The Tragedy of an Unopened Gift

So, we come to Ephesians chapter 1, and this is an amazing epistle in its way.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

People have described it in a variety of kind of really focused and, yeah, literary ways.

Somebody wrote this, that it is the refined essence of the whole gospel.

I remember hearing Billy Graham on a radio program in the USA, which is a bit similar to Desert Island Discs, and he was asked,

if you could only take one book or one epistle in the Bible, what would you take?

Billy Graham said, I take Ephesians every time.

Why, said the speaker, he said, because it tells me three things.

I'm going to come back to that in a minute.

But the gospel, which is enshrined in this book, praise God, has changed lives throughout the centuries and continues to change lives today.

Someone say hallelujah.

As we meet now, there are some people meeting in an Alpha group in the room next door to us,

praying for them, that those people who are challenged through the material that Alpha provides would come to know Christ themselves.

And the gospel, I think, is a really, well, if you ask me, you know, you'd probably say, well, you get paid for it.

Well, I don't anymore as it happens.

But the gospel, I think, is the only answer to the way that the world is at this time.

I really do believe that.

Since the Enlightenment, there has been a purposeful plot to kind of marginalize religion, certainly from public life, but marginalize it altogether.

And I think in some ways we see that happening in our culture.

On the other hand, people in your churches and people I talk to who are ministers or members of other churches are telling me that suddenly people are starting to turn up in their churches.

I mean, sadly, people still dying in churches, but there are some people kind of turning up to take their place on the pews of the church.

And that's a good thing.

But I want to say to you that this epistle, I think, if you wanted an epistle which would best sum up the gospel as revealed to us in Holy Scripture,

Ephesians, I think, is really good.

If you are of a more kind of academic, geeky mind, you might well think that Romans would be a very good competitor.

And I agree with that.

But in terms of succinctness, Ephesians is really, it kind of nails it, I think you would say.

So I just want to give you some facts.

I mean, these are kind of vaguely interesting to me.

The first of these is, who was this letter written to?

And the answer is not entirely clear.

And the reason for that, some of you who are in Christchurch on Sunday would have heard our preacher make reference to this.

In the very earliest text that we have in relation to the Bible,

the letter omits the words to the Christians in Ephesus.

This has led to a lot of speculation as to who wrote the epistle.

For myself, I accept it at face value.

I think St. Paul wrote it.

But one of the big bits of evidence that the people who doubt whether St. Paul wrote it,

some of them are linguistic people and say that there are certain themes that occur in Paul's other letters that don't occur in Ephesians.

But suppose that, if you can just hold this in your imagination for a moment,

let's just suppose for a moment that this was a circular letter.

It certainly went to the Ephesians, but didn't only go to the Ephesians.

I think you would write a letter entirely different if it was a circular letter than if you were writing to a particular location.

And I think it's likely that this was a round robin letter that went to the churches that Paul had planted.

Incidentally, we do have the narrative account of Paul's planting the church in Ephesus.

You can read about that.

If you like homework, here you go.

You can read about that in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Paul stayed in Ephesus for three years.

And his goal, what an amazing goal this is.

He wanted to preach the gospel to everybody in Asia Minor.

I mean, imagine that.

I mean, it wouldn't be the same.

It would be a much stiffer assignment today because a lot more people live there than live there then.

But what a great aspiration for a preacher that everybody within my sphere of influence

should hear the gospel from my lips.

So, I think this was a circular letter.

And I think the other bit of evidence that people say means Paul didn't write it

was that at the end of most of his letters, you remember he has these ascriptions to individuals.

At the end of Romans, he talks quite a lot about the people he knows in Rome.

At the end of Galatians, the same.

But there are none at the end of Ephesians.

And people say, well, that's not Paul at all.

Well, if we're right and this was a circular letter, that would make a big difference, wouldn't it?

You wouldn't be writing to individuals if the letter was going to be shown around a dozen congregations or whatever.

When was it written?

I think it was written.

Again, big debate amongst the scholars about this.

More modern scholarship tends to put the epistle around about A.D. 80.

I think I'd go with the more conservative scholars who say it's very likely that this epistle was written from Rome

in about the year A.D. 61-62

when Paul was in prison in Rome

at the end of one of his mission journeys.

So there we are.

I mean, you have to make your own mind about this.

I'm not sure that it was just a letter to the Ephesians,

though it certainly was a letter to the Ephesians.

I think Paul wrote it.

I think it was written around about 61-62 A.D.

