Discover how to take your place today on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe.
I believe that at some times in our life we have a lot but don't know how much we have. Sometimes we live like paupers when in reality we're children of the Most High King.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm excited today because we are starting a new series based on the book of Ephesians. And Mark, you're going to outline some important and practical steps we need to take if we want to maximize sharing our faith.
That's right Wayne. And again, let me just say how excited I am to jump in the book of Ephesians with you. You are going to be thrilled because this is a powerful, powerful book. And really at the core, Paul starts out by telling us, hey, so many of us don't understand who we really are, so we need to take our place because we're living. As you'll see from this message, we're living sometimes in poverty when really we're rich. And I'm not talking about finances, I'm talking about spiritually.
We get it. Let's turn to Ephesians now and get started. Our message series. When you believe Everything changes. Here's Mark Jobe.
Oftentimes you are much richer. You have much more than what you know you have. But oftentimes we don't know how to access what we already have. I heard of a story a little while back of a woman by the name of Hetty Green. Hetty Green was known as America's greatest miser. She ate cold oatmeal because it cost too much to heat it up. Her son had to have his leg amputated because she wanted. She waited too long for medical attention while she was looking for a
free clinic. She even died from a ruptured blood vessel in her brain while arguing about the benefits of skimmed milk. Was she crazy? Maybe. Eccentric? Without a doubt. But one thing was for sure she wasn't poor. When Hetty Green died, she left an estate that was valued at over $100 million. You mean here's a woman that doesn't want to heat her oatmeal because she wants to conserve, yet she's got
$100 Million dollars. She's living like a pauper, when in reality she has the ability to live like a queen. I believe oftentimes I run into believers that way. Believers in Jesus Christ that have the capacity to live at a level much higher than what they're living at, but because they're not sure how to access what they have, they live almost like paupers. So I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter one.
Now there's a couple of things I want to tell you about before we jump into actually reading this passage. I want you to understand a little bit about Ephesians, and I want you to understand a little bit of why it was written and how it was written. Have you noticed that? Well, first of all, Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul. If you look at Ephesians chapter one, verse one, it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints in Ephesus,
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Well, Paul is the author of the book of Ephesians, but was Paul one of the 12 apostles? It's a trick question. Many people think that Paul was actually one of the 12 apostles, but he was not. Paul was not one of the 12 disciples that walked with Jesus that we normally consider an apostle. Paul was actually anti-Christian. A persecutor of the church he hated followers of of Jesus. In fact, it was the Apostle Paul who, before he became known as the Apostle Paul,
was known as Saul. It was the Apostle Paul that gave the gave the orders to approve the first martyr of the Christian church, who was Stephen. And they stoned him, and Paul was there, encouraging them to stone him. He hated Christians so much that he was on a mission to eliminate and imprison as many Christians as he could, and he took a trip on the way to Damascus to look for Christians in a town called Damascus. And as he was on his way, he had an encounter
that would radically change his destiny in his life. Sometimes Jesus will do that to you. And on his road to Damascus, he had an encounter with Jesus that threw him off his horse. He heard the voice of Jesus saying, Paul, Paul, why do you persecute me? And after this encounter with Jesus, he was left blind, stunned, confused. He went to the town of Damascus and a believer prayed over him and
explained the ways of God. And he was so utterly converted that from that day on he began to preach the gospel just as fervently as he had opposed the gospel of Jesus. Oh, I don't know. I'm assuming that there were some of you in this auditorium that at one time were very anti-Christian. Were some of you? Anybody remember the day that you'd cuss Christians out, get that Bible away, get that blankety blank Bible away from me, huh?
You can admit it. And then finally, when you came to Christ, just as strong as you were against, you became pro what Jesus has done in your life. And so it was the Apostle Paul that is writing this letter to the Ephesians. Now where did we get the title? Ephesians? Well, basically a lot of the books of the Bible are named after the cities that the letter was written to. For example, the city of Thessalonica is where the Thessalonians lived. And so we have the book in the New Testament
called Thessalonians. Colossae is a city where the Colossians lived. And so we have a book in the Bible called Colossians. Philippi was where the Philippians lived. And we have a book in the Bible called Philippians because it was written towards the Philippians. If Paul were to write a letter to Chicago, the church in Chicago, then the letter would be called Chicagoans, and we would turn to the letter called Chicagoans, and it would be the letter that was
written to the church that lives in Chicago. So Ephesus was a city. I've been to Ephesus. The ancient town of Ephesus is currently located in Turkey. Uh, in those days it was called Asia minor. And Ephesus is where the Ephesians lived. And so Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians. And the first time that Paul ever visited Ephesus is chronicled in acts chapter 18. He went to Ephesus with a couple, a ministry couple called Priscilla and Aquila.
