HYMN New every morning is the love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZn-4ZyGJI
prayer
God
whose love reaches to the highest heavens,
God whose
righteousness stands like the tallest mountain ,
God whose
justice is deeper than any ocean,
we come before you today in humility and faith. We thank you for all
you have given us in our lives. We ask for your guidance and
strength. Show us your way and fill us with courage and wisdom. Help
us to remember your love, and grace to be faithful in our service to
you. Give us patience and understanding to face life's challenges.
We ask that your holy spirit may hover over us and fill us with your love Amen.
Genesis 22: 1 – 14
22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied.
2 Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah.(mountainous area) Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will show you.’ 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.’
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied.
‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’
8 Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied.
12 ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’
In
our opening hymn there was a verse that said “If on our daily
course our mind
be set to hallow all we find, new treasures
still, of countless price, God will provide for sacrifice.” God
provided Abraham Ram with
a
as a sacrifice,
God also provided
His only son to be our saving sacrifice to save us from sin and
death, we will read about that later.
Lets look at a very short view of Abraham’s life.
Abram was raised by idol-worshipping parents.
Joshua 24:2 tells us that Abram’s father was a worshipper of idols, which likely means that idol worship was familiar to Abram as well. Leaving behind his father’s house meant leaving behind everything that was familiar, including his religion. This new living God, must have seemed very mysterious because he chose to communicate directly with Abram, while the false idols of Abram’s youth were understood to be distant gods who did not personally connect.
Abram was the tenth-generation descendant of Noah.
Abram was an old man before he even began his journey with the one true God.
At 75, Abram was living in Haran , which was an ancient city of Mesopotamia, now in SE Asian Turkey, It was an important centre on the trade route from Nineveh to Carchemish and the seat of the Assyrian moon god.
When God made himself known and called Abram.. According to the biblical account, Abram (“The Father Is Exalted”), who is later named Abraham (“The Father of Many Nations”), a native of Ur in Mesopotamia, is called by God to leave his own country and people, and journey to an unidentified land, where he will become the founder of a new nation.
It was 25 years later—when Abram was even older—that he and his wife Sarah were finally gifted with Isaac. Let us look at her reaction.
Genesis 18: 1 – 15
1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way – now that you have come to your servant.’
‘Very well,’ they answered, ‘do as you say.’
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. ‘Quick,’ he said, ‘get three seahs (35lb) of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.’
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ they asked him. ‘There, in the tent,’ he said.
10 Then one of them said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child, now that I am old?” 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.’
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, ‘I did not laugh.’ But he said, ‘Yes, you did laugh.’
Have you ever laughed at God? It seems like such a blasphemous notion, but we likely do it more often than we think. We may feel a prompt: Go pray with that stranger over there? Thinking answer: I think I’ll just try nodding and smiling first...Prompt: Tell your testimony in front of a large group, thinking answer: maybe next month when I’m not as tired. Prompt: to have say grace with my husband/child/family member/friend at a restaurant, response: with a smile we may even laugh inside with embarrassment especially if its at a restaurant of a referent religion.
Whether we laugh out loud or in our hearts, God always hears us. The LORD promised Abraham a son through his wife Sarah,
over the years Abraham had grown in his faith and trusted in God and was obedient. Even through his heart was breaking in taking he Isaac to offer him to God . He trusted God to provide a sacrifice.
Abraham knew he served a mighty God and so do we.
HYMN What a mighty God were serve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGL15yoqsJI
Saul being a Pharisee he started out persecuting the believers followers of the way. but he encounter Jesus. When travelling on the Damascus road Saul lost his sight for three days
A disciple Annas was instructed to restore souls vision he was afraid
in the book of Acts Luke records the following in chapter 9 from verse 10
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, ‘Ananias!’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he answered.
11 The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.’
13 ‘Lord,’ Ananias answered, ‘I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.’
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord – Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here – has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptised, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who caused havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’ 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
Saul became Paul and became obedient to God he wrote to fellow believers in Rome then later on when he was arrested he wrote to other Christian Churches in other areas to encourage them. Paul became obedient to God and trusted Christ for the rest of his life.
Paul writes the following to the churches in Romans 6:12-23
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul knew there were many slaves in the Roman empire
The Roman Christian Church would understood his message
The price of an enslaved person in ancient Rome varied considerably depending on the sex, age, and skills of the individual. Based on literary and documentary sources, the average price for an unskilled or moderately skilled enslaved person in the first three centuries AD was about 2,000 sesterces. To give a sense of scale, in the first century AD, a legionary (a Roman foot soldier) received a salary of 900 sesterces per year – amounting to less than 600 following deductions for rations, boots, and hay. An ordinary centurion (a legionary's commander) was paid 15 times more, only needing to set aside wages for a few months in order to afford an enslaved person.
Skilled enslaved individuals
cost considerably more. The Roman writer Columella, writing in the
first century AD, tells us that a vinedresser (someone who worked on
the cultivation of grapevines) could cost between 6,000 and 8,000
sesterces. However, a senator (whose properties had to be worth
at least a million sesterces) could comfortably afford this.
