Sunday 29 March 2020 – Church at Home

Welcome to Broughty Ferry Baptist Church online on Sunday morning 29 March, the second Sunday of our temporary way of life that we share with billions of other people around the globe, of which normally around two billion share in some form of act of Christian worship. We may feel isolated in our homes but rest assured you are part of the biggest family on earth – the follower of Jesus Christ –our Lord and Saviour.

Intimations

  • Another resource you might want to take a look at for use at home is Engage Worship.
  • This evening join with Christians from other churches around the country in a 20-30 minute prayer service. You need to be on Facebook to join in.

    Over 700 people joined together for last Sunday’s Prayer Livestream, gathering from all corners of Scotland in the midst of the present crisis.  This gathering will now take place every Sunday at 7.00pm. To join in, follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/scottishbaptist/live/

    This Sunday will include live contributions from the Isle of Tiree and the Borders and we will be joined by Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director for the Scottish Government and a member of Airdrie Baptist Church.

Call to worship: Let us stop and be still in the presence of our amazing God who is with us as we gather to worship in His name. Let us read in our own context these words from Psalm 91:1-2:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’

We are grateful to Kevin for choosing our praise songs for today.

You are My Vison, King of my Heart
https://youtu.be/-uMeuhxftiQ
Shout to the Lord (My Jesus, My Saviour)

Opening Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,
What an amazing God You are. We have just sung: ‘My Jesus My Saviour, Lord there is none like You’.  We thank You that You are ‘My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength’. In the light of who You are, our natural response is to ‘sing for joy at the work of Your hands, for ever I’ll love You, for ever I’ll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.’   

We come into Your holy presence today deeply thankful for all the many blessings we have of families and friends, of food on our dinner tables and for most of all good health.

Forgive us for the times when we forget so many of our blessings and only remember to ask for lesser things we would like. We come once more asking for the forgiveness of our sins knowing through the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus on the cross in our place we can receive Your forgiveness of our sins and receive the fresh empowering to live each new day through the enabling grace supplied to us by the Holy Spirit.

At a time when we are acutely aware of our inability to meet in person with fellow Christians in church today and at other times with family and friends, we want to express our appreciation for the people precious to us who are still able to keep in touch by phone or various forms of social media.

Thank You for all Your kindness to us over the past week in providing for our needs. We are deeply humbled by the blessings received and look forward in anticipation for Your help in the week to come. As we come to look later at the Bible we ask that You would speak to us into our lives what we need to hear from You. We ask our prayer in the name of Your Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Let us say together the words Jesus taught His disciples when He said:

‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'”      
For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever Amen.

Let us remember those serving on our behalf – listen to some fellow Christians sharing about their daily experiences.  Please listen to their stories:

This next song is also a prayer based on Paul’s words in Philippians chapter 3

All I Once Held Dear

JAM Kids’ focus

There is the second of a series of Bible based activities for children on the Out of the Box website.   This series looks at the Armour of God from Ephesians 6. Click the link below to view

https://youtu.be/V8k9Fu7a5g4

A second JAM Kids resource worth visiting: Virtual Sunday School videos produced by 4Front Theatre Company

JAM young adults Ignite Live have a separate programme on the Zoom platform –parents of teenagers can get a link code by contacting Gary Torbet on garytorbet@btinternet.com

Our next song is a new one to many of us:  Be strong and Courageous

The Bible reading for today is Psalm 91:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14 ‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.’

Prayers for Others

Thank you Father for the privilege of bringing our prayers to You today.

Let us continue to remember:

Our governments in Edinburgh and London and our city council here in Dundee as they continues their planning to provide essential services for everyone in this time of crisis.

Our National Health Service once again as the pressures have increased on those serving the general public due to the further spread of this virus, on top of other medical conditions.

Our Social Care system We pray for guidance for those handling care in the community for the most vulnerable members of society.  In particular for the staff and residents of our many care homes who are so vulnerable because of the necessary close contact between them on a daily basis. We pray for your comfort for residents as well as patients in hospital who are unable to receive visitors at this time due to the risks of additional infection.

For Churches and other charitable bodies seeking to support many people in their local communities so that we can come through this difficult time together with stronger social bonds between us.

For Eloise Pearson and her family through the death last week of her brother; we pray for your comfort for his widow and other members of that family at this time

For ourselves and other people we want to mention personally to You as we seek to carry out our daily lives this week.

Thank you God that You hear and answer our prayers, in Jesus Name, Amen.

Our next song is special to many of us – Faithful One

Message

A filmed Version of a message on Psalm 91 is available at the following link: Google Drive link

Psalm 91 A Psalm of Assurance

The are many images of God in the Bible that convey aspects of His character of which some are very familiar to us, for example,  God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here there is an image of the heart of God for His people using the imagery of a mother hen caring for hr young chickens. The chicks are frightened overwhelmed by the world around them and all that is going on, the mother hen gathers the chicks and shelters them under her wings. The chicks are assured that all is under control because their mother cuddles them close.

Here Psalm 91:4 states: He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge;   Do you feel like the chicks in this image overwhelmed with what is going on around you? Do you fear what the future may bring if some of the worst-case scenarios presented on our TV screens about the spread of the Covid-19 virus come to pass? You are not alone. A lot of people have similar concerns. The reality of some of the challenges we face in life cannot be evaded. It makes us realise at other times how fortunate we really are to have avoided this kind of health crisis for so long. We have no idea what kind of crisis the anonymous author of this Psalm was facing, but the guidance he gives us has been a great blessing to so many people down the centuries. What do we see here?  

