Dave spoke tonight from John 21:1-14. The things that are narrated here happened just after Easter, when life was getting back to normal after the trauma of all that happened that week. Peter, tired of being in limbo and waiting, had decided to go back fishing, but things were not going well for him and his friends. When Jesus called to them from the beach, his disciples did not recognise HIm. This was a recurring theme after the Resurrection: Mary thought Jesus was the gardener initially; the disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognise Jesus at first. We can be like them too, failing to recognise Jesus in our ordinary, everyday lives.

We may perhaps not expect to meet Jesus anywhere but at church services, but the truth is that we can meet Him anywhere – whilst we are shopping or at work, for example. We do need special places to meet with HIm, but must understand that He can be found also in the ordinary as well. He was found by Mary in a cemetery garden, by two disciples on a dusty road, and here, He is found by the lake. Previously, He had been found at a wedding, at a well, at a funeral (not just in the synagogue). Jesus is with us everywhere and the ordinary places can become sacred ones when we recognise His presence there.

We do meet with God in the church building when we gather together, but we must be careful not to restrict meeting with God to this one place only. Jesus is with us wherever we go and we need to seek to recognise His presence in our everyday lives.

As a church we support Innocent Okot in Uganda, who is 17 years old. Below is his latest photo and news:

When your friend is sad, what do you do to make
him/her happy?
When my friend is sad, I tell him Bible stories to
encourage and make him happy.

Tell us about the most interesting thing you’ve
learned in school this year.
This year, I learned about the missionaries that came
to Uganda to share the Word of God and I found that
very interesting.

If you could be a teacher for one day, what would you
teach friends about and why?
If I could be a teacher for one day, I would teach my
friends about respect because I want them to be good
peopl

Gideon has long been one of my favourite Bible characters, unlikely though this may seem. He was a man full of insecurity, doubt, questions and fear, and yet he became a hero of faith who led Israel to victory against the Midianites. As always, this reminds us that God uses the most unlikely people and people of all personality types can be welcomed and used by God. What matters is not so much who we are as who God is. His presence with us is what makes the difference. (Judges 6:12, 14, 16)

Gideon lived in troubled times, when idolatry meant that Israel was constantly under siege. (Judges 6:1-5) We first see him in a winepress, threshing wheat so that the marauding Midianites woud not steal the crop. Divine intervention in the form of an angel greeting him (‘the Lord is with you, mighty warrior’) brings him into honest conversation with God. He has plenty of questions, but God is not put off by all the flaws and failings he lists. Instead, God responds with his own question, ‘Am I not sending you?’ (Judges 6:14)

Gideon demonstrates to us that it is God’s presence which makes the difference. Even when he has doubts and desperately needs reassurance and confirmation, God is gracious to him. (Judges 6:17-20, 39-40) God understands us and knows our human frailty. (Ps 103:13-14) Even when Gideon moves forward in faith, there is also fear present (Judges 6:27) What counts is that we obey God. We will never necessarily eliminate fear entirely, for faith means stepping out of our comfort zone and relying only on God’s strength, but as we do what He has told us to, one step at a time, we can become mighty warriors and not paralysed worriers!

Tonight’s service looked at the subject of dealing with mess, seeing how David dealt with the mess of his life after his adultery with Bathsheba which led also to the murder of her husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 11 & 12). Ps 32 and 51 were probably written after these incidents, and show us that the only way to deal with the mess that sin causes is through confession and forgiveness.

David tried to cover up his sin and Ps 32:3-4 speaks of the heaviness that is upon us when we try to do this. We try to make things better, but usually end up making things worse – sin tends to mushroom and become more complicated, as the convoluted problems faced by Mike Ross and caused by the deceit of pretending to be a lawyer when he is not qualified make plain in the drama series ‘Suits.’ Only with confession, when we own our sin without trying to pretend, can we actually move towards forgiveness and restored relationships. (Ps 51:3, Ps 32:5)

Once we have confessed, we can know the blessing of cleansing and forgiveness (see Ps 32:1-2, Ps 51:1-2). Then, we can pray like David for things to help us maintain our relationship with God.:

‘Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.’ (Ps 51:10-12)

We need God to work in us and need changing from within. A pure (clean) heart is something which we need; we also need God to renew steadfastness (stickability) in us. More than anything, we need God’s presence with us, which is why we need to be filled with the Spirit daily (Eph 5:18). God’s presence is what makes all the difference. (Ex 33: 13-16) Mess in life is unavoidable; we can either wallow in misery or receive God’s gift of joy. (John 17:3) Sin steals our joy, leaving us with only anxiety and worry. But when our sin is dealt with, when we know the blessing of forgiveness, then joy can bubble up and help us through the chaos of mess.

