The Mystery Revealed

Thirty years ago, I was on a plane in O'Hare Airport in Chicago, when this very cool guy, beautiful suit, expensive hand luggage, came into the cabin.

! I was feeling amazingly blessed as I managed to get my ticket bumped up into business class.

After paying a pittance to travel. So I was sitting there, I got up because he had the window seat.

And like Americans do, he thrust out his hand and told me his name.

So I responded by telling him my name.

And he said to me, it's the kind of question that clergy don't really like to be asked when they're in Mufti.

He said, what do you do for a living?

And I was tempted to say, I'm in middle management in some national organisation.

But I sort of thought if I said that, I'd hear a cock crow in my head or something and it might break down.

So he's kind of stiffened.

He said to me, you need to know I have nothing to do with religion.

He said, I've never had a religious thought in my life.

But you have one minute to tell me why it's important to you.

What would you say?

What would you say?

I mean, I can't remember what I said.

It's 30 years ago now.

And I can just about remember why I'm standing here at the moment.

And he proceeded to drain the liquid contents of the business class cabin and fell into a coma.

And we said goodbye to each other.

We didn't exchange telephone numbers or anything like that.

And I did think about him once or twice.

And I mean, I can't say that faithfully I prayed for him, that whatever I said would influence him.

But I did think of him occasionally.

And when I thought of him, I thought to myself, I wonder what kind of persons Paul had in mind when he said, you know, God can do infinitely more than we ever dare to ask or imagine.

And it would be maybe 10, 12, possibly 15 years later.

In the days of faxes.

Remember them?

And suddenly my machine started to whir about 5.30 in the evening.

And he was from this guy.

He said, you might remember me.

We sat next to each other.

He said, I appreciate I was a little antisocial.

But I thought you might like to know.

And you might even like to pray for me.

Because tonight I'm being baptised.

And it was in a church actually in Brussels that I knew quite well.

And I knew the minister there.

And the minister there relayed to me what an amazing turnaround there had been in the mind of this man.

And the reason he was so kind of embittered and so unwilling to listen to the gospel was that his 21-year-old beautiful daughter had died of leukemia some two or three years before I bumped into him.

And tonight one of the things we'll hear about from verse 1 in this passage in a few moments.

is

what do we do?

Where do we turn

when bad things in life happen to us?

Before that, I just want to do a quick recap on the things we were talking about last week.

And I said there were three things that I thought, you know, it's up to you, but three things I thought that you might like to talk about at this Lent.

One was, do I really believe?

Have I really processed the truth that if I am in Christ, as Paul would put it, I am forgiven?

Or do I still live under a cloud of guilt?

Two, can I truly accept God's grace, this idea that God loves me even though I may have lived a life which would not normally deserve his love?

And thirdly, this is a question for believers only, am I working hard on those good works that God has prepared in advance for me?

And I said, you know, there's three good questions for Lent that you could think about, and I don't know if you have, but I would suggest you might.

I came across this week in my preparations another way to look at the Ephesian literature.

And this pattern basically divides the whole epistle into three sections.

The first section is chapters 1 to 3.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

Where Paul is talking about the wealth of the believer.

You remember in chapter 1 we're told that in Christ God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual gift.

Then the person who wrote this framework up said,

we move from the wealth of the believer to the walk of the believer.

That is, given that this is what you believe, this is the way that you should behave.

And our speaker in church on Sunday made the very good point that a lot of churches seem to get the idea that if you want to come amongst us,

you better behave.

In the hope that if you come amongst us, some of it may rub and you come to believe.

And he was questioning whether or not we should be like that.

And you know that phrase that's used in churches frequently,

all are welcome.

And I attended this Methodist church in Cornwall, which some friends of ours went to.

It was this rather dear Methodist lay preacher with a very fine Cornish brogue.

And he would say, after the service today, there'll be a sausage sizzle.

And my daughter, Mahalia, will be singing at it.

All are welcome.

I mean, I have no idea how many people went.

I didn't go myself.

But we say all are welcome.

But I think, you know, there may be occasions when we really need to face the truth.

That actually, in a lot of churches, a lot of people who show up in goodwill don't feel welcome.

And we need to think about that.

I heard a speaker today.

No, I heard it was at the prayer meeting this morning that I attended.

And somebody was saying, it's Mothering Sunday this Sunday.

And, you know, that's a really sad day for a lot of people.

And that's true.

And, you know, I often wonder whether we should call it Motherhood Sunday.

