Welcome to Wednesday’s Podcast.  Our reading today is Ephesians 4: 17-24 but today we’ll focus on verses 22-24:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

REFLECTION:

18 years ago I was sat in our church leader Mick Woodhead’s office and I heard him share – I was a young ‘intern’ at time – a question that has become our church vision – ‘do you want to live a better life’?

I think it’s a great question.

Culture offers us a vision of a better life:  The year I was an intern – a ‘tribal trainee’ – as well as being mentored by Mick I worked at Waterstones in Sheffield City centre.  This was pre-Amazon Prime.  If you wanted a book in those days you ordered through a store. I was often surprised by how many people would buy self-help books.

Today it’s a multi-billion dollar industry and it’s growing rapidly.  The idea of self-help has become much broader – the desire for self-improvement has in many ways become the pursuit of the better life.  The desire to work less hours; to have a smarter work life balance than the generations before us; to be ethical about what we buy and live in a way that is environmentally sustainable is important and of course an increasing awareness of what it means to have good mental health.

The desire for self-improvement, according to one US Newspaper, is so strong among the younger generations that 94% of millennials claim to have made personal improvements in 2015.  From the growing increase in veganism to the park run movement – self-improvement is very much at the heart of our today’s culture – a vision of a better life.

I think there’s much about the ‘self improvement’ movement that we can embrace and celebrate. But the New Testament’s vision of the better life is different.

There’s no escaping the truth that in verses 17-20 the apostle Paul seems to be saying that when we lived without God in our lives we were spiritually dead.  When the British actor & TV personality James Corden interviewed US rapper Kanye West about his acclaimed conversion to Christianity he responded with this: “people who don’t believe are walking dead. They are asleep and this is the awakening.”

The beautiful thing about Advent – the season we’re in now before Christmas – is that we celebrate & prepare for Christ’s coming – both at the first Christmas and his promised return.

We celebrate that our help, our salvation (or using Kanye West’s words – awakening) – comes from outside of ourselves in the person of Jesus.

Sure I can get to the gym.  I can eat a really great diet.  I can do ultra marathons and fast loads – external changes which, don’t get me wrong, can be good!

But only Jesus can bring significant and radical internal changes to our lives.  He comes to radically overhaul.  He comes to take charge.  He comes to totally transform us.  There’s stuff in my life I cannot change or fix even if I try really hard.  Only Jesus Christ can do that.  Only he has the power to forgive.  Only he can wipe the slate clean.  Only he can heal.

Our part of the bargain?  To receive His forgiveness.  To surrender our lives to Him – the whole of our lives – give him control.

For Paul, the better life – is to put on the ‘new self’ of Jesus Christ – of walking in confession & repentance – and asking God by his Holy Spirit to sanctify – to set us apart – to make us holy.  When we pray ‘come Holy Spirit’ we’re always expecting God to do what he says in Psalm 139: 24:

‘See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.’

He longs for us to embrace the better life.

Let’s pray this week that – as we head further into the Advent season – the Lord ope...

Welcome to Tuesday’s Podcast

Our reading today is Ephesians 4: 11-16 but today we’ll focus on verse 16:

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

REFLECTION:

Do you remember Blockbuster Video?

I still have our Blockbuster video card.  Can’t part with it.  I loved Blockbuster and I’m gutted it’s gone.

I can still remember walking around the store – looking at the Videos (in the old days) latterly DVDs.  Such a Friday night treat.

While I like Netflix – I like its convenience – you don’t need to leave the house on a Friday night to fetch a DVD.

There’s a flip side to this though.  From the convenience of my Amazon Fire stick or my computer or mobile phone I can watch what I like when I like.  What’s the issue you say?

The issue is precisely that – I can watch – whatever I want.  Those very clever sophisticated algorithms Netflix use – find programme’s that will attract me.  They market me.  They work out what I like.  Send me emails – targeted so I watch more and have a great user experience.  It’s the very essence of consumption and while I watch Netflix and use technology – and I do appreciate it – I’m more and more aware that we were not made by God to just consume stuff or consume entertainment.  We are made in the image of our creator – we were made to create and contribute.

