Rowing vs. Sailing: The Power of a Spirit-Filled Life

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:03] If you have your Bibles, please meet me in Ephesians chapter 5. We're doing a quick mini-series, two-part series on what life in the Holy Spirit looks like, and I'm excited to share this word with you.
[00:00:15] Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 15. The guy who wrote this, his name is Paul, and Paul says these words, look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time
[00:00:32] why because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the lord is and i like this is the heartbeat of the text so we're going to hang our hat for the balance
[00:00:48] of this message and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled be filled be filled with the spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the lord with your heart giving thanks always and for everything to god
[00:01:10] the father in the name of our lord jesus christ paul ends verse 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
[00:01:23] Will you pray with me?
[00:01:24] Father, thank you.
[00:01:26] How my heart rejoices, Lord God, over the college students we are sending out.
[00:01:30] And God, we cover them with prayer.
[00:01:32] We ask that you would go with them, Lord God.
[00:01:35] We are anxious to hear stories of transformation, Lord God, lives saved, what you're doing all over the globe, not just through these college students, but also, Lord God, in these college students.
[00:01:48] We pray for them, Lord God, that they would come back likewise transformed.
[00:01:53] Now, Father God, would you speak to us about this much-needed person, the Holy Spirit, and the work, the role he has to play in our lives?
[00:02:03] Would you give me great grace, Lord God, as I talk about this Spirit?
[00:02:08] Would you be magnified?
[00:02:09] Because one of the roles of the Spirit, Jesus speaks to this, I believe in John 15, is that he testifies to you.
[00:02:16] So would you be magnified, Lord God?
[00:02:19] Stand in my body, think with my mind, speak with my tongue those things you'd have us know, say, and do.
[00:02:24] It's in Jesus' name I ask all these things, amen and amen.
[00:02:30] Katie Spotts and Laura Decker have a lot in common.
[00:02:35] Both of them are athletes, to be specific, they're not just athletes, but both of them are what we would call endurance athletes.
[00:02:44] Both of them have a love for water and the open seas.
[00:02:48] Both of them have specifically a love for boats.
[00:02:51] And both of them have led, have commandeered incredible missions on boats, some even world record breaking.
[00:03:02] And both of them, in their exploits, have likewise experienced the same thing.
[00:03:08] Out on the open seas, both of them have experienced storms, difficulties, near catastrophes.
[00:03:18] Katie, she took her boat and she went from the West Coast shores of Africa.
[00:03:24] to south america laura became the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe in a boat there's one glaring difference for all of their points of continuity and similarities there's one glaring difference katie chose to row eight to ten hour days bloody calloused hands
[00:03:53] she rode from the west coast shores of Africa to South America Laura didn't row she threw up a sail and let the wind push her along to cut to the chase my concern for so many people who named the name of Jesus Christ Christianity is
[00:04:18] more about rowing for you than sailing this is not to say that the Christian life is easy it is not it's exactly Paul's point where again he says in verse 15 look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time and listen to how he
[00:04:39] describes our world because the days are evil you and I live in a fallen world a world marked by what Katie and Laura experienced in the natural a world marked by storms and an incredible
[00:04:56] opposition and and setbacks and challenges I mean even in this room across all of our campuses I can't even imagine the circumstances and the difficulties that so many of us are going through even at this moment so you
[00:05:12] know some of you college students next semester you're going to experience this evil day you're going to experience difficulties in the classroom and in the dormitories at the frat house it's going to feel as if sometimes maybe you're the
[00:05:25] only Christian around. For those of us who are married, there are incredibly hard and difficult seasons that we just naturally go through. Each of us, spouses, we're fallen, broken sinners. And we bring all of that into marriage. And how do I navigate those things? Some of you, you're
[00:05:46] going to go to a job tomorrow where it's literally going to feel as if you are the only Christian on your job. You'll be surrounded by people who don't believe what you believe who who live in opposition to your core beliefs
[00:06:01] and values. Others of us are going to experience difficulty with with our kids and on and on and on I can go and the question we have to ask is am I going to row or am I going to sail? See,
[00:06:19] I think it's a trick of the enemy to get us to approach all of the challenges of life, armed merely with the oars of life with human resources. Some of us our initial reflex reaction,
[00:06:38] something happens, get the therapist on the phone, put the filters on the computer, pull them out of that school and hear me, you know my heart on this. I believe in therapy, I go to
[00:06:48] therapy, my wife goes to therapy, kids go to therapy, a dog goes to therapy, we believe in therapy. But while we're going to counseling let us not forget the wonderful counselor so we can walk and chew gum
[00:07:04] you will not be able to live the abundant life god has called us to live merely by rowing we need the wind of the spirit this is exactly the analogy jesus uses in john chapter three when he
[00:07:27] talks to a religious leader by the name of nicodemus look at what jesus says in john 3 8 with me on the screen jesus says the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you
[00:07:39] do not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit implication life in the kingdom is all about living the spirit-filled life this is exactly
[00:07:54] paul's point again ephesians 5 18 he says and do not get drunk with wine we're going to really unpack that for that is debauchery but be filled be filled be filled with the spirit god has given
[00:08:08] us his spirit and the christian throws up the sail so that he can catch the wind of the spirit what does that look like now let me just give a caution uh i started preaching when i was 17.
