Nottingham North East Circuit - Sunday 4th July 2021

This short act of worship has been prepared for you by Rev Yanyan Case to use at home. If you

are well enough, why not spend a few moments with God, knowing that other people are sharing

this act of worship with you

Call to worship

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to

your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your

faithfulness at night,

For you make us glad by your deeds, Lord; We sing

for joy at what your hands have done.

How great are your works, Lord, how profound

your thoughts!

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they

will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish

in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay

fresh and green, proclaiming,

“The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no

wickedness in him.”

Opening prayer

Heavenly Father, as I (we) read this home worship

sheet, may you find delight in my (our)

wholehearted worship to you. Thanks for your

amazing grace.

Lord Jesus, our saviour and redeemer. It is your

kindness and mercy that draws us to the foot of

the cross in repentance. Lord forgive us for the

times we are ignorant to your instructions and

turned a blind eye to those who are in need.

Forgive us when we cared too much or too little

about ourselves that we failed to be your salt and

light in the world. Forgive us the times that we

relied on our own strength and forgot that you are

our God.

In your mercy, we come to the foot of the cross. By

your stripes, we are healed and forgiven.

Holy Spirit, speak to our heart and feed us with the

finest bread from heaven. Draw us into the inner

chamber of God so that we may know your

intimate love to us today.

All glory be unto the Father, the Son and the Holy

Spirit. Amen.

Hymn 1: Great is Thy faithfulness

Singing the Faith:51

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k1WhFtVp0o

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father

There is no shadow of turning with Thee

Thou changest not, Thy compassions,

they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be

Refrain:

Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

Bible reading - Genesis 32:22-32

Jacob Wrestles With God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[b] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Hymn 2: How deep the Father’s love for us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKDujmtyAVk

How deep the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the Chosen One

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom

Songwriters: Stuart Townend © Thank You Music Ltd.

Reflection- “Don’t go until you bless me!”

Have you wrestled with angels before? I have,

actually all the time. You know, my little girl, she is

just like an angel! She is always up for a wrestle.

But when I wrestle with my little angel, I have to

let her win. Because if she doesn’t, it could just go

on forever. So, I have to let her win to say “you

won, you won. Mummy needs to make dinner

now.” So, this reminds me of Jacob’s wrestling with

God, because this kind of wrestling is not a serious

competition of strength to see who knocks whom

out of the game in the end, but an intimate activity

you do with your loved one, like a father and a son,

a mother and a daughter. It is an intimate one-on-

one time with our loved one. For Jacob, at this

time in life, it is a much-needed one-on-one time

with God because he is about to face his biggest

fear. He is about to meet his brother Esau. He

needs to know the intimacy of God for that.

We know the story that Jacob stole his brother

Esau’s blessing, which made Esau so angry that he

wanted to kill him. Then, he fled from home and

lived with his uncle Laban for 20 years. Now God

told him to go back to his home country. He. Is.

Scared! Because although he lived away from

home for 20 years, he still remembers vividly how

angry Esau was when he cheated on him. That

angry face of Esau, that angry voice of Esau

wanting to kill him, that fear of Esau’s vengeance

has always been like a dark cloud surrounding him.

He has been trying to escape physically, but he can

never get rid of it in his mind. But now, God told

him to go back and face it, to face his biggest fear. I

think God knows, if he doesn’t, if he continued to

hide, he would live in that fear for the rest of his

life. But God loves him too much to leave him in

that fear. He wants Jacob to have a new start, to

have a bright future and live in total freedom and

inherit all the goodness that He has in store for

him. So God orchestrated this move for Jacob, and

he was with him every step along the way, until he

gets it sorted in the end. We know Jacob and Esau

are reconciled as a result.

I am sure we can all relate to the feeling of fear.

We all made mistakes before and cannot avoid

making more in the future. The fear of the

consequences of our wrong decisions, the fear

from the past, the fear of upsetting people, the

fear of unforgiveness, the fear of walking on the

wrong path, the fear of losing something or

someone. We will always have some sort of fear in

life. Sometimes we try to escape and hide from it,

but if we don’t face it, it follows us like a dark

cloud.

Jacob this name means heel-grabber because he

and Esau are twins and he was grabbing onto

Esau’s heel when he was born. And it is always

associated with deceiver. But if we look into his

childhood a little closer, perhaps we can

understand him a little bit better. Even from birth,

Jacob seems to be the unlucky one. Even though

he is the younger one, he is not much younger,

only a minute or two. It just seems unlucky that

Esau came out first and got the birth-right as the

first-born. At that time, the first born son gets

double portion of their father’s inheritance. Also,

unfortunately his father shows favouritism towards

his brother Esau. Gen 25:28 says Isaac loved Esau.

So we can imagine the subtle tension in their

household. Jacob may have felt unloved,

unimportant, or even rejected. It’s not difficult for

us to understand that there is an underlying

insecurity, bias and some hurt in the upbringing of

Jacob.

This all sounds very familiar with our modern

families, doesn’t it? Maybe you have been hurt by

your own families, or in a situation where you felt

being discriminated for any reason, or wrongly

labelled, or feeling unloved, unimportant, or even

rejected. Often out of a low self-esteem, some

people try all sorts of things to fight their own way

in to gain approval and acceptance. But life has

taught us that our own cleverness doesn’t always

work out well, and sometimes create more harm

than benefit to ourselves and we have to bear the

consequences, like Jacob did. Possessions, material

gains or other people’s approval cannot really

solve the problems of a broken human soul. We

need a real encounter with God- the creator of our

body and soul, who is the healer of our soul.

During the wrestling, Jacob sees a man at the start,

but later he sees God. Many commentators think

that this is a prefigure of Jesus as it is “a man who

is God”, and Jesus is “the man who is God”.

Perhaps we need to understand that a real

encounter with God does not mean that we will

see God in an angelic form, or through spectacular

miracles, or in any supernatural way, but very

often, God comes to us in human form, in ordinary

and natural ways. What are you wrestling with at

the moment? God is right in the midst.

In the wrestling with God, Jacob was given a new

name. But before God gave him a new name, he

had to confess his old one. In the Bible, name

change is always coupled with identity change.

Name represents identity. So Jacob needs to know

who he was first. God asked him: “What is your

name?” This time, Jacob did not lie. He did not

pretend to be his brother Esau anymore. This time,

he was honest with himself. He said this is me, the

deceiver, the heel grabber, the cheater, the

unloved one, the unimportant one, the unfavoured

one, the rejected one, the forgotten one…This

time, he did not grab on his brother’s heel, but

grabbed tightly onto the shoulders of the Almighty

God. He will not leave God go until he can face his

fear. This time, he is not asking for a material

blessing, but a blessing of strength, a blessing of

peace, and a blessing to be who God wants him to

be.

Don’t we all need a blessing like this? Sometimes

Christians shy away from asking for blessings. But

don’t we all need peace and strength to face our

fear, our challenges in life? Don’t we all need

comfort and help for the things that is out of our

hands? Don’t we all need a blessing to be who we

really are?

So, God said to Jacob- You are no longer the heel

grabber, but Israel, the one who wrestled with God

and won, the one who had an intimate encounter

with God and a conqueror. You are the loved one,

the treasured one by the Almighty God in heaven.

Maybe our wrestling is a process of getting to

know who we are. Like Jacob, we need to have

some one-on-one time with God. In solitude, be

honest with God, bring all our fears and feelings

before God, have an intimate wrestling with God.

That’s the safe place for us to be truly who we are.

God cares for us too much to leave us living in fear.

In fact, he knows that the whole humanity has

been living in the shadow of death which is our

biggest fear. So, 2000 years ago, he gave his one

and only beloved Son Jesus to us. He took the

punishment of all our sins and guilt on the cross

and destroyed the sting of death so that we may

have eternal life in heaven and abundant life on

earth. Through him, we have been given a new

name, a new beginning, a new identity- we are

called the children of God, his treasured

possession. I like how the apostle John puts it in 1

John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has

lavished on us, that we should be called children of

God! And that is what we are!” this is a new and

eternal reality for us all. Your life is created and

redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. You are

not the unlucky one, unfavoured one, or the

rejected one, but the treasured possession by the

heavenly Father. We are not perfect in any sense,

but we are perfectly loved by the Creator God.

