Sunday Meeting -19 September 2021

well good morning everyone a very warm welcome whether you're here in autumn maltings or watching us online it's great to be together together together to meet with god uh this morning um just to highlight we're going to be celebrating communion later on in our time together if you're here in austin maltings hopefully you've picked up a wafer and a little container of wine if you haven't it's on the tables over there to your right my left if you're at home you may want to grab a moment to go and find some juice or some wine and a bit of bread so we can celebrate communion together in in about 20-25 minutes time something like that um as we gather together today can i encourage you if you have a contribution please drop us a text there's a number on the screen for text or there's a number here in the auditorium for text alternatively come forward and have a word with us if you're here in autumn maltings or you can drop us an email again if you're watching online it's great to hear god together we want to encounter him in all sorts of ways so please let's look to do that and help one another to encounter by sharing those gifts god has given us for our strengthening we are otherwise now going to press into our time of worship together katie and the band are going to be leading us so over to you please katie thank you andrew good morning everybody it's lovely to see you not through a perspex screen i really like this um did you know that tuesday of this coming week is world gratitude day thank you nathan for that information you might not because quite frankly there's a day for everything every day of the year um but tuesday is world gratitude day so it got me thinking i was thinking about what i'm grateful for um and i realized obviously that gratitude doesn't have to just be celebrated on one day of the year it's every day and we should be thankful every single day and um so i just wanted to encourage you this morning whilst we're singing i've got some songs that sing about giving thanks i wanted to encourage you to be thinking about what you might be uh grateful for um and for some of you it might be something really big it might be that you've been healed or that you've been blessed with a new job or something like that and uh and for some of you it might be that you're grateful that you got to um scoff down a half a cup of lukewarm coffee this morning before dashing out the door you might be grateful for that but can i encourage you to just think while we're singing this morning and as we move through this morning about what you're grateful for and and give your thanks to god um because he's good in everything in everything that we have going on in our lives whether it's something good or something that you're struggling with god is still good um so i just wanted to give you that encouragement this morning and yeah you can celebrate world gratitude day on tuesday or every day if you should so choose um so if you're willing and able to would you like to stand we're going to start with give thanks to the lord our god and king do [Music] give thanks to the lord our god [Music] he forever with a mighty hand with a mighty hand [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] from the foreign to the [Music] settings forever [Music] forever [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] forever god is strong forever [Music] yes lord thank you that you are with us forever thank you that no matter what we're going through whether it's great and something that we want to celebrate or whether it's something that we're struggling with lord thank you that you are good in all of those times in every moment thank you for your grace thank you for your mercy thank you for your love for us lord we love you and we are so grateful for you lord amen [Music] [Music] you give life you are loved you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart [Music] it's your breath it's your [Music] so [Music] when you give life you give life you are love you bring life to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] and all the earth will change [Music] [Music] i know [Music] [Music] these [Music] [Music] in [Music] so we pour out [Music] so we pour out our praise to you [Music] great [Music] great [Music] [Music] here is love fast as the ocean loving kindness as the flood when the prince of life are ransomed shed for us [Music] who can cease to sing his praise he can never be forgotten through our hands eternal days [Music] on the mount of crucifixion on the mount of crucifixion fountains [Music] and gracious [Music] peace and perfect justice [Music] [Music] no love is higher [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is true [Music] let me all your love accepting love you ever all my [Music] let me seek your kingdom only and my life be to your praise [Music] you have plans and sanctified me you are alone have set me free oh thank you [Music] [Music] your blood speaks [Music] speaks righteousness to me and stands in my defense jesus it's your blood gonna sing that verse again your blood [Music] speaks righteousness to me [Music] jesus it's your blood [Music] again [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] your cross [Music] testifies in grace tells of the father's heart to make a way for us [Music] is only by your blood [Music] what can make us [Music] what jesus washers [Music] nothing [Music] one again [Music] speaks righteousness to me and stands in my defense and jesus it's your blood oh this morning amen amen if you're listening online you may not be able to hear anthony's prayer just giving thanks for the blood of jesus and how precious it is and how comprehensive it is that each and every one of us is washed clean of our sin by the blood of jesus and we can be restored to relationship with the father and we're now going to go on and celebrate that by breaking bread together if you want to take a seat ben thank you so much for how you've led us thank you katie katie because we know that uh scriptures tell us about the power of the blood of jesus and jesus even uh talks about it in luke 22 we're told it says this that uh as he takes his uh