to the wrong page that's okay don't worry just go back out click the picture or click the date that'll take you to the page sign up we would love to see dozens of brothers and sisters across some poors prayerfully considering whether a ministry apprenticeship will be the way that you seek to be equipped for a lifetime of service and you know what all of us are involved in service in some way shape or form and in fact some people here at some poors have put themselves forward to serve in formal ministry roles today we're going to see two of the members from afternoon church who've been doing this and you've actually joined us within the last two years we're going to watch a video now showcasing some of these afternoon church members hey everyone my name is david and i really hope everyone is doing well during lockdown and i can't wait for it to be over so we can see each other again it's been about a year since i joined saint paul's so i the first time i came along with ray i would have was last the last long lockdown um and yeah and i joined and i checked it out and i loved it so i stuck uh and yeah and soon after i joined um i was looking for some opportunities to serve i prayed about it and lo and behold a few weeks later uh two opportunities two opportunities came up one which was the back end to livestream and one was kids ministry and yeah and they've both been very very rewarding i have to say and very very challenging as well especially kids ministry um but i i love the team i love doing the work it's really given me a sense of community and a sense of serving god and i do recommend it for anyone who is thinking to to pray about it and to see where they can serve i hope i'll get to see everyone soon face to face bye hi everyone my name is beck and i currently serve on the light youth team and the welcoming team i serve on the light youth team because i personally have experienced the fun and fellowship in jesus when i was in youth group and because i have previous experience leading youth group at my old church which i found to be rewarding and so far it has been a privilege to be able to help and serve the high school youth of chinese church grow in their faith in jesus i serve on the welcoming team because when i first joined arbor church i found it to be such a warm and welcoming environment even though i sat next to someone different each week every person was so friendly and invited me into conversation from my own experience i know that joining a new church is intimidating so that's why i wanted to be part of the team that makes her less so for the newcomer thank you david and rebecca we're going to have a look at another example of service ian will take us through how all the technology that makes this happen works at simples g'day afternoon church uh wonderful to be able to join you in this way today my name's ian for those of you that i haven't met you might have seen me floating around here back up in the tech end before we all had to go into lockdown and today we're looking at service we're looking at the way that our members gladly serve one another in order to make church happen and we wanted to take a moment today to thank some of our tech team members and give you all a bit of a walk through on uh on what church looks like for us at the moment so we thought we'd take you on a quick little behind the scenes tour uh you can see here i'm in the foyer which is where most of our most of the action happens at the moment actually so we've got our little studio set up here for the preachers normally we run on a normal sunday with a couple of cameras in the church but as you can see we've had to move a few around and bring in some additional cameras which adds a bit of complexity as well we're really missing having people in the room and we can't wait for all you guys to come back and fill these chairs again but until then this is doing pretty well so this is where all the action happens out here and if we wander on through to the north hall here we can see our our mc set here's mike as you've already seen earlier thank you mate um huge thanks to uh people the likes of michael and others who have been service leading um throughout the last couple of months it's really tricky service leading to a camera isn't it it's uh yeah it's not easy um we do miss having people here but these guys do a fantastic job every week in leading us so thank you mate good job well done and if we wander over this way this is our sort of newly renovated tech desk a little bit more work needs to be done but we've uh we've done a fair bit of changing on this over the last couple of months to help try and improve the experience for everybody at home and also once you're back here in the building so we're looking forward to that um and i'll take you up here and say g'day to a few of the team here we've got linda andrew and chris working hard thanks guys i'm sure you can hear a run applauding from home um so this is our sound desk obviously all the uh all the audio hearing is running through that and we're tweaking everything to make sure you can hear everything which we you know get right most of the time if there's ever an error it's probably my fault actually and then over here obviously is where we're controlling the youtube stream with our lighting console this is where we can see all of our camera angles coming in so we've got a couple of bits of software here and hardware that control all their camera shots um we're trying to hide away here uh and then um we uh you know select the camera that's uh that's sending out to the live stream here and then that all feeds into this mac here which is running a fantastic piece of software called propresenter which basically runs the entire show so we put all of our overlays and our names and the run the camera angles in through here and the whole service is set out through here and that all sends out to you guys at home in your lounge rooms so that's a little bit behind the scenes i'm really really thankful for these guys who turn up willingly every week and serve so gladly um uh you know it wouldn't happen without them so we're really super thankful for them so take a moment when you can to shoot them a text and say thanks and we're really thankful to god for gifting them in this way and we really hope that will continue but not for too long because we want you guys back in here so anyway hope you've enjoyed that hope you're enjoying church from home and i'll throw it back and we'll see you guys again soon here we go great thanks ian for taking us through the technology and thank you linda chris and andrew for serving today and indeed the the whole tech team there's more of them out there so thank you very much for serving we've reached the high point of our service day where we get to hear god's word this week we'll be looking at 1 corinthians chapter 12. viki su one of our regular members will be reading the bible for us my name is vicky and we'll be reading one corinthians chapter 12 now about the gift of the spirit brothers and sisters i do not want you to be uninformed you know that when you were pagans somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to meet idols therefore i want you to know that no one who is speaking by the spirit of god says jesus be cursed and no one can say jesus is lord except by the holy spirit there are different kinds of gifts but the same gift distributes them there are different kinds of service but the same lord there are different kinds of working but in all of them and everyone it is the same god at work now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good to one there is given there is given through the spirit a message of wisdom to another a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another gift of healing by by the one spirit to another miraculous powers to another prophecy to another distinguishing between spirits to another speaking in different kinds of tongues and to steal another the interpretation of tongues all these