Our Walk in the Spirit

Did you notice all the smiles on the parents' faces when the kids ran back to their time of worship? Here's here's the deal. Um, most of the churches I've been in, um, kids go to their classes before ch church ever starts and they don't come in here. But here's what happens. There's statistics out there that says when a child or student graduates from high school, their likelihood, even if they went to church their whole life, they don't stay in church. And I believe this that a lot of the reason is in churches, and I've been in churches that do this, that the kids never get a chance to see worship in here. and they get to middle school and they get to high school and they never get to experience worship with the whole body of Christ. And so I am thankful our church says,"You know what? Sometimes it may be a little messy and sometimes they may squirm more than I want them to, but this is the body of Christ and for our kids to be in here." So thank you for your patience, parents. Thank you for your endurance, okay? And just a prophet, just a just a kind of a just a thing for parents. School's coming, okay? School's coming. I promise you that. So your vacation is coming soon. You know, listen, there's a story about um Alexander the Great, one of history's greatest all-time military leaders. And the story says this that that he took his troops to battle one time and during the during the battle, one of the the soldiers, just a young boy about 18 years old, just became totally just scared and he retreated and ran from the battle. And so when the battle was all over with, Alexander the Great knew of this individual and he said, "Bring that person to me." In fact, what that young 18-year-old did was treason in that time of war, in that time of of history. It was punishable by death. And so, everybody knew what his outcome was going to be. This young 18-year-old might not might not have died in war, but he was about to face execution. And so, the story says that Alexander the Great brought this young man before him and he looked at this man, and you can imagine this 18-year-old, he is just kind of trembling in his in his shoes and his boots and just just just scared to death because he knows what's going to happen. And Alexander the Great looks at him and says, "Son, what is your name?" And that young 18-year-old, not just trembling legs and trembling hands, but a trembling voice said, "Alexander, sir." And the story says that Alexander the Great looked at him and said, "Son, either change your name or change your character." And he sent him out of the room because here is the truth. Because of his name, because what is he called? Alexander the Great said, "There's a way that you're supposed to act. There's a way that you're supposed to live." And therefore, if you're going to claim the name, you better claim the walk. Um I I wonder this sometimes if the Apostle Paul was living today and he was teaching the book of Ephesians like we're teaching this summer, he might start off with that same story because really the whole book of Ephesians as we start working towards the end of Ephesians as we wind down the summer of our own lives. Here's the story. The first three chapters was all about who we are as followers of Jesus. We had this wealth in Christ. And Paul took the first three chapters and said, "Because your name is not Jesus. You're the son of Jesus. You're the son of God because that is your name. You have a wealth. You have benefits that belong to you because of your name, because of your your heritage, because of who you are." And then he takes the next three chapters, four, five, and six, which is what we're in right now. And he says, "Because of who you are, or maybe who's you are, then your life needs to respond and look a certain way." He starts talking about our walk in Jesus. And so we're going to continue today. In fact, as we've looked at the last couple of chapters, here's some of the walks that he's talked about that as followers of Jesus that we should be walking in unity with one another. That we should be walking in purity. That we should be walking in light. And so today, as we get to chapter 5, 15- 21, here's what Paul's going to say. because you are a child of God, because you have the benefits of being called his child, then your walk should have wisdom in your walk. So, we're going to take some time today and look at what is wisdom, as the Bible calls it. Now, understand this. There's a difference in being wise and being smart. A smart person knows this, that if you look up and and and and just Google it, a tomato is actually a fruit. I've always thought it's a vegetable, but if you look it up, the a smart person knows that a tomato is actually a fruit. But a wise person knows that you would never chop up a tomato and put it in a fruit salad. So there is a difference between being smart and being wise. And let's read together starting there in verse 15 what Paul says about this idea of walking in wisdom because we are followers of Jesus. He says in verse 15, he