hey good morning everyone welcome to
Redeemer if you're new this morning
you're so welcome thanks for tuning in
with us we're so glad that you're here
we do pray there and for every single
one of us that you will meet with God
this morning we do believe that I don't
need to be in a special place a special
time but God can meet with you right
where right where you're at in your
living room kitchen bedroom garden maybe
even bathrooms there God can meet with
you in that's our prayer this morning and
and so it's been another interesting
week hasn't it for coronavirus life in
lockdown more restrictions have lifted
in to women in some settings with
meeting one to one a couple of weeks ago
and it's been lovely being able to do
that and go for a couple of walks look
at people in the eye rather than through
a screen and now groups of up to six are
able to meet together and if I can find
five more friends and maybe I'll maybe
I'll take advantage of that better
moment I'm happy with one to one and
then obviously people have gone back to
or some children have gone back to
school this week and so if that's your
child and I hope it's been a positive
experience for them if your child didn't
get a place then you're still
homeschooling persevere keep going and I
was not always easy we've had some
interesting times around this table
right here but I'm sitting out right now
there's their ups and downs of what it's
like to be a homeschool parent but
you're doing a great job so do do
continue with that and obviously thank
you so much to the teachers amongst us
if you're watching this morning and
you're a teacher we're just so grateful
for the way you're serving the children
and young people in this town and beyond
it's not an easy time to be a teacher
and so we are thinking and praying for
you and we're just so proud of all that
you're doing so thank you now this
morning we are going to continue our
pray for me series Alex is going to
share with us in a bit but before that
we are going to sing together everything
lead us in a moment and there's an
opportunity for us to declare using
words and song the goodness of God and
his love for him and his love for us the
truth about
years and then we're gonna have some key
worker videos alex is going to share in
our prey from each series and after that
Rodney who's one of the leaders here at
Redeemer um he caught up with another
church leader in the town a couple of
days ago and he fatted you just a
reflect on the last couple of weeks and
in the response to the tragic death of
George Floyd in Minnesota and how we as
a church how we as individuals in the in
the UK can respond to that and how and
how we can think about it and what are
you know what are steps that we that we
can take as a church to to see justice
brought in this in this area and so it's
a not easy thing to think about there's
just such a helpful interview and we've
been it's very clear what the Bible says
about it you throughout the Bible God is
very clear his he is a God who hears the
cries of the oppressed he is a God who
hates injustice and it says in Isaiah
one as I said learn to do good seek
justice
correct oppression bring justice to the
fatherless plead the widow's calls and
that's what I want to be as a church
don't we want to learn to do good and we
want to seek justice and so Andy's gonna
share a bit about that later on right
now we're going to sing and just declare
the goodness of who he is and what he
has done for us and so I'm gonna pray in
them Abby's gonna lead us and see God
thank you for who you are thank you for
your goodness goodness towards us and we
just wanted to clear that right now and
say you are good god you're not just a
good god sometimes but you are a good
god all the time and I pray when you
come and meet with us now as we sing in
Jesus name Amen
you are
you are
again
hi my name is Laura and I'm a primary
school teacher so works been quite
different for me over the last few weeks
I've been in a couple of times but back
from Monday to our normal hours and for
some select children in select year
groups so things really that I'd
appreciate prayer for just making it a
nice environment for those children that
returning it's going to look really
different for them the way that we teach
and the way the classrooms laid out the
number of children and the adults it's
all going to be really different so
prayer for that and just that as we go
forward what that might look like taking
more children in and how we can still
provide a safe environment for everybody
involved
hi my name's Sam and I work at worth in
hospital and assists with the rotas of
the doctors in this ever-changing
climate is a privilege to be able to
help those who do everything they can to
help us of course it's not easy and
every day brings its new challenges but
I feel so blessed to be able to do my
part in this time please pray for me as
I begin working back at the hospital for
the next week hi my name is Val I'm the
coordinator for the distribution center
for Worthing food bank since kovat
nineteen sadly we have seen a huge
increase in the demand for the basic
need of food I have a wonderful team of
volunteers who come in every day some
will be packing some will then go and
deliver the food in around the Worthing
area please pray for me and my wonderful
volunteers that we keep safe we keep
well but more importantly pray for those
who are vulnerable and struggling in
Worthing at this time thank you
isn't it great to hear from people who
are just doing such a fantastic job to
serve this town to look after people and
keep things running we're so
appreciative of all you key workers and
we'll continue to pray for you and think
of you over these coming weeks thank you
