sf865 - THANKS-LIVING (Ephesians 5 14-21)
THANKS LIVING
Ephesians 5:14-21
Introduction
The apostle Paul had learned to give “thanks always for all things,” even in the most difficult of circumstances. Paul, who, with his companion, sang hymns to God at midnight in the cramped discomfort of a Philippian jail, had earned the right to recommend the same attitude of heart to others. So in his letter to the Ephesians he says, “Be filled with the Spirit…giving thanks always for all things unto God (5:18, 20). Here we have:
The Standard for our Thanksgiving
Ephesians 5:20 (NKJV) "20giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This standard of thanksgiving for all things is a uniquely Christian concept. In fact, the very word “thanksgiving” has as its heart the idea of “grace.” By nature we are devoid of the grace of God, and therefore know nothing of true thankfulness, Paul writes (Romans 1:21 NKJV) "21because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." But when by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we turn to God in repentance and receive Christ Jesus our Lord as Savior, we become possessed of the grace of gratitude which gives thanks always for all things unto God. Our standard of thanksgiving reflects the standards of God's Word. Our thanksgiving should be…
God-Exalting
“Giving thanks… to God and the Father (or more literally; ‘Giving thanks… to God, even our Father’)” (5:20). Paul conceived of God as the giver of every good gift. James writes in chapter one, verse seventeen, (James 1:17 NKJV) "17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." In addressing the Athenians on Mars hill, he could say: (Acts 17:24-25 NKJV) "24God, … gives to all life, breath, and all things." True gratitude flows from contemplating who God is, and all that He has done on behalf of the human race.
Who God is.
He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and holy. He is the God of the universe. He is our sovereign and Lord. He alone is just and justifier. He is our God.
What God has done.
He has redeemed us. He has extended His mercy and grace to us. He has been patient and longsuffering with us. He has called and wooed us. He saves and keeps us. He is worthy of our praise. Psalm 34:3 (NKJV) " 3Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together."
Christ-Revealing
“Giving thanks… to God… in the name (through the name) of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:20). Thanksgiving is properly rendered to God in the name of Christ, not only because He is the One through whom we approach God, but also because He Himself constitutes the crowning subject of our thanksgiving. In other words, true thanksgiving is confessional.
Psalm 107:2 (NKJV) "2Let the redeemed of the LORD say so…" Paul writes in Romans 10:9 (NKJV) "9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Jesus said, (Matthew 10:32-33 NKJV) "32“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."
Unwavering
“Giving thanks always for all things” (5:20). Paul has already said, " See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.…giving thanks always for all things" (5:15-16, 20). There is no greater investment of our time than to spend it worshipping our God. The implication is obvious: when we do not “redeem” or wisely invest our time, our minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years, we are not living lives of thanksgiving—a solemn thought, when we reflect on the proportion of time we spend in grumbling and complaining.
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV) "4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name." John 6:43 (NKJV) "43Jesus … said to them, 'Do not murmur among yourselves.'" We are to invest our time in serving and praising God. That is the only investment that will pay eternal dividends.
Unconditional
“Giving thanks always for all things” (5:20). Friend it is easy to give thanks when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. It is easy to give thanks when our families are healthy and our income is plentiful. It is easy to give thanks when all well with our world. However, what we do when it is dark as night and our loved ones are suffering; when our fortunes turn down and our world is turned upside down reveals the fidelity of our faith and the content of our character.
If ever, there was a man who endured hardships for his Lord and Master it was Paul the apostle. He had been a regular jailbird for Jesus Christ, he had fought with beasts at Ephesus, he had been dragged out of the city of Lystra as already dead, he had suffered shipwreck at sea, he had experienced beatings with rod and scourge—and yet he could say, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God.” Like his Master before him, he could lift his heart in gratitude to his God, whatever his circumstances. Paul understood the words of the old hymn "Count your Blessings."
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings - name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings - name them one by one, count your blessings see what God hath done; count your blessings - name them one by one; count your many blessings see what God hath done.
So amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged - God is over all, count your many blessings angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end. Count your blessings - name them one by one, count your blessings see what God hath done; count your blessings - name them one by one; count your many blessings see what God hath done.[1]
The Substance of our Thanksgiving
Ephesians 5:18-20 (NKJV) 18…be filled with the Spirit, 19speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20giving thanks …to God." Paul makes it quite clear in these verses that the giving of thanks is not something abstract or nebulous; on the contrary, it is both an activity and attitude of life which is biblically informed and spiritually specific. In simple language, this life of thanksgiving involves:
Speaking the Truth of God
In Ephesians 4:15 (NKJV) "5but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ." We are called to speak God's truth in love. We must therefore season our thanksgiving with the truth of God. Thanksgiving is not to be some type of sentimental gushing but it is to be biblically based and theologically true. Our thanksgiving should contain enough truth to comfort the saint and convict the sinner.
In short, our worship should witness. That is why we must design our worship services around God. He is to be both the object and subject of our worship. We are to speak the truth for "He is the truth" (John 14:6).
