Worship led by Dawn Budd
Last week, I had a really bad week. I had an awful few days at work, with some unexpected news causing stress and upset and then I had an really bad episode of back pain. For those of you who suffer with this you’ll understand how that feels. I sat in the chair, crying, as spasms gripped through my upper back. I had been sitting, walking, trying to stretch it out for hours. As I sat alone in the chair, I felt God speak to me “Why haven’t you asked me for help?” With that, I prayed, and prayed, and prayed.
Whilst God didn’t take away my pain immediately, He did let me know he was there and that he was listening. We are blessed to have a present and faithful God. A God who listens and wants to hear from us. A God who provides and deserves our praise.
Psalm 139:7 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”
Deuteronomy 7 v 9 “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”
SING 147 Great is thy faithfulness
Psalm 56 v 3-4 “When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?”
Psalm 32 v 7 “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance”
Psalm 27 v 5 “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high up on a rock”
SING You are my hiding place
Sometimes when we are experiencing feelings of severe desperation, it’s really easy to focus on our own self-pity and forget to praise God. I did exactly that, whilst sitting there in pain, until I heard God speak. Once I had prayed and asked for God to take away my pain, my prayer turned to thanks. Thanks that He is a healer, that He is all powerful, our omniscient God.
1 Peter 5 v 7 “Cast all your anxiety onto him, because he cares for you.”
Psalm 145 v 18 “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call out to him in truth”
Romans 8 v 28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him”
Psalm 100 v 5 “For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever; his faithfulness continues through all the generations”
SING 894 Lord I come before your throne of grace
In the spring of 1908, Charles Alexander returned to Philadelphia with evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman and later relayed this testimony in relation to the impact of our next song:
“During our mission in Philadelphia last spring, Dr. Charles W. Gordon called me across the waiting room of the hotel where we were staying and introduced me to a fine looking young man, who told me this story. . . . His face was shining as he told us how he had been in our meeting a few days before and had been converted. When I questioned him I found that he had been in darkness, and felt he was too weak to live a Christian life. He was in the meeting when I was leading the people in the song “He will hold me fast,” and he said that was the very message he needed. The thought that Christ could hold him fast, and that he need not depend upon his own will power, or his own strength, was the means of his decision for Christ.”
We will play the song on YouTube. It’s a song you may or may not know, but last week it also brought me so much comfort and encouragement, during which was a really difficult few days for me. With the anxiety and stress from work plus the excruciating back pain, it gave me such a peace to know I was in God’s hands and that He will hold me fast, for my Saviour loves me so.
Breaking of Bread – led by Brian Legg
I John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.”
SONG: How deep the Father’s love for us
Notes of Stephen Neal’s Message
Look back at God’s faithfulness “All my life you have been faithful …”
Look back at the life of Joseph. He had been rejected by his brothers, sold by them as a slave in Egypt, he’d had false accusations made against him, and was cast into prison. Whilst there, he had interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and the chief baker. Joseph had asked the cupbearer to remember him favourably before Pharoah – but Gen 40:23 tells us “He forgot him”,
Read Gen 41: 1 – 38 – this details the dreams of Pharaoh, and the wise interpretations which Joseph was enabled by God to give.
Joseph had every reason to be depressed – here he was, imprisoned in a Egyptian cell for things he hadn’t done, rejected by his brothers – and even those he had helped failed to do anything for him.
Do we sometimes think “Has God forgotten me?”
Note:
- God sometimes just makes us wait – in times of uncertain health, finance, friendships – remember God does have a plan for us, despite our despair.
- Joseph didn’t give up, or get angry with God.
- Romans 8: 28 says “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him”
The end result was that Joseph was elevated by Pharaoh to be his number 2, as he recognised that the spirit of God was in Joseph. Despite being a pagan king, he recognised that Joseph knew God – his life was marked by the Spirit of God.
As we interact with people who don’ know God, what do they see in our lives? In our reactions to everything going on around us – do they see the Spirit of God in my life?
Earlier in Genesis 22: 18, we read of God’s promise to Abraham that “through his offspring all nations on earth will be blessed. God’s plan for the redemption of mankind was to be through Abraham.
In many ways, we can see in Joseph a picture of Jesus:
- He was a shepherd
- Loved by his Father
- He was sent to seek
- He was betrayed
God’s plan for redemption was to be through Jesus, who came to bring life
POEM
SONG: All my life you have been faithful
NOTICES
- Next Saturday - 11am in Town Centre – Carols led by Churches for Horley.
- Next Sunday 11th December – worship led by Sue Clarke and Worship Team
- Sunday 18th December – 10.15 am – our Carol service here
- Sunday 25th December – Christmas Day service – 10.30am to 11.15am
- Post Box for cards to church members will be here on 11th and 18th December.