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Hello everyone. Thanks for joining with me on another helping you become podcast. I pray it's a blessing to you. Well, praise the Lord.
Thank you for your company. What a joy it is to be with you today, sharing God's word. I'm very excited about this study today and I want to talk about living an effective life,
an a life, a life that produces, a life that honours that which the scriptures tell us to honour, a life that walks in obedience to the direction and the various kinds of directions that are laid out in scripture.
But one of the things that I've found across some, you know, 35, nearly 40 years in ministry now, is that a lot of people may not necessarily know how to do that.
And it's very important. The how -to -dos are an important part of us progressing scripturally or progressing with spiritual things in a scriptural way.
Now, I was very, very excited to see in Acts to 19. There's a couple of verses in here that I've been thinking about for a while.
And, you know, they really ministered to me. They really helped me. And many years ago, I used to hold Bible boot camps and, you know, we would arrive somewhere on a Friday night and preach for two hours,
preach for two hours, and then Saturday for about five hours, and then Saturday night for another two couple of hours, something like that, across a weekend. And it was a Bible boot camp.
Now, Acts Chapter 19, verse 1, while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul went through the upper inland districts and came down to Ephesus.
There he found some disciples. Okay? So Apollos was in Corinth. Paul went around some of the areas, and he arrived in Ephesus,
found some people there, and he asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit, verse 2, when you believed on Jesus the Christ? And they said,
no, we've not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And so then Paul went on and taught them about the Holy Spirit and talk to how will you baptize, you know, these sorts of things.
But then we go over to here to verse 8. So just work with me here. Paul has arrived in Ephesus and is starting to minister.
He's arrived in Ephesus and is starting to minister. Now we get to verse 8 and he went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly.
Yeah? He spoke boldly, persuading and arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God. But when some became more and more stubborn,
hardened and unbelieving, discrediting and reviling, and speaking evil of the way of the Lord before the congregation, he separated himself from them.
So Paul separated himself from these particularly difficult people. They're stubborn, hardened, unbelieving, discrediting,
reviling, speaking evil of the way of the Lord before people. Yeah? And Paul separated himself from those folk. and went on holding daily discussions in the lecture room of Tyrannus,
in the lecture room of Tyrannus, or Tyrannus, from about 10 o 'clock till 3 o 'clock. So he went to the lecture room of Tyrannis,
and from 10 o 'clock to 3 o 'clock started to minister the Word of God, to preach and to teach and to minister the Word of God. Five hours. Ten till three,
approximately. That's what verse 9 of Acts chapter 19 tells us. And I've been reading to you from the Amplified Bible. Verse 10, this continued for two years.
Five hours a day for two years in the region of Ephesus. Five hours a day for two years in the school of Tyrannus,
Tyrannus, Paul ministered for two years so that all the inhabitants of the province of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, heard the word of the Lord concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God.
So what did Paul preach to these people for two years for five hours a day, yeah, five hours a day on the word of the Lord concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God.
And yet when you turn over to the book of Ephesians, turn over with me to Ephesians chapter one, please. And we see Paul and an apostle,
a special messenger of Christ Jesus, the Messiah, by the divine will and purpose and the choice of God. And the choice of God.
To the saints, the consecrated, set apart ones at Ephesus, who were faithful and loyal and steadfast in Christ Jesus, where he had been teaching for two years five hours a day so that all the people in the region all around Ephesus had heard the word of the Lord and no doubt if the Apostle Paul had been ministering for five hours a day for two years.
He's going to cover some preaching and teaching ground. What did the Apostle Paul teach to the people in the region of Ephesus face to face?
What did he teach these folk face to face? Now, we have the book of Ephesians where Paul talks about some remarkable things.
And the theologians and the historians seem to agree that Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon seem to indicate that all these letters were written about the same time and possibly even about the same place.
Although Paul served a prison term in Caesarea, it's possible that his reference to these letters are to his, you know,
his Roman imprisonment where he was at liberty to preach the gospel. Now you see that in Acts chapter 28. So I read the book of Ephesians and,
you know, in verse one of chapter four, Paul says, and I'm reading again from the amplified Bible, now Paul says,
I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service.
And remember he starts his letter in chapter 1 verse 1, an apostle, a special messenger of Jesus Christ, by the divine will, the purpose and the choice of God.
By the divine will, the purpose, and the choice of God. Okay? So he says, you walk and you lead this life,
worthy of the divine calling to which you've been called with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service. And I look at that and I think,
praise God, what a powerful, what an incredible sentence. What an amazing sentence. And he says, living as becomes you in verse two, with complete lowliness and mind,
humility and meekness, unselfishness, gentleness and mildness. With patience, bearing with one another, making allowances because you love one another.
Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and to keep the harmony, the oneness of and produced by the spirit in the binding power of peace.
I mean, what a couple of sentences there. Like three verses that are just, wow, blow your mind. Yeah? The prisoner of the Lord appealed to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called.
I read those verses and I think, Paul, that's mind -blowing. That's incredible, phenomenal. How do I do it? How do I actually live that out?
Now, we've got the rest of the New Testament. Praise God for that. And we've also got, you know, the Old Testament. You know, these people couldn't flip over to Ephesians 4.
They were Ephesians 4. Yeah? So what did Paul teach them face to face for two years,
five hours a day? Yeah? I think there's some remarkable things in the book of Ephesians that the book of Ephesians does not tell us.
They're found in other gospels. And remember the same Apostle Paul that recorded for us Romans and Philemon, Corinthians,
yes? Colossians, or the other books that Paul wrote, some two -thirds of the New Testament, was penned through the hand of Paul. But that which Ephesians doesn't tell us,
well and truly is contained in the other books, and I suspect, now this is just my opinion. This is just my thoughts on this after being sort of meditating on this and searching for the how -toes of how do I live this out.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 23, you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Change your whole attitude. Well, how do I do that? How do I actually do?