Showing the Joy of God
Ephesians 5:19-20 (NKJV) "19speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul obviously has both worship and witness in mind.
The way we are to worship
In describing worship, the apostle categorizes three expressions of praise—psalms, hymns, and songs. "Psalms suggest what we might call Scriptural music, hymns suggest what we could call spiritual music-classical compositions that form the backbone of our hymnbook, and spiritual songs suggest what we might classify as soulful music-including choruses, lighter compositions, and popular Christian ballads."[2]
The witness or our worship
With the worship there is also the witness of joy, such as David expresses in Psalm 40:3. Psalm 40:3 (NKJV) "3He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. We see this lived out in the experience of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:23-40. Having been arrested and beaten for preaching the gospel Paul and Silas were imprisoned in the Philippian jail. At midnight they began to worship the Lord and God sent a mighty earthquake. The jailer fearing that the prisoners had escaped sought to take his own life. Paul intervened and the jailer was saved and eventually his entire family came to Christ.
Sharing the Love of God
“Giving thanks… submitting to one another in the fear of God” (5:20-21). Only a thankful life can truly express the love of God. Thanklessness and lovelessness are fundamentally synonymous. Therefore, Paul presses home the fact that our human relationships should be deepened by our thankful and loving lives. The more I love Jesus the more I will love you.
1 John 4:19-21 (NKJV) 19We love £Him because He first loved us. 20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, £how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
The Secret of Thanksgiving
“Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.…giving thanks” (5:18, 20). Paul uses the law of contrast to show his readers that the secret of true thanksgiving and joyfulness is not to be found in physical stimulants, but in the spiritual reality of the fullness of God the Holy Spirit. This fullness of the Holy Spirit implies three things:
The Incoming of the Holy Spirit
“Be filled with the Spirit.…giving thanks” (5:18, 20). Before the Spirit can fill our lives He must enter our lives by way of that miraculous operation we call regeneration. On the day of Pentecost, Peter described how this would take place. Speaking to men and women who were convicted of their sins he said: Acts 2:38 (NKJV) “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." God’s prerequisite for His fullness is still the same.
We must repent. That is we must turn from sin and self. We must turn to someone, Jesus Christ alone, that is faith. And we must obey God's command of public confession through believers baptism.
The Infilling of the Holy Spirit
“Be filled with the Spirit.…giving thanks” (5:18, 20). Dr. Handley Moule’s rendering of this is beautiful. He says: “Be filled with a fullness habitual, normal, always supplied and always received, in the Spirit.” The Bishop then goes on to say that this fullness of the Spirit is “a state wholly unattainable by training, by reasoning, by human wish and will. It is nothing less than God in command and control of man’s whole life, flowing everywhere into it, and out from it to all around.”
A young artist was trying to copy Raphael’s ‘Madonna and Child,’ one of the most beautiful pictures in all the world. He went to Florence and gazed on it, then got his easel. Sitting down in front of it he began to copy it. As he looked at it his picture became a thing of beauty, too. But suppose that, instead of only copying, the spirit of Raphael could have [entered and filled] that young man: what a difference it would have made! When we come to the Lord Jesus He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us live as He would have us live, and the more the Holy Spirit controls our lives, the more like Him we grow.
The Inspiring of the Holy Spirit
“Be filled with the Spirit.…giving thanks” (5:18, 20). Only the Holy Spirit can truly inspire the standard and substance of true Christian thanksgiving. To attempt to work up thanksgiving by our own efforts is not only a frustrating experience, but is also totally unacceptable to God and insipid to our fellow man. Nothing is more pathetic than to hear someone trying to be thankful without any motivation or inspiration. But when the Holy Spirit fills and floods the life thanksgiving becomes both inevitable and irresistible.
A life filled with the Holy Spirit is a life filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit our lives will overflow. John 7:38 (NKJV) "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Application
Let us reemphasize that for the Christian, Thanksgiving Day is every day. This is why God created us, and it is for this purpose that He has blessed us with His grace and mercy. When we know what it is to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, we can truly be thankful for everything.
Today would you like to leave here with something for which to be thankful. You can leave here with the greatest gift ever given the gift of eternal life. It all begins with incoming of the Holy Spirit. But you must be willing to repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ alone. Would you do that now?
Ephesians 5:14-20
Introduction
The apostle Paul had learned to give “thanks always for all things,” even in the most difficult of circumstances. Paul, who, with his companion, sang hymns to God at midnight in the cramped discomfort of a Philippian jail, had earned the right to recommend the same attitude of heart to others. So in his letter to the Ephesians he says, “Be filled with the Spirit…giving thanks always for all things unto God (5:18, 20). Here we have:
1A. The Standard for Our Thanksgiving (5:20a)
In fact, the very word “thanksgiving” has as its heart the idea of “grace.”
Romans 1:21 (NKJV) "21because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
1B. God-Exalting (5:20a)
James 1:17 (NKJV) "17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."
Acts 17:24-25 (NKJV) "24God, … gives to all life, breath, and all things."
Who God is
What God has done
Psalm 34:3 (NKJV) " 3Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together."
