Welcome to episode 183 of Grasp the Bible. In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 5:1-21. Today, we will cover:

- Be imitators of God

· But now through Christ we are one.

· We have the same promises.

· We are one people and one body. Come on everybody

Key takeaways:

· Be imitators of God

· Walk In Love

· Walk as Children of Light

· Wal in Wisdom

Quotable:

· “The statement to be imitators is grounded in being a child of God.

· “To walk in love means to exercise love that is self-sacrificial, costly, and offered for the well being of others.”

· “Works of darkness bear no fruit, and the Light exposes works of darkness.”

· “Don’t waste your days, make the days count.”

Application:

· To imitate God, I must be a child of God.

· Transformed believers then are to live according to the love, light, and wisdom that Paul exhorts and our God perfectly embodies.

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Welcome to episode 182 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 4:25-32.  Today, we will cover: 

- Spiritual attributes believers should embody,

• From Falsehood to Truth
• Righteous Anger vs Unrighteous Anger
• Stealing vs Honest Labor
• Speech that tears down vs Speech that builds up
• Grieving The Holy Spirit vs Honoring the Holy Spirit
• The sin of the heart vs The Fruit of the Spirit

Key takeaways:

· Instead of asking if your outfit makes YOU look good we need to ask daily if our spiritual outfit makes us look like CHRIST.

· The Style Has Changed…It is time to get rid of the old and put on the new.

· Paul is about to share the spiritual fashion rules of what to wear and why it is vitally important.

Quotable:

· “We need a spiritual fit check!”

· “The source of this Fruit is God and we have access to it through the Spirit.”

· “We are not wearing attributes God also wears, we are wearing attributes that God himself is.”

· “He did this all to show the matchless love and grace of God.”

Application:

We need a spiritual fit check. Ask these questions of yourself.

• Are you wearing knockoffs or name brands?
  • Christians should be wearing name brands only!
• Who’s hand me down’s are you wearing?
  • Attributes the world has passed down? Or attributes only Jesus perfectly wore?
• What did you do with your old clothes?
  • Did you get rid of them or did you put them up for later use?
  • GET RID OF THEM!

Connect with us:

Web site: https://springbaptist.org

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus)

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Need us to pray for you? Submit your prayer request to: https://springbaptist.org/prayer/

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Welcome to episode 181 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 4:17-24.  Today, we will cover: 

• Exhortation to Live Differently Than Non-Christians (v. 17) 
• Description of the Condition and Lifestyle of Non-Christian Gentiles (vv. 18–19) 
• The New Identity in Christ and Exhortation to the New Lifestyle (vv. 20–24) 

Key takeaways: 

• Life is vain, futile, and without purpose, unless it is ordered around God and His purposes. 
• The characteristics of lives of unbelievers are: 
• They are darkened in their understanding. 
• They are separated from the life of God. 
• they are ignorant of God in the sense that they have rejected Him and do not know Him personally. 
• They have hard hearts. 
• They have lost all sensitivity.  
• They have given themselves over to sensuality. 
• They indulge in every kind of impurity. 
• They are full of greed. 

Quotable: 

• Christian belief includes Christian ethics. 

Application: 

• Christians are called to live their daily lives in a way that is sharply differentiated from the world around them and from the lifestyle that characterized their pre-Christian past. 
• The worldviews and lifestyles of the unbelieving Gentiles are utterly opposed to the new life that these believers have in Christ. 
• Once we recognize the emptiness and hopelessness of the old ways, we should be filled with horror at our terrible choices and throw them far away. 
• As believers, we must... 
• put off the old,  
• be made new,  
• and put on the new.  

Until we have followed through on all of these, we cannot pretend to be living God’s way. 

• Those who live holy lives do so by repeated putting offs. 
• We must allow the Holy Spirit to reshape our way of thinking and thereby resist the deceitful desires of sin. 

Connect with us: 

Web site:  https://springbaptist.org 

Facebook:   

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus) 

Need us to pray for you?  Submit your prayer request to https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider. 

Welcome to episode 180 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 4:7-16. 

· Unity Is important to God

· Unity Was established by God

· Part of our Christian Duty is to pursue Unity

· Jesus Equips us each differently for the health and unity of the church

Key takeaways:

· The giver of spiritual gifts is the ascended Christ

· The types of gifts are extremely varied

· The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts is Service

· Unity Demands the Maturity of Our Growth

Quotable:

· “Christ ascended as a conqueror to the father’s right hand, and his captives being the rulers and authorites he had defeated, dethroned, and disarmed.”

· “Just like moses received the law and gave it to Israel so Christ received the Spirit and gave Him to His people in order to right God’s law in their hearts.”

· “So Although we are unified this unity is not to be misunderstood as a lifeless or colorless uniformity.”

· “When we use our gifts it edifies others, when we don’t us our gifts unity is broken, church growth haults, and we don’t love each other like we should.”

