Sunday Focus

24th August 2025

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

This week we look at Acts 17:16-34 - Making Christ Known in the Culture


 

 

Hymn - Immortal Invisible

 

  Song - A Thousand Hallelujahs

 

Gracious God,
We thank You for Your goodness that never fails,
For new mercy that rises with each morning
and grace that holds us through the night.

We thank You for the prophets who still cry out,
for neighbours who embody Your kindness,
for communities where the last are lifted up
and the overlooked are seen.

Thank You for Jesus:
who showed us that true power kneels to wash feet,
and that real glory is found among the lowly.
Thank You for the Spirit:
who stirs our souls when comfort numbs us
and calls us again to holy unrest.

For all this, and for what we dare to hope for still,
we give You praise.
Amen.

  

Song -   I will offer up my life

 

 

Acts 17:16-34

In Athens

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

 

 

You can find out more about what it means to become a Christian HERE.
 

Song -  What Gift of Grace (Yet not I but through Christ in me)

 

 

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. 

 

 

Hymn -  Before The Throne of God Above

 

 

And may the blessing of the Father who sees you,
Christ who serves you,
and the Spirit who stirs you
be with you and go before you,
now and always.
Amen.