Be Filled With The Spirit

Well, if you would stand for the hearing of God's word, the

Old Testament, oh, yes. Page 512 in your pew Bible, if you want to follow along.

The Old Testament passage today is Psalm 119, verses 9 through 16.

How can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word?

With my whole heart, I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, oh, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes. With my lips,

I declare all the words of your mouth, all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies,

I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

Our New Testament reading is found in Colossians chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, which is page 984 in your pew

Bibles. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness and your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the

Father through him. Please remain standing. Thank you for your singing.

I'd ask you to open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5.

In the bulletin, there is a little bit of a mistake. Jelena was not getting baptized. I think it says that in there.

Sometimes I throw curveballs at Sharon just to see if she catches them. She catches about 95 % of them.

But sometimes one gets through. That one got through. But that was my fault. What a blessing it is, though, to see

Brandon get baptized. And we get to welcome them both into membership at the end of service, which is always a blessing.

We're in Ephesians chapter 5. Lord willing, we'll be going through verses 17 through 21.

And as we've been talking about since we've been in Ephesians 5 is our need to separate and expose sin.

We've been talking about our need to separate and expose sin. And we looked at the reason why we want to separate from sin is because we will not receive the inheritance of Christ that way.

Sin will only bring about the inheritance of adultery. Which we talked about is wrath. And remember, we talked about this is going to be important for where we're at.

Why is inheritance better than wrath? Why is it better to receive God's inheritance rather than his wrath?

It's because the eternally good God has poured his goodness upon creation and has put us in there to receive his goodness from creation.

And we looked at idolatry as when we try to kick God out and just grab hold of creation itself as if we can receive goodness.

But we talked about how with sin, idolatry reigns. But with Christ, we are brought back into happy conformity with God in which we can utilize creation the way that we're supposed to in glorifying him.

And we talked about that looks like now under Christ, putting our faith in Jesus and living this whole created order, living this whole existence in creation by living in faith in Christ.

And then that way, Christ brings us back into the original purpose of appreciating or using creation to glorify and enjoy him forever.

And here now, where we're at, we get to look and kind of zoom in on what that means exactly or in a fresh light of living this life in faith in Christ and receiving the inheritance.

And we're going to see that in the phrase, in that important phrase, be filled with the spirit.

So keep that in your mind as we read now. And then I'll go to the Lord in prayer.

So Ephesians chapter five, verse 17, therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the

Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Let me pray. Oh, Father in heaven, what a life we have in Christ here in this creation that we can,

Lord, through the mercies found in Christ, be filled with the spirit and live a life that we were always meant to live, glorifying you and enjoying you forever.

Oh, God in heaven, I pray that you would show us, reveal to us what exactly it means to that in Christ, the inheritance is ours, the inheritance of the spirit, the inheritance of a happy life in Jesus Christ.

Oh, Lord, let this be fresh to our hearts and minds for those who have been Christians for a long time.

And for those new Christians, I pray that this would be a revelation to them for the first time that truly they can rely upon Christ for all life and godliness.

Lord, we know that for those whom you've called out from darkness into light, this is everything our heart desires.

So I pray, Lord, that you would help me to be clear and let Christ be glorified. And let us,

Lord, live a life full of the spirit as you have, Father, revealed in your will that it is your precious will for us to have.

Thank you for this great promise in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, a frustrating thing, if you've ever struggled with being in a state of melancholy or depression, a frustrating thing can be to hear from a friend or a loved one saying, well, just don't be depressed, don't be sad anymore.

Or a frustrating thing can be if you're struggling with a discontented heart and discontentment, a frustrating thing can be here, well, just be content, just be content.

And it's as if it was only that easy, right? A switch, that could be switched. Just be content if you're discontent.

Ah, it's that easy. Or it happens to me maybe once or twice a year where I just cannot fall asleep at night.

And there's that realization, usually it takes me about 10 minutes to fall asleep, maybe 20, and there's that realization when it's past 20 minutes and I realize

I'm not gonna fall asleep. And then what immediately goes to my mind is fall asleep, you fool, right? That's why, just fall asleep.

