Gratitude & Authority

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Ephesians 5:19-21

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Amen. Remember that when we sing, application from last week, so turn to Ephesians 5.
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Remember, when we sing, right, we are encouraging one another.
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We're doing what the Bible says. We're exalting the name of the Lord. We're addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the
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Lord with your heart. This morning, I wanna ask you a question. I want you to think for just a moment, who is the most famous person that you've ever gone to church with?
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Who's the most famous person that you've ever gone to church with?
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I think I've been to conferences and such with speakers. I've been to, one time
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I got to sit under the preaching closely of a man by the name of Richard Owen Roberts.
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Last summer, Stephanie and I and Gunner, when we went to the SBC annual meeting, we went to John MacArthur's church.
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We actually got to sit under John MacArthur's preaching in a service. So I think about the years that I've been a
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Christian and the opportunity that I've had to go to church with some, I guess, more well -known people has been encouraging, but now think about this.
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When we gather with the church, what we have in our gathering is far beyond going to church with some famous person.
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What we have in our gathering is the
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Holy Spirit. And what we have been talking about the last few weeks now is what does it look like for a church to be filled with the
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Spirit? What does it look like, we started this last week, what does it look like when the Holy Spirit comes to church?
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Because frankly, as much as I love John MacArthur or others that I could name, frankly, I don't wanna go to a church with just a person if the
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Holy Spirit is not there. And so friends, what does it look like when the
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Holy Spirit is in a place, when he's working, when a church is filled in the Holy Spirit?
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This is what we've looked at. We started this last week and we broke it down. The first couple of points last week, we'll finish up with two points this week.
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Then we'll be in this kind of last section of Ephesians five for a couple of weeks.
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And I can't promise this, but it looks like in a month or two, we're gonna be beginning the last chapter of the book of Ephesians.
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So you have that to consider. Would you stand with me as we read the word of God and we honor the reading.
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And we'll start in verse 18 to pick up context and then through verse 21. So Paul says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the
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Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the
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Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Father, I thank you for your word. Thank you for the service we've had so far for the prayers and for the giving and for the singing and for the scripture.
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We're not satisfied, we want more. We'll show more grace as we sit under the preaching of the word and shape us.
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Let us be similar to like last week and this week. So last week we here, we should sing psalms.
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This week, we're ready to put that in obedience. So we sing a song. Let that be a microcosm, an example, an illustration of how we want our lives to be.
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When we hear something in your word and it tells us to adjust or to do this way or that way, let us not second guess you and let us do what your word says in joyful obedience.
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Today, we pray that we would give forth the repentance in any area that we need to repent. Our faith would be strengthened in any area that it needs to be strengthened.
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We'd be encouraged in the places we need to be encouraged. We'd be convicted in the places we would be convicted and all things would be done in this message to the glory and honor of Christ.
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We pray in his name, amen. You may be seated. We're looking at what the
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Holy Spirit does in a church that is full in him. The Holy Spirit is
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God. We need the spirit, right? We desperately need the spirit of God.
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He's the third person of the Trinity. We need, we are in desperate need for his blessing and for his work here.
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Have you sought that? We'll begin this sermon. Have you sought the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon this church?
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In many ways, the Lord has blessed us, right? The Holy Spirit has showed his blessings upon his church, but too so often, his blessings are without even his people's asking for it.
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Well, how much more so may God be ready to bless our church if we'll but ask? The Father is ready to bestow the
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Holy Spirit upon those who ask him. So friends, have we sought this blessing?
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Now, we talked about last week five participles. Grammar's not everybody's cup of tea, but I want you to see the connection here.
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So in verse 18, there's these commands. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit.
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So there's the verb, right? And now these participles are flowing out of this. There's five of them.
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Addressing, verse 19. Singing, verse 19. Addressing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
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Singing. Okay, so what I'm saying is, what does it look like to be filled in the spirit? These things are flowing out of that.
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So you're addressing one another in the Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You're singing to one another. Chapter 19, you're making melody in your heart.
