Announcer: Everyone faces tough times.
So, how can you stand strong in your faith
when life gets difficult.
In the book, "Nine Ways to Hold on When You Want to Give Up,"
Dr. James Merritt shows you how to discover
God-give hope that will point the way to victory
in the midst of adversity.
Get your copy today from Touching Lives
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Announcer: Today on Touching Lives...
See the question that I'm asking every one of us
in this room right now who are believers
and all of you guys who are listening out there,
if you're a believer, here's the question
I'm asking you.
I'm not asking have you ever been filled
with the Holy Spirit.
I'm not asking that.
I'm not even asking you have you recently
been filled with the Holy Spirit.
I'm not asking that.
The question I'm asking is,
are you right now filled with the Holy Spirit?
You know why I'm asking that question?
Because yesterday's filling won't cut it today.
Teaching people everywhere who Jesus is
and why the need Him.
This is Touching Lives with James Merritt.
Here's the good news: There's a fast track way
for you to get to where you want to go.
There's a fast track way on you to get
from where you are to where you know
that God wants you to be and to know
where you are supposed to be and that fast track
is simply to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, I want to throw something up on the screen
and it's a bold statement but I really believe it's true.
You cannot live the Christian life
fully unless you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
You cannot live the Christian life
fully unless you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, if you were here last week,
we said last week that the Holy Spirit lives
in every Christian at the point of belief.
When you give you to Jesus,
Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to you.
He comes to live inside of you and comes to live
His life through you and we all know people like this.
I'll guarantee you've had this experience
if you're like me.
You, you, you find yourself sometimes
in the presence of a Christian and you're not around them
two or three minutes and you just immediately know,
there's just something different about this Christian.
This man or this woman is living their life
on a higher level than I am.
You just sense they're close to God.
You just sense, man, this guy's, this lady,
this man is filled with God's presence
and filled with God's power.
When we went to visit with Dr. Billy Graham
in his home several years ago, Theresa will vouch for this.
He was sitting in his easy chair up on his Montreat cabin
and I was sitting right next to him.
We weren't with him with two or three minutes,
we knew we were in the presence of God.
We knew this was a man that really was filled
with the spirit of God.
This was a man that didn't just have
the presence of the spirit of God,
he had the power of the spirit of God.
You say, "Well, yeah, but that's Billy Graham."
Well, here's the good news.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is not just for Billy Graham.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is not just for so-called
spiritual superstars, you are going to see today
it is for every believer.
Now you say, "Well, how do you know that?"
I know that because of one thing that one man wrote
to a church in -- 2000 years ago.
If you brought a copy of God's word,
I want you to turn to a book called Ephesians,
or if you've got a smartphone or an iPad,
or whatever it is you use.
I want you to turn to a book called Ephesians.
It's in the New Testament.
Go to the gospels and go about 4 or 5 books to the right.
You'll hit the book of Ephesians.
I want you go to go to Ephesians 5.
There was a man that wrote just five words
I'm going to share with you today, wrote five words
and this was a man who, had you known that man,
you would have said he would have been
the least likely man, not only to ever write
a book in the Bible, ever to come to know Jesus
but he not only came to know Jesus,
he was not only brought to Jesus by the Holy Spirit,
he lived the rest of his life filled with the spirit of God.
That was a backdrop to everything
I'm gonna say to you this morning because
I'm gonna say some things that are gonna
make some of you maybe a little bit uncomfortable.
I want to put something up on the screen
and I want you to let this be kind of what
you keep in the back of your mind
for the rest of this message today.
Alright?
I absolutely am convinced that the average Christian
is so subnormal that when he becomes normal,
everybody thinks he's abnormal.
I do.
I believe the average Christian is so subnormal
that when he becomes normal, everybody thinks
he is abnormal and let me tell you why
I believe that.
I believe that the spirit-filled life is normal Christianity.
I believe that's just what God expects of every believer.
Not just to the seminary graduate, the PhD,
the pastor, the preacher, or anybody else.
That's God's expectation for every true believer.
It's what every believer ought to want to have,
what every believer can have.
If you're, if you're a follower of Jesus,
if you really are a follower of Jesus,
there's got to be something in you that says,
you know, I do want to be consistently,
continuously, conspicuously, constantly filled
with the Holy Spirit of God.
You say well, hey, how do I do that?
Well, in Ephesians 5, we're gonna learn how.
Here's what Paul tells us.
"I must seek the filling of the Holy Spirit."
That's the first thing we learn.
Alright?
