Ephesians chapter number 5, if you would please. Ephesians chapter number 5. We've been working our way through the book of Ephesians. We've been learning of all of our spiritual blessings in Christ. Aren't you glad that you've been blessed? One of my favorite songs around Thanksgiving time or any time is when groups sing, I've been blessed. I've been blessed. But you know what? I'm glad that God doesn't just bless us one time. He blesses us again and again. And He tells us here in the book of Ephesians that we've been blessed. And one of the blessings is that we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. He lives in us that He might enable us. He might enable us. You see, Christian, you are absolutely deficient to live the Christian life. I am absolutely deficient to live the Christian life in my own strength, my own abilities, our own resources. We can never be who we ought to be on our own. God's never intended it to be that way. That's why Paul had already prayed back in chapter 3 verse 18 that we would be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. You see, God has made us new creatures and as a new creation, we are enabled to live out the reality of who God has created us to be through the power of the Spirit of God living in us and through us. I'm convinced that many Christians fail to live the abundant Christian life because they fail to understand what it means to live life in the Spirit. They never truly get plugged in. The second reason we need the Holy Spirit living in us, and I'm not sure why we're having the issues we are, but anyway, if not, I'll pull that up and I'll stay right here if it keeps cracking. It's not the guy's fault in the back. It's got to be the mic or it's probably me. Number two, not only are we absolutely deficient to live the Christian life in our own strength, we're absolutely dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to succeed in the Christian life. Remember, Paul said back in Galatians, I am crucified with Christ. That's a statement of fact. That as a believer, he has now been crucified in Christ. The old man is dead. That's what he's saying. Now, it doesn't mean my flesh is eradicated and gone and I never have another battle again, but I am dead. It doesn't have to control me. Alright? He said, I've been crucified, nevertheless I live. He's talking about His natural life of living. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And what He's saying is the life that I'm now living, I'm not living in my own strength and in my own ability, I'm living that in the power of the Christ who lives in me. And we know that He lives in us through the Spirit of God, the indwelling Spirit of God. You see, what I'm saying this morning is we need to get plugged in. Look if you would at Ephesians 5, verse 18. We've been talking about living a life in the Spirit. This is the last part of this section that I'm going to preach on. Then I'm going to move into a different part of the book of Ephesians. He said, "...and be not drunk with wine." Where it says, we've already learned, that being drunk with wine is Satan's substitute for Jesus' joy. And the outcome of being drunk with wine is not a good thing. He said, where it is excess, it's riotous, wicked living. But be filled with the Spirit. And he's not giving us an either or. He's not saying, Christian, don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. He's making a contrast and an analogy here. I believe we have a very good statement about not being drunk with wine and having intoxicating beverages in our body. I believe that's there. But understand within this that the thrust is how we're to live as Christians. We're not to live as the world is. We're to live different from the world. And you can't do that on your own. And I can't do that on my own. We need to get plugged in. Now, I've got a group of preacher friends. Some of them are on our staff. We like smoking things. Especially on the weekends. I'm talking about smoking meat, by the way. Pig. Pig meat, cow meat, chicken meat. Talking about smoking meat. I already wore one smoker out. I had to get me another one. Now, I know, we got people here, they're pellet grill smokers. We got people here, they do it the hard way. I mean, they're charcoal. Some of them, you may even dig holes and bury it in the ground. You know, I tend to, I just go the electric smoker route, and I already wore one out, got another one. I was reading through the instructions. I know you're not supposed to do that as a man, but because I tore my other one up, I felt like I probably ought to this time. And I was going through the, you know guys, we don't need instructions, just our wives need that. So anyway, but she reminds me, that's it, she reminds me of the instructions. All right, so anyway, I'm reading through the troubleshooting guide. Have you ever noticed how number one on troubleshooting when the apparatus doesn't work is make sure the power cord is plugged into the power source. How many of you know what I'm talking about? How many times have we not done that? I've been guilty, you know, almost, you know, that something's not working and your wife's standing on the other end smiling with the plug in her hand, knowing what we hadn't done. Because we start complicated, go to simple. You know, ladies, they start simple, go to complicated. Us guys, we just make everything more difficult. OK? It's how we're wired, I guess, or whatever. You know, it always works better, my smoker or any kind of electric appliance or apparatus always works better when you plug it in. Christian, can I tell you, your life will go better when you're plugged in. It just will. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for Your truth this morning. I pray that You would help us to grow in grace. Lord, the failure of our lives is when we fail to live out the truth of Ephesians 5.18. It's critical to successful Christian living. Lord, there's lots of confusion about this verse. And God, we want to bring clarity. I pray, God, that You would help me as I preach this morning. Lord, I realize that whenever the Holy Spirit is accomplishing His purpose in our lives, Christ will be at the forefront. always points people to Jesus. Help that to be what we do today. Speak to our hearts. Change us and challenge us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Let's go ahead and go right here, brother. Can we do that? Alright. We'll figure out what's going on with this. I'll try to stand still. Okay? I'll try to do that. in preaching. Ephesians 5.18, the Bible said, "...be filled with the Spirit." When it comes to this matter of getting plugged in, the key is the word filled. You're going to find that there are several different definitions to this particular word filled. It has the idea of wind. It's been used of wind filling the sails of a ship. We talked about how the wind is the unseen force that would move a sailboat. In Paul's day, it would be a large ship. that would move it along through the water, it would be the fuel, it would be the enabling power that moved that ship as it filled the sails of that ship. Wind in the Bible is an emblem of the Holy Spirit. Often times you'll find that wind is a metaphor, it's a picture of the Holy Spirit at work in people's lives. You remember in the upper room, the disciples there, the 120 were in the upper room, and they were told to wait for the promise of the Spirit's coming. And the Bible said that they heard the sound of a rushing mighty wind. Now let me help you understand what didn't happen. The windows didn't fly open, the curtains swing into the wind and fly up, the stuff didn't blow off of the table, there was no physical wind. They heard a sound of a rushing mighty wind. And so God was saying to them, I'm getting ready to do something. I'm going to fulfill my promise. I'm going to keep my word. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit embarked on a ministry as the third person of the Trinity that He had not done prior to. And you say, preacher, what is that? That is, number one, permanently indwelling God's people. He came upon them in the Old Testament. He empowered them in the Old Testament. He did not permanently indwell them. The second work of the Holy Spirit was, and there's many others, I'm going to deal with the major ones, He would baptize every person in that upper room into the body of Christ. The baptism with the Spirit is not a mystical matter, it's a very practical theological matter where the Spirit of God immerses us in Christ and makes every believer a part of the body of Christ. It's automatic today. The moment a person gets saved, they're immediately, simultaneously baptized with the Holy Spirit and made a part of the body of Christ. You go to I Corinthians chapter number 12. Verse 13, the most carnal church in all of the Bible, every person in that church had been baptized with the Holy Spirit. It's not for a spiritual select few. It's not something you pray for, beg for, plead for. God's already done it for you. You've been made part of the body of Christ. He indwells us, He fills us, He seals us, He anoints us. All of those are automatic blessings and works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But here, the idea of wind, the idea of the filling of the Spirit is not automatic. We're going to talk about that. It's not a default setting of the Christian life. This is something that we work in tandem with the Holy Spirit that we might have as enablement in our lives and Him to be the unseen power in our Christian life that enables us to live our lives successfully for God. Now let me tell you, as we bring our lives And He fills us and empowers us. He will change us. He enables us to live on a different plane. That doesn't mean that I'm always going to live on a spiritual high. It doesn't mean that I'm always going to live on the mountaintop. It doesn't mean that I'm going to be everywhere I go shouting hallelujah and singing and all of that. It doesn't mean that at all because no Christian lives on the mountaintop all the time. We all have valley experiences of our lives, okay? Neither does it mean that I'm going to walk around pious with my hands folded and talk like I've swallowed a communion rail going, Amen. No, I'm not going to do that either. What it means is, when I feel the Spirit of God, I'm going to be supernaturally