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Verse 19. Verse 20, you're giving thanks. Verse 21, you're submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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All right, then we said, when the Holy Spirit is filling a people in a local church, it looks like, first of all, and this is already filled out for you in your bulletin, but it looks like, first of all, number one, regular assembly.
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Okay, that is the people of God gather regularly together. This is a distinction, so listen carefully.
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This is a distinction between cultural Christianity or nominal Christianity and biblical
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Christianity. And in cultural Christianity, people affirm some of the same truths, maybe, that true
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Christians affirm, but what they do not do so often or with the right motivations is gather a symbol like true
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Christians do. An illustration I might use is this. The Holy Spirit functions like a magnet.
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A true Christian can try as I may to keep away from God's people, but what's happening?
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The Holy Spirit is working in me. I'm drawn to them. What is it about you people, right?
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You look different. You think different sometimes. You have different hobbies. You have different interests.
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You work different jobs. Maybe you like different sports teams, but there's something about you
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I'm drawn to, and you're drawn together. Why? It's the Spirit of God. So regular assembly.
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Secondly, we said the Holy Spirit produces rejoicing all. Now, I'm not going to revisit all the points under this one.
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This one was a long one, right? But I will say that God's people were made to sing. We are a singing people.
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We sing together and to one another for the glory of Christ. And I do wanna, I don't know if I need to correct this, but I do wanna just make sure it's clear.
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It may have come across last week in the songs that I quoted. You might think that I'm saying old songs are great and new songs are bad.
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It's only the old songs that are really rich and deep. I wanna be clear, that's not true. We sang that new song this morning,
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Let the Nations Be Glad. That's a good song. Or I'll give you some lyrics from another Matt Boswell, Matt Papa song.
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Christ, the sure and steady anchor, while the tempest rages on, when temptation claims the battle, and it seems the night has won, deeper still then goes the anchor.
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Though I justly stand accused, I will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed.
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So this isn't about old songs versus new songs. This is just that the content of our singing, we wanna sing rich and deep and fruitful songs.
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God could also give you old songs that have poor lyrics, right? All right, so we're full of rejoicing all.
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So now we get to our third point. Regular assembly, rejoicing all. And thirdly, as we begin today's sermon, what does it look like when the
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Holy Spirit, as it were, comes to church, when he fills a people? Thirdly, reverential appreciation.
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Thirdly, reverential appreciation. And now we're in verse 20. Giving thanks, so the third participle, giving thanks always and for everything to God the
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Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul has already mentioned thanksgiving in chapter five.
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Go back up to verse four. He says, let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving.
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So we ought to pause here for just a moment and consider that thanksgiving is a serious aspect of the
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Christian life. Gratefulness is a fruit of the Spirit's work in the life of a believer.
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Actually, let me ask it this way. Have you ever met an ungrateful person?
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Have you ever heard a saying, you'd complain if they hung you with a new rope, right? Like there's somebody that is always complaining about, you can't, it doesn't matter, they're always complaining about something.
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This is not the spirit of the Christian. This is not what the Holy Spirit produces in the life of believers.
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Friends, let me make an application here. It seems as though, and I wanna talk to parents for a moment. I can't preach to parents that aren't in this room, but I can preach to us that are here, those of us who are in the throes of raising children.
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Does it not seem as though we are raising a generation that is incredibly ungrateful?
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So when we face a reality like this, we need to push back on them.
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Our Christian parents, we need to teach our children gratitude. We need to command.
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Obviously, gratitude is ultimately an issue of the heart. The Holy Spirit has to work and all those things, yes, yes, yes.
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But we need to teach our children what it looks like to be grateful, to be thankful. I mean, when the waitress comes by and hands them their drink or their meal, we should teach our children to do what?
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To say thank you, right? Or when they're at church and someone pays them a kind compliment. Oh, you look, that dress looks pretty today.
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We shouldn't teach our children to look down at the floor and just be quiet. We should teach them to look at the adult and say, thank you, right?
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Because we're losing a generation here to ungratefulness.
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So many people living in our society today feel as though everything they get is what they are owed, right?