disciples away as it were together to have a last meal to them and we can read in luke 22 and he took bread gave thanks and broke it and gave it to him saying this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me and in the same way after the supper he took the cup saying this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you jesus gave us very clear instruction and understanding of or the significance of his death and how that's encapsulated in the uh how we celebrate it in the breaking of bread and drinking of juice together so we're going to come and do that hopefully you've got a little carton of juice like this and the little um uh cracker wafer i'm not quite sure what we call it if you haven't there are some on the table here so please come over and get some a bit it doesn't look like there's many there but i'm sure we've got more um uh and we're gonna break that bread together if you're at home please find some bread and some juice if you're able to i'm going to lead us in prayer and then we're going to celebrate this meal together father we want to thank you that jesus was totally sufficient that in his death and then in his resurrection he proved he had conquered sin and the power of sin and that into doing he makes us clean each one of us we can be made clean by his death through his resurrection that we can come holy before you father god made clean and holy by the work of jesus on the cross and we want to say father thank you thank you because we could never have got there in any other way but you did everything necessary to bring us back to you thank you we can have relationship with you thank you we can be restored with you blessed be your name amen and uh as we as we come to take this can i remind us that scripture encourages us to reflect and uh check our own spirits make sure uh we are in a good place with god and with each other and so i want to encourage you to do that as you come to take this and if you need to hold on to the materials and come back to it once you have restored those things whether it's with god or other people but uh for those of us who are able to now why not let's take let's eat of the bread the cracker together and then you may want to take the juice just to remind you please be really careful opening this it's very easy to end up with juice all down your front so you may want to open it looking outwards that way get person next to you rather than yourself then can i encourage you to turn to the person next to you and just express your thanks to god to the person next to you i know that's not something we normally do but that's okay it's okay to do something we're not used to so let's just do that for a moment wonderful wonderful okay well um we're going to move on in our time together in a moment nathan's going to be coming to preach to us and in a moment and that moment is now youth young youth i'm not quite sure we're calling you nowadays years seven to nine head off downstairs to spurgeon mark's going that way but you can go that way doesn't matter if you're not sure where you're going follow the crowd they've all gone with charlie mark [Laughter] bye and before nathan comes to preach can i just uh highlight if you're visiting with us for the first time um we have a a pack we call it our welcome pack it looks like this if you've not been given one you can grab one afterwards from the table off to the uh off to your right or have a chat with somebody olaf or lindsay who are in their harvest gold tops they are easily identified and if you have got one of those and a visitors card in there could i ask you to fill in the vistas card and pop it in the offering box which is also on the table over by the door there and we really appreciate that so we have a record of your visit okay over to nathan wonderful good morning it's great to see you all this morning it's good to be together isn't it yes yes for those uh i've not met before or you've not met me or you don't know my name my name is nathan as andrew says i have the pleasure of being a part of the leadership team for harvest church and uh this morning we're going to carry on our series in nehemiah but before we read the passage i just wanted to talk a little bit about habits it's amazing isn't it how we can get into habits good and bad habits and whether you're a person who loves routine who likes things to be the same every time that you do them or you're someone who's spontaneous changing the route maybe that you drive into work every day we all get into habits and ways of doing things even if it's the habit of doing things differently i have this uh our confession time okay i have this really strange habit this strange routine um whenever i go to sleep i know things about to get a little bit weird here okay what happens is i lie down and i have to lay down on my left hand side before i turn over onto my right hand side to fall asleep anyone else like that oh good i'm not alone this is great and i've tried so many times just like okay i'm just gonna fall asleep on my left hand side i'm gonna do i'm i'm gonna fall asleep i'm gonna fall asleep minutes i know hours later i'm still there i've not fallen asleep i thought i'll turn over to my right hand it's like i'm gone i'm just gonna aura tight on the other side try and fall asleep straight away on my right hand side i just can't do it i have to turn over to my left hand side and now i'm back on and i thought if you're a psychologist and you know what's wrong with me please come and talk to me afterwards i would love to know somewhere along the lines along the years of experience of falling asleep i suddenly got into this bad habit and it's hard to break out of i've just accepted that's just part of my falling asleep strange falling asleep routine when it comes to the bible each of us have different habits or routines of how we read and respond to it we might have different expectations or questions of how important really is the bible to us and so much so you might may even wonder some of the following questions you may ask why do we dedicate time every week on a sunday morning to the preaching of the bible you might wonder why do we preach and teach the