1.The personal testimony of the Psalmist (Psalm 91:1-2)

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ Whom do you trust? Is this statement or declaration something you share with the author? Can you say these words as a statement of your convictions? I hope you can. However, if you are thinking ‘no’ I have never done so, but I would like to now then these are some steps you can follow to invite God into your life as your Lord and Saviour.

‘God I want you in charge of my life. I confess the wrong thoughts words and deeds I have done in my life. I thank you that your son Jesus died in my place on the cross, 2,000 years ago to take the punishment for my sins, so that I might be forgiven. Lord Jesus I invite you to take charge of my life from this day onwards until the day I leave this life and enter eternity. Amen. 

If from the bottom of your heart you genuinely commit your life to God you become part of His family –in other words a Christian. If you have done that today- welcome to God’s family.

How does our author explain the difference having God in our life can make?   

2. The commendation of the Lord by the Psalmist to the reader (Psalm 91:3-13)

Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 

The use of the singular you repeatedly here is a personal message: What is it saying and not saying? It is not saying the first Jewish recipients or Christians today are exempt from any troubles. Take for example a sixteenth century church meeting at St Peters Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland.  Church members were dying of the plague.  The issue under debate was who should visit them as it was highly infectious and contact would probably be fatal.

There were two pastors the senior pastor John Calvin and a young assistant pastor. Both men to their credit volunteered to do the visiting. The congregation voted for the younger man to do it as they ‘couldn’t spare Calvin’. All concerned present knew that the individual would be dead in less than a year as a consequence.

So what are these verses saying to us? They are an assurance that we need not be paralysed by fear of the trials of life. Suffering, troubles, ultimately death come to us all. Our lives are in God’s hands: that is the key fact to note –our anchor here. 

In the fifteenth century in England a Christian nobleman Lord Craven was deeply concerned about the spread of the plague in his home city of London. He ordered his servants to prepare his carriage to go to his country home to avoid it. As he was walking to his carriage to depart, he overheard one of his servants say to another: ‘I suppose by my Lord’s quitting London to avoid the plague that his God lives in the country not in the town. It was a straightforward and innocent remark, but it stuck Lord Craven so deeply that he cancelled his journey saying: ‘My God lives everywhere and can preserve me in town as well as in the country. I will stay where I am. He stayed in London and helped plague victims without catching the disease. (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Vol 2, pp.241-242) 

A similar story was told of Charles Spurgeon, then a very young Baptist minister in London in 1854. The area where most of his congregation lived was afflicted by cholera. Many families had members who caught the disease and the young minister spent much of his time visiting the sick and the dying with many funerals to be conducted as a result.

One day completely exhausted in every respect, he walked home from conducting a funeral. He walked past a shoemaker’s shop on Dover Road London. In the owners handwriting was an inscription. It was Psalm 91:9-10 from the King James version: Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. The power of reading those words lifted Spurgeon’s spirits and with a renewed sense of God’s presence in his heart he continued with his ministry in that health crisis. (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Vol 2, p.235)  

   Take time to reflect on the image in verse four of the mother hen caring for her chicks. It is a beautiful picture of God’s care for us- is that what you need to grasp today? That verse continues with encouraging words: His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. God will be there for you to give you the strength to keep going through the crisis. God never promises to give us an exemption from difficulties – instead He provides the strength to come through them. The rest of the verses in this section Psalm 91:3-13 reinforce this point. 

3. God’s promises for the people who trust in Him (Psalm 91:14-16)

Because he loves Me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name. 15 He will call on Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.’

What promises does God give us here?

(a)God’s protection (Psalm 91:14)  Because he / she  loves Me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him / her;  I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name.  Things are bad but without His presence and protection they could be immeasurably worse sometimes. However, in a world of many problems and difficulties, He assures of His protection through the storms to bring us through. God will be with you this week.

(b) God will answer our prayers (Psalm 91:15) He / She will call on Me, and I will answer him / her; I will be with him / her in trouble, I will deliver him / her and honour him / her  We are not speaking to an empty heaven.  God’s silence is not His absence. Paul wrote in Romans 5:3-5: And weboast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Events in life are not without meaning or purpose, even if we never find answers to our ‘Why’ questions. God’s unmerited kindness to us will bring us through. Praise God for that!

(c) God’s future blessings prepared for us (Psalm 91:16) With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.’ In the early Old Testament period in particular there were specific material blessings promised (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 30:1-20, for examples); however, in the fuller New Testament revelation given to us through Jesus, it is clearly the quality of our relationship with the Lord Jesus and not just a longer existence in this life that is being promised. What is much clearer, for example, from Romans 8:28 is this: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Is this an assurance you can claim today? Is this a faith declaration you might make?

The little chick has no idea about how to handle the dangers around it. God pictured as the mother hen is protecting and being there for us, to bring us through life’s trials for our good and for His glory, Amen

Our closing song is Before the throne of God above.

Remember tonight the national online prayer service at 7pm in Scotland. Visit this link: https://www.facebook.com/scottishbaptist/live/