Welcome and Greeting
Welcome tonight to our F5 service. It is so good to be sharing this time with you again. The sunshine and warmth have been lovely this week and everything looks very refreshed and colourful. There are so many beautiful blossoms and bulbs out at the moment. We love meeting with some of you in our Zoom Meeting on Thursday and you are all welcome to join us in this. Please feel free to come and see us if you are in Canberra.
Thank you for joining with us this evening. May God bless this time we share together and bring us into His presence as we praise and worship Him.
Opening prayer
God has made us, with all the saints from every generation, one in Christ.
He has set his seal upon us and, as a pledge of what is to come, has given the Spirit to dwell in our hearts. Thank You Father, that You are here with us tonight and that You love the worship of Your people. Please help us to open our hearts to You now.
Peace to you from God our Father who hears our cry.
Peace from his Son Jesus Christ whose death brings healing.
Peace from the Holy Spirit who gives us life and strength.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you
Song: To God Be the Glory
To God be the glory
Great things He has done
So loved He the world
that He gave us His Son
Who yielded His life
an atonement for sin
And opened the life-gate
that all may go in
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
Let the earth hear His voice
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
Let the people rejoice
O, come to the Father
through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory
Great things He has done
O perfect redemption
The purchase of blood!
To every believer
The promise of God
The vilest offender
Who truly believes
That moment from Jesus
A pardon receives
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
Let the earth hear His voice
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
Let the people rejoice
O, come to the Father
through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory
Great things He has done
Great things He has taught us
Great things He has done
And great our rejoicing
Through Jesus the Son
But purer and higher
And greater will be
Our wonder, our rapture
When Jesus we see
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
Let the earth hear His voice
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
Let the people rejoice
O, come to the Father
through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory
Great things He has done
©Fanny Crosby, William Howard Doane
CCLLicence No 384593
Romans 14:1-12
14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a]
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Devotion: Robyn – Forgiveness, the Way Ahead Why is forgiveness so important?
Our Matthew reading begins with Peter asking Jesus about forgiveness. Seven times?? How interesting that Peter asked this when he was the one who betrayed Jesus so brazenly. Peter was the first disciple to follow Jesus, he was a leader among the 12. He promised to stick by Jesus no matter what happened – even death. However, Peter was unaware of what his coming actions would be and so he thought 7 times was plenty.
Are we aware of how our words and actions can harm others? We know what others do and say that affect us, but what about our words and actions.
The parable of the unforgiving slave needs to be looked at in our own lives. The servant who was forgiven owed a vast amount of money and his debt was wiped…forgiven. The fellow slave owed much less but was dealt with very harshly and with no forgiveness.
God’s love for us is so vast that he forgives us for every wrongdoing we have committed. How do we…you… treat others who have wronged you? Someone who has said something against you or done something to upset you. Do those things keep going around and around in your head…sometimes causing you to be angry or resentful or to lose sleep? Often this can be behaviour our partner or child does or something they say repeatedly that drives you mad. How can we deal with this?
In one word. FORGIVENESS
At the end of the Matthew reading Jesus said…So will my Heavenly Father deal with you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.
Payback for Wrongs
‘Each week Kevin Tunell is required to mail a dollar to a family he’d rather forget. They sued him for $1.5 million but settled for $936, to be paid a dollar at a time. The family expects the payment each Friday so Tunell won’t forget what happened on the first Friday of 1982.
That’s the day their daughter was killed. Tunell was convicted of manslaughter and drunken driving. He was 17. She was 18. Tunell served a court sentence. He also spent seven years campaigning against drunk driving, six years more than his sentence required. But he keeps forgetting to send the dollar.
The weekly restitution is to last until the year 2000. Eighteen years. Tunell makes the cheque out to the victim, mails it to her family, and then the money is deposited in a scholarship fund.
The family has taken him to court four times for failure to comply. After the most recent appearance, Tunell spent thirty days in jail. He insists that he’s not defying the order but rather is haunted by the girl’s death and tormented by the reminders. He offered the family two boxes of cheques covering the payments until the year 2001, one year more than required. They refused. It’s not money they seek, but penance.
Quoting the mother, “We want to receive the cheque every week on time. He must understand we are going to pursue this until August of the year 2000. We will go back to court every month if we have to.”
Few would question the anger of the family. Only the naïve would think it fair to leave the guilty unpunished. But I do have one concern. Is 936 payments enough? Not for Tunell to send, mind you, but for the family to demand? When they receive the final payment, will they be at peace? In August 2000, will the family be able to put the matter to rest? Is 18 years’ worth of restitution sufficient? Will 196 months’ worth of remorse be adequate?
How much is enough? Were you in the family and were Tunell your target, how many payments would you require? Better stated, how many payments do you require?
No one—I repeat, no one— makes it through life free of injury. Someone somewhere has hurt you. Like the 18-year-old, you’ve been a victim. She died because someone drank too much. Part of you has died because someone spoke too much, demanded too much, or neglected too much.’