so much for all that you do now as a
church we we love to put God first in
all things in in our jobs in our
families in what hand what we do with
our time and our energy and also with
our finances and so if you are part of
the church if you're not part of the
church this isn't for you we're not
asking for any of your money or anything
like that so please don't think that we
are we're trying to get money from you
but if you're part of the church family
and you're wondering how you can give in
this time when we're not together
physically then you can head to Redeemer
doe Cody UK /give where you are able to
set up single payments or regular
payments and also if you're just if
you're part of the Redeemer family and
you're not sure why we give or why
that's important actually the last
couple weeks Steve my scone are digging
deeper series on a Thursday morning as
has taken us through what what the Bible
has to say about money and why we why
giving is an important part of our of
our relationship with God and so I would
encourage you to check that if you
haven't already really helpful really
easy bite-size chunks fantastic and
right now we're gonna hear from alex is
going to continue our pray for me series
looking at why we pray how we pray what
why in this time of crisis are people
talking about prayer we're all
Speedy's
hi my name's Alex and I lead the
leadership team here Redeemer and thank
you so much for tuning in and spending
this morning with us especially if
you're new but if you're a repeat
offender as well it's so good to have
this hour together and last week we
started a brand new three-part series of
talks called pray for me and
particularly last week we looked at why
is it that we tend to pray in a crisis
what is it about a crisis that forces us
perhaps to ask bigger questions about
life and death and about God and there's
been research done to say that so many
more people in this cultural moment that
we're in are talking about the subject
of Prayer but today we're going to ask a
slightly different question on there not
just why do we pray in a crisis but when
we do pray when we talk about God when
we've got questions about God maybe even
when we reject God what God are we
talking about what assumptions are we
making about the God that we pray to
that we think about that we that we
reject what what God have you rejected I
wonder if you've asked yourself that
question if you're tuning in today and
you're and you don't believe in God and
the reason that's not a silly question
to ask is because cultures throughout
world history and around the world today
believe in and worship a thousand gods
and a million gods gods have all sorts
of things and last week we we touched on
a story in the Bible you might be
familiar with it the story of Jonah
maybe you know it to do with Jonah in
the whale this story isn't about Jonah
and the Whale at all actually it's about
a guy who lives in a world where
hundreds and thousands of different gods
are worshipped so we're going to have
another part of the Jonah's story read
to us this morning from Jonah chapter 1
verses 4 through 9 and we're gonna have
that read to us now and then we're gonna
ask the question when we pray what God
are we praying to and how should we
think about that so that's how Jonah
read to us
Jonah 1 verse 4 to 9 but the Lord hurled
a great win upon the sea and there was a
mighty tempest on the sea
so that the ship threatened to break up
then the marina's were afraid each cried
out to his god and they hurled the cargo
that was in the ship into the sea to
lighten it with him but Jonah had gone
down into the inner part of the ship and
had lain down it was fast asleep so the
captain came and said team what do you
mean you're sleeper arise call out to
your God
perhaps the God will give a thought to
us that we may not perish and they said
to one another
come let us cast lots that we may know
on whose accounts this evil has come
upon us so they cast lots and the lot
fell on Jonah then they said to him tell
us on whose account this evil has come
upon us what is your occupation and
where do you come from what is your
country and of what people are you and
he said to him I am a Hebrew and I fear
the Lord the God of heaven who made the
sea in the dry land
did you notice the sailors they believed
in gods they cried out to their gods in
verse 5 here in verse 6 the captain goes
to wake Jonah to say pray to your God
maybe that God will have a thought for
us the CV the ancients like kind of
represented by the sailors they believed
in gods they had gods for all sorts of
things gods for the sea gods for the
gods for the sky gods for the land God
for different professions God of War
gods of fertility gods of the harvest
they had a God for everything and the
gods in the in the ancient world were
often kind of like kind of like human
beings but on a much much bigger scale
right if you have seen the Disney film
Hercules you get the impression right
the gods aren't unlike us the gods are
very similar to us in the ancient world
they they get hungry they get grumpy
they get angry in fact the gods actually
sounds similar to me they get they deal
with these things and and the humans are
constantly trying to plug
the gods trying to get the gods favored
trying to get the gods on their side
right and you can imagine what this is
like you you want a good harvest
so you sacrifice to the god of harvest
and and you get a good harvest that year
which makes you think that that your
sacrifice was just what was needed to
keep this God happy and on side and
imagine the next year that you you go
for another harvest you sacrifice the
same thing but this year there's a
drought and you get nothing what does