When the night wrestling is over, the sun rises and

shines upon Jacob. When we are wrestling with

some difficult issues in life, our days could seem

like an endless long dark night. But our hope in

Jesus is as sure as the sun will rise in the morning.

In Christ, we have a bright future. Jacob, with his

new identity comes with a dislocated hip. But he

never complained about that! I think he knew that

he could no longer walk in his old way, but lean on

God for the rest of his life. He needs to lean on God

for wisdom and guidance to face his problems and

fear. Just like what Proverbs 3:5-6 teaches: “Trust

in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your

own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make

your paths straight.”

In fact, faith is a life-long wrestling with God; it’s a

wrestling between our desire and his desire, our

will and his will, our way and his way. Faith is not

the absence of fear, but to choose to trust in the

face of fear. And remember that the apostle Paul

says in Romans 8:37 “We are more than

conquerors through him who loved us”, and also

knowing that Jesus is with us always until the end

of this age. Like Jacob, let’s grab unto the

shoulders of the Almighty God and don’t let him go

until he blesses us, until we can face our fears and

challenges in our lives. And in whatever wrestling

we may have today, don’t forget that God is in the

midst in disguise. Amen.

Hymn 3: The Blessing Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNk_xCa7zaQ

The Lord bless you

And keep you

Make His face shine upon you

And be gracious to you

The Lord turn His

Face toward you

And give you peace

Amen, amen, amen

Amen, amen, amen

May His favour be upon you

And a thousand generations

Your family and your children

And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you

And behind you, and beside you

All around you, and within you

He is with you, He is with you

In the morning, in the evening

In your coming, and your going

In your weeping, and rejoicing

He is for you, He is for you

He is for you, He is for you

He is for you, He is for you

He is for you, He is for you

Amen, amen, amen

Amen, amen, amen

Songwriters: Christopher Joel Brown / Cody Carnes / Kari Brooke

Jobe / Steven Furtick

The Blessing lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal

Music Publishing Group

Intercession

Response: Merciful Father, bless us; Don’t go until you bless us. Loving Father in heaven, for a love that lies beyond our understanding, we want to thank you we praise you. Thank you for sending us your Son Jesus Christ so that we can come back to your holy presence and inherit your blessings. Father, make us a channel of your love to the world around us. We pray for the world where suffering, conflict, poverty, crime and disease is a normal part of people’s lives. May you send your help and decree new order so that the world may experience your peace, your provision, your reality and give thanks and praise to your glorious name. (Say your own prayer in silence…) Merciful Father, bless us; don’t go until you bless us. We pray for those who are terribly affected by this pandemic, who are suffering from isolation, loneliness and fear. Open our eyes, that we might see your face behind masks; and give us words of wisdom so that we may know how to respond with compassion. (Say your own prayer in silence…) Merciful Father, bless us; don’t go until you bless us. We think of those whose agony lies beyond our perception – to those who suffer in silence, or simply because they have no voice and no smart phones to bring them to our attention. Open our ears, that we might hear your voice in the voices of others. (Say your own prayer in silence…) Merciful Father, bless us; don’t go until you bless us. We now pray for ourselves. Father, come and meet us where we are. Help us to find time and space to have that one-on-one time with you. Reveal yourself in our wrestling and bless us with wisdom, guidance, peace, strength and comfort so that we can grow our faith in you to face today and gain new hope for tomorrow.

(Say your own prayer in silence…) Merciful Father, bless us; don’t go until you bless us.

Let’s finish together with the Lord’s prayer:

Our Father,

who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come; thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Hymn 4: Blessed assurance

Singing the Faith 548

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDeiy9-t2GE

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Saviour all the day long.

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Saviour all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blest;

Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Blessing

May the peace of God, which transcends all

understanding guard our hearts and our minds in

Christ Jesus. Amen. Philippians 4:7