We had two birthdays to celebrate tonight, one a belated birthday and one in anticipation.

Gill concluded the family service by looking at how we use the phrase that someone is a rock to mean someone who is dependable and can be relied on. There were many aspects of Peter’s life which indicated his reliability and dependability. His confession of Jesus as the Messiah (Matt 16:18) shows someone whose life was being shaped by the knowledge of who Jesus is – a vital principle for us to emulate. When he walked on water (Matt 14:22-31), there was a sense that he had grasped the truly revolutionary principle that he could do what Jesus could do (see also John 14:12), again something we need to learn (all things are possible with God!) When Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, Peter’s rejection of this initially showed that he had a deep sense of the holiness of God and wanted to honour Jesus in everything. All of these things indicate a man who had a real hunger for God and a faith that was large and expansive.

At the same time, Peter shows us that he is human and all too prone to make mistakes. When he walked on water, he soon took his eyes off Jesus and began to doubt (and thus sink.) We too can be like this: full of faith one minute, besieged by doubts and fears the next. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he must have felt deflated by his inability to pray for even one hour in Jesus’s time of need, and in his denial three times, he let Jesus down and felt so useless and helpless from this denial that he returned to his old life of fishing, probably feeling too disheartened to believe God could continue to use him.

Jesus knew Peter through and through. He knew his volatility and failures, but he also saw his potential. He knew what Peter could become: the man who would oversee the appointment of another disciple to take the place of Judas (Acts 1:15-26), the man who, on the Day of Pentecost, could stand up and preach to thousands (Acts 2:14-41), the man who could speak out boldly to see a man healed at the temple gates (Acts 3:4-26), the man who could face the authorities and say, ‘We must obey God rather than men!’ (Acts 5:29) Jesus knows us through and through too and sees not only our failures and mistakes but our potential. We too are needed and have purpose and mission in His church.

Tonight’s family service had the theme ‘Peter the Rock’, referring to Matt 16:18. There, Jesus tells Simon that he will henceforth be known as Peter and on his confession of Jesus as the Christ, He will build His church. There is a play on words here as ‘Peter’ and ‘rock’ in Greek are from the same root word. We see that Peter is fundamentally changed by his relationship with Jesus. He was originally a fisherman: a hardy, robust, energetic, capable man who had to work hard for a living, but who ultimately learned to obey Jesus – even when Jesus, a carpenter, gave him clear instructions about fishing! (Luke 5:1-11) In learning to obey Jesus even when it made no apparent sense, Peter teaches us all how to respond to Jesus, and for this Jesus gave him a new role (not a fishermen, but a ‘fisher of men.’)

Peter was ultimately changed from a small stone, capable of being tossed around easily, into something more durable. He was changed because he learned to build his life on a solid foundation (Luke 6:48) and we too can become stable and rock-solid if we build our lives on Jesus Himself. Peter clearly took Jesus’s words to heart, for in 1 Pet 2:4-6, he talks about building on the living Stone and said ‘you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.‘ (1 Pet 2:5)

We are called to be those living stones and to build strong and stable lives on God.

A visual aid for the sermon!

Paul ends Ephesians 3 with words which remind us that there is always so much more of God and His blessings to discover. He says, ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’ (Eph 3:20-21)

God is not worn out by giving us the blessings of strength, His presence and His love, as we sometimes feel when we have done things for other people! He is not sitting down in need of some replenishment because He is exhausted by being so generous towards us. He is able to do immeasurably more, even more, than this! His power is at work in us and He is able to pour out even more blessings. There is no limit to what God can do. There is no limit to the amazing blessings He is able to pour out on us. He is that never-ending fountain of life (Ps 36:9) and all our fountains are in Him. (Ps 87:7) There is never any water shortage in God, never any lack, any deficiency and we can ‘rise above the normal’ (‘Hero’, Kutless) because we are linked to the Almighty. There is no need to fear, no need to give up, no need to despair. Robert Browning got it right when he wrote, ‘God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world!’ (Pippa’s Song) We may be surrounded by battles and in the thick of trouble, but God’s power and strength and presence and love will see us through.

