‘Cinderella’ is our classic ‘rags-to-riches’ story. It talks of a young girl facing immense difficulties in her family life, being unfairly treated as a skivvy because of sibling rivalry and a stepmother’s jealousy. It talks of the providence of a benevolent fairy godmother whose power (magic) transforms this injustice for a night, paving the way to an encounter with a prince whose heart is captivated by the beauty and grace of this young woman and who determines to find her when she disappears on the stroke of midnight. It talks of his search for her and their ultimate joy in reunion and has the classic fairytale ending of a wedding where both live happily ever after in riches and splendour.

Such stories exist because at hear we all long for love, for justice and for security. They exist also because we recognise without external intervention (in this case, in the form of the fairy godmother), there is no way to change our miserable existence into something beautiful. In the pantomime version of ‘Cinderella’, the character Buttons acts as a confidant and friend to Cinderella in her awkward poverty; in the story, there is no such aide. Cinderalla is lost, alone, and in need of salvation.

No matter how many friends we have and how loving a family, this remains the position of all people without Jesus Christ. We are lost, alone, and in need of salvation. (Eph 2:1-2) The good news is that there is a benevolent God whose power and majesty don’t just work for one evening!

God sent His Son to be our ‘Prince Charming’, but also to be our Rescuer. Jesus put on human flesh. He did not come in the splendour of the majesty of God, even though this was rightly His, to woo us with riches. Instead, He came in poverty, seeking our untainted and unfettered love. Only after we freely respond to HIs generous love and unconditional acceptance did we discover we’re marrying royalty!

The Bible says, ‘for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich.’ (2 Cor 8:9)

We teach fairytales to our children because deep-down, we long to believe in the triumph of good over evil and love conquering all. Yet we live in reach of the greatest love story ever and so often refuse to believe. It seems too good to be true.

‘Cinderella’ reminds us we are called to be a beautiful bride. This is the church’s ultimate destiny.

The Sabbath year and Year of Jubilee (Lev 25) are visible reminders that God has built generosity and rest into nature. Even the land is to have a Sabbath rest (Lev 25:4). No sowing, pruning or reaping was to take place during this year. (Lev 25:4-5)

I imagine there was nervousness about this edict. For six years, the Israelites’ identity was bound up in work – hard, physical, demanding labour, necessary for survival in an agricultural society. It was one thing to take one day off in seven, but could they really survive by letting the land have a year of rest?

God’s provision and grace said yes. The people had to trust Him to provide and to learn the all-important lesson that we are not the centre of our existence.

The Year of Jubilee occurred once every fifty years. For most of us, that is a once-in-a-lifetime event. The principle of this special year was intended to focus attention on the grace and generosity of God and how this looks when lived out by people. Everything was returned to its rightful place and rightful ownership during this year. Freedom was to be restored; redemption practised. (Lev 25:8-55)

Again, such radical generosity and kindness did not make economic sense in the natural, but was a lived-out parable of the generosity and grace of God. When we live in this way, we allow the blessing of God (which cannot be explained in material terms) to flow.

God’s commands are not easy to follow, for they force from us a fundamental decision: do we follow God or our own reason? Do we believe God will provide and make a way where there is no way or do we follow the path that is plain, visible and apparently leading to prosperity? Jesus reminds us that the visible path actually leads to destruction and urges us to choose the narrow gate. (Matt 7:13-14) Obedience comes at a cost, but the rewards are priceless (see also Lev 26:3-13)

Some guitarists use a capo to play in a different key more easily. A capo is a device which a guitarist uses on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings—hence raising the pitch. It effectively means the guitarist does not have to learn alternative fingerings for every key. It makes life easier!

Not all guitarists use a capo; a capo is not an essential part of playing the guitar. But for many, the capo gives additional abilities and harnesses the abilities the musician has in new ways. In the same way, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not ‘essential’ to being a Christian – you can be a Christian without the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit gives us access to God’s power and is a gift promised to us by Jesus. This gift enables us to access God’s power, to experience God’s power in new ways. Paul urges us to be filled with the Spirit daily, (Eph 5:18)

God’s gifts for us are good; He is a loving Father who give good gifts (see Luke 11:11-13). Let’s not spurn the gifts He want to give or run from them because they may involve experiences beyond our understanding or explanation. We can trust God to give good gifts and the Holy Spirit longs to live within us, helping us to live each day in God’s strength and power.

