Love Light Live

Evening everyone. It's so good to be here. As you've heard my name is Philip and Mike

! Hill asked me to speak when he was away. It was like the best phone call I've ever had

to be invited. I said Mike if you asked me to wash your car I would come and do it. He

said well actually it is a little bit dirty but it's a tremendous privilege to be able

to join with you. To be able to come to this church. As you've heard I work for Care for

the Family. You saw some of the work that we do on the video. When I look at those videos

I'm always profoundly moved. The people that are looking after those that are widowed young,

bereaved parents, helping parents with children with additional needs. Family is at the heart

of so much of what makes life work for us. And when I see the work that is done I'm amazed.

You know I'm not one of those that does that stuff. I'm a little bit more of the support

staff. But one we every week we have a little briefing of what we're all going to be doing

and I said I'm coming to. Sorry is it better if I use this microphone? Okay. I said I'm coming

to Christchurch Clevedon and all the different people in the team. We've got about 80 different

people that work for Care for the Family. One was saying I was in Sunday school as a little

girl in Christchurch. Another said I was baptised in Christchurch. So there was a lot of goodwill

and a lot of people who are friends of this church. A lot of people that are friends of Clevedon in

general and the church here. So it's a really great opportunity. Now I am very privileged to be able to

be your substitute teacher tonight. I can't pretend to have the kind of the knowledge and the experience

of Mike. And I'm not also aware of how he's taught and what he's done. So if you allow me I'd just like

to give you my little overview take of the book of Ephesians. We're focusing in on these 20 verses

but it's helpful to be reminded of the wider context of how the book fits together. And maybe

you've already heard this so this will be a good reminder. But for me the best book written about

Ephesians was written by Watchman Nee. Who's heard of Watchman Nee? Wow. Good knowledge. 20th century

Chinese church teacher. Part of the underground church. And he wrote the best book on Ephesians.

It's so good you don't even have to read it. All you need to know is the title of the book and that is

Sit, Walk, Stand. And that simple title, I can't remember what's in the book but I've always remembered

the title because it perfectly helps you to understand the book of Ephesians. So chapters

one to three is about sitting. Chapters four to five is about walking and chapter six is about standing.

Sit, it means that the book tells us where we are seated. We're seated with Christ in heavenly realms.

It tells us not what we have to do but what has been done for us. We have been blessed with every

spiritual blessing in Christ for in Christ he chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and

blameless in his sight. Every spiritual blessing and we just have to sit in that. We have to just be aware

and for three chapters Paul just lays in again and again. This is what God has done for you.

This is your position in Christ and so therefore when we get to chapters four and five it's how we walk.

We walk in the light of our position in Christ and then chapter six the armor of God that's how we stand

against the schemes of the evil one. So when we look at chapters like chapter five it's really important to know

that what we're doing is we're walking uh we're walking out in practice what is true in position.

So what is true about me what God says about me what Jesus has done for me the more that I understand that

the more I'm able to walk that out. It's a mistake if we take things like this chapter

and just beat ourselves up saying I've got to be better I've got to do better that's a mistake.

What Paul is saying is this is who you are now walk in the good of it. So let's go through the um

this this passage what I've done is I've actually inspired by the kind of the simple three

words I've broken this 20 verses into three words for us to look at tonight which is light love light

and live love light and live. So love the first section is basically about our inspiration and our

inheritance. So what we're going to do is we just go through a little bit at a time it's very um

it's just very powerful to read scripture slowly to think about it but there's also two kind of tricky

passages in this 20 verses and we'll have a crack at getting a little bit underneath those and finding

out exactly what they're saying because I don't know if you followed uh in the reading if they if you

if all of it was perfectly clear for most people there's a couple of verses that don't really fully

um they're a little bit complex complicated complex okay so let's start off it says follow God's example

in verse one and for me this is why it's so important to know the sit walk stand thing because if you say

to someone out of the blue without any context follow God's example that seems like the bar is set

extremely high uh how on earth are we supposed to follow God's example you know you can't even follow

the example of your better half most of us you know people that we look up to in a mother that are just

people and yet he says follow God's example so how do we do that that's when he then explains and goes on

so the next part of the verse says follow God's example as dearly loved children everyone say as

dearly loved children very good by the way word of warning for me I am half Nigerian and I'm half

