Mark spoke this morning on the subject of encouraging, citing Barnabas as a good example of someone with the gift of encouragement. Barnabas is seen in Acts 9:26-30, introducing Saul – former persecutor of the church – to believers and urging them to give him the opportunity to show how God had changed him. Others were fearful and suspicious of this volte-face, perhaps feeling Saul was just pretending to be a Christian in order to infiltrate the church and wreak havoc, but Barnabas had a different attitude, encouraging Saul to speak and the apostles to listen. Given that Saul went on to become the great apostle, Paul, Barnabas’s encouragement had a profound effect on history and the whole of the New Testament, showing us the power of encouragement.

In Acts 11:19-23, Barnabas and Paul were sent by the church in Jerusalem to see what was happening in Antioch. Barnabas encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts, endorsing the move of the Holy Spirit among the Greek-speaking world. He encouraged the people to be true to God’s purposes and again had a great influence on the whole church.

Acts 15:36-39 shows us Barnabas and Paul in ‘sharp disagreement’ over whether or not to take John Mark with them on their next missionary journey. Paul was reluctant, feeling that John Mark had let them down badly on their previous journey and was therefore unreliable. Barnabas, true to his name (‘son of encouragement’), saw the potential in John Mark, however, and wanted to give him a second chance. He mirrored God’s heart, for God sees our potential and gives us countless second chances in Him.

It is very easy to complain, criticise and discourage people. Discouragement can be a dream-killer, but encouragement can be a bridge builder. We need to mirror God’s heart as Barnabas did and be encouragers, seeing the potential in people, looking beyond where they are now and seeing what they can become in God. Our aim should be to help others to fulfil the plan and purpose God has for every individual’s life and as we encourage, we too are encouraged in a circle of encouragement. (Rom 1:8-12)

Thanks to all who attended the Annual General Meeting tonight. As always, it’s only when we look back over the past year that we realise how busy the church has been in so many different areas!

We looked back on our community outreaches, including coffee mornings, Parent & Toddler group and youth club, along with support for the Salvation Army food bank. Alison is now able to run this every day of the week, thanks to an army of volunteers, and because they now receive food wastage from Morrison’s and Tesco’s, they are able to provide food parcels which include fresh fruit and veg as well as tinned and dried food. A ‘working families’ food bank’ is run on the 3rd Saturday of every month to enable families on low incomes to access the food bank. In addition, a clothes bank helps to support local families. Thanks were given to all who support this ministry which aims to fulfil Jesus’s commands in Matt 25:35-40.

We looked back on people’s growing involvement in church meetings and how local churches are working together, including helping at the community carol service and Christmas Market and now joining regularly to pray together (the next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting is on Tuesday 18th July at 7.15 p.m. at GPCC.) Future plans include ‘family fun days’ at Houghton Road Centre in August (where the minigolf facility will be available) and the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on 1 & 2 September at Dearne Playhouse, with workshops available before then.

The India trip was a highlight of the church’s mission support this year, and we would like to support a specific family we met at the tailoring programme from this. Support for Bedline continues and the church wants to continue to be involved in mission, both locally (working alongside other churches) and further afield.

On a practical note, much has been done to maintain and improve the building this year, including fitting new lighting in the corridor and worship room, fitting a new fire alarm and sorting out the doors to open outwards and be effective fire doors. In August, work will start on flooring under the stage so that this can become a storage area. In preparation for this, there will be a work day on Friday 14th July from 5 p.m. – come along to clear under the stage and sort things out and have supper at the end of this!

Looking ahead, we want our focus to be outwards – we need to see the church grow and must be involved in God’s great commission to make disciples of all the earth. We also must have an upwards focus – prayer is the key to everything we do as a church. We need to be unafraid to ask big things of God, for we have a big God!

Recent birthday photos:

This week we had the ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting; it is so good to pray with people from local churches in our area. The next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be on Tuesday 18th July at 7:15 p.m. at GPCC.

We have the service of celebration for Lorraine’s life on Monday 26th June at 1.30 p.m. and will be serving refreshments after the interment at Wombwell Cemetery. The service of celebration for Pat’s life will not be until Wednesday 12th July at 1 p.m.

Don’t forget we have the Annual General Meeting this Saturday (24th June) at 6 p.m. Come along to find out more about what has been happening over the past year and to pray about what lies ahead!

Garry continued his series on ‘Living Wisely’ tonight by looking at how we respond to mistakes and how truth needs to shape our lives and determine how we live. All of us have made mistakes and most of us have tried to cover up our mistakes in the hopes that we will not be found out! Some mistakes, however, are so great that there is no way we can cover them up. Eve discovered this in the Garden of Eden when she believed what she was told by the serpent rather than believing the truth God had told her.