So it's not quite as, you know, stigmatizing for people who are not mothers.

But I don't know.

So from the wealth of the believer to the walk of the believer.

And then the very last shortish section, which I suspect in our churches, and I shall say this again to you in a couple of weeks, the warfare of the believer.

That is, we're involved with the principalities and powers.

Paul says that's where our real battle lies.

And then he tells us to put on the full armor of God.

And to pray at all times in the Spirit.

So I have this kind of anxiety about the warfare bit.

And that is, in most churches, they don't even take it seriously at all.

And in some churches, they're totally obsessed by it and find the work of the devil under every stone they can overturn.

And I want to say to you, I think we do need to take it seriously.

But we don't need to be obsessed because Jesus Christ has already won the victory over the evil one on the cross of Calvary.

So that's another way to look at it.

And what's great about this text, I'm not going to read this to you tonight.

But you might like, if you like homework, you might like to do this.

But you might like to look at the story of Paul's arrest.

Remember I told you that this letter was written very likely from Rome where Paul was in prison.

He was later transferred to Jerusalem and held in house arrest in Jerusalem.

But at this point, he was chained to a Roman army prison officer.

And you can read about that in Acts chapter 21, verses 17 to the end.

Acts 21:17

And the interesting thing about Paul's imprisonment was that, first off, he should never have been in prison.

He was a Roman citizen.

And Roman citizens had a lot of rights.

I mean, basically the way it worked out if you were a Roman citizen, was that if somebody did something to you,

and the person was caught, the full might of the Roman Empire would be brought to bear on them.

And, you know, as we know, you might well end up being crucified upside down on the Appian Way or some such place.

So he was in prison wrongly because he was a Roman citizen.

But even worse, he was falsely accused.

What he was accused of was saying, because, we'll talk about this a bit more in a moment,

but because Paul saw his primary ministry to preach the gospel to the Gentiles,

he was accused of being dismissive by the scribes and the Pharisees,

of being dismissive about the law in the Old Testament.

Paul wasn't dismissive of it at all.

Incidentally, nor was Jesus.

You know, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says,

I didn't come to change a jot or tittle of the law.

I came to fulfill it.

Two different things.

I was telling somebody I had to go to Long Ashton on Sunday and give a talk on...

There's some people, and I mean, there are quite a lot of people like this, surprisingly, in many ways,

who think that we should never read the Old Testament in public worship, you know, all that butchery.

Actually, less than 0.01% of the Old Testament is to do with butchery.

In fact, there's a lot more stuff in the Old Testament calling sinful Israelites to repentance

than there is about violence and death and all that kind of thing.

So, Paul describes himself in verse 1 as a prisoner of Christ.

Interestingly, there is a new version of the New Testament.

Of course, there is.

Called the English Standard Version.

You may have seen a copy of it.

As far as I know, it is the only modern translation of the New Testament

where instead of saying that Paul...

When Paul describes himself as the prisoner of Christ Jesus,

the ESV says the prisoner for Christ Jesus,

which I think carries a sense that the actual Greek word won't carry.

I think he was a prisoner of.

Christ Jesus.

But that in itself is a very interesting statement.

Because technically, Paul was a prisoner of the Roman Empire.

To be accurate, he was a prisoner of Caesar Nero,

who was not a nice man.

And he was in a Roman prison

and was something that would be held by the Romans in Jerusalem.

And I think they asked the very interesting question of,

really, whose prisoner was Paul?

I think if you'd asked the man in the street

whose prisoner Paul was,

they would have said, well, Nero's, the Romans.

But actually, Paul described himself differently.

He says, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus

for the sake of you Gentiles.

I think that raises a very interesting question.

And I think it's raised the same question

for Christians throughout the ages.

And that is, in the end,

who is in charge of your life?

In the world today,

there are two dominant philosophies.

One is fatalism.

You know,

you know,

Garrison Keeler,

in one of his stories about Lake Wobegon,

says that the town motto was,

we are what we are.

And actually, just so you know this,

do you know, I mean,

if you're part of Prayer for Clevedon,

keep your mouths delicately closed at this point.

But do you know what the motto

of Clevedon Council is?

Shout it out.

Watch and pray.

Isn't that amazing?

So as a group,

which I get to as often as I can,

that meets to pray for Clevedon,

I'm sure they'd love to see some of you at that.

It's a good time together to pray for our town

and those setting authority over us.

But making the decision

as to who is really in charge of your life

is a very critical issue.

