Midweek Service from Connexion for August 12th 2020:
Sunday Evening Service from Connexion via National FM for August 9th 2020:
Sunday Afternoon Services from Connexion for August 9th 2020:
Sunday Services from Hillside Circuit for August 9th 2020:
Date: August 9th
Occasion: 10th Sunday After Pentecost
Psalm 105
Old Testament: Genesis 37: 1-4, 12-28
Letter: Romans 10: 5-15
New Testament: Matthew 14: 22-33
[Click or tap on a Bible reference above to go down the page to the Bible reading to read it for yourself or hear a recording (or both) and then click or tap on Back to top to come back here.]
Theme: Keep the focus!!
Here are the songs for Sunday morning service. Click or tap on a song to open it in YouTube or go to the Songs for worship webpage to find them embedded.
You are my all in all (You are my strength).
This is my body.
Be Thou my vision.
If you would also like to use prayers from the Methodist Service Book, they can be found at the Prayers for worship webpage.
Message from Mayibongwe Lunga: Good morning. For the people who had birthdays during these past 2 weeks, May the Almighty Father bless you and keep you safe. Happy Birthday.
Psalm 105
1 Praise the LORD and pray in his name!
Tell everyone what he has done.
2 Sing praises to the LORD! Tell about his miracles.
3 Celebrate and worship his holy name with all your heart.
4 Trust the LORD and his mighty power.
5 Remember his miracles and all his wonders
and his fair decisions.
6 You belong to the family of Abraham, his servant;
you are his chosen ones, the descendants of Jacob.
7 The LORD is our God,
bringing justice everywhere on earth.
8 He will never forget his agreement or his promises,
not in thousands of years.
*9 God made an eternal promise
10 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
11 when he said, “I’ll give you the land of Canaan.”
12 At the time there were only a few of us,
and we were homeless.
13 We wandered from nation to nation,
from one country to another.
14 God did not let anyone mistreat our people.
Instead he protected us by punishing rulers
15 and telling them,
“Don’t touch my chosen leaders or harm my prophets!”
16 God kept crops from growing
until food was scarce everywhere in the land.
17 But he had already sent Joseph,
sold as a slave into Egypt,
18 with chains of iron around his legs and neck.
19 Joseph remained a slave
until his own words had come true,
and the LORD had finished testing him.
20 Then the king of Egypt set Joseph free
21 and put him in charge of everything he owned.
22 Joseph was in command of the officials,
and he taught the leaders how to use wisdom.
23 Jacob and his family came
and settled in Egypt as foreigners.
24 They were the LORD’S people,
so he let them grow stronger than their enemies.
25 They served the LORD, and he made the Egyptians plan
hateful things against them.
26 God sent his servant Moses.
He also chose and sent Aaron 27 to his people in Egypt,
and they worked miracles and wonders there.
28 Moses and Aaron obeyed God,
and he sent darkness to cover Egypt.
29 God turned their rivers into streams of blood,
and the fish all died.
30 Frogs were everywhere, even in the royal palace.
31 When God gave the command,
flies and gnats swarmed all around.
32 In place of rain, God sent hailstones
and flashes of lightning.
33 He destroyed their grapevines and their fig trees,
and he made splinters of all the other trees.
34 God gave the command, and more grasshoppers came
than could be counted.
35 They ate every green plant
and all the crops that grew in the land of Egypt.
36 Then God took the life of every first-born son.
37 When God led Israel from Egypt,
they took silver and gold, and no one was left behind.
38 The Egyptians were afraid and gladly let them go.
39 God hid them under a cloud
and guided them by fire during the night.
40 When they asked for food,
he sent more birds than they could eat.
41 God even split open a rock,
and streams of water gushed into the desert.
42 God never forgot his sacred promise
to his servant Abraham.
43 When the LORD rescued his chosen people from Egypt,
they celebrated with songs.
44 The LORD gave them the land
and everything else the nations had worked for.
45 He did this so that his people
would obey all of his laws.
Shout praises to the LORD!
Genesis 37
1 Jacob lived in the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac had lived, 2 and this is the story of his family.
When Jacob’s son Joseph was seventeen years old, he took care of the sheep with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. But he was always telling his father all sorts of bad things about his brothers.
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than he did any of his other sons, because Joseph was born after Jacob was very old. Jacob had given Joseph a fancy coat 4 to show that he was his favourite son, and so Joseph’s brothers hated him and would not be friendly to him.
12 One day when Joseph’s brothers had taken the sheep to a pasture near Shechem, 13 his father Jacob said to him, “I want you to go to your brothers. They are with the sheep near Shechem.”
“Yes, sir,” Joseph answered.
14 His father said, “Go and find out how your brothers and the sheep are doing. Then come back and let me know.” So he sent him from Hebron Valley.
Joseph was near Shechem 15 and wandering through the fields, when a man asked, “What are you looking for?”
16 Joseph answered, “I’m looking for my brothers who are watching the sheep. Can you tell me where they are?”
17 “They’re not here anymore,” the man replied. “I overheard them say they were going to Dothan.”
Joseph left and found his brothers in Dothan. 18 But before he got there, they saw him coming and made plans to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Look, here comes the hero of those dreams! 20 Let’s kill him and throw him into a pit and say that some wild animal ate him. Then we’ll see what happens to those dreams.”
21 Reuben heard this and tried to protect Joseph from them. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22 “Don’t murder him or even harm him. Just throw him into a dry well out here in the desert.” Reuben planned to rescue Joseph later and take him back to his father.
