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Glad that you hit the Midwest and had some fellowship on another channel this morning. And glad that you're here. So, Bert, you're hitting all the places of fellowship. Really glad to hear that. I'm doing fine. And we're getting ready to look at Ephesians 1:1-6. We started that book yesterday, and we're going to just plow right on through it. Big book in terms of its content. Important book in terms of its theology. So that's where we're at. And hopefully you guys are doing good. Any prayer requests there, Bert? That was good. Well, just hope everybody is as blessed as we are over here in Troy, Montana. When it's raining or snowing or sunny outside, I hope you're as blessed. W7RKD. All right, real good. Good report from Troy, Montana. Bert, thank you for being there. All right, any other check-ins, please come now. Kilo 7, November Echo Bravo. Okay, we had a double there. I got Kilo 7, November Echo Bravo, and that is Keith. Keith, good morning. How are you doing? Any prayer requests? Good morning, all the way over the front. Copy that. I heard another station on top of Keith. Other station, come now. Okay, thank you. All right, there's Mark, KJ7PVT. Mark, good band today. How are you doing? I think you're not going to get to Montana. You're going to get to Montana as well. We're going to be going back to Fort Deer. We're going to be needing to go to Montana or not. I don't know what else we're going to need to do. I don't know. All right, copy that. You guys are trying to decide whether you're going to go to Montana or not. And so, anyway, appreciate you being there, Mark. And we got you checked in. And we'll just pray for wisdom. Is that just going to be a trip? Are you thinking about moving? Or what's on your mind there? Oh, yeah, copy that. So you gotta go visit the kids and the grain kids, but there's snow in the path, so don't know whether you ought to go or not. Yep, well, we'll pray for wisdom and safety if you decide to go. Thank you for that, Mark. KJ7PVT needs wisdom as to whether he should go to Montana or not, depending upon the travel conditions to see the kids and the grandkids. Copy that, Al? All right, real good. All right, the net would like to acknowledge Gene, K7GWR. Gene, I see you there on the Utah SDR. Appreciate you being there, Gene, and we got you checked in. All right, any other check-ins, please come down. And there's Lee, AL7KG. Good morning, Lee. Good to have you with us. How you doing? Yeah, copy that. So Lee's going to be doing some travel and ask us to pray for safety on the road for him. So that's Lee AL7KG. Safety on the road as he travels. Copy that. Good copy, thanks. Alright Lee, we've got you covered there, appreciate you being there, and we got you checked in. Alright, any other check-ins? Please come now. Alright, the net would like to acknowledge Peter, KJ7BA. Peter, good morning, see you there on Utah. Appreciate you being there, brother. And we got you checked in. Alright, Peter says good morning to everyone, so good contact there, good response. Thank you for that, Peter. Always appreciate your presence with us. I see Brian, KJ7TWM up there on the Utah SDR. Brian, are you on your microphone? Come back to me. All right, not hearing from Brian, but I got him checked in by way of Utah SDR. Maybe we'll hear from him in a little bit. All right, that's Brian, KJ7TWM. All right, any other check-ins this morning? Please come down. Great man this morning, WB7VZL. Thank you for your prayers. It is, Roger, for sure. How's Dailene doing, and is Autumn getting another place to live? Yeah, that's pretty important. Yeah, that's a big priority. The thinking of vulnerability and what the disease and the treatment does Yeah, it's time for Autumn to find another place. So thank you for your prayers on that, and it's a proud priority. Copy that, copy that. Okay, I'll let the be sure and pray today for Autumn to be able to find a new place to live. And I think that that might be on our list today, but if not, Al, if you could add that, I'd appreciate that. All right, Autumn needs to find a new place to live. All right, any other prayer requests and or check-ins, please come to them. KJ7PVT, would you comment? KJ7PVT, would you comment? Go ahead. This is KJ7PVT with a comment on a radio. I can see that it's involved in a boat on that one. All right, copy that. So Mark, KJ7PVT would like to have a phone call with Roger, WB7VCL, about the situation with Autumn. And so, Mark, I can hook you up with his wife, Darlene's, phone number, and maybe you can talk with Roger that way. Roger, WB7VCL, did you copy that? Yeah, but he can call my number. It's Mark, it's 509-529-8251. That's 509-529-8251. And I'll get back with you. Alright, real good. Thank you guys for that QSO there. Alright, any other check-ins this morning before we start the net, please come now. Kilo 6, Delta Romeo, Kilo 6, Delta Romeo. All right, I heard a Kilo 6. Can somebody give me a relay on that call sign? Kilo 6, maybe that was Jesse. Kilo 6, Delta Romeo, K6DR. Jesse, if that's