Welcome: –

Call to Worship: – 

from Psalm 149: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6a) 

Sing a new song to the Lord;

Praise Him in the assembly of His faithful people.

Be glad People of God, because of your Creator;

Rejoice, because of our King!

The LORD takes pleasure in His people;

He honours the humble with victory.

Let God’s people rejoice in their triumph and sing joyfully.

Let us shout aloud as we praise God.  Praise the Lord!

We gather together as the People of God, rejoicing in His presence with us, welcomed into His fellowship.  Let us acknowledge our oneness in God and our intent for gathering together as we greet each other with these words:

May the peace of God be with you.

And also with you.

Prayer of Praise  

(Uniting in Worship 1, p564, 565, 613 & 614) 

  God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, gracious LORD of all, whose glory knows no bounds and whose mercy is limitless, we worship and adore you.  Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, eternal Word of God, by whose act of sacrifice you demonstrated your love for us and have set us free from our bondage to sin, we worship and adore you.  Spirit of truth and peace, source of power and life, who leads us in the way of truth and peace, we worship and adore you.

  Almighty God, we meet to celebrate your greatness, to sing you our praise and adoration.  You created the Earth by your power, you save the Human race by your mercy and renew by your grace.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we offer you our grateful worship.

  Blessed God, we thank you for the splendour of your Creation, for the beauty of this World of ours, for the wonder of life, and the mystery of love.  We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, for those things that delight and amaze us, for your guidance in the ways to use those gifts and talents with which you have endowed us, for your warm embrace during our times of disappointment and failure.

  May we show our praise to you not just with our lips but also in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.  To you belongs honour and glory, now and always.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing 2 songs.  The first is  ‘Majesty’  (Scripture in Song Volume2 number 206)

Jack Hayford 

The 2^nd song is ‘Come praise him, exalt him’  (Scripture in Song Volume 2 number 210)

Come praise Him, exalt Him

And worship His name.

Today and forever He’s always the same.

Come praise Him, our Saviour,

The Lamb that was slain.

Come praise Him and worship;

The Lord is His name.

(repeat)

Bonnie Low

Prayer of Confession 

(Uniting in Worship 1 p 579 to 583) 

Merciful God, we come before you in penitence, knowing that we are sinful in thought, word and deed. 

We profess to be your obedient children, but in our pride, listen only to our own desires and wants.  Forgive us.

We profess to love our neighbours as we love ourselves,

but, in effect, only love ourselves.  Forgive us.

We are callous towards the needs of others, and indifferent to their sufferings. 

We are blind to our faults, we are attracted to greed and evil, evasive in listening to our conscience when temptation comes near.  Forgive us.

We find ourselves treating those who are different to us with prejudice and distrust,

we are quick to blame and hesitant to forgive.  Forgive us.

Merciful God, we have sinned through ignorance, we have sinned in times of weakness, and we have sinned through deliberate acts. 

We have sinned by what we have not done to demonstrate the love and the care you show to all people, by leaving undone those acts that would have shown kindness and consideration to the weak and powerless. 

We have sinned by making it too easy for others to do wrong and for not showing them the true path of obedience to your will and purpose in their life. 

We confess the harm we have done and which we cannot undo.

Merciful God, we are truly sorry and earnestly repent of our sins.  In humbleness we seek your forgiveness. 

In your mercy please cleanse and heal our broken hearts and minds, that we may delight in your will and walk in your way, to your glory and honour alone.  Amen. 

Assurance of Forgiveness 

(from Ezekiel 33: 12 to 20) 

God tells the Prophet Ezekiel that what He seeks in a person is their stopping their sinning and their turning to a life of doing what is right and good.  It is then, says God, that He will save that person.  We have repented of our sins and have stated our intent to walk in God’s way from now on.  Upon that expression of our faith in the grace and mercy of God, we have the confidence that God has heard our prayer, that God has seen the intent of our hearts, and that God has forgiven us and cleansed us in His sight.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer of illumination

 (from Uniting in Worship Book 1 number 13 & 14 p599) 

Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to be guided by your Word and the Holy Spirit, that in your light we may perceive your mercy and grace, that in your truth we may find freedom, and that in your will we may discover peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Bible Readings

Genesis 3:

14  Then the LORD God said to the snake,

“You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse:

From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live.  15  I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies.  Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.”

