Ep 920 | Phil’s Scary Medical Advice, Jase Confronts a Ghost & How to Handle Spiritual Warfare
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Um, Jace, you, you finally took a trip. That's, you don't take a lot of trips. You're, you're, you're not as bad as dad, but you don't do a lot of travel. So how did that go? I got to know. Well, my wife and I, we used to every other year, I guess we would go somewhere pre-planned. Like when the schedule got really busy, we would look for an opportunity to go with this couple, uh,

that are our really close friends and they're real busy people too but since i did the the duck family uh treasure show and which by the way july 26 it'll be a new season on fox nation it's been i think two or three years since we've gone anywhere so we planned after this

The Faith Family Freedom event and all that. I had quite a few events, I think, including the podcast. I actually spoke like 19 times in 16 days and traveled all over the country. So we decided, and of course, my good buddy and I, we just say, ladies, y'all pick the spot.

Wherever you want to go and we'll, we'll make it work. So we actually went to a place we'd never been before. The Bahamas. I had to look that up. I didn't even know. That's one of my faves. That's one of my spots. Oh, you've been there. I've been there about 12 times.

Oh my goodness. I'm a Bahamas expert. You must be making way more than a intensive. I got a lot of side jobs going on. That place was expensive. I was surprised at that. But, uh, of course we were only there, what, two and a half days, I guess, or three days. But, uh,

So I'd had a sinus infection and we had a wonderful time. There were a couple of moments of stories that happened that I will share at some point in future podcasts because they were incredible. But we were getting all our stuff packed up and to head to the airport. And I went to put my shoes on.

And one of my heel kind of stuck and I couldn't get the lip of my shoe because they were already tied. I was trying to slip them on. And when I reached back to pull the back end of that shoe over my heel, the only way I can describe it, it was like someone shot me with an arrow in my lower back. I cried out. That ain't good. Audibly and just fell over. There was no standing, just falling.

Wham! Down goes Jason. So, I took a knee at several points along the journey. It was actually the most miserable getting back here because you don't realize being on a shuttle, when the airplane is touching down and taking off, if your back is in pain, all this stuff. I don't want to scare you, but I will tell you, based on what you just said, my shooting pain is...

was when I got up under a boat on the front end. Oh, I remember it well. And raised it up. Well, I sheared off a vertebrae. Yeah. And I've taken a, there was surgery on them two times, two vertebraes. Yeah. They patched them back up, filled them full of fluid, punched a hole in your vertebrae. But I've been taking a shot a day.

For the last two years. Yeah. But I'm back at the end of the line. But now I have not had any non-zero back pain. But it did take every day for a year and a half. Well, Phil, here's my thought on that. Just a thought. Today, which is day three since this happened.

I feel like I've improved. Now, I do have some discomfort and pain, but I'm sitting here, and I made it down here. So I'm just looking at the fact that you were lifting a 1,000-pound boat. I was just trying to put my shoe on. So I'm hoping the degree of damage was not what happened to you. When you have any kind of vertebrae.

It's major. Yeah, well, I will say this. We went and played golf twice, and about the fourth swing of the first day, I felt a little discomfort in the same area, but I went ahead and played two rounds. I would say it was a dull pain. So it might have been done there, and then when I went to put the shoe on, something went crashing down. So that was the- It didn't take much. Yeah.

So the practical application of that was I've been real appreciative of what I can do because right now, currently, the biggest mountain to climb is putting on socks. The reason I got here 10 minutes later and what I did was five minutes of socks. While you're in this stage, it would be worthy of you to be using your head if they get a shot of that.

Do an x-ray? Oh, they'll go right to it. Is it wrong that deep down I'm scared to go do that just because of what they may see?

