Christian Maturity Being Spirit Filled

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ's teaching of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today's focused discussion will be on Christian maturity being spirit-filled. Paul says here in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18, be being kept filled with the Spirit. In other words, everything I've said in the book of Ephesians, or your position in Christ, in chapters 1 to 3, or your practice in chapters 4 to 6, all of it involves being filled with the Spirit of God. Or it can't come to pass, it can't really work out. Now, if you'll remember, we talked about three points in this text the contrast, the command, and the consequences. The contrast in verse 18, don't be drunk with wine, in which is excess, or astia, dissipation, disease leading to death, but be filled with the spirit. In other words, don't do it like the pagans do it. Don't try to induce some kind of communion with pagan gods by drunkenness. We commune with our God. We experience his power through the filling of the Spirit. That's the contrast. The command, be being kept continuously filled with the Spirit. It's a continual thing, people. You know, this may shock you a little bit, but God is not interested in your future. Did you know that? In one sense. You say, wait a minute, I'm big on the future, I'm big on prophecy and all that. Well that's fine. But God is not specifically concerned about your future for this reason. You'll never live in it. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that you've never gotten to the future? Every time you talk, you're around to hear yourself. It's true. We like to think about the past, nostalgia, old furniture and stuff. We like to go backwards, dressing like the twenties again and all. We love the past, and then on the other hand, we love the future, you know, spaceships and Star Wars and all that kind of stuff, and weird creatures and Ray Bradbury and science fiction. We love the future, because the future, we haven't blown yet. And we love the past because we can only remember the good. It's the present we're trying to get out of, but we never succeed. You've got to make it right here. And I guess that's the way it is in life. If you're going to be filled with the Spirit, it isn't something you promise God you're going to do, it's something you are or you aren't. God is not interested in your future commitments, and God is not interested in your future love. God is only interested in your yieldedness to the Spirit of God now, because this is the only time you'll ever live. Be being kept continually filled, that's the command. Then the consequences were third, remember. And we said there were three categories of consequence. First to ourselves, second toward God, and third toward others. Toward ourselves, singing, toward God, saying thanks, and toward others, what? Submitting. And there was even a fourth, serving. We can talk about that if we have time this morning. But the point is this. When you live a spirit-filled life, the overall consequence is blessing. Compartmentalized first, there's a personal consequence, singing. And what is this saying? A spirit-filled person has a heart filled with joy, right? We've talked about that now for a couple of weeks. A spirit-filled person's heart literally overflows with a song. That's what happens inside of us. And he gets into all the details of that wonderful reality. But let's go to the second category of consequence, toward God. A spirit-filled person is rightly related to himself, boy, he's a whole, healthy, together person. I mean he can sing and rejoice, and his heart is filled with song and it bursts out of him. Why? Because he's controlled by the Spirit of God, and he loses all of those things that tear up human personality. He's okay, he's together, he's got it made, he's right with God, and that means he's right inside. But there's a second element, and that's toward God. There's not only this tremendous sense of joy and rightness with self, but a spirit-filled person turns toward God, and inevitably the thing that happens is he says thanks, verse 20. This is the second consequence. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, beloved. A spirit-filled, Christ-conscious, word-filled, obedient, faithful Christian gives thanks to God for everything. We started our service this morning. I read for you Psalm 100. Enter into his gates with what? Thanksgiving. Why? Because that's the way you always enter God's presence. That's the way you always enter God's presence with thanksgiving. William Hendrickson says, When a person prays without thanksgiving, he has clipped the wings of prayer so that it cannot rise. We enter his gates with thanksgiving, we enter his courts with praise. O be thankful unto him and bless his name. Listen, I believe that a spirit-filled person is going to be one who says thanks to God. Now let me say something you maybe never thought of in this way. I'm convinced that the single greatest act of personal worship that you can render to God is to be thankful. That's right. That, to me, is the epitome of worship, not stained glass windows and organ music as nice as that is. Not sitting in church and singing great hymns. But the single most magnanimous, the highest and the best and the ultimate in worship, is to have a thankful heart. That's the key. Because thanks ultimately crucifies self. Thanks ultimately recognizes God as the source of everything. Thanks always is able to say, in the midst of anything good or even difficult, God be praised, God be praised. Thanks sees beyond the circumstance, to the plan of God. It sees beyond the pain to the sovereignty of God. It sees Romans 8.28. It sees that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purposes. It sees the hand of God in everything, the good and the difficult. And thanks is the ultimate act of praise, because it says, God, I thank you even for the hard times. I thank you even for those that die. I thank you even for a difficult marriage, I thank you even for a job that's unfulfilling. I thank you for everything, because I know that it can be used for my good, and its intention can be to conform me to Jesus Christ. Job said, Naked came I into the world, naked shall I leave, and that's okay, because the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Then what did he say? Blessed be the name of the Lord. I thank you God when you give, and I thank you God when you take. See. Now that's maturity, that's a spirit-filled person. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 15, Paul says this for all things are for your sakes. In other words, everything that God does is for you. Sometimes it's a blessing, and sometimes it's a trial blessing, but everything is for you. Why? That the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. In other words, now watch this. The ultimate goal is the glory of God. The means to the glory of God is thanksgiving. The means to thanksgiving are all things that God does in your life. For all things are for your sakes that you might be thankful to God, so that he might be glorified. You glorify God by being thankful. You say, God, this is to your glory, no matter how much it hurts, no matter what the pain or what the problem. And later on in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 11, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness. Why? Why does God enrich us? Why is God bountiful to us? Why? Which causes through us thanksgiving to God? That's why. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of Christian maturity being spirit-filled. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.