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On the Evangelist Podcast today, how do I know I'm doing life right?

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The Evangelists Podcast. Encouragement to speak life to a needy world. With Glenn Scrivener and Andy Brinkley.

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You're listening to the Evangelist Podcast from Speak Life, the show where we discuss all things regarding the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm Andy Brinkley, and today we're going to be joined again by Glenn Scrivener to hear his talk, How Do I Know I'm Doing Life Right? Recorded at the University of East Anglia last week. If you're a regular listener to the Evangelist Podcast, you'll know it's uh University Missions time. And Glenn is currently doing a three-week tour of universities last week. University of East Anglia this week is Reading University, and then next week is Sheffield. Glenn Ray is a great reading. So please do pray for Glenn. So here's Glenn, then he's starting off by answering the question what would he like to be world class at?

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Glenn uh does bits and pieces with the CU. You may recognise him from the Carol service. Glenn spoke at the Carol service. He also spoke last night, so if you were here last night, I hope you haven't forgotten him. That would be quite poor memory. But um yeah, so Glenn is going to speak with us uh tonight. I've got a small question for you first, Glenn. So try and try and get to know you a bit better. So if you could be world class at anything, what would you be world class at? If of course you're not already world class to sing.

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I can be world class at anything. I don't know, this is no particularly funny answer. I'd love to be able to sing. Like amazing. Wouldn't you like love to be able to just you know fill a concert hall with just the most impressive apart from you know, instead of the cacophony that comes out of my mouth? I'd love to be able to sing.

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That's a great answer. So uh yeah, so uh I'm sure you've got some exciting stuff to share with us this evening, and um, I shall hand over to you to be up for us. Alright.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Uh does everyone have access to one of these? This is a John's Gospel. Um and we might have to have a policy a little bit like the pizza, that maybe members of the CU can be a bit generous and let other people uh have their copy of a John's Gospel. Um if you don't already have one of these, this is our gift to you. We'd love you to have this, take it home and read it. If you've already got one of these, then please leave it in a good enough state so that we can give it on to the next person. Try not to get too much pizza sauce on it and that kind of thing. This is the fourth biography of Jesus in the Bible. You might know that in the New Testament there's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the biographies of Jesus, telling you the life of Jesus by those who are there who lived with him and testified to what they saw. Uh, John, I think, is my favorite book in the Bible. If you're allowed to have favorite books of the Bible, this is my favorite book. It really tells you about Jesus and gives you this cosmic view of who Jesus Christ is. It starts by describing Jesus from the very beginning. I don't know where you would start a biography of Jesus. Maybe you would start with his birth, maybe you would start with his parents or his grandparents. In John's Gospel, it begins in the beginning, before there was a universe. Because John is saying, in order to understand who Jesus is, you need to understand all of reality. According to the Bible, Jesus is not just the inventor of a religion. According to the Bible, Jesus is the inventor of the universe. Okay? A big claim. But it makes you want to keep on reading. And it makes you want to think, well, could he possibly fit the bill? Could he possibly be this amazing kind of guy who actually is our maker walking planet Earth? And I guess a Christian is just somebody who reads through this and thinks to themselves, actually, I think he doesn't just talk the talk, I think he walks the walk, I think he might be our maker, walking planet Earth. And if you come to that conclusion, I think you come to the most amazing conclusion it's possible to make, because you look at this man of love called Jesus, who pretty much everyone agrees lived the most extraordinary life, a life of self-giving love, and the Christian says, you know what? That's what God is like. God is entirely and exactly like this Jesus who famously ends up on the cross with his arms outstretched to the world, praying, Father forgive them, bleeding his own heart's blood for a world that hates him, and answering with love. Wouldn't it be amazing if this is what God was like? I think that'd be extraordinary if that was what God was like. And a Christian is someone who comes to the happy conclusion that there is a God, and this God is exactly like Jesus. Jesus reveals to us who God is like. But then what about us? Umic for this evening is um how do I know that I'm doing this life thing right? It's a good question, isn't it? Um, we want to know whether we're doing life right. Nobody gets up in the morning and thinks I want to do life wrong. Nobody gets up in the morning and thinks to themselves, I want to be really bad today, I want to be really wicked, I want to be evil. Um neither do people get up in the morning and think to themselves, I'd love to be unsuccessful today. Um, you know, I was asked the question, what if I could be world class at anything? That's the sort of thing that makes you think, yeah, I'd like to be world class at something. I don't want to be the worst at something. We always want to do life right, don't we? Everybody has that kind of aspiration to do life right, but how do you know if you're doing life right? How could you possibly