In today’s passage there’s one verse that really strikes me – the Apostle Paul’s view of a church community is of a body.  A human body – the recognition that we need all the body parts working properly – to function well.

The truth is this – we need each other.  You have gifts that I don’t have.  Believe it or not, I have gifts that you don’t have.  Paul’s vision is of a corporate people – celebrating each other’s unique contributions. The unique contributions look something like this: starting at the beginning of Ephesians 4: 11 Paul says this ‘he who gave some to be the apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers – to prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up’.

Many read that verse this way: God has uniquely wired each of us to make a contribution to our church community and the world around us.  I don’t have time today to go into an explanation of each of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor or Teacher’ – or ‘5 fold’ as it’s called for short hand – if you’re part of STC I’d encourage you to go back to the beginning of the the Life Life Better section of Grow Project for more information and to dig a little deeper.

Our unique 5-fold contribution – reflects an aspect of Jesus’ character and ministry.  As a community – as we embrace our 5-fold – together we function as Jesus did.

An STC Cluster is a perfect place for us to explore and put into practice the gifting that God has given us.  It’s a place to look out for other people – to love & care for them; an opportunity to share your testimony with a friend’s person of peace; perhaps take time to pray for a prophetic word and share it on the WhatsApp group; to share an aspect of Bible and what that means for your community or share an idea for an event to reach out to others.

In the book of Genesis we’re told that humans are made in God’s image.  There’s a corporate dimension to that too.  As we embrace our 5-fold – in our communities – collectively we represent Jesus to the community.

I find this hugely encouraging.  I’m not in alone.  We need each other and to discover and celebrate our unique giftings.

PRAYER:

Father, help us to discover how you’ve wired us!  Amen.

BIBLE READING: Ephesians 4:11-16

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service,

Welcome to Monday’s Podcast.  My name is Tom Finnemore and I’m part of the team the STC team.  This week I’ll pick up the baton from my friend and colleague Liam Brennan and we’ll continue our journey through the fantastic book of Ephesians.

Today we’re looking at Ephesians 4: 1-10 but today we’ll focus on verses 2-3

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

REFLECTION:

According to Forbes magazine over 70% of workers in the US state that it’s the people they work with that cause them the most workplace anxiety.

The thing is that we know relational stress isn’t just confined to the workplace.  I have memories of living in shared houses with sometimes had relational tensions – I can still remember that feeling one had when putting the key into the door and saying a little prayer before walking into the house.

Conflict with people happens wherever people happen to be:  church, work, family and communities – everywhere basically.

So, how do we live well with people?  How do we live out our faith and build positive relationships with those around us?

Before we tackle that question – firstly a reflection on why it seems harder to do live well with people today:  One reason I suspect it’s getting harder to ‘live well with people’ in the real world as nearly 40% of the global population relate to each other in a virtual world – social media – and with social media it’s discipling  in the art of how to ‘unfollow’ ‘mute’ or even ‘unfriend’ – to eliminate the voices that we don’t really agree with.

The good news is that the Bible has something to say:  In today’s passages – as we hit chapter four of the Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he reminds us ‘to live a life worthy of the calling you have received…’ Paul, states that the fundamental key values of all building good relationships are:  humility & gentleness – in an Ephesian culture that worshipped strength and power – that was hugely challenging.  In a harsh world – the gentle voice of kindness has so much significance.  And for the apostle Paul– what we think of ourselves is really important – for him that’s humility.  Which means not to think less of yourself but to think of yourself less.  If we’re preoccupied with ourselves– either how bad we are (insecurity) or how much better we are (pride) – we’ll struggle to have genuine positive connections with people around us.  We are to ‘bear one another in love’

I have told this story before but I worked with someone once who really got up my nose.  He irritated the life out of me – to be honest he really offended me and I didn’t deal with it very well.  I talked about him too much.  Looking for anyone who might agree.  One day a friend challenged me with this very verse:  ‘bear one another with love’.

I found that so very challenging – still do!

