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00:00There are more than 45,000 self-help books published each year, over 200,000
00:07podcasts in the personal development category. But what if I told you all pale
00:12in comparison to the spiritual development one small book can have on
00:16your life and faith? Just six chapters, 2,000 words and 20 minutes of your time.
00:22Yet its impact lasts a lifetime. It succinctly and powerfully explains what
00:29it means to believe and how to discover God's calling for you. How to find
00:34purpose, overcome obstacles, connect with others, claim a life you love, endure
00:40difficulty, experience the fullness of life, love without limits, and ultimately
00:46be the follower of Christ you've always wanted to be. Join me in God's Word as we
00:52find the proven way to build a belief that thrives, impacts, and endures. A
00:58belief that behaves. It all starts with the book of Ephesians.
01:06Coming up on Turning Point. We have boldness and access before the
01:11Father because of what Jesus did. He tore down the barrier between Jews and
01:16Gentiles, but he also tore down the barrier between us and God so that we
01:21now have access to him. Discover a belief that restores, relates, rejoices,
01:28and behaves in Dr. David Jeremiah's new book, Belief That Behaves, the book of
01:33Ephesians. In this rich study of Paul's beloved epistle, Dr. Jeremiah explores
01:38what it means to be a follower of Christ in practical terms and how we should act
01:42or behave as believers. Through 19 chapters, you'll discover God's how-to
01:47guide to the Christian life, including resolving conflict with others,
01:50successful marriage and parenting, finding purpose, overcoming spiritual
01:54attacks, and praying effectively. Ephesians has the power to change your
01:59life at home, at church, and at work. Request Belief That Behaves by Dr.
02:04Jeremiah when you give a gift of any amount in support of Turning Point, or if
02:08you give a gift of $75 or more, Dr. Jeremiah will send you in appreciation
02:12the Belief That Behaves set, which contains his new book, his complete
02:16two-volume teaching series on your choice of CD or DVD, and two correlating
02:21study guides. From the first verse to the last, the truths contained in Ephesians
02:25will fill your heart with joy and strengthen your relationships with others.
02:29Request the Belief That Behaves book or study set, new from Dr.
02:33Jeremiah, when you contact Turning Point today.
02:38Thank you for watching Turning Point. And now, here is Dr.
02:42Jeremiah with his message, Before and After.
02:49Ephesians chapter 2, 11 through 13, reads as follows.
02:53Remember that you were once without Christ, having no hope and without God in
02:59the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once so far off have been brought
03:06near by the blood of Christ.
03:09Paul tells the Ephesians that you were once separated, alienated, estranged, and
03:14hopeless, and because then and only then, when you realize this, will it become
03:18apparent to you how far God has taken you and how much he loves you. Only when
03:24you realize what you would be without Christ do you understand and appreciate
03:28Christ. If we're going to love Christ much, we need to remember the depths from
03:32which he saved us. If we're going to treasure all that we have in him, we need
03:36to remember who we were without him. And with that in mind, there are two words
03:42that I want you to underline, highlight, draw a circle around in the text. And
03:47here are the words, once and now. Paul said, once we were far off, now we are
03:56near. Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who were called in
04:01circumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands,
04:05that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
04:09commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no
04:13hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who are once so
04:19far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Paul begins this section
04:24by reminding the Gentile Christians about their lives and identities before
04:30they encountered Jesus. He asked them to remember what they once were. As Gentiles,
04:37the Ephesian believers experienced a fourfold alienation. Before Christ, they
04:42were segregated socially. Once they were called uncircumcision by what is called
04:49the circumcision. According to the old covenant of Moses, the practice of
04:54circumcision was what physically set apart God's people from the rest of the
04:57world. That separation had continued in Jewish society so that Gentiles were
05:03separated and excluded on a social level. They were separated spiritually. The
05:09Gentiles were without Christ. While the Jews had been expecting the appearance
05:14of the Messiah for hundreds of years, Gentiles were isolated. They were pagans.
05:20They had no religion at all, and if they had any religion, it was a pagan
05:25self-centered works religion, certainly not Christianity. Those who were Gentiles
05:33without Christ, many of them were idol worshippers. They were spiritually dead.
