Engage the Spirit s Control Ephesians 5:15-21

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1 Engage the Spirit #2 Engage the Spirit s Control Ephesians 5:15-21 Pastor David Staff My son and I were out late in the early morning hours, on one of those rare occasions when I get the chance to ride with him during the graveyard shift. East 6 th Street in downtown Austin its mile long stretch of countless bars packed with thousands of teens and twenty-somethings --was shutting down at 2:00 AM as required by city ordinance. The kids are slow to leave there are fights over women or sports or whatever that break out here and there--but finally when the doors close, everyone stumbles away somewhere. Cameron turned patrol car turned south down a lonely street heading toward the Colorado River, which borders the southern edge of Austin s inner city. The longer the street extended toward the river, the fewer the streetlights, the deeper the darkness. And then, we saw him stumbling along down the right sidewalk, headed toward the unlit corridor. He swerved back and forth along the walk bumping off the right wall as he went along, and then unsteadily swerved out onto the street. Cam turned his lights on, slowly caught up with him, carefully parked the car, and we got out. With help he willingly produced his ID. A businessman from out of town, still in his light-colored suit, tie undone. He didn t know where he was, nor where he was going. His hotel, he thought, was somewhere around here but certainly not there. We were glad to find in his wallet a business card from the hotel, and rather than cuff him and take him in for public intoxication, Cameron decided it best simply to get him to his hotel. The Marriot was just a few blocks the other way. He sat quietly in the back; we turned the car into the curved driveway. Hands under both arms, we got him in and asked the clerk for his room number, a key, took the elevator up, opened his door, and laid him on the bed. And left. We figured he d never remember how he got home, which was OK. He was drunk; he was not in control because he invited something else into his system. And, perhaps, it wasn t his first rodeo. Perhaps it wasn t the first time he had chosen to live in an OUI manner operating under a (controlling) influence. 1 P a g e Engage the Spirit s Control #2

2 Today and during these Fall 2018 weeks at Christ Community Church, we are being called by our Lord Jesus Christ to a very different approach to living. Called to a very different OUI kind-ofliving. A kind of every-day operating under the influence described in Ephesians 5: Look carefully then (at) how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 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 and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Reading that passage very naturally raises at least two questions What? And How? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How does one obey this command to be so filled? Let s begin with Question #1 What does it mean to be filled with the (Holy) Spirit? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE a close look at this particular Greek word to be filled suggests 3 interesting pictures. i Picture Number One: to fill up something by pouring in. Pour water into a glass, keep pouring, and beginning at the bottom eventually the space inside the sides is full. Sometimes this phrase means that, but rarely so. Picture Number Two: to complete something, or to persist until you accomplish what you started. Some of you are pursuing an undergraduate course of training, or a graduate program. You re not merely after a certificate; you want to become competent in an important area or skill. So right now, you are being filled with engineering, with veterinary medicine, with physical therapy. God has gifted some of you with children; thus right now you are being filled with parenting and childtraining. To physically FILL up something, to ENGAGE in something until completion. Picture Number Three: to be saturated with something, for something to permeate every part. A sponge that is sopping and soaked; a piece of clothing completely dyed red or blue or yellow; your blood now 2 P a g e Engage the Spirit s Control #2

3 sufficiently soaked with alcohol. It s this 3 rd sense of permeation, of soaking everything, of saturating the whole that Paul seems to have mostly in mind here. Let the Holy Spirit saturate (invite Him to soak every part of) your life what you think, what you feel, what you choose 24/7. Be filled with the Spirit. If I may, let me offer a short description: To be filled with the Spirit is to consistently invite the Spirit s saturation of me, growing in His control of my living In other words, The greater the Spirit s saturation, the greater the Spirit s control. A way of living always inviting Him to influence -- which results in both a Christ-like-consistency, and a reputation of lifestyle. If you ve ever been around someone who lives consistently under the Spirit s control, it is very difficult to miss. The early church had a # of these Christians -- Acts 6:2 Brothers, pick out from among you 7 men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom Acts 6:5 They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit Acts 6:8 Stephen, full of grace and power Acts 11:24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith Ephesians 5:19-21 The fullness (permeation) of the Spirit produces encouragement (5:19a), joy (5:19b), thankfulness (5:20a), and mutual submission/humility (5:20b). There are two aspects. On the one hand (Aspect #1), someone full of God s Spirit OBEYS the COMMAND. Ephesians 5:18 is not a description; it s a command. That means, of course, that the Holy Spirit is not going to force His control in my life; He will wait for me to invite. He will wait for me to cooperate. To say to Him because He is not only God but also a Person I want You to operate through me here not just me to operate through me. There isn t a piece of your every day life that you cannot invite the Holy Spirit to influence and control. He can, and will when invited, soak every part of it. He lives inside to empower, influence, and direct what you do and how you do it. Aspect #2 is that someone full of God s Spirit MATURES in CHRIST-LIKENESS: Consistency of the Spirit s control produces Jesus and all his wonderful traits through your personality. 3 P a g e Engage the Spirit s Control #2

