WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 Hey guys and welcome back to the way UK podcasts. Yay! 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:12.640 My name's Jesse. I'm joined on the couch by the awesome Zenny James, presenter, speaker, youth 3 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:21.360 minister and the other awesome Izzy Madavans, speaker, graphic designer, works for church, 4 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:27.920 teacher, loves God, loves orange. That's a kind of full Bible with all these highlights. 5 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:33.280 You love my Bible, I love your Bible. You don't need it anymore, I can't take it. 6 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:37.280 Can someone do an intro with me? Oh, this is Jesse. 7 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:44.880 You've got to do the voice. This is Jesse. Blue eyes, blonde. Wow. 8 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:50.480 That's it. It's just physical about music. It's not about my character, it's just 9 00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:56.240 okay. Musician, please play your bass player. Right, so we're continuing with our 10 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.240 Ephesians series. We're in Ephesians 3. There we are. I've been on this series yet. 11 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.720 Welcome. You've been on it? I was on number two. I was on number one. 12 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:11.280 Was I on number one? No. No, I wasn't on number one. Yeah, I haven't been on it yet. 13 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:18.720 And let's just jump straight in. I think this is a chapter that it feels like when you read it, 14 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:24.800 it speaks. You know, those chapters that just like you don't have to have much, you just get 15 00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:29.920 to read it and let it speak to you. It feels like one of those, if you have your Bibles, 16 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:35.200 very Bibles, pull along. We've got some thoughts, but also just can't wait to listen to God's Word. 17 00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:41.600 Sam, would you mind reading for us? Maybe verse one to seven. Wow. Guys, I'd be your nids. 18 00:01:42.160 --> 00:01:46.880 Sorry, what translation are you reading? Sorry, I'm reading it and I view it. Oh, nice. Right now. 19 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:52.720 Well, you know, I flip flopp a little bit. I meant I be. I'm reading and I be today as well. 20 00:01:52.720 --> 00:01:57.840 I knew. Yeah. Sorry. I'm a little bit too excited. Oh, what was it? Yeah, it was a 21 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.840 heat. I also pulled a bit of a bizarre face when I said I was reading the NIV and I just 22 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:08.800 want to acknowledge that was a bit bizarre. Anyway, this reason I pull the prisoner of Christ Jesus 23 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:14.320 for the sake of you Gentiles. Surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace that 24 00:02:14.320 --> 00:02:22.560 was given to me for you. That is the mystery made known to me by revelation as I have already 25 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:28.400 written briefly. When reading this then you'll be able to understand my insight into the mystery 26 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:35.120 of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed 27 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:41.520 by the spirit of God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that though through the gospel, 28 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:48.640 well, the mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are airs together with Israel, 29 00:02:48.640 --> 00:02:54.560 members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became 30 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:01.840 the servant of the gospel by the gift of God's grace, given to me through the working of his power. 31 00:03:03.040 --> 00:03:06.080 So, yeah, his first thoughts. What are you thinking? 32 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:16.160 Who wasn't expecting you to come to me? I... The word that really stood out to me was word 33 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:25.520 mystery. I love it. So I listened to it a little bit and I think for us, the word mystery can feel 34 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:33.920 quite this dark and obscure thing. It's almost like being the mystery of Jesus or the mystery of 35 00:03:33.920 --> 00:03:41.760 the gospel. It feels almost like, oh, there's this secret little dark thing. But in the Greek, 36 00:03:42.720 --> 00:03:47.040 it's still, I don't know, I'm not written down the Greek word for it. The whole truth is, 37 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:53.840 but it kind of speaks about how it's still a secret, but it's more like it's open to be discovered. 38 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:59.680 It's like hidden from human knowledge, but now disclosed by the revelation of God. It's not 39 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:06.800 this dark thing, but actually it's just like undisclosed. And so I think that's... I don't know 40 00:04:06.880 --> 00:04:11.200 why that stood out to me, but it just stood out to me because I think the word mystery just got me 41 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:18.320 a bit intrigued. Yeah, I love that idea. I love that it's like an invitation to a journey rather than 42 00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:25.120 just like an answer. It's like, oh, God, why... Why are you like this? Oh, this is why boom finished. 43 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:29.680 Okay, I guess I'll hold onto that one piece of information forever. No, it's like there's a mystery, 44 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:34.320 there's a process, there's a journey, there's something that we're actually invited to. It's not 45 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:39.680 that it's hidden for you to never know, but it's like an adventure that you get to go on with God. 46 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:44.800 And it strikes me with excitement and awe of God, because people can be overwhelmed by the fact 47 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:49.280 that they don't know everything about God in the second. Praise God, I don't know everything about God 48 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:55.520 in the second. Praise God, I don't know everything right now. Thank you, God, that I get to go on a 49 00:04:55.520 --> 00:05:01.360 journey and learn over years and discover something fresh, because I think for me, it fills me with 50 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:08.720 excitement, because it means that there's there's newness. It's not just stuff I know and I hear 51 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:13.360 once in the Bible and then it's done. There's actually newness to God and there's mystery to God, 52 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:18.160 there's to be discovered throughout your journey. And it just makes me want to pull my boots, 53 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:24.800 lace up my boots, pull my back back. It's time to learn. Oh, come on. When I suppose that's 54 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:31.760 also this is what Paul is also writing about is his, he's had some of that mystery disclosed to him 55 00:05:31.760 --> 00:05:37.120 or he's understanding more of God's plan and God's character and talking a lot about, 56 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:43.040 we spoke a lot about this in the past to chapters and Galatians and all that stuff, but like 57 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:48.080 this relationship to the Gentiles and the Jews or Israel and how actually God intends them to 58 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:55.760 be together and how that was quite like an obscure thought, because that's not how the Jews had done 59 00:05:55.760 --> 00:06:00.960 it before, that's not what was understood before and like Christianity. So actually