It’s easy to surround ourselves with people who agree with us – it’s called an echo chamber but Paul’s vision of the church of Jesus is much deeper.  It’s a united family of people who are completely and totally different from each other.  There is no doubt the church has made a mess of this over the years but whether we like it or not Jesus calls us to love the church and to love each other.

What does it mean?  It’s means that the church is made up of people from all nationalities – different backgrounds.  Posh and poor side by side.  Remain and Leave.  Socialist & Tory.  All united by Jesus Christ and his love for them and each other.  And how are we to do it?

Interestingly Paul states in Ephesians 4 that we have unity – in Christ.  But it’s our responsibility to keep the bond of peace.  How?  We practice what Jesus teaches in Matthew 18: 15-17.  If someone hurts us or causes offence – we choose unity – so we choose to conflict.  Conflict is a good thing.

Hello and welcome to Friday’s Podcast. It’s been fantastic to be with you this week as we’ve sought to know God more through digging into his word. If you’ve been encouraged through listening to this podcast, then why not share that with others? Text a friend, post on Facebook, tell people at your small group. Let’s look to pass the blessing on!

REFLECTION:

Today’s reading is Ephesians 3:14-21. These are such well known verses which collectively form a beautiful, powerful and encouraging prayer that Paul offers for the church in Ephesus. It’s a prayer full of such deep imagery and meaning that we can’t hope to do this proper justice in a short 5 minute thought.

Today though we are just going to focus on verse 20:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

Each day this week, we’ve been considering the word hope: one of the very foundations of our faith. We end our week by being reminded that we can hope because with God all things are possible.

I write this podcast off the back of our youth weekend away. We had an amazing time! It was so encouraging and inspiring to see so many of our young people encounter Jesus in a really personal and powerful way. Over the course of the weekend, God did a wonderful work in each of their lives. It just revealed to us as a team again that when people met with Jesus, really experience his presence, his majesty, his grace – they receive hope into their lives. They acknowledge that something fundamentally has altered and their life is now somehow different forever.

It was an incredible weekend. If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from it, it’s that through God we can have hope for our younger generation. We can have hope because in Him all things are possible.

And yet the challenge is, and I know this is something I’m finding in my own faith walk, knowing this truth and truly believing this each time I pray are two separate things. As we saw on Wednesday, we can sometimes find ourselves feeling held back in our faith. We face setbacks. Things don’t go as planned. Hope can begin to waver. It has a knock on effect in our prayer life. Where we once prayed big bold prayers of faith, we find ourselves perhaps subconsciously beginning to limit what we think God can do.

But Paul writes this… ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.’

The youth weekend has been an encouraging and yet at same time challenging reminder of how our own limits as humans can get transposed onto the God we pray to. We began preparations praying for 40 youth to come away with us for the weekend. It seemed like a good number. It was in fact last year’s number. With a few weeks to go we only had 10 signed up and I began to think we might need to re-evaluate how many we thought would come. We continued to pray. We’d seen God come through in the past. We persevered. Two weeks before we went we reached 40 youth – praise God! I announced this to the team to much whooping and cheering and then as the noise died down one of the team remarked – we should have prayed for 50! In the end, 51 young people signed up and we took 49 away with us. You’ve made your point God, I thought!

Paul encourages the Ephesians to look to Jesus – the one who is hope. The one whose love for us and for his creation is immeasurable. Paul encourages them as they look to God to pray bigger and bolder prayers beyond what we think is imaginable, is possible. Beyond what we can do in our strength, through our own initiative, and ideas. It’s safe to say I’m still very much learning how to say, ‘God I can’t do this on my own. I need you to step in’. But as Paul writes in another of his letters it’s in those places we know and experience something more of God’s grace, his power at work within us. It’s in those moments when we let go of what we think is impossible,

Hello and welcome to Thursday’s Foundation Podcast. Today’s passage is Ephesians 3:8-13. We are going to focus on verses 10 -11:

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Each day this week we’ve been considering how and why we have hope in Jesus. Monday – We looked at how Jesus has made a way for us to know God. Tuesday –how he welcomes us home, into his church. Yesterday – that God has a plan for each of our lives. Today we reflect on how we don’t run that race alone; we do so in community. And that it’s through these communities of hope that God is choosing to reveal himself to those who don’t yet know him.