4 Cru Founder Bill Bright was right on when he said, To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with Christ. The Holy Spirit came to glorify Christ. Therefore, if I am filled with the Spirit, I am abiding in Christ and if I am controlled by and empowered by Christ, He will be walking around in my body, living His resurrected life in me and through me. ii SO Here s Question #2 How does one obey this command to be so filled? First, let s understand that this begins by becoming a Christian. The only people on the planet who are given the Holy Spirit are those who have bent the knee to Jesus Christ, acknowledged that He died for their sins on the cross, was raised in power and victory from the grave, and have said to God by faith, I BELIEVE in Jesus. He IS my Savior. I trust in HIM alone. John s gospel makes this clear: John 7:38-39 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive Second, this permeation begins to happen when A believer indeed believers together intentionally takes a cooperative step to obey the command. I mean, imagine you re sitting in a meeting room in the ancient city of Ephesus, and as the worship service starts, someone enters and says, Hey we just received a letter from the Apostle Paul. Let s read it. So someone stands to read, and he/she comes to this sentence: Don t get drunk with wine, but (rather) be filled (permeated, saturated) by the Spirit. The reader pauses. Then, someone in the back laughs and shouts out, Is Paul saying we should be drunk with the Holy Spirit? Everyone laughs and then everyone gets it. Because some have been drunk before or they ve seen someone get drunk--and they know how it happens. Someone kept reaching out, grabbing the wineskin, or the goblet, and putting it to their lips and drinking in more sweet wine. Reach after reach, drink after drink. Don t do that with wine, they think. Instead, do that with the Spirit. Reach to Him once. 4 P a g e Engage the Spirit s Control #2

5 Then again. Then again. Keep reaching. Keep inviting. He ll begin to permeate. He ll begin to control. Third, let s also realize that Too often, too many Christians never consistently live under the Holy Spirit s control. Why would that be? There are many causes for this. Sometimes, Christians are in churches that never teach about the Holy Spirit. The problem may be ignorance. Other times, even we Christians do not want to believe we need the Holy Spirit. Some refuse to hand over to Him the steering wheel. Here, the problem is self-reliance (NT calls it the flesh ). Lloyd Ogilvie iii remembers An elder at my church realized his need for the Spirit long after he committed his life to Christ years ago. His exemplary character and generosity made him a shoo-in for nomination and election to eldership. However, no one knew how uncertain he was about his relationship to Christ because he had kept that hidden beneath a polished exterior. He didn t anticipate that being part of the elders prayer ministry at the end of our worship services would confront him with his own insecure relationship with Christ. When people came to pray with him, he keenly saw something was missing in his own life. He had never allowed Christ to break through his inner hard shell of self-sufficiency. Being called to minister to others forced him to see he was in over his head spiritually. Fortunately, my friend began to talk about his spiritual emptiness. It was not easy for him to admit his neediness. He had spent his entire life convincing others that he was adequate. He d heard hundreds of sermons about the Spirit, but the words never penetrated his shell. Now Christ was breaking the shell allowing my elder to receive what Christ had longed to give him for years the Spirit. iv Sound familiar? By chance, anyone here even with years of church experience needing to shed the mask of personal self-sufficiency? The Spirit s control can start when you become a Christian and He moves inside. The Spirit s control begins when you obey the command to be filled through a consistent invitation for Him to influence and control. The Spirit s control can be frustrated and virtually non-existent if you insist on self-sufficiency. Finally, Maturing in the Spirit s control happens even more wonderfully when you grow in this with others. Do you see that in this passage? Look again! 5:18 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 and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. What Paul means here is that a significant part of your every day, every week life needs to be hanging with others who ALSO want to be under the Spirit s control, walking by the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit. R. Kent Hughes summarized this nicely: v 5 P a g e Engage the Spirit s Control #2

6 When the Spirit controls Believers relate to the Word teaching When the Spirit controls Believers relate to each other fellowship When the Spirit controls Believers relate to God worship When the Spirit controls Believers (also) relate to the world evangelism CONCLUSION Billy Graham s associate evangelist, Leighton Ford, remembers when Billy Graham made a visit to a very large and influential church. A guide was giving Graham a tour of the facility, and mentioned That one of the officers in that church had repeatedly gotten drunk, and so they had to discipline him, eventually dismissing him from the church fellowship. Billy Graham stopped the tour to ask, How long has it been since you put somebody out of the church for not being filled with the Holy Spirit? The guide looked rattled. Graham continued, The Bible says Don t get drunk with wine, but the very same verse says, Be filled with the Spirit. The positive command to be filled is just as binding on us as a negative command not to be drunk with alcohol. Graham s point deserves some thought Without the permeating control of the Spirit, this is merely exercise in human self-sufficiency. SUM The Spirit of God cannot control the individual who consistently decides to let his/her flesh be in command. Pastor David Staff Copyright 2018 David A Staff All rights reserved i Insights on the shades of meaning for here taken from an unpublished exegetical paper on Ephesians 5:15-21, An Exhortation to Live Carefully, pp.9-11, 1973, presented by Charles Replogle, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, TX, in the Th.M. course Principles of Greek Exegesis 906B3,. ii Bill Bright, How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit (Arrowhead Springs, CA: Campus Crusade for Christ, 1971), iii Lloyd John Ogilvie is a Presbyterian minister who served as Chaplain of the United States Senate from 104th through 107th Congresses. He is 88 years old. He authored The Greatest Counselor in the Word: A Fresh New Look at the Holy Spirit. iv Cited in Craig Brian Larson & Leadership Journal, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, & Writers (Baker Books, 2002), p.325. v Hughes used the word reigns, a synonym for the Spirit ruling in the lives of believers. Cited in R. Kent Hughes, 1001 Great Stories and Quotes (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1998), P a g e Engage the Spirit s Control #2