Can the Spirit’s Filling Leak Out? (Ephesians 5:18)

Kootenai Church

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Well, welcome again. We're really glad you could be here together with us this morning. As we open our time, let's ask the

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Lord's blessing on His Word. Our great God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into your presence this morning asking you to help us to humble our hearts, to open our ears, that your

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Spirit would spiritually work within us, that our blind eyes would be opened, our deaf ears unstopped, that we would hear from you through your

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Word this morning, and that He would apply it for us in our lives and where it's needed.

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We pray that we would not be like those who look in the mirror and turn away and forget what they've seen, but that we would be ones who are not just hearers but doers of the

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Word. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, well, welcome.

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Open your Bibles back to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18 as we return again to this text.

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We continue in our series entitled Living Under the Influence. As you may or may not remember, this kind of mini -series is setting up a longer series of of parenting and family, because that's the way

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Paul sets it up. The concept of being filled by the Spirit is so significant, so important to the

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Christian life and lays the foundation and the power to fulfill Paul's later commands to husbands and wives and children and so forth.

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So, Living Under the Influence, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled by the

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Spirit. Now, last week, just to remind you, we learned that the command to be filled by the

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Spirit is obeyed and when we allow the

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Word of Christ to richly dwell within us. You remember we looked over at Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16, because it is such a close parallel and helps shed light on what

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Paul is commanding here. In other words, when we prayerfully immerse ourselves in the

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Scriptures and consistently allow the Spirit to use those Scriptures to shape the way we think, the way we feel, the way we react, and the way we respond to life's circumstances, that's what it means to be filled by the

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Spirit. And one way that we immerse ourselves in the Scriptures is through the public preaching of the

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Scriptures, public preaching. So, this morning, by your alert and prayerful attention to the sermon that will soon follow, you will be providing the

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Spirit of God with the raw materials necessary to help you fulfill Paul's command here in Ephesians 5 .18.

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So, this is how they tie together. So, that's the advertisement for the sermon this morning. Pay close attention and you will be cooperating with the

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Spirit's work within you. Now, we've been interrogating this particular passage here in Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 18, through a series of questions.

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We have 10 of them, 10 questions. And these questions are designed to help us understand and live under the influence of the

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Holy Spirit. And this morning, we take up question number 8. So, it's question number 8 will occupy us for the entire time together this morning.

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And the question is this, can the filling leak out? Can the filling leak out?

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That's our question. Now, I briefly attended Dallas Theological Seminary nearly 40 years ago.

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And I remember at the time, a New Testament professor talking about being filled with the

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Spirit. He took a content view. And he talked about being filled with the

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Spirit on a Sunday and then experiencing the heartbreak of having the Spirit leak out

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Monday through Saturday. And even at the time, that just didn't seem right to me.

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Didn't seem right. But I was in no position, of course, to challenge, nor would I have done so to be so disrespectful to have challenged him, just a young guy.

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But it just didn't seem right to me at the time. The present passive imperative of plerao to be filled does not communicate repeated fillings.

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It does not communicate repeated fillings, but rather the idea of continual responsibility to place ourselves in a position where the

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Spirit fully influences us in order to enable us to grow in the likeness of Christ.

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That's what it means. Now, rather than something that repeatedly happens to us, it is more accurate to say that it is, and I quote here from Andreas Kostenberger, a very fine

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New Testament scholar, it is a state of being which should continually characterize the worship and relationships in the

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Christian community. This is what it means. Beloved, while the

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Spirit does not leak out of us, it does not leak out of us, we can obstruct his work.

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We can obstruct his work of fully influencing us by giving in to what

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I want to look at with you this morning, and I'm calling it the three selves, by giving in to the three selves, self -reliance, self -exaltation, and self -will.

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When we give in to the three selves, we inhibit or obstruct the working of the

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Spirit in our lives. So, together this morning, let's look briefly at the three selves, and this will address the question of, does the

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Spirit leak out? Okay, so first, the sin of self -reliance. Turn with me to the right, please, to 1

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Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians 5, and beginning in verse 19, 1

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Thessalonians 5, 19, looking at verses 19 and 20, 1

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Thessalonians 5, 19 and 20, do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances.

