As the summer holidays draw to a close and the new academic year begins, here’s an update on what is happening at church in September.

Midweek meetings resume on Thursday 2nd September when we will be meeting for prayer at 7.30 p.m. Every church activity must be rooted in prayer, so we would encourage as many people as possible to make this a priority and join with us to pray!

Our Parent & Toddler group resumes on Friday 3rd September between 9.30 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. We’re looking forward to welcoming families back after the summer and hope to see new families joining us! It’s a great place to meet other parents and to let your children learn vital social interaction in an informal and friendly setting. at 50 p per session, it’s a bargain!

Our monthly prayer-as-we-walk meeting (‘Take Back The Streets’) will be on Saturday 4th September, leaving church at 10 a.m. Those who can walk will walk the streets and pray; those who are not able to walk so far can stay in the building to pray!

On Saturday 4th September from 11 a.m., we’ll be having a cleaning and maintenance day. It’s important to keep the building and grounds looking good and we need as many people as possible to come along so we can make sure everything is ready for the new term!

The ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be on Wednesday 8th September at 10.45 a.m. at Sacred Heart RC Church on Lockwood Road and on Facebook live.

The Dearne Community Arts’ Festival is on Saturday 25th September between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Astrea Academy Dearne in Goldthorpe. This is a great opportunity to see what talent there is in our local area as the festival aims to champion creativity and celebrate community. Exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations and performances will be happening. Why not pop in to see what’s going on in the area?

Dave spoke last Sunday on 2 Timothy 1:12, where Paul declared that he was not ashamed, even though he was suffering for the gospel’s sake. This letter was probably one of the last he wrote and is a shining example that even though he was in prison as he wrote and knew he was facing imminent death, he had confidence because of his hope in God. He knew how to master life rather than be mastered by it, and this is something we too need to learn. If we want to master life, then we need to know the true nature of the gospel.

Paul wrote to Timothy, a young man who may well have been daunted and even depressed by what he saw happening around him, with confidence and hope. He was not daunted by suffering, writing that suffering shapes us and develops perseverance in us (Rom 5:1-3). Nor can we simply attribute his confidence to his optimistic personality; elsewhere he wrote of both external conflicts and fears within (see 2 Cor 7:5). He was confident because of the truths of the gospel and because faith enabled him to see beyond his present circumstances to the eternal reward that awaits all who believe. In 2 Tim 2:8, he wrote ‘Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David – this is my gospel.’ He urged Timothy to keep his gaze and focus on Jesus Christ, and this is what we must do too. We have to see that Almighty God loved us so much that He sent His Son to save us, and that as a result of this decisive intervention in human history, we have nothing to fear and can stand on a solid foundation that will not change. Acts 16:31 sums up the gospel in simple clarity: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.’

That is the total secret to being more than a conqueror. That is the only way that anyone can successfully live in this challenging world, in this world that trusts in man and laughs at God. Take the gospel to heart, believe the Christian message, and put all of your trust in Jesus Christ.

The whole situation with Abram, Sarai and Hagar reminds us that doing God’s will our way rarely leads to satisfactory conclusions. God had promised Abram and Sarai a son as heir, but they had been waiting a long time and Sarah’s infertility was not helping the situation. Instead of trusting God’s miraculous power, the couple hatched a plan to get a child using Hagar. They knew God wanted them to have a son and perhaps supposed that it didn’t matter how this happened, but God was not part of their manipulative scheme which took no account of Hagar’s feelings.

God does not need our help to do the impossible; He is the God for whom nothing is impossible. (Matt 19:26) We must learn to stop interfering in God’s plans, however praiseworthy our motives may be, and learn to live by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) The truth is that in coming up with this plan, both Abram and Sarai showed little regard for God; they were effectively saying that He could not do what He had promised and that He needed their help. We are privileged to be invited to be part of God’s work, but the truth is that He does not need our suggestions and solutions to accomplish His will. He needs surrender, faith and obedience – and if that means waiting what seems a very long time for Him to act, so be it. They had been living in Canaan ten years (Gen 16:3); that’s a long time. But we must learn to wait for God, because the alternative is to create additional problems that have long-term consequences: their impatience actually made a difficult situation much worse.

