Today on Bold steps with Mark job, we're learning what it means to be made alive through God's transforming power.
You can resist it, but he'll keep coming back. You can grieve him, but you cannot overcome him. And you will never be the same once you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, because he's there to stay, there to change you there, to transform you there. Sealed unto the day of redemption. It's a powerful thing to be alive unto God.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark job. Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. As we continue our brand new series on the book of Ephesians, Mark is going to be diving into the topic of what it means to be made alive through God's transforming power. But right now, he's going to explain three characteristics of
those who are spiritually dead. Today's message comes from our When You Believe Everything Changes series and it starts right now.
Paul said, you used to be like that. You were dead. And then he goes on to describe what it means to be spiritually dead. He says in verse two, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world, and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. He gives us three characteristics of spiritually dead people. Number one, when we're spiritually dead, we are spiritually unresponsive to God's Spirit, but we are
still influenced by other spiritual forces. He says, you used to live that way when you followed the ways of the world. Your spirit was dead. Listen, You follow the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Well who's that? Well, he goes on to explain who it is. It's the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Who's it talking about? Talking about Satan. Talking about evil spirit. What he's saying is that in the spiritual world, there's
good spirits and bad spirits. In the spiritual world, there's the Holy Spirit, and then there's ministering spirits. But then on the dark side, there are also fallen spirits. So there are fallen spirits as the Holy Spirit. There's ministering spirits. And then you have your own spirit. And he says, when your spirit is dead to God and your non-responsive to God, you can still be influenced by darker spiritual
forces that are in this world. And when you're not alive to God, you start listening to other voices in the spiritual world. You start being influenced by other spiritual forces. And by the way, can I just clarify this? Some people, when we talk about, uh, the dark side of the spiritual world, they oftentimes believe that sort of Lucifer, Satan or the dark side is, you know, some red. Person with horns and a pitchfork and a long tail going, ah.
You have a distorted picture. That's a medieval picture. If the enemy wanted to influence you in a in a wrong way, the enemy would camouflage himself as an angel of light. You don't have to worry about dark, evil images. What you have to worry about is your spirits not alive unto God. You have to worry about the impersonators of God. Oh, there's a lot of spiritual forces out there.
And I'm just amazed at how many people are duped by throw Jesus a Bible and a picture of a saint in there, and you're like, well, it must be God. I've been having this back pain here. I'm going through. You know, there's a lady down in the corner. I hear she's like a healer and she cracks an eggs over you and kind of, you know, blows smoke over your face, and and and she's got a picture of Jesus over here, and she's got a picture of a saint over there, and she blows and says things over
me and waves her arms over me. And it must be of God, right? I mean, she's got a Bible in the room and a picture of Jesus. this? Listen. Smoke. Pictures. Broken eggs on your belly. The curandera down the street. Let me tell you, it's not of God. Hello? That's not of God. It's not of God. I don't care how many candles she lights. I don't care how many pictures of the saints are there. I don't care how many.
How it helped your cousin or your other cousin or whatever. Listen, just because someone claims to be of God, they're not of God. There's a lot of spiritual forces out there that impersonate the things of God. Anything that's true and genuine will always be imitated. Always. And so anytime you expose yourself to that kind of stuff, you're opening yourself up to weirdness in the spiritual world, and you need to stay clean of it. The second thing that he says is this. Not only are we dead to God,
but open to other spiritual influences. But he tells us in verse three, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. The second thing is, when we're spiritually dead, we are driven by the cravings and the thoughts of our old nature. Listen, when God's Spirit, when your spirit is dead and God is not your influence, then what influences and drives your life will be the
cravings of your fallen nature. You'll have cravings. You'll follow them. They'll influence your thoughts. They'll influence your action. You will start living what the Bible says according to the flesh. You just start doing what your flesh wants you to do. Why? Because the Spirit's not there to speak to you. So whatever the flesh tells you to do. You do it because you don't have the influence of the spirit telling you where to go, asking you where to go, so
you become fleshly. The bottom line of the flesh is you satisfy whatever appetites you have whenever you want, however you want, as much as you can. Why? Because what's driving you now is the appetite of the flesh. So you lose restraint because you don't have the influence of the spirit, and you give in to the lower cravings of the flesh and start living in a fleshly way, because you do not have the influence of the power of the Spirit of God on your life. The same
is true, by the way. If you're a believer, you may be here in a follower of Jesus Christ. But if you say no to God enough, and you push God enough to the side, then you will start living and acting like a carnal believer. Because you're not being led by the spirit. You're being led by the flesh. And Paul says, hey, when you were dead. Hey, you did whatever your flesh wanted to do. So you thought it affected your thoughts and calls it the sinful nature.
