Ephesians 5:20-21

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Ephes

ians chapter 5.

The text for today is going to be verses 20

and 21, but since it's been a while since

we've been here in Ephesians, I want to back

up a little bit and start reading in verse

18 just to get our thinking back in the flow

of the context of where we are.

So look, starting in verse 18, and do not get

drunk with wine for that is dissipation,

but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one

another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs, singing and making melody with your

heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for

all things in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject

to

one another in the fear of Christ.

Now, if you remember, the thrust of this

passage is that command that we find there in

verse

18, look at it again with me, be filled with

the Spirit.

And as I said, this is not something that we

pray for, "Lord, fill me with your Spirit."

I learned that in this study.

This is something that we are commanded to be.

Now remember the Greek literally is, be being

continuously kept filled with the Spirit.

So for a Christian, it's a moment by moment

deal.

Every second of every day, every minute of

every day, you can either be about walking

in the flesh or walking in the Spirit.

Filled with the Spirit is the same thing,

being filled with the Spirit.

We said last time we were here is synonymous

with being controlled by the Spirit.

Remember I gave that illustration of a wind

and a sail moving a boat along, being moved

along with the Spirit, being yielded to the

Spirit, being directed by the Spirit.

And as we grow in spiritual maturity in the

Christian life, we will ever only grow in

so far as we are filled with the Spirit.

Because when we're not filled with the Spirit

in those moments that we're not, we're just

kind of flattened out.

We're just kind of walking in the flesh and at

that point there's no progress at all for

us in spiritual growth or growing towards

spiritual maturity.

And so again, the times of spiritual growth

for the Christian are only those times when

we are filled with the Spirit and really in

the moment is really the only important time

to God.

You want to know why?

Think about it.

You cannot live in the future.

I mean, have you ever noticed that you've

never gotten to the future?

You're not in the future right now, are you?

No, you can only live your life in the moment.

Now, we like to think about the past, right?

We like to tell old stories.

Some people get stuck in the past, right?

That's all they ever want to talk about, the

good old days.

And we like to think about the future.

Many people love the science fiction movies

and books and stuff that Rodgedale told us

he likes and those are usually set in the

future, right?

John MacArthur said this.

We love the future because the future we haven

't blown yet and we love the past.

Because why?

Well, we tend to only remember the good times,

the good old days, right, about the past.

It's the present that we're trying to get out

of, but we never succeed because you can't.

You can only live here in the present.

You got to make it right, right here, in the

present, right now.

This is where we're always going to live.

So if you're filled with the spirit, then that

's not something that you promise God

that you're going to do at some point, you get

me?

It's not, it's something that you are or you

aren't every moment of the day being filled

with the spirit.

I mean, there's a sense, there's a sense in

which God is not interested in your future

commitments.

What do I mean like that?

Well, he's not interested in your future love.

What you're telling me you're going to do, he

's only interested in your being filled

with the spirit right now.

Because again, that's the only time you'll

ever live in this earthly existence is in

the now.

So far in this text, after the command itself

be filled with the spirit.

And if you remember that's contrasted there in

verse 18 with being drunk with wine, we

went over all of that.

Paul then starts to list out some of the

consequences of being filled with the spirit.

And the first one came out of verse 19, look

at it out of a thankful and joyful heart.

What we just got finished doing, speaking to

one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual

songs, singing and making melody with your

heart to the Lord.

Now I can't go back over all that that we go

back and watch the sermon if you didn't

get to, if you weren't here for it.

But as Christians, basically, we have a new

song.

Remember how many times I showed you that?

We sing a new song because we're new creations

, we're new creatures in Christ Jesus.

That's an absolute byproduct of being filled

with the spirit.

But let's move to the next consequence of

being filled with the spirit verse 20.

Look at it with me.

Always giving thanks for all things in the

name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even

the Father.

Now, Psalm 100 verse 4, you know it.

