Living By the Spirit’s Power
Text: Eph. 5:15-20
Introduction
1. Illustration: “The presence of the Holy Spirit is the keystone of all our hopes.” (John Nelson Darby)
2. A major section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians deals with living as God’s holy people who are imitating our God and Savior.
3. In our text today, he tells us how to do what he’s been encouraging us to do. He tells us we need to be doing to important things:
a. Living With Purpose
b. Living Full of the Spirit
4. Read Eph. 5:15-20
Proposition: If we are going to be the people God is calling us to be we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Transition: First, Paul talks about…
I. Living With Purpose (15-17).
A. Be Careful How You Live
1. This section of Paul’s letter is a continuation of his encouragement to live worthy of our calling. In v. 15 he tells us, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.”
a. This opening phrase, be careful how you live, means to live accurately, precisely, or to give close attention to something. In other words, he is telling us to live with attention to detail.
b. Everything we do and say is to be done with God’s will in mind.
c. We are to live life on purpose, and that purpose, as we said last week, should be an imitation of Jesus.
d. He also tells us not to live like fools, but rather to be wise in all we do.
e. He’s not referring to intellectual knowledge, but to keep our lives on target, and that target is to please God in all we do.
2. Next, Paul tells us to see life’s moments as an opportunity to shine the light of Jesus to those around us. It’s a concept I like to refer to as a “divine appointment.” He says, “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.”
a. Here, Paul is telling us to “redeem the time,” in other words to buy up as many opportunities as we can.
b. Now, for some of the ladies, this is like seeing a new pair of shoes. You already may have an entire room dedicated to your shoe collection, but you just must have that pair that caught your eye.
c. For me, the phrase is, “yes, Honey, it’s another guitar!”
d. In other words, we are to see life’s moments as something we need to have and make it count!
e. We are to see every breath as a gift from God, and he expects us to make the most of every moment to serve Him and further His kingdom.
3. Paul continues this line of thinking in v. 17 when he says, “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
a. We each have a job to do, and that job is to serve God in everything we do.
b. Paul is telling us something that I think many, or even most people struggle with: we act all too often without thinking.
c. For example, when we’re driving, and someone cuts us off. Our first response is to say a less than encouraging phrase motivated by anger rather than love. Or even worse to give the other driver a “one fingered salute.”
d. We do this because we have a natural tendency to act before engaging our brains. What Paul is telling us to do the opposite, think and then act.
e. For those of us who are social media users, how often have we pushed send and then regretted it? Think before you post!
f. But the big idea here is to think before you act.
B. Live Wisely
1. Illustration: I’m not sure who said this, but I think it’s the truth. “God has a plan for your life. The enemy has a plan for your life. Be ready for both. Just be wise enough to know which one to fight and which one to embrace.”
2. Living with purpose is knowing what to hang on to and what to let go.
a. “Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.” (Col. 4:5-6)
b. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom: knowledge is what you know, and wisdom is understanding what to do with what you know.
c. The Bible tells us to live like were wise and not like fools. Now, what are going to do with that knowledge?
d. The Bible tells us to be doers of the word and not just hearers of it. Now, what are going to do with that knowledge.
e. Just because we know what to do doesn’t guarantee that we are going to make the wise choice.
f. We are to think before we act, and if what we’re thinking about isn’t from God, we probably need to do something else.
g. If shouting obscenities at someone who cuts you off on the highway doesn’t bring glory to God, then we should think first, and then chose what God would have us do.
h. If we think before we post something on social media, “Is God going to be pleased with what I am about to say?” then we probably should hit delete!
i. Think before you act. Live wisely. Live with purpose.
