Today on the Evangelist Podcast, Freedom and Why None of Us Have It.
SPEAKER_00The Evangelists Podcast. Encouragement to speak life to a needy world. With Glenn Scrivener and Andy Brinkley.
SPEAKER_03This is the Evangelist Podcast, encouraging you in sharing your faith. I'm Andy Brinkley, Media Producer, and here is Glenn Scrivener, our evangelist and director of Speak Life. And who's been away for the last three weeks?
SPEAKER_01I have.
SPEAKER_03I hardly remembered what you looked like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you've just been rattling around in the office here in East Born. Yes, so uh T tin can. Like a yes, like a nail in a tin can. Uh so our uh operations manager Sandy was also on holiday for three weeks. So Andy was holding the fort. And uh yeah, so I've I've been where have I been? Was it Yorkshire? Bangor. I've been to I have been to Bangor. I'm about to go to Bangor again. Um where else have I been? Bridgend. Bridgend, that's right, teaching some students at Union. Maidenhead. That's where I've been. Yeah, Maiden at St. Mary's Maidenhead, a week of mission. Yeah, that was fun. Uh a week of mission at St. Mary's Maidenhead. And uh yeah, what was most fun, I c I guess in the last three weeks was uh being up in Yorkshire. I spoke to the Yorkshire Gospel Partnership on Glory. Right. And uh in a future episode we might uh hear a little bit about about that. Okay. Um but it was great up in Yorkshire to meet loads of people who've done 321. Um because I I'd kind of forgotten that basically uh it was birthed in Yorkshire. So uh the crowded house in Sheffield, they wanted to do a a a three-week uh evangelistic course, and uh they asked me uh could they do 321 and could I come up with it as a course and they filmed it for me in Sheffield and that was uh about six years ago now. Right. I think. Yeah, I think twenty eleven. Wow was it? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That was a long time ago. And um that fluffy red jumper. Yeah, that red jumper wasn't even mine, it was Rowan Patterson. If you're listening with Rowan Patterson, thank you for the red jumper. That's all anybody ever remarks upon. Having done the course. That's not true because last week I was up in Yorkshire and I met I met a number of people who don't trust it in Jesus through doing three, two, one. Yeah. Uh because lots of churches have just by word of mouth done it. So is that something your church could do? Maybe uh you could do the three two one course. It's just a three-week uh thing, which is helpful, I think, um, because once people do the three weeks, then they're ready to commit to a larger um course. Uh and so usually on on week three, people are like, Oh, what do we do next? And then next you can do Life Explored or Christian Explored or Alpha or whatever. Um but it's a good entree for people, and um they might even meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Um Yeah, if you if you're interested, go to three dash two-one dot org. With the numbers spelt out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's hard to say what numbers, the letters.
SPEAKER_01But three. Yes, the numbers are spelt out as yeah, T-H-R-E-E-TW dash O-N-E. 321.com is gone.
SPEAKER_03W, full stop, double W.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Anyway. We'll put it in the show notes.
SPEAKER_03Good. So actually what we're gonna do today is hear one of your talks from Maidenhead.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Is that right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh a little talk I gave there at a men's breakfast called Freedom and Why None of Us Have It. And uh it was interesting. I sort of sat next to a a couple of guys that didn't come to church. Um one of them did describe himself as a Christian, the other wasn't so sure. I don't think I either of them were converted. Um but uh yeah, this guy in particular just said, Oh my goodness, you take no prisoners, do you? Um and he said, That was brutal after I after I spoke. So see if you find it brutal.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um I didn't think it was that brutal, but basically, just kind of saying from John chapter 8 that we're all slaves to sin and none of us are actually free by nature, and it's our own fault, and we are the ones that enslave ourselves when it comes to freedom. We think God's the problem and we're the solution. Jesus comes and says, No, you're the problem, I'm the solution. Uh so yeah, so it's it's it's really about getting to grips with the fact that no matter what the culture tells you that you're free to do what you want in the old time, Jesus comes along and says, No, that is your slavery. You just keep on gratifying the cravings of your flesh. That's what's entrapping you. Uh but I've come to set you free. So yeah, it's that kind of talk, and I I hope it blesses you. And if you if you don't know Jesus yet as your liberator, I I pray that uh yeah, you'll start to see some of the dynamics of your own heart and how Jesus can set you free. And uh and if you do trust Jesus, I I hope that yeah, it helps you in your conversations with others.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, excellent. So just before we go into that, I want to highlight the programme that we have going on here at Speak Life with uh Union Hub. Union is a theological college that uh you can study at um at various different places, and Eastbourne's got a hub. Yes.