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Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances.

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Now, to quench essentially means to put out a fire. We quench a fire. And in figurative language, the

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Holy Spirit is repeatedly spoken of as a fire, and a fire that can be suppressed, a fire that can be stifled, or a fire that can be extinguished.

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Now, while the context here in 1 Thessalonians 5 is larger than the gift of prophecy, that's what

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I want to focus on with you here briefly this morning. The basic function of a prophet is to speak forth the counsel of God.

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That is the basic function of a prophet, to speak forth the counsel of God. In fact, that's essentially what the word means.

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We have an excellent illustration and, yay, I would say, definition of a prophet back in Exodus chapter 7, so I will turn you back there.

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We're going to jump around a little bit this morning in the Scriptures. So Exodus chapter 7 and verses 1 and 2.

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If you're looking for a biblical definition and illustration of a prophet, we find it here in Exodus chapter 7 verses 1 and 2.

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It's really very concise. Exodus 7, 1 and 2. Then the

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Lord said to Moses, See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother

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Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother

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Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

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So you get the idea. Moses is as God to Aaron, Aaron is as the prophet to Pharaoh.

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That's what a prophet does. It's speak, he or she speak for God. He or she speak for God.

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So back to 1 Thessalonians 5. I don't want to get lost here in the contemporary discussion and refutation of the authenticity and legitimacy of the so -called ongoing fallible prophecy.

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I'm putting that all aside, right? But instead, I want to focus on what we all very commonly agree to, and that is that the

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Scriptures are the Word of God. The Scriptures are the Word of God, and they are inherently recorded by men under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit. We see that in 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 20 and 21, where Peter says,

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But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation.

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In other words, it didn't arise out of a private interpretation of a dream or a vision or something like that.

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But no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved or blown along by the

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Holy Spirit spoke from God. The Scriptures are the Word of God, and they are inherently recorded by men under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit. Beyond that, they are authoritative and necessary for life and godliness.

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Back to 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, where he says,

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Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.

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How? Through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

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So they are authoritative, and they are necessary for life and godliness, inherently recorded by men, necessary for life and godliness.

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And therefore, to suppress or stifle the impact of the

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Scriptures in our lives, either individually or as a local fellowship, by thinking and acting as if we do not need to hear from God on a particular matter, is the essence of self -reliance.

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And it quenches the Spirit of God. It quenches the work of the Spirit of God, that attitude of self -reliance, the idea we don't need to hear from him.

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Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, Solomon says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

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In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. We need the

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Scriptures for straight paths. So what are some examples of self -reliance?

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What does it look like to be self -reliant? Well, when we hear a command from Scripture and our first thought are, what about such and such an exception?

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When our first thought, when we hear a command of Scripture, is to think about an exception, then we are listening with a heart of self -reliance in that moment, right?

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So rather than take it and receive it as the command, our mind twists and turns and says, yeah, but what about, you know, and then we construct this elaborate thought process by which we can evade the clear command.

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That's the essence of self -reliance. It's trying to get out from under what is plain and clear. That's listening with a heart of self -reliance.

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An example of self -reliance is when we raise any other authority source over the

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Scriptures. When we raise any other authority source over the Scriptures. For example, tradition.

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When tradition occupies a place of authority above the Scriptures, that is the essence of self -reliance.

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Whether that tradition be church tradition, I've always done it this way, or whether it be some sort of societal tradition, or whether it be just simple family tradition.

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At any time and in any place when we raise tradition above the Scriptures, then we are engaged in the sin.

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I'll call it that because that's what it is, the sin of self -reliance. The sin of self -reliance.

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It shows itself in the raising of academic respectability above the

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Scriptures. Academic respectability. This is perhaps a unique temptation for those who are academically minded and academically trained.

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Often this shows itself in what's called the academy, where you have people who have studied theology and so forth, and they raise their desire to be accepted by the academy, the academic acceptance, above the

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Scriptures. And so they no longer want to talk about a six -day literal creation, because everybody knows that that's for rubes and for uneducated people.

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Or they don't want to speak clearly that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and they don't exchange such things, because that's no longer academically respectable.

