Dave spoke this morning from Phil 4:6-8, looking at Paul’s injunction not to be anxious about anything and how we can rest in God’s care and plan for our lives.

Prayer is the bedrock of our lives, our communication lifeline to God. Matt 6 reminds us that Jesus expected us to pray (‘when you pray’, not if!) and that prayer needs to be sincere (not arising from a desire to show off in front of others, not relying on endless words to get our way.) God honours the prayers of sincere hearts. Some ask why we need to pray since God already knows everything, but we pray in obedient response to God and to focus our minds and hearts on God. Communication is essential to all relationships.

Prayer also involves bringing our petitions (supplications) to God. We can approach God with confidence (Heb 4:16), casting our burdens on Him and relying on Him to sustain us. (Ps 55:25) So often, we keep hold of our burdens, but ‘casting’ means ‘to hurl away’. James reminds us that so often we don’t have because we don’t ask God or we ask with wrong motives. When we bring all our needs to God and seek to obey Him, we can be sure of receiving answers (1 Jn 3:22). Petitioning involves praying for others – for healing, salvation, guidance, for those in leadership and government, asking God to move in revival. There is so much we can ask for!

Thanksgiving is also essential. 1 Tim 6:6 reminds us that godliness with contentment is great gain; it is good to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:18), so that we can acknowledge God in all situations. Sometimes our thanksgiving is a real sacrifice of praise, but when we worry, we see only the problems. When we are thankful, we see God moving in all situations and can trust Him to work things together for good.

Phil 4:8 reminds us that what we choose to think about is crucial. We must focus on what is true (according to God’s Word), noble, right, pure, lovely, pleasing and admirable, rather than focussing on things that upset us or are harmful. Where the mind leads, the heart will follow; joy comes from adjusting our lives to God’s ways and then living without anxiety or fear.

It seems incredible to think that we are in October already! Don’t forget the coffee morning this morning and men’s DVD/ takeaway night at 6 p.m. tonight – both give us opportunity to get together in a social context and enjoy fellowship. Men are asked to bring a favourite DVD and a choice will be made on the night what to watch!

Looking ahead, we have the family service tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. – a chance to learn from God’s word, games and songs. Later in the month (16th October) we have guest speaker Yan Hadley with us at 6 p.m. as well as our usual services, including Cherry Tree Court on 9th October at 10.30 a.m.

Volunteers are needed to help with preparing goody bags for the Christmas Market onWednesday 23rd November (9 a.m. onwards) and with the Christmas Market itself (Friday 9th December, 4-8 p.m.) Please sign up for a timeslot to help serve refreshments, run stalls or help in other ways. The community carol service will be held on that date at 6 p.m., so come along to sing at that too!

Tickets will have to be booked soon for the pantomime at the Dearne Playhouse on 17th December, so please sign up if you want to come to that (tickets cost £8).

We are pleased to say that flights have now been booked for the mission trip to India next April! Eight people will be going to Bangalore via London Heathrow and New Delhi to help with the work of Fredrick and Reeba. Their latest newsletter tells us of people being saved and healed in a variety of locations, with many Hindus coming to faith and being baptised. A new project to support is supplying ‘talking bibles’ to people (using solar power, with 1 hour of charging allowing up to 10 hours of use.) They are praying for 500 of these bibles (costing £10 each) to be used in their outreach. They also ask for prayer for Fredrick’s mother (whose health is not very good) and for a young boy called Charen who needs an operation in November to help with kidney problems.

Please pray for the work that is going on in India and also for preparations for the trip, leaving the UK on 9th April 2017. There are visas to be obtained, injections to be endured, finance to be raised… and most of all, faith to be grown in our hearts along with a growing dependence on God and expectation that He will do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). As Dave reminded us last week, we cannot expect revival if we do not pray for revival, and we need God’s fire in God’s people. All of us are involved in this trip, not just the people who are physically travelling to India. Our prayers, our giving, our faith, our going make a huge difference. Fredrick is hoping to visit us in November, so that will be an opportunity to learn more and make further plans. Please pray for him and Reeba, for their 3 children (Philemon, aged 9; Felshiya, aged 8 and Zia, aged 4), and for Fredrick’s mother, Philomena.

In 1940, during the Second World War, Coventry Cathedral was destroyed during air attacks. The Cathedral’s Provost, Howard, made a commitment not to revenge, but to forgiveness and reconciliation with those responsible. Using a national radio broadcast from the cathedral ruins on Christmas Day 1940 he declared that when the war was over he would work with those who had been enemies “to build a kinder, more Christ-child-like world.”

