S3E166 – Ephesians 4-6: Shields Up

Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Since today it is Sunday we read from one of the Epistles. Today we finish the book of Ephesians. We’ll read chapters 4-6. After the reading I’ll have some comments. I’m calling today’s episode “ Shields Up.”

Comments on Ephesians 6

In chapter six, Paul mentioned that we are in a battle against the rulers, against the authorities,  against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil  in the heavens. Sometimes it looks as if we are battling people, but the fight is deeper than that. We are in a spiritual battle.

So how do we fight things in the spiritual realm? I’m glad you asked, because Paul told us what our weapons are. He talked about the full armor of God. The pieces are truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, the Word of God and prayer.

When we are equipped with these things, we cannot be defeated by the enemy. That’s not to say that the battle will be easy. It will not. But we cannot avoid the battle. The enemy brings the battle to us. His attacks are vicious, because the stakes are high. He would like nothing more than us to surrender…to lay down our weapons, because doing so will render us useless to God and to those to whom God would have us go to make disciples and bring along in the faith. Remember what our mission is, brothers and sisters. Just before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He gave that mission to us. He said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples  of   all nations,  baptizing  them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” And He gave us this promise, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

So beloved. We’re in this thing. And with Him with us, who can be against us? 

Your thoughts? Comment below.

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch.

Support

Please remember that this is a listener supported show. Your support of any amount is needed and very much appreciated. Find out how by clicking here.

When you buy through links on this site, we may earn an affiliate commission, and you will earn our gratitude.

Transcript

Upload Podcast/lsmedia-podcasts/lsfb/LSFAB_S12-E172_otter_ai.srt

Steve Webb 0:00
We’re in this thing

Steve Webb 0:08
Hey, hey, hey. Hi, this is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I’m your OG God casters Steve Webb. Welcome. Welcome, welcome. Did you do something different with your hair? Maybe not. Since today is Sunday, we’re going to read from one of the epistles. Today we’re going to finish the book of Ephesians. We’ll read chapters four through six and after the reading, I’ll have some comments. Of course, I’m calling today’s episode, shields up. And as you can tell, I’m in a bit of a mood. The show notes page for today’s episode is at Lifespring media.com/s 12 v 172. You ready? Let’s get started.

Steve Webb 0:53
Ephesians chapter four.

Steve Webb 0:55
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness in gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, he says, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. Now this he ascended, what does it mean, but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined a knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. This, I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need, Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification? That it may impart grace to the hearers and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Steve Webb 4:25
Ephesians five

Steve Webb 4:28
Therefore, the imitators of God is dearly loved children and walk in love as the Messiah also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you as is proper for saints. Course in foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks for no and recognize this. Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy. person who is an idolater does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty arguments for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. Therefore, do not become their partners for you or once darkness, but now you are light in the world, walk his children of light, for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness and truth, discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead, expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. Everything exposed by the light is made clear for what makes everything clear is light. Therefore it is said get up sleeper and rise from the dead and the Messiah will shine on you. Pay careful attention then to how you walk not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. Don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And don’t get drunk with wine which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives submit to your own husbands is to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives artists submit to their husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with a washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of His Body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband

Steve Webb 7:36
Ephesians chapter six.

Steve Webb 7:39
Children, obey your parents as you would the Lord because this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise so that it may go well with you and that you may live a long life in the land. Fathers don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Slaves. Obey your human masters with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ. Don’t work only while being watched in order to please men. But as slaves of Christ, do God’s will from your heart. Serve with a good attitude as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord. And masters, treat your slaves the same way without threatening them, because you know that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him. Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything to take your stand. Stand therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet saddled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation, take the shield of faith and with it, you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. Pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer in request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Pray also for me that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in him to speak as I should take a guess Our dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord will tell you all the news about me so that you may Be informed. I’m sending him to you for this very reason to let you know how we are and to encourage your hearts, peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Steve Webb 10:19
Beloved, in chapter six, Paul mentioned that we are in a battle against the rulers, against the authorities against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. Sometimes it looks as if we’re battling people, but the fight is deeper than that. We’re in a spiritual battle. So how do we fight things in the spiritual realm? Well, I’m glad you asked, because Paul told us what our weapons are. He talked about the full armor of God, which we’ve talked about on the show before, the parts of the full armor of God are truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer. Listen, when we’re equipped with these things, we cannot be defeated by the enemy. Now, that’s not to say that the battle will be easy, it will not, but we cannot avoid the battle because the enemy brings the battle to us. And his attacks are vicious, because the stakes are high. He’d like nothing more than for us to surrender, to lay down our weapons, because doing so will render us useless to God, and to those to whom God would have us go to make disciples and bring along in the faith. Remember what our mission is beloved, just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave that mission to us. You know what he said, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I’ve commanded you. And then he gave us this promise, he said, and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. So Beloved, we are in this thing, but with him with us who can be against us. What are your thoughts? Let me know at Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 172, or email me at Steven Lifespring media.com. Tomorrow our reading will be Leviticus chapters four through six.

