Notes From Meeting Sunday 14th February 2021

Lee Street Church

Notes of Meeting 14^th February 2021

We welcomed Harry Vallance to bring the message today.

Worship led by Brian

Our first song calls us to worship – which is of course the reason we get together like this each Sunday. A quieter version is sometimes used as a doxology, but this version calls us very simply to “Give glory to God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and to the Holy Spirit himself”. May we each do just that as we bring our worship to the Lord this morning.

Song: Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, you heavenly host,

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

(Repeat)

Give glory to the Father,

Give glory to the Son,

Give glory to the Spirit

While endless ages run.

‘Worthy the Lamb’

All heaven cries,

‘To be exalted thus:’

‘Worthy the Lamb’

Our hearts reply,

‘For He was slain for us.’

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
(x4)

That song reminds us that we are joining with all the mighty hosts of angels in the heavenly realm who the apostle John spoke of in Rev 3:12 who were singing in a loud voice “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise”.

Note also the reminder that our worship is to all three elements of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s important that we maintain a right balance in our thinking and in our worship. If we focus too much on one part, and neglect to give enough attention to the other two, we are in danger of missing out on a lot of things God has for us. Church history shows, even in quite recent times, the danger of this. Think of a chair with just 3 legs – quite common in older houses. Take away one leg – and you are in real trouble.

So if we’ve got time I want to have 3 further songs, each focusing our worship on one part of the Godhead.

Firstly, God the Father – with the song Father in heaven (96)

FATHER IN HEAVEN, HOW WE LOVE YOU,

We lift Your name in all the earth.

May Your kingdom be established in our praises

As Your people declare Your mighty works.

Blessèd be the Lord God Almighty,

Who was and is and is to come;

Blessèd be the Lord God Almighty,

Who reigns forever more.

Bob Fitts.Copyright © 1985 Scripture in Song,

Declaring the “mighty works of God” – well, where do you begin? His mighty works – past, in creation of this amazing world that even now we’re discovering new things about every day, and his strength he exerted in raising His son Jesus from the dead – present, in his grace and mercy in the blessings he pours upon us each day, - and future, as he prepares a place for each of us in glory for eternity.

So having brought our praise to God the Father, let’s move on, secondly, to Jesus Christ himself. In some ways the easiest part of the God-head for us to comprehend, as he revealed things of God to human beings like ourselves when he was on the earth 2000 years ago. As Paul reminds us in Philippians, every knee will one day bow before Him and acknowledge Him as the Son of the living God.

SONG: Jesus shall take the highest honour (302)

Jesus shall take the highest praise.

Let all earth join heaven in exalting

The Name which is above all other names.

Let’s bow the knee in humble adoration,

For at His name every knee must bow.

Let every tongue confess He is Christ, God’s only Son;

Sovereign Lord, we give You glory now.

For all honour and blessing and power

Belongs to You, belongs to You.

All honour and blessing and power

Belongs to You, belongs to You,

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God.

Chris Bowater.

Copyright © 1988 Sovereign Lifestyle Music.

As we are thinking now about Jesus, our blessed Saviour, it’s probably a good time to remember Him in the way He asked us to, in the Breaking of Bread.

I hope you are prepared for this.

Before Jesus could return to his glorious heavenly home, Jesus had to go through the most excruciating pain and suffering a man could ever know. He could of course at any stage have called upon his Father’s angels to save him – but he didn’t. As always in his life, so in his death he carried out his Father’s will to the bitter end. There was no easy way out for Jesus.

Why? Because God loved you and I so much – and there was only one way to bring us back into fellowship with Him.

There are of course countless songs about the immense Love of Jesus – from the simple songs which try to show the vastness of His love in human terms, to others which use some of the richness of the English language to put into words something which is really hard to explain – God’s love.

Before we bring our own thanks to Him, and share in the Bread and wine, I’d like us to sing a quiet and thoughtful song “What kind of love is this?” (1111)

What kind of love is this

That gave itself for me?

I am the guilty one,

Yet I go free.

What kind of love is this,

A love I’ve never known;

I didn’t even know His name—

What kind of love is this?

What kind of man is this,

That died in agony?

He who had done no wrong

Was crucified for me.

What kind of man is this,

Who laid aside His throne

That I may know the love of God—

What kind of man is this?

By grace I have been saved;

It is the gift of God.

He destined me to be His son,

Such is His love.

No eye has ever seen,

No ear has ever heard,

Nor has the heart of man conceived

What kind of love is this.

Bryn & Sally Haworth.

Copyright © 1983 Signalgrade/ Kingsway’s Thankyou Music.

Me – the guilty party – deserving of nothing but condemnation – yet because of His love I go free.

Jesus – the one who had laid aside the glories of heaven – came to this sin-sick world, and suffered the death of a criminal although He had done no wrong.

It’s only by the grace of God that I’m saved, that I’ve become a child of God. My response can only surely be Thank you, thank you Jesus.

Let’s just be quiet for a moment – think about the price that Jesus paid for our salvation – and each of us to bring our own thanks to Him. Then we’ll share in the Bread and Wine together.

