Be Filled By The Spirit, Ephesians 5:15-21

This sermon covers the importance of being filled with the Spirit of God and walking in wisdom. Pastor Aaron emphasizes the need to know and obey God's will and apply it to our unique situations. He also highlights the contrast between being filled with wine, which leads to reckless living, and being filled with the Spirit, which leads to fellowship, worship, gratitude, and humble service. The key takeaway is that being filled with the Spirit of God allows us to live a life that glorifies and magnifies Christ.

Takeaways

• Being filled with the Spirit of God allows us to live a life that glorifies and magnifies Christ.
• We must know and obey God's will and apply it to our unique situations.
• Being filled with the Spirit leads to fellowship, worship, gratitude, and humble service.
• We should forsake sin, open our hearts to the word of Christ, and let the Spirit fill us.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
02:42 The Command to be Filled with the Spirit
12:23 The Effects of Being Filled with the Spirit: Fellowship, Worship, Gratitude
34:51 How to be Filled with the Spirit: Opening Ourselves to Him
38:53 The Supremacy of Christ in Our Lives

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:00)
Pay careful attention then to how you live, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. So don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is and don't get drunk with wine.

which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

So this is what we're going to be looking at today, specifically verses 18 through 21. Last week we finished off by looking at those first verses I read where Paul tells us to pay attention to how we live or sometimes it's translated to pay attention to how you walk. And what he means by that is that what we need to do is walk in wisdom. He explains walking in wisdom means that we are aware of the times that we live in. We are aware of what is God's calling on us. We are aware of the opportunities that we have.

And so being aware of these things, we obey God's will and obey his will and whatever that looks like in the time and place that we live with the opportunities and limitations that we have. That's where the wisdom piece comes in. Okay, now how are you gonna do that? How are you going to walk in wisdom, knowing what God's will is and know what it means to not only know his will, but how to live it out in your specific situation? Because...

All of our lives are unique and individual. All the situations that we go through are unique and individual. And so we have to know how to apply God's will to our unique situation. You know, there's that old phrase and they had wristbands around it that used to say, what would Jesus do or WWJD? Do you remember those? Maybe you wore some of those. Maybe that was before, some of you guys in here, that was before your time. You may not even remember that. But it was these wristbands that say WWJD, what would Jesus do? And it was to remind you. And whatever you're doing in life, what would you do?

Jesus do? And the key there wasn't just to like, and the idea behind that is actually a good one, it's not just that I'm going to, you know,

rigidly try to make my life look exactly like his because he lives in a different time and place, but instead to ask if Jesus were in my situation right now, how would he live and act in this unique time that I'm in? And that's a piece of wisdom. That's what it means to walk in wisdom, to know the Lord's will, to know what would Jesus do and then to obey that. Now, how are we going to do that?

The only way that you're gonna be able to do that, and this is why we left off right there last week, because I wanted to spend a week just talking about this next few verses and this idea, how we're going to do that, the only way that you'll be able to do that is if you are filled with the Spirit of God. It's the only way.

You can't do it in your own strength. You can't do it by your own wisdom. Paul isn't telling us that we are to use just our rationality. That's not what we're talking about here, like analytical philosophy. We're talking about the wisdom that comes from God, something that we receive from Him.

We can't do it on our own. You can't do it on your own wisdom. You can't do it in your own power, your own willpower. You need illumination in your mind. You need motivation in your heart. You need a vision that draws you to live out this type of a walk. And that only comes whenever you are filled with the Spirit of God.

Being filled with the Spirit of God means that you will walk in wisdom, but moreover, you will joyfully walk in wisdom. Whenever Paul explains to what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit, he talks about songs and gratitude and serving. And that's what we're gonna be looking at today. This life of what it means to walk by and be filled by the Spirit of God.

So first we're going to look at the command. What is the command that we are given because this is a command. It's not a suggestion. What is the command? Secondly, what does it look like if we obey the command? And then lastly, how do we follow it or obey it? So what is the command? What does it look like if we follow it? And then how do we obey the command? So.