[00:08:24] someone asked me the other day they were talking about some preacher who's gone viral on social media for saying something he shouldn't have said and you know they were asking me a very nice question they said well brian you know have you said stuff you shouldn't have said you know
[00:08:37] preaching oh absolutely but praise god all that stuff is on cassette tapes and cds they didn't have youtube when i was first starting out at 17 years of age but here's what i want you to know i've been preaching now for 35 years and here's what i know
[00:08:55] there's something about preaching about the holy spirit that brings out the crazies There's something about preaching about the Holy Spirit that brings out, I'll frame it this way, the extremists.
[00:09:08] On one extreme, I'll call them the show-offs.
[00:09:13] These are people who love to make others feel so unspiritual by coming across as if they're so super spiritual.
[00:09:24] Everything is about what God told them, which is a heck of a trump card.
[00:09:31] You ever had a conversation with someone and you're trying to get them to look at it the other way and they just said, God told me, oh, end of conversation, check please, we're out of here.
[00:09:39] So you've got that extreme.
[00:09:41] And I'm not ripping on them.
[00:09:43] I came up in a charismatic church.
[00:09:45] I believe in all of the gifts of the Spirit being in operation today.
[00:09:48] I'm not a cessationist.
[00:09:49] I know I just lost so many of you with that word.
[00:09:52] Chat GPT it.
[00:09:55] On the other extreme, or not the show-offs, on the other extreme is what I call the Holy Spirit patrol.
[00:10:01] The Holy Spirit hall monitors.
[00:10:05] Ready to just give demerits, blow the whistle.
[00:10:09] I mean, you just love, I mean, your Trinity is God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Scriptures.
[00:10:14] You just love to hit people over the head.
[00:10:17] Let me frame it another way.
[00:10:18] On one extreme are the voices of the Spirit versus the verses of Scripture.
[00:10:29] And so I want you to hear me.
[00:10:31] If anyone claims that the voice of the Spirit said something to them that is not congruent with the verses of Scripture, that ain't the Spirit.
[00:10:42] So we don't use the voice of the Spirit.
[00:10:44] We don't weaponize them to minimize Scripture.
[00:10:49] But some of you, you elevate Scripture to the muting of the voice.
[00:10:59] I think a healthy pneumatology, all that means is doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:02] A healthy doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not live at the extremes.
[00:11:07] It is not either or, voice or verse.
[00:11:11] It is both and.
[00:11:14] Are you with me on that?
[00:11:16] I'm always leery of new believers who got saved on Tuesday and Friday, they telling you what the Spirit said.
[00:11:22] Now, how about you know what God says first in his word?
[00:11:26] Okay?
[00:11:27] So I want you to just live in that tension with me.
[00:11:34] Quick sermon, three things.
[00:11:39] Why do I need to be filled with the Spirit?
[00:11:41] What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
[00:11:44] And how do I know that I'm filled with the Spirit?
[00:11:49] Why do I need to be filled with the Spirit?
[00:11:51] because this life is too much you do not have the resources in and of yourself to navigate this life in such a way that honors and pleases God we need his spirit we come down to the book of Ephesians
[00:12:10] hang in there with me I just got to frame this theologically and I'm gonna connect it to the spirit but the book of Ephesians six chapters as we know it can be divided exactly in half
[00:12:19] chapters one two and three are the first section chapters four five and six are the second section the book of ephesians originally written in a language called greek why is that important it's important because if you were to study the verbs in the book of ephesians here's what you
[00:12:34] would notice something very interesting chapters one two and three the primary mood of those greek verbs are the indicative mood all that means is the indicative is the mood of certainty With me on that?