And he went to this city, a big metropolitan city, and he began to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. There Paul had to move on to Jerusalem. And so he left Akilah and Priscilla to talk to people about Jesus while they were talking to people about Jesus. And by the way, can I just interject here. There's something very powerful about ministering together as a couple. You see me here up front on a regular basis. Because I'm
the teacher. Preacher. But I want you to know that since day one, since the very first day that I came to this church, my wife has been as involved in ministry as I have. Don't ask her to teach. Don't ask her to preach because she doesn't like to do that. But she has been as involved as or more committed than I have been from day one. And we've been here almost 25 years. And there's something really powerful to minister as a couple. And she's actually sitting
right here. Usually she's in Sunday school. Good to see you, hon. In fact, I remember when I was dating my wife, uh, she wasn't my wife when I was dating her, but when I started dating, um, we were actually leading a Bible study. And I remember thinking to myself, I don't know if a relationship is going to be a distraction or if it's going to really help me out. And I remember we were I was leading a Bible study by 71st in Springfield near Marquette Park. And I was
still in college at the time and leading this Bible study. And, uh, d uh, started coming to that Bible study, and I realized that she had this way with working with other women and and being involved and calling and ministering. And it's the first time the light came on in my head and said, I thought to myself, you know what? We make one dynamic team. I like this, I like this. I tell people that are in ministry or trying to do something for God. There is no neutral. There's no
neutral spouse. A spouse can either be a hindrance and liability or incredible asset in whatever you're pursuing. And when two people come together with one vision and decide in a united way to say, we're going to do something for God, watch out, because incredible things can happen. But I've seen people in ministry spiral downward because one person feels called to ministry and the other person doesn't like it or doesn't want it. And I've seen those places take.
And so I believe there's something really powerful about ministering together as a couple. Well, this couple, Akhil and Priscilla, were ministering together in, in the, in the town of Ephesus. And as they were telling people about Jesus in Ephesus, another fellow by the name of Apollos came. And Apollos was a very good speaker and orator, and knew about the things of God. And he began to attract a big crowd. And when a killer and Priscilla heard of
what he was doing, they met up with Apollos. And they realized that although Apollos was very good at speaking, he only had half the message. Because Apollos had been converted under John the Baptizer, but he had never been under the instructions of Jesus. And so when Paul came back to Ephesus, he found himself with a group of believers. And he began to talk to this group of believers. And he asked them about the Holy Spirit. And they said, we don't even know there is a Holy Spirit, because
they had not been taught the full gospel. And it was at that time that the Apostle Paul prayed over them, put hands on them, and ask that they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit in their life. At that time, incredible things began to happen in the town of Ephesus. The Bible tells us that so many people began to come to Christ and get saved and give their life to God. Many of them were involved in witchcraft and sorcery, and when they came to Christ, they
repented of their witchcraft, their sorcery, their occult practices. They brought their books, their paraphernalia, their, uh, their scripts and everything they use in their sorcery and created these big mounds of things that they were getting rid of. And they had a huge bonfire to burn all of the pagan elements that they used to worship and follow. Here's the thing I want you to remember. You cannot have a conversion experience and choose to follow Christ without leaving certain things behind.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Marc Job. We'll continue today's message in a moment. But first, Marc, I want to talk about something that's become a growing concern within Christian leadership circles. Our world is going through a whirlwind, pretty dramatic developments and changes, not just here in America but around the globe. And we need to remind ourselves, as Christians, we have a much higher calling than any political movement, don't we.
Wayne? Turn on the news. And there is drama all over the place. From rumors of wars to economic crisis.
To polarization.
To actual wars that are happening to bombings, and it is easy to get distracted by all this, worried by it, anxious by it, sort of sucked into it. But here's what I want to say. This is a great time for the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope of the gospel.
Amen.
There are a lot of people coming to Christ throughout the world, and you may not hear about it, because there's other news that is prominent and is taking people's attention. But there is an undercurrent of a harvest evangelism. And that's what we're all about right now, is a moment where people are shaken, where there's concern. But there are so many people that are turning to the heavens, and we at Bold Steps have determined we will not miss
that moment. And so we are asking you to partner with us, help us out, because right now is a great time to be calling people to Jesus.
We urge you to give online at Bold Steps. Org or you can call us. The number is 800. D.L. Moody and that works out to be (800) 356-6639. And when you do give, we'll be sure to send you a special gift which will tell you more about later in the program today. Well, thank you for that, Mark. But let's go back to your message now here on Bold Steps.
When God gets a hold of someone, you don't stay the same. You start getting rid of things. I think all of us need a bonfire in our life. Hello? Hey, you. Come to Christ, men. There may need to be a bonfire while you pull out those Playboy magazines and other such things and get rid of it. Because what you start realizing is that this is incompatible with my new life in Christ. You cannot add Christ to your life
and continue with all the old stuff. There are certain things that when Christ comes in, you leave behind that. That's called conversion. And they had this huge bonfire experience, and God began to work in such miraculous ways that it was at this time that the Bible tells us that even the handkerchief that came from Paul and touched people was healing people from physical diseases, such as the was the anointing and the power of God upon Ephesus
at that time. There are times when God works in some miraculous, powerful way, supernatural that we cannot explain when God is seeking to do something. It is also at that time that there was a major riot, because anytime the church progresses, there will always be opposition. Count on it. When God begins to do something, there will always be opposition to what God is seeking to do. This time, the opposition came via the unions of the city of Ephesus.