Steve Webb 12:25
Well, you know what that music means. It means that someone has come in with an extra special donation in that donation came from John Train. He’s our newest executive producer. He came in yesterday with his first $50 monthly donation. And he said, happy to support what you’re doing for the Kingdom. Well, thank you, John, I really appreciate you. God bless you, brother. Thank you. So now, beloved, let me ask you something. What value does the Lifespring family Audio Bible have for you? Believe it or not, we’re nearly halfway through the year. Yeah, that is hard to believe. But this is episode number 172 of season 12 182 Is the halfway mark. And if you’ve been here since the start of the season, that’s great. You’re obviously getting some value from the show, and I’m thankful for that. That’s why I do this show. So let me ask you, is it time to return some of that value to help keep the show going to help me pay some of the bills. First, Timothy 517 says elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain in verse 18, continues with and in another place, it says those who work deserve their pay. So in other words, if the work has value, the one who works deserves value back or value for value. I do this show because God called me to do it. And if you’ve been around here for a while, you know the story, but I certainly don’t do it for the money. Believe me in the 17 plus years I’ve been behind this microphone, the income is far less than the expenses. I’m just so thankful for the lovely lady Leanne, who is in much in love with God as I am. She supported the podcast since day one in so many ways because she believes in it. Well, if you believe in what the Lifespring family, Audio Bible is all about, help support it. Please go to Lifespring media.com/support. You can give a one time donation you can give weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever works for you. But please do pray about it. I know God will bless you, and I’ll certainly thank you. Do you know we send out a weekly newsletter. Yep. And if you’d like to get it, go to news dot Lifespring media.com and sign up. Why would you want to do that? Well, the coming weeks reading schedule is in there. So if you want to read ahead and perhaps do your own study and maybe send in a question before I do the episode, you can just This might answer your question right here on the show. And in addition to that, there’s always something a little bit extra in there that you don’t hear on the podcast. And I have to say I’m so thankful for Kirsty in Perth, Australia. She does a great job getting the newsletter put together and sent out each week. She’s donating time, talent and treasure to the show. And let me say to that when you’re on the mailing list for the newsletter, please know that I will never sell your info. That’s my promise to you.

Steve Webb 15:35
Prayer requests, let’s pray that Kathi’s COVID test is negative today so that she can have surgery on Wednesday. Let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you today with Thanksgiving in our hearts that the spiritual battle is truly already won. We know that we’re still in the skirmishes, but when Jesus was resurrected, the enemy’s fate was sealed. There was never any doubt but that’s when it was done. Help us to be effective as we’re in the midst of the skirmishes, Lord, Holy Spirit, strengthen us and give us courage. We need you. We pray right now for Kathy Lord, that the COVID test that she takes today would would be negative so that the surgery can take place on Wednesday. And again, I ask Lord, that You would be with a doctor’s help them to get every last bit of cancer. And even better yet, Lord, please heal her. Father, I thank you for each person that you brought into the Lifespring family. They’re here for a reason. And I pray that You would bless each one today. Help each one of us to grow to love you more each day and give us more of a thirst for your word. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. If you’d like to share a prayer request or praise with a Lifespring family, go to prayer dot Lifespring media.com You’ll find a form there that’s easy to fill out. Give me all the information you want me to have. And none of the information you don’t want me to have. And you can remain anonymous on the show if you want to.

Steve Webb 17:05
Share the show, help somebody to subscribe. I helped a guy download the fountain app just a few days ago. And I helped him to subscribe to this show. We were talking about the Lord and I asked him if he listened to podcasts. And he said he had no idea what a podcast was. So I told him about podcasting. And then how there’s a ton of different shows. And you can find a show for just about anything and I told him about this show. And then I showed him how to subscribe. So Christian, if you’re listening right now, let me know. Email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. So you can do that too. Or you can share the show on your socials or at church or school or work. My goodness. You can even read a billboard if you want to. But if you do that promise me you’ll send me a picture

Steve Webb 17:56
comment on the show and Lifespring media.com/s 12 Eight 172 Or like I said a moment ago to Christian, you can email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. Support the show please at Lifespring media.com/support. And that’ll do it for today. Until tomorrow. May God bless you richly thank you for being here. Are you sure you didn’t do something different with your hair? Thank you for sharing your time with me. My name is Steve Webb. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Experiencing God (2021 Edition): Knowing and Doing the Will of God By Henry & Richard Blackaby, Claude V. King / B&H Books Experience the book that has restored, reoriented, and renewed millions of people—now thoroughly updated with seven new chapters and dozens of additional stories! Whether you’re reading it for the first time or eager to encounter a fresh edition of the classic text you already love, you’ll not be the same when you finish it. 368 pages, hardcover from B&H.