16  And He said to the woman,

“I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth.  In spite of this, you will still desire for your husband, yet you will be subject to him.”

17  And he said to the man,

“You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat.  Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse.  You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.  18  It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants.  19  You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed.  You were made from soil, and you will become soil again.”

20  Adam (The name of which in Hebrew means Mankind.) named his wife Eve (The name of which sounds similar to the Hebrew word for ‘living’.), because she was the mother of all Human beings.  21  And the LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.

Exodus 12:

1  The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt:

2  “This month is to be the first month of the year for you.  3  Give these instructions to the whole community of Israel:

On the tenth day of this month each man must choose either a lamb or a young goat for his household.  4  If his family is too small to eat a whole animal, he and his next-door neighbour may share an animal in proportion to the number of people and the amount that each person can eat.  5  You may choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male without any defects.

6  Then, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, the whole community of Israel will kill the animals.  7  The people are to take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and above the doors of the houses in which the animals are to be eaten.  8  That night, the meat is to be roasted and eaten with bitter herbs, and with bread made without yeast.  9  Do not eat any of it raw or boiled, but eat it roasted whole, including the head, the legs and the internal organs.  10  You must not leave any of it until morning; if any is left over, it must be burned.  11  You are to eat it quickly, for you are to be dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand.  It is the Passover Festival to honour me, the LORD.

12  On that night, I will go through the land of Egypt, killing every first-born male, both Human and animal, and punishing the gods of Egypt.  I am the LORD.  13  The blood on the doorposts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live.  When I see the blood, I will pass over you and will not harm you when I punish the Egyptians.

14  You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the LORD, have done.  Celebrate it for all time to come.”

Romans 10:

5  Moses wrote this about being put right with God by obeying the Law:

“Whoever obeys the Commands of the Law will live.”  (Leviticus 18: 5) 

6  But what the Scripture says about being put right with God through faith is this:

“You are not to ask yourself, ‘Who will go up to Heaven?’ (That is, to bring Christ down.)  7  Nor are you to ask, ‘Who will go down into the world below?’ (That is, to bring Christ up from death.)  8  What it says is this: ‘God’s message is near you, on your lips and in your heart.’”  (Deuteronomy 30: 12 to 14)  That is, the message of faith that we preach.

9  If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.  10  For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.  11  The Scripture says,

“Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”  (Isaiah 28: 16) 

12  This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God

is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to Him.  13  As the Scripture says,

“Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.”  (Joel 2: 32) 

Romans 11:

33  How great are God’s riches!  How deep are His wisdom and knowledge!  Who can explain His decisions?  Who can understand His ways?

34  As the Scripture says,

“Who knows the mind of the Lord?  Who is able to give Him advice?  35  Who has ever given Him anything, so that He had to pay it back?”  (Isaiah 40: 13, Job 41: 11) 

36  For all things were created by Him, and all things exist through Him and for Him.  To God be the Glory forever!  Amen.

(Today’s English Version)

This is the Word of God.

Praise to you Almighty God.

Matthew 16:

21  From that time on Jesus began to say plainly to his Disciples,

“I must go to Jerusalem and suffer much from the Elders, the Chief Priests, and the Teachers of the Law.  I will be put to death, but three days later I will be raised to life.”

Matthew 17:

22  When the Disciples all came together in Galilee, Jesus said to them,

“Th Son of Man is about to be handed over to men  23  who will kill him; but three days later he will be raised to life.”

Matthew 20:

17  As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve Disciples aside and spoke to the privately, as they walked along.

18  “Listen,” he told them, “we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the Chief Priests and the Teachers of the Law.  They will condemn him to death  19  and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life.”

