June 16, 2025 • 26 mins
Discover how to Take Your Place … today on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. At some points in our life, we have a lot, but we don’t know how much we have. So, we live like paupers, when we should be living in light of who we are, children of the Most-High King. And then there are other times when we already have everything we need, but we don’t know it! We’re like a computer … loaded with software that can produce, create, and manufacture … but if we don’t know that the software is loaded onto the system, then we won’t be able to access it. It’s the same in our walk with God … Spiritually, as God’s children, we have access to all that we need, but we need to take advantage of it.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Discover how to take your place today on Bold Steps
with Mark Jobe.
S2 (00:06):
I believe that at some times in our life we
have a lot but don't know how much we have.
Sometimes we live like paupers when in reality we're children
of the Most High King.
S1 (00:33):
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president
of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm excited today because
we are starting a new series based on the book
of Ephesians. And Mark, you're going to outline some important
and practical steps we need to take if we want
to maximize sharing our faith.
S2 (00:51):
That's right Wayne. And again, let me just say how
excited I am to jump in the book of Ephesians
with you. You are going to be thrilled because this
is a powerful, powerful book. And really at the core,
Paul starts out by telling us, hey, so many of
us don't understand who we really are, so we need
(01:14):
to take our place because we're living. As you'll see
from this message, we're living sometimes in poverty when really
we're rich. And I'm not talking about finances, I'm talking
about spiritually.
S1 (01:25):
We get it. Let's turn to Ephesians now and get started.
Our message series. When you believe Everything changes. Here's Mark Jobe.
S2 (01:34):
Oftentimes you are much richer. You have much more than
what you know you have. But oftentimes we don't know
how to access what we already have. I heard of
a story a little while back of a woman by
the name of Hetty Green. Hetty Green was known as
(01:56):
America's greatest miser. She ate cold oatmeal because it cost
too much to heat it up. Her son had to
have his leg amputated because she wanted. She waited too
long for medical attention while she was looking for a
free clinic. She even died from a ruptured blood vessel
(02:21):
in her brain while arguing about the benefits of skimmed milk.
Was she crazy? Maybe. Eccentric? Without a doubt. But one
thing was for sure she wasn't poor. When Hetty Green died,
she left an estate that was valued at over $100 million.
(02:50):
You mean here's a woman that doesn't want to heat
her oatmeal because she wants to conserve, yet she's got
$100 Million dollars. She's living like a pauper, when in
reality she has the ability to live like a queen.
(03:11):
I believe oftentimes I run into believers that way. Believers
in Jesus Christ that have the capacity to live at
a level much higher than what they're living at, but
because they're not sure how to access what they have,
they live almost like paupers. So I'm going to ask
you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter one.
(03:35):
Now there's a couple of things I want to tell
you about before we jump into actually reading this passage.
I want you to understand a little bit about Ephesians,
and I want you to understand a little bit of
why it was written and how it was written. Have
you noticed that? Well, first of all, Ephesians was written
(03:56):
by the Apostle Paul. If you look at Ephesians chapter one,
verse one, it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God to the saints in Ephesus,
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Well, Paul is the author
(04:18):
of the book of Ephesians, but was Paul one of
the 12 apostles? It's a trick question. Many people think
that Paul was actually one of the 12 apostles, but
he was not. Paul was not one of the 12
disciples that walked with Jesus that we normally consider an apostle.
Paul was actually anti-Christian. A persecutor of the church he
(04:45):
hated followers of of Jesus. In fact, it was the
Apostle Paul who, before he became known as the Apostle Paul,
was known as Saul. It was the Apostle Paul that
gave the gave the orders to approve the first martyr
(05:07):
of the Christian church, who was Stephen. And they stoned him,
and Paul was there, encouraging them to stone him. He
hated Christians so much that he was on a mission
to eliminate and imprison as many Christians as he could,
and he took a trip on the way to Damascus
(05:28):
to look for Christians in a town called Damascus. And
as he was on his way, he had an encounter
that would radically change his destiny in his life. Sometimes
Jesus will do that to you. And on his road
to Damascus, he had an encounter with Jesus that threw
(05:50):
him off his horse. He heard the voice of Jesus saying, Paul, Paul,
why do you persecute me? And after this encounter with Jesus,
he was left blind, stunned, confused. He went to the
town of Damascus and a believer prayed over him and
(06:10):
explained the ways of God. And he was so utterly
converted that from that day on he began to preach
the gospel just as fervently as he had opposed the
gospel of Jesus. Oh, I don't know. I'm assuming that
there were some of you in this auditorium that at
one time were very anti-Christian. Were some of you? Anybody
(06:35):
remember the day that you'd cuss Christians out, get that
Bible away, get that blankety blank Bible away from me, huh?
