Brannockstown Baptist Church

Welcome

Thanks for looking up this study while our regular meetings are suspended. You can move down through each item until you're finished, which will take a little under an hour. I hope it's of benefit to you, and why not leave a note at the end to say hello. God bless,

Rich

Read

As we begin, read Isaiah 12. Isaiah preached to God’s people ahead of some pretty grim times. But he could see a much better day on the distant horizon. Here’s a snippet of what he says about it.

Isaiah 12 (NIV - Anglicised)

12 In that day you will say:

“I will praise you, O Lord.

Although you were angry with me,

your anger has turned away

and you have comforted me.

² Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid.

The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation.”

³ With joy you will draw water

from the wells of salvation.

⁴ In that day you will say:

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name;

make known among the nations what he has done,

and proclaim that his name is exalted.

⁵ Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;

let this be known to all the world.

⁶ Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

Pray

Father God, those words in Isaiah are very special. Isaiah could scarcely have imagined the fullness of your plans to cause praise to well up inside your people through our Lord Jesus, who died for us on the cross. But living this side of that turning point of all history, we take Isaiah’s words as our own: we give thanks to you, our Lord, we call on your name. We want to make known your deeds among the peoples, proclaiming that your name is exalted. We want to sing your praise for you have done gloriously. We shout and sing because you are great in our midst.

And Father that mighty act of salvation as Jesus died for us is so vital, so wonderful for us, because like your people in Isaiah’s day, you were angry with us. How could you not be, given the way we treated you, going our own way, ignoring you, coming to you in our crises with false promises of loyalty, or maybe even vehemently denying or opposing you. Whatever our rejection of you looked like, it was no way to live with our good & glorious creator.

But now if we trust in Jesus then because of him your anger has turned away and we know the comfort of your pardon, and your acceptance, and your love, and your utter faithfulness to your promise to take us to be with you in the sinless perfection of your new creation when Jesus returns. Father, teach us to pin all of our hopes, to invest all of our lives in that day.

Thank you, Father, not only for your love and salvation but for every good gift you give us, for every pleasure and every comfort we enjoy each day. You provide for our needs, you care for us in every way, even when your care leads us into difficult times, times that test us, times that prompt us to draw closer to you in great need.

We pray for all those among us and known to us experiencing times like that at the moment. Please would you comfort and strengthen those who are ill or frail, and those closest to them and caring for them, who are going through those struggles as well. Please use us as a family of brothers and sisters in Christ to bring your comfort to one another even and especially in these times when we are physically remote and isolated from one another.

And we pray for our time this morning that it will be an occasion of unity in praise of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, and we ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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