Lee Street Church
Notes of Meeting 24th April 2022
Worship led by Dawn Budd
Why do you turn up to church every Sunday? Nothing else to do? Do you come because that’s what you’ve always done? Maybe you were raised attending church for a Sunday Family Service, so it’s part of your normal Sunday routine. Or do you simply come to worship your Lord God? To show God thanks and praise for all that He has done and continues to do.
YouTube clip – a Worship introduction.
Reading – 1 Chronicles 16: 23
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Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. |
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Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. |
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For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. |
SONG: Shout for joy and sing 496
Prayer
But what exactly is worship? The dictionary defines it as “showing reverence and adoration for a deity”. It’s an outward reflection of an inner gratitude. And we truly have so much to credit God for. Our creator, our Redeemer, our Friend and our Saviour. The next song talks about the praise that God is due.
SONG: My Jesus, my Saviour 935
So why should we worship? Worship is bowing before God. To truly worship, we must lose a part of our old self. Romans 12:1 describes that cost as a sacrifice
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Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God —this is your true and proper worship. |
When we come before God in worship, we humbly submit ourselves, proclaiming that He is worthy and exalting Him in praise. When we worship, we are declaring that God has worth, that He is worthy of our praise and adoration. We sing of how great He is, how powerful, and how deserving of our praise.
SONG: I give you all the honour 210
SONG: Worthy, O worthy are you Lord 617
So, what should worship look like? For some people, it’s expressed with words, singing, raising hands in praise. For others, it might be more reserved. Whatever you feel comfortable with is fine, as long as it’s only our God we are worshipping. God gave his command to Moses “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
Worship is taking our focus off everything else, and focusing on God alone. It’s about connecting with God and thanking Him for all He has done.
SONG: All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord 10
Breaking of Bread – led by Ken Cowell
SONG: Man of sorrows
John 13.30 And as soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
When Judas went out to betray Jesus, John describes it graphically, “And it was night.” For John it wasn’t just a literal night but it spoke of a night of spiritual darkness for Jesus. What follows is a time of dark suffering that Jesus received from mankind. There was the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, the desertion of the other disciples, the arrest of Jesus, the mock trial with false accusations, the ridicule, the flogging, and the beatings. The next day Jesus was portrayed before all as the King of the Jews with a crown of thorns on his head, he was rejected by the Jewish nation and they demanded the release of Barabbas a notorious murderer in the place of Jesus, and ordered for Jesus to be crucified. He carried his cross for a short distance but then because of his weakness required the help Simon of Cyrene. Finally, he was nailed to the cross with all its pain, and lifted high so everyone could continue to jeer at him. The physical suffering at the hands of mankind was terrible but he never complained. Rather “like a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” But that wasn’t the end of his suffering as the following verses reveal.
Matthew 27. 45-46 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani”- which means “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” The suffering before was at the hands of mankind, now it was at the hands of his Father. Also, the darkness previously was natural being the darkness of the night, now it was supernatural, the darkness lasting three hours from midday till three in the afternoon. Something very special was happening in that darkness. It was at this time that Jesus was being punished for our sin. The physical suffering although cruel and terrible was insufficient to take away our sin. It required a spiritual sacrifice where Jesus the spotless Lamb of God gave his life for us. There could be no forgiveness without the sacrifice of the life of Jesus. At that point, God turned his back on His own Son as he became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus was separated from God, that we could be restored to fellowship with God. Jesus was punished for our sin, so we could have forgiveness for our sin. Jesus died for us, that we could have eternal life. We want to give thanks to Jesus that he was willing to suffer so much for us so we could to enter eternal glory with him.
Sharing of Bread and Wine
Synopsis of Paul Carter’s Message
Paul began by reading 1Corinthians 15: 1 – 11.
He shared memories of school assemblies, in particular, the hymn by Cecil Frances Alexander “There is a green hill far away”
THERE IS A GREEN HILL FAR AWAY,
Outside a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.
We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heaven,
Saved by His precious blood.
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
O dearly, dearly has He loved!
And we must love Him too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.
He shared his own experiences of seeing Jerusalem, in particular the “place of a skull” just outside the old city walls.
John 19: 17 - 18
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Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). |
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There they crucified him, and with him two others —one on each side and Jesus in the middle. |
John 19: 41-42
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At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. |
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Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. |
Jesus was mercilessly tortured and ultimately crucified, and his body laid in a tomb. Why did He endure such pains?
Paul tells us in Romans 3: 10
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As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; |
And later in v23:
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for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, |
Yes, we all got it wrong – as 1 John 3:4 reminds us
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Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. |
Sin against God is rebellion – literally “missing the mark”.
Romans 2: 5 – 6
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But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. |
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God "will repay each person according to what they have done." |
Self-made people reckon they can manage life on their own without God, but these verses tell us otherwise. There is a coming day when they will have to answer to God.
Romans 6:23
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For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
1Timothy 1:15 reminds us of the purpose of Jesus’ life
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Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners —of whom I am the worst. |
Paul then shared some examples from his own experiences of saving grace in action – a child’s toy mouse, and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier he rescued and had for 14 years. Also a Jack Russell which follows his wife Heather wherever she goes.
1John 1:9:
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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. |
Isaiah53:5 & 6
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But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. |
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We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. |
The call to us is to:
- Love Jesus
- Trust Jesus
- Obey Jesus
Our response should be to believe, behave, and befriend others.
1John 3: 21 – 23:
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Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God |
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and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. |
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And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. |
We’re called to keep ourselves close to jesus – admit we are sinners, believe in Him as our Saviour, and commit ourselves to serving him, and to love one another.
Closing Song: There is a green hill
Notices
- Wednesday at 7.30pm – Zoom Bible Study and Prayer time. Details from Brian.
- Next Sunday – speaker is Ken Cowell