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You give them $100, no, whatever, right? I'm owed that, right? There's very little gratitude. But friends, this is not the
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Christian. So verse 20 says that the Christian, filled in the Spirit, we're giving thanks always and for everything to God the
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Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I think sincere gratitude really begins for the
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Christian when we understand what we actually are owed. So people in the world today are not grateful because they think that they're owed more.
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But Christians are grateful because they understand what they are owed. And you say, what does
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God owe you? This is the wrong answer, so let me give you this. What does God owe you? Your response is to say,
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God owes me nothing. And everything I have is only by His grace. You're getting closer, but that's not the
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Christian response. The Christian response to what does God owe you is what?
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Justice. God owes you justice. God owes you
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His wrath. God owes you the lake of fire.
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But then we look at the cross and we see that what we are owed actually fell upon Christ who was not owed
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God's wrath, but in our place He suffered justice. In Christ has been satisfied.
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It is finished and Christ rose again in victory. Furthermore, we remember that grace that has been taught to us in Ephesians.
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It's not just the cross is grace enough, right? But then beyond that, God chose us before the world began.
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God raised us by His grace to new life even when we were dead in our sins.
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So the Holy Spirit then inevitably produces gratitude as we look at our condition apart from Christ and all that God has done for us.
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How can our heart not overflow and abound in thanksgiving? So two points here.
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First, the breadth of our gratitude. The breadth of our gratitude.
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Verse 20, giving thanks always and for everything. Now I know I get a little carried away with alliteration, but I think
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Paul does that too sometimes. So for example, in this verse he writes in the Greek, pantote huper panton.
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So these two words, pantote, panton, they give us the breadth of our thanksgiving.
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Okay, so look at the text. You don't have to know Greek. You can see it. What Paul is saying here is that we give thanks to God at all times and for all things.
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So look at verse 20. Giving thanks always and, so that's all times.
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So giving thanks when. So what season of the life of the Christian is filled with ingratitude? Answer, none.
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Give thanks always and for everything.
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Okay? So Calvin notes, constant thanksgiving ought to be a pleasure and should never grow dull with repetition.
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The innumerable benefits that we receive from God give us fresh reasons to be joyful and thankful.
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Friends, if you're like me, you can experience seasons in your life or days in your life or moments in your life that God has been incredibly kind to you and you go on as though he has not.
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You forget to thank him for the beautiful day. You forget to thank him for the air that you breathe, for the meal that you eat, and above all, in the midst of terrible circumstances, you forget that you're chosen and redeemed and that God has shown his great grace to you.
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So there's never a time, listen to me, Christian, there's never a time in the Christian life when we do not have a spirit of gratitude toward God.
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Now, I wanna push back on some things. This does not mean that you need to thank
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God for the things that God hates. So Paul says, give thanks always and for everything.
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That doesn't mean that we need to thank God for abortion. We don't need to thank
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God for gender confusion or for wicked rulers. We do not need to thank
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God for sin because God is never the author of sin. But even in, now, the other side of this, even in situations in which we have experienced evil or sin, when evil or sin has been done to us, we know all along, like the story of Joseph, right, that even in these wicked trials, so we don't thank
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God for sin, but we know that even when sin has been committed against us or we've experienced an evil situation, we know that even in that,
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God has a plan and a purpose. And we can and must thank him for his sovereign hand and providence.
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Giving thanks always and for everything. You know, sometimes we talk about good providence and bad providence.
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Let me push back on that for a moment. There's no such thing as good providence or bad providence, unless you just wanna say it's all good, because that's true, there's just providence.
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And all providence is for the good of God's people, even if within that providence, we experience painful trials.
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And so we are people who are grateful in all seasons and for all things. Now, this translation of all things in the text, it's a little bit ambiguous, right?
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So giving thanks always and for everything. That's what I'm talking about there. The word there for everything. It's a little bit ambiguous.
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So S .M. Ball notes, ambiguous just means like, it could mean, maybe it could go multiple directions.
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And so S .M. Ball notes how it can, maybe it means on behalf of all.
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So in other words, he's saying, maybe we should think of it as giving thanks always and on behalf of all.
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Okay, so if that's true, that would mean that in Paul's mind, he at minimum wants the church to be thankful for what?
