WS Online – 17 May 2020
Interactive service outline for Church at Home
Welcome
Welcome to our English online service at West Sydney Chinese Christian Church!
We hope you’ve all been staying safe, healthy and warm and we’re so glad you can join us today
as we spend time hearing from God’s word and worshipping Him in song and prayer.
If you’re new here today, welcome! We’d love to connect with you and get to know you more.
There is a link below to fill in your contact detail if you’d like to connect with us and find out
more.
Over the past month we’ve been working our way through the book of Ephesians and we’ve
been encouraged as a church by the riches of God’s grace, the greatness of His power and the
spiritual blessings and life we have in Christ.
And today Rev. Andrew Bardsley is going to preach for us on The Peace of God in Christ.
This service is designed in such a way to accommodate for both families and groups worshipping
together but also for those who wish to follow along by themselves. Our online Sunday School
materials are available here: https://wsccc.org.au/children-strathfield/
Service Video
Interactive Service Outline
Our call to worship
As we begin today’s service please read with us from Psalm 103:21-22.
“21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Opening prayer
Lord God,
Thank you that you are good, that you give us life and you cause us to flourish.
Wherever we’re at now, we look to you to speak to us, we look to you as the source of all good and life.
We worship you.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Opening songs
Let’s sing our opening song that celebrates God’s grace for us.
We Declare
Our second song focuses on the sufficency of Jesus. Jesus, Thank You.
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.
- GlueStick Youth is hosting “The only uncancelled event” for all high schoolers on YouTube live at the gluestickyouth channel. Invite your friends and youth to join us for a night of fun, fellowship, testimony and a Bible talk. It will be on the 29th May 7:30-8:30pm. For further details, please contact Pastor Dan Chieng on dan.wsccc@gmail.com.
- COVID-19 update from the Diaconate – We thank the Lord that Australia has been spared much of the global catastrophe of Covid-19. Thank you also to all our members, who have patiently supported each other throughout this period. Although we are separated by distance, we are united in fellowship and worship of the one Lord. It is a good sign that the Prime Minister and Premier have lifted some restrictions to social gatherings. We encourage members to resume fellowship in-person with each other (5 visitors to homes, or 10 outdoors). However, it is still not possible to meet at church yet, and no meetings or activities are to resume there except by approval of pastors or deacons.
Diaconate has drafted a Post-Covid-19 Reintegration plan for our ministries. Sunday services on-site at church will likely not re-commence until September/October. Churches need to be particularly cautious about public health, due to the large number of people, many of them elderly, meeting in closed spaces, involving activities such as singing and fellowship. We must be vigilant about physical distancing and hygiene. Contact tracing in the event of a church member testing positive for Covid is also critical – therefore we encourage all church members to download the CovidSafe app so that members can be aware (and contacted) if they have been exposed, particularly if at a church activity.
During the 4-5 months before on-site services resume, we encourage members to continue to pray for the nations suffering from Covid, also giving thanks for Australia’s safety. Please continue to enjoy the convenience of on-line church services. But we also encourage you to re-connect with other church members in fellowship as the restrictions are lifted. Perhaps you could meet in each others’ homes to do Sunday worship together (still respecting social distancing guidelines). The Lord has been faithful and merciful to our nation and to our church. May we offer our thanks and honour to God in response as his holy church.
Congregational Prayer
O God our Heavenly Father,
We humble ourselves before you as we contemplate your glory and goodness. We hold our sin and failures up to you and humbly repent.
We’re filled with joy and thankfulness as we look to Jesus who humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross so that, by your grace, we can be forgiven and made alive with Christ.
We pray for our youth ministry at WS. We thank you that Glue and Stick are still able to meet online and encourage one another. We ask that you will help foster deeper connections between the youth and leaders and with you. We commit the evangelistic night on the 29th of May to you and pray for boldness for the youth to invite their friends, softened hearts for those who receive the invitation to accept and for you to work powerfully to draw people to yourself.
Father you are sovereign and powerful, and we continue to ask for your mercy and healing upon our world, especially for the nations that are most heavily affected by the COVID-19 situation. We pray for wisdom for our leaders, strength and perseverance for our health workers, restoration for those who have been impacted physically, mentally and financially, and self-control for us to follow social distancing and hygiene guidelines. Thank you for the reduction of new cases and the easing of restrictions which has opened up opportunities to meet and encourage others in person. Please help us to thirst for Jesus and your word of life, and to be people of love who have generous hearts and look to the interests of others.
Finally we ask for your peace, which surpasses all understanding, to guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
In His powerful name we pray,
Amen
Bible reading
The reading for today comes from Ephesians 2:11-22 (NIV)
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Sermon
Today we’ll hear from Rev. Andrew Bardsley as he speaks on the topic of “The Grace of God in Christ.” Please listen here to the recording:
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 – Come Behold the wondrous Mystery.
Offering Prayer
Lord, thank you that you continue to sustain us financially as a church through electronic means. We pray that the money collected will be used wisely by our leaders for the work of the church, for the community around us and for the growth and glory of your kingdom. 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
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.
Connect with us! If you’d like to get in touch with us, join a small group online, or find out more about Christianity, fill out a response card here: Response Form.