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God foreordained us, and he destined us, and planned in love for us to be adopted and 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.

Transcript

Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining with me on another Helping You Become podcast. I pray it's a blessing to you. Well, turn in your Bibles please to Ephesians chapter 4.
And as you do that, I'm just going to pause and pray for us today. Father God, thank you for your goodness. Oh, dear Lord God, thank you Jesus for all that you do for us every single day.
And thank you, Holy Spirit, for leading us and guiding us into the truth of the Word of God so that we don't stay ignorant of spiritual things.

So important. And so, Lord, thank you for the study today. I do appreciate, Lord, that it needs to minister to people's lives. So, Lord, I just thank you that you give them revelation knowledge as we examine and pull apart these verses from the incredible Apostle Paul, who taught in Ephesus for two years, five hours a day. What did he teach the people at Ephesus?

So, Lord, we thank you for this. Lord, we ask that you open it up to us. We thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Oh, dear me, this is a study that's really big in my spirit, folks, and thank you for joining with me. I take access to your heart and mind very, very seriously indeed. So thank you for listening and thank you for participating and being open to what the Spirit of God has got to say as we pull apart this series as to how to honour Jesus in our day -to -day lives, living an effective life.

I started on this last week. Now, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, and, well, let's just look in Ephesians chapter 1 for a second, verse 5, reading from the amplified Bible, for he foreordained us.
So God foreordained us, and he destined us, and planned in love for us to be adopted and 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.

This was God's kind intent. It was something that he wanted. it was pleasing to him in accordance with the purpose of his will. God willed this to happen.
It was a really good thing he wanted to do, and it was his kind intent, which was that we become adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So what does that mean? Well, We turn over to Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to miss out on some of the overview and the information that Paul gives these churches in Ephesus.

And if we go over to chapter 4 verse 1, 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.

There's a divine calling to which you have been called. And that's really important. Are you flowing in that? How clear is your own divine purpose?

Yes? This is really important. How clear is your own divine purpose? I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord. Who are you for? And does that show up in your day -to -day life?

Is that made clear in your lifestyle? Who it is that you are for? Now, and he talks to us in detail about lifestyle here. With behaviour, that is a credit to the summons to God's service, behaviour. This is how we're supposed to behave. Verse two, living is becomes you with complete lowliness of mind.

How do I do that? Humility. Okay, well, that's helpful, but, you know, do I just suddenly wake up tomorrow and I'm just, bang, more humble? I just got zapped by the, you know, the rod of humility. That's never happened to me. I'm sorry. It just never has, okay?

Meekness and unselfishness and gentleness and mildness. I didn't get zapped with the rod of gentleness in my... In fact, the only rod I got was from my father across my behind.

Yes? So, gentleness, mildness, with patience for bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another. How do I do that?

And as I said last week, the Apostle Paul ministered in Ephesus after he left all of the disagreeable people in the synagogue. He went off to the school of Tyrannus or Tyrannus and he ministered there five hours a day approximately for two years,
or just over two years. Now, you can read the detail of that in Acts chapter 19, verse 1, and in particular 8 through to 10.

Apollos went off to Corinth, Paul went off to Ephesus, and taught around Ephesus, went into the synagogue for about three months. That wasn't working, which tends to make sense, because he was called to the Gentiles, not the Jews. So why did you go to a Jewish synagogue to teach? Yeah, okay. But anyway, that's, you know, just another question that was in my mind. So when he left that, and he went off to the school of Turanus, or Tyrannus, and ministered for five hours a day for two years, what else did he tell the people at Ephesus face to face?

That's not recorded in the book of Ephesians, because I think, and this is my personal view, okay, this is what I have an opinion on and I suspect that what he taught face to face for five years, sorry, for two years, five hours a day, he gave them all of the how -toes because there would have been questions and answers. And when he says to them, okay, gentleness, meekness, Someone would have said, well, hang on, I'm not very good at being, you know, gentle and meek, and then Paul would have taught him about meekness and gentleness. How do we love one another?

Well, he would have taught him about that. There's a divine calling on your life. Sorry, what? Sorry, excuse me, Paul, what do you mean, a divine calling? What's that man? What's this God's kind intent mean?

And so all of these things, I suspect would have been expounded by Paul and taught in great detail by Paul five hours a day for two years, face to face, okay? Which means we need to look in other places for the how -toes. Now obviously there's some contained in the book of Ephesians, but there are many, many, many, many, many how-tos. How to live with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to the service of God.

How to develop lowliness of mind, humility, meekness, unselfishness, how to develop gentleness and mildness, how to develop patience and bear with one and all of the how -toes on that which Paul is instructing us to do.

Why? Because it's so intertwined with our divine calling and our purpose. This is as heavy and deep as it gets here. The purpose for which you are on planet earth.
Aside from the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, after that, eternal salvation, and then the purpose for, and the reasons why you and I have been put on the earth to honour and to serve God and where we fit in all of that.

This is very, very serious, serious information that Paul is giving us that we need to unpack effectively. I therefore the prisoner for the Lord appealed to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of that divine calling to which you have been called.
With behaviour that is a credit to the summons to the service of God, I'd love to do that well. And I suspect that you would too, yes, I'd like to do that well, honouring the divine calling to which I have been called.

We then get over to Ephesians chapter 5. Let's just look over at that for a second. And if we look at Ephesians 5, and this is really serious, in verse 15, look carefully,
then how you live. Walk purposefully, live purposefully. There it is again, you know, the divine purpose to which you have been called. Verse 15, look carefully, then how you walk, live purposefully and worthily and accurately. How do I do that? Accurate to what?

