S1: Today on bold steps with Mark job are learning how
S1: to be alive in the spirit.
S2: When you are spiritually alive, you will not want to
S2: be put in a spiritual coffin because your spirit will say,
S2: this is not where I belong. My spirit is alive
S2: and well, and when you're alive, you cannot be contained
S2: in the coffin of the dead.
S1: Welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe. Mark is
S1: a senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president
S1: of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd.
S1: We're in Ephesians chapter two today, Mark, which talks about
S1: being spiritually alive. But that's not something we can do
S1: on our own.
S3: No it's not. And Wayne, I know some people will
S3: be shocked to know there's a lot of dead men
S3: walking and the Bible talks about we can be dead
S3: spiritually even though we're alive physically, right? And it talks
S3: about a moment in time that has to come where
S3: we become alive spiritually. And this is a powerful, powerful
S3: insight into what it means to be born again and
S3: going from death to life.
S1: If you have a copy of the scriptures with you,
S1: turn to Ephesians chapter two. As Mark begins.
S2: We all have nightmares. Some have nightmares of being chased.
S2: You run and run and run and all night you're
S2: being chased. And about the time they catch up to you,
S2: you escape and run and you're panicking and you hide
S2: and run and they chase. How many of you had
S2: that nightmare before? Some have nightmares of falling off buildings.
S2: You're falling, falling, falling. Seems like you're going to hit.
S2: And you never do, right? I'm told that if you do,
S2: forget it. Life's over. So don't. Don't ever hit. Some
S2: people have nightmares about being paralyzed. You're paralyzed. You can't
S2: move a bone in your body. You try to scream
S2: and you can't scream. Your mouth opens, but it doesn't
S2: come out. And you just you feel like there's not
S2: a bone in your body that can that can do anything.
S2: Ever had that nightmare? Okay, some of you have all
S2: of them. You must have a lot of nightmares. I
S2: like I had that one, that one, that one. And
S2: one of the worst nightmares that people mention, though, is
S2: the nightmare or the dread of being buried alive. What
S2: a terrible feeling it would have to be to be
S2: buried alive. Recently, we've all watched with rapt amazement at
S2: the miners that were buried in in Chile, um, and
S2: just thousands of feet underground and and just the claustrophobic
S2: feeling that they must feel. But the nightmare of thinking
S2: that somehow you would be put in a coffin and
S2: put six feet under the ground, only to wake up
S2: and realize that you were buried alive. What a nightmare
S2: that is. I'm told that George Washington had such a
S2: fear that they would bury him alive, that on his
S2: deathbed he talked to his servants, and he made them
S2: vow that they would not bury him until 12 days
S2: after he was dead. I mean, he just wanted to
S2: make sure I don't want you to bury me alive.
S2: So wait 12 days and then you can bury me.
S2: In fact, there was a scare in the early days
S2: because during some of the hundreds of years ago, during
S2: some of the Middle Ages and some of the other
S2: plagues that hit, uh, some people were actually literally, seriously
S2: buried alive, in part because when some of these dreaded
S2: plagues hit. The doctors and other family members did not
S2: want to get too close for fear that they would
S2: get the plague, so they sort of rolled the bodies
S2: into coffins, not want to touching them, not wanting to
S2: get sick. And there's historical evidence in some of these
S2: places that actually people woke up and found themselves buried.
S2: I read an article that just in August of this year,
S2: there was a young mother in Mexico, Miss Hernandez, that
S2: was grieving over a baby that she had had, and
S2: the doctors had pronounced the baby dead, and they had
S2: put this premature baby in a coffin, and they were
S2: about to begin, commence the funeral ceremony to bury this.
S2: And as the mother was weeping and crying and so forth,
S2: she thought she heard some noise in this little coffin.
S2: Now that's spooky. And she she kept hearing the noises.
S2: So finally she opened the. She opened the little coffin
S2: that her that her daughter was in. And lo and behold,
S2: the baby was crying and moving around. It had been
S2: mispronounced and saved her from a burial. But here's the thing.
