Welcome: –

Call to Worship

(Isaiah 6:1-8) NIV): –

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

 ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

 ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Amen.

Prayer of Praise

God, whose word spoke life and creativity into a formless universe, and order to a nation of escaped slaves, whose strong and compassionate voice challenged injustice through frail prophets.
Jesus, whose touch smoothed the broken skin of lepers, and brought a bleeding woman back to health and belonging, whose hand raised dead girls, and refused to throw stones at prostitutes.
Spirit, whose breath restores souls and bodies, and whose presence comforts the grieving, whose fire ignites compassion within us for the healing of the nations.

God of wholeness, we celebrate the healing you bring to us and our world, and we celebrate the promised wholeness that awaits all of creation in your eternal reign. 

 Amen

1^st Song – TiS 52  Let Us Sing to the God of Salvation

1. Let us sing to the God of salvation,
let us sing to the Lord our rock;
let us come to his house with thanksgiving,
let us come before the Lord and sing!

Praise our maker, praise our saviour,
praise the Lord our everlasting king:
every throne must bow before him
God is Lord of everything!

2. In his hand are the earth’s deepest places,
and the strength of the hills is his;
all the sea is the Lord’s, for he made it
by his hand the solid rock was formed.

Praise our maker, praise our saviour,
praise the Lord our everlasting king:
every throne must bow before him
God is Lord of everything!

3. Let us worship the Lord our maker,
let us kneel to the Lord our God;
for we all are the sheep of his pasture
he will guide us by his powerful hand.

Praise our maker, praise our saviour,
praise the Lord our everlasting king:
every throne must bow before him
God is Lord of everything!

4. Let today be the time when you hear him!
May our hearts not be hard or cold,
lest we stray from the Lord in rebellion
as his people did in time of old.

Praise our maker, praise our saviour,
praise the Lord our everlasting king:
every throne must bow before him
God is Lord of everything!
After Psalm 95, Venite , © Richard Bewes

Prayer of Confession 

(Responsive)

When we play God, pretending we know best for ourselves  and those around us, and seeking to control what is uncontrollable, We reveal our idolatry.
Forgive us and help us, O God.

When we act like martyrs, hiding our selfishness and brokenness behind a mask of self-sacrifice and self-righteousness, We reveal our lovelessness.
Forgive us and help us, O Christ.

When we fail to be the people we long to be, repeating the same mistakes, forgetting the same lessons, losing heart and running out of energy and inspiration We reveal our weakness.
Forgive us and help us, O Spirit.

Triune God, we need you to come to us again as God, as Saviour, as Counsellor. Thank you that our forgiveness, healing and growth lies not in how hard we work, but in how gracious you are. And so we pray, with all that we are:
Forgive us and help us. For the sake of your Kingdom. Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness

Friends, receive God’s forgiveness.  May God’s love set you free this day and always.

Our sins are forgiven.

Thanks be to God.

 Prayer of illumination  – Leading onto the scripture reading.

Gracious and Holy God, give us wisdom to recognise you,

intelligence to understand you,

diligence to seek you,

patience to wait for you, eyes to see you,

a heart to meditate on you,

and a life to proclaim you,

through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bible Readings

Romans 8:12-17 (NIV)

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

This is the Word of God

Praise to you Almighty God.

John 3:1-17(NIV)

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”  ³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  ⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.  ¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

This is the Gospel of our Lord

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

2^nd  Song:  TiS 143 ‘Immortal, invisible God only wise’ 

Walter Chalmers Smith  1824 – 1908

Sermon:  

Theme: ‘Salvation (saved) by Faith’

Pray: O God, in the mystery of your presence, guide us to understand your ways.

Nicodemus was the first person who ever heard the words: “You must be born again.” The words shocked him into full attention. They were so different from anything he had ever heard before. They were so puzzling.

Today, we hear them quite differently. Phrases like “born again” and words like “salvation or saved” seem archaic, not new. They fall mostly on deaf ears. They sound out of place. They have a “churchy” ring to them. Many tune a preacher out at the first mention of these words. So before you tune me out, hear me out.

We live in an age of self-reliance. The truth is most of us don’t really believe we need saving; and that if we did need saving, we could do it ourselves. In fact, many of us believe we have already saved ourselves.