You can admit it. And then finally, when you came
to Christ, just as strong as you were against, you
became pro what Jesus has done in your life. And
(06:56):
so it was the Apostle Paul that is writing this
letter to the Ephesians. Now where did we get the title? Ephesians? Well,
basically a lot of the books of the Bible are
named after the cities that the letter was written to.
For example, the city of Thessalonica is where the Thessalonians lived.
(07:19):
And so we have the book in the New Testament
called Thessalonians. Colossae is a city where the Colossians lived.
And so we have a book in the Bible called Colossians.
Philippi was where the Philippians lived. And we have a
book in the Bible called Philippians because it was written
(07:41):
towards the Philippians. If Paul were to write a letter
to Chicago, the church in Chicago, then the letter would
be called Chicagoans, and we would turn to the letter
called Chicagoans, and it would be the letter that was
written to the church that lives in Chicago. So Ephesus
(08:03):
was a city. I've been to Ephesus. The ancient town
of Ephesus is currently located in Turkey. Uh, in those
days it was called Asia minor. And Ephesus is where
the Ephesians lived. And so Paul wrote a letter to
the Ephesians. And the first time that Paul ever visited
(08:26):
Ephesus is chronicled in acts chapter 18. He went to
Ephesus with a couple, a ministry couple called Priscilla and Aquila.
And he went to this city, a big metropolitan city,
and he began to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(08:48):
There Paul had to move on to Jerusalem. And so
he left Akilah and Priscilla to talk to people about
Jesus while they were talking to people about Jesus. And
by the way, can I just interject here. There's something
very powerful about ministering together as a couple. You see
(09:09):
me here up front on a regular basis. Because I'm
the teacher. Preacher. But I want you to know that
since day one, since the very first day that I
came to this church, my wife has been as involved
in ministry as I have. Don't ask her to teach.
Don't ask her to preach because she doesn't like to
(09:30):
do that. But she has been as involved as or
more committed than I have been from day one. And
we've been here almost 25 years. And there's something really
powerful to minister as a couple. And she's actually sitting
right here. Usually she's in Sunday school. Good to see you, hon.
(09:53):
In fact, I remember when I was dating my wife, uh,
she wasn't my wife when I was dating her, but
when I started dating, um, we were actually leading a
Bible study. And I remember thinking to myself, I don't
know if a relationship is going to be a distraction
(10:13):
or if it's going to really help me out. And
I remember we were I was leading a Bible study
by 71st in Springfield near Marquette Park. And I was
still in college at the time and leading this Bible study. And, uh,
d uh, started coming to that Bible study, and I
(10:34):
realized that she had this way with working with other
women and and being involved and calling and ministering. And
it's the first time the light came on in my
head and said, I thought to myself, you know what?
We make one dynamic team. I like this, I like this.
(10:58):
I tell people that are in ministry or trying to
do something for God. There is no neutral. There's no
neutral spouse. A spouse can either be a hindrance and
liability or incredible asset in whatever you're pursuing. And when
two people come together with one vision and decide in
(11:22):
a united way to say, we're going to do something
for God, watch out, because incredible things can happen. But
I've seen people in ministry spiral downward because one person
feels called to ministry and the other person doesn't like
it or doesn't want it. And I've seen those places take.
(11:43):
And so I believe there's something really powerful about ministering
together as a couple. Well, this couple, Akhil and Priscilla,
were ministering together in, in the, in the town of Ephesus.
And as they were telling people about Jesus in Ephesus,
another fellow by the name of Apollos came. And Apollos
(12:04):
was a very good speaker and orator, and knew about
the things of God. And he began to attract a
big crowd. And when a killer and Priscilla heard of
what he was doing, they met up with Apollos. And
they realized that although Apollos was very good at speaking,
he only had half the message. Because Apollos had been
(12:26):
converted under John the Baptizer, but he had never been
under the instructions of Jesus. And so when Paul came
back to Ephesus, he found himself with a group of believers.
And he began to talk to this group of believers.