Not long before, in fact, Paul died.

And the epistle was written from prison in Rome.

Why was the epistle written?

I think this is really important.

And it was important then.

And it might be even more important today.

I think there are three primary reasons why Ephesians was written.

It was written to remind us who we are in Christ.

And that seems to me to be a pretty fundamental question.

You remember, if you know your New Testament,

that Paul has a phrase he constantly repeats.

And the phrase is, in Christ.

And by in Christ, he means those people who have faith in Jesus Christ.

And they are, that come back to this,

but those who are in Christ are the only recipients of God's promises

outlined in the rest of the epistle.

Secondly, it's to remind us who we were without Christ.

At the beginning of chapter 2,

and I'll just give you a flavour of this.

I mean, it's not very flattering, to be quite honest with you.

Paul writes this kind of stuff.

As for you, he says, chapter 2, verse 1,

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 kingdoms of the air,

the spirit who is now at work to those who are disobedient.

And it gets a bit worse from there on in.

But what Paul's saying is,

never forget the magnitude of what Jesus Christ has done for you.

Never forget that.

And if you're going to get what,

the magnitude of what Jesus has done for you,

you need to be reminded of what you were before you came to Christ.

I was joking with somebody who I was putting some chairs out there,

was putting the back row ones out,

and they were debating whether to sit on the back seat.

And I said, well, when I was a teenager,

the back seat of the cinema was a highly prized place to sit.

She said, really?

I said, yeah, you know,

so you could lead young women astray on the back row kind of thing.

What, you?

I said, well, I wasn't a Christian then.

And so she said, really?

I said, yeah.

I said, because I was a moron.

And actually, that's what Ephesians chapter 2 tells me.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Before Christ, in God's eyes,

in my own eyes, as a matter of fact,

I was a moron.

And the third reason that Paul wrote this epistle

was to show us that belief and behavior

need to be in line with each other.

Paul repeatedly, in his epistles,

has a kind of stylistic characteristic.

And it's this.

First of all, he'll work out,

this is what you need to believe.

And then he'll say,

and because of that,

this is the way you need to behave.

I think that's reasonable.

We all, you know, would accept that

saying what we believe, you know,

would normally affect the way that we behave.

If we believe it's going to rain,

we'll take action,

maybe put a waterproof on

or take an umbrella or something like that.

We wouldn't welcome, you know,

somebody turns up at your house

and they've omitted to tell you

that they're vegetarian

and you're just about to serve Chateau Brion.

And it comes out and it looks delicious

and you're starting to share it

and the person says,

oh, I'm a vegetarian.

You're like, right, you know, great.

Sorry, that's not an offence against vegetarians.

But here's the thing.

If they then said,

oh no, I'll have a piece of that,

you would think they weren't that committed

to their vegetarianism, wouldn't you?

And the same is true of our faith.

If we claim to believe what we believe

when we believe the gospel

and we honour God's word

and our preacher on Sunday

reminded us of something really important,

which I wish churches together

had been here to hear what he said

because he said,

really when it comes to the unity of the church,

the starting point needs to be

some agreement as to the authority

of God's word, the Bible.

If we all think different things,

I mean, I've had,

I've had clergy say to me,

well, of course,

we don't read the Bible in our church anymore.

Why?

Because it's nonsense.

An ordained person.

God give me strength.

So, those are the three primary areas.

I'm going to come back to

the recipients of God's promise

a little later

in what I have to say to you.

So, in Ephesians 1 to 10,

in verse 1,

we get an important phrase.

You know, Paul started all his letters

with what's called an ascription.

That is a kind of ritualized way

of starting a letter.

And the letter to the Ephesians

is absolutely no different

in this respect.

And in that letter,

he starts by saying,

if I can find it,

he starts by saying,

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus

by the will of God.

I think that's really important.

It was really important to Paul

to know

that his route to apostleship

was not mainline.

All the other apostles

had been with Jesus.

Paul hadn't.

You remember the Damascus Road

conversion that he went through.

And in the Corinthian congregation,

there were people in that church,

because Paul had never been with Jesus,

there were people in that church

who really thought that

Paul was not a genuine apostle.

And they questioned his apostleship.

So Paul's laying out here

for the Ephesians

from verse 1 onwards.

An apostle of Christ Jesus

by the will of God.

God willed this.

It wasn't some historic accident

that I happened to be with Jesus

when he walked planet Earth.

No, I'm an apostle

by the will of God.

