WEBVTT - The Secret to Freedom and Confidence– Part 1 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.960 Today on Bold steps with Mark job, we're discovering what 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.600 the Apostle Paul meant when he talked about the mystery 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:07.520 of Christ. 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.600 All of you here have gifts of God, God's given gifts. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.640 God gives that person one gift, that person, someone else 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.200 a gift. But we all have supernatural gifts given to 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.520 us by God that are graces that God has put 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.160 onto our life, that equip us for the mission that 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.000 God has called us to accomplish. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.240 And welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe. Mark 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.080 is senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.920 of Moody Bible Institute, both in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.519 we all know people who are great at keeping secrets. 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.520 And then there are others. Not so much. Mark, where 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:56.840 do you fall on that scale? 0:00:57.840 --> 0:00:59.240 I'm a great secret keeper. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:00:59.600 Are you. 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.760 Actually. Finally, you have to torture it out of. 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.880 Me to get me. But, you know, my kids growing 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:09.120 up weren't that good. My wife would plan a surprise 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.640 birthday party or something special, and she would tell my kids, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:18.280 don't tell dad. Invariably, they would come running to the 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.560 door and say, hey, dad, we have a secret we 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.360 can't tell you, and it wouldn't take much to get 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:25.760 it out of them. I like really okay. Well what? 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.040 And they would just want to blurt it. Okay, dad. 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.959 And they would tell me. That's cool. Well, Ephesians chapter 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:35.320 three talks about the mystery, the secret of the gospel 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.880 and how it was revealed to us. And I think 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.640 this is a very, very compelling, powerful passage. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.520 It is indeed Ephesians chapter three today from our series. 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.000 When you believe everything Changes. Here's Mark Jobe. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:57.040 Here's what I believe. I believe that everybody's called everybody. 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.850 Some people think that there are certain certain people that 0:02:01.850 --> 0:02:04.730 are called and others that are not called. And so 0:02:04.730 --> 0:02:07.930 they sort of have two categories of people. These are 0:02:07.930 --> 0:02:11.370 the called people and these are the non called people. 0:02:12.010 --> 0:02:16.369 I happen to believe that everybody's called. Now not everybody 0:02:16.370 --> 0:02:21.530 responds to their call. Not everybody understands their call. Not 0:02:21.530 --> 0:02:25.290 everybody engages in their call. But I happen to believe 0:02:25.290 --> 0:02:30.210 that everybody in this room, you have been called, you 0:02:30.210 --> 0:02:34.170 have a calling on your life, a specific, unique, custom 0:02:34.169 --> 0:02:40.570 made mission that God is, has, has engineered for you 0:02:40.570 --> 0:02:45.250 and called you to. And Paul is talking about really 0:02:45.250 --> 0:02:49.570 his mission. And in verse one of Ephesians chapter three, 0:02:50.290 --> 0:02:54.970 he says, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of 0:02:54.970 --> 0:02:58.570 Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles. Now he 0:02:58.570 --> 0:03:04.690 uses a very interesting Steam introduction there. He says, I, Paul, 0:03:04.690 --> 0:03:08.810 the prisoner of Christ Jesus, the prisoner of Christ Jesus. Well, 0:03:08.810 --> 