Intimations
JAM Kids’ focus: The Virtual Sunday School. Here is the link for Sunday 11 April 21 Virtual Sunday School:
JAM young adults have a separate programme. Please contact Gary Torbet on garytorbet@btinternet.com for more details of today’s programme.
Baptist Union of Scotland National Prayer Livestream The monthly prayer livestream takes place next on Sunday 2 May, 2021 7.00–7.30pm.
This service is led today by Alan McRobbie
Call to worship:
Sing to the Lord a new song;
Psalm 96:1-4a
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise His name;
proclaim His salvation day after day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvellous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
Our opening song of praise and worship is:
Opening Prayer:
Lord we come with real joy in our heart and with a spirit of gratitude for all the blessings You have given to us. As the Psalmist (in Psalm 118:24) declared long ago: This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.Although, restricted from singing live in congregations just now, we are so thankful that we can sing on our own at home or accompany recorded songs online. There is nothing that can stop us singing in our hearts Your praises. On this new day we want to meet with You by Your Holy Spirit. Forgive us once more for our sins, purify our hearts and empower us by Your Holy Spirit to be the people You want us to be. Speak to us from Your Word today in accordance with our needs, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Let us say together the words Jesus taught His disciples when He said:
All Age Talk
How to handle those who have wronged you by Alan McRobbie
When someone wrongs or mistreats you or says things that will end up hurting you, how do you respond? Being mistreated happens in life. It can occur within our groups of friends, our schools, the church, within our marriage, within our family or anywhere where we have relationships with others. So, what we need to ask is this, are we responding rightly when we are wronged by another by the things they say or the things they do? How are Christians supposed to respond when someone has wronged us?
Jesus gives strong words to the believer concerning our response to those who are against us or have wronged us either in what they have said or what they have done.
In Matthew 5:43 the system of Jewish law considered it a sin to love your enemy. But in verses 44 and 45, Jesus steps in and says:
“But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.”
It’s important to say here that built into us there is a self-defence that God has given us for the sake of protecting ourselves from harm or death. If someone plans to physically harm or mistreat me, I’m going to defend myself or run away. This is good. It’s not about that.
When he says the word “love” he means the Greek word ‘agape’ and so he is talking about a deeper level of love. Jesus is not talking about having affection for our enemies. He teaches us to respond to them in a manner that is for their benefit and not for ours. We’re going to respond in love because if we respond in anger and bitterness and resentment, we start to become their enemy. Anytime we respond with defensiveness and bitterness we are the ones who will suffer, we become unhappy, regardless of how our enemies may suffer.
When Jesus says I am to love my enemies we are going to have to make a choice to love them. There is a price to be paid to love those who have wronged us. We give up something of ourselves for the greater good. The Christian is the person who reasons that it is better to suffer wrong than to inflict wrong.
How are we going to be able to do this? There isn’t anyone alive who can love their enemies as Jesus teaches in their own strength and in their own human nature. My help to love those who have wronged me is Christ. Only because Christ is my life. And what does Paul say in Galatians 5:22-23?
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
He says this is the fruit of the Spirit, not of you, not of me.
In summary, because Jesus loves those who are against him, we should act in the best interests of those who are against us. Christian love says, “You may be harming me, but I’m not going to give you back what you’re giving me. I’m going to love you in the way that I would like you to love me.” Overwhelm that wrong with goodness. This isn’t normal. And isn’t that the point? The point being, they will recognise that this is not human, and it will become clear that this identifies you as having a supernatural love which reveals Christ who is working in you and through you which brings much praise and glory to God. We become witnesses of Christ in this world.
Watch this short cartoon animation on Loving Your Enemies at this link:
Song: ‘Good and Gracious King’
Prayers for others
Heavenly Father,
Today we come to give thanks to God for the life of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the loyal and faithful husband of our Queen Elizabeth II. During seventy-three years of marriage, they have served our country together until his retirement from public duties at the remarkable age of 95, four years ago.
We appreciate his dedication to public service and his lasting contributions in a number of fields, not least the innovative Duke of Edinburgh activity scheme he founded for young people. We pray for Your comfort for each member of the Royal family at this time.
We will observe a short time of silence in recognition of his passing.
Father God we pray today for countries within Europe who are being hit with a third wave of Covid-19. We prayer for wisdom for the governments concerned as they seek to tackle this development, and for the health care systems in these countries at this time. In the United Kingdom, we do appreciate the encouraging reduction in the levels of infection and the early stages of the easing of lockdown regulations. We pray for wisdom for our governments that the lifting of restrictions may be sustainable over the coming months as we begin to return to a more familiar way of living.
We give thanks for the new posts being advertised for serving our churches within the Baptist Union of Scotland. We pray for those applying for the posts and for the interview process. We pray for discernment for the interview panels as they seek to discern who You have chosen to fill these roles.