To the saints in Ephesus.

Who are the saints?

Well, certainly in the Church of England,

we tend to think of saints

as the kind of characters

who end up in stained glass windows.

And, you know,

some people find stained glass windows

extremely beautiful.

Some people are a little indifferent to them.

But actually, that's not the point.

When Paul's talking about

the saints in Ephesus,

he's talking about

every believer in Christ.

I remember once,

my wife and I used to work

on this lay Christian community,

and every day,

it was the task of

people in the community

to lead morning prayer

and to give a little thought

for the day.

I've never forgot

the one that this guy,

Uncle Johnny was called,

he was an older guy,

and he came,

and what he had was,

he had like an easel,

and there was

something covered up on it,

which was either a blackboard

or a picture or something.

And he talked about the saints,

and he made the point

that I've just made,

that in Paul's mind,

the saints were not the worthies

who end up in stained glass windows,

but were ordinary,

faithful Christians

who were in Christ.

And he invited

a member of the community

to come

and unveil what he described

as a picture

of a wonderful saint.

And this woman

trooped up to the front,

and he said,

now there you are,

he says,

like the queen,

you're unveiling a picture.

She pulled the cover off it,

and it was a mirror.

She saw herself.

I thought it made the point

very well.

That in Christ,

Paul would regard us

as the Hagioi,

the saints in Ephesus.

And then the usual description,

grace and peace to you

from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ.

It was pretty common

amongst Christians

who would write to each other

to put that kind of

ascription into a letter

that they wrote.

I mean,

you know,

one of the things

that does seem kind of

unbelievable to me is,

I mean,

have you ever written a letter

that in any way

resemble the letters

of St. Paul?

I mean,

it's just unbelievable

to think that anybody

would sit down

and write this stuff.

One of the people

who was talking about

the eloquence and beauty

of the epistle

to the Ephesians

said he was reminded

of Mozart

in his composition.

You remember Mozart?

It's said there.

He just kind of

leant over on his table,

and all these notes

were in his head,

and he just kind of

wrote them as if

somebody was dictating

them to him.

And the person said,

Ephesians is like

Paul's compositions.

It's like a kind of

stream of holy consciousness

from the mind

of this amazing man,

St. Paul.

Grace and peace to you

from God,

our Father,

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a Roman Catholic bishop

who I've started

to listen to a little bit

on YouTube.

His name is Robert Barron.

One of the big advantages

of his talks are

is they're about 12 minutes long

or 13 minutes long.

But I've noticed with him,

whenever he starts anything,

or if you meet him,

the first thing he will say to you,

a bit like the subscription,

he will say to you,

peace be to you,

peace be with you.

Of course,

the Anglicans always say

and also with you,

but it's him,

in a sense,

trying to give the,

what's about to follow

in your conversation,

a kind of base

in the peace of God

which passes all understanding.

So Paul goes on,

praise be to the God

and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ

who has blessed us

in the heavenly realms

with every spiritual blessing

in Christ.

I think I certainly said this

to the congregation

in Christ's church,

but does anybody remember

the Beverly Hillbillies?

Remember this kind of Hick family

who lived in central North America

and, you know,

I mentioned somewhere like Nebraska

and they're scratching a living

off, you know,

this kind of market garden

that they've got,

poor folks.

And one day,

old Jed is out

on the market garden

and he chucks his pickaxe

into the thing

and oil comes spurting out.

And suddenly,

they went from overnight

to being porpoise,

to being absolutely filthy rich.

So they did what filthy rich people

do in America

and they moved to California

and they bought this massive mansion

and they didn't realise

that to live in a massive house,

you need to have had prior experience

of living in a big house

because it's not straightforward.

So, you know,

there are these comic scenes

where they'd be in the billiard room

mistaking it for the dining room

and wondering what these nets were

in the corner of their dining room table.

And in the end,

they settled for living in the kitchen.

They got this marvellous 17-bedroom mansion

and most of their time

was spent in the kitchen.

I've often wondered,

is that an illustration for us?

That Paul's telling you here,

if you are in Christ,

that you have been blessed

with every spiritual blessing

in the heavenly realm.

You might be saying to yourself,

well, I don't know what that is,

you know,

what's that?

You know,

I've got my mind set on

earthly things.

But let me just outline for you

what I think,

and this is where

the New Testament's very helpful

because what happens is

Paul talks about

these spiritual blessings

and then he outlines them

in the rest of the verses

we're studying tonight.