0:03:12.650 Paul happened to be in house arrest. Don't raise your 0:03:12.650 --> 0:03:15.370 hand if you've been in house arrest here, but I'm 0:03:15.370 --> 0:03:19.330 sure some of you have. And nowadays, it's not the 0:03:19.330 --> 0:03:22.970 house arrest in the days of Paul. Nowadays, they put 0:03:22.970 --> 0:03:27.170 a little ankle bracelet on you, and they can track 0:03:27.169 --> 0:03:29.810 whether you leave the house or not. In the days 0:03:29.810 --> 0:03:32.450 of Paul, there were no ankle bracelets. So he was 0:03:32.450 --> 0:03:36.090 in a house guarded by some guards. He was not 0:03:36.090 --> 0:03:39.530 in a physical prison. He was in the equivalent of 0:03:39.570 --> 0:03:43.330 26 ankle Cook County. Because really, Cook County is a 0:03:43.330 --> 0:03:47.290 jail and the jail is there for you to await 0:03:48.050 --> 0:03:53.450 sentencing or await trial. And in essence, Paul was awaiting 0:03:53.490 --> 0:03:57.970 trial in front of the Roman emperor. But it would 0:03:57.970 --> 0:04:02.820 take sometimes months and even sometimes years to come before 0:04:02.820 --> 0:04:06.660 the Emperor because, uh. Hey, that that's. There's a long 0:04:06.660 --> 0:04:12.220 wait there. Paul was in house arrest, and he says this. 0:04:12.220 --> 0:04:17.420 He says I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the 0:04:17.460 --> 0:04:22.540 sake of you Gentiles. The reason that Paul was in 0:04:22.540 --> 0:04:26.940 house arrest was because he had a mission in his life. 0:04:26.940 --> 0:04:31.180 And his mission, his particular mission and vision, had led 0:04:31.180 --> 0:04:38.099 him to preach a message that was unpopular in Jerusalem, 0:04:38.540 --> 0:04:41.260 and therefore they had arrested him and were going to 0:04:41.260 --> 0:04:45.099 put him to death. But he appealed to Caesar. And now, 0:04:45.100 --> 0:04:48.820 because he was following his mission and his calling in life, 0:04:48.820 --> 0:04:52.740 he's in prison. Let me just start by saying this. 0:04:53.500 --> 0:04:57.460 Sometimes we feel that if we're doing the work of 0:04:57.460 --> 0:05:02.380 God and following the mission of God, that everything's going 0:05:02.420 --> 0:05:05.979 to be easy, but we feel that doors are going 0:05:06.020 --> 0:05:09.100 to pop open in front of us, that if there's 0:05:09.100 --> 0:05:12.380 any obstacles, God's going to send lightning bolts to just 0:05:12.540 --> 0:05:16.099 fumigate him out of our way. That the Red sea 0:05:16.100 --> 0:05:18.740 is going to be parting open, that there's going to 0:05:18.740 --> 0:05:20.860 be a smell of roses that's going to lead us 0:05:20.860 --> 0:05:23.540 to the path of God, and that we're always going 0:05:23.580 --> 0:05:30.420 to be happy, energized, and never have obstacles. Not. That's 0:05:30.420 --> 0:05:34.659 really not the way it works. Paul was following his 0:05:34.660 --> 0:05:37.300 mission and his call, and he ended up in prison. 0:05:37.820 --> 0:05:43.620 Sometimes your call, your mission will have a heavy price 0:05:43.620 --> 0:05:48.180 tag on it. And it doesn't mean just because you're 0:05:48.180 --> 0:05:50.900 going through a hard time, it doesn't mean that you're 0:05:50.980 --> 0:05:55.620 on the wrong track. Sometimes God's mission and his call 0:05:55.620 --> 0:06:00.419 will lead us to hard times. Now, in order to 0:06:00.550 --> 0:06:07.110 understand the call of God on your life, there's four 0:06:07.150 --> 0:06:10.910 things you really need to understand about pursuing with boldness 0:06:10.910 --> 0:06:14.669 and confidence the mission that God has for you. I've 0:06:14.710 --> 0:06:20.430 summarized them into four words. The first word is calling. Calling. 0:06:21.029 --> 0:06:25.510 Look at what it tells us. In verse two. Paul says, 0:06:25.510 --> 0:06:29.670 surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace 0:06:29.830 --> 0:06:33.230 that was given to me for you. If you're taking notes, 0:06:33.230 --> 0:06:38.630 write this word calling down. Uh, calling has to do 0:06:38.630 --> 0:06:43.310 with the gift that drives us to our mission. Paul says, hey, 0:06:43.510 --> 0:06:48.110 I'm sure you've heard by now about the. He says 0:06:48.110 --> 0:06:53.510 the administration of God's grace, that word administration, if you 0:06:53.510 --> 0:06:59.070 look it up in the Greek, means a special stewardship 0:06:59.270 --> 0:07:04.550 or special assignment. I like that word special assignment. So 0:07:04.550 --> 0:07:11.070 Paul says, surely you've heard about my special assignment of 0:07:11.070 --> 0:07:15.390 God's grace that was given to me for you. So 0:07:15.390 --> 0:07:19.430 Paul is admitting that he has a special assignment and 0:07:19.430 --> 0:07:28.390 that that special assignment was given to him by God's grace. Now, 0:07:28.390 --> 0:07:31.710 here's what I want you to understand. The word grace 0:07:32.510 --> 0:07:37.310 in the New Testament Greek is carrots. It's where we 0:07:37.310 --> 0:07:41.910 get our English word charisma from. Uh, when you say 0:07:42.030 --> 0:07:47.710 this person is charismatic, it literally means this person is 0:07:47.710 --> 0:07:53.390 grace filled. Uh, this person is full of grace favor. 