Sermon Tone Analysis

*Welcome:*

*Call to Worship: Psalm 119: 89-93*

*89 **Your word, O Lord, is eternal; *

*it stands firm in the heavens.

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*90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations; *

*you established the earth, and it endures.

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*91 Your laws endure to this day, *

*for all things serve you.

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*92 If your law had not been my delight, *

*I would have perished in my affliction.

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*93 I will never forget your precepts, *

*for by them you have preserved my life.

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*Greeting:* Brothers and sisters, our help is in the name of the Lord _Amen

Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit - Amen

*Sing (Musicians)*

Confession – Please turn with me to Psalm 51: 1-12 as we acknowledge our unworthiness before God.

*1 **Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

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*2 **Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

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*3 **For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

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*4 **Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

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*5 **Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

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*6 **Surely you desire truth in the inner partsa; you teachb me wisdom in the inmost place.

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*7 **Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

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*8 **Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

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*9 **Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

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*10 **Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

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*11 **Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

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*12 **Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

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Let me lead us in prayer

 

 

Father God, We stand before you aware of our weakness and smallness before You, all Mighty God!

We really want to do what is right, but we rush headlong towards that which we know is wrong!

We struggle to love one another, even those you have placed in our lives most intimately, Lord.

Forgive us Lord, we plead.

Forgive us and strengthen us.

Let us not become disheartened by our inability to do what is good in your eyes Lord but keep us mindful of your grace, and your mercy for those who will confess their sins.

And give us praying hearts and minds and even hands, Lord, to return to your ways.

Hear our prayer, Lord, and give us your peace, now and forever.

In Jesus name we pray – Amen

            Brothers and Sisters, but for the grace of our Heavenly Father, we have no hope.

But in His love He has given us His Son Jesus, and in Him we have hope …and life everlasting.

Turn please, if you will to 1 John 1:9 – 1 John 2: 6

***9 **If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

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*2**     My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

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*3 **We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.

This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

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*B&S, let’s sing: “It’s Your Blood that cleanses me (RJSII – 402)*

*Offering:**       *B&S, just before we ask                      to lead us in prayer and in thanksgiving, Let’s set aside a moment for the offering this morning.

The offering is for

*Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx*

*(Pastoral Prayer and offertory prayer)*

*Reading (Luke 24: 1-35 -                                       )*

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*Sermon*

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Did any of you watch the programme … Air Crash Investigations?

It is the account of the actual investigations of some of the world’s most serious aeroplane disasters.

Some time ago the program was on the investigation of the  2002 mid-air crash between a chartered Russian airplane, carrying a group of children on their way to a holiday excursion, and a DHL freight plane.

(Some of you may remember the accident.

The planes crashed 12 kilometres up in the air, after a miscommunication as to which plane was supposed to fly at which height.

77 people were killed, most of them… the children with a heart full of holiday fun that lay ahead for them.

But, what really struck me about this story was an interview with the mother of a child, a 12 year-old, who said:

*            Everything that meant anything, our hope, our future, died when our children died.*

And I found myself thinking….*Is

it?

Is all hope lost… when someone dies?*

Is death the end of the line?

For believers, surely the answer is no! Death is not the end of the road!

On the contrary!

We proclaim it when we say the apostles creed, when we say…a day will come when the Lord will return to judge the living and the dead – the same Lord we declare we believe, was dead;  buried and rose again on the third day from death to be with His father in Heaven.

And although we may not allways think about it this way, every Sunday is in fact a celebration of the fact that our Lord and saviour Jesus, was resurrected from the dead, that He overcame death to establish a new beginning, a new heaven and a new earth.

Now that, too me odes not sound like all hope is gone!

But do we fully understand the implication of our confession?

Do we stop often enough to celebrate… yes celebrate in this life, the knowledge that jesus has risen from the dead, has beaten death …for ever, for those who believe.

That is why every day, but especially Sundays as we gather in church, should be a celebration!

But sometimes, I think all of us at some stage in our lives, find ourselves at least a bit sceptical, don’t we.

And if we don’t declare it with our mouths, we display it in our drooped shoulders, our niggling worries … indeed, sometimes…even in our sadness at the loss of the life of a loved one.

And let me make haste to say, brothers and sisters, God understands that we are sad.

Jesus himself was overcome by tears at the loss of life of a friend, Lazarus!

So not all sadness is of course scepticism!

But sometimes….scepticism,

even unbelief, takes hold of us!

It seems, brothers and sisters, it has for a long time been so…

Even when Jesus was among His people - the Bible tells us - it was no different.

In fact, there is a pattern to it all.

In our text, we read that when Jesus marched into Jerusalem, before His crucifixion, there were shouts of joy, Hosannas, as the palm branches was laid before Jesus on his donkey.

Here finally, was the moment the Jews had been looking forward too for so long.

Their Messiah was finally here.

This Jesus, His followers believed, was really the saviour Lord who had come to free the Jews from the Roman yoke; the king who would lead the Jews to greatness, no longer slaves, but the ruler of the lands…just like their prophets had foretold it would be.

Five days later - only five days - their faith falters.

Why?

Because only five miserable days later, on what we now call Good Friday, the mighty King, their Saviour warrior has died on the cross.

If only they understood then what it meant, brothers and Sisters.

If only they understood, as we can today…one wonders what the world would have looked like by now.

But…it seems they didn’t -~/~/~/~/

            *Do we?*

One could argue of course that those early followers of Jesus deserve some sympathy…

Their King has been humiliated… and tortured … and He did not even put up a fight.