Good. All right, let's go to Part 4
and let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.
I don't intend to be real long tonight just because there is
not, you know, a lot of these we've already covered, but let
me give you a couple announcements while you're
turning over there to Ephesians chapter 5.
We have just a reminder about the Papa John's gift cards and
if you could share those. We've already put that up on the
church Facebook page and if you can share those with people, we
actually, I've mentioned this I think on Sunday, but we have the
capability to pay for those online.
And so if you have somebody that that you know, lives a little
farther away or doesn't go to church here but wants to pay for
one, then we can certainly give you 1.
You can either take it to them or send it to them or whatever,
but they can pay for that online too.
So just to make sure you take advantage of those.
And then, oh, I meant to mention this because Miss Vicki brought
up a good point. Just make sure that especially
especially on Wednesday nights, but when you leave to make sure
that everything is cleaned up off the floor, you know that
you've taken your stuff off the pews and everything else for the
people who are coming in to clean.
She mentioned that when we had our cleaning meeting and I keep
forgetting to, to announce that. So clean up those things around
your view and, and it really does help too.
If you you know, if you grab your bulletin and it doesn't,
it's not going to bother me if you throw it away because I know
you, you get one every week. So if you can throw that away
when you leave, I mean, anything that you can do to clean up your
area that that just helps when people come back through and
clean. So make sure you pull those out.
And then just a couple things that we have for the rest of
this week. Friday morning we have the men's
prayer meeting. I'll send out a text for that on
on Thursday to remind you lift on Friday morning as well at
10:30. And then Saturday is a family
Saturday. So we don't have any outreach
that day, but we will do our men's Zoom prayer meeting that
night. And I'll send out a reminder for
that too, just to reminds you that we have it in an hour or so
after we get close to that. So all right, Ephesians chapter
5 and these are the last four principles, if you will, of of
Christian growth and spiritual victory.
And the the ones that we've looked at so far, abiding in
Christ, putting off the old man and putting on the new,
confessing sin, pressing toward the mark and then last week
devouring the word, protecting the word, separation from the
world, separation from false teachers.
And so really three tonight, the 4th 1 is abiding in Christ,
which we'll, we'll talk about that again, why he mentioned it
first and last. But there's really three that we
want to talk about tonight. And, and really the main one
that I'm going to focus on is being filled with the Spirit.
That is a principle of Christian growth and spiritual victory.
And there's five principles that go along with that.
So let's read Ephesians chapter 5 and verse #18 the Bible says,
and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled
with the Spirit. And of course, that's a very
important passage there. And so we're going to talk about
those different things. So spiritual victory in the
Christian life is through surrender to and yielding to the
indwelling Holy Spirit. Now I think the Pentecostals
probably especially have really hijacked this idea of being
filled with the Spirit and made it be something that it never
was intended, made it be something that the Bible doesn't
certainly doesn't back up, especially the to the extent to
which they've taken it. But I also think that for a lot
of Christians, we don't take advantage enough of the Holy
Spirit indwelling in us. So couple things here.
Number one, being filled with the Spirit means to be under the
Spirit's control. And of course, we're talking
about Ephesians 518 be not drunk with wine.
We're in his excess. And I think it's kind of funny
where the cloud is almost like having a conversation with
himself in this paragraph. But he says as a man is under
the control of wine when he's drunk, so the believer is under
of the spirit's control when he's filled with the spirit.
It is only in this one sense that being filled with the
spirit is like into being drunk with wine.
Then he almost changes and he says actually being filled with
the spirit is not like into being drunk with wine.
It's contrasted to being drunk with wine.
And that's exactly what it is. Don't be drunk with wine, be
filled with the spirit. It's, it's, it's the, it's kind
of the opposite of that, right? But but it could look the same
way, right? When somebody is drunk, when
somebody is under the influence, right?
That's what we say. You're under the influence of
alcohol. Why do you say that?
Because you are completely under the influence of whatever that
you, whatever you're drinking or smoking, right?
You're under that influence. It is, it is not predicting, but
it is, what's the word I'm thinking of your behavior.
It is, it is dictating your behavior.
Maybe I should say that it's, it's, it's almost telling you
what to think or, or not think, you know, and, and by the way,
that's one of the reasons why alcohol is wrong, right?
A lot of people say, well, if you just have a little sip of it
here and there or just one beer, you know, you're not really
drunk. That's OK.
Well, number one, you had to start somewhere because I can
promise you, I've never had a drink in my life.
I can promise you if I drank 1 beer, I'd probably be under the
influence, right? If I smoked 1, you know, one
joint of weed, I would be under the influence right now.
It doesn't take all that long to where you can get used to that,
right? And, and, and you can handle one
beer and not be drunk, but you had to be drunk at some point to
get to that point where you could handle it, right?