If only it was that easy, right? I'm trying to sleep, I can't, just fall asleep. If only if it was easy, like a switch, right?

To just fall asleep. It can be frustrating whenever we're struggling with something and the answer is just to stop doing it.

Or just start doing something else. And here I think we can get the same kind of frustration where Paul tells us, be filled with the spirit.

Be filled with the spirit. As Christians, as those who have been called out of darkness into light, be filled with the spirit.

And it can be difficult because it's not like it's like, you know, be filled with, like your car, it fills with gasoline or oil, it's just something simply you can do.

But to be filled with spirit, it's not like a switch you can switch on. It is a difficult thing. It can be a frustrating thing.

Well, how can I be filled with the spirit? And here as we're talking about the inheritance that we have in Christ, is found in being filled with the spirit.

Paul not only tells us to do so, but he tells us how to do it. And then the blessed fruits that come forth with it, from it, and then from those fruits come the facilitator of being filled with the spirit.

Now, I'm gonna describe that, but we see here from Paul in verse 17, especially how are we to be filled with the spirit?

And then 18, we'll see like a cheap substitute from Satan that we need to avoid of being filled with the spirit.

And then we'll see in 19 through 21, fruits of being filled with the spirit that actually acts as facilitators of being filled with the spirit as well.

So what does it mean? How are we to be filled with the spirit? Well, look at verse 17, especially when he says, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. Now, we're gonna talk about when he says, therefore do not be foolish in a moment. But look at, to be filled with the spirit, one must understand what the will of the

Lord is. You cannot just expect to just close your eyes and say, fill me with the spirit, and then boom, it happens just like that, right?

But one must give themselves to understand the will of the Lord. Now, I think a very good example of this, if you look to Acts chapter two,

I think we see a very, very good example of this imperative from Paul, understand the will of the

Lord. So if you remember

Acts chapter two, this is the first time the gospel is being proclaimed to the church, right? To the church, to the age of the church, right?

The Holy Spirit has just came down at Pentecost. Peter stands up, full of the spirit, and he is now declaring the gospel for the first time in that dispensation of grace.

And we see the reaction from the people is to hear the word of God and respond with a very, very good question in which they ask in chapter two of Acts, verse 37, now, when they heard this, when they heard about their sin, when they heard about Jesus, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

And so what these people were doing is, what is the will of the Lord for me? What would the Lord have us do in light of our situation?

What would we do? And so we see that the life of the Christian begins with this question, what is the will of the

Lord for my life? What would he have of me? And we see it asked here with the very first preaching of the gospel.

And what does Peter say? Well, he gives them what the will of the Lord is for them. He says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit. And so we see that it's the initial life of the Christian is what is the will of the

Lord for me? Well, it is for you to repent, believe upon Jesus, and you will receive the spirit of grace.

That is the will of the Lord. That is what the very beginning of your life in Christ is found with, what would he have me do?

But you see, that's not the end of their quest for the will of the Lord. That's not the end of their desire to understand the will of the

Lord because we see in verse 42, what did they go on to do after they were saved? Well, in verse 42, they devoted themselves.

These same people then devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. So we see that not only did they begin with saying, what is the will of the

Lord for me? What has he said for me to do? But then they devote themselves with a practice, with a habitual practice of, what is the will of the

Lord in my life today? So it's not something that just began at one time in their life, and they said, okay,

I repented and believed, and now I fulfilled the will of the Lord and I'm good. But instead, it became a practice in their life, a habitual practice of, what does the

Lord say for me to do today? This is what it means to understand the will of the Lord, is to constantly be looking to God's word, what would he have of me?

And so we see that in our own day, it's the same kind of understanding, is that we are people who are in Christ, we are people who are to understand the will of the

Lord in order to be filled with the Spirit. That is, there is like an outer aspect of knowing and understanding the will of the

Lord, and there's an inner aspect that we just saw in Acts 2. The outer aspect of understanding the will of the

Lord is what does God's word say? What is the truth that God's word says?