Paul tells us to not be foolish, right? But understand what the Lord's will is. So that means that if we don't follow God's will in our life, then we are living foolishly, okay? Even if we are living a decently moral life, if we are not actively obeying God's will, that's foolishness, okay? So we need to be, not be foolish, but understand the Lord's will, walk in wisdom. Now, how do we do that?

This is where the command comes in. Paul says in verse 18, he says, and so don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the spirit. This is an imperative that Paul is speaking in terms of here. It is a command. He's not suggesting it. It is two commands followed by the results of what that's going to look like. The first command is actually.

you know, if we get, it's two commands in one. So the part A of it is don't get drunk with wine, okay, so prohibition against drunkenness, and then what that leads to, but instead the exhortation to being filled by the spirit. Prohibition against being filled with something that makes us lose self -control and being filled instead with something that makes us gain self -control.

Paul says, first of all, do not get drunk with wine. It's interesting there why he chooses these two as a part A and part B for the same command of being filled by the Spirit. Because superficially, superficially,

being drunk with wine and being filled with the spirit might bring about the similar kinds of results. What I mean by that is why do people typically get drunk? Maybe if some of you in here have been tempted by that in the past to overindulge or to abuse alcoholic drinks and so on, why do we tend to do that? Normally it is because we are trying to medicate something, right? We are doing it because there is, there's

fear inside of us, there is anxiety inside of us, maybe there's there's heartbreak inside of us, disappointment. And so to try to medicate that, we turn to wine, as Paul says, or or whatever else it might be, so that...

by depressing the emotions because that's what alcohol is right ask anyone who's been through med school alcohol is a depressant by depressing our awareness of those things and makes us feel better right that's why people go to it even in social settings why are people over indulging in in too much alcohol well it's to depress the social anxiety to get a little bit of liquid courage people sometimes say right but that's why that's why we turn to it to depress

those things to be less aware of those problems and live a little bit more free from those problems. However, what's the ultimate result of that? Well, Paul says it here. He says it leads to reckless living. That depression of our awareness of our problems, of our anxieties, also leads to a depression or a limitation of our self -control, of our self -awareness, of our willpower to make the right choices and so on. Right?

So it's interesting that Paul pairs that, don't get drunk, but instead be filled with the Spirit. Because on the surface level, for the same reasons that people go to alcohol, the same thing can be satisfied by the Spirit of God. You see, in other words,

Whenever we have anxieties, whenever we have heartbreaks, whenever we have depressions or fears, even social anxieties, rather than turning to something that depresses our awareness of those things to make us less aware of those problems, we can turn to something else that instead increases our self -awareness, increases our self -control, but also has the effect of making us less aware of those problems.

The difference is that while alcohol is a depressant, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is actually a stimulant. It increases our self -control, but it does so by magnifying something in our minds so that whenever our minds are captured by this thing, which is so much greater, it makes us less aware of our problems. Do you know what that is? It's Jesus. Whenever you are filled with the Spirit of God, what the Spirit does is he magnifies Christ in your mind.

He magnifies Christ, he increases your vision and your understanding and your awareness, your experience of Jesus' glory, of God's glory, of the love of God, of the peace of God and so on. And so what that does is, is by raising your heart, by raising your mind to something higher, it also has the side effect of making your problems in comparison seem smaller.

This is why Paul takes them together as like a part A and part B for one command. He says, don't turn to something to try to help you live that is ultimately going to make you go into reckless living, but instead turn to something which is the Holy Spirit, which will actually help you to fulfill the commands, right? And to actually live in wisdom. You see, being filled with the Spirit of God, whenever Paul makes this,

It's sort of a comparison and contrast at the same time. Whenever Paul makes his comparison contrast, he's not saying that being filled with the spirit is like a spiritual inebriation. There are some people who falsely assume that a person who is filled with the spirit of God does to a certain extent.

result in a loss of self -control, right? They act sort of ridiculously, maybe outlandishly, over emotionally and so on. And so on the outside, they look actually drunk, but they're just acting a little silly, if we can put it mildly.

