Be Filled With the Spirit
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Part of the text is there in the worship guide. We we somehow combined chapter 4 and chapter 5 together just to make it as confusing as possible for you, But but the last few verses are are correct from chapter 5, but if you if you have a Bible, use your Bible. And we're gonna look at this evening, really what we just prayed over these children, and that's that they would be filled with the spirit.
Joel Brooks:We're not gonna look at everything and what it means to be filled with the spirit, but I wanna look uniquely at what Paul says in this passage before us. What does he say about being filled with the spirit? And so we'll begin reading in verse 15. Look carefully then how you walk, not as wise unwise, but as wise. Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks:Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And this is the word of the Lord. Amen. If you would pray with me. Father we ask that in this moment, the words of Christ would dwell in us richly.
Joel Brooks:That we would be filled with your spirit. That we'd be transformed by the words that we hear. Lord, that your spirit would write them on our very hearts. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain.
Joel Brooks:May they change us. And we pray this, in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So tell me if these phrases sound familiar. My plate is full.
Joel Brooks:My bandwidth is full or at capacity. Once this Christmas season is over, then things are going to finally slow down. It was good to see you. Once things slow down, why don't we have dinner? There's just not enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Joel Brooks:I'm in a busy season right now, but it's it's only a season. Those words sound familiar? Any of you say those words, or perhaps text them as you're driving to the meeting you're late for? We we say these things all of the time, because we're a busy people, but the thing is we're not embarrassed that we're busy people. We're not ashamed.
Joel Brooks:If anything, it's something to be proud about. How are you doing? Well, I'm doing a whole lot. My plate's just full, and it becomes almost a boast. And yet, when you look at Jesus in scripture, you never find Jesus in a rush.
Joel Brooks:You never find Jesus in a hurry. He's not, you know, trying to fit in a CrossFit workout. You know, in between a meeting with James and John. While texting Peter, as he's hurrying to the Sea of Galilee, where he's got a crowd of people waiting for him. You you you don't get a hint of that when you look at the life of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Once again, he was never in a hurry. And this made people upset who were around him. They they didn't understand why Jesus would act this way. And so, you have things like, when when Jesus got word that his friend Lazarus was very sick, Jesus got the word and he just lingered where He was at. He didn't rush off to go heal Lazarus.
Joel Brooks:And His disciples are just looking at Him, wondering, what what is He doing? Doesn't He care? But Jesus was gonna go on his own timing, or if you remember when a father came to Jesus, pleading that Jesus would come and to heal his daughter, she was she was on her death bed. And so Jesus says, he's gonna go with her, and he goes, but but he's not rushing. He's taking his time going to this person's house, and and actually he stops along the way because there was a woman who was hemorrhaging and she's had this condition for many years.
Joel Brooks:It was not an urgent condition, but he stopped. He has a conversation with her. He heals her. Now all the while, this dad is dying. Singing, my daughter is sick.
Joel Brooks:You have to get there now. But Jesus doesn't rush. Takes his time. Now, how how is it that Jesus could do do that? Or or maybe I should put this way.
Joel Brooks:How is it that Jesus who can we just say, accomplished more than anybody here has ever accomplished or ever will accomplish. Alright? How could He not be rushed, yet we hurry around all the time, like we're the most important people on the planet. And yet, we don't accomplish near this. Why is that?
Joel Brooks:Well, Jesus did this because he was redeeming time. He was redeeming time. We we he redeems us. He redeems humanity. He he redeems the earth.
Joel Brooks:He redeems the things of the earth. You know, he redeems power. He redeems money. He redeems sex. He he redeems all these different things, but but don't forget that one of the things that Jesus is redeeming is time.
Joel Brooks:He's actually redeeming time itself. You see when man was created, time was never meant to be in short supply. It was only through sin that death came in. It was only through our our evil actions that we all of a sudden got a finite amount of time. But it was never meant to be this way.
Joel Brooks:Time was never meant to be bought. You know, time is money. Time is money. Time was never meant to run out or be in short supply. I just don't have enough time.
Joel Brooks:Time was never meant to run out because, well, it was endless. It was supposed to be endless. And when we think of time as fleeting or where did the time go, what we're doing is we're groaning under the weight of the fall. Do you really have to try to cram everything you possibly can into a day if you really believe you have endless time. No, you don't.
Joel Brooks:You only have to do that if you believe in YOLO. You know, you only live once. The slogan that's plastered everywhere. You only live once and that is the excuse everybody needs to waste, you know, exorbitant amounts of money, to try to cram as much stuff as they could ever do. Do the stupidest things.