2B. Christ-Revealing (5:20b)
Psalm 107:2 (NKJV) "2Let the redeemed of the LORD say so…"
Romans 10:9
Matthew 10:32-33 (NKJV) "32“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."
3B. Unwavering (5:15-16, 20)
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV) "4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."
John 6:43 (NKJV) "43Jesus … said to them, 'Do not murmur among yourselves.'"
4B. Unconditional (5:20)
"Count your Blessings"
Count Your Blessings
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings - name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings - name them one by one, count your blessings see what God hath done; count your blessings - name them one by one; count your many blessings see what God hath done.
So amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged - God is over all, count your many blessings angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end. Count your blessings - name them one by one, count your blessings see what God hath done; count your blessings - name them one by one; count your many blessings see what God hath done.[3]
2A. The Substance of Our Thanksgiving (5:18-20a)
In simple language, this life of thanksgiving involves:
1B. Speaking the Truth of God (4:15)
We are to speak the truth for "He is the truth" (John 14:6).
2B Showing the Joy of God (5:19-20)
The way we are to worship
"Psalms suggest what we might call Scriptural music, hymns suggest what we could call spiritual music-classical compositions that form the backbone of our hymnbook, and spiritual songs suggest what we might classify as soulful music-including choruses, lighter compositions, and popular Christian ballads."[4]
The witness or our worship
Psalm 40:3 (NKJV) "3He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.
We see this lived out in the experience of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:23-40.
3B. Sharing the Love of God (5:20-21)
The more I love Jesus the more I will love you.
1 John 4:19-21 (NKJV) 19We love Him because He first loved us. 20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
3A. The Secret of Thanksgiving (5:18, 20a)
The secret of true thanksgiving and joyfulness is not to be found in physical stimulants, but in the spiritual reality of the fullness of God the Holy Spirit. This fullness of the Holy Spirit implies three things:
1B. The Incoming of the Holy Spirit (5:18, 20)
Acts 2:38 (NKJV) “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
We must repent. That is we must turn from sin and self. We must turn to someone, Jesus Christ alone, that is faith. And we must obey God's command of public confession through believers baptism.
2B. The Infilling of the Holy Spirit (5:18, 20)
It is nothing less than God in command and control of man’s whole life, flowing everywhere into it, and out from it to all around.
A young artist was trying to copy Raphael’s ‘Madonna and Child,’ one of the most beautiful pictures in all the world. He went to Florence and gazed on it, then got his easel. Sitting down in front of it he began to copy it. As he looked at it his picture became a thing of beauty, too. But suppose that, instead of only copying, the spirit of Raphael could have [entered and filled] that young man: what a difference it would have made! When we come to the Lord Jesus He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us live as He would have us live, and the more the Holy Spirit controls our lives, the more like Him we grow.
3B. The Inspiring of the Holy Spirit (5:18, 20)
A life filled with the Holy Spirit is a life filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit our lives will overflow.
John 7:38 (NKJV) "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Application
Let us reemphasize that for the Christian, Thanksgiving Day is every day. This is why God created us, and it is for this purpose that He has blessed us with His grace and mercy. When we know what it is to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, we can truly be thankful for everything.
Today would you like to leave here with something for which to be thankful. You can leave here with the greatest gift ever given the gift of eternal life. It all begins with incoming of the Holy Spirit. But you must be willing to repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ alone. Would you do that now?
THANKSLIVING
Sunday, November 21, 1999 - Ephesians 5:14-20
1A. The _________________________________ For Our Thanksgiving (5:20)
Romans 1:21
1B. God-________________________________ (5:20)
James 1:17
Acts 17:24-25
______________________ God is
What God has done
Psalm 34:3
2B. Christ-_______________________________ (5:20)
Psalm 107:2
Romans 10:9
Matthew 10:32-33
3B. Unwavering (5:15-16, 20)
Psalm 100:4
John 6:43
4B. Unconditional (5:20)
2A. The __________________________________ of Our Thanksgiving (5:18-20)
1B. Speaking the _________________ of God (5:18-20)
2B Showing the _________________ of God (5:19-20)
The __________________________ we are to worship
The ____________________________ or our worship
Psalm 40:3
3B. Sharing the __________________ of God (5:20-21)
1 John 4:19-21
3A. The ________________ of Thanksgiving (5:18, 20)
1B. The _______________ of the Holy Spirit (5:18, 20)
Acts 2:38
2B. The _______________ of the Holy Spirit (5:18, 20)
3B. The _______________ of the Holy Spirit (5:18, 20)
John 7:38
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[1] Johnson Oatman, Jr., 101Hymn Stories: Count Your Blessings, (Grand Rapids, Kregel: 1982),54.
[2] John Phillips, Exploring Ephesians, (Neptune, New Jersey, Loizeaux Brothers: 1993), 156-157.
[3] Johnson Oatman, Jr., 101Hymn Stories: Count Your Blessings, (Grand Rapids, Kregel: 1982),54.
[4] John Phillips, Exploring Ephesians, (Neptune, New Jersey, Loizeaux Brothers: 1993), 156-157.