goes, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of your time because the days are evil." And then in verse 17, he says, "Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for it is a debauchery, but 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 the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says this, "And submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." And so in these few verses, here's what Paul's saying. We must as followers of Jesus walk in wisdom. So if that's what his command is to us, let's take the rest of our time and I want to just show you in this passage three steps that we should be taking if we're walking in wisdom. If you're taking notes, here's the first one. The first step we should be taking if we're going to walk in wisdom is that we need to step with purpose. You can fill that in the blank. Step with purpose. In a world filled with distractions and demands, God calls us to step intentionally in whatever we do. And and here's my fear and here's my concern that life is so busy. We have so many distractions. We have so many just obligations. We have so many things that we're involved in is we're stepping all the time. But I wonder at the end of the day, if we look back to every step that we took in that day, how much intentionality was in our steps? If you're like me, most of my steps are just trying to keep up with the step I need to be in. And I don't really have any mindset of like trying to go a certain direction. I'm just trying to get through the day. Yet, yet Paul says this, that when we live our lives, we should be living a life with purpose. In verse 16, I read it, but let me read it to you again. says this that we need to be making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Now, it's interesting back in those days when this was written, there's really two words for the word time because the New Testament was written in Greek. And so, the Greeks had really two words for time. And the two words were this. The first word they might use sometimes is the Greek word that we would pronounce as said Kronos. And it's time designated by a clock or a calendar. So for example in English if you say what time is it you would use the word Kronos. What Kronos is it? You're so you're talking about a specific time on the clock a time on the calendar but it's a specific time. But there's another word they would use sometimes for this idea of time time and it's chyros. And chyros has the idea it's an appointed time or an opportunity. So if somebody had a sentence and said it was a special time in my life, they would actually be using chyros in that moment because it's like a special opportunity they had. And so when Paul is writing here in this verse and he says make the best use of the time, he's not talking Kronos, your calendar, your watch, the of the day. He's using chyros. He's going make the best use of every opportunity that God puts before you in your life. He's going, don't just waste a day away. Don't just live life with no purpose, but have intentionality and have purpose in your life. There's a story about a man that had this amazing job opportunity, but he had to travel to train to get there. And so that morning, he set his alarm really, really early because he wanted to make sure he got to the train in time to get the destination for this job interview for this job opportunity. And so the alarm went off and he does what many of us do. All right, turn it off a little bit. Nine minutes later, it went off again and he buzzed that that snooze alarm several times. So, finally, he wakes up and he realizes, "Oh my goodness, I've got to hurry to get to the train to get to the interview." And so, he hurries and gets redressed. He gets to the train station. And as he's walking through the train station, he hears him saying, "Train." Whatever his train was, boarding in two minutes, train, boarding in two minutes. He's rushing to get there. He knows he's got to make this particular train to get to the job interview for this great opportunity. The story says that he stepped right onto the platform just as the doors of the train was closing. There was no way to get on that train. And he stood there looking as the doors closed and the train took off that he missed his chyros. He missed his opportunity. And I heard that story this week and I thought, how many of us missed the train leaving the station so many times in our life every single day? that we're so preoccupied, but what's the the thing in front of us that seems like it's grabbing our time. We're so preoccupied with this obligation. We're so preoccupied with you fill in the blank there that we're missing the true opportunity that God has placed before us. And so, as Paul is talking to the book or to the Ephesians, but talking to us here at South Sub Church today, he's saying this one, you only have time and you only have it once. And if you're going to live wise, you must be aware of the opportunities that God places before you. Maybe that time that you need to pay attention to is a