you, give me a roger roger. Oh, that's a Roger, Roger. That's Jeff, Jeff, Michael, Valley, over. Okay, can I get a relay from anybody on that? Yeah, you said that's a Roger? Roger, AK-6, okay. All right, thank you, Jeff, for that relay. Okay, we got Jesse Case 6DR checked in. Jesse, thank you for being there. I appreciate that, brother. Okay, any other check-ins, please come now. All right, the net would like to acknowledge JR, K6LBP, JR, I see you there on the Half Moon Bay SDR. Thank you for being there, and I think we've got everybody checked in on the SDRs. For right now, we've got Gene, K7GWR, yep. And I think we've got everyone, yeah, for right now. Okay, we are going to get started with our West Coast Bible study. We're looking at Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 to 6. And what Paul does here is he opens with a grand description of God's saving work in our lives. So we have God's plan and provision for salvation in verses 1 through 14. we see in verses 1-6, which we're looking at today, that the Father elects, and then we're going to see that the Son redeems in chapter 1 verses 7-12, and then we're going to see that the Spirit seals in chapter 1 verses 13-14. So all three members of the Trinity are involved in planning, providing, and applying our salvation to our lives. There's a lot of detail here, but we need to see the big picture as well, and that is that salvation is accomplished by all three members of the Trinity in planning, providing, and applying salvation to our lives. and that's all summarized in Julia 2 and verse 9 where it says salvation is of the Lord he's the one who provides it, plans for it and applies it alright that's our section but before we get started we want to open our time together in prayer today so Roger WB7BCL could you please open in prayer for us today Our Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the revelation of your word. And we invite the Holy Spirit to give utterance to all of us, including our leader, Max, for sure. Thank you for the background that he comes with. And we praise you for what Jesus has done as we highlight the letter that Paul has given to us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you so much for that, Roger. Okay, Jerry, 8070R, if you could read for us today, we'd appreciate that. Jerry, if you could read for us, please, Ephesians 1, verses 1 through 6. That's Ephesians 1, 1 to 6 there, Jerry. Go ahead. Paul, the apostles of Christ Jesus. by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Christ to you is he from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places of Christ. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption of sin through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the sign of his teaching and will, to the praise of the glory and the praise which he freely bestowed on us in his beloved. Thank you, E.E. Salve, E.R. Thank you so much, Jerry, for that reading. Appreciate that. All right. Well, we have here in our section verses 3, 4, 5, and 6, which we did not talk about at all yesterday. And so I'd like for us to focus on those verses and just talk about their meaning and their application to our lives. So any comments anybody would like to make on those passages, please come down to your call center. Zedekson? Kevin, KB7 Zedekson. Go ahead. You know, I know you mentioned yesterday when you preached through Ephesians how many messages you preached. And I was the same way. You know, the first three were the way I outlined it, and then four and six by themselves. because there's so much in this text here. And even now we're not going to be able to really touch on the depths. But Paul, in his amazing conversion, here's a man that was taken up to the third heaven that was clearly on the road to, fulfilling the will of the Antichrist, if you will, the spirit of the Antichrist, and persecuting Christians. And now he's exalting God. He goes from zero to 500 miles an hour in about a, you know, in one long sentence here. And it's just amazing. Maybe I should say, you know, like Mach 30, because he starts saying, you know, at where he's at and then launches into just this deep, beautiful rich picture of God and our relationship with him and as we talked about yesterday, you know, in Christ really speaking to our relationship with Jesus and the blessings to the saints and those of belief and faith, the faithful, you know, and then now into this picture. And I'm just going to comment briefly on point six, and we'll say more. But this idea of that God presents to us, that God before the foundations of the world knew us. He chose us and He predestined us. Now, there's a lot of theological discussion and debate over the centuries, but I think one of the important things is to first take God at His word. Sometimes the problem with systematic theology is, you know, we'll take a verse or two and then, you know, try to build out too much from that. But I think the place to always start is to accept... and trust the Word of God for what it does say. And we see this that, you know, on one