And it's been a critical issue

for Christians throughout the ages

and for people in this church this evening.

And one of the times that we discover

who is really in charge of our lives

is when something goes wrong.

As I said, there are two things there,

philosophies that underlie the way

a lot of people think today

and indeed the way quite a lot of Christians think.

One is what's called fatalism,

that is stuff happens,

get over it kind of thing.

And the other is determinism,

which is a far more subtle thing

and in my view has found its way into churches

in a way that's not been that helpful.

Determinism is this idea

that all human actions

take place because of circumstances

beyond ourselves.

So you will have heard it often said,

you know, when a prisoner is in court

that some barrister stands up and says,

well, my Lord, you know,

poor old Harry here,

you know, he came from a broken home.

He flunked it in school

and it's not his fault

that he bashed this person over the head.

And the trouble with the kind of determinist thing is,

I mean, people blame biology,

they blame their parents,

they blame all kinds of things

for their circumstances today.

That would be determinist thinking.

There's a man called Professor Robert Sapolsky

who's written a scary book called Determined.

And what that book argues is that

anything we do is the result

of our internal programming

and external circumstances.

So it's either your genes

or it's your background.

And of course, up to a point,

we can't say that our backgrounds

don't affect us.

But on the other hand,

we can't keep excusing

our bad behavior

on the basis of it's not really my fault,

you know.

My mother didn't make a great job

of, you know,

nappy training me,

so, you know,

that's the reason I'm a serial killer.

I'm exaggerating to make a point.

But look, here's the thing.

The trouble with determinism,

and I think this has found its way

into our churches,

is it is a machine

to create perpetual victimhood.

It's never my fault.

If I can always throw the ball

out to the wing,

then I'm never responsible

for my behavior.

And in my view,

it's one of the most childish

facets of adulthood

is not to understand

that behavior has consequences.

consequences.

My view is,

it's rule one

of being a parent

that you need to teach

your children

that behavior

has consequences.

I don't think

that's saying anything

particularly controversial,

although if you were

a couple of generations younger,

you'd probably,

you know,

I'd be outed

on mum's net

or something.

So Paul saw his,

that Jesus was in charge

of his life.

He's in prison.

He's not getting great food.

He's chained to a bloke

24 hours a day.

And he still recognizes

that who's in charge

of his life

is Christ Jesus.

And I think the problem

for us is that

especially when times

are difficult,

when things are not going,

how we would like

them to go.

The big problem

is this.

We start to forget

that Jesus

is in charge

of our lives.

If you have

an addictive illness,

you know,

you need to be very honest

with yourself

about who's in charge

of your life.

Is it your addiction

or is it Christ Jesus?

If you're going through

a hard time,

where will you turn?

You know,

I love Psalm 121.

It's going to be read

tomorrow at my friend

of mine's funeral service,

which I have to speak at,

where the psalmist says,

it's what they call

a psalm of,

it's a psalm that was said

as the Israelites

traveled to the big feasts

in Jerusalem.

And Psalm 121

is a well-known psalm.

And the first line of it,

I think,

asks a very deep

existential question.

And it's this.

Sorry,

I'm in 121,

don't I?

I lift up my eyes

to you,

to you whose throne

is in heaven.

Sorry,

Psalm 121.

I lift up my eyes

to the hills,

whence does my help

come from?

That is a very profound

existential question.

Where do you turn

when your life

is under pressure?

And if Jesus

is in charge

of your life,

you will do well

to turn to him,

will you not?

But it's amazing,

isn't it,

how many of us

in times have,

it's the kind of last thing,

I must say,

I chastise myself sometimes.

You know,

I'm in a situation,

somebody comes in

and says something,

and sometimes I think,

why is the last thing

I think about

praying?

You know,

I generally

want to think of myself

as somebody

who's prayerful

and I like to come

to prayer meetings here

and I like to think

of those that I know

and lots of people

I don't know.

So Paul

is telling us

by telling us

that he's a prisoner

of Christ Jesus,

though he's in prison,

who is in charge

of his life.

I mean,

are you aware of this,

that Paul's ministry

in prison

was unbelievably

productive

he wrote

the epistle

to the Ephesians,

he wrote the epistle

to the Philippians,

he wrote the epistle

to the Colossians,

and he wrote

the letter

to Philemon

all at times

when he was in prison.

And,

you know,

I'm glad we've got

those epistles

to look at

and to study together,

all written

from prison.

