(There is Always More)
Philippians 3:12–21
Philippians week 5
Welcome to Nambucca Baptist Church for our service this Sunday 25th October 2020. It has been a long and eventful day, but praise God for the victory that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. Today we are at week 5 in our series on Philippians and in our passage today Paul emphasizes that no matter what is going on around him. No matter what adversity he faces, he presses through. He presses through until the adversity becomes an opportunity to spread the message of the gospel.
It is all too easy in our little Covid safe bubble to settle back and wait for circumstances to change. There is no virtue in this in my opinion. Our role is to go into all the world and make disciples, and you can’t do that sitting in church. The word for today is to use the time we have wisely, to train ourselves and develop our gifts. to visit those who need a visit and to minister the love of Jesus into hurting people’s lives. The fields are ripe for harvest.
We have a warm welcome to our service from Meryl who also leads us in prayer. Thona reads the scripture for us and as always we have some great worship music for you.
This is where we would normally take up a collection but as you can see we can’t pass an offering bag around online. We have, however, provided a secure online giving facility for you. You can either use the Tithe.ly app on your smartphone or just click on the green button on the screen. We have been blessed by the way so many of you have managed to continue to give in various ways so that we can continue with the work of the Lord here in our church and beyond our walls.
We hope that you have been blessed by our service today. In the spirit of the message, I’m happy to tell you that there is more. We will always have more for sticking with us. This week I had the opportunity to have a look at this documentary on the history of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. this is a very large and complex church that is built over the site of both the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus. I was fortunate to spend a bit of time there and despite the crowds and the ornate decorations, it remains a place of extraordinary beauty and the deepest possible significance for Christians.
This video is the best that I have yet seen in explaining how the geography of the site has been changed over the centuries. This is important because it is impossible to relate the gospel account of the garden tomb and Calvary with what we see today.