Ep 904 | Phil Encourages Searching for Your Spiritual Gifts & How the Bible Is a ‘Living’ Book
55:06 Share

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to the Unashamed Podcast. I have a presentation to make. Oh, really? To begin our podcast today. This is a pretty cool thing, Dad. You're going to like this. This is to you. It even has a Certificate of Authenticity Duck Commander-themed jig collection. This is a young man at our church, Grant Weatherford, Uncle G's Jigs. These were feathers from ducks that you two...

and others in the duck blind killed this last year. Burley Jennings got some of the feathers, gave them to Grant, and he crafted them into fishing jigs. It's a hobby for him. So he's put a few little things together. So if any of you out there are interested in checking that out, he doesn't have many because he does it for fun, but it's Uncle G's jigs. I actually recognize...

You see one of those is one that flew by. No. Oh, the feather. Okay. I was going to say, if you can recognize the ones you killed from looking at the tail feathers, then you are a true duck hunter. You are a true duck hunter. Jay said, yeah, I got this one right here. Well, that's like the way Si does. You know, we shoot the ducks, and then he says, boys, whatever you do,

Oh, geez. See the little tail feathers? I'm mid-statement here. It was a present to dad. Si will say, whatever you do when you clean these ducks, don't look at the size of the bullet holes because I'm shooting a 20 gauge, so I'll have smaller pellets. He said, you'll realize then that I shot way too many because he claims all of them.

Well, I heard that Cy got one too, one of these jig sets on the duck call room. I think they presented it last week. Martin gave it to him from Grant. So I think he made like 15 of them, and so he gave one to Dan. I need to get on that list. Yeah, I was going to say, what about Jace? What about me? I mean, me and Grant did ministry together for four years. You did? He's one of your young disciples. I forgot about that, Zane. Yeah, but after we heard about your fishing trip...

I think you might have been excluded. You don't get jigs if you go on a fishing trip and don't catch any fish. He's like, well, we got two perch. And it was kind of that story in the Bible of trying to make a meal.

Needing supernatural intervention. Yeah, Mark 6. That was our sermon this Sunday, so I know it well. I'm just glad that Zach wasn't planning on eating whatever they caught and not bringing any other food. No, I brought food. Yeah, I know. Zach, stick to being a fisher of men. You tried the actual fishing. You'll starve to death. I can catch fish.

He's from Florida. I had a bad canoe trip, and there were extenuating circumstances. There was a massive flood. Yeah. Well, that's part of fishing is checking the conditions of which you are now going to be participating in. The point of the trip, Jace, was canoeing with the family of...

And then I just brought a couple fishing poles. So it wasn't the primary purpose, but agree. But the reality is what happened is if you say, look, I'm going to be the provider for this family and show them how to fish. At some point when the young kids, the stomach is growling, it becomes a problem. It gets awkward. Yeah. No, there's not. There's a 0% chance that.

I could do anything in the outdoor space to where you guys would say, Zach, that was great. If that's not going to happen, no matter what I did. Well, you might say, well, you could say, you know, we went hiking and saw a waterfall and I'd be like, Oh, that's great. Zach, you're in a beautiful area. Well, there's some benefits to being raised in the wilderness, Bill. So thank you for that. Yeah. I mean, my wife frequently says, uh,

A lot of times, you know, when storms have hit and you had the COVID, you know, and I began to grocery shop in the wilderness. Oh, yeah. And she really likes that, that if something happens where we're shut down, I can go get some food.

The old-fashioned way. There was a guy yesterday that met with us, a dad that you and Joe baptized. And I'm not exactly sure where he was from on the Mississippi River, but he said one of the reasons he was here and has surrendered his life is because when he listened to our podcast, and he was like, I think he told me he was through episode 80. I said, well...

You got about 820, you'll catch up. You got a while to go. But he said the reason he loved it so much is because he was a river rat on the Mississippi River. Hunt, fish, just like you're talking about, Jace, made his way of life. But he got in a bad place spiritually, didn't know anything about Jesus. But when he heard us telling stories, he was like he immediately connected because he was a river rat.