[00:12:52] Chapters 1, 2, and 3.
[00:12:54] The verbs primarily indicative, which is the mood of certainty.
[00:12:58] That's very important because chapters 1, 2, and 3 is all about what God has done for us in Christ.
[00:13:04] We're adopted.
[00:13:05] We're redeemed.
[00:13:06] We're sealed with the Holy Spirit.
[00:13:08] He's demolished the dividing wall of hostility.
[00:13:11] And Paul wants us to see through the use of the mood of the indicative that God hasn't only just done it.
[00:13:18] He's certainly done it.
[00:13:21] Now beginning in chapter four, chapter five, chapter six, the primary mood of the verbs is not indicative, they're imperatives.
[00:13:32] Imperatives are ethical commands.
[00:13:37] So chapters one, two, and three, here's what God has certainly done.
[00:13:39] Chapters four, five, and six, here's what we need to do in response to what he's done.
[00:13:43] And one of those imperatives is Paul saying, be filled, be filled, be filled with the Spirit.
[00:13:51] In other words, in its proper theological context, the filling of the Spirit is not about me striving to achieve something on my own, but it is simply being filled with the Spirit.
[00:14:06] It is me experiencing and accessing in real time in my life what God has already done for me.
[00:14:18] It is the Spirit-filled life accesses heavenly resources and allows me to experience the kind of power I need in real time in my life.
[00:14:30] I was reminded of this not too long ago.
[00:14:32] I had to speak somewhere.
[00:14:33] I hopped in the car.
[00:14:34] It's about a five-hour road trip away.
[00:14:35] I timed it just right so that I'd get there about a half hour in advance.
[00:14:38] So here I am hopping in my car, five-hour road trip.
[00:14:41] About an hour into the road trip, I was overcome with just dread.
[00:14:47] I left the house without my wallet.
[00:14:49] it. So here I've got these resources sitting in bank accounts that I can't access. And the problem is inevitably, I'm going to run out of power in my car. I'm going to run out of
[00:15:05] gas, I'm going to need to have food, maybe I'll get a flat tire. I've got the resources, I just can't access them. And I'm like, Oh, and I don't have time enough to go back. So I just
[00:15:16] start thinking and then it hits me. And I start praising the name of Steve Jobs. Because all my little thing called an iPhone is Apple Pay. And what Apple Pay allows me to do is to access what is most certainly mine in my account and allows me to
[00:15:34] apply it to whatever need and situation I have. That is the person of the Spirit of God in our lives. He allows us to access heavenly resources and apply them in a victorious way in our lives.
[00:15:49] is exactly what Pastor Max Lucado says.
[00:15:53] One of my favorite Christian writers, he says these words, look at it with me, mark it down.
[00:15:59] The Holy Spirit comes with power, power to make good choices, keep promises, and silence the inner voices of fear and failure.
[00:16:07] Power to get out of bed, get on with life, get busy about the right things in the right way.
[00:16:12] Power to face the unexpected, unwanted passages of time, power.
[00:16:18] Why do we need this?
[00:16:18] the writer of Hebrews says that all of us has something called the sin which so easily entangles I think he's intentionally ambiguous I think the reason why he does not name that sin specifically is because it's it's
[00:16:30] different for just about all of us have you ever gone through periods in your Christian life in which you just feel so defeated maybe man I just just can't seem to get a hold of this unrighteous anger that I have in the way I just lash
[00:16:44] out in the words that come out of my mouth or or maybe maybe there's just this thing of man your greed and the way that you spend money and or maybe it's that lust issue that
[00:16:56] you have or maybe you're in some kind of relationship just really struggling bad in that here's what he wants you to see you have the holy spirit yeah you might need to do some practical
[00:17:07] things and there's some wisdom in that but you have been given the holy spirit who gives you the resources to access all of those things in such a way that you live the victorious christian
[00:17:20] life and again I know I'm hammering this but this is one of my pastoral concerns as as we're pastoring in an age in which I'm concerned the therapist has replaced the spirit I'm not anti
[00:17:36] it keep going I'm just making an appeal to be filled with the spirit what does it mean to be filled with the spirit a healthy theology of the holy spirit says this I just need to back up that
[00:17:57] When you got saved, here's an afternoon's meditation.
