09/24/2020 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 43:14-45:10, Ephesians 3:1-21, Psalms 68:1-18, Proverbs 24:1-2

Today is the 24th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as we lock in, buckle up, move forward, take the next step in our journey through the Scriptures this year. So, we’ve been working our way through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament and we’re in the book of Ephesians or the letter to the Ephesians in the New and now we’ve got a ways to go…I guess about another 20 chapters in the book of Isaiah, one of the longer books in the Bible. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the contemporary English version this week. Isaiah chapter 43 verse 14 through 45 verse 10.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we move our way through the letter to the Ephesians I have kind of referred to it as like this mountain road experience where we are headed to the top, and there’s all these turn offs along the long way and there’s beautiful vistas all along the path because that’s just kinda how I…I…I read Ephesians. There was this one year where I’m reading it and stopping and going, “wait a minute. What? What…what is being said here?” Just truly contemplate the level, like the bigness of some of the things that are being said. And, so, it’s always kind of been like this to me. We reach this point the Bible and it’s like, this is why this is called Good News. And if this is all true, then this is not just a life game changer, like this is a world game changer, this is a humanity game changer. And, so, in our reading today Paul’s saying like, “there was…that there’s a mystery, a mystery that God is revealing, a mystery that God has always planned to reveal and He’s revealing it now and this is the mystery: because of Jesus, the good news…well…let me just quote Paul, “because of Christ Jesus the good news has given the Gentiles a share in the promises that God gave to the Jews. God has also let the Gentiles be a part of the same body.” Now we’ve already talked about Paul being controversial and so we could understand from a more traditional Hebrew perspective that people would be against Paul in this declaration, but the truth of…of the Christian faith is that it is vastly, vastly a Gentile form of spirituality now. That’s how things have turned out in the last couple of thousand years. And, so, what we’re reading in Ephesians is that this is the plan, that God has grafted us into the master story that He’s been telling through the Hebrew people, that He has invited us all to be a part of the same body through the Savior, through Jesus. I know that we know that but if we would slow down a second, understand that we just kind of turned off into this little parking area and we’re looking out over the journey upward that we’re taking and it’s this beautiful scene, we could understand we are so fortunate. We are so, so fortunate that God loves us and has always loved us and has always intended us to be a part of His story. What Paul’s saying is your ethnicity doesn’t matter, what boundaries you live behind, what nation you are in, whatever the ide…ideology of your culture is, you are invited through Jesus to be a part of the family of God. So, indeed, that is good news. But…buckle up because we’re about to get a cosmic view of things that we probably will need to ponder today. There’s a reason for all of this. So…so, I’m quoting Paul again, “God who created everything wanted me to help everyone understand the mysterious plan that it always been hidden in His mind. Then God would use the church to show the powers and authorities in the spiritual world that He has many different kinds of wisdom. God did this according to His eternal plan. And He was able to do what he had planned because of all that Christ Jesus our Lord had done.” Okay. So, it’s good that we’re parked here at this vista instead of trying to drive because this requires us to widen our horizon and understand that there are way bigger things going on surrounding our faith. Like we try to work out our faith most the time to try…to just try to have some kind of balance in life and follow and love God and…but it’s really centered around our experience in our own consciousness, what we personally are perceiving that we are experiencing. Well, what Paul is saying is God has all kinds of wisdom and it’s being borne out in what He is doing and what He is doing is revealing this wisdom to the spiritual realms, to the unseen rulers and authorities, to beings in the heavenly places, the powers and authorities in the spiritual world. In other words, our lives and our faith and our pursuit of union with God reveals the wisdom of God beyond what we can physically, with our bodily senses, with our human flesh, perceive, that there is more going on in the spiritual realms than we may be aware of. This isn’t just about the rescue of our hearts. It is. This isn’t just about us walking with God through this world and being a light in the darkness. It is. But the revelation of God’s unlimited wisdom is being revealed in the spiritual realms because of this. Right? That’s something…that’s something to think about, that’s something to go ponder, that’s something to reread and consider, that the story is bigger than we knew or than…that we mostly paid attention to, that the weightiness of our lives is revealing the wisdom of God far beyond what we can see or perceive. And because of this, and I’m quoting again, “Christ now gives us courage and confidence so that we can come to God by faith.” In other words, the presence of God and our awareness of His presence is always available, and we can be confident and even bold about it. I mean…I know we know some of the stuff but if we slow down, like…as if we were…we were driving up a mountain road pulling off at the scenery along the way, we’d understand we are talking about really big things. And, so, as we end our short, short reading but power packed reading from the letter to the Ephesians today, Paul prays a prayer and it’s kind of Paul’s response to what he is sharing, like, “look at what is going on here, perceive this, understand who you are.” And then he prays this prayer. And, so, let me just, again, like…I’m kind of re-quoting a lot of what we already read, but let’s receive this prayer. So, Paul says, “I kneel in prayer to the Father. All beings”…and we just explored that…“all beings in heaven and on earth receive their life from Him. God is wonderful and glorious. I pray that His Spirit will make you become strong followers and that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. Stand firm and be deeply rooted in his love. I pray that you and all of God’s people will understand what is called wide or long or high or deep. I want you to know all about Christ’s love. Although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is.”