Now this is what we read in verse 18,
"Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery,"
Paul said, "Instead, be filled with the spirit."
Five short words.
Listen.
Be filled with the spirit.
Five short words.
Yet unbelievably, powerfully-filled words.
For example, the verb there to be filled
is in the imperative mood in the Greek language.
In other words, this is not a suggestion.
It's not a request.
It's not even a good idea.
This is a command.
Paul said to every one of us who claim to know Jesus,
you are commanded by the God who made you
to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
So, if you're trying to live the Christian life
apart from the Holy Spirit, it's not just a mistake.
It's not just bad judgment.
It is a sin.
You are disobeying a direct command of the Holy Spirit.
And by the way, it is the will of God
for every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
You say, "Well, how do you know that?"
Well, let's don't take this verse out of context.
Go back one verse and let's look at what Paul wrote
just one verse before this one.
He says, "Therefore, do not be foolish
but understand what the Lord's will is."
We're here for one purpose.
You were put on this earth for one purpose.
Do you know what that purpose is?
To understand the will of God, to know the will of God,
and do the will of God.
If you're not doing that, you're wasting your life.
You're just taking up breath, taking up space
and taking up air.
We were all put here not only just to know
the God that made us and the God that loves us
and the God that wants to know us.
He says, "Look, I've got a will for your life.
I've got a plan for your life."
I want you to understand what that will is.
I want you to what that will is and I want you to do
what that will is and to do anything apart
from that is just a wasted life.
So, the question is, if it is God's will for me
to be filled with the spirit, how do I do that?
Well, remember, I told you last week,
every believer it indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
We said last week that when you give your life
to Jesus, He gives the Holy Spirit to you,
but then the very next thing he says is,
"Be filled with the spirit."
In other words, Paul said there's a problem.
The Holy Spirit is resident in every believer
but He's not president over every believer
and you see, what sometimes we fail to understand is this.
This is for everybody.
When he says here be filled, another thing you wouldn't see
in the Greek language there, the verb there to be filled
is plural in number.
In other words, literally translated,
here's what Paul wrote.
He didn't say you individually be filled.
That's not what it says in the Greek language.
Here's what it says.
Y'all be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Paul was from southern Israel, okay?
He said, "Y'all be filled with the Holy Spirit."
You all should be filled.
Not just the pastor.
Not just the TV religious superstar,
not just the seminary graduate.
He said the spirit-filled life is for every body
and oh, by the way, it doesn't matter whether
you've been a Christian five days or five years,
that's irrelevant.
If you are a believer,
you are to be filled with the spirit.
And by the way, it's also in the present tense
and in the Greek language, that, that was continuous action.
That's why Paul didn't say,
"Get filled with the Holy Spirit,"
he said, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit."
See, the question that I'm asking every one of us
in this room right now who are believers
and all you guys who are listening out there,
if you're a believer, here's the question
I'm asking you.
I'm not asking you have you ever been filled
with the Holy Spirit?
I'm not asking that.
I'm not even asking you have you recently
been filled with the Holy Spirit.
I'm not asking that.
The question I'm asking is
are you right now filled with the Holy Spirit.
And you know why I'm asking that question?
Because yesterday's filling won't cut it today.
You may say, "Well, Pastor, I was filled yesterday."
Well, yesterday's gone.
What about today?
Today's filling wont carry over until tomorrow.
When I woke up this morning, the two things,
every morning when I wake up, there are two things
I say to the Lord right off the bat.
"Lord, I love you and Lord, do not even let me get out
of this bed without filling me with the Holy Spirit."
I want my life, before I even walk out of my bedroom
to be filled with the spirit.
Because there's not an automatic reset on your heart.
You've got to continuously choose on a daily basis
whether or not you're not going to be filled by the spirit
and controlled by the spirit or controlled
and filled by something else.
Step two.
I must submit to the filling of the Holy Spirit.
It's not enough just to seek it.
You've got to submit to it.
Now, I want to make sure again you understand something
because one of the things I've learned
as I've prepared these messages was, you know,
James if you're not careful, people can get confused
about the spirit and I don't want that to happen.
Paul even talks about that over and over.
He kept talking about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts,
because the church kept getting confused.
So, I don't want you to be confused.
Don't ever think that if you're not filled
with the Holy Spirit, you don't have the Holy Spirit.
I'm gonna say this again.
Every Christian has the Holy Spirit.
If you don't have a Holy Spirit, you're not even a believer.
So, you have the Holy Spirit.
He never leaves you empty and He never leaves you at all.
