When my son was little, we used to watch the ‘Thunderbirds’ programme, where International Rescue used their amazing spacecraft to save the world. One of his favourite episodes was called the ‘Pit of Peril’, when the Thunderbirds team was called on to rescue a U.S. army vehicle known as the ‘Sidewinder’ which had fallen into a burning landfill before the army crew died of heat exposure. This pit of peril was so deep that only the specialised equipment carried by the Thunderbirds could rescue the army crew.

Life often seems to have ‘pits of peril’ for us (financial problems, health problems, relationship problems, loneliness, bereavement, persecution), but the common feeling during those times is that of being out of our depth. As we cry to God out of the depths (Ps 130:1), we can experience rescue from God, however: David said that God ‘lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.’ (Ps 40:2-3)

This morning, we looked at 3 pits of peril and saw that we can have hope that blessings will run alongside the troubles we face and that rescue will come in God’s time because of His unfailing love. It’s not down to us. It’s not up to us. Ps 121:2 says ‘My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.’ Ps 124:8 says ‘Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.’ Whether we need individual rescue or collective help, we can be confident in God that He will rescue us and set our feet on a rock, giving us a firm place to stand and putting a new song of praise into our mouths.

Are you creative?

That’s a very loaded question, because we all have different ideas of what it means to be creative. I firmly believe all people are creative, but often we don’t recognise creativity because we have a limited definition of what that word means.

Creativity, in the widest sense of the word, encompasses all kinds of activities and arts. We can be creative in drawing and painting (often known as the ‘fine arts’). We can be creative in crafts (sticking, collages, mosaics, knitting, crocheting, sewing and so on). We might love papercrafts (origami, card-making, making bags and boxes). We might be good with our hands at making models (woodwork, metalwork and other crafts come into this category.) We might be creative through performance (music, drama and dance, for example) or through writing (poems, stories, articles.) Creativity through photography, technology, flower-arranging and cooking are all different ways we can express our ideas and thoughts, emotions and feelings.

This year, I hope to organise a community arts’ festival in Goldthorpe which champions creativity and celebrates community. There are so many talented people in our communities, people whose creativity has led to some beautiful paintings, objects and works of art. They often take their talent for granted, so they do not see the beauty in what they have created, but it is there, bursting forth!

Organising an arts’ festival is a first for me, and will only work if people from our community are willing to show others what they have created. This is an opportunity to exhibit your work for free, to share your talents, to showcase your group’s work. If you want to know more, please email me on contact@gpcchurch.co.uk or come along to one of the church’s coffee mornings and have a chat. I’ll be working with as many local people as possible – art classes, sewing classes, local schools, local groups, local councillors, funders and so on – to find work which can be exhibited. We hope to run workshops in the school holidays to learn new talents and to have slots for the performing arts at the festival as well. The aim is to hold the festival over a couple of days in September, so there is plenty of time for people to create new work or to dig out old favourites to exhibit.

Spread the word! – let’s celebrate our community, show the world that creativity is alive and well, and give our villages something positive to talk about!

I have only once had the privilege of having clothing made-to-measure just for me: a friend from church made my wedding dress and, armed with material and pattern, I arrived at her house to watch in amazement as she transformed those things into a dress that made me feel truly special. Bespoke clothing that is tailored to fit your exact shape (with all its lumps, bumps and oddities!) is exceedingly comfortable and feels truly snug and cosy.

More often than not, however, I have to buy clothing that is mass-produced, and, being small, that usually means clothing needs shortening to be of the same length that women of ‘average height’ would wear (my son laughs if I buy trousers, saying that crop trousers are just the right length for me!) This kind of clothing is cheaper and generally works, but it is not the same as the luxury of having something made-to-measure.

2 Cor 1:3-4 says ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.’ The comfort God gives us is tailor-made to our situations and personalities; it is ‘just right’ for us. The situations we go through give us insight into God’s comfort, which we can then pass on to other people. This comfort is not stinting or meagre; it is a comfort which ‘abounds’ – a ‘full measure of healing comfort’, as the Message version puts it.

I’m grateful that God’s comfort isn’t ‘off the peg’. In the film ‘Bruce Almighty‘, Bruce, delegated with the task of running the universe, gets bored with answering prayers, overwhelmed by all the requests (represented by post-it notes!)

In desperation, he decides to ‘solve’ the problem by saying ‘yes’ to all the prayers (which leads to more chaos, as it turns out.)

God is not like that. He does not offer us impersonal answers and comfort which might be tweaked to all situations and all people; instead, He knows us individually, hears our prayers, bears our sorrows and comforts us with bespoke comfort. He is the Father of compassion and God of all comfort, who loves us, hears us and helps us. We can relax into His personalised care today and know it will fit us perfectly.

