Sunday Service from Connexion for August 27th 2023:
Sunday Service from Hillside Circuit for August 27th 2023:
Lectionary Theme: An act and statement of faith transforms life.
Occasion: 13th Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary readings:
Psalm 138
Exodus 1: 8 – 2: 10
Romans 12: 1-8
Matthew 16: 13-20
[Click or tap on a Bible reference above to jump down the page to the Bible reading to read it for yourself and then click or tap on Back to top to come back here.]
Songs:
Here are the songs for Sunday morning service. Click or tap on a song to open it in YouTube.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Come, let us sing.
Lead us Heavenly Father.
Take my life.
Will your anchor hold.
Day by day.
You can listen and join in with prayers from the English Methodist Service Book. They can be found at the Prayers for worship webpage.
Children’s Address:
Sermon:
I greet you all in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Our Theme is: An Act and Statement of Faith Transforms Life.
In other words we can say Faith shown by doing something and expressed in words makes a dramatic change in life.
Let us pray.
Our heavenly Father, we come before your throne of Grace as we honour and praise you. We are thankful for the gift of life today and the opportunity to share your word which Transforms lives. May the Holy Spirit touch our hearts and work in us through Faith in Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus, visit those who do not know you to accept you as their Lord and Saviour.
Visit the needy and elderly as well as the youth and grant them their desires accordingly.
We confess our sins and ask for forgiveness.
Lord hear our prayer today.
In the precious name of Jesus our Saviour.
Amen.
In our Theme, I would like to explain in short the meaning of FAITH.
From the Dictionary, Faith is complete TRUST or CONFIDENCE without logical proof.
In Hebrews 11: 1, it says to have FAITH is being sure
of the things we hope for and being certain of things we cannot see.
Then to TRANSFORM is to make a thorough or dramatic change.
For Faith to be shown, it must be acted upon and words or statements said. This way the observer and listener can be transformed. He/She can be influenced positively. Actually here we are referring to Faith in God and Christ.
From the Old testament passage the Hebrews living in Egypt believed in their God of their fore fathers.
When their numbers grew, the Pharaoh of that time sought to reduce their numbers by killing newly born baby boys.
The Israelites were oppressed by over working them so that they wouldn’t bear children. The plan didn’t work because God was with them. Then Israelite midwives were ordered to kill the babies at delivery but because they feared God than man, they disobeyed the Pharaoh. They were trained to save and not kill. This showed great trust in God. The trust caused them to think and act wisely.
When you trust in God you do not give in to difficult situations. Christians must not give up. The Israelites continued to defy the odds and multiplied. They continued to lead a normal life trusting in God.
The mother of Moses also had great Faith. Leaving her little baby in the river. She surrendered the boy to God.
How much Faith do you have? What could you have done about your child knowing he faced death? This is a lesson to teach us that having Faith you won’t have things easy. But you have to prove by doing something and trusting God to help you, in your actions and your thinking. What about Moses’s sister, she also acted in Faith by approaching Pharaoh’s daughter. Her heart changed at words spoken in Faith and the boy’s mother was hired. When you put your trust in God He makes the impossible possible. Your Faith must be alive with actions and utterances. “Faith without works is dead” says James.
In the Matthew passage Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. It was a very important revelation revealed by God to Peter.
Do you know who Christ is? Peter’s response was of Faith.
His statement was a direction to his transformation. Jesus also revealed his name as Peter and announced that he would build his church upon him. His life was going to be transformed. To be termed a rock meant Jesus saw some strength and stability in him. After Pentecost Peter became a great advocate of Christ and a great church leader. From the time was founded it still stands. Jesus could have referred to himself as rock as he died on the cross to save humanity. He is still saving through His Holy Spirit working in us and transforming us as our sins are forgiven.
Again Peter’s confession doesn’t change, believers still know Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. He is the Saviour who saves us from sin.
In 1 Peter 2: 4-6, Peter says, the church is built on foundation of Apostles and Prophets and Jesus as the cornerstone. Believers are joined together into the church by FAITH in Christ as the Saviour. The foundation of Christ’s Kingdom is built by Faith like that of Peter. Jesus promised to give him the keys of the Kingdom.
Peter and other Apostles were going to preach the word and bring people to Salvation through Faith and they would enter the Kingdom. All believers have a duty to bring people to Jesus through Faith. By preaching the word their hearts will be transformed by the Holy Spirit. The sinners will go to hell if they do not repent.
At the time of confession, disciples were not very clear about the Messiah and Jesus commanded them not to reveal the confession. We need to be sure of who Christ is before we go and speak to people about what we do not understand in order to avoid misunderstanding about Faith in Christ and His Kingdom.
In the passage from Romans 12: 1-8, the Apostle Paul urges the church to present their bodies as a living sacrifice in SERVING God. God has been merciful to them by saving them from sin through Christ. They were not to copy what was happening in the secular world. They needed to continue to change spiritually because of the Spirit transforming them.
We as Christians need to continuously grow in Faith as we serve God. Our actions and the way we speak and think should be different from non-believers.
Paul likens us to a body with many parts. Each part with a special task.
When you sacrifice in what you do, you give it all. You forget self like the Egyptian midwives. You sacrifice like Christ. But since Faith is God given, even our gifts are given according to our Faith so do not be jealous of one another. Do not despise yourself but serve as you are able.
