Sermon Tone Analysis

A Fresh start

First things first

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!!! Announcements

!!! Bible presented

!!! Doxology Hymn no 53:            /“All people that on earth do dwell” (organ starts playing without the hymn being announced)/

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Call to worship

!!!!!! Bible Verse

The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

(Psalm 33:18-19)

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The Lord’s Prayer

!!!!!! Blessing

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, (Galatians 1:3-4)

!!! Hymn:                                            /Psalm 1 (Tune St Peter; Rejoice  529; 6 verses//)/

!!! Prayer of Adoration

Loving heavenly Father, we should do everything for You to please and honour You.

Every day, we should offer ourselves to You as living sacrifices.

With our whole being, in the whole of our lives, we should worship you.

Yet week days are working days, in which the pressures and demands of life take up our time, preoccupy our attention and expend our energy.

We thank You therefore for the Lord’s Day, when we can rest from our work, when we can rest in Christ’s finished work for us, when we can draw near to You and have You draw near to us.

We thank You for the opportunities of the Lord’s Day, for the privileges of worship, for the blessings of Christian fellowship, for the ministry of your Word, for being able to give our undivided attention to You.

This day, may we be refreshed in You, may we edify one another, may our souls be quickened and our spirits encouraged.

We have come into the house of prayer.

Pour out upon us a prayerful attitude of heart and mind.

We have come into the house of praise.

Grant us liberty and joy in your presence as we celebrate You in all that You are.

We have come here to be instructed by your Word.

Empower the preacher with faithfulness, clarity and conviction.

Bless your Word to all who hear it.

May it enlighten the ignorant, awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering, establish the weak, comfort the troubled in spirit, and make us ready as your people for You, our God.

Be especially near to all who could not come today.

Remember those who never come.

And through our being here today, grant us love for our families, forgiveness towards our enemies, peace towards our neighbours, and openness towards our fellow believers, through Christ, our Lord, Amen.

!!! Children’s Address

!!! Hymn No 471:                            /“Seek ye first the kingdom of God”/

!!! Scripture Reading                     /Matthew 6:25-34 (repeat verse 33)/

!!! Prayer of Confession

Almighty God, it is right to approach you humbly, with reverence and awe and as Moses did before the burning bush, to take the shoes from off our feet, for the place where we are standing is holy ground.

If you, Lord God, demanded such a thing of the prophet when you appeared to him amid the flames, then how much more shall we reverence you, now that you have appeared to us in the person of your Son, who is the radiance of your glory and the exact representation of your being?

Truly we are on holy ground before you and very much feel our need of forgiveness, for there is much that is false, impure, and unholy in us.

Your holiness simply exposes the guilt of our sin and so we pray that, for the sake of Jesus and through the power of his blood shed for our forgiveness, you will graciously grant us full pardon and complete forgiveness for all that is past.

Blot out all our sins and cause them never to be seen or spoken about again.

Grant to us also that word of comfort, spoken to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that having been justified by faith, we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Cause us to be forgiven and to know it.

Let there be no doubt about our reconciliation with you, but rather grant to us a firm, full assurance based upon the finished work of Christ, applied to our hearts by faith.

Then, having been forgiven, help us to show it by the way we live: in holy fear of you, adorning your Gospel, obeying your Word, being led by your Spirit, reflecting your image and conformed to the likeness of Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.

!!! Declaration of pardoning

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

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

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

(Psalm 51:10-12)

!!! Hymn:                                            /Psalm 57 (Tune Martyrdom; 6 verses)/

!!! Prayer for others

God of all power, who raised from the dead Jesus Christ, our Lord.

You who are the great shepherd of the sheep, comfort and defend the flock, which Christ has redeemed through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

Increase the number of true preachers; by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, enlighten the hearts of the ignorant; relieve the pain of the afflicted, especially those who suffer for the testimony of the truth.

Heavenly Father, we pray for your holy universal church.

Fill it with all truth and peace.

Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in need, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ, your only Son, our Saviour.

Deliver your church from spiritual oppression and unbelief.

Deliver us from holding to a form of godliness, yet denying its power.

May we never be ashamed of you, or a shame to you.

Be our defence in the hour of trial.

We pray for our community, and for that vast multitude who are lost and remain far from you.

Lord God, may our lives be touched with a burning concern for their spiritual condition and need, that Christ may be known and exalted among them.

Father, we have seen and heard of destruction all around us the past few weeks.

On this dedicated day of mourning right across our nation we once again pray for those affected by the tidal wave:  for the churches and your people who on top of this calamity have to face persecution from the enemy of the Gospel; for the homeless, the widow and the fatherless; for those who provide care and help build up the ruins and restore infrastructure.

Father we have seen and heard the worst of fallen human nature:  people trying to steal orphaned children to trade them elsewhere; others have taken children to trade with them as sex slaves; other looted the houses of those already struck very severely.

Father, spread your wings of care and love over the homeless, the sick, the worried, the fatherless.

Lord, we also pray for those in South Australia who were devastated by the fires.

We pray for those who mourn because of the loss of loved ones; for those ravaged be uncontrollable waves of fire, having lost property, stock, livelihood and possessions.

We pray for those who are lending a helping hand in these times.

Father, we pray that as a nation we will have ears to hear when You speak to us.

Grant us as a nation grace to repent from our sin and find our strength not in governments or organizations in the first place, but to find refuge in You.

Hear us also as we pray for those affected by the landslide in California.

Give comfort and grace to those who have lost loved ones and property.

Teach us once again that live is but a breath, that we are frail, and that this world is not our home.

We pray for wisdom upon those who rule over us.

We remember our Queen and all set under her authority.

In particular, we pray for our Prime Minister, and his cabinet, all Members and Senators of Federal Parliament.

Direct all our affairs.

Lead us into all truth.

Cause us to pursue that righteousness which exalts a nation.

Deliver us from national sins of self-interest, greed, immorality and pride.

Hear our prayer in the Name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

!!! Scripture Reading                     /Haggai 1:1-15/

!!! Sermon                          /God’s business first/

!!!!!! Introduction

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Towards the end of last year we began with a series of sermons under the title “A fresh start”.

It revolved around the return from Babylonian captivity of the people of God in the Old Testament.

God kept his promise had made through the prophets to deliver his people from the enemy and bring them back into the Land of Promise.

A few things stood out very clearly.

8 First of all, we saw that God called according to his own plan and purpose those foreordained.

Not all went back to Jerusalem and Judea.

8 The second thing we saw is that God provided for the need of those called to worship Him in the land promised to their forefathers.

They lacked nothing to restart their worship of God back in Judea.

8 The third thing we saw is that is God’s people resettled in Judea the very first important aspect in their relationship with God had to be restored.

God sent them into captivity in the first place because they served God on their own terms.

More so, their corporate worship around the temple and the altars had been a matter of outward concern, while their hearts were far away from God.

This was the heart of their problem; this is something the church in our time need to understand:  God can and may only be worshipped in the way He revealed to us in his Word.