Well, I mean, the fact that I improved today, I think I'm going to give it a couple more days and see where I'm at. Did you hear any noise? It might hit itself, but... Do what, Zach? Was there a noise, a pop, or did you hear... No noise, but, you know, it was... I would say if... You know how they do that pain scale from one to ten? In that moment, it was ten. Yeah. And I would say the next two or three hours, it was ten. I would say now...

six or seven though i mean it hurts if i move wrong but what happens is you know where not to move it's taking me three days to figure out if i try to bend over from the top no if i put all the weight on my left foot no they'll they'll put put a needle inside where the pain's coming from they're scaring me phil yeah they'll bore a hole i don't like needle go down in the hole yeah

Turned fluidly loose, but it's got glue in it. This is not helping me wanting to go. But now I'm like a young boy running around. Trust me when I tell you I had it.

I walked in here, I looked at you, it never occurred to me, young boys running around. I have the back of a young man. Incredible. But it took two years. It cost you a lot of money in two years of your life. They can make your back like a little boy.

So here's what I thought, though, Al, you know, from a spiritual application. I did just keep thinking because it's only temporary because the resurrection, the back's going to jump, jump back. I thought about that. But I also thought about. The back is coming back is what he said. The back is coming back. But I also thought about, you know, I just feel like, all right, we're sharing Jesus with all these people.

And I get this sinus infection. I thought, I think I'm being spiritually attacked. And then now the back goes down. I'm like, the spiritual forces of evil have declared war on me. And because I'm going to tell you this. It's happened to people like Job. It's happened to various individuals. Well, look, we had something else that happened.

On the trip. I mean, I got to tell you this story because it was the, I mean, the rest of my life, I will never forget this. Because, you know, we're trying to make the best of this situation because, Al, you know how we are. We're food snobs. Yep. And I'm staying pretty well at the nicest place on the Nassau Island because we

They this island I found out it's famous for this construction called Atlantis. Yeah. And the problem is we went there for one hour and Missy looked at me and I looked at her and she's like, we need to get out of here because I was constantly recognized. And it basically turned into all these American tourists go there. And it's kind of like a casino with a bunch of shops and all. So we lasted one hour.

The most famous water park in the world probably is connected to it. So a lot of people love it. Well, I'm sure you'll love it. But for me, no. And so we got back on our little cozy out of the way beach. But the problem was most times if you're staying at like one of the higher end places, well, that guarantees the food is going to be good. But we ate lunch. We ate supper. You know, where we were at, I was like,

especially for what we were paying for it. I just thought this is not, this is disappointing. I mean, it was edible. It wasn't like it was bad or terrible, but I was just expecting more. And so we made an adjustment after this happened the second day because they wanted to eat, the ladies wanted to eat on the beach. Beautiful view.

So we get there. They had a little band. The locals were playing, whatever, the Bahamian music. Awesome. Just think like if you were going to film this. I mean, it was stunning. We were the first people there. It was probably an hour before sunset. They come out, bring out the menus, you know. We're outside. We're on the beach. We get the, we all order what we order. When that food comes,

arrived because they brought it all out there together. All of a sudden, and I'm not kidding. There was an attack on our table of flies of biblical proportions. Like a plague. Tens of thousands. And my first swat, I knocked over my drink, which went all over the table, but the flies were coming in.

We all went like, what is the word? We just went kind of barbarian in the way we were eating. So me and my buddy Barrett, we had ordered a whole fish. You know, they'd cut the head off, but it was just a whole fish. I forgot what my wife ordered. I think she had shrimp. And her friend...

I think she just had chicken. But where Missy and the other woman was, that was the mainstay. Where we had tens, they had hundreds just descending on the table. And the workers there were trying to put all these apparatuses up on the table that discouraged flies. So like all that's going on, candles and these windmill-looking fans. Yeah.

But I started looking around where everybody started waving and eating in fast forward. And my buddy, Barry, he's a big guy anyway. Because I was thinking, how is he eating this fast and not getting any bones? Oh, he's getting bones. Because I swallowed two myself. And I'm sure that's going to cause some problems at some point. On the way out. So we ate the whole meal in five minutes. Yeah.

We ate the entire meal in five minutes, demanded the check, and we're out of there in another two minutes. Yeah. And look. Boy, what fun. It was so humid. Sweat. It's like sweat was pouring over. Everything was just a barrel of fun, right? And paid $500 for this experience. I mean, that's what kind of just stuck the knife in, you know?

