The Spirit Controlled Life - Ephesians 5:18

to the Ephesians. Turn there if you will. As we pick back up.

I was trying to figure this out. I think we took about a nine week break or so. We talked about, walked through our distinctives and we're incorporating those distinctives into who we are as a church.

This morning though as you're turning there, the question I have for you is this. What is the

Christian life? What is, what is the

Christian life? It's amazing or perhaps we would say alarming today to consider how many professing

Christians in our area have no idea how to answer that question.

And I want you to be able to answer that question. So answer it there in your own heart and mind.

What is the Christian life? What is the difference for example between the

Christian life and say just the moral, conservative,

American loving, people loving, community involved in life.

Okay because the reality is there are a ton of folks in our area who meet that criteria.

They are basically moral. They vote conservative. They love our country.

They're involved in the community. They are friendly people. What is the difference between that and the

Christian life? Some would actually say there is no difference.

Well that's wrong. Others would say well in the Christian life you do all that other stuff, but you also you go to church and you read your

Bible and you know you do religious things. But is that, is that it?

Is that the essence of the Christian life? The Son of God, the eternal

Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. He fulfilled all righteousness. He was crucified, buried and resurrected for our sins and so now my life is oriented around what everyone else's is oriented around.

Oh yeah and also I just go to church. Is that the Christian life? In Ephesians 5

Paul is showing really in the second half of Ephesians, Paul is showing what the

Christian life looks like. Friends as we examine this we have to understand no matter what it is that you think the

Christian life looks like. This is what the Bible says a Christian's life looks like, a Christian walk looks like.

This is how the scriptures define the Christian life and the question we have to ask ourself really every

Sunday we're asking ourself this question. Will we listen to God's Word?

And one of the things that we see in our text today is that the Christian life, the genuine

Christian life is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Not by immorality, not by worldliness, not by anything else within or without.

The Christian life is controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word.

We are in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 and we'll read verse 18.

And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the

Spirit. Father help us to understand this text as we drill down deep into what it has to say for us.

Help us to understand that the Holy Spirit controls the life of the believer.

As we read this morning from the confession that the Spirit is within us and He's producing in us the the will to to work for your good pleasure.

So help us to understand what it means to be controlled by the Spirit and I pray Lord if there are Christians here who are who are not being controlled by the

Spirit if they're if they're trying to be controlled by something else I pray today they would repent. I pray others who are in here who are not believers at all that they would that they would repent and see the need for the

Holy Spirit in their life. They would trust Christ and then Father I pray for Christians who are who are filled with the

Holy Spirit. I pray today that they would be encouraged by this message and challenged and edified in all the ways that they need to.

Help us to understand this great truth and this wonderful doctrine. We pray it all in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. Brian Chapel uses an illustration that it may make you groan a little bit okay but I like it.

Essentially he says this every Christian ought to be able to be charged with an

LUI. An LUI. What's he saying? He's saying living under the influence.

Okay? The influence. The influence of what? Not a what but a who. Every Christian ought to be able to be charged with living under the influence of the

Holy Spirit. Let me ask you something this morning as we begin. Could you be charged with such an offense?

Could they charge you with an LUI? Could they charge you with living under the influence of the

Holy Spirit? Is your life controlled by, led by, swayed by, impacted by the third person of the

Trinity the Holy Spirit? Paul says, and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the

Spirit. The sad reality in our day is that many professing

Christians have no idea what this kind of life actually looks like. The kind of life that is controlled by the

Holy Spirit. They believe that they're filled with the Holy Spirit simply because they feel the

Spirit's presence. Right? So, for example, when they sin, their conscience pricks them and they believe, well, that's the

Holy Spirit. Or when they sing a song, they feel emotional and they believe, well, that's the Holy Spirit.

Or basically they just live and do whatever they want to do and they feel some sort of inner peace and so they assume, well, that is the

Holy Spirit. Is this what Paul means? Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the

Spirit? I think there are elements of what I said that are true, you know, in accordance with this verse, but I believe this verse shapes and defines the

Christian life in a far superior way than what many believe is a

Spirit -filled life. A Spirit -filled life, friends, is a Spirit -influenced life.

It is a Holy Spirit controlled life. It's going to take us, it's not going to surprise you, it'll take us probably a couple weeks, maybe three weeks,

I don't know, to get through this verse. Fine, that's been our pattern in this in this great letter of Paul, but I want to understand this passage and I want to see how it really sets the tone for the entire

Christian life. Let's review just a little bit. Paul has told us that the Christian is to walk in certain ways.