[00:18:00] Just sit with us.
[00:18:03] When you got saved, God moved into your life through the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:12] In the Old Testament, if you wanted to experience God, you had to go to the tabernacle or the temple.
[00:18:18] New Testament theology says you don't have to go there.
[00:18:20] You are that temple.
[00:18:26] Paul says it this way, 1 Corinthians chapter six, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit where within you, whom you have from God, you are not your own.
[00:18:41] We all have the presence of the Spirit of God living inside of us, and as believers, we never have to worry about losing the presence of the Spirit.
[00:18:53] He is in us.
[00:18:56] But while we will never lose the presence, we can lose the power.
[00:19:05] that is why when paul says be filled it has nothing to do with the presence of the spirit but it has everything to do with the power of the spirit he says watch it now and and do not get
[00:19:16] drunk with wine that is debauchery but be filled be filled be be filled imperative it's an ethical command he's not recommending he's not suggesting i'm commanding you be filled with the spirit be filled with the spirit it's a greek word play ro or play roma it means to be filled to overflowing
[00:19:32] it was used of cups that were filled to the top with some liquid substances i love how else it was used it was used of pregnant women not just of pregnant women in general but pregnant women in
[00:19:42] the final days of their pregnancy i'm i'm talking can't get comfortable at night pregnant i'm talking can't bend down and tie their shoes pregnant i'm i'm talking so pregnant with baby that even though you just met her for the first time ask her with confidence when the baby is due
[00:19:58] because it's obvious it's it's obvious so that plero means to be dominated by that's the word paul says may your life and my life be so dominated by the spirit that it's obvious who's in control it's just obvious okay brian thank you for that can you can you bring it down
[00:20:28] can you drop a few thousand feet in altitude okay what does it mean to be filled with the spirit look at the negative analogy Paul uses, because in that negative analogy, he's going to give us
[00:20:40] some help. And do not get drunk with wine. The idea of being drunk with wine is the idea of now I'm controlled by it. He doesn't say, and don't drink wine. I'm in a Southern Baptist church,
[00:21:00] so I'm not going to push that any further. He says, don't be drunk with wine. When a person is drunk we say that they are under the influence to the point where a drunk person they're
[00:21:18] transformed that the way you are experiencing them under the influence of alcohol is not how you would normally experience them it's like they're two different people so that when paul talks about being filled with the spirit he is calling us to be under the influence of the spirit
[00:21:44] If your testimony is, yeah, I'm a Christian, but not much about me has changed, then I would question both your Christianity and whether or not for sure you're filled with the Spirit.
[00:21:56] He changes us.
[00:21:58] He transforms us so that, watch it now, the idea of being filled with the Spirit, here's the key word, it means to be controlled by.
[00:22:11] Let me bring it down a few more thousand feet.
[00:22:13] when a person is maybe going to a party and they're anticipating that they're going to have something to drink the responsible person is going to bring what's called a designated driver when that designated driver just thinks
[00:22:28] you've had a little bit much too much to drink they'll hold their hands out and in essence they're saying give me control I want the keys I don't need you calling the shots the Holy Spirit is called our helper Greek word paraclete
[00:22:45] one who comes alongside to be filled with the spirit is him saying give me keys to your life i want the keys to how you parent i want the keys to how you spouse i want
[00:23:00] the keys to how you friend i want the keys to how you work just give me the keys it's my experience that um we need to stop using the phrase so and so fell into sin as if sin was a pothole we didn't
[00:23:18] see and just kind of slipped off in it my experience is most times we go into it eyes wide open and most the times there's there's a window where we have to make a choice and that choice
[00:23:31] comes down to who's in control here i don't believe in that moment holy spirit's like can Can you just give me the keys?
[00:23:40] Someone cuts you off on the freeway.
[00:23:42] You haven't had your time with Jesus, hadn't had your cup of coffee.
[00:23:45] And man, before you know it, your foot is on the gas.
[00:23:47] You gonna speed up next to them and speak to them in sign language.
[00:23:51] And the Spirit is like, give me the keys.
[00:23:52] Give me the keys, give me the key.
[00:23:57] That child who knows you got one nerve left and they river dancing all on that nerve.