(Today’s English Version)

This is the Gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn ‘Jesus, shepherd of the sheep’  (Wesley’s Hymns number 183 and Wesley’s Prayers & Praises p52 & 53 verses 1, 3 & 5) (from Charles Wesley Poetical Works volume IV p449 & 450)  The YouTube clip is for another hymn, but is used here for the tune.

Verse 1 of 3

Jesus, shepherd of the sheep,

Pity my unsettled soul,

Guide, and nourish me, and keep,

Till your love shall make me whole.

Give me perfect soundness, give,

Make me steadfastly believe.

Verse 2 of 3

I do wander from your way,

Changing every hour I am,

But you are as yesterday,

Now, and evermore, the same.

Constancy to me impart,

Settle with your grace my heart.

Verse 3 of 3

Give me faith to hold me up

Walking over life’s wild sea,

Holy, purifying hope

Still my soul’s sure anchor be.

That I may be always Thine,

Perfect me in love divine.

Charles Wesley

Sermon

An article titled “Ultimate Risk”, was written by a Peter Baldwin and included in a recent edition of the Weekend Australian newspaper.  In it he refers to a movie recently released at the theatres concerning J Robert Oppenheimer, “the head of the scientific team that developed the first atomic bomb in World War II”.  (Peter Baldwin in Ultimate Risk in The Weekend Australian 5-6 August 2023 p40) 

  Peter Baldwin writes that “there was genuine concern among Oppenheimer and some of the other scientists that the extreme heat and conditions created by detonating a fission bomb could trigger a chain of fusion reactions in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans that would destroy Humanity and possibly all life on Earth.”  He writes that the odds were extremely small, “slightly less than three in one million that the Earth would be vapourised by an atomic explosion”, which was why approval to continue with the project to develop the atomic bomb was given by Colonel (later General) Leslie Groves, “the military officer in overall charge of the project”, and by Arthur Compton, “Oppenheimer’s immediate boss during the bomb development”.  Yet, Peter Baldwin acknowledges that “Oppenheimer and his colleagues were grappling with an ethical dilemma of a kind never before faced by Humanity – one in which the stakes were literally existential for our species, the survival of Humanity and of untold future generations.”  (Peter Baldwin in Ultimate Risk in The Weekend Australian 5-6 August 2023 p40) 

  Here were people willing to play at being a god.  The temperatures created by the blast of the early atomic bombs equated those on the surface of the Sun from which we experience the life-giving heat we require each and every day.  The significant aspect of their endeavours, however, was that they sought to develop the means to destroy matter and to take away life. 

  I feel that this is an important thing for us to recognise, because, although those who developed the first nuclear weapon, as well as those in numerous countries today who have continued to develop nuclear weapons, sought and continue to seek to harness what we could term ‘the power of God’, and do so only to produce negative consequences from the use of this ‘power of God’, that is, death and destruction.  At no time has anyone acknowledged that there is the potential or the willingness to harness the atomic power that they are releasing for positive consequences, that is, to create and sustain life. 

  How different is God.

  What does the Apostle Paul write of God?

“For all things were created by Him, and all things exist through Him and for Him.  To God be the Glory forever!”  Romans 11: 36 

  How does God seek to use His powers?  How is the very essence of God displayed in His actions?  Paul describes God as a “creator” God, one who builds up not one who tears down, one who constructs not one who destroys, one whose primary concern is to give life and to sustain life not one whose sole focus is to take away life.

  “All things originate in God, all things continue through God, and all things find their end purpose in God, for His glory.”  (Francis Davidson and Ralph Martin in Romans in the New Bible Commentary p1048) 

  This is evident in the created world around us.  We respond to the glory and majesty of God illustrated for us in what God has created and how it functions smoothly and effectively, but for Human degradation and exploitation.  But it is also seen in what Charles Barrett defines as God’s “eternal purpose”, what he labels as the “process of Salvation”.  He writes that “(God) remains in control of the process from beginning to end, putting His eternal purposes into effect through the acts of the Son and the Holy Spirit. .. The God in whose mercy all things originate, and in whose mercy all things end, is the only proper object of (our) worship and praise.”  (Charles Barrett in The Epistle to the Romans p211) 

  In today’s readings, three scenes or instances are presented to us which illustrate the understanding about which Paul is writing.  All three share these identical characteristics:

Humanity’s failure to heed God’s call to obedience and right living,

Humanity’s failure to remedy the rupture in their relationship with God,

God initiating His gracious response to remedy this failure,

God accomplishing His gracious response,

Humanity offering to God their worship and praise.