Application:

· Identify Your Role

· Identify Your Gifts

· Walk In a Manner worthy

o Use your Gifts

o Choose to be a useful member of the body or Be a drain on the body

Connect with us:

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Facebook:

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Need us to pray for you? Submit your prayer request to: https://springbaptist.org/prayer/

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provide

Welcome to episode 179 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 4:1-6.  Today, we will cover: 

• The Means for Maintaining Unity (vv. 1–3) 
• The Basis for Unity (vv. 4-6) 

Key takeaways: 

• Paul formally begins the second half of the letter, but he does so depending on all he has said up to this point. 
• The first is an exhortation to maintain unity within this newly constituted body of believers. 
• Although we might expect Paul to encourage his readers to strive to attain unity in the church, he actually implores them to maintain a unity that already exists. That unity is from the Spirit. 
• Verses 4-6 emphasize the idea of oneness that should pervade the church. 
• Recognition of our calling by God diminishes our sense of self-importance and enables us to cultivate the humility that is so foundational to unity. God did not choose us and call us because we were so awesome. Our calling represents God’s initiative and His unmerited grace upon us. 

Quotable: 

• Christian belief comes before Christian living. The mindset must be changed before one’s conduct can follow suit. 

Application: 

• In Paul’s thought, and especially in Ephesians, a changed life comes before good behavior. The new identity in Christ is what produces the good works. 
• New Testament ethics centers on living a worthy life before God. 
• The virtues listed in verses 2-3 tell us how to live a life worthy of God’s calling. 
• It is essential to work on developing Christlike virtues that enhance unity. 
• Unity begins by sharing a commitment to a common faith. 
• The unity of believers stems from a common calling by God. 

Connect with us: 

Web site:  https://springbaptist.org 

Facebook:   

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus) 

Need us to pray for you?  Submit your prayer request to https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider. 

Welcome to episode 178 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 3:14-21.  Today, we will cover: 

• The Address to the Father (vv. 14-15) 
• A Request for Power and Love (vv. 16-17) 
• A Request for an Increasing Awareness of God’s Power and Love (vv. 18-19) 
• A Doxology (vv. 20-21) 

Key takeaways: 

• No principality or authority keeps God from supernaturally strengthening His people through the indwelling Spirit and through their relationship to the exalted Christ. 
• God possesses extraordinary might, which He is able and willing to impart to His people. 
• The church consists of a family (the people of God) living in a sacred structure (the church as a house and a temple) where Christ dwells in and with us. 
• Paul wants them to know both the power of God and the love of God. In other words, Paul wants them to be confident that God has the ability to carry out His loving plan of redemption. 
• Paul prays that these believers will not only have a profound understanding of the vastness of God’s power, but that they will also develop a much deeper understanding of Christ’s love. In saying this, however, he lets them know that the love of Christ is so great that they will never comprehend the full extent of it. 

Quotable: 

• It is impossible for the human mind to think deeply enough to encompass the reality of all that God can do. 

Application: 

• The principal goal of the church is to bring glory to God for all that He is and all that He has done. 
• God’s power works in the lives of believers, enabling them to live the lives He calls them to live. 

Connect with us: 

Web site:  https://springbaptist.org 

Facebook:   

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus) 

Need us to pray for you?  Submit your prayer request to https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider. 

Welcome to episode 177 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 3:1-13.  Today, we will cover: 

• The Revelation of the Mystery to Paul (3:1–7) 
• The Nature of Paul’s Stewardship of the Mystery (3:8–12) 
• Paul’s Concern for the Readers (3:13) 

Key takeaways: 

• There is a divine plan, and Paul has been selected to be an administrator of it.  At the center of this plan is God’s intent to create a special household of people who actually form a home that He indwells—a corporate body of both Jews and Greeks, whom He has redeemed with his own blood. 
• There was no generation among God’s people who could have anticipated the full extent of what God would accomplish through His Messiah. 
• At the heart of the mystery God has revealed is the fact that Gentiles now share equally with Jews in the blessings of the new covenant life with God.   
• Christ has broken down that wall, making one new people out of two previously divided people. So now both Jew and Gentile approach God equally on that new basis. 
• The revelation of God’s wisdom to the powers in the heavenly places happens through the church. 
• The Church is not an option for believers, nor is supporting it an option. 

Quotable: 

• God is in control and is sovereignly and powerfully fulfilling His plan of redemption just as He intended it from the beginning. 

Application: 

• Because of His kindness, love, and mercy coupled with the reconciliation that has taken place by the blood of Jesus Christ, believers can experience a closeness to God. 
• As part of this relationship, God’s people need feel no restraint in approaching God in prayer or worship. They can pray at any time with no fear of being turned away because of ritual impurity or some form of unworthiness. 
• Because of what Christ has accomplished, they can approach God with full confidence 
• The Church exists as a multiracial and multicultural community. No ethnicity is disadvantaged in the body of Christ. No one, whatever that person’s background might be, is barred from membership and participation in this new community. 

