Neil Silverberg: What's gonna happen now?
Neil Silverberg: We're gonna be addressed by God in Holy Scripture.
Neil Silverberg: Holy Scripture is God speaking.
Neil Silverberg: So as you turn with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter five.
Neil Silverberg: And when you get it, would you please stand as I read the Word of God.
Neil Silverberg: Verse fifteen through verse twenty-one.
Neil Silverberg: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Neil Silverberg: Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Father, please address us from this portion of Scripture and apply it to our hearts.
Neil Silverberg: Lord, we want to be changed by your word.
Neil Silverberg: We want your word to have the full effect that you intended it to have.
Neil Silverberg: So grant us, Lord God, by your spirit to hear the word of God this morning, not with words of human wisdom, but a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
Neil Silverberg: And we ask these things in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: And everyone said, Amen.
Neil Silverberg: You may be seated.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you.
Neil Silverberg: We are walking through a preaching series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
Neil Silverberg: Hasn't it been rich going through Ephesians?
Neil Silverberg: This is I can never go through Ephesians enough.
Neil Silverberg: And we've seen that this letter can be neatly divided into two parts.
Neil Silverberg: First of all, the first three chapters where the apostle describes who the Christian is in reality.
Neil Silverberg: You know, I mentioned this before, but Paul never uses the word Christian to describe believers.
Neil Silverberg: In fact, he coined a phrase which is the title of this series, in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Paul used that phrase to describe the gospel and Christians, they're people who are in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: The second part of this letter, which we've been parked at for a few weeks, has often been called the ethical part.
Neil Silverberg: Now the apostle in this section describes how these in Christ people should live.
Neil Silverberg: To use theological terms, chapters 1 through 3 of Ephesians describe what it means to be justified.
Neil Silverberg: Justification is a legal term.
Neil Silverberg: It's used in judicial courts of law for a judge's legal declaration of innocence.
Neil Silverberg: How does the apostle use it in the first three chapters of this letter?
Neil Silverberg: I could quote from a lot of sections, but let me quote a familiar portion.
Neil Silverberg: It doesn't use the word justify, but the idea is there.
Neil Silverberg: It's chapter 2, verses 8 through 10.
Neil Silverberg: Don't turn there, I'll read it to you.
Neil Silverberg: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.
Neil Silverberg: It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Neil Silverberg: For we are his workmanship, which is literally, we are his poem, is one translation.
Neil Silverberg: We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Neil Silverberg: You know, over the years, I've often been asked to pray for people who are responding to an altar call.
Neil Silverberg: And in one such church, I was asked to pray with people who were responding to an altar call.
Neil Silverberg: I I would ask the I asked the people who were coming up, what do you want God to do?
Neil Silverberg: What are you here for?
Neil Silverberg: And almost without exception, everybody said, I want to be, uh I want to stop feeling condemned.
Neil Silverberg: I feel condemned all the time.
Neil Silverberg: And I responded and said, Well, do you know the doctrine of the justification by faith alone?
Neil Silverberg: And most responded negatively, which is so sad.
Neil Silverberg: More than that, it's tragic.
Neil Silverberg: Because here's the deal, folks: you can't live the Christian life unless you're grounded in the truth that your standing with God is not based on how well you perform at the Christian life, but on the fact that He declared you free from the penalty of sin by the work of Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: We could learn a lot from Martin Luther.
Neil Silverberg: Luther had a breakthrough while he was teaching the professor of the Bible at the University of Edinburgh.
Neil Silverberg: Before that, Luther was uh in a uh monastery and he tried to find peace with God.
Neil Silverberg: He did everything the monastery said you need to do to have peace with God, but he never found it.
Neil Silverberg: And he would go to the priest, and he got it got so bad he was confessing sins he didn't even commit.
Neil Silverberg: In fact, one of the priests said, Come back when you have some real sins you need to deal with.
Neil Silverberg: They didn't know what to do with Luther.
Neil Silverberg: So they sent him uh to Wittenberg, where he became professor of the Bible.
