Take Your Place – Part 2

Today on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe … we’re learning how to be victorious in our walk with Christ. Going against the crowd or the cultural norms of any given society can be difficult to do … but it’s nothing new.  And as we’ll see today, it’s something that even the apostles had to deal with and work through!  Our message is called Take Your Place.  And so, if you have your Bible handy, flip to the book of Ephesians because Mark’s going to be showing us that … When You Believe … Everything Changes.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold steps with Mark job. We're learning how
to be victorious in our walk with Christ.

S2 (00:06):
What God does is he fills our spiritual tool belt
with the tools that we're going to need to be successful.
God does not call you to be a follower of
his without giving you everything you need to succeed.

S1 (00:33):
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark job. Mark is president
of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, going
against the crowd or the cultural norms of any given
society can be difficult to do. But it's nothing new,
as we'll see. Today, it's something that even the apostles
had to deal with and work through. Our message is

(00:55):
called Take Your Place, and if you have your Bible handy,
flip to the book of Ephesians, because Mark is going
to be showing us that when you believe, everything changes.

S2 (01:05):
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 start realizing is that this is incompatible with
my new life in Christ. There are certain things that
when Christ comes in, you leave behind that. That's called conversion.

(01:29):
And they had this huge bonfire experience, 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 anointing and the
power of God upon Ephesus at that time. There are

(01:50):
times when God works in 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,

(02:13):
there will always be 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

(02:35):
were hundreds of gods that existed. 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

(02:56):
days in Ephesus, everybody would have their little statues, the
gods that they would pray to, and they were sort
of their sponsoring gods, 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

(03:19):
these statues out of wood and and 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

(03:39):
Christianity has no God statues. They have 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.

(04:01):
No one will buy statues anymore. We'll lose tens of
thousands of dollars and go out 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

(04:28):
be naive into thinking that opposition will just come. Out
of spiritual opposition. When we went to buy this church
building here that you're in right now, this was a factory,
84,000 square foot factory. And we decided that we were

(04:50):
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
buy this building. 2 million? Thank you. Jesus. There's a

(05:15):
lot of money. That's a whole nother story. How God
provided that and how people sacrificed. But when we went
to get this building, uh, 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

(05:37):
we need to design it for a church use. And
in order to zone it for a church use, you
have to get approval downtown 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

(05:58):
zoning board had to approve it in order to change
the status so that we could get a church here.
And I thought, no problem, no big deal. They're going
to love us because we do a lot of good
for the community. We'll help out, we'll bless, we'll open
up the doors, and we will do anything that we

(06:19):
can to help the community. And when we went down
to try to get the zoning, most of the people
on the zoning board were favorable. Happy for us. But
there was a few people that were belligerently opposed to
us starting a church here. Aggressively opposed, like door to door.

(06:43):
Say no. Oppose it. Get against it. And I didn't
understand why they said it would be parking congestion. And
they said it would be hard. But when it all
came down to it, what I heard behind the doors
is there was two issues with us having a church here.
Number one. Number one, there were too many Hispanics. Straight

(07:12):
out blatant bigotry. Sometimes that's how the devil opposes things.
It's not always theological. Sometimes it's blatant prejudice and bigotry.
And number two, it was religious. We were an evangelical church.

(07:40):
And there was opposition behind thank God. Praise God that
God is the opener of the doors. And God can
go before us, and God can open and God can
close doors. God fights our battles. God rises up. God
does things when things are opposed. But but it doesn't
mean we didn't work on it. And so I want
you to understand that that sometimes opposition will arise on

(08:01):
a lot of different ways to the progress and spread
of the gospel. It doesn't always come just out of
theological persecution. 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. Christianity did not make

(08:26):
statues and the early Christians did not have other gods.
I oftentimes run into people that walk into this auditorium
coming from different backgrounds, and they look around at this
bland auditorium and they think to themselves, this must be

(08:47):
a poor church. They can't even afford statues. I mean,
where are the images of statues of Jesus and Mary
and the Saints. And. Poor, poor church. Well, let me

(09:10):
just say this. That there's a reason that we don't
have statues. And I know some of you grew up
in traditions where you would walk into a church and
there would be many images, um, of different saints and
images of Christ and Mary and many other religious images.
But I want you to understand that we deliberately have

(09:32):
no Jesus on a cross here. We deliberately have no
statues of Saint Paul or Jude or Peter or the
Virgin Mary. We deliberately have no statues. Why? We have
no statues. Because one of the Ten Commandments is. Thou
shalt have no graven images before me. One of the

(09:57):
Ten Commandments is that we will make no graven images
that we worship and pray to. And I've been around
way too many places where people would go up to
an image of stone and touch it and pray to it.
And even though they know it's not Jesus, you look
to an image of Jesus and you begin to think

(10:17):
that it's sacred. And I've been to too many places
where people are making pilgrimages to touch a statue, be
blessed by a statue, pray to a statue. The Bible
calls that idolatry. And the very thing that you think
is going to help you pray is actually angers the
heart of God. Therefore, we have no statues in this place.