conversation that you need to have with somebody. Maybe the time that you need to pay attention to is some conviction that God has been laying on your heart that you keep pushing away and pushing away. Maybe that that time, that opportunity is just this thing, this moment that you just need to pick up the phone and just call somebody going, "I haven't talked to you in a while. But God places it before us all the time. I wonder how many parents look back on the previous season of their child's life and think, "Oh, I missed that season, but I'll can never I'll make sure I catch the next season." And so, be wise in how we handle the opportunities that are before us. But Paul didn't stop there. That was one step that we must we must step with intentionality, that we must step with purpose. But then here's the second step Paul says we need to do. We need to make sure in our life if we're going to live wisely, we need to make sure that we take a step with discernment. Take a step with discernment. Discernment is not guesswork. It's grounded understanding based on truth. Let me say that again. It's not in your notes, but you might want to write it down. Discernment isn't guesswork, but discernment is grounded understanding based on truth. Here's what the Apostle Paul said in verse 17. He says, "Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." So, here's what Paul's saying. Don't be foolish, but instead, the opposite of foolishness is understanding what God's will is. Simple enough, right? Until you ask the next question. So, how do you know what God's will is? Right? like that seems like it's the question that is out there for everybody. Whether you are 15 years old and you're trying to figure out who you're going to take on a date Friday night or you're 18 years old and you're trying to find out what college you want to go to or you're 30 years old and trying to decide should you take this job or this job or maybe you're 60 year old and you're just trying to decide up should is it worth getting out of bed today? We all want to know God's will, right? And it's a question that we have before us. So, how do we know God's will? Here's what I want to share with you. And this may be the reason that God brought you here. I want to share with you the simplest way to know God's will. You're going, Keith, simple? Like simple? Knowing God's will is not simple. No, the way we find God's will is simple. It's spiritually deep, but it's earthly simple. And here's how what it is. The answer is God's will is not something you find. It's something you follow. See, somehow in our mind, we've got this idea that God's will is this mystery out there, and I got to look under this rock for God's will, or I got to pull back this door, open this door for God's will. We think it's some mystery, and we think God is up in heaven going, "This is kind of fun." Watch them run around like a like a just just they don't know what's going on. But God's will is not a mystery to find. It's a path to follow. In other words, here's what I mean by that. You will know God's will by doing the next thing in front of you that you know to do. Like God's will we think is this big majestic this huge thing. I got to know what's up for my whole entire life. How should I spend my whole entire life? And God's going, "Hey, just take the first step in front of you." And when we learn obedience in the first step in front of us and then we take the second step and the third step and the fourth step, all of a sudden here's what happens. We start walking in the path of God. And as we walk in the path of God, we start walking and obeying God in what he wants us to do. And the more we walk where he wants us to go and the more we do what he wants us to do and the more we become who he wants us to become, all of a sudden it's so much easier to discern going, "Ah, I see the will." It's not this thing that we have to go find. It's this thing that we have to follow in our life. So, what's the next steps look like? For some of us, simply looks like loving your neighbor. It might be walking in purity. It might be living a life with a little bit more generosity. It It might be living a life with greater gratitude. You see, we're going, "God, I got to get to the big one." He's going, "No, just take the next one. Love your neighbor. No, just start walking more in purity." And you start walking that path. And all of a sudden, you will begin to understand what his will is for your life. And here's the crazy thing. Even many or not even but most of the things that we're trying to find out God's will for our life, it's not like you can turn to certain book in the Bible and third chapter and second verse like there it is right there. But when we start walking in looking like him, even the things spelled out in the Bible will become clearer and clearer and clearer to us. And so, how do we walk wise? We walk wise because we walk with discernment. We take a step with discernment. We walk wise because we step with purpose. But here's a third one. If you're taking notes, you can