that tell you about the God it tells you
that your sacrifice wasn't enough it
tells you that he wants more he wants
more in quantity in animal sacrifices
perhaps he wants more in quality more in
worth in value and so you you give more
of yourself and more of yourself and
more of yourself sacrificing more and
more and more and many of us at this
point will be thinking thank goodness
that in in 21st century Worthing we've
we've moved way beyond any of that right
but an American writer who sadly
committed suicide about ten years ago a
guy called David Foster Wallace he wrote
this this fascinating quote he says in
the day-to-day trenches of and out life
there is actually no such thing as
atheism the belief in no God there's no
such thing as not worshipping everybody
worships the only choice we get is what
to worship and the compelling reason for
maybe choosing some sort of God or
spiritual type thing to worship is that
pretty much anything else you worship
will eat you alive if you worship money
and things if they're where you're where
you tap real meaning in life then you'll
never feel like you have enough worship
your body and beauty and secular and you
always feel ugly and when time and age
start showing you will die a million
deaths worship power you'll feel weak
and afraid and you'll ever need more
power over others to keep the fear at
bay worship your intellect being seen as
smart and you end up feeling stupid a
fraud always on the verge of being found
out and so on the insidious thing about
these forms of worship is that they are
unconscious they are default
settings what a great quote he's saying
that we all worship something actually
we've got moved far from the ancients
all crying out to their own gods all
sacrificing to their own gods you never
knew where you stood with the gods so
you were always trying to get them on
your side in the ancient world you're
always trying to get them to line up
with you you were always trying to
placate them always trying to make them
favourable and actually as a in these
islands right in what we now call the UK
which obviously wasn't called that you
know many many many centuries ago
millennia ago we were not dissimilar to
the sailors we we were we kind of lived
in a pluralistic society which means we
worshipped all sorts of gods the same
kind of thing that I've been describing
right gods are they're the hills and the
sky and then war and fertility and all
sorts of things we were not dissimilar
but many centuries ago people like Jonah
showed up to our land people who
believed something radically different
something fundamentally different notice
what Jonah said in verse 9 he said this
I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord the
God of heaven who made the sea and the
dry land
you see Jews were very peculiar in the
ancient world in a world that believed
in gods for anything and everything the
Jews believed in one God that there was
one God like Jonah says who made the sea
and the dry land there there wasn't gods
of the sea and gods of the wind and gods
of the dry land there was just one God
over it all that's what Jews believed
and then they they had this this
peculiar view in the ancient world and
noticed that Jonah says I fear the Lord
in my translation of the Bible that's
that's written in all capitals capital
lor thee and that's not just the tight
that's not like saying the God it's not
like a title it's a name it's the
translation of a name the name that God
gives himself when the Lord is written
like that and and what that name means
is that this God needs
no one that this God needs no one see
that the ancient gods needed the humans
they needed to be fed they needed to be
served they needed to be sacrificed to
but this God needs nothing
he is completely content within himself
he he needs nothing from no one and yet
what this name also means going way back
in the story of the Jews is that this
God who needs nothing chooses to
identify with the oppressed he reveals
himself in the story where the Jews get
rescued from slavery they are the
oppressed people and God chooses to
identify himself with them so when we
when we read the term when Jonah says I
fear the Lord what he's saying is I fear
a God who I know who needs nothing who
is above it all and yet chooses to side
with the oppressed we could say that
Jonah's God is is the god of freedom and
people like Jonah came to these islands
many many years ago to tell us about
this God unlike all the other gods right
unlike all the other gods with this God
you don't have to try and get him on
your side in fact you need to get on his
side unlike the other gods this God
you're not trying to convince him to be
favorable towards you
he's favorable by disposition in fact
the thing that you need is that actually
try and live in the good of his favor
unlike the other gods you don't
sacrifice to this God to make him happy
you sacrificed this God as an expression
of your joy the fact that he wants to
know you that he wants to he wants to
side with you he wants to he wants to
know who you are he wants a relationship
with you you see how how beautiful how
how stunning how mind-blowing how
progressive this is in an ancient view
of the gods
Jonah's God is nothing like that he's
nothing like that and if we take David
Foster Wallace seriously then friends
we're not that dissimilar to the sailors
we've all got the gods that we pray to
that in it for every single one of us
there's something in our life for many
many things in our lives that we are
looking to for help for fulfillment for
identity for meaning
we place our desires on those things and
and actually what we end up doing like
David Foster Wallace so articulately
says is that we they end up eating us