English half Nigerian means I've got rhythm half English means I can't dance and in Nigeria where I

was born and grew up uh everyone gets very excited so if I seem more animated than um than normal then

just bear with me that's why I like to get a little bit of feedback and and we're all in this together

but he says follow God's example as dearly loved children everything that follows in this chapter

comes out of the fact that we are dearly loved it is our identity that determines how we behave we're

not trying to be something that we're not we're not striving for some kind of religious perfection

we simply need to understand that we are loved if you have children just been hearing about

Neville's children and grandchildren and when they know when children know that they're dearly loved

they act with security and they are confident in who they are they just act out of that and Paul says

the only way that you'll be able to follow God's example is if you understand profoundly that you are a

dearly loved child turn to the person next to you and say I'm a dearly loved child

our identity is dearly loved children and because we are loved I know I'm laboring this and don't

worry we're not going to go this slowly on all the verses we will be finished by nine o'clock I promise you

but because we are loved then we can walk in the way of love so there's our sit walk stand and you see

walk come again and again in chapter four as well it is only once I realize and deeply appreciate that I

am loved by God agape loved other oriented choice based self-sacrificial love

not dependent on what I do not dependent on my goodness or my badness simply unconditional

self-sacrificing love and because I realize and appreciate that I am loved then I can walk

in the way of love I know that I'm loved therefore I love it's not that we try to be loving it's just

that we naturally respond in the way of love once we know that we are loved ourselves it's really

really important because he then moves up a gear and talks about stuff which can be quite challenging

next verse just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice

to God so we follow God's example because we understand and he's given us three whole chapters

worth of good theological basis that you're loved a child of God and so there we walk in the way of

love just as Jesus loved us so every way on every side we are bombarded with love and everything that

comes out of love is an expression of what it means to walk in love next verse says this

but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity

or of greed because these are improper for God's holy people nor should there be obscenity foolish talk

or coarse joking which are out of place but rather thanksgiving do you notice those two phrases improper

and out of place what Paul is saying is follow me on this you are loved by God you are loved children

and so therefore you have to walk that out we walk out in practice what is true in position

and walking the way of love certain things are compatible with that way of love and certain

things are incompatible with the way of love what is the issue with sexual immorality is it about

religious rules is it about a code and the standard of living actually it's about what is most

compatible with the way of love so with Paul he's saying the issue with sexual immorality is that it's not fitting

it's improper it is not compatible with this lifestyle where we're loving one another the word sexual immorality

in the Greek anyone know what the word is Greek scholars pornea very good 10 points pornea from which we get

the word pornography and pornea literally means any sexual activity that's outside the committed

relationship of marriage and so it's a catch-all phrase like adultery would be part of pornea pornography would

be part of pornea and pornea this kind of breaching of sexual boundaries outside of marriage what Paul says

the reason that we don't do that is not because sex is wrong or dirty or shameful the reason is that

sex outside its proper context is unfitting it's improper because it's not loving because it takes

advantage of others because it dehumanizes others because it uses others as objects I mentioned about

the working care for the family and what you may not know if you see videos like that is that not only

resources created and not only are people befriending those that have lost family members or those that

are struggling to be parents or struggling to keep their marriage together but every Thursday we have a

prayer meeting and the staff gather together and we pray and what we pray about is this we pray about

the requests that come into us through the phone lines through email and we get literally dozens of requests

every single week from people asking for help and it is it's absolutely heartbreaking the things that

people are going through and I've only been in the organization since last September so only just about

seven months since I came in and I have been shocked to the core with the the problems and the

difficulties that come in and every single week we get a whole raft of people writing in or phoning us on our

care line saying please help us in our marriage we're struggling with the issue of pornography

pornography pornography is it's ruining our intimacy and our trust in some cases I just a couple weeks

ago we're praying for someone and they said my husband has become addicted to pornography has started

spending money on pornographic sites and actually started a series of affairs and it is absolutely

devastating today the stats about porn we have around about 60 percent of adult men yeah bring that back up