We've been singing, enter his gates with

thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give

thanks to

him, bless his name.

So one thing a spirit filled person is always

going to be, is thankful.

I mean of all people, it is the Christian who

by far should be the most thankful of

any other kind of people.

Maybe the greatest act of personal worship

that we can render to God is to be thankful

when we worship.

You should come to church every Sunday.

I don't care what went on during the week.

You should come to church every Sunday during,

in that door, thankful as a Christian.

We're going to get to that in a minute.

That's the heart of worship when you come here

.

Corporate worship, personal worship, first and

foremost as a thankful part.

And that's really because thanks ultimately,

you know what thanks does when you're thankful

to the Lord in this way, it crucifies self.

Thanksgiving ultimately, it recognizes God as

the source of everything in our lives.

A spirit filled person is thankful in the

midst of anything, the good things and even,

even

the difficult thing.

Being thankful as a Christian, what that means

is you see beyond the circumstance of

the moment to the plan of God that's at hand

in your life.

These beyond the trials and the tribulations

to the big picture of the sovereignty of God

and how he's working in your life.

All Christians live under what you, you have

heard me call this many times the umbrella

of Romans 828.

We can't quote it enough as Christians.

Look at it with me, Romans 828 and we know

that God, look at that word, causes, what's

the next phrase, all things to work together

for good to those who love God, to those who

are called according to his purpose.

A truly thankful Christian sees the hand of

God in everything, the good and the difficult

and our trust in that and our understanding in

that deepens as we mature in our faith.

You don't start out there, you grow there in

deeper and deeper levels.

Spiritual maturity has the ability to say, "

God, I thank you even for the hard times,

for the difficulties in life, on your job, in

your family, in all circumstances."

Now look, we don't like difficulties, do we?

Does anybody here like difficulties?

Raise your hand.

That's 100% right there.

And we certainly don't enjoy difficulties, do

we?

No.

There are times when we're dealing with

something in front of us and we just can't

understand

God, how in the world could anything be

working for good in this?

I just don't understand.

But as Christians, working towards spiritual

maturity, what we do is that we trust, though

we can't understand, that God does have

purposes in those things.

And we know that, not only do we know that

from Romans 8.28, we know that from the next

verse, Romans 8.29, look at it, "For those

whom he foreknew, he also predestined to

become

conformed to the image of his Son."

We can thank God for all things, as we're

going to see in a moment, because God is

working

in and through all the things that happen in

our life, and he has an ultimate goal in

mind with the all things, and that is for us

to be, one day, just like Christ in glory.

That's why he's working.

Job understood.

And read the book of Job after great trials.

I mean, think about it.

Think about having all 10 of your children

killed in one day in a tornado, the boils,

and all of the things you know that Job went

through, you know what he said, "Naked I came

from my mother's womb, naked I shall return

there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken

away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord."

You know what that means?

I thank you, God, when you give.

I thank you, God, when you take, because I

know that you have purpose in both of those

things, in the giving and in the taking.

Let me tell you, you get there, that's

maturity in the Christian life.

That's not easy, but that is the maturity of a

spirit-filled person.

In St. Corinthians 415, look at this, what

Paul says, same phrase, he's saying this to

believers, "For all things are for your sake."

Think about that.

Believer.

What are you saying?

Something that God does is for you, believer,

both the blessings and the trials, for you.

Why?

Look next, so that the grace which is

spreading to more and more people may cause

the giving

of what?

Thanks to a bound to the glory of God.

Now just in that verse, the ultimate glow is

what?

The glory of God, the means to the glory of

God is thanksgiving.

The means to thanksgiving are all things that

God does in your life.

In other words, for all things are for your s

akes, so that you might be thankful to God,

so that he might be glorified.

That's what that verse means.

You glorify God by being thankful for all

things, all circumstances.

Now, that's easy for me to sit up here and say

, but it takes spiritual maturity to get

there.

