Sunday 19 July 2020 – Church at Home

Intimations

• Morning worship online has moved to start at 10am and JAM at 11:15am on the Zoom platform.
  
• You may want to use some of the Engage Worship resources for daily worship during this week.
  
• The Messy Church At Home information is available on our website.
  
• Jam Kids – This link takes you to the Rooted Family series for JAM Kids. There is a video to watch and family discussion material for each week.
  
• JAM young adults Ignite Live have a separate programme at 11:15am on the Zoom platform –parents of teenagers can get a link code by contacting Gary Torbet on garytorbet@btinternet.com
  
• (Online) Life and the Christian Faith course, August 7.30pm-9pm. A short introductory online course via Zoom/Skype that opens up conversation about life, faith and God for people who want to know and understand more. People beginning to explore and ask questions about the Christian faith are encouraged. August start date to be confirmed. For details or to take part contact webmaster@broughtybaptist.org.
  
• We will be continuing the Prayer Livestream at 7.00pm on Sunday 19th July 2020. This will be another significant time of national prayer for us. Please join in and, if you don’t already do so, would you let your fellowship know about this and put it on your social media. Click here to access.

Call to worship

We are grateful to Helen Rice for selecting the songs for worship for this service

Our opening song of praise and worship is:

We continue to worship the Lord in our second song of praise and worship:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eqwoqRo9N6E

Opening prayer

Psalm 100 “It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

Our Lord and loving Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that you are the Sovereign Ruler, the one and only true God exercising supreme authority over all of creation and over all of mankind. We are so grateful Father that you took our sin debt away and that we can now come into your presence through your Son. We thank you that you created us anew and that you will help us to be all that you want us to be.

We thank you that we can trust and rely on you to instruct and teach us in the way we should go. Help us to live a life filled with love for you and for others following the example of your Son. Help us to keep growing in knowledge and understanding of your ways so that we may live pure and blameless lives.

May we always be filled with the fruit of our salvation produced in us through your Son Jesus. Surround us with your protective love. We ask that you speak to us this morning in accordance with your will for our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

All Age Talk: Helen Rice

Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He reminded the disciples that He would always be with them. And He told them to go into all of the world and make disciples of other people. That meant they were commanded to spread the Gospel, start churches, and tell others of Christ.

We often refer to this sending as the “Great Commission”, as Jesus was sending us out to perform an essential task. This video shows Paul and Silas following Jesus’ command.

Paul and Silas shared God’s story and God’s love just as Jesus had instructed. Those special instructions apply to us, too! God wants us to serve others and tell them about the good news of Jesus. It’s our job to share God’s love with one another. We can do this around the whole world, but we can also do this with people near to us.

What are some ways we can follow that Great Commission of Jesus? Well, we can tell people about Jesus. We can invite them to church and church activities. We can send them cards, emails or messages…and we can just love them and be their friends! That’s a great way to share and spread the good news.

Remember God sent His Holy Spirit to be with us to help us do this. What can you do this week to share God’s story and God’s love?

Prayer
Dear God, Thank you for Your love. Please help us to love and serve others. Those near us, and around the world. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your great plan. Help us to share the good news. And spread your love to one another. In Jesus name, Amen!

All Age Song

Prayers for others

Our Father, in you we trust, and our hope is in you. We thank you for the privilege of praying for others at this time. We pray for the people around the world who are far from you who have not yet received the gift of your grace through your Son Jesus. We trust in your wonderful promise that for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

We pray that by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit your people around the world will live the gospel and bring the gospel to them and through that same power you remove blind eyes to see the truth and empower them to accept the gift of your Son.

We acknowledge that sovereign power belongs to you Lord. You rule all the nations. And it is through our faith in your sovereignty that we pray for the Governments in Edinburgh and London. We ask you to surround the First Minister of Scotland and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with Godly advisors and we pray for the salvation of those who lead.

We pray for your mercy O Lord to be granted to the people of this land particularly at this time in history during the COVID-19 pandemic which has swept through and devasted the world’s population. By your common Grace, we pray that you would guide Governments to make wise decisions to minimise the spread of this virus and to encourage national economies which have been affected.

We give you thanks Lord for the love you share with us particularly during these times of viral transmission through the work of the National Health Service and social care sectors. We ask that your protective love would be upon the people who serve us within these services to enable them to sustain health and social care to those of us who are in greatest need.

In our Baptist Union of Scotland we remember to pray for sister churches and others:
• Beatrice Anderson (BUS Finance Administrator)
• Harestanes Baptist Church
• Hawick Baptist Church
• Helensburgh Baptist Church

We pray too for the ongoing work of the Christian Churches in our land who are the hands and feet of Jesus. Help your people O Lord to be salt and light in your creation. Empower us to make an effort to affect the world. Give us confidence and boldness when we should speak up for injustice and to obey your will. Let us not deny the Light in our communication with the world but explain the Light and our light to others. Grant us the desire to meet the needs of others through the love of Christ which indwells us and enable us to be a beacon of Truth.