alive because we give more and more and
more of ourselves to these things that
we think are going to make us who we
were made to be friends we don't become
more of ourselves when we worship all
sorts of things we become less of
ourselves there the only chance we've
got of becoming more of ourselves is
actually worshiping the God that we were
made to worship which is actually
Jonah's God the God of freedom that the
Lord and so Jonah's brought people like
Jonah brought the news of this God a
very different kind of God to these
islands and over many centuries we
started ordering our society around this
God around the Jewish God the Jewish
Christian God the Lord the God of
freedom and what happens is when you
when you worship you start to become
like the thing that you worship that's
why you become less of yourself if you
worship of God that isn't a god at all
right
if you if you worship in the in ancient
terms if you worship at a statue of a
God it's really just a stone statue and
so you you become more and more like the
stone statue that comes they can't walk
the conne talk that can't doesn't have
any meaning or purpose your your life
becomes less and less because you become
like the thing that you're worshiping
but when you become like the God of
creativity and beauty and justice and
glory you see you start to become more
of who you were made to be you start to
become more and more and more like him
and just as individuals start to look
like the God that they worship so
societies we started ordering our
society around this God around the God
of freedom and therefore we started
enjoying I guess you could say fruits of
worshipping this God in our society it's
like we put the roots imagine our
society our culture is like a tree and
we put our roots down into the soil of
this god of freedom in into Jonas God as
it were and the fruit that is produced
from there are things that look like him
things like justice things like a
quality for all people
things like things like the value of
family the value in the worth of in the
individual things like tolerance that
these are these are things that that
kind of grow out of this god of freedom
but in the last few hundred years and
yes it takes that long in the last few
hundred years we've been increasingly
distancing ourselves from that god it's
like we've chopped the roots out it's
like we've decided now we don't want to
base our society around that God anymore
we want to do our own thing the thing is
friends is that we're still enjoying the
fruit of who that God is in our society
right we as a society we value justice
we value fairness and equality we value
that the worth of the individual we
value tolerance there are there are
these things these these things that
have grown out of who God is that would
have been a mile off the society that
you would have got ordered around the
gods of their sailors the gods of the
Ancients the gods that we would have
worshiped on these islands we still
value those things and yes they've been
cut off from their source of life so yes
they start to become less of what they
were right just this ends up not being
quite justice equality not like equality
as this God would describe it
tolerance not in the same way as this
God would describe it yes we value
family but not in the same way it's like
the fruit starts to go bad it starts to
go off over time but but it takes
centuries for that to happen and so
we're still enjoying the fruits of who
this God is even if they've started to
go bad I'm not saying that our society
was ever perfect by any stretch we'll
see that a little later as to why I am
saying though that we we did start to
order things the reason we have these
values that we so appreciate that we so
enjoy that we we find so compelling that
we so want to hold on to is because as a
society we ordered ourselves around the
Jewish Christian God around Jonas God
around the God who needs no one but
identifies with the oppressed the God of
freedom and so all of the time we are
eating of these fruits all of the time
we are consuming a culture that values
tolerance and diversity and equality and
justice and
therefore we whether whether we realize
it or not we are actually feeding
ourselves on values that in some form
someway come from this God come from
Jones God and so my contention is this
when you pray if you if you have brought
up in this culture or or any culture in
the world that has been influenced
heavily by this God when you pray
whether you're religious or irreligious
when you have questions about God in
fact even when you reject God and don't
believe in God my contention is that the
God that you pray to the God that you
have questions about and the God that
you reject is actually a form of jonna's
God it's a form of the of the Jewish
Christian God because the God that we
naturally would believe in as a society
is this God because like I said all the
time we're consuming what has come from
him was come from the culture that's
been created growing out of ordering our
society around this God so how are we
how though are we most to most to
understand what this God is like what's
the best way of us understanding who
this God is and what he's like and and
how he's different from the gods right
the the gods of the Ancients the many
many gods there were but quite frankly
the gods that we build our lives around
today they're the things that we
prioritize and put in top place that we
sacrifice to how are we to see the
difference between Jonah's God and the
gods you see the Jews were particularly
strange in their time in the in the
ancient world every single kind of
religion every God would have its try
and have its temple and in that temple
and around it there would be statues
