Hardwired with Jeff Wickwire

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Hardwired with Jeff. With Wired, here's what's
coming up in today's edition.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I had a preacher text me a couple of weeks
ag when he said, man, Pastor, pray for me. I'm
preaching in a church and it is so dead as
I just let it rip just to preach the word.
But I understand what he's saying. But you get into
a church that really loves.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Jesus and that it has been.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Filled with His spirit, and they begin to worship God,
and literally God comes down.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
It is his dwelling place.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's a tangible almost a tangible substance. It's a tangible
presence He lives among us.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
You can't force a church to be healthy, even in
a small congregation. There are too many factors of play
for someone to just decide that the church is healthy now. Instead,
it takes a dedicated effort from every member to growl
in their faith and to commit themselves to deeper fellowship
with each other. But Pastor Jeff reminds you that when
and that church becomes spiritually healthy, the presence of God

(01:03):
becomes unmistakable. Every bit of effort is worth it when
it comes to building strong faith communities. Well, let's join
Pastor Jeff in the Book of Ephesians, chapter two. As
he begins his message, do you want to know a secret?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
So we're going through theology right now. And theology is
always especially when it's Pauline.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
That is, Paul wrote it.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Pauline even Peter said the things paul writes are hard
to understand. Peter said that you know that, and that's
in the Bible. It's lofty, deep and rich gold. So
let's go on into Ephesians. We're going to go through

(01:44):
most of chapter three. We're going to move right along.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I told you I was going to tell you a secret,
didn't I? Is that the reason you're here? No, okay,
last time we made it through chapter two, verse eighteen,
and we saw that by the sacrifice of his blood,
Jesus tore down the walls of separation between jew and
gentile and between mankind and God.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Let me tell you the way it works. You get
right with God and that.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Wall comes down, then the walls this way start coming down,
because He immediately moves on us to get right with people.
You know, I remember I was very alienated from my
dad when I got saved. We had been through just
a lot. And I went through four divorces as a kid.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'm not saying that.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
You know, my dad was a naturally conservative guy, but
he just couldn't seem to settle. So four divorces, and
so I went through a lot of ping pong ball
in the home and a lot of the way got
just a real root.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Of bitterness against my dad.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, first thing Jesus told me to do when I
got saved is make it right with him. I mean,
told me, make it right with your dad. So as
soon as this wall came down, then these walls started
coming down, and I went to my dad and we
made things right. And thank God, when he went to heaven,
I had been fully restored to him and gotten to

(03:04):
know him and.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Spent a lot of time with him. Amen.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
So Jesus tears down walls. The devil erects walls. Okay,
now it says he is our peace. Can we say
that together? He is our peace who has broken down.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Every wall? Wow? Thank god he did that. Now.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Verse eighteen concludes with something extremely awesome, says for through him,
we both have access. Now when he says both, he
means jew and gentile, we both have access to the
Father by one spirit. Both jew and Gentile have equal
access to the Father by the spirit of God. Now,

(03:49):
we as Christians have access to God the Father that
others don't. Now that's not a condescending statement. It's not
a nana nana nanass statement, because we stand only by
the grace of God. Okay, God did it all by
his grace. But the fact is, until you come to Christ,
you don't have access to the Father, not by the blood.

(04:13):
Here's what you can pray the Father before you know Christ,
God help me, God lead me.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
To the truth.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
And if you pray that prayer, you're gonna find Christians
coming your way to tell you about Jesus. So he'll
hear that, he hears a cry for help. I'm not
saying God ignores all people, but I'm saying that access
by which we fellowship with Him, by which we enjoy
his spirit, by which He speaks to us and we
with him and we walk with him, that's not available.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Apart from the Blood of Christ.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
By grace, we have an audience with the Father at
any time, day or night. He never sleeps. Bible says
he never never slumbers nor sleeps, and so when you're asleep.
God is watching over you, amen, and Christ is praying
for you while you sleep. So by grace we have

(05:04):
this incredible access. Now next we see Jesus as the.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Chief cornerstone of the church.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Look what he says in verse nineteenth rough twenty two. Now,
therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, okay, but
fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household
of God. Now, folks, as we read this, think about
what we're reading, because this is telling us what Jesus

(05:30):
did for us. See, we were outside the promises of God,
we were aliens from his presence. But now we have
been brought near, how by the what blood of Christ.
So he made us no longer strangers, but citizens with
the Saints and members of his house. Having been built

(05:53):
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being what the chief corner stone. So he's the
cornerstone of the house. Jesus is the cornerstone, and what
the apostles gave us by.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
The word of God is the foundation.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
And look what happens once that foundation is laid, and
Jesus is the cornerstone.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Watch what happens with you and.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Me and with the church congregation, in whom the whole building,
turn your neighbor and say you're a building. Better yet,
turn you in and say you're a brick in the building.
I watched this in whom the whole building being fitted together,