And we see that through the apostles declaring the truth written down in the scriptures now, is that what does the word of God say?

You cannot know the will of the Lord without the word of God. It is revealed there, it is revealed in the apostolic message, it is revealed in the scriptures.

And so there's an outer understanding of the will of the Lord in which you say, what does the word of God say?

But it doesn't stop with that, with knowing the will of the Lord. Because then there's an inner knowing the will of the

Lord as you apply what the word of God says to your own life. The work that you are to put into knowing the will of the

Lord so you could be filled with the Spirit does not simply finish with knowing the Bible, with simply just knowing the facts of the

Bible to where you can just reiterate it and say it. But it is completed or finished and when you then apply those truths of the word to your own life.

Now that is difficult. It is actually a muscle that needs to be worked out daily. If you're not working out that muscle of what does the word say and how does that look at my life today, then you're going to be very much not in a position to grow after understanding the will of the

Lord. And so this is the endeavor of the Christian as important as it is for me to faithfully and clearly declare what the word of God says it's just as important for you to work out that muscle to receive what

God says and say what does that look like in my own life? Knowing the will of the

Lord is essential in being filled with the Spirit in which you understand what the

Bible says and you can faithfully apply it to your life daily. And that changes throughout all different phases of your life.

You're going to apply God's word differently when you're a young man or a young woman versus when you're a mid -age man, mid -age woman versus when you're an old man, old woman.

It changes and that's why the word of God is always fresh and beautiful. It always change, the board doesn't change but your circumstance change in which you work out that muscle of what is the will of the

Lord for me now. And so basically what we're saying here with knowing the word of the Lord or knowing the will of the

Lord there is an aspect where this is a first that we cry it out when we first become a

Christian. Oh Lord, what is your will? And his answer is repent and believe upon Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, you'll receive the

Spirit and that's justification, right? You are justified, made righteous. But then what we're talking about now what we're focusing in Ephesians five is knowing the will of the

Lord when it comes to sanctification. When it comes to growing after the mercies of Christ where it comes to growing at the conformity to the image of Jesus.

We are to be people who want to know the will of the Lord and so that we can grow after his image so that we can grow in the graces of the

Spirit or be filled with the Spirit. I cannot stress how important it is to know the work that is put into that in your sanctification.

I cannot stress that you cannot come passively to the preaching of God's word where the word of God is being declared and just be passive during the whole process.

There must be an active engagement to hear what's being said and then to then want to say what does that look like in my own life?

It has to be an active process and there's a lot of work on your part. But then I also want to counterweight that with the

Christian life is one of vigorous work to know the will of the Lord, but it also notice it says, he says in chapter 18, knowing and knowing the will of the

Lord and be filled with the Spirit in verse 18, notice it's being filled with the

Spirit, not being filled with good works. And the reason why that's important is if we're not careful, we can think that the work

I need to put in to understand the will of the Lord so I could be filled with the Spirit is like being filled with my good works, but that's not what it is.

We know the will of the Lord so we can be filled with the Spirit and it is a work of grace that the Spirit does in you.

So as you are giving yourself to the word of God, as you're giving yourself to the application of the word of God, it is the

Spirit of grace that breathes life into that whole process. As you are giving yourself to this work, you got to understand that it is all done by the

Spirit of grace who empowers you for the work to be done. So going back, getting our bearings, what does it mean to be filled or how can we be filled with the

Spirit? Well, you must understand what the will of the Lord is and you must apply it to your life each day.

And in that process, you'll find yourself being filled with the Spirit. But if you're not being hard workers in that gracious work that the

Spirit does in you, then you cannot expect to be filled with the Spirit for it is not a switch just simply to be switched.

But we see that the opposite of that, right? Paul labels it in verse 17.

He says, therefore, do not be foolish, right? He goes on to say, but understand what the will of the Lord is and that is to be filled with the

Spirit. But notice he says, do not be foolish. Do not be foolish. You see, the fool has no stomach for this work.

