FILLED UP OR A QUART LOW
Ephesians 5:18
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Pastor Brian Matherlee
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is the antidote for spiritual vertigo.
There are two kinds of vertigo:
• Subjective vertigo is when you are stopped but another object’s movement makes you sense you are in motion. (i.e. a car at a stoplight rolls back while you are stationary but you stomp on the brake)
• Objective vertigo is the sensation that you or your surroundings (or both) are spinning. It’s usually caused by an inner ear problem. (But it can also be caused by amusement park rides and spinning in circles with your forehead on a bat). This is the kind of spiritual vertigo I’m talking about. Something inside of us is not quite right and the world spins out of control.
Paul is writing to believers of Jesus in Ephesians. He tells them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Didn’t they have the Holy Spirit already? Don’t all Christians have the Holy Spirit? The answer is yes. But let’s understand what Paul is talking about.
When we become Christians we receive the Holy Spirit as an identification of our adoption as sons and daughters of God. Ephesians 1:13, 14 states, “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
We are saved from sin and receive the Holy Spirit. This is not the end of our Christian life. It is only the beginning. Peter wrote in his first letter that we were to have the qualities and attributes of Christian living in increasing measure.
When Paul writes this statement, “be filled”, we learn three simple truths about the filling of the Holy Spirit:
1. It is a command
a. Paul writes in the imperative
b. There’s a story told of a husband and wife both of who were doctors - one a doctor of theology and the other a doctor of medicine. When their doorbell was rung and the maid answered, the inquirer would often ask for "the doctor". The maid’s interesting reply was: "Do you want the one who preaches or the one who practices?" We know the theory of Christian living but what we must do is to practice it!
2. It is a continuous filling
a. It is in the present tense
b. D L Moody was once asked why he urged Christians to be filled constantly with the Holy Spirit. "Well," he said, "I need a continual infilling because I leak!" He pointed to a water tank which had sprung a leak. "I’m like that!"
c. Paul tells us what things cause us “to leak”
i. Deceitful desires (4:22)
ii. Old attitudes (4:23)
iii. Resistance to holiness (4:24)
iv. Dishonesty (4:25)
v. Sinful anger (4:26)
vi. Theft & greed (4:28)
vii. Unwholesome talk (4:29)
viii. Resistance to the Holy Spirit (4:30)
ix. Etc., etc. (the rest of the passage)
d. What does the Holy Spirit patch the holes with?
i. Kindness & compassion
ii. Forgiveness of others
iii. Imitating God
iv. Love
v. Self-sacrifice
vi. Opportunistic for the kingdom (5:16)
e. In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years. Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work. J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, "How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God." When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.
3. It is a gift
a. The verb is passive
b. The Holy Spirit fills us; we don’t pull up to the spiritual gas pump put in our Jesus card and pump what we want.
c. Every instance of the Holy Spirit filling an individual is done this way. The person receives the gift, never demands it.
d. In water-safety courses a cardinal rule is never to swim out to a drowning man and try to help him as long as he’s thrashing around. To do so is basically to commit suicide. As long as a drowning man thinks he can help himself, he’s dangerous to anyone who tries to help him. The reason why is becuase his tendency is to grab the one trying to help him and the result is he ends up taking them both under the water in the process. The correct way to rescue someone who’s drowning is to stay far enough away to where he can’t grab you. And then you wait. And when he finally gives up and quits thrashing around, you make your move. At that point the drowning man won’t work against you. Instead he’ll let you help him. The same principle applies in our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Until we give up, we aren’t really in a position to be helped. Have you given up ownership of your life to the Holy Spirit who wants to live within you? Because until then you can’t experience His power.
e. But we are to ask. In Luke 11:13 Jesus tells us that the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
Conclusion
“Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” by George Croly
I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies;
But take the dimness of my soul away.
This verse is left out of most hymnals. But it gets to the heart of the matter. I don’t ask for the bells and whistles…I don’t expect them…I simple want His Presence filling my life.
Don’t let the good Christian life of the past interfere with the new work God wants to do in your life.
Missionary John Hyde went to India a little over a hundred years ago. John felt a strong calling to the nation of India and began to spend hours in an attempt to learn the local language. Then the day came. It was in 1892 that he boarded a steamer in New York bound for the nation of India. On the Ship, John received a telegram from a close family friend. He opened it hurriedly on the deck of the ship. The only words of the telegram were, "John Hyde, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?" John’s response was one of heated anger. He crumpled the paper, put it into his pocket and went to bed. Unable to sleep, he tossed and turned all night. He arose from bed in the early morning hours, took the piece of paper and read it again. He thought, “The audacity of somebody to ask me that question, ‘Am I filled with the Holy Spirit?’ Here I am a missionary, sincere, dedicated, leaving my home and going to another country. How dare they ask me if I am filled with the Holy Spirit?” Wasn’t he equipped for his call? After all he had received a B.A. degree, studied the language, was even on the way and was determined to pursue his destiny. Yes, he was on his way, but Hyde’s spirit was challenged by the note. After much soul searching, he fell to his knees before the Father. “O God,” he cried out, “the audacity of me thinking that I could pray or preach or witness or live or serve or do anything in my own strength and power. Fill me with your strength. Fill me with Your power.” John Hyde became one of the great missionary statesmen of all time. Why? Because of the Spirit which enabled him to face the challenges of his life in the power of God. Upon arriving in India, John found himself on the field with three women and one other missionary among one million non Christians. It was time to begin to fulfill his calling and begin to pioneer in a new land. In many of those first years there was not a single convert. John was driven to prayer. Indeed, he would come to be known as “Praying Hyde.” In 1900-1901, Hyde writing home prophetically tells what the Lord had showed him in prayer about the new century. That the new century would be a time of Pentecostal power and a double portion of the Holy Spirit would be poured out; that a great conviction would come and many would be born again. He saw a full apostolic Christianity restored to the church. Hyde believed that a great revival would occur after an understanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He often preached a message, "You Shall Receive Power After." By 1908 – 16 years after his arrival in India – John Hyde dared to pray what was to many at the annual convention an impossible request: that during the coming year in India one soul would be saved every day. Three hundred sixty five people converted, baptized, and publicly confessing Jesus as their Savior. Impossible -- yet it happened. Before the next convention John Hyde had prayed more than 400 people into God’s kingdom, and when the prayer union gathered again, he doubled his goal to two souls a day. Eight hundred conversions were recorded that year, and still Hyde showed an unquenchable passion for lost souls. At the 1910 convention, those around Hyde marveled at his faith, as they witnessed his near violent supplications, "Give me souls, oh God, or I die!" Before the meeting ended, John Hyde revealed that he was again doubling his goal for the coming year. Four souls a day, and nothing less. During the next twelve months John Hyde’s ministry took him throughout India. By now he was known as "Praying Hyde," and his intercession was sought at revivals in Calcutta, Bombay, and other large cities. If on any day four people were not converted, Hyde said at night there would be such a weight on his heart he could not eat or sleep until he had prayed through to victory. The number of new converts continually grew. He would often ask ministers, "Is the Spirit first in your pulpits?" He was referring to John 15, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” (John 15:26-27)
Sing these verses of hymn 298 and ask God to do it. Step out today and ask for fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.