hand, that God does predestine us and does choose us. And, you know, and that is hard for somebody, some people to accept. But the fact is we also see another teaching in God's Word that of volition. You know, there's a principle of volition. You know, we can close the Bible and know that we have some element of choice. We can choose to wake up in the morning and make it to the Bible study net. We can choose to turn on the radio. We can choose to, you know, have an apple fritter or maybe a poached egg or something. But we have some element. a bit of volition in our life. But there's a lot of important things in life we don't have choice over. You know, I didn't choose where I was born. I didn't choose the time I was born or the place I was born. And yet, those are important things. I didn't choose, you know, we don't get to choose our intellect. That's something we're born with. We don't get to choose our ethnicity. That's something that was predestined before us. And in the teaching or the theology or doctrine of election, it's important to understand that we have two tracks, a paradox, if you will, that some people wrestle with. That God is sovereign and chooses us, and we are predestined in God. At the same time, we have choice and volition. And we have texts like John 3:16, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, you know, God so loved the world, that whosoever shall call upon him shall be saved." Also Romans 10:13 and so many others, "The whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord." But there are just as many that speak to first God initiating that salvation. John 6, 37. We have John 6, 40. You know, just so many John or even Romans 3, 10 tells us there's none righteous. We've all sinned. There's none righteous. And no one seeks after God. So clearly God initiates that process. In fact, in Ephesians 2, we'll see that the best description of a Christian, not a Christian, but the best description of a person without Jesus is that they are dead. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. And dead people can't do a whole lot. If we're dead spiritually, we can't do a whole lot. So we see here the initiation of God, initiating that process of salvation. KB7, is that acceptable? Yeah, Kevin, great comments. Really appreciate you bringing out, you know, the two dimensions of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. And the Bible teaches both of those. God isn't sovereign to the point that it doesn't matter what we do. and we are in a state of total inability, and as you say, spiritual death, so that unless God does something, we can't do anything. And you mentioned the Apostle Paul, and you really see God taking the initiative in saving Paul. It's not like God looked down the road and saw that Paul was gonna believe. He just looked at Paul and he says, "That was mine." And he appears to him on the road to Damascus, knocks him to the ground, and says, "I'm your Lord." And Paul says, "What do you want me to do?" And there we see volition. There we see Paul making a willful choice that, "I'm going to submit to and follow Jesus Christ." So we see God taking the initiative in choosing Saul of Tarsus, and initiating that process of salvation, And then we see Saul of Tarsus responding with humility, with repentance, with faith. And ultimately, as you said, he wrote half the New Testament. And what's interesting is that verses 3 to 14 in the original language are one long sentence. So there's a lot here. There's a lot hooked together. But I want to point out verse 3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us." And notice that's in the past tense. Before the foundation of the world, He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so He then spends the rest of the book talking about what those spiritual blessings are, how that all of them are connected with Christ. And apart from Christ, there are no spiritual blessings. And so if we have anything, it comes to us as a result of God choosing to give it to us, and God choosing to give it to us in and through the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, because in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There's not any to be found anywhere else. So, Kevin, really well-balanced statement. Appreciate that. Okay, other comments on this section? Please come down. KJ7, TVT, Morgan, go ahead. Thank you. ... Thank you. Yeah, Mark, great comment. Mark was talking about John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. And so Mark was pointing out that Jesus is the Creator. And when you see that Jesus is the original Creator, we also see that Jesus is the one who creates eternal life in us. It says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." So there's the old creation that Jesus initiated in the beginning, but Jesus' creative work hasn't stopped. He continues to carry it on in redemption, in which He takes that which is spiritually dead, and makes it spiritually alive by His work of redemption and then regeneration. So Mark, thanks for that comment, tying the creative power of