05:38Thirdly, they were once isolated nationally. Paul said the Gentiles were
05:44aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, that they were insulated culturally as
05:51strangers from the covenants of promise. That's just a lot of words to say the
05:55Jews and the Gentiles didn't like each other. In fact, you cannot really
06:01understand what Paul is going to say to us unless you get some picture of the
06:04hatred that existed between the Jewish people who considered themselves the
06:09hierarchy and the Gentiles who were, according to them, pagans. The Gentiles
06:15were considered not worthy by the Jews, and Paul is writing now to the Gentiles
06:21in the book of Ephesians, and he's telling them, before you came to Christ,
06:26you had no standing at all. You were hated by the people who were culturally
06:30the elite. You were far from God. You were steeped in idolism and paganism. We
06:37cannot comprehend that unless we look at it from those perspectives. Thankfully,
06:42that's what the Gentiles once were, but I want you to notice verse 13. Here's
06:47where the now comes. But now, in Christ, you who were once afar off have been
06:52brought near by the blood of Christ. Once and now. In Christ, hopelessness has been
07:01exchanged for nearness. Isn't that interesting? To be near to God is to be
07:06near to hope. The book of Hebrews says it this way, hope is a strong and trustworthy
07:11anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain of God's inner
07:15sanctuary. Dani Yoh has come to that experience in her book, You Are Not Alone.
07:21She describes the pain and panic she endured as her daughter lapsed in and
07:26out of crises. She finally made this discovery, the most important thing about
07:31my life wasn't how my children were doing, as important as that was, but the
07:36most important thing about my life was my relationship with Jesus, my Savior.
07:41When I chose to focus on Christ, my real hope, my firm hope, was revealed. Reminds
07:48you of the passage in Isaiah that said, if we keep our mind on Christ, he will
07:52bring peace. And then she said, our challenge is to loosen our grip on the
07:59fragile hopes that we've been setting our hearts on. They're slippery, they're
08:04elusive, they slip through our fingers like sand. Hope, she said, is the rope that
08:10is thrown to us by Almighty God who fastens it tightly around our waist to
08:15keep us from falling into a pit of despair. Take hold of this new kind of
08:20hope, take hold of Christ. When you have God, when you have Christ, you can't say
08:25you're without hope. Your hope is eternal and you will never die of despair if you
08:30trust in Christ. Yes, in Christ there is hope. Once we were a far off, says Paul,
08:38but now we are near. Notice secondly, once we were separated, now we're united. In
08:43verse 14, Paul says, for he himself is our peace who has made both one and has
08:49broken down the middle wall of separation. In the Greek version of the
08:54New Testament, he himself is emphatic. Jesus himself is our peace. In other
08:59words, peace is a person. Three times in Ephesians 2, 11 through 22, the word
09:06peace appears in our text, and each time Paul seems to be emphasizing not just
09:12peace between humanity and God, but peace between Jew and Gentile. This is an
09:19important first century cultural reference. He says he has broken down the
09:25middle wall of separation. Let me explain to you how that was. If you were
09:29to go to Jerusalem during the time this was being written and visit the temple
09:34complex, you would discover that at the temple complex there was a place called
09:38the Court of the Gentiles, where the Gentiles were allowed together. Not in
09:43the temple, not in the sacred place of the Jews, but there was kind of like a
09:47pen around the outside where the Gentiles could come. They could not enter
09:52the inner court where the Jews were allowed, but at least they could gather
09:55on the outside of a barrier set up to separate the Jews from the Gentiles.
10:01There the Jews tried to proselyte the Gentiles. They would go out into the
10:06group of Gentiles and try to get them to become Jewish in their faith. So, the
10:11Gentiles were separated from the Jews by a wall of separation, but Paul says Jesus
10:17broke that wall down. Notice the words, both and one. Both refers to the separate
10:23groups of Jews and Gentiles. One refers to the Church of Jesus Christ in which
10:29the two became one. Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, all the barriers
10:34which separate individuals, racial barriers, religious barriers, gender
10:39barriers, social and economic barriers, all of them have been stripped aside and
10:44all who believe in Christ have been made into one. And you know what that one is?
