There’s always something to be done and today’s job was to clear out junk from under the stage so that we can sort out piping to fill the new baptistery when it is required.

We hired a skip which was soon full of unwanted, broken items including a massive traffic cone, a former wooden partition and storage trays. All the Christmas costumes and decorations were tidied up and everything put away neatly.

We also put up some leaflet holders:

Ps 87:3 says ‘Glorious things are said of you, city of God.’ Often, we feel that the world has a very negative view of the church, and there is no doubt that the church is not perfect and has made many mistakes. Nonetheless, God has chosen to work through the church, His body, and many churches are involved in social action and community outreach as an outworking of their faith in God.

Churches are involved in helping the poor and needy, ministering to the addicted, caring for the disabled and elderly, looking after children and young people in so many different ways. The Cinnamon Trust has recently carried out an audit (which can be read here)  of the work done by churches all over the UK; they found that over 9,000 paid staff and 139,600 volunteers worked in UK churches, helping almost 3 ½ million people and contributing over £220 million in paid and volunteer staff hours per year. Churches are involved in 4 main areas of social action:

1. Enabling children and young people to flourish
2. Supporting safer, stronger families
3. Building safer, stronger communities
4. Fighting poverty

The church is involved in helping so many people, through a variety of means: youth clubs, children’s work, Parent & Toddler groups, debt counselling services, food banks, pregnancy crisis centres, marriage and family counselling, coffee mornings and a whole range of other activities. Nonetheless, to be a church built on the foundation of Christ crucified and being built up by the Master Builder, we have to be involved in more than just social action. Paul says that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the church ^‘to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:12-13) To be a church that is growing in spiritual maturity and growing numerically, we have to see new birth and new life; there must be no division between the preaching of the gospel and the way we live this out in practical ways, ‘with God in the community, with God for the community.’  The Bible shows us the great joy there is in heaven (as well as on earth) when people are born again (see Luke 15:7, 10); our desire is to be a church founded on Christ and Christ crucified alone, and to see Him adding to our church daily those who are being saved.

Tonight’s sermon looked at Ps 87, a psalm written in praise of Jerusalem. Jerusalem (city of David, often known as Zion because of the mountain on which it was built) became Israel’s capital during the reign of David (see 2 Sam 5:1-16), but ultimately was chosen and built by God. God is the best builder in the world. The Bible is full of building stories, from the ill-fated Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-12) to the construction of the ark of the covenant and the Tabernacle, from the building of the temple to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Whole books of the Bible (Nehemiah & Haggai) are concerned with building, and this theme is carried on in the New Testament, where Jesus tells stories involving building (teaching us that foundations are crucially important in building, reminding us that we need to build on solid rock, not sand (Matt 7:24-29) and that we need to count the cost of following Him in the same way that someone building a tower has to do proper calculations to make sure they can complete the job and not just lay the foundations of the tower (Luke 14:28-30)). The New Testament writers take this imagery even further, using the metaphor of a building or temple to describe the church (Paul says the church is ‘God’s building’ (1 Cor 3:9) and Heb 3:6 says we are God’s house, explaining ‘every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.’ (Heb 3:4)). Jesus Himself talked about building the church, saying ‘on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.’ (Matt 16:18) The rock on which the church is built is not Peter himself (whose name, of course, meant ‘rock’) but on his confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. (Matt 16:16) When looking at this psalm, therefore, we see that there are two aspects to it: the straightforward, historical aspect, praising Jerusalem as the city of God, the place where God’s presence dwelt, and the prophetic aspect which looks ahead to the church as God’s city or God’s dwelling, the place where God’s presence continues to dwell by His Spirit.

Foundations are crucial to building work and 1 Cor 3:1-6 reminds us that we need to build on proper foundations. The only foundation is Christ crucified (1 Cor 2:2); the work of the church can never be classed simply as social action, for it must involve working with God to see spiritual birth (see Ps 87:5-6). Spiritual birth is, of course, the work of God’s Spirit (see John 3:5), but the church is like a midwife, involved in proclamation, preaching and everyday witness so that people can hear the message and be saved (see Rom 10:13-15). Giving birth is a painful and difficult process, but what is more distressing is a labour that does not end in live birth. Isaiah spoke to the people of Israel, saying ‘As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, Lord. We were with child, we writhed in labour, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life.’ (Is 26:17-18) The church is meant to grow; it’s meant to be a vibrant, living organism, because God is at work in the world, reconciling people to Himself, wanting all people to be saved (see 2 Pet 3:9). We can be sure that as we do our part – as we testify to God’s goodness, as we ‘gossip the gospel’, as we serve our communities in all the many diverse ways God has given to us, as we maybe find new ways to reach out to our local community – God will give the increase.

