Welcome to our morning worship, today is the first Sunday in Advent and Rev Stephen Haward and Rev Barry Osborne are leading.

All of the hymns are available on YouTube.


HYMN ‘Come O come Emmanuel’
Diane Hannibal, CCL 53960

Welcome and Call to Worship, Prayer, Bible Reading Isaiah 40:1-9

Please read the words in capitals.

In the lonely places
where the ground is hard
and the people struggle,
a voice calls out:
‘PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD’.
Where we can see
only a landscape of difficulty
and a journey impossible to make,
a voice calls out:
‘THE ROUGH GROUND WILL BE MADE SMOOTH’.

When hope has died
and all the world seems empty
of laughter and of song,
a voice calls out:
‘HERE IS YOUR GOD!’

Stephen Haward

HYMN ‘Long ago, prophets knew’
F. Pratt Green, CCL 53960

Church News, Bible Reading John 1:19-29

HYMN Mission Praise 102 ‘Come thou long expected Jesus’
Charles Wesley (1707-88)

Sermon, Prayers and Blessing

HYMN Mission Praise 870 ‘Jesus is the name we honour’
Phil Lawson Johnston © 1991 Thankyou Music        

Isaiah 40:1-9

Comfort for God’s people
 Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

6 A voice says, ‘Cry out.’
    And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
‘All people are like grass,
    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures for ever.’
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
    go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
    lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
    say to the towns of Judah,
    ‘Here is your God!’

John 1:19-29

John the Baptist denies being the Messiah
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’
21 They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’
He said, ‘I am not.’
‘Are you the Prophet?’
He answered, ‘No.’
22 Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”’
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’
26 ‘I baptise with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.
John testifies about Jesus
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

The Lord’s Prayer (contemporary)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.