The problem is, if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit,
it's not that you don't have the presence of the Holy Spirit,
you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit.
You can't walk in the Holy Spirit.
You can't talk in the Holy Spirit.
You can't live in the Holy Spirit.
You don't ever have to ask the Holy Spirit to be with you,
He never leaves you.
When He comes in, he comes in to stay.
We talked about that last week, but, moment by moment,
you have to continuously submit to the power
of the Holy Spirit.
I asked the folks at 9:15 this question.
It's kind of a rhetorical question because
I already know the answer and I could make it
a statement, I'll go ahead and ask you this:
Have you ever met anybody and you didn't talk to them
two minutes until you realized they were just absolutely
full of themselves.
Do you ever, I'm married to that guy, okay?
Really?
Have you met somebody just after two minutes,
you know they're just full of themselves.
Well, how did you know they were full of themselves?
Because all they talked about was themselves
and all they thought about was themselves
and all they wanted you to talk about was themselves
and all they wanted you to think about was themselves
and all they wanted you to just, just focus on was themselves.
Here's the problem: You cannot be full of the spirit,
or you can be full of the spirit,
or you can be full of you but you can't be full of both.
You can be full of the Holy Spirit,
or full of you, but you cannot be full of both
and see, this is why Paul makes this real strange comparison.
You notice this?
Listen to this.
He says, "Do not get drunk but be filled."
That's kind of strange.
You know, he didn't say, "Don't steal by be filled."
Or, "Don't lie by be filled," or "Don't kill but be filled."
He says, "Don't get drunk but be filled."
So, he's obviously making this comparison, right?
Between being drunk and being filled with the spirit
and if you think about it, it's a very apt analogy
because you can only be filled with the Holy Spirit
if you're willing to submit to the power of the Holy Spirit
with as much passion and as much desire
as an alcoholic wants to submit to the power of alcohol.
Because you know this, this is what happens,
you know, if you drink and by the way,
just as an aside, if you drink that's fine.
I don't think, I don't see in the Bible
I can't find where it's wrong to drink,
doesn't bother me if you drink.
So, if I ever walk into a restaurant
and you're drinking, don't hide the beer,
don't hide the wine.
Okay, not a big deal.
I'm not going to come and say, "You're going to hell."
I'm not going to do that.
Because I don't' believe that.
Okay?
I just, I just don't drink.
That's just, I just never drank.
That's just my own personal choice.
But let me just tell you this.
I've been around, I went to college
so I've seen my share of inebriated people, okay?
I went to a fraternity rush one time for one hour
and I said, "You know, I don't think I need this."
Okay?
But I've been around a lot of drunk people
and I'll tell you what I've learned.
When somebody is inebriated and they're under the influence
of alcohol, it's not just under the influence.
They're under the control of alcohol.
Now, here's the last thing and we're done
and this makes sense: If you seek the filling
of the Holy Spirit and if you submit
to the filling of the Holy Spirit,
then I must show the filling of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, this ought to make sense.
If you're filled with the spirit,
two people ought to know it.
You and somebody else.
Other people ought to be able to look at you
and say, "Man, this person, this person's
really filled with the spirit."
So, whenever you talk about being filled
with the Holy Spirit, the question always comes up
and I know now what you're asking.
You ought to be asking two good questions
and they're both great questions.
Hey, number one, so how do you really get this?
How do you really get filled with the Holy Spirit?
I already told you part of that and then number two,
how will you know if you are filled?
I mean, what are the marks of the spirit-filled life?
Well, Paul does us a favor.
Paul says let me just give you a few.
I don't think they're exhaustive.
But Paul says, "Would you like to know some things
that'll be true about you?
Things that people will be able to see on the outside
of you that will be able to tell them and tell you
that you are indeed filled with the Holy Spirit?"
If what I'm about to show you frankly is going to really
surprise you, is going to shock you.
Because if I'd have said to you, "So, what do you think
are some things Paul would say to be true about
you that if you're filled with the Holy Spirit,
what do you think he would say is true?"
You would not ever come up with the very first thing
he taught and I promise you've never thought about this.
He says, "Okay, let's just talk about this.
If you're a spirit-filled Christian," he said,
"first of all, you will be joyful."
You'll be joyful.
Listen to what he says in verse 19, the very next verse.
"Speaking," now this is interesting,
"speaking to one another with Psalms, hymns,
"and songs from the spirit.
Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord."
Now, talk about a surprise, Paul says the first mark
of being filled with the Holy Spirit,
it's not mountain-moving faith.
