[0:00] Good morning. Welcome to all of you this morning. Welcome to our harvest service. It's an all-age service for everybody so there won't be any Sunday school later on but there will be a crash available if you need that so please make use of that if you want to. Particularly welcome to those who are visiting us. If you're here on holiday we're not usually quite as many folk here on a on a Sunday morning. We've got folk from put your hands up if you try to mention where you come from Sheffield. Okay great. Folk from Thursk. Wow okay a lot of folk from there. Folk from Darlington I think. There's one yeah okay. Have I missed anywhere particularly? Sorry?
[0:51] Harrogate. Okay. Nottingham. Are you part of this group as well? No but then you shouldn't put your hands up. Sorry. It's not it's not a free-for-all here you know. It's just the the young people having a weekend they will welcome you really very much in the Lord. Leamington Spa. Royal Leamington Spa. Your Majesty I apologize for it. Not calling it the Leamington Spa. Liverpool. Yeah okay I think we'll stop there okay because we'll be going all around the world. It was it was really just to draw attention to young people but that's okay. That's okay. You're young. Good lovely okay.
[1:33] Well we're here because we want to give thanks to God. He's the God who provides not only places for us to live but food for us to eat. He's the God who gives us all good things and our first hymn is a hymn that we're going to stand and sing. Fill your hearts with joy and gladness. Sing and praise your God and mind. So let's stand as the music begins to play. Bring our worship and praise to our God.
[1:59] Oh hold on. We've just had a slight problem. Just hold a second. Thank you. Just hold on a second please. We've just got a few technological problems.
[2:14] I tend to make changes to it.
[2:40] Thank you for your patience.
[3:04] Let's stand and sing together. 93. Hail your hearts with joy and gladness.
[3:18] Sing and praise your God and mine. Praise the Lord in love and wisdom.
[3:29] Guide the majesty divine. He who frame the starry heavens.
[3:41] Those that makes them as they shine. Praise the Lord. His people praise Him.
[3:53] Burned souls. His comfort none. Those who hear Him. Light His mercies.
[4:04] Peace for faith and joy for all. Ample hearts are high exalted.
[4:15] Hilded, bright and high. Hilded, bright and high. Praise the Lord for times and seasons.
[4:28] Cloud and sunshine, wind and rain. Spring to melt the stores of winter.
[4:38] Till the waters blow again. Grass upon the mountain pastures.
[4:50] Golden valleys, big with green. Fill your hearts with joy and gladness.
[5:03] Peace and melting crown your deeds. Love His thoughts with joy and gladness.
[5:13] God, beyond His words and ways. He the Lord and He His children.
[5:25] Praise the Lord for people of grace. Please be seated. Well, let's come to God in prayer together.
[5:39] We've sung with thankfulness. Let's pray with thankfulness again for all that God's done for us. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our God, you are so great and so good and so faithful.
[5:53] And we want to praise you and thank you again this morning that we are those who have been fed today. We are those who have eaten, who have slept mostly in beds or in a building at least.
[6:04] We are those, oh Lord, who have been able to have the health and strength to be here. Lord, all these things we often take for granted. And yet, Lord, we thank you for them, that they are our blessing from you day by day, week by week, year by year.
[6:19] Help us ever to be grateful, ever to be appreciative of what you've given to us. Forgive us, Lord, that we are so forgetful of the good gifts that you give. Forgive us, Lord, that we so often grumble and moan, perhaps because we feel our tummy rumble.
[6:34] Or because we haven't had such a good night's sleep. Forgive us, oh Lord, when we complain about what others have and we want. Forgive us, Lord, for our greed. Forgive us, Lord, for our desire to have more and more, to never be content and satisfied with the good things you give us.
[6:51] Give us that contentment that comes from knowing that you, our heavenly loving Father, have poured out into our lives blessing beyond number. And, Lord, most of all, we thank you for the wonderful gift.
[7:02] The gift of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The gift above all gifts. The gift through whom, oh Lord, every blessing flows. Every good gift comes. It's through Jesus that we have hope.