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And so that is self -reliance, to raise that above the Scriptures. Some raise the social sciences above the

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Scriptures. So things like psychology and sociology are used as lenses by which to interpret the

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Word of God. They become the authority source. That's self -reliance. That's self -reliance.

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If what Peter says is correct, that we have everything we need for life and godliness through the Scriptures, then we don't need.

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In fact, I would say it is less than helpful. Medical research is sometimes raised above the

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Scriptures, medical research. And I just want to remind you of this fact that science is never settled.

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If we've learned anything over the last few years, we've learned that, right? Science is never settled, never settled.

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Popular opinion can also be raised above the Scriptures, and personal desires, happiness, self -esteem, comfort, prosperity, all of these things can assume a place that is not lawfully theirs and become the essence of self -reliance when they become the commanding reality rather than the

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Scriptures themselves. So the first way to obstruct the filling of the Spirit is through the sin of self -reliance, okay?

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Second, secondly, the sin of self -exaltation. Yes, that is the

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Boston Red Sox, by the way. The sin of self -exaltation.

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And for that, I will turn you to Romans chapter 12, as we seek to understand and illustrate this, the sin of self -exaltation.

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Romans chapter 12, beginning in verse 3, Now, beginning here in verse 3,

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Paul is starting to draw out the implications and detailed applications of the message contained in verses 1 and 2, which is what a transformed mind looks like, right?

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1 and 2 is the command to be transformed by the Spirit. And then from that point forward, really running through the rest of the book, is the detailed application of what it means to live like that.

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And in particular, Paul is calling for the Romans to renew their minds, and that leads naturally into the specific application about thinking soberly about themselves, particularly in the place of the local congregation, the local assembly.

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And all the future instructions concern life in the church. Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 are all about life in the church.

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And they flow out of an understanding of this teaching here on unity and diversity within the local congregation.

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Boasting and big egos are the sin of pride, and they are nothing new, right?

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Boasting and big egos are the sign of pride, and they are nothing new. They have been taken to an art form in our culture, to be sure.

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It has become an art form. And we celebrate such wickedness in our sports celebrities and our entertainment celebrities.

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But again, that's nothing new. So did Rome. So did Rome. Rome had her celebrity chefs.

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She had her celebrity sports figures, gladiators. She had her, what's the word

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I'm looking for? She had her celebrity entertainment figures as well. The theater was big, right?

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So there's nothing new under the sun. Those things that we exalt as a culture, Rome exalted as a culture as well.

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And this idea of self -esteem here, perhaps uniquely for us, is it's promoted at such an early age all around us.

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Everybody gets a participation trophy, right? Why? Well, because you're really good and you deserve a trophy.

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And so the idea of even an award for those who succeed has now been flattened out to everybody who participates gets some sort of reward.

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That feeds the cult of self -esteem. Now, in opposition to this pervasive manifestation of unregenerate thinking,

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Paul's commanding the Christians here not to fall prey to the sin, but instead to think biblically by developing a sensible view of themselves.

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And Paul, notice, addresses the command to everybody in the church. Everybody in the church.

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And the reason is because there is nobody in the church that is immune from this. None of us are immune from the sin of self -exaltation.

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We're all capable of it. Now, how do we battle it?

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How do we battle against self -exaltation? Because we feel it in our own hearts, don't we?

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We feel it in our own hearts. So how do we battle it? We do it, according to Paul here, by refusing to engage in self -comparison.

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By refusing to engage in self -comparison, but instead to reflect soberly upon the fact that all

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Christians, both great and small, are saved in the same way, by grace through faith, right?

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Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

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If it is a gift, then as Paul will say, so that we don't boast. We've got nothing to boast about.

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It's a gift. Now, notice this expression here in verse 3, for through the grace given to me

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I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think to have sound judgment.

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Notice this, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. What does that mean, a measure of faith?

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This expression, measure of faith, is what grammarians call a genitive of apposition.

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A genitive of apposition, which essentially means that faith is the measure. Faith is the measure.

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The two words are repeated and become almost synonymous. So, faith is the measure or the standard that produces the sound judgment in self -evaluation.

