​Welcome to worship today – whether in the building for the first time in months, or at home using paper copies or online or joining via Zoom. It’s so good to connect in all these different ways but in the same Spirit.

​Prayer of adoration
Lord God you invite us to come and share your story. We stand amazed in your presence, wondering at the lengths to which you have gone to make it possible for us self-seeking creatures to know the vastness of your forgiving love. Jesus you are our saviour and our friend and we adore you. Amen.

We cannot yet sing out loud in church but our souls can still sing, as this favourite hymn says -
Stf 82 O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder

​Bible Readings
Matthew 16:21-28
Romans 12: 9-21

​Message - 'the losing and gaining of lives' - Rev Christine Fox

Stf 693 Beauty for brokenness

​Prayers of intercession

As we bring you our prayers for others, we first must give thanks that after 6 months we are able to come together and worship you in this place. So we must give thanks for the wonders of technology and the clever people in our church able to do this for us; but for this it would have lost out in bringing your word to us in our own homes.

We pray for the world in general and ask you to bring peace to those countries in conflict and also struggling with this pandemic. We ask you to remember especially the USA at this because of the recent troubles. Just be a beacon of hope to all those in despair and to all the needy.

We pray for the church in all our troubled world who too are suffering because of this pandemic, plus those who are persecuted and in poverty.

We pray for family and friends who are special to us especially those who have lost people either from Covid-19 or from other causes. Shine your light of hope on these people and help them all through their sad losses.

We pray for all our schools as they return to the class rooms and that the restrictions put in place will go smoothly. Be with all parents of these children as they send them to school.

We now pray for ourselves as we face any particular issues this week. Help us with your love to be able to overcome them, and all our pressures that are becoming so overwhelming. Shine your light of hope in the midst of these problems standing strong and true. In silence we name our own problems.......pause.

O God we ask you for peace and hope, guidance, joy, and thanksgiving that despite this pandemic there has been the love to get us through these times. So dear Lord we now bring you these our prayers, as we now say the prayer that your Son gave to us. Amen.


The Lord’s Prayer

​StF 440 Amazing grace

​Blessing - Let the grace of Christ redeem you, the power of Christ renew you, the example of Christ inspire you, and the love of Christ shine from you.
Go in faith to walk his way and make him known, to his glory. ​Amen

​The theme of the service is 'A Servant People'. Throughout the Bible the Christian message often proclaims the unexpected. Christ came to rule in the hearts and minds of men, women, and children not to capture cities by force. He came to serve others and not to be served.

​Call to Worship
​When Jesus asked, Simon Peter answered:
‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’
Let us make the same bold answer,
and let us come together to worship
Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Amen.

​A prayer of praise and thanksgiving
Lord God, we come before you in humble adoration. How blessed are we that the one who holds the keys to the kingdom of heaven is the one who has the key to our hearts. Thank you, God, for the privilege of being part of the amazing story of faith that sustained our ancestors. Thank you, God, that we know our future is safe with you. 
Amen.
A prayer of confession
When we think of Jesus, his example and obedience to give even his life on the cross and compare ourselves to him, we feel very aware and ashamed of our own failings. So we come to you in the quietness of a few moments to confess our sins.

Lord, thank you that you are always ready to forgive us
when we trust you enough to confess our sins to you,
even when we feel we don’t deserve it.

Forgive us for the times when
just because someone else’s story is different from ours
we don’t always want to believe it.

Forgive us for the times we only live our story,
not seeing the bigger picture.

Forgive us for the times
we see you as less than the Son of God,
and our whole outlook on life
needs a good dose of your love and understanding.

Thank you that we know our sins are forgiven. Help us knowing this to live out our lives in a way which reflects something of Jesus for we ask all this through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us to pray, saying:-
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours
now and forever. Amen.

A sending out prayer
​Jesus told his disciples not to tell anyone he was the Messiah. We go out now, hearts so full of amazement and joy, that we can’t help but share the good news. Go with us, good Lord, and help us to tell everyone who will listen. Amen.

The Grace
​The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen ​

​Sit back. Breathe deeply. Quieten yourself and listen to the noises around you; birds outside, the fridge humming, cars passing by, the neighbour working outside. Offer these things to God in thanks

​Call to Worship – As Jesus went up a mountain to pray, so we come together in God’s presence, to pray and worship. We come from lives that are stormy or calm, rough or smooth, far from secure or somewhat becalmed. Wherever we are we see Jesus and he calls us to come. He calls us to follow him, sometimes out of our safe place and into the difficult waters of life. We need have no fear, as he takes our hand, lifts us up and saves us. However small our faith we need not doubt, for he truly is the Son of God

​StF 86 Praise the Lord!  Ye Heavens, Adore Him

Prayer of Praise –
Living God, we praise you for the way we experience your presence as we come to worship, the way this time enables us to focus our thoughts upon you.
Ever-present God,
help us to find you here.
​
We praise you that you are with us wherever we may be and whatever we may be doing, and so help us consecrate not just this short time week by week but every moment of every day. Help us to recognise that you are involved in every aspect of our lives, in every part of the world and every situation, and grant that this brief drawing aside from the routine of life may equip us to go back to it with new conviction, vision, hope and faith.
Ever-present God,
help us to find you here.