REFLECTION:

What we read in today’s passage should be a huge encouragement to us! God reveals his wisdom, his plan for salvation and the redemption of this world through us, the church. We are his plan! A plan which we read today that is of interest of the angels, the ‘rulers and authorities of the heavenly realms’ so that they might give God his true glory. Wow!

What does all this mean for us today and the church communities we are a part of?

Firstly this passage is clear. There’s something very special about the church community and about being a part of it.  I really like this idea that the church is talked about heaven. The angels are praising God for what’s he doing here on earth through us. It’s big news. It’s exciting! And to me, that’s what being part of the church should be …exciting! Because it’s as part of the church that we discover the better life that Jesus has for us and we are encouraged to seek more of that every day, not just for ourselves but for others.

I count myself incredibly fortunate to be part of the church here at STC. It was the place I came to faith aged 25 on an Alpha course. It’s a place where my relationship with God has been completely transformed. A place where God is continually shaping and moulding me– as a husband, father, as a youth leader. But not only that, it’s a place where as a collective people are constantly seeking to see God’s kingdom grow. It’s a church that has pioneered incredible work with children, teenagers and students. It’s a church which has sought to impact our local community, our workplaces and our city. It’s a church that doesn’t stay still. It’s always seeking more!

So, let’s take the time to give thanks for our church community here. If you’re part of another one, give thanks for that one too! Not only that, let’s actively look to support our church today. Let’s commit to being at our midweek community – these are the people who are helping us live more like Jesus. Let’s carve out the space and time to be there. And let’s be a people who support and encourage our leaders’ right across the church. God has carefully placed them in that role for a reason and our job is to love, to serve and bless them.

Secondly, let’s be encouraged today. We can have hope for our church.  The established church in our nation often gets a bad rep and let’s be honest – there are clear challenges which it faces that need to be addressed. But when we look at this passage it’s like Paul’s rallying cry to the church.

God’s plan for us is that we tell a different story. Our lives as a collective are the shop windows through which others glimpse God and this richer, fuller life he has for us.

There’s something in that word from verse 10 about wisdom for us today. In other letters of the Bible, Paul writes about the Jesus life, God’s plan for us and how it makes the foolish things of this world wise. The better life Jesus offers us – one of simplicity, purity, forgiveness and love expressed through our sacrificial acts for others goes totally against the culture of the world around us. And yet it’s a life which is so deeply satisfyin...

Hello and welcome to Wednesday’s podcast. This week our theme is hope – the hope we have in Christ.

REFLECTION:

Our reading today is Ephesians 3:1-7. Let’s look today at verse 7 (taken from the Message version):

This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details.

As we start chapter three Paul, the writer of this letter, breaks off from his previous line of thought in chapter two in which he reveals some of the foundational truths of who we are in Christ as both an individual and as church and begins to offers us some of his personal reflections on his ministry and what he’s learned as a result of that.

Today we are reminded that we have hope…because God has a plan for our lives.

As we heard in yesterday’s reading we, the church, are the ones God wants to use to point others to Jesus. In today’s passage, Paul talks about this as being his ‘life’s work’. And whilst this was, for him, a personal mission– to reveal God’s grace to the Gentiles (as we heard on Monday) through the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost it has now also become ours. Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…

The moment we discover Jesus and commit our lives to him God reveals to each of us the grand plan for our lives. We are given our new job description: making Jesus known. We become an employee in the kingdom of God. It is a high calling indeed. And we think that sounds exciting, that sounds great – let’s get cracking! We start talking about Jesus with our school mates, colleagues and our family members. We invite them to church events. We pray for them. We go out of our way to bless them. It’s great. And then over time, we find ourselves slowing down. Stuff gets in the way. We hit speed bumps – health problems, struggles at university or work, a relationship break down, money worries. Life happens. We get tangled up. We get stuck. And that loud and clear call to go and make disciples we heard once before can seem more distant and faded. The worries of this world begin to overwhelm us us and with it something of the hope which Jesus has given us.