are the work of one and the same spirit and he distributes them to each other each one just as he determines just as a body the one has many parts but all its many parts from one body so it is with christ for we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body where the jews are gentiles slaves are free and we were all given the one spirit to drink even so the body is not made up of one part but of many now if the foo should say because i am not a hand i do not belong to the body you will not for that reason stop being part of the body and if the e should say because i am not an eye i do not belong to the body you will not for that reason stop being part of the body if the whole body were an where would the sense of hearing be if the whole body weren't e where would the sense of smell be but in fact god has placed the parts in the body every one of them just as he wanted them to be if they were all one part where would the body be as it is there are many parts for one body the eye cannot say to the hand i don't need you and the and the head cannot say to fit i don't need you on the contrary those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable and the paths that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor and the part that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty while presentable parts need to need no special treatment but god has put the body together giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it so there should be no division in the body but that its part should have equal concern for each other if one part suffers every part suffers with it if one part is honored every part rejoices with it now you are the body of christ and each one of you is a part of it and god has placed in the church first of all apostles second prophets third teachers their miracles then gifts of healing of helping of guidance and of different kinds of tongues or are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles do all have gifts of healing do all speak in tongues do all interpret now eagerly desire the greater gifts let's pray as we come to the word of god today father we thank you for the opportunity and we thank you just for the stories we've heard in the last few minutes about the various people who serve we thank you for many who serve us in so many ways and we pray as we come to this part of your word today when we think about the body of christ working together and we pray father that you may work in all of our hearts this morning and and help us think not so much about now in covert but on the other side and how it is we can work together even more so as a church and we pray in jesus name amen amen well i um i've just found on my facebook feed the last little while i i it's it's qriket season ordinarily and for me on my facebook feed that means pictures of my kids playing qriket have been coming up as i've posted them um on on the last however many years it's been and you know the nature of being part of a qriket team it's it's really interesting and quite apt for this topic we're coming to today my youngest child many of you know is leg spin bowler and he is one of a team and there's other people on the team there's batsman there's fastballs there's wicket keepers and so on and and really a sporting team like that is just a great example of different people using their different specialties to all work together to achieve something together that no one individual could achieve and you take it even further and it's not just the people who are on the field but there's a whole raft of people working behind the scenes in the case of club cricket especially junior club cricket some of you will know um there's scoring there's umpiring there's coaching there's all kinds of things that are working behind the scenes now i talk about cricket but you could talk about soccer many of you have been missing soccer or various forms of football in recent times exactly the same thing in soccer you have defenders you have strikers you have and behind the scenes it goes on now it's also the case that church life works like this and someone was telling me the other day i think it was just on monday night there was a meeting for summerfest and someone was telling me there were four screens of zoom people there were so many people tuning in to get prepared to be on the team for summer fest some people or different people have different roles on some affairs some some are more kind of upfront direct roles that you see visible roles and then there's a whole range of things working also behind the scenes now i just want to put those things out there both both the sporting kind of world and also the church world to get each one of us thinking about this this topic we come to today and it's worth me just saying at some points as i hope you've been seeing we are working on things in all kinds of ways behind the scenes for covert but also starting to think even beyond covet and one of the things we've been doing in fact hundreds of people across our church and i thank you if you're one of these people participated in a strategy survey which we have been doing to help us think about what the next chapter of saint paul's might look like and one of the things that really emerged from that survey in all kinds of discussions as well is the opportunity for us uh at across some pools to see even more people empowered um and inspired and enabled to serve in a whole bunch of ways um now what that's that's one of the pieces of a puzzle that's led to a bit of a restructure that's going on and and that has led to sam sticking up his hand to really change his role and he sticks up his hand sam has stuck up his hand metaphorically but also literally um to really change his role next year at some pools and lead and spearhead our efforts in the area that we're going to call ministry which is all about service and so we're going to talk a bit about that as we go on absolutely looking forward to um but tell us this isn't enough script but one reason you're being keen to stick up your hand for this role well i think as we're going to get into today i am just super keen to see the see the people of saint paul's use their gifts to serve god gladly and and i think we have a wonderful church uh full of people with wonderful gifts and i'm just keen to see what god can do if we put a little bit of energy into organizing and releasing people to serve in the way that god has gifted them to do so yeah great well this is what today is about we've had three weeks of thinking about lockdown life time in covert and and really we're having a one-off today before we come into matthew's gospel next week um of of thinking about one aspect of life on the other side of covert and where we're going to come to is 1 corinthians 12 the passage read for us just a few moments ago and it's really interesting where this passage starts off in verse 1 it says now about the gifts of a spirit brothers and sisters i do not want you to be uninformed you know that when you were pagans somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols and where it starts off in 1 corinthians 12 it's going to talk about this rich image of the body and how it all works but where it starts off is really in talking about the fact that at one time every single one of us we were what it calls pagans or in other words not christians and the way of life that's described to us it is a way of life that is being led astray to idols and in the old testament and here's a picture up on the screen of golden calf is an example of one of the really tangible and physical idols that were served now in the modern day it may be a physical kind of idol that is being served but it also can be um something an idol that's taking another form and we know that the true and living god he says there should be no worshipping of idols and at the core of the reason he says that is because worshiping an idol is something that takes us away from serving the true and living god and um i i suspect