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So, we could almost say that God has allotted to each of us a measure, which is faith.

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Faith is the measure. In other words, God has allotted faith to each of us, and we are completely dependent upon faith to be saved.

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So, when we soberly reflect upon that truth, then we can accurately evaluate ourselves.

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We can accurately measure ourselves. We can think and act with humility rather than self -exaltation.

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You've probably heard this expression, at the foot of the cross the ground is level. Have you heard that before?

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At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. So, that means that there is no advantage to a celebrity conversion.

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Yet, how many times do people say, oh, if only such and such a movie star or sports athlete or something like that were to get saved and then share their testimony, all of that would do amazing things for God.

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And no, no, not at all, not at all.

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Their bragamony about how they came to faith in Christ actually probably diminishes from the gospel.

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At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. There is no celebrity conversion. There is no extra grace involved, not at all.

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So, accordingly, sober thinking requires us to recognize that when it comes to our standing before God, there is no hierarchy.

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There's no pecking order. Paul says it this way in Galatians 3 .28, there is neither

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Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man.

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There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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Looking back now into Romans 12 and beginning in 4, Paul says here, for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.

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Sober thinking requires us to properly appraise our role and relationships within the local church.

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Notice he begins here in verse 4 with the preposition for that links the idea back to what has preceded.

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So, we've all come by faith, therefore, or for we who are many are one of another.

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Paul's using a just as, so also kind of construction, and he's drawing an illustration from the human body.

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He's doing it in order to clarify the point regarding here the body of Christ. It's a simple illustration, unity and diversity in the body of Christ.

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Paul uses the same kind of argument over in 1 Corinthians 12. I mean, you just think about it for a minute.

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The human body is fearfully and wonderfully made, amen? It is a masterpiece of engineering design.

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Just think for a moment with me at the macro level what's involved in even this simple function.

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How many independent motor skills are involved in being able to reach down, grab a cup, bring it up to your mouth, take a sip, and put it away again?

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It's an incredible design, and when we can do it, not even, you know, giving it any serious thought.

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God has built us in that way. It's a ballet, one could say, of hand and eye coordination, and then we get down to the micro level.

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I don't know if you've ever spent any time, YouTube has some great videos that show the inner workings of a cell, and it is incredible.

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It would put to shame the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world, the way it all operates.

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And so, the human body is an incredible display of unity and diversity, where each and every part is necessary for the functioning of a whole.

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And that's the point of the illustration here, that Christians, like the various parts of the human body, each of us, we differ in form and function, but we're all necessary and under equal obligation to serve one another.

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Equal obligation to serve one another. Why? Why?

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What does Paul give us for an answer? The answer is, because we are members in one body.

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We all belong to a single whole, the body of Christ. And the body of Christ is the visibly, in Paul's terminology here, is the visibly identifiable local church.

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Editorial here, by the way. I would not deny the universal body of Christ, but I would suggest to you that the

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New Testament, far and away, in reference to the body of Christ, is speaking about a local congregation, not the universal and invisible body of Christ.

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He's talking here about a locally identifiable church.

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And so, when we think and act proudly in self -exaltation, we contradict the work of the Spirit in bringing about the unity in the church, and we thus obstruct his work in filling us.

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In other words, conforming us to the image of Christ, both individually and corporately.

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Okay? Individually and corporately. So, we have the sin of self -reliance.

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We have the sin of self -exaltation. The sin of self -exaltation.

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And then third and finally, we have the sin of self -will. The sin of self -will.

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It is in these ways that we quench or obstruct the work of the

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Spirit. So, the third way here is self -will. It's the third way that we resist his influence.

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And what it means is that we go about living on the same moral plane as those who are still lost in darkness.

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That's what it means. Take a look with me over at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 and 23, where Paul says that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self or the old man which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

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And put on the new self which in the likeness of God is being created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. The assertion of self -will is the heart of rebellion.

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It's the heart of rebellion. And it saddens the Spirit of God who resides within us because it is inconsistent with our status as sons of the living

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God. In other words, when we give in to self -will and live like our former selves, we live back in that plane of darkness, then we are factually denying through our actions the reality of our new status in Christ.

