It's good to see so many of you out here tonight come along to our Island in the Sun finale.
We've been having a wonderful time all week. The weather has been good to us. We've had a great time together.
And our theme has been living in the warmth of God's love. That has been very true this week, living in the warmth of God's love and his hot weather.
The Island in the Sun has been a joint effort between the Cove Moreno people from Adelaide, South Australia, and the Bedford Baptist people here.
We've worked together on this and for us it has been a great success and a great joy to work with people from this church.
It has also been a joy to work with these children, to get to know them, to see them coming out with their enthusiasm and smiling faces each day.
And it's been a pleasure to be able to share with them some of God's love that we feel within us and let them know how they can show love to others.
Tonight's their opportunity to share some of that fun excitement with you.
And we're going to start off first of all with a word of prayer, then going into some singing and to get showing you what we've been doing through the week.
Let's just bow and pray.
Lord, we thank you for your presence with us this week. We thank you for the way you have been with us each day, letting us know that you love us, that you take care of us, that you watch over us constantly.
We thank you for the time that we have had with the children, the friends that they have made. Watch over them as they go on from tonight.
Bless them and their families, we pray. In your name, Amen.
First up tonight is our theme song, Island in the Sun. If we can have perhaps the red group out first of all at the back of the stage area.
Followed by the green group and the blue group.
Let's have the music.
Please stay.
Please stay.
Please stay.
All the children ready?
Island in the Sun, Amen. Amen.
God is dead, no, no he is alive.
I feel him in my hands, I feel him in my feet, I feel him in my hair, I feel him everywhere, I feel him in the church, I feel him in the street, I feel him all over me.
God is dead, no, no he is alive.
I feel him in my hands, I feel him in my feet, I feel him in my hair, I feel him everywhere, I feel him in the church, I feel him in the street, I feel him all over me.
God certainly is undead and these kids certainly aren't dead from the sounds of that.
I guess we learn a lot at the Bible Club and we'd just like to run through, just like to share with you exactly what we have done.
Let's follow along in the bedroom just to tell us what we did on the first day.
At the first day we learned about how God's Spirit came down on Jesus.
And if the red and green groups would stand up.
The associated verse of what we learned was.
This is how God showed his love among us.
He said this is one and only strength into the world that we might be through him, one God, all nine.
Luca, tell us what we did on the second day.
On day two we learned about Jesus healing a man with a crippled hand.
We also learned about Jesus and how the Pharisees hated him.
And the verse was.
If I gave all I had to do to get the ball, I had no other love, I gained nothing.
Further through in verse 13.
Joshua will tell us what we did on the third day.
We learned about four friends of the crippled man and how they helped him to meet Jesus.
Jesus healed him and gave him six.
Next, Joshua.
And the verse was.
Love is patient, love is fine. First through in verse 13, all in one.
Thanks guys.
The written green groups could get up and return to their spots.
That's as well as learning Bible memory verses and learning more about Jesus and love and how to love someone.
We also managed to create a few bits and pieces like the crates up on the windows.
And I'm sure the kids have brought home all the rest of the things.
And the priest's waltz.
Just bear with us while we find someone to play the piano.
I'm going to get him to the show.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I can't do anything.
I've got an anchor on the end of our chain.
Now that would go down and that would hit the bottom and it would hold the boat
nice and safe and secure.
It wouldn't crash onto the water.
Now do you know I have an anchor?
Can anyone see my anchor?
No?
You know, because I love Jesus and I wanted Jesus to come into my heart
He gave me an anchor.
And my anchor, you can't see the big heavy chain and big anchor that I carry around.
But my anchor goes all the way up to God.
And God promises that He will always look after me.
And in the end I will go to heaven.
And that's a safe thing for me to have.
That makes me feel nice and safe.
It's like a ship is safe with an anchor.
I am safe because God is looking after me.
And it's like having a big anchor that goes after God.
So, and He loves us.
And it's not nice and safe, we ship our mothers.
Now we had a special prayer that we used to say during the week.
So, the parents, can you just pass me your shoes?
Under there so I can see.
There it is.
Now, the children should remember this.
And the parents will say, as you do, as you journey through,
you can't do it, you're the best one to say it.
So I want to say to them our prayer after you sing.
OK, let's all say it together.
Before I lose my temper and get sloppy and sloppy too,
Before I say hurtful things of others, Lord Jesus let me think of You.
Help me to be friendly, help me to be kind,
let me show Your love to others, today and all the time.
Amen.
Applause
Thanks very much Peter.
I guess the underlying theme throughout the Island and His Son Holiday Bible Club
has been that God loves us.
He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us.
A couple of our group, a lot of our group,
did a lot of pictures, painted a lot of pictures over the week.
One of which has been covered up now, you can see the life of Christ
when He was baptized, His crucifixion, when He rose again.
I guess one of the best ways, as we've already seen,
to give God praise and really try to share that love is by song.
The Bedford Junior Choir now has a piece called Jonah Mann Jazz.
At this point hand it over to them.
Just relax for a few minutes because we'll just need about five minutes
to set a few things up, thank you.
Because Joe, about a week before the program we asked her to look after the very young kids
and I told her there would only be six of them and we had 13 or 16 each day
and I think from working out all the programs just a couple of days
I think she could do all the rest of it.
And to Marge Hollett who with a few helpers in the kitchen
had something like 180 litres of cordial and cold water
and about 5,000 to 6,000 portions of fruit for the children.