Neil Silverberg: And while he was preparing to teach Romans, he was reading Romans 1:17.
Neil Silverberg: Let me read it, let me read the verse before, because it's so familiar, but it's all one unit.
Neil Silverberg: He read this I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Neil Silverberg: For in it, this is the verse that got Luther, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
Neil Silverberg: You know, Luther before this struggled with that phrase, the righteousness of God.
Neil Silverberg: You know why he struggled?
Neil Silverberg: Because he interpreted the righteousness of God as God's judgment against sinners.
Neil Silverberg: And he's right, it was, it is, God's judgment against sinners.
Neil Silverberg: Luther confessed at one point that he actually hated God because he knew that God was righteous and therefore he deserved to be punished.
Neil Silverberg: But suddenly his eyes were open, folks, and he saw in verse 17 that the righteousness of God, which is spoken of in this text, is not something Luther achieved on his own, but a gift that God gives to sinners.
Neil Silverberg: It's a gift, the righteousness of God.
Neil Silverberg: And Luther said when he saw this, an entirely new world opened up because the gospel changed his heart.
Neil Silverberg: So now we come to the second section of this epistle, the ethical portion.
Neil Silverberg: And it's described not by the theological term justification, but by the theological term sanctification.
Neil Silverberg: And that's where we've been parked for the last few weeks.
Neil Silverberg: We've been listening to the apostles' description of how we should now live.
Neil Silverberg: Now that we've been freed from the penalty of sin, we should now be progressively freed from the power of sin.
Neil Silverberg: And each elder that's spoken has brought forth a different aspect of the sanctified life.
Neil Silverberg: This morning, I want to go deeper in understanding the sanctified life in a message entitled Living Wisely in a Foolish Age.
Neil Silverberg: Living Wisely in a Foolish Age.
Neil Silverberg: Not only has God called us to walk righteously, He's called us to walk wisely.
Neil Silverberg: Do you know that?
Neil Silverberg: And this call to walk wisely reminds us of a certain book in the Old Testament.
Neil Silverberg: What book teaches us wisdom?
Neil Silverberg: The book of Proverbs.
Neil Silverberg: Solomon lays it out at the beginning of this book.
Neil Silverberg: Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Neil Silverberg: Fools despise wisdom and understanding.
Neil Silverberg: This is the beginning of the book of Proverbs.
Neil Silverberg: It starts by reminding us that if we want to live godly lives, we must start by cultivating the fear of God.
Neil Silverberg: The book of Proverbs is a book of contrasts.
Neil Silverberg: The wise walk this way, while the fools walk a certain way.
Neil Silverberg: This is how the section of Ephesians 5 begins.
Neil Silverberg: Paul says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.
Neil Silverberg: And this is the first contrast the apostle makes in our walk.
Neil Silverberg: Not as unwise, but wise.
Neil Silverberg: Today's big question is how can I live wisely in a foolish age?
Neil Silverberg: This is a foolish age.
Neil Silverberg: You look at the way people live, it's foolish.
Neil Silverberg: Nobody wants to live unwisely, but the problem is not many people know how to walk wisely.
Neil Silverberg: Paul tells us in these verses three things we must be concerned with if we're going to walk wisely.
Neil Silverberg: I want us to look at these three things.
Neil Silverberg: Number one, first we must be concerned with how we manage our time.
Neil Silverberg: Secondly, we must understand what the will of the Lord is.
Neil Silverberg: And finally, we must live lives that are continually filled with the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: These three things are necessary to live wisely.
Neil Silverberg: Let's take the first one.
Neil Silverberg: Paul starts by reminding us to observe how we walk, not as unwise, but wise.
Neil Silverberg: And this is uh learning to steward properly our time.
Neil Silverberg: The ESV translates making the best use of your time.
Neil Silverberg: This is one of those cases where I find the King James to be the better translation.
Neil Silverberg: It says, uh redeem the time because the days are evil.