SPEAKER_01So when does it start and uh how can they so starting in September, do you want to study with us and get a graduate diploma in theology? It's uh accredited um theological training, and you'll be learning from the likes of Mike Reeves and uh Peter Meade, uh both of whom we've had on the uh Evangelist Podcast, Lee Gatus, um Ray Ortlands, Bob Letham, uh great teaching. Uh and you can do this thr uh this two-year uh graduate diploma uh starting in September. And uh yeah, we'd love you to come down to Eastbourne and perhaps we could sort talk about um uh maybe even of an apprenticeship where you practically uh train with Speak Life and study with Union, and uh we think that that would be a great foundation for a lifetime of ministry.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Okay. And if folks want to get in contact, just uh go to speaklife.all.uk and uh contact us on the page there.
SPEAKER_01Brilliant.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so we're gonna hear this talk that you did then in Maidenhead on uh freedom.
SPEAKER_01Imagine you're tucking into some sausages and eggs right now. Yes. Other very masculine foods.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Uh Glenn, please join me here. And we know that you hail originally from Australia. So I just wanted to ask you this morning, how does a men's breakfast down under compare in terms of food to a men's breakfast here? Has the has the civilization of the full English reached you all the way down there?
SPEAKER_01It has. It has. No, we we do like a full English, but uh yes, because we might be able to cook outdoors, uh that that might open up a few more options in Australia. But uh but the full English is very good, and we're very grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Barbecued eggs. Uh Glenn, over to you. Okay. Brilliant. So the trouble with freedom and why none of us actually have it. I don't know what springs to mind when you think about uh the topic of freedom. I'm gonna be free to do what I want any old time. That's kind of the way we tend to think about freedom, freedom as independence. Uh I was uh uh in my news agents on the day that Parliament voted to say yes to triggering Article 50, and on the newsstands there were two newspapers next to each other. There was the I and what there was the Daily Express. And the the uh the I said it was a leap into the unknown, and the Daily Express says it was a bold leap forwards. Okay, so what what what is it? What kind of leap is this? What kind of step are we taking? Is it a uh a leap into the unknown, into the darkness? And there was a big picture of sort of darkness going on. Or is it a step, a step forwards, a step of independence? Uh we tend to think in terms of independence, don't we? When we think of freedom, that I've got this sphere of my rights, and nobody can tell me what to do. And don't come into my life and tell me how to order my affairs, because I'm free. But there's a problem with freedom, and we all know what the problem with freedom is. Um we've already been uh mentioning uh a few political kinds of freedom uh in our conversation, and uh uh one of our friends has has just said that uh in Zimbabwe we we became free in 1980, and that's when all the trouble started. Someone else said in in South Africa they they have a saying they fought for freedom, and then what they got was democracy. What a disappointment. What is freedom? How do we how do we think of freedom? Uh sometimes I think of uh freshers week because I go around the country doing quite a lot of student stuff, and uh quite often I'm I'm invited into a university in Freshers Week, and uh here are a whole bunch of people who feel like they're getting free. And uh I really understand that. I remember uh being taken to university by my mother and uh having packed away the last box, and my mother was about to return to the car and leave me and return to the empty nest, and here I was making my bold leap into the unknown. And uh I'll never forget what she said. I'm very embarrassed by it. I I think even she's embarrassed by it now, uh, because I keep repeating it so often. But uh she looked at me and with a single tear coming down the cheek, she said, Glenn, just fly, Glenn. Just fly. And I think I said something like, Yes, but only because you're the wind beneath my wings, mother. And you know, because I I think uh I think sarcasm is my love language. So that was that was how I showed affection. But um We kind of know what she means, though. We we know that somehow in Fresh's Weeks, you've just left home and you're meant to fly, you're meant to be free, and yet when you look around Fresh's Weeks, you've never seen such lost people in all your life, right? I mean, physically they're lost, you know, they don't know where anything is, they don't know where the lecture theater is, they don't know where the library is, and three years later they still don't know where the lecture theater is or the library is, but and also spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, they're lost because they're trying to figure out who they are. And so the the kind of the philosophy of the day is to seek to find yourself, isn't it? You're feeling lost, and so you try to find yourself. And in Fresh's Week, you're signing up to every single society that you can, you're making all these new kinds of friends, you're trying to trying to find yourself. But have you thought about how nuts that is? If you're lost, the last person you need to find is yourself, because you're lost, and finding a lost person is never much help. If you've ever found a lost person and you're lost, they