Thank you very much.
And certainly not leaving but we'll make it the last.
I'd like all of you kids to just say thanks to the teachers
who have given you such a great time this time and have just so many.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And the Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
The Lord spoke unto Jonah with a loud voice saying...
And Jonah kept his promise. He warned the people of Nineveh that the Lord was angry
with their evil ways, and because they had seen him step out from the belly of the whale,
they believed what he said and did as the Lord commanded. And when he saw it, the Lord
was pleased and would not smite them. Then Jonah and the people rose up and said,
We had a wonderful party, and Jonah had a way of his life. And now the children
were ready to go to the party. And now the children were ready to go to the party.
And now the children were ready to go to the party. And now the children were ready to go to the party.
And now the children were ready to go to the party. And now the children were ready to go to the party.
And now the children were ready to go to the party. And now the children were ready to go to the party.
And now the children were ready to go to the party. And now the children were ready to go to the party.
And now the children were ready to go to the party.
Thank you, Beth, for using that. I suppose the story of Jonah really is one that reminds us that
God is wherever we are and that it can be very hard to escape from God, looking for us.
The theme for Island in the Sun this week has been from 1 Corinthians 13. I'd just like for the parents
to read out a little bit of what we've been trying to say to the children and what the children have been
saying back to us, both by their words and by the way they behave. Love is patient. Love is kind.
It does not envy and it does not boast, nor is it proud. It is not rude, nor is it self-seeking,
nor is it easily angered. But it always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres.
Love never fails. And I believe that if we can let our children know that there is love in this world
which does not fail, love which they can rely upon and hope for and look for, then maybe they will not
make some of the mistakes we made in the past. Maybe they will start to see a hope where so many of our young
people today see no hope at all. And I just want to mention two little verses from the Gospel of John
which helps to explain what we as a church believe, some of you. And the two verses are,
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever might believe in them
shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son to the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through Him. Much of what we see in the world today is hatred, fear,
but we as a people, as a church, believe that God sent His Son. Not that we may escape the terrors of the world
and the things that happen, but that we might find a new way of loving and of being loved. That's what we believe.
And we would like to invite you all to come back and share with us at any time. We meet every Sunday morning
at 9 o'clock and at 10.45 and we have a morning tea in the hall and we'd love you to come along and share with us.
We have an evening service at 7 o'clock. For the children, well for the children we have our kids in the Kingdom
every Friday night, every Friday afternoon after school. And we already have 50 or 60 children there,
but we have enough helpers that we can take many, many more. And your children will have the same love
and attention and care that they've had during this week. And so we would love to have them there
and we'd love to have them come to Sunday school. If you'd like to bring them along or if you find it difficult
to transport, give us a ring. What we feel during this week is we've managed to make friends with a great many of you out there.
And it's been a great experience for us. We've been smiling all week. We love you. We'd like to make that friendship
that much closer and meet you all over a period of time. What we're going to do in a moment,
the children are going to stay behind while the parents get to go out and start their supper.
Because we've got a whole lot of goodies that we want to give the kids. I know some of the kids have been waiting for this, haven't you kids?
One of them has. So the children. I don't know how to get the response from the kids away.
What we'll do then, the children are all going to go and sing a last couple of songs for us and then if the children
like to remain up here, the parents can start moving over to the hall.
What we'd actually like you to do is actually join with us in singing the songs. We'd like you to join us in the island
and the sun. So all the kids could just stand up.
Now the words are really easy. Come away, come away, to an island in the sun. Hey now, hey now. Pretty modern, hey?
If all the gentlemen out there could stress the words in the brackets, it would make it sound even better.
Everyone else can stand up too.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun. Hey now, hey now.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun. Hey now, hey now.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun. Hey now, hey now.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun. Hey now, hey now.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Hey now, hey now.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
Come away, come away, to an island in the sun.
A gentle push and the sand is the highest. A gentle push and the sand is the highest.
I know that I am.
Glory, glory, glory to the King of Kings.
Glory, glory, glory to the King of Kings.
Glory to the King with wonderful praise.
Dear Father, Lord, my God, I give you this day.
O Jairam, O Jairam, O Jairam in the highest.
Lord, give love your name with wonderful praise.
Give your love your name with wonderful praise.
Lord, give love your name with wonderful praise.
He is our little Lord, my God, our Savior in the highest.
We'll end it there while we end on a good note.
Thanks to the help-giver for that one.
461 is the next one.
Ascribe greatness to our God.
His work is perfect and all his ways are just.
Him is God.
You'll learn much about God through his course.
With your proud praise to him.
Excuse me.
Ascribe greatness to our God.
God, his work is perfect and all his ways are just.
Ascribe greatness to our God.
His work is perfect and all his ways are just.
A God of faithfulness without injustice forever and in peace.
A God of faithfulness without injustice forever and in peace.
Number one to two is the first book.
I will bless the Lord from this day forward and even forevermore.
So it becomes a habit in my life.
Each day, every day, blessing the Lord.
I will bless the Lord from this day forward and even forevermore.
I don't know whether you ever clap your hands at the morning service,
but when you're visiting you get away with almost anything.
So we're going to do that in this chorus.
Let's pray for a way of clapping him we are thinking about.
I will bless the Lord from this day forward and even forevermore.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
I will bless the Lord from this day forward and even forevermore.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
Very happy to thank you too.
This is sort of a prayer.
