All Saints 9.30am online Service | 5 September 2021

[Music] well good morning and welcome to all saints church this morning it's so great to have you with us today my name is anton and this is tom hello uh we are ministers here it's great to have you along particularly if you're new with us today it's wonderful to have new people join us a week in week out so that we can engage with god together and hear the good news of jesus uh happy father's day to all the fathers out there happy father's day tom happy father's day thank you how was your morning uh i have received a present and a beautiful homemade card i have not yet opened it oh okay the anticipation uh i've opened many of my things okay yes lots of handmade cards and uh lovely food order from harris farm so no i was i was very blessed for this morning but of course father's day is a day of mixed emotions uh i haven't seen my dad in uh a few months actually and you know we'll have a family zoom later on uh today uh many of us may be grieving our fathers who have died or we've may have fathers who have let us down or we might be aware of how we have let our children down as fathers and so with all that comes with father's day the great thing about coming to church this morning is that we are reminded that we have a father in heaven who has lavished his love on us we're in the book of one peter at the moment tom's going to be sharing more of uh from one peter later today but we've already seen in our series uh about god our father uh we saw last week that god uh is uh that god we call on on a father who will judge uh our works and so he weighs our actions we saw a couple of weeks ago that we saw that it says that praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ because he's given us an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade and even in our first week we saw that we've been chosen according to the full knowledge of god the father so our father who is in heaven has known us from the very beginning and has loved us in jesus today tom with your passage today what's uh what's something we can look forward to as we hear from god today i don't want to give too much away i know can you give us a little bit ah you can look forward to something precious there is something precious in today's passage that's so good uh we will hear from god a little bit uh through the bible let me pray as we begin our time together our heavenly father we thank you for the gift of fathers thank you for all that they bring to our families and to each of us uh father forgive us for the times when our fathers have let us down or we have been fathers who have let our families down but help us to always remember your forgiveness in jesus and how you have loved us as a father by sending jesus to die for us help us today to engage with you to see you in all your glory and to see what uh what we have as your children so please be with us this morning as we uh watch together in jesus name amen uh well we are going now to see and sing about the sun that our father has sent us in jesus we really appreciate everyone who has contributed to the virtual singing that we have this week but let's now sing of jesus strong and kind [Music] jesus [Music] i [Music] jesus said if i am weak i should come to him no one else can be my strength i should come to me for the lord is good and faithful he will keep us we can always christ [Music] jesus said that if i fear i should come to me no one else can be my [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] he will come to eat and he showed me on that cross he will come to me the lord is [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus jesus [Music] yo one peter 1 15 sing along just as he who called you is holy so be holy in all you do when you're not walking fast but slowly you know what to do be holy when you're feeling kind of down and lowly you know what to do be holy when you're climbing up a pulley when it's your turn to roll it when you're talking to an oldie [Music] you know what to do be holy when you're trying to be a really good goalie you know what to do being holy when you got a really bad case of e-coli you don't know what to do when you're going for a rolly when you're eating some percolating when you're squeezing the aioli be holy justice [Music] [Applause] 150. [Music] in the beginning god the master builder made everything it was beautiful and its beauty shouted out how magnificent god is god loved all that he had made and god made people to reflect his magnificence and enjoy their home with him and they did for a little while but then people doubted their master builder and broke what he had made ever since it has been hard for people to enjoy and cherish god each other and everything god made ever since god couldn't be close to people anymore but god the master builder still loved his broken creation and wouldn't give up on it god set about his big plan to rebuild everything so that it was better than ever a big plan for his people to be close and home with him again forever but the timing had to be just right god chose a special people and taught them to be many builders and built a house for him to come near but not too near they called this house the temple only a very few people could come into god's house to say sorry for all their brokenness even though they couldn't all go into the temple the house did remind them and show the world that god was with his people still god's people kept doubting the love of their master builder god's people kept ignoring him so in the end god left the house and it crumbled this house didn't work at keeping people close to god forever it wasn't really god's big plan at last the time was right for god's big rebuild plan he planned to build a new house a new city a new creation where he and his people could be near to each other again loving enjoying and