[00:24:07] Before you lash out in unrighteous anger, the Holy Spirit's like, hey, can you give me the keys?
[00:24:16] Can you give me the keys?
[00:24:19] There've been times I've been driving down the road and my wife and I have just had one of those marital realignment sessions.
[00:24:27] Okay, we had an argument.
[00:24:30] And the Holy Spirit's like, hey, just pick her up some flowers, give me the keys.
[00:24:36] Just give me the keys.
[00:24:43] So that when I sin, I don't lose his presence, I just assume control.
[00:24:52] And the road to repentance is me confessing my sins, 1 John 1.9, if I confess my sins, he's faithful and just to forgive me of my sins.
[00:25:00] But I also think it's a helpful posture to just say, Spirit of the living God, you take control, take control.
[00:25:13] Let's end with this.
[00:25:15] Wow, y'all gonna get up out of here early today.
[00:25:17] Let's end with this.
[00:25:20] How do I know, how do I really know I'm filled with the Spirit?
[00:25:27] Three things.
[00:25:31] It's interesting to me, and I wanna give you an assignment.
[00:25:35] We're looking at Ephesians 5, 15 to 21.
[00:25:38] I wanna encourage you to read Ephesians chapter five, verse 22 through chapter six, verse four.
[00:25:50] Because I think what's often missed when we talk about the Spirit-filled life is that right on the heels of this, Paul says, verse 21, I want you to submit to one another.
[00:26:01] From there, he talks about how wives are to relate to husbands.
[00:26:05] From there, he talks about how husbands are to relate to wives.
[00:26:08] From there, he talks about how children are to relate to their parents.
[00:26:12] And then later on, he talks about the working relationship.
[00:26:15] So notice what he does.
[00:26:17] He now connects the spirit-filled life to our relationships with others.
[00:26:26] Let me frame it this way.
[00:26:28] A drunk person inevitably does damage to relationships.
[00:26:33] A person who doesn't deal with their alcoholism does damage to their relationships.
[00:26:38] Some of you right now, you've maybe walked the road of divorce because either you or your spouse was an alcoholic, they didn't deal with that, and it wreaked havoc on your marriage.
[00:26:49] Others of you, maybe you've lost a loved one to a drunk driver.
[00:26:55] Others of you, maybe you have an extended family member or a friend and that relationship is no more or it's dangling by a thread because they're not addressing their drunkenness.
[00:27:07] You can't have a healthy relationship with a person who is under the influence of alcohol.
[00:27:17] But the Spirit of God is the exact opposite.
[00:27:21] Whereas drunkenness destroys relationships, the Spirit-filled life, and specifically when you have two Spirit-filled believers, it enhances the relationship.
[00:27:36] So do you see the connection?
[00:27:38] Filled with the Spirit with marriage, filled with the Spirit with parenting, filled with the Spirit with working.
[00:27:47] I'm gonna say something really strong to you.
[00:27:54] I don't know of a single case in my years of ministry of a married couple where both of them were committed to the moment by moment, daily filling of the Spirit and got divorced.
[00:28:14] I'm not saying it's impossible.
[00:28:16] What I am encouraging you is after you pay 150 bucks the therapist and you work through the family trauma and you work through the background which is needed stuff also add to that being filled with the spirit it's amazing what the filling of the
[00:28:34] spirit has done in my almost 26 years of marriage spirit of god will say to me apologize to your wife i don't want to do that well who's in control you giving me the keys stop being so sensitive in
[00:28:53] this area she's speaking truth to you it enhances relationships now let me just say this and then i'll move on to the second point of application i'm in my study this week i'm preparing this
[00:29:08] message and the spirit spoke to me the voice came to me from the verses he says brian don't miss this it's interesting brian that i'm going from the filling of the spirit to family and
[00:29:22] here's what the spirit just impressed upon my heart the primary recipients of me being filled with the spirit shouldn't be strangers it shouldn't just be me step standing on a stage putting on a game face in front of church people but the primary
[00:29:42] benefits beneficiaries of me being filled with the spirit should be my family it's easy to put on a game face secondly how do I know that I'm filled with the spirit I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit when my life is marked
[00:30:07] by joyful gratitude.
[00:30:11] Look at what he says right on the heels of saying in verse 18, be filled with the spirit.
[00:30:15] Notice what he does, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:27] I mean, this has the aroma of joy and gratitude.