It's just a little part of this chorus.
Let there be love.
That is our prayer.
Let there be love here among us.
Let there be love here among us, may now your love sweet this nation.
Let there be love.
Let there be love here among us.
Let there be love in our hearts.
May now your love sweet this nation, for just a moment you arise.
In us a prayer to understand you, brotherly love that is real.
Let there be love here among us.
This thing is so beautiful.
I'm going to sing it again.
This might be a prayer of amour.
Let there be love here among us.
Let there be love in our hearts.
May now your love sweet this nation, for just a moment you arise.
In us a prayer to understand you, brotherly love that is real.
Let there be love here among us.
Let there be love.
Number 16, very simple words, almost no need.
They are words from Genesis, the first book in the Bible.
We are gathering together unto him.
We are gathering together unto God.
We want him to be the Savior of Israel this morning.
We want him to be the Savior of Israel.
It's a rather warm morning, and we can sing this one an hour later, just before he descends.
We are gathering together unto him.
We are gathering together unto him.
And to him shall every awful thing go.
We are gathering together unto him.
In the past week our theme has been living in the warmth of God's love,
based on those wonderful verses of the love chapter 1 Corinthians 13.
And we've lived in the warmth of your love this week, of your welcome and of your hospitality.
Thank you very much. It has meant much to us.
And we are beginning to live in the warmth of your weather as well,
and of the fellowship that we share together this morning.
We've been the Cove Marino team from the Cove Marino Baptist Church in South Australia and Health Cove.
We hope that you have been able to share something of the love of God with you,
because God's love reaches out to all of us when we need it.
It draws us in, it encircles us, it goes round and round, each and every person, individually,
and us together, surrounded by God's love.
And there's more than enough to go round.
And it's meant that we should share it, to share God's love, and that we should love God too.
We're reminded of those words that tell us we should love the Lord our God with all our heart,
and all our mind, and all our soul, and all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
God has love you with an everlasting love.
We're going to just stay with that focus a little longer as we join together in praise and worship.
We stand to sing the hymn, 500 of the 95, Love Divine, All Loves.
Excelling.
Love Divine, all loves excelling, You are all we're to when come down,
Keeps it as thy love, O'erwelling, All thy faithfulness is bound,
Jesus, our Lord, compassion, You are all we're to when come down,
Filling us with Thy salvation, Enter every heavenly house,
We are free, Thy loving spirit, Into every troubled stress, Let us only be in care,
Let us find Thy promise rest, Take away the love of sinning,
Bound through heaven, of living and living, Days of faith and age beginning, Straight out and never ending,
Come, O mighty to deliver, Let us all Thy grace receive,
Silently return and never, Nevermore Thy temple leave,
Bring we who we hope with blessing, Turn the earth thy rose above,
Way and grace it without ceasing, Glory in Thy perfect love,
In each hand Thy new creation, Pure and heartless, let us be,
Let us be Thy great salvation, Perfectly restored in thee,
Change of glory into glory, Fill in everything our praise,
Fill the windows of round before thee, Once we've won the mountain praise.
The Swatting Service is the title service of the partnership mission, which I don't think has been explained word-in-word verbally.
It's been arranged because, plus over Australia, the organisational arm of the Baptist Youth and the Miss Gray,
have challenged the churches to move across each other's boundaries in reaching every person in this land for Christ by the year 2000.
So basically that's what's behind this, all this doing and throwing, and we reckon it's a great idea that Coam has come.
We're going to say thank you to them properly at the lunch hour, and I hope you're there, if you haven't come prepared,
go and get yourself a pie and come back, and we'll have lunch at noon, won't we?
In it would you say, Scalaback?
Yes.
And Jonathan.
Oh of course, Jonathan, he was like...
And Brayne Sue is here this morning, Sue Beaker, will be supportive of her.
Let's come before God, the service this morning of course will be taken by the Coam people,
and there will be various things happening which may be not usual, but we'll enjoy it because...
Let's, the last piece of lead, the opening and the closing prayer, perhaps that's just the interpensism.
Let's just do that and give it to God.
Creator God, as the curtain of the night is drawn back, the golden robes of the day arrive over sea and mountain,
expel from our minds all sour thoughts that we may greet this new day as a gift,
fresh from the hands of the Creator God, filled with hope, rocked with gladness,
and glorify the one who makes all things new through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Spirit of the Lord Christ, come upon us in the glory of your risen power.
Spirit of the Living Lord, come upon us in all the humility of your wondrous love.
Spirit of the Living Lord Jesus, count upon us that your life may course within our veins.
Your love will find us together in one, and your vision for the Kingdom of God
spur us on to serve you with fearless passion.
We pray the prayer of the family when we say,
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in 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,
and the glory of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you.
Just to be nice to say two, three, things.
One, you'll notice on the back there that anyone who desires an exhibition for the big picture
is requested to be here next Sunday.
Harris has told you that a number of people are going to Mangara next Sunday,
and if there are any in that group who are going to Mangara
who would like to be on the table, will they please see Harris after the service?
Right. Number one. Number two, tonight there will be, as well as the Germanman Jazz,
there will be the instrumental group on stage, which normally would practice at the same time
as the Germanman Jazz, so you can't have two people at the same time.
So the instrumental group, just turn up at four over seven with your instruments,
and we'll be right there, because we don't have anything that we haven't already done before.
So if you have four instruments, please come to four over seven and tune your instruments
and be ready for the service.
