Transcription downloaded from https://archives.bafreechurch.org.uk/sermons/30400/family-service/.

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[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Thank you.

[1:00] Thank you.

[1:30] Thank you. Thank you.

[2:30] Thank you. Thank you.

[3:30] Thank you. Thank you.

[4:02] Thank you. Let us pray.

[4:34] Thank you.

[5:06] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[5:18] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[5:30] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[5:42] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. using these words, the Lord is my shepherd.

[5:56] And we pray that we would indeed all be able to pronounce and say these words as the testimony of our heart. Lord, thank You for gathering us here this morning.

[6:08] And we pray that You would be with us and we pray that You would bless us. We thank You very especially for our children. We thank You for the many promises that we have from You concerning them.

[6:21] And we thank You for the love that You have for them and the love that we also have for them. And we pray that You would bless them and that each and every one from the very earliest age would know what it is to love Jesus and to serve Jesus.

[6:40] We pray that You would be with us this morning especially as we have a time of worship where our particular concern is our children and that they would enjoy worship this morning.

[6:56] We thank You that worship has been ordained by You that we might not only fulfill that obligation but that we might enjoy worship. Indeed, You have created us that we would glorify You and enjoy You always.

[7:10] and how much more and how much especially as we gather in Your presence to worship You. And so we do pray that our time together would be a pleasurable and an enjoyable one as we enjoy fellowship with You and with one another.

[7:28] Bless us, we pray, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, you're all well seated where I want you to be already so I don't need to ask you to move but I'm going to move down there.

[7:58] So, again, I want to just welcome you all to this morning's service. It's a little bit different than our normal services. It's a family service and at the close of the service we'll also be having the Sunday School Prize Giving.

[8:13] And so we've invited the children to be with us for all the service. And so we'll be thinking of the children in particular this morning. But we do welcome everybody to church this morning and if you are visiting us then we're particularly glad to have you with us and we pray that you would know God's blessing as you worship together with us this morning.

[8:37] At the close of the service you're all invited to a congregational lunch. So we won't be having tea and coffee served immediately afterwards as we would normally do because all the catering facilities are employed for organizing the lunch.

[8:56] but do come down for that if you're able to spend the time and have lunch with us. You're very welcome. Some of the folks, many of you have already signed up for that but if you're visiting or if you haven't had the opportunity to do that then you are still very welcome to come down.

[9:14] There always seems to be enough for everybody who appears. Sometimes it's pretty tight but there's always enough. So do come down and join with us for that lunch if you are able.

[9:27] And we've mentioned this a couple of times in the intimation sheets. We're inviting folk voluntarily to make a contribution. We've suggested maybe what would have been what we would have spent on lunch and that collection is something I'm going to be using for when I go to Peru on Tuesday I'll be leading a workshop with church leaders in Moyabamba and the funds will provide help with the fairs of the folks who are going to be coming and we will also finish the workshop with a lunch.

[10:00] So it's all very appropriate. So your lunch will help us have a nice lunch in Peru a week Saturday. So that's immediately after the service and in explaining that I've also mentioned and reminded folk that I will be traveling to Peru on Tuesday and so we'll be away where we'll be in Peru for three weeks and then we'll have a short family holiday on my return.

[10:29] So that's also something I just wanted to mention. Now what we're going to do is we're going to have the children sing. They have been learning in Sunday school these past few weeks Psalm 40 and so they're going to sing that for us and not only are they going to sing it for us but we're going to listen very carefully because once they finish singing we're going to sing it again everybody.

[10:54] So you've got to listen very carefully. They are going to worship God singing Psalm 40 or part of it and then we'll be doing the same subsequently. So I'd invite the children and their teachers especially to bring them up here and here in front of what I am facing the congregation and they're going to sing what they've been learning this past wee while.

[11:20] First off하�time can you see theosing of those who можем a little bit and B 소� climb to the', and you're going to be working with me to be路 through listen to be a wonderful family from where you are and everybody is working with me and I think they may be and everyone is working with me and there's a real meaning that I am going to go to go.

[11:39] Amen. Amen.

[12:39] He's publishing my way. Very good.

[12:52] So I think we've learned that tune, haven't we? Just by listening to it sung so beautifully. And now we're going to sing. So we're going to sing a few more verses. Well, the children are also going to sing. But we're all going to sing together.

[13:04] Psalm 40, verses 1 to 5. It's on page 259. Of these blue psalm books. If you have this blue psalm book. If you look on page 259. You'll find the psalm that the children have sung.

[13:18] Or part of which they have sung. And we're going to sing now. Verses 1 to 5. I waited for the Lord my God. And patiently did bear. And we'll stand to sing these verses. And still imagine the children in this time.