Neil Silverberg: And Paul, the word redeem there is a good translation because it was used of buying back slaves and setting them free.
Neil Silverberg: And Paul says, buy back the time, literally.
Neil Silverberg: Buy back the time.
Neil Silverberg: Redeem is the Greek word exa garazo.
Neil Silverberg: It was used, as I said, of the purchasing of slaves in order to set them free.
Neil Silverberg: We must learn, folks, how to buy back our time from unproductive and sinful pursuits.
Neil Silverberg: This is critical when it comes to wise living.
Neil Silverberg: You know, in the book entitled Margin, my Mark actually teaches TMAP and uses the book of Mar of uh by the book entitled Margin.
Neil Silverberg: And in it, there's a chapter dealing with time and how to manage time.
Neil Silverberg: And the author, Dr.
Neil Silverberg: Richard Svensson, writes this.
Neil Silverberg: Get this.
Neil Silverberg: 30 years ago, futurists peering into their crystal balls predicted that one of the biggest problems for coming generations would be what to do with their abundant spare time.
Neil Silverberg: Isn't that your biggest dilemma?
Neil Silverberg: You have so much spare time you don't know what to do with it.
Neil Silverberg: Right?
Neil Silverberg: I remember hearing this prediction often.
Neil Silverberg: In 1967, testimony before a Senate subcommittee claimed that by 1985, people could be working just 22 hours a week, or 27 weeks a year, or could retire at age 38.
Neil Silverberg: That really proved to be true, didn't it?
Neil Silverberg: Now it's helpful in properly knowing how to properly manage our time that we understand there are two Greek words for the single word in English of time.
Neil Silverberg: There's the word chronos, which is quantitative time, and karos, which is qualitative time.
Neil Silverberg: Chronological time is standard clock time.
Neil Silverberg: How many know you get a lot of that through the span of a lifetime?
Neil Silverberg: We all have the same amount of chronological time.
Neil Silverberg: But we don't all have the same amount of karos time, which is not chronological time, it's opportune time.
Neil Silverberg: And we have to learn how to redeem the time.
Neil Silverberg: It means to make the most of every opportunity, treating time as a precious resource by living wisely rather than wasting it.
Neil Silverberg: It involves buying back time from unproductive, sinful pursuits, prioritizing actions aligned with God's will, treating that time as a limited gift.
Neil Silverberg: A number of years ago, I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine.
Neil Silverberg: He's an apostolic leader who lives in upstate New York.
Neil Silverberg: And he was relating to me a conversation he had with a friend of his who was a student at Asbury Seminary, the Methodist Seminary, that had a powerful revival in the 1970s.
Neil Silverberg: There was classes were stopped, students were on their faces weeping and praying and repenting of sin.
Neil Silverberg: For two weeks, the campus was invaded by God.
Neil Silverberg: And this man was relating something strange about that revival when he was there to participate in it.
Neil Silverberg: And it was the way that the revival was affecting the students.
Neil Silverberg: Some students seemed totally unaware of anything happening.
Neil Silverberg: On the other hand, other students were being deeply impacted by the presence of God.
Neil Silverberg: And the student who was relaying this to my friend said he asked the Lord why.
Neil Silverberg: God responded and said to him, Those who were faithful in the Kranos are now being visited in the Karos.
Neil Silverberg: But those who are not faithful in the Kranos were not being visited in the Karos.
Neil Silverberg: Wow.
Neil Silverberg: Now we must be careful when we hear talk about faithfulness and revival.
Neil Silverberg: Because if you know anything about revival, you know that the Spirit of God is often poured out on people indiscriminate of their spiritual condition.
Neil Silverberg: Because he's sovereign and he does what he pleases.
Neil Silverberg: On the other hand, though, it's not unscriptural to say God withholds his blessings at times because his people are not faithful in stewing their time.
Neil Silverberg: One person we can learn much about when it comes to time management is the New England pastor Jonathan Edwards, who many people believe had the most well-taught mind in all of America.