say, I'm just lost too, mate. I'm sorry. If you're lost, what do you need to find? You need to find home. And then when you find home, then you can just be yourself. But so often we don't want to find home. What we want to find is independence, and then that can be a very, very lonely thing. I was talking to a woman uh just on Wednesday night, and uh uh she really resonated with one of our stories. James Schoen had lost his sight. She says, I've lost my sight too, and it's dreadful because I used to be so independent. And now I have to rely on everyone. It's dreadful. And I said, Well, yeah, I mean that that's terrible, and nothing can take away from how terrible that is. But we weren't meant for independence, were we? And she thought about it and she said, You know what, actually, uh it's opened me up to relying on relationships around me. And I I've made the best friends in my entire life since I've actually started to go blind because I've started to rely on people. And she actually testified, you know what, independence is very, very lonely. And we think going for independence will make us free. What if it just makes you lost? What if we're already lost? And what if erecting the barriers and saying, I have my sphere of sovereignty is the last thing we need? What if we need help? What if we need to find home? I'm gonna mention a few verses from uh John's Gospel. We've got some John's Gospels for you at the end, and we'd love you to uh pick one up and have a read for yourself. It's the biography of Jesus, one of the four in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Here's John. And uh Jesus has some famous words to say about freedom. I'm sure even if you've never cracked open a Bible before, you've probably heard these words before. But I just thought I'd uh read them to you, and they'll be up on the screen as well. These words that Jesus speaks about freedom. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Have you heard that? Everyone's heard that, right? Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of every anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. So here I think Jesus is pointing to three different realities about freedom that you really need to grasp. If we're going to actually be free, we need to grasp these three things. And the first thing is that it's the truth that will set you free. And so often we don't think the truth will set us free. So often we just think that getting away from everybody will set us free. Being my own boss will set us free. And Jesus comes to planet Earth and he claims to be the truth, the truth with a capital T. He's the one who made us according to John's gospel. Here is God in the flesh, encountering us. He is this truth. And he comes to us and he says, Look, sorry to say, actually, you're not the king. There is a truth that is beyond you. And if you do not go with the grain of this truth, you're gonna get splinters. It's it's not gonna work. You're not gonna be free by rejecting this truth. Freedom exists along with the grain of the universe, and you can't really go against that. There it there is a truth that you need to live by in order to be free. And I I guess we kind of get this. We I I I love the uh episode of The Simpsons where uh Homer goes into space. Have you seen this one? Early on in in The Simpsons, and um and uh he's doing some experiments with this ant farm in zero gravity, and uh somehow Homer gets free from his seatbelt and he's just sort of careering through the cabin of the space station and and he starts to crash into this ant farm. And all of a sudden we hear the ants chirruping to one another, and there's the subtitles below what they're saying. So one person is saying, you know, protect the queen, and then the other person says, Which one's the queen? And then Homer is getting closer and closer to the ant farm and he smashes into it, and all these ants suddenly get released into zero gravity. And one of the ants chirrups and says, Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom. Because there is an environment in which freedom is enjoyed, and when you're not in that environment, you're not free. Those ants are not more free because they are out of the ant farm. The ant farm was the truth for them. That was the environment in which they can flourish and thrive, and to be released from that environment is not to become more free. You know, the goldfish who just wants to get out of the tank and be free, they find themselves much less free when they're spluttering around on the carpet. Okay? That's not where freedom is found. What if there is an environment in which freedom is found? What if there is a truth? Jesus says his teaching can set us free. There's actually a reality that can come to us from beyond and set us free, and Christians will testify. You know, you pick up John's gospel, he starts to make sense of your world, he turns it right side up, and and far from being an imposition that enslaves you, it's a truth that sets you free. So that's the first thing Jesus says. He says, There's a truth beyond you that can set you free. And then he says, Look, the problem with freedom is not really the constraints that are out there. The problem with freedom is your heart in here. Right? This is this is the problem. The problem with freedom is me. Okay? It's fascinating in verse 33 that the Jews are saying, We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone, which is just so historically ignorant and blind. I mean, Jesus could have come back at them and said, You've been slaves of everyone. What are you talking about? I mean, Israel has been slaves of Egypt, of Assyria, of