[00:30:34] Kind of reminds me of Ephesians, excuse me, Galatians 5 when Paul says that the fruit of the spirit is love.
[00:30:39] joy doesn't mean doesn't mean that we can't go through seasons of sorrow and sadness we don't stay there this is exactly what david says in psalm 16 look at it with me you make known to
[00:30:54] me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures for ever more i think the witness of scripture is this a sullen negative christian is an oxymoron
[00:31:10] and for sure is not spirit filled if the constant energy you bring to the room is negativity you're not filled with the spirit i'm reminded of september of 1871 a guy by the name of
[00:31:33] d.l moody who's a noted evangelist and pastor two women from his church in september of 1871 came to d.l moody and said hey listen we feel led by the spirit to pray that you get a fresh
[00:31:45] experience of the holy spirit so they begin to pray and they begin to pray for him every day a couple months later the great chicago fire happened to burn down moody's building as you can imagine he's in great sorrow these women keep praying though that their pastor would get a fresh
[00:31:59] experience of the spirit of god in his life moody filled with sorrow goes to new york city to try to raise some funds he's out on a prayer walk one day and look at what he says one day moody says in
[00:32:10] the city of new york oh what a day i cannot describe it i seldom referred to it it is almost too sacred an experience to name I can only say that God revealed himself to me
[00:32:19] and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand I went to preaching again the sermons were not different I did not present any new truths and yet hundreds were converted I would not now be placed back where I was
[00:32:32] before that blessed experience if you should give me all of the world it would be as the small dust of the balance you see what he's saying the joy he's he's experiencing the labors of these women's prayers. Spirit of God gives us joy. Finally, we know we
[00:32:56] are filled with the Spirit when we submit to authority. No, I didn't think I'd get any amens there. Preaching is dangerous. It gets you in trouble. If I'm committed to giving you the whole counsel of this text, I got to make this point. Remember, one of the dominant verbs in our text
[00:33:19] is do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit and notice how paul ends in verse 21 submitting part is simple dominant verb be filled with the spirit under that submitting submitting
[00:33:31] submitting to one another out of reverence for christ the greek word for submitting it was a military term that simply means to fall in rank paul talks about now filled with the spirit means means i'm submitting to one another which means this in the body of christ if we're
[00:33:53] we're gonna have real community.
[00:33:57] You're gonna see some things in me that you don't like, and I'm gonna see some things in you that I don't like, which means a part of what it means to have real community is we challenge each other.
[00:34:11] I'm not beyond correction or rebuke.
[00:34:13] You're not beyond correction or rebuke.
[00:34:18] But he's not done.
[00:34:19] Notice what he says in the next verse, wives submit to your husbands.
[00:34:31] Then later on, he says, husbands love your wives.
[00:34:35] Some of you may be feeling like, I went, man, it's just wearing one of these seasons.
[00:34:38] I just don't, she doesn't deserve it.
[00:34:41] Do it.
[00:34:44] Later on, what does he say?
[00:34:46] Children, obey your parents.
[00:34:51] Later on, masters, obey, submit to your slave.
[00:34:55] Now, here's what I want you to see.
[00:34:57] There's been horrible exegesis historically in the church that has opened the door for abuse.
[00:35:03] Listen, even that master-slave thing, hopefully I'm a spirit-filled, but I am an embodied black man.
[00:35:09] you know how many people used that master-slave dynamic to perpetuate that horrible institution so i i understand all of this and maybe women maybe kids maybe you're in abusive situations and i i just want you to hear me say that's horrible that's sinful you should tell someone
[00:35:31] we want to come alongside and walk with you on that so i just want to be very clear on that But if you just go from submitting to one another and wives submitting to their husbands
[00:35:47] and husbands loving their wives, even when it feels like they don't deserve it and children obeying their parents and the work dynamic and employees with employers, this covers everybody.
[00:36:00] So here's Paul's left hook.
[00:36:02] You ready?
[00:36:07] If you can pretty much look at your life and say, I pretty much do what I want to do.
[00:36:14] And anytime someone challenges me, I shut them down with my sensitivity or I cut off the relationship or I bow up and stiffen my neck, you are not filled with the Spirit.
[00:36:34] That's what Paul is saying.
[00:36:36] One of the primary ways you know you're filled with the Spirit is when you are challenged to do something that is not outside.
