Murrayfield Sunday Worship 18th June 2023

well good morning friends and welcome to worship today as we prepare our hearts to worship God we're going to begin with the words of Psalm 100 this morning these words call us to shout for Joy To The Lord all the Earth Worship the Lord with gladness come before him with joyful songs know that the Lord is God it is he who made us and we are his we are his people the Sheep of his pasture so enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise give thanks to him and praise His name for the Lord is good and his love endures forever his faithfulness continues through all generations so now with those words and our thinking they're not Hearts Let's Worship the Lord together the Splendor of the king clothed in Majesty let all the Earth Rejoice let all the Earth rejoice he wraps himself in light and darkness tries to hide it trembles at his voice it trembles at his voice [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you age to age he stands and time is in his hands beginning and the end beginning [Music] [Laughter] good names [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] How Great Is Our God sing with me how great is our God [Music] well that wonderful Psalm points our attention to God doesn't it so let's now speak with him in prayer let's pray our loving heavenly father as We Gather in worship today we come before you with a joy that comes from knowing you made us provide for us and love us and that we are welcome in your presence we thank you that regardless of the circumstances of Our Lives you are God and you are good your love and mercy is constant and your truth stands firm forever thank you they're unlike us and our lives you don't change from age to age you're always the same and that knowledge brings us a peace Joy hope comfort and strength and so at all times and in all seasons with our joyful or sad easy or troubled and moments of fear of challenge or anxiety we can lift our hearts and our voices to you For You O God are worthy of our gratitude you always deserve our worship and our praise our trust and our faithfulness Lord what can we offer you except our whole selves and our hearts so drawn to you that we can do nothing other than bless your name and so we seek to bless your name today and we join together in that prayer that Jesus taught us to pray Our Father Who Art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen our reading today is from Matthew chapter 9 verse 35 to chapter 10 verse 1. Jesus went around visiting all the towns and Villages he taught in the synagogues preached the good news about the kingdom and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness as he saw the crowds his heart was filled with pity for them because they were worried and helpless like sheep without a shepherd so he said to his disciples the Harvest is large but there are a few workers to gather tin pray to the owner of the Harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his Harvest Jesus called his the 12 disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness thank you the words together [Music] can't you left the case of angels who came to seek and save the lost and exchange you're the owner of creation [Music] we flush out you Rose Victorious [Music] across the lands [Music] would you consider yourself a compassionate person what do you think compassion looks like one of the ways God describes himself and the Bible is as a god of compassion in Exodus 34 God says I the Lord am a God who is full of compassion and pity who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness compassion is really part of God's character in fact the Bible describes the compassion of God in terms of our appearance compassion towards their children for example in Psalm 103 verse 13 it says as a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him very interestingly the Hebrew word for compassion is which is associated with the womb we see that highlighted in Isaiah 49 where God is compared to a mother full of compassion toward her baby it says there can a mother forget the nursing baby and have no compassion on the child she has born though she may forget I will never forget you so compassion is something that really comes from that place deep within us and one of the most attractive qualities about Jesus is his compassion Matthew tells us that as Jesus traveled around the towns and The Villages he was teaching he was preaching and he was healing people but he would look out at the crowds around him and he would feel compassion for them I mean many people came to listen to his teaching and many people came looking for healing and those who did received personal attention from Jesus but as he looked at the crowds he saw that while he could take away their physical or emotional suffering or pain but spiritually they were like sheep without a shepherd and that what they needed most of all in their lives was God I just wanted to bring the presence the love and the life of God to people but he knew that he alone by himself couldn't be with us all couldn't speak to or touch every person on the Earth and so he says to his disciples look around look at the Harvest the Harvest is large but there are few workers to gather then pray to the owner of the Harvest that he will send our workers to gather in a harvest now the good news version here says that as Jesus saw the crowds his heart was filled with pity for them but I'm not sure that word pity really is the best word to use here a better word a better translation is to say that when he saw the crowds he had compassion on them compassion is far better and let me tell you why that is we can feel pity for someone and we can even get emotional about it and yet do nothing but compassion is different compassion will always look to do something sometimes Jesus responded with compassion to those around him for example in nane when he when that window was walking alongside those who were carrying her dead son out of the Town Jesus saw her and he had compassion on her and he said to her do not weep and he raised the sun to life can you imagine the joy that woman felt another day after Jesus had crossed one of the Lakes he saw a large crowd and he had compassion on them and he healed their sick another day as he was leaving Jericho two blind men shout to Jesus to have mercy on them and Jesus asked them what they want him to do for them and the answer Lord we went our sight we went to see and Jesus had compassion on them and he touched their eyes and immediately they received their sight and they followed him in Matthew chapter 8 when Jesus had just finished his Sermon on the Mount we read that as he was walking down the hill Aleppo kneels in front of him saying Lord if you want to you can make me clean and stretching out his hand Jesus touches the man and he says I do want to be clean and in that moment the man is healed and when that one touch the man's life has changed forever and no one wanted to be near the leper even those who loved him deeply would avoid touching him but Jesus does the unthinkable he reaches out and he touches him no one had voluntarily done that for a very long time but with that touch Jesus communicated more about compassion than any amount of words could have Jesus didn't ignore a need he responded with compassion but sometimes Jesus himself took the initiative to show compassion in John 4 we know the story don't we Jesus because either was we to show compassion setting our whale to a Samaritan woman who comes to draw water simply by talking to her this was a tremendous social risk for Jesus I mean Jesus Jews didn't talk to Samaritans and Jewish men certainly didn't talk to Samaritan women especially one with a track hacker record with a hist in a background like like she had but Jesus makes a point of being there and of starting a conversation with her and it's a conversation that radically changes the