4. Be Filled with the Spirit

Introduction

Personal: Our garden did really well this year, despite the drought… Imagine watering your garden with a cup of water that you refill at the kitchen sink, when there’s a perfectly good hose next to the garden.

Do you ever feel like your faith is like that? Like you’re fighting a drought with a cup of water that needs to be refilled in the kitchen? Where is the garden hose? Where is the power of God in your faith?

I think the Church in the West by and large lacks any real power. See 2 Timothy 3:1-5… “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” That could be the tagline of most Christian churches in America today.

For all our biblical knowledge, we lack the power to overcome habitual sin in our own lives. For all our theological insights, we lack the power to resolve conflicts peacefully. For all our fantastic experiences, carefully planned programming, conference-worthy speakers, and radio-quality music, we lack the power to get along with one another in the church.

The modern Christian Church has assumed that education, experience, and enthusiasm are the same thing as power. But they’re not.

The disciples had education from Jesus himself, experience with Jesus as their coach, and loads of enthusiasm—they left everything, jobs, homes, friends, to follow Jesus. But education, experience, and enthusiasm weren’t enough. See Acts 1:4-5, 8. What did they lack? Power.

This sermon might be the most important sermon of this entire series. All the education, all the experience, and all the enthusiasm amount to nothing if you do not have the power of God in your faith. I believe most Christians lack the power of God because we are not living filled with the Holy Spirit.

Turn to Ephesians 5:18-21 and we will see: (1) What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? (2) How do we live Spirit-filled lives?

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?

Some Observations from the Text

Being filled with the Spirit is not what happens when you are saved.

Paul is writing this command to people who are already saved.

1 Corinthians 12:13… “all.” Everyone who receives Jesus Christ as God and Savior is baptized in the Holy Spirit. If you have Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit, too!

But this is not the same as being filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is different from the indwelling of the Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit does not mean you have more of the Spirit than you did before.

Being filled with the Spirit is not about how much of the Spirit you have but how much of you the Spirit has.

Being filled with the Spirit is an ongoing process.

In Ephesians 5:18, “be filled” = “be being filled” or “keep on being filled.”

As I heard Pastor Crawford Loritts say once, “The problem with being filled with the Spirit is we leak!”

Being filled with the Spirit is both a personal and a collective experience.

In Ephesians 5:19… “addressing one another” = collective, and “with your heart” = personal.

Being filled with the Spirit isn’t always accompanied by miraculous signs like speaking in tongues and prophecy (but sometimes it is).

Don’t confuse highly energetic or mystical expressions with living a Spirit-filled life. The Corinthians had all sorts of manifestations of the Spirit (tongues, prophecy, healings, etc.), yet they were carnal, selfish, vain, and spiritually immature.

Look at Ephesians 5:19-21. These are the signs of a Spirt-filled life: worship, an attitude of thankfulness, self-sacrificing love for one another, Christ-honoring relationships.

That said, when you live filled with the Spirit, he empowers you to minister to others and build them up. And sometimes that includes things like speaking in tongues, prophesying, healing, and working miracles, as seen throughout the Book of Acts.

Definition: To be filled with the Spirit is to be under the influence of the Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18, Paul compares being filled with the Spirit to being drunk with wine.

How do we live Spirit-filled lives?

Give more of your life to God.

Ephesians 5:18… How do you get drunk with wine? By filling yourself with wine. How do you get filled with the Spirit? By filling yourself with the Spirit.

I think one of the biggest reasons why we do not live filled with the Spirit is because our lives are already too full of other things… Remember, being filled with the Spirit is not about how much of the Spirit you have, but how much of you the Spirit has.

Fill your life with God, and God will fill your life.

Confess your sin and get rid of it.

Look a chapter earlier in Ephesians 4:30-32. Paul says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” How do we not grieve him? By getting rid of our sin.

Illustration from Sue Baker: We clean the rooms that everyone sees, but the other rooms in our houses are a mess… If you want to be filled with the Spirit, you need to let the Holy Spirit into the messy rooms in your life and listen to him tell you how to clean them out.

I think another one of the biggest reasons why we don’t live Spirit-filled lives is because we secretly don’t want to clean out the mess… so we settle for a form of godliness with no power. We trade the power of God for classes, experiences, programs, and self-help Christianity.

Don’t quench the Spirit.

To quench the Spirit is to cut off the Spirit’s flow in your life, like kinking a garden hose.

How do we quench the Spirit?

Skepticism. A skeptic is not a seeker of truth. A skeptic has already decided what is true and has stopped listening.

Pride. We think that God exists to serve us instead of admitting that we exist to serve God. So, we don’t think we should have to give ourselves up in order to get God. No, God should help us achieve our goals in life. “Doesn’t God want me to be happy?”

Complacency. We’re comfortable, so we ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit instead of testing them and holding fast what is good.

You might say, “I don’t get promptings from the Holy Spirit. And if I did, I don’t think I would know it.”

Tim Mackie, producer of The Bible Project, said, “I started a daily quiet time so I could hear from God. After several weeks, do you know what I heard from God in my quiet time? Nothing. Months later, I still have never heard God directly speak during my quiet time. But I am more aware of God’s presence and his will throughout the rest of the day.”

Read a passage of Scripture, reflect on it, and ask God, “What is one thing you want me to do?” Write down what thought comes to mind, even if you’re not sure it’s from God. And (this is key) actually do it.

God will never tell you to do something contrary to Scripture. And you can always ask an overseer, a pastor, or a Christian friend to pray about it with you. But, you should actually do what you hear.

Conclusion

Communion is an opportunity to renew your commitment to be filled with Christ…