Now, that might have been way too much

introduction, maybe, I don't know, but it does

lay a foundation.

I know that for what our text is going to be.

Let's look at it.

Verse 20 of chapter 5 starts out, always

giving thanks, so when are we to be thankful,

always?

You may say, oh, bro, fill it by here, bro,

see that, but you don't know my problem, man.

Still says always, you don't know my husband,

still says always, you don't know my wife,

still says always, you don't know my kids,

still says always, you don't know how I get

treated at work, still says always.

I can keep going if you want me to.

And it still says always, and it's always

still going to say always, and it's never

going to change.

Why?

Because folks, this recognizes that God is in

control of your life, not you.

And that God is in this miraculous process of

conforming you to the image of Christ,

and He's using all the things that He

purposely brings about in your life to do it.

And when you are to live in thanksgiving for

all things, when you do that, you are bringing

glory to God when you do.

Watch this tremendous statement in 1 Thessalon

ians 5/18, right in line with our text, starts

out in the good things.

Does it say that?

No.

What does it say?

In everything, give thanks for this is God's

what will for you in Christ Jesus.

If you're having trouble discerning God's will

, well, just try starting right there.

That's pretty clear.

In everything, give thanks for this, the

giving of thanks in everything is God's will

for

you.

And go back to, let's back up to Ephesians 5/

17 real quick.

So do not be foolish, but understand what the

will of the Lord is.

And then He starts out this list of what the

will of the Lord is, and guess what it

includes

this 20th verse, always giving thanks, God's

will is for Christians to be thankful, always.

Shakespeare said this, "How sharper than a

serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless

child, in gratitude thou marble-hearted beamed

."

Even he recognized what it is to have in

gratitude.

Now, what is, let's just all be honest right

here for a second, we'll start with me.

What is our go-to fleshly reaction to trials

and tribulations, right in complaint, okay?

That's the immediate reaction, and that's

always the opposite of giving thanks, right?

It's the opposite of what we learn when we

went through James.

Do you remember what we learned in James?

Something incredible.

He said, "Consider it all joy when you

encounter various trials," what?

And then what does he do after that?

He goes on to explain how God uses the trials

to mature us, remember?

The testing of faith produces endurance, and

that brings about maturity.

Usually, our first response to some hard stuff

that comes our way is to whine, right?

To complain.

But this Bible right here, as I've already

showed you, is saying all over the place,

to be thankful, because even in that hard

thing, God is doing his perfect work.

This is the will of God.

Again, I'm not saying this is easy, but I am

saying that it's possible, and I am saying

that it's only possible when we are filled

with the Spirit and the power of the Spirit.

Now, let me walk you through three kinds of

thankful people, and as we go through them,

think about which one of these you fit in,

okay?

We'll take that little test.

Number one is the easiest.

There are those who are thankful after the

blessing.

I mean, for sure, we can all raise our hands

on that one, right?

I lost my job, but the next day out of the

blue, I got a better job.

Thank you, Lord, right?

I mean, that's easy.

And you better be your first reaction, because

you're not doing well spiritually if that's

not your immediate reaction.

And, boy, we got a lot of blessings to be

thankful for, don't we?

Goodness gracious gracious.

Yeah, y'all time, line up your blessings and

line up your problems.

If you're a Christian, your blessings, I will.

If you can't get a bigger list of blessings,

then you need to come see me.

I'll give you some more you're not thinking

about.

Well, let's get to number two.

The ability to give thanks before the battle

starts for the victory to come.

No matter how the thing shakes out, now we're

getting to a deeper level of faith.

These are the folks who believe God before

anything happens, no matter what it is going

to be.

This is celebrating before the war.

This is Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, John 11.

After that scene, everybody's crying, weeping.

And after Jesus said, "Hey, remove that stone

," he says at the end of verse 41, "Father, I

thank you that you have heard me."

But before anything happens, thank you, Lord,

for what you're going to do.

