01: Ephesians 1:1-14 - Ignite

Hey Church Fam!

During this season of “The Dig” we’ll be “digging” into the book of Ephesians! Each week we’ll drop three mini episodes - one to deepen our understanding of what we’ll be reading that week in Ephesians, one to ignite our curiosity about how that week’s scripture fits into the God’s big story and the good news of the gospel, and then one to help us grow as fruit-producing, God-glorying disciples!

This is a IGNITE Episode! Don't skip out on this week's mission!

RESOURCES

• Ephesians - An Introduction, Warren Wiersbe

Transcript

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Welcome to the Dig Church Family. This podcast will serve as a way for the church and the home to connect outside of the church building, providing parents and spiritual families with a resource to dig into God's word together. As always, when we dig, we're deepening our understanding, igniting our curiosity, and growing as fruit-producing God-glorifying disciples. During this season of the dig, we'll be digging into the book of Ephesians. Each week we'll drop three mini episodes, one to deepen our understanding of what we'll be reading that week. And Ephesians, one to ignite our curiosity about how that week's passage fits into the whole story of the Bible and the good news of the gospel, and then one to help us grow as fruit-producing, God-glorifying disciples. Today's mini episode of The Dig is it for igniting our curiosity about what we've been reading this week. We'll be chatting and then a little bit about what's happening in this passage and how that fits into the bigger story of the whole Bible. And the best news ever, the gospel. This week we're reading Ephesians 1, 1 through 14. Ephesians is a letter by the Apostle Paul written from prison to the church in Ephesus. Paul had visited this church before, helping to get them started and growing, and now he's sending them this reminder of the gospel. This letter would have been such a welcomed encouragement to that church, and it is equally as special of a letter to us today. The book of Ephesians can basically be split in half. Chapters one through three teach us about our calling, and chapters four through six teach us about our conduct, or a word that we'll hear a lot in this book is about our walk with Christ. One Bible teacher says that chapters three, one through three talk about doctrine or what God has done for us, and then chapters four through six talk about duty, what we must do for God. You might be catching on of some themes that we'll be digging up in the book of Ephesians this summer. These are some things like identity or new life, uh, unity, and the Christian walk with God. See if you can follow some of these themes or others that you might find as we study this book this summer. Now we'll be using the Ignite mini episode to talk about what how what we're reading each week fits into the gospel message. But this week's passage makes that super easy. The gospel message is all over these verses that we've read. We're reminded that we're chosen by God through Jesus before creation, and that's verse four. Verse five tells us that we're adopted into God's family through the work of Jesus because of God's free gift of grace, which verse six reminds us of. And then verse seven reminds us that we were sinners, but now through the redemption of the saving work of Jesus' blood, we've been forgiven. And verse 13 reminds us of what happens when we hear this good news and believe that it's true. We are marked by the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit begins to dwell inside of us. Thank you, God, for choosing us, and thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross to save us from our sins. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for dwelling inside of us. And now, like verse 14 says, we are God's possession. After you turn off this mini episode, your mission is to summarize verses 4 through 10 in your own words. Try and do it in only one or two sentences, or you can try summarizing with pictures too. Talk to you soon, Church Am.