Making idols and pagan gods was a big business. In the days of Ephesus, there were hundreds of gods that existed. There was the god of fertility, and there was the god of vengeance. There was the god of the shoemakers and the god of the sailors. There was the god of the farmers and the God of the multitude of
things of gods, and every person. If you went into their house in those days in Ephesus, everybody would have their little statues, the gods that they would pray to, and they were sort of their sponsoring God, so to speak. And if you walk down the streets of Ephesus, there were statues of different gods that would line the streets of Ephesus. And and the tradesmen made much of their money by building these statues out of wood and and
out of rock and out of iron. And they would build these statues, and it was a big money business, and people would buy their statues and dedicate their statues. When people started coming to Christ, the union trades workers began to realize Christianity has no God statues. They have an invisible God That they worship an invisible God, that they worship, that claims that he rules heaven and earth. And they began to realize that if Christianity spreads, we
will lose our business. No one will buy statues anymore. We'll lose tens of thousands of dollars and go out of business. So they organized a riot. How many of you know that sometimes the opposition of Christianity is not just on religious views. Sometimes it can be political, racist and economic. Hello. Don't be naive into thinking that opposition
will just come out of spiritual opposition. When we went to buy this church building here that you're in right now, this was a factory, and we decided that we were going to buy this building and convert this building into a church Ministry Center and we're super excited about it. We were challenged by raising the money for this because it's a lot of money. It was $2 million to buy this building. But when we went to get this building, the building in Chicago, you have to zone a building
for something. This building was zoned for manufacturing. For what factories are zoned for. And we need to rezone it for a church use. And in order to zone it for a church use, you have to get approval downtown at City Hall. And in order to get approval downtown at City Hall, you have to go through the alderman's office here. And in this case, to go through the alderman's office here. He had a zoning board that we
had to come before. And the zoning board had to approve it in order to change the status so that we could get a church here. And when we went down to try to get the zoning, most of the people on the zoning board were favorable. But there was a few people that were belligerently opposed to us starting a church here. I want you to understand that that sometimes opposition will arise to the progress and spread of the gospel. It doesn't always come just out of theological persecution.
It can rise up out of economic and racial bigotry that that that rises up to try to put the stop to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, in this case, it was economic.
Well, we're just getting started with our message from Mark Jobe called take your place here on Bold Steps, and you can learn more about Mark and his ministry when you visit us at Bold Steps. And today we're joined by two special guests, Aaron and Jason Davis, who've written a book that tackles a challenge every Christian parent faces how to help our boys navigate the lies our culture is throwing at them. The book is called Lies Boys Believe.
That's right. Wayne. You know, last month we offered the companion to this resource Lies Girls believe. I remember. So, Aaron, as a mother of four boys. Yeah, you heard it for boys. What motivated you to write this book?
Well, obviously my own sons. You're right. So everybody listening. It's okay for you to gasp at that. Four sons. That's what Jason and I have. So it's a rowdy house. But they're our primary concern. But they're also a good indicator of what's happening in the wider culture. And everybody seems to be talking about boys in crisis, secular and Christian. But we want to point our boys to the truth, and the truth is found in God's word. And so
we let our boys go first. They were super involved in the project, and I hope this is an outflow of our parenting, but we also hope they're just a four examples of what can happen when God gets Ahold of boys when they're young and they fall in love with His word when they're young and they start living for truth.
So, Jason, you have built in research, huh?
Yeah. It's made it easy. We didn't have to travel a lot to do the market research for this one.
And, Jason, what ages would you say this book is targeted towards?
Uh, young men, uh, probably 6 to 12 would be the target demographic. That's probably not the right terminology, but, um, we found that our boys in that age group really resonated well with the content and the message.
You know, I think this type of book is so needed. There are so many, so many parents struggling with just the lies that our culture is just saturating our young people with. But young boys especially, are at a disadvantage these days when the image of what it means to be a man or grow up to be a man is really been erased and very confusing.
This is critical, isn't it? Yeah. Aaron and Jason, thank you so much for writing this book and making it available to our listeners.
It's been a real pleasure.
Yeah, we're just honored to get to serve families in the church in this way.
And of course, we'd love to send you this powerful resource when you support bold steps with a gift of any amount. To request your copy, call us at 800. D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639 or give online at Bold Steps. Org. Or if you prefer, you can send your contribution to bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. As Mark's teaching been making a difference in your life? Consider taking
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Google Play. For all the ways to stay connected with bold steps, just visit Bold Steps. Org. I'm Wayne Shepherd, thanks for joining us today. Be sure to come back tomorrow when Mark continues this discussion. Our message comes from the book of Ephesians chapter one, and you won't want to miss it. Tuesday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.