[7:13] Through Jesus that we have peace. Through Jesus we have the forgiveness of our sins. Through Jesus we have that relationship with you as our God. Otherwise, without him we would be completely bereft, completely cut off, completely lost.
[7:27] We thank you that you came, Lord Jesus. You came to rescue and to save us from our sins. You came, Lord, as that seed to die in our place. To bring forth much life.
[7:39] To bring forth a harvest of souls. A harvest of men and women and boys and girls. Trusting you, following you, living for you. And glorifying you. We pray, oh Lord, that in this time together, not only that we might give you the praise and thanks of our hearts.
[7:54] But, Lord, again we might recommit ourselves to you. To live for you. To follow you. To trust you. To share the good things you've given to us. Not only the good things of finance and food and clothes.
[8:07] But, Lord, the good gifts of your gospel. Your good news. To those who are so lost and still in darkness. So, Lord, be with us then in this time. And bless us as we hear your word.
[8:18] As we sing these praises. For we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to ask Richard to come and bring the notices. Because we're doing something slightly different.
[8:30] He's going to come up here. And I'm going to give him this mic for a moment. Let us pray together. Loving Heavenly Father, we're so grateful again for the gifts you give us.
[8:44] And we do remember those who are without and in need. We think particularly of the people of Aleppo and other Syrian cities. That are under bombing and conflict. Some people without even just running water.
[8:56] Never mind food and shelter. People injured and dying. Oh, Lord, we can't begin to comprehend just how terrible that is. How painful that is. But, Lord, we thank you for those who are seeking and striving to care for them and work for them.
[9:10] Help them and protect them. We do pray again, oh, Lord, for those even in our own country who are homeless. And those, Lord, who are without food. We thank you for the work of the food bank, which runs from here.
[9:21] And we pray for those who we contact with through the food bank. That there may be many who know not only what it is to have a full stomach, but to know their hearts filled with your love and kindness.
[9:32] We thank you and pray, Lord, for caring for life and their ministry. You know how they long to reach more and more people, needy people in Leeds and the North. We pray that, Lord, you would bless them and help them.
[9:43] We pray for Caleb and Elizabeth in their work as relay workers, university. And those who are going to university and have gone to university. Help them to be steadfast and strong for you in the face of many temptations.
[9:56] Help them, Lord, to walk with you. Help them to live for you. We pray, Lord, in these university years, there may be many who go to university, who come to know and trust in you through the work of the CU and work of Elizabeth and Caleb too.
[10:10] Continue with us and help us in this time together now. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Right. We're going to... Go to the screen again.
[10:23] And I've got a memory verse. It's hidden behind these sheaths of wheat and behind these numbers. And so this is just for the boys and girls, particularly the younger ones. And I'm going to ask you some questions.
[10:35] And if you know the answer to the question, pop your hand up and we'll take away one of the numbers and one of the sheaths to reveal our memory verse for this morning. So let's see.
[10:47] Let's see. How many letters did the Apostle John write? These are all Bible... Well, not all... Yeah, many Bible questions. If you're a young person, any idea?
[10:59] If you just got a guess... If you think it's a guess, put it... It's going between one and six, okay? That's a good guess. It's going between one and six if you don't know for sure. Pop your hand up if you think you know. We want to have a guess.
[11:10] Go on, Adam. Two? No. Okay, it's close. Yeah. Is it three? It is three.
[11:20] Well done. Okay, so we'll take away that part. That just reveals just a few of the words. Okay, so you get the idea. A bit easier. How many Gospels are there? How many Gospels are there written in the New Testament?
[11:32] Yeah. No, not five. Close, though. Not six. Four. Four. That's right, Josh. Four. Okay, so we've got a word there, mocked.
[11:42] We'll see what else comes up. Okay, next question. If you take all the disciples of Jesus, the number of them, and then take away half of them, what number will you have left?
[11:54] Oh, maths, you see, as well. You've learned all sorts. Go on in. Jude. Six. Brilliant. Well done. Six. Okay, we're getting there.