10:48It's the Church of Jesus Christ. We are all in the church. It's no longer Jews and
10:53Gentiles. It's the Church of Jesus Christ. Both has been made into one. Jesus did
10:59that on the cross. He made it possible for the gospel to be available to all,
11:03and no matter what people say about it or think about it, here's what Paul wrote
11:07to the Galatians. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.
11:12There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.
11:18Every three years, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sponsors what they call the
11:24Urbana Conference. If you didn't grow up like I did, you probably would have never
11:28heard of that. But when I was starting in the ministry, that was a really big deal.
11:32Every Christmas vacation, college-age students from evangelical churches all
11:37across America would go to Urbana, Illinois, for the Urbana Conference. And
11:43preachers like Billy Graham and others would come, and they would motivate and
11:47challenge these young people to give their lives to missions. Out of the Urbana
11:52gatherings, many hundreds of young students decided that life was best
11:58invested in the eternal kingdom of God. They would walk away from their goals, and
12:03they would go out to the mission field to serve Jesus Christ. It was one of the
12:07greatest recruiting sessions there ever was, the Urbana Conference. After the main
12:12session one year, students left the auditorium to meet in smaller groups.
12:18They met for prayer and reflection on what they had heard. And in one of the
12:22banquet halls, there was a group comprised of Chinese students, another
12:27group of Taiwanese students, and another group of students from Hong Kong. Large
12:32dividers stood between the three. Three walls were important, because
12:38historically, these three people have harbored bitterness and animosity toward
12:42each other. But as the Chinese students were praying, they told their leader they
12:47wanted to invite the other countries to join them. And when the Taiwanese students
12:51received the invitation, they prayed and sang a little while, then they opened the
12:55wall divider between the two of them. And it wasn't too long before the students
13:00from Hong Kong pulled back their divider, and some 80 students mingled
13:04together. You see, in Christ, we're not divided. We're one family. We don't need
13:09barriers between us, said the leader. Christ breaks down political barriers. In
13:13Christ, we have the desire to make the first steps, and we connect with each
13:17other. We are one in Christ. And let me just say this. If you listen to a gospel,
13:23or you believe a gospel that doesn't believe that, you can't be a Christian.
13:28The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't segmented. The gospel is not racial. If
13:32the gospel is not available to all the people of the whole world, it's not the
13:36gospel of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
13:41Sometimes I hear gospel being preached on television like it was the gospel, and
13:46they're talking about how you can have anything you want if you just believe it.
13:49Try that on in a third-world country. That's not the gospel. If the gospel
13:54doesn't work in any part of the country, it isn't the gospel. The gospel of Jesus
13:59Christ doesn't set up barriers. It breaks them down. It takes these two people who
14:05were hostile to each other, brings them together in this great organization we
14:10know as the Church of Jesus Christ. All of us one. Once we were far off, now we're
14:16near. Once we were separated, now we're united. Once we were two, now we're one.
14:22Did you know that Ephesians 2 15 says that? Having abolished in his flesh the
14:29enmity that is the law of commandments, the ordinances, and he brought us
14:34together making peace that we might reconcile to God in one body through the
14:39cross, putting to death the enmity. God didn't make Jews become Gentiles. He
14:46didn't make Gentiles become Jews. Rather, he created something brand new, a new
14:50person called the Church. There are no longer Jews and Gentiles, religiously
14:55speaking, but only Christians. And Jesus' message to both those who were near and
15:00those who were far away was the same. It was the message of peace. Today, the
15:05gospel of peace is still being preached to people all over the world. The blood
15:10of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit is making those who seem afar
15:15off to be near. Paul continues in his letter, and he says, because you are one,
15:23because you are in Christ, you have access to God. Did you know that? When you
15:28become a Christian, you immediately have access to God. I mean, think about that.