I, I had a guy and I won't even tell you what the relation is,
but I had a guy that told me one time he every time I saw him, he
had a beer in his hand every time I saw him.
And he said, you've never seen me drunk, though I always have a
beer, but you've never seen me drunk as he's, you know, eyes
are all floating around in his head and everything else.
He thought he wasn't drunk, but he was right.
And and that's, I mean, that's that's exactly what happens when
somebody is under the influence. And so we're, we're saying the
same thing here. Be not drunk with wine, wearing
his excess, but be filled with the spirit, be under the
influence of the spirit. Now, some charismatics teach
that spirit filling is to be drunk with the spirit, right?
What happens when somebody's drunk, complete loss of control.
They're stumbling around, they're slurring their speech,
they're doing crazy things, right?
Why do, why do people say that or, or why is that like a
colloquial expression? Hold my beer, right?
Because you're about ready to do something really stupid, right?
And that's what, and, and, and that's the reason why people use
that as an expression, because that's what happens when you're
under the influence. Trey acts like he's been there
before or something, but I don't know, maybe you said that once
or twice. I don't know, but hopefully not.
But anyway, let's let's go over to Acts chapter 2 because I want
to contrast this very sharply with with what Paul is saying
here. I'm sorry, not Paul, but Peter.
Well, actually, Paul wrote the book of Acts that this is about
Peter, though, and Peter was actually the one speaking so.
But this is what happens, right, when somebody is under the
influence of alcohol. And that's what the charismatics
act like, OK, We should be under the control or under the
influence of the Holy Spirit the same way that somebody's under
the influence of alcohol. You have no control over it.
So the individual falls down and laughs and acts like a drunk.
But this is ridiculous and unscriptural.
When the disciples were filled with the Spirit on the day of
Pentecost, Peter plainly stated that they were not drunk.
Acts chapter 2 and verse #15 For these are not drunken as you
suppose, seeing it is about the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.
That shall come to pass in the last day.
I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters shall prophecy, Your young men shall
see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
He's quoting, he's quoting the book of Joel, but basically he's
saying, he's saying they're not under the influence the same way
that somebody would be under the influence of alcohol.
They're not stumbling around and falling on the ground and
laughing hysterically, which I think I mentioned this, you
know, maybe last week, maybe the week before and we were talking
about it, but they have, there's been a lot of laughing revivals
or barking revivals, which it literally just just saying that
sounds ridiculous. But that's exactly just rolling
around on the floor laughing hysterically because we're under
the power and under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
I mean, and, and the same way that somebody does that when
they're drunk, we're under the influence.
Those things are all made-up. They're made-up, they're put on,
right? I mean, even even when it comes
to speaking in tongues and everything else, somebody who is
really honest about that knows that the very first time they
spoke in tongues, they did it on purpose, right?
And maybe they've gotten so comfortable with it now that it
just comes on them and they start speaking in tongues.
But it's the same thing with with alcohol, right?
You had to make yourself drink it the first time you took it.
I can't even stand the smell of it.
I don't know how anybody drinks alcohol.
This smell is enough to keep me away from it.
But you had to. You know what I've heard from a
lot of people who drink and who are, you know, who like beer and
everything else. A lot of them say it's an
acquired taste. You have to make yourself like
it, right? And I think it's exactly the
same thing that happens with the speaking in tongues crowd,
right? You have to make yourself speak
in tongues to the point where you're comfortable enough with
it. I, I was reading a book that
somebody was writing about this idea and, and one of the reasons
why they came to the conclusion that speaking in tongues was
wrong. He said, you know which, which
again, it just goes completely against the Bible.
The evidence of salvation is being able to speak in tongues.
So you can get saved. But if you go 2345 years until
you actually speak in tongues, you're not saved until you've
spoken in tongues because that's the evidence of salvation,
right? That's, I mean, it's just, it's
just ludicrous compared to the, to the, to the Bible and
actually what tongues in the Bible is.
But this guy said, I was in a Pentecostal church and I wanted
so badly to speak in tongues because I thought that was the
evidence of the Holy Spirit and I wanted that.
And he said I was with one of my friends and, and we were both
kind of in the same, you know, in the same boat.
And, and finally he told me we were on our way to church and he
said, I'm going to speak in tongues tonight.
I said, sure enough, he got up in the service and he started
speaking in tongues. He said that didn't, that wasn't
something that just happened. He finally decided this is the
night that I'm going to do it. And he made himself speak in
tongues and he said that was it for me.
I realized that it was all fake. There was nothing to it and I
got out of it as quickly as I could.