And so then the story, of course, of you coming to Christ changed him. So he was in tears yesterday, but it was great morning. There were several that— Well, in any venture, you have to embrace the process. See, I don't have anything. It'll take me about, for you young bucks, my view of how you should view this, this material.

So I'm looking, I don't know when we're going to start the wheels rolling. Well, what we're doing, Phil, is we're doing what they call a cold open, which is what's been going on. But I saw a seed line of an illustration because Ephesians gives you a big picture of the whole story, going back to Genesis 1.

All the way to Jesus and what's going to happen next. Yep. Yep. And so I was saying there's a process in every, like fishing, you want to be a great fisherman, you got to learn the process. Yep. What fish do, what, you know, you have to,

basically be able to look at water and figure out what lies beneath yeah and the patterns the big picture the weather into the yeah i mean you do it anything treasure hunting same way i mean at first i thought you know you buy a detector you go out there and oh you're gonna strike it rich no you there's way more to you know you're getting into maps and you're getting into the history involved and you know i finally realized that if you want to be a great treasure hunter

You need to go where people gathered hundreds of years ago. And guess what you're going to find? And the dirt cannot be disturbed. So, I mean, there's a process that happens. Look, today I got out of my truck. You have a rock parking lot out here. Look, Phil. Treasure. Two coins. Because since I'm a treasure hunter, I stare at the ground. You're always looking down. And I thought, whoop, something's out of place.

You don't look for just coins laying around. You look for something out of place. I look down. So then... See, I'm just... I spent a lifetime in ministry, so I'm always looking up.

Yeah. I'm thinking this may be the day when the Lord comes back. Well, but Luke 15, the Lord himself looked down. He did. When you find... It's not right or wrong. It's just you're looking down, I'm looking up. Something lost. And you find that there's joy in heaven and on earth. And he was meaning people.

that find Jesus or Jesus finding them. He's a human treasure hunter. So I thought, well, these have been recently dropped because they were just on the surface. But when I looked at the dates, you have a 2001 nickel and you have a 2002 quarter.

So it takes a pretty good while for something to go under the ground. Yep. And I can tell. Those coins were minted 23 years ago. With these goggles that I'm now seeing 1010 with. Is that your official coin goggles? They should be because I'm telling you right now.

I can see every hair on George Washington's head. What do you got on there? You got on reading glasses? But they're like reading glasses on steroids. They got quite a look about them. He looks like the nutty professor. My wife got tired of me borrowing her glasses. Not that she didn't want to help me out, but hers are like pink and...

Any color that I usually wouldn't put on my body anywhere. But when I need a pair of glasses, I grab hers. Right. And I think she was embarrassed for me because I would use them out in public. So she went with. Yeah, that's quite the. It looks like just from me glancing at the thing, Jase, that looks like about a three on the scale of a.

On the strength scale. So I determined in the process that within the last 20 years, somebody dropped those two coins. But I'm just saying, it's hard to feel bad about that. You get out of the truck and you're like, yep. Treasure. 30 cents. And I hadn't even, I'm just walking into. So what I'm saying is we've, we've, we're looking at on this podcast of material that's down in front of us. But most of the time,

I never change what I'm fixing to tell you from Sunday to Sunday. Yeah. Same story every time. Right. Because there's different people sitting there. There's a whole new group sitting there. You see what I'm saying? Yep. And I've just been watching. You're locked in. I've been watching. And the same amount are submitting themselves to believe in Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection. That's on the board.

Every class I give, every lesson I give, that's what it's about. I met the ones that you talked to yesterday. Yeah. Because they stayed around. Same message. I had a sermon on Melchizedek, which you don't hear a lot of sermons. When's the last time we heard a sermon on Melchizedek? Did you preach yesterday? If ever. I preached yesterday, yeah. I was in Hebrews 7.

sort of setting the stage for Melchizedek. But you know, it's really interesting. I had never really tied it in to what we're talking about in Ephesians today, but it's the same. It's all the same idea is which this study we're doing now helped me even in looking at that because, you know, the whole idea of Abraham and Melchizedek is a picture of kind of what we're talking about here. This idea about God's providence as he worked through the process, which,

way back in the ancient days. It's all those covenants. All of it ties right into what we're talking about. So it was interesting. I started in over to Matthew. I waited until Jesus said, here's what's fixing to happen. Right. Once he came out with the information, uh,

From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples. You say, what time? He's got to say, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom. Jesus told him. Matthew 16. He's going to unlock the door. You're going to see the death.