part of this 60 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:07.120 mystery that's being revealed is actually Jesus' love is for everyone and wants them to be united 61 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:13.200 and that. And I also think that in talking about the mystery thing, I don't know why this 62 00:06:13.280 --> 00:06:18.720 freeback memory came to my brain, but last year we did a Bible study series on the life lessons, 63 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:24.640 which was about the different, or some of the parables that Jesus spoke about and these parables 64 00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:29.680 were in themselves like this, almost as mysterious like information about the kingdom of God and it's 65 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:34.800 like, as you listen to Jesus speaking about them, as you read it, it's like another layer gets 66 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:39.360 pulled back, but it's not because God wants to gatekeep himself from us, but it's actually because 67 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:45.920 God wants us to inquire him, he wants us to go to him and have that like that quest to find out 68 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:51.440 more about him. And as Jesse was talking, I was thinking about how sometimes it gets frustrating 69 00:06:51.440 --> 00:06:55.840 when you don't know everything about God or like a lot of people think, oh God can't be real because 70 00:06:55.840 --> 00:07:01.600 of logic, like there's a lot of like I guess like logical arguments or frameworks to try and 71 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.000 combat the proof or the idea that God can exist, but there was something I had a while back and 72 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.080 it was like if God is small enough that you can understand him, then you need a bigger God. 73 00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:15.360 Yeah, I just think that's so funny, but it's true, like if we could understand everything about God 74 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:20.480 then in theory we wouldn't need him, because we can just figure everything out by ourselves. 75 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:24.880 But I love that, like God gives us enough for each day, he gives us enough that we need, 76 00:07:24.880 --> 00:07:29.200 that we can still be dependent on him and we can still go to him, like I think that's pretty cool. 77 00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:35.040 It is pretty cool. I've got another thought, is do you, something off the back of Zen's door or not? 78 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:42.720 You go for it Jesse. Okay, yeah, it is so cool. And I think what I love about this whole topic 79 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:48.880 of like mysteries of God, understanding God is what it leads to in Paul's response. 80 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:55.280 If you notice throughout, it says like I pull a current prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of 81 00:07:55.280 --> 00:08:00.560 you, Gentiles, literally starts by saying like for the sake of you, I'm a prisoner. And then it 82 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:07.440 talks about like you've heard about God's grace that was given to me for you. Again, it's like 83 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:13.840 it's outward. And it's like this mystery was made known to me as I've already written about 84 00:08:13.840 --> 00:08:22.480 briefly, written to you for you about briefly. It's like you see what Paul's doing as he's experiencing 85 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:26.960 these mysteries, he's experiencing this revelation that it's not standing on just him alone, 86 00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:32.080 it's not standing still with him alone. It's it's being poured straight back out into the people. 87 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:40.160 And then you read about how the later it's like this is for a mystery that the air, like the 88 00:08:40.160 --> 00:08:45.760 airs of God, now no longer just the Israelites, but the Gentiles as well. It's like wow, this 89 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:51.840 and they become one body, it's for all. So this is a message that it's for all and Paul's response 90 00:08:52.400 --> 00:08:58.960 to this mystery is I want to just pour my life into investing in all. And I think God's heart has 91 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:04.960 always been for the all. It's always been for everyone. It's been for the people of God, the Jews, 92 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:11.520 the Gentiles. And I'm learning from the way that Paul responds to Jesus's grace with wanting to 93 00:09:11.520 --> 00:09:18.640 proclaim more of the gospel. God, I'm asking the question, God, how can I do that? How can I not just 94 00:09:19.280 --> 00:09:24.320 have a message coming to me and it just stop here? How can I be in this constant place of listening 95 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:31.600 to you and then bring what you teach elsewhere? Maybe through a podcast, in my case, but it's a 96 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:36.880 question to anyone listening. How can you listen to something on a Sunday and bring it to your 97 00:09:36.880 --> 00:09:41.440 schools, bring it to your workplace, bring it to your environment, and not just like bring it as 98 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:46.640 a message, but live it in your schools, in your workplace, in your environment. It's so cool. 99 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:52.480 Let's just love for sure. And I think as we experience more of God, understand a bit more like 100 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:57.200 our natural response should be, we want to talk about it, we want to share it, we want to like 101 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.960 when we have an encounter with God, whether that's like feeling his Holy Spirit or understanding 102 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:08.720 more of his word or like, why would you want to stay quiet about it? Yeah. So I do think it's 103 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:14.240 Paul's an incredible example of like he had the revelation and he was like, right, I'm giving 104 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:17.920 us all for you. And I'm sure we'll talk about it later, how much God is using him even like, 105 00:10:17.920 --> 00:10:23.520 well, he's in prison and he's in prison, but basically because of his love for the Gentiles and 106 00:10:23.520 --> 00:10:29.200 love for making sure they also know that Jesus is for them. But I think it's incredible how he 107 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:35.920 gives his life basically to spread this message. And I think that's, that's a real challenge, 108 00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:41.760 isn't it? It's like, well, what's the message I'm giving my life to? Yeah, he says he becomes 109 00:10:41.760 --> 00:10:47.440 a servant of the gospel. Yeah. He's like, I'm committed to serving this thing. Spoilers. 