23 When Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his fancy coat 24 and threw him into a dry well.
25 As Joseph’s brothers sat down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with all kinds of spices that they were taking to Egypt. 26 So Judah said, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and hide his body? 27 Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not harm him. After all, he is our brother.” And the others agreed.
28 When the Midianite merchants came by, Joseph’s brothers took him out of the well, and for twenty pieces of silver they sold him to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt.
Romans 10
5 Moses said that a person could become acceptable to God by obeying the Law. He did this when he wrote, “If you want to live, you must do all that the Law commands.”
6 But people whose faith makes them acceptable to God will never ask, “Who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down?” 7 Neither will they ask, “Who will go down into the world of the dead to raise him to life?”
8 All who are acceptable because of their faith simply say, “The message is as near as your mouth or your heart.” And this is the same message we preach about faith. 9 So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. 10 God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.
11 The Scriptures say that no one who has faith will be disappointed, 12 no matter if that person is a Jew or a Gentile. There is only one Lord, and he is generous to everyone who asks for his help. 13 All who call out to the Lord will be saved.
14 How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them, if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear, unless someone tells them? 15 And how can anyone tell them without being sent by the Lord? The Scriptures say it is a beautiful sight to see even the feet of someone coming to preach the good news.
Matthew 14
22 Right away, Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and start back across the lake. But he stayed until he had sent the crowds away. 23 Then he went up on a mountain where he could be alone and pray. Later that evening, he was still there.
24 By this time the boat was a long way from the shore. It was going against the wind and was being tossed around by the waves. 25 A little while before morning, Jesus came walking on the water toward his disciples. 26 When they saw him, they thought he was a ghost. They were terrified and started screaming.
27 At once, Jesus said to them, “Don’t worry! I am Jesus. Don’t be afraid.”
28 Peter replied, “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come on!” Jesus said. Peter then got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward him.
30 But when Peter saw how strong the wind was, he was afraid and started sinking. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
31 Right away, Jesus reached out his hand. He helped Peter up and said, “You surely don’t have much faith. Why do you doubt?”
32 When Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind died down. 33 The men in the boat worshipped Jesus and said, “You really are the Son of God!”
Message for Hillside Circuit in English, with Mrs Fadziso Mapuna.
I greet you all in the name of the Father , the Son and the Holy Spirit. I hope i find you well. It is my pleasure to share with you the word of God on such a beautiful morning.
Let us pray
Our Father who art in heaven. We come before your throne of Grace this morning. You are the Lord who always walk with us, guide us , protect us. We are so grateful for your goodness and your love. We want to thank you for your the divine protection and the day you have put ahead of us. In the mighty name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ AMEN.
Joseph being 17 years was looking after the flock of sheep with his brothers. He was loved and hated favoured and abused , tempted and trusted , yet at no point in the one hundred and ten year life of Joseph did he ever seem to get his eyes off God or cease to trust him. He kept the focus. Adversity did not harden his character and prosperity did not ruin him. He was the same. Joseph is also a remarkably powerful picture of Jesus Christ .
Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children. Jacob also known as Israel was a father to a troubled family with sons from four different mothers all living and working together there was such rivalry and competition. Yet Jacob had a clear favourite- Joseph the son of his old age.
Joseph grew up in a messed up family. As a young man Joseph’s father had to run for his dear life when his twin brother vowed to kill him after Jacob had tricked his father Isaac into giving him the family fortune instead of his older twin brother. Jacob was separated from his father for more than 20 years and there is no record that he ever saw his mother ever again. Jacob grew up among his mother’s relatives but his uncle tricked him and treated him like a slave. Jacob married his two cousins and took two more concubines. He had 12 sons and 1 daughter. In Jacob’s family there was constant competitions and conflict among all the children and the mothers too. It was one big messed up family but still it brought forth Joseph and furthered God’s great plan of the ages.
It can be really helpful to remember than Jesus himself like Joseph came from a difficult family circumstances. When Jesus was just a child they had to escape with his parents as refugees fleeing for their lives. His brothers did not believe in him and called him crazy and just like what Joseph’s brothers called him. Dear brethren God is speaking to us today upon our messed up families, businesses, jobs , studies , marriages. Your messed up past, present and future does not mean God has forsaken you or that some cloud has come over you that will never pass. God will never forsake you through the difficult times and and God will never leave your messed up family.
Just keep the focus
The sons of Jacob hated Joseph because their father loved him and because he was a dreamer. 1 John 3; 15 ( whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer). They hatched a plan to throw Joseph into a pit and perish there from hunger and cold , so cruel were these sons of Jacob. After throwing they did not show any remorse rather they sat down and ate their bread. When they saw the Ishmaelites approaching they pulled him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. They did not know that they were going to bow down to him in the near future.
It is always advisable to keep our focus on Jesus Christ. We encounter storms in our day to day lives but he always avail himself with more grace to us. He can take what way he pleases to save his people. When look off from Jesus we shall fall, but when call unto him he shall stretch his arms and save us. Peter looked unto Jesus and he was saved from drowning. Christ is a great saviour those who would be saved must come to him for salvation. The weakness of faith and prevailing of doubts displease our Lord. We witness this by the way Jesus rebuked Peter for his little faith. Even in stormy days Jesus is our present help. Let us be still and know that he is God. Let us remember Hebrews 11;6 ( And without faith , it is impossible to please God , because any one who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him). AMEN.
Let us pray.
We want to thank you Lord for your word. Help us to keep focused on worthy things oh! Lord. Help us to walk according to your ways. Let us not lose hope during this pandemic and the economic situation that we are experiencing. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever. Amen.
Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 