The fool has no stomach to try to apply himself to the word of God, to the will of the

Lord. The fool has no stomach for it. He's rather satisfied with passively doing self -will.

You see the opposite there. The one who's gonna be filled with the Spirit, the work that has to be done for that to happen is to apply yourself to the will of God in everyday life.

Well, the fool has no stomach for the will of the Lord. He only has an appetite for his own will.

That's the fool. It's a passive life of conformity to the world led by the passions of the flesh rather than a transformed life after the will of the

Lord. See, it's hard work to give yourself to the will of the Lord each day. It's empowered by grace.

It's empowered by the Spirit. It's enabled, but it's still hard and difficult work. And the fool has no stomach for that kind of work.

He simply wants to be passive in his own passions of the flesh and be conformed to the image of the world around him instead of being transformed to the image of Jesus.

A foolish person does not give himself to know the will of the Lord, to know and apply

God's word. Therefore, he is not full of the Spirit. He lacks that, and so there is no

Spirit being filled with the Spirit. And instead, what he has is he's given to the excess or the abundance of the world.

What do I mean by that? Well, look again at verse 18, right? Do not be foolish, because they don't want the will of the

Lord. They want their own will. And that looks like, in verse 18, do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, right?

And so to understand the will of the Lord is to be filled with the Spirit, and to be a fool is to be filled with your own will, which leads to, in verse 18, drunkenness and debauchery, drunkenness with wine and debauchery.

Debauchery simply means excessive living, okay? Debauchery means they're excessive living.

And it kind of goes well with drunkenness, because drunkenness is excessive wine.

And so what Paul's saying is that instead of seeking to be filled or having an excessive amount of the

Spirit through applying the will of the Lord to your life, the fool seeks satisfaction in the abundance of what the world has to offer instead.

They find their satisfaction in the abundance of the world instead of the abundance of what God has to offer in His Spirit.

And this actually fits very well with what we've been talking about. You remember that, you know, the inheritance of Christ versus the inheritance of the world.

You remember in the inheritance of the world, or the inheritance that God has for us is that we would receive all

His goodness in creation, use His creation for His goodness and drink it up, right? But then idolatry cuts

God out of that picture and says, I can use creation as a good itself. And that's exactly what debauchery, excessiveness is, right?

Is I can use the excess, I want the excessiveness of this world and use it for my goodness.

And this is essentially what Paul's saying is that those who are foolish, who have no desire for the will of the

Lord, no desire to be filled up with the Lord, filled up with the Spirit, they will try to find their happiness and joy in the excessiveness or utilizing the creation itself in drunkenness or debauchery.

Now, I think Paul, you can use any kind of excessiveness of creation to hit this point, right?

The person does not want the will of the Lord, does not want to be filled up with the Spirit. Instead, he is satisfied with the things of this life.

You can use any kind of example for that. Paul uses drunkenness here. Drunkenness is an excellent example because it is a cheap substitute to Spirit -filled living.

Drunkenness is a cheap substitute for Spirit -filled living. Now, again, we're all meant for, you know,

God has created us to have a relationship with Him, to be filled with the Spirit, and to live accordingly.

And what Satan does is he come and he provides a cheap substitute. And drunkenness is a very, so to speak, good, deceptive, cheap substitute to that.

What we'll get into in a moment, the fruit of the Spirit, what that looks like, you know, the fruit of living filled with the

Spirit is thanksgiving deep within the heart that expresses itself within and without, or with and in community.

So in other words, the fruit of the Spirit, or living with the, oh, I'm sorry, the fruit of Spirit -filled living is found in enjoying yourself and joy with others.

And what excessive drinking, it's an attempt to feel joy in your heart and to have joy and community with others.

That's what drunkenness, that's what Satan is tempting you to do, is that you can find your happiness and joy and feel good within by this excessive amount of drink.

And it's a substitute for the Spirit. When you are filled with the Spirit, you feel a certain joy and a thanksgiving as we'll get to in a moment.