Having a willing spirit means that we will look at life with God’s eyes. We will live with eternity before us and will therefore find the strength to endure opposition and persecution and adversity and difficulties. Paul said, ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ (Rom 8:18) We can survive mess, as David clearly demonstrates!

Garry spoke from Gen 41:46-53 this morning, cnntinuing to look at the life of Joseph. Here, a full thirteen years after he was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, Joseph is the second-in-command in Egypt, in charge of navigating the country through seven years of plenty to prepare for seven years of famine. During this period, Joseph marries and has two sons, whom he names Manasseh and Ephraim, names which indicate much about his spiritual state.

Manasseh sounds like the Hebrew for ‘forget‘ and Joseph says that God has made him forget his suffering and his father’s household. He has let go of the hurt of betrayal and the bitterness from being unjustly imprisoned. His other son (Ephraim) means doubly fruitful; Joseph says that God has made him fruitful in the land of his suffering. Joseph shows us that there are things we must let go of and choose to forget, but there are also things we must never forget (see Deut 4:9-10, Deut 6:10-12, Deut 8:10-11). We must not mislay or let go of the things God has done. When peace and prosperity come our way, there can be a tendency to think we have achieved these through our own work and to forget God, but we need to actively work on remembering all God has done for us. So often we forget, not because we are deliberately trying to, but memories fade and are worn away by everyday life. We have to remember the stories of what God has done (which is why we retain the photos in the corridor of the work we first did in our church building, to remind us of the miraculous provision of this building to us in 2010). We are called to remember and not become lukewarm. Ps 103:1-5 reminds us that we need to ‘forget not all His benefits’; we must understand that remembering what God has done actually becomes a spur to the present and future because we are reminded of His power and provision and can look to Him to act again on our behalf.

God can make us fruitful wherever we are; He has not finished with us yet. (Phil 1:3-6, 1 Cor 2:9) There is more to explore in God, and each time we share in Communion, we look back to what Jesus has done for us and also anticipate the fulfilment of all God will do (1 Cor 11:23-26).God is able to sustain us even to our old age and grey hair (Is 46:3-4); we can be grateful that His love endures forever and can rely on His faithfulness. We say ‘Thanks for the memories’, but need to learn what to forget and what to remember, as Joseph did.

Perseverance is the ability to endure hardship or to persist in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving successs – a necessary and useful quality to have, but not one we generally like to talk about! Perseverance lacks glamour. It’s the ordinary ability to keep on doing something with determination even when you don’t particularly feel like doing it. It’s having a steadfast spirit which focuses on what is right, not what is convenient or expedient.

Perseverance is needed to achieve anything worthwhile, whatever skill or duty we are called to do. Whether it’s learning to swim or any other form of exercise, eating moderately, learning to play an instrument or to knit or sew, we need to learn to persevere if we are to achieve mastery of these things. Even if we are naturally talented in a field, mastery only comes with the regular discipline of practice and patience.

Many suppose that a life of faith is all about miracles, with God waving a magic wand for us to remove all obstacles. It comes as quite an unpleasant surprise, therefore, to find that suffering produces perseverance and that perseverance is the road which leads to character (Rom 5:1-4, James 1:2-4). Miracles are definitely a part of the life of faith, but there are times when God works through suffering, difficulities and trials to shape who we are.

Peter talks about virtues we need to add to our lives. He tells us that God’s divine power has given us (past tense) everything we need to live for Him (2 Pet 1:3) and talks about His ‘very great and precious promises‘ which sustain us. (2 Pet 1:4) But he then tells us to ‘make every effort’ to add to our faith goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance (and goes on to add mutual affection and love to the list.) (2 Pet 1:5-7) These, he says, are the qualities which stop us from living ineffective lives. (2 Pet 1:8)

Self-control and perseverance involve us making right choices on a consistent basis. Making right choices involves continual practice. Perseverance is what is needed to keep on doing the right thing. Heb 10:36 says, ‘You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what the Lord promised.’

My granddaughter recently received her 5 metres swimming certificate. After almost four years of weekly lessons, she proved that she could swim without armbands. It has taken a long time and much persistence to get to this point, and her excitement and joy when she achieved this to the satisfaction of her teacher were infectious; she literally jumped for joy. Her beaming face told the story of the benefits of perseverance. We too have the promise of a great reward if we persevere: ‘Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.’ (James 1:12) So let’s keep going!