09-07-2015 Courage and Encouragement Mark 6:45-52

Welcome: (Nick)

Psalm 121The Message (MSG)

121 1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?No, my strength comes from GOD, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.3-4 He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.5-6 GOD’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you—Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke.7-8 GOD guards you from every evil, he guards your very life.He guards you when you leave and when you return, He guards you now, He guards you always.

Prayer: (Nick) – [SLIDE]I look up to the mountains – does my help come from there? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, earth and the mountains.He will not let me stumble; the one who watches over me will not slumber.The LORD Himself watches over me!The LORD stands beside me as a protective shade. The sun will not harm me by day, nor the moon at night.The LORD keeps me from all harm and watches over my life. The LORD keeps watch over me as I come and go, both now and forever.Amen.

Notices: (Louise)

Call to Worship: (Nick)

Song 1 – Abide with me (SOF 2)1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;When other helpers fail and comforts flee,Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;Change and decay in all around I see—O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

3. I need Thy presence every passing hour;What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

4. I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

5. Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Song 2 – Faithful One (SOF 89)

Faithful one, so unchangingAgeless one, you’re my rock of peaceLord of all I depend on youI call out to you, again and againI call out to you, again and again

You are my rock in times of troubleYou lift me up when I fall downAll through the stormYour love is, the anchorMy hope is in You alone

Psalm 61:1-4 (NASB) - Nick reading and then say what the next two songs are.

Confidence in God’s Protection

61 Hear my cry, O God;Give heed to my prayer.2 From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.3 For You have been a refuge for me,A tower of strength against the enemy.4 Let me dwell in Your tent forever;Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.

Song 3 – Be bold, Be Strong (SOF 37) This lively worship song of courage and hope is not addressed to God but to each other, so we should sing it to the people around us to encourage them on their way.

Be bold, be strongFor the Lord your God is with you.Be bold, be strong,

For the Lord your God is with you.

I am not afraid,I am not dismayed,Because I'm walking in faith and victory,Come on and walk in faith and victory,For the Lord your God is with you.

Song 4 – We want to see Jesus lifted high (SOF 1105)

We want to see Jesus lifted high A banner that flies across the land That all men might see the truth and know He is the way to heaven

(Chorus) We want to see, we want to see We want to see Jesus lifted high We want to see, we want to see We want to see Jesus lifted high

Step by step, we're moving forward Little by little, taking ground Every prayer a powerful weapon Strongholds come tumbling downand down and down and down

We're gonna see, we're gonna see We're gonna see Jesus lifted high We're gonna see, we're gonna see We're gonna see Jesus lifted high

Offering – Emily and Abigail will now take up the offering.

Prayer of Thanksgiving for the offering – Emily is now going to pray.

Dear Lord God,Thank you for ALL of the money we have raised in the offering and thank you for being with us ALL of the time!

Amen.

Song 5 – Father God I Wonder (SOF 92) This song reminds us that we are children of God and that we can trust him to always be there to care for us. Deuteronomy 10:17-18 (HCSB): 17 For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

Father God, I wonder how I managed to existWithout the knowledge of your parenthood and your loving care.But now I am your child, I am adopted in your family,And I can never be alone,'Cause Father God, you're there beside me.

I will sing your praises,I will sing your praises,I will sing your praises,Forever more.I will sing your praises,I will sing your praises,I will sing your praises,Forever more.(Repeat)

Song 6 – Over all the Earth (SOF 1498)

Over all the earthYou reign on highEvery mountain stream every sunset skyBut my one request Lord my only aimIs that You'd reign in me again

Lord reign in meReign in Your powerOver all my dreamsIn my darkest hourYou are the Lord of all I amSo won't You reign in me again

Over every thoughtOver every wordMay my life reflect the beauty of my Lord'Cause You mean more to me than any earthly thingSo won't You reign in me again

Prayer: (Nick)

Sermon – Hannah

Mark 6:45-52 (NASB) – [SLIDE]

Jesus Walks on the WaterImmediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them, straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He *came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and *said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

Sermon:

The background to this passage is that Jesus had preached and then fed the 5,000. We are not feeding the 5,000 today! Standing up the front here still feels really new to me, so I will definitely need to follow Jesus example later and go off on my own after the BBQ to reflect and pray.

We can see from this passage that Jesus sent the disciples off on their own to the other side where He would meet them, while He took time out to pray. Then, in the middle of the night, Jesus started to walk across the water. Did you notice that his intention was to pass them quietly and wait for them the other side? Instead, the disciples noticed him and cried out in terror. BUT, rather than sighing, getting frustrated and continuing on his way, Jesus immediately spoke with them and said “Take courage; it is I” and then He got in the boat with them!

Usually when we think of courage we think of fearlessness, bravery or bravado. We might very well think that being courageous is doing things like this:

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Well, I don’t fancy doing any of those! That is not the type of courage that I will be exploring with you today. I would like us to focus on scripture fuelled courage or spiritual courage, which in essence is courage that comes to us from God. This type of courage means that we can carry on when hard times come or to not let fear rule or dominate in our lives.

So, what does this look like in practice? Well, God doesn’t just want us to believe in Him but to believe Him. Let me explain that: Christians have a habit of saying a lot of wonderful things like love your neighbour as yourself. BUT, do we actually believe the wonderful things that we say? In this case, truthfully, no I didn’t. I believed for a very long time that I was getting on OK with this because I loved other people more than I loved myself. Recently, I realised that my self-esteem issues were preventing me from living my life according to the wonderful things I said. So I was able to ask myself – What would it look like if I actually believed these things and started to live by them? What if I actually start to love myself? The truth is that by me being courageous in my willingness and desire to start believing these things and act on them, God was able to work at changing me. Besides a haircut which was completely unrelated to this change, the changes have not been physical changes. God has started the process of changing my heart.