Neil Silverberg: He was a New England pastor in the 18th century, best known for his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Neil Silverberg: I actually have a book in my library that is a take on a modern take on that called God in the Hands of Angry Sinners.
Neil Silverberg: It's true, I have that book.
Neil Silverberg: Edwards managed time as a precious, non-renewable gift for God's glory.
Neil Silverberg: Let me read that again.
Neil Silverberg: He said this.
Neil Silverberg: He managed time as a precious, non-renewable gift for God's glory rather than personal leisure, focusing on intense productivity and eternity.
Neil Silverberg: His approach, detailed in his 1734 sermon, The Preciousness of Time, demanded redeeming time from idleness for spiritual, intellectual, and practical pursuits driven by the urgency of a short life.
Neil Silverberg: As a young man, Edwards wrote 70 resolutions, committing to never lose one moment of time and to improve every moment for the highest good.
Neil Silverberg: He argued that because eternal destiny depends on earthly actions, time must be spent preparing for the future state, not on frivolous activities.
Neil Silverberg: Hear that.
Neil Silverberg: Edwards believed the scarcity of time limited enhance its value, viewing it as limited commodity that cannot be recovered once lost.
Neil Silverberg: David, who wrote most of the Psalms, had a great awareness of time.
Neil Silverberg: This came out in the 89th Psalm when he said, How long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever?
Neil Silverberg: How long will you burn, your wrath burn like fire?
Neil Silverberg: Remember how short my time is.
Neil Silverberg: For what vanity you have created the children of men.
Neil Silverberg: On another occasion, David prayed, O Lord, make me know my end, and what is the measure of my days?
Neil Silverberg: Let me know how fleeting I am.
Neil Silverberg: Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Neil Silverberg: So it's only by having an accurate discernment of the times that we can manage our time.
Neil Silverberg: Paul says, Redeem the time.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: Because the days are evil.
Neil Silverberg: Could anything be more relevant?
Neil Silverberg: Would you say our days are evil?
Neil Silverberg: Absolutely.
Neil Silverberg: And it's doubtful it'll get better.
Neil Silverberg: The second thing we must do if we want to walk in wisdom in this life is what Paul says in verse 17.
Neil Silverberg: Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Neil Silverberg: The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the phrase, will of the Lord, is what?
Neil Silverberg: It's usually the individual will of God for each believer.
Neil Silverberg: Who should I marry?
Neil Silverberg: What college should I go to?
Neil Silverberg: What car should I buy?
Neil Silverberg: And it's important that we seek God regarding those decisions.
Neil Silverberg: But I don't believe that's the primary purpose Paul has in telling believers they should understand the will of God, what the will of God is.
Neil Silverberg: It's what is commonly known as the moral will of God.
Neil Silverberg: Learning to discern the things that please the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: Because most of the time, by apprehending the moral will of God, we can discern the individual will of God for our lives.
Neil Silverberg: For example, which car to buy?
Neil Silverberg: If I have $3,000 to buy a car, but I really want this $25,000 car, which one's the will of God?
Neil Silverberg: Well, if you believe dead, debt is demonic, which I do, but uh, you know, you'd understand that the moral will of God informs me there to buy the car within my means.
Neil Silverberg: You know, when it comes to deciding who I'm gonna marry, it has to be a believer to be the moral will of God, because scripture is clear that do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Neil Silverberg: So the moral will of God informs us in a lot of the practical things we do to please God.
Neil Silverberg: Paul prayed that believers would grow in the knowledge of the will of God.
Neil Silverberg: Listen to what he said in the Colossian letter.
Neil Silverberg: And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.
Neil Silverberg: Wow.
Neil Silverberg: This knowledge of his will is a spiritual reality, comes when the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, which we'll talk about in a moment.
Neil Silverberg: This spiritual knowledge is not mere head knowledge, folks, but knowledge of what behavior pleased God.
Neil Silverberg: We grow as believers as we become progressively more aware of the will of God from our lives.