know that? Uh do you know TED Talks? Do you ever watch TED Talks on YouTube? Um, they're basically, they're kind of like kind of church for secular people, really. Um you got a whole bunch of sermons by these people who get up and give their little 15-20-minute sermon, but um the people who are speaking are people who are just the world leaders in their field, be it psychology or geology or science or the arts, people get up and they they give you these mind-twisting truths in about 15 minutes. And one of the most popular TED talks ever was uh by a woman called Catherine Schultz, and her top her TED talk was called On Being Wrong. Uh, look it up tonight. It's a it's a fascinating talk about how do we know if we're getting stuff wrong. She opens up with this question. She says to people, what does it feel like to be wrong? And she gets a few people to kind of respond from the audience. And some person says, it's horrible, and another person says it's shameful, another person says it's embarrassing. There's another person in the front row sort of giving the thumbs down. Yeah, it's horrible. It's horrible to be wrong. And Catherine Schultz has a great response to that. She says, no, no, no. These are all very good answers to a different question. You have just answered the question, what does it feel like to realize that you're wrong? But that's not the question I asked. My question is, what is it like to be wrong? And the answer is, you know what it's like to be wrong? It feels exactly like being right. That's a scary thought, isn't it? What does it feel like to be wrong? It feels exactly like being right. If you don't know that you're wrong. So how do you know you're doing this life right? How do you know? You know, maybe you say to yourself, well, I don't care what other people say. I am doing my life right. And no matter what people think, you know, I'm gonna live life my kind of way, and I'm gonna set the standards, and nobody can tell me I'm living life wrongly. Um, the problem with that is that it doesn't really work, does it? Because I don't know if you're like me, but uh I can do things that that I I that I'm amazed that I can do, and then at the end of them realize, oh, you know what? I don't think I did a good enough job. Actually, I set I set standards for myself that actually end up condemning me. And then at the end of things, if I don't quite meet my standards, you know what I have to do? If if I'm if I'm the one setting the standards, if I don't quite do good enough, what do I have to do? I have to lower the standard in order to do life right. But I know on some level that I've just lowered the standards. I I know that even if I'm living up to my own standards, I'm just happening to be a person with low standards, which which is no great thing, is it, walking through life like that? Who gets to say whether we're living life right or not? If it's us, we're in for some trouble, aren't we? Um you ever watch X Factor auditions? Um that's really the only time I ever watch the X Factor. I don't care about the end of the process and the people who can actually sing. Uh I really want to watch these losers who uh can sing worse than me. And and what's really interesting about all these people auditioning for the X-Factor is they're not trying to be bad. They're not trying to be bad, they just happen to be tone-deaf. Right? And they get up and they sing before Simon Cowell and the other judges, and then you know, the the the judges say to them, Did you really think that you were X Factor material? Did you really think that? And so many of them actually did think that they were good singers. You know why? Because everything about them that makes them a bad singer makes them a bad judge of singing. Okay? If they're tone-deaf, that makes them a bad singer, but it also makes them a bad judge of whether they're a bad singer. And so you've got a whole bunch of people who are terrible at singing, but who think that they are a Dell. They are not a Dell. They are rubbish. And the very things that make them not like Adele make them think that they are Adele. This is a problem. Do you see the problem? What if it's true in life? What if the very things that make us bad at doing life make us bad judges of whether we're doing life right or not? You see, you and I are really good at self-justifying. Self-justifying. Um, I know this on the roads, I'm always doing this on the roads. Whenever I drive on the motorways, I'm brilliant at self-justifying. Everyone who jud who drives faster than me, I judge to be a maniac. And everyone who drives slower than me, I judge to be an idiot, right? But me, I drive just right. Are you the same? And when I'm on the roads, I'm very good at self-justifying. I I was um driving into a car park the other day, and I turned across this pedestrian bit, but it wasn't actually a pedestrian bit. It did someone just claimed it for themselves. And they just stepped down in front of me, and I was in the car park, and I made this a signal like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And then I, you know, went into the car parking space, locked the car, got out of the car, and you know what I did? I stepped out in front of the very next car that came into the car park, right? And the guy in that in the behind the wheel did this thing to me. And like the whole car park is just full of these self-justifying fools like me. We always think we're in the right. Is it possible that we're not doing this life thing right? Is that possible? Um, Mitchell and Webb is uh, you know the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, they're most famous for Peep Show, but they did this sketch show on BBC Two as well. Um, they've got a terrific little sketch about uh the end of the Second World War. And both Mitchell and Webb are Nazis. And uh and there they are, um, in the officers club, and uh and one of them turns to the other and says, I've noticed that the sign for the SS is a skull. That's quite an odd sign, isn't it? Usually it's the baddies that have the skull as a sign. You