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We're no longer acting out our family identity. In fact, we're reverting back to the old family identity.

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Notice in chapter 4 here in verse 30 where Paul says, do not grieve the of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

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It is, by the way, this command and this underlying truth that separates

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Christian ethics and morality from all the other religious morals and ethics throughout the world.

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It's the essence of the renewed mind. The essence of the renewed mind. And it underpins and it strengthens the

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Christian and it enables us to live in an ethical system that transcends natural human experience.

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We begin to live like who we really are. That's way different than sucking it up, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and trying to do better, which is how the rest of the world's religious systems deal with morality and ethics.

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But notice what Paul is saying here. He is saying you were sealed for the day of redemption.

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You were sealed for the day of redemption, verse 30. The Holy Spirit is that seal.

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He is that seal. He is that seal that secures us. He is the seal that authenticates us as the

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Father's adopted sons. We looked at that last week. Chapter 1 and verse 13 where Paul says, in him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Christ with the

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Holy Spirit of promise. It authenticates us, it seals us, and will remain with us all the way till the end.

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Till the final day when Christ comes to take us home. The Holy Spirit is our seal of redemption and he provides us with the security and assurance that God will fulfill his promised redemption.

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So, because God has placed his seal upon us, we can be sure that he will never let us go.

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We can be sure he'll never let us go. But we can bring pain and grief into our relationship with him by grieving his

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Holy Spirit. So when we live on the plane as a believer, we revert to living on the plane of the unbeliever.

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In other words, we give into that, we do not lose our status as the sons of the living

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God. That has been sealed, we have been sealed by the Spirit of God. That is not in question.

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However, it is not without consequence. And the consequence is that it brings pain and grief into our relationship with God by the grieving of his

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Spirit. It grieves him when we live like that, when we act like that, when we speak like that.

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To grieve is to disappoint. It's to sadden. It's to hurt relationally.

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And as Christians, we are in a personal relationship with God in which God himself and the person of his

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Spirit resides with us and in us. With us and in us. And yet, mysterious as it is,

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Paul's telling them and he's telling us that our relationship with the Holy Spirit is such that we can cause him pain.

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We can grieve him. Now that is, by the way, the reality of relationships.

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Only those we care about have the ability to hurt us. Only those that we care about have the ability to hurt us.

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Beyond that, there is no pain like relational pain. It is the most acute of all pains.

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So when we grieve the Spirit of God, we pain God himself. We pain

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God himself, and that is a mystery to be sure. How do we grieve the

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Spirit? We grieve him by our words. Chapter 4 verse 29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

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So unwholesome speech, the idea here is rotten speech, not healthy speech, but speech like a rotted piece of fruit.

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When we speak in that way, we grieve the Spirit of God who resides within us.

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We can grieve him by our actions, verses 31 and 32. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

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Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

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So when we live in such a way that we give in to bitterness or wrath or anger or clamor or engage in slander, we grieve the

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Spirit of God who lies within us, because in that moment we are betraying our family identity.

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We are no longer living like the sons of the living God that we really are, but we are living like the old man

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Adam. We grieve him by our thoughts. We grieve the

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Spirit of God by our thoughts. Impure thoughts, jealous, envious, selfish, faithless thoughts, these all grieve the

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Spirit of God. They all grieve the Spirit of God. Remember, where you are, he is.

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Where you are, he is. He hears every word you speak. He knows every thought you think.

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You take him with you everywhere you go. Now we not only grieve the

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Holy Spirit by our actions, we can also grieve him by our inactions. We grieve him by our inactions.

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When we refuse his prompting and contradict his word, we grieve him again.

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Beloved, this is a powerful and transformational theology, this understanding of the work of the

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Spirit in us and our relationship to him, and it changes the way we conduct ourselves, changes the way we conduct ourselves, both in society and the

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Church. We carry with us God himself.

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We are saved, Paul says in Ephesians 1 and verse 6, to the praise of the glory of God's grace, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

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And how we live in light of the indwelling Spirit is one of the means by which we bring God the glory that he deserves.