In church we complement each other to accomplish God’s work. Gifts differ, one is a preacher or musician or prophet, giver or teacher, but we are one body. Through our service we are continuously transformed and a change in our lives is seen. We uplift one another in Faith and not discourage. In James 2: 17 we learn that Faith without works is dead so your service in church speaks volumes about your Faith.
In conclusion, let us acknowledge that Faith is a gift from God and that He is continuously working in our hearts to grow the Faith. Faith can be measured through how you think and display it in actions and the words that come out of your mouth and the influence it brings about in your life and others.
May God bless His Word.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Our heavenly and merciful God, we thank you for your word which has that power to draw us close to you. We thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who by our Faith in him we are called righteous and are saved.
May you continue to renew and transform our lives by your grace.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Bible readings:
Psalm 138
1 With all my heart I praise you, LORD.
In the presence of angels I sing your praises.
2 I worship at your holy temple
and praise you for your love and your faithfulness.
You were true to your word
and made yourself more famous than ever before.
3 When I asked for your help,
you answered my prayer and gave me courage.
4 All kings on this earth have heard your promises, LORD,
and they will praise you.
5 You are so famous that they will sing
about the things you have done.
6 Though you are above us all,
you care for humble people,
and you keep a close watch on everyone who is proud.
7 I am surrounded by trouble,
but you protect me against my angry enemies.
With your own powerful arm you keep me safe.
8 You, LORD, will always treat me with kindness.
Your love never fails.
You have made us what we are. Don’t give up on us now!
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Exodus 1 &2
8 Many years later a new king came to power. He did not know what Joseph had done for Egypt, 9 and he told the Egyptians:
There are too many of those Israelites in our country, and they are becoming more powerful than we are. 10 If we don’t outsmart them, their families will keep growing larger. And if our country goes to war, they could easily fight on the side of our enemies and escape from Egypt.
11 The Egyptians put slave bosses in charge of the people of Israel and tried to wear them down with hard work. Those bosses forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses, where the king could store his supplies. 12 But even though the Israelites were mistreated, their families grew larger, and they took over more land. Because of this, the Egyptians hated them worse than before 13 and made them work so hard 14 that their lives were miserable. The Egyptians were cruel to the people of Israel and forced them to make bricks and to mix mortar and to work in the fields.
15 Finally, the king called in Shiphrah and Puah, the two women who helped the Hebrewd mothers when they gave birth. 16 He told them, “If a Hebrew woman gives birth to a girl, let the child live. If the baby is a boy, kill him!”
17 But the two women were faithful to God and did not kill the boys, even though the king had told them to. 18 The king called them in again and asked, “Why are you letting those baby boys live?”
19 They answered, “Hebrew women have their babies much quicker than Egyptian women. By the time we arrive, their babies are already born.” 20-21 God was good to the two women because they truly respected him, and he blessed them with children of their own.
The Hebrews kept increasing 22 until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, “As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the Nile River! But you can let the girls live.”
2: 1 A man from the Levi tribe married a woman from the same tribe, 2 and she later had a baby boy. He was a beautiful child, and she kept him inside for three months. 3 But when she could no longer keep him hidden, she made a basket out of reeds and covered it with tar. She put him in the basket and placed it in the tall grass along the edge of the Nile River. 4 The baby’s older sister stood off at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 About that time one of the king’s daughters came down to take a bath in the river, while her servant women walked along the river bank. She saw the basket in the tall grass and sent one of the young women to pull it out of the water. 6 When the king’s daughter opened the basket, she saw the baby and felt sorry for him because he was crying. She said, “This must be one of the Hebrew babies.”
7 At once the baby’s older sister came up and asked, “Do you want me to get a Hebrew woman to take care of the baby for you?”
8 “Yes,” the king’s daughter answered.
So the girl brought the baby’s mother, 9 and the king’s daughter told her, “Take care of this child, and I will pay you.”
The baby’s mother carried him home and took care of him. 10 And when he was old enough, she took him to the king’s daughter, who adopted him. She named him Moses because she said, “I pulled him out of the water.”
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Romans 12
1 Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God. 2 Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him.
3 I realize how kind God has been to me, and so I tell each of you not to think you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God has given you. 4 A body is made up of many parts, and each of them has its own use. 5 That’s how it is with us. There are many of us, but we each are part of the body of Christ, as well as part of one another.
6 God has also given each of us different gifts to use. If we can prophesy, we should do it according to the amount of faith we have. 7 If we can serve others, we should serve. If we can teach, we should teach. 8 If we can encourage others, we should encourage them. If we can give, we should be generous. If we are leaders, we should do our best. If we are good to others, we should do it cheerfully.
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Matthew 16
13 When Jesus and his disciples were near the town of Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “What do people say about the Son of Man?”
14 The disciples answered, “Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah or Jeremiah or some other prophet.”
15 Then Jesus asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter spoke up, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus told him:
Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn’t discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. 18 So I will call you Peter, which means “a rock.” On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it. 19 I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don’t allow.
20 Jesus told his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
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[Did you miss last week’s Sunday Services? They can now be found at Worship Archive – August 20th 2023.]
Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 
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