So let me remind you

what those blessings are.

First of all,

in verse 4,

Paul tells us

that God chose you.

Chose you

before the creation of the world.

I mean,

that is just totally mind-boggling,

isn't it?

But God chose you.

You're not a Christian

by some random thing,

but God chose you.

Second,

it says,

he adopted you.

It says when we were born

in Genesis

that we were all born

in the image of the God,

but our sinfulness

and our wretchedness

shatters that image.

And God adopts us

and starts to rebuild

his image in us.

Verse 5.

Verse 6,

his glorious grace.

You know,

every day of my life

I thank God

for his grace.

His love shown to me

even though I don't deserve it.

And grace is,

you know,

I mean,

you all know that

and you know

that what grace is

is God's love

shown to us

even though we don't deserve it.

But then I think

we find it

a very difficult concept

to kind of settle

in our soul.

Especially in a kind of

meritocracy,

you know,

where we think

that people on the whole

get what they deserve.

Believe me,

if I got what I deserve,

I wouldn't be standing here

in front of you

this evening.

His glorious grace.

Fourthly,

God redeemed us.

Verse 7,

we're told.

That means

he bought us back.

To redeem a slave,

you had to pay

a sum of money.

And then the slave

could be freed.

And of course,

as Paul says,

the price

for your redemption

was the death

of Jesus Christ

on the cross

of Calvary.

We hear

much more about that

when we look

at chapter 2

next week.

Here's some other blessings

Paul mentions.

Verse 8,

wisdom and understanding.

Verse 9,

he's revealed to us

the mystery

of his will.

And mystery here

doesn't mean

the way that

we use it

in relation to

certain ways

that some churches

worship.

I mean,

I think there is

something very attractive

about churches

which carry an element

of mystery

in the way

that they worship.

But here,

the word mystery

means,

the revelation

of an event

previously unknown.

So when Paul's

talking about

the mystery

of his will,

what he's saying

is God is revealing

to us that which

we could not know

for ourselves.

And

the final thing

is,

our preacher

on Sunday

in this church

made,

I think,

really made

a really good job

of explaining

this.

He promises

a spectacular

fulfillment

of all things.

There will be

a time,

very hard to believe

in the current

climate,

when the sovereignty

of God

will be obvious

to all

and he will

return

and wind up

the whole

of human

history.

So,

these blessings,

it seems to me,

are,

frankly,

I wonder

to how many

of you

some of those

blessings are

kind of,

you know,

this is a new

discovery.

And let me just

stress,

Paul's writing

in the past

tense,

he's not saying

you'll get

all this stuff

sometime,

he says God

has blessed

you in the

heavenly realms

with every

spiritual gift.

So,

just a few

minutes exploring

some topics

that I think

have been

discussed

endlessly

in the

church

throughout

history.

One,

did God

choose us

or did

we choose

him?

Paul also

uses the

word

predestined

here,

and those

of you

who know

anything

about

church

history

and

know

anything

about

the

debate,

John Calvin,

one of the

great reformers

of the

church,

talked about,

picked up on

these verses,

some of them

are in

Romans,

some of them

in Ephesians,

that we are

predestined.

That is,

from the

beginning of

time,

God had

in his

mind those

whom he

would reveal

himself to

and save

from the

coming wrath.

Now,

that fact,

stated

broadly like

that,

I think

doesn't sit

well with

many of us.

and there

is a

school of

theology

that attacks

Calvin

and says,

well,

if Calvin

believed that,

why would

he ever

do any

mission or

evangelism?

If it was

all settled

anyway,

what's the

point?

That's not

a bad

question.

I mean,

it's not

actually what

John Calvin

himself ever

said.

Some of

his

lieutenants

reinforced

that point

a little

after his

time.

And,

you know,

there are

people,

extreme

Calvinists.

I remember

having a,

I was going

to say an

argument,

I mean a

loving debate

with a

friend of

mine in

Alabama,

in the

southern

states of

America.

And he

was like,

you should

never ever

make an

appeal for

people to

do something

in response

to the

gospel.

I said,

well,

nobody told

Billy Graham

that.

And,

no,

he said,

you know,

to do that

is a work

of the

Lord.

Billy Graham

had got

it wrong.

Anybody

who thinks

that we

have to

respond to

God's

choice of

us is

wrong.

And I

chose to

differ.

One of my

arguments was,

well,

when the

Philippian

jailer,

you know,

panicked

because all

his prisoners

had escaped,

and,

you know,

mouthed out

this question

aloud,

what must

I do

to be

saved?

