In our series ‘The A-Z of Christian Faith’, looking at essential ingredients in a life of faith, we have reached the letter R. The 3Rs of the Bible – reality, relationships and rules – were considered, but the theme of tonight’s sermon was ‘R is for Restore’.

Restoration projects make for good TV shows, whether it’s the restoration of houses or makeovers of people! There are signs of restoration in progress all around us, and we need to understand that this urge within us to restore is actually a reflection of God’s heart. God loves to restore. He is the ultimate Creator, and He never wastes anything He has created, but works on it time and time again to restore it to its original beauty and goodness, re-shaping our lives as the potter re-works the clay (Jer 18:2-3). God wanted Jeremiah, and Israel, to realise not only that He is the Sovereign God who can shape and form our lives as He wants, but that He is a God who is able to re-create, re-form and restore. Aaron Shust says,

‘You restore our lives even though we don’t deserve it

And you’ve given us a love that’s not our own

You assemble all our broken, shattered pieces:

More beautiful than I had ever known.’ (‘Long Live The King’, Aaron Shust)

God is able to restore all that is broken in our lives, making a beautiful mosaic or tapestry from our mistakes and sin. Joseph’s words to his brothers (Gen 50:20) remind us that God is able to work all things together for good (Rom 8:28). He is able to repay us for the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25-26) – nothing needs to be wasted in God’s economy!

At the end of Toy Story 3, there is an emotional scene where Andy gives away his box of toys to a little girl.

It’s a heart-tugging scene as we contemplate growing up and leaving our childish ways behind, moving on and letting go. Clearly, maturity is an important and crucial part of our Christian journey (Eph 4:11-13) and 1 Cor 13:11 makes it plain that we are to grow up. The problem comes, however, when we equate growing up with independence and assume that leaving behind our childish ways includes becoming independent of God.

Christian maturity is not the same as independence. Whilst as parents we prepare our children for independence, we are never meant to live life independent of God. Heb 1:3 reminds us that the whole universe is sustained by God’s powerful word and Ps 104 and Ps 2 both remind us of God’s sovereignty and command of all His creation. John 15:1-8 makes it plain that we are to abide or remain in God. The word in Greek means to stay, to settle down, to come in and make ourselves at home. Our dependence on God is such that we can only thrive and be fruitful as we abide in Christ.

Luke 15 tells us parables about the lost sheep, the independent sheep who went his own way from the flock and needed to be rescued, and about the lost son, who wanted to be independent and take his own destiny into his own hands. Both these parables show us we not only need to remain in God, we need other people too. 1 Cor 12 reminds us that we are a body; we need each other. No matter how strong we are, we need other people, even those we might look down on and dismiss as being unimportant. The truth is we are dependent on each other and as we grow, develop and mature, we actually need to become more dependent. After all, this is not Toy Story, but we are part of His Story. And in His Story, our need for God and for each other doesn’t diminish with age or maturity.

There are still quite a lot of community events going on in August, of special interest if you have children.

Tuesday 22nd August will see the second of the ‘Churches Together’ family fun days at Houghton Road Centre in Thurnscoe, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. There will be the opportunity to play crazy golf, do craft activities, and there will be toddler toys available for under 5s. Lunch is provided, free of charge.

Wednesday 23rd August is the ‘Bounce Into Summer’ event, organised by Goldthorpe Development Group, on the land in front of the Dearne Playhouse. This event runs from 12 noon until 4 p.m., and a £2 entrance charge gives you access to all the rides, bouncy castles and stalls available. Face painting, trampolines, helter skelters and much more!

On Thursday 24th August, there is the ‘Performing Arts’ workshop at the Dearne Playhouse from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Suitable for young people aged between 10 and 18, this is the opportunity to take part in drama, song and dance, leading to a performance at the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on Friday 1st September. Contact us for more details or to book a place at the workshop.