Worthily regarding what? Regarding my calling? Regarding the death of Jesus? Regarding my, you know, family? What are we getting at here, Paul? So live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise, sensible, intelligent people, making the very most of the time, or redeeming and regaining the time, buying up each opportunity because the days are evil.

How do I do that? Verse 17, therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish,
but understanding, and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is. How many times in 40 years of ministry have I heard people say, I just wish I knew what God wanted me to do. What is the will of God for my life? And Paul says, you know, don't be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but be understanding. And you firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is for you, yeah?

So, thank you, Paul. How do I do it? How do I do it? So, this here in verse 15, look carefully then how you live, live purposefully and worthily and accurately. What is that made up of? What is purposefully, worthily and accurately made up of? The unwise and the witless. What is unwise and witless, what constitutes lack of wisdom? Okay? How do we define that biblically?

How's, what is, what's Paul inferring to here? But then he talks about the wise, sensible, intelligent people. Well, what do they look like? What's, is it academic knowledge? Is it spiritual knowledge?

What is it? You know, what's going on here? So, and these are the questions that I've got because Paul's telling us to live this amazing life and a life that is honoring a divine calling. If you've got something like, you know, internet television like a Netflix or something like that, look at some of the documentaries on space and planets and universe solar systems.

Look at how incredible and amazing the heavens are, the universe is. And this is the God that created all of that wanted you. He wanted you personally. You are pleasing to him. It is his kind intention to have you as a strategic part of his family.
That's what Ephesians chapter one tells us. You are accepted in the beloved. Yeah? And this God that created the incredible universe that no one even really truly understands.

Yeah? He wants you and he wants to be best friends with you. This is amazing. This divine calling to which you have been called. I suspect I strongly believe that you want to do that well. Now, Paul taught the people at Ephesus for two years, five hours a day. And then he produced this letter to the Ephesians, yeah? So there was a heap of groundwork that went on first, face to face.

So it's very clear, very clear. Let me just read before I look at my notes here. Let's just look at verse 15, 16, 17 again of Ephesians chapter 5. Look carefully then how you walk, how you live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but is the wise, intelligence, sensible people, making the very most of the time, redeeming and regaining the time, buying up each opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish. Wouldn't that be great?

Therefore, do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is. Wow. Okay. It's very clear that the Lord requires us to live Christian lives of purpose, to live worthily, to live accurately in line with scripture, to behave in a wise and sensible manner, as intelligent people, that actually spend quality time thinking about what we're doing.

We spend quality time Actually thinking through what we're doing. We're not just mindlessly scrolling through, you know, Facebook or whatever it's called.
You know, social medias or the channels on the TV or the channels on the Netflix or Disney or whatever they are all called. Okay? We're not just wasting our lives away.

No, no, no, no, no. No, we are behaving in a wise manner as sensible, intelligent people that actually spend quality time thinking about what we're doing. How we're living, how effective all of that is, because if you're going to live purposefully and worthily and accurately, there's going to be effectiveness intertwined with all of that. Yeah, effectiveness is powerful. Effectiveness is vital.

We have to have an effective life. That's really important. And that's why the series is called living an effective life. So to behave in a wise manner, a sensible, intelligent people that actually spend quality time thinking about what we do, how we live, how effective all of that is, as well as studying our Bibles to learn how we are supposed to live.

And just what our Christian requirement is actually made up of. Yeah? Just what is it made up of? The more effective and purposeful our lives are in the things of God,
The greater the impact is that we have for the Lord, for ourselves, for our families, and for the gospel.

I'll read that again. The more effective and purposeful our lives are in the things of God. The greater the impact is that we have for the Lord, for ourselves, for our families and for the gospel. Now, verse 16, redeeming and regaining the time,
making the very most of the time. We have to be very careful with the hours that God gives us every day. I can't stress that enough.

Time wasting is a terrible, terrible thing. We've got to be so conscious of how we spend our time. You know, we've all heard the sentence. It's true, you know, time is like money. You can spend it any way you want, but you only get to spend it once. Yeah? You only get to spend it once. So, got to be very careful with the hours that God gives us each day. How do we use that time the most effectively, the most effectively, especially around our responsibilities and our spiritual and our Christian requirements?

That's super important because we need to know what our Christian requirements are because there's this understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and you so prove to be my disciples.

There's a demonstrating that we are the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we are his disciples, as we're connected to the vine. You know, we're the brash, he's the vine. Yes. The father is the vine dresser, yeah? And we bear much fruit. The vine produces everything for the branches so the branches can go and bear the fruit. The branches serve the fruit and the branches serve the vine and ultimately the vine dresser. The branches are very heavily involved here in serving everybody,
okay?

We serve the Lord Jesus Christ and we serve everybody else. And ultimately we honor the father and glorify the father. By this, my father is glorified, yes, in John 15, verse 8. Really important that we understand these things. And Ephesians is an incredible start. Absolutely amazing. It was phenomenal things Paul's recorded here. But remember, he also taught the people in the region of Ephesus five hours a day approximately for two years face to face.

And that's really powerful. So my question as we finish up for today is what else did he teach them? And that's some of the things that we're going to look through as we unpack this study of living an effective life.

Please do join with me again next week on this station and we'll start to pull the study apart. God bless. Have a great week.

Remember John chapter 1, verses 11 and 12. He came into his own but his own received him not, but as many as did receive him, meaning Jesus, as many as did receive him, to them, he gave them power to become children of God.

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.