We pray for Broughty Ferry Baptist Church and we ask Holy Spirit that you would sanctify us in the truth of the Word. That we would submit to your will and serve you faithfully in our lives. Help us more and more to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind and to love others as we would wish to be loved.

You provide us with the peace that you know of our needs and are interceding in
our lives. We pray for people that are connected with our own fellowship:

In particular, we remember…
In addition, we bring our own needs to You at this time…
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen.

Bible Reading

11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 14: 11-14

 The Message

Pre-recorded message

John 14:11-14
The title of this message is In Jesus’ Name.

Introduction
When we pray privately and when together it is common to end our prayers, or include in our prayers, the words “in Jesus’ name” because Scripture teaches us to offer our prayers in this way. What is the significance of these words? Do you find yourself ending your prayers with these words without knowing their meaning? When we learn the rich meaning behind these words, they can pave the road to answered prayer and bring us closer to God.

Let’s look at the context of John 14:11-14. Jesus and his disciples have been sharing life together for the last 3 years as Jesus fulfils his ministry. He has revealed to them his identity and mission. He has demonstrated God’s power and authority to teach, over sickness, over death, over nature, and to forgive sin. He has taught them and prepared them and now we reach the section of John’s gospel when Jesus is gathered with his beloved disciples on the night before his death. It’s a very private affair with only the disciples as his audience.

As they ate their last meal together just before his arrest and death, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. In his final teachings to his disciples, knowing that he would send his beloved out into the world to be his hands and feet proclaiming the good news bringing glory to God, he taught them that he is the way to the Father. He taught them that He is the way, the truth and the life and that no one can come to the Father except through him. He taught them that anyone who believes in him will do the same works that he has done, and that the disciples would carry out even greater works as the power of Holy Spirit carries the Good News of God’s Kingdom out of Judea and into the whole world. However, Jesus then says, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (14:13-14). So, what does he mean when he says, “ask in my name”?

1. John 14:13a;14
   And I will do whatever you ask in my name…You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
   
   There are five words which teaches us what he means by “ask in my name”.
   
   Association
   In these verses, our Lord reveals his provision to the disciples. They were to be sent out carrying the Good News into the nations, however, the power of the gospel would prevail not by their own merit or effort but through their association with Jesus Christ. Like the disciples, it is possible for us to come to the Father through our association with Jesus.
   
   When we were saved, we were born again. We who have received him as our Saviour now have a new relationship with God the Father through the Son. It is our association with Jesus Christ that when asking in Jesus’ name we are saying to the Father that we are coming to him because of our new relationship with him which was provided through Jesus Christ.
   
   Access
   Because of what Jesus would do at the cross and subsequent resurrection, the disciples in their forthcoming works for our Lord could access the throne of grace in the name of Jesus. It is because of Jesus Christ that we too can also access the throne of grace in his name (Hebrews 4:16) and find help, grace and mercy in times of need.
   
   Authority
   The disciples’ future works throughout the nations would not be accomplished out with Jesus’ divine permissive will. They were coming on the authority of Jesus Christ. Two examples are in Acts. In Acts 3:6 when Peter commands the lame man “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk”, he is speaking on the authority of Jesus, not on his own authority.
   
   When the Sanhedrin asks the disciples in Acts 4:7 “By what power or by what name did you do this?”, they are asking “By whose authority did you do this?” When Paul rebukes an unclean spirit in Acts 16:18 “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!”, he makes it clear that he is doing so on Jesus’ authority, not his own.
   
   To come in the name of someone means that another person has authorised us to come on their authority, not on our own. Praying in Jesus’ name means praying with his authority and asking God the Father to act upon our prayers because we come in the name of His Son, Jesus. The word “name” means representation. When we say, “Father I come in Jesus’ name” we are saying, “I am coming to you on the authority delegated to me by your Son.”
   
   Jesus has the authority to give to us the authority to come to the Father and expect our prayers to be answered.
   
   Agreement
   “In my name” represents all that he is, his entire character. This means that the disciples would not only be conducting their works for our Lord in his authority, but also in a way that would be consistent with his character, that truly represents him and reflects his manner of life and his own will. Praying in Jesus’ name means the same thing as according to the will of God, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
   
   And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15). We ask of him that which is consistent with his person, will, his purposes and what he’s attempting to do in the world. This is the essence of praying in Jesus’ name, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you” (John 15:7). When we align our will with God’s, we can truly pray in Jesus’ name.
   