60 percent of adult men view porn once a week which is absolutely staggering did you know sorry to get

sidetracked on this but it's it's just one of the ways in which the bible deals with very real life

issues sometimes in church we can avoid talking about such things but this is a real issue in our culture

right now particularly a big increase after the pandemic which just had a very detrimental impact on people's

viewing habits but 60 percent of men view porn once a week the figures for women are not too far

behind when you look at young men it's almost 100 percent viewing porn on a weekly basis but here is a

shocking statistic it says 75 percent of christian men view porn on a monthly basis and even more devastating

57 percent of pastors this is a barna study admit to struggling with porn either currently or at some

point in their pastoral ministry so this is something that has an absolute grip on our culture and our society

and paul says let's talk about it let's bring it out into the open and let's deal with it because this

kind of behavior and these kinds of struggles they're not compatible with who you are and if you know that

you're loved and if you're walking the way of love then this is the kind of thing that you will want to be

fleeing from so he's talking again about the kind of identity that we have but then he moves on verse 8 it says this

sorry verse 5 for of this you can be sure no immoral impure or greedy person such a person is an idolater

has any inheritance in the kingdom of christ and of god so we move from identity with children

dearly loved and we move into an issue of inheritance again picking on neville he has children who are

dearly loved and they will inherit his vast wealth one day they are inheritors it comes as part of the

package and that is why paul in ephesians is telling us you've got to live out the reality of who you are

you're you're you're a loved child but you're also an heir you get to inherit the kingdom of god but he

says if you are immoral impure or greedy essentially what it is it's it's idolatry at the heart of the

kind of immorality impurity thing it's an idolism an idolatry looking for something sex to give you a sense

of worth or um pleasure that is not god it's elevating something and worshiping it above

its rightful place and this is the first of our tricky passages have you ever wondered why it says

such person is an idolater they don't have any inheritance in the kingdom of christ and of god

how many kingdoms is that is that one kingdom two kingdoms or is it one kingdom and paul's just

using flowery language saying it's the kingdom of christ and of god um you ever wondered about that

because when you look at that passage either paul is just needlessly repeating himself or he's saying

there's the kingdom of christ and there's the kingdom of god okay take a little moment turn to the person

next to you and ask them the question and come up with your own answer here do you think that this

is the same kingdom or is there some difference is there any distinction between the kingdom of christ

and the kingdom of god okay that's the question any distinction or are they exactly the same thing

turn to the person next to you see what you think and then we'll get some feedback

turn to the people across the john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john

okay how many of you think there's no distinction it's exactly the same thing put your hands up

all right how many of you think that there's a subtle but important difference

okay well let me show you a passage from corinthians um because i think that actually there is

something it is the same kingdom but it's a kingdom at a different time so we need to go into one

corinthians chapter 15 just to get into paul's mindset how he thinks about the kingdom of god

so one corinthians 15 verse 22 and if you want a little bit more of this you can read around those

verses but paul's talking about the resurrection and talking about how death entered the world

through one man but jesus is the firstborn of those risen from the dead so he says for as in adam all

die so in christ all will be made alive but each in turn first of all christ the first fruits

then when he comes when jesus returns those who belong to him so first of all jesus is risen from

the dead on easter sunday hallelujah we celebrate soon secondly he comes back and we will be risen up

with him the resurrection of the saints then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom

to god the father after he has destroyed all dominion authority and power for he must reign

until he has put all his enemies under his feet the last enemy to be destroyed is death again paul goes

on and expands this a little bit more in verses 27 and 28 sorry i haven't put those up uh that's

tantalizing that's homework you can check on uh them yourselves but essentially what paul is saying to

the corinthians here is that right now jesus is king of his kingdom that in the resurrection jesus becomes

the the the king of the kingdom it's it's like we're now living in the dome where jesus is king