That's not what Paul's describing here. That's not why he draws this comparison. Even if you say, well, what about in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter two, whenever at the day of Pentecost, whenever the spirit of God came down upon the disciples and they went out preaching, and it says that there were some in the crowds who accused them of being drunk. Well, can we point at that and say, well, look, being filled with the spirit of God might look a little silly, might look a little crazy to the world where we whoop and holler, we run around and we act as the...

that we have no self control. Let's not take that passage out of context. What's happening there is there are thousands of people in Jerusalem, there are thousands of people, there are many people who are witnessing this and the text says that it was a small piece. Okay, it wasn't everyone who looked and said, those guys are drunk. It was a small piece of the crowds who were mocking them saying that they are drunk.

You see, it wasn't a serious assessment of what they were seeing, they were just making fun of them. They were mocking them. They weren't actually behaving in a way that people seriously thought that they were drunk. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, John Stott said this, the wonderful scholar John Stott said, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we do not lose control, we gain it. We do not lose control, we gain it. And this leads to the effect,

of us walking in wisdom. This leads to the effect of us being able to do the things that we have been learning and reading about in Ephesians chapter four and chapter five. As Paul has been telling us how as Christians, we have a different lifestyle than the world around us. We are distinct from the world around us.

We do that distinctiveness or we live out that distinctiveness by putting off the worst of the flesh and putting on the worst of the spirit, by putting off sin and putting on righteousness. We do it by walking wisdom. These are different ways of Paul saying the same thing. The way that we live the Christian life is by doing these things. And how do we do it? We don't turn to the help of substances that make us lose control, but we turn to the help of the spirit. You must be filled with the spirit of God.

And notice that once again, this is a command. This is an imperative from Paul. You must be filled with the Spirit of God, he says. So what does it look like?

If we obey the commandment to be filled by the Spirit of God and live with more wisdom, with more self -control, what is the result going to be? Once again, in the contrast, Paul says that the result of being filled with too much wine is that it leads to reckless living, but on the other hand, being filled with the Spirit leads to four different beneficial results that Paul gives us. There are four beneficial results. The first one is this.

it leads to greater fellowship among the church. It leads to greater fellowship. Whenever he says, let me find it, in verse 19, but whenever you're filled by the Spirit, what happens, he says, speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. What he's describing there is not that people who are filled with the Spirit of God quit talking to one another and just sing to one another.

He's not saying that. He's not saying that if our church is filled with the Spirit, we're gonna sound like an opera. We're gonna sound like Les Miserables, you know, walking around singing to one another rather than just talking to one another. No, that's not what he's saying. He's talking, but he is describing the type of fellowship that's gonna happen in a community of people whenever that community is filled with the Spirit. We are going to speak to one another and we are going to address one another with the words of God.

Psalms are the words of God. With him, with the drawing from the truth of hymns and spiritual songs that remind us of who God is, what he has done in our life, of Christ, of his work on our behalf, of the power of the Holy Spirit that is available to us right now. Being filled with the Spirit will lead to a greater fellowship among the church where people are.

exhorting one another, encouraging one another with the words of God and with the truths of God that we hold in our hearts. Now, what we can say too though, even though he's not literally speaking about us singing to one another all the time, he does talk about how our fellowship will be filled with hymns and songs. Now, every week over here at church, we have hymns and songs.

We just sang a couple together. But being put in the context of fellowship, that kind of changes the way that we think about our singing in worship.

We often come to church thinking that our singing and worship is only about us singing to God. Now, is that what we're doing? Ultimately, yes, we are singing to the Lord. This is why it doesn't matter how great of a singer or how poor of a singer you are, if you can hit every note or if you have no pitch at all, why your worship is pleasing to God, because we are singing to the Lord. But whenever Paul puts singing hymns and songs in the context of fellowship, it adds another

nuance to it, which is that our singing and worship is about more than just us as individuals lifting our voice to the Lord, but we're also singing to one another.

Do you ever come to church with the understanding that you are obligated not just to raise your voice in worship for the sake of the Lord, but for the sake of the members sitting next to you? Our worship in the joined fellowship in the congregation, our worship in corporate music is not just about you as an individual raising your voice to the Lord, but it is also about you lifting up your voice, how great or how poor it is.

you lifting up your voice and encouragement to those near you for them to lift up their voice as well. Isn't it easier for you to be engaged and to sing and worship whenever you know you're not the only one? If you've ever sat in a really quiet church where no one is singing and we've had some weeks that are close to that, right? Where no one is singing, it's really hard for you to wanna raise your voice, because you know it's gonna stand out, it's gonna be awkward.

