So imagine for a moment it's morning, it's morning time,
and if you're like me, you have your phone
charging by your bedside.
You wake up and you grab your phone only to realize
that your phone only has 1% battery.
Like what happened, 1% battery?
You panic sets in, right?
Because our life is on our phone.
I thought I plugged it in last night.
I'm almost certain, it's right there.
It's the charger's plugged into the back.
What happens if you grab that charging cable
and you begin to follow it back, right?
Well, my wife has like a 15 foot long charging cable,
so that's what I'm doing here, right?
You follow it back and you get all the way to the plug
and what do you find?
Well, for me, the plug is behind the bed.
So there's a little journey that you have to go on
to get there and when you get there,
you find that that plug got knocked out
probably because one of my very large sons jumped on the bed
or something like that and knocked it out.
So then you're like, okay, I gotta plug this thing back in.
I gotta get this phone charged
because I got a big day today
and I need to get some percentage on this thing.
So you begin to fiddle around and try to find, whoa,
try to find that widget into the plug, right?
Well, there's this meme that goes,
it's going around on the internet
that every time I come across it, I just laugh
because it is the experience that I've had.
Anytime you're trying to plug something in
that you can't see.
So look at the screen here.
Isn't it like there's an invisible,
there's a hand back there knocking it out.
You line it up, you aim, you go, reach and it's gone, right?
So eventually you get it plugged in,
you get that charger plugged in
for a quick power nap for your phone, right?
Ha ha, sorry.
But you're in such a rush,
you gotta grab that phone off only a few seconds later
and you leave and what's gonna happen that day?
You're going to be anxious, you're gonna be worried,
you're gonna be conserving power,
you're gonna be lowering the brightness
and turning your battery to saver mode,
closing as many apps as you can
but eventually the worst is going to happen.
Your battery's gonna die, your phone is going to die.
And maybe you're lost and you need directions
or maybe you needed to call someone important
or order some food but you are out of luck,
your phone is dead.
All that technology and all that potential is lost.
It's gone, it's useless.
The great preacher D.L. Moody once said,
you might as well try to see without eyes,
hear without ears and breathe without lungs
for that is what it is like to live the Christian life
without the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians chapter five, if you have your Bibles,
you're welcome to turn there.
Paul tells us to be filled up by the Spirit,
to be filled up by the Spirit
and so if there's one big idea today for us,
it's filled up, powered up and living fully for Christ.
We need to be filled up, powered up
and living fully for Christ.
Ephesians chapter five says, beginning in verse 15,
pay careful attention then to how you walk.
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.
Give 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.
This is God's word.
So what do you have here in this scripture
and we're gonna really focus in on verse 18.
As you have a contrast that Paul lays out,
he says don't get drunk with wine
but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Don't get drunk with wine because it leads
to reckless living but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Why does Paul draw this contrast
between getting drunk with wine
and the filling of the Spirit?
Because both of them are doing something to you
and he wants you to see that
and it's not so much that his main emphasis
is about the getting drunk although the Bible does say
that drunkenness is one of the things
that is prohibited for the believer,
that we are not to get drunk.
But it's not so much specifically about getting drunk
as much as it is about the contrast between the two.
Drunkenness leads to reckless living.
If you have an older translation or the NIV,
it might say something like debauchery.
It's not a word that we throw around a whole lot.
Debauchery.
Debauchery means uncontrolled living.
Uncontrolled living, reckless living, debauchery.
It also has a connotation within the word
in the Greek of wastefulness.
So it's uncontrolled wasteful living.
Wasteful living.
And you can imagine a life spent intoxicated
is a life wasting away.
So what are some of the reasons
that folks might choose to get drunk?
Well, our society calls it a social lubricant.
You know what that means?
It makes it easier for you to talk to people
or get along with people.
Takes the edge off.
And folks will use it as a social lubricant
to help them with their insecurities
and their shortcomings in their social abilities.
Some folks might use it for stress relief.
Things are really stressful where I'm at
or what I'm doing or I'm in relationships or at work.
And so I go to drink and I keep drinking
and I become drunk.
In the end, escapism is probably
somewhere at the root though.
To leave what is reality.
To make reality become less real.
Getting drunk or alcohol is a depressant of sorts.
It depresses reality and in its place sedates truth
so that you can live a not truth or a less reality
for a short time or a long time
depending upon how often you get drunk.
And so this is what it means to get drunk.
And he says don't get drunk on wine
but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.
To be filled by the Spirit is not about escaping reality
but embracing truth.
A greater truth, a bigger truth.
It's replacing our joys and our pleasures
with higher joys and higher pleasures.
This is something about our joys and pleasures
that you guys have probably all experienced
and if you're young you're going to experience.
And that is our joys and our pleasures
that we can create or find on our own are always temporary.
They always run out.
They always come up short.
They always last for a time and then we need them again.
Some people even think of their wine
or their alcohol as a joy in their life, a pleasure.
And yet it requires to consistently be consumed
in order for it to have its effect.
Being filled by the Spirit is not about escaping reality
but embracing the truth.
Tim Keller says that being filled by the Spirit
makes the truth of who you are in Christ shine.
It takes the reality of who you are,
your position in Christ as a believer
and it actually makes it more brilliant
and shine even brighter so that you notice it
and you are moved by it and you live according to it
more vibrantly than not.
Without the Spirit, the truth of who you are in Christ
would just be information, would just be knowledge.
But the Spirit can bring it to life and make it shine.
John 16, 13 says that the Spirit leads us into all truth.
That whereas drunkenness is a depressant,
it sedates the truth, the Spirit is a stimulant.
It enhances or makes the truth brighter
and more glorious in our lives.
There's a story out of 2 Kings, chapter six
of the prophet Elijah.
He's the prophet to Israel
and he's a pretty cool guy.
He's got a servant and his servant
walks with him and goes everywhere with him,
does everything that he does.
And at this one part in time in 2 Kings,
if you have your Bibles, turn to 2 Kings, chapter six.
2 Kings, chapter six, the people of Israel
are being tormented and affected by the king of Aram.
And the king of Aram wants to wage war against Israel
and so he talks to his servants and tries to figure out
how he can do that, right?
But it seems that every time he makes a plan,
Elijah knows the plan and informs the king of Israel
of the plan beforehand.
And his servants say, the king goes to his servants
in verse 11 of chapter six and says basically,
hey, who ratted on the plan?
Who's the snitch here?
Who told the Israelites what I'm doing?
And his servants come back and say, hey, no one, my Lord.
Elisha, the prophet in Israel, he tells the king of Israel,
even the words you speak in your bedroom.
He knows what you're saying in secret,
all the way over there.
And so the king wants to go and capture Elisha
and he goes out and he sends his army.
It says he sent horses, chariots, and a massive army there
and they went by night and surrounded the city
where Elisha is, Elisha and his servant.
When the servant of the man of God,
so Elisha's servant, got word of this,
he said, I'm sorry, I lost my place here.
When the servant got up early and went out,
he discovered the army of horses and chariots
surrounding the city and so he asked Elisha,
oh, my master, what are we to do?
And Elisha said to him, don't be afraid,
for those who are with us, outnumber those
who are with them.
Now his servant at this point in time is probably thinking,
you're nuts though, you're crazy, it's just me and you.
And we're in the city and there's a massive army
with chariots and the army's coming down on us.
And what does Elisha do next?
He prays to God and he says, Lord,
please open the eyes of my servant and let him see.
He already saw the massive army and the chariots
and the king of Aaron coming down to attack
and surround and capture them.
He already went to Elisha and said, what do we do?
And Elisha says, those who are for us,
far outnumber the king's army, the king of Aaron's army.
And I think the servant's probably going,
I don't see it, I don't understand.
And Elisha says, Lord, help him to see something
of a greater reality than it actually is.
Something that is more true than what his eyes
are telling him.
And so he prays, Lord, open his eyes and let him see.
And so the Lord opened the servant's eyes
and what did he see?
He saw that the mountain was covered with horses
and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
He prayed that the servant's eyes could see
what was true spiritually, even though it contradicted
what his eyes were telling him physically.
Elisha and his servant were filled with the spirit
and could see what only the spirit could lead them into.
When you are filled by the spirit,
you get the things of the spirit
and you get only the things of the spirit.
Don't be drunk on wine, which leads to reckless living,
but instead be filled by the spirit.
So let's look a little bit more at what it means
to command to be filled by the spirit.
And that's what's interesting about that word.
The word be filled by the spirit in the Greek
is a present passive imperative.
A present passive imperative.
And what that means is it's present now.
So whatever you're being told to do, it's an imperative,
so that's a command.
You're commanded to do this now.
But it's interesting because it's in the passive.
Passive, not active.
In the passive, what that means is you're commanded
to do this now.
And what's the command?
The command is to allow an outside source,
something outside of you, that's the passive voice,
something to act upon you.
Allow the Holy Spirit to act upon you, to fill you.
So it's both a command for you to do something,
but at the same time, you're not the one doing the thing.
The thing is being done to you.
But you're commanded to allow it to happen to you now.
And now, and now, so present ongoing.
Be filled with the Spirit.
Allow the Spirit to continually fill you, act upon you.
It's a continuous ongoing command for all believers.
This is not something that we can force.
It's not something that you can buy.
But it is a divine person that you can invite
into your life.
The Holy Spirit, as we talked about in the first week,
is not just a force, some ambiguous, invisible force,
like from Star Wars.
The Holy Spirit is a person, a divine person,
a part of the triune God.
And so you invite the person into your life.
There's a story in Acts 8.
For those of you who have studied Acts,
Acts chapter 8, Philip goes down to Samaria.
And in Samaria, he ministers to the people there,
and he tells them the gospel of Jesus,
tells them what Jesus has done for them.
And while he's ministering to them,
many people believe and are baptized.
One of the guys who is baptized and believes there
is a guy named Simon.
Now Simon has a nickname in the Bible,
a lot of the Bible headings.
He's Simon the sorcerer, right?
He's Simon from Harry Potter or whatever.
Simon the sorcerer is down in,
and Philip is in Samaria.
He receives Christ and he begins to follow the way of Jesus
and listen to the teaching.
Well pretty soon, some of the apostles here catch wind
that the gospel is advancing down in Samaria.
And so they go to Samaria, and they find out,
while the gospel has been preached,
and people have believed in it,
and been baptized, the Holy Spirit hasn't yet been recognized
or been poured out on the people in Samaria.
And so they begin to go and pray for folks
to receive the Holy Spirit,
and this begins to happen down in Samaria.
Well Simon, who's a new convert,
he begins to see the apostles laying their hands on people
and them receiving the Spirit of God.
And you know what he does?
He says, hey, can I pay my debt to the people
and can I pay you some money
and you give me the power to do that?
Can I buy the power to kind of spray
the Spirit of God around, right?
That I can blow it on you or shoot it your way
and I can shoot the power of God
and I can give the Holy Spirit to anyone that I want.
Is this something that I can pay for and buy?
And the disciples say no.
Let your money perish with you,
for you thought you could buy the person of the Holy Spirit.
You see how ludicrous that is
when you have a right understanding of God and the Spirit?
You thought you could buy
the person of the Holy Spirit from me.
No, the Spirit is God.
You can't buy it, you can't barter for it,
you can't force it.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit
is very much so like a relationship.
In a relationship, you can't force someone to do something.
You can try to, you can even try physically.
They can still resist and say no.
In a relationship, you can't force, you can't buy.
A true relationship, but just like the divine person
who is the Holy Spirit,
Simon thought he could buy it, the apostles say nope.
But in the scripture too, in Ephesians chapter five,
talks about drinking,
but I want us to think a little bit beyond that.
He said don't get drunk with wine.
And maybe you go, that's a good command,
I don't have that problem.
I don't like wine particularly myself.
But I don't have the problem of drunkenness,
that's not my issue,
but I want you to think a little bit deeper about the issue
because what he is saying is what are those things
that cause uncontrolled wastefulness in your life?
What are the things that pull you away
from being actively in the position
to receive the Spirit of God?
Remember, that's a command, a present, passive, imperative
to be filled with the Spirit.
What is anything that pulls me away from that?
What is something that takes me away
that I can end up spending time and time
and time of wastefulness?
Maybe that's some relationships that fill the role
of drunkenness in your life.
Relationships that don't feed your spirit,
but instead they're your escape.
Maybe that's some other activity that you engage in.
You might call it I'm checking out for a while.
And your checkout is really a time of wastefulness,
a time where you are unplugged both from reality
and from the awareness of the commanded,
present, passive, imperative to be filled with the Spirit.
It's me time.
Maybe that's some habits that you have formed.
The command is to be filled by the Spirit.
So what does the Holy Spirit fill us with?
What does the Holy Spirit fill us with?
Well, the first thing that I have you write down
is the Holy Spirit fills us with sin restraining
self control, sin restraining self control.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self control.
Does drunkenness fill us with more joy?
Does drunkenness fill us with more love?
Does drunkenness fill us with more self control?
Are most drunks known for their patience
and their kindness and their goodness?
No, right?
They're not known for that.
You might find a weird drunk who gets really happy, right?
But is not very patient and certainly not self controlled.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self control.
The Spirit fills us with sin restraining
self control in our lives.
You can chase down all your sins
and try your best to correct them,
but in the end, the spiritual fruit of the Holy Spirit
ought to fill us up and edge out all other things.
We should be full of joy and love and peace and patience
so that we no longer sin.
Not go around and no longer sin
and then hope we can be filled with something,
be filled with something so that there's no room left
for sin, no room left for the flesh.
The Spirit is very different though
than we think of eating spiritual fruit, right?
We think it's something that I need to find,
I need to harvest it, and then I need to eat it,
but the Holy Spirit is different in that
whereas we fill our stomachs the outside in,
the Holy Spirit fills us the inside out.
And that is why oftentimes as believers,
when you see a new believer who is struggling
to leave the patterns of sin in their life,
they can have a vibrant spiritual health,
they love Jesus, yet they struggle deeply with sin.
There's a deep struggle with sin
because the Holy Spirit is beginning to change them
from the inside out, not the outside in.
He's doing his work on the inside
and he's beginning to provide for them
the strength and power, the self restraining,
self control to overcome sin.
Jesus said in John that if anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink.
The one who believes in me, as the scripture says,
will have streams of living water from deep within him.
And then John says, he said this about the Spirit.
The Spirit is the living waters that are within the believer
that boil up from within and begin to change us
from within, inside out, not outside in.
Titus two, chapter two, verse 11 says,
for the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation for all people.
And the grace of God that has appeared,
bringing salvation for all people,
instructs us to deny godlessness and worldly lust
and to live in a sensible, righteous,
godly way in the present age.
The grace of God is the Spirit alive within us.
The grace of God is the counselor who is near
and the teacher who is near to teach us from the inside out
what it means to say no to sin,
what it means to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions
and how to live self-controlled.
We have a teacher and a counselor on the inside
who does that, and we're filled by the Holy Spirit.
We've learned what it is to restrain,
sin restraint and self-control.
What else does the Holy Spirit fill us with?
He fills us with wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
Wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
Colossians chapter one says, for this reason,
this is Paul praying for the folks in Colossae,
and he says, for this reason, since the day we heard of this,
the day they heard of their salvation
and their common love for Christ,
we haven't stopped praying for you.
And what did they pray?
What did they pray God would do for them?
We are asking that you may be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom
and spiritual understanding,
so that you may walk worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work
and growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power
according to his glorious might,
so that you may have great endurance and patience,
joyfully giving thanks to the Father
who has enabled you to share
in the saints' inheritance in the light.
The Spirit, the Spirit of grace is at work within us
to give us wisdom and knowledge of Christ,
to teach us and instruct us.
Remember, in John 16, it said that he will testify
about Christ and he will exist
to glorify Christ in our lives.
The Holy Spirit moves within us to glorify Christ
and so he bestows upon us wisdom and knowledge,
spiritual understanding that produces joy in our hearts
for the glory of God in Christ.
He produces wisdom and knowledge.
Ephesians 5, which we're in right now,
says don't get drunk with wine,
but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And then what does it say?
What does it say after that?
Something about singing, right?
Singing songs.
Speak to one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making music.
This is the activity of joy.
This is the activity of joy within our hearts
that we sing.
We sing the glories of God.
We sing the old time hymns.
We sing the new songs that speak of God's glory.
We sing them to one another to instruct one another
so that we might grow in wisdom and knowledge,
so that we might have more joy, deeper joy in Christ.
The Holy Spirit is filling us with the truth,
with wisdom, with knowledge and joy.
And finally, the Holy Spirit fills us with assurance
and boldness for the gospel.
Assurance and boldness for the gospel.
At the beginning of the book of Ephesians,
Paul said that we are in Christ,
we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
When you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and you believed,
you were sealed.
This is a status change where the Holy Spirit says
that one belongs to God.
That is a child of God, sealed with the Spirit.
But that's not something that we necessarily experience
all the time, right?
We can't see that status change.
That's like a legal document.
It's not very inspiring.
Great, we have a seal.
It's awesome, it's true.
It's a status change.
And yet the Holy Spirit does more than just tell us
that we're different, or tell us that we belong to God.
But the Spirit, as in Romans 8, says that he bears witness
to our spirit that we're children of God.
So not just a status change out there in the ether,
but something in here, inside out, that says,
you are a child of God, that causes that love for God
to well up for you to be able to say, Abba, Father, God.
The Spirit fills us with a witness
that we are children of God, and that assurance
at work in our hearts brings us comfort
and emboldens us to preach the gospel.
In Acts chapter four, their great persecution,
and the apostles gather together after being released,
and they begin to pray, and they pray, God,
fill us with boldness to preach your word,
fill us with boldness to go and declare
the gospel of Jesus Christ, even in the face
of all of this persecution and trials.
And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit filled them.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to proclaim the gospel with great boldness.
Boldness. Tell us who we are.
Remind us of who we are in Christ
and who we are in relation to the Father.
Help us to see who we are.
Give us assurance so that we can be bold
in the gospel proclamation, so that we can speak truth
from the place of security and assurance,
not insecurity, right?
We're gonna need to learn this as a body, big time.
We're gonna need to learn this as village
because the territory we're moving into
is not like anything that we've been
for a long time, at least.
And that is we have folks outside of these doors
in this neighborhood and in this city
who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,
who don't have the Holy Spirit walking with them
on a day-to-day basis, and who are perishing every day
and going to hell.
And we need boldness.
Sometimes our boldness isn't because we were persecuted
and thrown into jail.
The boldness we need is to get up out of our chair,
put down the potato chips, and go talk to our neighbor.
Right?
But we need it nonetheless because there is people out there
who are dying to hear the good news of Christ.
And this is something that I've been reflecting on
this week and contemplating.
After hearing a talk on a podcast recently,
like what is the essence, what is the foundation
of all genuine, effective evangelism?
What is the foundation of all genuine, effective evangelism?
Do you know what it is?
Because we all do it already.
It's called enjoyment.
Enjoyment.
Hey, did you try that new place that opened up
down the street?
We went there last night and it was amazing.
You've gotta try it.
Hey, have you watched that new series
that came out on Netflix?
We binge like 16 episodes.
We can't wait for the next season.
It's coming out.
You've got to watch it.
Enjoyment.
When you enjoy the thing, you can't help but talk about it.
And it's not some scary subject to broach.
It's something that has moved you,
something that you have enjoyed and found great delight in
and now you just want to share it.
And so our problem isn't that we don't know the gospel.
The problem is that we don't know the technical words.
Like we understand.
Most of us do.
I'll give a grant that some may not.
Most of us do.
It's that we have yet to find a place
of absolute enjoyment in God
so that our enjoyment of God begins to spill out,
flow out from the inside out of us
into effective evangelism.
To go to our neighbors, go across the street,
to go stand on the street anywhere and say,
hey, I encountered someone in my life who changed my life,
who brought peace when I had no peace,
who brought joy when I had no joy.
And he's not like alcohol.
He's not like Netflix.
He doesn't run out.
He keeps giving and giving and giving.
The joy that he gives, the peace that he gives,
never ending.
You gotta, you gotta meet him.
You gotta meet him.
When you enjoy something, it loosens the tongue.
It makes it easy to say, hey, I want you to share
because all joy is not fully fulfilled until it's shared.
And so you guys know that too, right?
Hey, I had this great experience.
I got to go share it with someone.
It completes the joy.
The sharing completes the joy.
And so when you really have experienced Christ
and you really have enjoyed his favor,
you really enjoyed his peace and joy in your life,
the purpose that he's given you,
you complete the joy by going and sharing it.
It's a perfect circle.
And so we need the assurance of our salvation.
We need to know who we are in Christ
and we need to enjoy Christ
because that's the only way we'll be able to reach
our community.
That's the only way we'll be able to reach the lost
is if they come and see people who have a genuine enjoyment.
I've done the door-to-door surveys, right?
You know, well, what's your perspective on Christianity?
You know, are you having any spiritual pursuits?
The spiritual evaluation door to door
evangelism, right?
And I won't knock it.
It's just not biblical evangelism.
Enjoy Christ, find your hope in Christ,
find your love in Christ,
and then complete that joy by going and sharing it.
Complete the joy and bring it around.
And so we need that to be able to reach the city.
We need that to be able to bring the gospel to life
because no one wants to come and just hear
a bunch of information from people
that they can clearly see.
They don't believe it and don't enjoy it.
Oh, you've gotta watch that PBS show, you know?
On paint drying, you know?
You're gonna love it.
I had nothing else to do, so I, you know,
binge-watched that.
Didn't enjoy it, but you should watch it too.
No, they can see the joy.
They can see the life flowing out of you
from that rivers, that streams of living water.
And that becomes something that they're attracted to.
I want the life that's in you in me.
I want the joy that's in you in me.
Be filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit brings assurance and boldness for the gospel.
How does it happen?
Three ways.
Salvation.
In salvation, we are made to be saved.
In salvation, we are marked by the Holy Spirit.
There's nothing we do.
God gives us the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit seals us as His child,
prepares us and marks us for the day of Christ.
But how else does it happen?
Well, I know people hate when preachers do this,
but it happens through very common means of grace.
When you read the Scripture,
the Holy Spirit fills you with the knowledge
of the Scripture.
When you listen to the Scripture being taught,
the Holy Spirit brings it to life,
brightens it within your heart,
and causes your heart to be filled with the Scripture.
When you talk about the things of God with other people,
it changes what's going on on the inside.
The Holy Spirit uses very common means of grace.
Do you know that when we were singing together,
when we were singing and raising a voice together,
singing common words that were on the screen
and the worship team was leading us,
the Holy Spirit was filling us with truth and knowledge.
He was filling us with truth and knowledge
about who He is and who Christ is
and pointing us to Christ and His work,
testifying about Christ.
We were filled with the Spirit
through a very common means of grace.
Read the Scripture, hear the Scripture.
Michael Horton, Dr. Michael Horton said,
being filled with the Holy Spirit
is not a one-and-done thing.
In fact, throughout the day,
there are some times throughout the day
where I'm more full of the Holy Spirit
than other parts of the day,
and most of it revolves around the Word of God.
Have I fallen away or distanced myself from the Word of God
or am I moving toward the Word of God,
into the Word of God, to hear the Word of God and receive it
because it is the Word of God,
the Spirit of truth who will testify to our spirit
about what is true and fill us with wisdom
and knowledge and joy.
We need the Word of God.
We need to read, we need to be around it.
If you only come to church on Sunday
and that is the only time you hear Scripture,
you read Scripture, you study Scripture,
then you are allowing many days to pass
with low power, low battery.
You are not hearing the command,
the present passive imperative to be filled with the Spirit
because one of the primary ways the Spirit uses
is the Word of God.
He uses worship, singing alone and singing together.
He uses the gathering of the believers.
He uses our prayers.
The final thing I'll say today,
if you want to be filled with the Spirit,
if you want rivers of living water to flow out of you,
ask God, ask him.
You may go, yeah, yeah, again.
That's the easy answer, preacher man.
Ask God, yeah, pray, yeah.
There's a reason we keep coming back to these things.
Ask God.
There are Scriptures to back this up,
but Augustine, Augustine or Augustine said,
God is more anxious to bestow his blessings on us
than we are to receive them.
But let that sink in for a while.
God is more anxious to bestow his blessings on us
than we are to receive them.
I don't know if you get that, but that's a yay, God.
Well, what's up with us?
Why aren't we more eager and anxious to receive
the blessing he's anxious to give us?
Ask.
Luke chapter 11 said,
so I say to you, this is Jesus talking,
ask and it will be given to you.
And ask is keep on asking.
So every time we say keep on asking,
a present, present imperative, keep on asking
and it will be given to you.
Keep on seeking and you will find.
Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks to receive
and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks,
the door will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish,
will give him a snake instead of a fish?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion.
If you then who are evil know how to give him a snake,
give good gifts to your children.
How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?
Ask.
Did you ask this morning when you got up, Holy Spirit,
Father, give me the Holy Spirit to guide me today.
Did you ask when you got in the car, Holy Spirit, lead me.
Did you ask when you pulled in the church, Spirit,
lead me to the conversations that I should have.
Holy Spirit, guide me in the truth
to the things that I need to say
or the things that I don't need to say.
That's probably even more important, right?
Like shut my mouth when I'm about to say
something I shouldn't say.
Holy Spirit, I need you.
Do you remember the quote at the beginning
that D.L. Moody said?
You might as well try to see without eyes
and hear without ears and breathe without lungs,
which is to try to live the Christian life
without the Holy Spirit.
I think what I'm being impressed on through these messages
and what I hope that you hear is that we have lived
in a sort of spiritual anemia.
We've lacked something that is essential to us.
We've been unaware of it and unwilling to ask
for the very thing that God wants to give us
and is anxious to give us,
which is the Holy Spirit to guide us day in and day out.
And you need that and I need that.
And we're going to need that
if the gospel is going to advance through your village.
We need the Holy Spirit.
And so hopefully we can demystify that
and continue as we study the scripture
and say, Spirit, lead me.
You're not weird to me anymore.
You know, Father, Son, and that weird thing.
You're not weird to me anymore.
You're my counselor.
You're my teacher.
You are the means by which I'm going to grow
in knowledge and wisdom in Christ.
I will not grow apart from you.
I need your wisdom and your guidance in my life.
Holy Spirit, lead me.
I encourage you to ask, to seek, and to keep on knocking
for the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Not a one and done.
But if we're not going to go through life,
you know, on 1%, we're going to need
the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us.
Amen.