A Fellowship of the Christian Church

The Bass River Pastoral Charge

The Presbyterian Church in Canada

St. Mark’s, Bass River; St. James, Beersville; St. Andrew’s, Clairville & Zion, West Branch

Organists: Heather Morton, Marly Sutherland, Rodney Girvan, Dolly MacDonald, Shanece Wilson

Minister: Rev. Alexander [Sandy] D. Sutherland; B.A., B.Th. M.Div

Manse #: 506-785-4383 Cell #: 506-521-0705 Email: thebrpc@gmail.com Twitter: thebrpc

Bulletin Announcements:  Cathy Little @ Fillmore Trucking #785-1083

www.pccweb.ca/brpc

ORDER OF SERVICE

The forth Sunday of Pentecost 

July 31st 2011

 

Welcome & Announcements

Call to Worship Be Glorified

Prayer of Approach & Confession & The Lord’s Prayer (NBoP 831; BoP 605)

Opening Praise: BoP 504 Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah

Responsive Reading  – Psalm 86 [BoP 646]

Children’s story – What do I know?! [how to respond to those people are always saying, “I know!”]

Children’s Hymn: BoP 468 The wise may bring their learning

Scripture Readings:

OT – Genesis 32:22-31

²²That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

²⁸Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

²⁹Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

³⁰So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³¹The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

Epistle – Romans 9:1-5

¹I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—²I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, ⁴the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Hymn of Illumination: BoP 474 Take my life, and let it be

Scripture Readings:

Gospel – Matthew 14:13-21

¹³When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

¹⁵As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

¹⁶Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸“Bring them here to me,” he said. ¹⁹And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. ²⁰They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ²¹The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Sermon: Getting God in a Chokehold

Sometimes we act as though we have Him right where we want Him.

You’ve said your prayers; every day. And devotions, you’ve done them too, day and night. You’ve been to the bibles studies. You’ve baked for the bake sale. You’ve even served on a committee, and did the dishes at the last church breakfast. Yep, you have even read in church. And now, God owes you!!

Have you ever met the type? Now I doubt any one would admit – out loud – to having that sort of attitude about God owing them, but many people live their live and do the works that we might call good works, but they have the wrong faith and those good works never become godly works.

Here is another example, they were born to the worst conditions imaginable. Parents were abusive in all the worst possible ways. They grew up knowing nothing but hate. Schools just pushed them through the system, they suffered addictions, they did time in jail, they hurt the people around them, and then all of a sudden they come to church, they hear that they are forgiven, and that they can begin a new life in Christ, and so they start to go to church, and they think that everything will go okay from this point on because God’s already put them through the worse that life can offer. Nothing else could go wrong. God kinda owes them, doesn’t He?

You might have met this type too. And what is quickly discovered by either of these people I have described is that God does not pay up to what we think that God owes us. If things have not gone your way, or even if your life has gone exactly as you have planned at some point your pride and your own will is going to draw to the point in your life when your journey of faith is going to make you wrestle with God; because if you think God owes you, you are already acting as though you have God in a chokehold.

Jacob, the Jacob in the bible in the book of Genesis was the son of Issac. Jacob was born into the world with all kinds of expectation put on him. He was told the stories about his grandfather Abraham, how he came our from the land of Ur with a special promise from God. Jacob grew up knowing that he was apart of that promise, and Jacob seemed to develop an opinion that he was entitled to certain rewards by being a grandson to such a promise. Jacob liked to get what he felt was his due, and he did not like it when someone stood in his way.

He wanted his father’s blessing so he taunted his brother and tricked his father until he got it. He wanted Rachel for his wife, and tried to work his way around proper customs in order to have her. He wanted the best flocks for himself, so he manipulated the circumstances again until he got what he wanted. Jacob wrestled his way through life, striving for the best of whatever he could get.

Sounds like a determined man. It sounds like the kind of person you’d want running a company, or even ruling a country. Sounds like a son that Isaac should have been proud of, but the bible tells us that Isaac favoured Esau; hmmm . . .

And when it came time to turn back to his roots, to go back and make amends with his brother, and be resolved to his father-in-law, and to have all those things in place in his life, that any of us would like to have in place, you think that God would open the way for him.

Esau was coming to the river with four hundred men, warriors and huntsman like himself. Jacob did not know Esau’s intentions, but he sought to bargain with Esau, and in the same manner sought to convince God that God owed him something. Jacob was trying to resolve things with his brother on his own terms, not his brothers, just as he had tried to resolve things with his father-in-law on his own terms, as if he [Jacob] was owed.