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One another. And even if that's not the main focus, surely being thankful for one another in the church falls under the everything that we're supposed to be thankful for, right?
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So I wanna address something for just a moment. About 12 years ago,
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I was out in the yard in my flip flops. I don't remember what I was doing, but I know
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I was in my flip flops. Maybe I was chasing around a football or something. I don't remember, but I was in my flip flops and I kicked very hard a cinder block.
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I don't know, I don't remember all the circumstances. However, I do know this.
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I thought I was gonna throw up. I kicked it so hard. And one of my pinky toes, instead of pointing straight ahead pointed over to the side and it hurt.
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And like for a few days, it was like that. And then something happened. I either stepped funny or maybe
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I bumped my toe again and my pinky toe popped back straight. And so over the last, there's a big trial.
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Over the last 12 years, inevitably there'll be something. My kids will put landmines of Legos or something, right?
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There'll be something I'll step on or I'll kick and my pinky toe, I guess just how it works now, it'll pop out of place.
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And then I'll have to pop it back into place. Okay, the point is,
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I remain very grateful for that pinky toe, but it's easier for me to be grateful for the toe on my other foot that I don't have any problems out.
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Now, preacher, you done gone crazy. What does this have to do with the church?
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Let me put it plainly. Now we're talking about being thankful for all things and under the big heading of all things, we're thankful for one another in the church.
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So I'm gonna put it plainly. There are part, I've received this the way
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I say it. There are parts of the body that are easier to be grateful than other parts of the body.
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It's easier to be grateful for the pinky toe that just stays in line and doesn't cause you any trouble. It's much harder to be thankful for the pinky toe that's always dislocated and then you've gotta pop it back into place.
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Okay, so there are parts of the body that seem to get bit out of place a little easier, cause a little bit more pain or maybe discomfort than other parts of the body.
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However, the church filled in the Holy Spirit is grateful for all things, which includes one another, which includes even the disjointed pinky toe, right?
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All right, here's what I'm saying. Let me ask you this. How are you taking your gratitude for the members of this church before the
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Lord, right? Are you expressing your gratitude to God through Christ for your brothers and sisters here?
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Even more pointed application. Don't just say, God, thank you for the church.
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Thank you for Perryville Second Baptist. Take the members of this church by name before the
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Lord in an expression of your gratitude. And if there's the pinky toe in your life, take that before the
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Lord. Lord help me, this person and me, we seem sometimes to be thinking so opposite.
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Can we have agreement? So do not take the blessing of the membership of the local church for granted.
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Do not despise the personalities of those that you find it harder at times to connect with.
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Don't carry, beloved, one another's burdens. Take your brothers and sisters before the
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Lord in gratitude. If we are to be grateful at all times, verse 20, giving thanks always and for everything, then surely falling under everything is our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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Okay, let me make one more note before we move on. Ingratitude, friends, and complaining are very unbecoming of a belief.
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I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Job. So about halfway through, you find the book of Psalms.
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Keep turning left to Job chapter two. Job chapter two and verse nine and 10.
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Job chapter two and verse nine and 10. So Job's wife enters the picture here in verse nine,
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Job chapter two, verse nine and 10. Then his wife said to him, do you still hold fast your integrity?
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Curse God and die. But he, that is Job, we're talking about verse 10, but he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.
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Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?
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And all this Job did not sin with his lips. So as we think about the breadth of our gratitude, we're not just talking about, you thank
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God on the days that are sunny, but you also thank God on the days that are stormy. You don't just thank
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God on the days when your president got elected, but on days when the opposite party got elected.
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You don't just thank God on the days when you got a bonus at work, but you also thank God even in the days that you don't know where your next paycheck is gonna come from.
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The question is, do we believe in a sovereign God or not? You understand, we're not just playing around with the sovereignty of God.
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We don't just like to put on our cool little hats and smoke a pipe and sit around drinking our coffee together and just contemplate on the sovereignty of God.
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And so it's just some sort of scholastic enterprise. No friends, we believe in the sovereignty of God because this is where the rubber hits the road.
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When your child is sick, when you're suffering at your job, when you're receiving persecution for sharing the gospel, then the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which we rest our head.