(06:41):
grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
So you remember that beautiful Solomonic Temple, and that was
torn down when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem. But I remember
that beautiful, stupendous temple that Solomon built for the glory
of God. And then later it was rebuilt when they
had returned from captivity. And remember the temple that was
torn down Herod's Temple when the Romans invaded Jerusalem in

(07:09):
seventy eighteen, and it was torn down.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
All those magnificent structures.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Listen, they pale in comparison to God's Church. For you
and I are now a habitation of God through the Spirit.
God put it in another way, He lives here.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
So when we get.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Together and worship, we got to keep in mind we're
not coming together to some social club, but.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
We're coming together to worship God.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
And it says he inhabits, he invades He saturates that
place with his presence the praises of His people.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
So we are literally a dwelling place, an.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Abiding place of God, because you and I are now
the temple of the Spirit, in whom the whole building
being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together for a
dwelling place of God in the Spirit. You know, I've
been in churches that was like God's frozen chosen. I've

(08:15):
been in churches where it was so cold you could
ice skate to the back. I've been in them, and
I preached in them, and there's nothing harder.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
I had a.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Preacher text me a couple of weeks ago when he said, man, pastor,
pray for me. I'm preaching in a church and it
is so dead and as I just let it rip,
just preach the word. But I understand what he's saying.
But you get into a church that really loves Jesus
and that it has been filled with His spirit, and
they begin to worship God, and literally God comes down.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
It is his dwelling place.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
It's a tangible almost a tangible substance. It's a tangible presence.
He lives among us, and then when we go home,
he's still living in you and your body is his temple.
So look at this revelation coming out of pauls. It's
powerful stuff. So in contrast to our old place outside

(09:09):
of God's blessing and promises, we've now received three incredible blessings.
Let me show you what they are. Let's just read
them together. Access to the Father by the Spirit through Christ.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Two.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Citizenship with God's people, free family membership in God's household.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
You're a family member. You're my sister, you're my brother.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
And you know what, I'm closer to many of the
saints than i am some of my own flesh and
blood siblings because I have fellowship in the spirit with you.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
You're my blood bought family.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
We all been adopted together, and we're all now members.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Of God's own family.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
And you don't have to fill out a card to
become that.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
But as soon as you.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Say Jesus forgive me and the Spirit comes to live
inside of you, you have just been adopted into a
brand new family. So we have access to the Father,
what precious access anytime in the day or night. We
have citizenship with God's people, and we have a family membership. Now,
Verse twenty two says in whom you also are being
built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Now,

(10:14):
the dwelling place in this passage is not the individual
heart of the believer in this passage, but as I've
already been sharing with you, it's the congregation itself.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's plural. The whole church is his dwelling place.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Our churches are to be a dwelling place for God,
not flesh, a dwelling place for God, not competition, a
dwelling place for God. That's why I get excited when
it's time to come worship, because I know if we
really worship the Lord, He's coming down.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Amen. What an awesome thought.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
The church is not a club, it's not a business.
It's not just another hangout or a social gathering. It
is literally a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
So do you when you're on your way to church?
Are you excited about coming into His presence, into His
gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise, and knowing

(11:13):
that we're going to experience His presence together.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Now, as we move into chapter three, we're going to
learn a secret. Here comes the secret. Three words sum
up this chapter. And here they are the mystery, the ministry,
and the mission of God's Church. And you because you
are the church. You are the ecclesa, which means.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Called out ones.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
He calls you out to call you in, and so
He's called us out of the world to bring us
into fellowship with Him and with one another. So those
three words are the watchwords of chapter three, the mystery,
and the ministry and the mission of the Church.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Here comes verse one.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
For this reason, I all the prisoner of Christ Jesus
for the sake of you, gentiles. What an odd thing
to call himself. I'm a prisoner of Jesus. Hi, everybody,
I'm Pastor Jeff, and thank you for listening to Hardwire.
You know, it's so important who you allow to define you.
Somebody or something is defining every one of us right now,

(12:22):
because who defines you is going to decide what you
think of yourself. So in this brand new series out
of Ephesians called who do You Think You Are? We're
going to explore your true identity as a believer in
Jesus Christ. And to help you follow along with this
powerful series, we want to get you a brand new
free devotional by simply texting identity to eight one seven

(12:47):
four eight four four seven sixty seven. Once again, that's
identity to eight one seven four eight four four seven
sixty seven, and we'll get that free devotional right to you,
so you can follow along in this powerful series and
have your identity better formed in Christ. Let's get right
back now to the message. And when Paul says for