But what happens then if you need worship? We talked about that at the beginning of our service today, how whenever our soul is oppressed and dry, we thirst for the Lord and the psalmist says that that thirst is quenched whenever we go to him and praise. What happens whenever you go to church on the same morning and you are thirsting for the Lord and that thirst needs to be quenched in worship. And so you walk and you take your seat and you're surrounded by silence. It's hard for you to.

have that thirst quenched. But what if instead you come in, you take your seat and you're seated or standing next to brothers and sisters who also are in need of the Lord's help and they are lifting up their voices next to you. Then it's not so difficult for you to raise up your voice with them as well. You see, there's also a mutual exhortation that Paul is describing here that happens whenever a community of people are filled with the spirit of God. Now, let me.

I'm gonna continue to draw this nuance just a tiny bit more before I move on. What that means is, is some weeks you come in and you really identify with Psalm 42. You feel like that deer longing for streams of water. Other weeks you come in feeling not so much like that. You're feeling stronger. You had a good day, you had a good week, whatever else it is, right? Not to say you're perfect and life is perfect, but you're doing well.

Let me encourage you on those days, maybe that's some of us in here today. On those days, lift your voice for the person sitting next to you who might just be going through the wringer. Lift your voice. It's not just about you. It is about the brothers and sisters sitting next to you who need encouragement to lift their voices as well. Lift your voices in worship because it is a beautiful thing whenever brothers and sisters worship God together in unity.

So it increases our fellowship whenever we are filled by the Spirit of God and the way that we speak together to one another and also in the way that we worship together.

And then he continues, he says, you know, we talk to one another, we speak to one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. But then he also says, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord. So he says speaking, but then he says singing. So there is singing involved as well. When we are filled with the spirit of God, we will sing to him. In the Psalms, we are commanded to lift our voices to the Lord. Our God delights in his people singing to him. How beautiful.

that we have a Lord who delights in music. That says something about the beauty of our God. He delights in that. He delights in us making music to Him. He delights in our singing to Him. He delights in it whenever we strive for excellence. He delights in it whenever we just give it our best to.

He delights in these things, he wants it. Paul says that whenever we are filled with his spirit, we will do this. We will sing and make melody. Whenever Paul says that we do this with your heart to the Lord, this can mean a couple of things.

I'm not saying it can only mean one. I think it could cover both of these options. On the one hand, it can mean that whenever we sing in worship, our heart is involved. Now that's really important, right? Because we can come in, we can read the words on the screens, our mouth kind of moves along with it, but our heart being far removed from it. That is possible. On those days, I think you should still sing, by the way. Even if your heart is not in it.

because we obey God's command, I think you should still sing. So I'm just gonna throw that out there, okay? I'm not saying if your heart is removed, it's an excuse to not sing. We're commanded to, we obey even if we don't feel like it. And, I'll keep following this rabbit trail, and what often happens is you start singing and then your heart catches up, okay? So it can mean, first of all, that when we sing our heart is involved.

Even when we don't feel like it, sometimes our heart will catch up, but our heart is in it. The act of singing and the music touches a piece of our heart and mind and strengthens the connection between heart and mind that just spoken words doesn't do.

We are created by a God who loves music, a God who loves beauty. And so therefore that is hardwired into us. And whenever we hear music, we witness beauty, it touches something in us that otherwise isn't touched, okay? It can mean that, that our heart's involved in worship. However, it can also mean that even outside of corporate worship, our heart is singing to the Lord. It can mean both of these things.

I don't think that we need to say, it can only mean one. I think it can draw upon both. Or we can say that these are both applications or nuances of what Paul is talking about here to sing and make music with your heart to the Lord. It can talk about worship together, but also in your individual days. Whenever you're driving to work, whenever you're doing chores in the house, whenever you are going on a run, whenever you are doing whatever else, that your heart is always singing to the Lord. There's always a song in your heart.