You lived according to the sinful nature. You followed its desires and its thoughts. Whatever it drove you to do, that's where you went, because you lived according to the flesh. So the person that's spiritually dead, first of all, they're unresponsive to God. They're open to influences of other spiritual things in their life. And they live fleshly. They give into the flesh. They eat of the flesh, they gain the flesh. They satisfy their flesh. They have an appetite
in the flesh. They have less and less of an appetite for the things of God, and more and more in an appetite for the things of the flesh. And thirdly, listen. Thirdly, he says, like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath to be at odds with God accumulates judgment against ourselves. So because we live this way, we continue to grow in sin after sin after sin. Rebelliousness after God. We start living a life that's totally contrary to God. And the Bible says we accumulate the wrath of God
against us. The judgment of God begins to accumulate against us because despite of your image that you may have of God, you cannot violate the holiness of God and expect just to get away from it, because God in some way is sort of some soft teddy bear up in heaven saying, oh, it's okay, don't worry, you're just human. That's not God. God's a holy God. He's a loving God, but a holy God. And his holiness demands justice. Are
you tracking with me? It's really important to understand that sometimes we have this image of God like he's some jolly Santa Claus. Ho ho ho! Are you on the naughty list? Oh, you naughty boy. Wait wait wait wait wait. Who painted that picture of God for you? That's not the God of the Bible. Oh, I know he's loving. Yes he is. I know he's merciful. Yes he is. I know he's full of grace. Yes he is. But do not forget, ever, that God is a holy God.
That the angels fly around the throne of God Almighty, covering their face and covering their feet and yelling to one another, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. All the earth is full of his glory. His glory and his holiness is so powerful and so preeminent that if you were to see a revelation of God's glory, you would immediately die, because the holiness of God is so powerful and grand, and we are so fallen and sinful that God's holiness would consume us. The Bible refers to
him in the Old Testament as a consuming fire. It's the holiness of God. Yet with all the holiness of God. That's why when people say to me, I just wish God were fair with me. I say, no, no, no, you don't want God to be fair. No, no, never ask that. God would be fair. You don't want God's justice. You want God's mercy. Because if God were fair, we'd be in trouble. So we pray for God's mercy. We pray for God's compassion. And I love this. So he's
just described how we are when we're dead. We're walking around influenced by evil spirits given to the cravings of our own flesh under the judgment of God. Man, it paints a bleak, bleak picture. And Paul says, that's who. That's who all of us were before. But I love the transition. Oh, man, aren't you glad there's a but in there? But, but. But oh, I love this. But but signifies is a a change of direction, a contrast. Look what he says in verse four. But because of
his great love. Thank you Lord. Because of his great love for us. God, who is rich in mercy. Ah, man, there's the love of God. God who is rich in mercy. There's the mercy of God. Verse five made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. So it's the love of God, the grace, the mercy of God, and the grace of God I love it, the love of God, his incomparable love for us, the mercy of God.
When we deserve wrath, he gives us mercy and the grace of God. This undeserved, unmerited favor of God that he grants us. It is while we were yet dead in our trespasses and sins, when we were objects of wrath, filling our own cravings, dead to God out there doing our own thing. God looked at us and he still loved us.
You're listening to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe and engaging study from the book of Ephesians. And Mark, I, I love how you mentioned that we've been saved by grace through faith, and faith is what this program is all about, isn't it?