(13:07):
this reason, he's referring back to what he just said
in chapter two eleven through twenty two. For this reason,
he's just continuing on. Remember there's no chapter breaks in
the original text. There's no chapter breaks, and there's no verses.
It's just one long letter. So we broke it up
in chapters and verses to better understand it and keep

(13:29):
track of it, memorize it, and all that good stuff.
But when he says for this reason, he's just in
a continuum. So for this reason, he's referring back to
what he said in those verses eleven through twenty two, the.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Last half of chapter two.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
That God has broken down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles,
making gentile Christians one with God's people, full citizens of
the Kingdom.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Of God.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Now, he says in verse two, surely you have heard
about the administration of God's grace that was given to
me for you. Now, remember Church, he's talking to Gentiles,
not Jews. Gentiles, the Jew of Jews was called to
minister to the gentiles, and that be most of us. Amen,

(14:17):
how many of you are a gentile? Let me see, okay,
I see. It was a shock to so many people
in the first century when they realized that God was
taking the Gospel to the gentile.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Not just the Jew. It was a shock.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Because they had always envisioned the gentiles outside of the
promises as less than, lesser than, less important than people
to whom the covenant and promises did not come. So
all of a sudden, Paul is told by Jesus, I'm
calling you to go to the gentiles.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
So look when he.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Said, surely you have heard about the administration of God's
grace that was given to me for you gentiles. That
is the mystery made known to me by what everyone say,
the word again with me, revelation.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Very important word.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Now, when Paul used the word mystery, it's mousterion in
the Greek. He's not talking about what we might find
in a mystery novel where we keep reading until a
mystery or a riddle is solved.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
You know, in a good novel snags.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
You in the beginning, you stay with it till the
end so you can find out the answers to the riddle,
or what the mystery was, the answer to the mystery.
That's not what mystery means here. That's not what Mousterion means.
He's talking about the unmanifested or private counsel of God,
God's secret which was hidden from human reason and ingenuity

(15:44):
and can only be known by revelation. I want you
to hold your Bible up. Hold your Bible up. You've
got a Bible with you.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Hold it up.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I want you to understand you're holding a book of revelation.
You're holding a book that if we didn't have this book,
we would know virtually nothing about God, nothing about his plan,
nothing about how we fit into his plan. This book
is a book where God has lifted the veil, part
of the curtains and allowed us in to what was

(16:11):
going on in his mind and his heart and his
plan for the ages. So when I open up this book,
I've got a fake one at home.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
That inside.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
When you open it, a light shines out.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Used to be a little prop and we're ministering to kids.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
So I open it and this light comes out and
it illumines my face. I feel that way when I
open up this book, because this.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Is God's revelation. This is God's divine revelation.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
He didn't give us this book for us to study
it or to judge it. Rather, but he give us
this book for it to judge us. We don't bring
this book into account. It brings us into account. We
don't say what ought to be here. It tells us
the way we ought to be living. So this is
God's divine revelation. And it's precious. There's no book like
this on the planet. It is precious. So Paul was

(17:08):
telling us what I got. The mystery that was revealed
to me came by way of revelation, And wasn't my
brilliant mind, wasn't my IQ. I didn't come up with this,
the Lord revealed it to me. He's talking about a
secret hidden for the ages, and only now in Paul's day,
ready to be revealed. What we see, what we're about

(17:31):
to see. Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel. The Old Testament prophets
and wise men wanted to see these things and could
only see glimpses and shapes and shadows. But then the
fullness came in Christ and he revealed it through his
apostles and prophets of.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
The New Covenant. So let's move on.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Paul tells us that he's been particularly chosen for this
mission of revealing God's hidden secret. He makes it a
point that it isn't his idea or his discovery or
something he figured out, but that the mystery was made
known by revelation. That is, God revealed it to him.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
And if God hadn't revealed it to him, he had
never known it.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
The means of this revelation was what everybody by the spirit.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
So the Holy Ghost showed this to Paul. The direct
recipients of this.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Revelation are God's holy apostles and prophets. And then there
is a big lesson here, and I want you to
catch this. Christianity is not a religion that men figured
out or invented. Any other world religion is Buddhism, is Islam,

(18:45):
is any of the Indian religions, the cultic religions, you
name it, Mormonism, you name it. The world religions, they're
all made up, contrived, come up with in the mind
of men. But not Christianity, not God's plan through his

(19:07):
son Christ, that came by a divine revelation. It came
from God to men, not from men. It comes to
us by revelation. God revealed it directly to us through
inspired writers of scripture, the Holy apostles and prophets, and
the Bible says that the spirit of God bore them along,

(19:31):
carried them along, moved on them as they wrote, not
automatic writing like they went into some trans I like that,
but like a sailboat is born along by a breeze.
And as they were born along, carried along, prodded along,

(19:53):
they wrote what God put on their heart and mind. Now, then,
what is the mystery we're talking about?