You turn over here, if you just turn a few pages, the crucifixion, that's preached every Sunday morning coming out of my lips. The death of Jesus, every morning, every Sunday morning. That material will be in there in various ways. The burial of Jesus. The resurrection. And under the Great Commission, not everybody is called to preach. It's different. They have different...

They have different functions. In my case, it's the same thing every time. I'm just preaching the gospel of Jesus, the response to it. And amazingly, we average about five at a time. Five at a time. On average, sometimes 10, sometimes two. But there's a response 99% of the time.

That's a good thing in lieu of the gospel of Jesus. Now, that's just Matthew. You get to Mark, first out of his mouth, the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You follow Mark. And he clarifies, Phil, he calls it the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom. Then they work that in. The death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, resurrection. He was said to all of them.

Go into the world. Preach the good news to all creation. We do it all the time. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. I stand on that truth. And when you get to places like Ephesians, you see it in action.

You get out of Ephesians, you get to Galatians, and then you get to Ephesians. But it's the same thing every time without... And they all started. And all four, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they all ended up saying the same thing. Go out, go preach this. Go preach this. Well, when I read, I'm under a edict. So...

I have nowhere to go but what I'm doing because that's what I was put here to do for the kingdom. And you've been doing it for a long time.

So one of the ways you can show off how much you love Unashamed and Blaze is merchandise. And so you go to unashamedmerch.com is where you get it. There's a special promo code, unashamed10, and you're going to get 10% off your total order. They have the blind mug, Love Always Protects t-shirts, I Ride With King Jesus mugs and t-shirts. Dad's got an uncanceled...

mug right here in front of him on the podcast today. Blaze has a lot of merchandise as well. They have the Blaze Heritage Collection hat, stickers, mugs, all the things that are fun, but also say this is what we like. So head on over to unashamedmerch.com today. Use the promo code unashamed10 for 10% off your order. That's unashamedmerch.com. Be sure to use the promo code unashamed10 so you can get 10% off your order. Check them out.

Well, I think that's still bearing fruit. That's right. I think that's why Ephesians has all the benefits and blessings about being in Christ. Yep.

20 times, it's either in him, in Christ. Is it 20? I've been saying 10. Through Christ. Well, when you add through Christ as well. So, I mean, it's just, it was, you know, and I got that from our little outline we've been looking at, but it's hard to miss the point of who this is. And in fact, back to my sermon yesterday, Jase, I had never really thought about it before. Why?

Why was Melchizedek greater than Abraham? And it was just, to me, it was so simple. And I just missed it all these years is because Melchizedek represents Jesus and Abraham represents us. That's why he's greater. That's as far back as you can reach. Yeah. So nothing's new here. You have a job to do. You'll find out what gift you have. You'll find. Yeah.

Some of them just help others when they're sick, when they visit hospitals. They do good deeds. I met a guy yesterday. He was a chaplain at a nursing home. I said, God bless you. Because, I mean, what better place to go and to help people than there, you know? But I do say, Phil, I mean, we preach Jesus, but even in verse...

17 of Ephesians 1, there's a little statement. Let me put my glasses on. Get them big thick glasses on, Jay. In verse 17, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Well, here's a little statement here. So that you may know him better. Yep. Well, once you...