I look at Paul – writer to the Ephesians – and think it would be have so easy for this guy to give up. I mean he more than had his fair share of challenges during his ministry – he was abused, beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned. And yet, here is, writing this letter under house arrest, maybe even knowing that will soon be executed saying – this is my life’s work: making God known. He kept at! He knew he had a message of hope to deliver and nothing was going to get in the way of that. It’s both inspiring and deeply challenging. Because this was a man who understood and knew something of God’s grace which I for one would love to know more of in my life.

How did he keep going? The message version puts it like this –  ‘God handling all the details’. In the face of immense challenge what Paul articulates here demonstrates that he had a deep sense of trust in God for his protection and his provision. Paul, in a worldly sense, seemingly had no idea how this would all turn out. Would he have enough money to live on? Would people listen to him? Would he find favour in a particular place? Would he make it through the day alive? I mean Paul certainly could have justified being a little worried. Maybe avoiding a particular place hoping to be safer? Doing other work – getting paid better? Diluting down the message – avoiding getting arrested? And yet he didn’t – he pressed on in order to fulfil the plan that God had for his life.

The writer of Hebrews says this: Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Hello and welcome to Monday’s foundations podcast. My name is Liam; I’m part of the team here at STC and it’s a real honour to be able to share with you this week as we dig into God’s word and look to Jesus.

Last week, Alan did a brilliant job kicking us off on our journey through Ephesians – this amazing letter that Paul writes to the church there.  There’s so much we could take from these incredible passages but simply each day this week, we’re going to focus on one verse and we’re going to be considering this word: hope.

The Bible defines hope as a confident expectation or assurance about what is yet to come, about what our future holds. We live in challenging times. We’re on the brink of a general election. There is much division and unrest in our nation, in our politics, and in our communities. And at such a time as this, it seems that now more than ever people need to know that there is hope. That there is one we can trust completely. That there is one who has secured for us an eternal future with Him. That this hope has a name and that his name is Jesus.

As a church, our vision this year is to invite others to join us and grow, to experience and to know this hope that only Jesus can bring. Hope – it’s our theme this Advent and Christmas season. So it seems timely for us this week as we look at these scriptures which beautifully reveal Jesus to us to ask: how does He bring us hope, and how can we share that with others?

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage is Ephesians 2: 11-16. Here’s our focus verse for today:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians is a letter written primarily to the Gentiles, the non Jews.  In the Old Testament these were people groups who were outside of the covenant God had made with his people. Paul describes how these were a  people who at one time were called the ‘uncircumcised’, were ‘separated’, were  ‘alienated’, were considered  as ‘strangers’, as outsiders to the people of God and the promises He made to them. Paul writes that these were a people ‘without hope’.

Does that sound familiar today?

The Ephesians here represent the entire non Jewish population of that time. In essence the vast majority of the world’s population who were at one time seemingly far off from God. And whilst that was true then, and the Christian faith has since grown rapidly and is indeed flourishing in certain parts of the world, we still of course know that there are many parts of the world, and for us personally many places, many people who whether it’s through their own choices or through circumstances appear ‘far off’ from God.

‘But now…’ Paul begins our focus verse we these two words and in doing so he reveals to us why we have hope in Jesus.

Something has fundamentally changed. The old way has passed, Paul is saying. And something new is here. And that something is Jesus coming to the world which we await again throughout Advent and celebrate this Christmas. That through Jesus, through God himself coming to live amongst us and through his subsequent death and resurrection, those who were ‘once far off have been brought near’. Those who were once outsiders now have access to Him through the ‘blood of Christ’, through what Jesus did and won for us on the cross.

Why do we have hope? Because the ‘far offs’ were us. That was a reality for us until we met Jesus. For me, it was on an Alpha course, 7 and a half years ago. How about you? Can you point to the time when you realised that you were no longer an outsider and that through Jesus, God loves you and he welcomes you in. Let’s take some time to reflect on that today and let’s give thanks.