Paul was very clear

under whose authority

he served.

He was a prisoner

of Christ.

Let me just ask you,

are we as clear

as that?

Not that we're in prison,

but that we are

servants

of Christ.

And that should be

the determining factor

in all that we do

and all that we say.

when I was

a brand new Christian,

I went to this

very strict

church,

and

there were all

kinds of rules,

and one of them

was that

if you were

single

and you were

near a single woman,

there's no way

you should get

more than nine inches

closer to her.

Right?

I mean,

I never,

you know,

I never argued

with our cure

and said,

well,

you know,

it just gives you

a little bit of,

you know,

leeway.

But nine inches

was the rule,

but the better rule

that he gave us was,

he said,

I hope you will

never do anything

when you're with

your girlfriend

that Jesus,

if you imagine

Jesus looking at you,

would you be ashamed?

Wow.

So Paul was very clear

under whose authority

he served,

and this Lent,

you might like to just

mull over in your mind,

how clear are you

about the authority

of Christ Jesus

in your life?

And then

we come

in verse two

to the big deal,

the very big deal

in this

whole epistle

as a matter of fact.

And when Paul's

talking about

the dispensation

of grace,

he's not talking

about saving faith.

He's talking

about the way

that God revealed

a mystery to him.

And the mystery

related to

an issue

that could have

torn the early church

apart.

And that was,

is the gospel

only for Jews?

Or is it for Jews

and Gentiles?

that was the issue

why Paul

was in prison?

And,

you know,

Paul had a very

challenging message

in a

divided world,

and in Galatians

chapter three

and verses

26 to the end,

he talks

about,

he says this,

there is

neither Jew

nor Greek,

slave nor free,

male nor female,

for you are

all one

in Christ

Jesus.

Two really

significant points

here to bring

out.

One is

that Paul knew

that real change

comes from the

preaching of the

gospel.

Paul had

different ways

of doing it.

if you read

Acts,

you will read

there that

Paul's plan

if he went

into the synagogue,

when he arrived

in a new town,

he went straight

to the synagogue,

and he tried

to prove

from the Old

Testament

that Jesus

was the

promised Messiah.

And a few

Jews believed,

lots of them

didn't,

but a few

did.

When he,

and we only

have one

example of this

in the New

Testament,

and that's

in Acts

Acts 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17

when Paul

is in Athens

and he stands

on this hill

which is

outside the

Areopagus

called

the,

what's it

called?

The Areopagus.

Areopagus.

And if you

go there,

by the way,

it's been

climbed on

by so many

preachers,

it's really

shiny and

dangerous.

It's really

easy to get

up there,

but it's

quite difficult

to get down.

And I

think when

we were

there,

somebody

broke their

wrist trying

to get down

off it.

But the

big deal

in this

gospel

addresses

that thing

that could

have caused

a major

dispute

in the

life of

the early

church.

Is this

deal,

the gospel,

only for

Jewish people

or is it

for Gentiles

as well?

Paul's

conviction

from the

earliest days

of his

conversion

were,

this is for

Gentiles as

well.

That was

dynamite

in terms

of the

expectation

of the

Jews.

And Paul,

Peter,

you remember

in Acts

Acts 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10,

has this

kind of weird

dream where

he sees all

these animals

and gets

to the end

of it and

God says

to him,

look,

none of

these animals

are going

to make you

unclean.

And his

understanding

of his

dream is

that the

gospel is

for all

creatures.

I mean,

that's true,

I don't know

if you think

about this,

but I mean,

you know,

the prophecies

of Isaiah,

you get this

idea that the

whole of

creation will

be redeemed.

And do you

remember he

talks about

the lion lying

down with

the lamb?

And I

mean,

it's quite,

you know,

challenging to

think of lions

becoming

vegetarians.

Maybe vegans,

I don't know.

So this

dispensation

of grace,

Paul,

when he

talks about

a mystery,

I told you

this last

week,

a mystery

here is

not like

we've got

to get

together the

clues and

find out

who done

it.

But the

mystery is

an ancient

fact that

suddenly God

reveals.

And of

course,

in the

Old Testament,

you can

find evidence.

that God's

concern was

for all

people,

not just

for his

chosen

people.

And certainly

in the

New Testament,

Paul led

the charge

on preaching

the gospel

to the

Gentiles.

And here's

the thing,

and sadly,

I think we

are losing

this in the

21st century

church.

