Sunday 25th July

Opening Reflection

Greetings and welcome to our service this morning, and whatever your week has been, may the presence of the Lord surround you and uphold you. May God himself, the heavenly Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, release grace over you and impart total well-beinginto your lives.

We come to worship, to offer our praise and prayer to Christ our Saviour, to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  May our hope fill our hearts, as we seek to be transformed as we walk daily, drawing closer to God.

Psalm 96:1-4
Go ahead—sing your new song to the Lord!
    Let everyone in every language sing him a new song.
2–3 Don’t stop! Keep on singing! Make his name famous!
    Tell everyone every day how wonderful he is.
    Give them the good news of our great Savior.
    Take the message of his glory and miracles to every nation.
    Tell them about all the amazing things he has done.
For the Lord’s greatness is beyond description,
    and he deserves all the praise that comes to him.
    He is our King-God, and it’s right to be in holy awe of him.

Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, in our praise and worship to you this morning, may our voices want to sing, to shout to praise your Holy Name. Lord, surround us with your love, your peace, and as we continue to fix our eyes firmly on you, may your presence, light a new song, a new challenge, a new meaning, and transform us from within, so that by your grace, so just as your anointed ministry captures the hearts for us to follow you, not half hearted, but with all of our attention, to walk your path for our lives, your will and purpose Lord in all I do, this I pray in Jesus precious Name, Amen.

Hymn:

Prayers of Confession:

Let us pray.

Holy God, hear our prayer as we come before you and offer up our prayers of confession. 

Lord, we seek your forgiveness, for the mending of our hearts, torn apart by our unkindness.  For the healing of our souls, and the correction of our ways.

For the forgiveness we seek for the sin we have allowed to persist within us.  For the reconciliation of the world, whose division condemns us.

Help us oh Lord, as we desire our love for God and need more of His grace and mercy.  We pray for the courage to admit our fault, the strength to amend our actions.

Lord heal my heart, my soul, 

Let us spend a few minutes as we offer up our own prayers of confession, seeking God's forgiveness before concluding with the prayer Jesus taught us,

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory
Are yours, now and forever. 
Amen

Hymn:

Prayers of Intercession

After each section of prayer please pause to add your own personal prayer needs.

As we gather here again Father to praise and worship you, we are thankful that we can come to you at any time and talk to you in prayer, you are never too busy, or not interested in the things we want to share with you. You long for us to share what’s on our hearts and minds and you are never in a rush to get away, what a privilege it is Lord, may we never take it for granted or take advantage of this fact.

Pause

Father we thank you for your faithfulness, for the way you have walked with us and the leadership over the past 18months. We rejoice, thank and praise you that we will now have a new minister coming to join us later on this year. Please be with us as a fellowship here at St. Andrew’s as we prepare for this time of transition knowing that we can trust you.

Pause 

We pray for the Church worldwide that their leaders will come to you for guidance and not just use their own thoughts and wisdom when planning and making decisions. Help them to see situations through your eyes and act accordingly.

Pause

Father please help Christians to stay close to you so that the light and love of Jesus can shine through very brightly as we live with biblical principles. May we draw closer and closer to you and rely more on the Holy Spirit each day for revelation and power to do the things you ask us to do.

Pause

Lord we pray for the world and its leaders, we bring before you all the countries like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Taiwan, China, South Africa and other counties where Christians are oppressed and have unelected leaders who don’t care for their people.

We also remember the people of Germany who are struggling to come to terms with losing their homes and loved ones in the floods that have recently torn through their country.please help them to rebuild their lives.

Pause

Please give our government wisdom as we seek to arrange trade deals for the United Kingdom, may the discussion be honest and mutually beneficial. to the countries we are dealing with and the United Kingdom. Father we pray that you will help members of Parliament be authentic and honest with our country so that the people of the United Kingdom can trust what we are told.

Pause

Merciful God we pray for everyone we know and those we may not know who need a special touch from you in whatever way they need, whether they are sick, or waiting for necessary tests and appointments, or results of tests. Lord please help them in the waiting, fill them with your peace and help them to lean on you in this time of uncertainty.

We also remember every person, carer, NHS worker from consultants all the way through to porters and auxiliary workers, each and everyone playing their part to make sure that all of the NHS continues to run as smoothly as possible.