Start going down that road. I mean, I get it. You're basically presenting Jesus as the answer.

to everyone's problem you're you're introducing jesus and you're and you're part of a group well exactly but but in this letter not everyone was called to do what he's doing was doing he just said well look back it's about over for me so what's fixing to happen he said i just crossed over on the other side i'm yeah i'll just die but i

I'm good. But the work went on and it's still going on. Work went on. That's what I'm saying. One of the challenges he gave. We're proof of that. One of the challenges he gave is getting to know him better. Well, that's a mouthful. Getting to know Jesus better. I mean, these are people that he's writing to that have embraced Christ. He's like,

I want you to get to know him better. And so some of the things we do, I mean, the Bible is about Jesus. We're never going to get off that. But some of the little details he gets into, especially with different groups of people, it refers to them as Jews and Gentiles, which really stood out in our introduction to me that he's really a major point here is that God is bringing people together.

from totally different backgrounds, totally different cultures, totally different traditions. And when you look at that as a whole, we can all get to know Jesus better. And the more you do that, the more you're going to grow and mature as a body of Christ. Well, and that also tells you by just the challenge that he can be known better.

I mean, you know what I'm saying? Some people say, well, yeah, I got it. Jesus died for my sins. And, you know, they'll just quote you what he did for you. And you're like, wait a minute, he can be known better. And I made this point yesterday, Zach, and you actually brought it out in the podcast that, you know, atonement for sin is an incredible, wonderful blessing to us. And it usually is the first thing that gets our attention because we're sinners, but

But it's so much more. Jesus does so much more than just that. I mean, that's a biggie. But when you talk about the idea of being able to house his spirit,

literally in your body and in your mind. I mean, that's a tremendous blessing that comes when you think of the idea of being raised immortal and glorified. I mean, there are so many more blessings that Christ gives us. And the more we know that you made a point, Jason, in the past about talking about kind of how you, you said, if you looked over and somebody said, that's your wife and you looked over and it wasn't her. Yeah. And you said, wait a minute, I know that's not my wife. Yeah.

What I've learned through this, going through this with Lisa and this cancer, is I knew my wife really well, but I know her at a new level now.

having gone through a life-threatening illness with her. You learn things you didn't even know were possible, and that's what life does. When we live that life and choose that and you serve another person, same thing happens with Christ. As we're going through our life, we learn things we never knew about him before. It puts your heart in a different place to receive the power of who Jesus is.

I mean, we all fall into comfortability, taking things for granted. Licency. Yeah. When something happens, all of a sudden, verses that we read that where Jesus' character is coming out, exposing the nature of God, all of a sudden, light bulbs come on. That's why this is so fascinating, the Bible itself, is that it was written by God.

And so you just never can feel like you got a hold on all of it because your circumstances change, your heart condition changes, then you're open and you're reading things that are like, wow. That's why as it moves forward, Paul, when he's in Romans, just to show you how this works, he's a servant of Christ Jesus. Yep. Called to be an apostle. Yep.

Set apart for the gospel of God. Yeah. The gospel he promised beforehand, dating all the way back to what you were talking about yesterday. Dating all the way back. So here it is. I were to be the son of God by his resurrection from the day of Jesus Christ, our Lord. It doesn't take him but five minutes from writing. And as he lays this out.

There's you got Romans. Well, you say, well, let's see. What about when you get to Ephesians? Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful. He doesn't go 10, 12, about 12, 13 verses. You were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal. In other words, every one of these letters, if you just take them and you read,

And you say, well, what did he say? That's Ephesians where we are. Philippians, same thing. To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace be with you. I always pray for God with joy because of your partnership in the gospel. Right down below there, verse 7. He's right out of the box.

He's defending, I'm in chains, or defending and confirming the gospel. All of you sharing God's grace with me. It's just over and over and over. Colossians, Paul, be holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Always thank God the Father when we pray for you. We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, the love you have for all the saints, the faith and love that spring from the hope that's stored up for you in heaven.

and that you've already heard about in the word of truth. There it is again, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world, it's producing fruit. And you can go with each one of these letters from start to finish, and the main thing remains the main thing. Jesus, him crucified and raised from the dead.

Exactly. And then what the book... I don't go to anywhere but there. What the book of Ephesians does is it shows us in a very condensed version that everything you just said, Dad, that began with the Jews is now available to the Gentiles, which is his main point. I think his main point of emphasis in Ephesians and in Romans that we've talked about in kind of our prep leading up to this is the beauty of it is this is now available for everyone. It's spreading everywhere.