And for those among the youth choir who didn't think that there would be a Germanman Jazz practice
this afternoon, there is. And by the early Eastern times,
they're going to do one practice with the sound, and with the lighting.
That's what we haven't had a chance to do at Harris College.
So please be ready.
I'd like to make my welcome to those who have already gotten here this morning.
I'd like to present to you a special announcement to start off with,
and I'd like to thank you for coming.
Tonight at 6pm, there will be a special prayer meeting here in the prayer room
for work of WA Baptist work throughout Australia.
If we don't pray for them, things can go wrong.
So we should all have things in prayer at all times.
7pm will be partnership mission, echo, praise and testimony time.
And after being here on Friday night, even greater than what I was thinking.
So I hope you can all come on.
Thursday night at 7.30pm, the prayer meeting, which will be easy to go to,
stand in the middle of the room, and will be a Steve and Tracy chaos.
Those who attend that, remember.
Next Sunday, it's a bit different.
It's Baptist Union.
It's a live service in the evening.
Next Sunday morning, you'll be home the same here at 9pm,
and 10.45, and David Snell will be taking care of services.
Our pastor, just remember our pastor, as he goes to mania,
will take Paul down there.
In the evening, there will be a basket lunch at 2.8pm
for those who can gather there,
and then go on to the Cetadone for the Baptist Union combined service.
There will be a service here for any that are not going to the Cetadone.
There will be a union service here at the Cetadone.
We'll stand here while Paul is away.
This is the Cetadone.
Let's come before the Lord, be free.
We thank you Lord for being with us all and being with us yesterday, today and tomorrow.
We thank you and praise you for what you have done for us this week.
We thank you for everything you have provided for us.
We thank you for equipping us with the talents to bring people to you.
Lord, we thank you very much for everything you provide us in our everyday lives.
We thank you for the root of our root over our heads.
We thank you that here we have schools for our children to go to.
But we pray that you use our major offering to further your work here and elsewhere, further your gospel.
But we pray that we not only give of our money but we also tide of our time.
We commit all this in your name.
The Lord's really started a good work this week and I'm sure the Lord is going to empower all of you to continue on your faith.
The senior choir is now going to bring us a light just on that day.
May we have a little prayer.
The Lord has his hand on you,
Saint Luciculo,
He will never abandon you,
You are His treasure,
And He finds His pleasure in you.
He began a good work, He knew.
He began a good work, He knew.
He will be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He began a good work, He knew.
He began a good work, He knew.
He will be grateful to complete it.
He will be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He knew.
He knew.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He knew.
He began a good work, He knew.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
He will try the work, He'll be grateful to complete it.
This is the day the Lord has made, bring all the joy and the gladness.
Lord, we thank you for this day, which no youth has ever been.
We thank you Lord for the past week and for each child we've shared in the blood I've on the cross.
May the mercy of living in the world for all of us help us become good to you every day.
We pray for the families from which the children have come.
Let them also experience the Lord's love for all of us.
Hear our prayer for families everywhere.
Turn the hearts of the children to the parents.
Turn the hearts of the parents to their young.
Turn the hearts of the household to one another.
Turn the hearts of the people to the Lord.
Lord, will the prayer be heard in our church by the people in the world.
Lord, for the Bethlehem Church family we pray.
Let your love bind us together in the common town you have set before.
To honor your name, to love you like all our neighbors, to serve you with all our needs.
And to come into all the world including our city, suburb and community with the good news of Christ's love and Jesus Christ.
Now just here we were supposed to do the Lord's Prayer but somebody's job has done this so we would like you to turn if you've got the church Bible
to page 76 and read along with us. We're going to read from John 17 and verse 20.
My Lord is not with them alone. My prayer, sorry, is not with them alone.
I pray also for those who believe in me through their message.
That all of them may be your friends. God, just as you and I agree and I am with you.
May they also give you trust so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the voice that you gave me.
That they may be one and a sweeter one. I in them and you in me.
May they be brought to complete unity so that the world will know that you sent me and that I have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those who have given me to be with me where I am.
And to see my glory, the glory you have given me, because you have loved me before the creation of the world.
Right you start, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known
so that the love you have for me may please them and that I myself may be there.
Thank you.
Would all the children like to come out here?
Now I am going to give you something.
I am going to give you a group.
Fortunately, to get one of these, the children have just gone from me from a group of big kids back there.
I am actually going to give them one. They don't know what they are going to do with it, so I will find out.
Here they are.
I want you to put them into your mouth, but I don't want you to eat them. I just want you to suck on them.
As you probably know, I came all the way from Adelaide and I am over here with you.
Now I am meeting here with all these people. I think that is pretty incredible.
I wonder, I must eat something, the same with all these people, that have put all of this building together.
We are going to try and work out what it is.
Now, do we all look the same? No, we don't, do we?
Are we all wearing the same clothes? No, it's not that.
Do we all sing the same? Do you reckon we all sing the same?
No, I know there are people who sing a lot better than I do, so we don't sing the same.
Umm, I don't know. I know what it is.
We all barricade the Adelaide 36ers basketball team, don't we?
No? No? What about the Adelaide Crows football team?
No, no, it's not that. Oh gosh, I am really beginning to struggle.
I wonder who is still sucking on their jelly beans?
Right, sucking nice and hard. I wonder if the jelly beans might be able to tell us.
Now, I want you to pull your jelly bean out.