But let’s also reflect, particularly in these challenging and seemingly uncertain times, that there are so many people who we know who appear ‘far off‘. The ones who say they don’t need God.

Good morning and welcome to Friday. It has been great to take you through these opening passages in Ephesians. I hope that you have heard God speaking to you as we have shared together this week.

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage, is Ephesians 2:8-10… only 3 verses. V8 summarises a lot of Paul’s teaching in Romans and Galatians into one short sentence. Here is the passage in full,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

To end the week, I would like to ask a question… When you look over your life, how are you doing?

“Average”, “Better than average”, “I’m not that great”, “could do better?” “I’m smashing it out the park”?

When you think about your Christian journey, your relationship with God, how are you doing?

Do you score as highly?

Go on, take a moment, no-one else is listening… how are you doing, really?

You see, Paul has been bigging the Ephesians up and as Christians we are bigged up too! Paul says: You are redeemed, you are chosen, you are God’s kids, you have an awesome inheritance, you have been given the Holy Spirit… He has prayed that we might know God better: experience his power, hope and love. He has highlighted how far we have come, how we used to be dead in our sin, living in darkness and disobedience but now we are alive… sin died, we are set free…

YES! We are awesome! Just how great are we?!

But Paul wants to give credit where credit is due.

It is by grace you have been saved through faith.

You see, it is ALL God’s gift to us… it is his overwhelming, overflowing, abundant generosity that has saved us… it’s free, it’s undeserved…

Our rescue is all down to his decision… we did nothing.

All we have to do is believe, to have faith, to put our trust in Jesus, to ally ourselves with God, surrendering ourselves into his love and learning to trust him more…

So, I’ve got great faith… so I am better than you!?

No… Paul’s next breath kills this thought dead… “this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Even the faith you have… even that doesn’t come from you… that is something that God has placed in you, it is a present, gift wrapped and placed under the tree with your name on the label… You are no better or worse, no greater or smaller than any Christian alive or dead.

But what about Mick, he’s done an awesome job… grown the church from 150 to 900 and that’s not counting all of those people who have come through here and moved on from Sheffield…

What about John Wesley, John Wimber, Mother Teresa…

You are no greater or smaller than any of them.

“So, it’s not about me… it’s all about God’s gift to us. God gives some people great faith and others not so much. So if God’s chosen to not do much through me, I can give up and stop trying?”

No, Paul is not giving us a licence to sit on the sofa with a glass of wine, watching Netflix until the moment we die…

Instead he has left us in the middle of a great Easter egg hunt!

Yes, you heard me.

All over our lives, God has left treasure. When we wake and start our day there is gold to be found. As we go to work, school or Uni, he has hidden precious gems for us to find.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

There is a world of good works littering our daily lives waiting to be discovered. There is an act of kindness, there is a welcome to extend, there is a moment of generosity, there is giving others time, there is a listening ear, a prayer to offer up, healing to perform, there is a word of warning that pulls them back from danger,

Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s podcast. I hope you are finding this week’s podcasts helpful. Today we are continuing our journey through Ephesians. On Monday we learned that we have been redeemed… We are now God’s possession which he bought through the death of his son Jesus.

REFLECTION:

Yesterday we looked at Paul’s Prayer and his desire that we might experience the Love and Power Jesus has for us. Today we begin chapter 2 with verses 1-7. In this section Paul highlights the difference between our old life and our new life with Jesus and by doing so sheds light on the daily battle that we face as Christians. Vs 1-3 say this…

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.

From this part of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians I would like to highlight two areas of battle. The Message translates v2 like this, “You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live…” (MSG)

Sometimes at STC we sing some of the old hymns. Have you ever noticed that they have a lot to say about the world? One of my favourite hymns, When I survey the wondrous cross, contains a couple of lines that speak about the world, “My richest gain I count but loss” and “All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.” Not themes that come up very often in our modern songs! The world is a seductive place and it will shift our focus from heaven and tempt us with all kinds of worldly delights if we let it or we are unaware of the fight.

Those worldly delights are often grouped into three categories: money, sex and power.