It's spreading, but it's slowly spreading. But you look up, and after 2,000 years of men that are chosen to go preach Jesus, it worked. Jace, you know, one of the things I get excited about is when I get a package made out to me. Do you feel that way? I mean, most packages that come to my house say Lisa Robertson.

Anna Stone, you know, not Al Robertson, but I do get one every so often. And it's usually always from the same people. Gifts are good, Al. And we love to get them. Bespoke Posts, which is one of our sponsors, we love it. Their website is boxofawesome.com. And this is one of the packages that came. And so I'm just now opening this for the first time right here on this ad.

And because you never know. So I went in, I went to boxofawesome.com. They had a quiz. I took the quiz and told them the kind of stuff I liked. And so then I get this little surprise box that comes. This pocket knife is one of the things I've gotten in the past before. A lot of cool stuff like that. This one. Oh, what is this? It's a garment of some kind. Oh, it's an Afghan. Afghan.

Oh, nice. I'm wondering what questions you filled out. Don't judge me on my quiz. What they did, I mean, I can see you right there in your recliner, your leather recliner. I do love my recliners, Zach. There's a thin line between an Afghan and a yoga blanket for those over 50. So this is what I like. It's free to join. They release new items every month.

across a ton of different categories. When you become a member, you'll have access to stellar discounts across a lot of different products, 30% off sometimes. And here's one of the things I really love about them. They support small businesses. 90% of everything that comes in your box of awesome is from a small and upcoming brand. It's free to sign up. You can skip a month or cancel anytime.

So check them out. Get a free mystery gift with your first monthly shipment when you sign up at boxofawesome.com and enter the code PHIL at checkout. That's boxofawesome.com. Use the code PHIL for a free mystery gift with your first monthly shipment. boxofawesome.com. Use the code PHIL.

Yeah, I love what you and Jason were talking about earlier about how the atonement is pivotal in all of this, but it's pointing to and pushing us into the life of God. And that's where I think Paul is hanging out here. If you go Google any of like commentary, not every commentary, but if you start to research the book of Ephesians, particularly the first and second chapter,

A lot of people will go into this study and they're reading the text as if the main point is that Paul is making some type of argument against

for a doctrine of how we're saved or something like that. And whether you can extrapolate that out of the text or not, that's not the point. I don't think that is the main point of what he's doing here. I don't think that's his intention primarily. If it is an intention, it's probably secondary or tertiary at best. But what Jace's scripture, the one that he referenced, is idolatry.

I think a key part of this is that what's the point? What's the motivation of Paul? Obviously, under the power of the Holy Spirit. But what is the motivation for writing this? And it is this idea of revelation. It's this idea that you would know God, that you would know Jesus Christ,

In a more in a fuller way, it's that this mystery that is being unfolded that would draw us into life in Christ. And it's and I love that idea of an increasing knowledge of him. And it's not a knowledge like that.

about God. I think that's to misinterpret what he's talking about here. It's not a knowledge about God. It is to know God, to know Christ in an intimate way. And so the language, when Jesus defined eternal life in John 17, 3, it's that kind of language, that eternal life is linked. It's defined as an intimate knowledge, to know them in a way that, like you said, to know your wife. I know Jill. I know my wife.

Yes, I know about her, but it's not simply enough to know about Jill. She doesn't want me to know about her. She wants me to know her and I want to know her and I want her to know me. And so I think that's the picture that's being painted here. So when you get to the beginning of Ephesians, I think it's actually better to start

at Ephesians 2 because there's like the summation of the argument that Paul's making in Ephesians 2. And so if you can see kind of the destination first, then you can go back and ask the question, well, how do we get to the destination? But the destination is Ephesians 2.19, and this is what it says. So then, in other words,

After everything I've just said, the point is this, you know, so here's the point. You are no longer strangers and foreigners. So we talk about not like I want you to know God. I want you to know Christ. Don't be a stranger. Don't be a foreigner. Right. That's what he says in 117. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners. He just made the case. But you are fellow citizens.

with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ himself, here's temple language, Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together

is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God.