cherishing one another the very first stone is the one that counted all the rest of his new creation relied on this most important stone the cornerstone and god chose the most magnificent precious and priceless stone as the foundation and beginning of his new forever house with such a stone god's rebuild could not fail it wasn't an ordinary stone it was a living stone actually a person named jesus jesus is the cornerstone the most important part of god's big plan to rebuild creation god's work is not complete yet our master builder is still at work building his house adding more living stones and all the stones that are added are not really stones either but the people who put their trust in jesus god will keep working on this forever house until the time is right for jesus to return and finish god's big rebuild wow god's big rebuild plan for the world is amazing and it's talked about in our passage in peter today in chapter two it's a bit of a strange passage with living stones and people houses but we need to pay attention to two things that peter is telling us the first one is that jesus a living stone is not just any stone he's the cornerstone and the cornerstone's the most important stone in a building so it means that jesus is the most important the most solid the most unbeatable base that we can stand on that we can put our trust in to bring us to our new home with god so we need to keep jesus as the most important thing in our lives and the second is that we're like living stones now this just means that god is bringing together christians from all over the world from everywhere to make a new house a new family a new team so that together you and me and people from all over the world can say look at what god has done for us in jesus together we can show the whole world god's big amazing plan to invite people to be close to him again forever see i lay a stone in zion a chosen and precious stone and those who trust in him will never be disappointed so let's thank god for jesus because he doesn't disappoint and let's ask god to help us to tell of his goodness put your hands together by your heads and let's pray heavenly father our master builder thank you for sending jesus to be our chief cornerstone thank you that when we put our trust in him we won't be disappointed thank you that because of jesus you are with us now by your spirit and we will be near you always help us to share your goodness by speaking about you and by living for you every day as we look forward to our forever home with you in jesus name we pray amen well how good is a bit of minecraft and how good is jesus our cornerstone the most important thing uh we're going to have a little break now and a chance for you to check in we'd love to know that you are watching with us today kids you might want to go and uh do the worksheets that have been sent through earlier uh but yes use this check in now and if you uh have if you want to know what's been put in the what you can put in the box uh below maybe you can answer this question as people what's our bose what's our most basic need you know what's kind of deep down what's the most important thing what do we want the most uh that might be a question to talk about and to write down in that bottom field all right check in now and we'll see you soon [Music] me [Music] all right thanks so much for checking in uh we are now going to turn to god's word because it's in the bible where we hear god speak to us and so grab a bible and have it ready uh we're we're going to have the bible read to us from mark and ruth rundle and they also i've also met with them earlier in the week ask them a couple of questions because they've got some news to share with all of us uh here at all saints so why don't we turn to them and then we'll read the bible to the rundle family how are you guys going hello thank you that's good good to see you guys obviously we miss seeing you face to face at church and uh you've had an eventful lockdown you've got some news to share with us what's uh what's happening with your family well um at the end of the year um he's like stannis but also with excitement we're actually uh going to be moving uh we're leaving sydney i've been and i'm living my position as a school chaplain at arden i've been appointed uh school chaplain at cal rossi anglican school up in tamworth and so we begin there at the beginning of the 2012 school year that's really big news and really sad for us at all saints uh to say goodbye to you towards the end of the year but a wonderful gospel opportunity to share the news of jesus with students and others up in tamworth uh ruth what's it gonna look like for you uh moving and uh living up north uh there's a lot of uncertainties there yet uh i don't have anything particular to go to at the moment although there'll be a lot of settling in sort of organizing all the little details of life that just happen when you've been somewhere for 15 or so years so it'll be good to have a little bit of time to do that i think and then there'll be plenty of opportunities hopefully that come my way sounds good uh bethany how are you feeling about the move it's a big thing for you to say goodbye to friends here and to move up north what's um what how are you feeling um i'm really excited to be moving to somewhere that like isn't really familiar i'm also really sad to be leaving my friends because i've been with them since kindergarten so they've been friends for life good good to hear but yes totally um that will be a sad time but also an exciting time for you all uh what's one way that god has been growing you through you know through lockdown and through making this decision and now looking ahead uh to the future i think one of the things on lockdown uh that i've found is that uh it's really uh reminded me of the importance of things like relationships my relationship