[0:00] service and at six o'clock we have a monthly gaelic service which will be led by Reverend Kenny Ferguson and following that we'll have an English fellowship at 7 30 which Gordon McLeod will be leading and once again just a reminder that if in the minister's absence anyone needs pastoral support please speak first of all to one of the elders and also Reverend Ian McRitchie from Graver will provide pastoral cover if there's any particular need for that these are all intimations and I'll just ask George to come forward and lead us in worship good morning our call to worship this morning is from Galatians chapter 4 Galatians chapter 4 at verse 4 but when the set time had fully come God sent his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship because you are his sons God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts the spirit who calls out Abba father so you are no longer a slave but God's child and since you are his child God has made you also an heir amen let's sing together to God's praise and let's sing from Psalm from Psalm 34 Psalm 34 and we're going to sing the first 10 verses at all times I will bless the Lord I'll praise him with my voice because I glory in the Lord let troubled souls rejoice let's stand and praise God together if we can
[1:55] Lord will I bless all thy spirit's grace my soul shall push in God's grace my soul shall push in God's grace Lord the Lord with me shall hear with joyfulness with joyfulness exalt the Lord with me let us exalt his name together I sought the Lord he care and did me from all fears deliver
[3:00] He looked to him and lighten where not share the Lord with me and I said to him I sought the Lord he care and did me from all fears deliver오 greatly they took to him and lighten where not share the word and wear their faces this this This poor mankind God e'er not saved Him from all His distresses.
[3:47] The angel of the Lord encamps Unprouded compasses All those about that do in fear And then delivereth O taste and see that God is good Who trust in Him is blessed Here God is saved None that in fear
[4:47] Shall we with heart progress The lions young may hungry be And they may lock their food But they that truly seek The Lord Shalom Ageny Let's join together in prayer.
[5:36] Let's pray. Our Father we want to give you the glory this morning For the person that you are And the things that you have done Lord we look out at the creation Especially on this beautiful island And Lord we just see Your majesty We see your artistic touch Lord we do just thank you As we look at your word That we see your faithfulness Lord we see your care Your love Your compassion And Lord we thank you For that amazing gift Of your son Of you Father Being willing to part with him To solve a problem That no one and nothing else Could solve The problem of the sin Of the world Lord and we thank you Lord Jesus That you were willing To leave glory A step that you had Never taken before And willing to come
[6:36] To this earth To be our Saviour And to experience A death And a punishment That should have been ours Lord today We want to hear your voice We want to hear it As we sing And we want to hear it As we pray We want to hear it As we read your word And as we think about it Lord we thank you That your word Assures us That the vilest offender Who truly believes That moment from Jesus A pardon Receives Lord how we just thank you And we know That there are people That there are possibly people In our meeting today Or listening online Or on the telephone Who just know This very experience Of coming from A life Of just Sin And degradation And yet Being lifted Out of that And coming to know
[7:37] The Lord Jesus Christ His forgiveness And a promise Of glory Lord we thank you For everyone That's come to see you Come to know you Whatever the circumstances And Lord we just Long for you To draw more And more people To yourself Lord we thank you For this gathering today Thank you for people Who are visiting Thank you for everybody Listening on Whatever platform And also we thank you That we are part Of a worldwide Enormous family And we thank you For our brothers And sisters Lord we ask Your forgiveness That sometimes We Who identify As Christians We do things That are not Worthy of you We thank you We just pray Today for your Forgiveness And especially Times when we Think things That should not Be in our minds And we say things That we wish
[8:37] We hadn't Bothered to say Lord we confess Our faults We confess That we can be So lukewarm We your people Who love you And want to Honour you In everything That we do Lord we want To just pray For this congregation How we thank you That you have Set it up Here in Tarbert And Lord we long That more and more People from this Local area Would start to come To hear your message And to hear about you Lord we pray For people in this Congregation That are struggling In any way Struggling with illness Perhaps long term Illness Struggling with Older age Struggling with Perhaps divorce Or just Isolation Lord so many reasons For those who have Been bereaved Draw close to them We would ask Lord and equally We pray for those Who are struggling In our community Lord that people