Let's just review real quick. Turn back in your Bible to Ephesians 2. So first, this will be easy, we'll go quickly through this, but Paul has told us that the

Christian is to walk in good works. So Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, Paul says,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Take note of that word walk in Ephesians, and then go to Ephesians 4. So we're to walk in good works.

In Ephesians 4 verse 1, we're to walk in a worthy manner of our calling. Paul says,

I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Verse 17 of chapter 4, we're not to walk as the Gentiles. Paul says,

Ephesians 4 verse 17, Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the

Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. We're to walk in love. Now we're in Ephesians 5 verse 2.

Ephesians 5 verse 2, Paul says, And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We're to walk as children of light. That's Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8. For at one time you were darkness, but now you're a light in the

Lord. Walk as children of light. And then finally, Paul says, we're to walk in wisdom.

So Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15, Look carefully then how you walk not as unwise, but as wise.

The Christian life is this walk of love and holiness and wisdom and good works, all influenced by, controlled by the

Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we learn that the Christian life, that is the way that we're to walk, is only possible for three main reasons.

This will be quick, but go to Ephesians 1. Again, just a little bit of review. All the way back to Ephesians 1. Three main reasons that the

Christian life is able to be walked this way. Number one, the Father chose us. If the

Father had not chosen us, would we be able to walk this way? Of course not. Verse 3 says this, Ephesians 1 3,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

Why do we walk the Christian life? Because the Father chose us. Secondly, the

Son died and rose again for us. Verse 7, I'm still in Ephesians 1, In him, that is in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

We are able to walk the Christian life because the Father chose us, the Son died and rose again for us, and thirdly, the

Holy Spirit indwells us. Still in Ephesians 1, verse 11, In him we have attained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

So what Paul has done then, beloved, is he's taken the gospel reality of Ephesians 1 through 3, and he sought to now show how this applies practically in the

Christian life in Ephesians chapter 4, 5, and 6, and so this is where we are then in the letter in Ephesians 5.

We are learning how God's work on our behalf bears itself out practically in our life, and in this verse we have two contrasting commands.

So back to Ephesians 5, 18. Two commands in this verse, and they're contrasting.

Verse 18, and first one, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, and here's the second one,

Be filled with the Spirit. So we have, Don't do this, and do this.

This has been the pattern in 15 through 18, just listen. Look carefully, verse 5, 15, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.

So don't do something, don't walk unwise, walk wise. Verse 17, Therefore do not be foolish, okay, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. So don't be unwise, be wise, don't be foolish, understand what the will of the

Lord is, and then you get to verse 18, Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, and it reminds us that Christianity is not just a list, young people you listen to this for sure, teenagers,

Christianity is not just a list of negative commands. Christianity is not just a list of things that you should not do.

Christianity cannot be summarized by the things that you can't do. I don't drink,

I don't chew, I don't go with girls who do, that makes me a Christian. No, that's not the essence of the

Christian life. The Christian life cannot be summarized by the can'ts. The command is not merely to not get drunk, but it's also be filled with the

Spirit. MacArthur notes this, Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not an option for believers, but a mandate.

So we want to understand what this command means, but what we need to do first is to get, we want to get to the positive command, that'll really be more next week.

Today we're going to consider the negative command, the can't, the don't. So number one then, the prohibition.

Number one, the prohibition. Verse 18 says, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

You're gonna have to listen very carefully in all this sermon. There's probably something I'll say in this sermon for everyone to disagree with, so get the pens and papers out and be ready, all right?

But listen to the text. The prohibition here is against drunkenness.

Verse 18, And do not get drunk with wine. Okay, so first we do acknowledge, it does not say,

And do not drink wine, right? It says, Do not get drunk with wine.

So it is not against the use or consumption of alcoholic beverage in total. However, I am going to give, obviously, my case for the position

I hold in just a moment. Now, the word for wine in the text just means a fermented beverage made from the juice of grapes.

That's one lexical definition, a fermented beverage made from the juice of grapes. Drinking too much of this beverage causes drunkenness.

And the point of Paul's prohibition in verse 18 is that drunkenness is always a sin.

Drunkenness is always a sin. And do not get drunk with wine.

