(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Allerton Methodist Church and led by Rhona North one of our circuit Local Preachers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Come and take a seat, inside or out, in the summer sunshine warming bones or in the cool shade of gentleness. Come and think on God’s glory, his love for you, the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. We welcome you Holy Spirit to do all that you want. . Convict us, reassure us, restore us and help us. We welcome you Holy Spirit, come draw us closer to our Lord. He loves to come and sit beside us as we worship.
Intro: Psalm 103 1-4: God loves us and He is kind
Song – StF 83 – Praise my Soul the King of Heaven
Prayers:
As we gaze up into heaven we see you Father God with all Your kindness, mercy and love, so filled that you allowed your only Son to suffer and die for us. But thank you your plans were not to leave it there. As we turn our gaze to the right we see you Jesus in all your resurrection glory, radiantly alive with all the power and the glory. Your eye Jesus meet ours, filled with love and compassion for us. As we see you in all your fullness we realise what a pale image of you we are so that we ask your forgiveness. Forgiveness for intentional and accidental sins, forgiveness for those selfish thoughts, angry words and unkind deeds, forgiveness for the times we’ve not read your Word, not prayed, not listened to the voice of Your Spirit calling us to be holy as you are holy. We are sorry and place those sins into your nail marked hands of love. You take them, throw them away and whisper, “My little ones your sins are forgiven.” Thank you Jesus for forgiving us, preparing a place in heaven for us and giving us your Holy Spirit till the work on earth is done.
Let’s join in the Mexican wave of prayer that goes across the world and join with millions of Christians in saying the Lord’s Prayer.
The theme of this service is the parable of the sower and praying for people on your prayer list. Is there someone whom you’ve prayed for for years and nothing seems to change?
Theme 1: Praying for the softening of their hearts:
Reading 1: Ezekiel 36 16-28
S is for softening hearts.
Ezekiel was a prophet in Judaea at the time. God was displeased with murders and idol worship and He gave Ezekiel the warning that if they didn’t turn back to God, God would let them be led off to Babylon. They were! Then He gives a message of hope that God had pity on them and for His name’s sake HE will give them a softened heart of flesh, not a rebellious stony heart. You can ask God to soften their hearts and help them get to know God’s love 2 Chronicles 18 v 4 says: “And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray to God for a word today! “ Ask God for insight as to why that person has a rebellious heart and God will give a word to show you why. It’s God who softens hearts!
Reading 2: Psalm 146: 8
Theme 2: O is for opening the eyes of the blind;
Maybe that person you are thinking of has never been told about Jesus? In this social media world with such huge amounts of information in a post-truth era they don’t know the truth that Jesus lived, suffered and died for them and rose from the dead to forgive them and prepare a place in heaven! One of my favourite scriptures is Isaiah 55 v 11: “ the word of the Lord NEVER returns empty! We can send verses to that person we are thinking of: in cards, text message, gifts, in talking to them and so much more! How can they know if we don’t tell them? Those verses can open their eyes!
Song – StF 440 – Amazing grace
Reading 3: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-11
Theme 3: WE: God the Trinity, angels, others supporting us in praying for them – a whole team!!
Paul had spent 18 months in Corinth setting up the church with Jesus at the foundation. After leaving he heard things weren’t going well; there was a lot of division, arguments and jealousy over who was doing what. If you feel jealous of anyone who has a job in church or you feel worthless or unable to pray confess to God and ask Him to help you pray. Paul said it was his job to sow the seeds and Apollos’ job to water them. It’s helpful for 2 or 3 to pray for that person. Who is good at sowing seeds? Who is good at encouraging and nurturing. Ask them to pray for that person! God puts people around your person to confirm the message. You aren’t on your own!!!
Song – StF 130 – We plough the fields
In prayer we can use SOW (Soften, Open, We). Look at this picture of the Parable of the Sower and think of that person that you have been praying for for ages and there doesn’t seem to be any change. Which one applies to them? 1. They’ve never even heard the news of Jesus. 2. They never got a chance to grow because they weren’t nurtured? 3. People put them off and ridiculed them for believing, they were scoffed and mocked. Ask God to reveal to you the reason why they are not believing and ask God to change it for them. Your prayers and God’s power together with others praying too wow! You will see change! That person will be the 4th picture! Their heart will be the good soil.
Ask God to prevent the enemy from stopping them, ask God to soften their hearts, open their eyes and know there’s a team around you for them. Ask friends to pray for a week. Add them to the church prayer list. Set up 2 or 3 to pray for each other’s prayer requests. Concentrated prayer can bring amazing results.
Prayers of Intercession: Father God:
We pray firstly for nations and their leaders, for wars and terrible bloodshed to stop, for those suffering from earthquake wind and fire….. we pray for the churches across the world that their work may be fruitful, for those persecuted for their faith… we pray that all leaders may act justly, love mercy and walk humbly and all come to know God’s love
Lord in Your mercy, hear my prayer
For Great Britain: For King Charles and reconciliation with Harry, for Keir Starmer and the next prime minister. For the nation being shaken and for the churches that sow seeds and nurture, may people turn to the hope that God loves them.
Lord in Your mercy, hear my prayer
For West Yorkshire: For blessings for Kerry Tankard, Phil, Nick, Joy and Lisa, for the churches in our circuit, for those that sow seeds and nurture. For our communities that all may come and know God….
Lord in Your mercy, hear my prayer
For those in family, friends, neighbours and colleagues who are going through a tough time, those that do not know you Lord…. Those grieving, addicted, fearful or in poverty….
Lord in Your mercy, hear my prayer
For yourself, for all that you need, a word of revelation for how to pray for that person….for comfort and help…. For times of celebration and worries, we ask that you hold us tightly in all that comes our way this week.
Lord in Your mercy, hear my prayer
We ask all our prayers in Jesus name who delights in our prayers, Amen
We may get it wrong, not listen, not pray as we should but it’s God who is faithful. He wants these people on our prayer list to come and know Him, He loves to partner with us but it’s Him who is faithful and knows how we can inquire of Him for the right way to pray. Thank God for His faithfulness. He puts others around that person with the same messsge, the Holy Spitit has the power to nudge them, angels are called in for God-incidences. Praise God that there is a whole team around you when you pray!
Song – StF 51 – Great is thy faithfulness
Blessing: May you find space this week to wait on God whilst He shows you how to pray. May you see His face lighting up with delight as you pray. And now may the blessing of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit fall afresh on you, in your home and upon all those that you love, Amen!