And so drunkenness is a very cheap substitute for that. And in fact, we see that not only as being filled with the

Spirit, to be thankful within your own heart, but you also are thankful with the community of Christ.

You're thankful in community with one another. And what does alcohol do? It supports a certain communal aspect or party in nature in which we can feel a joy or a happiness within our hearts, right?

But it's a very cheap substitute towards that. Again, I remember coming to Christ and one of the things

I loved doing was this sort of false cheap substitute of communal gathering under alcohol.

And it is only death. It is not true joy. It's not the true thing that we can receive in the

Spirit. But this is what Satan offers us as a cheap substitute. So self -will is excessive living or idolatry using creation wrongly, in which we try to use the creation itself for joy and happiness, as we see in drunkenness and debauchery, excessive living.

We see in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and 10. Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

We see there's an important aspect in which people who try to find their happiness, their joy, their satisfaction in the excess of the world are idolaters.

They will not receive the inheritance of the kingdom. But for those who have rejected the things of the world, for those who say, what is the will of the

Lord for my life each day, growing in sanctification, they reject those things. They find their satisfaction in the spirit instead.

And there is a great fruit that comes from being filled with the spirit.

So we see that being filled with the spirit comes from knowing his will and practicing it each day.

And there is a great fruit that comes forth from that. And we see, if you go back to Ephesians chapter five, what the fruit is of being filled with the spirit.

Again, he says in verse 17, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, right, that's a cheap substitute for being filled, but rather be filled with the spirit.

And then here comes the fruit that comes forth from being filled with the spirit. In verse 19, addressing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So we see that fruit right there, the fruit that comes forth with being filled with the spirit, right, is that you would address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

So notice it is a communal fruit that we get to enjoy. We get to come together and we get to address one another with songs of worship, songs of worship, addressing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.

This is a fruit of being filled with the spirit, together we address one another. Did you stop to consider when you're singing a moment ago that you are not only addressing

God, but you're addressing one another with your singing, that you're not only praying to God with your songs of worship, but you're also helping your brother and sister out in a fellowship, in a gathering together, and enjoying

God togetherness. Did you stop to think that you're not only addressing God with your songs of worship, but you're also addressing one another.

And so just for a moment of application right there, what harm you're doing by simply saying, well,

I'm not gonna sing to the Lord. This is a fruit that we get of being filled with the spirit, and you're gonna say, well,

I'm not gonna do that. Not only are you saying that you're not being filled with the spirit, but you're saying that I'm not gonna help others be filled with the spirit as well as the fruit that comes forth from that.

And we see that he says addressing one another in these things. This is a fruit of being filled with the spirit that we get to address one another, we get to help one another, we get to be that fellowship example, that in that deep fellowship rooted so that we can grow in that fruit together.

And notice he says in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. These are the songs we sing.

Psalms, he seems to be referring to the book of Psalms. Singing, the book of Psalms is a book of songs to the

Lord. And then when he goes to hymns, he seems to be referring to if you, now, if you look at it, hymns at this time to the pagan ears, hymns were something, a song created for a champion or for a hero.

So hymns were created a lot of times for like generals and those who went to battle and won, you would create a hymn to their honor, right?

And so to the Ephesians who were pagans, now they're Christians, when they heard the word hymns, they'd be thinking of those kinds of songs, songs that were written for heroes, whether generals or military heroes, whatever it may be.

But the Christians kind of Christianize hymns and saying, yeah, we'll write hymns to heroes, but our hero is

Jesus Christ, our Lord. In fact, if you see at the early church, one of the things, there was a governor, a pagan governor over an area where there was a growing

Christian influence in his area. And he writes to the emperor and says, hey, we got these people called

Christians and they kind of have a strange practice of coming together and they sing these hymns.

And these hymns are saying towards this guy named Jesus who they claim died and rose again. And so what he is, he's saying is hymns are a very common practice, but typically it was for people who won great battles and champions.

Well, this one is for a dead Jesus who supposedly came back to life. And so hymn singing was a very common practice in the early church.