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It is one of those means. Furthermore, we can grieve the

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Spirit of God when we do not repent. We grieve the Spirit of God when we do not repent, and that will inevitably lead to a loss of his presence with us and the resulting lack of fellowship with him, a refusal to repent of sin when we become aware of it leads to a distancing within the relationship of God and a lack of fellowship.

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Are we any less a child of God in the moment? We are not. Was David any less a child of God in the moment of his captivity in the sin of Bathsheba and the arrangement of her husband's judicial murder, as it were?

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No, no. But was there a massive distance in the relationship with his

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God? Yes, there was. There certainly was. We experience a diminished joy, a lack of assurance in our relationship with God when we are living in unrepentant sin.

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Can the filling of the Spirit leak out? The answer is no. The answer is no.

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However, we can, and we often do, hinder and obstruct his work of conforming us to the image of Christ by giving in to the three selves.

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And if and when we experience those times of coldness, those times of apathy towards the things of God, it's time for some spiritual self -diagnosis, time for some spiritual self -diagnosis.

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Maybe we are capable of doing it ourselves, and maybe we need a trusted friend at that moment, somebody who can come alongside us, who has objectivity where we don't, who we know loves us and is committed to us, committed to Christ and His Word, a true friend who will help us by asking us some questions.

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These are the questions of self -diagnosis. First, where am

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I being self -reliant rather than depending upon the Scriptures to define what is true?

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Where am I in my life being self -reliant because I am depending upon something other than the

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Scriptures to define what is true? Maybe you can detect that in yourself, and maybe you need somebody else to help you.

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But that's the first question to ask yourself is, where is the self -reliance showing up in my life?

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Second, perhaps the answer to the first is, it's not true.

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I'm not being self -reliant. Okay, I passed that question. Good, good.

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So another question to be asked is, how am I exalting myself? How am I exalting myself and seeking my glory rather than the

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Lord's in this particular situation? What is it about my self -exaltation that has gotten bound up in this?

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How has my ego become involved in this matter? How has my self -worth been somehow wrapped up in this that I'm now seeking my glory rather than the

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Lord's? Again, perhaps you can accurately see yourself and ask that question, and perhaps you need help.

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By the way, this is where husbands and wives can be really helpful to each other if we have built a trusting relationship and understand and recognize that this person is committed to me like no one else.

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They want my best. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, right? Deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

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How am I exalting myself? Third, in what way am

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I grieving the Spirit? By my thinking, by my speaking, or by my living like one who does not know

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Christ? It's an area of my life in which I don't live like a

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Christian. Perhaps there's some area that I have yet to be willing to relent and relinquish to the control of the

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Spirit of God. Maybe it's my Irish temper. Maybe it's some secret sin, but I am grieving the

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Spirit in this way. Is that true? Is that true? And may

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God reveal it to me. Beloved, it's not if we stumble into one of these.

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It's when. It's when for all of us. So keeping short accounts, doing accurate soul work in terms of self -diagnosis, helping our spouse or a friend in these matters.

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And the way back is easy, isn't it? Isn't it simple? It is to repent and return to the

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Lord and His arms are wide open to us. The longer we stay away, the more we make excuses, the further we dig in, the harder back it becomes.

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Let's pray. Our Father, as we sit here together this morning, it is,

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I think, legitimately our heart's desire not to grieve your Spirit, but instead to live in submission to His Word in our lives.

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We all have areas where sin is constantly nipping at our heels, and we confess that all too often we do give in.

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But thanks be to God that we can repent at a moment's notice. It can be done quietly, even in our own heart, even in this moment, and surrender back to you and know the cleansing power of your

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Spirit and His forgiveness and the restoration of that fellowship that we so treasure and enjoy.

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Our Father, we also recognize that this is the foundation of Christian marriage.

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The ability to live out our new identity in Christ and bring that into the marriage is what will shape our marriages in such a way that we can recapture much of what was lost in Eden so long ago.

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Father, help us, encourage us, as we sit to hear a sermon here in just a short time, help us to be locked in with laser focus, that we might give the raw materials to your

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Holy Spirit in our lives, both today and this week to follow. We pray in Jesus' name.