A few years ago there was a lot of controversy again about politicians and their morality. John Major’s Back to Basics campaign backfired because of media focus on its moral aspects, where they exposed “sleaze” within the Conservative Party and, most damagingly, within the Cabinet itself. A number of ministers were then revealed to have committed sexual indiscretions, and Major was forced by media pressure to dismiss them. In September 2002 it was revealed that, prior to his promotion to the cabinet, Major had himself had a long-standing extramarital affair with a fellow MP, Edwina Currie. Some politicians defended their behaviour by saying that what they did in private had no bearing on their public office; in effect, there was no connection between their private morality and their competence to do their job.

So often we like to believe there is a nice divide between our characters and our behaviour, but the truth is that what we do is always the overflow of who we are and that character counts. Moreover, over the years I’ve come to see that God is really interested in who we are. It’s been said that our reputation is all we will take with us from this world. Our character really matters. God is interested in who we are. His goal (and it took me a long time to realise this, so if you are a young Christian, I hope you will realise this sooner rather than later!) is not to make us happy but to make us holy: His aim for every single one of us is that we become like Jesus: ‘those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.’ (Rom 8:28 TNIV) The Message version of that verse puts it like this: ‘He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son.’

The fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23 TNIV) is what Christian character really looks like. We need to spend time meditating on what Jesus is like, because He is our example and the litmus test for our faith.

These days, we’ve found countless ways to measure achievement. From National Curriculum levels and GCSE grades in schools through to performance reviews at work, from Kitemarks on products to regulatory bodies for anything and everything you can think of, we’ve become a nation of measurable outcomes. We can have all kinds of standards and achieve all kinds of goals, but it’s not quite so easy to measure character, is it?

For most of us as Christians, we aspire to hear the words ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ when we meet with God, but sometimes we think that that is achieved through our hard work and achievements in God. How many prayer meetings have we attended? How many good works have we done? How much have we given to the poor? We measure our worth in exactly the same way that the world does.

God’s measuring weights are somewhat different, I think. To be sure, our actions will count (see Matt 25:31-46 TNIV, for example.) God has created us in Christ Jesus to do good works (Eph 2:10 TNIV). But He is as interested in motivation as outputs, as concerned about character as about achievements. And the chief thing He is interested in is (as I have mentioned before) how well we love. ‘We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other… this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.’ (1 John 3:14, 23 TNIV)

God is hugely interested in character, not just charisma, and one of the ways He works is by exalting the things that seem unimportant to us and bringing down things that seem all-important. He has a certain order for doing things and no matter how much we stamp our feet and go red in the face, He will not revoke His ways for our petty demands. Proverbs 18:12 TNIV says ‘Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honour.’ Humility matters to the One who didn’t count equality with God as something to be grasped or used to His own advantage, but who made Himself nothing, being willing to take on human flesh in order to secure our salvation. (Phil 2:5-11 TNIV) Our character has to reflect His.

Allow God to refine your character and what you do will then inevitably reflect Him.

Last night we also celebrated two forthcoming birthdays in the same family. It is always encouraging when we see faith passed on from one generation to the next – the baton being passed on to our children, children’s children and beyond.

Our best wishes go to both Grace and Beryl and we wish them God’s richest blessings on their birthdays and beyond.

Last night we concluded the series ‘Passing On the Baton’, looking at how we pass on this message of truth to every generation. The message of truth will not change over the years, but the methods we use to spread the word may well have to change. We have to be like Paul, who said ‘I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.’ (1 Cor 9:22 TNIV). He learned to be versatile and flexible in the methods he used (becoming like a Jew to the Jews, like one not having the law to the Gentiles, like the weak when ministering to the weak and so on) and so must we.

There is no ‘magic formula’ for how we must pass on the baton of truth, despite what marketing men may have us believe! How we pass on the baton of truth to the next generation and to those all around us will vary. We can’t have any prescribed rules, any set formula, any fixed way of doing things. Our message must use methods that will be flexible enough to meet people’s needs where they are.