But that's what happens with some of these things is that,
you know, it's not falling around, stumbling on the ground,
laughing, barking like dogs and doing all these other kind of
things where you just have no control over your body because
you're under the power of the Holy Spirit.
No, to be spirit filled simply means to yield to God's control.
And you can underline this in your book because I think this
is this is this is kind of bringing everything together.
To be filled with the Spirit simply means to yield to God's
control in my life. That means to die to self will
and self desire and to live for Christ.
It's bringing my will under his will.
That's what being, that's what having the power of the Holy
Spirit, that's what being filled with the Spirit means.
My will is brought under his will, right?
It's exactly what happens. OK, if you want to talk about,
if you want to use that, that illustration of being drunk,
right? My will is under the will of
that alcohol because I don't have control over it anymore,
right, right. And, and the same thing.
Don't, don't be drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
Be filled with the Spirit. Your will become subservient to
God's will. And exactly what he says means
to start each day by surrendering myself to the Lord
for that day. And then as choices come my way,
I choose to do God's real will rather than my own.
When the believer does that, God gives him spiritual strength and
wisdom and guidance. That's walking in the Spirit.
That is being filled with the Spirit, right?
And and that's exactly what Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
#18 is talking about. Now we continue on with that and
you can go back over to Ephesians chapter 5 if you
turned away from it already. But #2 to be filled with the
Spirit is not a one time act or an experience.
It's a process, right? And again, it's kind of the same
thing. I got filled the Spirit.
I spoke in tongues tonight, right?
I spoke in tongues for the first time.
That was evidence of being filled.
And you know, no, it's not, it's not an experience, it's not
something that that happens to you.
It's a process. So the verb in Ephesians chapter
5 and verse 18 and be not drunk with wine where it is excess,
but be filled with the spirit. That verb is in the continuous
tense. And again, this is where
studying comes in. You have to go back into, you
know, go into strong skin coordinates and look at what
word is being used and look at the tense that that word is
being that that word is being used in.
But but be filled with the Spirit is in the continuous
tense. It's not a matter of achieving a
state of perfection. It's a matter of growing in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord. The believer must not get
discouraged when he sins. He can be filled with the Spirit
anew by confessing his sins and by yielding to the Spirit's
leadership and control, right, which is why the Bible says and
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption. You can grieve the Spirit,
right? You can sin to the point where
you are grieving him. Well, how do you get that back?
You confess that sin. You get it right With Him.
You can be filled right now. The Holy Spirit indwells you at
salvation, and once he indwells you, he's not going to unindwell
you because he's sealed you, right.
The Holy Spirit lives inside of you.
But to be filled with the Spirit is exactly what we're talking
about here. That is something that that we
have to, we have to do every day.
We have to allow Him to to fill us every day, especially if
we've sinned. And we need to get those things
right with God and He can fill us anew and we can have that
power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit #3
then. And we're that right there in
Ephesians chapter 5, verse #19 says speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your hearts to the Lord. Well, how do we know that those
things go hand in hand? Because punctuation matters,
right in the end of verse #18 is not a period, it's a semi colon.
So he's continually talking about this, right?
Be not drunk with wine, wearing his excess, but be filled with
the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to
the Lord. And it continues on because
that's another semi colon there. But this is the Third Point.
Observe that being filled with the Spirit is associated with
singing spiritual songs. There is power in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul
describes that that called associated, sorry, the singing
of spiritual songs are being filled with the Holy Spirit.
You think about in first Samuel chapter 16 and verse 23.
And we don't have to go back there and look at it because
most of you know the story. But Saul's spirit was troubled
and David came in and played the heart for him and it calmed his
spirit, right? The just as David songs calmed
the troubled king. Spiritual songs can feed,
encourage the believers, feed and encourage the believers.
Newman. So it's a good practice to
memorize hymns and spiritual songs so that they can be used
when trials come. Which, by the way, that's one of
the reasons why, you know, I know we have we have a nursery.
But that's one of the reasons why I want our kids in here
during the song service, you pick up on those, they pick up
on those things you do too, but they pick up on those things
from the time that they're little kids.
That's why from the from before our kids were born, we were
playing music for them at night. And every night when they go to
bed, they listen to music, right?
It's, it's, it's those things are, are things that they go to
sleep to because it's music that they're listening to that's
helping them to, to memorize those things.
And why do you think that, that most of our young kids, when
they, when we get in here and sing a song, they can sing at
least the chorus from memory. And a lot of times, a lot of
the, the verses from memory. How does that happen?
Because you sing them over and over and over and you hear them
played over and over and over, right.
And, and music is very powerful. You don't even have to listen to
that very many times for it to be burned into your memory,
right? You can, as you can walk into
Wawa and you can hear a song playing and you don't even know
who's singing or where it came from, but you're singing phrases
along with it because you heard it somewhere, right?