And he asked them about the Holy Spirit. And they said,
(12:49):
we don't even know there is a Holy Spirit, because
they had not been taught the full gospel. And it
was at that time that the Apostle Paul prayed over them,
put hands on them, and ask that they would receive
the power of the Holy Spirit in their life. At
that time, incredible things began to happen in the town
of Ephesus. The Bible tells us that so many people
(13:12):
began to come to Christ and get saved and give
their life to God. Many of them were involved in
witchcraft and sorcery, and when they came to Christ, they
repented of their witchcraft, their sorcery, their occult practices. They
brought their books, their paraphernalia, their, uh, their scripts and
(13:35):
everything they use in their sorcery and created these big
mounds of things that they were getting rid of. And
they had a huge bonfire to burn all of the
pagan elements that they used to worship and follow. Here's
the thing I want you to remember. You cannot have
a conversion experience and choose to follow Christ without leaving
(14:00):
certain things behind.
S1 (14:07):
You're listening to Bold Steps with Marc Job. We'll continue
today's message in a moment. But first, Marc, I want
to talk about something that's become a growing concern within
Christian leadership circles. Our world is going through a whirlwind,
pretty dramatic developments and changes, not just here in America
but around the globe. And we need to remind ourselves,
as Christians, we have a much higher calling than any
political movement, don't we.
S2 (14:28):
Wayne? Turn on the news. And there is drama all
over the place. From rumors of wars to economic crisis.
S1 (14:37):
To polarization.
S2 (14:38):
To actual wars that are happening to bombings, and it
is easy to get distracted by all this, worried by it,
anxious by it, sort of sucked into it. But here's
what I want to say. This is a great time
for the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope
of the gospel.
S1 (14:57):
Amen.
S2 (14:58):
There are a lot of people coming to Christ throughout
the world, and you may not hear about it, because
there's other news that is prominent and is taking people's attention.
But there is an undercurrent of a harvest evangelism. And
that's what we're all about right now, is a moment
where people are shaken, where there's concern. But there are
(15:20):
so many people that are turning to the heavens, and
we at Bold Steps have determined we will not miss
that moment. And so we are asking you to partner
with us, help us out, because right now is a
great time to be calling people to Jesus.
S1 (15:36):
We urge you to give online at Bold Steps. Org
or you can call us. The number is 800. D.L.
Moody and that works out to be (800) 356-6639. And when
you do give, we'll be sure to send you a
special gift which will tell you more about later in
the program today. Well, thank you for that, Mark. But
let's go back to your message now here on Bold Steps.
S2 (16:02):
When God gets a hold of someone, you don't stay
the same. You start getting rid of things. I think
all of us need a bonfire in our life. Hello? Hey, you.
Come to Christ, men. There may need to be a
bonfire while you pull out those Playboy magazines and other
such things and get rid of it. Because what you
(16:24):
start realizing is that this is incompatible with my new
life in Christ. You cannot add Christ to your life
and continue with all the old stuff. There are certain
things that when Christ comes in, you leave behind that.
That's called conversion. And they had this huge bonfire experience,
(16:44):
and God began to work in such miraculous ways that
it was at this time that the Bible tells us
that even the handkerchief that came from Paul and touched
people was healing people from physical diseases, such as the
was the anointing and the power of God upon Ephesus
at that time. There are times when God works in
(17:05):
some miraculous, powerful way, supernatural that we cannot explain when
God is seeking to do something. It is also at
that time that there was a major riot, because anytime
the church progresses, there will always be opposition. Count on it.
When God begins to do something, there will always be
(17:28):
opposition to what God is seeking to do. This time,
the opposition came via the unions of the city of Ephesus.
Making idols and pagan gods was a big business. In
the days of Ephesus, there were hundreds of gods that existed.
(17:50):
There was the god of fertility, and there was the
god of vengeance. There was the god of the shoemakers
and the god of the sailors. There was the god
of the farmers and the God of the multitude of
things of gods, and every person. If you went into
their house in those days in Ephesus, everybody would have
(18:10):
their little statues, the gods that they would pray to,
and they were sort of their sponsoring God, so to speak.
And if you walk down the streets of Ephesus, there
were statues of different gods that would line the streets
of Ephesus. And and the tradesmen made much of their
money by building these statues out of wood and and
(18:34):
out of rock and out of iron. And they would
build these statues, and it was a big money business,
and people would buy their statues and dedicate their statues.
When people started coming to Christ, the union trades workers
began to realize Christianity has no God statues. They have
(18:57):
an invisible God That they worship an invisible God, that
they worship, that claims that he rules heaven and earth.
And they began to realize that if Christianity spreads, we
will lose our business. No one will buy statues anymore.
