Garry spoke this morning from Rom 12:9-21, particularly focussing on Rom 12:9 (‘hate what is evil; cling to what is good’.) It’s easy enough to hate the evil we see around us, but it’s much harder to confront the evil within our own hearts. Jesus reminded us of this using vivid language in Matt 7:1-5. So often, we see faults and failings in others, but do not confront our own sinful tendencies. God wants us to purify or cleanse ourselves from everything that is evil (2 Cor 7:1) and to pursue righteousness (see 2 Tim 2:19-22). This involves turning away or withdrawing from sinful practices and fleeing from everything which would ensnare us (we are to ‘flee the evil desires of youth’ as Joseph did when faced with the temptations offered by Potiphar’s wife.)

One of Satan’s tactics is to make sin seem less offensive to us, so that we tolerate much more than God would have us do. We can easily adopt the ‘Adam and Eve’ syndrome of plausible deniability when confronted by our wrongdoing; it took Nathan’s prophetic courage to make David aware of his sinful behaviour with Bathsheba, Uriah and Joab. God does not confront us to condemn us, but to set things right; David responded in repentance and later prayed that God would search him, know his heart and lead him in everlasting ways (Ps 139:22-23) God knows everything and His Spirit searches our hearts (Rom 8:27, 1 Chron 28:9) Only as we truly learn to hate the sin in our own lives can we hate the evil around us.

God calls us to be salt and light in our communities, exposing evil by our own good actions. We need to stand against evil and injustice and learn to cling to what is good, like a limpet. A limpet cannot be easily separated from the thing to which it attaches itself and we need to stick to what is good with the same kind of grip and tenacity.

In Acts 4:23, we read, ‘On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.’ Reporting back to the church what has been happening and letting people know what is coming up takes quite a bit of time and effort! We do try, through our blog here, through our Facebook page, through our monthly newsletter, through weekly notices and through face-to-face conversations to let everyone know what has been happening and what is coming up, but our apologies if we don’t always succeed!

As a result of our recent visits to Carrfield Primary School, local ministers will be attending their family picnic on 2nd July. We’ll be talking to families about the work we do and giving out goodies, so please pray we will know God’s favour in everything we do and say.

Services throughout July will be as usual on Sundays and Fridays, but the school holidays start on 19th July, so there will be no youth club or Parent & Toddler group after this for the summer. Please note there is currently no badminton meeting on Friday evenings.

We will be holding our Annual General Meeting on Saturday 13th July at 4 p.m. Please join us for this important meeting as we look back at all God has done over the past year and look forward to the year ahead.

On Wednesday 17th July there will be a ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Lockwood Road at 10.30 a.m. Let’s pray for boldness in our witness and for unity as we join together.

On Sunday 21st July we will be holding a dedication service for Rebekah Turner in the evening at 6 p.m. Join with us as we give thanks to God for the gift of new life and as we pray for this family to know God’s leading and guidance in every area of their lives. There will be cake and refreshments served after the service, where we will also be celebrating Garry’s upcoming 60th birthday!

On Saturday 27th July there is a community event (‘Love Your Park’) held at Thurnscoe Flower Park between 12 noon and 4 p.m. Julie and others from the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival committee will be advertising the arts’ festival at that event and helping to decorate a sun bear sculpture which will feature in Big Local Thurnscoe’s ‘Go Wild!’ sculpture trail in the school holidays. All welcome to join in the decoupage fun!

For those living in Bolton-on-Dearne, the first of the holiday Family Fun Days (organised by the Dearne Area Team) will be on Monday 29th July (10 a.m. – 12 p.m.) at the community centre in St Andrew’s Square.

Phew! Don’t say nothing ever happens in the Dearne!

On one of the sunniest days of the year, members of GPCC turned up to give our building a good clean! Our thanks to all those who volunteered, especially to those who helped yesterday in preparation for today and who will finish off some of the jobs on Monday. We really do appreciate all your help.