Joel Brooks:I actually hate the phrase YOLO, if you don't know. Because you don't only live once. As Christians, we live twice, and our second life endures for eternity. We don't have to cram everything in. Our next life lasts forever.
Joel Brooks:Now, during our men's retreat, one of the things we did was, we watched a series of videos. And, they were all so good, but I especially remember the first video we watched. And it was about how we can better love those who are mentally handicapped. And as a person was talking to us about how we can love those who are better, or or who are mentally handicapped, he brought up those who have Down syndrome. He said, what a gift those who have Down syndrome are to the world, because they help us to redeem the time.
Joel Brooks:I was like, what? Help us to redeem the time? Now the notion of time being fallen, and something we need to redeem, and things like, that wasn't a foreign concept to me, but but he tied it in to those who have Down syndrome and he said, you know, the things that we say we value in life, relationships, loving one another, being loved, not being in a hurry. Those are all the things that happen when you meet somebody with Down syndrome. I I have a friend who has Down syndrome and when he sees me, he is not thinking about tomorrow.
Joel Brooks:He's not thinking about where he has to race off to be. He sees me and he is so happy to be there in that moment. And all he wants to do is just be with me, and talk with me, and love me, and let me love on him, and there is nothing else he is thinking about. It's me who's thinking, it was great talking to you, but I really gotta go. And now, every time I meet with him, he's reminding me, I need to redeem the time.
Joel Brooks:He's the one acting like there's an endless supply of it. I'm the one who has that fallen sense of time. As we continue on with this letter that Paul has written us, and he's talking to us about how we're to be children of the light, One of the things he tells us is that we're to redeem time. We're supposed to be a people who make the most of every opportunity. Look at verse 15.
Joel Brooks:Look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time. That phrase, make the best use of the time, might in your Bibles be translated make the best, or make the most of every opportunity. Or it might be translated redeem the time. Which is what it means in Greek.
Joel Brooks:It literally means buy back the time. Redeem the time. Just as we're supposed to be about the redemption of all things, we're supposed to be about the redemption of people, of about, you know, money, sex, power, the redemption of all things. Don't forget, as God's children, we're supposed to be about the redemption of time. And now there's a temptation for us to think that in order to make the most out of every opportunity, what that really means is we just gotta cram in as much as we could possibly cram in to every minute of the day.
Joel Brooks:That's what it means. But that is not what Paul is talking about. He says redeeming time comes from this, You gotta understand what the will of the Lord is. You gotta understand what the will of the Lord is, and what you say yes to, and what you say no to. Look at verse 17 again.
Joel Brooks:It says, therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. If you wanna make the most of every opportunity, you need to be asking the Lord every day, what would he have for me today? What would he have for me in this moment? What do I need to say yes to? What are some of the good things that I need to say no to?
Joel Brooks:What's what's your will for my life today? Everything else can go except for what you would have for me to do today. And that's how we begin to redeem time. Paul flushes this out even more by going ahead and he tells us. Well, let me go ahead and tell you what the will of the Lord is for you in every moment.
Joel Brooks:And it's that you should not be drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but you should be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I'm sure that probably in a room the size, all of us, but we probably know somebody who drinks way too much. Who drinks way too much. And is often intoxicated. That person is one you would not call dependable.
Joel Brooks:They're probably always late to events if they show up at all. They they probably are always making excuses. They probably can't hold a job. They probably often say hurtful words to people. We would say they are literally drinking their life away.
Joel Brooks:They're not making the most of any opportunity, And so this is, they're acting in a way that's the exact opposite of what Paul is asking us to do. Instead of being drunk with wine and and just wasting our life away, he's saying, be filled with the spirit. And this is how we redeem the time. Now most commentators are gonna tell you that when Paul gives us this command here to be filled with the spirit, he is using this as his concluding statement or the summation of all we've been looking at the last few weeks. All of chapter 4 and the parts in 5, he's saying all of those ethical commands have been given to us.
Joel Brooks:All the things we're supposed to do can be summed up into this. You have to be filled with the spirit. You have to be filled with the spirit. It's his concluding statement. You wanna make the most of every opportunity.
Joel Brooks:You wanna do the right things. You wanna follow the Lord, will be filled with the spirit. These commentators are also gonna mention, that it's a little unusual that he would pair together being drunk with wine with being filled with the spirit. It's just an unusual pairing to combine those two things together. I've been to conferences on the Holy Spirit, and at one of the conferences I went to, some people got up and they they testified.