with god relates our relationships with each other um yeah and that's been and seeing how that has been in not just in our family but also um friends and students staff at at school and uh seeking to encourage them and then i guess one of the things it minds to that um life um is uh uh uncertain and uh we don't always have control so we really rely on god and know that no matter what uh he's faithful we're his and so that's been locked down as uh really enemy in fact that uh a relationship um part of god's chosen people and the awesomeness of that um is really uh is really the thing that i uh can withhold to and no lockdown no um pandemic can take that away hopefully we'll be back in uh in person in church before you guys go so we can farewell you uh in person um but uh yes we'll be praying for you and your family uh during uh during the packing up phase and then as you as you move on uh but you uh are going to read the bible for us and we thank you for that uh we thank you for bringing god's word to us today i'm going to read from exodus chapter 19 verses 1 to 8. on the first day of the third month after the israelites left egypt on that very day they came to the desert of sinai after they sent it out from referendum they entered the desert of sinai and israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain then moses went up to god and the lord called him from the mountain and said this is what you have to say to the descendants of jacob and what you are to tell the people of israel you yourselves have seen what i did to egypt and how i carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession although the whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words you are to speak to the israelites so moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the lord had commanded him to speak the people who responded together we will do everything the lord had said so moses brought their answer back to the lord the second reading is from one peter chapter two when starting at verse four as you come to him the living stone rejected by humans but chosen by god and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ for in scripture it says see i lay a stone in zion a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame now to you who believe this stone is precious but to those who do not believe the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall they stumble because they disobey the message which is also what they were destined for but you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation god's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light once you were not a people but now you are the people of god once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy what is our most basic need our most fundamental desire we put the question out there earlier uh and some of you are given some answers uh i liked the response that said a bed no food no jesus others answered love others answered we had a husband and a wife one of them said water the other one said food between the two of them they should do quite well coffee understandable answer most basic need to be loved forgiven redeemed other people to surround yourself with to be known and to know why you're created but also water thanks for all those inputs that's really interesting i'll put this away i think it's uncontroversial to say that one of our most basic human desires is the desire to belong the desire to be included this desire is in different people to different degrees but it's rare to find someone who lacks it all together to have a group that accepts you as one of its members to have a family or a club or a company or a nation where you are known and valued that's a strong desire we have isn't it and with it goes a powerful fear the fear of rejection the fear of being cast out on your own the fear of being shamed because you don't belong and are not accepted c.s lewis once gave a speech to a group of graduating university students and the title of his speech was the inner ring you can see how it's raising this concept of being included and belonging he he explored this idea of the desire to be included in an in crowd and how powerful that desire can be and he noted of all the passions the passion for the inner ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things he rightly identified that the desire to belong and the fear of being rejected can drive you to behavior that doesn't match your actual values and convictions now the people that the apostle peter was writing his letter to probably in the early 60s a.d were certainly people feeling that sting of rejection now persecution of christians by the roman empire hadn't really got underway in an organized fashion at this point at this point the roman empire still saw christianity as a just a weird variation of the jewish religion and romans generally thought oh well if they want to have their weird version of judaism that's up to them but jewish people did not share this perspective they thought a weird variation of judaism was a very big problem indeed and all through the book of acts we see people from judea and galilee and also jewish people from other provinces of the empire who are very unhappy and aggressive towards this weird variant of judaism which centers on this guy jesus now many if not most of the early christians that peter was writing to would have been people of jewish background and many of their fellow jews would have been telling them this jesus cult you were mixed up with it's crazy it's offensive it's dangerous if that's the path that you're going to follow don't go coming around to my house for dinner anymore and if you go spouting that jesus stuff in the synagogue well the boys and i will be ready to show you the door in no uncertain terms these jewish christians would have felt like outcasts in jewish circles