Walking into Church-Session One

New Street Baptist Church-19 July 2020

Welcome to the reopening service of church. We had a great time this morning meeting with God and worshiping him in different ways. Follow this plan for today’s service:

Matthew 28:20
“…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Joshua 1:9
“…have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Zephania 3:17
The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

God is with us no matter where we are and no matter what situation
we’re facing. Even though we can’t sing today, we can cling to this precious truth that God is singing over us and taking delight in us.

Irene shared this picture (Nessie the trusting dog) and spoke about trusting God. He knows the future and he is in control and he will get us exactly where we need to be if we look to him.

Philippians 4:6–8
‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’.

Isaiah 26:3
‘You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you’.

Proverbs 3:5–6
‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart , and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths’.

Steve shared that he has been thinking more about how we worship when we’re at church. He felt God questioning; will we want to be consumers of worship or will we think about our offering to him more over this season?

Can we learn from how people meet in the underground church or very harsh places of worship? Will we use this as an opportunity to use other gifts from God? Will we ask the Holy Spirit to work within us?

Prayer
Praise God for what you have been thankful for over the period of lockdown.

How to Walk Into Church

Over the next six weeks we will be exploring the course Six Steps to
Loving Your Church. We began by considering what we normally think about when we walk into church and hear how the key to loving the people in our church starts with our ‘heart and attitude’ as we walk through the door. We need to understand what our role and purpose is in coming each week.

Questions

• What have you missed about church in the lockdown?
• What are you going to find hard about church at the moment?
• What do you usually think about when you walk into church?

It’s easy to think that we come to church in order to perform for God, as if he is rating the quality of our worship. The truth is the exact opposite. We cannot earn God’s favour. Church is not about us doing something for God. We come because God has done everything for us in Jesus and it’s the place where we come together to be in his presence, hear from him, learn from him and love and serve each other.

Ephesians 5:25–27 and 1 Corinthians 3:10–17 reminds us that the people filled with the Holy Spirit are God’s temple and that he regards us as precious, holy, spotless and blameless in his sight. God wants to use each of us to bless his church. One way to take practical steps to changing the way we think about church is to pray about who we can bless, encourage or talk to as we walk through the door.

Intentional prayer means we will come with right mind-set and with our hearts already focused on God. By doing this we acknowledge that God is the one in charge of what happens on a Sunday morning and that we don’t come to church for what we will get out of it, with our own desires and expectations but with a desire to serve God by blessing others in his presence.

Think of church as being about someone other than just ourselves. We come not just for personal encounter but to love and serve those around us.

Pray
Ask that this season would break us out of the old routines.

Challenge
Pray about a scripture to share with one person in the church so that it might be a blessing and encouragement to them.

Some further questions to consider

• What difference would it make, if you were to pray as you walked into church?
• What do you tend to do once service finishes?
• How can you develop faith-building relationships with others?

Assignment for this week

Pray about what you can share and who you can encourage at next weeks service.