Set Free Stay Free: A Bible Study Podcast with Matt Dawson

How do two people with completely different lives, needs, dreams, and desires actually make a marriage last? It's one of the most practical questions in human experience — and Paul addresses it in just twelve verses. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson works through one of the most discussed and most misunderstood passages in all of scripture: Ephes...

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to drift? To feel like you're following God, but slowly, subtly, the world around you starts shaping you more than you realize? That's exactly what Paul is addressing as he opens Ephesians chapter 5 — and he doesn't soften it. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson works through Ephesians 5:1–14 where Paul...

Have you ever felt like two different people? The person you want to be — and the person who shows up when life gets hard, when you react without thinking, when the old you just walks back in like it never left? Paul has language for that. And in this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson works through Ephesians 4:17–32 where Paul gets specific about what sanctifi...

After 25 years of pastoral ministry, one question keeps coming up: Do I actually have a spiritual gift? And does it really matter for my everyday life? In this special bonus episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson sits down with Paul Ryden from Global Book Network for a conversation about his book Gifted: On Purpose for a Purpose — a practical, accessible guide to u...

Have you ever wondered if your life actually matters? If you're really contributing anything — to the church, to the people around you, to what God is doing in the world? Paul has an answer. And it's not vague encouragement. It's specific. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson digs into one of the most practically rich sections of Ephesians...

Who are you living your life for? And does the way you actually live it match what you say you believe? With one word — therefore — Paul pivots the entire letter. Everything in chapters 1 through 3 was foundation: chosen, adopted, saved by grace, sealed by the Spirit, empowered by unlimited resources. Now comes the turn. Therefore , live a life worthy of the calling you've received. In this e...

Have you ever felt spiritually weak? Thin on the inside? Exhausted from trying to be faithful when you're running on empty? Paul has a prayer for that — and it's one of the most powerful passages in all of scripture. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson arrives at his absolute favorite section of Ephesians. Chapter 3, verses 14–21. Paul falls to...

Have you ever looked at the church — with all its mess, its hurt, its broken people and broken leadership — and wondered why God would choose this as his plan? Paul has an answer. And it's bigger than you might expect. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson opens Ephesians chapter 3 and lands on one of the most surprising statements in Paul's enti...

Have you ever felt like an outsider? Like you didn't quite belong, weren't quite included, didn't quite make the cut? That's exactly where the Gentiles stood — and Paul wants to make sure they never forget how far they've come. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson continues the Season 2 Ephesians Bible study with chapter 2, verses...

Have you ever tried to change something about yourself and found that no amount of effort, resolve, or doubling down could actually do it? Paul has a reason for that — and two of the most powerful words in all of scripture to answer it. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson opens Ephesians chapter 2 and Paul draws the sharpest contrast in the entire letter...

What if your greatest spiritual problem isn't that you don't know enough — it's that you can't see what you already know? That's the prayer Paul prays for the church in Ephesus. Not that they would learn more, study harder, or achieve greater things. He prays that God would open their eyes. That they would have spiritual wisdom and insight. That their hearts would be flood...

How do you know your salvation is going to last? How do you know God won't take it back? And when life falls apart, how do you hold onto the idea that any of this is part of a plan? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson continues the Season 2 Ephesians Bible study with chapter 1, verses 7–14. Paul moves from the wonder of being chosen to something eve...

How much of your life is driven by trying to prove yourself? To be good enough, faithful enough, successful enough? What if God settled your worth before you ever had the chance to earn it? Welcome to Season 2 of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast. Host Matt Dawson opens the Ephesians Bible study right where Paul begins his letter — not with a challenge or a warning, but with something tha...

How do you know you'll finish well? Not just start well — but endure all the way to the end? In this final episode of Season 1, host Matt Dawson brings the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast's walk through Galatians to a close. And Paul ends the way he began — with urgency, clarity, and his eyes fixed on one thing alone: the cross of Jesus Christ. Picking up in Galatians 6:6–18, Paul...

Have you ever blown it and wondered who would stick around? Or have you ever watched someone else stumble and felt quietly relieved it wasn't you? Paul has something to say about both of those moments. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson opens Galatians chapter 6 and Paul lands on something surprising as he closes out his letter. After spending the...

Why do you keep doing what you don't really want to do? Why does change feel so inconsistent? And have you ever felt your heart genuinely divided over something? Paul has an answer — and it's not what most people expect. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson works through the second half of Galatians 5, where Paul names what every believer quietl...

Are you really free? And if you are — does your life actually look like it? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson arrives at the passage this entire podcast was built on. Galatians 5:1 — it is for freedom that Christ has set us free — is the heartbeat of the whole letter. And Paul isn't done fighting for it. This is where Paul takes the gloves off. If...

Are you managing your spiritual life — or receiving it? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson works through one of the most creative moments in Paul's entire letter. To close out his argument in Galatians chapter 4, Paul reaches back into one of the most familiar stories in all of Jewish scripture — Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac — and turns it in...

Have you ever tried to help someone grow and instead of leaning in, they pulled away? Have you ever shared a hard truth and suddenly found yourself cast as the enemy? That's exactly where Paul is in this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast. Host Matt Dawson steps into one of the most personal, emotionally raw sections of Paul's entire letter. Paul isn't arguing doc...

Freedom sounds beautiful. But what does it say about your freedom when the people around you still see chains? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson moves into Galatians chapter 4 and Paul makes one of his most personal appeals of the entire letter. You've been adopted. The Judge has signed it and broken the pen — it cannot be undone. You are no longe...

What if the way you've been living your faith doesn't match who God actually says you are? That's the tension Paul lands on in this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast. Host Matt Dawson digs into Galatians 3:15–29 — and Paul's argument here is sweeping, historically rich, and personally convicting. He takes us all the way back to the Abrahamic covenant, that a...

What if the heaviest thing you're carrying isn't a circumstance — it's a conviction that you're still not enough? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson lands on one of the most staggering statements in all of Paul's writing: Christ became a curse for us. That's not a footnote. That's the whole point. And if you've be...

How did your relationship with God start? Was it because you tried harder — or because you trusted? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson opens Galatians chapter 3 and Paul asks one of the most piercing questions in the entire letter: How did you begin? Because the way you start your faith journey isn't just a footnote — it's the foundation for e...

You can believe in grace and still live like everything depends on you. It happens more than we'd like to admit — and in this episode, it happened to Peter. In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson continues the Season 1 Galatians Bible study with chapter 2, verses 11–21. Paul goes public with a confrontation that nobody in the room saw coming. Peter — o...

Everybody wants unity. Everybody wants to get along. But what happens when unity comes at the cost of the truth? In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson continues the Season 1 Galatians Bible study with chapter 2, verses 1–10. Paul picks up his personal story — now 14 years into his ministry — and takes us inside a pivotal meeting with the leaders of the Jer...