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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

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Speaker 2: the podcast that Examina's one verse each day to learn

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Speaker 2: more about God and his will for us. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Carol McCracken. We're continuing our lent series God Meets You

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Speaker 2: in the Wilderness, and after a short word from our sponsor,

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Speaker 2: we'll dive into today's Bible verses Ephesians two four through five.

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Speaker 2: As we continue our Lenten series, God Meets You in

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Speaker 2: the Wilderness. Today's passage reminds us that even in the

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Speaker 2: most barren places of our lives, God brings life where.

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Speaker 1: There was only death.

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Speaker 2: Today's Bible verses Ephesians two four through five. But because

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Speaker 2: of his great love for us, God, who is rich

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Speaker 2: in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we

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Speaker 2: were dead in transgressions. It is by grace who have

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Speaker 2: been saved. Have you ever walked through a season that

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Speaker 2: felt spiritually dry, not traumatic, not chaotic, just empty. You're

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Speaker 2: doing the right things, showing up, praying, serving, trying, but

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Speaker 2: inside something feels flat, lifeless, like the spark's gone. Lent

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Speaker 2: As a way of exposing that, it strips away noise

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Speaker 2: and invites us to look honestly at what's underneath, and

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Speaker 2: sometimes what we find is just weakness. It's exhaustion, disconnection,

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Speaker 2: even a quiet sense of spiritual numbness. That's the wilderness.

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Speaker 2: This is how I built after my divorce. I don't

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Speaker 2: even believe in divorce, yet it seemed the only answer

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Speaker 2: to provide a calm environment for our son, who was

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Speaker 2: struggling with several issues. Since there was no guidebook in

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Speaker 2: how to parent someone with our son's challenges, my husband

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Speaker 2: and I found ourselves at odds with how to handle it.

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Speaker 2: Out of weariness and defeat, we knew we needed to

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Speaker 2: stop the constant disagreement and dialed down on the hostile environment.

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Speaker 2: So we separated. And here's the truth that Phesians two

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Speaker 2: speaks into that space. God specializes in bringing life where

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Speaker 2: there was only death, not improvement, not behavior modification.

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Speaker 1: Life. Paul writes Ephesians to.

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Speaker 2: Believers learning how to live in a world full of

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Speaker 2: competing voices and spiritual confusion. In chapter two, he doesn't

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Speaker 2: begin with encouragement, he begins with reality.

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Speaker 1: He describes humanity.

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Speaker 2: Apart from Christ, is spiritually dead, cut off from God,

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Speaker 2: following the patterns of the world, unable to restore ourselves.

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Speaker 2: But then he pivots this passage is not ultimately about death,

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Speaker 2: It's about resurrection. It's about the God who steps into

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Speaker 2: lifeless places and makes them breed again. Paul opens with

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Speaker 2: the statement that's meant to stop us in our tracks.

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Speaker 2: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and

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Speaker 2: sins into one dead, not struggling, not wandering, not mostly okay.

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Speaker 2: Dead means powerless, unresponsive, unable to revive yourself. And then

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Speaker 2: Paul describes the wilderness we once lived in, following culture,

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Speaker 2: following our own desires, pulled along by sin, separated from God.

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Speaker 2: And then comes the turning point of the gospel. But

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Speaker 2: because of his great love for us God, not because

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Speaker 2: we improved, not because we tried harder, not because we

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Speaker 2: figured it out.

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Speaker 1: Because of his love.

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Speaker 2: God, who is rich in mercy, made us allied with

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Speaker 2: Christ even when we were dead. Notice the timing, not

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Speaker 2: when we cleaned up, not when we were spiritually strong.

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Speaker 2: When we were dead. God didn't meet us half way.

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Speaker 2: He brought life into a place where life did not exist.

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Speaker 2: And Paul repeats it so we won't miss it. It

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Speaker 2: is by grace you have been saved. Grace is resurrection language.

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Speaker 2: It means God gives what we could never generate, and

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Speaker 2: the verse ten reveals why the new life matters, for

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Speaker 2: we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do

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Speaker 2: good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

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Speaker 2: God doesn't just revive us, He restores purpose to us.

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Speaker 2: Now here's the heart of the gospel that this passage reveals.

