Sunday Service from Hillside Circuit for June 18th 2023:
Lectionary Theme: Called to serve – be witness
Occasion: 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary readings:
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19
Genesis 18: 1-15, 21: 1-7
Romans 5: 1-8
Matthew 9: 35 – 10: 23
[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.
O my soul, arise.
Father God I wonder.
O let the Son of God.
Hide me now (Still).
Blessed Assurance.
Beauty for brokenness.
Revive Thy work.
Now unto Him.
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:
Sunday Service from Connexion from the archives for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost 2020:
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Bible readings:
Psalm 116
1 I love you, LORD! You answered my prayers.
2 You paid attention to me,
and so I will pray to you as long as I live.
12 What must I give you, LORD, for being so good to me?
13 I will pour out an offering of wine to you,
and I will pray in your name because you have saved me.
14 I will keep my promise to you when your people meet.
15 You are deeply concerned
when one of your loyal people faces death.
16 I worship you, LORD, just as my mother did,
and you have rescued me from the chains of death.
17 I will offer you a sacrifice to show how grateful I am,
and I will pray.
18 I will keep my promise to you when your people 19 gather
at your temple in Jerusalem.
Shout praises to the LORD!
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Genesis 18 & 21
18: 1 One hot summer afternoon Abraham was sitting by the entrance to his tent near the sacred trees of Mamre, when the LORD appeared to him. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. He quickly ran to meet them, bowed with his face to the ground, 3 and said, “Please come to my home where I can serve you. 4 I’ll have some water brought, so you can wash your feet, then you can rest under the tree. 5 Let me get you some food to give you strength before you leave. I would be honoured to serve you.”
“Thank you very much,” they answered. “We accept your offer.”
6 Abraham quickly went to his tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get a large sack of flour and make some bread.” 7 After saying this, he rushed off to his herd of cattle and picked out one of the best calves, which his servant quickly prepared. 8 He then served his guests some yogurt and milk together with the meat.
While they were eating, he stood near them under the trees, 9 and they asked, “Where is your wife Sarah?”
“She is right there in the tent,” Abraham answered.
10 One of the guests was the LORD, and he said, “I’ll come back about this time next year, and when I do, Sarah will already have a son.”
Sarah was behind Abraham, listening at the entrance to the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was well past the age for having children. 12 So she laughed and said to herself, “Now that I am worn out and my husband is old, will I really know such happiness?”
13 The LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Does she doubt that she can have a child in her old age? 14 I am the LORD! There is nothing too difficult for me. I’ll come back next year at the time I promised, and Sarah will already have a son.”
15 Sarah was so frightened that she lied and said, “I didn’t laugh.”
“Yes, you did!” he answered.
21: 1 The LORD was good to Sarah and kept his promise. 2 Although Abraham was very old, Sarah had a son exactly at the time God had said. 3 Abraham named his son Isaac, 4 and when the boy was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, just as the LORD had commanded.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born, 6 and Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Now everyone will laugh with me. 7 Who would have dared to tell Abraham that someday I would have a child? But in his old age, I have given him a son.”
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Romans 5
1 By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. 2 Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. 3 But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4 And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope 5 that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.
6 Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. 7 No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. 8 But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.
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Matthew 9 & 10
35 Jesus went to every town and village. He taught in their meeting places and preached the good news about God’s kingdom. Jesus also healed every kind of disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them. They were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, “A large crop is in the fields, but there are only a few workers. 38 Ask the Lord in charge of the harvest to send out workers to bring it in.”
10: 1 Jesus called together his twelve disciples. He gave them the power to force out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and sickness. 2 The first of the twelve apostles was Simon, better known as Peter. His brother Andrew was an apostle, and so were James and John, the two sons of Zebedee. 3 Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus were also apostles. 4 The others were Simon, known as the Eager One, and Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Jesus.
5 Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions:
Stay away from the Gentiles and don’t go to any Samaritan town. 6 Go only to the people of Israel, because they are like a flock of lost sheep. 7 As you go, announce that the kingdom of heaven will soon be here.
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead to life, heal people who have leprosy, and force out demons. You received without paying, now give without being paid. 9 Don’t take along any gold, silver, or copper coins. 10 And don’t carry a traveling bag or an extra shirt or sandals or a walking stick.
Workers deserve their food. 11 So when you go to a town or a village, find someone worthy enough to have you as their guest and stay with them until you leave. 12 When you go to a home, give it your blessing of peace. 13 If the home is deserving, let your blessing remain with them. But if the home isn’t deserving, take back your blessing of peace. 14 If someone won’t welcome you or listen to your message, leave their home or town. And shake the dust from your feet at them. 15 I promise you that the day of judgment will be easier for the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
16 I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves. So be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Watch out for people who will take you to court and have you beaten in their meeting places. 18 Because of me, you will be dragged before rulers and kings to tell them and the Gentiles about your faith. 19 But when someone arrests you, don’t worry about what you will say or how you will say it. At that time you will be given the words to say. 20 But you will not really be the one speaking. The Spirit from your Father will tell you what to say.
