麻豆社

OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT
麻豆社 Radio 4. Sunday Worship today comes Journey Community Church in Antrim in Northern Ireland and is introduced by the Senior Pastor, John Ashe.

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Script of Programme:

Please note: This script may not exactly reflect the transmission. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors.

Pastor John Ashe:
Hello and welcome to Journey Community Church here in the historic town of Antrim. We鈥檝e been together听for the past 12 years meeting in Antrim, we starting in a Coffee shop, meeting in a community hall then a school and now we have our very own building here in Antrim and now have three churches in Antrim and in Downpatrick and Bangor. Why the Journey? Like us all we are on a journey of discovery and you are welcome to join us today at our new church Building where Christine Neale will lead our service.

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Christine Neale :

Hi everyone, it鈥檚 great to see you all here for our Sunday morning service and for those of you who are joining us on 麻豆社 Radio, you are especially welcome today.听

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God is forever after our full attention. As a church, we鈥檝e just finished 31 focused days of prayer which called us into deeper communion with God - our prayers cried out for Him to shape us and mould us in such a way that we would be ready to serve Him with all of our hearts and all our souls. Through this time, I was reminded that things change when we turn our eyes towards God. Things change when we steep ourselves in the truth of His word. Things change when He alone becomes our rock and our salvation.

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As we come to worship together, let鈥檚 keep God at the centre of all we say and do. For from Him are all things, and to Him are all things, He deserves all of the glory and all of our praise.听

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Let鈥檚 stand together to sing our first two songs:

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Songs: Promises Never Fail听( Jason Ingram/ Ben Fielding/Brian Johnson/ Joel Taylor)

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Praises听 (Brandon Lake/ Chandler Moore/ Chris Brown/ Cody Carnes/ Pat Barrett/ 听听听听Steven Furtick)

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Let us pray:

Father God, we praise you for who you are. Majestic in all your ways, matchless in glory.

You are our rock and our salvation and we place our trust in you. In your presence we are so aware of our weaknesses, our faults and our failures. We fall short time and time again in the light of your holiness. Yet still, you move towards us in love.

Before the world began, you chose to humble yourself and enter this world as a baby. You revealed your heart through Jesus and paid the ultimate price, facing the pain of humiliation, death and separation so we would never have to. Your forgiveness is freely given to all, amazing love, oh what love is this? How faithful you are.

How good and kind and full of mercy are you. That you would pay our debt. That you set us free so that we might live our lives for your glory. We bow down before you now and lay ourselves at your feet. The only one worthy of our all, our everything. We bless your holy and powerful name. Amen.

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Interview with Florence Walker who is in charge of the programme for chi;dren in Journey Community Church.

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Song: In Christ Alone (Keith Getty/Stuart Townend)听听

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Reader :听Acts 2:42-47:听a passage which describes how the first Christians lived together

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They devoted themselves to the apostles鈥� teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43听Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.听44听All who believed were together and had all things in common;听45听they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds[]听to all, as any had need.听46听Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home[]听and ate their food with glad and generous[]听hearts,听47听praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Rhianna:听Followed by Prayer.听

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Song: Gratitude听(Brandon Lake/ Benjamin Hastings/Dante Bowe/Jacob Sooter)

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Pastor John Ashe: Sermon听

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.听Good Deeds听Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the听goodwill听of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.鈥澨鼼ood News

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There鈥檚 a model in this passage I think that is the blue print for the church in dealing with the communities where it finds itself.. But I also think it鈥檚 funny how the church for the most part has often turned the model around the wrong way!听

You might think it would be pretty simple right?听Someone might say 鈥淚f you could help my kids and help my family, I might show up.鈥�

And yet the church has taken some flak over the years for people truly feel that many churches have treated them as outsiders, and churches can have lots of convictions and religion but yet often seem to be without true compassion.听

I don鈥檛 know about you but I think that doesn鈥檛 really sound like Jesus.

In the book by Pastor Ray Johnston titled: Jesus Want鈥檚 His Church Back; Ray reiterates the fact we need to put Jesus back as the main thing.