It might sometimes mean literally, in your car or in the home listening to worship music. And even if you're not verbally singing, you're listening to it and your heart is involved. But even outside of whenever there is actual music playing, there's always a song in your heart. We see people, maybe sometimes in our daily life, we see people portrayed in movies and television who have a little hop in their step and they sing, right? What is that usually a sign of?

It's a sign of someone who's happy. Someone who's walking and whistling down the sidewalk. Is an angry person ever doing that?

Does an angry person whistle? No, they don't. Only happy people walk down the sidewalk and whistle, walk around the house and whistle or hum a little tune. Whenever you're angry, you don't do that, there's no music. But whenever you're happy, your heart is filled with a song. You know, it's one of the things that I love about my daughter, Nora. You can just see the joy in her heart because she's always got a song there. Having a song in your heart is a sign that you are happy, that you're joyful. You see what Paul's saying?

People who are filled with the spirit of God will always have a song on their heart. Why? Because we are happy. Because we are joyful.

People turn to go back to the verses before, people turn to wine often whenever it's done in a sinful way. There's a way that I don't believe is sinful, but whenever it's done in a sinful way to medicate because they're not happy. But the spirit makes us happy. I think there's a side point that we can make here, which is that every time you sin, it's because you're not happy enough. Because whenever your joy,

Whenever you have joined the Lord, He's made your heart happy. He's filled your heart with a song. Sin doesn't seem so alluring. It doesn't seem so attractive. But whenever your heart is satisfied in God, whenever He has filled you with the joy of salvation, that temptation goes away. The allure, the attractiveness of sin is no longer there.

So when we don't have that happiness and joy in our heart, we start to turn to other things. We start to turn to sin, whether that be sin in the form of substances, behaviors, treatment of people, getting filled with rage, whatever else it might be. Every time you sin, we can say, based off of this, it's because you weren't happy enough. But if you're filled with the spirit, you'll be filled with joy and there will be a song in your heart. Another thing he says,

So he says, you will speak to one another, it's gonna have an effect on our fellowship, it's gonna have an effect on our worship, both corporately and individually. And then in verse 20, he says, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there'll be fellowship, there will be worship, and there will be gratitude, making thanksgiving. This is incredible. He says, we will be giving thanks always.

So he talks about how frequently we do it. We're gonna be thankful always if you're filled with the Spirit of God. And he says, for everything.

There's a lot of Christians who are not filled with thanksgiving, but they're filled with grumbling. They're not filled with gratitude, but they are filled with an awareness of what they lack. But people who are filled with the Spirit of God will know that they have all that they need. In Psalm 23, what does David say? The Lord is my shepherd, I have what I need.

or another version he says, I shall not want. That's just another way of saying, I have what I need. He is my everything. I am satisfied. Are you filled with grumbling or are you filled with thanksgiving?

That will have a major impact on the way that you live out your day -to -day life. It will have a major impact on how well you handle your successes, as well as on how well you handle your failures and your setbacks. If you are grateful for everything, then you will no longer be crushed and despondent by setbacks, but you will be able to rebound from them because you have thanks to God for everything that you have.

Giving thanks for everything doesn't mean literally everything in terms of even wickedness. We don't thank God for wickedness. We don't thank God for evil or for the sin that we do. But what this means is we give thanks for him in response to everything, practicing trust in him during suffering. Trust in him that though evil is done to us, he will turn it for good. So we praise him for that.

We are grateful that he is sovereign overall. Whenever we sin, we don't obviously praise him for our sin, but we praise him for his redemption from our sin, right? So yes, we do praise him for everything in a sense, but obviously it doesn't mean evil or wickedness or sin. We praise him for how he is still sovereign over those things and how he still redeems us from that sin. The spirit -filled believer will be...

deep in fellowship will be worshiping, have a song in their heart. They will be grateful, not grumbling. And then lastly, there will be submission. In verse 21, he says, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. What is he talking about there? He's talking about a community of people where rather than each of us all out to...

to serve our own self -interest we are submitting to the needs of others. Rather than seeking to put forward our preferences and to put forward our desires, we submit ourselves to the preferences, the needs and the desires of others. For those of you guys who are married, you've seen this workout. You can see this workout day to day. Go ahead and experiment, do an A -B test. You know what that means? Do a test with A. Serve yourself.