Music is very, very powerful. So if we're going to use music
in a powerful way, it should be music that is pleasing to the
Lord. It should be music that is
feeding our spirit, not the other way around.
So it's a good practice to memorize hymns and spiritual
songs so they can be used when trials come, right?
Right. There are so many songs that we
can sing that that, you know, his eyes on the Sparrow.
Brother George just sang that one on Sunday, right?
You get into a difficult spot. And man, God's watching the
sparrows. That's it.
That's a song that brings encouragement.
All right, there's a lot of a lot of times when we need songs.
He he mentioned this a godly woman told me that she went once
went through a hard trial during what she found it difficult to
pray or read her Bible, but she kept singing a simple spiritual
song over and over and the Lord gave her the victory.
And so that is one of the principles of victory in your
Christian life. And this I mean, he's he's
mentioning this year, but many of you that I've sat down with
that said, hey, I'm this is something that I'm struggling
with. What can I do?
Well, number one, you've got to replace that sin with something,
right? You, you can say, well, I'm not
going to do that anymore. Let's just say you have a
problem with listening to the wrong kind of music.
OK, well, I'm not going to listen to that wrong music
anymore. I'm going to get rid of it.
I'm not going to listen to it anymore.
Well, music is very powerful and we are musical beings, right?
So you can't just say I'm not going to listen to that.
You've got to replace it with something else, right?
Right. But here's another.
This is another principle of victory in your life when you're
struggling with something. I mean, it could be anything.
It could be a thought life. It could be, it could be an
issue with anger. It could be anything.
You get a song that really sticks in your mind.
And whenever you're tempted to look at the wrong things or
whenever you're tempted to listen to the wrong things, or
whenever you're tempted to get angry, you pull up that song and
you sing that song in your head. You have it as your go to.
It's got to be, you got to have, you can't just think, OK, all I
need to think of a song, it's probably not going to happen,
right? You have that song ready.
It's the song that you sing every time you face whatever
temptation that happens to be, right?
It could be the old Rugged Cross.
I mean, it could be, it could be anything.
It could be any song, right? But have that song ready, have
that song prepared so that when you face that temptation, you
can overcome by singing that song, whatever it happens to be
versus do the same thing. But but music is such a powerful
thing that many times when you sing a song, it's a lot easier
to to sing sometimes than it is a quote, especially when you're
in a, in a frame of mind. That's not great, right?
But this is also why then, OK, let's, let's let's go on to the
next page because this is this is a continuation of that same
thing. It's wise to build a library of
good sacred music and listen to it as as you have the
opportunity, personal music player in the car, in the home,
wherever it happens to be, right?
It's very difficult. It's very difficult for you to
do things that go against God's word when you're listening to
sacred music right here, you're listening to a song about the
old rugged Cross and you're sitting at your computer looking
at something that you shouldn't be looking at, right?
Most people are not going to do that.
You go turn the music off 1st and then you continue watching
what you're watching or you're just not going to do it right.
That's why it's, that's why it's so important to, to have those
things playing all the time as you have an opportunity to do
it. And, and you know, we have, we
have a huge library of music because before we, we have a
church Spotify playlist. And that's what plays before and
after church, which by the way, you can go on there Spotify, the
free Spotify account, you can still get to the church playlist
and there's hundreds of songs in that playlist.
But we used to, we, we have a huge library of songs that we
used to play just on the computers before the before
church. We had one giant playlist of all
of those songs that just played through the computer.
If you need some music, you can get music.
We have music in the bookstore. We have, we have, we have the,
the, like I said, the church Spotify playlist.
There's no excuse for you to not have good, godly, sacred music
playing all the time, right? But I'll tell you what happens
is people just replace it with whatever, right?
They'll, they'll, they don't have any problem putting.
I was going to say the name of a radio station, but I can't even
think of 1. I don't, I don't, I don't listen
to the, to the radio stations. But you know, the country music
station. Well, it's the easiest thing.
Just click on it and listen to that in the car, right?
I need to listen to something. So I'll just, I'll just go to
that and listen to it or, you know, have the TV on at home and
it's just constantly playing. Put some godly music on and let
that play right. That's what we have playing most
of the time in our house. Music is constantly playing in
our house because it, it adds to the atmosphere of everything,
calms everything down. It's, you know, many times we
already know the songs and we're singing along with the songs
and, and it and it, and it calms your spirit and, and that's what
it's designed to do. Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your hearts to the Lord. It's a great quote here.
And this comes from a book How to lose a child before he is
five years old. And I just, I just mentioned
that I just preached on that not too long ago.
In fact, I think Sunday night I brought it up.
But you know, your teenagers are, are pretty much who they're
going to be by the time they're 567 years old.