natural. That means I'm going to live out my everyday life. But I'm not going to do it the way I've always done it before. I'm going to live out my everyday life on a supernatural or spiritual level. I'm not going to live normally. I'm going to live abnormally, which is, by the way, abnormal is supposed to be normal for a Christian. Are you following me? But it's abnormal to the world because when the Holy Spirit takes control of our lives, I'm going to live on it supernaturally natural. I'm going to be radically different from the world around me. I'm going to work a job like the world works. I'm going to have a family like the world has. A young adult would go out and do their job or career or seek whatever, just like everybody else would, but it would be on a different plane. Because they're going to do it in a spiritual manner. They're doing it as servants of the Lord Jesus. They're doing it being enabled by God, not to live like the world lives, but to live radically different from the world around them. How we look, how we talk, how we act. How we treat others. How we respond to the things of life. It's used of salt that would permeate meat and flavor and preserve it. I don't know about you, but I like salt on my steak. And I enjoy that. And it flavors. And can I tell you, the Spirit of God, when He is filling us, He will flavor and preserve our lives so that everything we think and do and say will reflect the divine presence of Jesus in our lives. There will be the fragrance of Christ upon our lives. He'll enable us to live out the truth of Matthew 5, 13 and 14, where Jesus said, Ye are are the salt of the earth. He didn't say you're going to be, He said you are. You are the light of the world. Every Christian is to be salt and light in the world around us. We are to flavor our world with God. We have a preserving influence. We're to be a light that points men, women, boys and girls to Jesus Christ. We cannot be salt and light apart from the enabling influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Cannot do it. You think the salt has a preserving effect. You think our world is wicked now. You wait till the rapture. When the preserving influence of the Spirit of God through God's people will be removed from this planet, friend, can I tell you, it will be wickedness on a level that you and I cannot even imagine. Can't even imagine it. The flood tides of sin will break loose on our planet. There will be wickedness to a degree that we can't even imagine. Right now, your very presence as a Christian is holding back Satan's agenda of sin in our world. We need to be salt and light on the job in our families, out in the world, in the community, everywhere we go. We ought to have a flavoring, preserving influence. It also has the idea of being dominated by or under the influence. You remember the analogy of verse 18, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. There's an illustration here, there's an analogy. A person who would slur their speech, they can't walk a straight line, their personality's been altered. When you look at them, you can look and tell that that person has had too much intoxicating alcoholic beverage to drink. We'll say of that person, you're drunk. You can see it. by their actions and their words and all of these things. They're dominated by alcohol and it changed them. On the flip side of that, the child of God is so to be dominated by the Spirit of God that He changes us into the image of Christ. I already said this is not a default setting in the Christian life. It's not automatic. You're never told to seek the Spirit's baptism or indwelling or sealing or anointing, but we are to seek His filling, His enabling power in our lives. And to do that, there's some conditions that need to be met or otherwise we're unplugged. I want to talk to you about how to be filled with the Spirit, how to get plugged in. Number one, very quickly, very quickly. desire to live life in the Spirit. Can I say that just as God will never save an individual who doesn't want to be saved, God will never force His way into an individual's life. The Bible said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man open the door, I will come in. There is a response of faith that receives Jesus Christ. We welcome Him as Savior. And so we understand that we believe on Him. We receive Him. There is a desire to be saved. God doesn't save a person who doesn't want to be saved. And the Holy Spirit of God will not fill and control and empower and enable a Christian who does not want to be filled and controlled and empowered and enabled. Let me give you a verse for that. Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 8. The Bible said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. It's the person who's hungry. It's the person who's thirsty that's filled. A Christian who does not desire the Spirit's control of their life will not be a Spirit-filled Christian. They will not be plugged in. We will not know the Spirit's control and His desire and His enablement in our lives. And I'm convinced the reason a lot of Christians never live life in the Spirit and they never get plugged in is because they never yield themselves to the Spirit's control is because they'll lose control. Can I just go ahead and say this? God's not anybody's co-pilot. I remember when that came out and there would be bumper stickers on cars. I'm sure it was a very sweet little thing they put up there, and I'm sure they believed it. God is my co-pilot. Can I help you to understand? God never sits in the right-hand seat of any Christian's life. He's going to sit in the left hand. That's where the captain of the plane is. And God's going to be the captain of your ship. He's not going to settle for anything less. Who's in the pilot seat of your life? You or God? Which brings me to number two. It starts with desire. You will never know God's blessing and best and filling in your life unless you desire it. I'm hungry for it. I want it. Number two, yield your life to God. Yield your life to God. May I remind us the Spirit of God did not come into our hearts just to abide, but to preside. This word field, as I mentioned earlier in the last statement, has the idea of control. Therefore, there must be a yielding, a surrendering of our lives to the Spirit's control. I want to talk to you first of all about a definite yielding. Hold your place and turn to Romans chapter 12. Would you turn there, Romans chapter number 12, and let's find that portion of Scripture. Romans chapter number 12. A lot of times this is preached on at a new year about being yielded to God, but I'm going to help us to understand that this is important in our lives at any point of the year. Notice what he says, Romans chapter 12 verse 1, he said, I beseech you. That's to come alongside and encourage in a very strong way, I beseech you. Therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, everything that God's done for you, has God done anything for you? He's talking specifically about what He's talked about up to this point in Romans. Been justified by faith. All the different things that God's done in our lives, but I'm glad that God has worked in my life since He saved me in so many ways. The mercies of God in our lives. God said, based on that, He said, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. The Bible said I'm to make a presentation of my body to God. Thirty-three years ago this past Friday, my wife presented herself to me in marriage. I presented myself to my wife in marriage. It was a once-for-all presentation. It wasn't just for a little while. It just wasn't until we were tired of each other or incompatible. or whatever excuse we might want to use. No, it was till death do us part. It was a once for all. And by the way, young people, as you head into marriage, God's plan for marriage is once for all presentation of yourself to your mate. You need to know the person you're going to marry is God's will for you on the front end. Now, I'm not trying to be unkind. I'm not trying to be unkind. I understand that I pastor wonderful people, that your life has been affected by the scars of divorce, and I understand that, and I want you to know I love you, and our church loves you, and that doesn't put anybody in a penalty box forever and make anybody a second-class Christian, but I know many people who know the Lord that carry the scars of divorce, and they don't want anybody to go through what they've been through and carry those scars. But this is a presentation of ourselves to God. It is a crisis decision. A moment of decision. Where I say to God, God, You own me. I've been bought with a price. God, I'm no longer my own. Based on all that You've done for me, I am giving myself back to You. There was a time in my life that God, many times, it's a crisis moment of brokenness. It can be at an altar. It can be out in the woods. Some people at a youth camp. Some people at a couples retreat. It can be anywhere. It can be on the job. Wherever it is that God is working in our lives and we're desiring more of God, and we sense a brokenness in us to yield ourselves, to surrender ourselves, all that we are, all that we have, we say, God, You saved me. You've forgiven me. I belong to You. I'm giving myself back to You. It's a crisis moment. I remember the night. I remember when I gave myself to God. God's never let me forget it. Those times I've tried to crawl off this altar that He's talking about in my flesh. He's reminded me. Reminded me. You told me you'd give your life to me. You told me you'd live for me. You told me. Can I tell you, it's an event that we present ourselves to God. Have you ever presented, Christian, yourself to God and said, God, all that I am is yours? Surrendered. You say, preacher, I don't know. Then you probably haven't. And you need to. Because God said, look what He says, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It is just the right, reasonable, logical thing to do. Do you realize when I give my body to God, I give myself to God, nothing else God's going to ask me to do is an issue? Now, I'm not saying I'm going to have struggles. I'm not saying that at all. But it shouldn't be an issue because He owns me. I'm His. a definite yielding. When we lay ourselves on the altar of sacrifice, it involves an absolute surrender. It's turning the steering wheel of our lives over to