Ephesians 1:15-23
First and foremost “YOU ARE APPRECIATED BY JESUS”
Well, he starts by telling us this: “You are appreciated by Jesus.”
To be a Christian is to be one who appreciates Jesus. He just told us that in Ephesians 1:3–14. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and then he talks about all the things that he appreciates that God does for us.
And here, he transitions saying that not only is a Christian one who really appreciates Jesus, but that the Christian is one whom Jesus appreciates as well. Here’s how he says it.
Ephesians 1:15–16 (ESV)
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
How many of you, it would really change the course of your whole day or your whole life if you simply knew
• That God paid attention to your life
• He was thankful for your obedience, and generosity, and service, and sacrifice, and that the Lord Jesus himself generally appreciated you?
• Would that make a difference?
• Of course it would!!!
You see my sin last week was that I feel in to, that affected my attitude, my joy, my service was that I looked for appreciation from everyone but Jesus! When it didn’t happen I got bitter, angry, and frustrated!
Paul is telling us
• That God is thankful for us
• That God appreciates the obedience,
• The generosity
• The faithfulness of his people.
And so it’s not that you shouldn’t have appreciation, but it’s best if that appreciation comes from the Lord Jesus.
Some of you may know that God is omniscient.
• Most of the time when we teach this it's about “how God see’s your sin”
• But he also sees and knows all of our obedience
• All of our service
• And all of our generosity.
• If God sees and knows all
o He doesn’t just see the day you give into temptation, he sees the day that you say no to temptation;
o Not just the day that you’re greedy, but the day that you’re generous;
o Not just the day that you’re lazy, but also the day that you’re serving by the grace of God.
And even though others may not appreciate, God sees, knows, and appreciates all. Jesus talks about things that are done, quote, “in secret.” What that means is the Lord’s the only one that really knows what’s going on.
VS 15“Your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love toward all the saints.”
Here is what he is saying! “I want to thank you for two things: your love for Jesus and your love for God’s people, the church.”
• If you’re here and you love Jesus and you love the church, this is a word from God for you, and if you don’t love Jesus and/or you don’t love the church, you need to repent so that it can be God’s word for you.
• I really, really, really want you to know that the two most important things are to love Jesus and love the church
• And the love here means that
o You’re praying for people
o You’re giving
o You’re serving
o You’re caring
o You inconvenience yourself by getting into Small Groups
o You give time and energy to serve through Teams
o You’re working with the kids.
Whatever your thing is, you’re working and serving for the well-being of the whole church.
Someone said to me this week, I don’t think I am worthy of Jesus’s love!
Part of being a follower of Jesus is knowing, that “Jesus appreciates me”.
• He sees and knows everything I do,
• everything I say,
• and everything I give, and he appreciates it.
• And through the Apostle Paul, he says thank you.”
• This can change your life and your reaction to any circumstance.
Appreciated people look at the world differently
Appreciated People exchange Grumbling, for Prayer!
Ephesians 1:16 (ESV)
16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
How many of you, when you feel unappreciated or underappreciated, you’re prone toward grumbling? Is it just me or has this caught on with others?
I tend to grumble.
• You’re like, “Yeah, these people, they don’t appreciate it and I did this for them and they don’t even say thanks.
• Good luck if I’m ever gonna do that for you again. You didn’t even say thanks.”
Then all of a sudden you don’t grumble to them, you grumble about them.
• “You know my boss, he is really unappreciative.
• My kids, they never say thanks.
• My parents, you know, I’ve looked after them in their old age and they don’t even appreciate it.”
All of a sudden, that grumbling starts to cause you to be very negative and very critical.
• So how do you fix it? what’s the answer?” Praying.
• Grumbling is when you talk about people to other people,
• praying is when you talk to Jesus about people.
• Some of you say, “They’re driving me crazy.” I need to talk to someone. His name is Jesus.
The key to overcoming grumbling is to know that the Lord Jesus suffered for you, that the Lord Jesus loves you, that the Lord Jesus is generous toward you, and in any way that you are obedient to him, he sees, he knows, he appreciates, and he’s thankful for you. That allows you to stop grumbling because you know that you’re loved, and cared for, and appreciated, and it allows you to start praying for the well-being of others.
APPRECIATED PEOPLE EXCHANGE COMPETING FOR CELEBRATING
Ephesians 1:16–20 (ESV)
16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
Another thing that happens to those who realize that they are appreciated by God:
• Appreciated people exchange competing for celebrating.
• If you don’t feel appreciated, all of a sudden you become competitive with others.
• Your always trying to out due someone
• Always trying to one up someone
The biggest thing in these verses is this: Always be appreciative of what Jesus has done for you!
• VS 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
• That Jesus died a death we should have
• That Jesus lived a Life we should have lived
• That Jesus conquered Satan, Sin and death and now sits at the right hand of the father!
The second thing is to know Jesus!
• VS 17 may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him
• God speaks to us through scripture
• We speak to God through prayer
• That’s how we Gain knowledge
• Know matter how long you have been a Christian there always something new to learn!
The third thing is that you would experience Jesus more!
• VS 17-19 That you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
• That you might know Him more intimately
• That the holy spirit might dwell in you, making you a new creation
• That we might find the Joy that only knowing Jesus Christ can bring!!