15:33When you didn't know Christ, you couldn't even imagine. In fact, you were
15:36hoping God didn't have access to you. That was a problem you had then, but now
15:40you have access to God. That's why we read in Galatians 4,
15:46and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
15:50heart, crying, Abba, Father. And Hebrews 4 16 says, let us therefore come boldly to
15:56the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time
16:01of need. Because you are a Christian, because of what Jesus did for you on his
16:06cross, you now have access to the Father. You can talk to God. I talked to him this
16:12morning on my way to the church. We have boldness and access before the Father
16:18because of what Jesus did. He tore down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles,
16:23but he also tore down the barrier between us and God so that we now have
16:28access to him. Once we are far off, now we are near. Once we were separated, now we
16:35are united. Once we were two, and now we're just one. Once we were excluded, and
16:41now we are admitted. Once we were strangers, but now we are the Church. Now
16:47therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with
16:52the saints, members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation
16:57of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
17:01cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy
17:06temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling
17:10place of God in the Spirit. It's a beautiful paragraph. It's very wordy, but
17:15in essence what Paul is doing here is giving us some pictures of what it's
17:20like in the church. He says, first of all, being in the church is like being in a
17:24city, a community. He informed the Gentiles that they were no longer
17:29strangers, but they were fellow citizens. So they belong together. They have the
17:35same access to each other, to God. They're a family. And that's the
17:41second illustration he uses. He says the church is like a city made up of people
17:46of all different kinds, and the church is like a family. And then he says the
17:51church is not only like a city and like a family, the church is like a building.
17:56And he talks about how this building is structured, the apostles and the prophets
18:01forming the foundation, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. We're all part of
18:07that building, and it says we're being fitted together. What does that mean?
18:10God is taking all of us and using us in our special way, with our own
18:15giftedness and our own abilities. And Paul said that the building in which you
18:19and I have been brought into, we're built upon a foundation that's built there
18:23with the apostles and the prophets. What is that? That's the Bible, the
18:27apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone of the building is Jesus
18:31Christ. And no other foundation can any man lay. You and I, who are Christians,
18:36whether we come from a Jewish background or a Gentile background or a Chinese
18:40background or an Hispanic background, we're all building blocks into this
18:45building that he calls the church. And we have the wonderful privilege of being
18:52united with one another. Paul Brand was a surgeon who wrote a
18:57wonderful book called, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. And this book is really
19:01cool because he uses what he learned as a surgeon to help us understand how the
19:06body of Christ works. Listen to what he said. He said, just as the complete
19:10identity code, the DNA of my body, is found in every cell, so also the reality
19:17of God permeates every cell in Christ's body, the church, linking us with a true
19:23organic bond. So what happens is wherever we go, if we're Christians, we meet other
19:28Christians and immediately we feel a oneness with them. You have the DNA of the
19:34Holy Spirit. And as soon as you see somebody else like that, no matter what,
19:38you may not even be able to speak the same language. Something wonderful is a
19:43part of being in the body of Christ. And I am so grateful that I am a part of
19:48that body and have the opportunity to see that happen in my life and in the
19:53lives of other people. And as Christians, we're never far away from our family
19:57because the family of God is everywhere. Some of you have children on the East
20:01Coast. You don't get to see them very often. But if you're in God's family, we
20:04got a whole bunch of members right here. You can always bump up against a family
20:08member wherever you go if you're a member of the family of God. So we're in
20:14the building. We're in the family. We're in the city. We're one, one in Christ.
20:22Amen. Clarence McCartney once told of a man who dreamed of a city filled with
20:28splendid and notable buildings, a great granite temple of finance and commerce
20:33where business was transacted, marble halls where university classes met,
20:38ornate homes for the people of the city. And along the roadside was a humble
20:44structure into which men and women kept going. A hundred years passed in his dream
20:50and the man found himself in the same city, but the buildings had been torn
20:54down and rebuilt. They were even taller and more impressive, yet in the middle of
20:59them was the same small white structure into which people were coming and going
21:04with joy on their faces. A thousand years passed in the man's dream and again he
21:11saw the same city. It was a complete transformation, for the old buildings had
21:16vanished and new buildings where new architecture and new grandeur had taken
21:20their place, all except that little framed building along the road into
21:23which men and women and children were coming and going with joy and
21:28satisfaction on their faces. And what is that building, he asked a stranger in his
21:33dream. That building, said the stranger, that represents the church, the house of
21:39God. Cities and societies rise and fall, but the church remains steadfast through
21:45the ages to assist God's people along the road of life. Now, just stop and think
21:50about that for a moment. How many years ago was it that Christ died on the cross?
21:54And here we are today, sitting in the church of Jesus Christ with each other.