in most parts of australian society we don't have idols in a physical sense although even as i say that i'm challenged about that because um how many people do you know who walk around holding a device in their hands and and you can feel that you know that that's the kind of everything that they're serving and worshiping but perhaps more generally at the moment you know many of us are waiting to go back shopping and in fact i was reading the other day australia post they're saying deliveries at the moment are at are at christmas levels consumerism can be not i'm not talking the necessity kind of thing as many of us at the moment but consumerism is an example materialism can be another example for some people sport can be an idol and there are all kinds of other things as well at the very core of serving an idol that is not the true and living god is being self-serving that is what is at the core and that is the problem and the point here in 1 corinthians 12 where it starts is before we knew christ we were all serving idols of one form or another but where the text then goes on is is to hold up to us for lord jesus the one who transformed our life and it tells us how he came into the world and we know from other parts of the bible he came into the world he died on the cross he rose from the dead and if you know the lord jesus as your savior then we come a little later on into verse 13 where we see for we were all baptized by one spirit cells to form one body whether jews or gentiles slave or free and we were all given the one spirit to drink the fact that we're given one spirit means we can call jesus lord it is because he has put inside of us for spirit that we're even able to come to that conclusion and serve now the true and living god through jesus and this chapter it's about gifts that's what topic we're going to come to today and yet i do want to take a few minutes just to outline this foundation that very much starts with the gospel of the lord jesus christ no one can have any gift if they do not have the spirit of god working in them so powerfully now it seems to me over over the decades of my adult life there it just seems like there's been an ongoing discussion what is a spiritual gift and we're going to come to thinking about it in practice in our lives in just a moment but but before we get there i just want to just make a really interesting observation in this text and that is in verse 1 it says now about the gifts of the spirit brothers and sisters i do not want you to be uninformed now some of you in your translation you're using it actually uses the term spiritual gifts and the interesting thing is that the term gifts is not there in the original it's really interesting it's more like it's saying um concerning spiritual things or concerning spiritual people that that's the kind of idea now it's not wrong to use the word gifts as most translations do because that is what the text goes on to talk about but the point is more that people who were pagans and now who are baptized by the spirits the concern is that each one of us should know what it means to be spiritual people in how we relate to one another it's something that should impact every single one of us and this term spiritual gift that those two words put together it actually doesn't occur in 1 corinthians 12 to 14 at all even though this verse is certainly talking about chapter 12 and certainly introducing as well chapter 13 and also chapter 14. it does occur in other places like romans chapter 1 verse 11 for example and there what it's actually talking about is is how people build each other up and how people serve one another and it's just really interesting because i think in some of the discussions that happen over time we we can see this term spiritual gift and we can talk about on the one hand super spiritual people and yet really what this is talking about is every christian playing their part in serving one another and what that means so it's really quite profound just to to understand this point i hope you understand why i've just taken a moment to reflect on it but text goes on and and perhaps of greater concern is thinking about the source and so we come to verse 7 where it says to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good to one there is given through the spirit a message of wisdom to another a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healing by that one spirit and it goes on where do gifts come from the gifts come from the spirit of god we see we're not going to go into the details of it now but if you keep looking at the text you'll see also jesus is at work and you'll see also god is at work well i was talking to sam during the week about this and i'm going to flick to sam in a moment but just before i do we had a discussion about what is a definition of the word gift that's an important thing definitions are good and and i went away and i thought and i came up with this it's going to come up on your screen and what i came up with was um a grace given to those who belong to the lord so that they can contribute to the building of the kingdom i've taken some of that from the original greek kind of word caris that's talking about grace and i just think it it really holds up to us the privilege of understanding that god is the one through his spirit that enables each one of us who love and serve jesus to contribute in some way and it helps us also understand the purpose of that it is an absolute pleasure to think about and to think about this and to be involved but sam i'm going to flick to you now can you help us think more about what the bible means here when it talks about spiritual gifts yeah thanks raj it's really helpful what you've just been saying in the sense that they are part of god's grace to us god is gracious in that he saves us but he gives us even more grace in that he gives to each one of the people that he says certain abilities certain resources certain ways in which they can use who they are and what they have to build the kingdom and really that's what the bible is talking about when it talks about uh gifts and paul actually gives us a bunch of examples here in this passage it's not an exhaustive list but some examples have a look cast your eye over verses 8 to 11 and you'll see a few things here wisdom a message of knowledge a particular gift of faith an ability to heal prophecy discerning between spirits speaking in other languages all sorts of things get get listed there now it's not an exhaustive list right there and there's a few more if you come down to verses 28 to 30 there's apostles teachers helpers administrators all kinds of different things get mentioned um and in fact other parts of the bible mention heaps of other things teachers evangelists service encouraging administrators all kinds of things leadership compassion paul's point here is not so much to give us an exhaustive list of all the things and and kind of close off the list nor is it to get us kind of super intrigued on one particular thing that might pique our interest rather what paul is trying to show us is that god gives a broad range of gifts to his people but the point is they all come from one source and that is god that's the first and most important thing to note these gifts come from the one place but there's a broad range throughout the body the second thing to note is that being gifted for something is not necessarily about something that you are super super skilled at uh often we can think i'm gifted that means i'm really amazing at that particular task because as you just noticed in in verses four to six raj paul there uses the word service and the the word working almost synonymously with the word gift i think to show us that it's not just about feeling gifted any time that you are working or serving in a particular ministry you are god's gift to the church at that moment and very few people i think feel gifted say to run the dishwasher after a church meeting or something like that we don't feel like we've