So how do you lose a kid before he's five years old?
Well, this is, that's obviously the whole book that he's
writing. But this is this is a quote from
that worldly music produces A worldly environment and creates
worldly attitudes. On the other hand, you can
program temperament and stability and peace and
quietness in your home. If you get good sacred Christian
music, You can play Bible stories in a room where a little
baby is sleeping and you're programming Bible stories into
his little mind. Now that's the thing.
And I said that we we've done that from from before Jackson
was born. We were playing music knowing
that they can hear it even inside the womb.
But from the time that they were babies, they, they, they don't
necessarily understand everything that's being said in
a patch the pirate, right? When they're six months old, but
they're going to sleep listening to it.
They're going to sleep listening to to that music because it's,
it's just, they're going to get it and they pick it up.
And, and, and I mean, it's certainly better than feeding
them the world's music from that early age, right?
Gives them an appetite for those things said.
You can play Bible stories in a room where a little baby is
sleeping and you're programming Bible stories in his little
mind. Kids don't have to learn things
formally. You just put it there and
they're like a blotter. They absorb it, put soothing,
Christ honoring, soul stirring Christian music on and just let
it play in your home and you're programming something of
security and tranquility and peace into the children's
hearts. And that's exactly what it is.
Why? That's why I don't want to get
into it all again when it comes to the music.
But that's why it's so important that you, that you listen to the
right kind of godly music, not just in your home, but what you
listen to, right? We must warn against the carnal
Christian music that's popular today.
The Bible says we must sing spiritual songs.
That's the opposite of worldly songs.
Spiritual music is the opposite of music that feeds the flesh.
Well, I mean, that's that's what makes rock music so enticing,
right? I mean, you want to tell me that
that that's not affecting a little kid, right?
The kid can barely walk and he's standing up on the couch and
some song comes on that has a beat in it, and he's doing this
to it, right? Nobody had to teach him how to
do that, right? It's because it's music that
feeds the flesh. And if you try to take the
world's music and put some Christian words to it, you're
just feeding the flesh. That's all you're doing.
It's not feeding the spirit, it's feeding the flesh.
Spiritual music is the opposite of music that feeds the flesh.
It's the opposite of the world's party music.
I've already seen that God forbids us to associate with the
evil things of the world. First John 215 through 17 love
not the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride
of life. They're not of the Father, It's
of the world, right? That's that is what most music
today is. So you have to be intentional
about making sure that you're playing good, godly Christ,
honoring music in your home and in your car and everywhere else
that you're at. So to go back to that point,
being filled with the Spirit is associated with singing
spiritual songs. Number 4.
Then being filled with the Spirit is associated with giving
thanks to God. And that's what I said.
Verse #20 is a continuation of verse #19 It's got a semi colon
there. If we have critical complaining
attitudes, I'm not filled with the Spirit because he's grieved
by those things, right? You go back to Ephesians chapter
4, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
Verse 30, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking. That all has to do with your
attitude, right? It all has to do with, with,
with your temperament. You can't be filled with the
Spirit when you have a complaining attitude.
You can't be filled with the Spirit when you have a, a bitter
spirit. Because he's grieved by those
things. And he says that get rid of
those things. That's part of putting off the
old man and putting on the new man.
That's, that's part of what that's all about #5 Then being
filled with the spirit is associated with godly
relationships. And again, I don't want to take
the time to go through all of this, but it talks about the
order in the home, the husband, the wife, the kids, right?
The husband is the head of the home.
God put that husband there in that leadership position.
He put the wife in the submission submission, the
submissive submission, however you want to say it, position,
right, to be a help to her husband.
And then he put the kids under the husband and the wife because
he said they should obey their parents.
And that's the only way that the home works, right?
You can't. You can't have a wife who is
trying to lead the home and tell me that she is under the control
of the Holy Spirit because you were literally going exactly
against what the Bible says. Your role is, right?
You can't have a kid who's rebellious against their parents
and then tell me that he's filled with the Spirit because
he's going exactly against the role that was given to him as a
child. You can't tell me that a husband
is filled with the Holy Spirit if he won't take the leadership
role in the home, right? Well, you know, I mean, I defer
to my wife on a lot of those things.
You can't be filled with the Spirit because you're not doing
what God wants you to do. You're not taking those godly
leadership roles. And so to be filled with the
Spirit requires obeying him. And He wants us to treat one
another in a godly manner. And again, same thing.
Spirit filled wives submit to their husbands.
Spirit filled husbands love their wives.
Spirit filled children obey and honor their parents.
Spirit filled fathers, here's a big one.
Do not provoke their children to wrath, right?
You can't be filled with the spirit if you're not bringing
your children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord,
if you're provoking your children to wrath, right?