Joel Brooks:They testified about the previous year's conference and they said, hey last year on the way home from the conference, I got a DUI, because I was drunk on the spirit. And everybody clapped and I'm like, where am I? That's not what Paul's talking about. That's not the similarities, that we're supposed to be drunk on the Spirit. And that's actually, I mean we laugh, but that's somewhat of a common phrase.
Joel Brooks:I grew up in a, or I went to college and the ministry I was a part of was fairly charismatic. And one of the songs that they would sing, and I never felt comfortable to sing it, the line went like this, fill me up Lord, I just want to feel it. Make me drunk with your Holy Spirit. That is the exact opposite of what Paul is saying. We are not to be drunk.
Joel Brooks:We're not to lose control. Matter of fact, one of the fruits of spirit is self control. But what Why does Paul pair these two things together? The only reason I could think that he would do so is because there are some similarities. There are some similarities with being drunk with wine, and being filled with the spirit, and there's also some dissimilarities.
Joel Brooks:And that's why he uses this this analogy. And so you can see the similarities when you go to Pentecost. When you go to Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit falls down on those disciples in the upper room, and Peter launches out of that room like his hair's on fire, and he, he begins to joyfully proclaim the gospel. Joyfully proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, and the people out there as they as they listen to Peter and they're like, who is this? What you know, they notice the transformation that's happened.
Joel Brooks:They notice the joyful proclamation that's happened, and many of them say, this could have only come from God. But then some said, this wasn't from God, he's drunk. He's such a different person. He's so bold. He's He's so joyful.
Joel Brooks:He's drunk. And so, we certainly see some similarities there, between being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit. Now, I think the main similarity is this, when you're drunk with wine or you are filled with the spirit, you are coming under the influence of something. You're coming under the influence of something or someone. You're being controlled.
Joel Brooks:Alcohol is gonna affect the way that you see, and respond to the world. Similarly, when one is filled with the spirit, one comes under the influence of the spirit. And the spirit of God affects the way that you see the world and the way you respond to it. Those are the similarities. You come under the influence of it.
Joel Brooks:The dissimilarities are this. That drunkenness leads to a lack of self control. It leads to debauchery and it leads to wasting one's time. Where being filled with the spirit leads to greater self control, obedient living, and redeeming the time. Martin Lloyd Jones, some of you might recognize that name.
Joel Brooks:He's he's an old, preacher from London, but, a lot of people don't know he was also a physician. And so, he often wrote about this text as a phys as a physician and he would say, you know what Paul is picking up on here is that wine is a depressant. It's a depressant. It it reduces your capacity to to think clearly, or to have any high level thinking. It it distorts your view of reality.
Joel Brooks:But the spirit of God is a stimulant. It activates the mind. It gives you clear understanding. It gives you better self control. You're able to realize exactly what's going on, both in the world and with you.
Joel Brooks:Another similarity between being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit and it's this, the effects wear off. The effects wear off. One does not stay under the influence of alcohol unless one keeps drinking alcohol. And one does not stay under the influence of the spirit, unless one keeps drinking in the spirit. This is why when Paul commands here that we are to be filled with the spirit, he uses what we call a present active imperative.
Joel Brooks:Basically, it means this. It's not be filled with the spirit. It's be continuously filled with the spirit. Or, don't ever stop being filled with the spirit. Paul's describing a never ending action.
Joel Brooks:It's not a one time experience. It's a continual experience. Never stop being filled. Alright. So this is what being filled with the spirit means.
Joel Brooks:Now the question is, how does one know if one is filled with the spirit? I mean, are you looking for a certain emotional experience? Is that what needs to happen? Do you need to get chill bumps, you know, when you sing certain praise songs? You know, what does being filled with the spirit look like?
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 19. Paul says, it looks like this. It looks like other things, but to the Ephesians, he says it looks like this. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
Joel Brooks: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. Paul here is going to give us 5 participles that tell us what being filled looks like. How we know if we're being filled. Now, I've already used the phrase present, active, imperative and participle.
Joel Brooks:So, that's that's it. No more English lesson. Alright? But, he gives us 5 participles. They are addressing, singing, making, giving, submitting.
Joel Brooks:All of those are defining what it means to be filled with the spirit. Let's walk through these. Once again, it's addressing, singing, making, giving, submitting. So first we're to a we're addressing one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. First thing I want you to notice is, we are speaking, we're addressing one another.