Prayer:

Father we acknowledge that’s big news and we acknowledge that we gloss over these realities, these spiritual realities daily as we just try to deal with the chaos that’s flying at us in…in…in our senses. And yet we are being shown today that there is way more going on and way more at stake than we ever perceive or pay attention to. But the deeper that we become aware of Your love for us, the deeper that we move into a committed loving relationship with You, the deeper we fall in love with You, the more we realize that Your love is too wonderful to be measured and that we become aware that our lives are being intertwined with You as You intended. This was always the plan, that we might be filled with all that You are. And that last thing, we don’t even know…we don’t even know how to think about it or how to become aware of it, that You would permeate us, that You would surround and envelop us, that we would…that we would as Paul said, that our lives will be filled with all that God is. That this so good there are no words. And, so, Holy Spirit we invite You to well up from within as we meditate upon these things today, that they might become the way we look at things, this would be the eyes that Christ looked at the world through, this would be looking through Your eyes. And in part, that requires us to look at ourselves differently. It requires us to look at ourselves the way that You do and then that requires us to look at everyone else the way You do, even the people that we think are the problem. And, so, come Holy Spirit into this we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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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:

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Nalin from Dubai it’s my first time to call in. I’ve been listening to this beautiful program for eight years and now I’m a double DABber as well this year with China. Anyway, I would like some prayer requests for myself, my boss, and my colleagues. It’s been very tough since the COVID-19 and yes, we’ve had several cuts and we’ve had many issues and ups and downs and…but now we’ve got a dictator. A new manager came and she’s so dictatorship and rude and not the family-oriented atmosphere we have. And, so, I just want us for you guys to pray for me and my colleagues, especially my boss to be strong and hang in there and just to have the faith that we do our job and we get through this and we can conquer all with God. Thank you very much.

Hi this is Susanna in North Carolina I really need some prayer. I don’t feel like this is something that supposed to be between me and God and me learning to figure it out but I’m not doing a good job at all. I don’t know exactly what to ask for. I have a pretty good lot in life and yet I easily fall back into anxiety and live out of fear. I want to get back to a consistent level of joy and peace and having enthusiasm and drive for what I do each day, being able to trust God even when I can’t see around the next bend, to be able to rest in his light yoke. It’s a __ with me and something worth doing, to be able to rest in who he made me or made me to be or who I am now and in whose I am and to be finding my identity there. I don’t know if that’s one of those weird situations where you need something to actually cry about but…because I mean He’s…He’s been there for me and been faithful and I feel like I just have this mental battleground going on. So, if He gives you anything crave to pray for is appreciated for anything comes to mind. Thank you.

Good morning DAB family this is Chris from Virginia. Can you please pray for a friend of mine, he’s like a cousin, his name is Dennis? He’s going through some major intestinal complications and most importantly he is not saved and currently has a __ negative mindset. Please pray for his salvation. Please also pray for me as I am going to make an attempt to have a salvation conversation with him and just hopefully please pray that God gives me the words to share with him the vision I see for him and his future with just complete healing and salvation through Christ. Thank you all for all that you pray for. I love you all. Thank you, Brian it’s amazing what you do for us all. God bless you. Bye.

Good morning DABbers my name is Mary this is…I am a first-time caller and I’m just calling to request prayer for my daughter. She’s been fighting cancer since 2016. She’s 25 now. She has dealt with this like a trooper. She’s lost her hair. She’s not been able to walk. She’s done everything and she just loves the Lord and spreading the word. The reason I’m calling for prayer is right now she is losing her speech. She’s having trouble talking and this has been the hardest thing for her because she loves the Lord, she loves telling the people about the Lord and right now she can’t because she can’t speak very well and that’s really…really bringing her down because she doesn’t understand. And I just…I pray…I pray that God will restore her speech and will help her to continue spreading His love. We are so grateful for everything He’s done. He’s sustained her through all of this. She’s never stopped trusting in Him. But this one’s a hard one and I’m just needing prayer. It’s hard as her mom. It’s hard as her mom to watch her go to this and I just need more prayer out there to help with her speech. Thanks.

Hi, my name is LeeAnn it’s my first time calling. I’d just like to ask for prayers for my daughter. She has severe anxiety and she’s having trouble coping with it. Just asking for your prayers for her. Thank you. Thank you all for being here for everybody that listens to this Daily Audio Bible. I have found a lot of peace and comfort here through you guys. Thank you. May God bless you all.

This is Denise from North Carolina I’ve called in before about my situation. First I want to apologize for calling about something so selfish and something so frivolous when there’s so many other people suffering worse than I am, have more things going on that’s more significant than what I’m going through but hurt is hurt, pain is pain and I pray that you would pray for me and my pain. I called in once before about being in a marriage that has no intimacy. We’re friends and we do what God tells us to do but we have no intimacy and I’m lonely in my marriage. I also admitted to the fact that I had a previous affair and I ended that because I knew it was not of God because I was lonely and just wanted attention. I really miss that person even though I’m not supposed to. And I know it’s the spirit that I miss and it’s not the person because I need that companionship and __ . I ask that you pray that God would give me what I need so I can do what’s right and so that my husband and I can live a marriage that’s supposed to be fulfilling, which it’s not right now. We’re companions, we take care of business, we raise our children, but I’m not fulfilled and I ask God to show me what He wants me to do. I try to be all about God but it’s not the same as having someone to hold you and care for you and make you feel important. So, I ask that you pray that I will continue to do what God has me to do and God will open the doors up for me and I not be selfish in this.