(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)

Hey, you're listening to Cut for Time, a podcast from Faith Church, located on the north side of Indianapolis. My name is Claire Kingsley. And I'm Dan Breitwieser. 

Each week, one of us will sit down with the person who gave Sunday's sermon to discuss their message. Cut for Time is a look behind the scenes of sermon preparation, and they'll share with us a few things that we didn't hear from the sermon on Sunday. Thanks for listening.

So, Jeff, you concluded our series on Sunday in studying Ephesians, so I'd love for you to give me a summary of your sermon. And then at the end of our episode, just kind of a summary of what we learned and what we want to take with us. So for now, summarize your sermon on Sunday for us.

Yeah, well, so Paul is coming to the end of this letter where, you know, we talked about the first half is really a lot of theology and who God is and what he's done for us. And the second half is more than how we live out of that. And so now Paul, in a sense, is kind of bringing this all together and a sort of final word, encouragement, reminder for how we go forward from here. 

And particularly, Paul is looking, I think, at what it means to follow Jesus in just the ordinary reality of everyday life. It's not always, you know, big, exciting drama. So what does it mean to live with Jesus and for Jesus? And I think the big idea that he's trying to get out from this passage is that if we've been given new life, if we're renewed in Christ, we're called to live as witnesses and we're sent as witnesses, which means our ordinary everyday lives, God is actually doing something significant in the middle of just the reality of day in and day out and work and parenting and relationships and all of it. 

But to be effective witnesses of Jesus, we need to understand that that means we're depending on prayer to live that out faithfully. That's where Paul prays repeatedly for the Ephesians to pray for him, to have boldness, to present the gospel and to speak as he ought. And that's a good reminder for us. 

That's what we're about, that our lives and our words would reflect Jesus. Then Paul himself is living this out, and he's reminding us that if we're new people in Christ, that we're often witnessing to Jesus in the middle of suffering and difficulty. Paul is in chains as an ambassador of Jesus, and it's a reminder and an encouragement for us that when things are going bad, when things are hard, when things are difficult, it doesn't mean that we're off mission or God's forgotten about us or we're doing something wrong that needs to be fixed. 

I mean, that's not wrong to ask ourselves that. But Paul is pointing out that's often just the case. That's how it can go. 

And hard times are particularly an opportunity to bear witness to Jesus in a unique way and that suffering is not necessarily good, but suffering can impact, can reflect the gospel more than maybe when things are going well. And then finally, that we live as part of a community of people, renewed people who are sustained by God's grace. I just, I love that Paul ends this letter, not with a command, not with here's what you need to do, but a prayer and a blessing for God's peace, love, faith, and grace, His undeserved goodness. 

And man, that's just, that's so encouraging and centering for me that God is sending us out having heard all of who He is and what He's done and all these charges and commands of how we're to live. And it's all bracketed by His grace, by His kindness, His presence, and His power. Okay.

Um, well, just hearing you on Sunday and again today, just talk about the faith in the ordinary, living out the gospel every day reminded me of a book that I read a while ago. And now I honestly just want to reread it, but I enjoyed it. It was called Liturgy of the Ordinary. 

Have you heard of that book before? No, but I'm writing it down. It has a memorable cover. It is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

Oh, nice. And it just says sacred practices in everyday life. Um, and I think what it just comes back to, listening to you and even themes in this book is just like abiding, right? God is asking us to abide in all the small things of our day to day, not just when we're suffering or it's hard or it's going great. 

Right. But just in those moment by moment steps of faithfulness that we take. This morning, I was trying to get our middle child Addy out the door for school. 

And she's just like, I don't want to go. And I'm like, yes, I, and like, I understand because sometimes I don't want to work or I don't want to load the dishwasher for the hundredth time or start that laundry for the millionth time. Like our whole life is full of things that, um, require small acts of faithfulness and, um, like just seeing Jesus, inviting him into those moments is that day to day Christian living.

And he likes that. Like, that's not like God is not bored by our, the monotony or the smallness of our lives, but he wants to be a part of it. Um, so anyways, I really liked that book.

If people haven't read it, I recommend it. Well, it sounds great. I haven't read it, but I'll have to get it. 

Um, yeah. And what you're talking about, Claire breaks the mind, you know, Paul talking about pray in the spirit at all times. And I remember, you know, you know, young, younger Christian, new Christian. 

I'm like, what, like what, how, what, how is that even possible? Like if I'm supposed to work, I'm going to be a parent. I'm, you know, I've got stuff to do. And I think it's not that we're literally going off into a corner and praying all the time, uh, with our, you know, on our knees, uh, it's not even necessarily that it's some separate time that we block out. 

