Today on Bold Steps, Mark Jobe explains what it means to be a true and authentic follower of Jesus.
They have incredible riches, spiritual riches that are theirs. They've been given a position in God, but oftentimes live their lives as though they were much less than who they are because they have not quite understood how God sees them and what God has given them.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president of the Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. We're working our way through the book of Ephesians and exciting new series of messages designed to show us what happens in the life of someone who truly and authentically Mark believes in Jesus.
Yeah, and Wayne, the apostle Paul starts the book of Ephesians with our identity, who we are. What is our position? How do we relate to God? And this is a message that's so very important, because I believe that even so many Christians don't really understand their position and what, you know can really change you.
That's the title of this message from our series. When you believe Everything Changes, here's Mark Jobe.
His name was Victor. He felt like a loser. He didn't do very well in school. In fact, when he was about 16 years old, a teacher advised him that it would be better for him to drop out of high school and get a job. So he did. He got one job and he lost it and got another job and didn't do too well, got another job and another job. By the time he was 32 years old, Victor had had 76 jobs and not done very well at any of those jobs. That was about to change.
He applied for his 77th job. Part of the hiring process at the 77th job was that they required some tests, personality and IQ tests. Victor took an IQ test. The normal average IQ was about 100. Victor tested at 161, in the range where they consider it the range of a genius. When the results of the test came back, the the person giving the test said, you have just tested in a range that we call the range of genius. Victor was flabbergasted. Shot. Surprised it was a changing moment
for him. He was never to be the same. In fact, it so altered the way he viewed himself. So changed the way he perceived himself. That Victor Serenko went on to become famous for his research in laser surgery and became the president of an organization called Mensa, an organization for geniuses. All because a test said that he was special. Oh, you see, Victor had always been a genius, but he did not know who he was until the revelation came. I went into so many Christians that are that way.
They have a lot at their disposal. They have incredible riches, spiritual riches that are theirs. They've been given a position in God, but oftentimes live their lives as though they were much less than who they are, because they have not quite understood how God sees them and what God has given them. Well, I'm praying that for some of you, this passage in Ephesians will be what Victor Sancho's test was him an eye opening experience that kind of reveals to you who you really are in God. So are
you ready this morning? Alright, we're going to be reading in Ephesians chapter one, beginning in verse 11. It says, In Him, in Christ we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity to the purpose of his will. We saw this last week, but let me just reiterate it that you in Christ, you were chosen. Chosen before the foundation of the world. You are chosen even though God knew who you were and how you would be. God
knew your character and your weaknesses. God knew your name and your middle name and your last name and the names they called you in school when you were growing up. God knew your blood pressure and God knew your heart rate. And God knew your genealogy. And God, who knew all things about you, chose you in advance to belong to him.
He fully understood who you were, and he fully understood all of your weaknesses and your propensity to the failures that you have, and yet understanding all of that, God still chose you. Predestined you because God knew in his foreknowledge Knowledge that one day you also would believe and choose him in return. That's a powerful thought. Listen to
what it says. Listen. Having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity to the purpose of his will, in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ may be for the praise of his glory. I like that God chose us, predestined us in advance, knew that we would be chosen because in his foreknowledge he knew also that we would in turn believe in him and choose him for the
purpose of the praise of his glory. God understood that your transformation would lead people to praise him and say, look what God has done in him or her. Thank God. And it says, it tells us here, listen, verse 13. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were marked in him with the seal. Here's how it works. God knew you before you were born. God knew who you would be and how you would be.
God did not orchestrate that. You would sin even though he knew you would. Let me just clarify. There's a difference between foreknowledge. There's a difference between foreknowledge, in other words, that I know in advance, and the actual making someone do something. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, but God was not the author of evil. How many of you are tracking with me? with me, just kind of nod your head. Just because I know something doesn't
mean I've made it happen. Some people believe that because God knows it. He must be the author of it. Because God knows that you will fall. Doesn't mean that God wants you to fall, or makes you fall, or orchestrates your fall, or desires you to fall. He knows the future, but he's not the author of evil in any kind. He knows. He knew that Adam and Eve would sin, but he was not the author of their sin. He wasn't the creator of their sin. He wasn't the
planner of their sin. He wasn't. He did not desire them to sin. But it doesn't preclude the fact that he knew that it would happen. And for some people, it's hard to understand the difference between foreknowledge and actually making something happen or responsibility for it. When God chose you before the foundation of the world, he knew that one day, one day. Oh, I love this. That one day you would choose him in return when you were
still raising your fist at God. And the only time you use the name of Jesus was to as an expletive in your swearing when you, uh, criticize Christians, when you laughed at holy rollers, God already knew that he had chosen you. God already knew that one day you would believe God already knew. He was just saying, oh wait, wait, because yours is coming. God already knew in your hardness that one day you would bow your knee and weep and repent and say, I've had enough. Jesus, I need
you to be my Savior and my Lord. I repent of my ways. I invite you to come into my heart. You see, he already knew that it didn't catch him by surprise. Even when you were swearing at God, even when you were bitter at God, even when you were hard against God, God already knew that the day and time would come when you would bow your knee to his lordship and his sovereignty. Because God is a God that knows the future. So it says you were included
in Christ. You were chosen before, but you were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. And when you believed, you were marked in him with a seal the moment that you believed you were marked. You know, the problem with tattoos is that they just don't change. You change, but your tattoo doesn't change. When you're 16 years old and you're madly in love with Susie. And think she'll be the love of your life. And you'll never break up. And
you can never love another woman. And you put a big heart and say, Susie on your arm. And when you're 18, you don't even know where Susie is. But let me tell you, you still have that tattoo because you have changed. But that tattoo doesn't change. I had a guy that I was mentoring, I was helping in a Bible study, and, um, one day I showed up at his house and it was kind of warm, and we were meeting for a Bible study, and he said, pastor, I got something to tell you. I really don't like this.
