LIVING A DIFFERENT LIFE
These are trying times. These are trying times for many of you. There are those these days that are having family struggles. Some are praying over wayward children. Some are having financial difficulties. Some of you, like Jene, are dealing with health issues and can’t seem to stay out of the hospital. Some look at our economy, or their dwindling retirement accounts, and simply want to throw in the towel, wondering if there is any hope. Some of you have to return to difficult jobs, working with difficult people day after day, and that after driving through traffic that has pushed you to your limit.
Some struggle with finding hope in each day. Some wonder how in the world they can continue to turn the other cheek, look for the sunshine through the clouds, or simply trust God, when so much seems to be stacked against them.
We often have the mistaken idea that the folks in the Bible didn’t struggle with such things. I mean, with them being spiritual, and close to God and all of that, certainly they never felt the stress and pressure we feel each day, but that is not the case.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul, the guy who God used to write around ½ of the NT, the guy who planted churches throughout much of the Gentile world in the 1st century AD, said:
>2 Corinthians 1:8 For we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in the province of Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life.
Listen, struggles, pressures, frustrations, disappointments and heartbreaks are nothing new. Folks have been dealing with them forever, but you, like our fellow sojourners who have gone before us can rise above the flotsam, you can step over the setbacks, and brush aside the discouragement. You can be used in a mighty way. You can have a positive impact on those around you. You can live a life that makes a difference. You can turn this world upside down. You can have joy and a peace that passes all understanding, even in the midst of your mess. You do that by letting God have the controls.
Turn with me please to Ephesians 5:15, as I show you what I mean.
- Ephesians 5:15-18
> Ephesians 5:18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which [leads to] reckless actions, but be filled with the Spirit:
Be filled with the Spirit. God, through the apostle Paul, says that you and I are to be filled with the Spirit. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, as we look at that command, several questions come to mind. The first question that comes to mind is, “Why do we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
I WHY DO WE NEED TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. Pleasing – First, you and I need to be filled with the Spirit, because it is pleasing to God.
If God commanded it, which He did in this verse, then it will please Him if we do what He has commanded.
Parents pleased when their children do what they tell them to do.
It amazes me, the number of people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, and claim to love Him, but who never do what He commands and teaches and don’t seem to have any problem with it.
* Baptism – Go & make disciple, baptizing …Jesus was baptized.
* Tithing – Luke 11:42 “But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others.
> Luke 6:46 Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?
2. Power –
> Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Power to live – Power to live the Christian life. This verse comes in the letter to the Ephesians, after Paul has told them to “be imitators of God”. It comes after he’s told them to walk in humility, unity, to be separated, to be light, and to show God’s love. Those things are impossible to do without the filling and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Power to forgive – Acts 7:60 – Stephen, Lord, do not charge them with this sin.
Power to perceive – Acts 13:9 – Paul saw what the sorcerer was really.
Power to persuade – John the Baptist – Soldiers came to know the Lord. Peter, in Acts chapter 2.
3. Perspective – Acts 7:56, Saw the heavens opened up and Jesus standing beside His Father. He saw that God was still on the throne.
4. Peace –
> Galatians 5:22 – 23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control.
- Acts 13:50-52
You receive peace, in spite of your circumstances.
Peace about the future and your standing with God as well.
> Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,
II. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?
A. What it doesn’t mean.
1. It doesn’t mean to have some esoteric, zap or unique experience. It doesn’t mean that you’re falling down or anything like that. It’s never recorded that John the Baptist had such an experience. The Bible doesn’t tell of any time Stephen experienced such a thing, nor Paul or Silas.
2. It doesn’t mean to have the HS in you.
- Romans 8:9
- 1 Corinthians 12:13
B. What it does mean.
- Ephesians 5:18
Being filled with the Spirit involves “day-to-day, moment-by-moment submission to the Spirit’s control.”
1. Wind filling a sail carrying a ship along. To be filled with the Spirit is to be moved along in our Christian life by God himself.
2. Carries the idea of permeation, and was used of salt permeating meat in order to flavor and preserve it. God wants His Holy Spirit to so permeate the lives of His children that everything they think, say, and do will reflect His divine presence.
3. Has the connotation of divine control. The person who is filled with sorrow, is no longer his own control, but under control of the emotion. In the same way, someone who is filled with fear, is controlled by that emotion. To be filled in this way is to be controlled. It means to be under the Holy Spirit’s control. (These 3 points are from John McArthur’s commentary on Ephesians).
To be filled with the Spirit is the same as Jesus’ command to abide in the Vine. “A Christian can accomplish no more without being filled with the Holy Spirit than a glove can accomplish without being filled with a hand.” (John MacArthur). A Christian that isn’t filled with the Holy Spirit is as powerless as a flashlight that has no batteries. He is as useless as a string trimmer with no string. He is as productive as a conductor with no orchestra. So God says, “Be filled with the Spirit”.
III. HOW ARE YOU FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?
1. Make sure you have the Spirit.
Must be a Christian. Can’t be filled if you don’t have any.
* Plan of salvation.
2. Empty the garage – Driving around Deltona, it is amazing the number of people who have garages with no cars in them. Why? Their garages are filled with other things.
Confess your sins. Get rid of those things.
3. Fill your mind with God Things -
> Philippians 4:8 Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.
> Psalm 119:11 I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.
4. Live in constant awareness of God’s presence
> Galatians 5:24-25
Live in obedience.
Don’t settle for anything less. A life lived without the Holy Spirit’s filling is like pie without ice cream. It is like summer with lawnmowers and no vacation. It’s like marriage without kisses. It is like a fireplace without a fire. It’s not what God intended and it’s not what it’s supposed to be.
Some of you remember the struggle and failure of France and others that tried unsuccessfully to build the Panama Canal. That great canal, dug and built by people from our country is still being used today. Those who worked and successfully dug that canal, said they could not imagine doing anything mundane again. They wrote a song, some of you are familiar with. They sang,
Don’t send us back to a life that’s plain again,
We who have shattered a continent’s spine.
Easy work? Oh, we couldn’t do that again.
Haven’t you something that’s more in our line?
Now, the next stanza, all of you know,
Got any rivers you say are not crossable?
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?
We specialize in the wholly impossible,
Doing what nobody ever could do.
Please, never settle for second best.