Spirit filled servants are obedient to their masters.
Spirit filled masters treat their servants justly.
I don't. I mean, we could talk all night
about just that fifth point right there.
But the whole point being is being filled with the Spirit is
associated with godly relationships.
So it's very plain, right? It's, it's right there in
Ephesians chapter 5 and and really 5.
And I guess you could go into into chapter 6, but being filled
with the spirit means to be under the Spirit's control.
To be filled with the Spirit is not a one time act or
experience. It's a process.
Being filled with the Spirit is associated with singing
spiritual songs. It's associated with giving
thanks, and it's associated with godly relationships.
All of those things are are part of being filled with the Spirit
and that's how you grow as a Christian.
That's how you have victory in your spiritual life.
You want to go forward for Christ instead of like like a
canoe going up, up, upstream and stopping and going backwards.
That's what you're, that's what you're doing.
If you're not filled with the Spirit, you cannot have
spiritual victory in your life if you do not have the power of
the Holy Spirit to do that. So that brings us then to the
second one for tonight #10 I guess you would say it is
establishing godly habits. And this is, boy, this is huge.
Let's let's go over to Luke chapter 4.
This is our text verse for this point.
But I've, I've talked about this quite a lot in different
contexts and with different things, but Luke chapter 4 and
verse #16 this is talking about Jesus, obviously.
And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day and stood up for, to read.
I've been in that synagogue in Nazareth and I've seen, I can,
I'm picturing in my head right now.
But Jesus grew up in Nazareth. You know why he, you know why he
did that when he went back there?
Because it was a habit. He was going to be in the
synagogue and he was going to be reading the Scriptures, right?
Our lives are busy, and it's essential to establish godly
habits so that God is not crowded out.
We should establish a habit of daily Bible reading and
intercessory prayer, a habit of faithful church attendance, a
habit of participating in organized evangelism, a habit of
spending time with our families, and many such things.
And I'll, and that's what I'll say, you know, when you give
yourself a way out, you will always find it, right?
Well, I'll go to visitation on Saturday.
If I don't have anything else going on, guess what's going to
happen? You're going to find something
else that's going on. And you might make it out once
or twice, but you're going to find something else that go if
you don't give yourself, look, I was, I was thinking about this,
this idea this afternoon. If you're trying to lose weight
and you give yourself an option to cheat, guess what you're
going to do? You're going to cheat, right?
Well, I just, I'm trying to lose weight, so I'm trying to stay
away from cake, right? But if a piece jumps in front of
me, I guess I'll probably eat it, right?
Guess how many pieces are going to jump in front of you a lot
because you gave yourself a way out, right?
If you say, all right, no more, no more sugar, I'm trying to
lose weight. Well, then, then it becomes a
lot easier to say no because I said none, not just stay away
from it, right? Right.
If you give yourself the option, you're always going to take the
option, right? Same thing with church Sunday
night. You know, a lot of times things
come up on Sunday afternoons and I can't quite make it there.
Wednesday night's probably even a better.
You know, people have an excuse for Wednesday nights.
Even more often. If you give yourself the option,
you're going to find a way to take the option, right?
If it's a habit, well, we're going to be there Sunday
morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
We're going to be there for visitation.
I'm going to read my Bible. So other things have to go to
make these things happen, right? Then guess what?
You will find a way to make those things happen.
And the truth is, you'll probably find a way to do the
other things too, right? God, God wants you to do those
things. God, when I say those things,
I'm talking about going to church, reading your Bible,
having a prayer time. God wants you to do those
things, all right? So if you do those things, then
he'll probably work it out so you can do the other things that
you want to do as well. I don't think there's ever been
a time in growing up I didn't have the the option and now I
don't have the option because I'm the pastor.
But there's never been a time where I've said, I wonder if I'm
going to go to church today, right?
Because it's never been an option.
It is always I'm going to church today, right?
There's never been a thought in my mind.
Well, I wonder if I'm going to show up to go on visitation or
do do the outreach today because it's what we do, right?
And yes, I'm the pastor, but I mean, I can find excuses to get
around it and not be there, but I understand the importance of
it and, and we need to be there, right?
Bible reading. Is there a is there an excuse?
Well, I just if, if I get busy and I can't read, then I guess
that's what goes today. All right, No, get put a
checklist, have a checklist and make sure you check it off every
single day and you're not going to miss it, right?
Do you ever say, well, today was a little bit busy?
I guess I'm not going to brush my teeth today, right?
Hopefully you don't. All right, well, today was a
little bit busy. I guess I'm going to walk out
without combing my hair. Oh, you get in front of the
mirror and you make sure you look exactly the way that you
want to look and everything else, right.
That's that's the thing that gets me too.