And that's most likely what is being referred to by hymns. And now when you see spiritual songs, it's more just general songs, just very general songs being sung.

It might not even be found within the time of official church activity.

It might just be general songs that you would sing around the house that pertain to the glories of God and what he's done in creation.

And so I don't think Paul, when he's talking about this, I don't think he has just in mind singing together corporately, but I think he has in mind that those who are filled with the spirit, they will sing such songs to the

Lord, both corporately together, but also to one another in their less official time of fellowshipping, in the home, right, with the family, bringing people over to have dinner with them.

And there is this being filled with the spirit activity in which it expresses itself and singing praises to God.

And we see this singing comes forth from, he says, if you look at verse 18, or verse 19, he says, and singing and making melody to the

Lord with your heart. So not only are you singing to each other, addressing one another with hymns and psalms and spiritual songs of worship, but you're also making melody to the

Lord himself with your heart. So you're addressing one another and you're addressing the Lord with this worship.

But what does it mean when he says, making melody to the Lord with your heart? What does it mean that you would make melody with your heart?

What exactly does that look like? Well, I think he goes on to describe that in verse 20, when he says, giving thanks always for everything to God the

Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So to be filled with the spirit is to have so much thanksgiving in your heart that it bubbles up out and singing and praising to God with thanksgiving in your heart, that you are so overwhelmed by the salvation that you have in Christ Jesus, that it bubbles over into singing worship and praise with one another to our

God. This is the life of the Christian. This is one who is filled with the spirit. He's so overwhelmed by salvation, he must sing it out.

You know the feeling, don't you? Whenever you're just so happy and full of joy, it just feels good to sing, doesn't it?

It feels good to sing it out. And that's what he says, the Christian life, being filled with the spirit is marked with being so overwhelmed by the salvation we have in God that it just comes out organically in our homes, organically as we sing spiritual songs to one another, and also, of course, corporately as we gather together, we sing to each other and to the

Lord because our hearts are so filled with gratitude. Now, is it even possible to give thanks always and for everything to God?

How is that even possible? Notice Paul doesn't say only whenever you feel like it or whenever you think it really warrants that you can be thankful, but Paul assumes that you always, oh

Christian, have a reason to be thankful. Now, you see that. You always have a reason to be thankful.

Now, that can be easy for some of you who's in a season of prosperity, but that can be like, are you kidding me, to others who are not.

How is it that we are always in a, we always have a reason to be thankful? We have to go to, a good way to explain this is

Romans 8. We have to go to Romans 8 to explain this. Romans 8, 28.

Paul says that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

Son. And so we see from Paul, he uses all language, this all -encompassing language.

He says for those who love God, for those who have come to know who he is, believed upon him, and have this relationship through the

Spirit, all things work together for their good, all things. But what is that good?

Well, he goes on to explain what that means. It is conformity to the image of the Son. And do you see how that's exactly what we've been talking about, right?

Is that for those who wanna be filled with the Spirit, what do you do? What is the will of the Lord for me today?

And the Lord answers, to be conformed to the image of the Son today. And the Lord also says, and it is my will that I will provide that for you today.

And so each day that you receive, you say this is a gift from God to conform me after the image of the Son. I shall be filled with thanksgiving as he's so gracious to give me the

Son. And this is gonna reveal itself in a full heart, filled with the Spirit, filled with thanksgiving, singing songs to one another with thanksgiving.

This is what we see in scripture throughout, that those who have claimed

Christ, they say my greatest treasure is the Lord. And then the Lord says, and it is my will to give you your greatest treasure each day.

And so as you go through the different aspects of your life, we see this is a gift from God to conform me to the image of the

Son. And that fills you with so much gratitude because that is your greatest desire that is shown in a full spiritual livelihood in which you can't help but sing praises to this

Christ that God is conforming you after the image of. So then what happens when you don't want the will of the

Lord, though? What happens when you, O Christian, can say, well, today I don't want the will of the

Lord? Well, you're not gonna be filled with the Spirit. You're not going to have that desire within your heart to be filled after the image of the

Son. And so it's gonna take away that thanksgiving. It's going to take away that fruitful singing out to one another and singing to the

Lord. And that brings me to the point of, so what happens whenever I just don't feel like singing?

