Welcome to our morning worship led by Rev Stephen Haward MA.

The theme is The prophet who ran away, the first part of Jonah’s story.

The hymns are all available on YouTube.

HYMN Mission Praise 7 ‘All creatures of our God and King’
St Francis of Assissi (1182-1226) tr William Henry Draper (1855-1933)

Welcome and Call to Worship, Prayer and Reading Jonah 1:1-16

SONG Mission Praise 1306 ‘I’m trading my sorrows’
Darrell Evans, ©Integrity Music, CCL 53960

Church News and Reading – 1 John 4:14-18

HYMN Mission Praise 522 ‘O the deep, deep love of Jesus’
Samuel Trevor Francis (1834-1925)

Sermon, Prayers and Act of Dedication, Blessing

Final prayer – please join in with the words in capitals.
O God, from whom to be turned is to fall,
to whom to be turned is to rise,
and with whom to stand is to abide forever;
GRANT US IN ALL OUR DUTIES YOUR HELP,
IN ALL OUR PERPLEXITIES YOUR GUIDANCE,
IN ALL OUR DANGERS YOUR PROTECTION,
AND IN ALL OUR SORROWS YOUR PEACE,
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN                                                       St Augustine of Hippo

HYMN ‘Were I to cross’ (Psalm 139)
Edward de Blieck, CCL 53960

Jonah 1:1-16

Jonah flees from the Lord
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’
³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
⁴ Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. ⁶ The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.’
⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, ‘Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.’ They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ So they asked him, ‘Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’
⁹ He answered, ‘I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’
¹⁰ This terrified them and they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, ‘What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?’
¹² ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied, ‘and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.’
¹³ Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. ¹⁴ Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.’ ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him

1 John 4:14-18

⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: in this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.