We pray for the following chaplains and churches:
Stuart Murdoch (Chaplain, Strathcarron Hospice) –Stuart writes: ‘This last year has been difficult for everyone. As Chaplain to Strathcarron Hospice that is no different. The support for staff continued to increase as staff were feeling vulnerable and weary from the intensity of their workload. Pray for me and the staff that we will be sustained and renewed in our spirit to continue to work that God has called us to here in Strathcarron Hospice. Pray for us as we enter the community that we would be kept safe and keep our patients and families safe as we support them through these difficult times and through their Palliative Care journey.’
Cowal BC – We give thanks for the church fellowship in Cowal and we pray for the church as they seek to keep Jesus as the centre of all that they do.
Cowdenbeath BC – We give thanks that despite not being able to meet physically, Cowdenbeath Baptist have enjoyed meeting for prayer and worship using technology. We also give thanks that, after a tip-off from the Baptist Union of Scotland, we were fortunate to have an application approved for some iPads from the Connecting Scotland charity for members without technical access currently. We also continue to pray with them for the ongoing search for a new pastor.
Crieff BC – We give thanks for God’s continued faithfulness while doing a mixture of struggling and striving, pushing and pressing our way through this awful Pandemic. Prayer always works best when spurred on with belief and need. We pray for them as they continue to Zoom and You Tube their way through to a new normality with a new consecration amid the amazing consideration of our Heavenly Father for us all
We also continue to pray for a restoration of health for other members of our congregation or members of their families…
We pray too for anyone else with ongoing health conditions and bring them before You now…
We pray for the people whom we cannot visit in residential care, and others who are at home on their own, together with others in our church family who are feeling the effects of increasing age and infirmity…
We continue to pray for those who have been bereaved and ask Your comfort for them …
We now pray silently for anyone else known to us who is in need of our prayers at this time…..
We pray also for our own needs…
We bring all these prayers before you in Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Bible Reading
And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you[a] – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’
II Corinthians 8:1-15
Before we come to listen to God’s Word let us sing: ‘Father I place into Your hands’
The Message
II Corinthians 8:1-15 The privilege of giving
Introduction
How should I divide the resources I have or the income I receive? Of course there are bills that have to be paid and needs that have to be addressed. Many of us have family responsibilities and commitments with rightful expectations that we will cover certain costs incurred by the activities and choices of members of our families. As Christians we want to support our local church in its work as that is the foundation of Christian presence around the world, but many of us also support other Christian causes at home and abroad who are doing excellent work for the Lord. A proportion of our incomes goes on leisure activities and in the absence of a virus pandemic this might include the cost of a holiday or some days away. These are personal choices each one of us has to make based on the level of income we receive.
Does the Bible have anything to say about the privilege of giving? It certainly does! At its heart, it is a way of thinking and living about the whole of our lives. It is a much greater subject than simply how we divide up the finances we receive month by month. When we grasp this bigger picture it enables us all to see that we have so much we can give as well as receive. We all have talents and abilities that we can give. We also have the precious commodity of time. We can share some time with another person than can be mutually enriching.
In Luke 19 we see the impact of coming to faith in Jesus in the life of one of Jericho’s wealthiest men. He had grown immensely wealthy over many years, but had little opportunity to gain value from it. There was only so much he could do in home improvements or alterations. The reality was, as he had come to recognise, that he was not really happy or fulfilled despite all he had accumulated. He hears that Jesus of Nazareth is coming to Jericho and he wants to see Him and hear the message He will be bringing to the citizens of that city. However, it has never entered his head that meeting Jesus might challenge his entire way of living.
The first shock he experiences is when Jesus spots him and invites Himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ home that day. The crowd were stunned that Jesus was spending precious time on this hard hearted man. But that dinner-time conversation was very fruitful. In Luke 19:8-10 we read the outcome of that encounter. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’
Jesus had not asked Zacchaeus to take this radical step. However, in becoming a follower of Jesus, he had gained a different perspective on his way of living. Was this the only rich man Jesus had some personal conversations with about his wealth? No! In Luke 18:18-30 there is the account of Jesus meeting a rich young ruler who seemed a likely convert to the cause of Jesus. Yet he responded so differently to the challenge of Jesus regarding his possessions. Where is your treasure and mine? Is it primarily in what we can gain or what we can give? Our investments speak powerfully about our priorities. There have been some incredibly generous wealthy benefactors of Christian causes.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, William Hartley, the Jam manufacturer, was the largest individual benefactor to an English Methodist overseas mission agency. James and John Campbell-White, chemical manufacturers in Scotland, largely bankrolled the Free Church of Scotland’s Livingstonia Mission, launched in 1875 at the southern end of Lake Malawi at Cape Maclear in Nyasaland (now Malawi).
