Canvey Methodist Church Worship Services 29th August 2021

Sunday 22nd August 2021.  UMC. 
Menu Choices- Choosing Food to Nourish and Sustain

 

Welcome and Notices

Call To Worship: Psalm 34:15,17-19

Hymn: STF 186: Tell out my soul 

Prayers of Praise

Choices: “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”.(Joshua 24:15)

Hymn: STF 332.  Lord I Lift Your Name On High

Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-20.  Choosing to prepare using tools supplied.       Reader Please 

Gospel: John 6:56-69;   Choosing to grow- accepting nourishment supplied.                             Reader Please

Hymn: STF 322 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

Prayers for Others.                                                                  Worship Leader

Sermon: Choosing to be nourished 

Concluding Prayer.                                                                  Colin.                        

Hymn. STF465. Guide me O thou great Jehovah

Benediction.



 

Sunday 22nd August 2021.
Menu Choices- Choosing Food to Nourish and Sustain

 

Welcome and Notices

Call To Worship: Psalm 34:15,17-19

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry;17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.19 The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;

Hymn: STF 186: Tell out my soul

Prayers of Praise

Loving Lord, giver of life; Lord Jesus, friend and Saviour; Holy Spirit, living water, we worship and adore you. We come today, not having or expecting all the answers but knowing that you are the way. We are confident that your promises are true that your eyes are upon us who are made righteous in Jesus, your ears are attentive to our prayers, you draw close when we are brokenhearted and crushed in spirit and you save and deliver us all to the uttermost in Christ. 

Thankyou Lord for your unfailing love. Thank you that even with our doubts and fears and our worries about the journey ahead, you are there by our side . Thank You that you are our rock and our salvation, our strength and our high tower.Thank you that as we choose to go on this journey with you, you are always there, gently leading and guiding, always present. Praise you Lord for your constant Love and faithfulness. In Jesus Name Amen

And now a moment to pause and confess our sins.There is a response:

I will say, “Lord forgive us”, and the response is “and turn us back to you”.

“And turn us back to you”.

Lord God, when we turn away from you and go our own way.

Minister: Lord forgive us,

All: And turn us back to you 

When the way ahead is not clear, when everything feels too much and we turn our backs on you.

Minister: Lord forgive us,

All: And turn us back to you 

When we make wrong decisions and our actions hurt others 

Minister: Lord forgive us,

All: And turn us back to you 

When we want to give up because it is too hard, 

Minister: Lord forgive us,

All: And turn us back to you 

When we cannot see beyond ourselves and act selfishly 

Minister: Lord forgive us,

All: And turn us back to you 

When we do not put you and others first

Minister: Lord forgive us,

All: And turn us back to you 

 

We pray in Jesus Name.

 

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 and the power, and the glory, 

forever and ever.

 

Amen.

 

Choices: 

Choosing something to eat. A.Gherkin, B.Chocolate 

We all have to make choices every day of our lives. Perhaps when we are younger and we are going to the park it might be, shall I walk, ride my scooter or ride my bike. 

As we get older we get to choose more things. What time we get up in the mornings, what clothes to buy and wear, what am I going to eat for breakfast,  what food do I buy in the shops and important choices like what job am I going to do. Will I marry and who shall I get married to.

When it comes to really, really important choices the most important of these is, Am I going to make space for God in my life. Am I going to follow him?

A man called Joshua had his life story written about in the Bible. He was the leader of the people of Israel as they travelled into their new home of Canaan . It was a lovely place and everything grew well there. But as the Israelites settled in, mixed with the people who already lived there, Joshua realised that they were forgetting about God who had helped them on their journey. So, at God's prompting, Joshua got them all together and passed on God's message, reminding them how God much God had done for them; how he had faithfully led and provided for them over the years. But, he said, you do have a choice about this. My hope is that you will throw out the gods of the past and not follow those of the people around you now. However, you have to choose who you will follow.“But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” the one who calls us to be faithful and to serve him. (Joshua 24:15)

This morning we are choosing to follow God and to give him our love and praise.  

 

Hymn: STF 332.  Lord I Lift Your Name On High

https://youtu.be/COQ6cni_TG8
 

Lord I lift Your name on high

Lord I love to sing Your praises

I'm so glad You're in my life

I'm so glad You came to save us

 

You came from heaven to earth

To show the way

From the earth to the cross

My debt to pay

From the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

Lord I lift Your name on high

 

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I love to sing Your praises

I'm so glad You're in my life

I'm so glad You came to save us

 

You came from Heaven to earth to show the way

From the earth to the cross my debt to pay

From the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

Lord, I lift Your name on high

 

You came from Heaven to earth to show the way

From the earth to the cross my debt to pay

From the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

Lord, I lift Your name on high

 

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I love to sing Your praises

I'm so glad You're in my life

I'm so glad You came to save us

 

You came from Heaven to earth to show the way

From the earth to the cross my debt to pay

From the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

Lord, I lift Your name on high

 

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I lift Your name on high

Lord, I lift Your name on high...