How do I just change my whole attitude? You know, I might have lived this way for 30, 40, 50, 60 years. And yet I see in verse 23,
I've got to change the whole attitude, my whole attitude. So what did Paul teach the people in the region of Ephesus? Because we also see from the theologians and from the is that it's possible that Ephesians was a circular letter written to the churches in the region,
yeah? So there's that as well. So this may be a refresher and a building up and also an encouragement, but a next level, next layer,
big picture overview of that which he had been telling them two years, for two years, five hours a day while he was preaching and ministering and teaching in the School of Tyrannus,
yeah, at Ephesus. So, what does Ephesians not tell us? It's part of my question. But also, how do I go about living an effective life?
Verse one of Ephesians Four, I therefore the prisoner for the Lord. You know, I look at that and I think, are we held captive or are we captivated by the fact that we're born again and we're given a divine calling?
I therefore the prisoner for the Lord appealed to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called. You have been called.
And if this is a letter, a circular letter, written to a number of churches in the region, he's saying, you churches,
you people that make up all the churches, you've all been called, you have a divine calling. And there's a behaviour code that goes with that. I mean,
this is a really, really powerful, powerful way to lead people down the pathway of honouring their Christian commitment before a holy God in a way that returns for them.
Well done, you good and faithful servant. Oh, yeah. The whole world. The whole world is crying out for a genuine move of the Spirit of God through the people of God to bring solutions of God into the marketplace.
Oh, dear me, there's all sorts of things going on on the planet. There's wars, there's gender confusion, there's, you know, all sorts of stuff that's,
you know, in the mainstream media. That's all over the, you know, over our social media. Not that I do much of that or anything. But, you know, I still see what's going on around us.
And I've been saying for the last few years that the period from 2020 through to 2040 is going to be a very telling time for the Christians and the Christian faith on planet Earth.
We're going to be subject to enormous attack. We need to understand what we're doing. We need to understand that there's a purpose and a divine calling on each and every one of our lives,
and it is God's desired intention. And we'll look into this, and in fact, let me read it to you. Chapter 1 of Ephesians,
verse 5, for he foreordained us, destined us, planned in love for us, to be adopted to be revealed as his own children through Jesus Christ in accordance with the purpose of his will,
because it pleased him and it was his kind intent. So there is a divine intention that we're to participate in,
that we're to partake of. Yeah? Very, very important that we understand that. We do have a heavenly father and another blood family.
Our blood family, his own children through Jesus Christ, and we were purchased by the blood of Jesus. Oh, so important. And that was His kind intent in Ephesians chapter 1,
verse 5. So, when we look at the book of Ephesians, I therefore the prisoner for the Lord, are we captivated by these things? And I know Paul was writing, you know, from prison, so a literal prisoner.
But if we think that through, are we held captive by the knowledge and the depth? The depth of understanding,
I think, is what I'm trying to say here, the depth of understanding on the inside of us that wakes us up and drives us and motivates us to become Christ -like. Oh, dear me, this is so powerful,
this is so strong because this can mean the difference, just like that, between you getting your Christian life. You just like get it, you know, you understand, you think, wow.
Okay, revelation knowledge, I understand that there is a divine calling on me, and it is part of my role, is to deliver God's kind intent into the marketplace around me,
as I'm led and guided by the Holy Spirit, and as my behaviour changes, and I lift up Jesus Christ, as I lift up his name. He, Holy Spirit, he draws all men to him.
Oh yes, so powerful. Now, turning back to just this idea in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, are we captivated by that,
that divine calling? Or are we held captive by our first world problems? Yeah? We've all got plenty of first world problems. And look, you know, most of this ministry goes,
and our radio ministry goes into the First World Nations. And I praise God for the reach that we've been given there, that He's given us, but also into many other nations as well in emerging nations and things.
But I tell you what, we've got a lot of first world problems that we have to navigate through. Now, where's the middle ground somewhere between all of our first world problems that we're full up of and this commitment and requirement that we have to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which we have been called.
Where's the middle ground in that? And not only that, if I'm going to do that, if I want to serve God, if I want to honor Jesus, if I want to help people,
yes, then I'm going to have to get good at some of this information here that's recorded in Ephesians chapter one. Now you can tell them that I'm very passionate about this.
The book of Ephesians contains so many answers for how we're to live. But underneath those answers, I think there's a deeper layer of education and teaching and understanding that we need to have that I suspect Paul ministered to these people to this.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the way to eternal salvation. What does that mean and what does that look like? And we can read that in Acts 19. So verses 8 through to 10.
So, oh dear me, living an effective life. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 1. We'll read that verse again. We're nearly out of time for today.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord appeal to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service.
A credit to the summons to God's service. What does that mean? How do I do this well? Yeah?
How do I do that well? Have behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service. Friends,
we're out of time for today. Please do join with me next week and we're going to look further into this study. I've just touched on it a little bit today.
But we're going to look further into the study of leading an effective life, leading an effective life based on what scripture tells us. And some of the things that undergird that,
some of the underlying principles and foundational pieces of knowledge and information that we need to know that I suspect Paul relayed to these people at Ephesus face to face five hours a day for two years.
Read it in Acts chapter 19. God bless you. Have a great week. Remember the incredible words of the Apostle Paul. He said you be kind one to another. Tender -hearted,
forgiving one another, as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. God bless. Thanks for joining with us on this podcast. We are dedicated to helping you become all you can possibly be in Christ Jesus.
Please do check out the resources at livingsuccess .org. That's livingsuccess .org. God bless.
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