write this one down. The third step that Paul points out here is that we are to in order to walk wise and live wisely, we take a step with power. Take a step with power. to live the Christian life with power. We don't rely on our own strength, but we rely on the spirit of God living in us. Yet, most of us wake up and we forget about God and we leave God almost on our Bible on our nightstand and we take off with our day and we're living in our own power. Here's what Paul said in Ephesians 5:18. He says, "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit." You see, here's what he does. He he he puts before us two examples, drunkenness and being filled with the spirit. And both drunkenness and being filled with the spirit, both of them consist of somebody surrendering your life to the control of something else. So a person who's drunk has surrendered the control of their life to the alcohol and becoming intoxicated in their life. A person who's filled with the spirit has surrendered their life and the control of their life to the spirit of God. And so what Paul says, hey, don't be drunk, but instead be filled with the spirit. It's so funny growing up and I grew up in Baptist world and drinking was like the sin, right? Like if if you drank or you smelt like it, like don't drink. In fact, we had a rule in our Baptist life. If you're going to drink, you have to be 300 miles from your church so nobody knows you're drinking. That's how much we believed in non-drinking. And my whole life, I heard this verse, and the only thing that was ever emphasized in this verse is don't drink, don't get drink, don't drink, don't get drunk. But I never heard anyone emphasize, but be filled with the spirit. And Paul is making a statement on don't get drunk. But he's making a more statement on but this is what you need to be focusing on. You need to be filled with God's Holy Spirit because that is where your power is coming from. Don't be controlled by this. And actually you could even put in there don't be instead of drunk there's a whole bunch of other things that controls our lives aren't there. So he's saying don't be controlled by anything other than giving God the control of your life. One leads to reckless indulgence while the other leads to godly transformation. Did you get that? One choice leads to reckless indulgence while the other one leads to godly transformation. If you want to step in power, we must give up complete control of our life and be filled with the Holy Spirit. At this point, the preacher wants to say, "Amen. I finished with 12 minutes left. This is going to be the best sermon you've ever heard. Right? But I know what's going through your mind. Many people, this idea of being filled with the spirit seems so mystical. It feels so mysterious. Like you've heard that word the spirit as you read the Bible, as you've heard sermons, you know, and many times you may hear it the spirit or sometimes it's called the Holy Spirit or sometimes if you go way back in old school, it's the Holy Ghost. But it feels like, oh, what is that? And it feels so out there that we're afraid to take a step to it. It's actually a lot easier to go open the refrigerator and go get the beer than it is to figure out what it means to be filled by the Holy Spirit. And so, here's what I want to do. I I think it'd be good for all of us to take a few minutes and dig down deep and understand and leave here going, what does it mean to be filled by the Holy Spirit? So, here's the first question. Who is the Holy Spirit? Most of the time people will ask that question another way. They'll say what is the Holy Spirit? Who's the right way? Because the who holy spirit is not a what. It is a person. It is a third part of the trinity. Trinity. God the father, God the son, and God the holy spirit. But I think to best just kind of in a little short summary to understand who the holy spirit is, we have to go back to the beginning of the Bible, the old testament. In in the Old Testament, anytime the spirit was talked about, it was referring to God's presence living inside of us in the Old Testament, New Testament, but it was always God's God's presence. That's the spirit living inside of us. But in the Old Testament, here's how it worked out. That the Holy Spirit didn't live inside of people. God's spirit lived inside objects. Let me throw out a couple of biblical terms to you. Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle, Moses, the the cloud of fire at night and and or the fire at night pillar of fire at night and the cloud of the cloud in the daytime. This was God's spirit. You can read about those different things. But God's spirit resided in objects. And here's the responsibility of people. If they wanted to be around or have God's spirit, they had to move themselves to the object. But that was the Old Testament. Then we moved to the New Testament and it changed a little bit. When Jesus came into this earth, that was really God's presence in human form in Jesus. And he came and began to reside on this earth. So now God's presence in the New Testament was no longer found in an object. God's presence was found in the son of Jesus Christ. So as in the Old Testament, if somebody wanted to be near God's presence, they moved to the object. In the New Testament, the coming of Jesus, if somebody wanted God's presence, then Jesus had to move towards them. Think about all the miracles that you find in the New Testament. Miracles only took place when Jesus was there. That was his presence. And so people had to move to where he was to have the presence of God because it was found in Jesus. But then here's what we found out as you keep going through the New Testament that when Jesus before he died, he looked at his disciples and he said,"I am leaving and I'm going to send you the comforter or the Holy Spirit." In fact, it says this as he described it to him in John 16:7. It is good that I go, Jesus talking, "It is good that I go so you can have the Holy Spirit." In fact, it's almost like Jesus was saying, "Hey, it was kind of good in the Old Testament. It's better with me being right here, but it's going to be even better when I leave here. Because when I leave here, God will send the Holy Spirit here. And God's Holy Spirit is not the presence in an object. God's presence is not in Jesus. When the Holy Spirit came in the New Testament and still today, it's God's presence living inside of us. So now because of the Holy Spirit, instead of Jesus being here, instead of us having to go to Jesus, Jesus came to us and Jesus spirit, God's spirit, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. And so that's who the Holy Spirit is, God's presence in us. In fact, the Bible says this, and we studied as we've been studying Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 1, the minute a person asks Jesus in their heart, the Bible says this in Ephesians that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. So if you ask the question then who gets the Holy Spirit? If you've accepted Jesus as your savior, you've trusted him as your Lord, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. That when you sleep, the Holy Spirit's there. When you wake, the Holy Spirit's there. When you're sitting in your chair right now, the Holy Spirit is with you. But there becomes a little confusion in it because in some circles of just scriptural or spiritual or just religious talk, you'll hear this term the second filling of the Holy Spirit. That at some point where some people believe that the Bible says this, that at some point, yes, you may get the Holy Spirit when you accept Jesus, but there's some kind of second something out there that you get. And I just want you to know, church, as I read this and study it, I don't think that's biblical. I don't think there's a second time or another time in your life that you get the spirit because Ephesians chapter one was so clear that you were sealed by the spirit the minute you accepted Jesus as your savior. The minute God adopted you and your family, you were sealed. And if I'm sealed with the spirit, then I've already got the spirit. Right? So then the question says, well then Paul said, we need to be filled with the spirit. How do you get filled with something you already have? So here's what it really boils down to is not how much of the Holy Spirit you got, but how much of the Holy you does the Holy Spirit have. Does that make sense? Let me say it again. In fact, as I say this, Stuart's going to come and I've got an object up here, object lesson I want to bring that I think will help us understand this. The question is not how much of the Holy Spirit you have, but how much of you does the Holy Spirit have. So if Stuart can bring it out here without making a mess, set it right there, Stuart. And if you'll bring the other two up here as well. Here's what I want to show you. I want you to pretend for a second that this vessel right here, this jar, is your life. And I want you to pretend for a second that you see the blue part there, that's you. That's every that's your control. Okay? That's everything that makes up you. The blue part, but the yellow part is the Holy Spirit. So this represents a follower of Jesus Christ. They were sealed with the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit resides in them. If you've accepted Jesus, this is you. Are you with me? This would help the pastor right now. If you would shake your head like this, okay, I would at least either know you understand or you're asleep or awake. I don't care which, but just shake your head like this. Okay, you get that? So then the Bible, Paul says this, that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, the problem is if you want more of the Holy Spirit, guess what? There's no room in this in this vessel for it. What is the only way that this vessel can get more of the Holy Spirit? I mean, it's got the Holy Spirit, but if you want more, how do you get more? Well, the problem is it's full. So, what we got to do

is get rid of more of you. You with me? The only way because now there's room in for more of the Holy Spirit.

