Dave spoke this morning from John 8:2-11. The narrative deals with a woman caught in adultery – which is, of course, a sin with devastating effects – but the passage deals with the far more prevalent sin of hypcrisy. Jesus was confronted by leaders who wanted to trap Him; they were far more concerned about tripping Him up than in the actual dilemma faced by the woman.They expected Him either to preach a message of forgiveness and ignore God’s law or to stand with the law and show no grace to the woman. Jesus was not deceived by their machinations, however, and His response showed that whilst He did not intend to hide sin, He wanted all to realise the all-encompassing nature of sin and to understand also the all-encompassing nature of His grace and forgiveness.

Jesus gets to the heart of the matter in every situation and saves us by fulfilling the law – which we are incapable of doing – and thereby dismissing the charges against us. This story shows us hope and grace and above all reminds us that Jesus is the only way we can be forgiven and set free.

Elmer the Elephant is a character in a children’s book by David McKee and the subject of an exhibition at the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley. He’s a multi-coloured patchwork elephant whose individuality is celebrated and who reminds us all that we are different and that’s OK.

Barnsley Museums is celebrating Elmer by bringing sculptures to the six principal towns in Barnsley (Goldthorpe, Cudworth, Penistone, Royston, Hoyland and Wombwell), and we are thrilled that we can be involved in this project which will be led by artist Lydia Caprani (who recently painted the art mural at the Railway Embankment site.) There was consultation with the community about what is unique to Goldthorpe at the Summer Fun event at Phoenix Park last week, and high on the list for the 104 children who replies were family, friends, the opportunity to play together. I rather liked the response to the question ‘What would bring more joy to Goldthorpe?’ – chocolate trees! Definitely a good idea!

When we are next at the Railway Embankment on 17th August, we’ll be giving people the chance to decorate their own Elmers in their own ways and these will form bunting to advertise the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival (which will take place on 25th September.) If you’d like a poster to colour or decorate, please let me know.

Hopefully there will be lots of Elmer activities going on at the festival itself, but keep an eye out for elephants in Goldthorpe!

There is a line in the Rend Collective song ‘Build Your Kingdom Here’ which I would love to see painted large on the streets in Goldthorpe: ‘Come, set our hearts ablaze with hope like wild fire in our very souls.’ Hope seems to me to be the virtue we need to embrace whole-heartedly in dark and discouraging times.

Come set our hearts ablaze with hope Like wildfire in our very souls Holy Spirit come invade us now

Hope keeps us going. Hope reminds us that our current situation is only part of the story. It’s not the full picture. Hope declares that death, divorce, poverty, injustice, redundancy, failure, defeat and despair do not have the last word. Hope is what sets humans apart from every other creature. Hope fuels us and keeps us positive amidst difficulties and doubt. Paul lists hope as one of the three enduring virtues in 1 Corinthians 13 (alongside faith and love). Hope is indeed the fuel for faith and love.

Hope can seem very fragile to us at times, but it is actually very tenacious. If you wonder how you can ever hope again because you feel totally crushed, Paul tells us how: we can have hope ‘through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide.’ (Rom 15:4) People who read the Bible on a daily basis have access to encouragement beyond themselves and can therefore have hope.

Endurance is another Biblical word we should not overlook. ‘Hupomone’ – also translated as ‘patience’ and ‘perseverance’ – is the glue we need to get through life.

In 2018 in our Summer Fun events, we created a button map of South Yorkshire which still hangs in the community room in our church building. In order to stick metal, plastic and wooden buttons to fabric, we used Gorilla Glue. It was my first experience of using the glue, and by the end of the map session, I was covered in it. It took days to peel it all off my fingers, which seemed completely numb, such was the efficacy of the glue in covering over the sensitive part of my fingertips! Once attached, this glue did not let go!

We need to take on perseverance and endurance, fortified and encouraged by the Scriptures where we read of ordinary people and how their hope in God found fulfilment:

• Abraham, trusting a promise that he would have a son for 25 years before he held baby Isaac in his arms

• David, enduring years on the run, hiding in caves and feigning madness before foreign kings as a survival tactic, before he finally became King of Israel himself

– Hope sustaining people and proving to them in tangible ways that God is able to fulfil every promise He has made.

God is the God of hope. (Rom 15:13) We, therefore, can ‘overflow with hope.’ (Rom 15:13) I long to see that overflow of hope into Goldthorpe, into our community, as God gives us so much hope it spills over to those who currently have no hope.