Lord of the Flies. Well, Al, that came up. I had never seen that movie. And somebody said Lord of the Flies. And I was like, well, did they ever get them? And somebody said, no, it actually wasn't about flies. It was. Speaking of dad's point, it's about a bunch of young boys that went off the reservation. Let's take a fresh break.

so jace you know one of the best things about being married uh a partner for life i guess yep that's true and i was thinking uh more in a practical sense you have someone else to tell you when you need some new underwear yeah that may be way down the list ever since miss k had her trouble i

I've been a victim of that. As men, you know, we don't always know, but it's Lisa looks and says, it's time for new underwear. And so, cause she's looking, she's seeing that maybe there's some holes, there's some wear and tear. I mean, we're going back to creation itself. People messed up and they realized they were naked. Well, us, we're like, well, you need Jesus. But then there's certain groups of people that say, no, they need a pair of underwear. Yeah.

So my wife, my wife said that and she said, it's time for me to order you some Tommy John's because she knows how we feel about Tommy John's. And the summer is coming on as well, which puts a little more stress on

on our underwear. And so we need what they're offering. They have lightweight, meshy, breathable, cooling fabrics that are fantastic. Makes us more comfortable. So Lisa ordered me about four new pair of Tommy John's. They came in. I'm loving them. They have this moisture wicking fabric with four times the stretch of competing brands.

make you two to three times cooler, and they dry four to five times faster than regular cotton. So they're fantastic. 20 million pairs have been sold, thousands of five-star reviews. They don't have customers. They have fanatics, and I'm one of those. So I'm proud to get my new ones. We want you to try them.

They have a best pair you'll ever wear or it's free guarantee so that you have nothing to lose by trying them. Trust me, you're going to love them. Shop Tommy John right now for huge summer savings. Get 25% off your first order at Tommy John dot com slash Phil. That's 25% off at Tommy John dot com slash Phil. See their site for details. But it just told me how you think, oh, we got the perfect setting for

You know, you create these adventures in our world. And it literally turned into where I saw the soul of all these individuals in that moment. Yeah. And so that led us to make an adjustment. And I'll have to admit, we found some places in the inner city that was just the finest food. Yeah, you got to know. Top 10. You got to know where to look. Yeah.

Exactly. Way, way more inexpensive and way better bursting with flavors that kind of reminded me of the Creole. Like I went to one place, I got shrimp and grits and a couple of other, other things. I can't remember what I ordered there, but it was absolutely phenomenal. But in the meantime, I love the people there. I had many Jesus conversations, uh,

That develop through it. And so I think it got back to that same thing. When you have pain and suffering, which look, my back's hurt. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it made me way more thankful for all the things that I have. It enhanced my prayer life and it made me think, well, if I am being spiritually attacked,

I'm going to declare Jesus in every conversation. Yep. And pretty well from taxi drivers to, uh, I actually went and got a massage. I mean, my wife and I did because my back, I thought maybe this will help my back, which that did not happen. But, uh,

And the cleaning lady in our room, because you have to take three or four showers a day because it's so humid. But I thought that was the most interesting gospel presentation, which she turned out to be a believer. So it was awesome. But you know how the conversation got started out? She walked in to clean the room. I had been there two minutes. And the front desk called her.

And so she put her on speaker because she was cleaning. And I'm listening to this conversation. Well, she said the neighbor next to me, because they gave the ring number. She said, have you been in their room in the last 10 minutes? And she's like, no. And I said, huh. So, well, they're claiming a ghost keeps opening their door. Well, I perked up when I heard that. A ghost? And so the woman that was cleaning the room, she was like, well, no.

I mean, it wasn't me, and I haven't seen any ghost. And she was kind of chuckling. They were chuckling about it. She was like, well, the person at the front desk said I'll take care of it. So when she hung up, she kind of looked at me, and she said, have you seen any ghost?

or any kind of ghost activities around because she knew i had just heard that you know a lot of flies but you know phil didn't even think about that i could have brought up the flies but i actually said i said well i'm gonna be honest with you i said uh there's only one ghost that i believe in and it's called the holy ghost but he's a good ghost

And she went, thank you, Lord. And that's kind of where the conversation started. But it turned into a 30-minute Jesus presentation because she just started asking me firing questions after it turned. Yeah. But...