Joel Brooks:This is not happening in your car. This is not talking about singing praise music alone. That that might be later when it says making melody to the Lord, but but here we are addressing one another. It's talking about congregational singing. Congregational singing is one of the evidences to being filled with the spirit.
Joel Brooks:Now congregational singing is actually something that's pretty unique to Christianity. Most of the major religions out there have little to no singing in them. Occasionally, there are some religions with, with chanting, or maybe one of the clergy will sing, but but very little congregational singing. That that's a uniquely Christian thing. And Christians, we sing all the time.
Joel Brooks:We sing on Sundays. We sing at funerals. We sing at weddings. If if there's an important occasion, Christians are singing. I mentioned this before, but, when I was 21 years old, I I got a phone call that my dad had had a major heart attack, which which he would die from.
Joel Brooks:And when I got that phone call, I said a quick prayer and I got in the car, because I had to travel 2 hours to get to the hospital. And the moment I got in that car and Lauren was with me, I just started singing. 2, 2 hours of just singing, hymn after hymn after hymn. And that was the right and appropriate thing to do. These these songs, I I didn't even have to work at it.
Joel Brooks:They just welled up in my heart because that's what Christians do in all occasions. Whether it's times of joyful celebration, or whether it's times of intense sorrow, we're a singing people. Because we believe the gospel. We're singing people because Jesus has actually put a song in our hearts And we can't help but sing. Actually one of the first letters that we have that mentions Christianity, that's that's apart from the Bible.
Joel Brooks:One of the first letters we have, it was written in 112 A. D. It was from Pliny to the Roman Emperor and he's describing Christians. And he describes them as that group that is always singing. It's what we were known for.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Now, I just finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the umpteen time. It's actually hard for me each week I get up here to not quote from Frodo or Gandalf or something like that. I try to limit it to like once every year, maybe 2 years, but but but I struggle. But for you true Christians out there who've read that trilogy, my family hasn't even done that.
Joel Brooks:But, one of the things that's gonna stand out to you is they're always sinking. They are. I mean, you have, you have Frodo, Samwise, Gamgee, and Mary, and Pippin. They're they're the hobbits, the halflings for, you know, people, if you haven't read it. That means really small people.
Joel Brooks:Alright. They're always singing. King Aragorn, he's he's singing. The dwarves, the the elves, they're they're all singing. Lord of the Rings is basically a musical.
Joel Brooks:That's what it is. There are so many songs in those books that that Tolkien, in the end of the last book, he puts an index so you could look up all of the songs in it. It was a very important part of those books. Now the reason that Tolkien put so many songs in there, and everybody's singing to one another. During times of celebration, or during times of sorrow, they're always singing to one another.
Joel Brooks:The reason he did this is because he understood how important singing was in the Christian life. Or he would say how important it is to being fully human. Part of being human, the way God has created us is to be a singing people. Now, singing, the reason it's it's necessary for us, I think, to to really to really receive the full human experience that God would have for us, is because when you sing, you can't be rushed. Certainly when you're writing a song or really thinking deeply about a song, you you can't be rushed.
Joel Brooks:You you first have to take time to reflect on life. You have to reflect on who God is, what God's done both in history and what God has done to you personally. And then after you reflect on those truths, you have to process them, you have to make sense of them and interpret them. And then you have to put words to them and then a melody to them in order to make them, artistically express the worship that's in your heart. So true singing involves reflection.
Joel Brooks:It involves thought. And involves emotion, contemplation. True singing cannot be rushed. In other words, the hurried heart will never be a singing heart. Singing is actually a way that we're supposed to, according to Paul here, slow down and redeem the time.
Joel Brooks:Now, some of you might be thinking, well, singing, you know, I actually kinda think it's a waste of time. It's a waste of time. I mean, what are we doing when we're singing? We're not actually doing anything. We're just singing.
Joel Brooks:But let me tell you what a waste of time really is. A waste of time is this, it's a life spent endlessly running to event after event after event without any reflection about what's going on. Without even trying to make sense of why you are hurrying through so many things. Without stopping to think what is God doing here and processing that and giving words to it. That's a wasted life.
Joel Brooks:God has made us to sing. It's a way that we redeem the time. Paul says, we are to address one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I think this is Paul's way of just saying, you know, all sorts of songs. Just all types of songs.