Transition: Next, Paul gives us the key…
II. Living Full of the Spirit (18-20).
A. Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
1. Paul now moves from living thoughtfully to living by the Spirit. He says in v. 18, “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,”
a. Now, I’m no tea totterer, I mean I don’t think anyone is going to go to hell because they had a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at the ballgame.
b. If you look closely, Paul doesn’t say “don’t drink,” but rather “don’t be drunk.”
c. What I really think Paul is getting to here, is that being drunk is both a part of our old lives and a prime example of living thoughtlessly which he already told us not to do.
d. When we’re drunk, we tend to do things we deeply regret later. Paul clearly says to live in this way will ruin our lives. Acting without thinking is going to bring about bad results in our lives.
e. Instead, Paul tells us to “be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Now, if you were to translate this literally from the Greek it would read “be continuously filled with the Spirit.”
f. This indicates that being filled with the Spirit is not a once for all time experience, but rather this is to be an ongoing way of life for all believers.
g. Now, this is not a suggestion, it is a command! One of my favorite biblical scholars, a man named Gordon Fee, says that this is command is the key to all others and is the ultimate command in all of Paul’s writings (Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 721-22).
h. The call to be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be in unity with God and to enjoy the completeness of all that God has for us.
i. We must continuously be open to all that God has and wants to give us.
2. One of the natural responses of being filled with the Spirit is that it makes us want to sing. So, Paul tells us, “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.”
a. There are three types of singing that Paul encourages us with which to encourage one another.
b. First, he tells to sing to one another with psalms. This refers to the Book of Psalms which was the song book of God’s people well into the time of the early church. But I think we can include any songs which are based on Scripture.
c. Second, we are told to sing to one another with hymns. Many of the early hymns we find in the NT, for example, Philippians 2:5-11. There were confessions of what the early church believed about Jesus. A hymn is any song that praises God for who He is and what He has done for us.
d. Thirdly, Paul says to sing spiritual songs. These are songs that honor God and lift up the worshiper, including spontaneous words of praise, and yes, singing in tongues.
3. Finally, Paul encourages us to “give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
a. We are to give God thanks for...wait for it...EVERYTHING!
b. So, we are to give thanks to God when things go well. When we have plenty of money and all our bills are paid. When we have all the food we want and all the latest and greatest articles of clothing.
c. BUT...it also means thanking God when things aren’t going like we want them to. When we have more bills on our counter than we know how to or have the ability to pay. When a gourmet meal means hotdogs and mac and cheese.
d. Why should we thank God for these things? Because he teaches us when things are difficult, and it allows us to trust him even when things aren’t going our way.
B. You Will Receive Power
1. Illustration: The gift of the Spirit is much too important not to share, but sometimes we don't share it. James Emery White is the president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In his book, Long Night's Journey into Day, he tells this story: To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we allow Him to occupy and control every area of our lives...How much of you does the Holy Spirit have? When teaching this to my seminary students, I bring two glasses of water and two packets of Alka-Seltzer to class. I drop a packet of Alka-Seltzer, with the wrapper on, into one glass. Then I plop an unsealed packet into the second glass, and watch it fill with fizz. I say to my students, "Both glasses have the Alka-Seltzer, just as all Christians have the Holy Spirit. But notice how you can have the Holy Spirit and not His filling." Our goal is to live in such a way as to unwrap the packaging around the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us. [Source: Adapted from James Emery White, Long Night's Journey into Day (WaterBrook, 2002)]
2. When we are continually filled with the Holy Spirit, big things begin to happen.
a. Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-5, 8)
b. When Jesus was arrested and them crucified on the cross, what happened to his disciples? They did one of two things: they ran away or hid behind locked doors.
c. Those same guys on the day of Pentecost went out and boldly preached the Gospel.
d. What was the difference? On Pentecost they received the power of the Holy Spirit.
e. They were operating in Holy Spirit power rather than people power.
f. If we try and live by purpose, live wisely, on our own power we will fail.
g. But if we are continually filled with the Spirit, he gives us the power to live as God would have us live.
h. Are you living in the power of the Holy Spirit? If not, are you ready to start?
Conclusion
1. In our text today, he tells us how to do what he’s been encouraging us to do. He tells us we need to be doing to important things:
a. Living With Purpose
b. Living Full of the Spirit
2. What’s the point? God calls us to live by purpose, his purpose, and to help us to accomplish this, he fills us with the Holy Spirit’s power. We just must tap into the power source.
