Sorry this has been posted late. I will try to do better in future.
John
Wesley encouraged Christians to renew their covenant with God.
Traditionally this is done at the start of the year.
Prayer:
Mighty
God, Holy and strong, We give you all praise and glory.
It is
good that we can come together worship you through the power of your
Holy Spirit. Bless us that we may feel your presence within our
hearts. Amen
Song:
Standing on the promises of God
Standing
On The Promises of Christ My King - YouTube
Psalm
25:4 – 11
4 Show
me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.
5 Guide
me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and
my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, Lord,
your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.7 Do not
remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to
your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.
8 Good
and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs
sinners in his ways.
9 He guides the humble in what is
right and teaches them his way.10 All the ways of
the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the
demands of his covenant.11 For the sake of your name, Lord,
forgive my iniquity,
though
it is great.
Prayer
of confession
Gracious
God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep
to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can
no longer bear. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open
to us a future in which we can be changed; As Noah was led to build
an ark and the magi were led by the light of a star me we led by the
Light of the Christ child. Father God forgive us we pray and fill
us with your light and lead us and fill our hearts with heavenly joy.
Amen
Song:
Lead us heavenly Father lead us.
Lead
us heavenly Father (hymn with lyrics) - YouTube
Genesis
9: 8 - 17 page
8 Then
God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now
establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after
you and with every living creature that was with you—the
birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came
out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I
establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be
destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood
to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of
the covenant I am making between me and you and every living
creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I
have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of
the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring
clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I
will remember my covenant between me and you and all living
creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood
to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in
the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting
covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on
the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the
covenant I have established between me and all life on the
earth.”
A
covenant means a sacred agreement or mutual promise between God
and a person or
a group of people.
So
it is by our faith that we can stand on the promise of God
Jeremiah
31:31–34
31 “The
days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when
I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the
people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with
their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to
them,” declares the Lord.33 “This is the covenant I
will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares
the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on
their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.34 No
longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know
the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of
them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will
forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Matthew
2: 1 – 12
After
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King
Herod, Magi[ from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and
asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We
saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem
with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s
chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the
Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,”
they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “‘But
you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means
least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who
will shepherd my people Israel.’”7 Then Herod called the
Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had
appeared . 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and
search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to
me, so that I too may go and worship him.”9 After they had
heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen
when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where
the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were
overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child
with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then
they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of
gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in
a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country
by another route.
Song:
We three kings.
We
Three Kings of Orient Are - YouTube
In
the bible readings this morning three things stand out; lets look
first at
Noah, an
obedient man carries out what God asked of him. And God gave Noah a
binding contract, a covenant never to flood the whole world again.
yesterday we saw a double rainbow in the sky over Bolton. This is a
reminder to us and to God of his Promise. Only God knows why Bolton
needed a double rainbow, may be it’s all the rain they get in
Lancashire.
Secondly
Jeremiah. A prophet who was guided by God;
he had faithfully proclaimed God's message of coming destruction to
Judah for forty years. Now all his warnings and predictions were
coming true. Babylon had laid siege to Jerusalem. The fall of the
city was imminent. You would think after proclaiming a message that
was being fulfilled before their very eyes the people would start to
believe Jeremiah. But Jeremiah's message only hardened the hearts of
the people. They kept taking shots at him, knocking him down, beating
him, leaving him for dead. But Jeremiah kept getting back up. He
prevailed despite suffering to be faithful to God's orders. Jeremiah
persevered in obedience. Who allowed himself to be led
Third
the Magi; We
do not know how many there were. They were strangers in a foreign
land they may have spoken in their native tongue and other languages
possibly Greek and Roman. Remember nobles and kings would have come
for advice So Herod secretly met with them, He did not want his
advisers to know that he was seeking their knowledge. We do not know
how many magi there were, we say three because of the gifts that had
brought but the one thing that gets over looked in this narrative is
they were
guided
by God, they were given a sign a star to follow. To day there is a
lot of light pollution it is hard to see all the stars. Back them and
in some very rural areas of the UK the stars and bright there are
around 200 billon trillion of them but it is still possible on a
very dark clear night to see around a two thousand. The Magi are to
be guided by Just one special star that led to Bethlehem.
What
does it take to be a guide? I was a Girl Guide. When in uniform,
girls were expected to set an example for other girls who would in
turn like to join, to lend a hand, to be of use in the church and
community. The G.G. promise in 1969 to my duty to God in other words
to be obedient to the will of God. To serve the Queen
A
guideuide around a museum, National Trust property or tour guide
has to have a bank of information to relay. There has to be a
listener to follow the instruction when assembling flat pack
furniture, there is a guide to show which bits go where. And what to
do with the bit left over.
To
be guided some one takes the lead
Guide
dogs lead their charge safely, the person has to have great faith in
the dog. Learning to ride a horse is led by another either on foot or
by rider with a lead rein. A Church minister some times wears a dog
collar a symbol of their obedience to being led by God.
The
magi were astrologers, magicians. Kings and nobles would want to
know the future. In some cultures they were thought of as priests,
the Gifts they brought told of the life death end eternal life of the
baby Jesus. They bowed down and worshipped him; these men who
themselves were revered by others. Recognised this little child as
King. God can and does move in mysterious ways.
He
never does what we quite expect. When Jesus came, the Jewish people
were looking for a king who would lead them and get rid of the
Romans. The Jewish authorities would not recognise Jesus as the
Messiah, he was not what they were looking for
Jesus
was obedient to God in every aspect. God wants us to put our faith in
him to follow him learn from him and to share His love with others.
God promised eternal life through Jesus. Jesus asked to be
remembered by sharing in holy Communion, giving us foretaste of the
heavenly banquet prepared for all people’s.
To
day is our covenant service. The day we give our promise to follow
Jesus, to be obedient to His call. Allowing our selves to be led.
When we had a pet shop an old lady had a dog and she was complaining
that it was pulling so Jonathan offered to take it for a walk; what
the lady really meant was it was not willing to walk and she was
having to pull it. The dog was reluctant to walk with Jonathan but
it walked better when he smelt the doggie treat. Unlike the dog, God
does not bribe us, he waits until we are willing to be led. The next
hymn talks about deciding to follow Jesus. You may already do so, but
if you are making up your mind, the last verse asks will you decide
now. After our next hymn we will go in to the covenant prayer where
you make your promise to God. This prayer is not said lightly. It is
your promise to God.
Song:
Bind us together Lord
Bind
us Together (With Lyrics) - YouTube
Lord
God Holy Father Since you have called us through Christ Jesus to
share in this gracious covenant: we take upon ourselves with joy the
yoke of obedience, and, for love of you engage ourselves to seek and
do your perfect will. We are no longer our own, but yours.
I
am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with
whom you will;
Put
me to doing; put me to suffering; Let me be employed for you or laid
aside for you, Exalted for you, or brought low for you; Let me be
full, let me be empty; Let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and
disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, You are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant
made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Matthew
26: 26 - 28.
26 While
they (the disciples ) were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had
given thanks, he broke it and
gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take
and eat; this is my body.”
27 Then Jesus took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he
gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This
is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for
the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink
from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink
it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Song:
Take my life
Take
My Life and Let it Be (Tune: Mozart/Nottingham - 6vv) [with lyrics
for congregations] - YouTube
Benediction
Now
may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal
covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep,
equip
you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in
us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