got some divine skill to do that but as we work and serve in that area we are god's gift to the church at that moment and so sometimes we will serve in ministries that we are not particularly feeling talented and that's okay now god may later bring along someone who has incredible skills in that area and it's great for that to happen and then we step out of the way and let that person exercise that gift but we don't necessarily have to feel amazing at any particular role and so our task when we're thinking about gifts is really to ask the question in what ways could i gladly serve god with who i am and what i've got and there are a few ways you could do that one is you could ask yourself just the simple question what abilities do i have uh who has god made me to be some of these might be innate that is you're just a naturally welcoming person very friendly and bubbly and you've just got a natural inclination to things like welcoming and including people as they join the body of christ but other gifts skills might be learn skills you've learned to play the piano you've learned to sing in tune and uh you've developed that gift in a very human way and how do you learn to sing in tune well sorry that's a topic for that you can take lessons and uh and it it's something that god develops and builds in you uh and so a great question to ask is how could i gladly serve given who i am and the abilities that i have yes sam sorry you were saying earlier you were just talking about there was a need many years ago yeah in music guitar yes about that and your journey yeah look i'll i'll come to that in a second um if that's right because i think that's that's the third one i'm gonna i'm gonna mention um so the second question that we've got is uh you could ask somebody else what uh what gifts do you think i've got because often other people see us more clearly our strengths and our weaknesses than we see ourselves so i think as well as asking yourself uh ask someone else hey what gifts do you think i might have um thirdly you could ask the question what uh what needs exist that i could possibly meet and this is where we come to uh my story i was telling you this at 7 45 so stories yeah so for me a bit over 20 years ago i was serving as one of the youth leaders and there were no musicians who could play guitar and there was a need for a guitarist and i thought i could do that so i put my hand up bought a guitar and i got the job because i was willing and i saw a need now at the start i was not very good but i slowly learned a few chords and then i took some lessons and i practiced took some more lessons to practice practice practice and then i actually became pretty good at it uh to the point that sort of for the next 10 years i served and ultimately led a music ministry now that was a very human experience of learning a skill practicing hard and yet as i did that god developed in me the gift of guitar playing and singing now it's not a gift that i currently express and use anymore there are plenty of other gifted people who use that and i serve in different ways now but it might be that there's a need that exists and you could ask yourself the question what needs exist that i could use who i am to try and meet and so i think those are three questions to get you started on thinking through uh what gifts you might have now sam one word i've noticed that you keep using when we talk about serving is the word gladly yeah tell us about why that is so important well i i mean i think it is really important because for starters psalm 100 verse 2 a key verse that as i've started to think about this part of church life has really stood out for me psalm 100 verse 2 says serve the lord with gladness so there it is um but i think it's really important because it shows where our service comes from romans 12 puts it in the sense that uh in view of god's mercy we offer ourselves in service and worship to god and and that is so important because that flow it shows where the service flows from that having experienced god serving us god loving us first that when that happens to you you can't help but overflow in service and love and joy uh towards others and so i as we start to think and sort of plan and lean into this part of church life i just want to keep putting that word gladly in front of us because i think that it speaks to where the motivation comes from and it's important because if it drops away such that serving comes out of a place of kind of sour duty that can be really destructive it can be really destructive for individual christians in their own walk with god feeling like they're serving from a place of resentment and that in turn can be can really suck the life out of a church family when people are serving out of that place and so i think as we begin to think about service together we really need to think glad service that flows out of the fact that god loved and served us jesus says the one who's been forgiven much will love and serve much excellent well we're going to come and talk about purpose we're going to keep going um but look i hope you noticed them we have alliteration everywhere today around p but the letter p there's potential where we started we had power of jesus we had pleasure that's showing a bit of promise in your preaching i i love to see the development here the progress in fact okay thank you very much um look but purpose is where we're going to go that's where effects goes yeah great and and really the purpose of gifts it's it's it's really part of this whole question we don't just use a gift for the sake of using it and one corinthians 12 it has a lot to say about it let's come down to verse seven to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good there's the purpose the common good and later on in um one corinthians in fact perhaps the high point of one corinthians chapter 15 talking about the resurrection of jesus and in that context it's talking about the work of the lord that's so important and really what it's talking about there is the work of the lord that is so important is uh people people hearing about the resurrection of jesus in other words for gospel advancing and so the particular kind of sharp edge to the using of gifts to the common good is the kingdom of god continuing to go out um it is not a self-serving end and yet at the same time we i think we just need to remember just like we come back to the the sporting team analogy and you see a group of people on the field there's a more visible group of things and yet behind the scenes there's all kinds of people and how good was it to have a tech walk through where you got to see just a few moments ago for kind of things that need to happen so that sam and i could be here absolutely um doing this i have no idea how that desk works it just looks so cool but it's a team effort and that's the point ephesians 4 i think if i can just flick to that it's going to come up on the screen just talks about this from a different angle so beautifully it says it was he who gave some to be apostles some to be prophets some to be evangelists and some to be pastor teachers to prepare god's people for works of service so that the body of christ may be built up until and he he's the purpose until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of god and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of christ and so when one corinthians 12 talks about common common good that is the kind of end that it has in mind now what this means you know it can be the case and over my years working in different churches and ministries i have from time to time had people come up to me and say raj not so much of a guitar but i remember one guy i play the piano i must play the piano and as we talked more about it for him it was a self-serving kind of and it was about him playing it and i just i had in my head the common good that must be at work and therefore actually even though he could do it and he could do it really well it actually was not something he that he