Our society values competence. It’s an essential requirement of every job description. It’s what makes life function. Without competence we’re ignorant buffoons, bumbling around Laurel-and-Hardy style, and while slapstick may be a valid comedy form, it’s not a good prescription for life. Incompetent doctors kill patients. Incompetent teachers lead to disengaged learners. Incompetent police lead to increases in crime. Incompetence is the ultimate sin.

But in the Christian life, competence is not the bottom line, nor incompetence the worst sin. Competence is not the be-all and end-all of faith. In fact, it barely registers on God’s list of requirements. This is not because God is a bumbling buffoon, but because He operates on a different set of principles.

Competence depends on our abilities, skills and actions and as such very easily leads to a reliance on these abilities, skills and actions as the way to live. Faith asks us to surrender all we have and are to God, recognising that our competence will never be enough to lead us to God. Our righteousness will never be pure enough, clean enough, good enough to bring us to God’s standards. There has to be a repudiation of our skillset and a complete dependence on God for us to be counted righteous before God. Only when we have acknowledged our own spiritual bankruptcy can we become rich in God. Only when we have tasted our utter powerlessness can we receive the power of God. Only when we have understood our own emptiness can we receive God’s fulness. Only when we have acknowledge that our competence is never going to get the seal of God’s approval can we bask in the approval He freely bestows on His children.

There is no shortcut to God, no ‘surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practised in your spare time.’ (Matt 7:13-14, The Message) The way to God is narrow. It’s the way of the cross, which, to the eyes of the world, looks like the most incompetent method ever for saving people, but which God says is ‘the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.’ (Rom 1:16)

On the other hand, this way leads to God-competence, which is far more effective. Paul says, ‘not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ (2 Cor 3:5-6) The only validation we need is God’s. The only way we receive this is by denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus. (Mk 8:34)

Turn your back on the cult of competence and cultivate God-confidence. E. M. Bounds writes challengingly: ‘Self-esteem, self-ability in some pernicious shape, has defamed and violated the temple, which should be held sacred for God.’ (‘E. M. Bounds onf Prayer’, P 468) Only death to self and crucifixion to the world can lead to spiritual life. Competence, if it robs us of our dependency on God, is no gain. Only God can satisfy.

There is a consultation meeting on Saturday 30th January from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Salvation Army. This meeting is entitled ‘Dreams For Goldthorpe’ and is organised by a group of architecture students from Sheffield University who have been learning about Goldthorpe and coming up with ideas for its future. Everyone is invited to look at their plans and share their own ideas and hopes for the future of the place over a cup of tea and piece of cake.

Goldthorpe is in need of regeneration and there is funding available from some sources for work to be carried out. Such work is often a slow process (the plans for the redevelopment of Beever Street have been on the table for years and these are by no means complete), but it’s worth being involved in the consultation process and helping to shape the future of the place where we worship. Drop in on Saturday if you have the chance and have a look at what’s going on! – above all, pray that God will bring new life, new employment, new business to our area.

Don’t forget also the ‘Churches Together’ meeting on Saturday 20th February at 6 p.m. which will also be at the Salvation Army. Join with other Christians from local churches to pray, worship and have fellowship together.

On Friday 4th March there will be the Women’s World Day of Prayer meeting; further details to follow shortly.

We also had a birthday to celebrate yesterday.

Mark spoke this evening about how we are praying for and expecting 2016 to be a ‘yield year.’ There is a two-fold meaning to this word, meaning to give way or surrender  and also to gather in a harvest.

Surrender

1 Chron 29:7-8 talks about yielding to God and how we should let God lead and mould us all the time. Jesus sets the example for us in this regard, praying for God’s will to be done above His own.

Harvest

Lev 26:3-5 talks of the land yielding a harvest and in Matt 13, Jesus tells His disciples the parable of the sower, talking of four seeds planted in different kinds of soil. Even in shallow, rocky soil, the seed yields a huge increase in proportion to the seed sowed, and in other soils, the increase is even greater (30-fold, 60-fold or 100-fold.) We need to be looking for that same kind of yield from our lives.

God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine (see Eph 3:20-21), but we need to pray in faith, believing that He will save our family and friends. Our part is to pray and to tell; the Holy Spirit is the one who will give the increase, who convicts and saves. John 15:1-17 reminds us of the need to abide in Christ if we are to bear fruit and to ask in faith (see especially Jn 15:7, 16). Let’s continue to believe and expect God to do great things this year.

Garry spoke this morning from John 1:9-11, verses which show us despite being the Creator of the universe, Jesus was not recognised as God when He came to earth. God’s fingerprints are etched into the universe and Paul tells us that God’s handiwork is visible to all, but many refuse to recognise God (see Rom 1:21-28), choosing other theories and explanations for how the world came into being.

Some do not recognise God because they have an erroneous view of God, culled from a ‘mish-mash’ of religious education or spiritual ideas. Others have a view of God which is clearly contrary to that found in Scripture (for example, many blame God for natural disasters and human actions; personal experiences can also influence our view of God.) Even the Jews, however, who had the Scriptures did not recognise Jesus.

Part of the problem in recognising God is that we operate on an either/ or understanding, not comprehending how God’s righteousness and love can co-exist. Jer 31:20 tells us how God yearns for His people and delights in them; his heart is bursting with longing even for those who seem to have no desire to know Him, but we fail to understand both the heights of His holiness and the depths of His love. When we look at the law, we feel that God must be mean to set the standards so high; when we see His acceptance of even the unrighteous, we are offended by His grace and mercy!

Once our eyes have been opened to who God is, He asks us to testify to others so that they too may know Him (John 14:26, John 15:26-27, John 16:12-15, Matt 18:12-14). That testimony comes from a personal, intimate relationship with God. We are asked to go beyond the ‘headlines’ (people’s superficial knowledge of God) and reveal God to others so that He is no longer unrecognised!

In Matt 16:13-19, we see a pivotal moment of understanding for Peter and the disciples (another PPI, as Mark calls them.) Jesus asks ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ before moving on to ask them directly ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter’s reply is an acknowledgment of the identity of Christ: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.‘ (Matt 16:16)

It is in the context of acknowledging the identity of Jesus that He goes on to say to Peter ‘I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.‘ (Matt 16:17-19; note that some translations say of the verb tense ‘will have been bound’/ ‘will have been loosed’ indicating an authority that is already there.)

Receiving the keys to a city or kingdom indicates a spiritual freedom and authority given by a greater power. On the day of Pentecost, Peter opened the door for 3,000 people to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 2:41). He opened the door for the Gentile centurion, Cornelius, and thereby to the whole Gentile world (Acts 10). We too have been given these keys (see also Matt 18:18) and can therefore pray for salvation with confidence and authority.

Nicky Gumbel reminds us ‘You can have the amazing privilege of seeing people set free through the preaching of the good news of the kingdom. You can have the joy of seeing people set free from drug addiction, alcoholism, crime and every other bondage. You can approach challenges with confidence, fearing no evil, knowing that you share in a remarkable spiritual authority.’ (‘Bible In One Year’)

So often, we pray for salvation timidly and half-heartedly, somehow believing that atheism, scepticism, science and apathy are able to withstand the power of God. The truth is that, with the spiritual keys God entrusts to the church, we can ‘storm the gates of hell and set the prisoners free.’ (ibid.) The church in the book of Acts turned the world upside down – in the face of considerable scepticism and opposition – because they recognised the omnipotence and sovereign authority of God. Only when we are equally convinced of these two things and understand the authority He has given us (see Matt 28:18-20) will we take the Great Commission seriously and pray with boldness and authority, preach with boldness and authority and witness with boldness and authority.