I said, what, what? What's wrong? And he put out his leg and he had on his leg a big tattoo that ran up all the leg, and it was a tattoo of a naked woman. And he said, now that I'm a Christian, I just. I don't like it. It's a naked woman on my leg. He said, I got an idea though, pastor, I'm going to go back to that tattoo guy and have her dress her up. So he was going to make her a little bit more modest, put a little clothes on this woman and okay, whatever.
You see, because the thing with the tattoo is you change. But but your tattoo doesn't change. It's a mark that doesn't change. Now, here's the thing. The moment that you believed in Christ, you were marked. It tells us you were marked. Now, what kind of marking is that? It says you were marked in him with a seal.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark job. We'll continue today's message in a moment. Mark, there's something I've been noticing lately that I think many of our listeners are thinking about, with so many voices competing for our attention. There's social media news cycles, workplace demands. It's easy to lose sight of what matters eternally. And I find myself wondering how many Christians today are investing their best resources in things that won't ultimately last.
You know, Wayne.
I remember when my youngest son was playing football in high school. It was a big game and I went there. I was cheering him on, and I got a phone call and I thought, well, let me pick up this phone call just for a moment. So I went down and I got on the phone call, and it was right at that time that my son, he intercepted a pass. And afterwards he said, dad, did you see that? And I had to say I missed the moment I was distracted by something. And in the end, it wasn't an
urgent phone call. Listen, right now, there's a lot of distraction. The political environment in our country, there's a drama every day. There's a lot that's happening internationally. There's wars, there's natural disasters. It feels like we are just sucked into it. But I want to say, don't Miss the moment. I believe that we are seeing more people come to Christ at this season at a time, especially under the age of 35, than I have ever seen in our lifetime. It's happening
in Africa and Europe. It's happening in the United States of America. We at Bold Steps are committed to not get distracted, but to make sure that we are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus at a time of uncertainty so that people can come to know him in this window of opportunity that we have. So we want to encourage you. Pray. Don't miss the moment.
Such an important word, Mark. Thank you. And if you would like to become part of this eternal work today by visiting us, you can do that at Bold steps.org and make a gift or call us at 800 Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. And when you do, we'll send you a special gift as a way of saying thanks for partnering with us and sharing God's truth that will last eternally. More on that later. But let's get back to the message now. Again, here's Mark job.
Now let me talk about that for a minute, because I want you to fully understand what's a mark and what's a seal. The seal has to do with how they sent correspondence and official letters. In those days. I think it was. I was talking to a high school student not too long ago, and they told me that one of their assignments in their class was they had to write a letter, put it in an envelope, put the address, put a stamp on and mail it. And
these were juniors in high school. And the high school student was telling me that a whole bunch of people in the class didn't know how to do it. They just didn't know how to send a letter. Because we live in the age of text messaging, emails, Facebook, Book, and in their world, they never have to send a letter, right? But in the world that Paul lived in, they had to send letters often. And the way that they would authenticate a letter is they would take a someone would
write a letter or an official document. They would put it in a scroll, tie it, usually with the ribbon. They would melt wax on the place where the the paper would meet together. They would melt wax, and then they would take a signature ring or an emblem, and they would put the imprint of it on the soft wax. So when someone received this note or this letter, this official document, they would look at the wax signature and they would realize that this is an authentic document, not
a forgery, but this is the real thing. When you came to Christ The moment that you bowed your knee and came to Christ, you were marked. You were sealed. Uh, you were given something that authenticates the fact that you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ. It's called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the moment that you came to Christ, the Holy Spirit is deposited in your being.
So that in the spiritual realm, when every when anybody looks at you from the angels to the demonic to God Himself, when he looks at you, he sees the mark of God upon your life, which is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that cannot be raised, that cannot be taken off, that cannot change because you may change, but the mark never changes. It's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. You were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Now, I love this
about this passage. Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune God. Now, this is difficult for some people to understand. It's difficult, I think, for all of us to understand in one way or another. There's a lot of, uh, aberrations of Christianity that have developed out of a misunderstanding of the Triune God. But in essence, the way the Bible explains it is we. We worship one God, not three gods.