The ruins of the cathedral can still be seen, but in those ruins there is a ‘litany of reconciliation’:

There is also the prophetic reminder from Haggai:

A new cathedral was opened in 1962, reflecting contemporary art and vision, but committed above all to the Christian message of unity, forgiveness and reconciliation.

A major part of the ministry of reconciliation was the establishment of the Community of the Cross of Nails, which today is an international network of over 200 active partners in more than 40 countries committed to a shared ministry of reconciliation. So much of the artwork in the cathedral reflects the international scope of this ministry, with God’s Word being on tablets of stone all around the walls of the cathedral. Even in the ruins, the phrase ‘hallowed be Thy name’ is used in prayer for different spheres of life:

The cathedral is a vivid tribute to the difference Christ makes and to how God is able to bring good even from the ruin of our lives. May we all learn to live in forgiveness and reconciliation, for in Christ, we are now reconciled to God and given the ministry of reconciliation (see 2 Cor 5:17-21).

Revival means ‘to restore to life and strength’, an awakening, and is desperately needed in our country and in the world. To revive means to bring back to life and we need God to revive His church.

When we read Matt 28:16-20, we see Jesus commissioning His disciples and despite all they had seen, there was still some doubt in their minds. After being with Jesus for the past three years and often letting Him down, perhaps they doubted that He could forgive them and use them again, but they obeyed Him and waited in prayer for the promised Holy Spirit. They might not have known exactly what they were waiting for, but when the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, He came with fire and wind and totally transformed their lives.  Peter, who in weakness had previously denied Jesus, spoke out in powerful ways; there was a total transformation which enabled the disciples to face anything – persecution and even death, for Jesus’ sake.

We too wait like the disciples for an outpouring of God’s Spirit. We have received the same commission to tell the whole world the good news and to go and make disciples; we have not been left alone but have the promise of the Holy Spirit too.

We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit and we need the confidence He brings if we are to see Jesus’ prayer (John 17:1-23) fulfilled. Prayer is essential to revival in ways we can’t always fathom – not only personal prayer, but corporate prayer. All are needed; all need to be involved. As C. H. Spurgeon said, ‘How can we expect revival if we are not prepared to ask for it?’

We need to meet together urgently to pray and we must pray expecting God to come in power and move among us and in saving power. Please join with us on Thursdays at 7.30 p.m. to pray. Every revival starts with prayer. Let’s come believing God; let’s ask Him to revive us. (‘Revival’, Robin Mark)

The world has a saying: ‘ignorance is bliss.’ With this mindset, unpleasant facts are ignored, rather like the ostrich with its head in the sand:

Ignorance, however, doesn’t alter the facts (as the saying ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’ makes clear) and is not the same as faith, which looks at all the facts available, including the fact that God often intervenes in ways we can’t explain! Blissful ignorance ignores truth, but faith acknowledges God’s ability to intervene (as demonstrated by Shadrach, Meshach and Abedngeo when challenged by Nebuchadnezzar; they knew that God was able and willing to deliver them, but declared that even if He did not, they would not bow down to worship other gods!)

Paul makes it clear in his letters that ignorance is not something to be sought after; he does not want us to be ignorant of spiritual truth (see Rom 11:25, 1 Cor 10:1, 1 Cor 12:1, 1 Thess 4:13). Instead, the truth has power to set us free (John 8:32) and there are many things it is essential to know.

These essential things include the fact that the Christian life costs (Luke 14:25-35). Jesus, at the height of His popularity, did not flatter the crowds or pandered to them, but warned them unequivocally of the cost of following Him. He wanted them to give a knowing response to His call for discipleship, which means having the right priorities (putting God first before self and family), understanding that the Christian way may even demand our lives (see Jn 12:25). There must be no turning back (unlike the ten spies who only saw the difficulties and whose bad report led to the Israelites’ rejection of God’s plans), only a pressing on into all that God has to offer us. After all, whatever the cost of discipleship, it cannot compare to the freedom and life God offers us, nor does it compare to the cost of our salvation. The NHS in England is ‘free at the point of delivery’, but is paid for through taxpayers (many of whom may not need the services it offers.) Salvation is free to us, but cost Jesus everything; we have to be prepared to give up everything for Him, secure that the truth sets us free.

Thanks to all who supported the Macmillan Coffee morning this morning. Your support helped to raise over £180 for the cancer charity!

Getting ready:

Cakes and competitions:

Enjoying a cuppa and a chat:

Thanks again to all those who supplied cookies, brownies, cakes, buns and flapjack for us all to consume and to all who helped in any way, not least by turning up and eating these!