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 and to move forward with you as we take the next step in our adventure through the Scriptures. We’re still working our way through the book of Isaiah. Today, chapter 45 verse 11 through 48 verse 11. And we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So when you were a kid, did you want to grow up and be something? I’ve got a little fella in my house named Ezekiel. When he grows up, he’s gonna be lots and lots of things ranging from a janitor at school to a superhero. But he’s gonna be something. And we all have these dreams as children and even as we grow up we have dreams about what we will be. And what we will be like. And Paul talked about growing up in our reading from Ephesians today. And he gave us some characteristics, some traits that we have to sow into our lives. They have to become second nature to us. He said, Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. Okay, so to live into that, what Paul is proposing, would certainly require a level of maturity that we may not even always possess as adults. Which would show us perhaps we have some growing up to do. And the first place we can look, because we read this passage of Scripture with these characteristics from Paul and say, Yeah, these kind of lists, they show up in Paul’s writings and they’re great reminders of what I’m supposed to live towards. But we don’t really actually make any changes so that our lives will look like this. So let’s just take our marriages for example. Are those relationships supposed to be growing? Should they mature? Should we be growing closer together and more and more on the same page? Then maybe we actually have some growing up to do? And maybe this Ephesians chapter four Scripture that we just read gives us a perfect description of what is going to be required to have a maturing and growing marriage. Let’s do this again. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. So if we apply what Paul is suggesting to our marriages, then we could say, if we would both live into that, we would have a growing and maturing marriage. This can be applied to anything in our lives. We can apply this to our workplace. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. We can apply this to any part of our lives with the idea that if we do, we will be heading toward maturity. We will be growing up. So how do we mature as men and women who are worthy of God’s calling as Paul put it? Well for Paul, becoming spiritually mature’s more than this isolated endeavor that would only happen by chance. It was something that was to happen intentionally. And God gave gifts to help it happen intentionally. These were, according to Paul, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Their role was then and is now to equip and build the church, which are God’s people. So according to Paul, this is part of the process. And I’m quoting Paul here. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. So the good news is that we can grow up and that we’re expected to grow up. But we’re supposed to grow into the standard of Christ. What does that mean? So if we were to try to break down the word standard and go literal translation on it, it would be a fully mature and respected person. This is what we’re growing into. A standard. Fully mature and respected people of Christ, who bare and live up to his standard. So now that we know this, this is something that we should be thinking about because this is the direction that we are supposed to be heading in. And growing up happens on many levels. Everything in us doesn’t grow up at the same rate and at the same time. We have different stages. But when we think of growing up spiritually, what we’re ultimately seeking is union with God. We want to become more aware of his presence. We want to more fully understand what’s really going on and then why it is we’re in this story called life. As we move further and further in the direction Paul’s suggesting, we understand more and more because we are maturing more and more. And in our reading today, Paul gives us a picture. A picture of what’s happening. He says, then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way, more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. So that’s monumental. That it’s even possible is monumental. According to Paul, this union we seek with God and the awareness of his presence is found in becoming mature and respected people of Christ. People who are growing in every way more and more like Christ. So in other words, people who are becoming Christ-like. Who are becoming like Jesus. So maybe when we were kids, we wanted to grow up and be a doctor or we wanted to grow up and be a race car driver or we wanted to grow up and be a princess. Paul is kind of re-framing that. When we grow up, we’re supposed to be like Jesus. Carry that around with you today as you observe your behaviors and your postures and your words. Because everyday it’s one of maturity or regression. Everyday we’re going to take a step forward and that step can be Christ-like maturity or anything but. This is gonna boil down to whether we’re paying attention and whether we’re willing to control ourselves in the process of maturity.