images so that you could physically see
what that God is like but the one place
in the entire world where there was a
temple to this God though the god of the
sea and the dry land as Jonah says it
the god of freedom the one place which
was in Jerusalem there was no statue in
fact the Jews forbid it they said you
cannot make a carving a statue of this
God you cannot create an
image of this God and that's because
right back to the beginning of the
Jewish Bible there was this kind of
sense that this God was never going to
be happy being contained to a building
he was never going to be happy being
contained to a building this God set his
sights on making the entire world his
house and rather than having statues
rather than having I don't know carved
images of himself outside a building he
actually placed his image heap he he
placed his the reflection of himself not
in a stone statue but in flesh and blood
human beings if the whole world was
going to be this God's house then his
his design his plan that everywhere you
looked you would see someone who
reflected what God was like right
whether they're black or white whatever
part of the world they're from whatever
language they speak that this God was
reflected in some way in every single
human being baby
old person educated uneducated unborn
right every every human being reflected
the beauty of this God that was his
purpose that's what he wanted
that means friends that if I want to
know what Jonah's God is like in some
sense at least I've just got to look at
you and you've just got to look at me
because we carry within ourselves the
the image of this God the big problem is
is that although we all carry the the
reflection the image of this God within
ourselves it's a broken image we all are
made in the in the image and the
reflection of God that's what the that
the Jewish Bible tells us that's what
the Bible tells us we're made in the
image of this God which means we are
capable as human beings of stunning acts
of creativity and love and kindness and
justice rights why we're able to to
order things in society to build things
which actually are good which actually
have something of God about them that we
can celebrate that we can love that we
that we can build on but we've broken
images you see well we are so far from
reflecting the God that we were made to
reflect it's like a a mirror that's been
shattered into a thousand pieces
every single one of us carries
brokenness in us as well as the image of
God which means we're capable of things
like disloyalty and and and disobedience
and and destruction and decay and every
single one of us kind of carries this
this sense of brokenness with us into
everything that we do which is why
friends like we've seen in the last
couple of weeks in particularly in the
u.s. we're capable of creating societies
which have injustice and racism built
into them we're capable of doing that
we're capable of ordering societies in
good ways and friends were were capable
as well of ordering societies in really
destructive ways and what's happened
with Kant kind of kicked off with the
George Floyd scene that so many of us
saw but it's kind of just
Seana a spotlight again on the racism
that exists in our world we suddenly
realized that we we don't order the
world as we should the world isn't
working the way it should that there's
brokenness as well as beauty in every
single every single part of the world
then friends that's not just brokenness
out there or some kind of institution
cut some kind of systemic racism that's
built into society friends societies are
built by people broken people break
people and broken people build broken
societies and broken societies create
broken people it's a perpetual cycle
because we've ordered the world so often
not around the values the principles of
the god of freedom we've built around
all sorts of other things and even when
we have ordered society around the
values of this God we do it in a such a
broken way such a flawed way such a
messed up way far be it from Jonah's God
the god of the sea and the dry land to
give up on his plan of having the whole
world as his house far be it from this
God to give up on his plan of having
every single human being reflecting what
he is like and so he sent another image
he sent another person and another he
sent a new human if you like to show us
what it
really meant to be human and and and
Paul one of the early Christian leaders
in his letter to the Colossians he
writes this that Jesus is the image of
God we were made in God's image but it's
broken within us and so he sent another
to show us what it meant to be truly
human not just to show us what it meant
to be truly human but to show us what
God was like that's what it means to be
an image right the whole point of a
statue is to show you what the god of
that temple is like well in in in many
ways that's what Jesus is he he's come
to show us exactly what this God is like
which was the purpose of humanity in the
first place and the writer to the
Hebrews Christians in the New Testament
says that Jesus is the exact imprint of
the nature of God if you want to know
what Jonah's God is like if you want to
know what their the god of freedom is
like the God who needs no one but
identifies with slaves if if you want to
know what the gods like who has created
so much of the things that we value as a
society like justice and equality and
and tolerance and the value of the
individual if you want to know what that
God is like friends the Bible says there
with this one that we should look to his
name is Jesus the friends Jesus if we if
we want to know for wanna know what God
is like by looking at Jesus then
actually we if we really want to know
