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Sunday 30th May 2021 

The Moving of The Spirit 

To encourage the acceptance of the Holy Spirit and the willingness to use the gift of God.  

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Call to Worship

God Loves us,

We return that love, by accepting Jesus’ word and making him our Lord

  We then give God a commitment to try and live to his ways

      And to help us, The Holy Spirit is given, enabling us to use the gifts of God.

         These gifts are not for ourselves but for the benefit of others

      To help us go and do God’s work, witnessing the truth and the ways of God

   God’s gifts are Not to be ignored or abused but to be eagerly sought after,

These Gifts of God are to demonstrate we are loving followers of God and his son Jesus.

 

Using the gifts give us the confidence and the encouragement to step out in faith

      Whatever we do or say, should show God’s love to others,

   We come together to grow in fellowship, willing to be touched by The Spirit of God

And every day we ought to have those moments when we meet with God

 

Hymn    673   There is a Redeemer

https://youtu.be/tUqfdaCLm0Y

 

 

Opening prayer.

Our Heavenly Father we come here to join together to worship you

   We acknowledge you as The only true God, and your son Jesus as our Lord.

      Thank you for choosing us and may our worship please you

   Jesus we willingly accept God’s Spirits which was sent to us through you

May our faith in you give us the certainty to always witness to your love

     

Holy Spirit come, be with us in our worship, Fill us with your Spirit

   Guide us in our thinking so we may follow God’s ways and love one another.

      Encouraging us to use all your gifts so we may spread God’s love to others

  And be as one in fellowship with yourself, Jesus and with Our Heavenly Father

Lord of All, we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son,  

 

As we say together The Prayer that Jesus taught us 

 

The Lords Prayer

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

 

 

Offertory/Welcome

Hymn I will offer up my life

https://youtu.be/kQkzHwz2eLE

 

Bible Reading: Acts 2:1-4 - 13-21, 36-39

 

Hymn Breathe on me breath of God.

https://youtu.be/-5_EgSd3gj0                                             

 

Talk

We, like those first Christians, have been given the task to bring Jesus’ words to others

   That is, to help build God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven

      It’s what we say in the Lord’s Prayer and we need help to do it

      Some feel to make it happen, we need buildings, money, a standing in society

   Qualifications, professionalism, traditions, yet these things aren’t important

The early church had none of them, and they grew

  

When we look at those first Christians, we see they allowed themselves to be led

   by Jesus’ gifts; of faith and God’s Holy Spirit

      Faith for the certainty of having a relationship between ourselves and God

   Knowing Jesus is real, our leader, our teacher who gave us the truth and his friendship.

Along with the Holy Spirit to guide and encourage us to do God’s work.

 

Yet in less than 40 years of Spirit filled growth, the first churches were having problems

   Christians were persecuted by both Jews and Romans, then Jerusalem was destroyed

   Ephesus was no longer fervent, Laodicea was lukewarm and Sardis was dead    

      The reason being The Spirit wasn’t active in the people, they had lost direction

   People were going to church without the willingness to put God first,

 

In 12 years’ time we should be celebrating, 2,000 years since Jesus’ resurrection

 We need to encourage each other to use God’s gifts, in taking Jesus’ message to others

      Many churches have ageing members who have faith but no longer the energy

       They’re frustrated not knowing what to do, therefore there’s little mission or growth,

    And this society needs the love of Jesus before it truly becomes a secular one

 We need Revival and it needs everyone to be earnestly praying and witnessing for Jesus

It’s not always easy to do, yet the more we try the easier it becomes.

 

The passage in Acts tells of the Spirit of God coming and changing lives and attitudes

   The 12 disciples, plus another 100 followers gathered when the Spirit came at Pentecost

      Including Jesus’ family and a number of the women who followed the group

   They worshipped God, praying earnestly for direction and encouragement

They wanted to live to God’s ways, serve God, carrying out Jesus’ teachings,

 

The disciples were in hiding, waiting, wondering what would happen next 

   They must have been uncertain even fearful, but still had the courage to stay together

      They were doing what Jesus had told them, To pray and wait for The Spirit of God

   Who would guide them in the truth, so help in the role of witnessing The Word of God

That lesson is we don’t try to witness our own, but with the guidance of The Holy Spirit.

 

In Jerusalem there were hundreds of thousands of people

   They came to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, when God’s law was given by Moses

      All had an understanding of God but were led by priests who had rejected Jesus

         It was 50 days after Jesus had been crucified

      For the disciples it was difficult to speak against the priests and their traditions           

   Since tradition makes people comfortable and unprepared to change or be challenged

Should the disciples had witness Jesus openly then they would risk arrest and their lives

 

The Holy Spirit coming changed all that

   It was the first time God had sent his Spirit upon a large group of followers

      Who were then inspired to go out and preach the word of God to strangers

         I can remember when at 15 I made my commitment to God

   I felt a wonderful peace, what I now call a gentle stroke of love 

Since then I’ve wanted to share the experience, which ultimately is why I’m here now

 

We like the disciples have not been asked but TOLD to take Jesus’ message to the people

   And it is difficult to take that first step when unsure of the response we’ll receive

      Our problem is we often don’t really trust that the Holy Spirit is with us

         We may have the desire to witness in some way but fear the reaction we’ll get

      Do we cast pearls before swine, will we be thought of as religious nuts?