[13:40] So I thought that the children are in thedigsten project. But the Pergast. They were commenting on each other's канал. Come to see their children in the dark. And they heard they were editing. So we'll explain it to them. On the other hand. We're going to sing these verses. And they heard, they saw. If you'd like, they're a friend for all these. And I don't think they're surrounding them. Send us it to find the blood pressure.

[13:54] And they're offering you so more creative together. As God knows, you're about to kannst them on each other's來. Thank you.

[14:27] Thank you.

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[16:57] Thank you. Thank you.

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[18:29] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[19:05] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, let's bow our heads.

[19:17] Now, let's just bow our heads and we'll pray again. Thank you. Thank you.

[19:51] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[20:03] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[20:43] Thank you. morning for all the children here. I thank you for each and every one of them, and we pray for one or two who maybe aren't able to be here, and pray for them as well. We thank you for all that they've been learning, and all that they've been listening, especially in their Sunday school classes, and all the things that they've learned about you, and about the Bible. We thank you for their teachers, and for all the effort that they have made over this past year to prepare their lessons, and to teach the children, and we pray and thank you for them. And we pray also for all the parents, and all that they have done, and continue to do, and have to do, and have the privilege of doing, not just in the school term, but every day and every week, teaching their children, our children, the way that they should go. Lord, we pray that you would be with us now, as we think about something that you tell us about in the Bible, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[21:48] Now, before we do listen to what God has to say to us, by means of a story, what I'm going to do this morning is tell you all a story, and I hope that in telling the story, we'll all learn lots of very important things. But before we do that, we're going to sing one more time. We're going to sing in Psalm 119, and verses 19, sorry, verse 9 to 16. It's on page 157 of these blue psalm books. Psalm 119, verses 9 to 16, and the tune is Talus Canon. How can the young keep their life pure? By doing what your word demands. I seek you with my heart and soul. Let me not stray from your commands. We'll stand to sing these verses of Psalm 119.

[22:39] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[23:11] Thank you.

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[24:11] Thank you. Thank you.

[25:11] Thank you.

[25:43] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[26:19] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[26:31] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[26:43] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[27:21] every week. I wonder if you brought 20p or 50p or a pound. Maybe some, some days you even forgot. It sometimes happens, or mom forgot, or dad forgot to give you something. And you might have thought, well, this isn't very much. You couldn't do very much with this. But from the letter we've got, we've realized that when we all bring even a little, God can use it to do big things. And we're seeing that this is going to help the children a lot. They're going to have some toys for their play area, and there's also going to be some training events for the moms and dads, so they can be better moms and dads. Maybe that's something we should think about. I could do with some teaching about how being a better, better dad. That's maybe a good idea we could think about.

[28:07] Well, today I want to tell you a story about a wee boy who made a big difference with very little indeed. Now, the story is a true story, but we do have a problem. And the problem is that we don't actually know the wee boy's name. The wee boy is the main actor in the story. He's the most important person, maybe not the most important, but probably the second most important person in the story, but we don't know his name. So what we're going to do is we're going to give him a name.

[28:39] And I thought we could call him Joe. Okay, so we're going to call him Joe. And Joe lived over 2,000 years ago in a place called Galilee. Now, one night at tea, Joe was with his family, and dad was talking about somebody who sounded really amazing. This man wasn't a doctor, but he could heal the sick. And not just little things like a cold or a fever that we could maybe often get, and it's not that difficult to get better, but he could heal bigger things like measles or chickenpox, or even much bigger things like he could make people who were blind see, and people who were deaf who couldn't hear, he could heal them so that they could hear. Or maybe people who couldn't walk, he could help them and heal them so that they could walk. It almost sounded too good to be true. Now, to make things even more exciting, this man was from Galilee, the same as Joe.

[29:45] He hadn't come from far away or from one of the big cities. He lived really quite near to where Joe lived. And Joe's dad reckoned that he could remember meeting his father, who was a carpenter called Joseph, the same name as Joe. Well, Joe was quite sure that there was nothing he would like more than to meet this man called Jesus. So after tea, when his mom gave him permission to play outside for 10 minutes before he had to come back in and get washed and go to bed, he heard some of the neighbors talking about Jesus as well, and how they were going to go and see him the following day.

[30:31] So Joe thought, this is my big chance. The following morning, he got up very early and joined the group of neighbors heading out to see Jesus. Fortunately, in the group, there were older cousins and friends of mom and dad, otherwise he would never have had permission to go quite a long way from his house.

[30:56] He nearly got left behind because his mom was busy making him a packed lunch. Just five wee rolls and two small fish. It was going to be a long day, and Joe had no idea just how important that packed lunch was going to be. In fact, his mom was taking so long, he almost went without it. But just as well he didn't, as we'll discover in a few moments. Well, it turned out to be quite a walk to where Jesus and his disciples were. Now, when we say disciples, the disciples were sort of like friends of Jesus, who followed him and walked with him wherever he went. And it was quite a long walk to where they were on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Well, it was called the Sea of Galilee, but it wasn't really a sea, it was a lake. Go figure that. But anyway, that's what it was called, the Sea of Galilee.