Garry’s favourite chocolate is 100% plain chocolate (with no milk added), but anything over 65% is officially classed as ‘plain chocolate.’

However, anything less than 100% truth is ultimately mixed with lies and we must be careful not only to learn from our own mistakes, but to learn from the mistakes of others, as Eleanor Roosevelt advised. Wisdom is the product of survivable mistakes, so we need to be careful not to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Paul reminded the Corinthians (1 Cor 10) that we need to learn from history and from God’s Word so that we do not make the same mistakes as our forbears.

Truth ultimately is the thing that will guide us and enable us to live wisely (see Ps 25:5). Jesus is truth (Jn 14:6, Jn 1:14) and He wants us to learn from the Spirit of truth and to be sanctified by truth. The truth has the power to set us free, but this will only happen to the extent that we take truth in, assimilate it and live it out. Cosy half-truths are more comfortable at times than the plain, unvarnished truth which can be challenging and hurtful. Half-truths are dangerous because they sound so plausible (the devil is the father of lies but is adept at mingling truth with those lies to make us believe what he tells us.) We have to act in line with the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:14), allowing the truth to see us free as we embrace it and live it, if we are to live wisely.

Psalm 89 in the Message version says:

God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways, the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways! Search high and low, scan skies and land, you’ll find nothing and no one quite like God. The holy angels are in awe before him; he looms immense and august over everyone around him. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you, powerful and faithful from every angle? You put the arrogant ocean in its place and calm its waves when they turn unruly. You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand, you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist. You own the cosmos—you made everything in it, everything from atom to archangel. You positioned the North and South Poles; the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you. With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel— nobody trifles with you! The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule; Love and Truth are its fruits. Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise, who shout on parade in the bright presence of God. Delighted, they dance all day long; they know who you are, what you do—they can’t keep it quiet! Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us— you’ve been so good to us! We’re walking on air! All we are and have we owe to God, Holy God of Israel, our King! (Ps 89:5-18)

In this day and age, we have passwords for just about everything and it’s hard to remember them all! I have passwords for computers at work and at home, passwords to access different websites and online banking and so on. Life seems to consist of endless passwords and it can be difficult to access all kinds of things without them.

The passwords of praise are not like computer passwords. They are not secret, kept for just a favoured few, for the special ones. They are available to all who know God, for they consist in shouting and singing about who God is and what He has done. We know who God is. We know what He does. We can’t keep it quiet. Let’s praise God!

I believe with all my heart that praise is a choice we make. We choose to praise God. It’s nothing to do with personality or happiness; it’s all to do with obedience.

Many of the worship songs we sing have been birthed in tragedy and pain. Matt and Beth Redman wrote ‘You Never Let Go’ when Beth suffered yet another miscarriage on her 30^th birthday. They were determined, in their grief, to hold on to God and to worship God despite their pain. Darlene Zschech, who wrote ‘Shout to the Lord’, writes about miscarrying a child and feeling a ‘depth of sadness that was too heavy to bear.’ She writes that as she came from the hospital and sat in her car:

‘I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, ‘Sing’. In that moment it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. Sing? I couldn’t think of anything that I felt less like doing… My head didn’t sing, and I do not even know if my heart sang, but my soul sang.’ (‘Extravagant Worship’, P 57)

God knows our heartache and our griefs better than we do, but He still asks us to praise Him. There will be times when that costs us, when it is truly a sacrifice to sing. Do not think that those who sing do so always from a place of joy. Jeremy Camp, another Christian songwriter, lost his first wife to cancer in her early twenties. He is candid about how that felt, about the hurt, disappointment and frustration her death brought him: ‘I would read about how God healed in the Gospels and I would throw my Bible across the room. I questioned whether God is a loving God. In frustration I would say, ‘I don’t want to share in your faithfulness because I don’t think you are faithful.’ So many times I would pound on my bed because I wanted to punch something. The hardest part was trying to understand why she had to suffer. We would watch her cringe and cry because of the pain.’ (see here).

His father told him, only minutes after she had died, to get up and worship God, because that was the only place he would find victory. Jeremy’s song, ‘I Still Believe’ has the line ‘even when I don’t see, I still believe’ and his song, ‘Walk By Faith’ says ‘this broken road prepares Your will for me.’ It’s not easy to bring a sacrifice of praise in times of grief, bereavement, trouble and pain, but when we shout to the Lord and sing to Him from our brokenness, we find blessings and victory we cannot gain any other way. It’s a mistake to think that praising God comes only from happy hearts. Sacrificial praise comes when we refuse to let our circumstances or feelings have the last word, but choose to obey God and praise Him for who He is and what He has done even when there seems to be no current evidence for praise.