What happens when I woke up this morning thinking, yeah, I don't really want the will of the Lord today? That's happened to some of you, hasn't it?

No, it happens to every one of us, doesn't it? There's times in our Christian life where we wake up not wanting the will of the

Lord. We act like the pagan, and we want self -will instead. We say, Lord, my will is better than yours.

We wake up that way, don't we? What happens? What happens whenever our minds aren't geared that way? What happens whenever, if I were to sing right now, it would not be with a heart of full of gratitude and thanksgiving, and I wouldn't sing to one another with that and to the

Lord with that. Do I just shut up? Do I just be quiet? What happens when the fruit of spirit -filled living is not happening in my life?

Do I then refrain from the fruit? And beloved, the answer is you still do the acts of the fruit.

You see, the fruit of being filled with the Spirit is not only fruit, but it's also facilitators.

You see what I'm saying by that? Is that when you're filled with the Spirit, you have this desire within the heart filled with thanksgiving that expresses itself in singing one another and to God, and those are fruits of being filled with the

Spirit, and it also facilitates the very same thing. So if you're not feeling too fruitful today, what

God calls you to do is to do it anyways, and hopefully your heart will catch up later. So sing to the

Lord when we gather together. Sing to the Lord, even if your heart is far from thanksgiving as the fruit of the

Spirit, sing anyways, and God, as you do it with I want to know the will of the Lord, I want the will of the

Lord to be on me, I want to be filled with the Spirit, God uses that to then facilitate the fruit of the

Spirit or the spirit -filled living in you. So we cannot be, as Christians, to say, well, if I'm not feeling the fruit, if my mind has been elsewhere, then

I'll simply just not do it. But what we are called to do is to do the fruit, to do the fruit of a spirit -filled life, and God will use that to facilitate the

Spirit within you. And so what we're saying here, a Christian life is one of understanding the will of the

Lord, knowing and applying the word of God. That has to be paramount in your life.

So if you are not seeking the word of God in your life right now, if you're not seeking to understand what it is and what it looks like in your life right now, being filled with the

Spirit will not happen to you. You can sing until you're blue in the face. You can try to do the fruit until you're blue in the face, but if you are not fundamentally trying to, what is the will of the

Lord, what does it look like in my life, if it's not coming forth from that, then you will have no Spirit -filled life.

But as you seek the will of the Lord, as you go through different hard times of fruitless living, as it happens to all of us, if you're seeking the will of the

Lord, then engage yourself to these things, and God will answer. So a

Christian life is one of understanding the will of the Lord, knowing and applying the word of God.

This will fill you with the Spirit. And since the will of the Lord is to conform you after the image of his

Son, the main fruit of being filled with the Spirit is a heart overcome with thanksgiving, because he's given you everything for life and godliness.

And this expresses itself with singing together the praises to our Lord. This is the fruit of being filled with the

Spirit is that you're so overjoyed with thanksgiving, you're so overjoyed with happiness, that you cannot help but sing to your

Lord with others who feel the same. This is the inheritance given to us in Christ.

This is the good life in the land of the imperatives as we've been talking about. This is what the Christian has for them.

And so then, with that being said, look at your own individual lives. Is my life structured this way?

Is my life structured to, first and foremost, understand and do the will of the

Lord? Is that my greatest desire? If my greatest desire is to be filled with the Spirit, which is conforming to the image of the

Son, and that begins with saying, what would you have of me, oh Lord? And the habitual practice of that?

Is your life structured in a way of what is the will of the Lord and I want to do it? Do you give yourself to the study of the

Word? Do you give yourself to the practice of the Word? When you're reading Scripture, do you do more than just simply, well,

I want to know facts, like as if I'm getting ready for an exam? Or do you give yourself to it and say, God, what does this look like in my own life?