Prayer:
So Father, we invite You into our own growth. We have to confess that we’ve heard plenty of things, plenty of ways that the Bible shifts our focus and our posture and calls us higher and invites us further. And we just ignore it and stay in the same old ruts of our lives, choosing not to grow up, choosing to stay stuck and then choosing to blame You for it. Forgive us for that, Lord. Our maturity is a collaboration with You. And so we surrender to Your will and Your ways in our lives. We pray along with Isaiah. You, Lord, created the heavens and the earth and You put everything in place. You made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. You are the Lord. There is no other. You have publicly proclaimed bold promises, including what we read in Ephesians today. You do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. You would not have told us to seek You if You could not be found. And You only speak what is true and declare only what is right. And so we humble ourselves and surrender to You, Almighty God, and ask that You show us how to grow up. Come Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check in and check it out.
Check out the shop, the resources that are available there. And the prayer wall, of course. And stay connected on social media.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you. Thank you humbly and profoundly for those of you who have kept the global campfire burning over the years. Humble, humble appreciation. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring, Hill, Tennessee, 37174.
And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, there are a number of numbers you can use. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe, 44-20-3608-8078 is the number. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world, 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning this is Stephen from Alabama on my morning walk after my listening time. And it’s September 21st. I may have already said that but I think I’ve got some good news for all of you this morning. I’m not a lawyer but I do know that lawyers love to take cases where there’s precedence and if there’s precedence then they feel pretty good about the case, they feel pretty good about the chances. Well, today we have precedents of two things that I believe the enemy attacked us in quite often and that’s our finances and our health. So, we’ve heard Hezekiah received a letter, a threatening letter, and maybe you’ve received a letter collation or a frivolous lawsuit against you or you’ve received a letter of a terminal diagnosis like Hezekiah. Also received. But he spread out those papers before the Lord and when her received a terminal diagnosis he went to God the Creator and asked Him for more time. And God has granted both of those requests. So, let us take heart. Let us have faith that those that we’re praying for, those with terminal illnesses and financial hardships, that there is precedence. God has moved before and He can move again. Either way we win. In Jesus’ name. Love you guys. Have a great day.
Good morning fellow DABbers this is Monica from New Jersey. I’m a calling first to say thank you to Brian. As I started out on my walk this morning, it’s Friday, September 21, I was filled with anxiety about the family and things that are going on. And we said, let’s just stop and let God into it. And it was exactly what I needed to hear. I’m asking all of you to pray for my family. My daughters husband has decided he doesn’t want to be married anymore. He’s had an affair with a young woman for a year and half. They have two small children and __ their being forced out of their home and being used as __ in this horrible tug-of-war. I know the prayer works and I know you people pray __ for me when I was physically ill and the Lord cured me and healed me. And I thank you all for your prayers. Thank you. God bless you all.
Hi DAB family my name is Tony. I’m a calling, first and foremost, to give raise to our Lord and Savior. And my prayer request this morning comes as I realize just how helpless I am and how helpless we are. I have a grandson who’s possessed with demons, spiritual demons and we, as a family, are at a loss. Even the other day when we are our weakest and we can be like our strongest simply by calling on God, simply by turning it over to him. That’s the only answer I have, that’s the only answer I know. I’m praying for deliverance for my grandson. He’s got my heart. He has all of our hearts. He’s such a __ young man. I’m asking to you as the DAB family to come together unified in prayer to have my grandson delivered from these spiritual demons, that he be free, that we can use this moment as a testimony for the future for our children and for God to deliver him. I just need prayer. I need all of us to come together and pray. I thank you so much family. I thank you so much for this opportunity. I thank you for this forum, DAB. I’ve been listening for years. This is the first time I’ve ever called. I don’t want this to be the last. I know that there are so many others that are captured by demons in this world. Thank you family. God bless.
My name is Mike from Southern California. This prayer is for my brother and his girlfriend Maggie. And Rafael, brother, I am going through a similar circumstance but nothing as devastating as yours. And I heard that you lost your child and now your marriage is in jeopardy. You touched my heart and I want to ask the entire DAB family, right now, in one accord, pray for restoration of __ . Matthew 18:19-20 says, “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” I am with you my brother Raphael. Praying for you and the restoration of your marriage __. God bless you. In Jesus’ name we pray.