It is. Everything good comes via faith. Without it, the Bible tells us we can't receive anything from God.
I want to take a moment and thank our bold partners, those of you who give a gift each month to bold steps, and that means a gift of any size. Some of you can do more, some do less. But every gift really is so encouraging. I want our partners to know the results. Mark. So here's just one example. This listener writes to us and says, the message I heard today really blessed me. I'm struggling right now, and I know the Lord just spoke directly to me through
brother Mark. Thank you very much. Our bold partners make that possible.
And I love that. This is from Leon in Chicago. And I want to say, Leon, that's the way the Holy Spirit works. We proclaim the message. It goes out at different times in different stations and different states. But the Holy Spirit knows exactly what we need to hear and when we need to hear it.
So thank you to our bold partners. You can sign up to be a partner at Bold Steps. Okay, back into today's message with bold Steps and Mark Jobe.
He looked at us and his love drove him to reach out to us, and his mercy propelled him to see us in a different way. And his grace drove him to reach out to us while we were yet sinners, far from him, dead spiritually. And listen to what it says. Oh, I love this. You were dead spiritually. Our spirits were dead. Have you ever seen when someone is someone has died and an air room? They take out the defibrillators and they say, okay. Clear. Clear. Clear. Boom! All right, all right,
clear out. Now watch it. Boom! Okay. One more time. Boom! And then the heart starts. Boom boom boom boom boom boom. They've just been brought to life by the power of an outside source. Spiritually. You were dead. You and I were dead. Spirits were dead. Unresponsive to God and the power of an outside source called the Holy Spirit. The power of an outside source was applied to our spirit.
And the moment that we heard the gospel, and the moment that we believed by faith, and the moment that we were willing to repent and believe and open up our hearts and receive the message of the gospel. Then suddenly that outside power came in, and that spirit that was dead was boom, made alive.
BA boom ba boom ba boom.
And suddenly we were a living being. Oh, you say, pastor, I just didn't feel anything different. Well, you can't feel it because it's spiritual, not emotional, not physical. But let me tell you what happens when your spirit comes alive. When your spirit comes alive. Now something has changed. Now notice your spirit is different than the Holy Spirit. Your spirit that you were born with was dead because of sin.
The Holy Spirit, who's the third person of the Triune God, comes down and comes inside of you and resurrects your spirit. And now the Holy Spirit starts speaking to your spirit. That's why when someone comes to Christ, we don't give them a thousand page booklet and say, here, read this. These are 999 rules of what you can do and can't do. Don't chew tobacco and spit on church grounds. No. don't say this word or that word. No. Don't do this or that. No no no no no no no
no no. No one gives you a book. Why? Because you get something much better than a book. You get an inbuilt spiritual GPS system. It's called the Holy Spirit. Now that your spirit's alive, you walk out of the place and you start doing something, and suddenly a voice inside says. Why are you doing that? Well, I've always done it. But now suddenly you feel like, nah, I don't feel I can do it like I did it anymore,
because something inside of me telling me that's wrong. You go to talk like you used to talk before, and suddenly some words start sort of fumbling in your mouth because there's something inside of you saying that. That that's not the way you speak anymore. You have some thoughts that you had before, and something inside of you starts telling you, hey, those thoughts need to be aligned. You do things that you've done for years and didn't think a moment about it, and now you do them and
now you feel sad about it. Or guilty. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is starting to align your life with the life of God. The Holy Spirit inside of you is has awakened you to the voice of God, to the things of God. And now God is speaking to you. You open up the Bible that used to be this dusty, crusty book that only people read at funerals and and weddings and that you had, but you never read because
you just didn't understand it. And when you come to God and the Holy Spirit is inside of you, suddenly the eyes, the veils in your eyes start coming off, and suddenly it's like things start making sense and coming alive, and you feel like God is speaking to me now. I mean, I actually read the Bible and felt like God had a word for me. I'm actually reading it and feeling like I'm understanding and growing and that God is speaking to my soul. Why? What is that? It's
the Holy Spirit. You have come alive now. Oh, you're not perfect. Oh, no. No. No way. From perfect. The moment, the moment you come to Christ, you are made alive in your spirit. But here's the thing. You still have the same old brain. Your soul hasn't changed. Only your spirit's changed. But you still have the same old mind. Because God doesn't give us a brain transplant. So you can come to Christ, get saved. Your spirit's alive. Get convicted, go out in the foyer and lust at a girl
who has a short skirt on. You're thinking, oh Lord, I thought I just got saved. Yeah, you just got saved. But you still have the same old mind. Your mind has to be changed by the renewing of your mind. It's a process. Your spirit is made alive immediately. Your mind has to be renewed with time and truth. Are you tracking with me? This is real important for you to understand. But when your spirit's made alive. Oh, here's what I know. When you genuinely have the spirit, I don't.