there would have been a shame that went with joining team jesus they'd have this strong sense of rejection and not just rejection like you get if you're fired by one company but you can get a job at another company it was much more serious than that and we'll come back to why a bit later in today's section of his letter there are two main ideas that peter puts before his readers which help them with this feeling of rejection here they are in advance if you're with christ then rejection was in the script all along and when you're in christ you belong to the most precious group of all now peter starts by describing jesus with a bit of a mind-bending description as a living stone been trying to get my head around this how would you ever come up with this idea of a living stone seems like a contradiction in terms the phrase isn't found anywhere else in the bible i reckon peter comes up with this arresting phrase because he's already got in mind psalm 118 the line that says the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone now here's a drawing of a cornerstone the idea of a cornerstone is that's the most important reference point in the building when the stone masons are building a building they'll chuck out the stones that are funny shapes that they don't think will be useful in the building but a good solid stone with clean angles it will be chosen as the cornerstone it will be laid first and every other stone will be positioned relative to the cornerstone and peter had been there when jesus had quoted this cornerstone verse from psalm 118 about himself earlier this year we looked at the chapter from matthew's gospel jesus had arrived in jerusalem opposition to him was reaching fever pitch he knew that soon they were going to put him to death and he warns the leaders who are debating with him have you never read the scriptures the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone how does jesus become the cornerstone how does he get vindicated as the true son of god the one that the universe revolves around it's by his resurrection god raising jesus to new life is the moment when god declares this is the one the chosen and precious one and because jesus is the living one he's shown to be the cornerstone a living stone rejected by humans but chosen by god and precious to him to his jewish christian readers who are being rejected by their fellow jews jesus peter peter points out the rejection of jesus he was rejected by humans but he was precious to god and rejection by humans was in the script all along peter reminds him of this verse from isaiah chapter 8 which is a warning about god's judgment coming on israel in that passage the lord describes himself as a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall we get here the idea that when the lord comes to visit his hard-hearted people many of them will reject him they'll reject the lord they'll reject his messiah they won't believe his message they will stumble on this stumbling stone and this was the expected result all along let's imagine that someone makes the claim that my house is very clean i don't know who would make that claim but let's imagine that the claim is made and so i pick up a white cloth and i use it to wipe my reasonably clean looking window sill and what do i find at the end that window sill wasn't so clean after all the cloth suffers and the windowsill is put to shame that's my best illustration of jesus coming to ancient israel as the stumbling stone his rejection was foretold in advance it was all part of the script but that rejected one was actually the chosen and precious one for living stone but of course when jesus was walking around in galilee and judea not everyone rejected him there were some who listened and believed and peter pulls another verse from isaiah this time from chapter 28 to talk about this scenario it's from another warning passage but a passage with hope the lord says that he has laid a stone in zion a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in it or him will never be put to shame peter applies this verse to jesus the living stone responding in trust to this living stone will actually lead to honor and glory responding in trust to the stone who was rejected but is now the cornerstone means you now belong you belong actually to the most precious group there is i mentioned earlier that when jewish christians were rejected by their jewish friends and family it wasn't like being rejected by one employer and you can find another not being rejected by one girlfriend but you can find another in their case the people doing the rejecting were a group that could make great claims for themselves they could claim great significance this group the people doing the rejecting were the people who belonged to the lord today's old testament reading was from exodus 19. after god had rescued the people of israel out of slavery and by mighty miracles he made a covenant with them like a marriage an agreement that bound the two parties together and he said now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession although the whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation ancient israel were god's chosen people and that gives a particular sting to jewish christians being cast out by their fellow jews the christians would be saying those people who are most precious to god they are rejecting me the people who have the temple in jerusalem god's dwelling place on earth they are rejecting me the people who god has appointed as his ambassadors on earth they are rejecting me can you feel the impact of that rejection can you feel the shame that goes with being cast out from a special group like that but peter has been showing them that jesus is the chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame and that's because it's actually the people who trust in jesus who are now