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Do we believe, as the confession says, that God is the one who decreed everything that occurs without reference to anything outside himself?
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He did this by the perfectly wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably.
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Yet God did this in such a way that he is neither the author of sin nor has fellowship with any in their sin.
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This decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes.
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On the contrary, these are established by God's decree. In this decree, God's wisdom is displayed in directing all things and his power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing his decree.
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What I'm saying is, friends, the breadth of our thanksgiving is not just on the days when everything is going right.
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Paul does not tell us in the text, be grateful to God when you get your way. Instead, he says, giving thanks always and for everything.
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So who God is and what he has done ought to prevent the believer from a complaining spirit.
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We are thanksgivers and this is what it looks like to be filled in the
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Holy Spirit. Friends, do you realize as a Christian what has happened to you?
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You're a wretched and rebellious soul. You're a soul that only cried out to God for justice and damnation.
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That God in his mercy reached down in the miry muck and pulled you up from that and set you up on the rock and removed your wretched, stony heart and replaced it with a heart of flesh by his grace.
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If this is true, and it is, what do we have to complain about? Yeah, but God, the stock market, that's a little trivial.
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I know that there are other things in your life that are serious, but we must cultivate thanksgiving.
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Friends, cultivate thanksgiving this week. Try it at your job. Try it with your boss.
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Try it in your home. Maybe you are a boss. Try it with your workers. Express your gratitude to your wife and for your wife.
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Express your gratitude to your husband and for your husband, to your parents, for your job, for your children.
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Express your gratitude intentionally to God through Christ. And also, why not let others know about this gratitude?
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And how about this application? I think it's warranted in the day that we live. Show gratitude for your country.
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Our country is full of many faults and wickedness and sins, but it is interesting how many of those who live in such a place are ungrateful to God to live in this country.
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And let me follow that up and say that we live in a society that rejects so many of God's good gifts in order to embrace sin and evil.
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But if you wanna push back against that, if you wanna be part of the light, if you wanna be part of the work of pushing back the darkness, then we want to be a church that is filled in the
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Spirit and part of being filled in the Spirit is a church that is grateful to God in all seasons and for all things.
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Okay, we gotta push on. So we look at the second point here. We consider the breadth of our thanksgiving. Now, secondly, the blueprint.
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There's a way that we're to be grateful and it's important. So giving thanks always and for everything to God the
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Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there's the blueprint. So we give thanks for everything to God the
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Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is quite rich here.
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We give thanks to our gracious Father through our mediator and all these names are important, aren't they?
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The Lord, that Jesus is God. He is Yahweh, He is King. Jesus, He is
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God who came in the flesh. Christ, He is the promised Messiah, right? All that's important.
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But let me cautious us with something here. This is why we pray in Jesus' name. This is gonna come across as a rebuke, but take it as like, take it as a low -level rebuke and just think through this.
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Too many of us, when we pray, we add Jesus' name at the end of our prayer only because that's how we've been taught to pray.
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So you give, I've heard you pray and I've prayed it too, I'm guilty. A long prayer and then you're winding down, you're trying to land the plane.
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How do we get out of this prayer that I'm in? In Jesus' name, amen. That's not honoring.
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It's not honoring to Christ. What Paul means here of giving thanks to God the
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Father in the name of Christ, he doesn't mean just mindlessly tack Jesus' name at the end of your prayer.
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Rather, he means that even as we pray, Jesus is acknowledged at the beginning in our hearts as we understand our only way to God is through Christ.
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And as we understand it, all the blessings that we have, temporal blessings, eternal blessings, gospel blessings, they are all rooted in Christ.
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They all find their yes in Christ. Furthermore, there's another lesson here, at least tangentially.
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And that is our thanksgiving is owed to God. Okay, so track with me here.
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You owe God gratitude, but it's not acceptable to God. Your gratitude in and of itself is a wretchedness apart from Christ's work on our behalf.
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The only thanksgiving you have that is acceptable to God is the thanksgiving given to God through Christ.
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Okay, so giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. You understand, the only way for you to be grateful to God rightly and biblically is to do so in the name of Christ because Christ is your righteousness.