[12:05] Okay. A bit more of a theological question. How many gods are there? Yes, well done. There's only one God.
[12:16] That's right. Go back a bit. On what day of the week of creation, this is, did God make the land animals? What day of the week in creation did God make the land animals?
[12:30] Somebody who's not answered the question yet. Yeah. Sorry? Number five? Yeah, you're right. Okay. I think you might get the answer to the last question.
[12:43] According to the song, how did the animals go into the ark? That's not answered the question. I think you can tell me. Two.
[12:54] They went in two by two. Well, the Bible says pairs, doesn't it? Okay. So here's our memory verse, which I want us to read out together. We're going to come back to in a minute. Okay. So let's all read this together. Do not be deceived.
[13:07] God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians chapter 6, verse 7. Well, what does that mean? What does that mean?
[13:18] Just for a moment. Well, it means, first of all, God knows everything about us. God can't be mocked. We can't fool God. Okay. Sometimes we think we can. We can fool other people. We put on a pretense, pretend to be a nice person or pretend to be somebody good.
[13:32] But God can't be deceived. We mustn't deceive ourselves into thinking that we can deceive God. What about this? A man reaps what he sows. A man reaps what he sows.
[13:43] Well, each one of us, our lives are like a very precious seed. Okay. Your life is a precious seed that God has given to you. And what we do with our life, a bit like what a farmer does with the seed when he sows it and plants it, what we do with our life and how we use our life has a very real effect upon not just our lives now, but in our lives in eternity as well.
[14:07] Okay. So, a man reaps what he sows. Reaping is when they bring the harvest in. Sowing is when they sow the seed. How you use your life and live your life has a real effect upon the results of what happens in your life now, but what happens in eternity.
[14:22] What happens when we die. And in a few minutes, we're going to meet two farmers who sow the seed of their lives in very different ways, and we'll see the consequences of them.
[14:33] Before that, we're going to sing a hymn. It's a very traditional hymn. If you want the book, it's 880. Otherwise, it's on the screen. We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground.
[14:44] We're going to stand and sing this hymn together. Thank you.
[15:15] Thank you.
[15:45] Thank you. Thank you.
[16:45] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[16:57] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[17:09] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[17:21] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[17:33] Thank you. Thank you. All good things around us are sent from heaven above Then thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord, for all is done Come on Remember, sowing seed, sowing the seed of our lives, how we use our lives and the effect it has upon us
[18:35] So when we meet these two brothers, we meet them right at the start And this is how God's word in the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 3 Adam made love to his wife Eve and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain She said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man Later she gave birth to his brother Abel Two brothers And they become two farmers Now Abel kept flocks, he was a shepherd A farmer of sheep And Cain worked the soil We don't know how long it was, whether they were still young men or much older We just know later on, that's what they turned to in their trades And then we're told this As time goes on, they know that there is God because God created their mum and dad, Adam and Eve of course
[19:43] They knew about God, they knew about the importance of giving thanks to God And praising him and worshipping him And so they both brought different things Cain brought some vegetables that he'd grown But Abel, we're told, brought the very best of his flock, the best of his, one of his lambs To God Here's now when we notice there's a difference There's two responses Two responses from God To these gifts, these offerings We're told this The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering But on Cain and his offering He did not look with favour So God was pleased with the offering that Abel brought But he wasn't pleased With the one that Cain brought Well what's the difference?
[20:28] Why was God treating them differently in this way? Was it because Cain bought vegetables and Abel bought a lamb? No it wasn't that at all The Bible tells us later on in the New Testament There is a difference We read this in Hebrews It says this By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did By faith he was commended as a righteous man When God spoke well of his offerings So what was the difference?
[20:56] The difference was faith Abel had faith in God But Cain didn't In other words Abel believed that God was good He deserved to be thanked He deserved to be trusted He deserved to be loved And obeyed But Cain didn't feel that way Cain only did what he had to do He went through the outward forms of being religious we might say He did it outwardly He did it because he hoped by giving to God God would give to him He hoped to buy God's favour And thought that God could be bought in some way He didn't trust in the Lord as Abel did His gift was fine It was his heart that was the problem And when we come to worship God It's the heart that God cares about Most of all More than anything else Well how is Cain going to react to that?