So you think, what is the main point he's trying to make here in the book of Ephesians? That's it. So it's that God is going to live in people, Jew and Gentile. So then you go back to the beginning of Ephesians 1, and you ask the question, well, how does he get to this point? How did he get there? So that's the context, I think, that we go and interpret this. This is not an argument for evangelism.

in my opinion, of how we're saved. It's an argument for how we are going to be grafted into the same body and how God's going to come live in us. It's more about life in Christ and temple language. Well, I think you make an excellent point because I think where people disagree and get into so much controversy over Ephesians 1 and 2 is because you have a group of people who are looking at this

purely on an individual level, like God picking some to be saved and some not. And the point is all groups of people from whatever background as a whole being built. And when you read this, I mean, what picture are you getting? It's about a group of people coming together that literally represents God

the presence of Jesus at the right hand of God. One guy I read said, the point of Ephesians is we, not me, which I think was a really just succinct way to put that. It helps you understand Romans. Also, it's the same idea that when you look on an individual basis,

So when you see, like, just to give you an example, you remember when in Romans 7, when Paul said, well, I know that there's nothing good that lives in me. You know, you're like, well, wait a minute now. Does that not mean you haven't ever done, you know, good things? Well, when you kind of look at that as a whole from Adam...

to you know to go back to his point romans 5 adam to moses and romans 1 through 3 he's making that well right that's where i was headed when you go back to romans 1 18 you kind of figure it out oh we've all contributed as humans and i'm saying we all but the entire human world that once that sin happened as this goes along it's pretty much been sin and death as a whole

Doesn't mean there haven't been moments. I mean, you think about Hebrews 11 is he picks out all these men who had faith, you know, and, but we've all contributed as a whole to letting sin be our home. And the result has been death. Yeah. And so when, when he gets down, you know, after he says that,

Because that's such a profound statement when it's like, yeah, Romans 7, 18, I know that nothing good lives in me that isn't my sinful nature or sinful flesh, the humanly existence on earth, you know, post Adam. But then when he gets down to verse 24, it says, what a wretched man I am who will rescue me from this body of death, which is what as a whole means

We are. That's why when you think about what Jesus did, like in John 6, and they were like, no, we're going to make you a king. And the reason he pulled off, pulled back from that is because they were thinking earthly king, let's go get the Romans, you know? And the same thing when Peter, when he was like, get behind me, Satan. He's like, you'll never die. That's why it's covered in there. Don't repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

If it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. I mean, what a statement. Well, my point is we're not doing that as a whole. Yes, we have our moments. But if you look at it individually, all of a sudden it becomes something else. And that's why I keep going back to his point about the first Adam, 1 Corinthians 15, where

As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. And so even our point about Romans 6, which he said in the previous chapter, when it said those of us who were baptized, we were baptized into his death. Well, you think, well, what did his death do?

His death basically gave him the ability to separate himself from death itself in the physical, natural world of which we find ourselves trapped. Which is why when he gets to Romans 8, all of a sudden, he starts talking about the whole creation being liberated from its bondage to decay.

He starts talking about the spirit. Then he starts talking about us getting the redemption of our bodies. So it's like when you try to get to know Jesus better, all of a sudden you start realizing that when I was baptized into his death,

You understanding exactly how powerful and all the things that go along with that is the only way you're going to escape this trap that we currently find ourselves, which is why he said, who's going to rescue me from this body of death? I mean, there's just no way. We keep trying to do things. We're like, well, that's why we have wars.

The answer to that question in Romans 7, who will rescue me? The answer is the very next chapter. It's through Christ Jesus, but it's through the Spirit. We're baptized into His death, Romans 6 says, but also we're raised with Him through baptism. You're connected with the death, the burial, and the resurrection. You had mentioned this idea of sin being a huge part of the problem. It is the problem. Sin is

It separates the whole thing. So when you, I think when you read Ephesians, if you go to verse three, if we can just start there, because we've already hit Paul, the apostle of Christ Jesus pretty hard. We've set, we've set a foundation for that first, this first two verses, but, but three, he says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And,

Now, this idea of blessing, it's very similar to what we had in the garden, right? In Genesis 1, 28 and 29, listen to what it says. And God blessed them. So exactly what Paul just testified to, that he's blessed us in every way with every spiritual blessing. This first blessing came in Genesis 1, 28 and 29, and God blessed them.