You see people walking around and they look like they just
woke up. You know, their hair's all they
they did that in the mirror and they look exactly like they want
to look. You know, they want that sloppy
just woke up look and they probably got stuff in their hair
making it look that way. You know, people look exactly
how they want to look, as goofy as they look.
Sometimes they look exactly the way that they want to.
Because you're going to do those things, right?
It's a habit and that's what I'm saying.
These things, establishing these godly habits are things that
we've got to you've, we've got to do those.
So it doesn't mean that we only think of God and only serve God
during special times in the day and week.
We're to pray without ceasing. That's that's what 1st
Thessalonians 517 says, to always have a conscience void of
offense toward God, to always a bound in the work of the Lord to
give thanks always, to be ready always to give a testimony for
Christ. So, and it's not all right, got
my Bible reading done for the day.
I don't have to think about God anymore, right?
Or you know, I had it on my list that I was going to, you know,
give a track, one track of the day.
And I already gave my track today.
So I don't have to do that anymore.
You know, there's things that we do constantly, but we have to be
aware too, lest our spiritual habits become mere routine, lest
our form becomes formality. We keep our spiritual habits
fresh by staying in fellowship with Christ.
When you have the fellowship in with Christ that you should
have, then it's not just aw, man, I got to read my Bible
today. Stink.
I don't, man. I don't have time for that,
Right? No, you, you, you want to.
You'll make time for those things.
Aw, man, it's Sunday again. I don't have time for church
today. Whatever.
I guess I'll go. All right, man.
Wednesday night again, man. Visitation again.
Special meetings again, right? It's, it's it when it's, when
it's stemming out of a, out of a relationship with Christ and out
of a desire for fellowship with him.
You don't see it that way, right?
You don't see it that way. You're looking forward to that
opportunity. And I know, I mean, that's why I
try to be very conscious of your time, right?
I, I sit around all week waiting for Sunday to roll around.
So I don't have anything going on, but I know you do, right?
So I try to think about that. And when we have, when we have,
you know, full weeks and busy weeks and things, that's how I
try to put the calendar together, right?
I try to put the calendar together where we have a family
Saturday after we've had a really busy week.
So you have time to spend with your family because that's
important too, right? And if all you ever do is spend
all of your time at church and no time with your family, your,
your kids are going to grow up and they're not going to live
for the Lord. And then you're going to be left
holding the bag, right? So there is a balance, but
that's my job is to find that balance, right, and make sure
that that you have the family time that you need to have and
to make sure that, you know, we're not overdoing, which I
don't even know if you can, but not overdoing the time that you
spend at church. But that The thing is when you
have that fellowship with God, you want to be together with his
people. You want to be in his house.
You want to know more of his word.
You want to have more time and pray.
You want to have more prayer meetings, right?
That's that's what happens when you, when you have that
fellowship with God. So how do you keep, how do you
keep, you know, your Bible reading from just being
something that, well, I got to do this again today.
Let me get this done real quick so I can go on and finish
everything else. You have that fellowship with
him, right? Remember when you were dating?
It wasn't like, oh man, she's waiting for me again.
I got to go spend time with her so I can get that done today.
No, you're like, let me get everything else done so I can go
spend time with her, right? Oh, man, I got to, I got to
brush my teeth so I can go spend time with her.
Oh, man, I got to do that so I can go spend time with her,
right? That's, that's how it was.
And and that's how your relationship with Christ ought
to be. Oh, man, I got to go to work.
All right, Well, let me go do that real quick and then I can
go to church. You know that.
I mean, that's the way that it should be in our lives.
So establishing those godly habits and then this one is
very, very simple, but also profound as well.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 and 2 verses that are very
familiar to us, but really carry a lot of weight if you take him
to heart. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse #1
Wherefore seeing we also are compass about was so great a
cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us.
And then verse #2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame in a set down at the right hand
of the throne of God. So keeping our eyes on Christ,
we must keep our eyes on Christ. He will never fail us.
He's never going to offend us. The believer stumbles when he
gets his eyes off Christ and on to anything else such as his own
sin, the world, difficulties in life, or other people.
Those who have their eyes on Christ and are serving Him with
an undivided heart don't stumble when they see other believers
commit sins or otherwise do things that offend.
And I think this is a great example.
When I was reading through this this this thought came to my
mind before I even finished reading his example.
But when churches have troubles, it soon becomes evident which of
the members are truly walking with Christ.
They continue to walk with Him regardless of what happens.
But those who are looking at man and following man become
discouraged and even quit when someone or something offends
them, right? Right.
It just proves that your eyes were on something other than
Christ. If you can get offended and it
makes you quit, your eyes were not on Christ, it was on people.
