The world we live in is not friendly for spiritual growth. There’s a daily battle for what consumes you and what you are consuming. Paul, the writers of the book of Ephesians, has made this clear in Ephesians 5. These past two weeks were tough passages that highlight what we know to be true. Verse 8 tells us this world is full of darkness. Verse 14 tells us this world is a grave. And as we are about to see in verse 16, the days are evil. The point that Paul is making is that it’s hard to live out the Christian faith in a world that doesn’t want anything to do with the Christian faith. Today, our passage gives us a bit of a roadmap on what it looks like to live out our faith and to grow spiritually in a world that doesn’t. If I could sum up what that roadmap looks like, it would be this: Be consumed with what matters most. 

Let’s open up our Bibles to Ephesians 5. We’ll be reading verses 15 through 20. As you turn there, I’ll remind you that we are going through the entire book of Ephesians as a church family. At a 30,000 foot level, we have seen that we are God’s masterpiece (Sermon Series): God has created us anew through Jesus. But our job isn’t done yet. God still has good things planned for us. So, we are a masterpiece that is still in progress. Let’s read Ephesians 5 with expectancy because God’s Word is alive and powerful. Read Ephesians 5:15-20. Pray. If there’s a daily battle for what consumes you and a daily battle for what you are consuming, what do you do about it? You start by using your God-given spiritual awareness.

1) Use your God-given spiritual awareness. (vs. 15-17) Look at verses 15 through 17: ¹⁵ So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. ¹⁶ Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. ¹⁷ Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. We’ve seen Paul use this “negative vs. positive” literary technique throughout this letter. With every “don’t,” he typically gives a “do”. What are the things we are to do in this passage?

1. Be wise
2. Make the most of every opportunity
3. Understand what the Lord wants you to do

If you start with verse 15, I think we all desire to be wise. When we make goals at the beginning of each year, I don’t think anyone will write down: “Act like a fool”. By implication, all of our goals are summed up in the idea of making wise choices. What Paul does in verses 16 and 17 is show what practical wisdom looks like. Look at verse 16: ¹⁶ Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. There are two things I want to point out in this verse: First, Paull calls the days “evil”. The reason Paul is calling the days evil is because he’s calling us to a perspective. We are more spiritual beings than we are physical beings. This physical world we currently live in will not remain. It’s hard to comprehend what that will look like, but those who follow Jesus will live eternally with God. Who we are spiritually is more than who we are physically. Second, Paul says to “make the most of every opportunity”.

I touched on something back in Ephesians 4:18. Idleness leads to regret. One of my kids was asking me recently about the little letters next to the steering wheel. Once I finally realized what they were talking about, I told them that “P” means park, “D” means drive, and so on. When explained “neutral,” they were really  confused by it. They asked me, “Why would you ever want to put the truck in neutral?” In a summation, I told them that the only time you use neutral is if something is wrong with the truck. As Christians, there is a time to put it in park and rest. There is a time to back it up, ask for forgiveness, and start over. There is always a time to put it in gear and go. But there is never a time to sit idle. Satan loves idle Christians because a moving Christian is harder to catch. Quote:  "Resolved: never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.” – Jonathan Edwards.

Practical wisdom makes the most of every opportunity. And then what does verse 17 say? ¹⁷ Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.  Over the years, I’ve had many conversations about what it looks like to know God’s will for people’s lives. All of my practical advice really is summed up with one thought: If you want to know God’s will, then you have to know God. There is not a replacement for spending time with Him and being in His presence. As Christ followers, we are spiritual beings who have been given spiritual awareness. If we are going to consume what matters most, it starts with using that God-given spiritual awareness. Seek the Lord. Ask Him for spiritual wisdom, He’ll give it abundantly. God has given you what you need to know what matters most. God has given you spiritual awareness. Now Paul addresses the other part: being consumed. Here’s what we see next: Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

2) Be filled with the Holy Spirit. (vs. 18) There has been a progression in Paul’s letter about the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 says “And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.” When a person crosses from spiritual death to spiritual life by beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, that person receives the Holy Spirit and is sealed by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says “And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.” When we choose to act outside of our new spiritual nature, it brings sorrow to the Holy Spirit that lives in us. Now, in verse 18, we see Paul telling us to do what? ¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.  

Paul is very intentional about his “don’t” and his “do” in this verse. What Paul is not doing in this verse is giving a sermon on abstaining from alcohol. Paul, as we see throughout this letter, is teaching what life in the Holy Spirit looks like. The reason he uses wine as a comparison to the Holy Spirit is that it’s very straightforward. When you are drunk on alcohol, you are under the influence of alcohol. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are under the influence of the Holy Spirit. On a deeper level, the reason Paul uses wine is because the contrast is quite radical. Drunkenness brings about a loss of control. Whereas, being filed with the Holy Spirit means you are being brought under control.

The implied question in this verse is “how are you going to cope with life?” Both alcohol and the filling of the Holy Spirit are ways to deal with life. Alcohol is a depressant that dulls your sense of awareness. And, in our context, I don’t think alcohol is the only depressant. We live in a world that is designed to numb you. I’m reading a book right now that is uncovering the effects of social media on Gen Z. In the book, there was quote from the CEO of Netflix about who are the company’s competitors. He said this, “You know, think about it, when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late. We’re competing with sleep, on the margin.” You have a daily choice if you are going to give in to what numbs you. And I don’t have rattle off a list of all the things that numb us. I know mine and you know yours.