Being thirsty is not a pleasant feeling, as anyone who has felt completely parched, mouth so dry that you are unable to speak, can testify. There are times when this is natural (a hot day, after physical exercise, after eating salty food, for example) and times when extreme thirst is a sign of underlying problems (I sought medical help when I was constantly thirsty and was diagnosed as diabetic: in this instance, my thirst highlighted the fact that my body had a bigger problem that could not simply be relieved by drinking.) In every case of thirst, being thirsty underlines that we need water.

It is not necessarily pleasant to admit that we are thirsty for God. Being spiritually thirsty means coming to the end of our own resources, admitting that our own solutions to thirst do not actually work. Jeremiah brought a serious word to God’s people: ‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’ (Jer 2:13) God is the only One who can satisfy our spiritual thirst. Jesus said ‘Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.‘ (John 7:38) All too often, however, we dig our own wells; we come up with our own solutions which we think will satisfy us. It is only when we reach the end of ourselves that we can admit before God how desperate we are for Him and then we can discover the truths of the promises He has made to pour out water on thirsty land. (Is 44:3) Being thirsty is not pleasant, but it is the first step to admitting our need. As we come before God in our desperation and thirst, He has promised to quench that thirst and revive us. He, the spring of living water, will refresh us and satisfy us. All our fountains are in Him (Ps 87:7).

Mark spoke this morning on the subject of spiritual thirst. God is the only One who can fully quench our thirst; He provides water for the thirsty. Ex 17:1-7 shows us the people of God in the desert where there was no water, complaining to Moses (to the point of considering stoning him!) about their dire need. Moses was given specific instructions from God, which he had to follow, but it was God who provided the miracle (water from a rock) as Moses obeyed. The people were not grateful to God for His provision, but once again, God demonstrated His care and power in providing water in the desert.

In Numbers 20:1-13, a similar situation occurred. This time, Moses was commanded to speak to the rock (Num 20:8), but he struck the rock again (Num 20:11). The water flowed again from the rock, but Moses was rebuked for not obeying God. Nonetheless, God’s graciousness meant He provided for His people even when their leader made mistakes. God is a thirst-meeting God.

Is 44:3 reminds us of one of the great promises of God: ‘I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.’ What God promises, He does, but we need to be thirsting for the things of God. His drenching water not only satisfies our thirst, but is poured out for generations. He is a God of transformation and refreshing (see Is 61:3, where we see how God gives us beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning and praise instead of despair.) We are a ‘planting of the Lord’, rooted and replenished by God’s Spirit.

Ps 1:1-3 continues this imagery of the tree planted by streams of water which yields fruit in season. God gives an all-sufficient supply of water to us (if there were only one stream, it might run dry, but there is a promise of never-ending water to enable us to be fruitful and prosperous in due season.) Ps 92:12-15 talks of how the righteous will flourish like a palm tree. In these verses, the key word is ‘flourish’: we will flourish individually and corporately (even to our old age!) as we admit our thirst before God. Such spiritual refreshing is vital, for if we are not refreshed, we are not transformed and if we are not transformed, we cannot be fruitful for God. All God asks of us is a deep thirst for Him which He will abundantly satisfy.

There are some exciting things happening at church over the next few months. Here are a few dates for the diary:

Church outreaches will start again in September. The Parent & Toddler group re-starts on 4th September (see below) and the Youth club re-starts on 7th September.

We have the joy of celebrating the wedding of Stephen and Stacey on Friday 11th September at 1 p.m., which is coming upon us very quickly now! The wedding ceremony starts at 1 p.m. and will be followed by the reception in the community room. Because of this, there will be no Parent & Toddler Group that day, but normal sessions will resume on 18th September for that group. There will also be no badminton on 11th September because of the wedding.

The Macmillan Coffee Morning will be on Saturday 26th September, with all proceeds on that date going to the Macmillan cancer charity.

On Saturday 10th October, we will be holding a baby shower for Herlen and Emma, so come along to decorate bibs and other things to prepare for our newest arrivals! This will run from 12 noon (after the coffee morning) until about 3 p.m. In the evening, the ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be at the Salvation Army, starting at 6 p.m. Come along to meet with Christians from other local churches for fellowship, prayer, worship and teaching.

‘Bible Sunday’ is on Sunday 25th October, when we will be supporting the Bible Society’s campaign to raise awareness of the importance and relevance of the Bible in our everyday lives.

In November, we are having a visit from Kevin Horseman on behalf of Mission Aviation Fellowship, a charity which works to support organisations in remote  areas of the world through aircraft taking people and resources to places inaccessible by other means of transport. The evening meeting on 15th November will give us opportunity to find out more about this exciting ministry.