 

Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-20.  Choosing to live using tools supplied by God.       

 

Ephesians 6:10-20.  New International Version.  The Armor of God

 

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and so after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.


 

Gospel: John 6:56-69;   Choosing to grow- accepting nourishment supplied.                             


 

56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Many Disciples Desert Jesus

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[a] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

 

67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Footnotes

a.John 6:63 Or are Spirit; or are spirit

 

Hymn: STF 323 How Sweet The Name of Jesus Sounds   https://youtu.be/NoPlwPUYWaw

1 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 

in a believer's ear! 

It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, 

and drives away our fear. 

 

2 It makes the wounded spirit whole 

and calms the troubled breast; 

'tis manna to the hungry soul, 

and to the weary, rest. 

 

3 O Jesus, shepherd, guardian, friend, 

my Prophet, Priest, and King, 

my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, 

accept the praise I bring. 

 

4 How weak the effort of my heart, 

how cold my warmest thought; 

but when I see you as you are, 

I'll praise you as I ought. 

 

5 Till then I would your love proclaim 

with every fleeting breath; 

and may the music of your name 

refresh my soul in death. 

Psalter Hymnal, 1987

 

Prayers for Others.                                                          Worship Leader

Sermon: Choosing to be nourished.

 

Some choices are difficult aren’t they. There is a story told about a young police officer who was taking his final exam for the police service and he read the following question in the exam paper:

 

You are on patrol in the outer city when an explosion occurs in a gas main in a nearby street.

 

On investigation you find that a large hole has been blown in the footpath and there is an overturned van nearby.

 

Inside the van there is a strong smell of alcohol. Both occupants—a man and a woman—are injured.

 

You recognize the woman as the wife of your County Police commissioner who is presently away on summer holiday.

 

A passing motorist stops to offer you assistance and you realize that he is a man who is wanted for armed robbery.

 

Suddenly a man runs out of a nearby house, shouting that his wife is expecting a baby and that the shock of the explosion has made the birth imminent.

 

Another man is crying for help, having been blown in the adjacent canal by the explosion, and he cannot swim.

 

Describe in a few words what actions you would take.

 

The young man thought for a moment, picked up his pen and wrote,

 

“I would take off my uniform and mingle with the crowd.”

 

The story concludes with the question, Do some of us see the Christian life in the same way?

Do the challenges that we face make us want to blend into the crowd, to accept society's view of morality and human behaviour rather than that of God our creator.

 

Choosing the Kingdom of God is, and always has been costly. It was for the first disciples, it is even now for Christians in places such as India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China, and it is also for us too.

 

However, our readings today reveal the secret of how countless Christian believers across the generations have been sustained amidst the strongest of trials and in the midst of the most hostile of government rule and cultural expectations.

 

The secret is Jesus himself. He describes himself as bread, the staple food of so many cultures.

 

I wonder, if I were to ask you how many different types of bread there are in the world, what would your guess be? About 20? About 50? More than 50? 

Well I asked the internet and it came up with 97 different types of bread and I suspect that there are more. Every country in the world, it seems, has its own version of bread. 

Bread can be made from all kinds of cereals and starchy fruit; Corn, wheat, barley, chickpea, maize, rice, cassava, Rye, carrots, pumpkin, bananas, oats and other plants whose names I can’t pronounce!

Bread can be leavened or unleavened, made with yeast, soda, or baking powder,

It can be white, grey, brown, black, 

Bread can be savoury, sweet, spicy, gluten free, and dairy free.

Bread can be round, long, flat; 

It can be squashy in texture or hard like a biscuit.

 

Every culture, it seems, needs to eat bread of one kind and another to be nourished and healthy. In fact today, some of us may already have eaten toast for breakfast and we may later plan to have a roll or a sandwich for tea. Bread is for the everyday and for everyone. So how did it come about that Jesus refered to himself as being the bread of life.

Well he said it to a crowd who the day before, had seen him pray over a little boys picnic lunch of five barley loaves and two fishes and then go on to feed all of them, over five thousand people, so that they were full up.

This next day, they had followed him, wanting more because their tummies were rumbling and they were hungry again. 

But Jesus tells them that they had rather missed the point of what they had been part of the previous day. 

They were looking for another picnic lunch from him rather than believing in him to satisfy the deep spiritual hunger in their lives.