0:07:53.870 --> 0:07:58.390 We use it in the context of not not theologically charismatic, 0:07:58.390 --> 0:08:01.640 but personality charismatic. When you say that person's charismatic, it 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.960 means they have an attractional power that people are drawn 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.160 to them, that that they have a charisma about them 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.880 that draws people to them. They have grace or favor 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:17.239 upon their lives. Paul says, I have a special assignment 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.040 that I have been called to, and it's been given 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:28.760 to me by God's grace, God's favor. Here's the thing 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.160 that you need to understand about callings and missions in life. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.160 Your calling and your mission in life is a gift 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.880 of God to you. It's a grace of God, a 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.360 gift of God. It has nothing to do with you 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.679 earning it, deserving it, marrying it. It has nothing to 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:51.240 do with your history background, with your educational background. It 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.720 has nothing to do with your personality. It has nothing 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.440 to do with your talents. It has everything to do 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:04.520 with God choosing simply, merely out of the goodness of 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.840 his heart, out of the overflowing of his purposes. Just 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:13.720 to give you a grace really important that you understand this. 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.800 Because if you don't understand the grace of God, you 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:25.600 will make a lot of wrong assumptions. For example, do 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.280 you realize that when you are given a gift from God, 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:38.600 a grace from God, that even if you are slipping 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:43.359 away from God spiritually, you can still use that gift 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.160 because it doesn't depend on whether you are good or bad? 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.520 A gift is a gift. You don't merit it. You 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.800 don't deserve it. You have it. When you're doing well, 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.880 you still have it when you're doing bad because it's 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.890 a gift of God. Are you tracking with me? Let 0:10:00.890 --> 0:10:02.929 me explain it in a way that you may understand. 0:10:03.330 --> 0:10:07.290 A couple of years ago, I ran into a pastor 0:10:07.290 --> 0:10:09.130 that I didn't know very well, but I had met 0:10:09.130 --> 0:10:13.810 him before. He was out of the ministry. He. He 0:10:13.809 --> 0:10:18.050 had pastored a church of 7800 people, a church that 0:10:18.050 --> 0:10:21.370 was well known, doing a lot of things, seeming to 0:10:21.370 --> 0:10:23.449 lead a lot of people to Christ. When I when 0:10:23.450 --> 0:10:27.569 I asked him what happened, he basically told me his story. 0:10:28.490 --> 0:10:30.090 He said that he had been a pastor for a 0:10:30.090 --> 0:10:33.570 long time, had a had a master's degree, a doctorate degree, 0:10:34.850 --> 0:10:39.330 was married, had a couple of kids, but there was 0:10:39.330 --> 0:10:46.370 a crack in his life. A moral crack in his life. 0:10:47.130 --> 0:10:50.850 And it started with internet pornography. He got into internet pornography. 