S2: When you are alive and when you are well, you
S2: cannot be placed in the coffins of the dead. Because
S2: when you're alive, that's not where you belong. When you're alive,
S2: that's not where you want to be. When you're alive,
S2: you want to burst out and say, I am not dead.
S2: I am alive spiritually. The same thing is true when
S2: you are alive spiritually, you will not tolerate being in
S2: the place of the dead when you are spiritually alive.
S2: When you are spiritually alive, you will not want to
S2: be put in a spiritual coffin because your spirit will say,
S2: I am. This is not where I belong. My spirit
S2: is alive and well. And when you're alive. You cannot
S2: be contained in the coffin of the dead. Ephesians chapter two.
S2: Paul begins this second chapter of Ephesians with a very
S2: interesting statement. He says. Verse one. As for you, now
S2: he's speaking to believers. He says, as for you, you
S2: were dead. In your transgressions and sins. Hold on. Dead? Yeah, dead.
S2: I mean, he's talking to a bunch of people that
S2: are Christians, believers. They know God. And he's saying to them, hey,
S2: you were dead. And I'm sure they probably looked at
S2: one another and said, dead. I mean, when were we dead? Well,
S2: there's a lot of ways of being dead. You see,
S2: I believe in the trichotomy of man. That means that
S2: you compose. What makes up your being is body, soul,
S2: and spirit, as found in First Corinthians chapter five. Your
S2: body is the physical part of you. When you're born,
S2: that little naked baby, everybody sees it, holds it, slaps it,
S2: makes it cry. That's the physical part of you. But
S2: then there's an unseen part of you called the soul.
S2: The soul is that part of you that houses your intelligence,
S2: your personality, your intellect, your will. And then there's another
S2: part of you. There's the body, there's the soul, and
S2: then there's the spirit. The spirit is the intangible part
S2: of you. It's the part of you that relates to
S2: the spirit world and more importantly, that relates to God.
S2: Because God is a spirit and they that worship him
S2: must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now we
S2: are more aware of the physical world because the physical
S2: world is what we see, touch, smell, feel. So we're
S2: very aware of the physical world. We're somewhat aware of
S2: the soul world because it's the thinking world, the thought world,
S2: the personality world. But sometimes we're oblivious to the spiritual
S2: world because we can't see it. We can't touch it,
S2: we can't feel it. We walk right into the spiritual
S2: world and don't always know what's happening in that unseen
S2: world around us. But the spiritual world is as real
S2: as the physical world. So Paul is speaking to these
S2: believers and he's saying, you were dead. Now were they
S2: dead in the body? No. Were they dead in the soul? No.
S2: They could think and live where they were dead. As
S2: in the spirit. So Paul looks at these people and
S2: says before, in your former life, at another time you
S2: were dead. Spiritually, you were dead. Now when were they dead? Well,
S2: in order to understand when they were dead, we have
S2: to understand how they died. He tells us this. As
S2: for you, you were dead. In what? In your transgressions
S2: and sin. What put them spiritually to death was their
S2: transgressions and sins. Now we all pretty much know what
S2: sin is, but some of us aren't quite sure what
S2: transgressions mean. Well, let me define it for you. To
S2: transgress Talks about our other translations say trespasses, transgressions. There
S2: are similar words and synonymous basically to to transgress speaks
S2: of a man as a rebel, or our lack of
S2: desire of going God's way. When I when I'm a transgressor,
S2: it means that I know what's right, but I don't
S2: want to do it. Speaks of my rebellion towards God.
S2: God's authority. Sin speaks of our failure to meet God's standard.
S2: So one speaks about our desire to do our own
S2: thing and the other speaks about our failure. So what
S2: killed our spirit was our desire to do our own
S2: thing and our failure to meet God's standard. It makes
S2: me ask myself this question. However, when you were born,
S2: you had a body, you had a soul and you
S2: had a spirit. Was your spirit alive when you were born?
S2: When did your spirit die? That's a good question, right?