[00:36:44] So let me explain it.
[00:36:45] Let me give you two quick points of application.
[00:36:48] I was a lead pastor before I got here.
[00:36:50] I'm not a lead pastor anymore.
[00:36:52] Pastor JD and I have a wonderful relationship.
[00:36:55] I'm over his home.
[00:36:56] He's over at my home.
[00:36:57] we sit on back porch inevitably inevitably in any relationship there are times in which this probably happened two or three times pastor jd and i we've seen something different i've expressed my opinion he's called it a different way and i've had to do stuff that i didn't like to do
[00:37:13] and my flesh is like he must not know who i am he should probably google me google me and it's at the moment the spirit's like give me the keys he is my ordained authority in your life and i need
[00:37:36] you to submit not just in action but in attitude now parents I want you to show this part to your kids kids from as young as they can handle this all the way up through high school and let me just say this with parents your primary
[00:38:00] weapon and how you engage your kids shouldn't be control and coercion you should engage them to being filled with the spirit and there should be love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control but
[00:38:13] That should also be a two-way street.
[00:38:14] So kids, I want you to hear this part.
[00:38:19] God in his sovereignty has given you the parents he's given you.
[00:38:23] And I know there's wonderfully good reasons as to why you shouldn't eat all your dinner, why the curfew is unreasonable, why you shouldn't have a curfew, why you shouldn't have to clean up, all that stuff.
[00:38:36] And listen, in our house, we actually gave our kids permission to push back in a way that was respectful, help us to see what, I want to make sure you feel heard, but inevitably there were times in which I got heard you,
[00:38:54] you still got to do this. Notice Paul does not let kids off the hook. Children obey your parents.
[00:39:03] Hear me. And in connecting that with the spirit filled life, he's saying to any kid who claims the name of Jesus Christ, you have the spirit of God. And one of the signs that you have the
[00:39:17] spirit of God is you do not rebel against your parents' authority. I thought at least one parent would have said amen on that. That was your opportunity. Hear me. I've seen it over and over and over again in years. You show me any kid who the trajectory of their life was rebelling
[00:39:40] against authority. I'm telling you, that's a trajectory. If you don't learn that lesson early on, that flip isn't going to all of a sudden get switched once you get married. Those are the kind of kids who end up getting divorced. Those are the kind of kids who don't know the joy of long-term
[00:39:57] sustained friendships with people because the moment in which they do something they don't like, they cut them off. In 1990, there was a guy by the name of Curtis, true story, Ottawa, Canada, walks into a bank, pulls out a gun, and robs the bank for $6,000. He would eventually be
[00:40:27] caught, apprehended, convicted. I think he was sentenced to eight years. But this would go down as one of the dumbest crimes in world history. Why? Because when the police took Curtis's gun, they discovered that his gun was a rare 45 caliber semi-automatic gun made in 1918 by the Ross Rifle
[00:40:56] Company and was worth a hundred thousand dollars. So he pulls out this gun worth a hundred thousand dollars, robs the bank for $6,000, not realizing that what he already had was 16 times more valuable just didn't know what he had you have the spirit of god big inside of you right now
[00:41:30] don't take him for granted some of you are here today and you wouldn't call yourself a follower of jesus christ i want you to know that the spirit of god is poking and prodding in your life right
[00:41:43] now jesus in john 15 says this but when the helper speaking of the spirit comes whom i will send to you from the father the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father look at what the
[00:41:54] spirit does he will bear witness oh you're here today the spirit of god i believe is pointing you to jesus god the father sent his only son to die in your place and for your sins and the spirit of
[00:42:16] god is pointing you to jesus and if you submit to him right now he's calling you to turn over the keys to your life and to invite him in i like that posture as we close if if you're comfortable
[00:42:35] doing this would you just all of us would we just hold out our hands if you're believers this is just a posture spirit of god take the keys to my life maybe some of you wouldn't call yourself a
[00:42:46] believer maybe this is your first act of submission spirit of the living god would you take control just take control we surrender we submit we turn over to you and you fill in the blanks whatever
[00:43:11] that looks like whatever the specific struggle is but but it's even beyond the specific struggle we just turn over our lives to you we turn over our our rights to get back at people we turn over
[00:43:24] lord god our finances we we turn over our spending habits we turn over we we want to be under your influence it's in jesus name we pray amen