what Jesus is like that the moment of
his life that we should most concentrate
on is his death you see Jesus was
unjustly arrested unjustly accused
unjustly condemned and sentenced
unjustly mocked and beaten and unjustly
executed that doesn't sound too
dissimilar from the scenes we've seen in
America right it's in many ways Jesus
became like a George Floyd
people came like a a woman who's beaten
by a partner in the confines of their
own home he he became a sex slave in in
different parts of the world today he
but he became like an unborn child in a
womb an incredibly dangerous place in
our society in so many ways ajit Jesus
became the vulnerable he became the
oppressed he he became what is actually
so wrong with our world he he entered
into that space because this God the God
who needs no one
always identifies with the oppressed it
that throughout the whole Bible that's
the arc of the story
and during the moment of his death as
he's hanging on a cross one of the
things that that would do is it would
cause you to it would cause a fixation
to take place
asphyxiation sorry where the Airways
would be crushed where you were trying
to prop yourself up trying to open your
Airways trying to stop your your kind of
lungs being compressed so much that
you'd struggle to breathe in fact it
it's very likely that many people who
were crucified as Jesus was on a cross
would say things like I can't breathe so
when we hear those words through our
media at the moment I can't breathe
friends though though there was one who
came who willingly entered into a space
where he can breathe it's like the knee
of humanity was on the neck of Jesus
which friends means according to the
Bible that it was on the neck of God the
god of freedom who needs no one not just
came to identify with the oppressed but
was oppressed he was oppressed it was a
press so that we might know something
else so that we might be free he became
everything that's wrong with our world
Jesus became everything that has ever
been done to you which is an injustice
and everything that you've ever done
that's an injustice friends let's not
pretend that this world is black and
white let's not pretend that there are
solely victims and perpetrators friends
every single one of us carries the
brokenness of the image that we were
meant to display who God is every single
one of us is victim and perpetrator in
some sense every single one of us and
Jesus became both Jesus entered into the
space of both so why so that we might be
free so that we might know this God of
freedom so friends that we might start
to become the people that we were made
to be so when we pray when we've got
questions about God when we're rejecting
God my contention is that we're
rejecting the god of freedom who needs
no one but decided to become the
worst of our world so that we might
become the best so that we might no
difference so that we might order a
world in a new way so that your life
might change so that you might be free
so that you can be free of the things
that have stopped you becoming
everything that you were made to be then
when we when we're thinking what God
should we pray to let's look at Jesus
let's look at the God who Jesus shows us
let's look at him as he hangs on the
cross let's look at him I'd love you to
tune in next week I'd love you to check
out part three of this series we're
going to look at if we want to pray
where would we even start if I was gonna
pray to this God where would that leave
me where would I start how would I kick
off that journey in learning how to how
to talk with this God the God of freedom
I'm just gonna pray and and then the
band are gonna lead us in some songs
father I just thank you that you sent
your son Jesus to enter into our space
to enter into the world that you made
that is so broken thank you that you
sent Jesus because you are so committed
to us and seeing us be all that we were
made to be reflecting you thank you that
the the perfect image Jesus the one who
shows us what you were like was broken
so that we might be made whole help us
help us in this time of highlighted
racism help us in this moment to reflect
ourselves on things within us that are
broken help us to reflect on Jesus the
one broken for us and help us to change
even as we sing now about you the god of
freedom who needs no one but chooses to
identify with us chooses to become us I
pray that we would be changed that we
would become more like you even as we
sing together now in the name of Jesus
amen
there is a sound of hissing sound of the
Savior's room into the room my people
pray where we hear praises here
there is a song but after hears the
sound of the savers from a-z boots into
the room
when people pray
well we here was
sing his praises
see his bride
sing his way
singing hi
I love to hear some of the Savior's from
as he walks into the room
where people friend
I just pray with everything kind of
going on at the moment you just continue
to bless us and the stuff starts return
to normal that it doesn't feel weird it
just feels right and we're able to
reintegrate back into stuff and that you
really just are with us through every
step of what's left of quarantine
however long it may last now but we just
thank you for the way that you've been
with us through things so far and the
way that you've blessed us and after us
in the bless you I keep here make his
face shine upon you and be gracious to
you the Lord turn his face of all dear
VP
bless you I keep
nice face shine upon me gracious to you
the Lord turn
place
Oh
to
feet
you
whoa
Oh
King
be gracious tea
face of all dear
every piece
oh thank you that you love us so you
desire to be in relationship with us
you're not some far-off distant God but
you want to draw us close to you and so