By the way, saying with wine doesn't give you the, you know, the excuse to say,

Well, with whiskey, I can get drunk with whiskey, right? It just says wine. No, no. The point is that the believer is not to be under the intoxicating influence of any alcoholic beverage.

And we're actually going to extend that to some other things in just a moment, but we'll get to that later. So we need to consider first a little bit about alcohol and what alcohol does to the body because in drunkenness, because I think that this is going to help us understand the positive command of the

Holy Spirit. So alcohol, as you probably know, is a depressant. Alcohol has a numbing effect on the brain.

In fact, sometimes alcohol is referred to as liquid courage, right? So you get drunk and you be brave because it creates a false sense of reality.

So this alludes to the contrast here, right? Because the Holy Spirit is the opposite of this.

The drunkenness numbs the brain. It numbs the reflexes. It pulls you away from reality, whereas the

Holy Spirit, he enlivens us. He doesn't numb us. He makes us alive. He doesn't numb sinful fears, for example.

He kills them and he quickens our fear of God. Drunkenness takes us away from reality.

The Holy Spirit makes us alive and shows us the reality in which we live. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit. So again, one website to consider drunkenness. One website notes, alcohol interferes with the brain's communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works.

Alcohol makes it harder for the brain areas controlling balance, memory, speech, and judgment to do their jobs, resulting in a higher likelihood of injuries and other negative outcomes.

This is why Paul says that drunkenness in verse 18 is debauchery. Now you may have a different word there.

And do not get drunk with wine. I'm talking about this phrase here, for that is debauchery.

Look in your text. I'm not sure the word that you may have there, but this word debauchery, I'll illustrate it this way.

The word is used in Luke 15 13 as an adverb for the prodigal son.

And so there it says that he squandered, it says the prodigal son squandered his inheritance in reckless living.

So you walk in today, you read the text in the ESV, and you say, I have no idea what debauchery means.

Okay, well you can maybe bring your mind to and think about the prodigal son and the type of life that he lived.

A reckless living. The Christian life is not a life of reckless living.

Now listen, especially young people, and you watch this and you listen to your friends, and I know it's so sad. There are many teenagers in here today under the age of 21.

And I already know, I know because I was in high school once. I was where you're at once. I was in college.

I know the influence. I know the pressure that there is. And the glamour, is glamourification a word?

The glamouring of drunkenness in our world today? I understand it.

Drunkenness is glorified by many in our society. But you need to hear the Bible's prohibition against this.

Drunkenness is a reckless life. It's a reckless life.

Friends, so many lives have been cut short, or ruined, or destroyed, or ended by drunkenness.

Wasn't long ago that there was a star NFL player making millions of dollars.

He got into his car. He had been drinking. He was drinking too much. He was drunk. He was driving like some crazy speed, 150 miles an hour.

I mean, something crazy. He had a crash. He killed, I believe it was a woman or children.

He was fine. Now he's got blood on his hands. He's in prison for however many years.

All because of drunkenness. The Christian life is not characterized by recklessness.

But the point is control. And I'll mention this next week. I'm gonna get ahead of myself. A lot of people say, well,

I'm gonna get drunk on the Spirit. No, you missed the point. Paul's not saying don't get drunk on wine, but get drunk on the

Spirit. No, and people running around and doing all that. And I'm not trying to be irreverent or trying to be rude. I know you've got family members in different sort of, you know,

Christian streams. But this running around, and flopping around, and shouting out things that people can't understand.

Is that a life of control? No. The Holy Spirit controls us.

And this is the point that Paul is making. Drunkenness takes us out of reality. The Christian life is not characterized by recklessness, but control.

Martin Lloyd -Jones says it this way. The Christian life is an ordered life. It is the very reverse of the condition of the drunkard who has lost control and is being controlled by something else.

In other words, for the Christian, we're not controlled by drunkenness or anything else, but by the Spirit. The Christian life is controlled by the

Spirit. So again, alcohol, when taken in excess, ultimately numbs, distorts, depresses the functions of one mind, and is the epitome of foolishness.

Verse 17, therefore do not be foolish. You want to be foolish? You want to go out here and you want to be foolish today?

Leave and go get drunk. That's the epitome of foolishness, is drunkenness.

The fool doesn't use his brain. But Christianity is a religion of truth.

It is the religion of sound doctrine. It is not merely the religion of the heart, but also the mind.

Take your hand, mark Ephesians, but turn with me to Proverbs 23 for a moment.