We believe that our military might has made us nationally secure. 

We believe that our economic might has made us financially secure, or at least we did until recently.

We believe that the might of medical science, healthy diets, and good exercise have made us physically secure;

and we believe that the might of our psychological health has made us emotionally secure.

We believe that “salvation” is an archaic word, and we believe that “born again” is a phrase straight from the rube evangelists of times past. As a result, the call “Repent and be saved!” no longer brings so sinners to their knees or converts streaming down the aisles of our churches as it did in former days.

Yet, we are the very ones who need to be saved. Take an honest look at us.

In the first place, we are broken and sick. We have been turned on the earth’s great wheel and ground by its pressures, its stresses, its rejections, its hateful striving, its fierce dissension, its misshapen values, and its seductive, hollow dreams.

Or try another image: We are sick unto death. We carry within us a Stage IV malignant tumor; and we don’t even know it is inside us, eating away at our souls, our lives, our joy, our hope.

Our sickness is evident in many ways. It is evident in our weakness. Few years ago, I attended Magistrate courtroom in Roma Street, Brisbane to support an inmate and listened to her being sentenced to prison for two years. This a story much like many others that I have come across as a Prison Chaplain.  Times were hard and things had put her in financial hardship.  She was a treasurer at a sport club, so to her it was convenient to “borrow” a little from the till, intending to pay it back when things got better.   But things didn’t get better, and she had to “borrow” a little more.  Finally, desperately afraid that she would be caught, she falsified her records to cover up her misdeed.  Then one day, the boss had audited the funds and found the shortage and confronted her, which she didn’t have the funds to pay it back.

She did not fit the image that most of us pull up when we think the word “criminal.” He was a well-respected person in her church. She attended faithfully. She was active in her Bible Study group.

A few years earlier, she would never have believed herself capable of doing such a thing. She would never have believed that there was already a tumor inside, eating away her life.

The person, of course, is not alone. Within every one of us, more potential for evil lurks than we can possibly allow ourselves to believe. Beneath the surface, deep in our hearts, in the darkened corners of our souls, the evil one lurks and his power over us is perceptible.

Our sickness is also evident in our emptiness. I read from some long-forgotten source about an art exhibit in San Francisco. A live model sat at her vanity applying her makeup. When she was finished putting it on, she took it off. When it was off, she put it back on. And the cycle never ended. The people who watched long enough to realize what was happening wept as they watched.

We are not sick to the bone. We are sick in our souls. We are not whole, not one on the inside, and therefore we are not good. We allow multiple masters to command us, and we allow our multiple identities to respond. One day our worst self answers the call of our worst master, and our mistake breaks us. We are quite right in calling this sickness “emptiness,” for when a thing is broken, everything inside it just runs out on the ground. That is how so many of us are living our lives.

The word salvation actually means healing or wholeness. It means that the broken pieces are put back together, and that the sick are healed.

Yes, we are people who need saving.

Second, we are slaves to our sin. Perhaps you don’t like the word sin, but consider for a moment: One definition of sin is missing the mark. If we think of life as an arrow shot from birth to the grave, then let me ask: Is it possible to hit a bulls eye that is so many years in the future, around so many twists and turns? Of course, it is not. The aim is too unsteady, the vision too dim, the trajectory too long, the course too complex, the winds too strong. We can never hit the mark. We can never score a bulls eye. We don’t have it in us.

Sin is destructive. It destroys relationships that make life matter. Live your life irresponsibly, and see what it does to your marriage. Live your life as a lie, and see what it does to your business. Live your life only for yourself, and see what it does to the weak. Live your life in corruption, and see what it does to your children.

But worse than all of this, sin eats away at your relationship with God. We believe in our day-to-day lives, in our heart of hearts, that justice will never come, but one day, as the prophet Amos said, it will roll down like waters, and those who have turned their backs on him will hear him say, “Depart from me, you cursed….”(Mt. 25:41)

Yes, we are the very ones who need to be saved.

In the third place, we are on a collision course with death. Preachers used to try to scare people with gory stories that illustrated the nearness of death and warned that you might die in an accident on the way home. Now most preachers don’t do that so much, but the reality and unpredictability of death has not changed. As one wag said, “The death rate has never changed. One out of one people die.”