(10:45):
When you worship Jesus, I want you to envision and
pray to a Jesus that's risen, alive, reigns on high
over the earth. A living Jesus, not a Jesus on
a cross. When you approach Jesus, I don't want you
to approach a statue and touch a statue and ask
for blessing from a statue. I want you to go

(11:07):
in prayer and look to the heavens and say, Jesus,
you are alive in spirit and in truth, and I
come to you as a living being, asking you to
touch me, bless me, answer my prayers. That's the living
Jesus that we follow and worship. And you say, pastor, well,

(11:28):
what about the images that I have in my home?
I don't want to be harsh or critical of anybody
if you have images or statues in your home, but
if it were me, I would get rid of them.
There's too much danger in making these images something sacred,
something holy and beginning to put your confidence in something.

(11:53):
An image made in the image of God rather than
in God Himself. There is no nothing made out of wood, stone,
marble that can help you. It's the spirit of the
living God that has power to help you. It's he
that saves you. And we must be very careful not
to fall into idolatry. This huge riot that broke out

(12:20):
in Ephesus broke out because they were afraid that Christianity
was building no statues anymore. I've been in the amphitheater
in Ephesus. That amphitheater, said to be 490ft in diameter,

(12:42):
63 rows of seats that provide seating for an audience
of close to 24,000 people. 24,000. How many does the
United Center seat? 20 Has the capacity to seat as
many people or more than the United Center, in my estimation.

(13:07):
I've been in that theater. I was there in Turkey,
and I knelt on the stage of that platform, and
I envisioned a crowd of 20,000 people. That was anti
Paul and the church. And I remember kneeling there and
I prayed, Oh God, give me the boldness that Paul
had to be able to stand up in front of

(13:29):
a crowd, of be willing to stand up in front
of a crowd of 20,000 angry mob that would have
killed them. Yet he was so desirous to preach the
gospel that they had to hold them back for him
not to go in there and preach the gospel of Jesus. God,
give us that boldness.

S1 (13:52):
You're listening to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe, or
pausing our message to let you know about our Bold
Partner program. Mark, we are so thankful for people who
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S2 (14:02):
Yes, we have a growing number of bold partners that
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A bold partner is someone that's decided to give a
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S1 (14:17):
Any size.

S2 (14:18):
Any size, to help support the programming of bold steps.
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S1 (14:30):
And for that gift of any size on a monthly basis,
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(14:53):
Publishers and Wayne.

S2 (14:54):
That's a deal in and of itself.

S1 (14:56):
I like.

S2 (14:56):
It. I'm looking at some of the books through Moody Publishers,
and we have counted all joy with John Perkins, that is.
Looks like a great book. The Pathway to Freedom Alistair Begg,
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Classic, right. And
here's one that I actually wrote the foreword to. Or
an endorsement for Michael Riedel, Nick's book, the 50 Most

(15:18):
Important Bible Questions. And of course, he has a program,
a weekly program called Open Line where he answers Bible questions.

S1 (15:26):
So that's just a sample of what's from Moody Publishers.
But this discount applies to the whole catalog. So $30
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on the Bold Partner program at Bold Steps. Now back
into God's Word with Mark Jobe.

S2 (15:46):
Four years later, Paul was in prison in Rome, and
it was from that prison in Rome that Paul wrote
to the church that he loved. He wrote a letter
to the Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one, verse one. It says. Paul,

(16:09):
the apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God,
to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Now let me ask you a question. When he says,
I'm writing to the saints in Ephesus, to whom is
he referring? Christians. Now, I'm going to shock some of

(16:31):
you with this, because some of you, when you think
of a saint, you think of someone that lived a very,
very good life, did a lot of very, very good things, died,
did a couple miracles, and then years after they die,
the church votes on it and decides to make them
a saint. And then we see pictures of them with

(16:53):
a halo, and we believe that they are the saints.
But I'm going to destroy your image of that. When
he says, like in the book of Romans, it says
to the saints and the book of First Corinthians it
says to the saints, when he says to the saints
in Ephesus, he's talking. He's talking to everyone that's a

(17:16):
believer and follower of Jesus Christ in the Bible is
considered a saint. Well, I know that shocks some of you,
but if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, washed
by the blood of Jesus with the Holy Spirit inside
of you, you are a legitimate saint before the eyes
of God. So just to break down that mentality a

(17:39):
little bit, let's just practice for a moment, say Saint.
And now put your name behind the word saint. Go
ahead Saint. For some of you, it's really like, whoa,
this is hard to do. Saint mark. I like the
sound of that. And from a biblical perspective, that's the

(18:02):
way God sees you. You are considered a saint not
because of what you have done or not done, but
because of what Christ has done for you and in you.
The word saint comes from the word holy. The word
holy means set apart unto something. So any person that
has been set apart unto God for the work of

(18:22):
God is considered a saint in the Bible. So when
the Apostle Paul says to the saints that are in Ephesus,
he's saying to the church that is in Ephesus, the
called out believers, the ones that know Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior, to the to the saints in Ephesus,
the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace and peace to you

(18:45):
from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And
now Paul begins to explain. And for the first verses
that you see in verse three through verse Uh 13.
He begins to talk to them about what they have
and who they are in God. Or another way of

(19:07):
saying it is what they have in their spiritual tool belt.
Oftentimes what God does is he fills our spiritual tool
belt with the tools that we're going to need to
be successful. God does not call you to be a
follower of his without giving you everything you need to succeed.