Neil Silverberg: Many of us are not aware of what God's will is and therefore live like fools.
Neil Silverberg: The only way we can grow in this knowledge is by praying for growth in the knowledge of his will.
Neil Silverberg: And that's an ongoing reality.
Neil Silverberg: We need to pray consistently.
Neil Silverberg: Finally, Paul tells us in these verses of this section that if we are going to walk wisely, we must continually be filled with the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: Here's what he wrote: Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with our hearts to the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: With giving thanks always.
Neil Silverberg: I heard something about that this morning.
Neil Silverberg: Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father.
Neil Silverberg: Other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Paul begins this section with a clear command not to be drunk with wine.
Neil Silverberg: You know why Paul is so direct to the Ephesians not to be drunk with wine?
Neil Silverberg: Because one of the gods of the Ephesians in that day, 2,000 years ago, that the Ephesians worship was named Bacchus, the god of wine and drunken orgies.
Neil Silverberg: Literally, they worshiped a God who was the god of wine and drunken orgies.
Neil Silverberg: And they believed that to commune with this God and to be led by him, they had to be drunk.
Neil Silverberg: And in the drunken state, they could determine the will of God and determine their how best to serve and obey him.
Neil Silverberg: This is why Paul told them not to be drunk, because it is debauchery.
Neil Silverberg: In the Bible, debauchery refers to extreme indulgence in bodily pleasures, sensuality and wild, uncontrolled living, often linked to sexual immorality, drunkenness, and recklessness.
Neil Silverberg: It is associated with a total lack of restraint and a lifestyle that rejects moral standards.
Neil Silverberg: I'm so glad that doesn't describe our culture.
Neil Silverberg: Now, what does scripture have to say about drinking?
Neil Silverberg: Many people believe it condemns drinking completely.
Neil Silverberg: And we shall point we should point out that Paul is not in these verses condemning drinking of any kind, but drunkenness.
Neil Silverberg: You know, years ago we were pastoring a church in Alabama, and a friend of mine in the church was having a conversation with a woman.
Neil Silverberg: The woman didn't believe that Christians could, under any circumstance, can ever drink.
Neil Silverberg: And my friend was trying to make arguments.
Neil Silverberg: And finally, out of exasperation, my friend said, Well, you know, Jesus drank.
Neil Silverberg: She said, I know, and I think the less of him for it.
Neil Silverberg: That really happened.
Neil Silverberg: Now, having said that, Paul isn't condemning drunkenness outright or drinking outright, having said that the Bible repeatedly warns about drinking and its effect on people.
Neil Silverberg: And we should know that.
Neil Silverberg: Every picture of drunkenness in the Bible is a picture of sin and disaster.
Neil Silverberg: Shortly after the flood, remember, Noah became drunk and acted shamelessly.
Neil Silverberg: And how about Lot's daughters?
Neil Silverberg: They caused him to become drunk and to commit incest with them as a foolish and perverted means of having children.
Neil Silverberg: And then in the book of Daniel, we have the story of King Belshazzar, who held a drunken feast in which he he and his guests praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
Neil Silverberg: And during the very midst of the drunken brawl, the kingdom was taken from him.
Neil Silverberg: But it wasn't just a New Testament, Old Testament problem, it was the New Testament problem.
Neil Silverberg: Some of the Corinthians were getting drunk at the Lord's table.
Neil Silverberg: And some were made sick and even died.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, they were getting drunk at the Lord's table.
Neil Silverberg: They were not drinking, getting drunk on grape juice.
Neil Silverberg: Just a little fact of knowledge.
Neil Silverberg: Someone said Jesus turned the water into wine.
Neil Silverberg: It was grape juice.
Neil Silverberg: I said, You ever serve grape juice at a Jewish wedding?
Neil Silverberg: You will not live to tell about it.
Neil Silverberg: The book of Proverbs has many warnings about drinking.
Neil Silverberg: Hear my son and be wise.
Neil Silverberg: Direct your heart in the way.
