Welcome to Dingwall

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Welcome to Dingwall Strathpeffer Free
ChurchHAPPY NEW YEAR - 2009

• God Calls Us to Delight in Christ and to Share
  His Hope.

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Psalm 365-10 (p. 44)

• 5 Your steadfast love is great, O LORD
• it reaches heaven high.
• Your faithfulness is wonderful,
• extending to the sky.

3
Psalm 365-10 (2/5)

• 6 Your righteousness is very great,
• like mountains high and steep
• Your justice is like ocean depths.
• Both man and beast you keep.

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Psalm 365-10 (3/5)

• 7 How precious is your steadfast love!
• What confidence it brings!
• Both high and low find shelter in
• the shadow of your wings.

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Psalm 365-10 (4/5)

• 8 They feast within your house, and drink
• from streams of your delight.
• 9 For with you is the source of life
• in your light we see light.

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Psalm 365-10 (5/5)

• 10 To those who know you as their God,
• your steadfast love impart
• Maintain your righteousness to those
• of pure and upright heart.

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Prayer Scripture Reading
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Scripture Reading Mark 811-26 (p. 1011)
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Mark 811-26

•    11 The Pharisees came and began to question
  Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign
  from heaven.
•     12 He sighed deeply and said, Why does this
  generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you
  the truth, no sign will be given to it.
•     13 Then he left them, got back into the boat
  and crossed to the other side.

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Mark 811-26

• The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
•  14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
  except for one loaf they had with them in the
  boat.     15 Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch
  out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of
  Herod.
•     16 They discussed this with one another and
  said, It is because we have no bread.
•     17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked
  them Why are you talking about having no bread?
  Do you still not see or understand? Are your
  hearts hardened?

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Mark 811-26

•     18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears
  but fail to hear? And don't you remember?
•     19 When I broke the five loaves for the five
  thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you
  pick up? Twelve, they replied.
•     20 And when I broke the seven loaves for the
  four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did
  you pick up? They answered, Seven.
•     21 He said to them, Do you still not
  understand?

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Mark 811-26

• The Healing of a Blind Man at Bethsaida
•  22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people
  brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch
  him.     23 He took the blind man by the hand and
  led him outside the village. When he had spat on
  the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus
  asked, Do you see anything?
•     24 He looked up and said, I see people they
  look like trees walking around.

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Mark 811-26

•     25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's
  eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was
  restored, and he saw everything clearly.
•     26 Jesus sent him home, saying, Don't go into
  the village.
• _____________

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Psalm 139a7-12 (p. 180)

• 7 Where can I from your Spirit flee
• or from your presence go?
• 8 If to the heavens, you are there,
• or in the depths below.

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Psalm 139a7-12 (2/4)

• 9 If I should take the wings of dawn
• and dwell beyond the sea,
• 10 There also you would be my guide,
• your right hand holding me.

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Psalm 139a7-12 (3/4)

• 11 If I should say, Surely the dark
• will hide me from your sight,
• When all the light surrounding me
• becomes as dark as night

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Psalm 139a7-12 (4/4)

• 12 Yet even darkness is not dark
• to you in any way
• For darkness is as light to you,
• the night will shine like day.

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SERMONAVOIDING BLINDNESS IN 2009 Mark
821 (p. 1012)
He said to them, Do you still not understand?
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Mark 827-33

• Peter's Confession of Christ
•  27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the
  villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he
  asked them, Who do people say I am?     28 They
  replied, Some say John the Baptist others say
  Elijah and still others, one of the prophets.
•     29 But what about you? he asked. Who do you
  say I am? Peter answered, You are the Christ.
•     30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about
  him.

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Mark 827-33

• Jesus Predicts His Death
•  31 He then began to teach them that the Son of
  Man must suffer many things and be rejected by
  the elders, chief priests and teachers of the
  law, and that he must be killed and after three
  days rise again.     32 He spoke plainly about
  this, and Peter took him aside and began to
  rebuke him.
•     33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his
  disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me,
  Satan! he said. You do not have in mind the
  things of God, but the things of men.

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Let MARK Speak For Himself

• Tonight - not just a devotional reading of the
  healing miracle but asking what Mark intends
  for us to see and learn about Jesus in the
  context
• The Pharisees are BLIND too (11-13) So are the
  disciples (14-21) so is Peter, just moments
  after his outstanding insight of verse 29
  (Peters blindness is in verses 32-33).

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1 Dont You Understand?

• What people need (above all else) is a miracle
  that reveals God to them.
• Put yourself back to a time before Peters
  declaration could you make it?
• In your own witness use many, many questions.

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2 Move on to Deeper Understanding

• The two-stage miracle is paralleled in the
  disciples growing understanding.
• V. 29 What about you?
• Move the church away from a shallow knowledge of
  God, and a shallow Christian experience.
• 31, 34 The only way to a mature and stable faith
  is the way of the cross.

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Psalm 3121-24 (p. 37)

• 21 The LORD be praised because he showed
• The wonder of his love to me,
• When in a city I was trapped,
• Surrounded by the enemy.

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Psalm 3121-24 (2/3)

• 22 In my alarm I rashly said
• That I was hidden from your eyes
• But when I called to you for help,
• In grace you listened to my cries.

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Psalm 3121-24 (3/3)

• 23 O love the LORD, all you his saints!
• The faithful will be kept by God,
• But he will give the proud their due.
• 24 Be strong, take heart hope in the LORD.

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Please join us for an informal PRAISE
FELLOWSHIP after this service
God Calls Us to delight in Christ and to Share
His Hope.