know, you look on the you look on the pills and it says poison and there's a skull. You look to the pirates and there's a skull, and we've got a skull. And then David Mitchell says, are we the baddies? And they conclude they conclude that they are the baddies. But how long did it take them before they realized that they were the baddies? Well, is it possible? Is it possible that we are the baddies? Is it possible that we are not doing this life thing right? Now I know what you're thinking at this point. You're thinking, ah, Glenn, he's one of those religious types. I know what he's trying to do. He's trying to say that there's some kind of God up there, and you're not being good enough boys and girls, and there's a standard up there, and you're failing to meet that standard, and you need to try harder. Is that what I'm gonna say? Um I basically gonna tell you about a God who is a little bit like your head teacher. I don't know if you've got school reports like my school reports, every single one of them said, must try harder. Is that what religion says? Is that what Jesus says? Does he come into the world and does he does he say you're not quite living up to standards? But here's my seven-point plan about how you can live better. Is that what Jesus does? He doesn't he doesn't do that. Let me show you. Let's all open up to page 62. Page 62, and here are just some of the words of Jesus. Slap bang in the middle of this John's Gospel. Like I say, if you don't have one of these gospels, these are yours to take. And we love you to take them home with you and keep on reading the story. But here is Jesus, and on page 62, I'll just read the the second half of that sentence right at the top of the page. Jesus says, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Now this is really interesting. This is different from what all the other religions in the world say. All the other religions in the world say, you've got it a little bit wrong, but if you just do these things, you can correct yourself. You're not quite doing life right, but if you try harder, I'm gonna tell you how to do it, how to do things better, right? That's not what Jesus says here. What Jesus says here is, I've come that you might have life. What's he assuming? He's assuming you're not even living yet, right? That's that's like Jesus is going, phew. Like every other religion in the world says, yeah, you could try harder, let me just help you to turn the corner. Jesus is basically saying, no, death. You are you are the living dead. You haven't even begun to live yet. That's shocking, isn't it? Jesus is like, you haven't even begun to live yet. I have come so that you can actually start living. That's a pretty radical thing for anybody to say, isn't it? Who does he think he is? Thinking that we are not living yet, and he is the one who can make us live. Well, the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God. And before the world began, he was always existing with his Father and the Holy Spirit, and he is life, but he said to us, basically, we have turned away from God. And when you turn away from the God who is life, you turn into death. We're a bit like a bunch of cut flowers. Okay? A bunch of cut flowers look great, they smell great, they can decorate the place just fine, but they've got no life in them because they've been severed from their life source. And Jesus is saying to us, before you even think about whether you're doing life right or wrong, the first issue is you're out of relationship with the God who has made you, therefore, you don't even have life yet. You need to get reconnected to the life source. Right now, you don't have life, but I've come so that you can get reconnected. I've come so that you can start living. Well, again, who does Jesus think he is to be able to make such a statement like that? Well, he goes on. Do you see the highlighted verse? Verse 11, little number 11 says this. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Who does Jesus think he is? He thinks he is the good shepherd. Right? Now, anyone who knew their Bibles from the Old Testament, you know, the Old Testament is the bit of the Bible written before Jesus became a human being. Back in the Old Testament, you might know one of the most famous passages, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. It's this famous psalm that's got this line in it, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. Because you are with me, Lord. So, this is this psalm. It's often said at funerals, um, because you know, I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Recently, friends of mine got married and they had it read it there, marriage, which I think sends interesting signals, doesn't it? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. Into marriage they go with Psalm 23. But it begins with this line: the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord, the creator of heaven and earth. All throughout the Bible, this picture of God is that he is like a shepherd and we are like sheep. So who does Jesus think he is? He's like, I'm that guy. I'm the Lord, I'm the maker of heaven and earth, I am the good shepherd. So I am this standard of goodness. You know, when we want to know, am I living right? And how could I ever know whether I'm living right? Jesus says, I am the God who made you. Have a look at me, have a look at my standard of life. And as you read through John's gospel, you'll see it's just the most extraordinary standard of life ever. Here is Jesus who just gives and gives and gives, who loves and suffers and serves and bleeds and dies even for his enemies. He is good. He is the standard of goodness. And all of us in this room fall far, far short. Far, far short of him. So that's who he is. He is the good shepherd. But he he calls us sheep. Have you ever thought about how unflattering that is as a comparison? Think of all the animals that Jesus could compare you to. You know, he could call you lions. He could call you eagles soaring. He, I mean, even if he called you like oxen, you know, at least