Now, let's have a look at any of them.
Ah, has anybody noticed what has happened to their jelly bean?
Colours coming up. What's underneath the colour?
What colour is yours underneath the colour? White.
What colour is yours underneath the colour?
It's a sort of white colour, isn't it?
Can you see what yours is underneath the colour?
It's white. What about back there? You having some moisture or anything?
White.
You can't be white.
You can notice the jelly beans have all got different colours, but inside they're all the same.
Now, I wonder if that might give us a clue.
Inside there, I love Jesus.
Now, I'm going to ask the congregation here, if they love Jesus, to say yes.
So, does the congregation here love Jesus?
Yes.
How about that? They're all the same.
Just, could you tell me what this book is?
The Bible, the Bible tells us lots of things.
Now, in here, it says that if we love Jesus, and we love Jesus, God becomes our Father.
He becomes my Father. He becomes your Father.
In fact, we will become one big family.
So, we're all the same.
So, I just want you to remember that, that even though you might look different to each other,
if we love Jesus, we're all the same on the inside.
No matter where we go, and where we've been, or what we do.
No matter what team we're bearing for, what we wear, we're all the same inside.
We love Jesus.
Okay, thanks again.
Now, Jenny.
One of the real highlights of this week has been the love that we have felt here,
and the love that we have shared with others.
The children have shown a lot of love to each other.
We've had love among the leaders, with our host families,
and we as a group here have shown love to the others in the community around us.
One of our theme songs for the week that we sang with the children was,
God's Love Goes Round and Round.
We'd like you to join with us.
Children down the front, sing from there, and if you'll join with us in this song,
just remembering that we're here sharing God's love all the time.
Let's sing it together.
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
God's Love Goes Round and Round
Greatest thing in all my life is loving you. I want to love you more. I want to love you more.
Greatest thing in all my life is loving you. Greatest thing in all my life is serving you.
Greatest thing in all my life is serving you. I want to serve you more. I want to serve you more.
Greatest thing in all my life is serving you.
I would say that I'm much the same as a lot of other people that I see around me.
I like to question things. I'm not afraid to say it. I like to understand what's going on around me.
I question things I can't explain. I'm skeptical about things I haven't seen or haven't witnessed.
I suppose some people see me as being a bit over-evolved as I am.
This may be good in the material world that we live in every day. I wonder however, how it benefits my spiritual life.
I know that I'm a Christian and I love the Lord dearly. But at times I don't feel like a true believer.
Especially when I find myself questioning things. Questioning the Bible, questioning Jesus, questioning God.
Basically, questioning my own faith. I've heard the Lord say,
Blessed are those who believe and yet have not seen. Yet I still have my doubts.
I've heard the Lord say, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.
But I still find myself crying out, God, show me the way so that I may follow you.
When I became a Christian I thought that was it. I know I have been saved.
I know God loves me. I know my sins have been forgiven. So why question it?
Yet over and over again I'm just, I'm doing just that.
I feel I must know more, ask more questions, find more proof that I can hold up and say, now I believe.
I look at my fellow Christians who appear so unwavering in their faith. When was the day in two?
Perhaps two hours. Perhaps I'm being too pessimistic about this on my faith. Perhaps it can be a good thing.
Perhaps it allows me to learn. If I'm seeking answers, perhaps I'm seeking God and then I'll be able to find him.
If we didn't question, how would we know what Jesus did for us?
I feel that God is teaching me though and through his Spirit I can learn more and my faith can expand.
But when will I stop questioning? When will I stop counting?
I'm a sort of Christian who likes to jump into things. And because I like to jump into things, I think God's asking me to do.
I can take a few risks and quite often I make a lot of mistakes.
I'm also one that's very very lost for words. Also because I'm a compassionate, warm Christian.
I like to lead and possibly offend a few of my fellow Christians when I try to do this.
And I stop because of my weight.
Usually, great culturally, women accept my leadership.
However, the time I've got for my Christianity Christian is not in Christ's hand.
By this time I mean the time when I kick it when I'm not a Christianity, but don't speak out to other Christians.
Or just turn my back and walk away.
Well, my feet I know. I can do more by something like missionary work.
And each experience I had as a Christian, I could be a more mature Christian.
I'm not really an overly outgoing person. I tend to be fairly shy. I like to do things quietly, work on my own.
I have a brother who does like to get out and he's very loud mouth, roughly ready to jump into things.
People notice him and they notice what he does.
But I tend to sit around quietly and work through on my own.
But both of us wanted to find something more to our life.
We wanted more than the hard working daily grind. We wanted more than just a family life.
There was something that we wanted to do to make effect on others. We wanted more in ourselves.
When I found Jesus, I was on my own.
And as soon as I met him, then I knew that this was for me. Jesus was the way that I wanted to go. I wanted to follow him.
And the first thing I wanted to do was to go and tell my brother about it.
But being my brother, he knew my weaknesses. He knew that I may not be strong in my faith, that I might fall down.
He was also very strong and opinionated. If he didn't agree with me, then maybe he would challenge my own faith.
But I felt that the joy of knowing God wasn't something that I could keep to myself.
I wanted to share it with others. And so I went and told my brother. And he too found the Lord.
It didn't stop there. I kept on wanting to tell others about Jesus Christ.
And I'm not a loud person and I'm not a public speaker. Not like my brother who wanted to go and share it from the rooftops.