  We are familiar with the record of “The Fall”, the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, being enticed by Satan to eat of the fruit of the tree that grew in the middle of the Garden, “the Tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad”.  (Genesis 2: 17, 3: 3) 

In failing to obey the call of God not to eat of the fruit of this tree, they intentionally disregarded the will of God, considering that they could go their own way as they chose, without any judgement upon them nor any consequences for their action or their inaction.

  Moses warned the People of Israel,

“your sin will find you out”  (Numbers 32: 23  KJV  NEB  NRSV  NTL  ESV  NIV  NAS  Amp) 

  In failing to obey the call of God to obedience and right living, Adam and Eve ruptured the close relationship with God that they had experienced up to that point in time.  They were ‘found out’.  How do we know?  Because when God came “walking in the Garden” that evening, seeking to talk with them and enjoy their company, as it appears was His daily practice, “they hid from Him among the trees”  (Genesis 3: 8)  , Adam’s excuse being,

“I was afraid and hid from you, because I was naked.”  (Genesis 3: 10) 

  The fear of God reveals an underlying guilty conscience derived from knowing that you have disobeyed God’s call to obedience.

  In hiding from God Adam and Eve also revealed their inability to remove their guilt or to repatriate their relationship with God.  They recognised that they were under the judgement of God, for He had warned them,

“if you eat of the fruit, you will die the same day”  (Genesis 2: 17b) 

  Walter Brueggemann, in his Commentary on this passage writes,

“God’s grace is given in the sentence (He passes upon Adam and Eve).  Life comes from this God.  The sentence is life apart from the goodness of the Garden, life in conflict, life filled with pain and with sweat.  But it is nonetheless life when death is clearly (the indicated judgement upon them).  This is a story about the struggle God has in responding to the facts of Human life.  When the facts warrant death, God insists on life for His creatures.”  (Walter Brueggemann in Genesis  A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching p49 & 50) 

  It is in the last sentence of today’s passage from Genesis 3 where we glimpse the length and breadth and height and depth of God grace (Ephesians 3: 18) for we read:

“And the LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.”  Genesis 3: 21 

  To hide their nakedness, their shame and disgrace, Adam and Eve needed something more substantial and long-lasting than “fig leaves”.  But from what and how were they to achieve this?  There was nothing in their life in the Garden of Eden nor in their permissions from God that would enable them to produce what they required.  God had provided “all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit” for them to eat in the Garden of Eden.  God had “put them in charge of the fish, the birds, and the wild animals”, a management of other living things that gave no permission to kill any of them, for there was no need to kill any animal for food nor for protection from them.  (Genesis 1: 28 to 30) 

  We read that God clothed them with “clothes made out of animal skins”, durable and long-lasting.  To produce these clothes required the death of an animal, something that Adam

and Eve could not do.  Walter Brueggemann writes:

“God does for the couple what they cannot do for themselves, for the creatures cannot clothe themselves.”  (Walter Brueggemann in Genesis  A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching p50) 

  It was God who first shed the blood of an innocent animal so as to deal with the sinfulness of Humanity.  (Henry Morris in The Genesis Record P130)  And it would not be the last time when a sacrifice and the shedding of blood was required.

  In today’s reading from Exodus we have God instructing the Israelites about the Passover; involving the killing of a one-year old lamb or goat, the smearing of the blood on the doorposts and above the door, and the quick preparation of a meal.  The blood on the doorposts was intended to protect the first-born male in the household, both human and animal, from the avenging Angel of God.  The meal was a preparation for their quick exit from Egypt.