Neil Silverberg: Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat.
Neil Silverberg: That that may be yesterday what we did in the men's meeting, I'm not sure.
Neil Silverberg: Be not drunk among among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Neil Silverberg: Having sounded out the warnings, let me read 1 Timothy 5 23, where Paul instructs his young son Timothy, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
Neil Silverberg: Now don't use that as an excuse and go drink.
Neil Silverberg: So we need to put drinking in context.
Neil Silverberg: We can make the case that drinking isn't strictly forbidden in Scripture, but having said that, let me consider this.
Neil Silverberg: Approximately 28.9 million people in the United States, age 20 or older, roughly 10% of the population, has an alcohol use disorder.
Neil Silverberg: So you can argue that I I I'm allowed scripture to drink, but keep in mind the price you might pay.
Neil Silverberg: But Paul says, don't be drunk with wine, be filled with the spirit.
Neil Silverberg: And here Paul makes a deliberate contrast to illustrate the transformative nature of the Holy Spirit's influence in the life of a believer.
Neil Silverberg: Just as X alcohol exerts control of a person's behavior, speech, and thoughts, also believers are totally totally submitted to the control and influence of the Holy Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: Both intoxication and spiritual fullness involve being under the influence of an outside agent that alters one's regular functioning.
Neil Silverberg: The place where we see the similarities between drunkenness and being filled with the Holy Spirit, of course, is where?
Neil Silverberg: The day of Pentecost.
Neil Silverberg: Remember in the day of Pentecost when some of them heard them extolling God in their own tongues, others mocked, saying they're filled with new wine?
Neil Silverberg: So there must be a similarity between drunkenness and being controlled by the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: There's something very important we must know about the type of verb that is used here, translated by the phrase, be filled with the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: It's a command that implies a continuous habitual state, not a one-time event.
Neil Silverberg: That's so important.
Neil Silverberg: It implies a continuous habitual state, not a one-time event.
Neil Silverberg: It means to be constantly under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to control our thoughts and emotions.
Neil Silverberg: You know, in the book of Acts, believers were filled with the Spirit after coming to Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: And show we should be too.
Neil Silverberg: But that was not their final experience with the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: This command that believers be filled with the Spirit was a habitual state, not a one-time event.
Neil Silverberg: And many in the church today emphasize receiving the Spirit at Spirit baptism, and that's good.
Neil Silverberg: But they fail to emphasize the continuous work of the Spirit in the believer's life.
Neil Silverberg: How do we know we're continually being filled with the Spirit?
Neil Silverberg: Paul lists three things that characterize the spirit-filled life: singing, giving thanks, and submitting.
Neil Silverberg: Singing, giving thanks, and submitting.
Neil Silverberg: Let's start with singing.
Neil Silverberg: Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
Neil Silverberg: You know, wherever the Spirit is poured out, new songs appear.
Neil Silverberg: And this is one of the most powerful things of the charismatic movement back in the 70s.
Neil Silverberg: The Spirit gave new songs, and a lot of them were scripture songs.
Neil Silverberg: Remember the scripture songs?
Neil Silverberg: I missed them because we were learning the word of God while we were worshiping.
Neil Silverberg: And scripture songs were powerful.
Neil Silverberg: He says also Psalms, Scripture songs and Psalms, which of course is a reference to the Psalter in our life, Life on Life group.
Neil Silverberg: Scott's leading us right now in the study of the Psalms of the Old Testament.
Neil Silverberg: And God gave us a book of 150 Psalms so we could pray and know how to pray.
Neil Silverberg: Psalms, hymns.
Neil Silverberg: Spiritual songs are songs given by the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: God gives to believers a singing heart.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, who do believers sing to?
Neil Silverberg: To one another, addressing one another in Psalms, hymns, and so certainly you're addressing the Lord, but you're addressing one another.
Neil Silverberg: And then the second evidence that we're walking in wisdom and we're filled with the Spirit is what Tyler mentioned this morning, giving thanks.