Max Lucado, In the Grip of Grace (Word, 1996)
Are you tired of being in a difficult relationship or of having a friendship weakened because of an action or of words spoken that offended you?
Being willing to forgive can make an amazing difference…speaking the words even more
1. Forgiveness alone can stop the cycle of blame and pain
The Greek word for forgiveness means to release, to hurl away, to free yourself.
Forgiveness can sometimes feel unfair. We believe the other person has done the wrong. However, we can only be released from this pain of the hurt if we forgive them.
Resentment, which literally means to feel again, makes you relive the past again and again and each new thing that happens continues building onto all the others. Martin Luther wrote
Think of all the squabbles Adam and Eve must have had in the course of their 900 years. Eve would say ‘You ate the apple’ and Adam would retort with ‘You gave it to me’. And so the quarrel goes on and on and the couple grow apart.
In the book “Love in the Time of Cholera’, Marquez portrays a marriage that disintegrates over a bar of soap. It was the wife’s job to keep the house in order, including the provision of towels, toilet paper and soap, in the bathroom. One day she forgot to replace the soap, an oversight that her husband mentioned in an exaggerated way. “I’ve been bathing for almost a week without any soap’ and she vigorously denied it. Although it turned out that she had forgotten it, her pride was at stake and she would not back down. For the next 7 months they slept in separate bedrooms and ate in silence. How could something so small go on for so long, when neither partner would say ‘Stop. I’m sorry. I forgive you.’
Forgiveness offers us a way out of the resentment we carry. It doesn’t settle all the questions we are carrying or the fairness of being the one to give in, but it does allow us to start the relationship over and begin again. Not to forgive imprisons us in the past and stops any chance of change in the relationship.
Lewis Smedes, a professor at Fuller Seminary said,
‘The first and often the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does forgive. When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then we discover that the prisoner we set free was us’.
2. Forgiveness can loosen the power of guilt in the perpetrator
When we forgive someone, we cut the cords of guilt and pain that can bind a person and free them.
In the Gospels we have 2 wonderful examples of Jesus offering forgiveness. Remember that Jesus led Peter through three steps of forgiveness. Jesus was the one who was wronged, but He was also the one who offered forgiveness. Peter was then forgiven and free to become a foundation builder of the New Testament church. He no longer had to bear the pain of being the betrayer of the Son of God.
On the cross, one of Jesus’ final statements was Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. That included all of them – the Roman soldiers, the religious leaders, the disciples who fled in the darkness, and you and me. Having lived amongst these people for so long, Jesus understood them.
Sometimes our own efforts at forgiveness fall short and our ability to forgive does not come easily. Some wounds are so deep, and some debts are so large that human forgiveness is really difficult. Sometimes we may need to talk to someone about these things. Even when our own efforts fall short, God’s mercy is beyond our imagining. This is a truth proclaimed by the parable as well as by the testimony of Jesus’ own life and ministry. On the night when Judas will betray him and Peter and the other disciples will abandon him, Jesus announces to all, “[T]his is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
The Romans reading gives us more detail on how God wants us to journey with Him. We particularly need to take note of the last three verses.
10. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. 11 For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ 12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
It is God’s grace that we are forgiven for all the things we have done wrong. It is God’s grace that enables us to forgive others.
Song: Spirit of the Living God
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me
Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me
1935, 1963 Moody Bible Institute CCLI #384593
Prayers
Confession:
Heavenly Father,
Thank you that your word says that as we draw near to you,
you will draw near to us, by the working of your Spirit in us.
We are sorry for doing those things that have displeased You
and we ask for Your forgiveness.
Please cleanse our hearts and hands and minds
Help us to walk in love and newness of life
so that we can be more like Jesus
and make him known to all we meet. Amen
If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We thank you Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we come before You tonight with thankful hearts that you are a forgiving God and that Your grace and mercy extends to each one of us. Thank You that You are with us through difficult times and that as we accept Your grace and mercy You help us to become people who forgive and who do not hold anger and grudges.
Thank you for the families you have given to each one of us. We ask that you will help us to be faithful examples of Your love and care for them. Father, where there is hurt or unforgiveness on our families would You please give us the grace and mercy to forgive. May we also be examples of Your forgiveness in our families and in our friendships.
We do pray for protection for our families, and ask they may grow to know and love You.
We pray for those members of F5 who are unwell, lonely or mourning loved ones and we think especially of Shirley and Eric, Alison and Robert, Fred, Gordon, Cherie, Ruth Dawe, Anne Hunter and family, Denise and Grant, Penny and John, and any others known to us. Please bring Your comfort, healing and peace to them. Please help us and comfort us as we work through this Covid time, and as some of us are feeling lonely and separated from our family and friends. May we be able to help bring help and friendship to someone this week. We pray for protection from the flu and colds.