Breaking of Bread - 1Cor 11: 23 – 24 and 1Cor 11:25

(Worship continued)

We’ve thought very briefly about God the Father, God the Son, what about the Holy Spirit?

He is of course the one Jesus promised would be given to all believers – to live inside them, to guide and teach them, to be with them in all the ups and downs of their lives. Sadly, many believers fail to take hold of the wonder of having the Holy Spirit within us – what Paul calls “Christ in us – the hope of glory”.

Our last song simply welcomes the Holy Spirit into our lives, and acknowledges what He can do as He reigns in our lives.

HOLY SPIRIT, HOW I LOVE YOU;

Holy Spirit, flood my soul.

Holy Spirit, take me over;

Holy Spirit, lead me on.

You’re the Strength that helps me in my weakness,

You’re the Friend who comes to walk beside;

You’re the peace that passes understanding,

As You reign in my life.

Peter Brooks, Stuart Townend & Kate Simmonds Copyright © 2002 Thankyou Music

Notes from Harry Vallance’s message.

Harry began by reading from Mark 2:1 – 12 – the healing of the paralytic.

 He calls this a story of Evangelism, as a paralysed man is brought by his friends to Jesus. This is what real evangelism is – bringing people to Jesus. We can’t save anyone, but what we can do is to bring them to Jesus. These 4 men did just that – it needed real effort, carrying the man on some form of stretcher.

This reminds us the evangelism isn’t easy – effort is involved. At a time when national restrictions prevent us doing many forms of outreach, we need to make an effort to find other ways of bringing folk to Jesus.

These 4 men brought their friend to where Jesus was, but they couldn’t get near to Jesus because of the large crowd who wouldn’t let him through – they wanted to see Jesus too!

This reminds us that there is usually opposition to evangelism – sometimes mocking, maybe family resistance to taking people to Jesus. Young people in particular often face opposition from their friends.

In this case, the man was physically prevented from getting to Jesus – but that didn’t make his friends give up.

Harry shared his experience of this. When working with the London City Mission with railway workers, some had told him he was no longer welcome with them. He was due to return to them, and only after guidance from the Holy Spirit did he have the courage to face and witness to the same men again. We should remember that Satan doesn’t want us to share the good news of Jesus.

During this pandemic period, we can’t do evangelism in the normal way, so we do need to find other ways for the church to evangelise. There must be other ways that we can use modern communications methods to reach out to others – emails, texting, telephoning, writing letters even!

So, the four friends continued to make a special effort – lifting the man up to the roof, breaking open the roof, and lowering the man to the floor in front of Jesus. That was determination!

Over the past years, much of the work which churches used to carry out in areas such as prison visiting, hospitals and schools, showing love and concern for people in our communities has been taken over by state and other organisations. So, we do need to find other ways to get our friends to Jesus.

The key verse in the passage is verse 5 where Jesus says to the man “Son, your sins are forgiven”

What were the man’s friends thinking – possibly “We didn’t bring him all the way here for that”, and Jesus could see in the man’s eyes “that’s not what I want”. The teachers of the law thought it was blasphemy for Jesus to say this. They were right in saying that only God can forgive sins, because all sin is against God. Sin is breaking God’s law, we offend Him, we make a gap between us and God.

Jesus did his absolute best for the man, by restoring him to fellowship with God.

Are you still at odds with God? Have you been forgiven your sin? If you haven’t come to Jesus, then you haven’t got the promise of eternal life. The best thing that can happen to anyone is that they are forgiven of their sins.

So, Jesus goes on to ask the people which is easier to say: “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say “Get up and walk”?

So, to prove his authority to forgive sins, and his power to heal the man, Jesus says “get up, take your mat and go home”. And the paralysed man did what had been impossible – he stood up, picked up his mat, and walked out of the house and headed home.

Yes, Jesus had the power and authority to forgive sins. When we evangelise, we do so knowing that Jesus alone has that power.

Are you forgiven, cleansed from your sin, and washed in the blood of Jesus? If not, you won’t have eternal life. Only Jesus scan forgive sin.

The end result of the man being healed was that onlookers were amazed and praised God. Our challenge is to evangelise, maybe do something different, to bring others face to face with Jesus, so that they too may know forgiveness and the blessings of God upon their lives.

Closing Song:

Where there seems to be no way.

He works in ways we cannot see,

He will make a way for me.

He will be my guide,

Hold me closely to His side;

With love and strength

For each new day,

He will make a way,

He will make a way.

By a roadway in the wilderness

He’ll lead me,

And rivers in the desert will I see.

Heaven and earth will fade,

But His word will still remain;

He will do something new today.

Don Moen  Copyright © 1990, 2006 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music/Sovereign Music UK

Notices

1. Speaker next Sunday will be David Murray (from Workington)
2. The Horley Food Bank have their next Drive In next Saturday 20^th February at HBC from 9.30am to 12.30pm. Please phone us (Brian & Pat) if you need help getting any food delivered to the Food Bank. Needed items are listed over the page / below.
3. The World Day of Prayer is on Friday 5^th March – details shortly.
4. Our Church Annual Business Meeting will be held on 28^th February. This will be a Zoom meeting at 12.15pm – agenda attached.