And he said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over every living thing that moves on the earth. This was the original blessing right here. Adam and Eve were blessed by God from whom all blessings flow. So you see, mankind has like this special privileged place.

place in creation. In fact, when God made everything else, he said it's good. But when he made mankind, man and woman, he said it's very good. God walked with them. He knew them in a very intimate way. It was like this unbridled, unfiltered just conduit of just blessing from God until what? Until sin. And so the blessing is cut off from sin and God comes back in

In Genesis 12 and reinstitutes the blessing when he says to Abraham now, the Lord or Abram, actually, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and from your kindred and from your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation. You can kind of see this same like.

thing playing out that happened in the garden with the cultural mandate and this idea of dominion and this idea of blessing and this idea of go build this in the name of me. Go build culture. He's giving the same thing to Abraham. He says, I will make you a great nation. And guess what? I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will dishonor those

who curse you, and in you, here's the promise, all the families of earth shall be blessed. Not all the families of Israel, all the families of earth shall be blessed. And he reinstates this in Genesis 22, I will surely bless you.

And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring, listen to this, shall all the nations on earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. In other words, he gives Abraham this promise.

Abraham goes outside in Genesis 22. He says, hey, I'm going to give you a bunch of grandkids. And Abraham's like, well, how many are you going to give me? So we'll look up in the stars. So he looks up.

He's like, yeah, count the stars. He's like, I can't count them. There's too many. Okay, that's how many you're going to have. You will not be able to count them. Abraham is interpreting this as his own physical lineage, but that's not what God is promising him there. God is promising him something way bigger than that. God is saying that the blessing is going to come when all the nations on earth are going to be blessed because you've obeyed my voice. All nations will be blessed. So we're actually children of God.

of Abraham. And I know I'm, I'm, I'm going off here, but I just want to set this up because I think it's the context of what we mentioned. And by the way, Galatians 3, 15 and following, Paul says exactly what you're saying. Oh yeah. And, and, and that's why that context, we started, we started in Ephesians 2, 19 about the Gentiles, all nations coming in. Okay. Based on everything I've said, you guys are all in now. Now,

How did he get here? This is all the Old Testament stuff. This is the language out of Exodus 19. While Moses went up to God, the Lord called to him out of the mountain saying, thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you yourself have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people.

For all of the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So what you're seeing here between this language in Ephesians 1 and all of this is you're seeing similarities here that we have God's chosen people,

We have them called God's own treasured possession. And then we have the blessing, the chosen one, later that gets more specific. And as the prophet says, it's going to be someone that is going to come through the line of David. It's Jesus coming. And so you see this biblical picture in the Old Testament of the Jews first.

But the promise of the coming Gentiles, that's the Old Testament. The Jews first, God's chosen people, and then grafted in the coming of all nations. And then that's going to be realized in Jesus. And so that's the backdrop of what Paul's doing in Ephesians, is he's showing how all this Old Testament stuff's coming together. So that blessing that he's talking about here is a blessing that was promised to Abraham.

Yeah, I mean, I love what you did, quoting that verse about all human families, all nations. Because that's why I said, if you look at this as a whole, the entire earthly human family dies. There's a trap here. And it was a result of the sin that happened. And so I was going the same way.

thought process that you were, but just from a totally different way. So I wanted to read this. And it comes from when I was mentioning Romans, you know, you have this strange verse that now I completely understand, but for years I always thought, well, what does this mean? And the verse is in Romans 8, where it says, if Christ is in you, this is 8.10, your body is dead because of sin.

Yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. And so that's the

We're born into a human family. Now, granted, we're born in the image of God and we're innocent, but we're born into a world where sin will eventually make its home in your life. We're all as humans are going to contribute to that in some way as adults, but we're all going to die. And so even when you hear about Christ.