As Tom shared on Sunday morning, the modern world is designed to create in us a sense of lack and dissatisfaction. It’s the way advertisers sell products and services. They always want to leave us wanting more. Money is not simply about money… it’s a collective term for stuff… the stuff we possess, the stuff we take pride in, the stuff we set our hearts on. Have you ever climbed into your new car, driven away from the garage and felt awesome? “Hey world, look at me, I am feeling good!” and then a couple of weeks later that feeling has worn off and your head is turned by another shiny car that is just a little faster or prettier than yours…

Sex… that desire to be wanted, to be needed, to be accepted, to be thought well of… or to have, possess or lust after…

Power… to be in control, to dictate, to get my own way… to forge my own path, to be self sufficient… dependent on no-one else…

All of these things betray a hole in our hearts that God wants to fill; an itch that only God can scratch. We grow up when we recognise them, bring them to Jesus in prayer and ask him to help us…

“As for you, you were dead… when you followed the ways of this world…” It’s time to come alive, to stand out as we recognise our entanglement in the things of this world, we bring our need to Jesus and put the God life into practice.

So, if the battle against the world is the first struggle that Paul highlights, the second is perhaps even tougher… the Message translates v 3 like this: “We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it”

If the first battle is against the world, the external enemy, the second battle is against ourselves… the internal battle. To follow Jesus means we have to stop following our way and start doing things his way. This is what it means to have faith… it is to trust that Jesus’ way is better than my way. Jesus says when you pray… So I better pray as if my life depends on it.

Good morning and welcome to Wednesday’s podcast. It is five weeks until Christmas and I for one need to get on with some shopping! As we head into the Advent season why not take up the challenge to listen to the podcasts every day up until Christmas?

REFLECTION:

Today we continue our journey through the book of Ephesians. On Monday and Tuesday Paul has been laying down some foundational teaching. Today in chapter 1:15-23, we get a glimpse into Paul’s prayer life: his prayer for the Ephesians. Lets listen in…  v17-19

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

What is Paul’s great prayer for the Ephesians, what is his great longing for them? That people in the community will know Jesus better, that they will know hope and know his power. No-one hopes for what they already have… so, what does it mean to know these things?

Knowledge in the Bible is so much more than a conceptual understanding, so much more than a thought in our heads that we believe to be true. Knowledge in the Bible is so much deeper and richer than that. It is knowledge that comes through lived experience. I know it because I have been there, done it and bought the T-shirt!

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are warned that they should never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They do, and they don’t get a download of rules…do this, don’t do that… instead they experience right and wrong, good and evil first hand. The word used for ‘know’ in the story of Adam and Eve… is the same word used a little later at the beginning of chapter 4 which say Adam ‘knew’ Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain…

This knowledge is intimate knowledge!

So in Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians he isn’t praying that they would have a great in depth Bible study but rather that they would experience intimately the hope and power of God in their lives, that their intimacy with Jesus would deepen. That they would know his love, his passion, his protection and provision, not because they had read it in one of Paul’s letters or from reading the scriptures… but they would know because they had experienced it for themselves.

I grew up in a good family, I did well at school, I was sporty, I had friends. But I know looking back that I had deep questions about who I was, if I was ok, if I was acceptable, lovable; there was an ache to belong, to be loved. I carried an insecurity and a fear that I wasn’t good enough and as a result I was on my own.

I have been married now for 21 years and I still remember my wedding day. The day I stood before my family and friends and promised to love and cherish the girl alongside me for the rest of our lives. I remember Helen making her promises to do the same. It was a huge moment for me. Here was another human being who thought I was worth taking a punt on and was willing to declare to everyone who was listening that she chose me. An experience I will never forget. I knew… I knew in that moment that I was loved by another human being.

I remember 8 years later, a mix up in timings when we moved house. We were due to move house at the beginning of December so I had booked to have knee surgery 2 weeks later. The plan was that we would move and I would have surgery, that would give me Christmas to begin my recovery and hopefully be back ready for work early in the New Year. Unfortunately there was a delay to our house move and rather than moving before I had surgery, we moved 10 days after. And what’s more, there was a problem on moving day.