110 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:56.480 Any final thoughts then? I should have moved on. Only thought that I had was that I loved the, 111 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:01.280 again, going back to the mystery thing. This is a lifetime, like being a Christian is not 112 00:11:01.280 --> 00:11:06.000 every time you pick up the Bible, you try to go out yet, but it's every single day. So God's 113 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:11.760 always going to have mysteries in every single day. And I think I love the fact that the mysteries 114 00:11:11.760 --> 00:11:16.000 means that I don't need to know everything. Yeah. And actually, it's okay to not know. It's okay if 115 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.760 you don't have all the answers, it's okay if someone asks you a question about Jesus at school, 116 00:11:19.760 --> 00:11:25.120 and you're like, I don't know, like, I don't know. But we're committed to figuring it out, 117 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:30.560 you know, and we want to know more about God. So I think that just encouraged me that I don't 118 00:11:30.560 --> 00:11:35.280 need to know everything. And it's okay if I don't know everything, but the heart is that I want to know 119 00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:39.760 more, and it's good to have that heart. So I think if anyone's listening and they're like struggling 120 00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:43.440 with their faith or struggling with, like, I have all these questions and I just don't know, 121 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:48.080 it's actually okay to not know the answer, but it's okay to be like, I want to know and to go on 122 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.720 that journey. And also that is faith, isn't it? Even when you don't know, but being like, I don't know 123 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:58.320 everything, but I do trust, I do trust my God. And so I think that is, because if you knew everything, 124 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:03.200 then that's not necessarily faith. Yeah. So I think it's, it's amazing that he's a God of 125 00:12:04.160 --> 00:12:07.680 history. And it reminds me of the passage in James, which is like, you will not repeat 126 00:12:07.680 --> 00:12:14.160 you for asking for wisdom. Love that. And like, we're invited into the story, but we're invited to 127 00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:19.840 ask as well. Yeah. We're invited to come because of this grace with freedom and confidence 128 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:25.280 to ask God boldly, well, you give me revelation. Will you invite me into the mystery? Will you give 129 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:32.880 me wisdom? So there's an even more an encouragement. Should we read on? Do it. Let's go. I'll just read 130 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:38.560 and then as you can take the final one, although I am less than the least of what we're reading. Sorry. 131 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:45.120 Verse 8 to 13. Thank you very much. Great. Continue. Although I am less than the least of all the 132 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:52.240 Lord's people, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles, the boundless riches of Christ. 133 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:58.800 And to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept 134 00:12:58.880 --> 00:13:05.920 hidden in God who created all things. His intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom 135 00:13:05.920 --> 00:13:10.960 of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 136 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:16.160 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Jesus Christ, our Lord. 137 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:23.680 In him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 138 00:13:24.640 --> 00:13:31.920 I ask you, therefore, do not be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. 139 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:39.120 Oh, this is good. It just speaks for itself, doesn't it? But now can you guys speak for it? 140 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:48.080 I love the the verse 8. I'm the least deserving of all God's people, but he gave me the privilege 141 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:52.160 of telling the Gentiles about, yeah, I just think I thought you'd love this because you're like 142 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:59.680 the least deserving. I am the least deserving. But it's true. We are all the least we all are. 143 00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:04.960 Every single one of us at the least deserving, like I was even reading through the like some 144 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:10.720 some synopsis of different people in the Old Testament. And it just made me just made me laugh 145 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:17.600 a little bit like God uses the most unlikely people all the time, like even starting from Abraham, 146 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:24.240 Abraham was two-old, like God used him and he still had a child like Moses. He murdered someone 147 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:29.120 but then God still used him to free the Israelites. You have all these different people, David. 148 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:34.720 We'd love to talk about David, a man after God's own heart, but David was an adulterer and he 149 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:39.200 was a murderer as well. Like all these different people that we see in the Old Testament, God still 150 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:45.040 used them despite their mistakes, despite the fact that they are undeserving. But if God can use 151 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:51.360 the God can still use us today and I just feel so encouraged by that. And Paul's clear evidence 152 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:55.680 of being unlikely, like we forget his story, but sometimes we've got to remind ourselves like 153 00:14:55.680 --> 00:15:00.560 he was out here killing Christians, like he was a top Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin, like 154 00:15:00.560 --> 00:15:04.000 he starts bragging in one of his books, he's like, hey, this is the stuff that I did, but actually 155 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:07.840 I can't that all is nothing because there's only thing that matters is Jesus. But like he, 156 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:13.440 even himself is an example of somebody that doesn't deserve to be used by God, but God did. 157 00:15:13.520 --> 00:15:17.680 So God can use him, he can use us. And actually, God's going to use somebody as unlikely as that. 158 00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:22.560 And for me, it's like there's no way Paul could have decided to wake up one day and turn his life 159 00:15:22.560 --> 00:15:28.880 around, like something supernatural had to have happened for Jesus to be like, like for him to be 160 00:15:28.880 --> 00:15:34.240 used by God. And so for me, that's for evidence like, wow, God is real because look at where you are 161 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:39.040 and look at where you are now. Yeah. So yeah. I think there's a few little things that stood out to me 162 00:15:39.040 --> 00:15:45.680 from this, mostly verse 10, actually. But quickly in verse eight, I love the language of like, 163 00:15:45.680 --> 00:15:53.920 is the boundless riches, boundless riches, goodness gracious. One more time, boundless riches of 164 00:15:53.920 --> 00:16:02.240 Christ. And I think it's so true. Like boundless just means like there is no bad. It cannot be contained. 165 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:06.800 It goes on and on and on and this richness, this goodness, this depth, this 166 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:13.600 hugeness of of God is is absolutely boundless. And I think I love that again, that's that's his 167 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:20.640 message. It's that this is Christ's boundless riches is struggling to say that. And I loved those 168 00:16:20.640 --> 00:16:25.840 little like, like those little words, it stood out to me, not much to say on them. But verse 10, 169 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:30.960 I think it's really interesting. So his intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom 170 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:35.360 of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. What's that 171 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:42.960 chanabout? One, manifold wisdom. So manifold, that's like intricacy, complexity, the great beauty 172 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:48.560 of God's wisdom. That's what manifold means. But yeah, exactly what you said is through the church 173 00:16:48.560 --> 00:16:54.640 that this wisdom will be revealed. And I think that's a really that again shows God's heart is that 174 00:16:54.640 --> 00:17:00.800 he's wanting to use us to reveal this wisdom to the heavenly realms. And I think we can often 175 00:17:00.800 --> 00:17:07.600 think that I don't feel like it should be the other way around where it's like all these angels 176 00:17:07.600 --> 00:17:13.680 and heavenly realms and spiritual whatnot, like that's informing our lives. But actually it's 177 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:19.360 we play a part for God to be seen in the whole every single realm, whatever that means that's 178 00:17:19.360 --> 00:17:25.440 a bit beyond my comprehension. But it's our part to play for to help God be seen in that wider 179 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:36.160 spiritual universe, thoughts. Thoughts through the church, I think is so easy in a human built church 180 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:42.960 be heard by humans. Yeah. I have been in moments. I have been. As he has been in moments. 