  We read what happens later:

“At midnight the LORD killed all the first-born sins in Egypt .. ,all the first-born of the animals were also killed.”  (Exodus 12: 29) 

  This tells us that God is capable of acting as He says He would, and that God honours those who obey His commands and act according to his will.  But we need to look beyond the words in the passage for us to gain a deeper understanding of what He is revealing to both the Israelites and to the Egyptians.

  For centuries before Moses, the Egyptian Empire had been the dominant Nation in the land of the Nile River and in the southern part of Palestine.  Her power was unrivalled by the neighbouring Libyans to the west, the Nubians to the south, the Arabians to the east,  and the Canaanites and Hittites to the northeast.  She was a land of great wealth, prosperity and influence.  She was also a land of great learning.  Early Greek philosophers and scientists travelled to Egypt so as read from the vast collection of scrolls in the famous library at Alexandria.  Her Pharaohs were so confident of their power and authority that they began to consider themselves as gods.  The whole Nation was so confident of their power and authority that they considered their gods to be the rulers of the Universe.

  This bred a national sense of arrogance, to the point where they had no qualms in enslaving the Hebrew people and forcing them to the hard labour of building their cities, cities such as Pithom and Rameses, as we read in Exodus 1.  How then did God’s actions at the Passover challenge all of this?  We remember that the death of the first-born male in each Egyptian household was the tenth and last of the plagues brought by God upon the Egyptians because of the refusal by the Pharaoh to release the Hebrews so that they could go and worship God.  (Exodus 7: 13)  Each of the first nine plagues involved an animal or an aspect of Nature that were represented by an Egyptian god.  The Egyptian priests were powerless to halt any of these plagues, thus demonstrating to all the Egyptians that their gods were powerless compared to the God of the Hebrews, and that their gods were subservient to the God of the Hebrews.  The Egyptian people prayed to their gods for the safety and well-being of their first-born sons, because they represented the future not just of the family but of the Nation itself.  God’s actions clearly showed the inadequacy of their confidence in their gods to act on their behalf.  (Alan Cole in Exodus p107 &108) 

  Each year the Pharaoh would travel throughout the land of Egypt so as to reassert his authority and to demonstrate that the gods they worshipped had reaffirmed his Kingship.  In the tenth plague, the God of the Hebrews travelled throughout the land of Egypt and demonstrated that His power was dominant and that the Pharaoh was subservient to Him.  It was by acting in this way that God fulfilled His claim to “punish the gods of Egypt” and substantiated his claim that He was “the LORD”.  (Exodus 12: 12)  God was demonstrating that He was capable of acting in any part of the World, as and when He chose to act; and that the World was subservient to His will and authority.  (John Walton, Victor Matthews & Mark Chavalas in The IVP Bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament p85) 

  But God did not act solely in a negative way, for God’s actions brought to the Hebrews release from their bondage, and it was at this point God reaffirmed his Covenant relationship with His people, that is, His promise to always be their God and for them to always be His chosen people, to love and protect, to teach and to grow. 

  And it is in this respect that we see God’s continuing role in the World, for the Passover lamb was but an image of Jesus Christ, and the Passover was but an image of God’s saving grace.  It was through the shed blood of Jesus that we have been saved, and it is the same God who seeks to be in a covenantal relationship with each one of us.  (Hywel Jones in Exodus in the New Bible Commentary p127) 

  Matthew records for us that on three occasions Jesus prepared his Disciples for his death, 16: 21, 17: 22 & 23 and 20: 17 to 19.  His death on the cross was not unforeseen but was foreordained.  His death on the cross was not a victory by sinners but a victory over sin.