Have you been coming to God on your own terms? Look at what we have been teaching our children for generations. If you work hard enough things will work out for you, well the truth is that that sort of thinking and that sort of teaching is a lie. If you work hard enough you are not owed anything, if you make enough money you do not find happiness. If you fill your house with piles of wonderful things and assorted stuff, you do not have great possessions. Just the same as if you build a beautiful church, sing the favourite hymns, have the most interesting sermons it does not mean that you are rewarded with the results you want.

Jacob had a last lesson to learn before he was reconciled with his brother. Jacob had to learn that the healing that needed to take place between him and his brother was going to take something of far greater value than a heard of goats, or his entire stock of cattle, or his lifetime of accomplishments, or even in returning a birthright and blessing to his brother.

So Jacob waded across the river, and there he encountered God. And God was standing against Jacob. God was standing in Jacob’s way. God waited for Jacob on the riverside, and there they wrestled.

Jacob had acted as though he had God in a chokehold for so much of his life. He believed he was entitled to everything he got. But that whole time he was putting his own will up against God’s will.

And so I am asking you today, where is your will? Are you living you life like you’ve got God in a chokehold? Is there some nagging self-understanding that God owes you something? For being so faithful? For going through SO much?

You cannot build a church big enough, fill a collection plate high enough, serve in enough missions, read enough bible readings, do enough committee work, or wash enough dishes to make God owe you. This is the creator of all things, the author of all things, the source of all things, and the power by which all things move and have their being. What can God owe you?

We are owed nothing . . . but look at what have been given.

That was what Jacob had to at last see. Jacob had to lose in order to finally see all that God was giving him. Jacob wrestled with God and discovered that though he thought he had God in a chokehold God had only to touch Jacob’s hip and the match was over.

Are you prepared, to feel that touch of God who loves you enough to put your whole life out of joint in order to save you?

We ask for God to touch our lives, to touch our lives so we can see and know just how much we have and how much God loves us. Look at Jacob and what happened to him when God touched his life. He walked with a limp. Getting touched by God is not the pleasant things we like to try and imagine it to be.

But in the end we discover just how much God loves us. The man once named Jacob became the nation known as Israel, God’s people, but also those who wrestle with God.

Yes, we still wrestle with God, not because we hate God, or because we are trying to trick or manipulate God, but because even now God is not willing to let you go. God’s not going to let you go until you admit that God wins. God sent his own Son, Jesus our Saviour, to show us that God can defeat even death.

All this has been done so that you do not have to win your way through life, but you can let God win for you as you follow in his way, and are fulfilled in what God has prepared for you, this day and forever in God’s kingdom, the everlasting Church.

So, what does God owe you? So, what is God giving you that your pride has kept you from accepting? So, are you still wrestling or are you ready to give your will over to God, whose own Son has given all to win for your sake?

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession

God’s Tithes and our gifts

Doxology (NBoP 830; BoP 603)

Offertory Prayer

Commissioning Hymn: BoP 509 Lead on O King Eternal

Benediction

Dismissal: Holy Spirit on Us Fall [see back of bulletin]

We are glad to be a welcoming fellowship, and we hope you all find a wonderful fullness of God’s Spirit in today’s worship. If you are visiting, or are new to the community we hope you will get to know us, as we are very glad to have you be a part of this loving community.

Announcements:

Memorial Services:

July 31^st at 2:30pm – St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Clairville
August 7^th at 2:30pm – St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, Bass River

August 28th at 2:30 pm – St. James’ Presbyterian Church, Beersville

Next Week’s Services:

9:30am – Zion Presbyterian Church (West Branch)

11:00am – St. James’ Presbyterian Church (Beersville)

Mission Moment: India Mission Trip: “Send someone else!”

When Crawford Sharp first heard about a short-term opportunity to go to India with his church, St. Andrew’s Ottawa, his response was “Here am I. Please send someone else.” For many reasons, he simply did not want to go. . As decision time approached, Crawford felt something stirring.  At the last minute, he truly felt that God was calling him to go.  Crawford found Amkhut, India to be “a place where the veil between heaven and earth is thin, heaven seems somehow nearer, and God is very close.”  He was touched by the enthusiasm, joyous worship and strong abiding faith of his hosts, often in the face of persecution and hardship. Our gifts to Presbyterians Sharing connect people with long-term mission partners around the world through short-term mission visits. Let us pray for the people whose lives these trips transform.