In our series on ‘Questions’, looking now at questions God asks us, we looked tonight at Hagar and the question the angel of the Lord asked her: ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ (Genesis 16:8) God’s questions can find us wherever we are, even when we are in despair and running away from difficult situations, as Hagar was, and they have the power to transform us and enable us not only to face the difficult circumstances which have shaped and scarred us, but to move on, transformed and enabled because of God’s presence with us.

The question comes to Hagar personally, using her given name, not only her status as Sarai’s slave. God speaks to each one of us personally. He loves us personally. We are known to Him by name. Jesus made it plain to His disciples that they were individually important to God. ‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’ (Luke 12:6-7) No matter how insignificant or unimportant we may feel, God knows us and loves us.

When God asks where we have come from, the question encompasses our past and all that has shaped us into who we are. Hagar was an Egyptian slave. We don’t know much about her background, but she was not free to do as she pleased or to live as she wanted to. We may well have baggage from our pasts which needs to be dealt with, but we can be sure that the God who loves us can help us to be set free from anything which would seek to limit us and hold us back.

Rom 6:17-18 and Rom 8:1-4 remind us we have a new future now that we are no longer slaves to sin because of what Christ has done for us. In Jesus, God has done something about the grip of sin; He has taken on human flesh and Jesus has offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin. We don’t have to live the way we used to anymore. There is a new way of living: God’s way. We don’t have to be defined by our past; we can live in the freedom Jesus has purchased for us.

God’s plans for us are not to harm us but to give us hope and a future. (Jer 29:11) Even if you are currently in situations that are far from ideal, facing issues that are insurmountable to you, God is able to work in your life to deliver you from all evil and to work for good in everything. (Rom 8:28) This is the hope we have.

Garry spoke this morning from Genesis 39:14-15, continuing his series on the life of Joseph and its parallels with the life of Jesus. In this section, we see Joseph wrongfully imprisoned and punished because of the slander of Potiphar’s wife. Joseph had not in fact seduced her or acted inappropriately around her, but he is nonetheless imprisoned. He was the one who was punished, though he was innocent of any crime.

This is true too of Jesus, who was pierced for our transgressions and crucified for our sins (see Isaiah 53:4-11). He took the punishment that should have been ours, though He was wholly without sin. He took our sins and paid the price for sin so that we can be healed from the penalty, power and ultimately even from the presence of sin. He carried our burdens – not just expecting us to share in carrying the load, but taking the whole load. He took on human flesh (John 1) and knowingly faced death becasue he judged that the benefits (our salvation) were worth it. The plan of salvation was hatched in heaven, but Jesus was a willing participant in this plan (see John 12, Heb 10:5-7, Heb 12:1-2). There was no joy in the suffering in itself, but He found joy in what would result from that suffering. Jesus freed us from a fear of death and therefore, like Joseph, He is the example of how to bear suffering and injustice. We are called to do the same, to rejoice in suffering for the Lord because we know He is working for good in every situation.

J-P spoke tonight from Acts 2:1-4 about the need for us to receive the fire of the Holy Spirit, as the disciples did on the day of Pentecost. Fire can be seen as an instrument of hell or a tool of heaven; it can be destructive or constructive. Even in the Bible, fire is often used as a symbol of judgment (e.g. 1 Chronicles 36:19) as well as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, but we see from Scripture that God is described as a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). Moses met God in the burning busy; God led the Israelites through the wilderness by a pillar of fire at night.

Throughout history, we have seen the destructive nature of fire (the burning of the temple twice in Israel’s history, fire being used to burn witches, forest fires which spread so quickly and cause much devastation.) But when we think of the Holy Spirit’s fire, we see how we must not quench the Spirit of God (1 Thess 5:19); we must not throw a wet blanket over the fire of heaven.

We need the fire of the Spirit as heat, light and the source of our power. God wants His fire to warm our hearts, to make us enthusiastic and fervent. Without the fire of the Spirit, we can never hope to win others to Christ and must not allow the pressures of the world to quench that fire. Heat may be said to represent our emotions and passions, but light is also needed. Emotions and the intellect must not be in competition; Peter was able to preach a powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost which brought many to repentance. We need both enthusiasm and solid reason, for truth is the means by which the Holy Spirit guides us. We must never presume to know everything but should seek God’s direction and correction.

Fire is also a symbol of power (think space rockets!) and we need God’s power in our lives so we can never be lacking in zeal but can keep our spiritual fervour as we serve the Lord. (Rom 12:11)