bible for so long each week on a sunday you might ask this question why do christians follow a book on how to live rather than just doing what they feel or think in the moment or maybe this question why is the bible so important to harvest church to this church as a church we love the bible whether you're aware of it or not the bible shapes so much of what we do as a church the hidden and the scene including so much of what we do during our sunday meetings this is just part of our gathering as a church as a church a word that we hope describes us is that we are evangelical that means that as a church we believe the bible to be our authority that is the word of god it's a major way of hearing from god and knowing what god is like and god's great plan for the world and for us and so because the bible is god's word for us today relevant for what we believe and how we live in 2021 we want it to shape every part of our lives and we also want the bible to shape every part of our times together whether you're here in the mornings or joining us online we want the bible to shape our times together and that's why meeting together to hear the bible being taught and explained is so important but it's also important that we're looking across the whole of the bible reading it in its greater context not just picking and choosing verses just as we feel they are appropriate or and picking and choosing what we do and don't read it's why we want to check the songs that we sing and ensure that we sing songs that are firstly correct in theology and rooted in bible scripture not wishy-washy stuff that just sounds nice we want to sing songs full of truth and that speak of the greatness and character of god because it builds us up it resonates in our hearts hopefully they sound good and are musically enjoyable as well and they certainly were this morning thank you band for leading us so well but we must also be careful to fill our mouths with songs of biblical truth and that lift our eyes to god to who he is and to what he's done and that's also we value the word of god because that's also why we value the gifts of the spirit in our meetings and our times together we are a people of the word and of the spirit we believe the word the bible is our authority and that the holy spirit draws us into revelations from the word the holy spirit isn't going to lead us into a new theology and a belief that's not in the bible the spirit always draws us into relationship with god through jesus the bible points us towards relationship through the spirit with jesus and the spirit points us towards the word of what is eternal what is of real worth of what is of who god is and all that god is about the bible is unlike any other book or resource in the world now this morning i want to take us back into nehemiah chapter eight that andrew reared and preached from last week and did a great job it's not i'm knocking anything that you said andrew don't worry i just want to delve deeper into one particular thing that as a community as the people of god we are called to be a people of the word so why don't you turn in your bibles to if you've got one to nehemiah chapter eight if you don't have one it's going to come up on the screen and i'm going to ask you if you're in the maltese to do something a little bit different this morning i'd like you to stand to your feet and we're going to read the bible whilst standing it's a bit different isn't it stretch those legs out all right nehemiah chapter 8 verse 1. when the seventh month came and the israelites had settled in their towns all the people came together as one in the square before the watergate they told ezra the teacher of the law to bring out the book of the law of moses which the lord had commanded for israel so on the first day of the seventh month ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand he read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the watergate in the presence of the men and women and others who could understand and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law ezra the teacher of the law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion and beside him on the right stood matithiya we'll give give these names another go shall we matithia shema ananiah uriah hilkiah and masaya and on his left were padaya mashael malkajar hashem hashabadana zechariah and meshalam ezra opened the book all the people could see him because he was standing above them and as he opened it the people all stood up ezra praised the lord the great god and all the people lifted their hands and responded amen amen then they bow down and worship the lord with their faces to the ground just skip down to verse nine then nehemiah the governor ezra the priest and the teacher of the law and the levites who were instructing the people said to them all this day is holy to the lord your god do not mourn or weep for all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law is there any weeping going on this morning not just yet okay nehemiah said go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared this day is holy to our lord do not grieve for the joy of the lord is your strength and just finally verse 18 day after day from the first day to the last ezra read the book of the law of god they celebrated the festival for seven days and on the eighth day in accordance with the regulation there was an assembly let me pray and then more sit father we love you and we worship you we thank you for your son jesus and all that he means to us we thank you for his death and resurrection and we thank you that we have life because of your son jesus we thank you for you sending your promised holy spirit to bring alive the things of your word we thank you for your word the bible that we can read together and we pray lord come and speak to us this morning come and teach us come and show us your ways we pray in jesus precious and mighty name amen amen why don't you take a seat if we're to be a people of the word what does that look like here's three things from this passage i believe we can see about how we can be a people of the word firstly we value time in the word secondly we value community