  As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi:

“of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant.  He became like man and appeared in Human likeness.  He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – his death on the cross.”  (Philippians 2: 7 & 8) 

  Matthew also records for us that, on those same three occasions, Jesus prepared his Disciples for his resurrection from death, for on each occasion Jesus clearly states,

“but three days later I will be raised to life.”  (Matthew 16: 21, 17: 23 and 20: 19) 

.  And it is critical for us to recognise who it is who accomplishes this.  Jesus didn’t say “I will rise to life”.  Jesus said “I will be raised to life”.  It was God who raised Jesus from death, it was God who accomplishes His plan for the salvation of Humanity, it was God who graciously repaired the rupture in His relationship with Humanity which Humanity had caused through their failure to heed God’s call to obedience and to right living.  It was God who demonstrated His love for the Humanity who He created and for whom He greatly cares.  It was God who demonstrated His power over the forces of sin and death.  It was God who reveals to the World that He is the Almighty merciful God.

  Paul doesn’t end his discourse at that point.  Paul continues writing saying,

“And so, in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in Heaven, on Earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2: 10 & 11) 

  And we are reminded of the words by Charles Barrett that I mentioned above,

“The God in whose mercy all things originate, and in whose mercy all things end, is the only proper object of (our) worship and praise.”  (Charles Barrett in The Epistle to the Romans p211) 

  I will end with this verse from a hymn by Horatio Spafford,

“Though Satan should buffet

Though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate

And has shed his own blood for my soul.”

(verse 2 of It is well with my soul  Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 number 150, quoted in Our Daily Bread 10 September 2007)     Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn ‘O happy day that fixed my choice’ 

Philip Doddridge

Offering

Offering Prayer    

“For the life that you have given”  TiS774 

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

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

Almighty God, knowing of your love for all of Humanity, especially of your compassion for the needy, we come to you with our cares and our concerns.

We bring to you our prayers for the World around us and for people individually.

We pray for an end to violence in our cities and neighbourhoods,

that you will touch people’s hearts so that they will value the dignity of each person and seek ways to help one another fulfill one’s potential.

We pray for all who are recovering from recent hurricanes and storms, from wildfires and droughts,

that you will heal their pain, strengthen them with hope, and give them resourcefulness to rebuild what has been lost.

We pray for those who experience injustice in their workplace,

that you will free them from abuse, bring an end to dehumanizing practices, and bring about an unveiling of the unjust activities.

We pray for all who are struggling with addictions,

that you will open the path to freedom for them and guide them to appropriate resources to aid and guide them.

We pray for emergency and relief workers,

that you will protect them from harm, give them the strength to fulfill their duties, and help them offer support and hope to those in crisis.

We pray for reconciliation amongst nations,

that you will inspire and guide World leaders to speak the truth to one another and find ways to resolve differences through dialogue and cooperation.

We pray for your Church,

that we may be a community that continues Christ’s mission of evangelizing and reconciling those who are estranged from others.

We pray for Christian Unity,

that all who follow Christ may form a bond of dedication as we work to bring hope and healing to the World.

We pray for the gift of listening,

that the Holy Spirit will open our minds and hearts to hear what others say and to be attentive to your word spoken deep within our hearts.

Copyright © 2020. Joe Milner. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use. – https://liturgy.slu.edu/23OrdA090620/ideas_other.html

We pray for Kylie Conomos in her role as chaplain at Bald Hills State School.  May she be inspired to undertake her responsibilities and tasks.  Please give to her the energy and endurance to share the struggles of families and children.  But may she also see the joy of lives restored and renewed.

We pray for the volunteers who lead Religious Instruction classes at Bald Hills State.  May they enthuse the children in their classes to seek to learn and understand more about the message of your love and grace for them.  May the Holy spirit work in the hearts and minds of the children so that they will become the fertile ground for the good seed to grow and bear fruit.

Lord God, we bring these prayers to you, trusting in your lovingkindness.  To your glory we pray.

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.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn ‘Have Thine own way, Lord!’  (Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 number 146)

Adelaide Pollard

Benediction    

May we be confident in our perception that God does indeed hold each of us in His hands.  May we be confident in our knowledge that whoever God holds in His hands, He does indeed love and care for them, deeply and richly.  May we be confident in our understanding that God’s lovingkindness is all-encompassing and everlasting.

And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Benediction Song

‘I am His, and He is mine.’  (Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 number 193)

Wade Robinson