Welcome to our virtual service!
We’re really glad you can join us for this service. Everything you need for the service is on this webpage. Simply press the red play button on each of the videos as you come to them. You might like to print out the service sheet below and if you have children under the age of 14 with you – there are activities for them which you can also download below.
Today’s service sheet can be downloaded here
Today’s resources for E Kids can be found here
The thinking behind the song choices is explained in italics
WELCOME
Watch the video of Richard’s welcome.
SONG
In our opening song we praise Jesus who died for us and is now seated on the throne of heaven.
BITESIZE 1
In our bitesize Richard interviews Chris and Christine Priddle about their experience of marriage over many decades!
READING
In our first reading John tells us what true love is.
1 John 4:7-12
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes
from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God
and knows God. Whoever does not love does not
know God, because God is love. This is how God
showed his love among us: He sent his one and only
Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God;
but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love
is made complete in us.”
SONGS
Our next two songs celebrate Christ’s love for us shown in the cross.
BITESIZE 2 and PRAYERS
In our next video we hear from our mission partners Larry and Sinead Norman, and then Sam and Ruth Strain lead us in prayer.
Our next song encourages us to consider Christ who loved the church and gave himself up for her.
SONG
Consider Christ the source of our salvation,
that he should take the penalty for me.
Though he was pure, a lamb without a blemish,
he took my sins and nailed them to the tree.
My Lord and God, you are so rich in mercy,
mere words alone are not sufficient thanks.
So take my life, transform, renew and change me
that I might be a living sacrifice.
Consider Christ, that he could trust his Father
in the garden of Gethsemane.
Though full of dread and fearful of the anguish,
he drank the cup that was reserved for me.
My Lord and God….
Consider Christ, for death he has defeated,
and he arose, appeared for all to see.
And now he sits at God’s right hand in heaven
where he prepares a resting place for me.
My Lord and God….
CHILDREN’S INTRO, READING and BIBLE TALK
In the next video Josh Milsom introduces the children’s material for today, Sarah Robinson reads the bible passage which Rich then speaks on.
Ephesians 5:22 – 5:33
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
SONG
In our closing song we thank God for His grace that enables us to live as He’s called us to.
OUTRO
Richard Hopkins closes our service in prayer
Some material in this service is © Used by permission CCL Licence # 1102690. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.