preaching and teaching and thirdly we value applying the word firstly then we value time in the word hebrews 4 verse 12 says for the word of god is alive and active sharper than any double-edged sword it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart psalm 119 verse 160 says this the entirety of your word is truth and all your righteous judgments endure forever psalm 18 verse 30 says this as for god his way is perfect the lord's word is flawless he shields all who take refuge in him those are just a few of the verses in the bible that speak of the importance the truth and the life-giving power that is found in the bible the israelites in these verses that we've read this morning in nehemiah gather together because they're being drawn again into community drawn again into being the people of god on mission for the purposes of god they they've gone astray they'd been separated but now they were prioritizing again time together and they dedicated time to hearing the word of the lord if we're to be the people of god in full force we're called to be a people who gather together not just on sundays but gather to pray and we've got a great opportunity to do that tonight gather in communities mid in midweek gather to read and study god's word together gather to serve others and serve each other the israelites didn't have individual copies of the bible like we do today they didn't have it on their phones or any other personal format they had to gather to have it read to them and what do we read in verse 3 we read ezra read it aloud from daybreak till noon that's a long time isn't it they dedicated their whole morning to listening to the reading of god's word and you might wonder well that sounds pretty important to them well what can happen when we read the bible here's what can happen we can encounter god we can hear his voice we can read of who god is we gain a fresh perspective of him we read of who we are what god's done in us and still to do in us we read of god's plans his purposes for us and the world we read truth that resonates right in the depths of our hearts we gain hope joy and peace and encouragement we're changed as we're convicted of sin and desire to be more like jesus we give room for the holy spirit to bring things into our mind to inspire us and lead us at a later time or date and we experience god's presence and love that's just to mention a few the power of god's word is immeasurable it's not just a good book it's not just a historical account it's not just something for us to tick off on our tick list or even just have a habit of doing it's the living breathing word of god and yet for many of us if not all of us we're so easily distracted that it drops down the pecking order of priority so easily i don't know if that's true of you it's certainly true of me it can so easily become i can get distracted by other things and although our hearts and souls long for the word of god our flesh and our minds are weak and easily tempted into other things and so friends if we're to be a people of the word we've got to invest time in the word create space for god to speak and meet with us psalm 119 verse 103 says this how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth what lovely verse how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth i don't know about you i want that to be true of me when i read the bible that i go oh that just that tastes like honey that just tastes sweet oh that's good can i encourage us in our life groups let's make sure we're opening our bibles together in our children and young people's groups let's encourage them to the life-giving power of the bible at home as we parent our children let's open up the bible together in our individual lives let's give time to reading and understanding the word of god read books to help you understand ask questions in your life group meet with someone that you know understands it may be better than you and ask them questions let's trust in each other and grow together if something doesn't make sense ask questions secondly we value community preaching and teaching the people of god in this passage in nehemiah gathered to hear the word of the of god read to them and explained to have it taught to them through this season this these past kind of 18 months some of us have found it hard to keep on gathering it's kind of we've lost maybe attention span or we've just stopped gathering for different reasons or we've stopped watching online or dedicating time to the preaching and teaching of our church and it's been a really strange season it really has where every church in the uk has practically gone online and become available online and yet we can't realistically belong to a church that is in wales or scotland but it's been nice to look at it's been nice to look online and see what else is going on and learn from other churches and and gain from other churches but what is the local church it's christians joined together in heart for their local community we read of the early church in acts 2 so those who accepted peter's message were baptized and that day about 3 000 people were added to them and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and to the prayers at harvest church or as harvest church we're on a mission together for our local community we care about this area we care deeply about it we want to see people saved and added from this local area that's why god's placed us here at this time and moment we're preaching as harvest church into the situations that we live in in here in this area we're teaching into issues that we us us at home as a people face together we've not you might have guessed this already we've not randomly picked nehemiah as just a book in the bible and oh let's pick that one to preach we've picked it because actually right now in this season we need to be gathered again as a community we've lacked it we've missed it we've missed being together and so we're preaching through because we see a book in the bible that gathers people together into community that shows the importance of community of shows the importance of god calling his people together friends that's where we are at as harvest church in 