The Dearne Community Arts’ Festival, so long in the planning, is almost upon us! This community-wide event to champion creativity and celebrate community will take place at the Dearne Playhouse (formerly known as the Welfare Hall) in Goldthorpe on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd September from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Come along to see a range of exhibitions (paintings, photographs, crafts, model aircraft) and performances on stage (featuring music, dance, Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir and a fashion show from the local sewing class) as well as demonstrations (floristry, hand massages, 3D printing, spinning). Competition winners (including Stacey, Gemma and Grace from GPCC) will be given their prizes at 12 noon on Saturday 2nd September! Entry is free and there will be something for everyone to enjoy! Places are still available at the Creative Writing Workshop run by the Barnsley Bard, Ian McMillan, on Friday 1st September at 2 p.m.

Looking further ahead, we have just had confirmation from the Goldthorpe Development Group of the date for this year’s Christmas market, which will be earlier than usual, on Friday 24th November from 4-8 p.m. We hope to be involved in this again to raise funds for the Salvation Army Christmas appeal and to be able to connect again with our local community!

A long time ago (2000), Lottery funding was granted to Houghton Road Centre for the creation of a minigolf course in the land next to the building, which had formerly been used for football. The original idea for the project came from Berneslai Homes worker Sylvia Cox, and the committee of the Centre worked hard on developing both the building and the grounds. As is usually the case with funded projects, it took a long time from the initial granting of this funding to seeing the project finished on the ground. Anne Corder, a landscape architect working with Landcare, worked with children from local schools to design the mosaics, and the project hit a number of problems, including the need for additional funding (from WREN) and maintenance issues. It was finally opened in March 2003, but has never been used to its full potential because of the need for volunteers to supervise the facility.

Photos from the opening in 2003 Today, ‘Churches Together’ launched its first family fun day at Houghton Road Centre. The minigolf was opened up to the general public and a number of young people enjoyed playing golf.

Inside, craft activities for toddlers were available:

In addition, Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church put on great refreshments and altogether about 40 people attended in total. We are very grateful to Pastor Kevin for all his help and to Alison Sykes for her commitment to using our local facilities to benefit the community. Come along on the next 2 Tuesdays (22 & 29 August) between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. for more family fun!

Today we have another ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at Houghton Road Centre in Thurnscoe at 9.30 a.m., where we will be praying especially for the family fun days scheduled for today, 22 & 29 August from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. These are an opportunity for people to come along to the centre for craft activities, play crazy golf, enjoy chat and snacks, and we pray God will use these days to reach out to people in our community who may not come to church services but whom we can befriend in His name. Please pray for these fun days, even if you can’t attend.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 16th August), there is another craft session connected to the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival. This is at the Salvation Army from 10 a.m. until 12 noon, and Dearne hOurbank will also be running a mask making session there for young people aged 10-20. Apart from being an opportunity to learn new skills, it’s another great opportunity to connect with people from our community.

Many thanks also for your support of the Salvation Army food bank. Alison came yesterday to collect all the items, and she wanted to pass on her grateful thanks to everyone for the continuing support which helps to feed needy families in our area. It’s good to be able to work together with all the local churches to support and help our community.

Please pray also for Karen Beecham as she moves on from Furlong Road Methodist Church to work in churches in Rotherham, and pray for Wayne Ashton, who will be looking after Furlong Road Methodist Church in future.

Stephen spoke tonight on God’s lavish love, using a scone to illustrate his points!

God’s love is limitless, intense, everlasting and personal (John 3:16). God’s love is such that He sent His only Son to save us and promises to make His dwelling in us. (Jn 14:23) Just as when we move into a new house, we take over the whole place, so God wants to move into every part of our lives. His love is beyond our knowledge and understanding (Eph 3:19); it is a love which will last beyond the grave (Rom 8:39), but so often, we struggle to try to fathom this love instead of simply receiving it as dearly loved children. (Eph 5:1, 1 Jn 2:28-29).

Our lives, on their own, can be rather like a scone: dry, with some flavour, but lacking true love.

God wants to lavish His love on our lives (1 Jn 3:1-2) – rather like lavishly adding jam and clotted cream to the scone make it taste much nicer!

God’s generosity, grace and love are poured out onto our lives with no sense of stinginess or holding back (see Eph 1:5-10). So often, however, we find it hard to accept that we are ‘dear children’; we want to be adults and don’t relish the thought of accepting God’s love with child-like faith. If we want our lives to overflow with love and the many gifts God gives, we have to become as little children, however, and receive God’s gifts with open arms.