[9:39] Here in this church Perhaps their neighbours Their friends Perhaps people They hardly know But Lord that you Would reach out Through them In their struggle Lord once again We just thank you For the ministry That goes on here In so many different Ways So many different People that you Use in different Ways And Lord we do Just thank you For David's Ministry here And we do just Ask that you Would bless him In his time away So that he would Be refreshed Ready to come back And to carry on His ministry In word And his ministry As a pastor Too Lord we do just Thank you for all The initiatives That go on In this church Thank you for the Prayer gatherings The young people's work The tiny tots That meet And thank you For all of the People that are So involved In that Lord we thank you
[10:39] For the Keswick convention That's just Finished week one And goes on To tomorrow To week two Lord would you Bless all of Those who meet And thank you For their motto There that in Spite of our Different denominations In spite of our Different background And intellect And all the rest That people who Gather who are Yours They are all One in Christ Jesus And may we Too in this Building and On the various Platforms Experience that Too today That togetherness Lord there are Things on our Minds that Possibly nobody Else knows about Lord there are Sometimes Difficulties that We haven't Expressed to Other people Lord we do Just ask in a Moment of silence That we can Just bring them Individually to You And Father
[11:43] How glad we Are that you Are a hearer Of prayer You hear You listen And you answer According to your Will And we wouldn't Have it any Other way We ask these Things in Jesus Name and for His sake Amen Now I'm going To ask if the Children would Like to come And just sit In their usual Place here It's great to See you And having Listened Having listened To one of These services Online I have Heard you And Just amazed All the things That you Know It's just Absolutely Amazing Now What does This mean Is it Cross Yes Yes It could Be a kiss Yeah Yeah It could Be a kiss Yeah
[12:44] Yeah Yeah Yeah It would have to be It would have to be Slightly different degrees But yes And Now Don't insult the crossies Because my wife did them And she's here So she might be offended So you insult the crossies Not mine I would have been worse If I had made it Now If you See somebody Wearing this On their uniform Do you know what you call them They're there to Oh yes People know A doctor It's like a doctor It's people who help people If they're sick Possibly at a football match A Jew Jew No No Well it could be a Jew You could get a Jew doing it A nurse Yes Aha I'm going to tell you A medic You're in the right lines Yeah Sorry Yeah It's a first aider From the Red Cross And they're there To help people Number one Now You're driving along the road Not you Because hopefully You don't drive yet But
[13:45] You're driving along the road With your mum, dad Your granny Or your granddad And then You see This sign So What's that telling you Can you see that sign It tells you To stop It tells you To stop Yes Why Why do you stop What do you see there Because Because Because You're going Because You're going Too fast You might be going Too fast Yeah Or There might be a hole Yes Yeah There might be a hole Who knows But Here you come to this And this is called A Cross Crossroads Crossroads Ah Very good Yes Yes It's a crossroads And this is a simple one Where there's cars coming down this way There's cars coming up that way And there's cars coming from the left And cars coming from the right And there's no roundabout there But yeah It could be a roundabout as well Yes Aha Right Now You're in school Oh sorry to bring that up during the holidays
[14:45] But yes You're in school Now I don't know if they still do this But when I was at school A very long time ago And The teacher would put this On your work They just do dots Oh they just They've reduced it to dots They do dots So Okay What do the dots mean?
[15:06] What Wrong You're wrong Yeah This tells you That you're wrong I used to love my red pens And still Even though I'm not a teacher anymore I still keep the red pens And I use them for all sorts of other things Ah Now You write a letter Or you get a letter from someone And They're all crosses But What I think we maybe said this before Didn't we?
[15:32] Yes It's a kiss It's a kiss And it means Well why do people put kisses And You know Do they go On the paper As they write No I don't think they do But Yeah So They've got these kisses there Why do they do this?
[15:49] Why do people do that? Yeah It's like Symbolize Symbolize love It symbolizes love Of course It symbolizes love And it symbolizes love That even sometimes A man could put A crisp They say they're writing To their granddaughter I know it seems a bit strange But Their granddaughter Or their grandson My mum does it My mum does it to people In a friendly way Alright Yes Maybe too much information here Now then When you get to Sometimes 16 But certainly 18 You are allowed To do what?