   It is easy to misapply “And I will do whatever you ask in my name” (14:13a) thinking that saying “in Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer results in God always granting what is asked for. Jesus is not merely speaking about adding certain words that would give power to our prayers.
   
   This is essentially treating the words “in Jesus’ name” as a magic formula. Our prayers are a representation of what Jesus would pray. When we are praying in Jesus’ name what we are saying is “I believe this is what Jesus would pray if he were praying into this situation.”
   
   Praying the will of God in your life means to submit your life to his will. It means laying down your dreams, desires, and wants because you would rather see his will and purpose happen instead of your own. So, when we pray for the world’s issues. When we pray for Governments and those in authority. When we pray for the church.
   
   When we pray for people who have health conditions. When we pray for people who are grieving. When we pray about injustice. When we pray for the dying. When we pray for our family. When we pray for our marriage or singleness. When we pray for our own needs and issues, we pray as if Jesus would pray for these matters.
   
   Looking to Christ teaches us how to pray. God always makes his will plain to the person who seeks to know it. For instance, Jesus said “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). For example, when tempted to respond harshly to a person who frustrates you, pray in Jesus name that you will yield to the Holy Spirit in practicing kindness. That you would lay aside all the attitudes that don’t fit who you are in Christ, like selfishness, pride and a critical spirit.
   
   This is God’s character and will, and his will for you, so ask him to help you. Then watch how our Lord provides opportunities and respond in obedience when our Lord reminds you to be merciful.
   
   Assurance
   Because the disciples would act in keeping with his will, they would approach their good works for our Lord with the assurance that whatever they ask, God is going to hear and answer their prayer, in Jesus’ name. We too can approach our Father with the assurance that he will hear and answer our prayer. When we come to the Father in Jesus’ name this is a phrase of confidence. It is our confession of assurance.
   
2. John 14:13b
   …so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
   
   In John 14:11, Jesus is connecting himself with the Father so that the Father may be glorified, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” God wants the whole universe including mankind to glorify Him.
   
   Ephesians 1:4-14 teaches us that we were saved and made right before God “in order that we…might be for the praise of his glory.” Romans 11:36 “For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to him forever!”
   
   Notice how John in 14:13-14 has put the phrase “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” in the centre – it’s between the two repeated phrases. This portrays its importance. Jesus is saying that he will promise to do the request of any prayer in his name for the purpose to glorify the Father through him. This means that when a prayer, even though it might have “in Jesus’ name” attached to it, doesn’t fulfil the purpose to glorify the Father through Christ, then Jesus won’t do it.
   
   The purpose of prayer does not end in the comfort, safety, and provision for the Christian, but the glory of the Father through Jesus. If a prayer is made that doesn’t glorify God, then it won’t be answered.
   
   Invoking Christ’s name means that we desire to glorify God instead of ourselves. James gives this warning: “You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3).
   
   To understand that, let’s consider those who are trying to pray their way out of financial debt. The question is: does a person want to get out of debt so that they have more for themselves or so that they can use the excess in God-honouring ways?
   
   Motives are apparent to God. He will not offer help until our heart is right. If what we ask for or say in prayer is not for God’s glory and according to His will, saying “in Jesus’ name” is meaningless. What have you been asking of God in prayer? What do your prayers focus on?
   
   Jesus said to His disciples, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14:13). That’s the purpose of prayer: “that the Father may be glorified.” When we pray, glorifying God should be our underlying motive and core pursuit.
   
   Prayer
   Our Father in Heaven may all glory, honour and praise be yours. I thank you for your Word this day which directs me in how to pray in Jesus name. Help me to keep growing in knowledge and understanding of your ways so that I may learn how to pray. Help me when I pray to focus my prayer in agreement with your character and your will, glorifying you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Our song before we come to communion is:

The Lord’s Supper

Jesus invites all Christian who have committed their lives to follow Him to participate in this act of worship. The apostle Paul wrote these words of Scripture in I Corinthians 11:23-26 to guide our observance of Communion.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: the Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ ²⁵ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 

Prayer: Choose your own words of prayer to give thanks for the bread and wine that represent the costly gift of His body and blood for us.

Take the bread: Jesus said: ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.

Take the wine: Jesus said: This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’

Our closing song is:

Closing Prayer:

Father, you saw it fit for us worship you today. It is not because we are perfect people but because you are a God that is worthy of our worship. Thank you for making us worthy to stand before you to worship you through your son Jesus Christ. May our worship be acceptable before you. Let the peace that surpasses all understanding be with us. Help us to make a difference in the world this new week. Let our words and actions align with your word. Help us to practice what we have learned here today. Bless us and help us to be a blessing to everyone that we meet and interact with. Help us never to forget that you’re with us always. In Jesus’ name, we believe and pray, Amen

Benediction:  The Grace

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God
and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all evermore, Amen

Remember tonight the national online prayer service at 7pm.