Please note the following dates in August:

Railway Embankment Days (Tuesday 3 & 17 August)

Dearne Churches Together will be at the Goldthorpe Railway Embankment site on Tuesday 3rd & Tuesday 17th August between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., giving people the opportunity to explore this lovely outdoor space. Bring a picnic and come along to see the DCAF art mural and find out what has been done to transform this area from a fly-tipping eyesore into a beautiful green space.

On Saturday 7th August at 10 a.m. we will be having our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer meeting, either staying in the church building and praying or walking around Goldthorpe and praying!

The ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting is on Wednesday 11th August at 10.45 a.m. at GPCC and on Facebook Live.

There will be midweek meetings on Thursday 5th & 12th August at 7.30 p.m., but no midweek meetings on 19th & 26th August because of holidays.

Growing up is God’s goal for each one of us. Paul said to the Ephesians, ‘speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.’ (Eph 4:15-16) The Message version of these verses says, ‘God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything.’ Our goal is to become more and more like Jesus, to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. (Rom 8:29)

Growing seems effortless and utterly natural as a child, but it can feel harder to maintain good growth as an adult. Bad habits can have a real effect on us, so it matters not only that we take in food and drink, but we have to watch what we eat and drink more and also how much we eat and drink. Exercise is natural to a child; they are always running around and jumping and climbing. Adults have to be more intentional about this; we have to carve out time to exercise. Good parents make sure their children are in bed at a reasonable time and get plenty of sleep; adults take on more and more activities and forget that they too need rest and sleep as well as children. Similarly, children are natural sponges, soaking in information and facts, and then being forced to spend many years at school learning things. Adults sometimes think that learning stops when formal education does, and we become reluctant to learn new things as we get older.

The truth is, however, that God does not want any one of us at any age to stop growing, and the fundamentals are just as important to us when we have been following God for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years as when we first started. If we want to grow up in Christ, we have to make sure we are rooted and built up in Him, just as a plant or flower can only flourish if it is rooted in the soil. (Col 2:6-7) We must learn to live in the light as He is in the light, to receive God’s love and guidance, to feed on His word, to drink from His Spirit and to exercise our faith muscles on a regular basis!

Spiritual growth is key to all of us. Paul says, ‘Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.’ (2 Cor 4:16) We must pay as much attention to this inward renewal as we do to our outward health and wellbeing, and if we do that, we will surely grow up in Christ.

Tonight at our Little Big Church we looked at the subject of growing up in Christ. The children in church are all growing (we measured them!) and it’s relatively easy to see children’s natural growth. We thought about what is required to grow physically, and concluded that we need:

• Light

• Water

• Nutrients

• Air

• Space

• Exercise (to keep healthy)

• Education (to keep learning)

• Clothes (to keep warm)

• Love & guidance

• Sleep

If we relate this to spiritual growth, we can see very clear parallels:

• Light – we still need light from God’s word to help us to see how we should live and what choices we should make.

• Food & drink – we need spiritual food and drink to grow. Peter told people to ‘crave pure spiritual milk like newborn babies, so that by it, you may grow up in your salvation.’ (1 Peter 2:2) Paul talks about needing solid food to grow up (Hebrews 5:12,14). The Bible and the Holy Spirit are our food and drink. The Bible gives us everything we need to know about God, about ourselves, about life, and the Holy Spirit is like water to our souls, refreshing us and giving us the power to live the way God wants us to.

• Exercise – this is really learning to do what God says. As we exercise naturally, our muscles become stronger and we can do more. As we learn to trust what God says and do what He says, rather than what we might think ourselves, our faith grows and we become more like Jesus. You can exercise every day in Jesus as you read His word and do what it says.

• Clothes – we don’t need real clothes to grow as Christians, but God often talks about putting on love and robes of righteousness as if we are putting on clothes. The clothes we need are sometimes called the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. When we let these attitudes grow inside us, it’s like wearing the right clothes.

• Education – as we read the Bible and pray and come to church, we learn more about God and this helps us to grow.

• Love & Guidance – we need God’s love and we need God to guide us and teach us if we’re going to grow up. Other people are really important too – our family, our church family, our friends. Feeling loved and accepted is a bit like the plant having the space and room to grow. When we know we are loved and that we’re not alone, we can grow in confidence and can do great things for God.

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• Rest – sleep and rest are important in life and they are important spiritually too. God gave us the night to sleep in because He knows we need rest. He gave us the Sabbath, a day of rest, because He knows we need time with Him and with God’s people to worship and seek God.