[21:47] How did Cain feel about the fact that God Wasn't pleased with his offering I were told this Cain was very angry His face was downcast He was angry and he sulked That's really what it is isn't it?
[22:01] When we don't get our own way And we don't get what we want We sulk I wonder if you're like that sometimes I know sometimes I am So he has attitude to God Was one of anger He wasn't pleased with God Because God hadn't been pleased with him So what happens?
[22:21] Well God warns Cain He says this to him Then the Lord said to Cain Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right Will you not be accepted?
[22:34] But if you do not do what is right Sin is crouching at your door It desires to have you But you must rule over it God is good to us And he warns us Through his word, the Bible He warns us About the ways that we are to live Which is good And what is right If we listen and obey God Then he steers us away From those things which are wrong Into those things that are right He protects us from going the bad way And helps us to go the good way So God warns Cain and says to him Now if you do the right thing Come to me with the right heart Put your faith in me As Abel did Then surely you'll be accepted too What's Cain going to do With God's warning?
[23:21] What should he do After God has spoken to him? Well he does something terrible Doesn't he? The Bible tells us This is what happened Cain said to his brother Abel Let's go out to the field And while they were in the field Cain attacked his brother Abel And killed him His anger His jealousy At the fact that his brother Was accepted by God And he wasn't turned to hate And more than that It turned to murder He killed his own brother The first recorded murder in the Bible Is between two brothers I wonder if you've got a brother Or a sister How do you get on with them?
[24:01] Let me ask you this Have you ever said to them I hate you? That's a really bad thing isn't it To say that I hate you That's really how Cain started Down that road Of murder Perhaps you may even Said it to your mum Or your dad That's horrible isn't it To say I hate you But it can happen If we allow sin To continue in our hearts We have to stop Those things God has to Work in our hearts We need to say sorry To those that we've said I hate you to We mustn't let anger Turn to hate Well what's going to happen now?
[24:37] What's going to happen? Abel is dead Cain Well God challenges Cain What does he say? Cain said Sorry Then the Lord said to Cain Where is your brother Abel?
[24:52] Now God knew what happened God knew that he'd killed him But God gives him another chance Doesn't he? Another chance to say I'm really sorry God I lost my temper And I killed my brother Please forgive me He doesn't do that He lies to God Doesn't he?
[25:07] Am I my brother's keeper? He replied In other words How should I know? It's nothing to do with me I wonder how many times When we do something wrong We cover up our wrongdoing With telling a lie We may say Well it's okay But it's not isn't it?
[25:22] And God knows Remember God can't be mocked He sees our hearts He knows exactly What's going on And what we've done No he lies to God So God brings upon So Cain brings upon himself A curse And God says to him What have you done?