Speaker 3 (20:01):
What is the mystery?

Speaker 2 (20:02):
What's the big deal? Okay, Paul? What were you selected
to do to make us understand? Verse six? This mystery
is that through the Gospel, the Gentiles.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Are heirs together with Israel. That's it.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
You got grafted into the promises God gave to Israel,
members together of not two bodies Jew and Gentile, but
one and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus,
that's it. Everybody say, that's it. You say, well, that's

(20:41):
anti climactical, pastor Jeff, Oh no, it's not.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
All the incredible promises God gave to the Jewish people
to Israel, starting with Abraham, have all now come upon
the Gentiles, and we are now fellow heirs, par takers,
equal on equal footing at the foot of the cross
with the Jewish people. That may not be a revelation

(21:07):
to you, but it was a huge eye opener to
the early Jewish believers and to the Gentile believers who
had been made to feel like there were second class citizens.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Around Jewish Christians.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
There was always a sort of an upity, condescending one
upmanship when it came to the way the jew looked
at the Gentile, at you and me, because after all,
they were the ones who had received the covenants, the promises,
the revelations, Moses, Abraham, all of that. So there was
this we're better than you. God has blessed us and

(21:37):
not you. We're in, you're out, We're up, you're down.
But then Paul is revealed to Paul, hey, no, I'm
going to give the same promises and blessings to those
lowly gentiles, and they're going to be on equal footing,
and they're going to be co heirs, co receivers of

(22:02):
everything I promise to my people. So say to me,
I'm not a second class citizen in the eyes of
Jesus Christ.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
No. No.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
He describes the Gentiles in relationship to Israel in three ways.
And let's three this together. First airs together, Let's try
it again. One two, three airs together or co errs
number two members together of one body and third sharers together.

(22:34):
I mean, folks, we got brought in. We got brought in.
But unless we get the big head. Paul makes the
point in Romans nine through eleven that we are not
to look with hostility on the Jews.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Even unbelieving Jews. Why look what he says in Romans
ten twenty five.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers,
so you may not be conceited.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Israel has experienced a.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Hardening in their hearts, in part until the full number
of the Gentiles has come in. Our God is so profound.
You notice he came to his own and his own
received him, not his own being the Jewish people.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
He came to his.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Own children of Abraham, and they didn't receive him.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
So what did God do?

Speaker 2 (23:21):
He said, all right, then I'm gonna turn you over
to judicial hardness of heart, and I'm gonna pour out
my grace on the gentiles. And when the fullness of
the gentiles has come in, when the last gentile has
been saved, then I'm going to turn back to the
jew and they're going to experience a revelation of me.
So right now, Paul says. Elsewhere in Romans ninth, rough eleven,

(23:44):
he says, don't boast like you're some big deal, because
God took you a wild olive branch and he grafted
you into.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
The real thing. So don't walk around boasting him. But
let it humble you.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
And let it make you say thank you God, Thank
you God, Thank you God.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
If you hadn't grafted me in, I would have never
been saved.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
One of the biggest shifts in the early Church was
the revelation of the Gospel to Gentiles, those not.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
Of Jewish heritage.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
All of a sudden, anyone was able to commune with God,
regardless of their nationality or ethnicity. Pastor Jeff reminds you
today that this blessing should it make you feel superior
to your Jewish brothers and sisters, But instead he invites
you to rejoice.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
With your fellow believers.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
There are no barriers between man and God anymore. Here's
some more information about Hardwire.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Isn't it great to hear these teachings from Pastor Jeff Wickwire.
We wanted to bring your attention to something you can
easily find through pray dot Com. We'd love your prayerful
and financial support of this ministry. There are a few
easy ways to do this.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
When you see.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Pastor Jeff's profile, just click on the give button. Another
quick and easy way to find out how to support
us is by tapping on your present That's an icon
which will take you to the Hardwired giving page. Right now,
let's give you a sneak peek into what's coming up
on the next edition of Hardwired.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Now that you're part of God's family, you have no
need to be timid in his presence. In fact, you
have been made a co heir with Christ and you
have a direct line of access to the Father. Pastor
Jeff reminds you that you have been personally invited by
Jesus to dwell on the presence of God. When you
come to the Lord in prayer, sing songs of worship,
or take part in communion, you are exercising the rights

(25:31):
that have been given to you by Jesus. That's all
we have for today's edition of Hardwired with Jeff Wigwire.
If you'd like a copy of today's message, you can
download it from our website hardwired dot org. Be sure
to tune in again as Pastor Jeff continues teaching through
the Book of Ephesians. Next time, I'm Hardwired