the true people of god when you trust in christ you belong to the most precious group of all i want to talk about three key aspects of being the people of god that come up here firstly oh we've gone to a funny slide can we jump into the middle of my sermon and there's a point that says people of god a we're going to do some magic here and get back on track here is the first bit people of god a the people of god enjoy god's presence with them they are but people amongst whom the lord dwells in jerusalem they had a great big temple a marvel of architecture known as the dwelling place of the lord on earth it was made from some huge and impressive stones but none of them was the living stone none of them was god's cornerstone peter says to the christian believers in verse 5 as you come to jesus you are being built into a spiritual house jesus had referred to himself as the true temple where god's presence could be found peter and the other new testament writers reveal that now that jesus is risen and ascended it's amongst the community of christian believers that god dwells on earth by his spirit the place where god's presence is now to be found is not the big stone building in jerusalem whose days were numbered but amongst the community of christian believers that's the first mark of the people of god and it belongs to the christian community secondly the people of god are those who can worship god acceptably the lord had given ancient israel the sacrificial system with intricate instructions for how to approach him in worship but peter says in verse 5 it's all those who come to jesus who actually are the holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ the apostle paul says something similar in romans 12 when he urges believers to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your true and proper worship it's trust and obedience to jesus that is the kind of worship god now accepts those animals being slaughtered on the altar in jerusalem were entirely out of date but thirdly the people of god have a special purpose a special task a special project which is to represent the lord to the rest of the world this was the case for ancient israel they were called a royal priesthood the priesthood wasn't just about offering sacrifices to god it was also about representing god to the rest of the world it was a royal priesthood because their job was to declare god's royal rule to the rest of creation but peter says actually now this is the task that the christian community has verse 9 he says you are god's special possessions so that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light for peter's readers who are being rejected this is amazing news they belong to the most precious group of all peter says you christians are the temple of the living god the place where god dwells by his spirit you christians are now the holy priesthood who offer the worship that's acceptable to god you christians are the royal priesthood who now announce god's rule to the world you christians are now the holy nations set apart for god's purposes you christians are now the ones entrusted with the task of declaring god's greatness to the world you belong to the most precious group there is now so far i've been speaking quite deliberately quite specifically about peter's original readers and their circumstances and their background and peter's message to them that's because i think there is something distinctive there that we need to respect the kind of rejection they are experiencing was a particular kind and it raised particular issues and if we read this passage too quickly as if it was written to us then we'll miss the point but of course we can take from this passage powerful fuel for ourselves as we navigate rejection of various kinds when we reveal that we stand with jesus that we accept him as the ruler of the world and ruler of our lives when we reveal that we take seriously the things he says we will get rejected might be rejection from some little social group who start to leave you out of the events might be rejection by family in various forms it's not hard to imagine that not too long from now it could be a rejection by a corporate employer that has no tolerance for jesus's teaching on certain areas of ethics rejection will come and when it comes we can take comfort from the two big ideas in this passage firstly that jesus the son of god the chosen and precious cornerstone was rejected by humans it was in the script all along and so when people reject him and reject us it is nothing new he was intended to be rejectable but secondly whatever rejection we experience we know we belong to the most precious group of all the church of god his chosen people the holy nation god's special possession the group we as christian believers belong to is so much more precious than any other group that rejects us this passages fuel for us to endure rejection and to rejoice in our belonging and there'll be more to say about rejection and suffering later on in the letter of one peter today i want to leave you with two challenges about belonging first challenge is this will you cherish god's presence amongst his people all the positive things that are said in this passage i said not about individuals but about the christian community collectively the passage is all about the group to which you belong it's the community of believers in which god lives by his spirit will you cherish that community in which god dwells you cherish god's presence amongst his people the gathering of god's people like we normally do on a sunday is not just an efficient way of delivering education it's not just a tool for getting yourself spiritually fed and supporting other people it's about enjoying god's presence together because together we are god's temple my challenge is will you cherish that will you treasure that gathering frankly