S2: Let's think about that for a second. It's transgression and
S2: sin that kills our spirit. Can a baby sin a newborn?
S2: Can they sin? Oh, no. They're not even aware how
S2: to sin yet. There's no conscious of right or wrong.
S2: They don't have the ability to sin. I believe that
S2: every child is born with an innocent spirit within them.
S2: That when you are born, you are born body, soul
S2: and spirit, and the spirit that the spirit part of
S2: you is innocent, free and responsive to God in a child.
S2: In fact, let me go. Let me go a step further.
S2: I believe that even when a baby is in the
S2: womb of its mother, and doctors and other people call
S2: it a fetus, I call it a child. I believe
S2: that as that baby is developing its body, that it's
S2: also developing its soul, but it also has a spirit.
S1: You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark Jobe right
S1: here on Bold Steps. You can learn more about pastor
S1: Mark in this ministry by visiting us online at Bold Steps.
S1: Org or connect with Mark and the team on your
S1: favorite social media page. You'll find us on both Facebook
S1: and Instagram. And this comment came in via Facebook recently
S1: from Roger. He says thanks for your inspiration. I enjoy
S1: your messages on the radio. Well, thanks for that. Good
S1: word Roger. We love hearing from our listeners. Stop by
S1: and introduce yourself and where and how you're listening, and
S1: we look forward to hearing from you soon. Right now,
S1: let's go back into the second half of today's message,
S1: where Mark Jobe has more to say about being made alive.
S2: Let me tell you why I believe this. I believe
S2: it because. Do you remember the story? I mean, there's
S2: several places in Scripture, but one of them that comes
S2: to mind is that when Mary was pregnant with Jesus,
S2: she encountered her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant with
S2: John the Baptizer. When they encountered these, two pregnant women
S2: encountered each other. The Bible says that the baby within
S2: Elizabeth's womb jumped, was filled with the spirit. The baby
S2: in the womb was filled with the spirit when encountered
S2: the baby Jesus within the mother's womb. So what's it?
S2: Tell me? It tells me that that unborn baby had
S2: a spirit And that the unborn baby was able to
S2: be filled with the spirit even within its mother's womb.
S2: That's why I'm so pro-life. To me, when an unborn
S2: baby is not born, it's not a mass of tissue
S2: or just some, uh, product of the mother's womb. It's
S2: a child with a soul and a body and a spirit.
S2: So that baby, when it's born, it's born with a spirit.
S2: And that spirit is alive and innocent unto God. And
S2: what kills the spirit is that once a child reaches
S2: the age where they start sinning and oh, they will. Oh,
S2: no parent has to teach a child to sin. I've
S2: never had a parent come to me and say, you know,
S2: we need to teach a course. On how to sin
S2: for children. Because my kids are so good. I mean,
S2: they're just so innocent and good. They just don't know
S2: how to sin. So could we teach a little course
S2: on sinning one on one? Never had a parent asked
S2: me that. Most parents I have had parents come to
S2: me with four year olds and say, pastor, can you
S2: do an exorcism out of my kid? Because I, you know,
S2: he's got some spirit in him. I don't know where
S2: he got it from. I have had parents come to
S2: me like that, but but but here's the thing. Listen,
S2: children don't have to be taught to sin. Why not?
S2: Here's the thing. When a child is born, they're born
S2: with a spirit. Their spirit is clean and and and uncontaminated. However,
S2: every child is born with a sin nature. Now, some
S2: people believe, and some traditions of faith believe that because
S2: a child is born with a sin nature, the sin
S2: nature has to be cleansed from them at birth. And
S2: so some people do infant baptism in order to cleanse
S2: the sin, nature and so forth. But. But I want
S2: you to understand something a sin. Nature never condemns us
S2: before God. It is sin that kills our spirit, not
S2: a sin nature. A sin nature means we have the
S2: propensity to sin, that we're born with a disposition to sin.