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If you're a Christian, Christ is the one who atoned for your sin. Your only approach to God is not on your own merit or your own sense of gratitude.
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It's only Christ. Someone will say, yeah, I'm truly grateful to God for my home and my country and my children and my money.
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And I count them as blessings of God. But if this gratitude is not expressed by faith in Christ, it is not acceptable thanksgiving to God.
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We can even put it this way. You are not truly grateful to God for all the things that he has done for you while remaining outside of Christ.
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Your gratitude is sin because you acknowledge him as the giver of good things and yet you have rejected the best thing that he has given, namely
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Christ in the stead of ruined sinners. I think about this a lot and I don't want to disparage this.
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I don't want to disparage this. But maybe some of it needs a little disparaging. And that is you look around and you see people doing things, whether it's the
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NFL or sports. I've seen it in youth sports. People gather around and they pray to God and they seemingly thank
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God. And then they go out and they live their life as though they don't know
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God, right? The way that they speak, the way that they act, the way that they behave with, well, especially it could be hunting, could be sports, could be work, could be anything, thanking
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God for these blessings and yet living as though Christ is not king.
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And so if you're trying to thank God for things in your life while rejecting Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, you must repent or you will face the judgment because all true gratitude begins and ends with Christ.
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Listen, if that describes you, okay? Youth, I want you to listen to this too, youth, because teenagers, you've been taught prayer is a good thing and all that.
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And so you can maybe feel yourself as justified before God. I'm just making sure
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I got everybody's attention. All right, you could feel yourself justified before God.
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By praying again and thanking God for the blessings that you have.
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But if you thank God for the blessings that you have and your life is not given to Christ as king, your gratitude will come back to haunt you in judgment.
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That's what I'm saying, friends. We can't be thankful to God apart from Christ, right?
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Now we're gonna finish a sermon by our last point, examining verse 21. So when the
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Holy Spirit fills a church, there is regular assembly, rejoicing all, reverential appreciation, and finally, rightful authority.
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Verse 21, rightful authority. So the text goes on to say, here's the last part of Sybil, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, okay?
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Now, verse 21, rightful authority, it sets us up for several examples of submission in the church.
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Wives to husbands, children to parents, slaves to masters. Now, how many of you love the word submission, right?
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Our 21st century culture hates the word submission. In fact, it's probably one of the most hated words in all the
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Bible. You have even people who say they believe the Bible that hate this word submission. So verse 21, for example, is used by some people to just flatten all this out.
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Some people actually use verse 21 as though the rest of chapter five and the first part of chapter six aren't even in the
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Bible. So what they say is, well, you see verse 21, submitting to one another. What that means is it doesn't matter about men or women's roles.
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None of that matters. Doesn't matter about officers in the church. None of that matters. We're just all supposed to submit to one another.
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That's not what God means by this. God is a God of order and hierarchy and method and all these things matter.
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And so that is the plain reading here, the plain understanding of the text.
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Further, don't forget that what Paul's meaning here, right, is what God means. So the spirit -filled church understands its proper relationship to the world.
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It understands submission. It understands headship. It understands authority in the home or even in the workplace, or even in terms of rightful and wrongful authority within the government, all those things.
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And we're gonna work through those texts in the coming weeks. But here's where I want to make a comment about individual
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Christians submitting to the church. So submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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I take this as just a general, before Paul gets into some of these specific, of the authority of a local church.
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So it's hard for us to think about the church having authority because of our idea of government in this country.
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How was our country founded, right? 1776, right? We were founded by casting off authority.
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And then we also think about terrible stories, and you've heard of them in the church, where a church has abused her authority, maybe in some nefarious or evil way.
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But when Paul says that we're to submit to one another, there is a real idea of the people of God submitting themselves to the church, to her doctrine, to her meetings, to her mission, to her leadership.
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Of course, that is insofar as a local church has aligned herself with God's word.
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Now, we tend to make the word submission, and this is very bad in the Bible, but especially, we tend to make the word submission and make it mean that we go along with the church so long as we agree.