In British Baptist circles the largest donations to the Baptist Missionary Society were received from a man called Robert Arthington. His family had owned a brewery, but coming to an Evangelical Christian faith they decided to sell the business. Young Robert inherited the sum of £200,000 on his father’s death in 1864. He was a committed Christian whose ‘life and his wealth was devoted to the spread of the Gospel among the Heathen’ [from his gravestone in Teignmouth in Devon].
He decided to invest the greater proportion of this money in the Indian Peninsula Railway Company for two reasons. First, to make it easier for Christian missionaries travelling across that large country; second to help develop India’s cotton industry so as to counteract the dependency in Britain on cotton produced by African American slaves in the USA. His investments grew in value despite taking out thousands of pounds each year to give to many different Christian mission societies working in Asia and Africa.
It was a remarkable legacy of a man who lived the simplest of personal lives with a view to giving to extend God’s kingdom all over the world. Although in many ways an eccentric man who lived alone, his life was dominated by a vision of the privilege of giving what he had to tell other people about Jesus. Paul in the first section of II Corinthians 8 shares not about an individual but a congregation who despite deep poverty were so focussed on the privilege of giving to support the work of Paul and his mission teams.
1. The example from Macedonia (II Corinthians 8:1-7)
And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
Paul was so encouraged by this congregation. They were so poor in financial and material assets. Yet they were so full of the joy of the Lord and constantly looking to see how they could assist other Christians in God’s work. The apostle highlights the behind it was something he calls grace. It is a term in the Bible that speaks of God’s undeserved kindness to us. It is a declaration that God has been so good to me that I need to pass on to others something of His amazing love to me, in whatever way was appropriate. What a statement Paul makes when he writes concerning these churches in Macedonia in Greece: In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. Could we paraphrase it and say in the midst of a global pandemic their minds were not focussed on the frustrations of the restrictions on their lives, rather they were thinking how can we further extend God’s kingdom. How might we work with other Christians locally, nationally and overseas to help more people come to faith in Jesus?
There were so many reasons why they might choose not to act in this way. Their future income was certainly not guaranteed. When they had so little it was so remarkable that they would think of other needs so strongly. The picture Paul paints is incredible: In the midst of a very severe trial… and their extreme poverty (II Corinthians 8:2).
By contrast, the recipients of II Corinthians lived in a relatively prosperous city and certainly a minority of this church were comfortably well off. Yet they rarely seemed to think about the needs of other people. They needed constant reminders and in-person visits to Corinth to keep their focus. We might want to stop and reflect on why it was the very poorest people who were most willing to assist others in need and the better off who had so much more who appeared so reluctant to exercise the privilege of giving. If the Macedonian Christians could so easily come up with a long list of reasons not to give to help others, what was it that was the secret of their generosity? Paul gives the answer in II Corinthians 8:2: their overflowing joy…welled up in rich generosity.
What is joy? Is it a Christian word that means the same as happiness? Absolutely Not! Joyis an emotion deep within us when we recognise all that God has done for us through Jesus. It is an overflow of gratitude in our inner person as we appreciate God’s undeserved kindness to us. It was an attitude of mind that Paul had taught them and they were living it out. In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul wrote: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4). It was not only that congregation, but also the one in the city of Thessalonica that grasped this point. In I Thessalonians 1:6, Paul wrote: You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. This was why Paul could write next to that second Greek congregation: And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it.
A faith that is lived in good times and tough is an attractive faith; other people can be turned off by the proclamation of words that are disconnected from our actions. In other words, would an observer watching you and me think our faith was working effectively in us and for our benefit? If the answer was ‘no’ then they would have no interest in becoming a Christian as they have enough problems to contend with at the moment already! By contrast, if the answer is ‘yes’ then there is a likelihood that they will watch us closely as most of us can benefit from the assistance of others in our daily lives. Notice what Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 1:8: The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it.
The exercise of the privilege of giving in these churches in Macedonia and Thessalonica was opening the door for other Christians to speak words about Jesus. In other words, social action ministries which are good in themselves can also provide some opportunities to explain why we are motivated to do what we do for God.
Paul continues: For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharingin this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us (II Corinthians 8:3-5).
They were proactive in looking for ways to serve and bless others. They were not looking for Paul to launch a campaign for something, although they always tried to support whatever he was doing, but took on board the responsibility themselves to think outside the box. The challenge for us personally is this: Is there a possible opportunity for me to demonstrate the lived reality of my faith to someone or some people that I had not previously considered? This is quite dangerous to pray for because God might answer our prayers! I did that last year and unexpectedly God answered with something I had not considered or been praying about. In the next few months as this begins I hope to share more about it. These Christians in Macedonia were an incredible role model in that first generation of the Christian Church.
