GRINDIT podcast

Paul is facing a death sentence and will be beheaded soon but at the time he is writing this letter to the church at Philippi, he thinks he may be free some day and get to go see them again. At the end of chapter 1 Paul tells the church they are in this together and they are to remember their home is heaven, not here. Why? Because persecution is from the enemy and it tries to get one to give up th...

Paul is constantly encouraging the church at Philippi by affirmation. He goes on and on about how he appreciates them, their support, hard work, and prayers. Then he talks about how often he prays for them and how he appreciates them praying for him since he has been in jail. We all need to affirmation, which is why it is so important for the church to be involved in one another's life, encouragin...

Paul was being arrested for preaching the gospel and he was giving a plea to the crowd as he walked up the steps. Then he has to go before Felix and others to plead his case and they wanted to send him back to Jerusalem to have his trial. He refused because he knew there were Jews waiting to ambush him and kill him so, in a quick outburst, Paul appeals to Caesar because he knew it would keep him a...

Paul encourages the church at Philippi to grow in two things: knowledge and understanding. Knowledge in the Greek means to know thoroughly, to know accurately. We can grow in knowledge about God by reading His word and Paul actually tells us when we do, we will "accurately" handle the word of truth! Then he says to grow in understanding. I don't know how many times I have been told, "I can't under...

Paul tells the church at Philippi, "God started the work and God will finish the work." Paul, who is arguably the greatest missionary in the history of the church, traveled all around the world at that time starting churches, going back around and revisiting those churches, and led many people to the Lord. He knew exactly who he was and his role and who God was...that Paul didn't do anything becau...

In this episode, we dig into how the church at Philippi got started from Acts 16 and we give some great incite to Paul's letter to the church.

Paul says in vs10 to "Be strong in the Lord." Why does he say this? From the very beginning of the letter, Paul has reminded the church at Ephesus that all our blessings, everything we have, the right standing we have with God the Father, all comes through Jesus. He has been talking about the unity we have and how we should throw off the desires of the flesh and continue to strive for maturity in...

Like it or not, slavery has existed for a long time and it existed when Jesus was walking on the earth. When Paul was traveling around on his missionary journeys, he met many slaves and masters. He includes them in his letter to the church at Ephesus and he encourages them to work towards unity by being obedient. The key for God to be glorified in our lives, whether slave or free, is unity. From h...

What does it mean to “obey”? Paul uses a word in the Greek that implies a child hears instruction from their parents and they immediately do what they are instructed to do. If this isn’t the case, the child is sinning because they are not obeying...they are being disobedient; they are disrupting unity. Funny thing is, we generally think about our own children or grandchildren but we, ourselves, ar...

I have heard this passage in Ephesians 5 about husbands and wives, marriages, taught for over thirty years and not once, that I can remember, did anyone talk about the context. All I have heard I have heard is these verses used to tell wives on how to submit to her husband and how the husband is to treat his wife by loving her. I don’t believe that’s Paul’s intent in this section of scripture. It’...

Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is a plea to do what pleases God. Why? Because of everything God has done for us in Christ Jesus! It’s a theme throughout the letter, “Throw off the old life!”...“Don’t give into the desires of the flesh!”...”Don’t give a foothold to the devil!” Paul is begging them, and us, to give up our own desires, passions, our will and live for Jesus, to allow the Holy...

You have been crucified with Christ so don’t let your old self come back to life! This is Paul’s message to the church at Ephesus and to us today! He knows the inner struggle of walking by the Spirit and walking according to the flesh. He knows we have been given a new life in Christ but he also knows there is an enemy trying to destroy us so he warns them, “Don’t live like the Gentiles. Live Diff...

We left Paul in chapter 4 listing a bunch of sins that need to stop happening in a believer’s life. He will continue this list in chapter 5 but sandwiched in between these lists is a command to “Imitate God.” In the Greek this means to mimic, to impersonate. How do we impersonate someone? We watch them, the mannerisms, how they talk and act, we study their lives and then we start to act like them....

You have been crucified with Christ so don’t let your old self come back to life! This is Paul’s message to the church at Ephesus and to us today! He knows the inner struggle of walking by the Spirit and walking according to the flesh. He knows we have been given a new life in Christ but he also knows there is an enemy trying to destroy us so he warns them, “Don’t live like the Gentiles. Live Diff...

Paul says in verse 17, “With the Lord’s authority I say this...” Does this mean everything he said previously is without the Lord’s authority? Of course not. He is making a transition here from telling the church at Ephesus to live a life worthy of their calling to how NOT to live. And to show how serious the matter is, Paul is saying, “The Lord has my back on what I am about to say,” and he goes...

False teachers were rampant in the early church. These deceivers would come in and pretend to be full of the spirit, and they would welcome themselves into the body of believers, making friends and gaining people’s trust. Then at the moment of opportunity, they would begin their deceitful teachings and cause chaos in the body. They would cause chaos and doubt which totally went against God’s plans...

When Jesus left this earth, ascending back to the Father and sitting at His right hand, he left gifts for the church. It may not be gifts like we think of as gifts, something to be unwrapped and get all excited about...But they were necessary gifts because the church, his body, at that time, was a new concept and would need structure. These gifts would provide this: apostles, prophets, evangelists...

Paul says we are to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. How do we do that? It seems that many do know, or understand, their calling. It’s not complicated to figure out but it can be challenging to do! Paul tells us how to live a called life and that life is to be like Jesus: be humble, be gentle or meek, be patient, and love, striving for unity with the Spirit. If we get any one of these out o...

Have you prayed and prayed and prayed only to get nothing but crickets from God? No matter how earnest you pray, all you seem to get from God is silence? A question people ask a lot is, “Why are my prayers not being answered?” It’s a great question because Jesus tells us to ask God for help and to bring our petitions before Him so He can answer them, but maybe you’re discouraged because you feel a...

Paul has taken the time to think about what God has done for him and anyone who obeys the gospel and it humbles him. He says he wants us all to experience the love the Father has for us and what he has done through His Son, Jesus. He wants us to know the power that is within us as believers, those who have put their faith in Jesus. The same power that was at work in the gospels, in the book of Act...

What put Paul down on his knees before God? No, not when he was thrown from his horse on the road to Damascus, but when he took the time to consider the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth chose him to carry the message of the gospel to the Jews and the Gentiles. He was humbled because he knew where he once was and the life he was living, going from house to house, persecuting those who w...

Paul says God revealed the mystery of his plan to him and that he did not get any of his information from man. He says he didn’t learn it either but that it was given to him by God Himself. When Paul was first converted to Jesus, he went away for three years. During those three years is when he would be taught by God this mysterious plan and now, he would reveal this plan to both Jews and Gentiles...

Paul is reflecting on how God had a plan in place where Jews and Gentiles would worship together in unity, in one body, the church. He says this plan was mysterious for a long time but it has now been revealed. There is no guessing as to what that plan is because Paul tells us exactly what the mysterious plan is, and it was purposed by God Himself from all eternity. That plan was for God Himself t...

God made a covenant with Abraham way back in Genesis 12 and he became the father of the Jews. A sign of that covenant was circumcision and God said if they chose not to be circumcised, then He wouldn’t have anything to do with them. Then there are the Gentiles who were completely outside of that covenant and were uncircumcised. Hostility would grow between these two groups of people and the roots...

When we were kids we played a game called “Follow the leader”. You wanted to be careful in who you chose to be the leader because the object of the game was to do everything the leader did so you can stay in the game. If you didn’t choose a close friend to be the leader, they may choose hard things to follow just to try and get you to booted out of the game. Paul says we have two leaders we can fo...