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But that's not submission. That's simply agreement. No, submission is, inevitably, the life of the church.
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There will be times where you think that we should do something different, or we should go a different direction, but the church chooses a different way.
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And so long as the church is not sinning against God or asking you to sin against your conscience, even if you disagree, it's not sin, it's not causing you to sin against your conscience, you should submit to the church.
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You should walk in that way. A guy asked me the other day, he said, Quadro, why are there so many
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Baptist churches? Well, here's part of the reason. There's not so many
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Baptist churches because Baptists are just great church planners, although Baptists are great church planners. There are
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Baptist churches, even in our town, that exist because we are too prideful to submit to one another in the church, even our name, right?
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Perryville Second Baptist sort of illustrates to people that there was some sort of disgruntlement, right?
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Some sort of prideful, I'm not going back to sides or whatever, but just think about that, right?
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Why are so many Baptist churches exist? Because so many people in Baptist churches don't believe verse 21 of Ephesians 5, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Friends, there is authority in the church. I'm not saying the church has unmitigated authority, the church only has authority in so far as she is under the word of God.
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But friends, we have to cast aside preferences and disagreement and colors of the carpet and stained glass windows and all those things and submit ourselves to the body, to the doctrine, to the meeting times, to the gathering of the church.
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But so many people in the world today or so many people in the Bible Belt today see the church as like, my whole life,
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I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do. And if I can, I'll fit the church and I'll submit the church unto my life.
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If there's an area of my life I can squeeze the church into, I'll do that. But the Bible says that we are to revolve our life around the church.
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That is, we submit our life into the church. And there are times that things come up in our life and we say,
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I can't do that, why? Because I got church. But in the
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Bible Belt, it's so often, and I hear this a lot, preacher, I'd be at church, I'd be at this, but I've got these other things going on.
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Now that brings me to something else in verse 21, the last thing to look. It says that we're to submit to one another, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Okay? In our submission to the church and in our relationships inside the church and outside the church that demand proper authority and submission, we carry out these things out of reverence for Christ.
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That's an okay translation, I think it's fine. But actually, I wish it was translated differently in the
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ESV. Because the word for reverence in the Greek is the word phobos.
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That might sound familiar to you, it's because we get the English word phobia from that, right?
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So I only remember this one because I'd pull out other phobias, but I remember this one because of the movie, arachnophobia, you're scared of spiders.
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What is phobia then? It's fear. Okay, so this is literally what the verse says, submitting to one another out of fear of Christ.
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We carry out submission in the church and in our relationships in and outside the church in the fear of the
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Lord. Can I submit to you this morning that too many in our day simply do not understand the fear of Christ, right?
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You hear songs out there that talk about fear as always a bad thing. Fear is a liar or whatever, right?
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How many worship songs can you imagine singing when it said, that would say something like, Christ, help the church to fear you more, right?
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We'd be like, ooh, that doesn't sound right. But this is what the text is saying, that our submission to one another is ought to be done in the fear of Christ.
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And think about that for just a moment, to embrace something like egalitarianism. Egalitarianism says that it doesn't matter who's pastors, men can be pastors, women can be pastors, the roles of men and women in the church and in the home, they don't matter.
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A husband can submit to his wife, a wife, it doesn't matter, it's all the same. Okay, to present that position is to scoff at the fear of Christ or to reject the role of the elders in the church or to reject the rightful authority of the local church is to, or to dismiss the roles of wives and husbands and parents and children.
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To do these things is to scoff at the fear of Christ.
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Because the text says that we're to be submitting to one another out of reverence, out of fear of Christ.
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And John Gill is great here. He says, the fear of God is that which should influence and engage to every duty.
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Every duty, when we are submitting to proper authority, not blindly by any means, not propping up tyranny in the home, we're not talking about that or in the church even or in the government, but when we humbly submit to proper authority, what we are doing is honoring
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God. We are living out the fear of God. When the policeman stops me for speeding, that hasn't happened in a long time.
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And I say to him, what are you doing, jerk? Go catch a criminal.
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I'm not submitting to proper authority. My response should be like, yeah, it's going fast,
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I'm sorry. I submit to him because I'm submitting to a higher authority.
