A child draws a boa constrictor that has swallowed an elephant, and the grown-ups see only a hat, they cannot notice what lies beneath the surface. That image from The Little Prince opens the final sermon in a series on spirituality, based on the fifth chapter of Ephesians (Ephesians 5). Paul writes not to clergy but to ordinary people, showing that spiritual life is recognised by wisdom, by what fills us, and by a gratitude able to sing even in hardship. Listen and see what a spiritual person looks like when you look deeper than the hat.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Paul speaks of the wise as those who "redeem the time", a word used for buying a slave's freedom at the market. What does this picture say about how we should treat our time in difficult days?
- Why does Paul in Ephesians 5:18 contrast getting drunk on wine with being filled with the Holy Spirit? What do these two pictures have in common, and how are they different?
- The sermon opens with the drawing from The Little Prince: adults see a hat instead of a boa constrictor. What surface-level images of a spiritual person do you encounter, and how do they differ from what Paul describes?
- The story about the wrong fuel shows that an engine can start and still be ruined. Besides alcohol, what do people fill their lives with when everything seems to be working on the outside?
- What helps you make room for the Holy Spirit on an ordinary day, at home, at work or at school, and what might you need to remove so He can speak to you?
- Every morning two trains are waiting: the train of complaining and the train of gratitude. In what specific situation this week do you want to choose gratitude on purpose, and what might that look like?