Are you working out that muscle? Does your life, is your life structured to understand the will of the

Lord? Do you grace us with your presence in here, saying, oh, just give me the will of the

Lord, and do you put your mind on it afterwards? What does that look like in my life today?

Or do you stop thinking about the sermon the moment you walk out of the door? What does this structure your life?

Is it screaming, understanding the will of the Lord? If it's not, then don't expect to be filled with the

Spirit. Your family life, especially for you leaders of the home, right, fathers, mothers, does your family reflect a

Christian home that says, as for us in this household, we will know the will of the Lord, we will follow the will of the

Lord, we will know the Word of God and do it. Does your family life reflect that? And especially you men, are you structuring your family as those who say, we want to be filled with the

Spirit? We want us, this family, to know the will of the Lord, where scriptures become central to your life, something to be read and understood, to be applied.

Children need to learn to do that at a young age, to know that this is more than just simply words on a page, but life to my

Spirit. And do you have a desire as you come into this assembly, do you have a desire that I can sing songs of worship from a thankful heart and address my fellow brothers and sisters with that, an overflow of the

Spirit working in me to one another? Do you have a thankful heart that then addresses the

Lord too with your songs of worship? And of course, we know that this stems from a thankful heart.

We know it stems from being thankful for what God has done for us, which stems from understanding the will of the

Lord. Does your life structure around these things to facilitate a growing after or a having a full

Spirit or a full abundance of the Spirit? As you look at this, if you look at your life and you say it is lacking, right?

The Word of God, I have not much of a practice of that. Well, this is something that we give ourselves to by the strength of the

Spirit who will give you strength to do so. As we sing together, as we have thankful heart, oh Lord, give my heart full of thanksgiving for Jesus Christ.

Make me desire Him above all things. Does your life reflect this kind of structure of being filled with the

Spirit and the fruits therein? And again,

I wanna end with just highlighting that this is the fruit of the Spirit or I keep on saying that.

This is being filled with the Spirit. This is an action in which there's much work to be done, but it's all animated by the graces of the

Holy Spirit. It's all animated by Him. So as you give yourself to these things and you see your weaknesses, know that God, His will is for your sanctification.

His will is to grow you in these things and He will be faithful to do so as you look to Him and His will each day.

Let us pray. Oh Father in heaven, thank you for your mercies and grace. We thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you,

Lord, that you do not leave us or abandon us, but Lord, you offer yourself to us each day. Each day, your word is there before us to understand, to know, to apply.

And each day, Lord, as we, Lord, apply these things and we fill ourselves with the

Spirit, we know that thanksgiving is to be ours. As we look to Jesus Christ and all the things that He's offered to us,

Lord, an abundant life in Him, conformity after His image, God in heaven, we can see that our life can be so filled with thanksgiving that we can't help but to sing praises to you with one another.

And Father, we can't help but see that there's many times in our life where it just seems like our heart doesn't catch up or it seems like our heart is far, even though we are practicing these things.

I pray that you would help us, Lord, to even engage ourselves to the fruitful outworking of being filled with the

Spirit, knowing that you have promised that our heart will eventually catch up. So help us, Lord, not to, help us not to turn away from these things that you have us to do.

Help us not to turn away from the fruit of having the Spirit fully within us, but help us rather to engage in them and ask that you would be so kind to work in that, to a heart filled with gratitude so that we can be a blessing to one another and we can,

Father, have true and genuine worship to you. I pray that you would help us, Lord, for we are weak. And we're thankful,

Lord, that you call us to be filled with the Spirit, not filled with our good works, for we know that if it's just simply our good work separated from the

Spirit, there'd be no hope in it. But since they are being filled with the Spirit, we know that the gracious work of the

Spirit will succeed in us as we work, Father, to grow after the image of Jesus, to be filled with these things,

Lord. We know that the Spirit will animate our work and our progress, and it'll be his blessed work in the end.

So we thank you for these things. May we give ourselves to them, Lord, and be amazed at the work that you do in your people.