That Paul

wrote in

Romans chapter

Romans 1 · chapter mention

1,

you remember

this verse,

verse 16.

Paul says,

I'm not

ashamed of

the gospel.

Well,

I have the

horrible feeling

that there are

a lot of

churches up and

down this

country which

are very

unsure as

to whether

the gospel

is the right

thing to

preach.

Romans chapter

Romans 1 · chapter mention

1 in verse

16,

I'm not ashamed

of the gospel.

Why?

Because it is

the power of

God for the

salvation of

everyone who

believes.

I mean,

when you read

that, you

kind of ask

yourself,

well, why

wouldn't we

preach that?

If it's the

power,

if it's the

power of

God for the

salvation of

everyone,

it needs to

be released

into this

world.

Paul gives

us a

little

framework as

to his

understanding

of the

gospel in

chapter 15

of 1

Corinthians,

in the

first few

verses there,

I won't

bother reading

that to you

tonight.

The issue

of Jews

and Gentiles

and who's

the gospel

for was the

very reason

that Paul

was in

prison.

And his

amazing

conclusion was

it's for

all people.

I want to

go back to

what I was

saying at

the beginning.

If I

said to

you, you

know, do

you think

the gospel

is for

all people?

And then

I said to

you, and

do you

think your

churches

should be

inclusive?

I don't

think there's

anybody in

the house

who would

say, certainly

not.

I think

you'd all

think that

the churches

should give

a welcome

to anybody

and everybody.

And I

think you

would say

that the

gospel is

for all

people, for

all classes,

races,

et cetera,

et cetera.

And

look,

I think we

got to

really think

60 years

ago, a

movement

started called

the Gospel

and Culture

Movement.

And what

that movement

was about in

its early

days was

working out

how do we

preach the

gospel in

different cultures.

It's a good

question.

tradition.

I think

anybody who's

been a

youth pastor

would say

that the

way they

preach the

gospel to

youngsters isn't

quite the

same as

you would

preach to

older people.

I mean,

basically, the

tenets are

the same,

but they

might use

different

illustrations,

different

parables to

kind of get

their message

across.

But it's

the

Gospel and

Culture

Movement

migrated

somewhat

and

started to

ask questions.

Well, hang

on.

If all

organizations

have a

culture,

maybe our

churches have

a culture,

and maybe we

need to think

some more

about that

culture,

because we

blithely stand

at the front

and say,

all are

welcome,

but do

they feel

welcome?

I remember

in my church,

which was in

the so-called

yacht and

yogurt belt

of South

Buckingham,

and I

remember the

first time

a chap came

to church

in the summer

with his

short-sleeved

shirt,

and he had

tattoos,

sleeves as they

call it,

on both arms.

I mean,

I'm going back

a long time

now.

And people

were horrified

that he

would come

forward for

communion and

put his

tattooed arms

out to

receive it.

And,

you know,

we're all

relatively

intuitive.

We can kind

of get,

you know,

am I welcome

here or am I

not?

I thought to

myself,

and, you

know,

I'm somebody

who is

conservative

on issues

of human

sexuality,

but I

think,

you know,

all people

are welcome

in our

churches,

and I

thought,

you know,

what must

it be like

to be a

gay person

and come

to church,

particularly

30 years

ago.

I mean,

you know,

public attitudes

have changed

a lot.

I thought

to myself,

what must

it be like

if you've

been imprisoned?

And people

know it.

Are you,

can we

really make

people like

that feel

welcome?

Well,

the answer

is yes,

but it's

got to be

thought about.

And the

kind of

pat phrase,

all are

welcome,

I think

sometimes can

be very

unselfaware

when we

say it.

And Paul

goes on,

says this

amazing thing,

that in

chapter 6

he talks

about the

rulers and

authorities

and he

also mentions

them in

chapter 3.

And he

thinks it's

a very good

thing that

in preaching

the gospel

to the

Gentiles,

he's

preaching it

to the

rulers and

authorities

of this

present age.

That is,

those forces

that you

cannot see

but are

at work

in the

world

which are

malign.

Forces

that can

oppress

your life,

forces

that can

create

war and

rumours

of war

and all

that kind

of thing.

And Paul

thinks,

one of the

great things

about the

gospel

is that

it turns

back,

it limits

their

malign

power in

this world.

love.

And

here's my

final point

for tonight.

So in

towards the

end of

this chapter,

I love

this.