should do from a biblical perspective at that time and so the opposite though i think is just as much of a problem and as we think about church on the other side of covent and the next chapter of some pools they're kind of coinciding a little bit together um i just want to encourage us as a church to all be working to this common good uh and sam you just beautifully put those three different you know ways about how gifts worked before and and verse 12 it puts it like this just as a body though one has many parts but all its many parts form one body so it is with christ for we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body whether jews or gentiles slave or free and we were all given the one spirit to drink even so the body is not made up of one part but of many and this for me it's just a delight to have come into some pools and savor all the different parts of the body just already working so powerfully now sam i want to flick to you again just to talk more about how this how this body is supposed to work yeah it's it's it's a beautiful image that paul builds an extended metaphor over sort of verses 12 through 26 and he lays it out as you've just read verse 12 where there's this this complex body made up of many parts but when they work in unity this whole organism of the body is just able to thrive and it's a wonderful picture and what he goes on to stress is that every part of the body matters and so verse 15 he looks at the perspective of one part of the body that doesn't feel very special the foot and you can imagine in the in the ancient world um feet get dirty they didn't have shoes like we do they walked everywhere they didn't have showers and so feet would get filthy and gross and and that was just uh and so if you sort of imagine being a foot for a minute you sort of look up to the hand and think well i'd like to be that part of the body much more presentable and i don't get all dirty and mucky like i do down the bottom but paul's point is that every part needs to play it's its role in order for the whole unit the whole body to thrive and so he then goes on to say that if if every part were a hand i mean just imagine that for a moment a body made out of hands it sounds a bit like a good horror movie of some sort but it's it's not only would it be weird but it just wouldn't work every part of the body is needed in order for the body to do its work and and that's what verse 19 is all about if if all were one part where would the body be as it is there are many parts but one body and so it is with with christ's church uh god gives this this broad range of gifts to to the people so that they can play their unique part as one uh in order to build the kingdom together and if every part has the one function well then we or we only value one part and not the whole then the body just won't work and actually this can happen in churches i think uh it can be the case that churches and you know we need to watch ourselves on this as well it can be the case that churches value just one type of gift or one type of person and don't see the value and appreciate other kinds of gifts and and typically i think as individuals we tend to value people who are like us we like what we offer and we like to gather with people like us and and so the image of the body i think is really important to keep as we start thinking about this whole area of ministry that we uh think about the whole body and every part really matters yeah and um i i think i've worked out this coming week it's my six month anniversary being at some pools congratulations um well thank you um i think half of that time has been in lockdown almost you know three months anyway but so my comment now it's not so much about some pools i feel with half of the time being locked down i just haven't had much of a chance to observe this but in most churches that i'm aware of and i'm through my wider work i mean where many churches it just seems to me that one of the things that is holding most churches back is the reality that more people of the body are not active in the body and i just want to take this opportunity to say to the many people across some pools um and and i'm talking about this outside of covert because i know many people serve in ways that they can't at the moment because of lockdown but i just want to say a big thank you to you guys who keep doing that and we've talked about tech team and other things now growth group leaders many people are serving i want to thank you guys for serving and at the same time if what is my observation in other churches is true also at some points i really want to take this opportunity to to encourage and urge and play with you guys who know and love jesus to step up and start start gladly serving yeah and uh um we asked anything on the other side but there's some bumps we still need to work out about how to come out of lockdown and so on but that time is coming and and i and i know many of us can hardly wait and we come to one corinthians 12 and what we see it's not just talking about you know the super spiritual people this is talking about one of the implications of the gospel um in all of us and so i just want to encourage people to even now start thinking about what that might look like because just imagine the lord working in our church just just like that sporting team each person working in different ways and the collective of what's able to be achieved is really quite an extraordinary thing absolutely now sam the alliteration continues we're we're we're landing in privilege okay there we go um and and privilege and opportunity because you already there's been lots of things you're doing and thank you to you i know you put a lot of work in already in thinking about what this is going to look like in the future which is really important for our church and so thank you for your work um in that but it's early days in thinking about this and what it's going to look like but talk to us about the kind of thing we've now worked out and trying to get the ball rolling in in thinking about the other side yeah and helping people totally be more part of a body yeah thanks raj so i mean as raj has mentioned my role is going to change around saint paul's next year and i'm excited about that i'm thrilled about the possibility there's a p word the possibility and the privilege of of helping uh saint paul's uh and the saints here use their gifts in the building of the body and so i'm thrilled about that and i'm excited particularly because i think the people of saint paul's are just incredible like we have a wonderful church full of a diverse bunch of really gifted people and and i'm excited to see what god can do as we organize and release people um in in order to serve and so i'm a bit nervous because it's it's not an area that we've poured a lot of intentional and organized thought into strategically but i'm excited about what we could do and i'm excited to to help people find places to serve i'm excited to build lots and lots of teams so that people can work together in building the kingdom and i'm excited to be part of training leaders to lead those teams so that we can do the work of building the kingdom together here at saint paul's and so um in terms of how you can help um i think the best thing that you can do right now is to pray um i think uh pray for some pauls and pray for the people of saint paul's that god would enable us to use who we are and what we have for the building of the kingdom and working together as a body and secondly pray for yourself i think in in light of that so i gave you three questions to think about before you know what gifts do i have speak with somebody else about how you might determine uh what gifts you have and ask what needs exist that you could meet maybe that would be a great thing to include in your prayers over the next few days that god would help you to see and understand how he's gifted you so that you might serve and so prayer i think is where this all begins uh but then secondly i