SUNDAY TALKS

What would be different about your life if you knew how long you had left? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at the apostle Saul/Paul’s belief that the world would be changed massively by the emerging presence of God in his lifetime. This set his priorities and shaped his teaching. While we now have a view of God at work over a very long time, we still face choices about what to do with our limited time. So how can Paul’s urgency help us to see what could and should be different for us right now?

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What is the big story that shapes how you see the world and your part in it? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at the story which shaped Saul’s beliefs in the time of Jesus. The Jewish people had lost their freedom to worship God and thrive in the way they had in the past, and they were waiting for a promised liberator to overcome what stood between them and their ideal life with God.

However, Jesus was misunderstood by many, including Saul at first, perhaps because they failed to recognise what was truly holding them back. Jesus showed a way, through love and self-sacrifice, to be free not just from oppressing empires but also from personal wounds, addictions and other drivers to selfishness. When we think about our big story in a society which prizes freedom, how much of this is driven by Jesus’ example, and how much by self-centred desires from which we still need to be liberated?

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How much can people change? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at the life journey of Saul, a devout Jew whose life started to be transformed by an encounter with the risen Jesus. When we look at Saul’s letters of teaching today, we might wonder why he wrote things we struggle to agree with, or missed out things we feel sure he should have taught. But when we understand his background, the change and progress in his life, we might read him differently. More importantly, we can have our own lives changed by Jesus too. How will that reshape the way we think and act?

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