Paul says,

I pray

that out

of his,

that is

God's

glorious

riches,

he may

strengthen

you with

power through

his spirit

in your

inner being

so that

Christ may

dwell in

your hearts

through

faith.

I'm always

telling

Christians

because there

is this

kind of

slightly

superficial

idea around

that if

I become

a Christian

my problems

are over.

Nothing

bad will

ever happen

to me

because I've

got the

Lord on

my side.

And

actually

Jesus said,

didn't he,

the rain

will fall

on the

good and

bad alike.

And I

think this

verse gives

you a clue

to God's

divine

strategy to

do with

hardship

and that

is,

God won't

protect you

from everything

that goes

wrong in

your life.

But he

will give

you inner

strength.

He'll give

you the

inner strength

to hang

together.

I've

never

forgotten

this,

but I

remember

when we

had a

terrible

car accident

and poor

auntie was

very badly

injured and

my family,

apart from

my son,

gathered in

the John

Ratcliffe

Hospital in

Oxford.

I've never

forgotten

this.

So this

guy comes

out in

scrubs.

They've had

emptier in

there for

three or

four hours

and this

guy comes

out in

scrubs and

he said,

I think we

need to have

a word.

So have a

word.

And he

took us to

the side

room.

And fortunately,

I think I was

the only one of

the five of us

who saw this,

but on the

door there

was a sign

that said

bereavement

room.

I'm thinking,

oh my

goodness.

So he

went in

there and

anyway,

it turned

out auntie

hadn't died

and he

explained to

her that

her injuries

were pretty

extensive and

she was

under a,

they'd

induced a

coma and

his line

was the

next 24

hours will

be critical.

Well,

if you know

auntie,

she's here

tonight.

I mean,

she survived

that amazingly.

But my

four daughters

and I,

we went to

what they

call the

visitors'

room in

the intensive

care unit

and we

prayed to

quite late

into the

night,

or should I

say into

the early

morning.

And at the

end of it,

I think we

did have this

conviction.

I certainly

did have it

very strongly

and as we

got no

idea,

I mean,

we prayed

that God

would heal

healthier,

but our

deeper

awareness

was that

whatever

happened,

we would

be given

the strength

to carry

on.

I pray

that out

of his

glorious

riches,

he may

strengthen

you with

power

through his

spirit

in your

inner being.

I thank

God for

that promise

that Paul

writes there.

His inner

strength helps

us because

it reveals

the truth

about God

to us

and it

strengthens

us from

the inside

out.

Going back

to what I

was saying

is in

times of

trouble,

it's often

we grasp

at things

which are

external to

us to

help us.

No,

God's plan

is that he

wants to

strengthen us

from the

inside out,

that we

might face

the terrible

things that

can happen

to us

in our

lives

by this

strength.

And Paul

says,

verse 20,

it's a power

that's already

working within

us.

He also

says,

the power

in terms

of its

ability to

do more

than we

can ever

ask or

imagine,

is

unimaginable.

people.

And in

verse 21,

Paul tells

us,

it reveals

the glory

of God

in the

church.

I think

that when

it comes

to your

role as

witnesses in

the church,

if I might

say this

politely to

you,

I think

people are

much more

interested to

know in

how you

have coped

with hardship

in your

life than

whether or

not God

found a

parking space

for you in

the supermarket

car park.

I'm not

saying he

isn't

interested in

your parking.

He'd be

very interested

in mine.

I can never

park straight.

But see

what I mean?

I mean,

I think there

is power

in testimony

where God

has really,

really helped

us through a

difficult time

in our lives.

testimony.

I've found

testimonies to

be of varying

value that

I've heard

in church.

I've never

got this

confirmation

I was taking

and a

minister came

to me and

said,

we've got

three of

the young

people who

want to

give a

testimony.

And two

of them

were,

you know,

pretty good,

I thought.

And the

last one was

this boy

got up and

comes ambling

up to the

front and

says to him,

so,

Jeremy,

why are you

getting confirmed

tonight?

He said,

well,

my grandson

said she'd

buy me a

bike.

I didn't

talk to him

afterwards,

but I kind

of thought,

it's not

what we want,

is it,

that kind

of thing.

So,

here you

go.

three

questions for

you to

think about

this Lent.

Where do

I find

strength in

time of

need?

Second,

what does

it mean to

make Jesus

the authority

over my

life?

And three,

do we

take the

rulers and

authorities,

these hidden

forces at

work in

the heavenly

realms,

whose influence

is malign?

do we

take them

seriously

enough?

Thank you.