S3E159 – Ephesians 1-3: United

0:00You probably met or known someone who thought much higher of him or herself than they should. This is the Lifespring Family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California. And podcasting since 2004, I am your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. This is the Daily Podcast where we're reading through the entire Bible in a year. Welcome. I'm so glad to see you today. Hope you're well. Our reading today is Ephesians 1-3, and after reading, of course, I'll have some comments. The title of today's episode is United. The show notes page is LifespringMedia.com slash s12e165. There's a place there where you can comment on the show. Are you ready? Let's get started. Ephesians 1 From Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Jesus, to God's people who live in Ephesus and our faithful followers of Christ Jesus.

1:01I pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven. Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with Him and to be His holy and innocent and loving people. God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God's own adopted children. God treated us with undeserved grace because of the Son He dearly loves and so we should praise God. Christ sacrificed His life's blood to set us free, which means our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because of God's gift of undeserved grace to us. God has great wisdom and understanding, and by what Christ has done, God has shown us His own mysterious ways. Then when the time is right, God will do all He is planned, and Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth. God always does what He plans, and this is why He appointed Christ to choose us.

2:05He did this so we Jews would bring honor to Him and be the first ones to have hope because of Him. Christ also brought to you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show you belong to God. The Spirit also makes us sure we will be given what God has stored up for His people. Then we will be set free and God will be honored and praised. I've heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, so I never stop being grateful for you as I mention you in my prayers. I ask the glorious Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you His Spirit. The Spirit will make you wise and let you understand what it means to know God. My prayer is that light will flood your hearts, and you will understand the hope given to you when God chose you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all God's people. I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for His followers.

3:09It is the same wonderful power He used when He raised Christ from death and let Him sit at His right hand in heaven. There Christ rules over all forces, authorities, powers, and rulers. He rules over all beings in this world and will rule in the future world as well. God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church He has made him the head of everything. The church is the body of Christ and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything. Ephesians 2 In the past, you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world and His Spirit has power over everyone who doesn't obey God. Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds, we made God angry and we were going to be punished like everyone else. But God was merciful, we were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much He made us

4:11alive with Christ, and God's gift of undeserved grace is what saves you. God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and He has given us a place beside Christ in heaven. God did this so in the future world He could show how truly good and kind He is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done. You were saved by faith in God who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God's gift to you and not anything you have done on your own. It isn't something you have earned, so there's nothing you can brag about. God planned for us to do good things and to live as He has always wanted us to live. This is why He sent Christ to make us what we are. Don't forget that you were Gentiles. In fact, you used to be called uncircumcised by those who take pride in being circumcised. At that time you did not know about Christ. You were foreigners to the people of Israel, and you had no part in the promises God had made to them.

5:11You were living in this world without hope and without God, and you were far from God, but Christ offered His life's blood as a sacrifice and brought you near God. Christ has made peace between Jews and Gentiles, and He has united us by breaking down the wall of hatred that separated us. Christ gave His own body to destroy the love Moses with all its rules and commands. He even brought Jews and Gentiles together as though we were only one person when He united us in peace. On the cross Christ did away with our hatred for each other. He also made peace between us and God by uniting Jews and Gentiles in one body. Christ came and preached peace to you Gentiles who were far from God, and peace to us Jews who were near God, and because of Christ, all of us can come to the Father by the same spirit. You Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens with everyone else who belongs to the family of God. You are like a building with the apostles and

6:12prophets as the foundation, and with Christ as the most important stone. Christ is the one who holds the building together and makes it grow into a holy temple for the Lord, and you are a part of that building Christ is built as a place for God's own spirit to live. Ephesians chapter 3 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by this spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. To me, who am less than the least of all these saints,

7:17this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. Therefore, I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family and heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend

8:20with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Well, I don't know how you were brought up, how your parents and extended family and others around you treated you, but I've been around long enough to know that when a child is taught from his earliest years that he's really something special, well, that child begins to believe that he really is above everybody else. He believes that he is better, that he's entitled. You know, over the years I've met and gotten to know a few people who were famous, who had adoring fans all around the world, and some of these people began to believe that they were as special as their fans thought they were. And by the way, for those of you that have listened

9:23to my podcasts for many years, don't even try to guess who I might be talking about. The artist I've had on my shows are friends of mine, and each one of them are wonderful human beings. You've probably met or known someone who thought much higher of him or herself than they should. Well, in chapter 2 of Ephesians today, Paul was talking to the Gentiles. Now, Paul himself was raised as a Jew, and it was common then for Jews to believe that they were better than non-Jews because they were God's chosen people. And it's easy to imagine how that might cause one to think pretty highly of oneself, right? Their attitude is God gave us the promise. God speaks to our prophets, and on and on. But Paul explained in verses 11-22 of chapter 2 that anyone who believes in Jesus can be reconciled to God and become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. This idea was a hard pill for some of the Jews to accept, and it was a glorious

10:25revelation for many Gentiles of which I'm one. There is no longer Jew in Gentile, no longer the privilege to end outcast, no longer black and white. In Christ, we are all one. And in this day of such great division, isn't that a good thing to know? I'd sure like to know what you think about that. Go to LifeSpringMedia.com, slash S12, E165, and leave a comment. Tomorrow we'll begin the book of Leviticus. We'll read chapters one through three. So that was from the latest podcasting 2.0 podcast. I'm just showing you that I'm practicing what

11:30I'm asking you to do. That was, of course, Adam Curry and Dave Jones, and what they're doing with a podcasting 2.0 project is really, really important, and it's important to support them. So I send them some treasure from time to time. Plus, Dave Jones has been helping me with my Raspberry Pi this week, so I feel like the right thing to do is to send some value his way. So what about you? Are you finding value from the LifeSpring Family Audio Bible? You know what to do. Go to support.lifeSpringMedia.com for details. On this date in church history, February 13th, 1919, Ernest Jennings or Tennessee Ernie Ford was born. He was a Christian country entertainer, and he hosted his own television show from 1955 to 1965, and he's remembered for his many sacred musical recordings. Here's a little of one of his

12:33gospel songs. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Glory, Hallelujah. I happen to have some of his gospel albums in my vinyl collection. They used to belong to my grandma. But the song he's best known for is 16 tons released in 1955. Some people say a man is made out of mud. A poem man's made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood and skin and bones. A man that's a weak and a back that's strong you load 16 tons. What are you getting? Another day older and deeper and dead. St. Peter don't you call me cause I can go. I owe my soul to the company store. This has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember.

13:38The song spent 10 weeks at number one on the country chart and 7 weeks at number one on the pop chart so it was a crossover hit. The record sold over 20 million copies and it earned Ernie a gold album. 16 tons became his signature song and when I was just a little guy I used to watch his TV show with my grandma. Yep, good memories. Tennessee Ernie Ford. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father we worship you and we praise you for who you are. There is none above you. You are the creator of all that is and you are worthy of our worship. We thank you for being our provider, our protector, our healer, our counselor and our Savior. You are all we need and more. In Lord I thank you for the life spring family. Bless each and everyone who's listening right now and draw each of us closer to you than we've ever been.

14:40Where there are needs I ask that you provide. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Beloved, send in your prayer request and praises at prayer.lifespringmedia.com You can comment on the show at lifespringmedia.com slash s12 e165 or you can email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com. Support the show at lifespringmedia.com slash support and until tomorrow may God bless you richly. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your time with me. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.