Bible Preaching Doesn’t Speak To Your World, It Rocks Your World (via Will Willimon)

Gary Ware

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August 15, 2020

If you listen to a sermon tomorrow I hope it doesn’t make you feel comfortable in your world, but causes you to long for the world God is re-creating through his Son, – and long to know completely what it is to be part of that world.

From Leading With The Sermon:

In preaching, God’s people are moved, that is, led – little by little, or sometimes violently jolted – in the power of the Holy Spirit, Sunday by Sunday, toward new and otherwise unavailable descriptions of reality. Every sermon potentially offers a new heaven and a new earth. The complaint “Your sermon didn’t really speak to my world” overlooks the potentially disruptive dislocating power of preaching that wants to rock our world.

William H Willimon, Leading With The Sermon, Fortress Press, 2020, pg 10.

The Trial (preparing for MGPC 16/8/20)

Gary Ware

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August 15, 2020

The only charge they could convict Jesus of was the truth that they would not believe.

For those unable to join us at MGPC, the service will be live-streamed.
The video is available at our website and youtube channel.

Song: Broken Vessels
Welcome:
Call to Worship
Song: Cornerstone
Prayer Of Confession
Song: Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven
Affirming our Faith
Song: Now To Him Who Loved Us
Bible Reading: Acts 12:1-19 – The Apostle Peter is rescued from prison by an angel of the Lord and rejoins the saints assembled for prayer.
Bible Memorisation: Mark 14:38
Song: Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus
Bible Reading: Mark 14:53-65
Sermon: The Trial
Announcements:
Pastoral Prayer:
Closing Blessing
Song: No Other Name

Taking Up Your Cross – Living With The Courage To Acknowledge Your Pain (via Henri Nouwen)

Gary Ware

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August 14, 2020

Disciples of Jesus are called to follow him, taking up our cross.
Because the freedom and desire to follow Jesus flow from Jesus’ own unique and unrepeatable bearing of his cross on our behalf, his invitation is a call to recognise that our burdens are real, but they are borne in the life that Jesus has won for us.
Being a disciple of Jesus does not free us from everyday burdens and cares, nor does it mean that we are free of pain or distress.
Rather it enables us to acknowledge them from the perspective of their being borne in Jesus.

From Henri Nouwen:

To “take up the cross” does not mean to look for pain. It doesn’t mean to go after the cross. It does not mean to search for a problem. We have a lot of problems. We don’t need more. Sometimes we think that to “take up the cross” means to be hard on ourselves. That is not what Jesus says. To “take up the cross” means first of all to acknowledge where we are suffering, to recognise it.
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Jesus says, “Take up your cross.” He didn’t say, “Make up your cross.” He said, “Take up your cross,” and this means to have the courage to see your pain.

Henri Nouwen, Following Jesus, SPCK, 2019, pgs 81,82.

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