Proverbs 23. The wisdom literature of the Bible warns against drunkenness.

Turn to Proverbs 23. Solomon can speak to us as a man from experience.

Proverbs 23, verse 29. Do you want woe in your life?

Do you want sorrow? Do you want misery? Well then, here's how you find it. Proverbs 23, 29.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining?

Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine.

Those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart utter perverse things.

You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt.

They beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I wake? I must have another drink.

That's the wisdom of the Bible's warning against drunkenness.

Drunkenness is foolishness and it is always sinful. Now, here's my position.

I do not think that the Bible, hear my whole position, I do not think that the

Bible gives a flat prohibition from ever drinking any alcohol.

I just, for example, Jesus did not turn water into grape juice. He just did.

He did turn it into a fermented beverage, into wine. However, my wife and I have chosen the path of abstaining from alcohol for use as a beverage.

I think that's a wise position or I wouldn't hold that position. So, I a hundred percent believe that Jesus and the

Apostles did have alcoholic wine in the Passover and even in the Lord's Supper, but I'm just personally not convinced that the alcoholic content in this was the same as what many companies today are able to do and even pressured to do in their wines.

Furthermore, I'm not personally convinced that hard liquor is ever really appropriate for casual consumption and it saddens me that so many in the so -called

Reformed camp glamorize alcohol. Alcohol is not like certain other things that we can sin with.

For example, eating too much sugar is sinful, but it has an adverse effect on one's health, but too much alcohol results in recklessness and debauchery.

I'm not saying anyone is, it's okay to sin in one and not the other. I'm just saying that if you sin with too much sugar, it's bad, it's wrong, it's going to hurt you.

If you sin with too much alcohol, you're going to hurt yourself and others. Let me give a quick example and I want to be very careful with this.

This is very fresh and I don't know all the details, so I'm just going to kind of give a very vague example, but just this week a

Southern Baptist pastor, within the last two weeks, a Southern Baptist pastor was arrested,

I believe in the state of Texas, for a DWI. He was arrested.

I have no clue about the story. I don't know how much over he was of the limit or whatever, but I know he had one of his teenage kids in the car with him and he's being charged with several things and his ministry is ruined because he decided that he wanted to drink too much alcohol.

For me, that's not worth it. Now let me also say this, one of my heroes of the faith, Charles Spurgeon, would disagree with me.

Arnold Dalimore says this about Spurgeon. Now listen, this is Arnold Dalimore, a biographer of Spurgeon.

So he says, during a considerable portion of his life, Spurgeon used alcoholic drinks as a beverage.

In his day, pure drinking water was difficult to obtain and in order to avoid contamination, most people used beer and ale at their meals.

This has been human custom since time immemorial and there could be little doubt that Spurgeon had been introduced to it as a boy in the homes of his grandfather and his father and that he had grown up accustomed to the practice.

In turn, he had not long been in London when we find him using drinks as beer, wine, and brandy, though in very moderate amounts.

And so let me say this, I think that there certainly is a measure of Christian freedom here.

That is, the moderate consumption of alcohol by a believer is not necessarily sinful.

It's always sinful if done in excess. If enough alcohol is consumed to the point of numbing the brain, this is a violation of Ephesians 518.

And do not get drunk with wine. For me, for me and my wife, we just don't see any benefit.

We're just not going to mess with it. We don't see benefit in alcohol. What am I gaining, right?

What am I gaining by drinking? We don't find anything. However, I also should mention that abstaining from alcohol can result in sin too.

What? How can I? If I'm a teetoler, if I practice abstinence from alcohol, how can

I sin? A number of ways. One is if your abstinence makes you feel superior to your

Christian brother or sister that sees things differently than you. I'm better than you because this is what

I do. Well, that would be a sinful attitude. Also note this, and this is what

I see in our area. So I need to make sure that you hear this part. I think that the absence of alcohol in some people's life is their, is their, it's, it's what they hang their salvation on.

Let me give you an illustration real quick. In Matthew 12, Jesus tells this parable about the, you remember the parable about the house and there's a demon in the house and then the demon leaves the house and then he comes back and he finds the house swept clean.

And so then him and like seven of his demon friends occupy the house. And Jesus says that state of that house is worse than what it was in the beginning.

Hopefully you remember that, Matthew 12. Let me use, let me use that for an analogy. If, if abstinence for you is emptying the house of alcohol, let's say the house is your heart.

