Isaiah 45:11-48:11, Ephesians 4:1-16, Psalms 68:19-35, Proverbs 24:3-4
Today is the 25th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we come around the global campfire and throw on some logs and just be here together allowing God’s word to speak to us. And, as is the case every day, we pick up where we left off and that will take us back into the book of Isaiah. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 11 through 48 verse 11 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, Jill and I, we have our youngest son, his name is Ezekiel and we just celebrated his birthday not too long ago and he turned seven years old. And, so he is at the magic age in a child’s life where he’s dreaming about what he might become, right? So, every day it seems like there’s something new. So, like driving past the hospital. And, so, he’ll say, “when I grow up I’m gonna be a doctor and I’m gonna work there” or “when I grow up I’m gonna drive a tractor” or “when I grew up I’m gonna read the Bible just like you daddy” or “I’m gonna be a space man” like he has all of the…his imagination is in full bloom, and when he grows up he’s going to be a lot of things. And Paul, as we’re moving to the Ephesians in our reading today was talking about, essentially that, growing up. And even though he, he was fully grown as a man, he was in prison, he was in chains. And, so, he kinda gave language to what growing up my look like. So, he says “be humble, be gentle, be patient, tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created with peace binding you together.” Okay, I look at that and I’m like, that is the ideal that is indeed what we’re going for. That’s what I’m going for. However, man nailing that hundred percent of the time, I’m certainly not there. So, to live into what Paul’s saying that the body of Christ is…like what’s supposed to be normal, because that’s the thing, what he’s outlining here. This is what supposed to be normal. This isn’t the exception to the rule, like, “oh…I was kind when somebody was mean to me” and that’s the exception to the rule but nine times out of ten I’m gonna be just as mean or meaner back. Like, what Paul’s describing here is what our lives are supposed to look like when their normal. So, to live into that we have to have a certain level of maturity that maybe even as adults we don’t have. Maybe we actually still have some growing up to do. So, how do we mature into men and women who are humble and gentle and patient with each other and making allowances for each other’s faults because…because we love each other and we do everything that we can to be united in the spirit knowing that we are bound together in Christ and creating peace because of that. Like, how do we grow up, how do we grow into, how do we become that? And then how does that become normal, like that’s normal? So, for Paul to mature like this wasn’t something that was just like, you know, your own personal endeavor that may or may not happen. God gave gifts to help – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers - and according to Paul, their role was and still is to equip and build the church, which are God’s people. Paul says this is part of the process. And quoting Paul here, “these ministries will continue until we are unified in faith and filled with the knowledge of the son of God until we stand mature.” Right? So, “grown up in his teachings and fully formed in the likeness of the Anointed our liberating King.” So, fully formed in the likeness of Jesus - Christlike. Okay. So, that’s what we’re growing up to look like, to be like. On this journey of faith that we are on we may be like children but when we grow up, we’re supposed to be like Jesus. And Paul says when we live into that idea that it is not only possible but necessary that we grow up and become Christlike and that we mature and that our normal is to prefer the other, right, is to love one another as we love ourselves. When that becomes our normal, according to the apostle Paul, and I’m quoting here, “then we will no longer be like children, tossed around here and there upon the ocean waves picked up by every gust of religious teaching spoken by liars or swindlers or deceivers. Instead by truth spoken in love we are to grow in every way into Him the Anointed one, the head.” So, if there’s one thing that we should take away from what we’re learning from the letter to the Ephesians today, it is that we can and must grow up. It’s required. And, so, now that we know that maturity is on the radar, it’s supposed to be happening and we’re supposed to be collaborating. Well now we should be thinking about. I mean, if I think about my growing up years, not so much my spiritually growing years, but like just growing and becoming a man, I would say it didn’t just…I didn’t turn 18 and then I was grown up, right? Like it happens on many levels, it happens on many different stages. It happens for many different reasons, right? We fall down, scrape our knee and realize falling down and scraping your knee hurts. And, so, we learn to be more cautious about falling down and scraping our knee. And like, this…this begins to happen in every area of our lives. Growing up spiritually isn’t different. It happens through experience. It happens through challenge. It happens through suffering. It happens through joy. It happens through life. And honestly, what we’re…what were really after when we think about growing up spiritually, what…what are you after? Think about that for a second. Have you ever thought what your…what your spiritual maturity will even look like? What we are ultimately after is what we’ve been heading toward our whole life. Spiritual maturity and growth is our desire to be in union with God. We want to become…like we sing this…we want to become more aware of His presence. We want to more fully understand what’s going on and why were in this story together with God called life. And that is a process. And that process is setting us apart and making us holy. It is sanctifying us. We are growing in every way more and more like Christ. Now, we’ve been talking about some things in the letter to the Ephesians that are just like these vistas that are too good to be true. This is one of them, that we can grow up and become like our Savior, right? That this is even a category for us, that it’s even a possibility for us, is too good to be true. Like this is unbelievable. What God would like is for us to all grow up and be humble and gentle and patient with each other and make allowance for each other’s faults because we love each other and to make every effort to keep ourselves united in the Spirit binding ourselves together with peace so that every day we grow in maturity to be more and more and more transformed into the likeness of Jesus. It's…it’s unbelievable that that’s even a category my life…like that that’s even possible for me or anyone, but it also reveals something amazing. God wants to work through His people. He wants to empower His people. He wants His children to grow up so that there’s not one Jesus running around this world, so that there are billions of Christlike children of the living God, sons and daughters of God upon this earth. And you are supposed to be one of them. And you are one of them - a son of God walking upon the earth, a daughter of God walking upon the earth. And there’s nothing you did to make it so. It was given to you freely so that you could grow up and be who you really are. Is that not a game changer? Like, am I the only one? I don’t think so though. So, live into that today. This is what growing up is supposed to look like, and it’s all available
Prayer:
Holy Spirit we invite You into that. And we can very easily focus on our faults. We can very easily treat ourselves differently than You’ve invited us to treat everyone else. And, so, Holy Spirit, come and help us to be humble and gentle with ourselves, to be patient with ourselves, to make allowance for our faults because of Your love and help us to make every effort with ourselves to be united in Spirit so that we are a whole person who is being transformed into Your likeness. And as we feel Your compassion upon us, let us turn it out toward the world so that indeed we are being Your hands and feet upon this earth. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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