181 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:48.480 But no, maybe it's the same as nothing. No, I definitely have been. Yeah. 182 00:17:49.760 --> 00:17:58.240 Like people are messy, people make mistakes. And it's very easy to point the finger at the church 183 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:05.040 and be like, I'm going to stay clear forever. Yeah. And for me, it's just such a good reminder that 184 00:18:05.040 --> 00:18:11.440 there is a specific thing, a unique thing that God wants to do through the church that you wouldn't 185 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:16.960 get without it. Yeah. There is something that God really wants to unlock and bring wisdom and 186 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:23.920 revelation. And what does it say? Manifold wisdom of God made known like in the church. 187 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:28.560 And I think the tendency sometimes in our consumeristic 188 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:36.000 Western society is just to take the bits of Christianity that we like. But the bit that's 189 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.040 sometimes hard is the people and the community and the church can sometimes be hard. 190 00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:46.640 And we can't treat it with the same way that we that culture does, which is just take the nice 191 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:51.440 bits and reject the bad bits. Yeah. Because actually you've got to press into the church and do 192 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:56.320 what Jesus does, which is take the whole. Yeah. And the whole message of Jesus Christ and Christianity 193 00:18:56.320 --> 00:19:01.360 does involve going to church because there's a unique wisdom that God wants to bring through it. 194 00:19:01.840 --> 00:19:05.520 And so it's just to look, I just feel a little encouraged to stir people. I know he's 195 00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:13.040 stirred this on my heart more than ever this past two years, the importance of church. And maybe 196 00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:18.800 you check into church on a live stream, maybe you just get spiritually fed online through podcasts 197 00:19:18.800 --> 00:19:23.280 and you don't feel like there's a need for the church. There is actually a unique need 198 00:19:24.320 --> 00:19:29.920 that you won't be able to find other than in that place. Absolutely. Good to church. Church is still 199 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:36.800 like God's plan A. That's what he wants to use. That's for for everything. Like it's the 200 00:19:36.800 --> 00:19:43.200 answer to so many things to people like loneliness or to I can't think of examples, but like it is 201 00:19:44.080 --> 00:19:48.640 it is his plan A and even for like reading this and how much he uses the church. Even all these 202 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:53.200 letters are two churches. It's that's the important of churches that they're so much the new 203 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:59.120 testament is for them. And I think we can often be sight of that because it can be hurt, 204 00:19:59.600 --> 00:20:04.000 but often it's imperfect people. It's not the church that is hurt us. And we need to keep 205 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:14.400 like that in that in mind. And actually God's church is perfect. His ideal version of church 206 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:20.640 is perfect. It just asks the kids to run in it sometimes. But yeah. But even in our imperfections, 207 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:25.920 he still uses the church. Absolutely. Yeah. Which is so like hard for us to understand. Like God, 208 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:31.520 why would you still want to use this broken thing? And why do you still love this thing? But then 209 00:20:31.520 --> 00:20:36.720 in Revelation it says that the thing that he's coming back for is his bride. Which is the church. 210 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:43.520 Like when we think of like the marriage, like what? Like the church is often referred to like a 211 00:20:43.520 --> 00:20:48.640 bride, like in the union of marriage. That's the only institution that's compared to in that 212 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:53.600 way with Christ. And I think there's something so beautiful about that image of a bride and a groom 213 00:20:53.600 --> 00:20:58.560 coming together. Like there's something so special about Christ and the church coming together. 214 00:20:58.560 --> 00:21:04.000 Like we can't do church about him. But also like some what the unique thing about church is that 215 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.800 when we gather together, we get to experience him in such a unique way, which is why it says to 216 00:21:08.800 --> 00:21:14.000 display his wisdom in its rich variety. Like there's not just one way that God chooses to 217 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:18.240 reveal himself in so many different ways, but church is one of those ways. And so if you 218 00:21:18.800 --> 00:21:23.760 come back to what Jesse said, but if you neglect church, then you neglect that expression 219 00:21:23.760 --> 00:21:28.880 of how Christ wants to reveal himself to us. Which is so beautiful. Like when I go to church and I 220 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:34.160 everybody sing in, I'm like, this is what happens. I was like, like this is so sick. But if I don't 221 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:38.320 go to church, I don't get to hear that. You know, and I think, yeah, I don't know, just think it's 222 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:44.320 cool. God reveals himself in the church. We love church. We do. And I love verse 12. 223 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:52.080 In him through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I feel like I know 224 00:21:52.080 --> 00:21:56.960 what your words are. Try it. Are you going to link it to another verse? I was thinking about it, 225 00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:00.560 but I wasn't sure. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Go on. 226 00:22:00.560 --> 00:22:08.480 Well, you're going to link it to three, two, one. He was four. You guys spent too much time together. 227 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:17.920 I spoke as one guys. Hey, sorry. Yeah. I mean, yeah. He was four. It's such a great. He was four. 228 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:26.640 That's 16. Yeah. And therefore we can come to the throne boldly with full confidence 229 00:22:27.280 --> 00:22:32.000 to find grace and help in time of need, talking about how Jesus suffered for us. So therefore, 230 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.280 we can come to come to God with confidence. And it's just a message that is clearly 231 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:44.880 not just for the Hebrew church or just not just for the Ephesian church. It is for the church. 232 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:50.640 It's for us today. It's what it's written about over and over again. We need to be reminded 233 00:22:51.280 --> 00:22:56.880 over and over again that we can come to God with full confidence, with full assurance, 234 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.400 with full freedom. Yeah. What does it mean to come to God with full freedom? 