Father will you please be with those who are coming to the end of their time here on earth, Bring alongside them, Christian Consultants, doctors, nurses,  other medical staff , carers and their families. Will you be prepared please Lord to fill all those who are attached to them with your peace, wisdom, love and presence in a tangible way so that their final days will be the most comfortable that they can be in these circumstances. May they be your hands and feet here on earth as they administer medical treatment and services with love and dedication.

Pause

Help us to share a word of thanks or encouragement to those we come across  each day to show that we recognise how much they have done to keep our country running each day. We can show our appreciation in many ways, a phone call, a card, a bunch of flowers or just even a smile or a thank you. 

We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn

Announcements

  1. Whilst the church building is closed, our services are on line.

  2. Coffee morning via zoom:  11am  see church email with details on how to join.  To gather from the comfort of our homes, and share, Songs, word of encouragement, testimonies, prayer.  We look forward to seeing you.  If you would like further details on how to join contact office@standrewsbletchley.org.uk

  3. To receive all the latest information and news, check out the church newsletter sign up to emails

Offering

Whilst we appreciate this is a challenging time, we are grateful and give our thanks to God for all His provision, for your word says:  16 Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.

We are thankful Lord that you have blessed us with a church building, although whilst we are unable to meet there in person at the moment we know that we still have expenditure that we have to meet. 

Lord place on our hearts what we are able to give, ensuring we do not give beyond our means. 

Ways to Give - Please click on this link to see our Ways to Give.

Prayers of Thanksgiving

Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!  And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence.

Let us pause, and think of the blessings that God has bestowed upon us this last week.  Thankful for the small things in life,  appreciating the little things in life that focuses our attention on what is pleasurable, nurturing, and sustaining us, not focusing on the annoying frustrations of life, but living our lives full of gratitude.

The air that we breath, for food, for our homes, for family and friends, our pets,  for making others happy, listening to songs, watching a film, reading a book, tears of joy, relationships, time to sit and be still, a favourite place, a friendly voice to someone in need, a smile, the list goes on. 

Receive God's love gratefully, and be willing to give your lives every day for the transformation of history.  Tody, more than ever, the world needs your joy and service, your strength and your commitment for the construction of a new relationships, new opportunities, new timings.  Lord your word says, with gratitude in your hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God Colossians 3:16

Lord give us each the strength to be guided by your call to transform the world.  To bring good news to the poor, the humble and the suffering.  Lord each of us is unable to do this on our own and need more of you in our lives each day.  Give us each the courage and firm commitment to follow you with all our heart.  Lord,  In Jesus Name we pray Amen.

Hymn:

Reading: Isaiah 61:1-2

The Good News of Deliverance

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;

Sermon

Hymn:

Closing Reflection

May the presence of our Lord, fill you afresh this new day.  As we dwell and reflect on God's Word, may we each have the confidence and courage to share our faith, the good news in all our conversations.  Lord, loving Father, you sent your Son to come and shine His light, to show us the way, to guide us, encourage us, enrich us, teach us, humble us, heal us,and save us,  so in turn can have our spiritual eyes open wider, sharing God's love for the building of God's Kingdom.

Ephesians 1:18-23
18 I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones!

19 I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power 20 that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm! 21 And now he is exalted as first above every ruler, authority, government, and realm of power in existence! He is gloriously enthroned over every name that is ever praised, not only in this age, but in the age that is coming!

22 And he alone is the leader and source of everything needed in the church. God has put everything beneath the authority of Jesus Christ and has given him the highest rank above all others23 And now we, his church, are his body on the earth and that which fills him who is being filled by it!

We give thanks to Donna Elliott for sharing God's Word for us today. 

 We are so thankful for all those who continue to pray and support us during our time of interregnum. for it is our faith, our unity, or diversity which makes church.  What a wonderful blessing. 

We remember that even if the building is closed, the Church is still present in the people, the living body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and during this time, God has called us into a deeper communion with Him.  We are here to encourage, to serve our communities, seeking God's face, His wisdom as we walk together.  Not our own wants but aligning our hearts desire to that of God.  We look forward to the day the church doors are open wide, and we can celebrate, and we are thankful for all those in the preparation and participation for this to happen God will and purpose. 

The Lord bless you and keep you,
The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the son and Holy Spirit
Be among you and remain with you always Amen   
                     Numbers 6:24-25

Closing Hymn:

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