[16:27] What are you allowed To do 18? There's all sorts of things That This is to do We're looking for A new government Right? We're looking for A new government Or maybe the same government Again So what do we do?
[16:40] What do we do? We? We're going to Yeah Vote Vote You said that I'm kind of moving your lips Yes we vote And This is what you put down You will do this When you're older You will put an X on That's the one That you're going to vote for You put an X You've got to be very careful Because what you do Is an X You don't We might be tempted To do a tick But no We do an X What happens When you do a tick?
[17:13] They rip it up And shove it in the middle So Now you know So be prepared How old are you? Nine Nine Well you've got another Seven maybe nine years Still to wear it I do it for fun To see what they do Oh yes No they won't do it In front of you But they will certainly do that Now And obviously Now Sometimes You see People with this Around their neck Or sometimes In some churches You see this Up on the wall Like up on the Like the top of the building Yes or top of the building So Not on this building No not on this building But yeah Jesus' cross It's Jesus' cross Now What I want to tell you Back to number one Just very quickly When people become Christians They are ready The Bible asks us To help people Just to help people In all sorts of ways Then
[18:14] Then when you will find You will find already Sometimes we are at A crossroads Now crossroads means You have got lots of choices To make For example You might be looking for A girlfriend Or a boyfriend And you think Oh there is lots of them Out there Who will I choose Or who wants me And Or you might be All sorts of other things You go to Which school will I go to Or what will I do After school And so on All sorts of choices And then What we have to realise What do you call it When we have done Things wrong And what does the Bible Call that What calls it We are What does the Bible Call it When we have done Lots of things wrong Sin Sinners Yes It's sin And we are sinners Now Hands up Those among you And children Who are sinners Sinners Oh yes
[19:14] Everybody is Oh there is a man there Who is a sinner too Here is another one Yes We all are The Bible is quite clear In that But What is this telling us What is the Bible Telling us About love To love God And love God And Jesus too Yes Love God Love Jesus Because He first Loved us How do we know That he loved us He made us Yes God made us Yes How else Wait a minute Hold on He died on the cross And he died for you And for the people in this church For me And for anyone listening For all of us He died on the cross It's like When a mum gives birth To their baby They love their baby Yes Yes Yes They love their baby Yes exactly That was good And this is This was the cross Remember voting Now we don't vote for Jesus
[20:16] But maybe Maybe just now As a young person Or later You realise That God loved you And you want to follow him You want to be a follower of Jesus You want to decide That you are going to follow him Right Let me pray for you Just before you go back to your seats And then soon You are going to If you are young enough You will go to Sunday school If not You will sit with us And I will try and remember To speak to you As I am speaking Let me pray for you Just before you go Our Father We do just thank you That you love us so much That you love us so much That you sent Jesus To die for each one of us And Lord We do just thank you That there are times When we find decisions Very difficult And we pray If we are yours That you will direct us Lord We do just thank you That we know We have done wrong things And we do just ask
[21:16] That we would ask you We would say sorry And ask you to forgive us And Lord We just thank you For your love towards us And that you love Each of these boys and girls We just ask That you be with them Those who go to Somebody's school And those who sit Through the service And we ask in Jesus name And for his sake Amen Thank you very much indeed We are singing our next praise And we are singing Seek ye first The kingdom of God And his righteousness And all these things Shall be added unto you Allelu Alleluia Let's stand if we can To sing Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia
[22:22] Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
[22:53] Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word.
[23:06] That no seeds from the mouth of God, Allelu, Alleluia, Alleluia.
[23:20] Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
[23:43] Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and ye shall find.
[23:57] Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
[24:15] Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
[24:29] Alleluia, Alleluia. This is the time when the children go out to Sunday school and any visitors with children, your children are very welcome to join them.
[24:44] Our reading today is from Philippians chapter 1.
[24:56] Philippians chapter 1 and we're starting at verse 12. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12.
[25:14] Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12.
[25:24] Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
[25:40] And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
[25:52] It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
[26:05] The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
[26:16] But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
[26:28] Yes, and I will continue to rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
[26:43] I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will always have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
[26:59] For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
[27:11] Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
[27:29] Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you, again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
[27:46] Amen, and may God bless the reading of his word. We're going to sing from Psalm 8.