Jesus in the original creation to His saving work that He does in the new creation. Mark, back to you. Anything else you want to add to that? Go ahead, brother. Yeah, Mark was emphasizing the awe and the enormity of what it means to be in Christ, and the fact that we're connected with the creator of the universe. How awesome is that? that we would be chosen to be in Christ, and who is this Christ we're chosen to be in union with? The creator of the universe. And that is just overwhelmingly awe-inspiring. Mark, thank you for making that connection and elevating our view of the significance of being in union with Christ by emphasizing the fact that he is the creator of all things. So this is the infinite, eternal God that we're in union with. and it is from him that all of these blessings flow from heaven to earth, to us, through Christ. All right, other comments on this passage, please come now. AK-6, okay. Jeff, AK-6, okay, go ahead, brother. Okay, now I've had my coffee, so I'm on target. Let's read a little bit out of the message, which is the version I read, because I'm a little against once in a while. I love the way Eugene Peterson puts this. How blessed is God, and what a blessing he is. He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him. And this is the part that caught my eye. Long before He laid down the earth's foundations, He had us in mind and had settled on us as the focus of His love. to be made whole and holy by his love. And listen to this. Long, long ago, he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. What a pleasure he took in planning this. He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Father. John, how's that for being well said? Over. Yeah, thank you for that. And, you know, the way he paraphrases that is an effort to express, you know, what the passage actually teaches. And I appreciate that. There are some things that are left out, but there are some things that are included. And, you know, the message that is there is certainly one that is valid and one that's encouraging. as you said. So Jeff, thank you for reading that translation or that paraphrase, I should say, of the passage. All right. Any comments anybody wants to make? Jeff, back to you. Got any comments you want to make on what you read? Go ahead. How's that example? individual in their teaching. And so, you know, like a train track, if you will, is the picture I use from that. And, you know, you can look at a train track, and if you look off in the distance, that train track looks like it comes together down their way. But they're always side by side. They're always parallel. And we know that to be true, that we have volition, but we also have free will. I was thinking of Acts 13. or as many as were ordained believed. Well, yes, but that word ordained is predestined. So he's saying as many as were predestined believed. Now, here you have human responsibility. They had to believe. They had to have faith. They had to trust in God. God's promise and the message of the gospel but God initiated that because they were predestined we see that in 2 Thessalonians 2 and 13 same thing, those that were chosen believed and so they go hand in hand but what a beautiful picture that God has provided for us and provided a way of salvation. At the same time, we have the responsibility to not only act upon that for salvation, that we might be new creations and created in Christ Jesus, but that we can go on in sanctification and living for Christ, that is, our walk every day in Christ going forward. And as you pointed out there, The time of election before the foundation of the world. What's the purpose of election? That we should be holy without blame before him. What's the motive? In love, having predestinated us. What's the privilege? The adoption of sons. What's the basis? According to the good pleasure of his will. What's the goal? to the praise and the glory of his grace. And so as you walk through this passage, you see that the heart and the core of it is God's divine sovereign election of a people for himself to be saved, and then it talks about all the things that surround that, all the things that definitely part of the teachings of Scripture. We need to not be embarrassed by it or shy away from it. Because if God didn't choose to save, none of us would be saved. And you look at the angels, you know, the ones that are fallen. God didn't choose to save any of them. He didn't choose to provide a Redeemer for them. And then mankind comes along and we fall. And wonder of wonders, God chooses to save some of us by divine sovereign election. And praise the Lord for that. His electing purposes are not small. There's going to be a multitude which no man can number of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation before the throne of God in heaven, as it says in Revelation 7. And so for that, we can be thankful. And, you know, a lot of people ask the question, well, why didn't God choose everyone? And my response is, why did God choose anyone? He didn't choose any of the angels. And what's amazing is not that