WS Online – 5 April 2020
Interactive service outline for Church at Home
Welcome
Praise God for the gift of technology, that allows us to do church and life together even amidst difficult times such as these. There have been such amazing stories this week amongst the WSCCC/Church family about we have continued to meet up online with one another for small groups, prayer and fellowship.
This service is designed in such a way to accommodate for both families/groups worshipping together but also for those who wish to follow along by themselves. Our Children’s Ministry has sent out a program for Sunday School aged children by email.
We encourage you to set aside 1 hour to worship through this service. We want you to interact with this service as much as possible as we sing, pray, read Scripture, partake in offering and hear God’s Word explained to us. If you are in a group, ways to engage in active worship of our God include taking turns reading His Word together, singing songs out loud and praying the prayer points together.
Please join us either through our service video below or an interactive service outline for your reading.
Service Video
Interactive Service Outline
Our call to worship
During today’s service, Dr. Malcolm Gill, will be encourage us from Mark 8:34-9:10, on the topic of “Living today in light of tomorrow.”
As we begin today’s service please read with us from Psalm 110:4-5, as we have every reason top praise our good and faithful God who does not change, even amidst uncertain and changing items:
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name, For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Opening songs
Let’s sing our opening song that reminds us to keep our eyes on Christ. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
Our second song focuses on Christ’s sacrifice for us. Once For All
Announcements
While we currently exist in part as an online community, we remain a local community that desires to meet together, serve each other, and carry out Christ’s Great Commission. Here are some items of news for us as a church family.
- Good Friday and Easter Sunday – join us for our Good Friday and Easter Sunday services online, as we remember Christ’s death and resurrection together as a church family.
- Sunday School – our children’s Sunday school has moved online. More information and weekly lessons will be available on the new children’s ministry website: https://wsccc.org.au/children-strathfield/
- Small Groups – small groups have moved to meeting over Zoom. If you aren’t currently part of a small group and would like to get connected with a group, please contact Wayne at wayne.wsccc@gmail.com
- We encourage everyone to continue to take the COVID-19 virus situation seriously and to take necessary precautions to limit the spread of the virus. As a church, we continue to follow the guidelines set by the NSW Department of Health. The latest updates from the Diaconate are available here: https://wsccc.org.au/covid-19-updates
- Pastoral Care and Practical Help – We understand that this can be a difficult time for many in our church family. If you would like to speak to someone or are looking for some practical help, we want to do what we can to support you. Please feel free to contact any of the pastors or deacons.
Congregational Prayer
We are now going to devote some time to speak to God about what is happening in our world. As our Heavenly Father, God cares deeply for our cares and woes, and is powerful to act. Let us pray to Him now:
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are a God who is unchanging in your faithfulness, goodness, and sovereignty. We continue to commit the COVID-19 situation to you. We ask that you bring healing to our world. We pray for those who are struggling with isolation, sickness, adjusting to working from home, loss of work, and stress and anxiety. We trust that you continue to work out your good purposes in this situation and we thank you for the unique opportunities that you have given us to trust you more and love and serve others in this time. We ask that you would continue to grow us in godly patience, perseverance, and self-control.
We also pray for our church, that we would continue to be united during this time when we are physically apart. Please sustain our pastors, our deacons, and our leaders, give them wisdom and unity as they lead and grow them in personal holiness.
As we approach Easter next week, we thank you for the sacrifice Jesus made at the cross. We pray that Christians around the world would remember this with gratitude and have opportunities to share your love with people around us. And as we come to your Word today, please give us listening ears and soft hearts to be hearers and doers of your Word.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.
Bible reading
The reading for today comes from Mark 8:34-9:10 (NIV).
Mark 8:34-9:10
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
9 And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
Sermon
Today we’ll hear from Dr. Malcolm Gill, as he speaks from Mark 8:34-9:10 on the topic of “Living today in light of tomorrow.”
Please listen here to the recording: https://wsccc.org.au/s9/sermons/
Offering Song
We come to a time in the service when we have the opportunity to worship God through offering, in giving back to the Lord a portion of what he has given to us. Even though we cannot all meet together in one building, we have still made our commitment to financially support our pastors, missionaries, and ongoing church expenses.
Because an offering bag cannot be passed around, please make your electronic offerings to church via these accounts.
- General fund: BSB 082 080. Acc 48 243 6244. Name: WSCCC.
- Mission fund: BSB 082 080. Acc 52 856 0495. Name: WSCCC.
- Building fund: BSB 082 451. Acc 73 932 0475. Name: WSCCC.
You can also give online through this link: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1291374
Our offering song is – All I Have is Christ
Offering Prayer
Dear God, thank you for your daily provision for us. Make our hearts more like your own generous heart and we ask that the money collected would be used to grow your kingdom and bring you glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Closing prayer and benediction
Please continue to contemplate all you have heard from Scripture today, and please take the opportunity this week to share with your family and friends.
As we approach the coming week, let’s finish with Paul’s blessing from 2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all evermore.