[25:39] Listen Your brother's blood Cries out to me From the ground God knew what happened And so Cain Is cursed By God Now you're under a curse And driven from the ground Which opened its blood To receive your brother's hand Blood from your hand When you work the ground It will no longer Yield its crops from you You will be a restless wanderer On the earth God speaks to Cain A curse A curse is an opposite Of a promise A promise is to do good A curse is a promise To do harm Cain had brought this On himself Cain had acted in that way And even when God Had given him the chance To put it right He still didn't So once again What happens is this Cain cries out to God Cain says to God My punishment is more Than I can bear Today you're driving me From the land And I will be hidden From your presence I will be a restless Wanderer on the earth
[26:39] And whoever finds me Will kill me He then doesn't say Sorry God Please forgive me He just says It's too tough You're being too hard on me It's not fair Is really what he's saying Again have we said that When perhaps we've done Something wrong And our mum or dad Has said to us Right that's it You're grounded Or your phone's being Taken off you for a day Or whatever it may be That's not fair But we've brought it Upon ourselves And Cain brought upon himself And yet God is Wonderfully good Even to Cain there We're told that God Said to him Not so Anyone who kills Cain Will suffer vengeance Seven times over Then the Lord Put a mark on Cain So that no one Who found him Would kill him So Cain went out From the Lord's presence And lived in the land Of Nod East of Eden Cain knew that The news that he was A murderer would spread He knew that everybody Would be against him For committing such a Terrible crime Yet God marks him We don't know how He did that But God marked him So that people
[27:40] Wouldn't kill him So his life would be spared Again a sign of God's goodness Even when we sin And do wrong God doesn't immediately Step in and say That's it You've had your lot That's your last chance God allows us And gives us time To turn away from our sin He gives us time To turn to him And put our faith And trust in him And to put things right We see that Cain Ultimately endured A terrible thing He was separated from God Cut off from being God's friend Cut off from knowing God's care and love And he did that himself Wasn't what God wanted It's what he wanted to do God gave Cain many things He gave him ground And food to grow And many chances To put it right God does the same For you and me God gives us Many opportunities To turn to him He gives us all good things As we've been sharing In the harvest And thinking about But what have we done With that What have we done With God We're going to think A bit more about this In a moment After we sing
[28:40] Our next song It's a modern song A new song It's some of you How many people Know this song The earth is the Lord's Great Good good good We sang it last year So those who were At harvest last year Should remember it So the men sing The first line The earth is the Lord's Women say Everything in it And so on Everybody says The last line All things were made For his glory Then we sing a verse Mountains of his We all sing that And then we sing The chorus again But at the end Slightly differently We repeat It says All things were made And we go Yes all things were made And all things were made For his glory So slightly different At the end For the second chorus I'm going to ask The musicians to play it Through for us once Just to familiarise us With it And then we'll stand And sing No To The that face No, this will bother so that's it
[30:02] Okay, so let's start and sing from the beginning. Amen. Amen.
[31:02] The earth is the Lord, and everything in it. The earth is the Lord, the work of his hands.
[31:12] The earth is the Lord, and everything in it. And all things were made, yes, all things were made.
[31:22] And all things were made for his glory. Well done, sit down. See, they did brilliantly, didn't they? Really good.
[31:35] Really good. Well done. Okay, so we're carrying on. We thought about Cain and Abel, how they lived their lives differently, and how Cain brought upon himself that condemnation.
[31:48] And so it teaches us, as we know through the Bible, there are two ways to live, two ways to sow. Remember our memory verse. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
[31:59] That's what our memory verse tells us. How we live has an effect upon our lives now, and upon our lives forever, when we go to be before God on that day of our death.
[32:11] But what does the rest of the Bible teach? What does the rest of that verse teach? It carries on from there, and it says this. There's two ways for us to sow. Here's the first one. Whoever sows to please their flesh.
[32:24] Well, what does that mean? It means simply living to please myself. I love me. We can love ourselves. We are to love ourselves. But there's a difference between loving ourselves and always doing what we want.
[32:37] Pleasing ourselves. What does it say there? Flesh. Well, that's what we're made of. Our body is flesh. We are made of that stuff. And when we live to please our bodies, to please our desires, to please ourselves, to do what we want, rather than what is good for others, or rather what God wants, then we are sowing to please the flesh.
[33:01] That's just what Cain did. Remember, he felt angry. He felt hatred. And so that led to him killing Abel. And so if I am jealous of someone else and what they've got, if I'm greedy and want something, if I'm proud or arrogant, thinking myself to be the most important person, if I get angry when I don't get what I want, then that will lead me to lie.
[33:26] It will lead me to steal, to take, to hurt, to insult, to harm, to do those things which are so bad. Those things which are harmful to others.
[33:39] What happens if we do that though? If we sow to the flesh, then what are we going to reap? There's two ways to harvest what we reap. There's two harvests. Just there's two ways to live, two ways to sow, two ways to harvest.
[33:53] Here's what it says. Whoever sows to please the flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction. That's dreadful, isn't it? Destruction means the loss of everything good. The end of life, it means death.