We have one God that we worship, but that one God is manifest in three persons with the same essence and the same nature. And those three persons have different functions. They're not three different gods. They are three persons that exist in one God. So therefore, when we pray, we pray. Technically, I know you say Jesus when you pray, and that's okay. I know you may say Holy Spirit when you pray, and that's okay, but technically you are praying to God the Father.
You're listening to Bold Steps, the Bible teaching of Mark job. Today's message was called what you know will Change You. And you can hear part two of this message tomorrow. So please keep listening. But before then, we want to invite you to request our new bold step gift. It's one that really speaks to the moms and dads of young boys.
Mark Wayne. We have Jason and Aaron, their authors. They are a married couple and they have written a book called Lies Boys Believe and the Epic Quest for truth. And great to have you in the studio with us. And one of the lies you address in this book is that following Jesus is boring. And I think that's well, that's an important lie. Jesus is anything but boring, isn't it? Uh, so tell me why you think boys are susceptible to this particular deception?
Well, a lot of times when boys are introduced to to faith and to Jesus, it involves a lot of sitting still, listening to a Bible story. If there is an activity, a lot of times, at least me growing up, it was like a flannel board with the story up there. And, uh.
And Moses kept falling off the flannel board in my life. Yeah.
That's right. And, uh, if if our modern boys are anything like I was, I had a real hard time appreciating, um, the stories when I had to sit still and be forced to hold my hands in my lap and, um, be super well behaved. But what we what we find in Scripture is that the life of Jesus was anything but boring. Uh, the things that boys yearn for in their innermost parts is the adventure of following a leader
and leading other men. And that's exactly what we see in in The True Stories of Jesus, where he, uh, he went fishing. And when he was on adventure all the time, he was, uh, challenging people and encouraging them and healing them. And, uh, the people who follow Jesus, the disciples were anything but boring men. Um, they were very real, very active, very engaged. There were arguments. There
were lots of challenges in their lives. And that's really part of the adventure that we kind of, I don't know, whitewash out of Jesus. A lot of times when we're telling Bible stories to our young men, following him is anything but boring.
Aaron, I don't know about your four boys, but sometimes it can be hard to get boys to read. And I know this book is for parents to use with their boys. You had that in mind as you wrote and designed this book, right?
Yeah. It's different. There's actually several books in the live series. Lies women believe lies, men Believe lies, Girls believe, which you mentioned. And this book is very different from the format of those. And yeah, our boys did not love to read. I remember being a little girl and if I had a free afternoon, I would spend it with a book. That's not how my boys operate. They want to be outside playing swords with sticks. So how do we get them in the content? So we were really intentional.
It's a fiction book. The others are not. They're just straight trade books. And it follows a dad and his sons on this big adventure that actually models a trip that Jason and our boys have taken. They go out west and they encounter all kinds of excitement. Um, and there's also things that happen in the book. They're going to turn the book all different ways as they're reading it. They're going to there's things they're supposed to do with the corners of the book. There's quests they do within
the book. There's cryptograms where they're trying to solve riddles, and none of that is an attempt to bait and switch them into the Bible. As Jason said, we think the Bible is the most exciting book in the world, and so this is to be in parallel with the Bible. And what we've heard from parents and boys over and over again is my boy couldn't put it down, and
he hasn't done that with any other book. And that's because we intentionally invite him into this story with these other men and boys that are people they're going to want to be like, and they're encountering truth all along the way. And I actually think that models life pretty well. Life is an adventure, and we are encountering challenges, and Jesus is with us every step. And so, um, we we were excited to give it to boys in a format that we thought they would love, and our boys
loved it. They're fiction readers. Our boys are. We toss a nonfiction book at them, they might roll their eyes and they might or might not read it, but a great fiction story with an epic adventure, they're going to read it. So we hope this book is that. Yeah.
That's great. Well, there you have it. Jason and Aaron have written this book specifically for 6 to 12 year old boys. So if you are a grandparent, a parent, if you know someone that's raising boys in that category, listen, this is the book to get into their hands as soon as possible.
Well, once again, it's written by Jason and Aaron Davis, and we'll be happy to send you a copy. This bold step gift today when you give a donation to support Bold Steps. So call us at 800. D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. Or give your gift online at Bold Steps. You can also send your gift and request the book Lies Boys Believe by writing to us in the mail. Just address your letter to Bold Steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago,
Illinois 606 ten. And then don't forget if you've missed any of these messages, you can listen to Mark's daily program online at Bold steps.org or catch Mark from the road no matter where you are, just download the Bold Steps app to your favorite smart device, or subscribe to the Bold Steps podcast wherever you listen. For more details on all the ways you can listen, just visit Bold Steps dot. One more thing before we leave today, why
not sign up for The Bold Stepper Weekly? It's a free devotional from the desk of pastor Mark Jobe, designed to help you apply biblical truth to everyday life with clarity and purpose. Just visit bold steps to get it delivered to your inbox automatically. And that is our time for today. I'm Wayne Shepherd on behalf of Mark Jobe and the entire Bold Steps team. We invite you to join us again tomorrow. And Mark continues this message. It's part of our new series. When you believe Everything changes.
And you can hear more Friday right here on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.