I do pray that we would draw close to
you this morning that weird we would
know your presence this morning would
know the grace of God in our lives this
morning that we haven't deserved that we
don't earn it that you give it freely to
us and we just want to say we love you
Jesus we love you Jesus now for some of
you maybe this is the first time tuning
into a church service we'd love to hear
from you we love to walk with you on
this journey and what does it look like
to follow Jesus and so if you want to
get in touch with us say hello at
Redeemer Cody okay that'd be fantastic
maybe you can just if you've got a
friend who is a Christian who's maybe a
part of the church speak to them if
you're a part of the church and you've
been challenged this morning but
something we said or by the and you feel
God has been speaking to you why don't
you share that with your group when you
meet your in the week or again you can
get in touch with us we'd love to hear
from you as we as we go on this journey
with what it looks like to follow Jesus
and where all their different parts of
that but we want to go on as
step-by-step and we want to do it
together we don't do one alright so we'd
love to yeah we'd love to hear from you
if you run against touch with us we're
gonna hear from an defatted you now when
rod interviewed him a couple of days ago
and just on his reflections and thoughts
about the George Floyd black lives
matter there's been dominating the news
over the last couple of weeks and Andy
is the leader of a church in town elin
church and he served there for many many
years and we we love Andy and it's such
a privilege to hear from him this
morning hi Andy great to see you good to
see you too good to see you welcome to
Redeemer thank you very much it's good
to be with you this morning yeah thank
you so much for giving us your time Andy
um we just wanted to reflect on the
tragic events recently
of the death of George Floyd and so I
just wanted to get your reflections on
that you know when you heard of this how
did it make you feel as as a black man
Wow
short really really short I remember
seeing the video in the evening and and
my wife went to bed and I try to go to
bed and I realized I couldn't and I was
up till about 3:00 a.m. and I sitting
down alone in my land and just crying
just absolutely just crying and crying
and thinking how could this still be
happening you know slavery was you know
disbanded in 1856 in America you know
and how could how could soon you have to
something like this still be happening
in 2020 so I was shocked actually I
cried and then around 3:00 and I
remember getting my notepad out and my
team just to wrote something to say I
wonder what brought here when a man says
I cannot point you know and oh she wants
something posted it on my Facebook page
and then went to sleep yeah Wow Wow it
was a shocking shocking thing wasn't
absolute goodness me so what do you
think we should learn from this
situation as Christians and and just as
a community here in the UK yeah well I
think the church is made to be a picture
of what God the of what God wants the
was to be and I think when the church
keeps quiet about racism prejudice then
it feels like I was listening to TV Jake
say something and say most of us we
concentrate from the Good Samaritan but
we forget the Levites who walk past we
forget the police who walk past any blur
the man who was on the road in sometimes
in the whole issue of racism I would say
a lot of black people who
in the church feel exactly like that man
who is just ignored it's almost like the
subject we don't we don't talk about and
actually I think the church in being
quiet has become in some ways complicit
in what is happening in society when I
look at the division in America where
you have black churches Chinese churches
you know white churches that is a really
sad reflection of what the gospel is
meant to me
the gospel is meant to be this tradition
brings all of us together and I think
looking at what has happened I kind of
think the church needs to go it is an
issue that cannot keep quiet about and
actually we need to look once again what
does it mean that all human beings are
made in God's image and actually if we
truly believe that anything that we can
do in our lives personally there are
conversations we have within the black
community about racism that we talk
about how we need to behave what we need
to do and stuff like that but I think
their conversations as white people need
to have within your own community which
is simply pulling one another
and I think every single one of us if we
hear somebody in our family a friend say
from challenging naturally we are being
complicit and actually just allowing
that to carry on so I kind of think the
church needs to stop being quiet you
know in the pubs in the playground in
our Friendship Circle and call one
another how to make gentle loving way
and maybe once you start doing that we
can then start talking and actually
start bringing those solutions and
teammate role in thank you so much
that's really helpful it's very
practical and we can't take that away
that's great thank you Andy
it's gratefully watching and we'll see
you again sonson cheerio thank you good
to be with you back so helpful and
practical and I wonder as we go forward
it's just worth thinking what does that
look like what does that look like for
me
and the next step that Andy was talking
about was that what are the next steps
look like for you in dealing with this
issue in our society now we've loved
being with you today thank you so much
for joining us and being part of it if
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have a fantastic week and we'll see you
back here next time
you