but it is very much a now and then not yet we've heard about the now and the not yet in terms of

we now have the kingdom of god jesus says repent believe the kingdom of god is near it's here it's at

hand but one day the kingdom will come fully when every enemy is defeated it's like that thing of the

world war where we have the the normandy landings d-day and essentially the battle has been won there is

no way back for the other side they have been defeated all that happens now is a kind of

uh a mopping up if you like or a ratifying of that final thing there's no way that this is not

the victory is won it's it's just victory but it's victory partially and then finally the full victory

is is won and we live in that kind of in between now and not yet phase i don't know if i explained

that very well but essentially what paul is saying and this is something that we don't often get to

hear about in this context particularly in ephesians is paul is saying that right now we're in the kingdom

where jesus is king but he's fighting against every enemy and the last enemy to be defeated is death

and death is finally defeated on the the day when the end of the age comes and we are resurrected to be

with him and on that day jesus comes and hands over the keys of the kingdom to god the father

essentially what paul is saying he's saying is if we are sexually immoral and if we are idolaters

then we don't have any inheritance either in god's kingdom on the earth right here and now

or in the age to come when god's kingdom is fully realized that i think is what paul is saying

again you can look into it and you can see and pray and may god give us clarity wisdom and the insight of

his holy spirit but essentially the point is this you've been created and chosen as dearly loved children

that's your identity walk out of that and you have an inheritance if i am living against the grain

in ways that are not proper not fitting then i am putting myself out of my own inheritance i'm

disinheriting myself from god's kingdom right now here on earth but also in the eternal age the kingdom

to come so that is basically the first section so we talk about the first section being to love so we've got love

inspiration and inheritance and then the second section is light and that's about identity

and illumination so let's read the passage

okay verses 8 to 12 for you were once darkness but now you are light everyone say you are light

in the lord live as children of light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness

righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the lord have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds

of darkness but rather expose them it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret

so first of all paul says your identity is you're loved you're loved you're loved you can't earn it you

can't lose it you don't deserve it you you are just loved because you are loved because you are loved and out

of that love it is appropriate for you to live and walk in love now paul says you are light

he doesn't say that you are in the light although the bible uses that language he says you are actually

light and the idea that he comes up with he says that light has fruit sometimes paul sometimes paul

mixes his metaphors uh it's almost like this is too inexpressible to really be captured fully in words

but he's saying you are light and the light has fruit and that's contrasted with the darkness which

is fruit less and so what we want to do is we want to not only walk in love but we want to walk in light

verse 13 goes on it says this but everything exposed by the light becomes visible and everything that is

illuminated becomes a light this is why it is said wake up sleeper rise from the dead and christ will

shine on you now for me i don't know about you maybe this is completely clear to you but this to me seems

again a little bit of a challenging verse everything exposed by the light becomes visible fine and everything

that is illuminated becomes a light what does that mean that's why it is said very helpful explanation

wake up you sleeper rise from the dead and christ will shine on you now when it says that is why it

is said is that passage wake up sleeper rise from the dead and christ will shine on you is that a quote

from the bible hands up if you think that's a scriptural quote okay couple of brave souls hands up if you

think i'm not putting my hands up it's a trap it's actually paul quoting from an early church hymn which

is incredible we get you know we sang our songs uh at the beginning this is paul quoting early i mean

this is fascinating right this is the early church hymn still if you think you know modern day hymns aren't

very theologically strong they're quite simple but that's quite simple too isn't it it's like we've

always had very simple songs that christians like to sing but it's full of truth wake up sleeper rise

from the dead and christ will shine on you what is illuminated becomes a light everything exposed by the light

becomes visible now if you're talking about something being exposed normally you talk about something which

is shameful right normally we expose things that we want hidden so why would something that is exposed in the

light become illuminated and become a light i think what is happening is paul is saying i want you to live your

lives completely transparent we're no longer in darkness but we live everything in the light and that means

that even our weakness and our failing if it comes out into the light christ can shine on it if we are

sleeping if we are dead and experiencing death and a lack of life in our light in in our life