[34:05] It means desolation, condemnation. The harvest that we reap in our lives when we sow to please ourselves is that we harm others. We know that by being selfish and arrogant and proud, greedy and so on.
[34:20] But also, like Cain, who did harm to his brother, didn't he? He did what he wanted. He didn't get what he wanted. And so his attitude and his actions turned to anger, turned to hate, turned to kill.
[34:40] Things that we do harm others. But what was worse than that, and Cain knew it as well, because he says himself earlier on, we read it there, I will be hidden from your presence.
[34:52] He was separated from God. When we live for ourselves, the Bible calls that sin. It's not just the things we do, it's the attitude of our hearts that are the problem.
[35:03] And sin separates us from God. Worse than that, it places us under a curse from God, the Bible says. It places us under God's anger. It makes us, instead of being his friend, his enemy, because we seek to do the things which are opposed to him.
[35:19] And we're separated from his love, separated from his forgiveness, separated from life, both now and forever. We condemn ourselves, in this life and for eternity, to be cut off from God, into a life of sorrow and grief and pain.
[35:37] The Bible calls that hell. It's a reality. It's something real. It's the result, it's the harvest of living for self, doing what I want, what pleases me, what I think is right.
[35:50] I wonder if that describes you this morning. I wonder if that describes some element of your life and mine. I live to do the things that I think are right. I live to do the things that make me feel better.
[36:02] If I want it, I'll take it, I'll do it. But there's another way to sow and another way to reap. Here's the self-destruct button of pleasing ourselves.
[36:15] We bring upon ourselves that sorrow. And many people, perhaps you know, have seen that happen to them. Two ways to sow. There's another way to sow and it goes on like this. Whoever sows to please the Spirit.
[36:28] What does that mean? Well, notice that the Spirit is in capital S, meaning a person. It's the Holy Spirit. It's God himself. He, the Bible tells us, is Spirit.
[36:39] It means pleasing him, pleasing God. You can't quite make it out. It says God pleasing faith. Remember that was the distinction between Abel and Cain. Putting our faith in God and trusting him and living for him.
[36:54] That's what, that's what sowing to the Spirit is. That's what's giving our lives to live for him and follow him. What is it that God wants us to do though? We might say, how do I know that my life is the life that God wants me to live?
[37:06] How do I know if I'm sowing to the Spirit? What God does, what does God want? Does he want us to bring money to him? Does he want us to bring a lamb like Abel did?
[37:17] Does he want us just to be good people and earn his favour by our good works and giving to charity and helping people? Well, one day, somebody came to Jesus and asked him a question.
[37:29] And they asked him the question, what must I do to do the works that God wants? What must we do to do the work that God wants? Sorry. And Jesus answered, the work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent.
[37:47] To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, have faith in him is what God wants of us. He doesn't want us to try and earn his favour, we can't. He doesn't want us to try to be good people because we can't.
[37:58] That's the problem with our hearts. It's sin, it's there. We can't get it out, we can't remove it. Only God can change us. Jesus came to do what we can't do for ourselves.
[38:09] He came to make us right with God. He came to make us friends with God because sin has separated us from him. And to do that, he had to go to the cross and die in our place.
[38:21] In doing that, he took on himself the curse. He took on himself God's judgment against our sin. He was condemned in our place. He took the punishment we deserve because we've lived to please the flesh.
[38:34] And in rising from the dead, God shows us that Jesus' sacrifice for our sin, that Jesus' offering was acceptable to God, that now there is forgiveness.
[38:46] God is ready and willing to forgive and receive anyone who turns to him from themselves. And now the harvest we enjoy is very different. Not a harvest of condemnation, but rather whoever sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
[39:04] Not eternal death, not eternal separation, not eternal suffering or sorrow or grief, but eternal life. Life is good. Eternal life is better.
[39:16] That's to enjoy the full blessing of God as our Heavenly Father and our friend here and now. Now it's to enjoy the promises of life with him forever in eternity. Not fearing death because we know Jesus has conquered death and is alive forevermore.