235 00:23:02.800 --> 00:23:05.920 What does it mean to come to God? This is a little revelation I heard last week. 236 00:23:06.800 --> 00:23:11.120 It talks about coming to God as a little kid, right? Right. I mean, faith like a child has 237 00:23:11.120 --> 00:23:16.160 you come to God. And we take that verse and we think a lot about coming to God with our like, 238 00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:20.640 kind of like security like, I know my daddy loves me. So I'm going to come to God. 239 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:24.640 Like, I know that he loves me. So he'll buy me chocolate cake. I know that like, 240 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:29.440 it's kind of always expressed and used in this joyful context. As a kid, you just, 241 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:33.200 you haven't been hit by the world's difficulties. So you just kind of come innocently to God. 242 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.040 Yeah. That's how we should come to God, right? 243 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:44.080 And then I saw a kid have a tantrum. And I was like, oh my gosh. Oh no. 244 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:48.560 Like a full meltdown, like a full stroke. Quite jealous to me. 245 00:23:48.560 --> 00:23:53.760 Crazy, right? No. I like, I've not really like, see, I don't have a kid. That's what I'm 246 00:23:53.760 --> 00:23:59.840 doing. I'm not married. And like, I've not seen a kid have a full stroke tantrum before. 247 00:23:59.840 --> 00:24:06.320 And I was like, this is mental. And I suddenly remembered that scripture where Jesus says, 248 00:24:06.320 --> 00:24:11.120 like little children, we come to me. And he doesn't say like little children after they've had 249 00:24:11.120 --> 00:24:16.240 a great day and feel really joyful. And it's just like little children. And I think there's a 250 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:21.280 real permission in freedom. It's freedom that it talks about like coming to God with freedom 251 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:28.480 to have a tantrum and to bring your stripes, to bring your, your, your raw and honest self to God. 252 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:33.280 Because that's the side he wants. And that brought so much freedom to me. Because I've, 253 00:24:33.280 --> 00:24:37.440 I felt like I was being a bit negative at the time. I was like, ah, I keep complaining. 254 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:41.040 It feels like most of my relationship with God is just me asking him questions and complaining. 255 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.920 And if you've ever felt like you've been in that season. And that just gave me full permission. 256 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:55.440 Like a lot of the kids time is saying, why? No, tantrum. And we're invited into that permission 257 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:01.520 of having the Father God. And so yeah, I just feel like full freedom. What does that look like? 258 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:06.800 Full confidence. It is having the joy for assurance. I know my dad loves me. And now I can ask for 259 00:25:06.800 --> 00:25:11.680 things because my dad loves me. But it's also having the mission to come with real emotion. 260 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:20.560 I also think on that we kind of touched this a little bit in Ephesians 2. So it's fresh in my mind. 261 00:25:20.560 --> 00:25:26.240 But about actually like the grandeur of God's power. And like comparing it back, 262 00:25:26.800 --> 00:25:31.040 we're talking about like in the temple days where like you weren't only like one person once 263 00:25:31.040 --> 00:25:36.240 a year was allowed to go into like the inner courts where his presence dwell. And actually we often 264 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:43.920 forget about that incredible power and holiness and hugeness of God. And I mean for them back then 265 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:50.560 having the freedom to go and enter God's presence is like, what? And having the confidence to do 266 00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:55.280 that they're not going to be struck dead because it's so powerful. It's like, what? So like I think 267 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:00.320 I love what you were saying. And I think that's so good to know you've got permission to be a little 268 00:26:00.320 --> 00:26:06.400 kid and have a little tantrum sometimes. But also it's like, we can't lose sight of how huge and how 269 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:12.240 deep wide whatever work to get onto like he is. He's absolutely so much bigger, more powerful 270 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.720 than we can ever imagine. And yet he gives us. He goes, you're free to come to me. You can have 271 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:22.480 the confidence to come to me. And I think that's incredible. Hello, I've been interrupting this 272 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:27.200 podcast to say please like, comment and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube and leave a follow 273 00:26:27.280 --> 00:26:31.520 and a rating if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. As I'll go here at the way 274 00:26:31.520 --> 00:26:35.840 it is to share the good news of Jesus with every young person online and you doing any of those 275 00:26:35.840 --> 00:26:39.600 things would really help out with that. Okay, thanks for listening back to the pod. 276 00:26:41.360 --> 00:26:45.120 And the next section actually talks a bit about power. You've mentioned it there a few times 277 00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:50.000 like what has God's power looked like. Yeah. And who isn't going to do the reading next? 278 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.240 It was you, wasn't it? It was actually me. Do you want to do my reading the final bit of the 279 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:59.680 chapter 14 to 21? I'm going to give a small anecdote before I read it. These were the verses, 280 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:07.200 my mum gave me when I went to uni. This is next chunk. Wow, that's powerful. Oh, didn't ask, 281 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:13.680 but thanks. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I'm sure everybody listening asked. They were wondering, 282 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:18.160 oh, I wonder if this relates. Thanks Sharon. Thanks for being honest. That was the note I had my 283 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:23.520 Bible was mum gave us to me. No, it's very sweet. That's lovely. We asked when we got on the boy. 284 00:27:23.520 --> 00:27:31.200 As well. Go now. And a prayer for the Ephesians. For this reason, I kneel before the Father 285 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:37.520 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious 286 00:27:37.520 --> 00:27:45.360 riches, he may strengthen you with power through this. He may strengthen you with power through 287 00:27:45.360 --> 00:27:50.560 his spirit in your inner being so that Christ made dwell in your hearts through faith. 