then christ shines on that and christ makes it a light now here's the thing i um

that care for the family video it's put together by our guys in the studio so we have cameramen and

they're incredibly talented so i went to one of them and i said can i borrow one of those special things

that you use it's like a light but it's not a light it's a it's something that is not a light in itself

but it's illuminated and he said do you mean a reflector philip i said yeah so can i borrow a reflector

because i think it would make a really great illustration so here it is right now it is hidden

in the dark depths of my bag but if i was to bring it out you see that it is now exposed

and when it's exposed it can now be illuminated now if this thing catches the light from these

spotlights it now as a reflector becomes a light and i know this because i've seen the guys making

the videos what you don't see when they're doing that filming is there's someone going around and

they're exposing this thing and it reflects sometimes the light from the sun sometimes they have studio

lights and it reflects back i mean it's it's a bright day today right it's bright in here this is not

can you see any light there you can see a bit you get the point the the point is this what is

kind of dark shameful and hidden when it's brought out into the light the light shines on it and it

becomes a light in fact there are some filmmakers who use all natural light to get very sort of

beautiful natural compositions and all they use is these reflectors sometimes they're gold sometimes

they're silver sometimes they're white and this thing becomes a light and what paul is saying is he's

saying look you might feel like there's dark parts of you there's weaknesses there's failings there's things

that you don't feel confident in but we are light amen we're not darkness and we get to rise from the

dead we get to wake up and jesus takes the weakness the failings the things that we um wish others could

not see and yet somehow our weakness becomes a light as he shines upon us and we become witnesses that's

all we have to do you know sometimes when i talk about being a witness and sharing faith and um walking the

way of love and light to people people say oh i'm i'm not very good i'm not very strong i'm i'm weak i i

feel hypocritical i feel like i i'm not very good representation of a christian but this is precisely

what paul is saying he's saying live in the light allow jesus wake up sleeper don't be put down and don't

be bound in death but rise up and jesus christ will shine upon you and what is illuminated becomes a light

so that is um yeah that is light so let's move on we've got identity and illumination we've done love

and then finally how we live and that's intentional and intelligent and i tell you what as i was reading

this and just meditating and praying this is the thing that struck me the most because you could be

forgiven for thinking that paul is just saying you're loved by god you are light therefore just do your

thing you know just be yourself and it will all pour out of you but this is where paul says we have to be

intentional and we have to be intelligent in other words god has made me his dearly loved child god has

made me light but i still have my parts to play so this is what he says in these final verses

be very careful everyone say very careful be very careful in other words this is going to take care

intention and attention be careful how you live not as unwise but as wise in other words it requires

intelligence this is not something that will just happen automatically we have to work at it so be very

careful how you live not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are

evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the lord's will is so when we come together on

evenings like tonight what we're doing is we're trying to understand what god's will is for our lives

and then work that through work at it so we are trying not to be foolish but to understand

okay the next one case in point do not get drunk on wine don't look at the person next to you which leads

to debauchery instead be filled with the spirit again a really practical example of lifestyle now

there's an interesting tense that is used in both drunk and filled and that is the present passive

imperative imperative drunk and filled both the present passive imperative so it literally means

something which is continuous and ongoing so it's not saying don't get drunk a one-time thing and that was it

but it's a don't be continually drunk don't be habitually drunk but be continually habitually

presently presently filled do you know when i am feeling extra in need of a treat i will take my wife out to a fancy

restaurant and show her a good time it's called nando's

have you ever been to nando's if you've been to nando's you will know this is good for the grandkids

you will know or maybe it's not good for the grandkids you will know that you can get a refillable

glass of coca-cola seven up whatever it may be and all you have to do is you buy the glass once

and then you just keep going back again and again whenever i'm there i just keep going back a drink

to the point of wanting to be sick not because i want the drink because i want a good deal because it's

it's a refillable now paul is saying being filled you're like the nando's glass your job is just to

be filled and then refilled and then refilled and then refilled and then refilled so being filled with