Death looms on our horizons, and without faith it renders everything meaningless: our careers, our families, our joys, our sorrows. You’d might as well eat, drink, and be merry if tomorrow you may die. You’d might as well lie, cheat, and steal your way to the top. You’d might as well spend your life getting and spending or putting on and taking off makeup. You’d might as well ignore your children or your parents or your spouse. You’d might as well snub the church and turn a deaf ear to the gospel of grace.

Yes, we who live our whole lives with death awaiting–we are the very ones who need to be saved.

So what is the most relevant word the gospel has to give? Just this: We can be saved, saved from sin, saved from death, saved from meaninglessness and emptiness, saved from injustice, saved from ourselves. But how is such a thing possible? Nicodemus came to Jesus with just this question, and Jesus told him that he must be born “from above.” From above? This grand re-making of a soul cannot be made possible by human devices. It can only be made possible by God who is above all our brokenness, all our sickness, all our sin, all our hopelessness. Re-birth is possible because it comes from above, not from human hands, but from God’s hands.

In the 1800s, some people attempted to build a bridge across Niagara Falls. Engineers were consulted. Money was raised. No stone was left unturned, but they could not get a cable across the Falls. They could not float it across the rapids. They could not shoot it far enough with a bow and arrow. They could not climb the steep cliffs and get it across that way.

Finally, a ten-year old boy made a ridiculous suggestion: Fly the cable across the gorge on a kite. How absurd! How foolish!  Yet the red-faced engineers finally flew the cable across with a kite.

Occasionally in our lives, we come to the point that we know we need to be born all over again, and we long to be saved from all that is wrong within us. At such times, it is tempting to turn away, believing there is no way across the chasm that separates us from God.

If you ever come to such a moment, here is good news: You can be born from above! From above, you see, God sent his Son. He bridged the chasm. He spanned the tide. He opened the way.

We are not hopeless! God has done what we could not. He has poured out his grace on us. He has covered us with his love. He has saved us by his grace. He has allowed us to be born all over again.

If only we have ears to hear it. If only we have eyes to see it. If only we have grace to receive it. ..In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pray: Dear God, we know that you have sent us life from above. We ask for ears to hear, eyes to see, grace to receive. In the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

3^rd Song: . TiS 658 ‘I the Lord of earth and sea’

Daniel Schutte

Offering

Offering Prayer

“For the life that you have given”  TiS774 

[This hymn is being sung to the tune Austria – there is no introduction.]

[This YouTube is for another hymn so disregard the words – only the one verse is needed.]

[Alternatively, if you have the facility on your computer to play such music, double-click on the Mp3 file below and then select ‘open’ – there is a very small introduction.]

For the life that you have given,

For the love in Christ made known,

With these fruits of time and labour,

With these gifts that are your own:

Here we offer, Lord, our praises;

Heart and mind and strength we bring;

Give us grace to love and serve you,

Living what we pray and sing.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Prayers for Others

(Responsive)

We are a world that is desperate for you, God.  When powers struggle for dominance, and war, oppression and abuse result;

When groups of people oppose one another because of ideology, religion or culture;

We need a God who is bigger than ourselves, and our personal interests.
When people are disregarded and devalued because of poverty, geography or disease;

When compassion and justice is withheld to some because of sexuality, race or gender;
We need a Saviour who is more compassionate than we are who includes even those we would exclude.

When resources are mismanaged and abused, and the world and its creatures are destroyed;
When motivation is scarce and creativity is in short supply to address the challenges that we face;

We need a Spirit who is more powerful and more creative than we could ever be..
Lord God, Loving Saviour, Empowering Spirit, we offer you these prayers because we need you so desperately.

Captivate us, call us and fill us, that we may be carriers of your eternal life to this world that you love so dearly. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil,

For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,

Now and forever.  Amen.

Sending forth

Go out into the world in the power of the Spirit, in all things, at all times, remember that Christ is with you, make your life your worship to the praise and glory to God, Amen

4^th Song: TiS 217 ‘Love divine all loves excelling’

Charles Wesley

Benediction

May the boldness of God’s Spirit transform us, 

May the gentleness of God’s Spirit lead us, 

May the gifts of God’s Spirit equip us to serve and worship you
now and always. 

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Amen.

Benediction Song: ‘Shalom to you now’