So you've emptied, you've emptied your heart of alcohol, but you don't fill your heart with Christ, right?

So I don't consume alcohol, but there's no Jesus in you. There's no

Christ. Then how, how are you, in fact, you're not only are you, are you not better off.

In fact, in a sense, you're worse off because at least when you confront the drunk with the gospel, he knows he's a miserable wretch, right?

But when you confront the self -righteous person with the gospel, they think, I don't need that. The gospel's for the drunk.

The gospel's for, for the, for the one that's on drugs. I don't need that. It could be a very serious danger.

So there's clear sin in our text. Let's agree in verse 18. Clear sin in our text. What is it?

Drunkenness. Beyond that, I'm not allowed to take my conscience and ultimately press that upon another believer.

Though this is where I stand and I think it's a wise position. But we may have different approaches to alcoholic beverages, but we should be able to discuss this with Christian charity.

And we all have to agree that excess of alcohol is always condemned. It's prohibited in verse 18.

You can't be a Christian who you, we never use this, right?

Why don't we, why don't we use this? Like in a phrase today, there's, or in our culture today, there's lots of phrases like, well,

I'm a gay Christian or whatever. But you never seem to hear this. I'm one of those drunk Christians, right?

Well, because we understand you can't, you can't be a gay Christian anymore than you can be a drunk

Christian. In the Bible, there's only Christians, those who are born again and are filled with the Spirit and love Christ and seek to follow

His ways. So a reckless life is not the life of a believer. What has control over us is the

Holy Spirit of God, not wine. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit. Now that is the prohibition. And we could just leave it there and we could just be done. But I think that we can appropriately broaden the application here for just a moment.

And then next week, we'll get into the positive aspect. Okay, so Paul's point in the text is not to write a dissertation on alcohol.

Okay, really, the point of this verse is not to be used really for either a pro or against alcohol position.

The point of this verse is that Christians are not controlled by foreign substances, but they're controlled by the

Holy Spirit. It is only being filled with the Holy Spirit that guards us against legalism on the one hand and lawlessness or licentiousness on the other.

What ought to control every believer is the Holy Spirit of God. So not only, right, the

Christian should not only be controlled by wine, not controlled by wine, the Christian should not be controlled by what?

Anything else, right? So I'm gonna make some applications here. Let me make an obvious application.

I jog around the town and do you know,

I mean, I'm not saying this to be funny or whatever, I'm just telling you the sadness. I've jogged around the town for seven years now.

It is amazing how much you can smell marijuana in our town today, compared to seven years.

I'm just telling you. You jog around town and you can smell it, and it's terrible that so many people are using recreational marijuana.

I'm just going to tell you it's prohibited in the text. You say, well, it doesn't say anything about marijuana, right?

I can't get drunk, but I can get high, right? No, you're missing the point.

You can't be controlled by wine. You can't be controlled by marijuana.

You can't look at this text and just say, well, it only talks about drunkenness, so there's no other application. No, let me press this though even further.

Now, maybe this will step on some toes, but hear me out here. There are some reactions to prescription medications that would cause you to violate this text.

We live in a world that says, hey, if the doctor gives it to me, it must be okay. But if there are things that we begin to ingest in our body that cause us to completely lose control and lose our mind, then we have to search for other outs there, other possibilities, because the overarching principle is that we should not be ingesting anything into our bodies that are going to deaden our mental faculties or that we are trying to use to escape from reality.

The Holy Spirit is the opposite of these things. Drunkenness and drugs numb, but the

Holy Spirit stimulates. Think about that. These other things bring change and they bring suppressing who we are, and yet the

Holy Spirit empowers our minds. He inflames our hearts. He enlivens our wills. He invigorates our affection.

He influences our actions. We want to be a people controlled by nothing else but the

Spirit of the Holy God. A Christian doesn't want to escape reality.

I don't know, we have to deal with hard things in this life, but we don't want to escape reality. We want to press further into God because God is our reality, and drunkenness and drugs take us away from this reality.

But life in the Spirit is true and fruitful and joyful life. Friends, it's amazing to me how many

Christians, people who say they're Christians, but they're not living in the feeling of the

Holy Spirit. This is the reality of the Christian life. So many profess to be believers, but they're not living a life

Spirit -controlled. They desire to be controlled by other things. Sure, they're slaves to sins for sure, but they're willful slaves.