I just want this to be a reassuring word for you. if you have been obedient, if you have been generous, if you have been serving, if you have been faithful I want you to hear this as a word from the Lord himself. You know, “I never cease giving thanks for you.” I want you to just capture that as your own and take that with you. God says he never ceases to give thanks for you. I don’t have to grumble, I can pray. I don’t have to compete, I can celebrate. I don’t have to become jealous of what other people are doing, I can rejoice at God’s grace in their life and rejoice at God’s grace in my life.
APPRECIATED PEOPLE EXCHANGE BITTERNESS FOR THANKFULNESS
Ephesians 1:21–23 (ESV)
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
He goes on to say that appreciated people exchange bitterness for thankfulness. Now, if you feel unappreciated, you’ll end up becoming bitter.
• Bitterness is, for me, a deep rut in my soul.
• I can get bitter quick.
• I can go to bitterness easily if I feel hurt, if I feel taken advantage of, if I feel unappreciated.
What happens when you feel unappreciated is you become bitter.
• How come they’re healthy and I’m sick?”
• How come they’re married and I’m single?
• How come they got a promotion and I got a termination
Paul says:
• Jesus has given us himself as a gift
• Jesus, right now, is ruling and reigning over Satan, and demons, and all nations, and all peoples, and all times, and all places, and that everything is under his feet.
• The names of people are gonna come and go.
• That everybody’s name eventually comes to an end, but it’s the name of Jesus that continues on forever.
• Paul says it this way in Philippians 2, that “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess, both on the earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
When you think it’s about your name, you get bitter, but when you realize it’s about Jesus’ name, you get thankful.
Paul here is thankful for two things: he’s thankful for Jesus and the church. Those are the two things that he mentions. He says, “Here’s Jesus, ruling and reigning right now, and he’s in glory, and he’s enthroned, and he’s in charge, and he loves us, and he appreciates us, and he sees everything we say, and everything we do, and every dollar we give, and every effort we make, and he looks at us and he says, ‘I thank God for you all the time continually in my prayers.’” Wow, thank you Lord Jesus. That’s enough to keep me going for the rest of this life.
If you and I would be concerned primarily about the name of Jesus and the well-being of the church, it would safeguard our hearts from bitterness.
I really want you to love Jesus and love the church, and it’s not just so that we can use you to grow a bigger church. It’s so that we can help guard your heart against bitterness, that you would give your life to what Jesus gave his life to, the well-being of his people, and that you’d stop thinking it’s all about your name and your fame and understand it's about his name and his fame.
I know that for those of you who are like me and that’s just sort of the default of your soul, bitterness is a horrible place to live. It just clouds and darkens all of life, and it causes you to mistrust or distrust people, and it gets you into a position where you’re not really loving people, you’re using them to make your name greater. Appreciated people exchange bitterness for thankfulness.
The last thing I want to share with you is not really from the text but I think it talks to the life of Paul. About half of Ephesians is prayer.
Paul is a guy, on his knees, with a broken body, in a jail cell, opening his heart, and by the power of the Holy Spirit talking to the Lord, and we get to eavesdrop in on it. We get to hear this relationship between Paul and the resurrected, ascended Jesus. And one of the keys, then, to Christian leadership and the Christian life is prayer, and soaking everything in prayer, and intersecting everything with prayer.
What this means for you is a big part of your ministry is prayer!
• You don’t know how to reach out to your unbelieving friend, Pray!
• You have a enemy you don’t now what to do with, Pray!
• You know of people hurting in the church, Pray!
You may not be able to preach, but you can pray! Pray for your church, pray for the leaders, pray for the lost God sends, pray over your family, pray with your kids, but most of all continue to pray!
And lastly,
When we criticize one another, we make withdrawals; when we appreciate one another, we make deposits. This happens with your friends, with your church family, with your spouse, with your leaders in church, with your coworkers on the job.
I am asking you today, would you covenant with me to follow in the example of Paul and make lots of deposits through appreciation? Say, “Thank you. I really appreciate that.” And like the Apostle Paul, lets be people who have far more deposits than we do withdrawals.
Secondly, whom do you need to thank? Who do you need to thank? When Paul wrote this letter, these were not to people that he didn’t know. Unlike some cities where he was only at for hours, or days, or weeks, he was in the city of Ephesus ministering for a couple of years. He was there for a long time. This church loved him so much that you can read his farewell address in Acts 20, and as he’s getting on a boat and God’s calling him away, it basically says that the church kind of had an emotional nervous breakdown. Like, everybody is weeping, and bawling, and sobbing because Paul is leaving.
Why did they love him so much? Because he taught them the Word of God and he appreciated everything they gave and did. Let me say, I don’t think I’ve been strong at that, and I ask your forgiveness. I deeply, genuinely, sincerely appreciate the faithful people in this church, those who’ve prayed, and given, and served, and continue to do so.
Take this home with you and pray over it, Jesus appreciates you, He sees what you do, He sees you serve, He sees you give and He thanks you for it. We don’t have to be bitter, or angry, or frustrated, we can be thankful, prayerful and loving! God loves you and so do I! Thank you, thank you, thank you for be an amazing church, a loving church, thank you for allowing me to serve you even with my faults!
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