Filling Our Tank With The Spirit

Filling Our Tank With The Spirit" Ephesians 5:15-5:21

What do you do when your gas gauge starts to get low?

• I know this sounds like a pretty simple question

• But when we think about it we really have two options

• First we can stop at the next gas station and get gas

• Or we can try and make it to where we think gas is cheaper

• Now I make a lot of trips back and forth to Lincoln IL when I was going to college

• And I knew from experience that the gas at the Loves travel Plaza at exit 108

• Is a lot cheaper than gas anywhere around here

• So if I have at least a ¼ tank when I left Home

• That’s where I try and make it to before I stop to get gas

Now most of us have done this at least once

• We either want to save a couple of cents

• Or we don’t want to be inconvenienced by stopping when we are in a hurry to get somewhere

• Or maybe we forgot our wallet or check book

• But for whatever reason we are now on a mission to make it to a certain location

• And we’re driving on fumes.

As we drive we constantly watch the gauge and wonder it we’re gonna make it

• We start thinking about running out of gas and all the problems that go along with it.

• And if we do run out we find ourselves sitting on the edge of the road

• Asking ourselves “Why didn’t I just stop and get gas earlier?”

Now it’s a whole lot simplier today than it used to be

• Today we have things like cell phones, and we can text,

• Not to mention that fuel injection on cars allows them to get a whole lot better gas milage.

But BC that’s before cell phones we were left with 3 choices:

1. You have to walk to the nearest house and ask for help.

2. You had to go on a search for a pay phone.

3. You have to walk to the next station.

And once you had the gas and put it in the tank you had to

• Save some to pour in the carburetor, Which meant removing the breather.

• And then hoping it would start before it blew up.

But if you were lucky enough to make it to the filling station

• You were relieved

• And when you got back in the car and starting driving

• You starting getting cocky and thinking to yourself, “I knew I could make it!”

Well this is what sometimes happens to Christians

• People sometimes get just a little too cocky with their Christian life

• And they let their Spiritual tanks run low.

Now if you find this happening to you lately

• Then I’m here today to be your gauge

• And to warn you that you better be filling up.

With this being said lets look at Ephesians 5:15-20

What Paul is doing is warning us that we need to be careful how we live.

• Are we living the way God expects us to.

• Now notice I said expects and not wants.

• If we look at the way we live as what God wants

• It makes it sound like God has given us a choice.

And It’s true that at one time we did have a choice

• We had the choice of living however we wanted

• But that was before we accepted Christ

• After we made that commitment

• We gave up that choice.

Once we confessed Jesus as our Savior,

• Once we made the commitment to repent / buried with Him in baptism,

• It’s no longer what God wants Now it’s about what God expects

The thing is when you want something,

• The want goes away after you get it

• If you want a new car and you buy it

• Then you expect it to do ---what it’s supposed to do.

Jesus wants us to accept Him

• And then after we do --- He expects us to work for Him.

• But is that what we’re doing --- or are we just going through the motions?

• If we only act like Christians on Sunday morning when were at church

• Then that’s exactly what we are doing – We’re just going through the motions.

Because God expects us to be Christians every day of the week.

• It’s about what do we do when we aren’t here on Sunday mornings ?

Heb 10:25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.