 

Jesus told them that His Body and His Blood were what they really needed to satisfy their deepest need. And quite understandably they did not understand this. In fact some of them were horrified at the thought. On the face of it, it sounded horrible, and the last thing that anyone would do. It may even be that we also cannot fathom the meaning of this teaching either.

Consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus! 

What could this mean. Was it a reference to the institution of holy communion? It certainly sounds very much like it. 

But no, it was not. Why? Because the Lord’s supper had not yet been instituted. Rather what Jesus was mysteriously alluding to was a spiritual eating and drinking of his sacrifice and life, and not a sacramental one.

 

The terms flesh and blood of Jesus as Jesus used here, describe his humanity which he took on at his incarnation as the redeemer of the world. On the cross, his body was to be broken and his blood spilt. The price of redemption was to be paid. 

The old gospel song describes it succinctly

 

He paid a debt he did not owe

I owe a debt I could not pay

I needed someone to wash my sins away

And now I sing a brand new song

Amazing Grace

Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.

 

The flesh and blood of Jesus describe our redemption; and they open up an incredible vista of loving grace for us. They are the price Jesus paid for:

 

Our acceptance by God, (It’s just as if you and I had never sinned) We are accepted.

Our adoption as children of God. No longer slaves to human nature but family.

Our access to the throne of Grace- We pray in Jesus Name.

Our experiencing the promises of the covenant. Heirs of his promise. 

Our being blessed with eternal life. Death is defeated. 

 

But what is meant by eating this flesh and drinking this blood?

According to Matthew Henry the commentary writer, It means that we offer ourselves to the living Jesus by faith and allow him access to our lives as Lord and Saviour. No longer my own but yours, as our covenant service puts it. 

 

Moreover, this reference to eating and drinking reveals something about this incredible journey to faith. How does it happen?

 

Firstly it implies having a spiritual hunger, an appetite for Christ. We have got to want to find God for ourselves.n

 

Secondly, it is a reminder that to receive any benefit from a meal it first has to be eaten. We can’t just look at Jesus, we have to go the whole hog. We must accept Christ, to appropriate him to ourselves. Do remember the apostle Thomas’s words as the penny dropped about Jesus’ divinity, “My Lord and my God” John20:28;

 

Thirdly this reference to eating implies a delight in Christ and his salvation. Eating is pleasurable. Knowing Jesus is a joy to our hearts. 

Another old gospel song. 

Jesus is the Joy of Living, He's the King of Life to me; Unto Him my all I'm giving, His forevermore to be. I will do what He commands me, Anywhere He leads I'll go; Jesus is the Joy of Living, He's the dearest Friend I know.

 

Fourthly it speaks of nourishment. Jesus in our lives brings life, support and comfort of our spiritual lives. He leads us on and brings us strength, growth, and vigour.

 

The secret then of how Christian believers across the generations have been sustained amidst the strongest of trials and in the midst of the most hostile of government rule and culture is nothing less than the life and presence of Jesus. His Holy Spirit grows spiritual fruits of grace within us, gives us appropriate Spiritual Gifts to use in his service and importantly Spiritual armour to put on as we serve him. 

We heard the words of St Paul in Ephesians 6 describing these as being 

 

the belt of truth buckled around your waist,  - Honesty and integrity 

with the breastplate of righteousness in place, Right and fair actions.

With our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

We are the doing words of God today.

Taking up the shield of faith, We have to step out and to trust without seeing the way. 

and wearing the helmet of salvation  Christ sacrifice guards our minds.

and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Jesus himself used this sword of the word against Satan when he was tempted.

Praying in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

He knows what to pray, when we don’t. 

 

I suspect that most probably for most of us, we have been trusting Jesus for many years. To us, Jesus whispers encouragement to keep on trusting, to avoid the pitfalls of thinking that we have to do more to be accepted by him. We don’t, Jesus has done it all.

Perhaps as we have listened, some of us have picked up that we may not have opened every door of our lives to Jesus. If that is us, then today’s the day. Jesus by his spirit will happily accept your invitation to come in and stay .

Let us pray.

                

Hymn. STF465.  Guide Me O Thou Great Reedemer

https://youtu.be/5j48TLIRb4Q

Guide me, O thou great Redeemer, 

pilgrim though this barren land; 

I am weak, but thou art mighty; 

hold me with thy powerful hand; 

Bread of heaven, 

feed me now and evermore.

 

Open now the crystal fountain, 

whence the healing stream doth flow; 

let the fiery cloudy pillar 

lead me all my journey through; 

strong Deliverer, 

be thou still my Strength and Shield.

 

When I tread the verge of Jordan, 

bid my anxious fears subside; 

bear me through the swelling current, 

land me safe on Canaan's side; 

songs of praises, 

I will ever give to thee.

 

Concluding Prayer.                    Colin 

Benediction.





 

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