2021 we're in need of god calling us together again gathering as we see with the early church is of vital importance for the growth of individuals and the church gathering to hear teaching and preaching to understand the word is so important it's why we spend around a third of our time on a sunday meeting looking at the bible together it's important the bible shapes and encourages us equips and convicts us provokes and comforts us so we value time in the word we value community preaching and teaching and we value applying the word thirdly we value applying the word nehemiah in verse 10 leads the people of god not just to hear the word of god but to understand it to hear it being taught and explained he helps the people of god to apply it to their lives having heard the laws about what to eat how to eat how to care for the poor caring for those in need near puts it into action verse 10 says nehemiah said go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared this day is holy to our lord do not grieve for the joy of the lord is your strength if we're to be a people of the word we want to be a people who hear the word and follow it follow it with faith we can so easily read the bible when it goes in one ear and and out the other or we read it and i we go oh i like that bit i'll follow that bit or no i'm not so sure about that bit i don't want to follow that bit that sounds a bit too hard that takes me out of my comfort zone we go i like it when it talks about grace that's good yup like that i don't like it when it talks about getting baptized in front of a bunch of people i don't want to do that go make disciples no i'll leave that to someone else i don't really want to do that or don't get drunk on wine no no that's not for me i like getting drunk on mine whatever it is actually we avoid don't we we can avoid bits that we don't like when we want to take the whole word this book is precious this book is so precious we want to value it and apply it let's be a people who choose to respond with faith respond with action respond with humble hearts god has graciously and generously given us so much he's given us his word he's given us his son he's given us his spirit maybe you even want to stop and consider what's god speaking to me about this morning right now in this moment why don't we do that let's just close our eyes for a moment god what are you wanting to do in each of us this morning we don't want to just move on lord come and speak where are you wanting to bring comfort where are you wanting to come and bring peace where are you wanting to provoke come spirit of god settle that in our hearts right now i pray amen finally if we're to be a people of the word we must be a people of the spirit also what does that mean it means that the holy spirit lights the word of god in our hearts we're a word and spirit church we believe in the authority of the bible and the importance of the whole of scripture and we believe in the holy spirit helping us to apply god's word giving strength to our walk with god speaking the word of god into our hearts every day in every situation the spirit giving gifts to the church to help us fulfill the word of god ephesians 6 17 says this and we're encouraged by it says take the sword of the spirit which is the word of god what's the weapon of the holy spirit it's the word of god it's to equip us and strengthen us with the power of his word the spirit of truth comes alongside us to keep us close to god and step with his thoughts and plans and to release us to be all that god's called us to be let's make the word of god our habit in study in gathering to and in responding to let's pray father we praise you for who you are we thank you for your word we thank you for your precious word that speaks life and truth and grace we thank you lord god that you want to speak to us daily through your word lord we thank you that you want it to be explained to us that you don't want to leave it a mystery to us but you want us to understand it you want us to understand you and you want us in relationship with you holy spirit i pray over each and every one of us this morning i pray come and breathe fresh desire for your word oh god i need that i need a fresh desire lord god my flesh is weak come holy spirit and breathe on us a new lord god that we would love your word and value it and apply it and and gather to it lord god i pray that we would be a people of your word i pray lord god that we would be a people who bring truth to the community around us because of the truth that we read and hear of in your word we thank you for who you are we pray bless us this week and all that we have going on in jesus mighty name amen amen wonderful thank you so much nathan that's a great encouragement for us get hold of the word of god let it breathe in us let it live in us let's give time to making sure we apply it live it out and we're filled with the spirit who enlightens it to us wow brilliant thank you so much nathan okay well we're just about coming to the end of our time together this uh this morning uh just as we do can i remind us this evening we have what we're calling the encounter evening 7 30 to 8 30 here it's the final of our seven opportunities or what we're calling ours of prayer tonight though we want to just spend time together in god's presence enjoying him worshiping him that will without doubt take us into the place of prayer at times as well i'd like to invite each and every one of you please come and be with us if you're at all able to i think it'll be a very significant time for us as we gather together as a church this evening here also melting 7 30. otherwise though we're going to bring our time together to a conclusion there are going to be refreshments served out in the cafe area if you've been watching us online it's been great to have you two with us thanks for joining us and we'll look forward to catching up with you hopefully midweek in our life groups across alton and this district and in our other settings thank you you

Channel: Harvest Church

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Length: 53min 47sec (3227 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021