The

apostles

didn't say

to him,

nothing,

mate,

it's all

settled.

Don't

worry about

it,

you know,

P.S.,

you're going

to hell.

They said,

no,

believe on

the Lord

Jesus Christ

and you

will be

saved.

I want

here to

introduce

you to

the idea

of paradox.

A paradox

is two

statements

which

apparently

contradict

each

other

but can

be held

in creative

tension

with each

other

in such

a way

that it

reveals a

truth.

And the

paradox

is this,

Paul here

is saying

that God

chose us,

chose you,

before the

beginning of

time.

On the

other hand,

we know

that Paul

invited people

to trust

Christ.

There is,

we have to

respond to

the love

and grace

of God.

And though

those statements

can be

used,

if you

like,

to create

an unhelpful

tension,

was I

chosen

or did

I choose?

I mean,

to understand

the thing,

I mean,

I think it's

tricky for

us because

you have

to understand

that in

our culture

choice has

a very

elevated

status.

we all

like to

think we

choose.

In a

consumer

society,

one of the

gods we

worship is

the god

of choice.

More

choices,

the better.

I mean,

that might

not be a

bad thing

if you're

talking about

cheese

crackers,

but it

becomes a

really serious

thing if

you're talking

about sexual

lifestyles.

choice in

our culture,

as I say,

has been

elevated to

the point

of it has

a kind

of energy

of its

own.

You know,

you must

never question

people's

right to

choose.

This has

been reinforced

incidentally

by identity

politics on

the one

hand and

the whole

idea of

rights on

the other

hand.

I mean,

no Christian

probably is

going to be

ipso facto

against human

rights,

but what you've

got to bear

in mind is

the moment I

express my

rights,

the danger

is,

and this is

what judges

are left to

sort out

at the moment,

is when do

my rights

trump your

rights?

I wouldn't

like to be

a judge,

trust me,

and if I

was a judge,

I'd be a

pretty fierce

one.

And so

understanding the

way choice is

helps us to

understand why

we sit a

little uncomfortably

with one half

of the paradox

where Paul is

telling us

that we've

been chosen

from before

the beginning

of time.

And the

whole

predestination

debate stems

from that

fact and

slightly ignores

the fact

that it is

true that

throughout

scripture

you find

people who

do something

to respond

to God.

People like

Zacchaeus.

Was Zacchaeus

wrong to

climb that

tree?

Was that a

work of the

law in

Paul's

lingo?

Or was it

his way

of coming

to Christ?

So paradoxes,

two statements.

Here are the two

statements I'm

talking about.

on the one

hand, the

statement that

we're chosen

before time,

that's the end

of it.

The other

one is,

we choose.

I was

six years

old,

no, five

years old,

when the

Billy Graham

crusade in

Haringey took

place.

Looking at

some of you,

you're old

enough to

remember that.

it was the

most successful

evangelistic

campaign that

Billy Graham

ever ran

outside of

mainland

America.

Thousands and

thousands and

thousands of

people chose

to follow

Jesus, came

down to the

front of the

auditorium, and

were taken

off and

counseled.

A lot of

those people,

sadly only men

in those days,

were joined

into ministry.

The Methodist

Church, got

into ministry

in the Church

of England.

I mean, a lot

of them now,

who are ministers,

who came to

Christ in that

crusade, I

don't think

would espouse

the theology

that underlay

that crusade,

but nevertheless,

it was a

tipping point

for them.

Hundreds of

men and

women came

forward and

were saved.

I still meet

people occasionally

who tell me

they were

saved at the

Haringey

Crusade in

1954.

That tells

me two

things.

They've been

saved for

eternity, and

secondly, they

must be older

than me.

So the

predestination

debate, I

don't think

it's an

either or

choice, I

think it's

a both

and.

I think

there is a

sense in

which we're

chosen, and

by in that

sense, what I

mean is,

there is

nothing about

your conversion

at any

point, that

God was

not the

instigator

of.

There are

some dear

friends in

the audience

tonight who

went to the

last alpha

group that

this church

ran.

And that's

not kind

of accidental.

You know,

that's something

that God

wanted for

them at that

time.

and from

what I

can see,

it was a

powerful thing

that happened.

But it

calls for a

response.

And I'm not

going to say

that responding

to God is a

work of the

law, which

some extreme

Calvinists would

say.

