DIY Sunday Service Kit 28/08/22 - Matthew 9:9-13 Part 1 - the Scandal of God's grace

 

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service from y GRWP for 28th. August, 2022.

We're continuing our 'occasional' series of sermons for August this week and next with a look at how scandalous God's grace and its implications were for many of the Lord's contemporaries as well as for many of ours. This certainly has some implications for all of us too so fasten your seat belts BUT ... first of all, before we go there, let's quieten our hearts before God with the help of the Psalmist.

Some verses from Psalm 90

"Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the whole world,

    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn people back to dust saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”

A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.

Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,
    your splendour to their children.

May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us,

establish the work of our hands for us, 

yes, establish the work of our hands."

Andy Bannister from the Solas Centre for Public Christianity in Dundee has some really interesting things to say in this short video about hypocrisy in our society ...

Prayer points

Vietnam

According to International Christian Concern (31/07/22) – Hmong Christians in the Nghe An province of Vietnam are suffering from severe persecution.  

Morning Star News reports that officials in the province are trying to create “Christian-free zones” where they are able to operate “with no conscience or humanity,” as if the religious freedom violations were occurring a country other than Vietnam, where such acts are not legal.  

Other forms of persecution come from within their own communities. Most Vietnamese follow traditional animist teachings, and many who convert to Christianity from the traditional faith face rejection and even persecution from their family members and communities.  

Additionally, Vietnamese authorities’ pressure animist relatives of Christian converts to drive Christians from their homes and exile them. The only hope these Christians have of rejoining their communities is if they renounce their new faith. 

These forms of persecution, which are especially brutal in the Nghe An province, have primarily affected members of the Vietnam Good News Mission Church (VNGNMC) and the Evangelical Church of Vietnam-North (ECVN-N). The churches have reported that since, April, gangs have come to terrorize congregants in Hoi Tu and Na Ngoi villages.  

Leaders from both churches have appealed to government authorities for intervention and support, but all their attempts have been unsuccessful. The Vietnamese government has not responded to any of their pleas for assistance.  

Please pray for Christians who are suffering in Vietnam.

Ethiopia

After a brief stalemate, the civil war in Ethiopia may be poised to get even bloodier ...

A humanitarian truce to let food be brought to the besieged region of Tigray was broken on August 24th, raising fears of a return to all-out war in the north (see map). 

At the same time, rebellions around the western and southern edges of Ethiopia threaten to fragment the entire country. In particular, the Oromo Liberation Army (ola), a rebel group which says it is fighting for the self-determination of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, has been weakening the grip of the federal government which sits in Addis Ababa, the capital.

Faced with growing disorder in its borderlands, the government has arrested more than 4,000 people allegedly linked to rebel groups or jihadists in the past two months. 

By May, large-scale fighting, including numerous atrocities, had reached within 100km of Addis Ababa. The Oromia Support Group, an NGO, says it has identified 695 Oromo civilians killed by government forces or Fano militiamen since January. “They don’t even ask questions,” says a farmer in Gimbi, 430km west of Addis Ababa. He says his father was shot in the neck by government troops. “They answer any kind of query with a bullet.” The un reports that half a million people may have fled. Schools have closed, health clinics have been looted. Roads in the far west are too dangerous to travel along.

But there are features of the nation's needs and spiritual life you won't hear of in the Mainstream Media.

In this video, an Ethiopian Christian leader leads us in prayer for his country ...

The outreach work of y GRWP

Please pray for the outreach work of y GRWP:

• Livestock markets and the Word of God

We recently received fresh New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs bound in wipeable, strong covers which we are giving to people we come across and have spoken with about the Lord - particularly but not exclusively so far in livestock markets.

Two copies were given and a few people with clear and out of the ordinary needs were spoken with both in Llandeilo and in Carmarthen.

Please pray that the Lord would speak clearly to these people.

• The Sheep Festival

Llandovery Sheep Festival happens September 17th-18th this year and we are involved in outreach at it in a joint venture with Memorial Chapel.

Please pray that we get the right people involved in this outreach and that the people the Lord is already at work in and who will be helped by having contact with us would be contacted at this event.

• The new premises in Llandovery

Work is proceeding on the premises we hope to be able to rent in Llandovery to run as a café, creating a warm and welcoming place to be used as an outreach centre in the town serving both the town centre and the rural communities lying beyond the town.

We are now preparing to speak to trusts and organisations that might help us with this but please understand that the business side of this is still being conducted 'in commercial confidence'. As soon as we can we will be telling all, because we're bursting to, but for the moment we need to behave responsibly about it all to give us the best chance of pulling this off.

So could we all pray that the Lord will do whatever pleases Him with this project, and what will best serve the purpose of the people He is drawing to Himself coming to see His Glory?

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers for your people here and around your world, and in hearing would you do all that pleases you and serves the purpose of your Glory being acknowledged throughout your world.

We pray for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Click the Bible Time button to go to Matthew 9 ...

Here's the studio cam of today's sermon recording

Let's sing ...

Let's take to ourselves and pray for one another Paul's bidding and blessing on the Christian people of Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 5:

"Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.

23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us. 26 Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. 27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."

AMEN!

Thanks for being with us today.

Please feel very free to get in touch with any queries, questions and requests!

You can get in contact on:

    HoWChaplain@gmail.com

or by texting, WhatsApp messaging or when it's urgent by phoning

    07748644958

If you want to speak confidentially you can find me using hat mobile number on the Signal app

Finally, if you would like to join us by worshipping through giving, please click the Stewardship Giving graphic below.

God bless you. Have a great week!

Simon.