Living God, speak to us as we worship you. Challenge and confront us through your word, meet with us in our prayers, respond to the worship we bring you and fill us with a new sense of your majesty.
Ever-present God,
help us to find you here.

Living God, as we return to our daily routine may we know you there as much as anywhere, waiting to meet us in those around us, unfolding your purpose in the events of life , demonstrating your handiwork in the wonder of creation.
Ever-present God,
help us to find you here,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
​
Prayer of Confession –
Loving God, you have called us to be your servants – to offer our service to Christ, to one another, to your Church, to your world.
Forgive us that so often we have failed you.

Forgive us that we are often concerned to serve only ourselves, our own interests, our own needs, our own desires, our own ends.
Forgive us that so often we have failed you.

Forgive us that we are sometimes more concerned with what we can get out of our faith than with what we can put into it; more concerned with what you can do for us than what we can do for you; more concerned with what we can receive from others than what we can give them.
Forgive us that so often we have failed you.

Teach us to serve seeking no reward, to love without expecting love in return, to give without counting the cost, to follow without holding back, to live each day as your people, offering ourselves in glad and joyful service.
Amen 


Lord’s Prayer
​Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power and glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen ​

​Bible Reading - Old Testament Psalm 85 - (link to Biblegateway)
As you follow the psalmist’s prayer think about how much the hopes being expressed by someone almost 3000 years ago are reflected in your hopes today.

Message
Matthew 14 v 27 ‘Courage!’ he said. ‘It is I. Don’t be afraid!’ Both our readings today include something of the challenges which people faced, how they responded and how support is offered.

a) The Psalms cover a whole range of experiences and emotions. In the reading I included the first 7 verses as they help to show the situation in which the psalmist found himself. He recalled in the opening verses how God had helped the people in the past. However, it seems that, at the time the psalmist was living, the people had felt God’s displeasure and the psalmist was looking forward to a change taking place. At verse 8 there is a distinct change of mood, almost as if the psalmist comes to his senses, realising that God is always there wishing the best for his people. There is a challenge of putting their faith in Him.

b) In the reading from Matthew’s gospel the appearance of Jesus on the lake is a revelation of divine power and glory. A miracle revealed who Jesus is and helped the disciples to put their trust in him as he prepared them for their future role. As the disciples had accompanied Jesus through various experiences of his teaching, healing and caring for people they would be continually asking themselves who Jesus really was. 5,000 people and more had been inspired to leave their towns and walk to where Jesus was, many of whom came for healing. They had hope in what Jesus offered, but could not have expected his response to the need for food. For the disciples the solution for providing food was to send the people to go to the villages to buy food for themselves, but Jesus knew a different way and more than enough food was provided for all. When Jesus decided to end the time with the crowd he made the disciples get into the boat and go across the lake without giving any indication of how he would join them. The journey was a difficult one and as Jesus, walking on the water, approached them they were terrified and screamed with fear. That is no surprise as they really would be wondering what was going on and who was Jesus to be doing this. As Peter wanted to be assured that it was Jesus he asked, in his usual impulsive way, to be invited to walk towards Jesus. That seemed to start well but he became afraid and started to sink down until he was saved by Jesus. He was reprimanded for his lack of faith and his doubt. As Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat and the wind died down the disciples worshipped Jesus and exclaimed, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’. In his time with the disciples Jesus was showing the disciples in many ways the importance of facing up to difficult situations knowing that faith in Jesus would offer them support. 

c) During the past 6 months we have all had to get used to doing things in different ways and doing new things. There have been amazing responses and great things have been achieved by many people as they have used their knowledge, their skills, their time and their enthusiasm to make a difference in difficult situations. In some cases it is the professionals who have cared for the seriously ill and vulnerable, and those who have ensured that as much of normal life as was allowed could continue. In other cases it was ordinary people seeing a need and meeting it in a practical way. Churches have also had to find new ways of doing things and this will have an impact on how things are done in the future. Just as Jesus encouraged his disciples to trust in him we need to be open to ways in which we may be being led.
Amen ​

​Blessing
Loving God, lead us out into the world, renewed in vigour, in hope, in faith, and in purpose. Send us back to live and work for you, sharing your love and living your life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
​Amen 

This week's YouTube versions of the songs were chosen by Tanya.

​The theme of this joint Worship service between Kingswood and Grangewood Methodist Churches is Jesus feeds all... with Rev Christine Fox.