BE FILLED
Last week we talked about the Holy Spirit and how we possess the same
power that the 1st apostles possessed. We discussed how in order to be the
Christ’s light in the world we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Today, I
want to talk about how we go about tapping into that power. Yes we all have the
Holy Spirit living within us when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, but
how do we draw on that power? How do we make ourselves open to the working
of the Holy Spirit? We can answer these questions by looking at today’s
scripture. Let me read it again. “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise
men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
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 all your heart, always and for everything giving
thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father”.
We have already said that, as believers, we have the Holy Spirit living in us.
We do not need any other type of power, we do not need to ask God to give us
his spirit again and again, because He already has given the Spirit to us. We
have everything we need for insight, comfort, power, courage, and wisdom.
Here’s how we do it. I want you to pull out your bibles and look at the scripture
for today. See in verse 18 where it says, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads
to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” What we have here are 2
commands. The 1st is a negative and the 2nd a positive. The 1st command we
are given tells us not to give ourselves over to something that takes over our
control of how we act, speak and function. All of us know the effects that alcohol
can have on a person. They no longer function “normally”. Someone who is
shy, suddenly becomes outgoing. A person who generally has good sense, is
suddenly acting in ways that put them in physical danger. What has happened
is that the person no longer is in control of their actions. The alcohol has taken
over. Now the reference here is specific towards getting drunk, but I like to think
of this command as applying to anything that would cause us to act against our
normal behavior; Drugs, lust, greed, physical desires, anything of the flesh that
causes us to do and say things we normally would not. Galatians 5:19 lists these
“desires of the flesh” as sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and
witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension’s,
factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. If there are any of these
things in your life that control you, cause you to act in ways that you never
thought possible. Paul is commanding us to stop!
The second command Paul gives us is “be filled with the Spirit”. The Greek
words for “be filled” are “en” and “pleroo” (play-ro’-o) . The word “en” means
position in place, time or state. Without giving the 15+ line description, it
basically means right here, where you are at this moment. Pleroo, means to
“make replete, to cram, make full, fulfill, perfect, complete. In essence, it means
to be completely filled right where you are at this moment. This is a command, it
is given in the imperative mood. This is not a suggestion, it is not a casual
statement. It is a command! And it is a command that is given to all of us. Not to
just this person or that person. Or just to the people in Ephesus, in fact the early
manuscripts do not show that Ephesians was directly written to the people in
Ephesus at all. Pauls greeting in the beginning of his letter is directed to “the
saints”. period. That’s all of us. Also, the command “be filled” is in the passive
voice. That means that in order to be filled with the Spirit we must always be
going through the process that leads to it.
I brought my flashlight with me again to help explain how we go about all
these things. Just as a reminder to everyone and also to anyone who was not
here last week, we said that the flashlight represents us as Christians, being the
light of Christ in the world. And even though everything looks like it is working
properly, without the batteries, without the Holy Spirit, we are powerless to let
our light shine. So, here we have our flashlight again, and we are told that this
scripture is for everyone, not for just my flashlight, but for everybody’s. So, we
all have our flashlights, and we are told BE FILLED! So let’s put the power in,
let’s put in the batteries like we are told to. So, we unscrew the end, and drop the
batteries in. Hmmm! they don’t go in all the way, something seems to be in the
way! Lets see, well for some reason the flashlight is full of pieces of paper.
(start pulling pieces out with words of "Lust","Greed","MOney" etc. and reading them,). You see, just like the flashlight, the
Holy Spirit cannot enter into us if we have these things still our lives. A person
cannot be filled with the Spirit while at the same time conducting their lives living
in fleshly desires. We need to have our spiritual walk going in the same
direction as God’s will. If we are not living our lives, and I mean every part of our
lives in tune with God, we cannot be totally filled with the Spirit. Jesus told us in
John 15:5 where He said “ I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains
in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Just as we cannot “fill” this flashlight with the power of the batteries with
something else in the canister. so we cannot be totally filled with the spirit with
other wordily things in the way. The last thing we learn is that the command to
be filled is in the present tense. In other words, this is a continuous process.
Just as the batteries in this flashlight will eventually wear out, we must be
continually filled with the Spirit. It is just like our walk with Jesus. When we first
accept Christ, we are but baby Christians. We have to learn how to walk with
God and Jesus just as a baby learns to walk. The same is true with our walk in
the Holy Spirit. At first, it takes everything we have to concentrate on “being
filled”. As we grow, we get to the point where we don’t even have to think about
praying to “be filled”. It becomes a constant part of who we are and a part of our
life.
So now we are ready for the next step. We have removed the sins in our
life to allow the Spirit in. Our batteries have been fully charged and everything is
working. What comes next? Going back to our scripture we can find what
happens when we are filled. The scripture says; “Speak to one another with
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the
Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
So first, our speaking is affected. We begin to relate to one another as
members of the family of God, as the body of Christ. We feel joy when another
celebrates and we feel pain when another suffers and we desire to minister to
them.
Second the scripture tells us we will have music in our hearts. In
everything we do and say we will be joyful for the Spirit of God lives within us
and fills us. When we worship, we praise God from our hearts, not just our lips.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “please engage brain before starting mouth”.
Well, when it comes to our worship of our Lord it should say, “please engage
heart before praising with mouth”. One of the things that has to sadden our Lord
are people who come to a place of worship and praise and act like they’re just
going through the motions. When it comes time to sing a song, we should be
bursting with joy to sing to our Lord, even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket,
you should have your whole heart and soul into your worship and praise. The
Scripture says “Make a joyful noise”. doesn’t say it has to harmonize. But so
often people sing like it’s such an effort. (sing Joyful, Joyful in a somber mood). Do you think God wants
to hear that? NO! He wants to hear (singJOYFUL JOYFUL excitedly). I want everyone to pick
up their hymnal and turn to roman numeral page 7 in the front. Here you’ll find
John Wesley’s directions for singing. Look at #4. It says "Sing Lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, now ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan". God wants us to sing to
Him with all that we are. And when we are filled with the Spirit we don’t reserve
this for Sundays, in fact if we are filled the Spirit we can’t worship on just
Sundays. We will have a desire to praise and worship God everyday!
The third thing that happens is we are a thankful people. The scripture
reads “....always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.” Did you notice
that? It says “for everything”. It’s easy to praise and thank God during good
times. It’s when troubles arise when we struggle. When the layoff comes, when
the bank forecloses, when a loved one dies, or when a spouse leaves, when the
world seems to be crashing in all around. Yet we are told to give thanks for all of
these things, because we know that God is there for us. He will never leave us
and He will make all things work to His glory.
We have this power within us. But we need to ask ourselves, Are all the
pistons firing?, do I have all the gears engaged? Am I constantly depending on
the Lord? And are we asking at the beginning, end and frequently throughout the
day,” Lord let me be filled with the Spirit”? When we are completely filled with
the Spirit, the flashlight shines for the whole world to see. And the evidence in
our lives is; Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. These are the fruits of the Spirit. May we go out
from this place filled with the Holy Spirit and be Christ’s light in this world.