If somebody that's in a position of leadership fails and falls
and it causes you to quit, then your eyes were on the wrong
thing. Your eyes were on that man and
not on Christ, right? And and that's why I've said,
I've said this many times, if something happens and I am no
longer the pastor of this church, it should continue on as
if I was not even here. Yes, you need leadership and
yes, you should bring another pastor in that that has the same
goals and the same desires and everything else.
But your eyes are not on me. They're on Christ.
And if I was gone tomorrow, this church should continue on
exactly the same way that it is right now.
Or your eyes are on the wrong thing, right?
Your eyes should be on Christ. And if your eyes are on Christ,
and it doesn't matter what other people do, it doesn't matter
what other people say. It doesn't matter what, what you
know, what other people in Christianity do, your eyes
should be on Christ. And if they're on Christ, then
keep them there and keep going, right?
It's, it should be as simple as that.
And then the last thing is abiding in Christ.
And let's go over to Matthew Chapter 11 says we started with
this point and we'll end with it because the most important thing
the believer can do to grow spiritually and to have victory
is to walk in fellowship with the Lord and to trust Him at all
times. And so again, I'm not going to
take long on this because we did spend a decent amount of time on
it a few weeks ago when it was our point #1 But Matthew Chapter
11 and verse #28 come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. For I am meek and lowly in
heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The Christian life is a personal relationship with Christ, the
eternal Son of God. It's a matter of receiving him
and serving him and learning of him.
That is the essence of true Christianity, and it is the way
of spiritual growth and victory. And honestly, the rest of
everything that we're going to talk about really is all
principles of spiritual growth and victory.
The next thing that we're moving on to is talking about prayer.
You cannot have spiritual growth and, and, and our Christian
growth and spiritual victory without prayer.
And it moves into the Bible and, and, and again, it's a principle
that we already talked about, but you know, faith, you know,
so many other things, the armor of God, a lot of these things
are all things that we're going to be talking about as we go
forward. But you cannot have those
things. You can't have spiritual growth
and you can't, you can't have Christian growth.
You can't have spiritual victory in your life without these
elements. And so to have these four
lessons where you have 12 things right there, 11 if you want to,
if you want to be technical, but 11 things that you have that can
help you to have growth in your spiritual walk with Christ, to
have victory in your daily life. Man, if, if we could focus on
those things right there, you could get out of any rut that
you're in spiritually, you can get past any sin that you're
dealing with. You can get you can, you can
move forward for Christ, You can accomplish a lot for him.
If you, if we could just get a hold of these principles.
They're, they're great principles and not the least of
which is just keeping our eyes on Christ.
If your eyes on Christ, you don't have time for the world,
you don't have time for the world's music, you don't have
time for the world's entertainment.
If your eyes are on Christ, boy, seeing Him in His glory makes
everything else look so worthless, right?
The things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of
His glory and grace. What do you think that means
when you're looking at Christ? Everything else just loses all
the luster, right? The commercials and the
billboards and all of those things that people have out
there to try to distract us and try to get us, you know, going
off after the, after the gold and the glitter and all those
things. When you see Christ for who he
really is, the, the things that the world has to offer, you can
tell it's fake, right? The same way that, that if you
find fool's gold, right, some kid might be like, oh, look at
that. It's gold.
And you're like, man, it's fake. It can tell the real thing
versus the fake thing, right? And that's exactly what it looks
like when you're when you put the world up to Christ, when
your eyes are on Christ, you can tell it's fake and it doesn't,
you don't get excited about it, right?
Oh, that's cool. All right, I might say that
about some of the things in the world.
Oh, that's cool. But it, it's just so, it's so
pale in comparison to Christ that you don't get excited about
it, right? Because it doesn't, it doesn't
have any value. And that's exactly the way that
we ought to look at these things.
These are principles that that are going to give our Christian
life the value that it needs to keep going for him.
You keep your eyes on Christ and you'll find out that everything
else just doesn't have the same luster that maybe it used to
have or maybe that it does now. Get rid of all those things, put
your eyes on him and just keep going forward, and you'll find
out that he's a whole lot more worth living for than everything
else that most people live their lives for.
So we're going to continue on with this next week.
Actually, I mentioned this already, but I'll be in Belize
for the mats, going to preach for us next week.
And so you come out here and egg him on, if you catch my drift.
But anyway, no, I'm sure it'll be a blessing and you know
you'll be here for it. So let's pray and then we'll
sing our song. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity
that we have to be in your house tonight.
Thank you for these principles. God, may you help us all to live
our lives in, in the victory through Christ.
And may we all continue to move forward in the same direction
with the desire for the heavenly things and not the things that
are earthly and temporal. And God, I pray that you'd help
us to be witnesses for you as well.
Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.