Often, we are resistant to change because it challenges us and because we like doing things a certain way. But we won’t demand that other people change first. We will understand that the responsibility lies with us to pass on truth and we won’t place unnecessary demands on people, expecting them to follow a set of rules and regulations when we are trying to convey to them the glory of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. There is such diversity within the body of Christ (see Romans 12) that there will always be multiple methods that are effective. What must be at the heart of every method we use, however, is the manner of love. Love and gentleness and kindness and humility are the means we use to achieve what we want to achieve. The world has a saying ‘The end justifies the means’, but that is not reflected in Bible teaching. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 TNIV is our yardstick for ‘how’ we should think, act and speak. The people who have the most effect are the people who love God and who love us. Never underestimate the power of love!

Our character matters enormously to God and will influence the methods we use. Peter told people to respond to questions about the hope we have with ‘gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.’ (1 Pet 3:151-6). He urged people to grow in faith and character (2 Peter 1:3-9 TNIV), for these qualities not only keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Jesus, they act as confirmations of the truths we are aiming to pass on and help to shape us into the image of Christ, so that when we are passing on truth, what people really see is not us, but Jesus.

Dave preached from Galatians 4:4 TNIV this morning, a favourite text of his. It was perhaps fitting that he spoke about the ‘right time’ on the day that clocks had been put back one hour in the UK! We do this in order to have lighter mornings as winter approaches, but of course, the actual number of hours of daylight remains the same; altering the clocks is simply for our convenience. Nowadays, we seem always to be looking at the time and often feel we do not have enough time, but of course, the issue is not how much time we actually have, but how we use our time! We often feel like the White Rabbit in ‘Alice in Wonderland’: ‘I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!’

Mark’s recent visit to America shows us how difficult it is for our bodies to adjust to different time zones. In previous times, times within the UK were standardised with the advent of the railways so that people could coordinate meeting trains at destination points. From ancient times, we have been busy working out ways of measuring times (sundials, candles etc.) and often are keenly working to a timetable.

The problem is that God is also working to a timetable, but His timescales are often different to ours! God is never late. We are now eight weeks away from Christmas, which is an annual reminder that Jesus came at just the right time in history. There had been many prophecies about His birth, but God prepared the world for the arrival of His Son in a number of ways. There was religious preparation in the history of the people of Israel. There was cultural preparation in the reign of Alexander the Great (which allowed Greek to be the ‘lingua franca’ of the world) and political preparation in the influence of the Roman empire (with their emphasis on road-building and the ‘pax romana’). Even the good idea of the emperor Caesar Augustus which led to a census being taken had a direct input into God’s story.

At just the right time, God works. We have to trust in His goodness, timing and love. God has promised many things for Goldthorpe. He is preparing His people and the people around us for the work He is going to do. We mustn’t get weary and despondent with the waiting period. One ordinary day in Goldthorpe – just as in one ordinary day in Bethlehem, God’s glory shone around – we will see the glory of God manifested. Already, God is working in our area, in local churches such as the Methodist Church at Furlong Road, the ‘Legacy’ church and ‘Gateway’ church in Barnsley. Nationally, Pentecostal churches in the UK are growing. Even in our own outreaches, we are seeing growth: over 50 children and young people have been regularly attending the youth meeting on Mondays and the Mums ‘n’ Toddler group is growing, as is attendance at the Coffee Mornings on Saturday. We need to remember that there is a time for everything (Eccl 3:1 TNIV) and that God is able to do far beyond anything we can imagine or ask! (Eph 3:20-21 TNIV). Let’s keep waiting for God’s right time!

Psychologists agree that all humans have a need to be loved. When we become a Christian, we discover the greatest love story imaginable.

The Bible is not just about rules and religion; it’s a passionate love story told over 66 books. (I would recommend Larry Crabb’s book ’66 Love Letters’ for a further exploration of that idea.) It reveals who God is to us and shows us what He is like. It teaches us that His love is unlike any other love we will ever know or encounter. We discover that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8 TNIV) and spend the rest of our lives unpacking that simple statement!

We discover that God’s love is unfailing, never-ending, unconditional, passionate, jealous, fervent, tender, compassionate and kind. We see all kinds of metaphors to describe that love. God describes Himself as our Father, as our mother, as our lover, as our friend. We see every facet of love possible in Him, including the ultimate self-sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross to save us from our sins.

Grasping the heights and depths and lengths and breadth of that love is beyond us and yet it becomes our life focus (see Ephesians 3:17-19 TNIV). We understand (without ever fully understanding!) that love never fails (1 Cor 13:1-8 TNIV). We see love as the measure of all that is holy and true. We spend our lives unlearning all the wrong things we thought about love and seeking to have our thinking reshaped so that we can understand more of His love.

