Background to passage: New series today. The Empowered Life. This the foundational truth to the next 4-5 weeks. You may not get it all today. The ramifications and practical applications are endless, and those will come. At the risk of sounding like Joel Osteen, life filled by the Spirit is your best life now!
Opening illustration: the story of the normal family from Stanley
Dennis chuckled to himself as he read the bumper sticker on the car in front of him: HE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS WINS. He had seen and heard the expression plenty of times, and he always got a kick out of it. As he sat there staring at the bumper in front of him, the irony of his own situation began to sink in. At no point in his life had he ever consciously subscribed to the philosophy represented by that popular bumper sticker. On the contrary, as a Christian, his belief system was diametrically opposed to everything that statement stood for. But if he was honest with himself, an outsider who simply watched him for any length of time might conclude that his ultimate pursuit in life was the accumulation of the newest and most high-tech toys. That was not to say that he didn’t want to be a good father and husband. But somehow those values were not the driving force in his life anymore—not the way they were in the beginning. In fact, lately he had noticed that several areas of his original belief system had taken a backseat to the priorities set before him by his world. What was happening?
Making his way up the exit ramp, he thought back to that night on the beach when, as a college student, he trusted Christ as his Savior. It was so real, so significant. His decision that night affected every facet of his life. He remembered the intensity with which he communicated his newfound faith to his fraternity brothers. Church was not a duty then. It was a joy. It was something he looked forward to each week. Everything was different now. His faith hadn’t changed. He still believed all the same things. But something was missing. His whole Christian experience could be summed up by, “I’m doing the best I can.”
Cheryl plopped the groceries down on the counter and looked at her watch. 5:15. Dennis would be home in thirty minutes, and she hadn’t even begun to prepare supper. As she grabbed her apron, she heard something fall out of the pocket. It was a refrigerator magnet that had somehow found its way into her apron pocket:
IF LIFE GIVES YOU A LEMON, MAKE LEMONADE.
She smiled and stuck it back on the refrigerator. There sure have been a lot of lemons lately, she thought to herself. But you’ve got to keep going. You can’t let it get you down. She rehearsed the argument she and Dennis had the night before. He always called them discussions. But in her book it was a good, old-fashioned argument. She couldn’t remember what the issue was or how it started. It was always something petty—something he thought I meant by something I didn’t say or something like that. It seemed like there had been a lot of “discussions” lately. But you’ve got to make the best of things; you’ve got to keep going.
She walked back over to the refrigerator and looked at the plastic lemon. As tears welled up in her eyes, she thought, Wow, my whole life boils down to taking an endless supply of lemons and doing my best to make lemonade. What has happened? It wasn’t supposed to be this way. She sat down at the kitchen table with her face in her hands and began to really cry. I can’t let this happen. I’ve got to keep going. Things will get better. She attempted to pull herself together. Her eyes focused on the family Bible leaning against the toaster on the end of the table. Dennis must have left it there after family devotions this morning. Family devotions, ha! What a joke.
When they were first married, Cheryl had been a leader in a neighborhood Bible study. She lived to study and share what she learned with others. The Scriptures were alive back then. That was then. Her Bible reading had become little more than a dry ritual. There were mornings when something would jump out at her. But by lunchtime the insights were swept away by the cares of the day. What has happened to me? she thought. Where is the joy? Where is the peace? Where is the love?
Just then the door slammed. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, Jodie. Dad should be here in a few minutes.”
“I’m not staying for dinner. Grace is coming by to . . .”
Cheryl didn’t hear the rest as Jodie scampered up the stairs. It didn’t matter. At seventeen, Jodie was in a world of her own, a world that was closed to Cheryl and Dennis. Jodie slammed her door and checked the messages on her answering machine.
“Jo, it’s Randy. Everything is set for Sunday. Richard got his dad’s boat, and my parents said we could use the lake house. Have you asked your folks yet? If not, find out tonight and let me know.” Click. Sunday. Mom will have a duck . . . but she will recover. Besides, I’ve been in church for the last two Sundays in a row. That’s two more than most people. As Jodie brushed her hair, she paused to look at the bulletin board hanging next to her mirror.
FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS FOREVER the pin read.
That had been their theme at church camp last summer. She was overcome for a moment with a wave of emotion. She thought back to that last night at camp when she and her friends had rededicated their lives. They told the whole group that they were going back to their homes and campuses to make a difference for Christ. Some difference, she thought. It’s nothing more than a distant memory now. Good intentions but no follow-through. That’s the way it always was at camp. Friends forever. Some friends. We barely speak. Besides, I’m not really into the church thing much anymore. It didn’t really work for me. I got tired of being good all the time. Other than camp, the whole thing was really pretty boring. I’ll take another shot at it when I’m older. Jodie shook her head and finished brushing her hair.