[28:01] From Psalm 8 we are going to sing, and this singing is going to be in Gaelic, and for visitors here, as you know, Gaelic is a very big part of the culture here, and so there's a Gaelic song or a prayer at most services.
[28:21] So let's sing together in Gaelic if you possibly can, or just the words will also be in English. So let's rejoice as we can sing God's praise together, or we can look at the words from Psalm 8.
[28:38] In all the earth, O Lord our God, how glorious is your name, for you have set above the heavens your glory and your fame. And we remain seated for this singing.
[28:49] foot singing. S 1971 and the reigning by positivity and structures and blood and a great Father and CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS
[30:13] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS How I Good I Good nagyon-n ot口わrait teren a
[31:16] Thank you.
[31:46] Thank you.
[32:16] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[32:35] If you could go back to your Bibles, if you have them with you, to Philippians chapter 1. And we were starting our reading at verse 12. Thank you.
[32:45] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[33:19] to know his forgiveness. But going to prison doesn't always work. And it certainly didn't in Paul's case. They meant to stop him speaking about Jesus, but it had the opposite effect.
[33:37] And more. Look what we see in verse 12 onwards. Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.
[33:49] As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
[34:10] In the Message Bible, it puts that, it's a paraphrase, but it puts it this way. They gave me a pulpit. The message went out to people who would never otherwise have heard.
[34:25] They reckon there were 9,000 people in the Praetorian Guard. Of course, Paul wouldn't have seen all 9,000 of them, but he would have seen a huge amount of these people.
[34:38] And there he was, his opportunity to tell people about Jesus. people who would have never had any other chance probably to hear. Then there was people in Rome who heard.
[34:52] And isn't it amazing just how this message got out? And this was before we had Facebook and Twitter and all the other ways we have today of getting messages out quickly and getting them out far and wide.
[35:06] Here he was in prison, but yet had a massive congregation. Paul was given great publicity. Or rather, Jesus was given great publicity.
[35:20] And the other thing about this particular situation was it encouraged fellow believers in their evangelism. Paul definitely saw his imprisonment as appointed by God to bring the gospel to the epicenter of the Roman Empire and to give him time to write his letters.
[35:44] And isn't it amazing that these letters that Paul wrote, they are still being used today. Isn't it all these years later, his message is still being used.
[35:55] The messenger might be in chains, but God can never be chained. I was recently, and I came across the motto for the Sutherland family.
[36:10] And the motto is in French, and it's sans power, translated without fear. I.e., there would be this trust. And this was like Paul.
[36:21] He could have been a Sutherland having this motto, without fear, as we just read in this short passage that we read today. He's trusting in God.
[36:34] I wonder, the Lord put Paul in all sorts of different places, all sorts of different scenarios. And that's exactly, if we're Christians here today or listening in, that's exactly what the Lord has done for us.
[36:49] He's put some of us in the shop. He's put some of us in the office. In a school, in the factory, at the pier, in the community, in the bed and breakfast, wherever we might be.
[37:00] Why? Why, as Christians, to be in these different places, to be a witness in word and in contact, in conduct?
[37:12] Every time we come to God's word, whether it's publicly like this or whether it's privately at home, three things to think about. What do we learn about God? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
[37:25] What do we learn about the people we're dealing with? Paul, the Praetorian Guard, the other Christians, those that are in our passage today. And what do we learn about ourselves?
[37:38] What is God saying to us individually and as a congregation? Paul's joy is not tied to his circumstances.
[37:53] And it's not tied to our circumstances either if we're Christians. It's what we do with our circumstances. It was the same with Joseph that we looked at last week.
[38:05] Here was Joseph in all sorts of dire circumstances and yet he was aware of God being with him. Isn't it amazing? Here is Paul in prison.
[38:17] Here is his liberty has been stopped and here he is. He is rejoicing. And you think, how can he rejoice?
[38:29] And how can we rejoice in our circumstances? Often it's the last thing we feel like. And yet we're not necessarily rejoicing in our circumstances.