Connect with us: 

Web site:  https://springbaptist.org 

Facebook:   

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus) 

Need us to pray for you?  Submit your prayer request to https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider. 

Welcome to episode 176 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 2:11-22.  Today we cover:      
 

•  We were two people Jew and please don't Gentile
•  But now through Christ we are one.
• We have the same promises.
• We are one people and one body. Come on everybody

Key takeaways:

• Paul first shares that we were all lost and totally depraved, then he shares that Gentiles were strangers without hope.
• But God made you alive, and now, in Christ, you are also one new man. 
• Transcendent reconciliation is when He not only reconciles us to Himself but also to each other. 

Quotable:

• Main Idea: “God's restoration goes beyond our most desperate need to include our every need.”
• “So, Gentiles remember that not only were you dead but you were hopeless because you didn't have the same promises Israel had. BUT NOW!”
• In Christ, God accomplishes His mission of reconciliation. 
• “He did this all to show the matchless love and grace of God.”

Application:

• We must get the vertical relationship (with God) first before we have any hope of getting out horizontal relationships (with others) right.
• I’ve got to get right with God first. 

Connect with us: 

Web site: https://springbaptist.org

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus)

Need us to pray for you? Submit your prayer request to:

https://springbaptist.org/prayer/

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider

Welcome to episode 175 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 2:1-10.  Today we cover:

• The state of mankind (both Jew and Gentile)
• The way in which God steps in.
• The means by which we access his grace.
• The beauty of God’s word and his redemptive plan for humanity.

Key takeaways:

• We had a heart condition. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. This was a universal condition because we all (Jew and Gentile) were dead in our trespasses and sins.
• Why did Jesus save us? All for the praise of his glory.
• Through this text we see beauty. We see the beauty of God’s power, the beauty in unity, and the beauty of God’s love.

Quotable:

• Main Idea: “It’s all to show the matchless Love and Grace of God.”
• “In response to our spiritual bankruptcy and our spiritual death we get an amazing response …. But God!”
• “He brought us from death to life, he put the miraculous defibrillator on our spiritual chest and brought us back to life.”
• “Faith is the means by which we gain access to the beautiful grace of God.”

Application:

• We must recognize our condition,
• In doing so, we realize our desperate need for a savior.
• In doing so, we realize the commonality we have with all people.
• In doing so, we realize that it was never about us. It wasn’t something I could earn, and it wasn’t something I deserved, but rather, it came from an overflow of God’s love.

Connect with us:

Web site: https://springbaptist.org

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus)

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus)

Need us to pray for you? Submit your prayer request to: https://springbaptist.org/prayer/

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider.

Welcome to episode 174 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Ephesians, covering chapter 1:15-23.  Today, we will cover: 

• The Occasion for the Prayer (v. 15) 
• The Thanksgiving and Prayer (vv. 16-19) 
• A Description of the Magnitude of God’s Power (vv. 20-23) 

Key takeaways: 

• Our faith is both a saving faith (we have salvation in Jesus Christ) and a practical faith (we believe that Jesus enables us to live out what he has planned for us. 
• Knowing Christ is one of the New Testament’s ways of describing saving faith.  The questions which must be asked are: Do we really know Christ? Are we in him? Is he in us? Does he know us?  Is there an intimate exchange between him and us? 
• The Spirit who came upon the Messiah is the same Spirit who now rests upon his people and provides knowledge, wisdom, and power. 
• As an earthly king values treasuries full of silver and gold, God values His people as His wealth and honor. 
• Christ can impart to the church all of the empowering resources it needs to resist the attacks of powers and to engage in the mission of filling the world that God has called it to. 
• The church is filled with power and grace from its exalted Lord, who, in turn, extends his reign throughout heaven and earth through the church. 

Quotable: 

• The great need of any church, whether it is healthy or not, is knowing Christ —a better, deeper, fuller knowledge of Christ. 

Application: 

• Paul calls the Ephesians to love ALL believers.  As Jonathan Swift once said, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.”  Our surface Christianity arms us with what we think are proper prejudices and a rationale for criticizing those who fall short, keeping them at arm’s length. 
• Do we delight at hearing of the faith and love of others? Do we rejoice in others’ spiritual attainments? Especially revealing, do we praise God when this is happening in places we are not present? Other churches? Other organizations? 
• We don’t need more truth or better truth (which is impossible!). We simply need our spiritual eyes opened to the truths that surround us. 

Connect with us: 

Web site:  https://springbaptist.org 

Facebook:   

https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus) 

Need us to pray for you?  Submit your prayer request to https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

If you haven’t already done so, please leave us a rating and review in your podcast provider.