On the contrast, the Holy Spirit should be our only choice to deal with life’s pressures. I like how one pastor put it (JD Greear[1]): “The Holy Spirit gives you a way to cope by opening your eyes to the reality of God. Alcohol gets rid of worry by making you forget… the Spirit gets rid of worry by helping you remember! Alcohol gives you courage by making you unaware of the dangers around you… the Spirit gives you courage by showing you how much larger God is than your fears. Alcohol adds excitement to your life by giving you a cheap thrill… the Spirit adds excitement to your life by reminding you of the overflowing promises of God and His goodness to you.”  God wants you to trade a life of being consumed by consumption for a life captivated by being filled. 

So, what does it look like to be filled with the Holy Spirit? First, it’s a command. Not being filled with the Holy Spirit is going against what God wants for us. Second, the Greek in this verse indicates an ongoing filling. While the Holy Spirit indwells us forever, we need constant filling of the Holy Spirit. Finally, our job is to receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. The only way for us to be filled by the Holy Spirit is if the Holy Spirit fills us. We can’t fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit. We don’t control the Holy Spirit. Here’s where this can get a little complicated: We must be active in something that is actually passive. 

What does that look like? When Paul wrote a letter to the church at Colossae, he wrote something very similar to them as he did to the church at Ephesus. Take a look at Colossians 3:16-17: ¹⁶ Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Rather than saying be filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul said “let the rich message about Christ fill your lives.” One of the most active actions we can do in something that is actually passive is let yourself become overwhelmed with how much God loves you. To let yourself become overwhelmed with God’s Word. To let yourself become overwhelmed with how big and powerful God is. If you are at the pool, enjoying this beautiful TN summer heat, and you want to cool down a little bit, what do you do? Don’t sprinkle a little water on your face. Don’t dip your toe in the shallow in. Do a cannonball into the deep end! For so many of you, spiritually speaking, you never experience the filling of the Holy Spirit because you aren’t even at the pool. Go to the source and asked to be filled. Being filled with the Holy Spirit should be a normal Christian experience, not the exception. 

We have been given spiritual awareness. We understand that we are spiritual beings. We understand that we live in a world that doesn’t want us to grow spiritually. We understand that it’s imperative that we be filled continually with the Holy Spirit. All of this leads to one final understanding: Experience God for who He is. 

3) Experience God for who He is. (vs. 19-20)  Look at verses 19 and 20: ¹⁹ singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. ²⁰ And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Immediately after giving the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, God directs Paul to address worship. That should grab your attention. Worship plays a key part in being filled by the Holy Spirit and is a response to the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Worship plays a key part in being filled by the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it encapsulates almost everything we just saw in verse 18. When you combine doctrine, theology, perspective, being overwhelmed by God’s love, being overwhelmed by God’s character – and put it all in a song – you are being active in something that is actually passive. I believe that some of you don’t worship because you are afraid of being filled with the Holy Spirit. You hold back on letting yourself truly worship because “you’re alright”. You “don’t need God to disrupt what you have going on right now”. You don’t want to see the effects of the Holy Spirit so you don’t allow yourself to be filled with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. All I can say is this: You don’t know what you’re missing out on. You don’t know the vibrancy of life that comes with experiencing God. You are content feeling the numbness of the world, which makes you less human. What Jesus is offering is the fullness of the Spirit, which makes you more human than anything else.

Worship is also is a response to the filling of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit moves, worship is our response. True worship, that is, worship from and in the heart, is not superficial emotions, but spirit-filled emotions. Worship should be powerful because we experiencing God for who He is. I want to go back to something we learned at the very beginning of this letter to the Ephesians. Why does God want us to glorify and worship Him? What’s the greatest thing God could give us to show us how much He loves us? Himself! The best thing in all of creation is God Himself. God wants to give Himself to us. Let me ask another question: When do you experience the fullness of something in life? You experience the fullness of something when you rejoice in it. The things we delight in are incomplete until we praise it. We never experience the fullness of something until we praise it. If God knows the best things in this life is Himself and He knows that we won’t experience the fullness of His joy until we praise Him, then the most loving thing God can do is to bring us to praise Him. 

There’s a fundamental question underneath all these verses we’ve looked at today: What matters most to you? Whatever matters most to you is what you will consume and what will consume you. If you don’t know Jesus – if you’ve never thought about Jesus mattering most to you – it’s time to trade in whatever you’re chasing for the One who is chasing you. It’s time to trade in the numbness for vibrancy. It’s time to let go of what you think is comfort and experience the Great Comforter. If you have not asked Jesus’ invitation to spiritual life, today needs to be the day.

GOSPEL PRESENTATION

There might be a few of you today who know Jesus, yet somewhere along the way, He’s slipped through your hands and your holding onto something else that matters more to you. It’s time to let go of whatever that is and cling back to the Father. Make that your action today. Finally, for some of you, it’s time to take a step deeper into the presence of God by being filled with the Holy Spirit. We’re about to sing a song that you know well called King of Kings. Be active in your worship. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray.

[1] https://summitchurch.com/GetFile.ashx?Guid=169d414e-c1b1-45bf-aca1-4143271fe3a1

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