We'll lose tens of thousands of dollars and go out
(19:21):
of business. So they organized a riot. How many of
you know that sometimes the opposition of Christianity is not
just on religious views. Sometimes it can be political, racist
and economic. Hello. Don't be naive into thinking that opposition
will just come out of spiritual opposition. When we went
(19:46):
to buy this church building here that you're in right now,
this was a factory, and we decided that we were
going to buy this building and convert this building into
a church Ministry Center and we're super excited about it.
We were challenged by raising the money for this because
it's a lot of money. It was $2 million to
(20:08):
buy this building. But when we went to get this building,
the building in Chicago, you have to zone a building
for something. This building was zoned for manufacturing. For what
factories are zoned for. And we need to rezone it
for a church use. And in order to zone it
for a church use, you have to get approval downtown
(20:30):
at City Hall. And in order to get approval downtown
at City Hall, you have to go through the alderman's
office here. And in this case, to go through the
alderman's office here. He had a zoning board that we
had to come before. And the zoning board had to
approve it in order to change the status so that
we could get a church here. And when we went
(20:51):
down to try to get the zoning, most of the
people on the zoning board were favorable. But there was
a few people that were belligerently opposed to us starting
a church here. I want you to understand that that
sometimes opposition will arise to the progress and spread of
the gospel. It doesn't always come just out of theological persecution.
(21:15):
It can rise up out of economic and racial bigotry
that that that rises up to try to put the
stop to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, in this case,
it was economic.
S1 (21:33):
Well, we're just getting started with our message from Mark
Jobe called take your place here on Bold Steps, and
you can learn more about Mark and his ministry when
you visit us at Bold Steps. And today we're joined
by two special guests, Aaron and Jason Davis, who've written
a book that tackles a challenge every Christian parent faces
how to help our boys navigate the lies our culture
(21:54):
is throwing at them. The book is called Lies Boys Believe.
S3 (21:59):
That's right. Wayne. You know, last month we offered the
companion to this resource Lies Girls believe. I remember. So, Aaron,
as a mother of four boys. Yeah, you heard it
for boys. What motivated you to write this book?
S4 (22:15):
Well, obviously my own sons. You're right. So everybody listening.
It's okay for you to gasp at that. Four sons.
That's what Jason and I have. So it's a rowdy house.
But they're our primary concern. But they're also a good
indicator of what's happening in the wider culture. And everybody
seems to be talking about boys in crisis, secular and Christian.
(22:35):
But we want to point our boys to the truth,
and the truth is found in God's word. And so
we let our boys go first. They were super involved
in the project, and I hope this is an outflow
of our parenting, but we also hope they're just a
four examples of what can happen when God gets Ahold
of boys when they're young and they fall in love
with His word when they're young and they start living
(22:56):
for truth.
S1 (22:56):
So, Jason, you have built in research, huh?
S5 (22:59):
Yeah. It's made it easy. We didn't have to travel
a lot to do the market research for this one.
S2 (23:05):
And, Jason, what ages would you say this book is
targeted towards?
S5 (23:10):
Uh, young men, uh, probably 6 to 12 would be
the target demographic. That's probably not the right terminology, but, um,
we found that our boys in that age group really
resonated well with the content and the message.
S2 (23:25):
You know, I think this type of book is so needed.
There are so many, so many parents struggling with just
the lies that our culture is just saturating our young
people with. But young boys especially, are at a disadvantage
these days when the image of what it means to
(23:48):
be a man or grow up to be a man
is really been erased and very confusing.
S1 (23:53):
This is critical, isn't it? Yeah. Aaron and Jason, thank
you so much for writing this book and making it
available to our listeners.
S5 (23:59):
It's been a real pleasure.
S4 (24:00):
Yeah, we're just honored to get to serve families in
the church in this way.
S1 (24:04):
And of course, we'd love to send you this powerful
resource when you support bold steps with a gift of
any amount. To request your copy, call us at 800. D.L. Moody.
That's (800) 356-6639 or give online at Bold Steps. Org. Or
if you prefer, you can send your contribution to bold steps.
820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. As Mark's
(24:30):
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(24:50):
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(25:11):
can connect with Marx teaching anytime, anywhere. Tune in weekdays
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Google Play. For all the ways to stay connected with
bold steps, just visit Bold Steps. Org. I'm Wayne Shepherd,
(25:33):
thanks for joining us today. Be sure to come back
tomorrow when Mark continues this discussion. Our message comes from
the book of Ephesians chapter one, and you won't want
to miss it. Tuesday on Bold Steps with Mark John.
Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry
of Moody Bible Institute.
Discover how to take your place today on Bold Steps
with Mark Jobe.