288 00:27:50.560 --> 00:27:55.760 And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the 289 00:27:55.760 --> 00:28:02.960 Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know 290 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:08.720 this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of 291 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:14.800 God. Now to him who is able to do a measurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the 292 00:28:14.800 --> 00:28:21.760 power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout 293 00:28:21.760 --> 00:28:29.280 all generations forever and ever. Amen. So good in any first thoughts. Thanks mum. 294 00:28:32.560 --> 00:28:38.880 What stood out to me was in verse 16 and it says I pray that from his glorious unlimited resource 295 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:43.840 that he will empower you with the inner strength that comes through his spirit and then verse 17 says 296 00:28:43.840 --> 00:28:48.080 then Christ makes his home in your hearts as you trust him like Christ lives within us. 297 00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:52.160 The same power that raised Jesus from the grave lives of us you know all these things 298 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.640 but is the Holy Spirit that lives within us and in like a few chapters before this 299 00:28:56.640 --> 00:29:02.320 I was talking about these like heavenly realms and like these gifts of like wisdom and understanding 300 00:29:02.320 --> 00:29:07.440 that we get from the heavenly realms and like God has gifts for us it's you see it in Romans you see 301 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:11.840 it in first Corinthians like it talks about different gifts of the spirit but one of these gifts 302 00:29:11.840 --> 00:29:17.760 is faith like faith is a gift which means if you're struggling with your faith you can ask God 303 00:29:17.760 --> 00:29:24.560 Lord help me with my faith and I was thinking a couple weeks ago about this guy in the bible in 304 00:29:24.560 --> 00:29:28.880 Mark 9 there's a story of when Jesus heals this demon possessed boy like it was actually crazy 305 00:29:29.840 --> 00:29:34.960 kind of wild and he goes up to the boy's dad and Jesus basically asking like do you do you have 306 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:39.360 faith to believe I can heal like do you want me to heal and he was like Lord like I want to believe 307 00:29:39.760 --> 00:29:45.680 can you help me with my unbelief and I love that that encounter is recorded in the bible because 308 00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:51.120 that shows me that Jesus isn't afraid of my unbelief but he actually wants me to bring it to him 309 00:29:51.120 --> 00:29:56.160 bring to him the areas where I'm struggling with my faith because faith is a gift and the Holy 310 00:29:56.160 --> 00:30:00.720 Spirit wants to increase our faith and so I love that the inner strength through the Holy Spirit 311 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:07.120 he empowers us my faith is empowered by the Holy Spirit um that is such an assurance for me 312 00:30:07.120 --> 00:30:11.840 because faith is hard being a Christian is difficult that things happen and you're like God 313 00:30:11.840 --> 00:30:16.320 wise is happening or God I don't understand why you said that back to the whole mystery thing 314 00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:21.280 but actually I can ask God to increase my faith and he will I can ask the Holy Spirit to 315 00:30:21.280 --> 00:30:26.080 reveal things to me and he will so that's an encouragement for you guys as well it's just that 316 00:30:26.080 --> 00:30:34.080 full permission thing I need to hear that I'm allowed to pray God will you help me with my faith 317 00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:42.400 yeah I did two days ago in my little journal I was like what I there's areas of my life where it 318 00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:48.880 feels like I'm I'm not even able to find this myself will you help me and that is the gospel 319 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:55.280 message um then go to God like I'm locking your hands and having permission to just say God 320 00:30:55.280 --> 00:31:01.680 helping yeah what I need you and and yeah that's the story of Jesus and there's full permission 321 00:31:01.760 --> 00:31:08.960 to that there's full freedom and confidence to do that I was thinking about the the verse I 322 00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:14.960 hinted to earlier of the how like wide how long how deep how high Jesus love is and how and I 323 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:23.520 was just dwelling on he's just so big and um my dad often many preachers on this he has like this 324 00:31:25.040 --> 00:31:30.160 thing that I'm gonna completely butcher and not do correct at all but it's basically a trying 325 00:31:30.320 --> 00:31:36.080 to open your eyes to be wider of how big God is and he does this big thing with the speed of light and 326 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:43.440 basically it's all about when that star came out in the civility story for the for the 327 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:49.360 wise men to notice is actually for that light to have turned on how many years before would God 328 00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:54.640 have had to replace that in order to point to Jesus at exact right time and how this is how big his 329 00:31:54.720 --> 00:32:00.800 plan is this is how big his story is is it's it's beyond comprehension that that's even like 330 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:07.840 a thing he he does a lot better than that and it goes on for quite a while but it's he is so big so 331 00:32:07.840 --> 00:32:13.520 wide so whatever and I was reading about um hit this morning and how it's like it's like four 332 00:32:13.520 --> 00:32:17.040 directions and it's like it's like a cross and I was like classic wherever I'll make something 333 00:32:17.040 --> 00:32:24.240 into a cross but if that's something that helps symbolize how high how deep how wide how long 334 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:30.320 his his love is then then that's wow then that's something that can be a real like reminder 335 00:32:30.320 --> 00:32:35.840 and I a little note for them so I'm going to read them it's he's wide enough to include all of us 336 00:32:35.840 --> 00:32:40.640 it's long enough to last return it's deep enough to reach the worst sinner and it's high enough 337 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:45.200 to take us to heaven and I just thought that was quite a lot of fun oh so good I love that 338 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:54.240 the uh it was kind of still on this verse which just shows how beautiful this passages 339 00:32:54.880 --> 00:33:01.280 I've got another thing to say about the inner man I love that it says that through the power of 340 00:33:01.280 --> 00:33:09.760 the spirit that strengthens you it's towards your inner being how often do I get caught up with 341 00:33:09.760 --> 00:33:18.560 my external being my Instagram dumps how much I'm serving in church how people are perceiving me 342 00:33:19.040 --> 00:33:29.680 how I look with my clothes how I look with my face like the external stuff um all like 343 00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:36.240 am I doing well on my performing work and I'm going to get promotion oh did I preach a message 344 00:33:36.320 --> 00:33:42.000 into 10 kids come to the front and give their life to Jesus the external stuff we can get so caught 345 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:50.000 up in it when actually God's power is to strengthen your inner being yeah it's to strengthen who you are 346 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:55.840 inside before you do anything it's to strengthen what you look like what your prayer life looks like 347 00:33:55.840 --> 00:34:01.760 in your bedroom it's to strengthen what your worship looks like in your heart that's what God 348 00:34:01.760 --> 00:34:08.720 really cares about it doesn't it doesn't tell us that he gives us power in order to therefore 349 00:34:08.720 --> 00:34:14.480 serve better it tells us that he uses his power to strengthen us simply to know the love of God 350 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:21.920 deeper yeah simply to know the love of God deeper the deep with the wide the long the high 351 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:29.280 high how like to know that love deeper that is the point of God strengthening us that's the point 352 00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:34.240 of God's power is to teach us how to receive them it's not the only point but it is certainly a 353 00:34:34.240 --> 00:34:42.800 point and I just I just love it I love that God really cares about my inward self rather than just 354 00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:50.160 what I can do for him that's so good I also wanted to add a slightly tangent of a point but to go 355 00:34:50.160 --> 00:34:55.600 into a bit of context if you haven't listened to the other episodes of this series definitely do 356 00:34:55.600 --> 00:35:01.360 especially Ephesians one because we talked a lot about the context of who pulls rise into why 357 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:07.280 this is important and he's right into the people of Ephesus and in Ephesus at the time people were 358 00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:12.960 worshipping loads of different gods and just finding their