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Speaker 2: God doesn't just tell people who are struggling. He brings

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Speaker 2: life to people who were dead. That changes everything, because

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Speaker 2: many of us still live like we're trying to resuscitate

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Speaker 2: ourselves spiritually, we strive, perform, we promise God we'll do

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Speaker 2: better this time. But resurrection does come from effort. He

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Speaker 2: comes from God. Lynch reminds us of the wilderness, the

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Speaker 2: places where we feel empty, stuck, a shame, disconnected, or

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Speaker 2: worn down. Ephesians reminds us that wilderness does not the

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Speaker 2: end of the story. God enters bearing places and breeds life.

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Speaker 2: He did it at creation, he did it in Ezekiel's

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Speaker 2: Valley of dry bones, he did it at the resurrection

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Speaker 2: of Jesus, and he does it in us, where there

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Speaker 2: was only death. He brings life where there was only shame.

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Speaker 2: He brings mercy where there was only striving. He brings grace.

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Speaker 2: The Christian life doesn't begin with self improvement. It begins

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Speaker 2: with divine intervention. So what does that mean for us?

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Speaker 2: Right now in the middle are maye the end of lent.

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Speaker 2: It means you don't have to manufacture spiritual life. You

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Speaker 2: don't have to fake passion, you don't have to pretend strength.

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Speaker 2: You don't have to revive yourself. You bring your wilderness

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Speaker 2: honestly before God, your numbness and weakness, your weariness, your habit.

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Speaker 2: You can't break your places of regret, your sense of

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Speaker 2: distance from Him, and you.

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Speaker 1: Trust this truth.

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Speaker 2: God brings life where there was only death. Maybe you

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Speaker 2: feel spiritually dry, Maybe prayer feels mechanical, Maybe scripture feels distant.

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Speaker 2: Maybe shame has convinced you that change is impossible. Ephesians

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Speaker 2: too says life does not begin when you feel ready.

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Speaker 2: It begins when God moves, and He already has through

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Speaker 2: Christ and death and resurrection in the life of God

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Speaker 2: is available to you now, not later, not when you

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Speaker 2: get it together.

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Speaker 1: Now you're not.

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Speaker 2: Waiting for life, and you've been invited into it. As

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Speaker 2: we continue our letting journey toward the cross and the

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Speaker 2: empty tomb. Let this truth anchor you. God meets us

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Speaker 2: in the wilderness not to leave us there, but to

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Speaker 2: make us alive. You may feel stuck, tire, spiritually flat,

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Speaker 2: but your story is not defined by the places that

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Speaker 2: feel dead, because the same God who raised Jesus from

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Speaker 2: the grave still brings life today, life and weary hearts,

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Speaker 2: life in broken stories, life and people who thought nothing

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Speaker 2: could change. That includes you. So here's your step today.

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Speaker 2: Stop trying to create life on your own. Instead, ask

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Speaker 2: God to bring life into the places that feel empty,

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Speaker 2: and then watch slowly, faithfully, sometimes quietly, as he does

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Speaker 2: what only he can do. Because the Gospel is this

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Speaker 2: simple and this powerful. Where there was only death, God

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Speaker 2: brings life. And just to encourage you, knowing that this

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean God restores every relationship in the way that

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Speaker 2: we expect. God chose to allow me and my husband

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Speaker 2: to reconcile. Neither one of us would have believed it

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Speaker 2: could happen after the way we parted, but God made

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Speaker 2: a way. Will you pray with me, Dear Lord in heaven,

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Speaker 2: Thank you for what you do for us. There's nothing

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Speaker 2: that we can do on our own to create life.

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Speaker 2: Only you can do that, and you create it in

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Speaker 2: the most remarkable ways. In fact, you can restore it.

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Speaker 2: In scripture, there's example upon example of spiritual dryness, and it's

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Speaker 2: very easy to apply that to what we call spiritual giant.

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Speaker 2: But Lord, you do it for us, sometimes in miraculous ways,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes you just quietly step in and repair and

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Speaker 2: restore and recreate, because you're you, the God who makes

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Speaker 2: things in.

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Speaker 1: People in places alive again.

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Speaker 2: In your precious name, we pray Amen MHM.