prayer meeting june 2024

Pray

2 Timothy 1:7 NIV 2011

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

God never gives us cowardice or timidity when it comes to standing up for the truth of His word and gospel, or when it comes to living a holy life.

Whenever we choose that path - it is on us.

Rather though -

God gives us power, love and self-control.

These are not the only gifts of character the Christian is given, there are longer lists,

these are just the ones that Paul set’s in starck oppositon to that of cowardice. - or timidity.

In other words, when our culture oppresses our faith,

remember God hasn’t given us the gift of keeping your head low and denying Jesus if that’s convenient.

He has given you the opposite.

The power to speak truth, when those around deny it, or even deny you for believing it.

That is why Paul repeatedly goes on about joining Him in suffering - you can do it - you have the power to do it by standing on the truth of Jesus.

You also have the gift of love - to love your enemies who oppose you.

It’s not easy to even tolerate that person at work or school who pushes the idea that children can transition their genders,

or that Jesus is a bully for demanding repentance.

But far from tolerate, or shy away,

You’ve been given the gift of love towards them!

So Even though we should in ‘power’ oppose their message,

we can do so in love for their soul - rather than in revenge.

We can still put their needs (but not their views) before your own - even through they would never do that for us.

And we have been given the gift of self-control.

That’s fortunate isn’t it -

given what we’re called to do

we’re going to have to in power defend the truth of God’s word,

in love put our enemies before ourselevs,

and in both those situations, we’re going to meet

contempt,

anger,

persecution,

opposition,

slander - and we’ll want to fight back - in powerful truth - that is ok,

but with spite and hatred - that is not ok.

But we have been given self-control.

Remember these gifts says Paul - next time you talk with, or even think about someone who proclaims harmful and hateful lies.

Do we both speak powerful truth, and do so in love!

If we manage that, we have certainly exercising self- control!

We can be bold and loving with the gospel - we have God’s power, God’s love and God’s self-control.

ANd this calling is not just about us,

it’s far greater than us, me, I, our little world and bubble

This is all for the glory of God - that he might be praised for the grace he shows:

2 Timothy 1:9 NIV 2011

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

2 Timothy 1:10 NIV 2011

but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Tonight as we pray,

let us remember the glory of God and His grace,

that motivates us to exercise ‘his’ gifts of power, love and selfcontrol, as we seek to be holy evangelists of his truth.

PRAYERS

SONG - Hear the Call of the Kingdom

Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV 2011

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Prayer

Plans for September -

As elders we’ve been reflecting on how blessed we are at GC with so many faithful people and families.

In fact both our services have grown steadily i think it’s fair to say since the church was planted 14 years ago and the afternoon service about 6years ago!

ONe of the outstanding reasons for praise to God is the number of young families we have in the morning service and the number of teenagers in the afternoon service.

We have not only been blessed with a very high percentage of under 18’s,

but statistically just a very large number full stop for the UK.

And of course that brings both sacrificial challenges of serving and rotas and teaching,

but also exciting opportunities and responsibility for growing these young people to be the next generation of church across or country and world.

One way we think we can serve one another even further as a church is to ensure we are doing evenythgin we can

to be enagaging all people approriately with God’s word - so we’re ready for tomorrow.

So from Septemeber we’re going to be trialling have 2 different sermon series - 1 at each service - instead of 1 across both services.

Of course the whole word of God is useful for all of us - so we will still vary our routes through the whole cannon of scripture.

But it is also true we prayerfully and carefully select books of the bible to best serve our church family and our seasons of life.

So it seems wise to think about how best to serve our quite different demographics at each service in the choosing of our sermon series.

There is much more that could be said about this -so please do ask myself or the elders about it - and for tonight we’d value your prayers for us as a church family as we continue to grow. So you can do that on table 2.

Elenor - June Focus

1 - General elections

2 - People, Revive, Music teams, sermon series for September

3 - Making Jesus Known - Elenor

4 - Kids, Youth and Students