Order of Service – Sunday 29 May 2022

Paul and Silas in Prison

(words for the hymns and bible reading follows the call to worship)

Welcome and Church Notices
Call to Worship
HYMN MP 445    Lord the light of your love is shining
All-age time
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer
HYMN JP 188    One more step along the world I go
Prayer
HYMN CH4 – 577   Christ be beside me
Reading  Acts 16:16-34
Video:   10,000 reasons
Sermon
HYMN CH4 – 565    My life flows on in endless song
Prayers for the world
HYMN MP 33    And can it be
Blessing

 

Call to Worship
The Lord is King
Let the earth sing with joy
Rejoice in the Lord, righteous ones!
Give thanks to his Holy name!

HYMN MP 445    Lord the light of your love is shining

1 Lord the light of your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness shining
Jesus, light of the world shine upon us
Set us free by the truth you now bring us
Shine on me. Shine on me
Chorus: Shine Jesus shine
Fill the land with the Father’s glory
Blaze spirit blaze set our hearts on fire
Flow river flow
flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth your word now
And let there be light
2 Lord I come to your awesome presence
Form the shadows into your radiance
by your blood I may enter your brightness
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness
Shine on me. Shine on me
3 As we gaze on your kingly brightness
So, our faces display your likeness
Ever changing from glory to glory
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me. Shine on me

 

 

 

HYMN JP 188    One more step along the world I go

1 One more step along the world I go;
one more step along the world I go;
from the old things to the new
keep me travelling along with You:
Chorus: And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me travelling along with You.
2 Round the corners of the world I turn,
more and more about the world I learn;
all the new things that I see
You’ll be looking at along with me:
3 As I travel through the bad and good,
keep me travelling the way I should;
where I see no way to go
You’ll be telling me the way, I know:
4 Give me courage when the world is rough,
keep me loving though the world is tough;
leap and sing in all I do,
keep me travelling along with You:
5 You are older than the world can be,
You are younger than the life in me;
ever old and ever new,
keep me travelling along with you:

 

HYMN CH4 – 577   Christ be beside me

1 Christ be beside me.
Christ be before me.
Christ be behind me,
King of my heart.
Christ be within me.
Christ be below me.
Christ be above me.
never to part.

2 Christ on my right hand,
Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me,
shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping,
Christ in my sitting,
Christ i my rising,
light of my life.

3 Christ be in al hearts
thinking about me,
Christ be in all tongues
telling of me.
Christ be the vision
in eye that see me,
in ears that hear me,
Christ ever be.

 

Acts 16: 16-34  [NIV]
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.  She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”  She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.  They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.  After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.  The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.  But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

 

HYMN CH4 – 565    My life flows on in endless song

1. My life flows on in endless song
above earth’s lamentation:
i catch the sweet, though far off, hymn
that hails a new creation.
Chorus:  No storm can shade my inmost calm
while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?
2. Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul –
how can I keep from singing?
3. What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord, my Saviour, liveth.
What though the darkness round me close?
Songs in the night he giveth.
4, The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
a fountain ever springing.
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing?

HYMN MP 33    And can it be

1 And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me , who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
that Thou, my God,
should die for me!
2 ‘Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies:
who can explore His strange design?
in vain the first-born seraph tries
to sound the depths of live divine.
‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
let angel minds inquire no more.
3 He left His Father’s throne above –
so free so infinite His grace –
emptied Himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;
for, O my God, it found out me!
4 Long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray –
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free.
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
5 No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ, my own.