e-Service - 10 January 2021

Mexborough Baptist Church Sunday 10th January 2021

As we begin our service, we can be encouraged that God is faithful, however we feel, whatever our week has been like and whatever this next week holds for us. Our call to worship from Psalm 100 reminds us of God's faithful care for us click on the link   

God loves us all very much, every day of our lives, and provides everything we need. We sing together 'Great is thy faithfulness' click on the link   

Prayer  

O Lord, our God, you are worthy of all our praise. You are the God who never fails to keep his promises. We thank you that in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection we see your love, justice, mercy, provision and victory. You are the God who lifts up those who are weighed down. You are the God who provides for your children. Our desire is to praise you as long as we live. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Family Corner  

Our memory verse for this year is 

Here's a little song for all of us - 'I Am like a Star' click on the link 

Pause and think In what ways have you shone like a star this week? Say thank you to God.  

Ashleigh sent us this photo of Lily proudly showing us her sparkly 8-pointed star  

A prayer for the children  

Lord God, you are always with me. You are with me in the day when I am learning and playing and in the night when I am sleeping. You are with me when I’m happy and when I’m sad and when I am worried. Help me to remember that you love me and are with me in everything I do today. Help me to shine like a star. Amen.

Our next song reminds us that God is with us forever - Forever God is Faithful click on the link 

Reflection  

Please have your Bible open at Matthew 28:18-20. Last weekend, Trevor and Enid emailed me a Christmas message that had been sent to them by Enid's sister who had received it from someone else. It's by Stephan Joubert, a South African theologian and minister, who leads ekerk, an Afrikaans virtual community of believers on the internet. If you would like to read the whole message, it's attached at the bottom of this email.  

Joubert takes a look at Matthew's Gospel, particularly the first 2 chapters and describes how shocking they would be for Jewish hearers or readers looking for the Messiah. Matthew includes women in the genealogy of Jesus, non-Jewish and of dubious lifestyle. Jesus had an unheard-of conception, which certainly shocked Joseph until the angel told him it would be all right. The child Jesus is visited and worshipped by astrologers (the wise men) from the land where the Jews had been exiled. Herod wants to kill Jesus because he wants to hold onto power. Jesus escapes the massacre because his parents take him to Egypt, the place where the Jews had been oppressed.  

The point of all these shocking things is that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us - God with all of us, whoever we are and wherever we are. "People who are hope-less, dream-less, life-less – broken." People who are unnoticed, ignored, written-off. And the people who don't notice, or do ignore and judge. People who come to Jesus 'the wrong way' - the Magi were astrologers/astronomers who followed a star, but it was the word of God, the Scriptures, which got them to the right place to worship the Messiah. There are numerous warnings about astrology and other practices in the Bible and God forbids us, as his people, from involvement in them. We are to be people of God's word - guided and instructed by it.  

Immanuel is not just for Christmas. At the end of Matthew Jesus "rises from the dead, and hurls aside the forces of death. And then we have his last words, the words with which the Gospel of Matthew ends, some of the most beautiful words in the whole Bible."  

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.

Jesus is with us always, in every situation. Even when we look back over 2020 with all its problems and difficulties, lockdowns and restrictions, Jesus was with us through them all. And in this first week of 2021, which looks even worse with increasing daily numbers of covid cases and deaths, Jesus is with us in it all. And whatever the rest of 2021 brings, Jesus will be with us through it all. Alleluja!  

As we move into prayer, please watch this video 'Met In Thee' and notice how many towns and countries are represented click on the link   

Now give thanks to God that the gospel has gone into all the world, praying especially for countries or areas which you are interested in and for any churches/missionary organisations in those places.  

Give thanks to God for the Christian history and heritage of our own country.  

2 Chronicles 7:13,14 say, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."  

With these words in mind, pray that the Lord will have mercy on this land and on the world and bring the plague of covid-19 to an end. Amen.  

Our closing hymn also speaks of God's faithfulness - he is faithful to his plan which he has been working out from before the foundation of the world. This plan includes the gospel going out to the whole world in preparation for Jesus' return when 'every eye shall see him' (Revelation 1:7). It seems at the moment that many people are speculating and 'prophesying' that this will happen very soon but God is the only one who knows when it will happen. Until then he asks us to be faithful, to keep shining and reflecting his glory to all those around us. We sing together 'God is working his purpose out' click on the link    

Benediction (based on Psalm 138)  

Go with confidence into the days ahead, trusting in God’s unfailing love and faithfulness.
God will not abandon you, for you are the work of His hands—His own creation—and His love endures forever.

So go in joy to love and serve the Lord! Amen.