That's faith.

And you know what happened?

And that way you say, "Lazarus, come forth."

He came on out.

Now, of course, this is harder, right?

But God wants your thanksgiving before the

battle begins, because you know what?

You know, as a Spirit-filled Christian, that

no matter what is going to happen in this

thing

coming up, that God is going to work in it and

through it for your good and his glory.

And that's why you thank Him, for no matter

what, how it shakes out.

Now, that kind of trust takes a higher level

of spiritual maturity than thanking God after

He blesses you, right?

Oh, but then there's a third level.

Third level is hardest of all.

Seeing the Lord in the middle of the battle,

when everything is going aww, I want you to

think about old Jonah, imagine being in this

situation, floating around in the stomach

acid of a huge fish, and you got a problem

with that, and you say, "I can't really have

happened."

What?

God made DNA in every human being different

than in all of human history, for God's sake.

I mean, He makes planets orbit.

You don't think He could put Jonah in a big

fish?

Huh?

And when Jonah gets his act together, he

starts to pray in chapter 2.

I don't know if we, do we have this one up?

Did I have that one?

Okay.

I didn't go over the verses with Rachel before

.

Chapter 2 in verse 9, Jonah starts to pray

after he gets his act together, he says, "But

I will sacrifice to you with the voice of what

?

Thanksgiving to that which I have vowed I will

pay salvation is from the Lord."

You know what happened?

In the next verse, God commands that big fish

to spit Jonah up onto the beach.

Now think about that for just a second.

Put yourself in that situation.

There's no Jonah in the stomach of a huge fish

and at that moment he doesn't know what's

going to happen.

It's pitch dark.

They don't have no lights up in there.

Right?

Okay.

He don't know what's going to happen.

And there he is saying, "Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

Salvation is from the Lord."

Now we ain't never been in a trial like that,

right?

I don't care what you're going through.

You ain't never been through nothing like that

.

But Jonah gives us the example to follow in

that extreme situation.

Now, listen to me.

I do not think it's wrong to say to God, "Man,

I don't understand this."

I just, again, I just cannot possibly see any

good in this for anybody in this situation.

I just, I can't see it, but I trust your word,

Lord, that it is for my ultimate good, that

it is for your glory, even if I never

understand it in this life and I have to wait

to get

to heaven to understand it.

And on that basis of trust, I'm going to thank

you for it because you are working out your

purposes here in this.

You're conforming me to the image of your Son,

and I will be like Him when I see Him.

I will see Him as He is, and I'm going to be a

joint heir with Him.

Let me tell you, that takes spiritual maturity

.

And yes, if you don't understand the trauma

that you're going through, be honest with

God, because He's omniscient.

He knows you don't understand it, but He's

looking for that trust.

He's looking for that faith.

He's looking for that level of spiritual

maturity.

Folks, that's all a part of conforming you to

the image of Christ.

Remember, and Acts Paul and Silas, they are

locked in stocks in that jail.

If you read about that in history, I mean,

they were just as stretched out as they could

possibly be.

There ain't too many more things more

uncomfortable than that.

All your muscles start to tighten up, you're

in a lot of pain, but what are they doing

in them stocks?

The Bible says they're singing and giving

thanks and praise to God.

Oh, Peter and John got beat down really hard,

and after that, beaten, what did they do?

They come out of there.

They were thanking God for the honor of having

been beaten for the sake of Jesus.

That's not easy, certainly possible through

the power of the Spirit when you are filled

with the Spirit.

And if you can thank God in the middle of the

pain, you have reached a level of maturity

that I think few Christians ever really know,

especially in today's American evangelicalism

with all of the constant talk that we have in

the church at large of the blessings of

God, the blessings of God, the blessings of

God.

Too many ministries, that's all they ever talk

about.

And then there's a poor person in the pew

knowing, "That ain't happening in my life

like this.

My life's a different story.

I sure hope this is for everybody else, but it

ain't happening for me.