Weeding inside and outside:

Painting the railings and gates:

Cleaning and buffing the community room floor:

Cleaning chairs:

Cleaning the church:

Tidying the toys on the stage:

Cleaning and tidying (and playing in!) the children’s room:

Tidying the kitchen:

Thank you to all who helped today.

Acts 4:32-37, like Acts 2:42-47 before this, gives us a cameo of life in the early church. It’s a very positive picture, with all the believers united (‘one in heart and mind’ Acts 4:32) Their unity is expressed in terms of their commitment to share practically with each other to ensure that there was no one in need. John Stott comments that their ‘economic sharing was but one expression of the union of their hearts and minds.’ (John Stott, P 106) He goes on to comment that ‘their radical attitude led to sacrificial action’, something John later urged all believers to imitate (1 John 3:16-18).

It can be difficult to know how to apply these principles nowadays. We cannot compel this kind of action (it was not compulsory even in the early church, as Acts 5 makes clear), but neither should we dismiss it as unreasonable and impractical. We are still called to take care of the needy and to demonstrate sacrificial generosity (see Deut 16:4-5, 2 Cor 9:6-8). Both James and John make it clear that faith without works, faith which is not seen in action, is useless (see James 2:1-26). What comes through very clearly in these early chapters of Acts is a group of people united, committed to each other and seeking to serve God in practical ways. We need to be the same.

The example of Barnabas, practically demonstrating love and commitmen by selling a field and giving the proceeds from this to the apostles to use to bless others, is then contrasted with the example of Ananias and Saphhira in Acts 5. But that’s another story… to be told in our next Bible study!

The believers gathered together to pray in Acts 4:23-31 did not simply pray for boldness. They also asked God to do miraculous things: ‘Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ (Acts 4:30)

We need to learn to pray in this way, asking God to heal and perform signs and wonders through Jesus’ name. We need to do this because it is clearly a Biblical way of praying and because when God moves in these supernatural ways, God’s word is confirmed and people are drawn to faith.

Our prayers need to have this same dual focus. We need God to work in us, giving us the courage and boldness to do what He asks us to do, but we also need to plead with God to work in ways that are far beyond us. Christianity is a religion of miracles. It’s the story of how God Himself came into our world and took the initiative; it’s His story, not ours. People need to see the acts of God for themselves; they need to know that God is alive and working in our community at this particular time.

Our prayers should not simply be for ourselves, but for our communities, our nation and our world, that God will stretch out His hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Jesus. Isaiah prayed, ‘Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!’ (Is 64:1) Nothing less than the supernatural power of God is needed to turn people away from sin and towards God.

The believers gathered together to pray in Acts 4:23-31 did not pray for deliverance from persecution in itself. Their chief concern was that God would enable them to speak His word with ‘great boldness’ (Acts 4:29).

This is a great prayer for us all to pray. Most of us feel very timid about speaking to other people about Jesus. We are afraid of being ridiculed or getting into trouble; we feel incompetent and worried that once we start to talk about Jesus, we will be asked questions we can’t answer or will find ourselves out of our depth and unable to swim! In this day and age of political correctness and crimes of hate speech, we are worried how our words about God may be interpreted by others and can be almost paralysed to speak of our Lord and Saviour in case we are misunderstood or misinterpreted.

At the same time, we know that God calls us to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) and that we need to be telling the stories of God to all we meet (Ps 78:4-7, Ps 107:2) It’s therefore a great prayer to pray: ‘enable me, Lord, to speak Your word with great boldness.’ If Paul could ask the Ephesians to pray for him ‘that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel’ (Eph 6:19), we can pray for this same boldness and fearlessness to know how to make known the mystery of the gospel to those we meet on a daily basis. The Bible reminds us that the righteous are as bold as a lion (Prov 28:1). May God give us this lion-like boldness, far beyond ourselves, to speak His word wherever we are.