direction of our life forever why because although she was avoided and shunned by many she was important to God again in Luke 19 you know as a tax collector Zacchaeus we know the story he was a man who was avoided like the plague but he goes up a tree trying to find see Jesus and when Jesus speaks to him Jesus invites himself to zacchaeus's house for dinner and When the Crowds see this they start grumbling this man is going to the house of a sinner they say and yet not visit Zacchaeus life was changed forever have you ever noticed that some people seem more compassionate than others just naturally and yeah the Bible makes it clear that as those who belong to Jesus all of us ought to be compassionate people I mean we saw it last week in Colossians 3 we read you are the people of God he loved you and choose you for his own so then you must clothe yourselves with compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience be tolerant with one another and forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you and to all these qualities I'd love which binds all things together in perfect Unity no it starts there with clothe yourself in compassion compassion is something we are to clothe ourselves in that we are to dress up in each day so what can we learn about Jesus or about compassion well firstly Jesus saw people we saw that condition he saw how much they needed God in their lives they needed his salvation his healing his renewing touch and Jesus could see they were searching without finding what they needed there were few people caring for them as God would care for them and it just simply toured Jesus heart and it brought something up from within him the Harvest is large he says but there are few workers to gather it in pray to the owner of the Harvest that he will send out workers to gather in the Harvest compassion calls us to think of others before ourselves I'm self-centeredness keeps us from seeing the needs and the hearts of those around us it stops us from acting on their behalf it tells us to look out for ourselves to look out for number one to see to our own needs to let others take care of themselves but Jesus points us back to God's heart for the world we all have a sinful selfish nature but when we become a follower of Jesus our hearts and our minds get transformed and we put off the old self we put on this new self which is created in God's likeness in God's image and shows itself in a different kind of life where Jesus love and Jesus compassion flow through us secondly Jesus showed compassion he loves us and he cares about what we're going through even at times when no one else seems to understand or to notice us Jesus Does and his compassion is personal he extended his hand he listened and he spoke but Jesus didn't just talk about his love for others he showed his love and the way that he treated people and the way that he served people the way that he helped people and ultimately in the way he died on the cross for all the sins of every person which means that when we put our love for others into action we're becoming more like Jesus and thirdly our prayers need to be compassionate don't they often we get too focused on our own needs and problems and sometimes we push praying for others to decide or we don't really make time to get involved and care for people the way we ought to but as we pray with compassion spirit of God you know doesn't work with in a sense softens our hearts and perhaps we need more to ask God to help us to show compassion and in prayer we get to ask God to act or to speak directly in whatever situation that person we are praying for is going through or to help with the need that they have or whatever they're facing in that moment and of course the greatest act of compassion we can have for anyone is to bring them closer to Jesus closer to God and I hope you have known the compassion that we're thinking of today the compassion of God the compassion of Jesus perhaps through a friend praying for you or the touch of a hand reaching out and help or holding yours at a difficult time or maybe by words of peace or encouragement that they have offered you which brings New Hope or a fresh beginning and I hope that you ask God to give you a heart of compassion unless you do that may God bless you and bless others through the compassion as that you show God bless you pures [Music] oh Jesus such [Music] love stealing my restlessness [Music] [Music] showing me Holiness oh Jesus [Music] Springs from eternity such love streaming for history such love Fountain of Life to me oh Jesus [Music] well will you again join me in prayer let's pray our heavenly father we thank you for this time when we can simply speak to you in prayer and bring to you those things that lie Upon Our Hearts lifting them up to you and trusting that you are with us and that you hear us Lord some of us are full of joy and gratitude and have warm memories from this week and for those things we simply take a moment thank you now some of us are full of concern consent for ourselves or for loved ones and our hearts are heavy but we often try to look as the way everything is well and good in our lives and in the good of those we love but we know that in some way or another we are all in need of your healing your compassion your mercy and your peace and so Lord we take a moment to bring that to you now Lord would you heal and restore our souls by your spirit and in doing that would you work through us to bring compassion and restoration and hope and healing and peace to the lives of people who need you and Heavenly Father we thank you today particularly for our Earthly fathers and for the many reasons which they can reflect the love strength wisdom care kindness compassion and mercy that you show to all your children we pray for dads who have been good Dads and home life has been a blessing and for children whose dads have not been so good and relations that have been difficult we pray for homes that have been full of love and warmth and joy and homes that simply have not we pray for dads who will be remembered today that you will be celebrated and diets who are missing their children we rejoice in good experiences and Rich memories and we pray your healing and comfort for those whose memories are painful and who still carry wounds Lord in a week when politicians in Westminster and Hollywood have appeared in the news for all the wrong reasons we pray for all our politicians all our local councilors and all who are in positions of authority that they will work not for the love of power or even for self-interest but for the benefit of all people and that they will lead with Integrity with honesty and with compassion and Lord we leave these and all our prayers with you today in Jesus name amen everyone needs compassion love that's never failing let us [Music] forgiveness the kindness of a savior group of Nations savior he can move the mountains my God is mighty to save he is mighty to save forever author of Salvation Heroes and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave so take me as you find me all my fears and failures feel my life again I give my life to follow everything I believe in how wise I Surrender savior he can move the mountains my God is mighty to save he is [Music] let the whole world see we're singing for the glory of the [Music] Earth my God is mighty to save he is mighty to save forever author of Salvation Heroes and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave foreign with us today and as we go into the rest of this day and indeed the week ahead we do so with these words of blessing from Theresa of Avila Christ has no other hands but your hands to do his work today no other feat but your feet the guide folk on his way no other lips but your lips to tell them why he died No Other Love But Your Love to win them to his side so may God bless you and through you bless others as you serve his purpose today amen