Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Winter: Plan and Prepare


Outline of Service 22nd July 2018
Winter: Plan and Prepare – Acts 27:12
Hymn100:  Fed by God
The Lord’s Prayer from Luke 11:2-4
Psalm 61:  Praise the Lord as we wait                                                                                  
Bible Readings:                                                  
·     Remember Lot’s Wife – bad planning and no preparation!  Genesis 18:18-33, 19:15-17, 22-29
·     Doing What We Can:  Acts 27:1, 6-14, 18-25
·     Meanwhile, We Wait:  2 Timothy 1-5, 13-17
Hymn46:  God’s Plan for now and beyond
·     Lot living in the Sodom and Gomorrah is like us living in the evil World today; we can also liken this to living in the Winter, or the time ruled by Satan, when we need to seek diligently to find God’s Way
·     Paul knew that his ship should wait in the safe haven during winter, even though this put limitations on what could be done, but the limitations needed to be accepted until it was safe (or in accordance with God’s timing) to move
·     Living in this world (like winter) puts many restrictions on us with regards our relationship with God, but we need to rest in His Presence until He makes clear the next stage of His Plan for each of us
·     Whilst we are waiting for the winter to finish we must develop an awareness of God’s Plan and Purpose and prepare by trying to follow the lifestyle He has set out in the Scriptures
·     As we await the return of Jesus Christ, when He will “pull us out” of the winter (as the angels pulled Lot out of the City), we must remain in the safe haven without becoming over-comfortable in it, with a Plan to Prepare for God’s coming Kingdom.  
Hymn 15 – Tune 13:  Preparing God’s People
Doxology