Anyway, that was the more positive. Well, you have to be careful. In your anger, if you get riled up about too many flies, don't let the sun go down while you're still angry and give the devil a foothold. So he works in mysterious ways. I don't know about the... I think our wives were angry. ...reappearing. I don't know about the ghost. I think the ghost thing is...

We always needed liquor being passed out. No, no. We weren't part of the ghost, Phil, but I thought I would, since the flies did happen, maybe. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry, so don't get mad, you know, and give the devil a foothold. Yeah. He tries all kinds of stuff.

Well, the women were mad because they planned that trip to the fly. You've driven a long way and you won't peace. Well, we drove and flew. Gentle music in the background. That's what it was. Oh, yeah. Because I told them, I said, I could have made a TV show out of this because everybody was dressed in their finest and we went and they had the music playing and the sun is setting and spectacular view and everything.

Ten minutes later, everyone just goes crazy. Just eating fish, bones all swiping, sweating, just running, running from the flies. Yeah. So there you go. Phil, do you have any FOMO about not going? Do you have any fear of missing out? Are you sad you missed out on the Bahamas trip? Yeah. You know, I miss that people running and, you know, the –

The flies are after him. You know, it just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure it was fun. But to Jason's point, even in paradise on earth, you still have things you have to deal with. That's why it's not truly paradise. You know, not yet anyway. Well, Al, you're right. And we've been talking about this in Ephesians, you know, kind of this world within a world that we're in. And, uh,

You know, you're not going to find paradise on earth. Nope. There's always flies lurking or perishable bodies. You know, you heard your back putting on your shoe. I mean, it's just life. That's why I was saying I think pain and anxiety –

It kind of reminds you of the problems that we have being on earth and being flawed human beings. And yeah, it kind of puts it in perspective for you. And I thought, you know, if I am being attacked, so be it. I'm not going to stop declaring Jesus. Make every effort, make every effort, Jace, to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. That takes care of the flies.

I felt like I planted, and not just me, you know, all four of us planted a lot of seeds for the kingdom, whether it was encouraging believers or just planting a seed of Jesus, you know, in that community. Well, and they're, like you said earlier, they're a very spiritual, spiritually minded people in the Bahamas. I noticed that you'll see a lot of,

Little small buildings all across every island where they meet. And they pretty much just shut everything down on Sundays because, you know, they all meet together. So it's a great place. The people are fantastic. And you're right. You just got to find the right places to eat. Oh, you do. The touristy stuff is not good. It's not good. They're just there. They have it set up for the throng, the masses. Right.

And people who don't care about what they eat. But there was one place called the Wild Thyme. I know that sounds terrible, but it was spelled like the seasoning thyme. Yeah, T-Y-M-E, yeah. Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. Just kind of an older building and just couldn't, the people couldn't be nicer. But the flavors, whoever was cooking back there,

Cook things to taste. Yeah. Just bursting flavors. Yeah. True talent. And you mentioned it. There's a lot. And you go across the Caribbean. It's the same down on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. You see a lot of that where you have that same influence of cooking with the flavors and the Creole and all that stuff. It's pretty good. I'm glad you made it back. I'm sure we'll be hearing more stories in the incoming podcast because we

That's why we like you to go out, Jay, so you can come back with stories. Well, those things happen. Look, it's life. That's exactly right. But it did remind me a lot of what we're talking about in Ephesians. So there's your segue. There we go. All right, let's take another break.

Jace, you had the big Faith Family Freedom event out at Logtown. That went really well, huh? People from all over the globe came. It was fantastic.

