Here is love vast as the Ocean
Prayer:
Dear God, Thank you for your amazing power and work in our lives, thank you for your goodness and for your blessings over us. Thank you for your great love and care. Thank you for your sacrifice so that we might have freedom and life. Forgive us for when we don't thank you enough, for who you are, for all that you do, for all that you've given. Help us to set our eyes and our hearts on you afresh. Renew our spirits, fill us with your peace and joy. We love you and we need you, this day and every day. We give you praise and thanks, for You alone are worthy! In Jesus' Name, Amen.
A Story Told by Jesus of a loving Father
Luke 15: 11 – 32
Amazing Grace
Genesis 22 : 1 – 19 The Message
After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!” “Yes?” answered Abraham. “I’m listening.” He said, “Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.” Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham told his two young servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together. Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father?” “Yes, my son.” “We have flint and wood, but where’s the sheep for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “Son, God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they kept on walking together. They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son. Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes, I’m listening.” “Don’t lay a hand on that boy! Don’t touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn’t hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me.” Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham named that place God-Yireh (God-Sees-to-It). That’s where we get the saying, “On the mountain of God, he sees to it.” The angel of God spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham: “I swear—God’s sure word!—because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son, I’ll bless you—oh, how I’ll bless you! And I’ll make sure that your children flourish—like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies. All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.”Then Abraham went back to his young servants. They got things together and returned to Beersheba. Abraham settled down in Beersheba.
Our God is an Awesome God
There are at least thirty similarities between Abraham offering Isaac on mt. Moriah and God offering Jesus on mt. Calvary here are thirty of them
- A donkey is involved on the road to the sacrifice.
- They leave their “homeland” to go to the place of sacrifice (Abraham & Isaac travel to the mountain, Jesus leaves heaven to come to earth).
- To get from where they are to the place of sacrifice requires a journey.
- Each son is the “one and only son” of his father.
- The son is a descendant of Abraham.
- The son had been born with divine intervention.
- The sacrifices take place on the same mountain (called Mt. Moriah in the Old Testament, called Mt. Calvary in the New Testament.
- The companions that were with them stayed behind (most likely on the hill across the valley, called the Mt. of Olives) when the son went with the father for the sacrifice.
- The son carried the wood/cross to the place of sacrifice.
- The son asked questions of the father.
- The father knew what he was called to do.
- The son was submissive to the will of the father.
- The father was willing to sacrifice his son, if necessary.
- The father believed in resurrection.
- The father loved the son.
- A resurrection was prophesied (Abraham said, “we’ll come back to you.” Jesus said, “I will rise on the third day.”)
- The son was laid upon the wood/cross.
- The son was bound to the wood/cross.
- Abraham had a knife to pierce his son, Jesus’ skin was pierced by whips laced with spear
- The Lord Himself provided the sacrifice (the ram, Jesus)
- Blood was shed.
- The sacrifice was a substitute (ram a substitute for Isaac, Jesus a substitute for us).
- The sacrifice was a demonstration of love for God.
- Men of great faith in God who were committed obediently to the will of God.
- The ram was caught in the thorns, and Jesus had a crown of thorns on his head.
- Abundant blessings flow because of the sacrifice (abundant life).
- Abraham was tested, Jesus was tested.
- The son ultimately survived the sacrifice.
- The son was resurrected on the third day.
Number 30 requires a little explanation. Jesus was literally resurrected on the third day. As for Isaac: Abraham heard from the Lord that he was to sacrifice his son. As far as he was concerned, Isaac was as good as dead at that point. The journey from their home to the place of sacrifice took three days. On the third day, God provided the ram so that Isaac was spared his life, i.e., he was “resurrected” on the third day. The Bible tells us that Abraham had great faith all along, believing that even if God did call him to slay his son that God would bring his son back to life!
When we confess our sins in our prayers and ask for forgivenss God listens and cares, he loves us, he gave his son for us that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we gain life in full for with this love. He “kissed this guilty world with love.”
For Gods Love is higher, wider, deeper, than we can ever imagin.
Wide wide as the ocean
Prayers that are in your heart.
Lord’s Prayer
Here is love vast as the Ocean
As deep as the sea, or as high as the heavens, wherever we go, whatever we do, God’s love reaches in to every aspect of our lives. He is Our Father, we are his Children, whatever our colour, what ever language we speak, we are all brothers and sisters with one wonderful awesome father.
Psalm 139
Wide wide as the ocean ( This is differedent)
As it is father’s day to day, here is a letter to from God our father.
As you log off from this service remember this:
God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting,
from generation to generation.
Just as a father has compassion on his children
so God has compassion on those fear him,
who listen to his voice,
and who do his will.
Go out in the knowledge
that the everlasting love of God goes with you.
Amen.
Here is love vast as the Ocean
It is song in Welsh first
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