Worship at Home

Welcome to Middlesbrough and Eston Worship at Home.

It’s Ruth Lewis this week, leading worship for you.

Opening Prayer:

As sure as spring follows winter, as our days get lighter and warmer so certain is your love for us. We praise you Loving Creator God that, if we pause and listen, every day, we may hear your quiet voice calling us to love, to trust and to follow you.

Hymn:   Jesus the name high over all  

https://youtu.be/UxpYa3hY_XQ?si=UnEeteLeAkx3orO3 

Indian massed Choir no v3

A prayer  

When we think of the world and all its current problems: climate change, war, intolerance, uncertainty, and then remember our own personal lives with its different challenges we are sometimes tempted to despair and lose trust. Forgive us Lord.  

In the night time of our fears and doubts, in our questioning and wondering, be present, ever-present God.  

Lord, help us see the hand you put out for us, help us to trust you and to grip you tight as we face whatever trials come upon us.

Thank you Lord, that you forgive us, that we are precious to you, that we know whose we are – we belong to you.
Thank you that your love for us is unconditional, we don’t have to prove anything.
And thank you that when we lose trust you are there to pick us up, wipe off the dust and set us back on the right path.

Thank you for the amazing love that you offer to each one of us.

Lord’s Prayer. Our father

Bible Reading Luke 4:1-13  You can read it yourself, or you could click on the link and watch this film version from The Visual Bible

https://youtu.be/452kxy-5M8w?si=XFxSCov3mxTVGFRE

Message:  

This Lent, forget worrying about minor temptations of chocolate or chips, of wine or worse. The main temptation we all face, and that which was faced by Jesus, is the temptation to stop trusting in God’s love.

In the wilderness, the devil tries to turn Jesus with the promise of bread when he’s hungry, the glory and power of all the world’s leaders, and the promise of rescue should he fall.  And all Jesus has to do in return is worship Satan, in other words to turn away from trusting in God.  

The sharp point of the temptation is in the word “if”. If you really are the Son of God. 

Was the voice he heard  at his baptism saying he was the Son of God,  real?  

Was his faith real? 

In the wilderness Jesus is tempted to test his faith instead of simply trusting God.

His other two temptations are also at their heart about losing trust in God’s Love.  

If you jump will God save you? 

If you worship me, I will let you rule the world, says the devil.  

The IF temptation can come to us too in the wilderness, in any of the harsh places of life.  

You might find yourself thinking: If God really loves me, why can’t my prayers stop bad things from happening like a child dying in hospital, a loved one suffering from cancer.  

There are brutal wars, hunger in the world, if only stones could be bread.  

If God really loves me, there would be no limit to the suffering I could stop.

Temptation is the thought: As a Christian, as a child of God, test your status. Prove it!

In his wilderness temptation, again and again Jesus turns to the promises of  Scripture in answer to the devil.

In order to know himself as God’s Child, he does not have to turn stones into bread, or give dramatic signs like jumping from the temple tower, or by ruling the world.  

He just has to have faith, to trust in the love of God whom he calls Father.

Whatever wrong we might have done, whatever happens to us, whatever….

we too have to trust that God still loves us and is holding us even now.  

Even in a wilderness of pain, suffering and grief.

Trust. That is what we must do.

Hymn: My soul finds rest in God alone

St Peter’s Free Church Dundee

https://youtu.be/hiyMqtUtm6A?si=I5k7KIJID4NovcWy    

Prayer:   

We praise you for all your gifts to us. In particular we thank you for inspiring and sending  us developments in science, medicine and medical treatments which today give relief and  hope despite illnesses and conditions which used to be fatal.  

We give you thanks for the skills of people whom you call to work in health and care. Doctors, radiographers, nurses, carers, physiotherapists, paramedics and porters. We thank  you that you are with us even when we suffer and hurt, upholding us and giving us strength for everything we may face, even death itself.

Loving God, please be to each of us: our  Helper in times of weakness; our Guide when circumstances confuse us;  the Warmth when our hearts feel cold;  our Counsellor when we need straightening out;  our Comforter when hearts are broken;  the Fire when our trust ebbs low, and the Light when deep darkness falls, our Anchor in the storms of life.  

Blessing:

Trust: the Almighty Father  willrefresh you,  Trust : the Loving Saviour  willredeem you and  Trust the life-giving Spirit will restore and energise you.

So go to love and serve the Lord. .

A lovely hymn from the Chet Valleys: Will your anchor hold in the storms of life.  

https://youtu.be/6r3h7OhsZxw?si=7uJaEELTms6FLswt