S2 (00:06):
I believe that at some times in our life we
have a lot but don't know how much we have.
Sometimes we live like paupers when in reality we're children
of the Most High King.
S1 (00:33):
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president
of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm excited today because
we are starting a new series based on the book
of Ephesians. And Mark, you're going to outline some important
and practical steps we need to take if we want
to maximize sharing our faith.
S2 (00:51):
That's right Wayne. And again, let me just say how
excited I am to jump in the book of Ephesians
with you. You are going to be thrilled because this
is a powerful, powerful book. And really at the core,
Paul starts out by telling us, hey, so many of
us don't understand who we really are, so we need
(01:14):
to take our place because we're living. As you'll see
from this message, we're living sometimes in poverty when really
we're rich. And I'm not talking about finances, I'm talking
about spiritually.
S1 (01:25):
We get it. Let's turn to Ephesians now and get started.
Our message series. When you believe Everything changes. Here's Mark Jobe.
S2 (01:34):
Oftentimes you are much richer. You have much more than
what you know you have. But oftentimes we don't know
how to access what we already have. I heard of
a story a little while back of a woman by
the name of Hetty Green. Hetty Green was known as
(01:56):
America's greatest miser. She ate cold oatmeal because it cost
too much to heat it up. Her son had to
have his leg amputated because she wanted. She waited too
long for medical attention while she was looking for a
free clinic. She even died from a ruptured blood vessel
(02:21):
in her brain while arguing about the benefits of skimmed milk.
Was she crazy? Maybe. Eccentric? Without a doubt. But one
thing was for sure she wasn't poor. When Hetty Green died,
she left an estate that was valued at over $100 million.
(02:50):
You mean here's a woman that doesn't want to heat
her oatmeal because she wants to conserve, yet she's got
$100 Million dollars. She's living like a pauper, when in
reality she has the ability to live like a queen.
(03:11):
I believe oftentimes I run into believers that way. Believers
in Jesus Christ that have the capacity to live at
a level much higher than what they're living at, but
because they're not sure how to access what they have,
they live almost like paupers. So I'm going to ask
you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter one.
(03:35):
Now there's a couple of things I want to tell
you about before we jump into actually reading this passage.
I want you to understand a little bit about Ephesians,
and I want you to understand a little bit of
why it was written and how it was written. Have
you noticed that? Well, first of all, Ephesians was written
(03:56):
by the Apostle Paul. If you look at Ephesians chapter one,
verse one, it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God to the saints in Ephesus,
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Well, Paul is the author
(04:18):
of the book of Ephesians, but was Paul one of
the 12 apostles? It's a trick question. Many people think
that Paul was actually one of the 12 apostles, but
he was not. Paul was not one of the 12
disciples that walked with Jesus that we normally consider an apostle.
Paul was actually anti-Christian. A persecutor of the church he
(04:45):
hated followers of of Jesus. In fact, it was the
Apostle Paul who, before he became known as the Apostle Paul,
was known as Saul. It was the Apostle Paul that
gave the gave the orders to approve the first martyr
(05:07):
of the Christian church, who was Stephen. And they stoned him,
and Paul was there, encouraging them to stone him. He
hated Christians so much that he was on a mission
to eliminate and imprison as many Christians as he could,
and he took a trip on the way to Damascus
(05:28):
to look for Christians in a town called Damascus. And
as he was on his way, he had an encounter
that would radically change his destiny in his life. Sometimes
Jesus will do that to you. And on his road
to Damascus, he had an encounter with Jesus that threw
(05:50):
him off his horse. He heard the voice of Jesus saying, Paul, Paul,
why do you persecute me? And after this encounter with Jesus,
he was left blind, stunned, confused. He went to the
town of Damascus and a believer prayed over him and
(06:10):
explained the ways of God. And he was so utterly
converted that from that day on he began to preach
the gospel just as fervently as he had opposed the
gospel of Jesus. Oh, I don't know. I'm assuming that
there were some of you in this auditorium that at
one time were very anti-Christian. Were some of you? Anybody
(06:35):
remember the day that you'd cuss Christians out, get that
Bible away, get that blankety blank Bible away from me, huh?
You can admit it. And then finally, when you came
to Christ, just as strong as you were against, you
became pro what Jesus has done in your life. And
(06:56):
so it was the Apostle Paul that is writing this
letter to the Ephesians. Now where did we get the title? Ephesians? Well,
basically a lot of the books of the Bible are
named after the cities that the letter was written to.
For example, the city of Thessalonica is where the Thessalonians lived.