it's a gathering that we cannot do at the moment sometimes we call what we're doing right now online church but it's actually not church what we do online is valuable and helpful and useful in tricky circumstances but i hope you are dissatisfied with it if you find yourself thinking oh online church is pretty good very convenient i want to urge you to rethink i hope you are missing the gathering in which god is present amongst his people i hope that when we can gather again properly you will join in with gusto because you cherish god's presence amongst his people second challenge will you cherish the mission of god's people god has given us an amazing privilege an amazing project to get on with god has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light so we may declare his praises that's our mission to reveal the true and living god to the world in all his greatness and mercy and power and love peter uses the word praise here when you hear that word praise you probably think of singing and that's fair enough the praise is not so much about the kind of singing you might do in your bedroom it's about singing about god in public making him known to believers and unbelievers alike when god's people sing his praises that has an impact on the world when an unbeliever visits or walks past a church where people are singing wholeheartedly it makes them stop and be curious doesn't it here's a specific thing for you if you're part of our whole church music project and your face has been on the screen today during today's songs here's an idea why not share the link on your facebook status in youtube you can go and get a link that goes directly to a certain part of the video a certain song choose one of the songs get that link share it and say check out this video of me praising jesus with my brothers and sisters see what your non-christian friends and family make of that that's a way you can be fulfilling the purpose of god's people to declare his praises to the world but of course declaring the praises is bigger than music will you pray for opportunities to speak of god's greatness and goodness in everyday conversation will you live a life of radical generosity and hospitality and grace that illustrates the greatness of the god we belong to this is what we exist for as the most precious group of people there is once we are in darkness but god has called us into his marvelous light once we were not a people but now we are the people of god once we had not received mercy now we have received mercy whatever kind of rejection comes your way remember you are the people who belong to the lord chosen and precious let's sing and declare his praises now actually just before we sing let me remind you that we'll have question time a little bit later on and the number is up on your screen so feel free to text away during this song any questions that you might have but what a group that we belong to that we've just been reminded of in god's word and of course we've heard it's not that we are particularly special that we belong to this group but it's because of what jesus has done for us and we're going to be reminded of that in our next song so now let's sing [Music] what gift of grace is [Music] he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast [Music] is [Music] the [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] for jesus [Music] and he was raised [Music] [Music] [Music] with every breath i want to follow jesus for he has said that he will bring me and day by day i know he will renew me until [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] all right thanks so much for sharing god's word with us tom a couple of questions have come through firstly anthony brammell says uh thank you for mentioning the inner ring by c.s lewis and he reads it at the start of every year just to have just a reality check so that's good nice it is online if you search c.s lewis in a ring okay very helpful uh a question from verse eight uh it says that um that they stumble because they disobey the message which is also what they were destined for so does that mean that some people are bound to reject jesus i expected this question to come up the bible certainly says that god before the beginning of time chose certain people to be his unconditional election before we'd done anything good or bad god chose those who would be his and the sort of the logical next step is that god didn't choose others but it's interesting that god the bible never puts the same emphasis on those two things uh it always puts the emphasis on god's grace in choosing people to be saved and the fact that human responsibility is the big factor in those who don't get saved i would do this verse that says what they were destined for in the context of jesus being rejected and the expectation that the chosen and precious cornerstone would be rejected by the builders so i think what's going on in this particular verse is that god knew all along and planned all along that jesus would be rejected uh that is what um he knew and planned would happen and i think that's the kind of destiny that's in the picture in this particular verse okay so it's we need to be careful not to over say what the what the bible says but um look at what how how the bible emphasizes certain things and um you're saying it's it emphasizes the grace of god in us who are saved and the responsibility of those who are on us all to receive the news of jesus as well and also that we should read particular verses firstly in their context in the book of the bible that they're in before we jump to systematic theology conclusions okay that's really helpful i've got a comment from someone that says our church singing together is so precious sounds lovely to hear all these voices together thank you all so thanks to everyone who's contributed and uh tom and sam collis bird who's put