[31:50] And they got there eventually. And boy, was it worth the long walk. Joe had never seen so many people in all his life. And they all seemed to want to speak to Jesus or ask Jesus to heal one of their friends or relatives. And the amazing thing was that Jesus seemed to have time for everybody. And he really did make the sick people better.

[32:19] Joe wasn't very sure how he managed to, but he got really close to where Jesus was. And he could see that there was no tricks or anything going on. Jesus would say a wee word or touch the person and they would get better.

[32:34] The most exciting moment was when one of his own neighbors was healed. The wee blind girl who lived just around the corner from his house and who very seldom left the house and certainly never played with the other children. He always felt really sorry for her. And there she was right in front of him.

[32:52] And she could see. She really could see. Well, Joe couldn't wait till he could get home to tell his mom and dad and brothers everything he had seen. Joe was so fixed on Jesus and everything he said and did that he didn't even notice the hours passing.

[33:10] Or he didn't even start to feel hungry. But soon, the afternoon was nearly over and the sun was going down and Joe noticed the disciples, those friends of Jesus, gathering around Jesus to discuss something.

[33:27] The conversation, or at least part of it, because Joe couldn't remember everything, went something like this. One of the disciples said, Jesus, it's getting late and the people are hungry.

[33:40] Best to tell them to go home before all the shops close in the villages. And Jesus answered saying, There's no need for them to go away.

[33:51] You give them something to eat, he said to the disciples. And then he said to one of the disciples, whose name was Philip, He said, Philip, where will we buy bread for all these people to eat?

[34:04] And Philip just looked at Jesus and his eyes went wide open and his mouth went wide open as well. And he said, What? That's impossible. That would cost a fortune.

[34:16] Or he said something like that. Joe can't remember exactly. Now, Joe was listening in to all of this. And he remembered his own packed lunch.

[34:27] And wondered if maybe he could help. He knew it wasn't much. And it certainly wouldn't be enough for all the disciples. And of course it wouldn't be enough for all the crowds.

[34:39] But at least it would be enough for Jesus. And he couldn't think of anything more special than that his lunch would be the lunch for Jesus. He wasn't very sure what to do.

[34:52] So, he was a wee bit scared and a wee bit nervous. But he approached one of the disciples, whose name turned out to be Andrew. And he told him about his loaves and fish.

[35:06] Well, Andrew didn't seem very interested at all in Joe. But he was at least a little bit interested in his packed lunch. Without even asking him his name, or even so much as a thank you, he grabbed Joe by the arm, and he took him to Jesus.

[35:24] And this is what Andrew said. He said to Jesus, Here is a boy, a wee boy, with five small barley loaves and two small fish. But what use is that with so many people?

[35:37] Now, Joe didn't say anything. But he was thinking, I do have a name, actually. But he wasn't that bothered, because he was so excited about being close to Jesus.

[35:52] He also thought it was pretty obvious his packed lunch wasn't enough for everybody. But as long as it was enough for Jesus, that would do just fine. Then Jesus told his disciples to get everybody to sit down.

[36:06] And so they did. In groups of people as far as the eye could see. But none of those groups of people were as close as Joe was to Jesus.

[36:17] And some people who counted reckoned there were at least 5,000 people there. Now, Joe really didn't know what Jesus was going to do. It was all a bit of a mystery. Then Jesus, who by this time had been given Joe's packed lunch, looked up to heaven and started praying.

[36:36] He thanked his heavenly Father for the food and then started breaking the loaves and pieces and passing on to the disciples to share with everybody. But it was amazing. He just kept on breaking the bread and the fish and handing to the disciples and he never seemed to run out.

[36:53] There only were five loaves and two small fish, but he would break them and hand them out and break them and hand them out. And this went on and on and on and on and on again.

[37:07] And it seemed to go on for hours. Although it probably wasn't, but it seemed to be. And it went on until everybody, all of these 5,000 people or more, had had more than enough to eat and were all very full.

[37:22] And there was plenty to spare. In fact, after everybody had finished, Jesus told his disciples that they should gather all the pieces that were left over and make sure that nothing was wasted.

[37:36] Would you believe that they gathered enough to fill 12 huge baskets? And don't ask me where the baskets came from because I haven't got a clue. Well, everybody was amazed.

[37:50] And some of the grown-ups were saying that Jesus must be the special prophet who God had promised to send to the world. Joe didn't know about that, but he did know that Jesus can do the impossible and felt so very special that he was able to give Jesus his few loaves and two small fish so he could do so much with them.

[38:13] If he could do that with a few loaves, Joe wondered what Jesus could do with his own life. Anyway, it was very late and everybody really needed to head home.