0:10:51.250 --> 0:10:56.690 It led to exploring websites, uh, where he was getting on, uh, 0:10:56.730 --> 0:11:01.329 chat rooms with married women. It went on to getting 0:11:01.370 --> 0:11:03.970 on chat rooms with married women, to hooking up with 0:11:03.970 --> 0:11:07.330 married women in cafes, and then actually going to hotel 0:11:07.330 --> 0:11:10.449 rooms with these married women. And so over a period 0:11:10.450 --> 0:11:13.809 of a year, this pastor, that pastor, a pretty large church, 0:11:13.929 --> 0:11:17.370 doing a lot of ministry, was involved with over a 0:11:17.410 --> 0:11:22.810 dozen women. Other married, unhappy married women, was involved with 0:11:22.850 --> 0:11:25.570 a dozen women over a period of a year while 0:11:25.570 --> 0:11:31.330 he was still pastoring the church and get up on 0:11:31.330 --> 0:11:37.929 Sunday morning and teach and preach. And people were still 0:11:37.929 --> 0:11:42.210 coming to Christ, and people would approach him afterwards and say, well, 0:11:42.210 --> 0:11:44.650 that word was for me. It really touched me. I 0:11:44.650 --> 0:11:48.490 needed to hear that they were having the services, people 0:11:48.490 --> 0:11:52.090 were getting saved and people were getting baptized. And yet 0:11:52.090 --> 0:11:54.890 on Friday night he was in some hotel room with 0:11:54.890 --> 0:11:57.730 a married woman having sex. I'm like, how in the 0:11:57.730 --> 0:12:04.620 world could that be? I mean, hold on. Was he pretending? 0:12:04.620 --> 0:12:06.220 Was it a fake? No. Let me tell you what 0:12:06.220 --> 0:12:11.220 it is. The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 0:12:12.420 --> 0:12:15.500 That means that when God gives you a gift, you 0:12:15.500 --> 0:12:20.380 can use that gift. Even if spiritually you're not doing well, 0:12:20.380 --> 0:12:25.420 you can still use a gift, and that gift can operate, 0:12:25.420 --> 0:12:28.340 and that gifts can still function. And that gift can 0:12:28.340 --> 0:12:33.540 still bless people, even when your character is not measuring 0:12:33.540 --> 0:12:37.780 up to the administration of that gift. Are you tracking it? 0:12:43.020 --> 0:12:45.460 You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. We'll continue 0:12:45.500 --> 0:12:47.780 today's message in a moment. But first, Mark, I want 0:12:47.820 --> 0:12:50.860 to talk about something that's become a growing concern within 0:12:50.860 --> 0:12:54.500 Christian leadership circles. Our world is going through a whirlwind, 0:12:54.900 --> 0:12:57.939 pretty dramatic developments and changes, not just here in America, 0:12:57.940 --> 0:13:00.620 but around the globe. And we need to remind ourselves. 0:13:00.620 --> 0:13:02.540 As Christians, we have a much higher calling than any 0:13:02.540 --> 0:13:03.900 political movement, don't we? 0:13:04.260 --> 0:13:08.580 Wayne, turn on the news. And there is drama all 0:13:08.580 --> 0:13:13.260 over the place. From rumors of wars to economic crisis. 0:13:13.300 --> 0:13:14.660 To actualization. 0:13:14.700 --> 0:13:18.540 To actual wars that are happening to bombings. And it 0:13:18.540 --> 0:13:22.260 is easy to get distracted by all this, worried by it, 0:13:22.300 --> 0:13:25.860 anxious by it, sort of sucked into it. But here's 0:13:25.860 --> 0:13:29.500 what I want to say. This is a great time 0:13:29.740 --> 0:13:32.660 for the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope 0:13:32.660 --> 0:13:33.380 of the gospel. 0:13:33.420 --> 0:13:33.939 Amen. 0:13:33.980 --> 0:13:36.820 There are a lot of people coming to Christ throughout 0:13:36.820 --> 0:13:39.260 the world, and you may not hear about it, because 0:13:39.260 --> 0:13:44.420 there's other news that is prominent and is taking people's attention. 0:13:44.620 --> 0:13:49.179 But there is an undercurrent of a harvest evangelism. And 0:13:49.179 --> 0:13:51.740 that's what we're all about right now, is a moment 0:13:51.740 --> 0:13:55.780 where people are shaken, where there's concern. But there are 0:13:55.780 --> 0:13:58.620 so many people that are turning to the heavens, and 0:13:58.620 --> 0:14:03.150 we at Bold steps have determined we will not miss 0:14:03.150 --> 0:14:06.190 that moment. And so we are asking you to partner 0:14:06.190 --> 0:14:09.069 with us, help us out, because right now is a 0:14:09.070 --> 0:14:12.710 great time to be calling people to Jesus. 0:14:12.710 --> 0:14:15.670 We urge you to give online at Bold Steps. Org 0:14:15.710 --> 0:14:18.390 or you can call us. The number is 800. D.L. 0:14:18.510 --> 0:14:24.030 Moody and that works out to be (800) 356-6639. And when 0:14:24.030 --> 0:14:25.470 you do give, we'll be sure to send you a 0:14:25.470 --> 0:14:28.110 special gift which will tell you more about later in 0:14:28.110 --> 0:14:30.470 the program today. Well, thank you for that, Mark. But 0:14:30.510 --> 0:14:32.910 let's go back to your message now here on bold Steps. 0:14:39.350 --> 0:14:46.270 Never put a man or woman, an evangelist, a pastor, 0:14:46.310 --> 0:14:53.430 a teacher, anyone on a super spiritual pedestal. Because sometimes, 0:14:53.470 --> 0:14:56.350 I mean, oftentimes I run into people that they think 0:14:56.350 --> 0:14:59.870 that because someone has a gift that's ministered to them 0:14:59.920 --> 0:15:03.320 and God is using a gift that that person doesn't walk. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:09.000 They sort of float on clouds. Oh no, they don't walk. 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:14.680 They float. And we sort of pedestalize people and think, 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:16.680 oh no, they don't pray like I pray, man, I, I, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.200 I pray and get put on pause by God. They 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.760 pray and have that direct line. God says, yeah, you called. 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.360 They never struggle with sin. And sometimes we put people 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:32.080 on pedestals because the gift that is being ministered through them, 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.480 without realizing that the gifts and call of God are 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.560 irrevocable and have nothing to do with the man or 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.280 the woman that is using the gifts. They're gifts of God, 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.000 and a person doesn't lose a gift even when their 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.920 heart is falling away from God. They don't lose a gift. 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.320 That's why we all hear of these scandals where where 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.320 God can use someone. And then behind the closed doors, 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.480 we find out that there's impropriety there. There's laundering of money, 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:03.080 there's sexual scandal, power abuse and were shocked that they 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:07.040 happen because the gift and the call of God are irrevocable. 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.400 So be very careful ever to elevate someone too high. 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.920 Every man and every woman's feet are made of clay. Hello. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:23.600 Only Jesus will never disappoint you. Now, eventually, when someone's 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:32.720 character isn't isn't right. Eventually that will catch up to them. 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.240 And it'll sabotage whatever they're doing. And it'll leave. Leave? 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.280 A lot of hurt, messed up people. Uh, because the 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:45.040 character of an individual eventually will show itself. It may 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.560 take a while before their character catches up to their gifting, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.640 but eventually it'll show itself. That's why. Listen, some of 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.760 you have the gift of evangelism, and. And I've had 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.000 people with the gift of evangelism. They fall away from Christ. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.320 They're not even going to church. They're at a bar 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.600 drinking it up. And next thing you know, I'll meet 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:07.239 someone in church and I'll say, how did you get. Well, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:08.800 I met this guy at a bar and he started 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.479 talking to me about God. Why? Because even though you 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.960 may be backslidden. Listen, your gift doesn't go away. It's 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:23.000 still there. So your backslidden. Fallen away from God, doing lousy. 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:24.920 You go to a bar, you see someone, your gift 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.200 kicks in, you start talking about God and you say 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:28.760 you need God is what you need. And here let 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.160 me tell you about God and your ministering, even though 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.960 your heart is away from God. Why? Because your gift 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.159 has nothing to do with your spiritual life. It's irrevocable. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.280 It's a grace of God. It's just like salvation. Salvation 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.119 is a gift of grace. You don't earn it by 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.480 being really good and you don't lose it when you're bad. 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:59.359 It's a gift. It's a gift. You can't earn a gift. 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.490 You can't lose a gift when you really have a gift. 0:18:02.530 --> 0:18:04.250 Though in the Spirit of God dwells inside of you, 0:18:04.250 --> 0:18:06.250 you're going to want to live for God because it's 0:18:06.250 --> 0:18:10.250 inside of you and it's real. So Paul is saying 0:18:10.250 --> 0:18:15.130 that he had an administration, a special assignment given to 0:18:15.170 --> 0:18:18.930 him by the grace of God, by the grace of God. 0:18:20.090 --> 0:18:22.010 But I want you to understand. I want you to 0:18:22.050 --> 0:18:24.930 understand and grasp that all of us have gifts of 0:18:24.930 --> 0:18:29.690 God that have nothing to do with how we've merited 0:18:30.010 --> 0:18:32.930 or earned it. Now you can take a gift and 0:18:32.930 --> 0:18:37.770 you can not unwrap it. Hello. All of you here 0:18:37.810 --> 0:18:41.370 have gifts of God, God's given gifts. But not everybody 0:18:41.369 --> 0:18:43.810 unwrap their gifts. Sometimes you have a gift. You don't 0:18:43.810 --> 0:18:45.930 use it. You don't unwrap it. You leave it there. 0:18:46.290 --> 0:18:47.650 How many of you know you can get a gift? 0:18:47.690 --> 0:18:49.090 You say, ah, I don't think I'm going to like 0:18:49.090 --> 0:18:52.570 that gift. Just leave it there. Not wrapped. It's still yours. 0:18:52.570 --> 0:18:55.290 You still possess it, but you're not using it. Every 0:18:55.290 --> 0:18:58.770 Christian has gifts. They come to you via the Holy Spirit. 0:18:59.170 --> 0:19:06.459 The Holy Spirit dwells inside of you. Their gifts of encouragement, teaching, wisdom, faith, healing, evangelism, whatever. 0:19:06.460 --> 0:19:09.060 There's a whole bunch of lists of gifts. You have 0:19:09.060 --> 0:19:12.540 that gift. You're not better be better than someone else 0:19:12.540 --> 0:19:14.820 because you have this gift, and someone else has that 0:19:14.820 --> 0:19:17.139 gift because you didn't do anything to earn it or 0:19:17.140 --> 0:19:19.899 deserve it. Just because you have the gift of teaching 0:19:19.900 --> 0:19:21.980 doesn't mean that you're better than someone that doesn't have 0:19:21.980 --> 0:19:24.140 the gift of teaching. Just because you have the gift 0:19:24.140 --> 0:19:27.100 of faith doesn't make you better than someone that doesn't 0:19:27.100 --> 0:19:29.220 have the gift of faith, because you did nothing to 0:19:29.260 --> 0:19:32.379 earn it. God just gave it to you. It's your gift. 0:19:32.420 --> 0:19:35.340 God gives that person one gift, that person, someone else 0:19:35.540 --> 0:19:38.860 a gift. But we all have supernatural gifts given to 0:19:38.859 --> 0:19:42.220 us by God that are graces that God has put 0:19:42.220 --> 0:19:45.820 onto our life, that equip us for the mission that 0:19:45.820 --> 0:19:50.739 God has called us to accomplish. God has gifted you 0:19:50.740 --> 0:19:55.260 with things, empowered you with things, and it's those people 0:19:55.260 --> 0:19:58.580 that walk in faith that usually utilize their gifts more. 0:19:59.340 --> 0:20:03.180 Number two, I'm talking about how to embrace and understand 0:20:03.859 --> 0:20:06.860 your calling, how to engage in the calling that you 0:20:06.859 --> 0:20:10.780 have by looking at what Paul says about his calling. 0:20:12.020 --> 0:20:16.980 Verse three says, that is the mystery made known to 0:20:17.020 --> 0:20:21.580 me by revelation, as I have already written briefly in 0:20:21.580 --> 0:20:24.660 reading this, then you will be able to understand my 0:20:24.660 --> 0:20:28.060 insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made 0:20:28.060 --> 0:20:31.500 known to men in other generations, as it has now 0:20:31.500 --> 0:20:36.860 been revealed by His Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 0:20:37.859 --> 0:20:41.179 Paul now says, not only does he have a calling 0:20:41.180 --> 0:20:45.740 given by God's grace. Paul goes on to say, what 0:20:45.780 --> 0:20:52.859 feeds my calling is that I have revelation. He uses 0:20:52.859 --> 0:20:57.300 the word mystery in the Greek. It's the word mysterium 0:20:58.580 --> 0:21:00.899 in our English language. When we think about a mystery, 0:21:00.940 --> 0:21:05.780 we think about something that's dark, obscure, secret, unknown to 0:21:05.820 --> 0:21:10.540 other people. That's really not the emphasis in this passage. 