(19:30):
God knows that in the future you may encounter a
wall that needs nails in it. So he gives you
a hammer. God realizes that in the future you may
encounter something difficult to take out, so he gives you pliers.
God fills your tool belt, your spiritual tool belt, in
order for you to succeed in life and in Christ.

(19:51):
And he has filled your spiritual tool belt with all
the tools that you need to live victorious in Christ
Jesus all the way victorious. And so in Ephesians, what
he starts telling us is he starts telling us what
is in our spiritual tool belt. And I'm going to
show you for a second what he's placed in your

(20:13):
spiritual tool belt. If you're taking notes this morning, write
it down. Number one, you are blessed. So one of
the things that's in your tool belt is your position
in Christ. Notice what it says in verse three. Praise
be to God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every

(20:36):
spiritual blessing in Christ. Praise be to God in our father,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in spiritual realms.
With what? With every spiritual blessing. Not just some. Every
spiritual blessing. Listen to me well, listen. This world is

(20:57):
divided into two worlds. There's a dichotomy means divided into two.
We have the physical world that is, the world that
we can see, touch, smell, feel, hear. That's the physical
world that we live in. But just as real as

(21:18):
the physical world, there is a spiritual world as well.
It's a world that you cannot see. You cannot feel,
you cannot touch, you cannot smell, you cannot hear because
it's in the spiritual realm, in that spiritual world. There
is good spirits and bad spirits. There is the Holy Spirit,

(21:41):
which is the Spirit of God. But there are also
fallen spirits or evil spirits as well. Our spirit is
in that world. Half of our body is in the
physical world, and half of our self is in the
spiritual world. Your physical body is here. But listen, the
moment that you die, you do not cease to exist.

(22:04):
Because you are not just made of body, you are
made of body, soul and spirit. Your soul and your spirit,
which are spiritual, continue to live even after your body dies.
Are you tracking with me? There have been many people
that have been close to death. Have you heard the stories?

(22:25):
When someone's on an operating table and they're about to die,
and they tell stories about how they see themselves. The
back of the doctor's head operating on their body, trying
to revive them. And when they come back to life,
they'll talk about having seen themselves on the operating table. Why?

(22:45):
Because their soul and their spirit is starting to leave
their body. And as their body's revived, then they go
back into their body. And so you and I live
constantly in two worlds. We live in the world of
the spirit and we live in the world of the body.
Many of us believe that the solutions to our problems

(23:06):
are that we need more in the physical world. And
someone asks you, well, what's your problem? Will I need
a raise at my job? I need a bigger house,
I need a car. I need more health to my body.
And we're aware of our physical world. But I want
you to understand me. Well, the key to the physical

(23:29):
world is, first of all, found in the spiritual world
because our spiritual world influences and affects our physical world.
Whatever is changed in the physical world, first of all,
is changed in the spiritual world.

S1 (23:52):
This is bold steps, and you're listening to the Bible
teaching of Mark Jobe. And here at Bold Steps, we
love getting letters from listeners like the one we heard earlier.
And if you'd like to share your story with us,
there's a number of ways you can reach out. You
can send us a message through our website, npr.org. You
can email us at Bold Steps. You can also call
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(24:14):
dialing [phone]. That's 312329 2011. And of course, as always,
our mailing option just send your letter to Bold steps.
820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. And then
I have a final question for you today. Who are

(24:35):
you really? When someone asks, tell me about yourself. What
do you say? Well, the world often assigns us labels
as followers of King Jesus. We've been given a brand
new identity. And that's why we're thrilled to offer you
more than a label. Discovering who you are in Christ.
A brand new 15 day devotional from the desk of
Mark job. In this powerful new resource, Mark takes you

(24:56):
on a journey through God's Word to reveal the truth
about your identity in Christ. Through this devotional, you'll uncover
who God created you to be while your identity matters
and how to live out your true purpose in calling.
This exclusive new resource is available to you with your
donation of any size to support the ministry. So whether
it's a single donation or a faithful investment as a

(25:18):
monthly bold partner, request your copy of More Than a
Label when you give today at Bird-stamps.org. I'm Wayne Sheppard
on behalf of the entire Bold Steps team, thanks for
being with us today. Be sure to join us again
tomorrow when Mark concludes this discussion on learning to take
your place. This message comes from our series when you

(25:38):
believe Everything changes, and we invite you to listen Wednesday
to hear more bold steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps
is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody
Bible Institute.