It's not being a dynamic speaker.
It's not some kind of a sign like speaking in tongues.
Paul said, "You know one of the marks of being
filled with the Holy Spirit?
You will have a heart so full of God,
you just want to worship the Lord."
There's just a song in your heart.
Now, let me just stop right here.
I know what some of you are thinking right now.
Trust me.
I can't sing.
People know that, trust me.
By the way, I can't sing.
I'm not a good singer.
You see, I just don't sing very well.
And you know what's even worse for some of you?
Let's be honest, you say, I don't even like to sing.
I just don't like to sing.
Well, here's what Paul said.
He said, "If you're filled with the Holy Spirit,
you'll just sing."
You won't have to sing.
You won't feel like, it's just something you will do.
There'll be a song in your heart but here's what
I want to you see that's so interesting.
Paul says, "We will be speaking to one another."
Now, what did he mean by that?
You thought he would have said,
"We'll be singing to one another."
He said, no, you'll be speaking to one another.
You know what Paul, you know why when you worship together,
we ought to all sing or give it a shot?
Because Paul says when we're singing,
we're actually telling the people around us,
"I love God and I want to worship this God
and I love you because you're a part of the family
of God and God loves you and I'm so grateful
that God loves us."
And when you sing, you're actually speaking a message,
you're not just singing, you're actually
talking about your faith.
You're, we're not talking about your ability to sing here.
We're talking about your willingness to sing
because when you come and you gather with believers
and you love God like everybody else,
you want everybody else to know that you love God.
And if you love everybody else like you ought
to love everybody else, you want everybody else to know
that you do love everybody else and you want to express to God
and to your believers your love for both of them.
You know, have you ever seen anybody
walking down the street and they're whistling
or they're kind of humming a tune
or one of my favorite things, have you ever been stopped
at a red light and somebody's over in the car next to you
and they're having their own disco party?
They're totally oblivious to the world.
I mean they're out there and they're just moving
and they're dancing and they're singing
and they're and you know, you're dying to know
what is the song they're listening to.
You know, you ever had that?
I mean, I've done it, right?
I mean, certain songs, I do it, unfortunately.
You know what you can already know about that person?
I don't have to know their name, their address,
I know what is true of them at that moment in their life.
They're happy.
They're full of joy.
There's a song on their heart.
Listen to me.
If secular music can do that for an unbeliever,
how much should spiritual worship do that for a believer?
How much more should that do for us
if we walk in here, how can you not sing
if you're filled with the Holy Spirit?
You will be joyful.
There'll be a song in your soul.
There'll be a melody in your heart.
What's this?
Paul said, "You know another mark that will be true
of you if you're filled with the Holy Spirit?
Not only will you be joyful, you'll be thankful."
Listen to what he says in verse 20.
He said, "You will always be giving thanks to God
the Father for everything in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now, I'll guarantee you one thing we'll say about that.
You can't do that apart from the Holy Spirit.
You just cannot give thanks for everything
in all things apart from the Holy Spirit.
But Paul says, if you are filled with the spirit,
you will not be grumbly hateful, you will be humbly grateful.
So, if you're filled with the spirit,
how do you know it?
You'll be joyful.
There'll be a song in your heart.
You'll be thankful in all things there'll be
something to say Lord, thank you.
But then Paul said, "You'll be graceful."
He says it in verse 21, how watch this.
He said, "You will submit to one another
out of reverence for Christ."
Let me tell you one thing I'm always seen,
I've never ever, I've pastored five churches,
I've never dealt with a spirit-filled believer
that had any trouble submitting to the authority
of the pastor in the church.
Never.
They just get it. They understand.
It's not that I lorded over people, you,
I've been your pastor for a long time.
I don't lord over anybody.
I don't try to, I don't have to.
But I've never found a spirit-filled believer
that was not willing.
Listen, if you're spirit filled.
If you're a spirit-filled son or a daughter,
if you're really spirit-filled as a son or a daughter,
you will have no issues submitting to the authority
of your parents.
If you're a spirit-filled team, a football player
or basketball player, you have no problem
submitting to the authority of your coach.
If you're a spirit-filled student, you have no,
you have no problem submitting to the authority
of your teacher or your principal.
If you're a spirit-filled employee,
you have no problem submitting to the authority
of your boss or your supervisor.
When you're spirit filled, you just don't mind submitting
to other people when you know they deserve
for you to submit to them.
You just don't have a problem with that authority.
When you are filled with the Holy Spirit,
you're always seeing how you can serve
the other person and how you can submit to the other person.