Make your spouse try to serve you and your desires. Seek your preferences at the cost of everything else. Do test A and see how that turns out. Is it gonna lead to a happy home? You guys.

who are married and those who aren't, you can imagine, no. But what happens whenever a husband or wife, all right, try the B test. What happens whenever the husband or wife, instead of seeking to put forward their own desires and preferences and self -interest, instead seek to serve the needs of the other, to submit their preferences to the preferences and desires of the other and serve one another. Another way we can put it is to outdo one another in kindness. What happens then?

then you're gonna have a house that has harmony, that has joy. You're gonna have a house that's all of a sudden way more productive than what it was like before. It's gonna be a lot better. Paul's saying similarly in the church, this is how we are to treat one another.

We don't come to church on Sunday morning seeking to put forward our preferences and our agendas, but rather to submit them to the needs of the others, to submit them to the church leadership, right, that is obeying God. But this is all done in the context of what? He doesn't say we do this to be pushovers, we do this because we're spineless, we do this because it's just a nice thing to do. No, he says submitting to one another in what? There's a context for it, in the fear of Christ, he says.

In the fear of Christ, you guys understand, that doesn't mean afraid, but what that means is in honor to Christ. Because we all mutually honor Christ, we mutually serve one another.

Our humble service and meekness to one another is born out of our mutual reverence for Christ. Now put those four things together. The fellowship where Psalms and the truths of God are central to it and spoken. Worship, that is where the heart is engaged and where you have people who always have a song in their heart.

Gratitude instead of grumbling, service to one another rather than seeking our own self -interest. Put those four things together. Those are just four examples from Paul. He could give many more. Put those four examples together and ask yourself, how different would our church look today if we had a community of people, even a small community, who are filled with the spirit and living out those four attributes?

This series is called The Christian Household. Let's apply it to the household. How different would my home look this week compared to last week if me and my spouse were both being filled by the Spirit of God? How different could it look a year from now? How different could it look 10 years from now?

See guys, the whole reason that we're doing this series is because I believe, and I hope you agree with me, because I believe that the gospel can actually have an effective change in our homes.

The gospel is not just powerful here on Sunday mornings, and the gospel is more powerful than to just impact you as individuals here on Sunday mornings, but that the gospel can actually change your homes so that all the various respective neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and wherever else you live, that there can actually be a beacon of light in those apartments.

There can be a beacon of light in that neighborhood because there is a home that is filled with the spirit of God. That home will actually be different than the ones around it. We've already drawn this out in chapters four and five by looking at the distinctiveness of Christians from the world and this applies to our homes. It applies to your workplace. You can be a beacon of light in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your apartment complex, in your classroom and so on.

Just imagine what would happen to have all these people filled with the Spirit of God, living out those four attributes. How much could change? So how do we obey this? Okay, because whenever I imagine that, and I imagine how much different could my home be? How much different could my...

my daily schedule be and my leadership and the way that I do my work, how different could those things be if I do the opposite, you know, before I actually sort of dreamed forward, now what happens if I reflect backwards? It's a different picture.

If I look at how I've led before, not out of joy, maybe out of fear, anxiety, how I've not been selflessly serving my spouse, but instead I've sought to be served. Whenever I imagine forward and I compare through reflection backwards, I see there's a big incongruity between those images, right? So how am I gonna do it? How do we do it? Here's what you need to see, a couple of things.

First of all, see this, that Paul, whenever he commands us to be filled with the Spirit, speaks in the passive voice. He doesn't say, so fill yourself with the Spirit. He says, read it in verse 18. He says, don't be drunk with wine, but be filled, that's passive voice, be filled by the Spirit. We are not the ones who do the act of filling.

the Spirit does it. We are the empty vessel that the Spirit of God fills. We can open ourselves or we can close ourselves off to being filled, but we cannot go to the water hose of the Spirit of God and just fill ourselves up on our own. What that means is there's no list of steps to do to fill yourself with the Spirit. What we have to do instead is the, what would be the?

looking for. Instead what we have to do is we have to open ourselves. If we're the vessel that the Spirit of God fills, we have to make sure that we are open to being filled by Him.