(07:19):
And so we have the book in the New Testament
called Thessalonians. Colossae is a city where the Colossians lived.
And so we have a book in the Bible called Colossians.
Philippi was where the Philippians lived. And we have a
book in the Bible called Philippians because it was written
(07:41):
towards the Philippians. If Paul were to write a letter
to Chicago, the church in Chicago, then the letter would
be called Chicagoans, and we would turn to the letter
called Chicagoans, and it would be the letter that was
written to the church that lives in Chicago. So Ephesus
(08:03):
was a city. I've been to Ephesus. The ancient town
of Ephesus is currently located in Turkey. Uh, in those
days it was called Asia minor. And Ephesus is where
the Ephesians lived. And so Paul wrote a letter to
the Ephesians. And the first time that Paul ever visited
(08:26):
Ephesus is chronicled in acts chapter 18. He went to
Ephesus with a couple, a ministry couple called Priscilla and Aquila.
And he went to this city, a big metropolitan city,
and he began to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(08:48):
There Paul had to move on to Jerusalem. And so
he left Akilah and Priscilla to talk to people about
Jesus while they were talking to people about Jesus. And
by the way, can I just interject here. There's something
very powerful about ministering together as a couple. You see
(09:09):
me here up front on a regular basis. Because I'm
the teacher. Preacher. But I want you to know that
since day one, since the very first day that I
came to this church, my wife has been as involved
in ministry as I have. Don't ask her to teach.
Don't ask her to preach because she doesn't like to
(09:30):
do that. But she has been as involved as or
more committed than I have been from day one. And
we've been here almost 25 years. And there's something really
powerful to minister as a couple. And she's actually sitting
right here. Usually she's in Sunday school. Good to see you, hon.
(09:53):
In fact, I remember when I was dating my wife, uh,
she wasn't my wife when I was dating her, but
when I started dating, um, we were actually leading a
Bible study. And I remember thinking to myself, I don't
know if a relationship is going to be a distraction
(10:13):
or if it's going to really help me out. And
I remember we were I was leading a Bible study
by 71st in Springfield near Marquette Park. And I was
still in college at the time and leading this Bible study. And, uh,
d uh, started coming to that Bible study, and I
(10:34):
realized that she had this way with working with other
women and and being involved and calling and ministering. And
it's the first time the light came on in my
head and said, I thought to myself, you know what?
We make one dynamic team. I like this, I like this.
(10:58):
I tell people that are in ministry or trying to
do something for God. There is no neutral. There's no
neutral spouse. A spouse can either be a hindrance and
liability or incredible asset in whatever you're pursuing. And when
two people come together with one vision and decide in
(11:22):
a united way to say, we're going to do something
for God, watch out, because incredible things can happen. But
I've seen people in ministry spiral downward because one person
feels called to ministry and the other person doesn't like
it or doesn't want it. And I've seen those places take.
(11:43):
And so I believe there's something really powerful about ministering
together as a couple. Well, this couple, Akhil and Priscilla,
were ministering together in, in the, in the town of Ephesus.
And as they were telling people about Jesus in Ephesus,
another fellow by the name of Apollos came. And Apollos
(12:04):
was a very good speaker and orator, and knew about
the things of God. And he began to attract a
big crowd. And when a killer and Priscilla heard of
what he was doing, they met up with Apollos. And
they realized that although Apollos was very good at speaking,
he only had half the message. Because Apollos had been
(12:26):
converted under John the Baptizer, but he had never been
under the instructions of Jesus. And so when Paul came
back to Ephesus, he found himself with a group of believers.
And he began to talk to this group of believers.
And he asked them about the Holy Spirit. And they said,
(12:49):
we don't even know there is a Holy Spirit, because
they had not been taught the full gospel. And it
was at that time that the Apostle Paul prayed over them,
put hands on them, and ask that they would receive
the power of the Holy Spirit in their life. At
that time, incredible things began to happen in the town
of Ephesus. The Bible tells us that so many people
(13:12):
began to come to Christ and get saved and give
their life to God. Many of them were involved in
witchcraft and sorcery, and when they came to Christ, they
repented of their witchcraft, their sorcery, their occult practices. They
brought their books, their paraphernalia, their, uh, their scripts and
(13:35):
everything they use in their sorcery and created these big
mounds of things that they were getting rid of. And
they had a huge bonfire to burn all of the
pagan elements that they used to worship and follow. Here's
the thing I want you to remember. You cannot have
a conversion experience and choose to follow Christ without leaving
(14:00):
certain things behind.