S2: Where did we get that from? We got it from
S2: Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were were created without
S2: a sin nature. They were made by God, without a
S2: sin nature, but they were made in the image of
S2: God so that God did not create robots. God did
S2: not wind Adam and Eve up and say, you will
S2: love me, serve me, and never sin. Yes, we will
S2: love you. We will serve you. We will. No he didn't.
S2: He didn't create him that way. He created them with
S2: the power to make choices. And there came a time
S2: when they made a choice to sin against God. As
S2: soon as they chose to sin against God. The Bible
S2: calls it the fall of man. as soon as they sinned.
S2: Every child that was born after Adam and Eve inherited
S2: the sin nature. Cain and Abel inherited the sin nature.
S2: Their children inherited the sin, the sin nature. Every generation,
S2: from people in Africa to Europe to Asia to Australia,
S2: everybody that's come from Adam and Eve, which is all generations.
S2: We've all inherited the sin nature. That means that the
S2: moment that you were born, you were born without sin,
S2: but you were born with the propensity to sin, that
S2: when you got old enough, you would sin. That's why,
S2: by the way, I believe that every child, it's not
S2: the sin nature that condemns us, it's sin. That's why
S2: I believe that a child, every child that dies before
S2: the age of accountability, before they know right and wrong
S2: and sin. I believe every child goes to the presence
S2: of God. But it's a sin nature that gives us
S2: the propensity to sin. That's why when Jesus came Adam
S2: was created without a sin. Nature. Every child after Adam
S2: had the sin nature. When Jesus came, Jesus had to
S2: be born of a virgin and not through the seed
S2: of man, because the sin nature is passed down through
S2: the seed of man. That's why Mary became impregnated without
S2: a man. Because if she had been impregnated by a man,
S2: that child born would have the sin nature. So therefore
S2: Mary was was was held the impregnation of Jesus, but
S2: without the seed of man. So that Jesus, when he
S2: was born, he was born without the nature to sin.
S2: That's why the Bible refers to him as the second Adam.
S2: There was the first Adam with the sin nature, and
S2: Jesus was born also without a sin nature. He became
S2: the second Adam, the firstborn. The Bible tells us among
S2: many brethren, are you tracking with me? Just not. I
S2: want to make sure I didn't lose anybody. Okay, this
S2: is important. I know it's theology, but it's important. Now,
S2: we were dead. Because by the time we reach a
S2: certain age, we've all sinned. And what happens when we
S2: sin is that we kill the spirit, that part of
S2: us that relates to God, that part of it, that's
S2: that hears the voice of God. And we sin and
S2: sin and sin and sin and sin. So our spirit dies.
S2: It's dead. The word used for death here means separated.
S2: The Bible says, I want you to understand that when
S2: you see the word death in the Bible referring to
S2: our spiritual life, it means separated. For example, the Bible
S2: says that some of us will have eternal life. Here's
S2: what I want you to understand. The Bible teaches that
S2: we will all exist forever because your soul and your
S2: spirit are eternal. You will exist forever. I will exist forever.
S2: You will exist forever. Your cussing. Drunken neighbor will exist forever.
S2: Everybody will exist forever. Some will live forever and some
S2: will die forever. The Bible declares that you live when
S2: you know God. If you're separated from God, that's considered death.
S2: To be separated from God is considered death. But we
S2: all exist forever. So when the Bible talks about you
S2: were dead in your trespasses and sins, your spirit was
S2: dead inside of you because it was separated from God.
S2: And when something is dead, you can speak to it,
S2: you can tap it, you can move it, and there's
S2: no response because it's dead, Paul said. You used to
S2: be like that. He gives us three characteristics of spiritually
S2: dead people. Number one, when we're spiritually dead, we are
S2: spiritually The unresponsive to God's Spirit. But we are still
S2: influenced by other spiritual forces.
