I welcome you all to Sunday Worship. Right now we need God's light to shine in these dark times. And we, his followers, need to radiate with that light. The scripture I want to look at this morning is taken from the Psalms. Psalm 34 where verse 5 says
They looked to Him and their faces shined with joy.
God is light and those who look upon him shine with his glory.
Let's Sing: Shine Jesus Shine. In the midst of this darkness Lord, shine.
Let's turn to Scripture. Please Read with me Psalm 34
Psalm 34 New Life Version (NLV)
Those Who Trust in God Are Happy
I will honour the Lord at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth. 2 My soul will be proud to tell about the Lord. Let those who suffer hear it and be filled with joy. 3 Give great honour to the Lord with me. Let us praise His name together. 4 I looked for the Lord, and He answered me. And He took away all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and their faces shined with joy. Their faces will never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. And He saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord stays close around those who fear Him, and He takes them out of trouble. 8 O taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who trusts in Him! 9 O fear the Lord, all you who belong to Him. For those who fear Him never want for anything. 10 The young lions suffer want and hunger. But they who look for the Lord will not be without any good thing. 11 Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Who is the man who has a desire for life, and wants to live long so that he may see good things? 13 Keep your tongue from sin and your lips from speaking lies. 14 Turn away from what is sinful. Do what is good. Look for peace and follow it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on those who do what is right and good. His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the Lord is against those who sin. He will keep the people of the earth from remembering them. 17 Those who are right with the Lord cry, and He hears them. And He takes them from all their troubles. 18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. And He saves those who are broken in spirit. 19 A man who does what is right and good may have many troubles. But the Lord takes him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones safe. Not one of them is broken. 21 Sin will kill the sinful. And those who hate God’s people will be held guilty and punished forever. 22 The Lord saves the soul of those who work for Him. None of those who trust in Him will. Amen.
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Prayer, is vitally import in all circumstances. Prayer, is our direct communion with God. So let us pray. And to help us with our prayers lets sing with great assurance that, because he lives we can face tomorrow.
Let Us Pray Together
In this time of great uncertainty we pray:
When we aren't sure, God, help us be calm; when information comes from all sides, correct and not, help us to discern; when fear makes it hard to breathe, and anxiety seems to be the order of the day, slow us down, God; help us to reach out with our hearts, when we can't touch with our hands; help us to be socially connected, Help us to love as perfectly as we can, knowing that "perfect love casts out all fear."
Help us, O God, hat we might help each other. In the love of the Father.
In the name of Jesus and in the life of the Holy Spirit that is in all and with all,
Amen.
Let Us All Share Together In The Lords Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
We know that our God is Omnipresent. Meaning, God is everywhere. God is everywhere. Take comfort in that.
We Will Now Listen To The Songsters: Everywhere
Remember that God is with us all. And we can't escape from his love
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Let us read some verses of scripture to help us not be anxious or worried as we journey through life. Please read them with me.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
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Let Us Sing Together: God Will Make A Way
And we believe this. He will deliver. He will uphold. He will comfort. He will make a way
God's Light
Psalm 34:4-8
4 I looked for the Lord, and He answered me. And He took away all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and their faces shined with joy. Their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. And He saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord stays close around those who fear Him, and He takes them out of trouble. 8 O taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who trusts in Him!
When you’re travelling through those dark patches in life – as we all do – the most important thing you need to know is that God is in the Light Business. God is right there in that dark place with us, providing His light.
Lets just take a look at the universe. Its huge with countless millions of stars so far away. The universe is utterly incredible. Scientists tell us that there are at least a trillion, trillion stars. But what does that mean? A trillion, trillion.
Now a trillion is a thousand billion, that means it would take you over 31,688 years, to count to a trillion. Isn’t that incredible? And scientist say that there are a trillion, trillion stars. Stars which are massive balls of fire. And they are just the ones we know about. But, as I'm sure you know, amongst all those balls of fire, there is this immense darkness. And at times, our journey through life, seems like we are in, that immense darkness.
But, and its a big but, we have the light and glory of God with us, who shines brighter than a trillion stars. God, who is with us through the dark patches in life. The difficult times. Times of depression or fear or loss, Loneliness, anxiety, broken relationships, sickness. And when we go through those darkness’s (they are so dark aren’t they?) we worry and we need help. We need his light to guide us through dark, uncertain times.
People ask, and a good number have asked me, “where is He? where is God?” The only reply I have is this; He is where he should be, right here in our midst, with us. I want to stress right now, no matter how dark the darkness gets, God is in the “light” business.
Read with me the first 5 verses of the first book of the Bible, Genesis.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and God saw that the light was good and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness He called ‘night’ and there was evening and there was morning. That was the first day.
This tells us something about our creator. And it tells us this. He is in the business of light.
Light is such a wonderful way to describe what happens when we turn to God in our darkness. I can’t find any other word to put it than “light” a warmth and a brilliance and a radiance that shines in our lives.
We are all go through dark times. Darkness and fear can immobilise us. Fear somehow stops us dead in our tracks, we just kind of sit there and we ache, and fear eats away at our hearts.
As we read the Psalms, we can see that David himself was in a similar situation. He feared for his life. This was real fear, deadly fear. And in the midst of his deadly fear, he did the thing that he had learned to do over and over and over again all those times in his life when he’d been in danger. He sought the Lord, he cried out to God, he said, “God, help!”
The one thing we can forget to do when we’re frozen by fear is to do exactly that, to seek God, to cry out to God. I don’t know about you but I can relate to that. Throughout life, I'm sure, each of us, have come up against giants of opposition, uncertainty, anxiety and a loss of hope and peace. And I can also say, that at times, life scares me. Seriously scares me.
But its at this point that we have a choice. We can sit there and tremble in fear. We can be completely immobilised by it. Or, we can spend time with God crying out to Him in prayer. Reading His word. Listening to Him. And what I’ve found to be true is this. God in Jesus Christ always came to me and delivers me. And I say Amen to that.
David goes on to say this in verses 5 and 6 of that Psalm:
Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
David called and the Lord heard him, he saved him out of all his troubles.
There it is again, “light”. Those who look upon him are “radiant” full of light.
The Hebrew word that sits behind our English translation means literally “to beam” or “to burn with light”. Its not a glow or a flicker or just to shine. It’s a light that bursts with his divine glory. And those who look to Him will burst with that light.
When we are in those dark times. When fear and uncertainty is all we hear about and see. Rest on this simple truth: God is with you. With us all. Bringing us into His glorious light as we journey through life. I just love how the Bible is packed full of this real-life stuff. This stuff that’s right down where we are? The word of God is meant for us, here and now. Just where God has placed us. Amen.
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I would like us now to pray for ourselves. Our Families. Our worshipping community. Our Friends. To help us with this, we will listen to the band as they play a beautiful piece of music:
Prelude On Lavenham
Help me, support me Lord. Help me get through. Lead me through darkness till light shines through.
Let us all now spend time together in personal prayer
Please pray for yourself, your family and friends. Please pray for The Salvation Army. Pray for your Church. Our community and town. Let us bow our heads and let us pray
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To conclude our time together this morning let us turn to our closing song: Cornerstone
This has been a favourite of mine for some time. This version may be new to many. Its an adaptation of the song, "My hope is built on nothing less. Song number 662. But please sing along with me
Its been a pleasure in sharing with you this morning. I pray, that in the darkness of this world, we shine God's light, to bring hope and peace to a hurting world.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee
The Lord make his face shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
And give thee peace
May God bless you all.
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