So when the Bible and Paul talks about that we should be full of the Holy Spirit, he means we already have the spirit, but the spirit needs more of us to give us more of him. So when we become more obedient in our life, when we start walking like him in our purity, when we start walking like him with our wisdom, when we start walking like him within the unity of the body of Christ, that opens ourselves up. We lose control or not lose, we give away the control of our life and we say, "Jesus, come fill me. Come give me more of you." And so our life as a Christian is a constant I don't know if I want to use the word struggle or battle or just this constant thing that will forever be going on our lives that we will continually trying to be empty up empty out more of us

so he can give us more of him. And when we do that this wisdom that we're looking for, guess what? If there's more of the Holy Spirit, God's presence living inside of us, guess what? We have more of his wisdom. And that wisdom gives us his discernment. That wisdom through his Holy Spirit gives us everything we need to walk and look more like him. I am convinced that the reason that we have so many followers of Jesus that don't really look like followers of Jesus or followers of Jesus that would even say I don't even always feel like a follower of Jesus or those followers those have given their life to Christ going but I don't have the power of people that I hear talking about having Jesus in them is because they're too much full of the blue and don't have enough enough of the yellow and maybe in today as We read the Apostle Paul here. Maybe what's going on is that God brought you here today simply to say, "Let go." He's got so much more for you to just experience of him. So much more for you to know of him. And it's not some deep, deep spiritual mystical thing. How do you do it? We just let go of control. We quit hanging on to things that we want to hang on to. We quit doing things the way we think we ought to do those things. and just say, "Holy Spirit, would you feel me? But to fill me, I got to let go of me." Does that make sense? Now, here's the really exciting thing. If you keep reading there, and it's in your notes there, there's three more blanks, right? And I know some of you are looking at the time going, "Okay, pastor, I will not be able to sleep tonight if I don't get all these three blanks filled in." So, you got to keep going, right? What Paul does next is he actually gives gives a description of somebody who's filled with the Holy Spirit. He really says there's three just kind of just kind of just things that come out of you, ways that you start seeing your own life if you're feel full of the Holy Spirit. But here's what happened this week. Your pastor had to put the outline in on Tuesday and he keeps studying, but everything's already printed. And I got to Thursday going, there's not enough time in this sermon to get all this in. So, we're going to try something different this week. The band's going to come up here and I'm not going to give you those three in the blanks, three blanks this week. Okay? Not right now. Okay. So, some of you just pat your neighbor on the neck on the leg on. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. But, but here's what we're going to do. Um, by Tuesday, I'm going to shoot just like a short seven or eight minute video that we're going to put on our church's YouTube site and we'll talk about so what does it look like if you're full of the Holy Spirit. And so, at some point this week after Tuesday, you just need to go to that YouTube side, South Sub Church on YouTube channel, and just look and there'll be a seven or eight little men sermon. And I here's what I'll do for you. I will show you from God's word as you become more and more full of God's Holy Spirit what begins to come out of our lives. Can I give you a hint on one of the things he says? He says, "And you will sing songs and worship with one another." And I learned something this week that I've always thought worship goes to God. It's for God. And it is. That's who we're worshiping, right? But I realized this week it says that you would sing songs with and to one another. When we worship, we worship God, but we encourage the person next to us. The person sitting next to you today, you remember the early into the service today, I said, "We don't know what people come in here with." And somebody might have came in here sitting next to you so heavy, so just worn out, just kind of done. But they came in here, they might not even have the strength or the gumption to worship, just going, God, the fact that I'm sitting in this seat is all I have to give you. Could it be that when you and I sing songs as Paul talks about, spiritual songs to one another, that my worship, somebody needs to ride my coattails today.

This past week, um there was a young boy many years ago when I was a children's pastor. I knew when he was in kindergarten. We've moved. So, I haven't seen him since he was a kindergarten, but he pops up on my Facebook feed. And I've watched him go through high school and college. Just graduated college, Texas Tech University. Get him up guns. Had his first job. Good kid. You can just watch on social media things his mom post like, "Oh, that's a good kid. I remember him here." But he's a good kid. He lives in Dallas. He was hit by Hit and Run and killed. And so I'm watching the moms and dads posting and you can just oh the grief like my heart hurts and about five days after the incident she posted on there. My heart is so heavy but my soul will trust in God. Can can I be honest with you? I was kind of having a bad day when I read that and it put things in perspective. And so maybe the person next to you is having a bad day and your worship helps them put things in perspective. And so church, will you stand? I look forward to joining you on YouTube this week and we'll talk about the last and we'll fill in the blanks for you people out there that need those blanks filled in. But until then, will you join us as we sing psalms and songs as Paul says with and to one another and God.