think as we look ahead and we're starting to see kind of the light down the track as covert kind of you know we'll lift at some point and we will be able to gather and get going we want to start planning now for 2022 and now normally this time of the year there'd be you know lots of conversations happening with people what team are you going to be part of how might you serve we don't have the ability to do that face to face um chatting with each other at the moment and and so one thing that we that you could do that's very practical is that you could just let us know what your intentions for serving gladly next year might be and in order to do that we put together a little survey that in a couple of minutes you're going to have two minutes to to fill out if if you are willing and now here we go tech team i'm going to have a go at sharing my screen with the tech team and hopefully with you and you'll be able to see the survey and then in a moment or two you'll be able to um fill this out so here we go oh there we go they've done it so you can let us know there what congregation you're from and then really there are three questions that you can answer one he says i'm already serving as part of the body at some pools and would be glad to serve god in 2022 in the same ways that i've been serving in 2021 so you're keen to go around you can check that box it'll drop down some menus you can let us know what you've been doing and there's also a space down there to give us any comments along the way as well the second box here is i'm currently serving but i'm ready for a change to some or all the ways that i serve the body and again you can check that box you can let us know what you've been doing and what changes you might be interested that'll really help us as we plan for for the future and then the third box there is i'm not currently serving in the body but i'm ready to get involved and if you check that box over the next month or so somebody will get in touch with you and we'll be able to help you find a way to use the gifts that god has given you in order to serve the lord so in a moment we'll have some time to fill that out but it's also we're saying raj that if you're not at the point where you're saying i'm ready to serve you might not be ready and for now that that's okay again we'd love to have a conversation with you as church returns we'd love to talk to you about that in person as time as the time comes but if one of those three options sounds like you it would really help us as we begin to plan uh the future if you could let us know yeah um and now are we going to put up that qr code let's do it now let's take about two minutes so a qr code will come up and some music will play and then you'll be able to just have a go at filling that out if you don't finish within the two minutes that's totally okay you can finish that off after we finish so here comes the qr code here comes the qr code and i might just just you know as people are starting to fill that out just kind of wrap up and pray and then we'll go to the music and and let me just say guys um once again if you're already someone who is serving as part of the body of christ i hope this has been an encouragement for you to see the enormous contribution that your what might look like a small party's plane um but sam has talked about if if you're not we we really want to help you get to the point under the lord of gladly serving and um and sam's talked about how and the qr code was up just a moment ago and i just want to something that sticks in my mind whenever i think about this at former church i just remember an older couple and they came up to us one day and said how can i help and this was a while ago and and we said look we need someone to fold the handouts and so they came up and in winter hazard beanies and we set them up on a friday afternoon they'll fold the handouts and it was just an absolute delight to see them work wanting and so enthusiastic to be involved in some for in their case it wasn't a visible thing in fact what happened later on we got a photocopy of this photocopy would then fold them and i think we had a period of time where we said to the photocopy no don't fold them so that there was a place for these people to serve and then we found something else for them to do and it was just a special story because you know this area we're talking about one corinthians 12 and ministry and serving certainly it is um it is a means to an end of the kingdom being built for for common goods but also in the christian life it is an end in itself it is a good thing for to for people to be doing absolutely and so at some points we want to encourage everyone to be involved in some kind of way and we come to the last verse verse 26 sorry one of the last verses now you are the body of christ and each one of you is a part of it and so i'm going to pray with the question um um maybe a challenging question what is your part in the body of christ in this way let's pray father we thank you for the opportunity and the privilege that we've talked about today that you've talked about in one corinthians chapter 12. father we pray across some pauls particularly as we look to the future and we look to being on the other side of the covet lockdowns and covert generally father we pray that you would help us work together powerfully as a church we thank you that it's already happening in so many ways and father we pray for um that everyone would be released and empowered and involved using using the abilities using the gifts and they may be things we're currently doing as a church they may be new things and father we pray that we'll be able to work together powerfully as a church community to see your kingdom expand and particularly in our local area and we pray in jesus name amen offering tears his heart with sorrows this is come see his hands bend his feet the scars into space this calls is this is to bring our lives [Music] give me an undivided heart that i might fear your name teach me to walk in righteous parts and follow in your ways for you are gracious and forgiving hear our lord and answer me give me an undivided mind that i might love your word help me to hunger for your voice and know your spirit's soul for you are good your truth and changing life is [Music] [Music] sanctify me take me and make me knew that i might live for christ my lord give me an undivided love for all that you desire make me a living sacrifice all my ways are known to you undivided i want to live for you single-minded that i say all that i do sanctify me [Music] take me and make me new that i might live for christ undivided counting my gains as lost single-minded [Music] whatever the pain whatever the cost sanctify me help me take up my cost and live for him who died for me please take a seat well welcome back and i've swapped out farage here tag team tag team that's it now sam i was thinking during the sermon if you had started it we probably would have started with a different illustration not cricket f1 racing absolutely i mean what a beautiful expression of teamwork and the body working together for a single goal oh it's it's a great thing that's it that's it and you tell me james i mean we're talking serving here um how's it all going in arvo church land i mean you've got a bit of a finger on the pulse here and i'm keen to be coming along to help in this area you know in ways that i can in the future keen to have you along helping and we're really encouraged by a lot of things that are happening in afternoon church and you know some of us will remember that we just did another serving survey you know three months ago another one well yeah and and i think that it's worth saying that it was really encouraging seeing people fill the one out just a few months ago and there were so many conversations that were had where people were able to share how they've been serving what they've enjoyed currently at afternoon church we've got 92 members serving in formal ministries which is praise god