I don't worry, because I know you're going to be convicted and empowered and dragged back and taken to the cross and that God is going to work in you, because once you have the spirit, you are sealed unto the day of redemption. You can fight it, but you can't win. You can resist it, but he'll keep coming back. You can grieve him, but you cannot overcome him. You can try to live like you don't have it, but you have it, and you will never be the same
once you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. Because he's there to stay, there to change you there, to transform you there. Sealed unto the day of redemption. It's a powerful thing to be alive unto God. And listen to what he says. So you were dead, but you have been made alive with Christ. Verse six. And God raised us up with Christ. So not only were you made alive, but you were raised up. Jesus was made alive in the grave, but he raised up and walked again.
We were we were made alive spiritually. But now we're raised up with Christ. We we begin to walk with Christ. Live with Christ. He begins to live inside of us. Listen. And by the way, you know, people say, well, Jesus is in me. And technically you're wrong, but literally you're right. Because really, who lives inside of you is the Holy Spirit that carries with him the essence and the presence of Jesus. Are you understanding?
Being raised up and made alive by God? This is bold steps. And that's the takeaway from today's message from pastor Mark Jobe. Well, we love getting listener letters like the one we heard earlier. And if you'd like to connect with us and share your story or just say hello, we'd love to hear from you. You can write to us at Bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Once again, our address is 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago,
Illinois 60,006 ten. Or connect with us online when you visit our website, you'll find us at Bold steps.org. You can also stay connected on your favorite social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Just a few of the ways you can stay in touch with the Bold Steps team, and we look forward to hearing from you soon. So thank you to our bold partners. You can become a
partner with us when you go online to Bold Steps. Now, Mark, before we end today, I'd like you to share with our listeners a little about your brand new devotional booklet, more Than a Label discovering who you are in Christ.
Wayne, so many people these days have told us that one of the tactics of the enemies is to have them live with accusations about who they are or who they are, not putting labels on them. So this little devotional is meant to help get someone jump started. 15 days into taking those labels off and taking on the labels of God. In other words, getting God's identity over their life.
Well, I hope you will request a copy of Mark's devotional more Than a label. When you give a gift of any amount to bold steps today. Just visit us at Bold Steps dot plus this month. Only when you do give to Bold steps, we'll be happy to send you our bold step gift. In addition to Mark's Devotional. It's a book titled Lies Boys Believe, and it tackles some of the most dangerous and common lies that our
culture pushes on young boys. It's filled with engaging illustrations, fun puzzles, interactive challenges, and graphic elements that appeal to boys visual learning style. The book makes discovering truth and adventure rather than a chore for boys this thoughtfully crafted, bold step gift will keep them engaged while imparting life changing biblical wisdom. Today, we'd love to send you a copy when you give a gift to support this ministry. Just go to Bold Steps or call us at 800.
That's (800) 356-6639 or mail your donation and request for the book to bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Well, that's all the time we have today, but be sure to join us again tomorrow when Mark concludes this message on what it means to be made alive in Christ. Our message comes from our series called When You Believe. Everything changes and you will hear it
right here Wednesday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.