the spirit isn't some one-time special thing for special people being filled is for every single one

of us and we are to be continually filled with the spirit it means that i am on a daily basis in my

prayers saying jesus fill me with your holy spirit come holy spirit let me know your presence let me know

your infilling i cannot do the christian life without you and that's just being smart that's being wise

it means that i am intentionally taking care to live a life that's compatible because i am loved

because my identity is as light therefore i want to live that out well and then i think this is the

final bit of the passage yeah verse 20 and it's it's a shock in the tail because we weren't expecting this

we started off with being children dearly loved makes sense that's a good start yeah and then we went to

walking in the way of love and we talked about immorality the things that are unfitting improper

that are just incompatible with the way of love and then we reinforced it that not only are we loved but

we are light and then actually the shameful hidden or failing weak parts of us when we bring them before

jesus he can actually illuminate people can be brought to jesus not despite our failings and our weakness but

because of them because people see that it's it's jesus that is the one that is strong in my weakness

he is made strong and so when people see um the failures and the weakness actually jesus can shine

on that and illuminate through that and so we make every effort and then it ends with this

suddenly he says speak to one another with psalms hymns and songs from the spirit sing and make music

from your heart to the lord always giving thanks to god the father for everything in the name of our lord

jesus christ so not only is paul quoting hymns in the earlier verse but he's saying this is how i want

you to see this section out with worship so when we had worship at the beginning that wasn't just to warm

us up paul is saying there's something intrinsic about worshiping together as the people of god

literally singing to one another or speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs

there's something about that that and fills us with the holy spirit so that we can live wise

intentional lives that are appropriate for dearly loved children of god sometimes i find

sometimes i find that people who are very cerebral and rational and like to think things through and be

deep thinking sometimes i find that those kinds of people don't find worship as powerful and sometimes

i find people that love worship that put the cd on in the car at every opportunity they're always

singing the songs they are less inclined to be you know looking at bible studies and theology

but what paul says is he says actually to be wise and to be intentional in our discipleship of jesus

we should be constantly worshiping not just um when we're together but in our hearts singing songs

from our hearts music make music from your heart to the lord always giving thanks to god the father for

everything in the name of our lord jesus christ so there's a lot there's a lot in this passage but it's

just again how do we sit walk stand we sit understanding that we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every

single spiritual blessing in christ chosen predestined uh we have been brought forth you know he's divided the

wall of host he's broken down the wall of hostility that divided us and as a result we walk what does it

mean to walk it's holistic it means i walk always asking myself is this the way of love uh or is this an

idolatrous way that disinherits me from god's kingdom right now and god's kingdom which is to come

and then i'm thinking right how can i be wise there's empty words in the culture that says live like this

this is the way to be successful and happy but that's foolishness and so i'm being wise i'm trying to

understand what god's will is and i'm living a life of worship and thanksgiving so it's not

worship or thinking studying intention it's the two of them together it's this holistic

discipleship life so i hope that's given us a little bit to chew on let's look at our summary again

we've got love we've got light and we've got live that breaks down what god has done for me he's loved me

what god has made me he's made me light so what i do with it well i live i live a life that is

compatible with my calling and with the fact that i'm loved by god and that looks like being careful

being intentional not just thinking well i can just do whatever and god will work it out actually

i'm going to take effort i'm going to be uh applying myself to this but i'm always doing it out of a

place of this is the way of love i know that i'm loved i'm not striving i'm simply bringing myself

into jesus's light and he's making me a light but there's a there's a cooperation that jesus does his

bit and i do my bit look at these two questions what does it mean to speak to one another in psalms hymns

and spiritual songs i mean what does that look like does it mean that you're walking along

saying shine jesus shine uh how does that work and how can you cultivate a greater lifestyle of

constant worship and thanksgiving okay full disclosure my hand is up i'm not one of these

big worship guys i'd much rather be doing something or reading something or studying

um my wife really is a worshiper she loves to worship and she she fills our house with spiritual

songs all the time she's at her piano but for me this is more of a big deal so i have to think