On the day that I became a Christian thirty years ago, I sobbed my heart out as I realised the depth of my sin and the sacrificial love which Jesus had shown to me. I bawled like a baby on the sofa of my home as I understood for the very first time something of God’s tenderness towards me. Yet thirty years later, I feel like I am still only scratching the surface of God’s love. ‘His love is like an ocean, forever overflowing; His love is overtaking; we’ll never be forsaken.’ (‘God of Brilliant Lights’, Aaron Shust)

Just recently I’ve been meditating on how I can learn positive truth from negative statements. (The linguist in me has been enjoying this, especially as there’s a bit of a paradox going on in all of that…!) Or, in other words, I’ve been dwelling not only on the fact that God loves me but that this means I have never been unloved. That was the theme of February’s family service and I’ve been mulling this over for a long time as I have tried to plumb the depths of God’s love.

‘God loves you’ is a profound truth which can, nonetheless, seem trite and bland. So I have been looking at this multi-faceted truth from as many different angles as I can. Why does God love us? What motivates His love? Can anything change His love? What do I have to do to be loved? What influences His love?

I’ve been twisting the words around: God loves me. I am loved by God. God has always loved me. He will always love me. I have never been unloved. You might think this is a pointless exercise, but with every phrase or question, I have learnt something new about God’s love and I am confident that there is so much more to be revealed to all of us in the days and years ahead.

‘Never Been Unloved’, Michael W. Smith
‘One Thing Remains’, Kristian Stanfill

I don’t know how the division between ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ originally came about, but I know that by the Reformation period (16th century), there was a clear demarcation between the two. Priesthood was not just a vocation or calling, it was a job and everyone else (the ‘laity’) was considered inferior. The ‘priesthood of all believers’ (based on verses such as 1 Peter 2:9 TNIV) became one of the characteristics of the Protestant Reformation.

I studied the Reformation for ‘A’ level history, just as I was becoming a Christian. As we explored the religious, economic and political causes of this movement, I couldn’t help wondering how people could have been so blind as to restrict the One who doesn’t dwell in houses (Acts 7:48 TNIV) to religious buildings. Sacredness, I believe, is to be found everywhere (Rom 1:20 TNIV):

“And truly I reiterate…nothing’s small!
…Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.” (‘Aurora Leigh’, Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
(‘As Kingfishers Catch Fire’, Gerard Manley Hopkins)

God does not want to be kept in a ‘Sunday’ box, brought out once a week and polished nicely, only to be put back on a shelf and forgotten about for the rest of the week. Over the past thirty years, some of my most profound encounters with God have taken place outside of the ‘expected’. He is to be found in His creation, by the kitchen sink, whilst swimming in a pool, in the classroom, when stuck in a traffic jam on the M25. God is everywhere and in everything.
‘Everything’, Tim Hughes

The fact that I believe sacredness is to be found everywhere (which I believe because I find God appearing to people in all kinds of strange places in the Bible: in the burning bush, in the winepress, in the lions’ den, in the fiery furnace, in prison, on a remote island and so on, and because I have experienced this for myself!) gives a whole new meaning to the mundane. Mundane, as any reader of this blog will know, means:
1. Lacking interest or excitement; dull.
2. Of this earthly world rather than a heavenly or spiritual one.

So often, we feel our lives are not exciting or important because they are not ‘spiritual’ (or that they are not ‘spiritual’ because they don’t seem exciting or important!) Our jobs seem repetitive, tedious, unimportant and insignificant. Our lives feel equally worthless at times. But when we realise that God is in everything and that there is no such thing as a sacred/ secular divide, we find purpose and meaning even in the ordinary. One of the most moving sermons I’ve ever heard was from Mark on the subject of monotony. In that sermon, he quoted G. K. Chesterton:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

Maybe this is what Jesus meant when He urged us to become like little children (Matt 18:3 TNIV). A child looks at the whole world with awe and wonder, sure that there are marvellous things out there to discover. Perhaps one of the most important things I’ve learnt over the years is to slough off the jaded weariness of adulthood and rediscover the sacred in the mundane. It’s really there, if you will only seek.