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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 5:20
I. "Giving thanks always for all things "
A. This is similar to the exhortation given by Paul to the
Thessalonians.
1TH 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you.
B. This is not possible to do outside of faith.
1. I must first believe that God is in control of all
things.
a. That nothing happens to me except God has
allowed it to happen.
b. I must be able to see that God is in it.
2. I must believe that God loves me.
a. Sometimes the circumstances of my life do
not indicate that God loves me.
b. From my vantage point it looks like tragedy.
c. This is because I can only see in part and I
only know in part.
d. This is where we look not at the things that
are seen, but at the things that are not seen.
e. What a classic example Job left for us when he
had suffered the loss of everything. His
possessions, his family, his reputation.
"Naked I came into the world and naked I will
go out, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh
away, blessed be the name of the Lord."
f. God said to Jeremiah,
JER 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the
LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an
expected end.
g. You must believe that His purposes are for your
good.
3. Thus if God has allowed it to happen, He has a good
purpose for allowing it to happen.
a. "All things work together for good to those who
love God and are called according to His
purpose."
b. That is not just some things or most things,
but all things.
D. Being thankful is so very important.
1. Many of the things that we are complaining about if we
only knew are the very things that God intends through
them to bring great blessings to us.
2. We notice how that the children of Israel were so often
murmuring against the Lord, and it kindled the wrath of
the Lord against them.
3. In Romans 1 Paul declares that one of things that will
prompt the wrath of God is, "Neither were they
thankful."
4. They had an offering of thanksgiving in the law.
II. We are to give thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord, Jesus
Christ.
A. In Hebrews we read,
HEB 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to
his name.
B. In John Jesus emphasizes that our prayers are to offered to
Father in His name.
JOH 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son.
JOH 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you,
that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit
should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you.
JOH 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he
will give [it] you.
C. We ask in His name, and we give thanks in His name.
D. The Father has given Him a name that is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.
E. We see how in the book of Acts the disciples learned to use the
power of the name of Jesus Christ.
1. There is salvation in the name of Jesus.
a. Peter told the crowd to repent and be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of their sins.
2. There is healing in the name of Jesus.
a. The lame man at the beautiful gate of the
Temple, "In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk."
3. There is deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ.
a. In 16:18 Paul commanded the evil spirit to come
out of the girl in the name of Jesus Christ.
4. But the name does not have some magical powers like
abra cadabra. It is used with effect only by those who
have experienced a personal relationship with Him.
a. The seven sons of Sceva who got hold of a demon
possessed man and said, "We adjure you by Jesus
who Paul preacheth."
III. We are to walk in submission. "Submitting yourselves one to another
in the fear of God."
A. Paul is now going to show us how our relationship to Jesus
Christ should effect our relationships with each other.
B. He first dealt with our relationship with God, now our
relationship with others.
1. This is always the proper order.
2. Life exists on the two plains the vertical and the
horizontal.
a. There seems to be a fixed axis.
b. If the vertical is out of kilter, then it seems
to follow that the horizontal is also out of
kilter.
c. People try so hard to get their lives in
balance, they recognize that their
relationships are all messed up and they are
trying to find out why.
d. They so often go to a psychiatrist who put them
on drugs. There relationships are still messed
up, but because of the drugs they don't realize
it.
C. He starts this whole section with the subject of submission to
one another.
1. This is at the heart of all relationships, for none of
us want to submit.
2. We are not willing to put ourselves out for others, we
want others to put themselves out for us.
3. It is our own selfish nature that rebels against the
idea of submitting our will to that of someone else.
4. It is our selfish nature that messes up our
relationships.
D. Paul speaks of those that strived for the masteries, he was
referring to the wrestling matches, yet what a good term, so
many relationships for that is exactly what is happening, there
is striving for the mastery.
1. Here Paul exhorts to submit to one another.
2. In all relationships their must be a give and take.
3. It cannot be all giving, and it is not all taking.
4. It is knowing when to give and when to take.
5. Those who are really successful in their relationships
with others are those that have found that it is more
blessed to give than to receive.
6. You by experience know how difficult it is to be around
a person who is always insisting on their way.
E. Herein is a beautiful truth when we have learned to submit our
lives fully to Jesus Christ, it is no longer a matter of what I
want, but what does He want.
1. I think that is what Paul is referring to when he says,
"In the fear of God."
2. In reverence of God and desire to defer to His will.
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