I mean, I think that can be helpful through the day, but I think it's in the middle of all those things that we're doing, that we're carrying an attitude of prayerful dependence and whether we vocalize it or not. Uh, I, kind of what you're saying, like, Jesus, I don't want to do this right now. And it's hard.

So just help me, help me to do it and help me to do it with the right attitude. I think that's, maybe that's, I think what Paul is getting at, uh, and this living out faith in the ordinary. So much of the Christian life is not, you know, big mountaintop experiences and huge crowds. 

And I mean, that's great, but obviously like 90% of our walking with Jesus is just one foot in front of the other and showing up and ordinary faithfulness day in and day out. Um, yeah, I agree. Yeah. 

Um, you know, hopefully it's also an encouragement in marriage and in parenting. Like, yeah, there are, there are like really significant moments and conversations, but really a lot of it is just the small, ordinary faithfulness of showing up and trying to be present in a healthy and real way with, and for one another. Yeah. 

Uh, so I had a friend get married, um, about a year ago and she reached out shortly after, and she's like, I need you to pray for me. Like, please pray for me, pray for, you know, pray for us, pray for our marriage, pray for protection. She's like, we are under attack. 

And I was like, tell me more. And she's referring to spiritual attack. And, uh, the reason why I'm bringing this up is it was a reminder to me of this story, because you were talking about in your sermon. 

And again, in your summary here, um, hard times and suffering can reflect the gospel, but, um, look, can you talk more about like, um, not all hard times are attributed to attack maybe, um, or maybe they are because she was saying our water heater broke, we are under attack and a few other things were going wrong. It just felt like, you know, things were breaking. Um, it, I think something else happened with like their sump pump or something that it was like another, um, another big cost. 

And she just felt like we're under attack here. And I encouraged Sharon said hard doesn't mean bad. Like, so I'm just curious, how would you respond to that? And then how much do we say, I guess this would have been a question also for Nathan last week, but you know, I, I refuse to interview my husband. 

So how much do we say like this, uh, this hard thing, this suffering moment, this is attack or, um, or not. Yeah. That's a good question. 

Uh, yeah. Paul says, you know, and, and this, this, sorry, the passage that we ended with obviously flows right out of that longer section that pastor Nathan covered the previous week on spiritual warfare. And Paul is saying we, that's just the life that we're living in, right? Like we are living in the spiritual battle that we don't often see as a spiritual battle. 

And that's why Paul wants us to recognize it. Yeah. Is, is, uh, when things are going bad, does that mean Satan is attacking us? Um, I mean, possibly, I mean, that's the book of Job, right? Like God. 

Yeah. I mean, gosh, that could be a whole other rabbit trail, right? Like, uh, God gives Joe permission to God gives Satan permission to strike Job down and, you know, take everything away from him. So, uh, I mean, sure that's possible, but I think, uh, it's just as likely to say, we live in a fallen world where things just do not work the way they're supposed to. 

None of it works the way it's supposed to, right? Like the world is profoundly broken and misaligned and things are falling apart and we're falling apart. Um, so I don't know, maybe it's not even helpful to try and figure out at all. Like, is this Satan attacking us or is this just, I think the thing to recognize though, is that in all of those moments when it feels like everything's going bad and we're under attack, I think the thing to recognize is that itself is kind of the attack, right? Like the, the perception or how we respond to those things is where Satan is most likely to try to attack us, right? Like, because he wants us just like with Adam and Eve. 

Can you really trust God? Is God really good? Is he looking out for you? He sounds like he's holding back on you. It sounds like, you know, there's some good out there that you could have that God isn't letting you have. So is he really good and can you trust him? So the events themselves, uh, may not necessarily be satanic attack or evil, you know, spiritual forces at work. 

Uh, I mean, it can be, but I don't think we can probably really accurately discern that. I think what we can figure out is where the attacks coming in terms of how we respond to those things and what those things are, you know, whether it's our own sinful nature, our own doubts or fears, or whether it is evil spiritual forces trying to cause us to doubt and to complain against God or to complain against other people, uh, to say, I'm not getting a fair deal and I deserve more and I deserve better. And honestly, it also suggests that the spiritual attack could just as much happen on the other end when things are going really well.

Uh, like God even warns his people, remember when they're going into the promised land, you're going to settle in homes that you didn't build and harvest crops that you didn't plant. And you're going to be tempted to say, look at what my hands have produced. And he says, don't go down that path because the important thing to remember, it is God's goodness that gives you the ability to work and earn a living and provide for yourselves. 