John Stott once again, he said, there is no technique to learn and no formula to recite. What is essential is such a penitent turning from what grieves the Holy Spirit in such a believing openness to him that nothing hinders him from filling us. He says, it is significant that a parallel passage in Colossians reads, not let the spirit fill you, but let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

We must never separate the spirit and the word. To obey the word and to surrender to the spirit are virtually identical. So how do we obey the command and be filled by the spirit? First of all, we need to recognize that we cannot actively do it on our own. We have to be filled by Him.

But what do we do to make sure that we are open to Him? As Stott says there, he says, well, we forsake the sin that grieves the spirit and that we open our heart by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly. As that parallel passage says in Colossians, what is he talking about? Scripture. How do you open yourself to be filled by the spirit of God, to walk in the attributes that are described here, being filled with the word?

being filled with the word of Christ, with the truth of Christ, forsaking sin and embracing these truths of the gospel. And by doing that, this is how the spirit fills us. And whenever the word of Christ comes inside of us and the spirit fills us with that word, what happens does is that the spirit takes what those works of Christ were that you knew with your head and he makes them so much more real to your heart.

so that by making them more real to your heart, you will, as we talked about before, become less aware of your problems. And you will no longer turn to sin to medicate yourself from the things that are pressing you, breaking your heart, giving you anxiety and so on. Instead, the spirit will fill you and be a fountain of joy inside of you.

That's how you do it, by being filled with the word of God, with the truth and with the words of Christ. Remember what the words of Christ are, that Jesus as the only obedient person who ever lived died to take your curse. He died to take your curse on the cross because we have embraced sin rather than the spirit, because we have followed our own way rather than submitting to the way of God.

And then when we look at the cross and we see that the only obedient person who ever lived died on that cross for our curse, what happens is on the cross is by dying to take our curse, he satisfies the wrath of God for sin, for our sin. But because he was sinless and he took our sin instead, it transfers what was our debt onto him, thereby saving us from the wrath and judgment that we should have incurred. What that means is,

and an incredible wisdom that no one other than the Lord could have designed. On the cross, whenever Jesus absorbs that death, he was satisfying and putting on magnificent display at the same time, the holy wrath of God and the love of God at the same time.

and paying for our sin, but saving us from the judgment for our sin. Whenever you're filled with the spirit, this work of Christ and the words of Christ are going to be glorified and magnified in your heart to such a degree that it will dominate you. And that's what it means to be filled with the spirit. If we were going to sum it up, it means that this vision of Christ will dominate you. You'll go around singing about it in your heart. You'll be thinking about it. You'll be talking about it. And Paul says that this is what

the Christian life looks like. A person who is filled with, dominated with the course of their life is determined by Jesus Christ. That is what it looks like. So what we will do is we will begin to live and do what the Spirit does. The Spirit magnifies Christ in our heart. We will magnify and glorify Christ with our life. On the day to day, it's gonna look like fellowship, worship, gratitude, joy.

and humble service to one another as Paul listed out there. And so friends, let me invite you, if you are still clinging to sin, release it. If you are still chasing after your own way, if you are still chasing after rebellion, turn from it and open yourself.

to the Spirit of God, to fill your heart, to drive out unbelief, to with His light, drive away darkness so that Christ might be magnified in your heart. And you might live out as an individual and in your household and in our church, what Paul describes here. Let's pray.

Father, we come before you and we confess that so often our lives don't look like what Paul described here.

So we confess that to you, Lord, and we open ourselves up to be filled by your Spirit. We recognize that we cannot do the filling ourselves, but instead, all we can do is repent and then fall down before you and worship. Turn to you in faith, knowing that...

because you are good and you are just and you are loving, you will answer that prayer, you will answer that worship. And so Father, help us to prepare our hearts to be open and be filled by your spirit this morning. Holy Spirit, we invite you here. Would you, with your light, drive out the darkness? Would you replace the fears, anxieties, the brokenness, the pride?

that frequently resides within our hearts, drive those things out and replace them with joy, with love, with gratitude. So we, just as you, might glorify and magnify Christ in our lives and conduct, but also with our voices as we speak to one another, as we speak to the world, and as we sing to you. We pray this in your name, amen.