21 Brothers and sisters will betray one another and have each other put to death. Parents will betray their own children, and children will turn against their parents and have them killed. 22 Everyone will hate you because of me. But if you remain faithful until the end, you will be saved. 23 When people mistreat you in one town, hurry to another one. I promise you that before you have gone to all the towns of Israel, the Son of Man will come.
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Children’s Address (Text version for you to read for yourself):
Good morning boys and girls I hope on this lovely Sunday morning all of you are strong and ready to go back to school as usual! School is very important because it is at school that we learn to read and write and to take part in sport and other activities associated with schooling! The time we spend at school develops and prepares us for a successful life in future! Our Bible lesson for today requires us to discuss the topic ‘Called to serve-be witnesses!’ Put in another way the message is that since you accepted the call to become children of God, you are now required to talk about God to others that you will mix with. I know among us are very clever boys and girls some of whom play rugby, football or netball at school! What do you do if you want your friend to join you in your rugby, football or netball team? You obviously talk to them explaining how the game is played so that they can pick an interest in what you do so that they can join you in your favourite sport. A football team is made up of 11 players. Suppose you have 2 friends at school can you and your 2 friends make a football team? No. That means you will have to call others who are not even your friends but are interested in playing football! But now here is the good news! As soon as they join the football team, they become your friends! So the number of your friends grows as you invite new people to come join you in your team! You are not limited to forming just one team! You can go on to form teams based on the ages of the students at your school! Then you can have teams for juniors, teams for those in between and teams for seniors! All these who will be in those teams can be your friend and friends of each other, all because of football! But hey just remember that some you will approach to join your football team will decline telling you that they are more interested in athletics. Leave them alone and focus on building football teams! And for the teams to remain functioning the team members must always prepare and continue to play football! In playing football you will win some games and lose some games! Those you beat in competition will not like you very much and you similarly will not praise those who beat you but because it is sport you will not physically fight against those who beat you in competition! Something very close to this happens when we serve God!
Our Bible readings for today started at Psalm 116! There we are assured that God is so responsive that you can always reach Him. He bends down and listens to your voice. The writer’s love for the Lord had grown because he had experienced answers to his prayers. If you feel discouraged, remember God is near, listening carefully to every prayer and answering each one in order to give you His best! Remember when talking about football I said you will not have everyone joining you and that you will lose some matches! God who is always near when you are doing the ordinary things of your life surely can be trusted to be near you when you now start doing His job!
This is the story of Abraham! We read that God came to Abraham to bless him and tell him what God was planning to do with those who were doing wrong things within their cities of Sodom and Gomorah! Our God is so near to us sometimes when we talk to Him He comes in the real sense to talk to us. Whenever that happens we must choose to be genuine and open with our cries to Him. Abraham decided to be a good host who welcomed his visitors and decided to spoil them with very good food! While the food was being prepared God broke the news about the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah and went further to say that He would come back the following year at about the same time by when the two would be having a son!
In the passage from the Romans Paul introduces us to the Trinity-God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in a very powerful manner. He says that all three members of the Trinity are involved in salvation. God the Father loved us so much that He sent His Son to bridge the gap between us (John 3:16). The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to fill our life with love and to enable us to live by His power (Acts 1:8). With all this loving care, how can we do less than serve Him completely! This is so important for us to know! Boys and girls we go to school to learn a lot of things and subjects. At the end of the term we are examined on what we will have learnt. Because we will have been fully taught by our teachers we are never afraid of writing the tests that are set for us. We go into the examination room in full confidence because of the teaching we will have gone through. In the same way Paul tells us that God the Holy Spirit who lives in us will always guide us and give us the peace of mind to enable us continue to serve God effectively!
The passage from the Gospel of Matthew deals with the need for more workers and the sending out of the twelve Disciples of Christ who incidentally are mentioned by name. If you want to know the names of the twelve please check at Matthew 10 verses 1 to 4, they are listed in the clearest of manners. Our concern as learners is about what the disciples were instructed on. To start off with they were told to pray for more workers to do the work of God. This is so because out there are many people, who are ready to give their lives to Christ if only someone would show them how. Jesus commands us to pray that people will respond to this need for workers. Often, when we pray for something God answers our prayers by using us. Be prepared for God to use you to show another person the way to Him!
The second instruction is on how the disciples were to conduct themselves once out in the mission field. They were going to preach to the Jews only referred to as God’s lost sheep. They were going to be looked after by those to whom they would preach the word of God. This is not hard because you know it is your responsibility to look after the ministers that are sent to Hillside. The disciples were not to force themselves on anyone but would acknowledge those who would accept their message and make a record of those that would not by formally indicating that these had rejected the Christ of God and in so doing so were making a big mistake because the opportunity to choose the Christ might not present itself again. As a boy or girl are you receptive to the teaching from God? If you ignore the Spirit’s prompting, you may not get another chance. At school if you refuse to be taught by your teachers you will not pass the examinations that are set for you. The challenge is for you to completely focus on learning, ignore the problems you will encounter when at school and persevere right to the end! Those who persevere can be seen by their conduct! Their conduct shows their relationship with God!
May the Lord God bless you now and forever more. Amen!
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[Did you miss last week’s Sunday Services? They can now be found at Worship Archive – June 11th 2023.]
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Methodist Church: Hillside Circuit 
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