22:00We have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are one with each other and it just
22:06keeps going. And one of these days, if the Lord doesn't come back, there'll be new
22:11people sitting in these chairs and a new pastor behind the pulpit. But the church
22:16will continue to go on. God's people change, his purposes never do. His men
22:24move on, his methods keep going, his ministry keeps going. So, when you are a
22:30part of the church, you lock into something that never, ever goes away. And
22:35when the Lord Jesus comes back, he's coming back for his church. The Bible
22:39says one day he's gonna break through the heavens and the church will be
22:43caught up to be with him. If you're in the church, you get a free ride to heaven
22:47because you put your faith in Jesus Christ. There's a story about a man's
22:54daughter who was visiting Quito, Ecuador on a missions trip. The beach was packed
23:01with people, so Catherine decided to go for a swim to escape the crowds.
23:06Swimming in deep water far from shore, she noticed a boat floating fast toward
23:11her and she yelled and waved the best she could but to no avail. The boat
23:14continued on course and she finally decided to dive headfirst to get out of
23:18the way. But the prop caught her on her lower back. As it turned out, two young
23:24Ecuadorians witnessed the accident from shore, swam to her, reaching her just in
23:29enough time. And once on shore, the emergency vehicle stopped the bleeding,
23:33stitched her up, and transported her to a hospital in Quito. Over the next week,
23:40Catherine discovered what it means to belong to the worldwide church. A word
23:44spread. People in the U.S. contacted Christian friends in Quito who began to
23:48visit and help her. A retired missionary doctor stopped to see her every day and
23:52took personal responsibility for her care. People sent letters. People sent
23:57flowers. People sent emails and gifts. Catherine said, I just can't believe it,
24:01Dad. These people love me for no other reason than I needed to be loved. To
24:07which Gerald responded, it's the church, baby. It's the church. When the church is
24:11functioning at its best, there's simply no community on earth that can rival it.
24:16That is true.
24:20You know, I think we take for granted what a blessing it is to be in the
24:24church. Now let me tell you, as we close, in the Bible there are two kinds of
24:29church. There's Big C Church and there's Little C Church. Big C Church, the Bible
24:35tells us, is made up of everybody who's a Christian worldwide. So if you have
24:39accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, you are a member of Big C Church,
24:44the church which is the body of Christ. But there's also Little C Church. Shadow
24:50Mountain is Little C Church. We're the local chapter of the Big C Church. That
24:55means if you come here, if you're a Christian, you're coming together to meet
24:59with others who are in the body. And you know, sometimes if we're not careful, we
25:05de-emphasize that. We de-emphasize the importance of the local New Testament
25:10Church. So I'm going to tell you today that it is important, and I believe it
25:14may be more important now than ever before. We've gone through a period where
25:18we sort of de-emphasized that. I know a lot of churches don't even have church
25:21membership. But as we face the uncertainties of the future, as we come
25:27down the road toward what we don't know, how wonderful it is to know that you
25:31have locked in with the group of God's people and have announced your allegiance
25:38to the Big Church by being a part of the Little Church.
25:50Thank you for watching Turning Point. When you give a gift of any amount in
25:55support of this program, Dr. Jeremiah will send you, in appreciation, his new book,
26:00Belief That Behaves, The Book of Ephesians. And if you give a gift of $75 or more,
26:06Dr. Jeremiah will send you, The Belief That Behaves Set, which contains his new
26:10book, his complete two-volume teaching series on CD or DVD, and two correlating
26:16study guides. Thank you for your support. Request these resources when you contact
26:21Turning Point today.
26:25Thank you for joining us on Turning Point. As Dr. Jeremiah taught from the Book
26:29of Ephesians and shared the many blessings that believers have through
26:33Christ. But if you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ before, Dr. Jeremiah
26:38would like to help you take your first steps by sending you two resources. The
26:42first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you begin
26:46your relationship with Christ. And the second is our monthly devotional magazine,
26:51Turning Points, to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
26:55These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning Point today.
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27:30Next time on Turning Point. Almighty God brings us together into his body and
27:37takes all of our brokenness and he makes it something beautiful. That people
27:41marvel at, that we even sometimes marvel at ourselves.
27:46Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message,
27:52Unity, here on Turning Point.
28:01Dr. David Jeremiah is delivering the unchanging Word of God every month to
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