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I'm fearing Christ. This is true in your home.
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Ladies, we'll talk about this in a couple of weeks. This is true children. When you disobey your parents, you are showing a lack of fear of Christ.
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And when we don't submit to the local church, we say, Christ, we don't fear you.
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Now, yes, Christ, listen, he is our friend, but he is a high and holy king. And so he is our friend and I will say, amen, amen.
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But he is a friend that the Bible teaches us ought to be feared. And in all of our issues in churches or sins of the home or sins of the nation, really boiled down to this one reality, our lack of the reality of the fear of Christ.
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Churches in America today have forgotten by and large what it means to fear our king.
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And so we go around and we play church. We act like it doesn't matter whether or not this person is sleeping around with that person.
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We act like it doesn't matter whether or not we're preaching the word, act like it doesn't matter, evangelism, all that's like, doesn't matter.
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Doesn't matter if we're concerned about advancing the kingdom of Christ. Oh, it doesn't matter. No, no, no.
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If we have this mentality, then we don't fear Christ. Is Christ worthy of your reverence?
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Do you walk before others in this world today in the fear of Christ? The worst indictment, the worst indictment in Romans three against unbelievers is this.
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And we see this in our world today, right? What's going on in our world today? It's this,
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Romans three says, there is no fear of God before their eyes.
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That's our culture. However, that's the same word, babas. There's no fear of God.
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That's the same word in Romans three that's in our text that we should do submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, same word.
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So tell me just a moment, just think through this with me. What is the difference between an unbeliever who lives out his or her life without the fear of God and a professing
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Christian who lives out his or her life without the fear of Christ? The difference is the name and maybe the outward actions to an extent, but the hearts are the same.
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They are hardened to awesome holiness of our great and glorious God. This is the problem today.
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No fear of Christ. They don't assemble. They don't sing properly.
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They are not grateful. They don't care about the preaching of the word. They drift in and they drift out.
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There's no reverence for Christ. But those filled in the spirit model the fear of Christ by their submission to one another, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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So those filled in the Holy Spirit are those who maintain regular assembly, rejoicing all, reverential appreciation and rightful authority.
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Here is the Spirit's work in our lives and in the church. And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the
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Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the
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Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Do you fear the Lord? There will be those in this room today who even now, even already have done so, and even now will go in humble faith to Christ, asking the
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Father through Him to grant them evermore as it were of the Holy Spirit in their life, who want more of God's grace manifest in their life, who understand the areas of their lives that they've fallen short of, and who take that again to Christ even now, who long for more of God's real presence.
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And then there'll be those in this room, they may not express it outwardly.
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No one is gonna walk by me today and say, I don't fear Jesus. But inwardly, they feel no experiential fear and reverence for Christ.
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They do what they want, how they want, when they want. They don't care about all this stuff that we've been preaching.
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Sir or ma 'am, if that's you, may the sovereign Christ pierce your heart.
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May you see Him as the Holy One. He's not our president, He is our
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King. He is deserving of all honor and glory and reverence.
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He is deserving of all your allegiance to what He has said. Do not, do not make excuses this day for not following what
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His Word has shown us. And may you receive the grace today to repent and believe the gospel.
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There is no life more full than a life full of the
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Spirit of God. Father, I pray that we would believe the truth that we've examined the last few weeks in verse 18 and following through to verse 21.
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We wanna be a church filled in the Holy Spirit. We want to be a church regularly assembling.
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We wanna be a church full of rejoicing all, reverential appreciation.
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We want these things. We want rightful authority. Help us to be submissive in the areas that we are called to be submissive, knowing that we're to do so out of reverence and fear and honor of Christ.
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I pray that Christians in this room would take our sins and repent of them and remember that what we are owed,
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Christ has taken it already and it is finished. And if we confess our sins, you're faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
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Lord, if there's one in here, old or young or teenager or middle -aged or whatever it may be, who doesn't know
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Christ, who has no experiential fear, they know they ought to fear Christ, but in their day -to -day life, there's no fear of Christ.
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Would you break open their heart even now? Would you bring them graciously to repentance and faith?