He looks at this model we see in Acts 2:45-47听

鈥淎ll who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.听They did these听Good Deeds

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the听goodwill听of all the people.听Goodwill

And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.鈥澨�Good News

You see this model is almost perfect but for the most part the church has gone and turned it upside down.听

The order is meant to look like this.听

Good deeds lead to good will which leads to people being open to hearing the Good News. However, most have turned it backwards.听

We have tried to give people the听Good News first, without first building any听good will听and then expect people to go out and听do good deeds. so rather than Good deeds good will, Good news we have gone Good news, Good Will, Good Deeds.听

But until we come back to the blueprint in Acts we will probably end up getting it wrong. Getting things upside down. Imagine if we could get back to the original blueprint.听

For what happens is the blueprint we鈥檝e developed 听looks much like this.

If I become a Christian, act like them, talk like them they will maybe let me join them, then I get to belong. It like Believe, Behave, then we can belong.听

But that鈥檚 not the right model either.

But you should be able to can come here and belong;听 be part of the church and belong even if you don't behave, there鈥檚 a place for you here.

But I know God Loves you too much to leave you like that.听

What we want to do is model Jesus, to show that there is a better way and so make disciples.听To help people see that He is worth the change!听

That when we model what a healthy church can look like then, His ways are belong, being part of a community that does Good deeds to each other. Then you find favour,听good will, relational equity and we get the right to speak the Good News into someone鈥檚 heart. And then you can believe and out of the believing in Jesus, he then transforms us and we change out behaviour.听

So we need to listen to the infrastructure鈥�.

Good Deeds: Lets do good things for people, you know what鈥檚 even better. Do good deeds for people you may not even like. That boss, that work, what bully, that person who hurts you. Do good deeds in all we do we would model听

Good Will. When you constantly bless our community, by doing good deeds, there, we find relational equity and we the church earn the right to share the听

Good News. The Good news is what Jesus came to share and then commissioned us to share it. But in a world that has largely rejected the church because the church seems isolated and removed from the community it鈥檚 time to re-engage.听

We are meant to make a difference, we are meant to be light carriers, we aren鈥檛 meant to just tell people about Jesus, we are meant to show him off, we are meant to light up our communities live.听

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 听Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 听In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Let鈥檚 be town and City transformers, let鈥檚 be the hands and feet of Jesus on our community,

听Let鈥檚 be the church that changes our towns, our cities, our country and eventually the world. Let鈥檚 be the light of God鈥檚 Kingdom.听

听Reader :Intercessory Prayers:听Lord, we thank you that you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and that you sit on your throne with absolute justice and mercy.

We lift up our land, to you. We thank you for the breakthrough in our government and we ask that you would continue to give wisdom and insight to our leaders and officials. We continue to pray for unity and peace in our land across all divides.

We pray for the conflicts that are currently afflicting our world and we lift up the hearts and lives of those affected.

We cry out for peace in the Ukraine and Russia and in the Middle East and ask that your presence would enter into the darkest of places the earth.

We ask above all that your kingdom would come and your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Amen听听

Song: House of Miracles听 (Brandon Lake/Jacob Sooter)

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Christine Neal:听

Heavenly father we praise you for your amazing church around the world. Father We pray for united of all churches to life a life on mission, that we would all become known for the amazing wonders of generosity with in each of our communities. Today Lord we ask that all churches would be Acts 2 churches again, that with passion and fervour we would unite around that mission the great co mission and that we would all see Jesus get what he died for!听

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And today we bless you, in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit that as we go we would see the incredible bride of Christ be the visible expression of Jesus!听

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Amen

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CLOSING ANNOUCEMENT

Sunday Worship came from Journey Community Church in Antrim in Northern Ireland and was led by Christine Neale. The preacher was Pastor John Ashe. The music was directed by Rhianna Brubaker and the producer was David Waker,

Next week on Sunday Worship,听 just before Valentine鈥檚 Day, Rachel Gardner and Dr Krish Kandiah听 will discuss matters of identity and love raised by the blockbuster film Barbie

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