[38:24] Eventually, Joe did get back very, very tired, but not so tired that he couldn't tell Mom and Dad everything that had happened that day.

[38:35] They were amazed as well and after he finished talking, Dad asked Joe quite a good question. He said to Joe, What have you learned from all your adventures today?

[38:48] Well, Joe had to think about that for a wee while and his answer was something like this. He said, Well, I certainly learned that I should listen to Mom when she tells me I should have a packed lunch.

[38:59] But there are other, even more important things I've learned. I learned that you don't need to be very important or to be a very important person to be important to Jesus.

[39:11] Jesus thinks everybody's important and special. I also learned that if you want to get to know Jesus better and hear what he has to say to you and even be able to help him, you need to get close to Jesus.

[39:25] If I hadn't been really close to him, I wouldn't have known that there was a problem and I wouldn't have been able to offer my packed lunch. And thinking about it, another thing I've learned, he said to his dad, is that Jesus can do anything.

[39:42] Nothing is impossible for him. I've seen it with my very own eyes. And Joe reckoned that was about all he'd learned and that was really quite a lot. But then his mum, being a mum, said to Joe, I think you learned one other thing.

[40:01] Remember what Jesus said to the disciples at the end. And Joe remembered. He said, oh yes, of course. Don't waste good food. Trust a mum to remember that.

[40:13] Well, that's the story about Joe and that's the story I wanted to tell you. And I'm sure lots of you recognize the story as one that we're told in the Bible.

[40:25] We actually have it in all the Gospels, all the books of the Bible that speak about Jesus. The story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. And all the important parts of the story are in the Bible.

[40:37] But you may have noticed that some of the details I made up. But I think it would be good if you, if we all, remember the lessons that Joe learned.

[40:50] And the first one I want you to remember, and you've heard it already because Joe said it, you are important to Jesus. The disciples didn't think Joe was very important.

[41:02] They didn't even know his name. They weren't interested in his name. He was just a wee boy. But he was important to Jesus. And you're important to Jesus. Jesus knows you.

[41:13] And he loves you. And he wants you to be close to him. So that's the first thing you remember. You're important to Jesus. And the next thing is that you can also get to know Jesus and to serve Jesus and be useful for Jesus.

[41:28] But in order to get to know him and be useful to him, you need to be close to him and hear what he has to say. Now for us today, if we want to be close to Jesus, we can be close to him by reading the Bible and by praying to him.

[41:43] That's the way we can get close to Jesus and hear what he has to say to us. And also remember that nothing is impossible for Jesus.

[41:55] And yes, one other thing. Don't waste good food. Let's just pray. Lord, we come before you and we thank you for what we can learn as we read and consider who Jesus is and what he has done.

[42:14] We do thank you for the Gospels. We thank you for all that they tell us and all that we can learn concerning Jesus and how wonderful he is. We thank you that he is indeed the promised prophet.

[42:27] But we thank you that he is more than a prophet. That he is the promised Messiah. The eternal and living Son of God who came into the world. We thank you that he is the one who spoke of himself in this way.

[42:41] I am the bread of life. And we pray that we would learn what it is to eat of that bread and to know life in all its fullness as we come close to Jesus and as we put our trust in him.

[42:55] We thank you that we are all important to you. We thank you that we are all known by you. And we pray that we would want to be close to you. That we would want to hear what you have to say to us.

[43:07] And that as we live our lives as followers of Jesus that we would have that clear understanding and conviction that he is the one who can do all things and do all things well.

[43:23] Nothing is impossible for him. And we pray all this in his name. Amen. Amen. Well let's sing again.

[43:34] We are going to sing this time in Psalm 44 on page 54 of our psalm books. These blue psalm books page 54 we are going to sing Psalm 44 verses 1 to 8.

[43:51] O God we with our ears have heard our fathers told us so what you accomplished in their days and days of long ago. Here the psalmist the person who has written the psalm is remembering all that he heard about what God had done.

[44:06] And because of what he heard he put his trust in God. Well we have been hearing about some of the things that Jesus has done. And as we hear about what the things he has done we pray that we too would be able to put our trust in him and believe that he is still a God who can do wonderful things.

[44:23] So we'll sing Psalm 44 verses 1 to 8 and we'll stand to sing. Psalm 44 Sings So we lift your hands you off and let us know there is there But you got the price to go and pray

[45:25] It was a violent honor And the angels at the land But by your love and faith let you And by your mighty hand You are my King and God For faith, for Jacob's victory Through you we trample down the road And round the red and red I thought that nothing gave away

[46:26] Or do I just find hope You put our head up in the ship And overcome our fall And now that long we beg our own Rejoining all the love And to your reign forevermore Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with us all now Amen Don't go away

[47:27]  Sit down but don't go away We're now going to have the prize giving Sunday school prize giving