Now, I know it's rude to ask personal questions.
I know that.
Because I'm gonna wrap this up.
I know it's rude.
I know I shouldn't do it.
You know there are certain questions
you just don't ask, right?
You don't go up to a woman and say,
"How much do you weigh?"
You don't do that.
Or how old are you?
Or, is that a wig or do you color your hair.
You just, there's just certain questions
you don't ask, right?
You don't ever go up to someone and say something like,
"Did your plastic surgery not work out
or do you always look like that?"
You just don't do that, right?
But I want to wrap this up by asking you
a very personal question.
And here's the question.
Is the Holy Spirit filling you right now?
I mean, at this moment, while I'm up here
talking to you, you're out there listening to me.
Is the Holy Spirit filling you right now?
Now there are only three answers you can give
to that question.
Yes, no, I don't know.
Yes, I am.
No, I'm not.
Well, I don't know whether I am or not.
Alright, let me help you.
If you are not a believer, if you've never become
a follower of Jesus, you not only are not filled
with the Holy Spirit,
you don't even have the Holy Spirit
and you need the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, if you are a believer
but you know there's sin in your life.
There's unconfessed sin, there's unrepented of sin,
you know there are things you're doing right now
you shouldn't be doing.
Or you know you're not doing things that you should be doing,
you are not filled with the Holy Spirit,
but here's the good news.
Everybody in this room, everybody, no exceptions,
you can walk out of this building,
get in your car, drive home and know beyond
a shadow of a doubt you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
You say, "Okay, Pastor, how can I do that?"
You just pray one of two things to God.
So, let's say you're not a believer.
Let's say you're not a follower of Jesus.
If you have never come to Christ but you're willing to do
one simple thing, if you're willing to say
to this Jesus who was born and lived and died on a cross
and came back from the dead not just to save us,
not just to make sure we go to heaven
but to give us the Holy Spirit not just so we can live
in heaven later but live the life
we ought to be living right now.
If you would say to that Jesus, "I want you, I need you.
I'm a sinner, I need a Savior, you're that Savior,
become my Savior.
I trust you, I give you my life."
At that moment, like that, He will give you
the fullness of the Holy Spirit and you can walk out
filled with God's spirit.
Now, you say, "Well, I'm a believer.
I'm already a believer but I know I'm not filled
and I want to be."
And if you would just simply say something like this,
"Lord, I don't care what it costs me,
I don't care how painful it might be,
if you will cleanse me of anything that's filling me,
anything that's taking the place of the Holy Spirit,
if you'll just get it out of me right now
and as you do, fill me with your Holy Spirit,
this moment, I receive and believe by faith
the filling of the Holy Spirit," you will be filled.
Because the Holy Spirit, listen, the Holy Spirit
can be in you but not over you.
So, here's the issue as we wrap this up.
The issue is not how much of the Holy Spirit do you have.
The issue is how much of you does the Holy Spirit have?
He's resident in every believer.
He wants to be president over every believer
and that can happen when you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
So, I'll close with this and I'm done,
we're gonna say amen, pray, and go.
I've been a believer since I was nine years old.
I've not always been a spirit-filled believer
since I was nine years old and I'm not telling you
I'm filled every moment of every day because
I realize I sin like everybody else
but I'll tell you this.
The older I get as a believer and the more I grow
as a believer, the more I finally understand
the only way to live the Christian life
the way it was meant to be lived is to be filled
with the Holy Spirit because there is no joy,
there is no peace, there is no excitement.
There is no thrill like knowing that
I'm not walking in the flesh.
I'm walking in the spirit.
I'm not living in the flesh, I'm living in the spirit.
And the same power of this Holy Spirit
that filled the man that wrote those words
are the same power the Holy Spirit wants
to fill this guy every day of his life.
I've lived on both levels and I'm telling you,
the spirit-filled life is first class Christianity.
Satan would have you believe that everything about
the Christian life is hard but he is a liar.
When we accept Christ, God gives us His spirit
to live inside of us so that we can live
the life he planned for us before we were even born.
He is your Guide, your comforter,
and your power source.
Want to learn more.
Call touching lives at 800-413-1131
and let's pray together.
♪ ♪
The first step to the Christian life
is salvation but God doesn't want us to stop there.
He intended for us to learn and grow in our faith
and become true disciples.
Touching Lives exist to share the message of Christ
and to equip the saints of God for true discipleship
and because of your faithfulness,
we can continue to teach the principals of faith
all over the world.
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