It ain't happening for nobody."

Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trib

ulation."

It's purpose.

But I can deal with it better when it's

purpose.

If it wasn't purpose, then that's when I would

have a problem.

This reality, though, should never stop us

from striving to get to the point of being

thankful for all things.

If you've never read or heard of the story of

Joni Erickson Tata, she was paralyzed

completely

in a swim pool accident.

If you've never looked this woman up, you

should.

Go on YouTube and look her up.

I'll give you the spelling of her name later.

This is what she said after the accident.

Totally paralyzed.

And I want you to get this if you don't get

anything else.

Giving thanks is not a matter of feeling

thankful.

It's a matter of obedience.

Can you get that?

I mean, that is profound.

It's possible to not feel thankful, but it's

still a matter of obedience, as we're seeing

here today, to be thankful.

That's in line with what I mean by, just as I

said a minute ago, "Lord, I don't understand

what you're doing.

I don't get this, but I'm thanking you anyway

."

That's obedience, right there.

It's obedience.

You don't always have to feel thankful.

We all got something we're going through right

now.

Some of us got multiple things, hard things we

're going through, right this very minute.

You don't have to feel thankful all the time,

but in those moments when you do give that

thanks to God for whatever it is, that's a

matter of obedience to Him.

It's a recognition church that my life, and my

circumstances, and my whole destiny for

the rest of this life, and the life to come is

in the hands and exists in the sovereignty

of God.

That's what it does, and everything that

happens is, again, working toward the goal of

conforming

me all.

It's so amazing to the image of Christ, and

thereby God gets all the glory for that.

Let me tell you, if you can get there, what I

'm telling you here, it will have a profound

effect on your attitude when the tough sled

ding comes, when the storms of life come.

Now, go back to Ephesians 5.20.

So far, we've looked at just the first three

words, always giving thanks, but we kind of

already covered what it says next, always

giving thanks for all things.

That's what I call a little Clint Eastwood

theology, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Okay?

The list of things is really long, and there's

only one kind of a person that can be thankful

for everything, and let me tell you, that's a

humble person.

And that's because a humble person knows they

don't deserve anything.

Let me tell you something, the only thing any

of us deserve is for God to have left us

alone and left us to ourselves to go through

life, pulling our own levers, pushing our

own buttons.

You know what that would have resulted in?

Utter rebellion.

Even if you went to false religion, or you

didn't go to no religion, utter rebellion

against the God of the Bible, and every moment

that you live, every day that you live in

that condition, you're storing up wrath for

the day of wrath, the Bible says.

That's all you deserve.

That's all I deserve.

Just God, just leave us alone.

And what a pathetic life we live.

No matter whether it's religious or not, if it

's not in line with saving faith and Bible

repentance, it's rebellion against God.

Man-centered psycho-babel says, "You deserve

to be happy."

Can you find that verse?

Or anything like that, anywhere close to that

in the Bible?

You deserve to be happy.

I've heard counselors tell, "Yeah, go on in

divorcing.

You deserve to be happy."

What?

Do what God hates, because you deserve to be

happy?

Let me tell you something.

If you have a problem being thankful, you know

what your problem is?

It's pride, because you know what you're

really saying?

God, I just can't be thankful.

I'm not getting what I think I deserve.

But if you know that you don't deserve

anything from God, but Him just leaving you to

yourself

which results in hell, and you see yourself as

nothing but a wretched sinner who deserves

absolutely nothing but the wrath of God, then

for anything that God gives you, there could

be nothing but thanksgiving, right?

Nobody thinks like this, nobody thinks like

this, but a humble Christian.

This is just not natural.

And by the way, humility is part of being

filled with the Spirit, because you're only

filled with the Spirit when you deny yourself,

when you die to self.

The sin of all sins is pride, really, break it

down.

That's what God's Satan, the eye disease,

remember?

Eye will be like the most high.