And here, the good news of Christ, like Phil was talking about, you receive God's spirit, but you notice in Ephesians one here, it says that spirit is a deposit. Yep. Well, what does that mean? It there's, it's a deposit for something greater or maybe not greater, but more, something more. I have a hard time describing that because you do have the Holy spirit. It is a guarantee, but,

But that's where it gets into, well, there's our purpose. Because what gets lost in all this is, well, what are we supposed to do? Because we're trapped on earth. No matter what happens, we're going to die. Now, we can either try to make this world a better place. Good luck with that. Yep. Or we can say, you know, maybe we can introduce what God wanted us to introduce is a better. And better is not a strong enough word. Yep.

But a better way to live life through his spirit, declaring the presence of God is real and that Jesus is exalted, even though it doesn't look like it. And one of these days we're going to be resurrected. So I set that up to read 2 Corinthians 5. And I want to read a lot of this because I think when you look at it like Zach was reading those passages, when you look at it as a whole,

that God's predetermined foreordained plan was that through people who house the spirit of God, we will make his presence known and people's eyes are open that, oh, not only is there a God, the image of the invisible God came to the same earth in the same trapped atmosphere that

to actually do away with us being trapped. It's called salvation, liberation, justification. Sanctification. Yeah, living forever. This is God is for us. And so when you read 2 Corinthians 5, I think this is real interesting. He says in verse 1, we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, and that's going to happen no matter what you do.

We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. But meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. And so then he goes on down in verse 5 and says, now it is God who has made us for this very purpose.

And, you know, with what what is mortal being swallowed up, he says that verse four and has given us the spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. He says the same thing in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. And it says, therefore, we're always confident. But he gets down to verse 10. I want you to watch this transition talking about our purpose now here right now.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. So here, all of a sudden, we're talking about the entire humanity. So he says, verse 11, since then we know what it is to fear the Lord. Well, we try to persuade men, which is, Phil, what you described, why you're sharing Jesus, because you're saying, look,

you're gonna die. This earthly tent is gonna be destroyed. You can work out, eat right, you'll die healthy, or you just may die unhealthy, but we're all gonna die. And we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So he says, we try to persuade men. So then it says...

In verse 14, for Christ's love compels us. Now, this is a very interesting verse, and it's another one for years I never understood. But watch what this says. We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. Now, you say, wait, what? What could this mean in the context of we're all dead?

earthly, fleshly, temporary. We're going to be destroyed, but God has a plan. The Holy Spirit is a guarantee, but we're all going to have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So we try to persuade men. And then he makes that statement for Christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves for him who died for them.

and was raised again. When you look at this as a corporate group of being part of a human family, Jesus's death was everybody's death. That's why we're trying to persuade men. It just simply shows you that, number one, God is for everybody. He calls men through the gospel of Jesus.

And that's what we're doing now as spirit-filled people. We're declaring to Jesus, I mean, we're declaring to the human family, look, God has made a way out of this place. That's what we're doing here. Of course, he goes on and starts talking about if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. He's given us the message of reconciliation that God was making his appeal through us. We're therefore Christ ambassadors. I just think that one little phrase in there,

Because a lot of people, when they look at this individualistically, they're missing. It's not about God predetermining this little group of individuals. No, he died for all by that death. It's available. And so what are we doing now? We're pointing people to Jesus. Which is why in 1 Corinthians 15, we read that passage about

The resurrection, and when he's talking to the Corinthians, he's showing all the benefits of it. And you're just like, man, this is incredible. The believer's resurrection, the glorification, the living eternally. But when you read what Jesus said in John 5, you realize on the resurrection, I mean, as great as it's going to be, if you've done what he asked you to do and obeyed him, then it's going to be amazing. But that's not going to be the case for everybody. That's why you have to be convinced in this life.

That we want to be ready for the next one. And embrace the blessings that is Jesus and that is there. So, man, really encouraging stuff and encouraging as to why he wrote it.

When we come back on the next podcast, I want to remind us of the context of, remember, because this all started because we were in Acts 19 and 20, about why he wrote it the way he wrote it. I think there was some specifics in there that we get from that context. We'll talk about that next time and a lot, lot more. Real quick, so we're three podcasts in on Ephesians.

And we're through verse three, so we're going to finish this, guys. We may have our thousandth podcast when we're just getting through with Ephesians. We'll see where it goes. See you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.