They love their captivity. So let me press this application even further. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit. Okay, so the idea of this verse is about control and influence. So here's the question

I have for you. I can't answer this. So you hear so far, so far you hear this message and you're like, I'm good. I ain't getting drunk.

I ain't smoking marijuana, and I'm not taking any kind of crazy prescription medication that makes me lose my mental faculties.

I'm good. I'm good. I got this verse down. Well, hold on just a second. Let's press it a little further.

Okay, what is the guiding influence of your daily decisions?

Is it the Holy Spirit? Who controls your life?

For example, we could consider the things that you allow to fill your mind. Listen to John Owen.

Consider what proportion your thoughts of spiritual things bear unto those about other things.

If our principal treasure be, as we profess, in things spiritual and heavenly, and woe to us if it be not so, on them will our affections and consequently our desires and thoughts be principally fixed.

In other words, Owen, if I can put it in Perry County vernacular, Owen is simply saying this.

What is it that you're thinking about in comparison to heavenly things? Are you driving around thinking about the glories of Christ and heaven and propitiation and the deep doctrines of the faith?

Are you driving around thinking about the stats of Dak Prescott? What is it that's filling your mind?

Do the things of the Spirit control your mind, or is it the things of the flesh? Let me give you some examples that end up controlling our and our lives instead of the

Holy Spirit. So I hope that I hit enough application that there are something in your life that you can think about today and perhaps, if necessary, repent of that.

So let me give you a few of these. Things that end up controlling our mind or our lives instead of the

Holy Spirit. Some of these things you haven't thought of. Number one, entertainment. Again, this can be done in moderation, but are you amusing yourself to death?

Do you have games on your phone or that are just consuming you, or is it television, or is it

Netflix, or is it YouTube, or is it video games, or is it movies? Are these consuming your life?

Add up the amount of time that you spend on these things during any given week and compare that with the time that you're focusing on Christ and things.

Again, I'm not saying you can't watch a movie. I'm not saying you can't play a game on your phone. I'm not saying that you can't be entertained.

I am saying, though, that Americans today are amusing themselves to death, and these things end up controlling us.

Number two, social media. Is knowing everyone else is coming and going and posting what you want everyone else to see about your life, is that consuming your thoughts and your time?

A confession to you, I deleted Twitter and Facebook off my phone, so I can look at it in other areas, but it's just I hated waking up, and the first thing was like, it was like I trained my brain.

What's, you know, what's going on? What's Stephanie's status today, right? I had to delete those things.

Maybe you need to do that, too. Maybe you need to consider is social media controlling your life? Number three, what about work, entertainment, social media?

Thirdly, work. Is work a bad thing? No, it's a good thing. Work is a God -ordained thing, but are you working to live, or are you living to work?

That is, is work done for God's glory and providing for your family, or are you just working more and more and more and more so you have more and more and more and more excess of carnality?

Fourth, hobbies, entertainment, social media, work, hobbies. So many in the church in the

West today are consumed by hobbies. Hobbies. I don't know if that's knitting, whatever, hunting, golfing.

Hobbies. Hobbies for you, and get this, hobbies for your children.

Is your life controlled by the Spirit of God or the playthings of the world?

I'm just going to tell you that if we don't watch out, even our hobbies can dictate our schedule.

What are you doing Tuesday night? Can you come over? Oh, sorry, I got to go to this thing. What about Wednesday night? Can you come to church? Sorry, I got to go this way.

What about Thursday night? Oh, I'm sorry, I got to go to this thing, and every night is filled with something. I'm telling you, friends, that is controlling your life.

Fifthly, worldliness. Are you consumed with fashion, or keeping up with the neighbors, or are you controlled by the

Holy Spirit? Sixthly, of course, this is an obvious one, but let me mention this one, sin.

Obviously sin. Some of these things aren't in and of themselves sinful, and so I need to mention sin outright.

So sexual immorality, or pornography, or drunkenness, or lying, or gluttony, right?

Are you eating to live, or living to eat? Like all these things, if our life is controlled by any of those things, that's wrong.

It's sinful. We must repent. Then seventhly, finally, this is an interesting one, but it's a common enough thing that I need to mention it, and that is dread.

Dread. In men's Bible study a few weeks ago, we came across these interesting verses in Isaiah 8.

Listen to Isaiah 8, 12, and 13. Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.