And, you know, one of the things that, and this was all Missy's heart for that event, was that, you know, we come together on July 4th and celebrate our nation. But the idea is that it's about freedom. And, of course, we find the ultimate freedom in Christ and the ultimate life and liberty in Him. One of the things that's unfortunate is that every day thousands of unborn babies are

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So we got to Ephesians 1.15, finally, in the last podcast. I was talking to somebody the other day, Jason. They were like, what are y'all at in the text? Because y'all have been all over the place here lately. I said, well, that's a good way to put it. But it's all kind of born out of this, what I call, condensed text.

gospel, you know, Jesus theology that Paul's getting in the book of Ephesians and three through 14 in chapter one is just so dense with stuff in there. It took us a while, you know, to break it all down, but he's going to shift when he gets to verse 15. And you mentioned the Holy ghost. He left off talking about the Holy spirit in verse 13 and 14. And then I want to read this text or at least the next few verses. Cause in my outline,

I go from 115 through 210 because this whole section is kind of the blessings now that come out of this plan that God had for us for humanity. And so let me read these 15 through 23 and we'll start talking about it. He says, for this reason, and that's everything he said up until this point, for this reason, ever since I heard about your faith, talking to the Ephesians, and the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father may give you the spirit. And they're also in your margin there. It could be a spirit, you know, but they, they went, the NIV went for the, the Holy spirit in this translation may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. So kind of a,

Was it kind of like a poem, Jace? You know, a song? This idea that there's kind of a beat to it, you know, when you're reading it. And I love it because you're going to see this several times through the rest of the way in the book of Ephesians. He'll go into a prayer and

or a conversation about prayer. And I've always thought that's one of the great blessings that we get out of this situation and relationship with Christ is you get this access to the almighty. You get this, this idea that we can communicate with the Godhead and all are engaged and involved. It's through our faith in Christ Jesus. It's, but it's by the power of the spirit that indwells us. So it's just, that makes this personal family thing,

access of relationship that you're able to have. And you just mentioned several maladies that you went through. I mean, and all of us do that every single day, but you know, you just, you kind of continue forward because there's no other way to go but forward. And I think it's the same thing when we think about our spiritual walk. And I love it that that's one of the first things that he mentions is that he he's heard about their faith. He's heard about their love and,

And those things are the result of spiritual fruit that come from their Christian walk. So it's a great way to start the idea that all this comes from Jesus, who says, it says, through Christ we have access, faith in him. All these things point towards who he is. Agreed. What I found fascinating about that, when you read that, and to your comment about people saying where exactly you're at, I mean, there's a danger there.

by going verse by verse, that it gets a little overwhelming from an information standpoint. Because you think about people's lives. I'd be curious to know, like, what is the number one thing people are doing while they're listening to this podcast? It's probably, I'm guessing, you know, traveling to some event. You know, if you're riding in the car, I mean, that's when I would listen to

Or doing something else, you know, you're cleaning the house and you have it on. It's like when you're doing something else. Some people do it working, like, you know, they have a job where they're, like, doing something consistent, and so they're listening to it on their headphone. Well, that was my point. You're already distracted. Right. And, you know, we've all gone through series at churches where –

You go verse by verse, and somehow or another, it's like you miss the forest for the trees, literally. You miss the author of the Bible because of the verses and just straining out every verse. And so, Al, when you were reading there, it kind of hit me. We made a huge deal, probably four or five podcasts about this.

When he went through the first part of chapter one, talking about in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Well, then in his prayer, like my Bible that I'm reading kind of has a heading over this section. It says prayer and thanksgiving. But when you were reading, three words kept popping out. He...

He is in him. It's like over and over and over. It was he is him. And so right there in the middle of it, the heart of what his prayer and Thanksgiving was, was that they may know him better. Yeah. And you just think about that statement. It made me think about that first Corinthians two, two, when Paul said, you know, I want to know Christ better.

and him crucified. And when you think about that, you know, I've heard so many sermons on the cross and people have it about the cross and like what, how bad it was, which it was bad and getting into the details. But Paul, that statement seems to go over your head if you really don't stop and think about what he was saying. I want you to know Christ is

And him crucified. Who was on the cross? All these things, all these wonderful things that you have in him. We're God's possession. He's adopted us. He's given us the Holy Spirit. He chose us before creation. He's made known to us the mysteries, brought everything under in heaven and on earth under one head. But then he's like, I want you to know him better.