In the story that we have just read, we saw that Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida. This was a promise. If He says that He will meet them on the other side then that is what will happen. When they were up against it, rowing against the waves and then when they saw a ghost like figure walking on the water, did they believe that they were going to reach the other side? No, I don’t think that they did!

There are two very important lessons that we can take from this:1. God can do what He says He can do.2. We can do what God says we can do.

We can, through Christ, do anything that God puts before us – whatever that may be. However, we have to continue to choose to believe God when He says we can do it. This takes courage, faith, trust and practice. This change in thinking and change of heart is a process.

One of the many things I have learnt this year is that: life is like sitting in a boat. We are not immune from stormy seas. When storms come and rock the boat we can call on Jesus – He will always get in the boat with us and even if the stormy seas stay, He will never leave us. We can also build up our own techniques for staying safe on the water. It is not courageous to go out in a boat on your own without having learnt how to sail – that to me is just asking for trouble! Sometimes the wave of life may tip the boat that you are sitting in over, then the question becomes well can you swim? If you can’t swim then you need to learn! Sometimes, waves don’t even do the damage that they would have once done. When you have started to master the boat and you have the resilience in place to stay in the boat should the waves start to crash around you. Or if the sea is really rough, you can trust that if you fall overboard you can either swim or Jesus will throw you a lifeline!

I love this picture: [SLIDE]

This picture uses a different analogy, but says basically the same thing.

Now I’m going to speak about encouragement. The word encourage literally means to give courage. So, how do we give courage? We are not building people up to give them a big head, or an ego boost. (Although, sometimes it might look like that is what we are doing!) There are lots of ways to give courage. We can give courage by praising people for what they have done well, we can say when something someone has said has helped in our understanding of something, and the Holy Spirit can guide us to a bible passage that will encourage someone else. The list could go on and on.

We see an example of encouragement in the passage that we have just read. When Jesus said “Take courage”, he was giving them courage. You can’t take something if there is nothing to take! What else was he giving them? When He said “It is I” and then got in the boat with them He was giving them Himself! Jesus presence calmed the stormy seas and the storm of fear within the disciples. He can do that for us too.

John 1:1 (NIV) says this: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus was the word that became flesh. So, what better way to encourage others than to give them verses from the Bible. When we study the word the Holy Spirit might prompt us to give a word of encouragement to other people. For example, a few weeks ago, while I was recovering from the procedure on my throat and unable to speak very much, I took the opportunity to read large portions of the New Testament. While I was reading I felt prompted to send a text to a friend with a bible verse in it. My friend text back and said thank you and how relevant it was. So, with texting one short bible verse to someone God encouraged both of us. It encouraged her because it was relevant to her situation and what she was doing on that particular day and it encouraged me because the text message was well received. I was fortunate that it was well received but the courage comes when there is fear that it might not be well received. Whatever we fear the outcome might be we should try to step out in faith and follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

My encouragement to you would be to you today: don’t let the lie that you can’t do it, stop you from doing it!

Recently, I made the decision to pray that I would become an intentional encourager. Perhaps, you might like to consider doing that also.

I finish by quoting Paul when he says in his first letter to the Thessalonians:

1 Thessalonians 5:11Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Prayer – Hannah

Closing Song - Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord (SOF 182)

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,Holy is the Lord God Almighty.Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,Holy is the Lord God Almighty:Who was, and is, and is to comeHoly, holy, holy is the Lord

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the Lord,Jesus is the Lord God almighty.Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the Lord,Jesus is the Lord God almighty:Who was, and is, and is to come; Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the Lord.

Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lord,Worthy is the Lord God Almighty.Worthy , worthy , worthy is the Lord,Worthy is the Lord God Almighty:Who was, and is, and is to comeWorthy, worthy, worthy is the Lord

Glory, glory, glory to the Lord, Glory to the Lord God almighty.Glory, glory, glory to the Lord,Glory to the Lord God almighty:Who was, and is, and is to come;Glory, glory, glory to the Lord.

Blessing – Nick(based on Ephesians 6:10-20 NIVUK) When Paul says in Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the full armour of God,” he means exactly what he says—we are to put on every piece of that gear intentionally, meticulously, and consistently. When we step onto the battlefield unprotected, we make an easy target for the Enemy’s attack. Ephesians 6:13-17. Put on one piece at a time, from top to bottom:[ONE POINT PER SLIDE PLEASE JOANNA]

1. “Lord, I choose to put on the helmet of salvation today in order to protect my mind. I want to think only Your thoughts, Lord. I want to thank You that when Satan sends one of his thoughts my way, this helmet of salvation will protect my thinking”.

2. “Lord, I choose to put on the breastplate of righteousness to guard my emotions. I want to feel only what You feel. Don’t let me react out of my emotions. Rather, let me respond based on the truth I know in my mind.”

3. “Lord, I choose to fasten on the belt of truth so I can stay centred on Your Word. I want to live in the truth, walk in the truth, and testify to the truth.”

4. “Lord, I choose to put on the sandals of peace. Wherever I go today, I want to be a peacemaker. I want my footprints to be evidence of the tranquillity I carry in the Holy Spirit.”

5. “Lord, I choose to take up the shield of faith. I want to thank You that, no matter how many fiery arrows the Enemy hurls at me, no matter how many trials or temptations may come, I can stand safely behind the massive protection of faith.”

6. “Lord, I choose to lift high the sword of the Spirit, Your holy Word.

Numbers 6:24-26 Good News Translation (GNT)24 May the LORD bless you and take care of you;25 May the LORD be kind and gracious to you;26 May the LORD look on you with favour and give you peace.