Listen, whenever we complain about any of our

circumstances, marriage, family, job, I mean,

we all got complaints, right?

Who in here don't have complaints?

We all do this.

At the root of our complaints, it's really

because we think we deserve better.

I mean, I really should have a perfect spouse,

really.

I mean, I really should have a perfect job

because I'm me after all.

You know what that is?

Pride.

You cannot be prideful and thankful at the

same time, can't be.

Verse 20, when are we to be thankful?

Always.

For what are we to be thankful for?

All things.

Again, don't, don't get me wrong, not easy,

not easy.

You don't always hit the mark, but possible

with a Christian.

And then next in, in verse 20, how are we to

be thankful in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ to God, even the Father?

Now, very simply in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ just simply means consistent with who

he is, consistent with what he has done.

And because of our connection to who he is and

what he has done through Bible repentance

and faith, by far we should be folks, the most

thankful people on the earth.

I'm so thankful, God, you didn't lead me to

myself.

What a, what a mess I was making before God

invaded my life of my life.

It was a disaster every day.

You've been saved from the wrath to come.

As we've been learning in Ephesians, we've

been blessed with every spiritual blessings

in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

How can you not every moment be thankful?

I mean, do I really need to take you through

all that long list again?

When you take yourself through all the

glorious realities, folks of salvation, no

matter what

we have to go through in this life that God

has ordained for us and being conformed to

the image of Christ, we have certainty, bed

rock certainty that it's all for our ultimate

good

and his glory.

We hold on to that.

Sometimes we've got to hold on to that by our

fingernails, right?

If you are a Christian, the absolute, no

comparison, greatest thing that could ever

happen to a

human being has happened to you, nothing,

nothing comes close.

If some kind of way you just give me a deal,

here's a deal, buddy, I'm going to let you

live out this life in the flesh on the earth

with $200 trillion for eternity.

And you can live every day on vacation and do

whatever you want to do, or you can come

to faith in Christ and be in heaven totally

and join here with Christ and holy without

any sin.

Which of them two things you go to?

I only have to think about.

I only have to think about.

I want to be without sin.

That's the highest plane of existence for any

human being.

Guess what, Christian?

That's what's yours.

Come up soon, coming up sooner than you think,

sooner than I think.

So what I'm trying to say, it really doesn't

matter what God has ordained in your little

normally less than 100 year life, which is a

dot on the timeline of eternity, whatever

hard things you have to go through, which is

all for your good and the glory of God as

He's conforming you to the image of Christ,

they don't compare with the reality of who

God has changed you to be now in this life and

what God has in store for you in eternity.

That's why Paul says in Romans 8, 18, "For I

consider the sufferings of this present

time are not worthy to be compared with the

glory that is to be revealed to us."

And if I had a dollar, for every time I've

quoted that verse in my prayers, you get that

in your bloodstream.

You will be amazed how going through

difficulties will change for you.

And you have to work at that, folks.

Every day you have to work at that to keep

your mindset.

It doesn't just stay with you like in osmosis.

You have to be, you have to be in filled with

the spirit mode to maintain that mindset.

Because you know what, as we battle our flesh

by nature, we are so self-seeking.

We are, we think so highly of ourselves.

We think, man, I don't get what I want.

We get all upset because it didn't go our way.

And we get unthankful.

And again, that's just pride, thinking we

deserve better.

But spirit-filled humility says, "Man, I know

I deserve nothing but hell and wonders

of all people I have been saved from God's

wrath.

I'm in union with Christ and I'm going to be a

joint heir of King Jesus for all eternity.

How in the world can I be anything but utterly

thankful every day, no matter what I have to

go through as I'm on my way to the celestial

city?"

Notice again, verse 20, "Thanks for all things

, even in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to

God, even the Father."

This is emphasizing the love of the Father to

his children through who Christ is and

what he has done.