No, I'm

going to tell

you that I

think I

heard the

gospel preached

once, I was

in such a

state, I

gave my

life to

Christ there

and then.

I was

invited to,

and I

did.

And then

in verse

10, the

last verse

we read,

Paul talks

about what's

going to

happen at

the end.

God's made

known to us

the mystery

of his will

according to

his good

pleasure, which

he purposed

in Christ.

This is not

random.

It's one of

the things

that, you

know, I

always want to

say to the

new atheists,

you know, there's

nothing random

in this

life.

If you

think that

the beauty

of this

world, the

order of

this world,

was the

act of a

random

collision of

atoms at

the right

temperature,

you've got

more faith

than I

have.

So, where

are we

fixing our

eyes at

the moment?

Are we

fixing our

eyes purely

on what

we see

now?

To

Corinthians

4.18,

Paul says

this, he

said, we

don't fix

our eyes

on the

things that

are transitory,

which are

now.

He said, no,

we fix

our eyes

on the

things that

are eternal.

I mean, do

we enough?

Now, how

much time do

you spend

thinking about

what happens

to you when

you die?

How much

time do

you spend

thinking about

the transition

from this

life to

heaven if

you're in

Christ?

Christ?

No, I

think the

African

church and

the

Asian

church look

at the

church in

the west

and they

think,

people have

said it to

me, you

know, trouble

with your

churches, it's

worldly.

Why is it

worldly?

Because we're

too focused

on this

life, we're

too focused,

as Paul said,

not on the

spiritual blessings

in the heavenly

realms, but the

blessings that

we have or

desire in

this life.

Somebody said

a new heart

is better than

a new car.

I wonder how

many of us

believe that.

It struck me,

you know, the

moment it said

it, it made

me think of

recently, Ant

and I walking

along the

road and

there was a

model of a

car I really

covered there

and I went

into a kind

of a

shambolic

state and

looked at

this car and

then I

remembered that

phrase as I

had been

preparing what

I was going

to say

tonight, a

new heart

is more

exciting than

a new car.

I love that.

So here are

some things for

you to ponder

this Lent very

briefly as I

come to a

close.

The first

thing is the

clarity of

the direction

of God's

promises.

Look, these

are not

abstract promises.

These are not

just some

random thoughts

that St. Paul

was spewing

out because

he couldn't

think of

anything else

to say to

the Ephesians.

The clarity

of the direction

is amazing.

And one of

the things that

you need to

understand is

that all

these promises

relate to

people who

are in

Christ.

I have no

idea whether

there are other

ways that you

can get to

heaven.

But I know

one way, and

that's the way

Paul outlines in

this gospel that

we're about to

study.

And, you

know, I'm

sure that there

will be some

prizes, some

surprises for

us all in

heaven.

Second, we

talk a lot

about identity

in our

culture.

And of

course, identity

is far more

complicated than

just aligning

yourself with

one particular

group.

I mean, what

would you say

you're, if

somebody said

to me, what's

your identity?

I would say,

I'm a Christian,

I'm a husband,

I'm a father,

not very good

at it, but I

am one.

I would say,

I'd say stuff

like that.

The first thing

I would say,

my primary

identity is in

Christ.

I am his, and

he is mine, as

the old hymn

put it.

Thirdly, how

much do we

live in the

light of the

spiritual gifts,

in the

spiritual blessings

in the heavenly

realms?

Or is the

truth, we're

far too

focused in the

Western church

on earthly

blessings?

And finally,

do I need to

refocus on

God's future?

Are my eyes

truly fixed on

the things that

are permanent

and eternal?

Or are they

fixed too much

in the here and

now?

I've often

wondered, you

know, my

burden, incidentally,

is that as

churches in

this town of

ours, that we

might yet

cooperate better

together in

getting a plan

to re-evangelize

this town.

I would love to

see that happen.

I think some

things are going

to have to

change before

that does

happen, but

nevertheless, I

think a plan

together to

re-evangelize

this town

could be an

amazing thing.

It starts a

bit like this

when Christians

who don't

normally sit

together on a

Sunday gather

together in a

church on a

Tuesday evening

for six weeks.

years.

But I don't

want to waste

that energy.

I don't want

us to just

have, I hope

you will have a

good six weeks

here together,

but I want more

than that.

I want to see

us bring this

amazing gospel

that we will

unwrap in the

course of the

next few weeks,

see where we go

with it.

I'm up for it.

Anybody wants to

join me, you're

most welcome.

Thank you.