Garry spoke tonight on the subject of what makes a Pentecostal church. We are Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church – Goldthorpe is our location, and the fact that we’re a community church is our mission statement (‘with God in the community, with God for the community‘). But the word ‘Pentecostal’ doesn’t mean a lot to most people nowadays except as a denominational tag.

The Pentecostal movement arose at the start of the 20th century, after a century or more of liberal theology which sought to take the miraculous of the Bible, explaining miracles in natural ways.The first report of the Pentecostal movement in Britain was in September 1907 in Sunderland under the ministry of T. B. Barratt in an Anglican church where A. A. Boddy was the minister. This movement took what the Bible said literally and was characterised by preaching which focussed on hell, damnation, repentance and holiness of living, stressing the necessity of accepting Jesus Christ as one’s personal Lord and Saviour and believing in the Holy Spirit, given as a gift to believers and working in miraculous power in and through us in the present day.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit (a key feature of Pentecostalism) is not believed by all Christians and is not necessary for salvation. When a person becomes a Christian, God gives them His Holy Spirit (see Rom 8:9-11) who dwells within us (1 Cor 3:16, 2 Cor 1:21-22). The baptism of the Spirit (or being filled with the Spirit) is nothing new; we read about this in Ex 31:2-3. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth (see Luke 1:11-15) and he taught that Jesus ‘will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’ (Matt 3:1-11) Jesus talked about this baptism in Acts 1:4-5 and we read about the first occurrence of this on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4.

One of the characteristics of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues (or other languages), as Acts 2:5-11 makes plain. We read many more instances of people being baptised in the Spirit in the book of Acts (e.g. Acts 10:34-36, Acts 19:1-6), seeing that this is not the same as becoming a Christian. This is a blessing and a gift which God longs to pour out on us. This gift enables us to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) and gives us strength and power. The challenge for each one of us is to receive the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and then to live in His power every day.

Stephen spoke this morning at Cherry Tree Court on the parable of the yeast (Matt 13:33). Jesus often told stories to people using everyday objects as an example, talking about things people could relate to. In Biblical times, bread was often made without yeast (especially when commemorating the Passover, since the Israelites had had to flee Egypt in a hurry without time to make bread with yeast). Yeast is not much to look at, but the chemical reaction which occurs when it is mixed with flour and baked makes something small rise into a loaf much bigger than its constituent parts!

God likens the kingdom of heaven to yeast. The yeast works through the dough and spreads its influence everywhere. In the same way, the life of Christ within us is meant to spread out. We are meant to be the ‘cooker’, so to speak, letting Christ’s light shine so that His kingdom spreads. In the parable, the yeast was worked into sixty pounds of flour – that’s one big loaf or doughball! God’s kingdom is great and we need to realise that our influence, however small it may seem, can have a powerful effect on our communities.

God is at work in us and through us and wants to develop us and grow His life in us so that we spread out into our communities and see His kingdom come on earth as well as in heaven.

The Christian life is often likened to a journey or pilgrimage, with the Old Testament talking about the journeys of believers to Jerusalem for annual festivals. Ps 68 talks about the procession of God coming into the sanctuary, and Graham Kendrick has written a song based on this psalm called ‘We Are Marching.’

‘We are marching in the great procession
Singers and dancers and musicians
With the great congregation
We are moving onward
Ever further and deeper
Into the heart of God

It’s a march of victory
It’s a march of triumph
Lifting Jesus higher
On a throne of praise
With the banner of love
Flying over us
Ever further and deeper
Into the heart of God

We will go to the nations
Spreading wide the fragrance
Of the knowledge of Jesus
Into every place
Hear the great cloud of witnesses
Cheer us onward
Ever further and deeper
Into the heart of God

And the whole of creation
Waits in expectation
Of the full revelation
Of the sons of God
As we march through history
To our blood-bought destiny
Ever further and deeper
Into the heart of God.’ {‘We Are Marching’, Graham Kendrick)

We need always to be moving ‘ever further and deeper into the heart of God.’ This will take different forms, including the development of our personal relationship with God (through prayer, studying the Bible and receiving the gifts and giftings of the Holy Spirit), the development of our relationships with each other and our obedience to the call of God to tell others of His great love.

In order to facilitate this, we hope to introduce ‘Team Building Days’ to help us get to know each other better and find out more about our strengths as well as seeking God as to how we can serve Him more effectively and to continue to develop our outreach into the community in different ways. We long to be more effective and to move forward in faith.