[39:33] So really the question again is this, what have I used the seed of my life? Where have I put it? Where have I placed it? Have I placed it in seeking to serve me? Putting me first, living for myself, even though that may be doing good things because it makes me feel good about myself?
[39:51] Where have I placed the seed of my life in Jesus, put my faith and trust in him, knowing that he alone is able to give me forgiveness? He alone is the one who makes me right with God and following and trusting him day by day.
[40:03] See the wonderful thing is when we sow to the spirit it's not just a one-off. It's not just something we do once and then we get on with the rest of our lives. But sowing to the flesh as in sowing to the spirit is giving our lives every day to follow and trust Jesus.
[40:19] And so the very last verse we have in that part of the Bible is this, let us not become weary in doing good. That's following Christ and trusting him. For at the proper time we'll reap a harvest if we do not give up.
[40:33] So we've got to keep going. Living a Christian life is tough, it's hard. Sometimes people at school will take the mickey out of us. Sometimes we'll find ourselves being tempted to do things which we know are wrong and having to say no to that.
[40:48] But if we keep on trusting Jesus, keep on following him, keep on living for him, then we promise to harvest. A harvest of good things in God's good time to us.
[40:59] And to those of us who are Christians, those of us who followed Christ, perhaps we're finding it tough now and we're getting tired in serving him and being involved in the life of the church or working with him, then let us keep going.
[41:13] Let's not give up. We're sowing to the spirit and the promise is we shall reap eternal life and we shall reap a harvest as well. So where is your life, where is the seed of your life sown?
[41:27] Let me urge you, encourage you to sow to the spirit, to put your faith in Jesus, to trust and follow him and to keep on going. We're going to sing our final harvest hymn together now and then we're going to close with prayer.
[41:42] Please do stay and have tea and coffee and fellowship with us. Please, if what's been said this morning has struck a chord with your heart, perhaps you feel yourself, well, I've been too long living in my life doing what I want.
[41:54] I haven't really put my faith in Jesus and followed him. Please come and speak to myself or somebody else here in the church who you know that we can help you and pray with you and encourage you too.
[42:05] So we're going to stand and sing. Come ye thankful people, come. Raise the song of harvest home. When we finish singing, we'll remain standing and pray. Come ye thankful people, come.
[42:39] Raise the song of harvest home. Through the crops of glory, sacred for the souls we hear.
[42:54] God, our maker, will provide for our needs to be supplied. Come with all his people, come.
[43:07] praise the song of harvest home. All the world is rotten field, harvest for his praise to yield.
[43:24] Weeds and feeds together so, live for joy or sorrow grow. Merced, lion's house the land which of thy Lord will find a woman God, Lord, our barn andúmering bands and we also who is wiasing actually people, He himself on that great day, the first thing shall take away.
[44:15] In his angels charge and last, in the fire will be stood last. God, the fruitful is the soul, in his care forevermore.
[44:37] Even so, Lord, bring me love, bring your final harvest home. Gather all your people in, free from sorrow, free from sin.
[44:57] Bear together pure in time, bear the thankful at your side. Come with all your angels love, praise the glorious harvest home.
[45:19] Let's pray. Father, again we thank you so much that you give and give and give again to us. Good things, blessings, Lord, grace, forgiveness and love.
[45:31] Forgive us, O Lord, when we do not take the gifts you give and use them rightly and apply them, O Lord, to our lives. Give us that faith to trust as Abel did.
[45:42] Give us that faith to believe and to bring to you our lives, O Lord. To sow them in one sense to the Spirit. To bring our lives to you, our God. That they might bring a harvest in our lives of joy and blessing.
[45:55] But, Lord, a harvest of blessing to others too. That we may be used by you to help, to care, to support, to do good. We thank you, Lord, for all that we have.
[46:06] We thank you for this day. Again, make us ever mindful and thankful. Help us ever to be thoughtful of those who have little. Help us to be generous in giving the gifts that you share with us. And now be with us through this day.
[46:18] Watch over us and into the week ahead. Help us to use our lives wisely in following Christ, in obeying your word, in living for you. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus.
[46:31] Amen.