Steve Webb 0:00 You've probably met or known someone who thought much higher of him or herself than they should. Steve Webb 0:13 This is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I am your OG God caster 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. one through three. And after reading, of course, I'll have some comments. The title of today's episode is united, the shownotes pages Lifespring media.com/s 12 V. 165. There's a place there where you can comment on the show. Are you ready? Let's get started. Steve Webb 0:50 Ephesians chapter one. Steve Webb 0:53 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. I 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 Sun 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 is done, God has shown us his own mysterious ways. Then when the time is right, God will do all he has 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. He 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 we're given the promised Holy Spirit to show you belong to God. The Spirit also makes us sure we will be given what God is 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 stopped being grateful for you. As I mentioned you in my prayers. I asked 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. It 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. Steve Webb 3:39 Ephesians Chapter two. Steve Webb 3:42 In the past, you were dead, because you sinned and fought against God. You follow 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 alive 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 are 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. You were living in this world without hope and without God, and you were far from God, but Christ offered his life's blood is the 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 Law of 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 are 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 prophets 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 Steve Webb 6:29 Ephesians chapter three. Steve Webb 6:32 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've 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 is now been revealed by the 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, this 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 in 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 with 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. Steve Webb 8:46 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, by the way, for those of you that have listened to my podcasts for many years, don't even try to guess who I might be talking about. The artists I've had on my shows are friends of mine, and each one of them are wonderful human beings. You probably met or known someone who thought much higher of him or herself than they should. Well in chapter two 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 there at Two days God gave us the promise, God speaks to our prophets and on and on. But Paul explained in verses 11 through 22 of chapter two 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 revelation for many Gentiles, of which I'm one. There is no longer Jew and Gentile, no longer the privileged and 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 Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 165. And leave a comment. Tomorrow we'll begin the Book of Leviticus we'll read chapters one through three boost Steve Webb 11:02 Steve Webb Oh Steve Webb he got cast our God caster Yeah 7777 says through pod friend and he says, Because you rock On our podcast at audiobible.link has a constant incoming stream of sats and it's all because of you guys. Go podcasting. Steve Webb 11:24 So that was from the latest podcasting 2.0 Podcast. I'm just showing you that I'm practicing what I'm asking you to do. That was of course Adam curry and Dave Jones in 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 Lifespring media.com for details. Steve Webb 12:12 On this date in church history, February 13 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 gospel songs, Unknown Speaker 12:35 Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Steve Webb 12:55 I happen to have some of his gospel albums in my vinyl collection. They used to belong to my grandma. But the song is best known for his 16 Tons released in 1955. Steve Webb 13:07 People say a man is made out of mud, a bone man's made out of muscle and blood and muscle and blood and skin and bones. A man next week can the back that strong you load 16 times by the end of the day. St. Peter, don't check all my calls, I can go I owe my soul to the companies. Steve Webb 13:35 This has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember, the song spent 10 weeks at number one on the country chart in seven 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. Steve Webb 14:12 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 in more in Lord, I thank you for the Lifespring family. Bless each and every one who's listening right now and draw each of us closer to you than we've ever been. Where their needs I ask that you provide. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Beloved, sent in your prayer requests and praises at prayer dot Lifespring media.com Steve Webb 14:59 You Comment on the show and Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 165. Or you can email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. Support the show at Lifespring media.com/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 wet bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai