This past Sunday’s sermon was taken from Ephesians 5:15 20 15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. –NIV The focus was on verse 18 “…be filled with the Spirit.” There’s such a great need for Christians to be led and filled with the Spirit. The tendency is to focus on being a ‘good’ church person:
· Performance driven
· Doing some good from a sense of duty
· Religious
· Moral and looking to improve themselves morally
· The Bible as a codebook for how we are to behave
· Follow rules
· Addition – Jesus is just one piece of the pie
· Strives after the good
What would Christianity look like today if we were daily being led and guided by His Spirit:
· Pleasure driven – finding pleasure in Christ’s alone
· Doing based on delight (delighting themselves in the Lord)
· Reckless love for God and others
· Transformed, by the Spirit, from the inside out
· The Bible seen as a love letter from the Lover to the beloved
· Follows the Ruler
· Submission – Jesus is the pie
· Trust in His goodness
Which category might you put yourself? Give some reasons why you put yourself in the category you did. It’s easy to fall into the ‘good’ church category. If you were raised in a ‘church culture’ that’s the default mode we fall into. You can see why we need each other in the church: to help each other keep in step with the Spirit. Have you ever noticed that Jesus Himself depended on the Holy Spirit?
Think about the following verses:
Matthew 3:1616 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 12:18“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
Matthew 12:28But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Luke 4:18“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
Luke 10:21At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
John 3:34For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
John 6:63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Jesus was full of the Spirit.
Today can be different if we rely on the Holy Spirit instead of our own understanding. Let’s not do great things for God, but let God do and speak through us, guided and filled with the Holy Spirit.