0:21:10.540 --> 0:21:14.780 It simply means something that is known to that person, 0:21:14.780 --> 0:21:20.460 but unknown to others. Paul says, I have a mystery 0:21:20.460 --> 0:21:23.980 that's been revealed to me that people before me did 0:21:23.980 --> 0:21:29.699 not understand, but I understand. What is that mystery? The 0:21:29.700 --> 0:21:34.540 mystery was simply this. The Jewish people thought for hundreds 0:21:34.540 --> 0:21:40.140 of years that the promise that the covenants that they 0:21:40.140 --> 0:21:43.740 were the chosen people, and that no one outside of 0:21:43.740 --> 0:21:45.020 them was chosen. 0:21:53.540 --> 0:21:57.619 Learning the different types of revelation will continue this message tomorrow. 0:21:57.859 --> 0:22:01.070 So please keep listening to bold steps with Mark job now. 0:22:01.109 --> 0:22:04.389 Today we're joined by two special guests, Aaron and Jason Davis, 0:22:04.390 --> 0:22:07.030 who've written a book that tackles a challenge every Christian 0:22:07.030 --> 0:22:10.189 parent faces how to help our boys navigate the lies 0:22:10.190 --> 0:22:12.830 our culture is throwing at them. Their book is called 0:22:12.830 --> 0:22:15.510 Lies Boys Believe and the Epic Quest for truth. 0:22:15.630 --> 0:22:18.470 That's right. Wayne. You know, last month we offered the 0:22:18.470 --> 0:22:23.469 companion to this resource Lies Girls Believe. I remember so Aaron, 0:22:23.510 --> 0:22:27.790 as a mother of four boys. Yeah, you heard it 0:22:27.790 --> 0:22:31.390 for boys. What motivated you to write this book? 0:22:31.750 --> 0:22:35.310 Well, obviously my own sons. You're right. So everybody listening. 0:22:35.310 --> 0:22:37.870 It's okay for you to gasp at that. Four sons. 0:22:37.869 --> 0:22:40.550 That's what Jason and I have. So it's a rowdy house. 0:22:40.790 --> 0:22:44.830 But there are primary concern. But they're also a good 0:22:44.830 --> 0:22:48.030 indicator of what's happening in the wider culture. And everybody 0:22:48.030 --> 0:22:51.869 seems to be talking about boys in crisis, secular and Christian. 0:22:52.109 --> 0:22:55.070 But we want to point our boys to the truth, 0:22:55.070 --> 0:22:57.310 and the truth is found in God's word. And so 0:22:57.510 --> 0:23:00.350 we let our boys go first. They were super involved 0:23:00.350 --> 0:23:02.230 in the project and I hope this is an outflow 0:23:02.230 --> 0:23:05.710 of our parenting. But we also hope they're just four 0:23:05.750 --> 0:23:08.990 examples of what can happen when God gets Ahold of boys, 0:23:08.990 --> 0:23:11.030 when they're young and they fall in love with His 0:23:11.030 --> 0:23:13.030 word when they're young and they start living for truth. 0:23:13.109 --> 0:23:15.310 So, Jason, you have built in research, huh? 0:23:15.590 --> 0:23:18.389 Yeah, it's made it easy. We didn't have to travel 0:23:18.390 --> 0:23:20.550 a lot to do the market research for this one. 0:23:21.590 --> 0:23:24.909 And, Jason, what ages would you say this book is 0:23:24.910 --> 0:23:27.550 targeted towards young men? 0:23:27.750 --> 0:23:31.750 Uh, probably 6 to 12 would be the target demographic. 0:23:31.790 --> 0:23:36.030 That's probably not the right terminology, but, um, we found 0:23:36.030 --> 0:23:39.669 that our boys in that age group really resonated well 0:23:39.670 --> 0:23:41.790 with the content and the message. 0:23:42.070 --> 0:23:46.710 You know, I think this type of book is so needed. 0:23:46.910 --> 0:23:50.790 There are so many, so many parents struggling with just 0:23:50.790 --> 0:23:55.870 the lies that our culture is just saturating our young 0:23:55.869 --> 0:24:00.560 people with. But young boys especially are at a disadvantage 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:04.560 these days when the image of what it means to 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:06.399 be a man or grow up to be a man 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:09.520 is really been erased and very confusing. 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:10.760 This is critical, isn't it? 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:11.280 Yeah. 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:13.360 Aaron and Jason, thank you so much for writing this 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:15.080 book and making it available to our listeners. 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:16.560 It's been a real pleasure. 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:18.920 Yeah, we're just honored to get to serve families and 0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:20.000 the church in this way. 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:22.000 Remember, we'll send you a copy when you give a 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:29.639 donation of any amount. Call 800 D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:33.560 or give online at bird-stamps.org. You can also send your 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:37.119 donation in the mail. 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