[38:41] There are circumstances that of course we do rejoice in. We do rejoice in marriage. We rejoice in a new baby. We rejoice in new homes and all sorts of things.
[38:53] But there are times where our circumstances are very different. But we rejoice that whatever our circumstances, God is sovereign. He is in control.
[39:05] And Paul rejoices no matter the cost. Philippians is known as the joy letter. The concept of joy or rejoicing is mentioned 16 times in these short four chapters.
[39:24] I always think it's good we've just dipped into this book today but it's good to see the context of this for yourselves. to read this this week, next week, at a later date.
[39:37] All four chapters doesn't take us too long. And later on in the book we find Paul's secret. If you have your Bible there look with me at chapter 4 and at verse 11.
[39:56] Chapter 4 and verse 11 and just breaking into that verse about halfway through. Paul says, For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
[40:09] I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.
[40:20] Whether well fed or hungry. Whether living in plenty or want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Paul's secret and our secret too as Christians.
[40:36] There is of course a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is when we unwrap a gift. When we chat to a friend either face to face or on the phone or unbridled laughter or an exotic holiday.
[40:57] But joy is for the Christian is that confident assurance of God's love for us and what he has done in our lives. And know that he will be there no matter what.
[41:11] And that there is a glorious future with him. Friends of ours friends of ours met in a special way.
[41:24] They met on the internet. Now lots of people these days meet on the internet. But their meeting was a bit different. One was living in the States and one was living in England.
[41:38] The one living in the States was contacting her brother Stephen Barton and by mistake she must have had the wrong dot or the wrong comma but she got Stephen Barton in Birmingham and not her own brother.
[41:56] But Stephen Barton thought oh this is quite interesting just chatting to an American for a change and then they realised they were both Christians and that became more and more fascinating.
[42:08] Well to cut a long story short Joy and Stephen have now been married for a good number of years and they have two kids and they have just moved from Inverness he has moved as a pastor to London and I was thinking about the joy that there would have been excuse the word joy with her name being Joy but the joy that there would have been in them meeting face to face for the very first time and that got to me to imagine what would it be like for us for those of us who are Christians and maybe we've been Christians for a very long time or maybe we've been Christians just recently or maybe we've still to make that step I don't know your situation but that joy when we see our Saviour face to face what joy that will be now for Paul there is a very real possibility that he would face death in his situation and yet he realises whether there's going to be deliverance from the prison released or whether there's going to be death for Paul it's a win-win situation now for for us here is here is Paul trapped in a sense in prison although we can see that in some ways he's not trapped at all but we too can be trapped in the circumstances that we face possibly face right now
[43:42] I don't know what circumstances you have but it can be there can be discouragement there can be all sorts of decisions we've made that have been not good ones there's finance family situations illness bereavement addictions and we know that God has the power to release us from these to release us from that kind of prison and sometimes he chooses to but sometimes he doesn't but he does promise that he will be with us now Paul had what he called the thorn in the flesh now books have been written about this what the thorn in the flesh could be but the reality is we don't know we don't know whether it was something physical whether it was something mental a situation whatever it was but this is how
[44:46] Paul describes his situation his situation in 2nd Corinthians 12 and at verse 7 at 2nd Corinthians 12 and verse 7 says this therefore in order to keep me from becoming conceited I was given a thorn in my flesh a messenger of Satan to torment me three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me I was reading of or listening to a singer songwriter called
[45:52] Darren Hayes it happened to be on the news I don't know if any of you saw it and he has suffered most of his life from a mental illness and Darren Hayes he didn't actually say what the mental illness was perhaps if you are on Google at a later date you could find out about him but this is how he described his mental illness these were his own words my mental illness is a blessing a gift and a curse and he has used his mental illness to write song after song after song I've listened to one of his songs and it's quite powerful it's not the kind of music I would normally listen to but since I had come across him it was really quite powerful and you can see that
[46:52] Paul saw his thorn in the flesh yes as a curse but also he could use it as a blessing to know God more now perhaps you're feeling today whether you're here or online or on the phone perhaps you're feeling today is you are trapped in a way that you have never come to faith and you're not exactly sure how to do it but to know that the Lord is amazing at bringing people to faith and he can bring people to faith in the most unusual and the most interesting of ways and sometimes at the very last minute like the thief on the cross at the eleventh hour but we can't depend upon that we can't depend upon having an eleventh hour more than anything he is keen to bring you to know himself and isn't it sometimes our reluctance our feeling of unworthiness that would stop us coming to faith in Christ and I know the members of this church the people here the minister himself absolutely delighted if they heard one day that you have come to faith the angels in heaven rejoice and so would many of us and to know that no one is excluded from that offer of grace no one at all now from all eternity