strength from loads of different places 359 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:19.680 and isn't that quite similar to 2025 in how there are so many different voices that are influencing 360 00:35:19.680 --> 00:35:24.480 us on where to get your strength from get your strength from how people see you or get your 361 00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:29.280 strength from what your friends say or get your strength from having a solid routine or get your 362 00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:34.240 strength from doing this adding this into your routine going and worshipping that going to this place 363 00:35:34.240 --> 00:35:39.680 listening to that being a part of this group but we know that verse 16 tells us that we are empowered 364 00:35:39.680 --> 00:35:44.480 through the inner strength that comes from Jesus that comes from the spirit and I think this is a 365 00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:50.000 healthy check for us to see what's influencing me to get my strength from other places where in my 366 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.960 life do I feel like I'm not fully relying on God to be my source of strength but I'm relying on 367 00:35:54.960 --> 00:36:00.080 other external factors multiple other factors but actually we know that Jesus is the one that gives 368 00:36:00.080 --> 00:36:04.400 us our strength he is the rock in which we stand on um so yeah I just wanted to bring a bit of 369 00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:09.200 context in there but also kind of like healthy challenge like in your own life where you 370 00:36:09.200 --> 00:36:13.840 relying on strength in other places because it's hard to but when you go through the day you might 371 00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:17.280 not even notice and you get to the end of the day and you're like oh Jesus actually didn't rely on 372 00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:22.240 you in that area I went to Instagram first um well that was Jesus I didn't ask you know I asked 373 00:36:22.240 --> 00:36:27.040 somebody else first but I'm going to ask you you know it's such a good question like what strength 374 00:36:27.040 --> 00:36:33.760 in strengthening you what you rely on and something that we've done always talk about is like 375 00:36:33.760 --> 00:36:41.840 God be confident because confidence you see people walk around with their like shoulders back 376 00:36:42.080 --> 00:36:47.680 a bit chest forwards and you're like well they're confident you often have quite a perception 377 00:36:47.680 --> 00:36:53.760 they're like are they must like have quite an ego right like are they comfortable they must be 378 00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:59.440 strong they must think really highly of themselves whereas the humble ones are the ones that like 379 00:37:00.240 --> 00:37:05.360 a bit smaller down a little lower to the ground and but I actually think there's a balance that 380 00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:11.680 sometimes we miss in Christianity in the name of humility we falsely get lower and don't actually 381 00:37:11.680 --> 00:37:18.640 step into the things that God calls us to and for me when I hear the phrase being rooted and 382 00:37:18.640 --> 00:37:24.240 established in love it's that it's that reliance that we're talking about that you were just 383 00:37:24.240 --> 00:37:29.360 speaking about where are you getting your reliance like who are you relying on I want to be a man 384 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:36.000 who's so rooted established in the love of God yeah that I can walk around confident that's good 385 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:41.360 in my father confident in where I stand with my father confident in my identity not because I'm 386 00:37:42.080 --> 00:37:47.920 like confident in me and and therefore I have a huge ego but actually just simply because I know 387 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:52.640 who I am and I think we're sometimes scared of that we're scared of what it is to walk out and 388 00:37:52.640 --> 00:37:57.200 full confidence in who you are because sometimes the world might call it ego but it's actually what 389 00:37:57.200 --> 00:38:03.360 God has designed us to live in I wonder how Adam walks around in the garden pretty soon do you 390 00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:08.480 think he was falsely humble kind of like oh should I tend to this leaf or I don't know am I 391 00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:12.720 the right person for it maybe someone else around anyone no it's just you you were designed for 392 00:38:12.720 --> 00:38:18.000 that yeah like there's actually a godly confidence that we've been designed to step into and 393 00:38:19.120 --> 00:38:23.760 Zenia I think you're actually really good at this I was a little confused when I met you 394 00:38:23.760 --> 00:38:33.520 I'll be honest a few years ago and I saw yourself on your lock screen and I was like what the heck 395 00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:39.760 is it is she like a narcissist some self-love queen like what what is going on and I didn't get it I 396 00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:45.920 found it like a little bit jarring at the time because I didn't know what it was to be like 397 00:38:46.640 --> 00:38:50.880 almost so confident this is who I am this is my phone like I'm gonna step in because the father's 398 00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:56.800 designing like this and I actually think you walk really well in that I think you hear from God 399 00:38:56.880 --> 00:39:03.280 and what you're called to and you just step into it and and you have like a seriously godly confidence 400 00:39:05.040 --> 00:39:10.480 and I wish that I want to be more like that I want to be more rooted in love the love of the 401 00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:19.360 father also the love of myself through the love of the father yeah well yeah and I think humility isn't 402 00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:27.040 necessarily being shy or quiet or actually is the confidence of knowing who you are but knowing 403 00:39:27.040 --> 00:39:31.920 where God has placed you and that that is who you are and actually I don't think I think we can 404 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:38.240 often misinterpret humility but I think they're really linked actually because actually to be 405 00:39:38.240 --> 00:39:44.080 properly humble you need the confidence that God's there but when you got the godly confidence 406 00:39:44.080 --> 00:39:47.520 then you can walk into a space knowing who you are but also you have the humility to know who you 407 00:39:48.480 --> 00:39:51.920 um to actually do work quite close together and I'll also agree with it so you're humble going 408 00:39:54.080 --> 00:40:01.440 I also the words rooted and established I also have it all I they stood out to me because obviously 409 00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:06.560 rooted is like the tree and the roots that will grow and get deep and go around the rocks and 410 00:40:06.560 --> 00:40:12.480 stuff and so when when the storms come that tree is not gonna fall and then established is like um 411 00:40:13.120 --> 00:40:19.520 it's like a building that has settled so again like it won't be shaken like it is 412 00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:27.360 it is solid and it is there and it is strong and yeah I think he often uses quite like building 413 00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:32.080 in terms as well doesn't he actually I'll pull um he's put a lot of construction and stuff oh my gosh 414 00:40:32.080 --> 00:40:38.160 well probably thinking about I've been to Ephesus guys um I have and like everything's built of 415 00:40:38.160 --> 00:40:43.200 marble like it's literally like insane these buildings are still around today a lot of them 416 00:40:43.200 --> 00:40:48.960 like they are strong they were established they've literally lasted like I don't know 417 00:40:50.240 --> 00:40:55.600 thousands of years because they are they they are established they are firm and actually if 418 00:40:55.600 --> 00:41:00.720 that's even a good example of looking at the city of Ephesus where this marble has lasted um 419 00:41:00.720 --> 00:41:05.280 three thousands of years purely because it was you know well settled and looked after and 