And it's all a gift of God's grace. And so when things are going well, we don't ever think of that as a satanic attack, right? But there's a danger there too, of complacency, of pride, of, uh, you know, telling ourselves, well, God must really be happy with me now because things are going well, and God is smiling on me because the car is running well, or I got a good deal on this thing, or the kids are obeying and we're having a happy time on vacation. And so therefore it's evidence that God is good and kind and he's with us and, and I'm doing something right. 

And I think it's important for us to recognize that can be another kind of spiritual battlefield. Yeah. Yeah. 

Reminds me of screw tape letters. Let's conversation. Have you read that book? Yeah. 

Another great book recommendation. Yeah. Yeah. 

I don't know if people haven't read it, it's really good. I'm not saying it's inspired obviously, but it is, it is really interesting just to have a different perspective on, you know, just the spiritual battles that we fight day in and day out. Housing can work in anything and through anything that happens in our lives. 

And I, again, that's, I think going exactly back to what Paul was getting at in the previous section is we are living in a spiritual battlefield and it can be when times are good, it can be when times are bad. It can, you know, it's just, it's all the time. And that's why he says, stay alert and be on guard and be aware of how Satan wants to lie to you and tempt you and distract you and undermine your faith in Jesus in all of these kinds of ways. 

But that's also why he says, you know, God has given us the resources and ultimately we are at, like Paul said, at the end of the lever bracketed by God's grace, empowered by his grace and sustained and blessed with peace and love and faith. And as we remind ourselves of these things, that in itself is where this battle is being fought and won. Yeah. 

All right. So give us a summary from our sermon series in Ephesians. So we started in early fall and we took a break for Advent and now we're finishing it here months later. 

So it's been spread out. What should we try and hold on to? I mean, it'd be great if you could take it all with us, but what do you really hope that we remember? Yeah. So I think if we just think of the book in those two halves of the first three chapters where Paul is just lifting our vision to see the amazing glory and grace and goodness of God to us in Jesus, how beautiful and worthy God is and how kind, how immeasurably gracious and good he is to us in Jesus and not just to us, but to everyone that he calls together. 

So God's whole purpose was to be kind to a people who don't deserve it in order to reconcile us to himself and to one another as a demonstration of who he is and what he is like. And then out of that deeply rooted identity and who God is for us in Jesus, we live out of that. We walk in a way that aligns with who we are in Jesus. 

We are adopted. We are loved. We're reconciled. 

We're new. We've been brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And so the whole second half of the book is, man, here's what that looks like to walk in the reality of who you are as a new person in Jesus. 

And all of that is undergirded, empowered, framed by God's grace, by his undeserved goodness. And as we remind ourselves of that, Jesus walks with us and empowers us by his Spirit to live out the new life that he's planted in us. So I think it's just helpful for me even thinking about what do I want to remember from this book and take with me who God is and what he's done and how I live out of that. 

And you gave us a couple of good recommendations earlier. I'd say I really like the stuff that guys at Bible Project do, and they have some great resources. All their Bible book-level summary videos, all their little Bible book summary videos are just... They're amazing.

They're fun to watch, and they're really well done. And so they're one on Ephesians. It'll be like a little three-minute video that walks you through the book and just does a great job of reminding, teaching and reminding what this book is about and what God wants us to take from it.

Yeah, I do love those. Those are great. Paul closed reminding us that we are sustained by God's grace. 

And so as people are going about their days and listening to this, whether they're on a commute or at work or doing missions or wherever, would you close us in prayer, praying for us to be sustained? Yeah. Yeah, thanks. I'd be glad to. 

Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this time that we've had, not just today, but together in your word, through this letter that you inspired the Apostle Paul to write this book of Ephesians. Thank you for how you've lifted our vision to see your grace, your goodness, your beauty, Father, and then how we live out of that. 

We pray, Father, that you'll help us not to just put this behind us as something that we've done or learned, but that, Father, it would live deeply in our hearts and get lived out in our lives, that as we are encouraged and reminded to see you and to see your glory and goodness and kindness to us, that, Father, that really will get lived out in our lives, that, Father, we would be people who reflect the grace and the peace and the love that you have poured out into us through Jesus. Help us to be faithful in the little everyday moments where we have opportunities to reflect what you're like, to live as witnesses for Jesus and the transforming power of the gospel by your Spirit. Jesus, be glorified in us as we walk with you. 

Encourage us. Thank you for the reminder as well that we won't get it perfect and your grace forgives and sustains us. So, Lord, help us to just be faithful, to keep going forward and to trust you in grateful Jesus. 

We love you. We pray with gratitude in your name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Cut for Time. If you wish to submit questions to our pastors following Sunday's sermon, you can email them to podcast at faithchurchindy.com or text them in to our Faith Church texting number and we'll do our best to cover them in next week's episode. If this conversation blessed you in any way, we encourage you to share it with others. 

We'll be back again next week.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)