prepared by Rev Daniel Yovan – 2nd March 2025

Call to worship: Come to God who is compassionate and gracious. Come to God in worship, Come, now is the time to worship. Come with all that you are and all that you have. Come and be at His presence. Amen.   

Prayers.

God our Father we give you all the praise and thanks for bringing us this morning to worship you.  O Eternal Lord Christ, we praise you that since the beginning of the universe, you have worked unrecognised as the wisdom of men and women. We praise you that your name became known in a human life, in the humility of Bethlehem, the love of Calvary and the glory of resurrection. Help us to see you working in everything that is true, holy, and loving, and grant that we, too, may delight to work humbly and unrecognised, desiring only that your purposes shall go forward, until all come to see you as the hidden heart of all things.

O God, fountain of all wisdom, we are over whelmed by the world around us – new knowledge, new wonders; humans reaching out to the moon, to distant planets; possible holidaying in space; microchips producing un-thought-of results; robots with artificial intelligence; sitting in one’s room one can reach all kinds of knowledge, or people all over the world, on the Internet. We know this can be both good and bad, Lord give us wisdom to know the good from the bad; to choose what is good for us, and

for the world, to use it always for good, never to misuse or abuse. So help us O Father.

Hymn   StF20 Be still for the presence of the Lord

Read Psalm 51

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,     according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion     blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity     and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions,     and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned     and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict     and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth,     sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;     you taught me wisdom in that secret place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;     wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness;     let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins     and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,     and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence     or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation     and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,     so that sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,     you who are God my Savior,     and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, Lord,     and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;     you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;     a broken and contrite heart     you, God, will not despise. 18 May it please you to prosper Zion,     to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,     in burnt offerings offered whole;     then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Reflection

Christian perfection.

Lenten season is the time of self-reflection. Most Christians around the world use this time of 40 day period to fast, pray and read Scriptures in groups or alone. The purpose of this solemn activities is to bring ourselves closer to God in repentance and endeavour to become like Jesus in following His examples. Some people give up meat or chocolates during this season until Easter. However, there is no clear strict rule within the Scriptures we can find to support any of these practices. Nevertheless, Christian traditions have encouraged us to use this season to remember the wilderness experience, passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. All these spiritual practices are critical for our growth in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. I know most of you are part of some kind of Bible Study group and look at certain theme or materials during this Lent. And within this group we encourage and challenge one another to follow our Lord. When we are challenged by some of the studies, it gives us opportunity to reflect our lives and bring the issue to God in His plain sight.

The penitential Psalm 51, written by King David, reflects his repentance after he was warned by God through prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12: 7 – 14) about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. Even though David was very powerful and successful King, he was still under the over sight of God. He was not allowed to live like any other kings on earth, because God was still in control. This is one of the classic examples of repentance we find in the Scriptures. God was not trying to expose David, but God would like David to admit and accept the wrong thing he did and turn away from it.

A Call to perfection.

One of the resounding messages from the Bible is a call to perfection. Be perfect, be holy as your heavenly Father is holy. Mr Wesley, the founder of the methodist church preached on Christian perfection. Wesley observes that, in one sense, we are not perfect and in another we are perfect. He said, that we are not perfect, not immune to mistakes and temptations, but day by day we are on a journey towards perfection; growing in the grace (2 Pet. 3: 18), and the knowledge and the love of God our saviour (Phil 1: 9). In other sense we are being sanctified and made perfect, not by our works, but by the finished work of Christ on the cross. God poured out his gift of grace into the church so that we who are part of the body of Christ will grow into maturity (Ephesians 4 : 19). Wesley believed we could become perfect in love in this life. If Jesus invites us to seek perfection, perfect love is possible. He didn’t mean we would be free from mistakes, temptation or failure.

So, friends, in this season of Lent let us examine ourselves in the light of Scriptures and submit ourselves to God and his calling. Let us bring to God the areas of our lives need His attention and allow God to examine our lives. David, when he was confronted, did not defend or fight back, rather he admitted his sins and pleaded for God’s mercy for cleansing. We, too, must cry out to God with David and pray that God will create a clean heart withing ourselves and give us the joy of salvation always. Because we are not perfect without God, and our perfection comes only from God. Only the Spirit of God be able to cleanse us and give us the grace to stand firm (1 Corinthians 10: 12 – 13) without falling away. We cannot change what has gone in our lives in the past, but we can make a decision to walk with God going forward.

Let me close with the words of Charles Wesley (stf 498 v. 6)

Now let me gain perfection’s height, now let me into nothing fall, be less than nothing in your sight, and feel that Christ is all in all. Amen.

Intercession.

Gracious God, where love is replaced by domination or trivialized for commercial gain, forgive us for neglecting the gifts of your Spirit. Where joy is snuffed out by pessimism or stifled by apathy, forgive us for undermining the gifts of your Spirit.

Where peace is destroyed by violence and broken by ambitious nationalism, forgive us for failing to use the gifts of your Spirit. Where patience is paralysed by greedy demands for instant success, forgive us for manipulating the gifts of your Spirit.

Where kindness is treated as weakness or rejected through lack of grace, forgive us for underestimating the gifts of your Spirit. Where goodness is crucified by the power-hungry and passes unrecognized by a noisy, busy world, forgive us for losing sight of the gifts of your Spirit. Where faithfulness is abandoned and no one trusts another anymore, forgive us for wiping out the gifts of your Spirit.

Where gentleness is ridiculed and people build their lives around aggression, forgive us for misrepresenting the gifts of your Spirit. Where we lose Self-control, giving into the violence of our emotions, forgive for not trusting the gifts of your Spirit.

Holy Spirt, forgive us our rejection of your riches; open the hearts of the nations and people to receive love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; but start with us today. Amen.

God of all power, and truth, and grace   StF 498

God of all pow­er, and truth, and grace, Which shall from age to age en­dure, Whose word, when Heav­en and earth shall pass. Remains, and stands for ev­er sure. That I your mer­cy may pro­claim, That all man­kind Thy truth may see: hal­low Thy great and glo­ri­ous name, And per­fect ho­li­ness in me.   Your sanc­ti­fy­ing Spir­it pour To quench my thirst, and make me clean: Now, Fa­ther, let the gra­cious show­er Descend, and make me pure from sin.

Give me a new, a per­fect heart, free from all doubt and fear at last The mind which was in Christ im­part, And let my spir­it hold you fast.   O that I now, from sin re­leased, Thy Word may to the ut­most prove! Enter into the pro­mised rest, The Canaan of your per­fect love!   Now let me gain per­fect­ion’s height; Now let me in­to no­thing fall! Be less than no­thing in your sight, and feel that Christ is all in all. Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788)

Blessing: The God of grace who has called you to eternal glory in Christ make you perfect, confirming and strengthening you and to him be power for ever and ever. Amen. 

 The almighty and merciful Lord, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, bless you and keep you always. Amen.