How does this story relate to events in Corinth? II Corinthians 8:6-7 states: So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
It is a rather delicate matter. Paul when he became the apostle to the Gentiles was asked to take financial collections from the churches he founded at times when there was real hardship being experienced by Jewish followers of Jesus in the Holy Land. He mentions this in his letter to the churches in Galatian in southern Turkey. James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along (Galatians 2:9-10).
Titus, it appears had been asked to go round some of these churches asking them to start making collections that could be picked up at a later date by agreed representatives of the churches and taken to Jerusalem where there was a great need. The Church at Corinth initially agreed to do this, but it seems that they had lost interest and stopped collecting any more money. It is so important to say that giving of our time and our abilities, not just our money is part of Christian discipleship. It is a privilege not just our responsibility. Therefore, Paul tactfully challenged them:7 But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving (II Corinthians 8:7).
Before I move on, I want to say how much as pastor I deeply appreciate your generosity to the work of our church over this last year. I have been deeply humbled by awareness of how our faith is being lived out in this respect.
2. The example of Jesus (II Corinthians 8:8-9)
(a)Love in Action (II Corinthians 8:8) I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.
It appears that in this relatively prosperous city in Greece that some of its better-off citizens might have looked down on the poorer people in other parts of the country. Of course, people today don’t compare what they have with what others have in their class at school or college; or what their neighbours in the street have? So this is not an issue today?!! Of course it is, probably worse than then, because we can find out so many things without even going out of our front door. It is good psychology by Paul to drop into the conversation what the Macedonians had already collected. He knows they will be embarrassed to find that their collections were so much smaller. So he lets them know in advance that Titus will come back to be with them towards the end of their time for collections so as to motivate them to get back on track with something they ought already to have completed. Thankfully, this appeal seemed to work and in time the collection was concluded in a satisfactory way.
(b) Their role model for action (II Corinthians 8:9) For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
The example of fellow Greek Christians was a powerful one, but this second example was inevitably the most powerful. What would Jesus do? No, in this context it was what had Jesus already done! Jesus had given up the ease of life in heaven to come down to earth to live among us. As John puts it in John 1:16: Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. Are there any regular opportunities for us today to recall what Jesus did for us? Yes in the ordinances of believers’ baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
In Romans 6:3-4 Paul wrote: Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? 4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. It was incredibly costly for Jesus to give His life for us on the cross. When we go through the waters of baptism we are declaring that we are committed to following in His footsteps, even though at times it will be costly for us. Then each week as we gather round the Lord’s Supper as we take the bread and wine it is a physical sign of the price of our redemption. He did all this for me. We can never say we didn’t know.’ Because we have been blessed and brought to faith through the witness and generosity of others, the privilege of giving becomes part of our lived experience of the faith as well.
3. Paul’s guidance on giving (II Corinthians 8:10-15)
10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’
What is Paul in the last part of this section of chapter eight advising the members of the church in Corinth to do?
(a)Giving proportionately (II Corinthians 8:12) For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. It is a reminder of II Corinthians 8:3: For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own…
Paul is grateful that the Christians in Corinth, although they had been slow to do it in practice, were committed in principle to their responsibility to contribute financially and in other ways to the Lord’s work. The principle here is that each person is responsible for how and what they give. Our circumstances are all different as are our incomes, the amount of free time we possess and our various gifts and talents. We are invited to give proportionately to our income.
(b)Giving together (II Corinthians 8:13-15) Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’
Together, God’s people will be prompted by the Lord to give what is needed in His work. It is something we see in a range of contexts not just in churches where people co-operate sometimes without knowing other givers to accomplish a particular goal.
For example, there was a story of Naana Aisha Issaka, a support worker from Nottingham whose expected student loan to pay for her nurse training course had been rejected turned to crowd-funding to pay for her studies. In just a few weeks members of the public donated the nearly £40,000 she needed[BBC News website 8.4.2021].
I found it so encouraging over this year how generously members of our congregation gave to the fund raising appeals by our own younger members.
However, at the heart of the gospel is the good news that we are recipients of God’s grace, His undeserved kindness to us. When we recognise all that God through Jesus has given us it becomes not an obligation but a privilege to give back to the Lord for His work and to bless other people in different appropriate ways. The Christians in Macedonia had been quick to grasp this principle. The church in Corinth much slower, though at last they understood what Paul had been teaching them. May God help each one of us experience this sense of privilege in giving to God and others, for Jesus’ sake, Amen
Our song before we come to communion is: ‘Give Thanks’
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: Great is the Lord
Closing Prayer:
Thank You Lord that You gave Yourself for us upon the cross.Willingly, out of love for us You endured the cost of that sacrifice in our place. Thank You for the honour of being one of Your followers. Thank You for the privilege of giving of ourselves, our gifts and time and finances as offerings of worship to You and in some cases also as a means of blessing other people. Guide and direct us is all that we do this week, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen
Benediction: The Grace