And so I'm saying that's why we're going around and getting these big picture moments because that we can do. Yeah. You may not be the smartest guy in the world. I'm guilty. But if you explain something and point to somebody and say, look, here's an idea. Be like him. Get to know him. Well, I can do that. I can watch him. That's what we do as humans. We tend to sum people up. And if you start following a certain pattern,

human and say, I'm going to try to be like him. That I can understand. Yeah, that's what he's doing here. And in this passage, he's really echoing the same exact thing that Jesus talked about in his unveiling of the Holy Spirit, because he's linking the role of the Holy Spirit to the words here are revelation, enlightenment,

And so the idea here is when he says that his prayer is that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

having the eyes of your heart enlightened so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, which are the riches of his glorious inheritance, inheritance in the saints, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward all us who believe according to his great might. I mean, the sentence goes on to the end, but the idea I was going to hone in on is that that is really what the Holy Spirit primarily does is he reveals to us the

the nature of God. He reveals to us who God is so that we can be enlightened, so that we can be awakened, so that we can see the goodness of his riches and the glorious inheritance of what we have as the saints in Christ, the immeasurable greatness of his power. It's attractive. And I think it's a different kind of knowledge process

than simply the acquiring of some type of doctrinal understanding of it. And I think that's the hard part for us Christians in Western culture is we've put heavy emphasis on knowing the things about God, knowing the doctrines, knowing the Bible, knowing, knowing, knowing, acquiring knowledge, and then we expect for that to transform us.

And it doesn't transform us like we thought it would. And there's been a ton of people that have written about this. They've lived as great Christian leaders for many, many years and known a lot about the Bible. But at the end of the day, they're like, I'm shocked at how little I've been transformed. I think that's because what we're being called to hear is not just the acquiring of some type of knowledge that puffs us up, but it's knowledge that

of knowing him intimately so that we can become like him. And that is a process that takes a lifetime. It's not a one and done deal. It's a great point. Let's take another break. And it reminds you, Zach, everything you just said reminds me of those. Remember when he was talking to the disciples?

And he kept using phrases like, I am the gate. I am the door. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light. All these things about him. He referenced it to him that when you know him, then you'll know what you need to know to take you further. And you're right. It's not knowing the things about him, not knowing the things around him, but it's knowing him personally. I thought about this, the text to me personally.

Then Paul has in Romans five, that's very similar to the text we just read. And I love the word he uses here in Romans five. One is, is therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom Jesus.

We have gained access by faith into this grace, which we're about to talk about in chapter two, in which we now stand. And then he goes on to say, you'll, you'll have suffering. You'll have perseverance. You'll have character. You'll have hope. You'll have all those things that build on one another. Why? Because now you have access because of what Jesus did for you. And then he says in verse five and hope does not disappoint us because

because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. And so that gives you the hope of knowing that every single thing that happens in your life is building towards your knowing Jesus better. And the better you know him, man, the more you can do anything. I mean, and you never lose that sense. I mean, that is the goal. I think, you know, I want to say this kind of sensitively, but like,

because I don't want to over speak on something or under speak, but

One of the issues that I have when reading through Ephesians and hearing different and reading a lot of different commentaries on it is when we limit it, when we limit this idea to only what's happening at our justification moment. And so we read these terms like predestination and we stick that in the justification camp. Oh, that means that God chose before the creation of the world who is going to be, quote unquote, justified. Right.

But I think there's more to it. I think what's happening here is it's this predestined to be conformed into the image of the sun.