S1: You're listening to Bold Steps, a message titled Made Alive
S1: and Tomorrow. Mark Jobe will address the question what does
S1: it mean to be spiritually dead? So let me urge
S1: you to join us again. Mark, we have authors with
S1: us for a moment here. The authors of Lies Boys
S1: believe Aaron and Jason Davis, the parents of four boys,
S1: and they've written this book. Now, they say that they
S1: wish every boy who reads this book could come spend
S1: a day on their farm. He could pick an apple
S1: from their orchard, scramble up some eggs straight from the
S1: chicken coop. Catch a jar full of lightning bugs. Uh,
S1: Aaron and Jason. Is that offer open to men as
S1: well as boys? I think I'd like to sign up
S1: for that.
S4: Come on, everybody, come.
S1: Aaron, you both have written this wonderful book. What's the
S1: difference between boys and girls when it comes to these
S1: lies that we're talking about?
S4: You know, even that statement shouldn't be. But it is
S4: countercultural that boys and girls are different. Uh, God made
S4: us different. And our boys are growing up in a
S4: culture where that's really, really confusing and we're trying to
S4: erase all of those lines. And so one of the
S4: things we address in the book is that God made
S4: boys and girls different, and that those differences are good. Now,
S4: all of us are prone to deception. Unfortunately, we all
S4: are prone to sin and the enemy lies to all
S4: of us. So lies are for all of us, big
S4: or small, boy or girl. But I think just some
S4: of the ways that God designed, uh, boys from the beginning,
S4: that desire to lead, that desire to matter, um, that
S4: desire to shepherd those are all God given desires. But
S4: the enemy slithers in, as he did in the garden,
S4: and he can tend to warp those desires. And so
S4: we tried to help boys think about, yeah, you're different
S4: than your sister. You're different than your mom. And, um,
S4: that's good. We celebrate that. But how do you need
S4: to be on guard as a boy and in the future,
S4: as a band.
S3: Yeah. That's so good, Aaron. You know, I raised two
S3: boys and one daughter, and I didn't have to teach them.
S3: They just naturally gravitated towards just different things. Uh, my
S3: boys always were. They wanted to be the warriors and
S3: sword fighters and my daughters brave. But she wasn't that
S3: attracted to sword fighting that much. She had other interests.
S3: And and it's a beautiful thing that God has created
S3: us differently. Uh, Jason, as you raise your boys, as
S3: you speak into your boys lives, uh, especially at this age.
S3: And you have teenagers, but this this book is from
S3: 6 to 12. What? What is the truth? That you
S3: feel like? This is the main truth I want to
S3: impart to them to combat these lies.
S5: Well, there are a lot of truths that combat these lies,
S5: but one of the main ones is that we all
S5: often feel like we're isolated and alone, and that we
S5: can't communicate about our struggles with the people around us
S5: because they wouldn't understand. But the truth is, we all struggle.
S5: We all have faced sin. We need to live in
S5: community where we can be open and honest about our
S5: struggles so that we can help each other and and
S5: grow in Christ's likeness together. And so that isolation that
S5: a lot of times Satan wants us to live in
S5: and feel like we're the only ones that are struggling
S5: with this, or we are the only ones that are
S5: involved and that nobody would understand where we're coming from.
S5: It's a lie. And we live better and we live
S5: more complete. When we live in community, we're open with
S5: the people around us.
S1: Well, we are offering this bookmark to our listeners. Lies
S1: boys believe. I can't think of a better thing to
S1: put in the hands of parents and grandparents can.
S3: You know, this is a great resource tool. Thank you
S3: for writing it. And I think there's a lot of
S3: parents that will be excited about getting this book.
S1: And we want to send you a copy of Lee's
S1: Boys Believe. When you make a donation of any amount
S1: to support Bold steps, just call us at 800 D.L. Moody.
S1: That's (800) 356-6639 or give online at Bold Steps. You can
S1: also send your gift through the mail. Write to us
S1: at 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Thanks
S1: for joining us today. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to
S1: come back tomorrow when Mark continues this discussion on being
S1: made alive. He'll be diving into part two and you
S1: won't want to miss it. That's Tuesday on Bold Steps
S1: with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio,
S1: a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.