Philistine, of Babylon, of Persia, of Greece. Who hasn't? Who hasn't Israel been a slave of? As they say this, they're currently really the slaves of Rome, as they say this. And yet, this is kind of the self-deception we have. I'm free, baby. I'm totally free, right? And we just don't know the slavery and the extent of slavery that is in our own lives. What's the problem? Well, Jesus says verse 34 Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. So it's there is a problem within us that makes us unfree. And philosophers for 3,000 years have sort of noticed that the human condition, we're a bit like a chariot that is driven by two horses. The only trouble is the two horses are going in different directions, right? This is the human condition. Pull this way, pull that way, pulled this way, pulled that way. And our big problem is that we lie to ourselves about all of this. You know, just as the Jews were lying to themselves about their own state of freedom. We we lie to ourselves and we get trapped by that lie. Happens, doesn't it? You tell a lie about something, and what happens next? You gotta tell another lie, and you gotta remember the lies that you just told. And you become a slave to those lies that you tell. So so often the sins that we commit, the selfishness, the mucked-upness that's in us, is about lying to the world. And you can lie to the world with words, you can lie to the world with your bluster, you can lie to the world with your CV, you can lie to the world in how you carry yourself. But as soon as you lie to the world, you gotta catch up with that lie and tell another one and tell another one and tell another one. And it snowballs and it snowballs, and you're not free. You're just not free. So there are the lies that we tell that enslave us, and then there's there's also the lies that we believe that enslave us. Don't we look out at the world and we just think, you know what? If I just had her, I know I shouldn't, but if I just had her, she would solve everything. It's a total lie, isn't it? It's a total lie. I've got a friend who's uh he's he's bigger than Will Stylman, actually. Six foot seven. Are you sitting no, how how tall are you? Six three, six four, yeah, yeah. So you dwarf, he dwarfs Will Stylman, okay. So he's uh big, big, rough policeman. And uh he he just sees these these young constables one after the other after the other. And and he sees so many of them just go going wayward, just going up, if I just had her, she's not she's not your wife, buddy. If I just had her, everything would be okay. And he he's got a great line with her. He says, yeah, yeah, it's it's great to begin with. But in six months, all it means is just pushing a trolley round Tesco's. That's all it'll end up with. Pushing a trolley round Tesco's. That's that's the that's the nature of the lies that we buy into. If I just had this. And maybe it's not a woman, who knows what it is. Who knows what this thing is that's lying to you? That you think if I just had it, my goodness, I'd suddenly become alive. This is what life would be. If I just had it in six months' time, it's just pushing a trolley round Tesco's. That's all it is. It's just a lie, and then suddenly you're a slave. That's how it works. So, this idea that I will be free if only I get everyone the hell out of my life. And just do what I want to do. That's the problem. Us doing what we want to do in that selfish sense, that is exactly the problem. That's exactly how you become a slave. You look at the most addicted people in life who have had their lives absolutely trashed. You know what they've done? They've done what they've wanted to do. At every stage, you ask them, What did you do? I just did what I wanted to do. And then the next thing, I just did what I wanted to do, and I did what I wanted to do, and I did what I wanted to do, and my life is ruined. There's something wrong in here, right? In the heart. So Jesus wants us to get real. He says, actually, there's a truth, there's a reality, there's a grain of the cosmos that you need to kind of work with. There's a truth out there. And when you know the truth, you'll be set free. There's a problem in here, there's a heart that is moronic. My heart is moronic. My heart naturally goes after the things that do not set me free, but that actually enslave me. But then Jesus says, there's a relationship where true freedom is found. It's beautiful. Very truly, I tell you, verse 34, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. Son belonging to a family. And then Jesus says, so if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I don't know where you feel most you. When are you home? You know, we thought about the freshers, going after this experience, that experience, trying to get free, ending up lost. Where is home for you? I was speaking to a girl a couple of months ago, and she said, you know, after being away from the family home for another She was about twenty-three, but she she just loves to come back into the family kitchen and to sit down with her back to the oven and have the dog just run running all over. That's home. That's home. And you know, actually, for as much as you might want to leave the family home in order to get free, if you have a home in which you're safe, you never feel more free than when you're there, right? And Jesus says there is a family home. There is a place where we don't need to find ourselves, we can just be ourselves. And when you can just be yourself, my goodness, aren't you free? My goodness, can't you just walk out into the world with a sense of poise and dignity? You can act from a center that is secure. You know who you are, and