Jesus taught plainly that there are only two kinds of kingdom: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light (see Jn 3:19, Eph 2:1-2). We cannot serve two masters (see Matt 6:24) and there is no option for neutrality (see Luke 11:23) or dual citizenship.

Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, came to Jesus one time to discuss this problem. Jesus told Nicodemus, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ (Jn 3:3) He went on to say, ‘no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit’ (Jn 3:6) and concluded, ‘‘You must be born again.’ (Jn 3:7)

We enter God’s kingdom through a second birth. Nicodemus knew all about natural birth; he asked Jesus, ‘How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’ (Jn 3:4) Jesus told him that this second birth needed to enter God’s kingdom was not a literal, physical birth, but a spiritual birth. Earlier, John has told us, ‘Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’ (Jn 1:12-13) We enter the kingdom of God as God’s children, born of God, a spiritual birth, just as children are born to a king or queen and then are part of the Royal Family through their birth. We enter God’s kingdom by believing in Jesus who ‘has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ (Col 1:13-14) We are transferred from one kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of light when we believe that Jesus died for us, when we acknowledge that we have sinned and can’t save ourselves, when we accept the authority of Jesus over our lives and acknowledge Him as king.

For those of us who have never accepted Christ’s authority and rule, the only way we can see and enter the kingdom of God is by receiving Christ as Lord and Saviour. For those of us who live as children of the king, the challenge is to live as His children, reflecting His values, showing His kindness, loving other people the way He loves us so that we may show people what the kingdom of God really looks like. Just as natural labour is not easy, so we must be prepared to wrestle in prayer for people to receive that second birth, praying for our family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances until they are born again and transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of God.

Tonight’s sermon continued our alphabet series of essential ingredients to the Christian faith and looked at the subject ‘K is for Kingdom’. The kingdom of God was something Jesus frequently spoke about (see Matt 12:28; Matt 19:24; Matt 21:31; Matt 21:43), with many of His parables looking at different aspects of this kingdom (likening it to a mustard seed, a merchant looking for a pearl of great price, a man sowing seed in a field, yeast mixed into dough, and a king preparing a great banquet, to name but a few.) Right at the start of His ministry, He told people ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:14-15) and taught His disciples to pray ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt 6:10), clearly indicating that for Jesus, this theme of the kingdom of God was predominant in all His ministry.

The fact that He taught so much about this and spoke of God’s rule and reign coming through His ministry was clearly a major factor in the decision of the Jews and Romans to crucify Him (see Jn 18:33-40, Jn 19:12-16, Jn 19:19-21). But the nature of God’s kingdom is not at all what we might expect from our experience of earthly kings and queens.

When we think about kingdoms, we traditionally think of authority, power, might and majesty, and God is indeed that kind of king (see Ps 145:13, Dan 7:14,17, Ps 2:1-6, Rev 19:16). However, the paradoxical nature of the Messiah was such that this powerful King is also the Suffering Servant (see Is 53:3,10), inaugurating a kingdom where service is the key to greatness (see Mark 10:35-45). Jesus our King washed His disciples’ feet (Jn 13:1-17), showing us a very different type of kingdom. Moreover, Jesus consistently taught that death precedes life in this kingdom (see Jn 12:24-26), reminding us that in this kingdom:

• self-denial has to rule and the way of the cross cannot be avoided (Mark 8:34-38)
• daily dependence on Jesus and total reliance on His atoning death are required, actually participating in a spiritual union with Him (Jn 6:53)
• whole-hearted, uncompromising commitment is necessary (Luke 14:33, Matt 8:18-22)

Many found this idea of total allegiance too much (see Jn 6:66), but for those who enter the kingdom of God, there is no better place to be!

Some people like the fact we have so much choice and so many options available to us nowadays, while others find this daunting and confusing. Each day we are faced with different choices, and we have to be clear about how we choose to do what we choose to do. Mark spoke this morning from 1 Cor 13:1-14:1, talking about how faith, hope and love can be the guiding lights in our choices.

If we consider buying a new car, we could base our decision on practical reasons (reliability, make, functionality etc.), which is a decision based on reasonable faith. We could, however, base our choice on hope – that our ‘dream car’, for example, would live up to our expectations and hopes. The third motivation, love, however, tends to be the one that sways us most: we buy a car because it is ‘just right’, and ultimately because we love it.

Love has to be our guiding light in all choices. Love is practical, reaching out to those in need, showing kindness to all. God Himself is love and love was His motivation for action (see John 3:16, Rom 5:8). His lavish love is unconditional and we are urged to ‘pursue love’ (1 Cor 14:1) more than anything else. So often, we value other things (spiritual gifts, faith, knowledge, giving to the poor and so on) more than love, but if love comes first, the other things will follow. We need to strive to love, acknowledging our shortcomings, but realising also that this is our life’s work. Faith will one day give way to sight; hope will one day be fulfilled, but love is eternal and therefore must be the main factor in all our choices.