God didn't choose everyone, but that he did choose some for salvation, and not a small number either. And so if you are sitting here saved today and you're believing in Jesus, you can look back on God's divine sovereign election of you. And you can say, thank you, God, for choosing me. Thank you for bringing me to faith in Jesus. Thank you for giving me the ability and the desire to repent and believe and come to faith in Jesus. So to God be the glory, great things he has done. He initiated salvation, and because of that, we have salvation. And that salvation is freely offered indiscriminately to every single human being on the face of the earth. As Kevin said, whosoever will may come. And so this is how God's elect are drawn out of the mass of fallen humanity, is by the indiscriminate preaching of the gospel to all, and the welcome call to all to come to faith in Jesus. And none are excluded except they who exclude themselves by their own hard-heartedness and rebellion and depravity. Thank you. Did Mark finish? I guess. I believe so. Yeah, thank you. Okay, Mark, I did hear you quote the passage in Hebrews how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation. Roger, can you give me a relay on whatever else Mark said? Go ahead, please. I was looking up that marvelous passage. And it takes a lot of humility in this self-centered world to come to the point of recognition of this marvelous gift that's within me in this passage. Yes, He chose Abraham, He chose Isaac, He chose Jacob, but what was the choice for? So that all nations will be blessed via them through the promised seed. So again, it's underlining the whole world. God loves the world. Over. Amen, Roger. Yes, amen, well said. And, you know, it's interesting how God chooses individuals like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he chose, for example, Saul of Tarsus, so that we could hear the message, so that the Redeemer could come, be proclaimed, and we could have salvation. So praise the Lord for divine sovereignty. Without that, there wouldn't be any salvation. And praise the Lord for the free offer of the Gospels. Will you believe in Jesus or will you not? And that's the choice that we're presented with. We're never called upon to decide that we're elect before we believe. We're called upon to believe. And in our believing, we discover that we were elect. So good comment there, Roger. Thank you for that. And you're right. That's why we go out and we, as Jesus says, make disciples of all nations. and bring the gospel to every creature. All right, this has been a great discussion. Thank you all for your contributions. Well said by everyone here. And we want to go to prayer now. Al, KJ7QQH is going to close in prayer for us. Are there any final prayer requests? Please come down with your call sign. W7UAR. W7UAR, Mark, go ahead. Yeah, I appreciate it. And sorry, I haven't been on in a while, but it's great to hear everybody's voice. I've got a dear friend of mine named Todd, who I gave a blessing to about five years ago, right before he went in for a double lung transplant. He was in his mid-50s. He's got this degenerative disease that attacks the lungs. I can't remember what it's called exactly. But he was expected to live about three years. He's lived another five. And you know, most of his kids are married off now, but he's got two kids that aren't married and still at a reasonably young age there, you know, about 18, 19 years old. Anyways, I think, you know, from a spiritual perspective, you know, I love this guy, and he's in a good place, you know, that way. But, you know, he also confides in me how much he loves his children and still wants to see certain stages of their life. And I can, of course, empathize with that completely. And so I would just love us to pray that... He gets to see the stages of the life of his kids that God intends him to be able to see there. And then again, just wanted to express appreciation. I love this group that we have. and love being able to listen in remote. And, you know, all of us are going through different journeys. And when I think of Todd and some of the challenges he's facing, I am reminded to count our blessings and be grateful for the the blessings that we enjoy each day. So W7UAR back to NET. - Mark, thank you so much for sharing that prayer request and that perspective on the group here. Al, KJ7QQH, did you copy the prayer request regarding Tom? - Roger, roger. - All right, real good. Mark, thank you for sharing that request. All right, any other requests, please come now. That's good, Xan. Alright, L, KJ7QQH, go ahead and close on Perforce, please. I heard Kevin there. Well, Kevin, uh, Kevin, go ahead, uh... I gotcha. That's okay. I just—there's been a—a couple weeks ago I learned about one of the ladies in our Sunday school—I can't remember if it was her son or grandson—was formerly married to a lady anyway. Anyway, somewhat connected but a little bit distant. We've of her family. But the former daughter-in-law or granddaughter-in-law has some children from another marriage, and they've had