But I just wanted to go out and tell people about him. And I kept on doing that.
And I found that if I continued to talk to people, there were people out there ready, waiting to listen.
And I talked to them quietly about my experience. And God would do the rest.
Well, let's all stand now to sing the hymn 416.
Jesus calls us all the human of our lives while rest is safe.
Hymn 416.
I have to be still and behold, in fear and pleasure,
Which there now be no more than peace.
Hymn 416, by thy mercy,
Stay away from me, my Lord.
Here I come to thy obedience, Sir, love me as no more.
What a mixed bag this time I got from South Australia with the mission team.
As the mission team. We've brought over all sorts of shapes and sizes and packages.
Loose packages and tight-fitting packages and all the rest of it.
I must admit, when I walked through the entrance of your church for the first time
and saw that sort of Rhodes Gallery there last week, it was really very daunting.
You don't want to believe everything that you read there either.
Some of us look a lot younger than we really are.
But you know, it's not just the sort of physical attributes that make our differences,
and you've noticed those of course, first of all,
but we're obviously a mixed bag of personalities and beliefs and Christian experience.
And just listening to the last three speakers, for example,
it would appear that we represent, I'm afraid, quite a mix of doubts and fears,
of successes and failures in the Christian life of action and inaction.
And I don't know if I should apologize for the testimonies that have been given this morning.
I guess it depends on what you expected.
Whether you expected to hear of great exploits of faith and shining examples of powerful witness.
But you know, we're really just a group of ordinary people
who never pretended to be anything else when we came across to the West to share our faith with you.
All that we can claim is to have heard Jesus' call, to have followed Jesus,
and that we're all at various stages in a journey in learning how to be Jesus' disciples,
in sharing His great love, as indeed we are.
And I think that probably all of us feel that we've got a long way to go in being all that God,
through Christ, wants us to be.
But you know, having said that, I can't believe that we've actually had the audacity to journey across here
and that some of our own church dears can call us missionaries, or missionaries, in coming over here.
Well, it's all true.
We do have our doubts and fears, our successes and failures.
And I have a little confession to make too, to make on behalf of Vicki and David and Jenny, to go their testimony.
They spoke as they were moved to reflect upon what they imagined
might be the testimony and experience of three disciples of Jesus.
Could you pick them, thinking back over what they said?
And maybe there's a little of them, and all of us, in each of the characters.
Thomas, the doubter, the questioner, the inquirer.
I personally prefer to refer to him as honest Tom,
because he faced the complexities of faith with an inquiring mind and a searching heart.
And then there was Peter, who goes in groups and all,
and always seems to act before he thinks, seems to speak before he's really got something to say.
No offense, David, but really Peter is sometimes a real embarrassment. He's a real outman.
And yet we love the big fisherman, because he's so upfront about his emotions,
and especially how he feels about Christ. He might fail the Lord,
but in his own loving way he can actually say,
you know I love you Lord, I do love you.
And some of us might find that quite difficult to say in front of others.
Then, I read somewhere that every church ought to have an angry.
Should have one. Alert, eager to serve, a great personal worker,
good at welcoming people, fantastic at introducing his friends to his greatest friend,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's sometimes called the first evangelist.
He's been criticized for living in the shadow of his brother Peter.
It's known that the disciples were perfect.
And a lot of them are very obviously imperfect.
And yet they were all chosen to follow Christ.
Heaven knows why, and I say that quite literally, because we might take a second look at them
if we were considering them for the church role.
But each one of them took a second look at Jesus and decided it was their last goal.
Even a tax collector was convinced that Jesus was worth investing all of his life in Jesus himself.
There were twelve of these men in all.
And they were all, to use Harry Emerson Prostick's phrase,
and he wrote one of the hymns that we sang last Sunday,
they were all of them tempted to be Christian.
I came across that phrase in a book edited by Roland Croucher,
who's a ministry consultant with World Vision,
in a book that your pastor, Pastor Joe, gave to Elizabeth, my wife, and I,
when he was over in Adelaide earlier this year in the partnership mission.
And Roland Croucher goes on to explain what it means to be tempted to be Christian.
He says stories of conversion to Jesus Christ, whether in the Bible, in history or today,
or whether sudden or slow or in stages, are all stories of temptation.
Temptation means a powerful attraction which draws a person away from previously determined goals.
And yet somehow the word temptation is almost universally associated with evil.
Anyone who wants to live by the highest goals becomes powerfully aware of forces within and around
which divert all pressure or suggest compromise to settle, if not for evil,
to settle for less than the best.
I mean, read the stories of the temptations of Jesus,
or of Paul about wrestling with principalities and powers, that other side of his human nature.
But in all accounts of temptation, there must be an opposite temptation to God and to his will.
Otherwise there's no struggle.
It's all too easy to become overwhelmed or obsessed by the so obvious manifestations of evil.
But the Bible's consistent message is that God is more powerful than evil, that life overcomes darkness,
that love wins over hatred every time, because love never gives up.
Love is eternal.
Some of our verses during the week, love is patient, love is kind.
I'd like to know the person who wrote patient down there under the pulpit.
They must know something about me, I think.
So in evangelism, Croucher goes on to say,
there are powerful factors on the side of the Church and the witness in Christ.
God has not left himself without witness in the lives of those we seek to reach with the Gospel of Christ.
Indeed they were created in his image.
That's the point of contact.
That's the terminal which makes it possible again for the spark between God and any human soul to leap across again.