then there's nothing to lose, nothing to prove, nothing to hide. You're free if you find home. So what is home? Well, I guess Jesus diagnoses the problem in the most famous story he ever tells. Do you know the story of the prodigal son? Jesus tells this story in another biography, in Luke's gospel. And uh he tells the story of two boys. This is a dad with two boys, and the younger boy says, I want my share of the inheritance now. He's basically saying, Dad, you know, you know all that money that's coming to me when you die? You seem to be taking your time. Could you please either hurry up and die, or can I have all your stuff now so I can get as far away from you as I possibly can? Love your son, right? And so often we think of the prodigal son as he's a bit of a ragamuffin, isn't he? And he's oh no, he's he's scum. He's scum. This boy is scum. You do not treat your dad like this boy has treated his dad, especially not when your dad is as good as this dad is. Amazingly, in the story, the dad just says, Fine, you don't want me? Okay. I'm gonna hand you over to what you want. And if you've ever had to deal with an addict, for instance, you you realize that giving the addicts exactly what they want is a judgment, right? If someone's gonna blow all their money on drugs and you say, here, have ten grand, right? That's a judgment, isn't it? Ha have exactly what you want. If your heart is going astray, being told to do what you want is only gonna make you further astray. And you know this this boy? He thinks he's just hit the jackpot. Packs up his bag into the far country, squanders the money in wild living, and the money runs out. The money always runs out, and he ends up in a pig sty. It always ends up in a pig style and he's far from home. He has wanted to get free, and he's ended up lost. Because that's what radical independence is. It's not freedom. Radical independence is getting lost, and he's utterly lost. And yet when he's far from home, he thinks to himself, you know what, my my dad, he's a good guy, actually. I wonder if, I wonder if, and he goes back home, and it's this wonderful scene of the father running to meet this scumbag son, flinging his arms around him, kissing this boy, taking off his best robe, putting the robe on this pet putrid boy. And you know, in that moment, as this son is welcomed home, he's never been more free in his life. Wrapped up in the arms of his dad. He's free. Still stinking of pig sty. He's free. Because freedom is not about radical independence. Freedom is about finding home, finding the relationship that you are made for. And Jesus, the Son of God, has come from the ultimate family, he's come down into our lostness, he's come down into our pig sty, and he said, It hasn't worked, has it? Hasn't worked. Will you come home? And anyone who says, Yeah, Jesus, I think you're telling the truth, I think you're telling the truth. I'm gonna trust you. And anyone who says, you know what, actually, my own heart, that's been the problem. Sorry about that. Anyone who says, Jesus, I think you're telling the truth, I trust you. My heart has been going astray. I'm sorry about that. I want to come home. Jesus says, When the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. He carries you home, and then all of a sudden you get his father as your father, you get his spirit as your spirit. You get his sense of poise and freedom as your sense of poise and freedom, you get his future as your future, it's for free, and it's forever. Why wouldn't you want that? Mumford and sons have that song. They sing about the there's a love that will not betray, dismay, or enslave you, but will set you free, to be more like the man you are made to be. Is there a love like that? Is there someone from home who's come to find you and bring you home? Is there a love that will not betray, dismay, or enslave you, but will set you free? Christians say absolutely, and he's available today. So we would love if you could keep investigating about this Jesus. You could even shoot up a prayer now and say, Jesus, ha help. I want you. He'll hear. He moved heaven to earth to hear. He went to hell and back to bring you home. He'll hear, just call out now. Pick up one of these John's Gospels. We've got plenty on the on the table at the back. Keep on reading about this Jesus. And we've also got a a course called Life Explored. And over seven weeks you can come and ask any question you like about the Christian faith. Uh, we won't put you on the spot, we won't pepper you with questions, you can pepper us with questions. And you can ask about this Jesus, this teaching that he has. Am I really that bad? Is my heart really that perverse? And can Jesus really offer me freedom? You can ask all those questions over seven weeks. It starts on the 8th of May at 7 30, right there in that building with a meal. Hey, they'll even feed you. How good is that? So we'd love you to sign up for that. There are ways of signing up. Are there, John? Maybe? Yeah, there are ways of signing up, and John can let you know. But I'm just gonna hand back to John now, and uh we might have time for QA. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Glenn, thank you very much indeed. Uh we do indeed have a few minutes for questions. It's great to actually think together as a group about these things, and we can ask our questions and learn from what each other are asking. Let me give us uh 30 seconds just to think quietly if there is something we'd like to ask, and then we'll uh put Glenn in a hot seat uh with a few questions, I hope. Uh does anyone have a question uh to ask? I'll try and work round or see how many we can cover. John.