The reason Paul can be so confident about the blessings of God is because He has a secure understanding of who God is. We really need this confidence in and understanding of God if we are to receive God’s blessings and be transformed as Paul prays. So often, our eyes are on our circumstances and on the difficulties we face, and that leaves us feeling weak and powerless. We are like the Israelites when they were facing Goliath. Goliath was about 3 metres tall – 9 feet 9 inches. (1 Sam 17:4) Scripture tells us, ‘He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armour of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.’ (1 Sam 17:5-7) He was an intimidating sight, and there’s no wonder Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified when they saw him and heard his roars. That is a symbol of how we often feel in life when we face circumstances beyond our control and situations which daunt and terrify us. We feel weak and helpless; the enemy seems huge and overpowering. But when David came along, he saw something different. He could see the giant just like everyone else could, but David’s vision of God was much bigger.

David had confidence in God’s ability to deliver him: ‘The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.’ (1 Sam 17:37) So often, what distinguishes those who win victories in God and those who live in failure is not the person’s abilities or their own strengths but their confidence in God (see 1 Sam 17:45-47). David had a right view of God. He saw God as all-powerful. He saw God as almighty. He was not overwhelmed by the situation or terrified by the bluster of the giant because he was confident in God’s ‘glorious riches’, in His vast, unlimited power. We need to be people like David and Paul who focus more on who God is than on the many problems we face (see Ps 50:1-3, Ps 55:10, Ps 2:6).

Matt Redman reminds us, ‘A big view of God is a cure for so many of the things in life that would stand in our way or slow us down in ministry. When we really grasp the heights of who He is, and the depths of His heart for us, and the strength of His power in us, we can live a whole different kind of life. The way we view God will radically affect how our lives operate… We must see and believe Him as big enough, kind enough, real enough and strong enough to move in power in our everyday lives – no matter what we’re facing.’

We continued with the series ‘Battles & Blessings’ this morning, looking at some of the blessings Paul outlines in Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul reminds us that these blessings come from God’s ‘glorious riches’, reminding us to focus on who God is rather than on the circumstances and problems which so often overwhelm us.

The Blessing of Strength

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is that God ‘may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.’ (Eph 3:16) There are different kinds of strength (compare the physique of a sprinter like Usain Bolt with the wiry strength and stamina needed by a long-distance runner like Mo Farah, for example), but God wants to give us the strength to endure.

So often we can be like Elijah after the famous victory on Mount Carmel: discouraged, afraid, disheartened and ready to give up (see 1 Kings 19:1-18). God’s strength in us enables us to carry on (Gal 6:10, Ps 62:11-12, Is 40:31).

The Blessing of Christ’s Presence

Paul prays that the Ephesians will have strength and power ‘so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.’ (Eph 3:17) Ultimately, God’s presence in us is the energising force that gives us life. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians about the resurrection, says, ‘The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.’ (1 Cor 15:45) Jesus gives life to us. His presence within us by His Spirit gives us the power and the strength we need to face whatever life hurls at us, so that we can learn, like Paul, to be content whatever the circumstances (see Phil 4:11-13). We receive this blessing by faith, for there is often no visible sign of God’s presence (‘we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’ (2 Cor 4:7)), but we live by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) God has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5), so even if we face rejection from parents, spouses, family and friends (see Ps 27:10, 2 Sam 6:20-22, Ps 55:13-14, 1 Sam 30:6), we can lean on the promise of His presence with us and in us.

The Blessing of God’s Love

The third blessing available to us is the power to grasp something of God’s love, even though Paul admits this is a love that actually ‘surpasses knowledge.’ (Eph 3:17-19).There is nothing more important in life than learning to live in the fulness of God’s love. God is love. (1 Jn 4:8) There is no greater blessing than knowing we are loved with a love that is faithful, constant, never-ending and unfailing. Paul wants us to be rooted and established in love, because he knows that storms come and rock us. We need solid foundations, good roots, like a tree that can’t be uprooted even in a hurricane. The battles of life have a way of knocking us over and leaving us unsure about what God is really like and if His love really is as strong and dependable as we believe. It’s easy to believe in God’s love when the sun is shining and everything is going our way, but it can be truly difficult to believe God’s love is deep and high and long and wide when we are in the darkness. John says, ‘And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.’ (1 John 4:16) This is the truth we have to hold onto when the hurricanes and storms of life come and leave us feeling lost and bewildered. God’s love is limitless, perfect and never-ending.