Mightiness of God - Mighty to Save

[0:00] There is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Rather like Jacob in the Old Testament, some of my sheep have got mixed up with others, but I know which my sheep are.

[0:15] And they're the ones that on the back say TRB and have a number. So if you have one of those sheep, could you just bring it up to the platform with you, please?

[0:27] If you don't want to bring it up yourself, please find someone who is happy to do it for you. Preferably one sheep per person.

[0:45] So if you've got a number on the back of your sheep, and I know how many there are. I'm going to stand here until...

[1:03] Thank you. Two more. Everybody...

[1:17] None of you have got two in your hands, have you? There should be one more. No, there should be one more.

[1:35] Okay, let's... Can you sort yourselves out? On the back, you've got a number. So if you could sort yourselves out. Number one, this end. Anyone got number nine?

[1:46] One. Which means I have two lost sheep. Which is rather unfortunate. Because of course the passage in Luke 15 only talks about one lost sheep. However, we can do this anyway.

[2:04] Yes? Whoa. Oof. Oof. Right, I will... All of the sheep have been given out, haven't they? Peter, there isn't a pile left.

[2:16] No? No? Okay. Right, we will do it without sheep number nine. Because the sheep that I lost earlier on was sheep number four.

[2:30] And I'm finding it trouble turning this into a more meaningful by using a missing sheep number nine as well. Okay, so if you could take your seat. Thank you very much for your lovely sheep.

[2:41] And we have... I had to find somewhere... We might have to move the line somewhere else. So we're missing a sheep.

[3:01] And Jesus told a story, as we saw, about the shepherd... I have a green light.

[3:14] It says on. Yep. And one of the sheep went missing.

[3:25] Oops. I'm probably going to wander around. Stay away from that particular one. Okay. And he said the shepherd went off and looked the sheep.

[3:39] And he said he looked everywhere. And as we saw in the story, the sheep wandered off because he thought the grass was possibly a bit greener or the butterflies were more exciting to play with further out.

[3:59] So he wandered off. But this morning, we've seen other people. So the Chilean miners, they were... They needed rescuing from a situation that was none of their own making.

[4:12] The circumstances they found themselves in. Possibly, maybe, the fault of the mine owners. Possibly. We're not going to lay blame for that particularly. The Thai footballers, they were in a situation and they followed their leader.

[4:28] And again, we're not going to blame the leader because he probably wasn't sure about what to do, but he tried to leave them from safety and they followed him, but it didn't take them straight into safety.

[4:38] I still haven't found my sheep. Anyone still found number nine? And then we have other people just going about their daily business. So the people on that Grace Darling rode out to rescue, they were just going about their daily business and found themselves in dramatic circumstances.

[4:57] still haven't found my sheep. So all these people needed rescuing for different reasons, some for their own fault, some because they tried to follow a leader that didn't really know where to take them, some because that's just how circumstances fell, that they had no control over and no one else had control over.

[5:20] Ah! Found him or her. If I say, I found you, then I'll know it's a female sheep. Number four, so we're still missing number nine.

[5:32] I'd search everywhere to find this sheep that I'd wandered off. And that's what Jesus was saying in the story. It doesn't matter how far you've wandered. It doesn't matter why you need rescuing.

[5:47] Whether it's someone else's fault that you're in trouble. Whether it's your own fault that you're in trouble. Whether it's just what I think Shakespeare and one preacher I used to listen to a lot in the past called the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune have found you in.

[6:05] Those poor circumstances. God will seek you out and find you and he will rescue you. The sheep in the video wandered off and he could hear someone coming closer and closer and he got scared.

[6:30] And sometimes we get scared about what's happening and then actually we realise that God is there with us in it and God will rescue us.

[6:43] God is mighty to save whatever situation you're in however far you've wandered off however misled you might have been.

[6:59] Let's stand and sing mighty to save men. Do please sit down nearly at the end. Shine your light and let the world see.

[7:14] In the past week in my Instagram feed please don't judge me I've been getting a number of things from something called Christian athletes and it's been showing a number of things from the Olympics and you may or may not be aware depending on how much you watched the Olympics and the opening ceremony there was a great hoo-ha at the beginning over the parody of Leonardo da Vinci's picture of the Last Supper with Christians up in arms and decrying what was happening but I've had things coming through that are far more positive so in particular one the American 400 metre runner who talks in her openly about her Christian faith and giving glory to God and reflecting what we know from the Chariots of Fire film from 100 years ago when I run

[8:18] God's given me a gift I feel his pleasure and I want to give glory to him but also saying people told me not to speak out because they said you'll lose endorsements sponsorship sponsors won't want to know you and she said but God will provide if they don't the German I think it was athlete who was talking a bit about her faith and someone said so well what was going through your mind at the time and she said well I had a song going through my head and I said well what was the song so she sang the gospel song that was going through her mind in the press conference and then other pictures that athletes have shown online from they've just been doing themselves informally the Fijian team athletic team in particular having a worship session in the hall in the Olympic village other people from different countries coming together and sitting at the piano one of them playing the piano and athletes from different countries praising

[9:21] God together they were letting their light shine and I would encourage us to be bold to do the same if I can find my bookmark I will finish with this from Zephaniah 3 verses 14 to 17 sing daughter Zion shout aloud Israel be glad and rejoice with all your heart daughter Jerusalem the Lord has taken away your punishment he has turned back your enemy the Lord the King of Israel is with you never again will you fear any harm on that day they will say to Jerusalem do not fear Zion do not let your hands hang limp the Lord your God is with you the mighty warrior who saves he will take great delight in you in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing as we go from this place this morning out into the world during the week may you go in the confidence that God loves you can rescue you sings over you so that we can be bold in letting our light shine for him in

[10:43] Jesus name Amen