Yesterday on Things Unseen I mentioned a famous sermon by the great Scottish preacher Thomas Chammers.

At this point in the year you'll forgive me if I honestly can't remember whether I've

mentioned Chalmers' sermon before

or not. It was on 1 John chapter 2 entitled The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.

And it went to the heart of how our lives can't be transformed by all the efforts we make to

screw up the strength or the courage to stop doing something

or to overcome it and to start doing something else.

Yes, things need to be expelled.

We know that.

But the gospel doesn't transform us by creating a vacuum of us getting rid of things in our lives. If we try to do

that, we'd be like the man in Jesus' parable who swept his house clean of an evil spirit.

But then when the spirit discovered the house had been swept clean, it fetches another seven

spirits more evil than itself and occupies the house and says Jesus,

the last state of that person is worse than the first.

So how do we get out of this vicious circle?

Well, let me try this another way.

I know it's always dangerous to use an illustration from a world outside your own

expertise, but let me try this. Perhaps like me, you've often sat on a large airplane and the

thought has crushed your mind, how on earth is this thing going to fly, with all these people

on board and their luggage? Never mind the weight of the plane.

Apparently a fully fuelled, ready to go Boeing 737-800 weighs about 60,000 kilos or about 130,000 pounds.

And that's before you stepped onto it.

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