Today’s service takes as it’s theme “By the Spirit” and is based on Zechariah 4: 1 -14. This should be the last in our recorded service series as on the 6th September we plan to meet for worship at church. For those unable or unwilling to be there in person the service will be streamed live.
Today service is base on the order of service precious emailed but which is also available here to download 26. By the Spirit – Zech. 4.1-14 (23.08.2020)
The recorded service is available on YouTube by following this link.
Pre-service song
Call to worship
[The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)
Opening prayer and confession
Father God, you are the one who leads us from weakness into power, from darkness into light, from captivity into freedom, from anxiety into peace ,from despair into joy. Yet we long to break free, choosing independence, convinced of our own wisdom, forgetting your love and grace.
Forgive us, Lord God. You take our confession and gently, like the loving heavenly Father that you are, put it to one side to be forgotten. No grudges, no resentment, no ill-will. Not like us, who find it so easy to say sorry but so hard to forgive absolutely.
Forgive us, Father, that we are often more willing to accept forgiveness, than to forgive. More willing to accept your love, than to share it with those who have hurt us. Teach us to forgive, as you forgive, and to love as you love. Amen
Opening song
Holy Spirit rain down, rain down
Reading Zechariah 4: 1 – 14 (NIV)
Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep. 2 He asked me ‘What do you see?’ I answered, ‘I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps.
3 Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.’
4 I asked the angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’
5 He answered, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ No, my lord,’ I replied.
6 So he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.
7 ‘What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of “God bless it! God bless it!”’
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.
10 ‘Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen plumb-line in the hand of Zerubbabel’.
11 Then I asked the angel, ‘What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?’
12 Again I asked him, ‘What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?’ 13 He replied, ‘Do you not know what these are?’
‘No, my lord,’ I said.
14 So he said, ‘These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.’
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Reflection By the Spirit
What has challenged or encouraged you in the teaching from God’s Word today?
What will you take away from this and into the coming week?
Song for reflection
Prayers of intercession
Let us bring our prayers to God trusting in his steadfast love and in his willingness always to hear us when we call on his name.
We pray for God’s church in the world that she may remain faithful to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and proclaim that Gospel to people of all nations.
We pray for our own daily living out of our faith that we may be faithful witnesses to our faith in Jesus Christ.
We pray for God’s world with all its needs and hurts and for ourselves that we may respond to those needs with compassion and generosity.
As our schools prepare to return, we pray for all God’s children in our community that they may be kept safe. We pray that God’s steadfast love may be made known to them by the way in which we live and in the way in which we serve them.
We pray for all who are in need of God’s healing and peace that they may know God’s presence surrounding them in their pain and distress. We pray for the bereaved that they might know God’s peace.
Lord God, our heavenly Father, we offer these prayers to you now. We ask that through them and the prayers of all your people your will may be done in the church, throughout the world, in our lives and in the lives of all for whom we have prayed. We ask this in the name of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 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.
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
Closing song
Closing prayer and blessing
Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Saviour and our Friend, Amen.
And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us all, all those we love, all those we care for, and all those we pray for, now and ever more. Amen
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Amen.