SPEAKER_04Glenn, you spend a lot of time driving around talking in the way that we do people. Well, I guess we might have lots of one on one conversation with people after. Do you what what comes across as being the main reason why people can't make that all you describe humanists?
SPEAKER_01Uh I the entire narrative of a culture is that freedom is independence. Um so for 20 minutes I can tell people that's a lie, and people can see that, I think. But for the rest of their waking life, they're told that freedom is doing what you want any old time. So there's there's that kind of cultural narrative that's happening, but but I think deep down it's about a matter of the heart. The lies that we tell and the lies that we believe are powerful, you know. I wanna I wanna think of myself as as a king who really can stride through this world as the master of all I survey. Um and I don't want to face the fact that actually my deepest desires are what are enslaving me. And so I can give a talk like this, and yet, you know, if the person is in an inappropriate relationship they shouldn't be in, right? And it's very difficult for my words to compete with whoever that person is, for instance. But I think that person is not just an example of the of our hearts going astray. I think it's the paradigm of our hearts going astray. You don't have to be in love with a person in order to lie to yourself and in order to enslave yourself. You could you could you could fall in love with a job, you could fall in love with anything and do that. The heart is that powerful. So, you know, if you've got a friend with an addiction and you try to get them out, if you stand between your friend and what they're addicted to, they they turn feral, right? What if the human race is like that? What if we're all addicts? So we're we're in a fight. Um but I think I think the real power is coming from the human heart and what we perversely and foolishly love.
SPEAKER_02Uh James, yes.
SPEAKER_01So hard. Um I was talking to some uh parenting groups this week and uh talking particularly to mothers about how difficult it is, especially when the last child goes off to university, and and um one one parent mentioned a verse in Proverbs that says, raise a child up in the way they should go, and when they leave, you know, they will not depart from from that way. Um but the thing with Proverbs is um it's it's talking about averages, right? It's not talking about concrete in every single case. If you teach a child the right thing to do, then they will always do it. Nonsense, right? We all know that that's not a hundred percent rule. What's interesting about that verse is that actually the the verb for raise a child up, you could also translate as get rid of them, right? So parenting is getting rid of your kids, okay? Um and actually there's something in a parent's heart that you need you need to you need to be aware that this child has been entrusted to you for only a few years, and it's the hardest thing in the world to say, fly Glenn, fly. Right, which is why the single tears coming down my mother's face, because it's the hardest thing in the world to actually get rid of them. But so so partly it's about the the heart of the grandparent or the parent to say, okay, God is bigger than this situation, and I feel out of control because I would love my kids to to know the truth and for the truth to set them free. I would love that. But in on on some level, you've got to do business with God and say, okay, my job has been to get rid of them, and I put them in your hands, and I pray for them because prayer is powerful. Um so the first thing to do is to is to figure out in your own heart um what's going on. Are that that these children and grandchildren, they're not yours. But there is a God who's bigger than that, and we can pray to that God. Um those are some of the beginnings of things I'd say. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Yes, Tim.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, and we uh because we have such anemic views of eternal life, as though it's just in enjoying Novicane in the ninth dimension and floating around like a um and yet if we are Easter people, if if we are Jesus people, it's Jesus who shows us what eternal life looks like. And so this is why I love to read to the end of the Gospels, and there you see a snapshot of the kind of eternity that Jesus is talking about. Every different religion has a wildly different understanding of what eternity looks like. Wildly different. And so often the eternity that we think of is not a particularly Christian one. The Christian eternal life that Jesus has pioneered for us by dying, rising again, coming out the other side. You look at him and you see what it is to live beyond death. And what does Jesus do in the Gospels? He goes for long country walks with friends, he goes fishing with mates, barbecues on the beach. Sounds like Australia, doesn't it? Sounds just glorious, right? And it is, and it's physical, embodied, personal, joy-filled, feasting with friends. Right? Who doesn't want that? You know? So it's not Novicaine in the ninth dimension, it's it's it's this embodied physical feasting joy that Jesus is talking about. So I'd I'd I'd direct uh direct people to the end of the gospels and just have a look. This is what Jesus is talking about. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Anyone else um with a question? Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that's in in any area of life. So so in sport you put in the 10,000 hours of training and then you're a you're a master of it. You know, you're a musician, you put in the 10,000 hours of training, and you're a virtuoso. Um you're a soldier, and discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline, but then get you onto the battlefield and you know what to do. And if you didn't have that discipline, you're dead. Um so yeah, so absolutely, we we see how this works in in every area of life. And I'll always remember when when was it that Wayne Rooney was very famously sent off? Um was it in a Euros or was it in a World Cup? Um I'm talking about 15 years ago or something, and I and I still still remember Andy Townsend um saying in the in the commentator's booth, he said, I just wish that Wayne Rooney's mother had said no to him once. Brilliant line. But um, yeah, and we we know what happens when there's no discipline, right? It's not it's not that the child becomes more free, they become less free. And that and that's just the deep truth of what our hearts are like. In so many ways, we're still like kids, and we still do need discipline. Um, but from that discipline you can you can fly, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Glenn, thanks so much for speaking for us and particularly for fielding those questions. Should we express our appreciation for Glenn and for the cooks once again?
SPEAKER_01There it is, freedom and why none of us have it. Yeah. Now do you see why it was brutal? Now do you see why that guy said it was brutal? I d I dunno. It's uh it's it's interesting. I think I think he was in exactly the right place to hear that talk, and I think God brought him along to highlight the the ways in which our foolish hearts, you know, enslave themselves.
SPEAKER_03And we think it's freedom at the time, but yeah, it's not.
SPEAKER_01It traps us, it traps us. And if uh if anyone wants to know how they can find this freedom uh for themselves, do get in touch. We'd love I'd love to send you out perhaps a book to uh to explain some more about Jesus and the freedom that he brings. So do get in touch with us and uh we'd love to take things further with you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh and you can do that at our website, speaklife.org.uk. Uh, and if you'd like to keep her a little more updated with uh Glenn's calendar, uh general ministry updates here at Speak Life, then do visit the website and sign up via email. And uh we'd love to keep you informed of what goes on. If you'd like to hear more episodes like this, do subscribe to the evangelist podcast. You can do that at speaklife.org.uk slash tep. And if you are a regular listener and you'd like to give us a rating and review on iTunes, that would be great, gratefully received. It helps us to get seen by more people.
SPEAKER_01Rise up the ranks of the Rising Up the Ranks, climbing up the greasy pole of iTunes. I haven't I haven't I haven't Googled myself in all days. I haven't searched for the uh our our podcast on iTunes for a while, but uh it comes pr it comes pretty high if you if you search for evangelism or evangelism or evangelist, I think it it comes up within the top ten, if not top five. So really. And that's not just like geographically I don't know. I'm in the I'm in the UK, so if you're in the US If you're in the US, search for evangelist or evangelism on iTunes and tell us tell us on which page we're on. Give me a tweet. Yeah, tweet me. At Glenn Scrivener. Yeah. Do it. And you're you're Andy Brinks one? No, what are you? Andy Brinks. Andy Brinks. Yeah. And KS at the end.
SPEAKER_03KS, not X, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Good.
SPEAKER_03I hardly tweet at all. I'm a consumer. Very user.
SPEAKER_01You're a user. Not a contributor, man. Get on board. Come on.
SPEAKER_03Clout score of about half.
SPEAKER_01Oh, there's another thing I haven't done for days. Cloud, not clout, yeah. Goodness me.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, I think I think we're finished.
SPEAKER_01I think we're uh did we say goodbye or I don't think we're we haven't hit stuff yet. This is uh how do we end this? A song, perhaps? And now the end is near. It's time to face, I don't know the words. The final attitude. Well, it's my way, isn't it? I didn't even know what I was singing.
SPEAKER_03We did it, Glen.
SPEAKER_01And you better had. Alright, alright, let's end this thing. We're done. Bye.