for that it's amazing isn't it and we're really thankful yeah really thankful for that but i want to say a huge thank you to everyone who serves people who've continued to serve in lockdown i mean when we did the survey lockdown hadn't started yet and yeah some people have signed up for things and they haven't even done how to go yeah they haven't had to go yet that's right that's right but we're really thankful to be able to think forward into next year and to realize that all of us have a part to play in the body totally yeah so we've got some questions we're going to look at now let's go and uh sam we had a number of people um ask a version of this but i'm going to go with this one which is if i find myself not serving gladly what should i do and and how can i begin to serve gladly yeah that's a really important question to just bring out um the short answer is it depends um and uh it depends on like not knowing that the particular individual who's asked this question and what their circumstance might be but maybe i can make a few general comments that might be helpful for someone who's feeling that given that i think this is a common feeling and part of the reason that we spoke about it so so intentionally to say glad service is christian service um if you're not feeling the gladness a few things i would do number one as i say it's it's really important to acknowledge that to acknowledge that that is how you're feeling and not pretend otherwise and just soldier on as if you were glad kind of fake it till you make it kind of thing i think acknowledging that that's how you're feeling that that's crucial then having acknowledged it i think the question is what do i do with that feeling uh well the first thing i would do is i would look upward we talked about this in the lockdown life series a couple of weeks ago look up um and remember at the end of the day service comes from having been loved and served by god and so ask the question how's my relationship with god as my heavenly father how am i quiet times how's my personal devotion going with the lord and am i spending intentional time just remembering his goodness to me and at that point you you'll know how that's going and that's that but that's important to keep going uh to remember that god served us first and then move forward from from that point um it might be that things are not going so well on that front and at that point you might need to ask some questions about whether it's right for you to push on where you are at the moment and you might you might need to pull back you may not but you might need to step back a little bit from serving at this particular moment if that's where you're at um can i make a quick comment about that absolutely just one of the things is that sometimes and i've i'm really thankful that this isn't very common in afternoon church but sometimes what can happen is when you're feeling like oh you know i can't really make it to growth group or i can't really make it to church but the only weeks you come is when you're on something or when you're when you've been rostered to do something that you're serving in something and you know i i've had this experience where i've seen other people perhaps their churches aren't particularly healthy but they keep going only on the weeks when they're on sunday school or something like that and that's a dangerous place to use because that can then get you into that cycle of resent serving out of yeah obligation with obligation that's right that's right so i think that's such an important point sam sorry thank you great great interjection um the second thing i would say is it may not just be you might be going really well as a christian but there might be other reasons why you're feeling a bit sort of um out of obligation it might have to do with the the culture of the team that you're serving in or the ministry that you're serving in um it might be that there are structural problems personality differences lack of leadership not clear on what it is that you're doing so you kind of feel like you're kind of hit in the air all the time as you are serving and so it might be that and one of the things that i'm really keen to get stuck into across some pools over the next little while is working out what a particular team's responsible for are they clear do they understand how what they do helps build the body so that everybody has a real sense of yes i can see the purpose of what i'm doing and then the other thing to say is that how's the team dynamic going teams are a beautiful thing often if you're rostered on for something you just rock up nobody notices you you do your thing and then you go home feeling unsupported and like you're kind of on your own teams are an incredible thing for seeing people work together and have a real sense of shared purpose and like hey we're doing this together you might have felt that particularly in like kids and youth teams they tend to have this kind of just x factor of like people love being on them because there's something precious about a team and so i'm keen to see as many teams happen as possible in order to help us with this and then i think the third thing to think about is capacity um so it might also be that your capacity has changed and maybe this often happens you see it as people move from university into full-time work or some other like big life change where they where they're getting married getting married a change in the amount of time that you've got and what you used to be able to do on your ear heaps easy all of a sudden whoa it's really hard and you just you're possibly doing too much um and so again this is why the image of the body is so so important we don't need 20 of the people doing like 400 jobs each so that everything happens we need the whole body serving so that um everybody is playing a part and so it might be that you're doing too much and you need to throttle back at the same time it's worth saying that there probably are some people around who could probably do a little bit more and sort of take some of that slack up um but it is a it's a whole body thing so there are a few comments i hope that's helpful i think that sounds really helpful sam thank you very much but i just want to encourage you know if you are particularly struggling in different ways please talk to your team leader yeah talk to your growth group leader you can talk to me you can talk to one of the other ministers at church as well just got another quick question here which is should an emphasis be placed on the gift of prophecy are you proclaiming god's word given that christianity is a word-based religion a religion if so how do we encourage those of us who are a bit less eloquent in speaking god's word yeah um yes um and certainly in the in the flow of of one corinthians that's that's where this kind of chapter goes he sort of says at the end of chapter 12 eagerly desire the greater gifts and then goes on to speak about love and and love being a crucial part of it all and then 14 1 follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of spirit it's gifts of the spirit especially prophecy now so so that's right there is a sense in which prophecy and paul lays it out in chapter 14 it's this clear uh kind of proclamation of the gospel and it builds up christians and it helps non-christians to get saved uh so prophecy is really really crucial um and we are a word-based thing uh word-based um uh kind of faith so yes um that being said uh the it's not just the preacher for instance who ministers the word that can be done person-to-person uh it can be done in smaller group contexts and so you may not be the most eloquent person to be able to come up and do what you do james um but at the same time you you actually all of us can speak and all of us can do that with love um and just may may not be from the platform and so um so i'd want to say that the word infuses all the things that we do and as you serve say like on a tech team we saw those guys before no doubt they're