   What’s important is not what others think, or what we think, but what God thinks of us

  These gifts from God are varied and spread out for everyone to use

 

Those who make Jesus Lord are given the gift of The Holy Spirit and they are changed,

   We see Peter stand up and preach, proclaiming God, quoting the prophet Joel

         They were able through Faith and God’s Spirit to do miracles and healing

      No wonder so many people were converted that day as Peter spoke

   Giving his own story of witnessing that Jesus had risen, Jesus was alive

Followed by the proof that they could see for themselves the working of The Holy Spirit. 

 

 

We all have different gifts, given at the different stages of our relationship with God

   In professing to love him, we need to witness that love, not hide it or deny it

When asked what we did this weekend, the first thing we can say is we met with God 

 

Peter had the courage to stand up and tell people about Jesus,

   He gave a personal testimony and that’s the most powerful way of witnessing

      In witnessing our faith we will make enemies but we will also make friends.

         Real friends that will stand by us when things get hard

      But best of all is Jesus will be pleased with us and won’t deny us

   We witness our love of God in the way we live, in what it is we do and say

Witnessing Jesus is a consequence of loving him, it’s why we have been given gifts

 

By accepting the gifts he offers and using them to his glory we will see Revival

   Jesus told us to use the gifts of God’s Spirit to bear fruit, then we show

      Love, peace, joy, hope, faith, faithfulness, patience, encouragement,

         Hospitality, healing, caring, serving, kindness, goodness,

      Teaching, wisdom, discernment, leadership, prophecies,

   Righteousness, prayerfulness, truth, judging, forgiveness, mercy

Tongues, and their interpretation, miraculous power, self control, spiritual zeal,

 

Christianity is being threaten by Agnosticism those who deny they need God in their lives

      When people have what they need, they think they don’t need God?

         They think they not really different from those who call themselves Christians

      Well what really matters in the end, is not what they think, but what God thinks

   So unless these are the last days we need to bring Revival,

The disciples showed us the first step and that is coming together in prayer

 

What Jesus’ followers did even before the coming of the Holy Spirit was to pray

   They joined together to pray, not just for an hour once a week but days on end

      Each Revival has started with Christian getting together and praying regularly

   We need to do likewise earnestly praying for the Holy Spirit to help us work for revival

Every one of us can pray, so invite a friend round to pray and pray regularly and earnestly

 

It is up to us to create an environment that God can see his children love him,

   That we are prepared to put ourselves out for him,

      Tell him what we want, which needs to be the same as he wants, ,

         Remember loving God means changes and people in general don’t like change

      People make excuses, they’re too busy, doing the things they like to do

   They judge the failing of the church in the past, how old fashioned it is in the present

And how in their minds, how unexceptional Christians are and Christianity is.

 

 

We have to change that, today most people under 40 have not been told about God

   Satan has done some of his best work persuading educationist and politicians

      That God and the spiritual side of life is unnecessary

Fighting Satan is never easy but we can win with the help of the Holy Spirit

 

How do we bring Jesus and his teaching to people, how do we start a revival?

   First we need to know God’s ways and then commit ourselves to them

         We need to come together not just on Sundays, to live to God’s ways

      Building a community of follower needs to be a priority, for us all not just for leaders

   And it should be fun, a joy, working together as part of the same family

Caring for one another and in living in God’s love, it’s that which makes us different

 

By living in the love of God, in friendship and fellowship with each other

   People will be asking the question why are we so different.

      What brings us such joy in our life. Not just happiness but joy,                                                                          Even when things go against us, and yes, things do become difficult

      But who said being a child of God was going to be easy, look what happen to Jesus.

   He put up with rejection, mockery, corrupt trail, wiping, crucifixion and death for God

And he was raised up to heaven because of it.

 

We can’t persuade anyone to come to God, Only God can.

   For a non Christian it’s often not logical nor desirable to them to change their ways

      But whoever God has chosen will be affected, we need to sow seeds, be their catalyst

      To bring people into a worship service like this would for some be Alien

   So we also need to offer different types of Meetings that people nowadays can relate to

These can then grow into services similar to the ones we are use to.

 

What Christians can do that really makes a different is use the gifts God has given them.

   After The Holy Spirit came, God then added thousands to the church,

      The early church became a community devoted to the leadership,

   Meeting and praising God as one and like the Apostles using the Gifts of God’s Spirit

Seeing wonders and miraculous signs occur, then people will come to join us

 

We say regularly, Thy kingdom come on earth, as in heaven

   Well we are in God’s kingdom the moment we accept Jesus as Lord

      Which means we have to live in God’s ways no matter how hard that might be.

   Accepting rejection and mockery just as Our Lord did, we need to live to please God.

 And we do that by living to God’s way and using the gifts of The Spirit.

 

Hymn  Love Divine, all loves excelling

 

Blessing     Remember always that God loves us.

     May we always be ready to serve him in all that we do and say 

   The blessing of God Almighty, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit,

Be with us as we go in hope, peace, joy, faith and love, witnessing for the Lord. Amen

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