As we begin our worship, let us sing and make music.
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Let Us Pray
Prayer is how we actively practice believing. Believing that God has the whole world in his hands. Prayer is where we let petitions and praises shape our worries into prayers, letting God know our concerns. Prayer is never the last resort of God’s people. It is our first point of action.
I invite you now, just to take some time to pray. Pray for your family and friends. Prayer for your Church. Pray for the sick, bereaved, lonely and war torn countries Pray for governments of the world . Also pray for yourself. Then we will share together in the Lords Prayer.
Lets share together in the Lord's 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.
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Before we go to the word, let us sing: A wonderful Saviour is Jesus My Lord
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He is with us all the way
Sometimes – we wander on through life head down, all of a sudden you look up and things are – well – they’re not what we expected. You’re lost…and you don’t know the way back home.
A favourites story of mine was, Hansel and Gretel. A wonderful fairy tale about the brother and the sister that get lost in the woods and stolen by the wicked witch who wants to cook them. And they escape and the way that they find their way home, in this dark forest, is that Hansel had dropped little pieces of bread along the way and they were able to trace their way back and eventually their dad finds them.
Sometimes in life, it feels as though we’re lost in that dark and dangerous forest and we look around and we start wondering, ‘Where is God? And if I’m lost, how am I going to get back home to Him?’ Well, what I discovered, because I’ve been in that forest, is that there are plenty of markers around us to show us the way home and in fact, the more I look the more I realise, they’re not like little Hansel’s and Gretel’s pieces of bread, they’re actually, great neon signs that you just can’t miss.
I have walked through some tough times with people in life. We should never trivialise that, because when you’re in that place, when you’re in that dark forest, it’s just plain tough. The question is what do you do with that? Do you just sit down and cry and give up? No doubt tears will be shed. No doubt fear will set, they will and we can’t deny that. But the question is, what do you do with that? Because that’s the question that really matters in those times.
What do you do when the obvious doesn’t work anymore in that dark and dangerous forest. Jesus talked a lot about this and there’s one passage in particular that I want to share with you. Matthew chapter 11, have a listen. Matthew 11 and it begins in verse 16. He says:
To what can I compare this generation, they’re like kids sitting in a market place and calling out to the others, ‘we’re playing the flute for you but you are not dancing. We sang a dirge and you didn’t mourn.’ For John the Baptist, he came neither eating or drinking and they said, ‘Oh that guys got a demon’ and I came eating and drinking and they say, ‘Here’s a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ Then Jesus began to announce the very cities in which His miracles had been performed because they didn’t turn back to Him. Woe to you Korizin! Woe to you Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashe. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for them on the day of Judgement than for you, and you Capernaum, will you be lifted to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained this day but I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of Judgement, than for you. At that time Jesus said, Father, “I praise you. You are the Lord of heaven and earth because you’ve hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little kids. Yes Father, for that was your good pleasure.” (Matthew 11:16-26)
What He’s saying here is, you go along in what you’ve always known in your conventional way of thinking, in whatever city or town or suburb you happen to live in and you’re completely missing the point. God sends along someone different, John the Baptist, you know, he came before Jesus and he ate locusts and honey and wore camel hair clothes. He was different but he was from God and Jesus said, ‘You rejected him and you rejected me’.
You see how different Gods ways are from our ways. God sends Jesus who’s so different to what we expect but we get set in our ways and no matter that they’re ruining our lives, we just get set in our ways of thinking.
We accept the worlds ways of thinking and behaviour and someone tells us long enough that the earth is flat or square and no matter whether it’s true or not, we just end up believing that stuff and so what we do is we reject God. We reject Him in our patterns of thinking and our patterns of behaviour, we do it like Korizin did, we do it like Bethsaida did, we do it like Capernaum did. Instead of turning to Him, we just leap off the cliff. We fight fire with fire; we go for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
And Jesus said, “No, there’s an alternative.
Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and let Me give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I am gentle, I’m humble in my heart and you’ll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
When we’re in that forest, that dark and lonely and dangerous place, tired and weary of beating our heads up against a brick wall, carrying heavy burdens and we see that there’s no way out, that there’s no answer, wow Jesus is saying there’s an alternative.
He’s calling us to Him, He’s calling us to get close to Him because He is in that place there with you and with me. How long are we going to beat our heads up against a brick wall? What was His criticism of Korizin and Capernaum? He says, ‘You’ve seen me. You’ve seen My miracles and yet, in the face of that evidence, you don’t turn back to me’.
Let’s wake up! We can get so clever we think we can do it all and then we can’t. In the face of all that evidence we just sit there when Jesus is in that place all along, with answers, on the other side of that yoke, to pull with us, to put His strength behind us. Come on! Jesus is in this place. He is with us all the way.
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We all need Jesus
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.
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