Neil Silverberg: Paul says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: There's a similar exhortation in Paul's letter to the Colossians.
Neil Silverberg: He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Neil Silverberg: And whatever you do, do in the word, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Neil Silverberg: Always in Paul's letters, he ends with a strong exhortation.
Neil Silverberg: Be thankful, people, be thankful.
Neil Silverberg: Christians are to be the most thankful people on earth.
Neil Silverberg: Tyler reminded us of that this morning.
Neil Silverberg: He says, giving thanks always.
Neil Silverberg: We can always find something to be thankful for.
Neil Silverberg: A few weeks ago, I woke up with this worship song in my heart.
Neil Silverberg: We're gonna end my message by singing it this morning.
Neil Silverberg: Give thanks with a grateful heart.
Neil Silverberg: Give thanks unto the Holy One.
Neil Silverberg: Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son.
Neil Silverberg: So I was gonna lead you in at the end, but you started already.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you.
Neil Silverberg: That's the main reason Paul gives we can be thankful, is God has given us his Son for our salvation.
Neil Silverberg: He says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: We should be thankful for everything because of this promise.
Neil Silverberg: We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Neil Silverberg: Can you really be thankful for everything, Neil?
Neil Silverberg: Yes, we can.
Neil Silverberg: For example, when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, you might say, What can you be thankful for when it comes to that?
Neil Silverberg: I said, That's easy.
Neil Silverberg: I don't have to hide the fact anymore that I'm Pentecostal.
Neil Silverberg: Look on the bright side, folks.
Neil Silverberg: And then Paul says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Neil Silverberg: This is a pivotal verse.
Neil Silverberg: It serves as a transition to the practical part of the letter, which will start next week.
Neil Silverberg: Paul takes the three principle of verse 21 and applies it to three relationships: husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters.
Neil Silverberg: You know, we often hear how wives are to submit to their husbands, but Paul tells us that all believers should be submitting to one another.
Neil Silverberg: Certainly, that includes wives to their husbands, but it's not limited to that.
Neil Silverberg: Men love that verse, don't they?
Neil Silverberg: But Paul says believers should be submitting to one.
Neil Silverberg: The Greek word is hypotoso, and it means to arrange in order under.
Neil Silverberg: It's actually a military term.
Neil Silverberg: And in the military, there's a strong sense of submitting to everyone, to someone of higher rank.
Neil Silverberg: A soldier must arrange himself in order under his sergeant.
Neil Silverberg: A sergeant arranges himself under the master sergeants.
Neil Silverberg: So who does Paul tell us we should arrange ourselves under?
Neil Silverberg: Leaders?
Neil Silverberg: Well, certainly, of course, leaders, which is taught in Scripture.
Neil Silverberg: But not only leaders, the Christian is to subject himself to every other believer out of reverence for Christ, because Christ indwells every Christian.
Neil Silverberg: Believers are to whoop tasso to one another.
Neil Silverberg: And again, Paul's about to apply these in very practical ways to husbands and wives, to uh slaves and masters, and to uh forget the other, children and parents.
Neil Silverberg: So this attitude of submission is to permeate every relationship we have.
Neil Silverberg: So let's end by being thankful that Master Jack's gonna come and lead us with me and sing this song.
Neil Silverberg: Give thanks with a grateful give thanks to the holy give thanks because he's given Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: Because of us.
Neil Silverberg: For you've given us everything we need for life and godliness.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, Lord, as we sing this song to you.
Neil Silverberg: We're very grateful for all that you've given to us, but most of all, grateful for you giving us your son, so we can, those who are weak can say, I'm strong.
Neil Silverberg: Those who are poor can say they're rich.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you for your salvation.
Neil Silverberg: Father, help us this day to be filled with the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: Give us a fullness of the Spirit that we've not known.
Neil Silverberg: So we can give thanks, we can sing, and we can submit one to another.
Neil Silverberg: In Jesus' name we ask.
Neil Silverberg: Amen and amen.