Roman
documents discuss elite households having hundreds, if not
thousands, of enslaved people, some of them highly trained and
specialised. It's clear great funds were required to buy servants, as
well as to maintain them. This is also true for those who performed
necessary public services, paid at public expense. In
first-century Rome, no less than 700 enslaved people worked on the
maintenance of the capital's aqueducts – paid for by the public
treasury and the emperor.
Under Roman law, enslaved people had no personal rights and were regarded as the property of their masters. They could be bought, sold, and mistreated at will and were unable to own property, enter into a contract, or legally marry.
Most of what we know today comes from texts written by masters. These authors had little interest in describing servants' daily lives and they only present us with polarised depictions of enslaved individuals. They are presented either as stereotypical 'good slaves' or, more commonly, as 'bad', 'disloyal', 'lazy' and deceitful people. Despite the text's elite bias, we get a sense of how differently people could be treated, often based on their occupations and skills.
Saul’s conversion baptism when the Holy Spirit moved with in him, Saul became Paul meaning humble. He humbled him self and became a slave a servant to God to be committed to God’s will, to lay aside his will to be completely obedient even unto death.
Just like Paul, Abraham was obedient to the will of God .
God offered us His only son Jesus that we may come to him learn from him and do what he teaches us through him that we may understand what it means to be obedient to the will of God.
Jesus taught us to be servants to the will of God. He showed us How we should pray and how we should remember him.
Jesus prayed in the garden before his crucifixion,
not that his own will be done but that of His father’s. Jesus puts his trust in God. And was totally obedient. Jesus shocked his disciples by doing a slave’s job, he washed his disciples’ feet and told them they too had to become servants. I think that Paul was trying to convey that he too became a slave to the will of God. So must the Christians he was writing to.
And Yes that letter is also for us to day, we must also become servants/ slaves and do what God commands of us. He is a master of love and forgiveness God wants the best for us
all he asks is that we trust and obey Him. Amen.
HYMN When we walk with the Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB4KcleYiWM
PRAYERS of confession and intersession
Lord we know we do not do all the things you want us to do, we let our thoughts focus on consumerism, the latest of gadgets, we give in to temptation.
Sometime our words are harsh and unkind. Even our thoughts are impure
So
we come before you to lay our lives before you, to say that we are
truly sorry, take our sin and wash us put a pure willing spirit with
in us. Blot out all our transgressions and fill us with your peace
O Lord. Father
God source of all goodness and love, accept the fervent prayers of
your people; in the multitude of your mercies look with compassion
upon all who turn to you for help; you are the source of all
goodness, generosity and love.
We thank you for opening the
hearts of many to those who are fleeing for their lives.
Help us
now to open our arms in welcome, and reach out our hands in
support.
That the desperate may find new hope, and lives torn
apart by war be restored.
God of compassion, your love for
humanity was revealed in Jesus,
whose earthly life began in the
poverty of a stable and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross:
We
hold before you those who are homeless and those who are hungry.
Draw near and comfort them in spirit and bless those who work
to provide them with shelter, food and friendship. We
pray for those who are being held in slavery today, may they find
freedom. We
pray for those
who traffic people, open their
eyes that they may see the misery their actions cause may they cease
their illegal activity.
We pray for those who are mourning….Bring Comfort O Lord
We pray for Christians meeting in secret, for those being tortured for uttering your Holy name. We pray for Churches in our country…. We pray for our friends and neighbours that they may come to know of your love. ….. Unite us with our brothers and sisters through out the world through the power of the Holy Spirit as we say the Lord’s prayer together.
Our
Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that
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.
It is Good that we can come together to remember the life and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you able to come to Jesus and give to him you all, I know we all have fears with in us. But with Jesus the lamb of God can and will strength us for he loves us He is calling us to follow him, and to trust him with our lives, He wants us to be His friend to be loyal faithful and obedient.
There is a children's song about obeying The Lord ( we are all children of God)
SONG Obey, Obey the Lord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhGzMgzuZd4
Poem “God called” by S. Youdan
I heard Gods voice speaking to me the other day
saying not to look back but to walk in His way,
God called me not to doubt but to simply obey
God called me to trust Him as I awoke to day
Saying not to look back only to watch and pray
Will you ever trust in me and simply Obey ?
Prayer by chainprayers.com
Dear God, please give me a humble heart to yield to your instructions at all times, so that I can prosper. Help me to obey you and let me be flexible for Holy Spirit's guidance. Let me follow when you lead, and let me be willing to receive your blessings whenever you are ready to hand them over.
HYMN Simply Trusting every day with the Salvation Army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m8_qwMFWm4
May the Love of God enfold you. May the grace of Jesus enrich you.
May the Power of the Holy Spirit fill you and give you peace Amen.
Simply Trusting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObU1FiHh5EA
Blessing
Deep Peace
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