how can i live a life of constant thanksgiving and worship what does that look like for me

who's a little bit more analytical i think one of the things about psalms you know even if we take the

the psalms in scripture um they're so because they're poetry because they're songs they're lyrics

they're easy to remember the lord is my shepherd i shall not want and one of the most powerful things

that you can do when you're together in fellowship is actually to pray some of those things over one

another uh to be able to pray psalms um and i think the same can be the same can be true of

spiritual songs they help remind us of spiritual truths i think that the mindset thing is so

important because for me when i look at this passage there's a combination of head and heart

it's like in my heart i need to know that i'm loved and that this comes out of a place of i am deeply

loved i'm dearly loved and i can't do anything more to earn god's love and no matter how bad i mess up

i can't lose god's love so that gives me security so my motivation is that heart but at the same time

i need my mind to be working that stuff out one of the reasons i really love ephesians is that

it's actually one of the the passages in scripture that over the years i've looked to to um to commit

to memory or to memorize at least parts of it i've never got the whole way through

but to be able to have bits of ephesians that you can just fill your mind with um and i find that

when i'm praying for people i'll i'll pray the words of scripture um so using scripture using worship

to fill our minds other ways in which worship can be part of our everyday life i mean i i made fun of

the people that listening to worship music in the cars but it's quite good uh i don't do it but um

one of the things i do is i run and when i run i have my headphones in and i i ran out of all the

music that i like and so i thought well i might as well try some worship because i've run out of all

the good songs um and i found out that as i'm walking uh sorry i've given myself away as i'm trying to run

very slowly through the streets of bristol and i've got worship in my ears it actually affects me

it changes me it sets me up and every now and again i kind of get pumped and i'll start running

um in fact i ran this morning i did a little run this morning before work and it was a gospel choir

that started singing our god is a mighty god uh he reigns from heaven above and i started running

faster and faster because it started to affect me and we need to make sure that we are living lives

of worship and and thanking god it's so easy to come to god with a list of prayers and requests our

shopping list of burdens and that's not a bad thing but actually having lives where we're thanking god

um again i have this spiritual practice i i pray in my living room in the morning and i will go around

and i'll say thank you god for this sofa you provided this sofa for me thank you god for that picture of

our family when the girls were little thank you that you've you've given you know i just go around and

thank you for that plant i'm sorry i've killed it but going around being thankful to god these are

spiritual practices that can help us pray thank you so much for allowing me to to be here uh as i said

before i brought a few of these things what i brought is i brought some postcards that have um details of

the things that we offer so if you've got people who are in need of help whether that is just not

really coping with married life or family life or young kids or whether there's additional needs or

whether there's bereavement or just anything that we can help with as i alluded to we have a care

line where you just ring the number and say look i'm having this issue with um whoever it may be

but also if you want a little bit of a broader overview there's a book because family life matters

at the back if you want to you can become one of the we have thousands and thousands of people

across the uk that support us we do what we do because literally around about 15 000 people every

month give a little amount and if you'd like to kind of explore that you'd be very very welcome just

take one of these and you can do whatever it says but let's pray and commit these things to god now

father god

if we take nothing else from this evening i pray that we would just remember that we're dearly loved

that you cherish us that we're your children and lord out of that place of love we want to live

and walk the way of love father god you have made us light and rather than condemning us for those

things which we keep in the dark you invite us just to live in the light and to become lights to be

illuminated by you

lord we want to live in the light

and father as we have the challenge of day-to-day discipleship would you make us people that know

what it is to speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to have hearts that are full

of thanksgiving and overflowing with gratitude that we make music from the heart to you that we would be

worshipers of god and that our thinking would be wise that we would know what your will is

and that we're the kind of people that can be lights in this world because you shine upon us

lord help us i pray in the name of jesus and i pray for um the churches represented here

i pray that this time of easter we may be easter people resurrection people

who extend out the message of the good news that jesus christ has risen from the dead hallelujah

that those that we love who don't know you might be able to see that light

and find you as their father for themselves we pray this in the name of jesus amen amen thank you so much

you

you