We pray for people who are struggling because of loss of jobs and lack of income. We thank you that the government is offering so much financial support.We pray for the Goulburn Garage sale and ask that much needed money will be raised for the BaTwa people.
Please give wisdom and strength to those who teach SRE. We pray especially for Pat, Helen, Ange, Mick, Sally and Jen. Please may they all have confidence, wisdom and strength. We especially pray for Mick and Jen as they oversee this work and we pray that more people will come forward to teach SRE in the schools.
We pray also for clergy who are running churches and pastoring congregations in such different ways. Please give them great wisdom. We pray especially for Robyn and Paul, Mick and Ange, Gill, Caroline, Sally, Graeme Dunne, Tom McLaughlin, Paul Davey and Andrew Pocock, and others known to us.
Father, we pray for our local council, for our state and territory governments, and for our national parliament. Please be with all those who make laws and help them to do so with good judgement. Please continue to give wisdom to our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and to all members of our governments and parliaments as they steer us though this Covid time. We pray for the State Premiers and especially for our Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, as they manage the outbreaks and make decisions for their people. Thank you for the progress that has been made in reducing the number of COVID cases across this nation, but we continue to pray for the safety of all people and nations as this virus continues to seek out and infect people from all age groups, race and background. We also continue to pray for our near neighbour, New Zealand, as they manage their outbreak of the virus.
We commit each one of us to you this week. May we be thoughtful and forgiving, gentle and longsuffering and may we know, and share with others, your love as we continue in this time of changing isolation. We pray that you will protect each of us throughout this time of the Corona Virus.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
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
Song : Christ Is Mine Forevermore
Mine are days that God has numbered
I was made to walk with Him
Yet I look for worldly treasure
And forsake the King of kings
But mine is hope in my Redeemer
Though I fall, his love is sure
For Christ has paid for every failing
I am His forevermore
Mine are tears in times of sorrow
Darkness not yet understood
Through the valley I must travel
Where I see no earthly good
But mine is peace that flows from heaven
And the strength in times of need
I know my pain will not be wasted
Christ completes his work in me
Mine are days here as a stranger
Pilgrim on a narrow way
One with Christ I will encounter
Harm and hatred for his name
But mine is armour for this battle
Strong enough to last the war
And he has said he will deliver
Safely to the golden shore
And mine are keys to Zion city
Where beside the King I walk
For there my heart has found its treasure
Christ is mine forevermore
Come rejoice now, O my soul
For his love is my reward
Fear is gone and hope is sure
Christ is mine forevermore! (x 3)
And mine are keys to Zion city
Where beside the King I walk
For there my heart has found its treasure
Christ is mine forevermore
Christ is mine forevermore
Christ is mine forevermore
Jonny Robinson and Rich Thompson CityAlight 2016 CCl Lic No 384593
Blessing
As we take our worship, praise and prayer into our daily lives, may our lives be sustained through the love of our Heavenly Father. May we feel the presence of our Saviour walking beside us and know the power of the Holy Spirit in both our actions and our words. In Jesus Name. Amen
Prayer Points
• Thank God that we can join together for our services, even though far apart.
• Ask God to show you ways you can contact others from F5, F10 and beyond to encourage them along. Pray for wisdom to know who to ring, who to send a message or note to
• Pray for nurses, doctors and hospital staff as they learn to work differently and wisely. May they be protected from Covid
• Pray for those who are going through difficult times with sickness, loneliness, loss of work, separation from family and friends. Pray especially for Alison and Robert, Gordon, Warwick, Penny, Fred, Shirley, Cherie, Anne Hunter and family, and any others known to us. Pray also for Anne and Ivan Wilson following the death of Anne’s Mum.
• Pray that we will each have God’s strength and wisdom to be able to make each day worthwhile.
• Pray for Scott Morrison and our state governments as they make unprecedented decisions regarding all things connected to the Coronavirus. We especially ask for wisdom for them as they direct the management of this current outbreak and consider opening up again of Australia. We pray especially for Daniel Andrews as he leads Victoria through their very difficult time
• Pray for teachers and students and especially for SRE teachers – Helen, Pat, Ange, Sally, Mick and Jen. And also pray for additional teachers so that more children can hear God’s message of love and redemption..
• Pray for clergy, for wisdom in leading churches at this difficult time. Pray esp for Robyn and Paul, Sally, Gill, Paul Davey (St Nicks), Graeme Dunne, Caroline Campbell, Tom McLaughlin, Andrew Pocock
Enquiries – Paul (0418 633 396) and Robyn (0414 254 154)
pbaxter@grapevine.com.au rbaxter@grapevine.com.au
Website – www.f5refresh.org.au & Facebook
PLEASE SUPPORT THE MINISTRY OF F5
Direct Debit – for F5 – is now available through the Anglican Development and Investment Fund http://www.aidf.com.au/www/home/
The details of the account are as follows:-
Account Name: F5-Refresh Ministries; BSB: 702-389 Account Number: 05209657