there'd be some strength to you. He's calling you sheep. Do you know how dumb sheep are? Just the most ridiculous, stupid creatures you've ever met in your life. I've got a friend who's a farmer, he's got 200 head of sheep just outside of Eastbourne. And and he always says to me that the thing about sheep is they're always getting lost, and they're terrible at finding themselves again. This is the point with sheep. Sheep are always getting lost, and even when you go and find them, they've been they've you know fallen down a ravine or something, even if you get them back on their feet, you can't then go, come on, flossy, here we go, here we go. Flossie just stands there going, like flossy is an idiot. Okay? And Jesus says, You are a spiritual flossy. You are stupid. You are spiritually stupid. Always following after the wrong stuff and getting lost. Now, before you get all offended, start thinking, is he right? Do we just follow after the latest fads and the latest thing? Because maybe when I ask the question, are you doing life right? Maybe you say to me, No, I am not the standard of whether I do life right, but the culture is. You know, our our our world around us gives us standards of right and wrong, and I try to live up to those standards of right and wrong. But those standards of right and wrong just go in all sorts of different directions, don't they? Think about the moral standards of your great-grandparents. Would your great-grandparents think that you were doing life right? Would you think that they were doing life right? I don't think so. And now think of your great-grandchildren. Would you think that they were doing life right? If if society changes as much as it has in the last hundred years, do you think you would think that they were doing life right? We're like sheep, aren't we? We're like sheep following after the next big thing. Fresher's Week is a brilliant example of this. Um Freshers Week is where you feel like you're free, don't you? I remember when uh when I was um dropped off by my mother at Freshers Week, and um and uh I mean I'm sure she's embarrassed by what she said to me. Her final parting words to me, I'm very embarrassed by what she said to me. Her final parting words to me, with a tear rolling down her cheek, she said to me, Glenn, just fly, Glenn. Just fly. And being a sarcastic Australian, I was just like, yeah, but only because you're the wind beneath my wings. Off I went. But that's how you feel, isn't it? In Freshers Week, you're finally free and you're gonna, you know, prove who you are and you're gonna just fly. But in Freshers Week, you've never met such lost people in your life, have you? Like for a start, nobody knows where anybody is. Like in Freshers Week, you spend your entire time saying, you know, where's the lecture theater, where's the library? Probably if you're a third year, you're probably still asking those questions. But but, you know, you feel lost, but you're trying to be free. And so often, don't we say, when people feel lost, we say, um, you just need to find yourself. Don't we say that it's it's kind of a thing that you need to do? I was just talking to somebody about their gap year. Quite often when you go on a gap year, it's about finding yourself. But let me tell you, if you are lost, the last person you need to find is yourself, right? Because you're lost, right? And finding a lost person is not much help. If you find yourself and you find that you're lost, it's no great fine. If you are lost, what you need to find is home, right? And here comes Jesus and he says, Look, I've come from home, I am the good shepherd. I've come to reconnect you into the life of God, and I know you've done wrong. I know you've done wrong. That's okay. I've come for you. You see, what Jesus does, and I'll just finish with this. What Jesus does is he is the good shepherd, and you know what he does? He becomes a lamb for us. At the end of John's Gospel, you'll see Jesus dying as a sacrificial lamb. That's the way it's all set up in John's Gospel. The Good Shepherd becomes like a lamb on an altar, with his blood being shed for the world. And you think, why would that be? Why does the good shepherd become a lamb? Well, this is what happens when the good God comes to us and realizes we're not doing life right. He wants to take all our wrongness onto himself. And on that cross, Jesus is paying for our sins. He's taking onto himself all our wrongness, dying for it. He rises up again and he comes and he says to us, Look, I know you've done life wrong. All of you have. But I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Do you want me? And if you have Jesus, you're suddenly reconnected to the life of God. You've found the forgiveness of heaven, and you can suddenly start to live life and life to the full. I'm gonna leave it there. But why don't I uh turn you into your groups? Remember, um, if you don't have one of these, these are for you. Um love you to keep on reading from John's gospel and encountering who this Jesus is. But uh, I wonder if on your tables you could start asking and maybe starting to answer the question uh, who is it who gets to tell us whether we're living life right or not? Yeah? Is that a good question to start off with? And then you can raise whatever other questions you've got on your table, right? Why don't we start with that question? Uh, and then we'll wrap up with some flatjacks.

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That was Glenn Scrivener talking to students at the University of East Anglia last week. So if you'd like to get more of these episodes of the Evangelist Podcast, don't forget to subscribe. Just go to speaklife.org.uk slash TEP. Speaklife.org.uk slash TEP. It's a mobile friendly page. And uh it also goes right back to earlier episodes. Uh the iTunes feed only goes back to the previous 50, I think. So if you want to hear the other 100 or so that uh not in the feed, you need to go to uh speaklife.org.uk slash uk. Anyway, that's it for now. Thanks very much for listening, and uh we'll speak to you next time.