Let me just tell you something. COVID revealed this as well, but it's even beyond COVID.

There's another thing. A lot of people in our world today are literally controlled by fear. Fear controls them.

They're controlled by conspiracy, or fear of the government, or fear of sickness, or fear of the weather, or fear of man, or whatever.

Now listen, y 'all. I'm right up there on being your resident conspiracy theorist. Fine. There's lots of things

I don't trust, and lots of things that I'm concerned about. Sure, that's fine, but there's a difference between trying to be wise about these things, and letting these things control your life, right?

Some people are so afraid they never live, and the

Bible says we should have one fear, the Lord, and if God is our fear, then there's nothing else that we have to be afraid of, and I believe all of these and more are really extended applications from our text this morning,

Ephesians 5 .18, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. In other words, don't be controlled by drunkenness.

Don't be controlled. I think it's a warranted application. Don't be controlled by entertainment, social media, work, hobbies, worldliness, sin, dread.

Don't be controlled by drugs or prescription medication. Don't be controlled by these things, but it's not just what you can't do, it's what you are to do.

Do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit. I know we haven't gotten into that part, and we will next week, but we've covered enough this morning to really ask ourselves an important question.

What is controlling your life? A Spirit -filled life is a life under the authority of the

Word of God. It is a life resulting from a living and vital union with Christ. It is a life that loves the local church.

It is a life that is bowed in submission to Christ as King. Please ask yourself this morning, are you trusting

Christ in repentance and faith? Does this describe you? Maybe this is the question I need to ask people around the community instead of, are you born again?

Maybe I need to ask you, does the Spirit of God control your life? Let me ask it this way.

What is controlling your life? That's the question, and for some of you it's an easy answer.

I'm going to reveal to you what is controlling your life. I think this will be true for some of you listening.

What is controlling your life? Answer. What are you thinking about right now? And for some of you, whatever it is that you're thinking about right now, it's the thing that is distracting you from Christ.

Maybe it's what you plan to do this afternoon. Maybe it's the project at work tomorrow. Maybe you haven't even realized until right now that this is exercising control over your life.

And the exhortation today, the loving exhortation today, is to repent and to seek to be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Don't just get the thing out of your house, but fill your house with the

Spirit of God. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Perhaps there are some in this room that need to repent of drunkenness or the use of other drugs.

The reckless life is not the Christian life. Repent. Find forgiveness in Christ, in His life, in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection.

Trust His atoning Word. Seek to live your life under His Lordship for His glory.

Turn from sin, even today, and believe the Gospel. And as we prepare to take the

Lord's Supper, let me mention this. The life that the Bible calls the Christian to live is better than anything out there that the world seeks to control you by.

One of the things that happens in my heart when I see people neglecting the church and neglecting the

Scriptures and living their own way, it's not anger. I'm not mad at them. I'm like, man, if they were running by me,

I wish I could just trip them so they'd fall and eat dirt. That's not what I want. Instead, my heart is broken because I know that the life that God calls us to is the life that we were meant to live.

It's not a pain -free life. It's not a trial -free life. It's not sorrow -free. But it is a life invigorated by the

Spirit of God Himself, a life in communion with God. Hey, sir, what is it that you're offering there at your church?

What is it that you really get out of Christianity? Oh, here it is, friend. Here's what you get out of Christianity.

You get God. Communion with God through Christ.

What controls your life this morning? Is it the Holy Spirit of God or something else?

I cannot answer that question for you, but I can tell you that the life controlled by the

Holy Spirit is the only life that eternally matters. It is a life that kills sin, that adores

Christ, that hungers for the Word, that loves the church. Friend, could you be charged today with living under the influence of the

Holy Spirit? We embrace this truth today. Let's pray.

Father, thank You for Your Word. Help us to understand what it is that You've communicated to us in the

Scriptures today. Help us to be a church that is not controlled by the whims of culture or by foreign substances.

Let us be a church controlled by the Spirit. We want to be a Spirit -filled church. And that begins individually and personally.

Lord, I pray today for those in here who are just ready for the sermon to be over. They're ready to just get out of here and go on and do something else.

I pray even today that You would shake them, wake them up. They would see that we're not playing a game.

They would look to Christ even today and repent and believe the gospel. We trust that Your Word will not return void.

And we pray today even, Holy Spirit, that You would take Your very Word and apply it to our hearts in all the individual ways that You do for Your glory.