S1 (14:07):
You're listening to Bold Steps with Marc Job. We'll continue
today's message in a moment. But first, Marc, I want
to talk about something that's become a growing concern within
Christian leadership circles. Our world is going through a whirlwind,
pretty dramatic developments and changes, not just here in America
but around the globe. And we need to remind ourselves,
as Christians, we have a much higher calling than any
political movement, don't we.
S2 (14:28):
Wayne? Turn on the news. And there is drama all
over the place. From rumors of wars to economic crisis.
S1 (14:37):
To polarization.
S2 (14:38):
To actual wars that are happening to bombings, and it
is easy to get distracted by all this, worried by it,
anxious by it, sort of sucked into it. But here's
what I want to say. This is a great time
for the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope
of the gospel.
S1 (14:57):
Amen.
S2 (14:58):
There are a lot of people coming to Christ throughout
the world, and you may not hear about it, because
there's other news that is prominent and is taking people's attention.
But there is an undercurrent of a harvest evangelism. And
that's what we're all about right now, is a moment
where people are shaken, where there's concern. But there are
(15:20):
so many people that are turning to the heavens, and
we at Bold Steps have determined we will not miss
that moment. And so we are asking you to partner
with us, help us out, because right now is a
great time to be calling people to Jesus.
S1 (15:36):
We urge you to give online at Bold Steps. Org
or you can call us. The number is 800. D.L.
Moody and that works out to be (800) 356-6639. And when
you do give, we'll be sure to send you a
special gift which will tell you more about later in
the program today. Well, thank you for that, Mark. But
let's go back to your message now here on Bold Steps.
S2 (16:02):
When God gets a hold of someone, you don't stay
the same. You start getting rid of things. I think
all of us need a bonfire in our life. Hello? Hey, you.
Come to Christ, men. There may need to be a
bonfire while you pull out those Playboy magazines and other
such things and get rid of it. Because what you
(16:24):
start realizing is that this is incompatible with my new
life in Christ. You cannot add Christ to your life
and continue with all the old stuff. There are certain
things that when Christ comes in, you leave behind that.
That's called conversion. And they had this huge bonfire experience,
(16:44):
and God began to work in such miraculous ways that
it was at this time that the Bible tells us
that even the handkerchief that came from Paul and touched
people was healing people from physical diseases, such as the
was the anointing and the power of God upon Ephesus
at that time. There are times when God works in
(17:05):
some miraculous, powerful way, supernatural that we cannot explain when
God is seeking to do something. It is also at
that time that there was a major riot, because anytime
the church progresses, there will always be opposition. Count on it.
When God begins to do something, there will always be
(17:28):
opposition to what God is seeking to do. This time,
the opposition came via the unions of the city of Ephesus.
Making idols and pagan gods was a big business. In
the days of Ephesus, there were hundreds of gods that existed.
(17:50):
There was the god of fertility, and there was the
god of vengeance. There was the god of the shoemakers
and the god of the sailors. There was the god
of the farmers and the God of the multitude of
things of gods, and every person. If you went into
their house in those days in Ephesus, everybody would have
(18:10):
their little statues, the gods that they would pray to,
and they were sort of their sponsoring God, so to speak.
And if you walk down the streets of Ephesus, there
were statues of different gods that would line the streets
of Ephesus. And and the tradesmen made much of their
money by building these statues out of wood and and
(18:34):
out of rock and out of iron. And they would
build these statues, and it was a big money business,
and people would buy their statues and dedicate their statues.
When people started coming to Christ, the union trades workers
began to realize Christianity has no God statues. They have
(18:57):
an invisible God That they worship an invisible God, that
they worship, that claims that he rules heaven and earth.
And they began to realize that if Christianity spreads, we
will lose our business. No one will buy statues anymore.
We'll lose tens of thousands of dollars and go out
(19:21):
of business. So they organized a riot. How many of
you know that sometimes the opposition of Christianity is not
just on religious views. Sometimes it can be political, racist
and economic. Hello. Don't be naive into thinking that opposition
will just come out of spiritual opposition. When we went
(19:46):
to buy this church building here that you're in right now,
this was a factory, and we decided that we were
going to buy this building and convert this building into
a church Ministry Center and we're super excited about it.