John the Baptist, you know, you kids remember the stories about John the Baptist?
John the Baptist said, he, meaning Jesus, was the true light which enlightens every person who comes into the world.
And as we go out and have visitation, we go out into the world, we need to believe that,
that people are not left without an inner witness, that spark that can be reunited to God through faith.
Christ will not be ignored when people oppose or blaspheme or misunderstand him.
Nevertheless, they are acknowledging him in some way or another.
As preachers of the Gospel, as followers trying to witness, we are in the powerful business of temptation.
And the most powerful temptation is not the attraction and magnetism of evil, strong and apparently irresistible as that may be or may seem to be.
It is God. It is God's will. It is Christ. It is a great temptation.
Is it any wonder that when Jesus appeared to Simon and Andrew and James and John and Philip
and all of them and each of them in turn heard the irresistible call of Christ issued in a variety of words to come and follow him?
Is it any wonder that they were tempted to leave the lesser things
and to link up their mediocrity with the light in service of Christ?
Now one of our primary mission objectives in coming over to Bedford was to conduct a daily Bible holiday club for children.
And we always took that task seriously before we left and since we've been over here.
We were attracted and tempted by the prospect of service for Christ.
We thank you for allowing us to share in your lives and the privilege of working with your kit and the kit of your community
and getting to know your boys and girls as well.
We tried to live out the message of love is patient and love is kind.
We tried to show respect to each of the kids.
And there's a story told of an old German schoolmaster who went into this class of boys in the morning.
I don't know whether Jenny does that. She pictures in a boy's college in Adelaide and has a class of boys.
But he used to remove his cap and he bowed ceremoniously to them all.
And asked one day why he did this. His answer was, you never know. You never know.
But one day one of these boys might become. And he was right.
Because one of the boys in his class was a person named Martin Luther.
The great religious reformer and champion of the doctrine of salvation through faith in Christ.
We don't know. We don't know the long term results of this Bible Club week.
We don't know the results of the one to one contacts that many of us, not just the team,
but many in this church have had with others in the name of Christ.
In one of the communicators that was sent over to us to South Australia before we came,
this little description was given and I remember sharing it with our team from a letter that I'd received.
It read like this from you, from one of you.
Preparations for the partnership mission are well on the way.
They're relatively sparse. But having said this, the opportunities throughout which are enormous,
with some 22,000 people living within that narrow corridor, that three kilometer range of Bedford Church,
although the majority of our membership live beyond that radius.
What a great temptation that is to service and witness.
I remember offering a comment to our team that 22,000 meant that 2,850 each, if we divided equally.
That might have been the time when some of us were just wavering a little bit and wondering
whether we'd made the right decision to come.
But of course you know the great temptation to service in Christ is as much yours as it is ours to be available to Christ.
And I thought about that great multitude of people, about 5,000 of them, which faced the twelve disciples,
and Jesus, that's important, but and Jesus, the twelve disciples on one occasion.
You remember the feeding of the 5,000, how they'd been following Jesus all day, listening to him,
and they found someone in that great crowd, they wondered how they were going to feed him.
They couldn't send him home weak and weary after a day, and they found someone with just a small lunch,
and Jesus did a miracle.
And there was one writer who coincidentally happened to be my forebearer, A.S. Wilkins,
but one writer puts it, the supply of that great company's needs was dependent on the sacrifice and surrender
of one person and a young lad at that.
If a child can do it, why can't we who are presumably more mature in the faith be available to Christ?
Neither Philip nor Andrew, and they are mentioned specifically in connection with this event
of the feeding of the 5,000, and it's an event, a significant event, that's recorded in all four gospels.
Neither Philip nor Andrew caught the vision of a partnership mission,
of little may much in the hands of Jesus, of working together in partnership with him to meet him in need,
of looking to him to make the impossible possible.
Philip, the Lord said, what's your solution to this problem? How are we going to feed all these people?
They were looking to us, they heard my words, now they want something to eat.
The Lord knew the answer before he asked the question, and Philip fails the test in vision and faith.
He got into a problem solving mode, in a very business like way,
and he calculated the resources needed to meet the challenge that was presented.
The Living Bible reports to Philip, said, my answer Lord is that it'll take a fortune,
it can't be done, implication, it can't be done, it'll take a fortune to feed all these mouths,
and even then, they only get a nipple.
The danger, the danger we face, of costing something in any terms, is that we forget how much God can do.
Andrew at least gave Christ something to work with.
We have spotted somewhere in that sea of human faces, the small face of a small boy with a small appetite,
and a small lunch.
Five small scones, or barley loaves, and two fish, no bigger than sardines.
One commentator says, the fish were something of a titbit, to help the dry biscuits get down his throat.
And yet that's all the Lord was looking for, a small opportunity to do a great wonder.
And even though Andrew was skeptical and dubious, there's a lady with five barley loaves and two fish,
but what are they?
What's the use of those amongst such a great number of people?
It was enough, it was just enough, for Jesus to handle and multiply and develop and direct.
And some people have questioned the unlikely fortune that no one else in that vast crowd had any food left in their carry baskets.
Or was it that no one else in that vast crowd was willing to give the little that they had to Jesus?
You know the lovely part about this story is that Andrew paid attention to a little boy, a small boy.
And the Lord certainly paid attention to the surrendered heart of a small boy who was able to say,
Lord Jesus, take the little that I have, take what I have today, it's yours.