speaking to each other and encouraging each other and praying as they begin their time together and reminding each other of that they are at the moment a crucial part of seeing the gospel proclaim because you know none of you be able to hear i can't yell loud enough to get you guys over in balkan hills like i just yeah so we we need the whole body to help the word go out um at the same time i think i would say is that um that's true in the context of one corinthians 12 to 14 but actually you zoom out big picture um john 13 for instance jesus says by this will all people know that you are my disciples that you love one love one another so it is actually a broader thing that actually as christians love and serve each other which you can do in a whole multitude of ways of which speaking is a crucial one but not the only one love is actually in itself a way of which we can share the gospel as well now we don't want to stop speaking in order to love in the place of speaking but i don't want to just i think you can the danger might be that you run into a kind of two-speed christian economy where you kind of if you're a word person you're really valued and we kind of put you at the top of the pile and if you're just a you know if you just arrange the flowers or take out the rubbish um that that's sort of no don't don't do that whereas actually i think that's a way to love and jesus says by love will people know that you're motivated and that sort of mindset that sees it almost in two tears it doesn't capture the body image which is that every part every part matters and the whole thing has to work together to build the kingdom and actually somebody arranged this set behind us now you may not have thought about that very much and you might not care about it very much but someone did this and that was an important thing it makes it look nice you know so you can concentrate so you can concentrate and you can help they didn't probably say anything when they move that tree into place but that's okay um that that's part of the body's work and it's part of love now thank you thanks so much we're going to throw back to mike now great thank you james and sam we're going to spend some time now as the church family praying together will one of our regular members will be praying for our church and then jazz another of our regular members will be praying for our world good afternoon everyone my name is william and i'll be leading us in praying for the church today uh this this week we'll be praying that we all remain deep in god's word so please bow your heads in prayer dear father heaven we pray that our members will continue to dig deep into dear father heaven we pray that our members will continue to dig deep into your word regularly as individuals and also as a community we pray that we will grow in maturity as we move deep into god's word we pray that your spirit would fill us with conviction of our sins understanding of your word and the divine power that transform us pro pray for joyful server hearts of course i miss maturity ministries where there be growth groups one-to-ones maturity events and maturity resources we also pray that the previous members of simples will continue growing by remaining deep in god's word and last but not least we like to praise you lord for that the training here as some paul's continues to be rooted in your word all this we pray and narrow your son jesus amen hi my name is jazz let's keep praying together for the world that we live in this week we'll be praying for martin and julie field who work in student ministry in argentina and are our mission partners with cms we'll also be praying for the spread of the gospel across the world so let's pray together lord we ask that you remember martin julie and all your people in argentina as they persevere through another wave of covet infections in their country father we hear of the death of their friends and partners in the gospel reuben and ingrid and we cry out to you because only you can give real hope and comfort in the face of death please be with reuben and ingrid's family their church family and for the student ministry group they so faithfully served while they lived may they know that you are near especially when they miss reuben and ingrid and hope all the more in jesus return when we will rejoice with you and your people forever father we're grateful for how you've provided access to the first dose of the current vaccine to the fields please make a way for them to get the second dose on time especially as there's been difficulty with stock in the past while thank you that they can keep teaching your word both the old and new testaments in their mockland classes during this time father may your word bear fruit in those who are coming to martin and julie's classes that many men and women would grow in love and trust in your son because of the truths they learn in your word father we also take the time to pray for your word to bear fruit in the rest of your world your word tells us that your kingdom is like a field that's ready for harvest but has few workers to bring in the crop and so we pray to you the lord of the harvest to send more workers out like martin and julie to bring home those you have chosen to be included in your family the church we pray that christians all over the world in every country will live such contrasting lives in their communities that people can't help but notice the new life that the lord jesus brings father we pray all these things knowing that you love to hear your people speak to you and that you will answer us in jesus name amen amen thank you will and jazz we're going to spend some time filling out our connect cards now you'll see a qr code up on the screen or in the youtube link i believe there's a link to that form as well our connect cards are our way of knowing you've joined us please let us know how we can be praying for you as well in the comments the staff team pray through these each week and if this is your first time here and you've got some questions about what you've heard today please let us know i'll give you two minutes to fill that out but as you do i'm gonna just read out two more uh texts i've come through the first one thanks heaps from my growth group leader who has led us faithfully during the last term uh shout out to that growth group leader who's still anonymous and the second one thank you tiff for reading the bible with me and for sharing life with me very grateful for your loving care i'll give you one more minute to fill that out [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] we will not despair for [Music] friends that brings us to the end of our service today afterwards we'll also have a zoom link for you to join us to have some hangs after church you can find the details on the simples website or in the youtube description link would you join me in praying as we end our time today father we give you thanks in your goodness and faithfulness you rescued us from death to life not only that you gathered us and brought us into the body of christ father we pray that you might help us think through how we each may be serving this body and be loving each other we pray this in your son's name amen thanks for joining us today and see you next sunday [Music] into space [Music] he calls us this is he calls us i sacrifice a sacrifice for you and you are loved so true we bring our lives to you a sacrifice a sacrifice for you [Music] [Music] a sacrifice for you [Music] this is our god the servant king he calls us now to fall off to bring our lives as a daily offering of worship to the servant king you

Channel: St Paul's Anglican

Views: 236

Rating: 4.1999998 out of 5

Keywords: yt:cc=on, church, night church, st pauls, stpaulsanglican, st pauls anglican, church service, Sydney church, carlingford, Carlo church, bible teaching, Ephesians, Ephesians study, rebels of grace, ephesians sermon

Id: JaVlfJNZMqk

Length: 100min 10sec (6010 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021