a lot of suicide in that family, apparently, not her grandson, but from the other parties involved. Anyway, she's been in the family A couple weeks ago, a 12-year-old girl attempted to hang herself, and she was in very serious condition. She survived it, but they weren't sure if she was going to make it for some time. And her little five-year-old brother walked in and found her. Apparently I got word yesterday that she is dead. doing better physically from that, that she will recover. But whatever's plaguing that family and the trauma for that little boy and the trauma that she must be going through with her losses and losing of hope, her name is Harley. She's just a little 12-year-old girl. So I would just ask prayers for Harley and that she might be surrounded by those Christians and hope and love and just that someone could surround and be minister to that family there. I don't know them. They're an adjacent town from us here. But please, if you think about it, pray for Harley. It just broke my heart when I heard of the news. I'm so grateful that it sounds like she's going to survive physically. But Lord, she really needs the protection from our Lord and guidance. KB7, is that acceptable? Seven, thank you for that. Did you copy all? I copy all. Sorry for the delay, I had a technical failure here. Okay, Al, KJ7QQH, go ahead and lead us in prayer. Pray for Harley, the 12-year-old girl who hanged herself and is now recovering after being found. and for her five-year-old brother. All right, so let's go ahead and go to prayer. Al, KJ7QQH, lead us in prayer, please. Thank you, Pastor Max. Good morning, everyone. This is KJ7QQH. Let's come together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day where we can be glad that we are no longer spiritual orphans, that we've been adopted into your kingdom, and now it's up to us to lift that adoption and that grace and that mercy that you have built upon us to now love you back and to be... of building the kingdom with others and coming together and knowing and realizing that we can bring our praises, our worship, our prayers and prayers to you. Today we lift up many of us that are in need of your grace and mercy. we just heard from Kevin back then and he's living up his family to his entirety of peace and he's acquainted with and for the protection of this girl her feelings that she needs to Todd, who says he had a double lung transplant and now is facing possible rejection of that lung and those lungs are failing him. Even though he's looking at the possibility of having a second lung transplant, he's also looking at the end-of-life possibility of peace, the over-his-family, and faith-based reality. and possible issues that would need to be made. We looked up Rogers WB7BPL and they need a resolution for an appropriate home situation for Autumn. We asked that you be interceded there of these daughters' children. KSSTWM is believed to have healthy lands. Last report, there were still a couple of youths remaining to differ, and we ask for success that they are all more healthy if there are more people who use successfully our.wsrlj for the government of. And it puts all my sermons by series, and you can scroll down to Ephesians and see there. The section we looked at today, verses 3 to 6, I preached five sermons on those four verses. Not because I was trying to overexpand what was there, but because there's so much there that it craves that much explanation. And anyway, yeah, it's good to hear everybody's voices out there. And it was fun to be able to jump back on the net. I'm already over at my second office location over at the airport here. And I ended up seeing a solid-state amp here. Okay, I'd have to do a couple other tests here, but I don't think I actually made much of a difference. But at least I'm putting out about a kilowatt, maybe a little bit more than that right now. Yeah, you're an F5 here, and your voice is probably at a 4. Sure. Band conditions are starting to deteriorate. You were better earlier. Of course, I hear you loud and clear on the Utah SDR. Yeah, you know, I push about 600 watts, and I found that when I go much above that, I really don't get much movement on the S meter, maybe two S units. But in any event, yeah, if you're pushing 1,000 watts, I think you're pushing everything you need to push, and band conditions are going to be the limiting factor after that. But Mark, thank you for being there. I'm really glad you got back. Thanks for the recommendation about that series you're watching. And you know, the thing I've learned about TV series is that, or movies, is that they tend to embellish and add to the story, and people think it's in the Bible and it isn't. So you always got to check what you're watching with the passage that's actually in the Bible to make sure they haven't put something in there that's not actually there. Or if they did do that, you're aware that, okay, that's somebody's idea about what happened and not maybe exactly what did happen. But, yes, the overall message is solid. Israel forgot who God was. They didn't trust him.