And the question has been asked, have you anything Christ wants?
Give it to Jesus.
Have you anything that Christ can use?
Is there anything you would hold back or hold out on Christ, which denies him the opportunity to take the little and to handle
and multiply and develop it and direct it in the way that he chooses?
It's a lovely touch that there were twelve baskets full of, I don't know whether it was good food or scraps afterwards,
but it was twelve baskets full left over.
So it wasn't just Jesus doing what was enough.
He abundantly blessed them.
And it's interesting to me that some of our folks at the Cove Marino Church made all those little bits and pieces
that some of you boys and girls have been using at Club for things that were coloured and made and cut out.
And they made them for us to help the mission team and they sent them over with us.
And we've had some left over.
And someone came along on Friday afternoon and we saw they were collecting up on them where they got twelve baskets full.
When you go to Nangare you'll be taking something that was made for this mission and the Lord has used it
and blessed it and it's going on instead of blessing others.
And they're going to use that as well.
So it flows on, the blessing that Christ gives us when we make ourselves available to him.
Let me just close with this brief thought.
There was a young couple in the church once who despite the frequent requests of their pastor
and other leaders to cut out where they knew they could be of service in the Sunday School amongst the children,
they were really, really reluctant to commit themselves even though they knew in their hearts it was the Lord calling them.
To be part of service for him.
And they kept saying things like, look, I'd like to, you know I'd like to,
but I really don't want to be tied down to this every Sunday.
We've got other things to do.
We just can't tie ourselves down like that.
They didn't eventually come around really, really gently to find joy in serving God where he was leading them
and one of the things that made the greatest impact on them was the pastor saying one day to them with kindness but conviction.
Look, I know it's difficult to be tied down to responsibility, but I want you to remember this.
You know one day your Savior was willing to be nailed down to a cross
and it wasn't the nails that held him there.
It was love for you and for me.
Poorly, the apostle wrote a letter to a church explaining why he was in the ministry
and it seemed that the best reason he could come up with was to say,
for the love of God constrains me. If he did that for me, surely there is something I can do for him.
One version says, the very spring of her actions is love for Christ.
Do you remember kids, one of our verses?
I think it was Tuesday, one of our verses was, if I give all I possess to the poor and have not love, I gain nothing.
It's not worth a thing. If I give all I possess to the poor and have not love, I gain nothing.
As we come to a conclusion this morning and a conclusion of our time of mission here,
the first thing that I want you to give to Christ is your love.
Will you do that? Maybe you're giving it for the first time.
Maybe like Peter you need to say it again and again, you need to affirm it before others and to Christ that you love him.
You may decide this morning in your heart, yes, I do want to follow Jesus all the way.
Go home with that thought in your heart, that would be wonderful.
We would rejoice if I don't want to hold back anything that I could give to the Lord, least of all my love.
But I want to suggest that if that would be your resolve in your heart,
but maybe you take the opportunity today to come stand with us at the front of the church and let it be known.
You know the physical action very often confirms the spiritual resolve.
Jesus said, follow me and the gotter, they arose and they followed him.
And the Cove Marino team, this is a challenge for you.
What are we going to do when we go back to our own church?
We've been blessed, we probably have received far more this week than we've been able to give.
I wonder what challenges that lays before us.
Surely we've been challenged to be more ready to serve, to be available if God can use us.
We want to go further, we want to do more, we want to love him more, we want to serve him more, we want to know him more.
And perhaps we too should stand at the front.
This is a partnership mission.
Bedford folk, you come and stand with us. Maybe God wants to do a new thing.
You've been a Christian a long time, maybe you've never been a Christian, never made the great commitment of faith,
never been tempted and yielded to that great temptation to follow Christ and to know him and love him.
You don't know what he wants you to do, you don't know why you're coming forward,
except that you just want to come to Jesus and allow him to do what he will with you.
We want him to know we are ready, whoever we are, to follow him.
We're going to share together in that great consecration hymn,
Take my life, let it be consecrated Lord, today take my moments and my days, let them flow in seestas crazy.
Sweet and beautiful, for thee, take my voice and let me sing, always, always, for my King,
take my lips and let them be filled with messages from me.
Take my silver and my gold, what am I, would I withhold?
Take my angel and my muse, where every fire has come shall shoot.
Take my will and make it thine, that's where it all happens, is the will, the giving in to Jesus.
It would be lovely if there are folks who would draw in the sure hand and make the responsible
for whatever Christ calls you to do. But that's not important to me.
I shall be in the team, we'll be going back and forth, some of us tomorrow,
some of us over the next couple of weeks, but it may be important to you that you come
and this is the opportunity for you. I shall indirect you to see it again.
If Christ calls you and you wish to come, you wish to have some way to yield your life,
take that next step again. When you take that opportunity now, take my will and make it yours.
Take my will and make it thine, it shall be the love that I need.
Take my body into the womb, it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord and Lord, let thy feet its treasures flow.
Take my soul and my body, where the glory of the King.
We have been in an island of the sun,
but the horizon is before us. We are tempted to engage in it.
Now go and sleep the day. It is the one the Lord has made, it is His given to you all.
Or give it as His servants and may His peace and order attend all your ways.
May the grace, the mercy and the peace of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit go to us all.
Amen.
Read the bulletin very carefully, every part of it.
And next day, let's see what the next God wants us to be.
Today is General Elvin's last day with us.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Your Majesty.