Morning Worship for Sunday 12 July 2020

by Peter Blount 12 July 2020

Greetings in the name of Jesus – Joy and peace to you all.

Call to Worship

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Our first hymn is ‘Praise my soul the King of Heaven’

Prayers

Lord thank you,

Thank you for all the good things that you continue to grant us day by day.

Thank you for health, family and friends.

Thank you for all the comforts of daily life that we take for granted.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you for your endless supply of love and grace.

Amen

This morning’s call to worship seen above is verse 105 of Psalm 119. Here is the rest of the section of the Psalm

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

¹⁰⁶ I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.

¹⁰⁷ I have suffered much; preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.

¹⁰⁸ Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth and teach me your laws.

¹⁰⁹ Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.

¹¹⁰ The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.

¹¹¹ Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.

¹¹² My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.

Prayers

For our prayers today please play the following track and pray at the same time

Today there is much cause for prayer within our life, church and nation.

We pray for our government and the effect of the virus on daily life, for those who have lost loved ones, jobs and businesses.

We pray for those who find lockdown difficult, challenging and lonely.

We pray for our church, that soon we may be able to meet together for prayer and praise.

We pray for ourselves as lockdown is gradually lifted that we may emerge renewed and ready for whatever challenges are still to come.

Thank you that you hear all our prayers offered in your name.

Amen

We share together the words Jesus taught us :-

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

For our second hymn I want to take you back to Sunday School days! This hymn is just beautiful in its words and music – please do sing along!

So, here is one of those wonderful stories

Matthew Ch 13 v 1 – 9 - The Parable of the Sower

13 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

I guess like me, you have read, listened to and even acted out that story many times. It has become familiar, it is embedded as one of the much loved parables of Jesus. Also, may we never get tired of hearing it.

Over the years we have also heard many a sermon based on these wonderful 9 verses from Matthew’s gospel, perhaps helped by verses 18 to 23 which give the gospel writer’s interpretation of the parable.

We hear about the condition of the various types of soil and rock on which the seed falls, of how it grows (or doesn’t grow) as the case may be. We hear of the various sizes of crop the seed produces.

Then the message is brought up to date relating the seed to the gospel message of Jesus. The type of ground the seed falls on to as the type of people who hear Jesus’ saving message of grace and love. Finally the crop is related to how the hearers respond to the invitation to receive Jesus’ message with all its power to heal, renew and save the soul for eternity.

Yes, there is a ‘but’ coming. I believe sometimes we miss the blindingly obvious sometimes through familiarity and sometimes by accident, so what did we miss?

Well, just six words in verse 3 ‘a sower went out to sow’!

If the sower did not go out and sow, all the rest of the story is a nonsense. The seeds wouldn’t fall anywhere, however the ground had been prepared. They certainly would not grow, neither would they produce any kind of crop whatsoever.

So, if we believe Jesus has saved us by grace because someone sowed a seed in our life then we must become the sower. And a sower goes out to sow!

Our final hymn is ‘We Have A Gospel To Proclaim’

God of all, and God of each, make us sowers of seeds and sharers of the gospel.

AMEN