And he's always giving us gifts, James 1, 17,

every good thing given and every perfect

gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of lights with whom there is no

variation

or shifting shadow.

What a verse.

So verse 20, "Always giving thanks for all

things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

to God, even the Father."

Next I want to close out with a quick look.

One more.

And this will be quick.

The next consequence of being filled with the

Spirit, verse 21.

Now I want you to know verse 21 is going to

connect us to a whole lot of what's coming

up in chapter 5.

And if you read ahead, everybody's going to

get a turn, so don't get uneasy.

Verse 21, "And be subject to one another in

the fear of Christ."

Now in this verse we transition from our own

personal walk to our relationship with others.

Be subject to one another in the fear of

Christ.

That is the foundational expectation in a

believer's life toward other people, if indeed

there has been a genuine conversion in your

life.

And of course the word "fear" here is not like

when you're watching Freddie Kruger.

In the biblical sense what it means is "rever

ential awe."

That's the fear of Christ, honor, worship, ad

oration, praise.

That's what it means to fear crying, to fear

God, which is the beginning of wisdom the

Bible says.

And what does it mean, "be subject to one

another"?

Well let's look real quickly over at Philipp

ians 2-3 and here we find a description of what

it means to subject yourselves to others.

Look what it says, "Do nothing from selfish

ness or empty conceit, but with humility of

mind

regard one another as more important than

yourselves."

So first, if you're going to subject yourself

to others, you're going to have to humble

yourself and you're going to have to distance

yourself from selfishness and empty conceit.

What in the world does that phrase mean?

It means the pursuit of personal glory.

That's what it means.

And the pursuit of personal glory is really

the motivation for selfish ambition.

That's not how a Christian behaves and you're

going to have to regard others as more

important

than yourself.

Boy, you think that's easy?

Think about it.

Then verse 4, "Do not merely look out for your

own personal interest, but also for the

interest of others," and then it just goes on

to give this tremendous illustration about

Jesus.

I mean you can find it later.

Back to verse 21, chapter 5 of Ephesians, "Be

subject to one another in the fear of

Christ."

The spirit that produces this kind of subject

ion to one another is the same one as what we

just read described in Philippians 2 right

there.

It's a humble spirit.

It's a selfless spirit.

There's no vanglory or self-ambition and it

considers others better than itself.

It serves others before it even serves itself.

Let me tell you, that's the gold standard

definition of all Christian relationships.

So when we think about how we relate to all

other believers, it's all summed up.

Look at the end of that verse, in the fear,

that's how you get motivated to do that for

the sake of Christ, for the honor of Christ,

for the glory of Christ.

That's why we are subject to one another.

Not easy.

Again, you know why?

Because we are all naturally in our flesh self

-centered, aren't we?

I mean we don't even realize how self-centered

we can be.

We really don't.

But at the same time, this is a command.

We're not talking about roles and functions

here.

We're talking about essential nature of

believers is to be this way with our new

nature.

That's what it means.

Like hear me, not easy but possible when we

are filled with the Spirit in the power of

the Spirit.

We submit to each other, we subject ourselves

to each other and then Paul is going to move

on from here to show us how that works, wives,

husbands, children, parents, slaves, masters,

and our day employees, employers.

But that will have to wait.

As I said, it's next week, Lord willing, we're

going to look at that.

But for now, I hope this has helped you and

moved you along the way in your growth in

spiritual maturity.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this very convicting

two verses.

It's hard, life is hard, hard things come, but

how thankful I am that you have shown

us that they are purposed.

What a purpose to spiritually grow and to be

conformed to the image of Christ for your

glory.

That's the highest purpose of all purposes.

And it makes sense to me that we would have to

go through hard things to get there.

So Lord, I want to pray right now that you

would just sink this down into all of our

hearts and minds.

I pray that we would walk out of here today,

all of us, with a deeper understanding of

what this means and that we would strive to

lift this way for your glory.

Jesus' name we pray in.

Amen.

Amen.