Week commencing 10 October 2021

Week Commencing Sunday 10^th October 2021

The Bible Society’s Lumino Project is based on YouGov polling, which saw 20,000 people interviewed at the end of 2018 about their attitudes to Christianity and the Bible. This data has been analysed and the population accordingly mapped into 8 ‘personas’, from ‘Bible Loving’ people to ‘Bible Dismissive’ people, but crucially with a whole range in between (Bible Nostalgic, Bible Uncertain, Bible Conflicted, Bible Indifferent and Bible Infrequent). More than half of adults in England and Wales have a religious faith, but 49.45% said they had no religion. However many are ‘open to a conversation’, even more so since Coronavirus and lockdown; subsequent polling has revealed an increase in the pro- Christian groupings and decrease in the opposing ones.

In order to facilitate such a conversation we at Angmering Baptist Church are presenting biblical evidences for God. These are rarely heard in a secular society, many people are ignorant of them.

So we have Emeritus Professor of Thermodynamics (Loughborough University), Colin Garner in person at ABC on Saturday the 16^th October. ‘Creation & Evolution. Why it matters what you believe.’ A major biblical evidence for God is Creation. Romans 1:20 states ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.’ Professor Garner will demonstrate how evolutionary ideology is not only inconsistent with the Bible but also inconsistent with observable science. (10.00am-3.00pm finish. Three talks and a Q & A session. Please bring your own lunch, just come along).

For the rest of October, on Saturdays, we will look at some of the key evidences for Creation through DVD presentations. Promptly beginning at 10.00am:

‘Life’s Story’ (23/10, 56 mins). A visually stunning wildlife documentary which presents evidence for design including an exploration of how much animals can change. DNA research has found that although there are varieties of species within kinds (families) of animals, one kind of animal cannot change into another kind. Neither has any such transitional fossil be found. This contradicts evolution but fits the teaching of Genesis.

‘Noah’s Flood. Washing away millions of years’ (30/10, 70 mins). Describes the dimensions of the ark as indicated in Genesis, its fitness for purpose and geological evidence for a global catastrophic flood. Layers of fossils were buried quickly rather than formed over millions of years.

‘Our Created Stars and Galaxies’ (6/11, 63 mins). Spike Psarris was previously an engineer in America’s military space programme. He entered that programme as an atheist and evolutionist. He left it as a creationist and a Christian. Discover evidence for design in the heavenly bodies. In this video you’ll see how recent discoveries contradict the naturalistic view of history and you’ll hear the words of secular astronomers as they admit their models fail to explain the contents of the Universe.

Many today assume a naturalistic, evolutionary world view (the atheistic belief that only what is material exists). However the Bible highlights the reality of God’s work evidenced in Creation, in our moral awareness, and in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. None of these can be explained by an appeal to Nature alone. DVD presentations in November will focus on our moral awareness (though skewed by the evolutionary world view) and Christ as God come among us (December). DVD presentations continue up until 18^th December. DVD presentations are followed by refreshments. All are welcome (no cost for any of the above).

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Call to worship

"Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind." Psalm 107:21

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

Opening prayer

Father God, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me. I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me. If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there. Teach me today to love you more. Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child. In Jesus name, Amen

Opening Hymn

2 O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
of this world in the next.

3 All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest,
who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s99dNPKYtHk

Reading. Psalm 116

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.

Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, save me!"

The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.

The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me.

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

I believed; therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted."

And in my dismay I said, "All men are liars." How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.

I will fulfil my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains.

I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. I will fulfil my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD-- in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

Hymn

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stan

 Stuart Townend & Keith Getty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16KYvfIc2bE

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Vienna Cobb Anderson

Psalm 116 is a Psalm of thanksgiving. The author is unknown.

The writer of this Psalm had faced danger of some kind. Verse 3 indicates the writer has been brought near to death. We are not explicitly told what happened.  The danger might have been through the malice of others, verse 11 says ‘In my alarm I said, ‘Everyone is a liar.’ (The preceding Psalms speak of God’s deliverance of Israel and would have been sung/spoken at annual Passover festivals. This Psalm would have been sung at Passover festivals too. So perhaps it was written by someone in exile who faced persecution.) Or it could be that the writer had battled severe sickness. We are not told what the danger was, but we are told that he was delivered from the danger.

The writer ‘called on the name of the Lord- ‘Lord save me’ (4), and the Lord did deliver him. Verse 8 ‘For you Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.’ The writer speaks much of God’s goodness in delivering him, and wants to praise, thank and obey the Lord in response.

Thanksgiving is an important part of prayer and our worship of God. It reminds us to be grateful for the gift of life and the blessings we enjoy from God. Thanksgiving reminds us that even though we face affliction from time to time in this life: He supplies our necessities, God can and has rescued us when we have called out to Him.