The doorbell signaled the arrival of Grace. Jodie galloped down the stairs and out the front door just as Dennis was pulling into the driveway. Jodie glanced over her shoulder at her father’s car. For a brief moment they made eye contact. And both thought to themselves, Good timing.
Main thought: join me (because I don’t have this all down), in the journey of not “I’m doing the best I can” Christian life, but living an overcoming, set-free, fulfilling, fruit-bearing empowered Christian life.
1) Full of the Spirit, Abiding in Christ (v. 18)
Ephesians 5:18 ESV
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
1) Full of the Spirit, Abiding in Christ (v. 18)
Explanation: the Spirit has already taken up residence in the lives of all believers. This is speaking of a continual filling with the power of the of the Holy Spirit for victorious Christianity and for service. It’s “by the Spirit.” Command to allow something done to you.
John 16:7 ESV
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 15:1–5 ESV
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Galatians 5:25 ESV
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 ESV
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:22 ESV
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Romans 8:1–5 ESV
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
The New King James Version Chapter 8
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Illustration:
Application: Five things must take place for you to be continually be filled by the Spirit for victory and service. 1) Desperation. 2) Absolute dependence. 3) Surrender. 4) Faith. 5) Intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 2:20 ESV
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
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2) Life Becomes Worship (v. 19-21)
Ephesians 5:19–21 ESV
19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
2) Life Becomes Worship (v. 19-21)
Explanation: Not to minimize the first effect of the filling of the Spirit, because it covers the remainder of the Christian lives, but we lack time. I would love to preach a series on what real worship is some day.
Colossians 3:16 ESV
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Illustration:
Application: 1) Worship through song, public and private. 2) Being grateful and expressing it. 3) Submitting to each other in humility.
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Closing illustration:
Perhaps I may make myself more clear if I go back a little. Well, dear, my mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight months past, feeling the need personally and for our Mission of more holiness, life, power in our souls. But personal need stood first and was the greatest. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation–but all without avail. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me.
I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not. I would begin the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye off Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, and constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget Him. Then one’s nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed “present with me,” but how to perform I found not.
Then came the question, is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end–constant conflict, and too often defeat? How could I preach with sincerity that, to those who receive Jesus, “to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (i.e., Godlike) when it was not so in my own experience? Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting low. I hated myself, I hated my sin, yet gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God. His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, “Abba, Father.” But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.
I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. There was nothing I so much desired as holiness, nothing I so much needed; but far from in any measure attaining it, the more I strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp, until hope itself almost died out, and I began to think that–perhaps to make heaven the sweeter–God would not give it down here. I do not think that I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so, and asked Him to give me help and strength. Sometimes I almost believed that He would keep and uphold me; but on looking back in the evening–alas! there was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God.
I would not give you the impression that this was the only experience of those long, weary months. It was a too frequent state of soul, and that towards which I was tending, which almost ended in despair. And yet, never did Christ seem more precious; a Savior who could and would save such a sinner!… And sometimes there were seasons not only of peace but of joy in the Lord; but they were transitory, and at best there was a sad lack of power. Oh, how good the Lord has been in bringing this conflict to an end!
All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was–how to get it out. He was rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak. I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question. As gradually light dawned, I saw that faith wasthe only requisite–was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it mine. But I had not this faith. I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was I felt the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
As I read, I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, “I will never leave thee.” “Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me–never to leave me, never to fail me?” And, dearie, He never will. Nor was this all He showed me, nor one half. As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul!
How great seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap, the fullness out of Him! I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, but all–root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that alone–He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding too may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.
Oh, my dear Sister, it is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Savior, to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left poor? or your head be well fed while your body starves? Again, think of its bearing on prayer. Could a bank clerk say to a customer, “It was only your hand, not you that wrote that check”; or “I cannot pay this sum to your hand, but only to yourself”? No more can your prayers or mine be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (i.e., not for the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are His, His members) so long as we keep within the limits of Christ’s credit –a tolerably wide limit! If we ask for anything unscriptural, or not in accordance with the will of God, Christ Himself could not do that. But “if we ask any thing according to his will… we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him [1 John 5:14].”
The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient. It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases. So, if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me.
And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith, how happy I have been! I wish I could tell you about it, instead of writing. I am no better than before. In a sense, I do not wish to be, nor am I striving to be. But I am dead and buried with Christ–ay, and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and “the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Recap
