Sunday Focus

                7th June 2026                    

Welcome to this weeks Sunday Focus, we pray you will be blessed.

  

Hymn -  O worship the King

 

Song -  Bless The Lord (Psalm 103)  - new song!

 

 

Hosea 5:15-6:6 (NRSV)

A Call to Repentance

15 I will return again to my place
    until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
    In their distress they will beg my favour:

6 ‘Come, let us return to the Lord;
    for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
    he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
    his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.’

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes away early.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
    I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgement goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.

 

Song -  His Mercy is More

 

 

Matthew 9:9-13 (NRSV)

 

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12 But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

 

In verse 13  Jesus quotes  from the earlier passage in Hosea 6:6: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." The Pharisees were experts at sacrifice – the correct animals to be burnt, the rituals, the rules – ‘looking the part' – but they missed the essence of what God was all about! They were failing at mercy. Unlike Jesus, they didn't have the heart that breaks for the lost. It is as if Jesus is saying: "I can't fix what you won't admit is broken. I didn't come for the people who have it all together: I came for those who are falling apart."

 

 

Song -  I want to Walk with Jesus Christ

Ever-faithful God, help us to trust that You can transform our desperation
with the fullness of life that You promise to all who seek You.
Help us to fully understand that You see our potential through the lens of grace. Teach us to truly rest only in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
And let Your Church be a place where the stigmatised find a welcome
and the broken find wholeness.

The Lord's Prayer
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. 

 

 

Song -   I Will Walk With You

 

Go now into the world with the courage of those who have met the Master.
MAY THE PEACE OF CHRIST, WHICH BRINGS LIFE OUT OF DEATH, GO BEFORE YOU;
MAY YOU WALK WITH THE FAITH THAT REACHES OUT TO OTHERS; AND
MAY YOU KNOW THE HOPE THAT SUSTAINS AND ENCOURAGES YOU.

Go in peace, restored and renewed, to love and serve the Lord.

Thanks to C of S Worship