I think that's the bigger picture of what's happening here. This is what you were chosen for. It's not just chosen to get one of those get out of hell free cards. You're chosen to be conformed into the image of the sun. And where I think this matters is if you look around right now, for example, man, there has been just one thing.

mega leader in the church after another in the last several years has fallen. And we start to ask our question. I don't think that we're healthy, right? I mean, I don't think that there's spiritual unhealthiness. Yeah, we might know the right things. We might have the right skills, but that's easy to acquire. It's actually easier to acquire

the right knowledge and the right skillset. You know, you can go up there and preach or lead worship and be very, very good at it and your heart not be right. I mean, it's very, that's likely, but what's more difficult and what's kind of underneath that knowledge and skill level is

is what is your character? What is your morality? What's flowing out of you naturally? That takes a long time. That's about being conformed over a period of time to be like Jesus. And then what undergirds that and is even a slower process is,

is true spirituality. And what that is, that is when we actually find our delight and our enjoyment in God. And that is a lifetime journey. And I think that's what Paul's getting at in Ephesians here,

Is that the Holy Spirit, as you walk with him, he reveals to you all of the things that allow us to delight in God. And that's the real freedom that's promised in the gospel. It's not simply God's good. Hey, you're good. Finished work of Christ. Don't worry about it, man. It's all good. You're like that.

That's very small. That's the entry point. But what's offered is freedom in life and life abundantly that where then we truly begin to find our fulfillment and our joy and our happiness and our delight and our desires are found in Christ alone. I think that's what the book of Ephesians is getting towards. Yeah. No, I think you're right. I'll take it a step further because I think as we get into chapter two, he then starts emphasizing this.

How you're representing the Christ who you're constantly getting to know better in this world. You know, when you go back to Acts 19, Ephesus wasn't a lot different than the Bahamas. I mean, it was right there on surrounded by water and all these people. I mean, it was a, a, uh,

there were people coming in from all over. And you remember when we read next 19 now, you had these, there was all these gods and all these definitions of powers and paradises on earth. Basically, everybody had their own little thing. And here you get to see what we become as the body of Christ. You know, when it,

Not to mention the power, the inheritance. I mean, because he likens that power that we have through God living in us, which is something I thought about. I thought, now my back has completely stopped working and there's so much pain. And since we're here in this text, I kept thinking, the Holy Spirit is in me. It's so close to that, you know,

I mean, because these are my prayers that developed into me conversating with God. It's like, you know, you have that power just right next to that one big knot in my lower back. I know you literally could just not even a snap of the fingers because he says that. I mean, I'd never really realized that when he said that power was

that you have is like the working of his mighty strength when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the heavenly round. I mean, have you thought about his analogy? It all comes back to the gospel. Yeah, but he's saying you think power, because it made me think of that Acts 19 when the sons of Sceva

came up there and you had some people that said, oh, I like this power. And so they were trying to drive out demons and without being followers of Jesus. So they were invoking Jesus. And you remember the seven sons of Sceva, they were like, Paul, I know, Jesus, I know, but who are you? And then the demons came

you know, beat the people who were impersonators who had knowledge. They had the knowledge. But didn't have the Savior. They didn't know Jesus. But you know, in that thought out what I thought, even the demons understand it's about Jesus. Yeah. I mean, isn't that crazy? Yeah. And a lot of churches, to Zach's point, when you see these leaders fall, you say, how does that happen? That happens when you have a lot of knowledge about

and you've wandered away from what the knowledge was supposed to lead to, was what we have in Jesus, the person here. Yeah, transformation.

It's supposed to lead to transformation. And that's the context of the text here is because you've mentioned like, what kind of people are we becoming? This is the definition. This is the picture that's being painted here of the kind of people that we are becoming in Christ. And what kind of people is that? It's people who actually know. Another word I was thinking that you could put in there is like people who realize. It's a realized hope.

of what he's called us to. Well, what is that? What he tells us is what are the riches of his glorious inheritance. So it's to really realize and understand and participate right now. Right now, he's going to say in a second, it's happening right now in the inheritance of the saints. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us

who believe according to the work of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and above every name that is named. And this is the key. It's not only in this age, but also in the age to come. So I love that language that's already not yet language that he kind of wraps this in because this isn't like just an age to come thing.