[48:27] Jesus has been God he is God he has been God and he always will be God equal status with God the Father involved in the creation why did he leave all of that for you and for me no other God in any religion has ever done anything like that this is the great transfer he left heaven that we might get there he became poor so that we might become rich grace g-r-a-c-e God's riches at Christ's expense and it's free it's free and sometimes we're a bit reluctant when things are free we think what's the catch but it's free for us but it certainly wasn't free for Jesus he had this separation from his father he had the death on the cross it wasn't free for him and what does he offer he offers us forgiveness freedom status a home family a future eternal life back to our passage in in
[49:50] Philippians and just a little later just after we finished our reading today there is a verse I just want to draw your attention to whatever happens conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence I will know that you stand firm in the one spirit striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you the message bible says this live in such a way that you are a credit to the message of Christ it's easy for any one of us to talk the talk but it's so hard to walk the walk and I think today we live in a goldfish bowl and perhaps here on the island if you're living here on the island you will know this more than anything people know your business almost before you do so people notice they notice what you're doing they even will have noticed this morning that you have got into your car or onto your push bike and you've come to church people notice far more than we realise now this this is can have negative consequences because we can so easily we can so easily let the
[51:19] Lord down and we can let other people down but it also is positive to know that he can use even us and each one of us has a sphere of influence that no one else has some big some small we are Christ's ambassadors we are his representatives his witnesses wherever we are and wherever we go and we've got to realise if we're Christians today we've got to realise that we have an enemy we are in a war and we can so often forget that we will be opposed and therefore Ephesians 6 is telling us put on the whole armour of God and it's a timely reminder that we need that and we need it every day it was interesting it was interesting one of the kids saying it was like a mum having a baby that he was comparing what I was talking to two and I've gotten my notes yet as well that talking about a mum having a baby when you think of all the mum was through when you think of it can be nine months for some of sickness it can be nine months or several months of discomfort and then there's childbirth to go through as well but I would say not having ever been a mum myself but I would say for every single mum everyone who's ever given birth that soon as they hold that baby in their arms they would say to themselves
[53:06] I would go through all that again for this so if you are going through a hard time at the moment if you're going through a hard time listen to what Romans 8 has to say just to give us an idea about this Romans 8 and at verse 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us for the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed for the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice but the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God
[54:07] Jesus has the power to release us to release us from circumstances and as we said sometimes chooses not to Jesus opens heaven to us what a savior what an offer and what is our response first of all for the Christian for the Christian here today or listening in I just want to quote some words from Winston Churchill I know it's a strange choice but Winston Churchill was asked to speak at his old school he was harrow and he said to the boys I wish I could do a Winston Churchill accent but I can't so he said to the boys boys I just want to give you seven words seven words that's all I want to give you and the same seven words
[55:12] I would like to give to every single Christian including myself never never never never never give up for us to stand firm in all circumstances and secondly for people who are not yet Christians and it's great that you're here it's great that you're listening in but for you to look at one of the Gospels and just see how incredibly loved you are and it was for you that Jesus went to the cross and for every one of us who's a Christian today amen we're going to finish our service today by singing the song blessed assurance blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine heir of salvation purchase of God born of his spirit washed in his blood let's stand if we can and praise
[56:18] God together blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine heir of salvation purchase of God born of his spirit washed in his blood this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long perfect submission perfect delight visions of rapture burst on my sight angels descending ring from above echoes of mercy whispers of love this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day all the day long perfect submission all is at rest i am my savior happy and blessed watching and waiting looking above filled filled with his goodness lost in his love this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long now may the grace of the lord jesus christ the love of god the father and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with each one of us now and forever more amen