Joel Brooks:In the Greek it says no rap or or, you know, country. Just Mainly, you're supposed to focus on you 2, is what I like to say. But we address one another in all types of songs, and then we make melody to the Lord. And so there's a horizontal dimension, and then there's a vertical dimension to our singing. It's it's both, a horizontal and a vertical.
Joel Brooks:To our singing and to living a spirit filled life. Alright. The final two participles are this, that we're giving thanks. Well we looked at that all last week. We looked at all at giving thanks and so I'm not gonna go over that again.
Joel Brooks:And the other is submitting. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. We're gonna look at that next week. Because when Paul hits the word submitting, he actually opens that up and he spends the rest of chapter 5 talking about what does submitting actually look like. What does humble service to one another look like?
Joel Brooks:And he uses marriage as a lens for us to look at that. So we're gonna look at submitting next week. Alright. So now that we know what being filled with the spirit is, now we know what it looks like. How how do we actually become a people who are filled with the spirit?
Joel Brooks:I've heard all sorts of things. I've heard you need to fast for a month. You need to be anointed with holy oil, preferably imported from Jerusalem. That helps. Maybe have somebody pray over you in tongues.
Joel Brooks:You know, something like that. What what's necessary for you to be filled with the spirit? It's actually not that complicated. It's not. Paul's already given us the answer in Ephesians.
Joel Brooks:He he gives fleshes out some other other answers elsewhere in scripture, but he's he's already given us the answer here in Ephesians, in chapter 3. Remember that great prayer that Paul prays in chapter 3? He says these words. He prays that we may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, hear this, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Joel Brooks:Now that that phrase that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, certainly also would encompass that we would be filled with the spirit of God. And Paul says that, we are filled with the fullness of God, when we know more deeply the love of Christ. That's it. When we know more deeply the love of Christ. When we know the the breadth, and the length, and the height, and the depth of his love that he has for us.
Joel Brooks:So the more that you know this, the more that you are utterly convinced of Christ's love for you as displayed in the gospel, the more and more that the spirit of God will begin to take control of you. The more you are filled with His presence. Now, how do we come to a greater understanding of God's love for us? Once again, it's not complicated. Prayer, reading his word, or I might say this, prayerfully reading his word.
Joel Brooks:Prayerfully reading His Word. If you were to read Colossians 3, you would find nearly an identical passage to what we just read in Ephesians 5. You you read in Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And then it talks about admonishing one another in all wisdom and then singing songs, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and then giving thanks. And then Ephesians 5, of course, we have, we're speaking to one another.
Joel Brooks:And then we're addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And we're giving thanks. The only difference is this. In Colossians, he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And then you're singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and giving thanks.
Joel Brooks:And here in Ephesians, Paul says, be filled with the spirit And then you will be singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs and giving thanks. But I hope you see that for Paul, the phrase, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and be filled with the spirit, are the same thing. He uses them interchangeably. To be filled or to let the words of Christ dwell in you or to abide in you, to make their home in you, is how one is filled with the spirit. Has it happened to you?
Joel Brooks:Do do you do you pour over the word of God and you not just for knowledge sake, but but to know Christ. Remember the spirit of God is not an it. It's not a power. It's not a thing, but the spirit of God, he is a person. And so there's a relationship.
Joel Brooks:And in a relationship, you listen to that person talking to you. And and so we go to the word of God, those God breathed, Spirit filled words, and we listen to Him. And as those words come and abide in us, we are being filled with the very presence of God. Prayerfully reading and meditating on God's word is how we are to be filled. Do you drink in his word?
Joel Brooks:Let me ask you this. Are you right now making the most of your time? Are you making the most of your time when when when you think of the way that you spend your time, what word comes up? Rushed or redeemed. Rushed or redeemed.
Joel Brooks:What are you binging on? What are you taking long drinks of? Is it the Word of God? What what is your influence? What are your what is your controlling influence of your life?
Joel Brooks:Is it the word or is it the world? We need to take the time that's necessary for us to pour in the word and have it pour over us. Time to reflect, time to sing, time to study, time to meditate. It takes time to be filled with the spirit. This is not something that you rush.
Joel Brooks:But when we are filled with the spirit, we get to enjoy all the benefits that God would have for his children. And so I just wanna encourage you to press in and to make the most of every opportunity. Pray with me. Lord, make us thirsty. You didn't give us a spring of living water and place it within us, so we would just take a sip of salvation.
Joel Brooks:You've put that in us so we might continually drink, that we might be continually filled. Make us thirsty for your word, and may the word of Christ dwell in us richly. May we be filled with your spirit. We pray this in your name, Jesus.