Cross your fingers. Hope it's true. Hope that we got something really good coming someday down the road after we die and the resurrection happens. I think what he's saying is that this is I want you to know this now.

today. Yes, in the age to come, but also in this age. And that kind of mirrors what Jesus said in John 17, verse 3, when he defined eternal life as knowing the one true God. That's something that can happen in this age. And yes, it happens in the one to come because it's an ever-increasing measure. But that's what the Spirit, I think that's his primary role, is to show us the goodness and the...

of this God that saved us. And then that's part of the conformity, being conformed to the Son is starting to enjoy God. The Westminster Confession says the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Well, how do you do that? How do you enjoy God? Well, you have to understand and see and taste the riches of His goodness. You have to taste Him and see that He's good, and then you can enjoy Him. That's our chief end.

Yeah, and now. I love that present age. That means now. He was telling them right now. It made me think of that 1 Corinthians 8 where he said about food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God, and Paul changes it around, is known by God.

That belief in God is real, and Jesus is real at the right hand of God in us through his spirit. And then I think as it applies to the Ephesians and their town, kind of going back to Acts 19, in 1 Corinthians 8, 4, he says, So then about eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and there is no God but one.

For even if there are so-called gods, small g, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father from whom all things came and for whom we live. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came.

And through whom we live. I mean, it's almost the exact picture in just a couple of verses that you see in Ephesians, the in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, look at what you have. And then it's like, find him, trust him, believe in him. He did this. He's doing this in your life now. And so think about how that translated to them making known to what I would say is like,

The Bahamas in Ephesus where all these people are gathering with all these so-called powers and knowledge and gods and religion and the things that were going on, people claiming to have power on earth and believing in this. You remember all the ones that were following sorcery in Acts 19? Yep. And they came together and started burning. When God became real to them, they started burning things.

the sorcery books. And then there's an interesting verse. They came and openly confessed their evil deeds. Well, why are they doing that? Nobody told them, hey, I think you need to

have more knowledge in how to confess your sins. No, when God became real, guess what? The sin started coming out openly and life started being transformed. But you, you ask anybody in the church, um, because, you know, I'll use pornography as a, as an example of this, because that's ravaged a lot of men in the church. Um, and, you know, Covenant Eyes is one of our sponsors, so I'll use this, but you ask anybody who struggled with pornography in their life,

as a Christian and say, did you know it was wrong? Do you know what 100% of them will tell you? Yeah. But so, and speaking as somebody who's had struggles in that, like I remember, you know,

I knew it was wrong. Why would you do that? Or lust? Have you ever lusted after anyone that's not your spouse? And any man that has, as a Christian, you said, do you know that's wrong? And they're like, well, yeah. Well, why did you do it? Well, the answer is really short. It's because you wanted to. You desired it.

And so true liberation that Christ is offering as we're conformed to the image of the sun, it's actually the liberation not from desire. It's unleashing our desire and aiming it towards its proper end, which is God. So we find our delight in him. And that's what the that's what a walk with Jesus looks like, is that we can approach him and find our delight in him. And I wanted to read this prayer. It's very short.

But somebody sent this to me this morning. One of the elders I serve with at our church sent this to me, and it's very short, but very powerful. And I think it gets to the point of what we're talking about here of life in Christ, what life in God actually looks like. So it's called the prayer of approach. And here's the prayer. Father God, what I know of you will only ever be a fraction of who you are.

Jesus, open my mind to see you and understand the scriptures. Spirit, move my heart from familiar to fascinated until it's ablaze with your unfailing love.

And that's it. It's just simple. But like I want to I want that prayer to be true of my life. And and I think this is exactly what the scriptures are promising us. If we walk in the spirit, God will set our hearts ablaze with his unfailing love. I want I want to be consumed.

by the love of Christ. I want to, I want, when I wake up, I don't want to think about sin. I don't want to be tempted by sin. I want to be so captivated by the love and the beauty and the wonder of this God who made me and created me for relationship with him. I want to be captivated by that. I want to be set on fire for him. That's what the scriptures promise us as the transformation when, but it's not just an acquirement of knowledge. It's,

It's not that kind of knowledge. It's an intimate knowledge of actually knowing him, tasting him and seeing that he's good. It's experiential. Well, we're out of time. One thing I love about that prayer, it engages all three persons of God. And that's the beautiful thing about it. So we're going to pick this up next time. Much more to dive into in Ephesians chapter one. We'll see you next time on The Shame.

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