Charles Spurgeon writes ‘There are many ways in which the child of God may be brought low, but the help of God is as various as the need of his people: he supplies our necessities when impoverished, restores our character when maligned, raises up friends when deserted, comforts us when desponding, and heals our diseases when we are sick. There are thousands in the church who can say…’I was brought low, and he helped me.’

As Christians we give God thanks for the gift of life and the many material blessings we enjoy. We thank Him for our families, our food and drink, our shelter, our interests and so on. Every good gift is from Him. He is Jehovah Jireh our provider.

But we also give God thanks for the salvation He has procured for us in Christ.

For we were all in danger. A far greater danger than that experienced by the Psalmist. The Bible describes how we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is death. The realisation of one’s own sin and guilt before a holy God should make us feel sorrow and distress, especially if our lives are in danger. For death would usher us into God’s presence and we would face his just judgment and condemnation for our sins.

However, as this Psalm states, the Lord is gracious and ‘full of compassion’.

The Gospels reveal how God in the Person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ has come to rescue us from the danger we are in. When the gospel writers saw Jesus cry out “It is finished” on the cross, they came to realise this was God’s mission that Jesus had undertaken. God’s way of Salvation. The only way to deal with our sin; to rescue us from a just punishment for sin and instead bring us salvation- forgiveness and eternal life in him. Paul too came to see in the cross the very heart of what Jesus was and what he had done for us all “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them”.

During the Crusades King Richard the Lionheart was captured and a price was set for his freedom. Taxies were levied on the people. As soon as the ransom price was paid, King Richard was set free. When Jesus Christ died on the cross he paid the ransom so that we could go free. As Mrs Alexander’s hymn puts it:

‘There was no other good enough

To pay the price of sin;

He only could unlock the gate

Of heaven, and let us in.’

And Jesus resurrection is now the promise of our resurrection from the dead. Jesus said ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die’ John 11:25, 26.

Jesus wonderful promise remind us that salvation really is a gift which we receive from God freely, even though He purchased that salvation for us at great cost to Himself. We enter heaven because Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant and we trust in the merits of His atoning sacrifice (Hebrews 12:24).

So then, Christian believers enter heaven because heaven is now our inheritance. On putting our faith in Christ for salvation we are not only counted as ‘justified’ (Acts 13:39; Rom.3:24-26, 8:3) before God, we are also His adopted ‘sons and daughters’ and call Him ‘Father’ (Rom.8:14-17, Gal.3:26). So we inherit heaven because we are part of His family. We do not enter by legal right, but through Christ’s promise (again see John 11:25, 26 above, also Galatians 3:18). It is not by legal right because Scripture insists we cannot earn entry through our own merits (Matthew 25: 37-39).

So we thank God for his many blessings in this life. But when trial of some kind in this life actually leads to death we still give God thanks. Not because of death itself- death is the enemy. But we give him thanks for the eternal salvation we have in Him. A salvation that delivers the believer from death and raises him or her to eternal life with Christ.

In this deeper sense we can understand verse 16 of our Psalm ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.’

Christ has overcome death so that death now becomes the doorway to union and joy with Him and all His people in heaven.

Jesus’ Parables of the Wedding Feast and the Great Banquet are used in reference to heaven (Lk.12.Lk.14, Mt.22). These parables teach that if Heaven is our true home, it will be like going to a party. Christians who are terminally ill here think they are leaving the party before it’s over. They have to go home early. They’re disappointed, thinking of all they’ll miss when they leave. But the real party is underway at home- exactly where they are going. They are not the ones missing the party; those of us left behind are. Occasionally, a few at a time, we will disappear from this world. Those we leave will grieve that their loved ones have left home. In reality, their believing loved ones aren’t leaving home, they’re going home. They’ll be home before us. We will be arriving at the party a little later. Jesus said “Blessed are those who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke.6:21) and “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10) laughter and rejoicing- a party awaits us.

C.S. Lewis writes well of that yearning within us which no earthly pleasure can satisfy. It is that yearning for our true home. “There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else”

But essentially heaven is our home because God is there. Like the psalmist we will want to thank him for all his goodness towards us, for delivering us from death and the consequences of what our sins deserved, and instead giving us heaven and a share in his glory. ‘You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand’ (‘Psalm 16:11’).

John 3:36 states ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.’

The psalmist was in danger but he called on the name of the Lord ‘Lord save me’

Have you called on the name of the Lord to save you?

I want to give you opportunity to do that. I would invite you to make the words of this prayer your own:

“Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Saviour. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Saviour. Amen.”

Song. ‘Next Five Minutes’

Every moment God has given is precious
Every heartbeat; every breath I take
We'll never have them back once they've left us
There will never be another right now
So right now

I'm living the next 5 minutes
Like these are my last 5 minutes
'Cause I know the next 5 minutes
May be all I have
And after the next 5 minutes
Turn into the last 5 minutes
I'm taking the next 5 minutes
And starting all over again

Steve Curtis Chapman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02X0Ho6Vl4

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiLNTWFV6j8