that all together uh wonderful another question though you noted that we shouldn't be totally satisfied with doing church online like we are now what are some ways that we can do church and make the best use of this time while we can't meet together um i think there is no real substitute for having multiple christians in the same room uh so i don't think there's anything we can do to sort of completely plug the gap i think we ought to be dissatisfied and yearning for when we can get back together physically but i think we can do in the meantime i think just preserving the horizontal participatory aspect of church okay what do you mean by that yeah allow me to go on i think if you ring someone up after church today after this service after this video and ask them how they're going and ask them what they made of church and the bible reading today that that one another active part of it is so important we need to guard against church becoming a product that we consume and then we've consumed the product we're satisfied with it and we go on with the day uh church is an activity not a product how's that okay so it's really helpful to go yes the big danger of this time is uh we see church as something to consume just for our benefit and our spiritual growth but actually know it's the time to express fellowship with one another as we worship god together so yes any horizontal activity any any uh a chance to reach out to others and encourage them in their faith that's a really helpful thing to do during this time uh that's really great thank you so much for sharing some answers tom and we are going to do something altogether now we're going to come before our heavenly father in prayer and luke's going to lead us in prayer for us good morning everyone my name is luke williams i normally attend 9 a.m church and this morning i'm going to be praying so please join me heavenly father we thank you that we can approach you in prayer confident that through jesus we are your adopted and loved children please hear us as we bring our concerns to you thank you for sustaining us and upholding us though times have been hard with lockdown and the challenges that that has brought thank you that we live in a country with leadership that has worked hard to keep people safe we thank you for the environment we can enjoy for the bush for the parks and the opportunity to exercise with family and friends we thank you for church and our church family and though we would love to meet face to face thank you that we can still encourage one another through online church thank you for the people who have been working hard behind the scenes to put everything together each week lord we continue to pray for afghanistan we pray for peace in the face of war violence and uncertainty we pray that the taliban will act with mercy though we know of their reputation for terror violence and evil we ask that you might restrain them we pray for christian brothers and sisters in afghanistan preserve their lives and strengthen their faith that they may show the light of your love in these desperate times lord we also pray for brunei a country that is ruled under strict sharia law we pray for christians there who face discrimination and mistreatment we pray for the safety of their families and that despite the increasing opposition you will strengthen their faith perseverance and witness father we pray for hsgc students with the stress of lockdown adding to the already stressful year of study and exams we pray for your support and guidance we particularly pray for those in our church family for archea arvin elijah emily eric evie elise luke nick nick sarah shaolin and tom and that they might know that their hope and security is in you but we pray now for this those that are sick or in need amongst us we pray for tony recovering from surgery this week for joe for janette james berget brian dorn and laura and for those with long-term health challenges in or around all saints for nathan bronwyn betty and don lord we bring our prayers to you through jesus in whom we trust amen [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] in christ alone my hope is [Music] [Music] my [Music] i said [Music] in christ alone who took on flesh fullness of god in helpless pain his gift of love and righteousness [Music] [Music] for everything on him [Music] there is [Music] is [Applause] victory [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how great to be singing the praises of god together a couple of announcements before we head off uh firstly on this thursday we have our midweek service we haven't had this uh since lockdown has come but uh this thursday at 10am we will be gathering together on this youtube channel particularly those who like the more traditional form of a church service uh please join us we'll share in the lord's supper as well uh so thursday at 10 a.m also this week uh we continue reading the bible in lockdown also on this youtube channel uh we heard so much of uh out of our passage today steeps in old testament uh realities and so we are heading to the old testament for read the bible in lockdown hearing what god has to say to us there so join us on this youtube channel from tomorrow morning uh well today what a great reminder we have been given of what god has chosen us to be and we are to be the people of god so let me leave you with uh one of the verses from one peter today you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation god's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light let's go out and be the people of god reflecting on all that god has done for us to bring us to him we'll see you next time [Music] [Music] you

Channel: All Saints North Epping

Views: 333

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: FfUzOeJD6Tc

Length: 68min 19sec (4099 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021