We were challenged by raising the money for this because
it's a lot of money. It was $2 million to
(20:08):
buy this building. But when we went to get this building,
the building in Chicago, you have to zone a building
for something. This building was zoned for manufacturing. For what
factories are zoned for. And we need to rezone it
for a church use. And in order to zone it
for a church use, you have to get approval downtown
(20:30):
at City Hall. And in order to get approval downtown
at City Hall, you have to go through the alderman's
office here. And in this case, to go through the
alderman's office here. He had a zoning board that we
had to come before. And the zoning board had to
approve it in order to change the status so that
we could get a church here. And when we went
(20:51):
down to try to get the zoning, most of the
people on the zoning board were favorable. But there was
a few people that were belligerently opposed to us starting
a church here. I want you to understand that that
sometimes opposition will arise to the progress and spread of
the gospel. It doesn't always come just out of theological persecution.
(21:15):
It can rise up out of economic and racial bigotry
that that that rises up to try to put the
stop to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, in this case,
it was economic.
S1 (21:33):
Well, we're just getting started with our message from Mark
Jobe called take your place here on Bold Steps, and
you can learn more about Mark and his ministry when
you visit us at Bold Steps. And today we're joined
by two special guests, Aaron and Jason Davis, who've written
a book that tackles a challenge every Christian parent faces
how to help our boys navigate the lies our culture
(21:54):
is throwing at them. The book is called Lies Boys Believe.
S3 (21:59):
That's right. Wayne. You know, last month we offered the
companion to this resource Lies Girls believe. I remember. So, Aaron,
as a mother of four boys. Yeah, you heard it
for boys. What motivated you to write this book?
S4 (22:15):
Well, obviously my own sons. You're right. So everybody listening.
It's okay for you to gasp at that. Four sons.
That's what Jason and I have. So it's a rowdy house.
But they're our primary concern. But they're also a good
indicator of what's happening in the wider culture. And everybody
seems to be talking about boys in crisis, secular and Christian.
(22:35):
But we want to point our boys to the truth,
and the truth is found in God's word. And so
we let our boys go first. They were super involved
in the project, and I hope this is an outflow
of our parenting, but we also hope they're just a
four examples of what can happen when God gets Ahold
of boys when they're young and they fall in love
with His word when they're young and they start living
(22:56):
for truth.
S1 (22:56):
So, Jason, you have built in research, huh?
S5 (22:59):
Yeah. It's made it easy. We didn't have to travel
a lot to do the market research for this one.
S2 (23:05):
And, Jason, what ages would you say this book is
targeted towards?
S5 (23:10):
Uh, young men, uh, probably 6 to 12 would be
the target demographic. That's probably not the right terminology, but, um,
we found that our boys in that age group really
resonated well with the content and the message.
S2 (23:25):
You know, I think this type of book is so needed.
There are so many, so many parents struggling with just
the lies that our culture is just saturating our young
people with. But young boys especially, are at a disadvantage
these days when the image of what it means to
(23:48):
be a man or grow up to be a man
is really been erased and very confusing.
S1 (23:53):
This is critical, isn't it? Yeah. Aaron and Jason, thank
you so much for writing this book and making it
available to our listeners.
S5 (23:59):
It's been a real pleasure.
S4 (24:00):
Yeah, we're just honored to get to serve families in
the church in this way.
S1 (24:04):
And of course, we'd love to send you this powerful
resource when you support bold steps with a gift of
any amount. To request your copy, call us at 800. D.L. Moody.
That's (800) 356-6639 or give online at Bold Steps. Org. Or
if you prefer, you can send your contribution to bold steps.
820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. As Mark's
(24:30):
teaching been making a difference in your life? Consider taking
your support to the next level by becoming a bold partner. Now,
bold partners are the backbone of this ministry, providing the
consistent monthly support that allows us to bring biblical truth
to listeners worldwide. While one time gifts are always appreciated,
it's the faithful monthly giving that ensures we can continue
(24:50):
providing the encouragement and biblical insight you've come to rely
on day after day. When you join us as a
bold partner, you'll gain access to exclusive resources reserved only
for our monthly supporters. To begin your partnership today, visit
Bold steps.com or call us at 800. And remember you
(25:11):
can connect with Marx teaching anytime, anywhere. Tune in weekdays
on your local station. Stream content 24 over seven on
our website. Listen through our dedicated Bold Steps app or
subscribe on your favorite podcast platform like Apple Podcasts or
Google Play. For all the ways to stay connected with
bold steps, just visit Bold Steps. Org. I'm Wayne Shepherd,
(25:33):
thanks for joining us today. Be sure to come back
tomorrow when Mark continues this discussion. Our message comes from
the book of Ephesians chapter one, and you won't want
to miss it. Tuesday on Bold Steps with Mark John.
Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry
of Moody Bible Institute.
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