420 00:41:05.280 --> 00:41:09.600 rooted in the right things I think that when we're rooted in his love and we're rooted in the 421 00:41:09.600 --> 00:41:14.960 knowledge of the confidence of who Jesus is then we can also stand for maybe not thousands of years 422 00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:23.760 but um stand for for a long time but also like it says in verse 19 it's too great to understand 423 00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:30.000 fully but you can experience it yeah yeah and I think so many people I had this thought before 424 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.160 that I can't come to God or I'll be I'll be a Christian later when I've like read my Bible and 425 00:41:34.160 --> 00:41:38.560 like when I understand a few things and I've been to church a more times or whatever and you 426 00:41:38.560 --> 00:41:44.640 hear that so many times but I'll come to God when I know more when I've but you don't need to know 427 00:41:44.640 --> 00:41:49.520 more to experience God's love you can actually just experience God's love by accepting Jesus 428 00:41:49.520 --> 00:41:54.880 and inviting Him into your heart yeah and Him into your life and so I love that God literally 429 00:41:54.880 --> 00:42:00.400 lowers the bar so low like you don't have to jump over these hoops to know what God's love feels 430 00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:05.360 like you can experience God's love right now you can experience God's love today you can 431 00:42:05.360 --> 00:42:10.640 experience God's love whenever because Jesus's presence is all around He's here um and I just 432 00:42:10.640 --> 00:42:15.120 love that so simple but say powerful like you don't need to be doing the most to understand God's 433 00:42:15.120 --> 00:42:20.160 love when the invitation to experience it is open to you yeah and it's coming back to that point 434 00:42:20.160 --> 00:42:26.960 that it's it's forever process yeah even that language like it says in verse 19 and to know this 435 00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:32.800 love that surpasses knowledge to know this love that surpasses knowing like how can you know 436 00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:37.840 something that is above knowing it's because you're invited into a story to begin to understand 437 00:42:37.840 --> 00:42:43.200 something forever because you'll never feel to get it um and I just I think that's so beautiful 438 00:42:43.200 --> 00:42:49.600 that God God wants to invite us into this journey of knowing um yeah yeah I've got a final thought 439 00:42:49.600 --> 00:42:53.120 but before you got do you guys have any final thoughts before we're bringing to land I'll do 440 00:42:53.120 --> 00:42:58.960 one final thought go on is it's one of my favorite verses that we haven't spoken on no it was 441 00:42:58.960 --> 00:43:07.120 exciting it is the verse he who can is able to do it amazingly more than we can ask or imagine 442 00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:12.640 and I think that is a verse that I often reminded of when I'm praying when I'm often reminded of 443 00:43:12.640 --> 00:43:17.680 people going through stuff but also I think it's a for me it's almost like that the game a bit of 444 00:43:17.680 --> 00:43:21.840 a challenge we're like well that's what's the biggest we can imagine what's the biggest what's the 445 00:43:21.840 --> 00:43:26.240 biggest prayers we can actually think of for this world for our lives for our friends for those 446 00:43:26.240 --> 00:43:31.200 around us because God can do a measly more than that yeah and so actually and I I did a listen 447 00:43:31.200 --> 00:43:36.320 to a sermon once that was talking about like maybe our prayers are too small like maybe that's 448 00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:42.160 part maybe that's an issue that actually we have limited to the small amount of prayers of like oh can 449 00:43:42.160 --> 00:43:49.440 I get a parking spot can I make some nice friends can I join I don't know I'm doing very trivial 450 00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:58.320 ones he can do a measly more than we can ask or imagine so let's ask more let's imagine more and 451 00:43:58.320 --> 00:44:02.160 actually a lot of the time will God will place some of these thoughts and these desires in our heart 452 00:44:02.160 --> 00:44:06.640 for us to pray for so let's lean into it and pray more and ask more and imagine more because I 453 00:44:06.640 --> 00:44:10.480 think God will really use that because he listens to our prayers he answers our prayers it's part of 454 00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:16.720 his plan and that's a verse I'm always reminded of there is no ask too big in fact he can do a 455 00:44:16.720 --> 00:44:22.640 measly more than we could even imagine this is like I feel like this is a good I don't believe in 456 00:44:22.640 --> 00:44:28.560 like cherry picking verses but I think if you need a verse to like inspire your faith or to help 457 00:44:28.560 --> 00:44:34.080 you like be bold and be confident like we spoke about a couple verses ago this is such a good 458 00:44:34.080 --> 00:44:38.960 uncle one to have in the back pocket because you're gonna go through circumstances where life will 459 00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:43.120 come against you in your faith spoiler alert these things will happen and you're gonna go through 460 00:44:43.120 --> 00:44:47.360 circumstances where you feel a bit rocked so you you might feel like oh God I can see this 461 00:44:47.360 --> 00:44:51.120 coming against me can you do it and you come back to verses like this and it's like oh you can 462 00:44:51.760 --> 00:44:56.320 you can it's such a good reminder for the soul that God can do way more than the mountain that's 463 00:44:56.320 --> 00:45:00.640 in front of you the obstacle that's in front of you the dream that your dream like he can do so 464 00:45:00.640 --> 00:45:06.480 much more and I think for me in my life I've seen me pray this prayer like God can you reveal 465 00:45:06.480 --> 00:45:11.040 that you can do it seeing the abundantly more and he does it time and time again yeah and so I 466 00:45:11.120 --> 00:45:16.000 really love that if you need the scripture yeah in your back pocket this is a great one time I 467 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:21.360 use it like embarrassingly amount like I use it so much I love it so good love it and I love 468 00:45:21.360 --> 00:45:28.000 that it comes after such a message of love yeah my takeaway is the words of like boundless and the 469 00:45:29.120 --> 00:45:35.120 the the deep wide the emotionally more like there's so much language in this whereas like we need 470 00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:42.080 open our eyes and minds to understand how big he is yeah we can have the confidence to come to him 471 00:45:42.720 --> 00:45:48.320 so for me that's my takeaway what's your horse I'd love to be the boldness um but I was really 472 00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:53.680 struck by that the fact that we have the Holy Spirit as our reminder that God is with us and so 473 00:45:53.680 --> 00:45:59.840 because we are reminded of that we can come to God boldly in whatever circumstance or situation 474 00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:04.640 wherever he did last night where we did this morning none of that matters you can come to God boldly 475 00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:11.120 because he's opening that invitation for us to come to him so I love I love that come on 476 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:18.400 and uh let us know your takeaway in the comment section below we should we make them leave 477 00:46:18.400 --> 00:46:24.640 if you made it this far leave the pencil emoji like uh what's your takeaway you'll know yeah 478 00:46:24.640 --> 00:46:29.360 and guys the series is still going Ephesians it's been great so far from what you've told me I 479 00:46:29.360 --> 00:46:33.360 haven't I haven't heard I haven't listened to any of the podcasts but I've read Ephesians before 480 00:46:33.360 --> 00:46:38.000 and we've got more coming out soon so make sure you track along with the series it's going to be 481 00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:43.520 awesome so subscribe give us a like and you'll be seeing our content soon and we'll see you soon 482 00:46:43.520 --> 00:46:49.280 you sound goodbye yesterday I'm living in a light of a new day