God and giving Him complete control. He's now in the driver's seat of our lives. We're saying, here I am Lord, now mold me and make me and fill me and use me. But understand, there's this presentation of myself to God. Have you ever given yourself to God? And then understand. In our flesh, the struggle ensues after that. There's a crisis decision. God, I'm yours. But then the flesh kicks in and we try to crawl off the altar. There's where the next part comes in. A daily yielding of our lives. There's a definite, but then there's a daily yielding. Paul said, I die daily. Daily. It's a recognition that every day there needs to be a conscious surrendering or living out the truth of where I gave myself to God or you give yourself to God. A conscious yielding of ourselves to Him. Our eyes, our hands, our feet, our mouth, our mind. We're saying, God, I'm Yours today. Use me, work through me, live through me. Let me show you a verse. Look at Romans chapter 6. Look at Romans chapter 6. Find, if you would, verse number 13. I've got to hurry. I'm going to start preaching fast. Will you all start listening real fast? Because we still have to beat the Methodist to the restaurant. We're going to have to hurry. Notice what he says, verse 13, "...neither yield ye your members as an instrument of unrighteousness into sin." Do you realize there's a choice here? God's saying every day of my life as a Christian, I have a choice of whether I'm going to yield myself as an instrument of unrighteousness unto sin or, notice he says, but yield yourselves unto God. Notice this is a command. As those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Every day of our lives, we've got a choice. I'm either going to yield to God or I'm going to yield to sin. Every day we're going to be faced with choices. Every day we're going to face temptation. Every day there's going to be opportunities that I'm going to have to make a decision of whether or not I'm going to live out the promise that I made to God of giving myself fully to Him, of whether or not I'm going to yield to the Spirit of God and I'm going to be obedient to God, or I'm going to yield myself to sin and be disobedient to God. Every day of my life I pray this prayer, pretty much. many times on my way in to the church for whatever ministry, and I begin to part by part yield my body afresh and new to God. And I say, God, I want You to have control of my mind today, and my mouth today, and my eyes today, and my hands today, and my feet today. It's not a long, drawn-out prayer. I'm just giving myself afresh and new to God. Because see, these instruments right here, I make a choice what I do with them. And I'm either going to choose to be obedient or disobedient. And the Spirit of God is not going to fill me if I choose to be unyielded. Because at the heart of the word filled is the idea of being yielded to the Spirit of God in my everyday life. Moment by moment, conscious decision that I yield in obedience to God rather than yielding myself or yourself as an instrument of righteousness to sin. See, we want to categorize sin. We're thinking drinking and carousing and immorality and all these... Sometimes it's just having a hateful attitude. Sometimes it's just an unkind word. Sometimes it's giving in to a fit of anger. That's more where we live. Of whether or not I'm going to be forgiving or unforgiving. Not only does there need to be a desire, not only a yielding, but confessing in own sin. You know why some Christians are not plugged in? Because they're short-circuited by sin. There's things in their life that's not supposed to be there. You remember the Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit. That's an adjective. It describes who He is as the third person of the Trinity. He's Romans 1.4. He's called the Spirit of Holiness. The Spirit cannot and will not fill and use a dirty vessel. Won't do that. The Bible said, grieve not the Spirit of God. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30. I'm not to grieve the Spirit. That means I'm not to be guilty. I'm not to allow things that God's told me not to do. I'm not to do them. That's what He's saying. And when I do them, I grieve the heart of my God because He wants better for me than what I'm doing. And when we harbor known sin, unconfessed sin in our lives, the Holy Spirit can't fill us. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, quench not the spirit. So one way that we can have sin in our lives is by doing that that God's told us not to do and we grieve the Spirit of God. The other way that we get unplugged in our spiritual life and short circuit is working in our life is when we fail to do those things He's told us to do. We call them sins of omission, what we know to do, but we don't do it. And we quench Him. We extinguish what He wants to do in our lives. A lot of times I hear this in church meetings. Well, if I don't do this, I'm going to quench the Spirit. I understand. Listen, I'm not saying that in a negative way to get somebody not to testify or to do this or do that, but you go into big meetings and somebody will stand up and say, well, I didn't want... And there's a sense in that, but that's really not the heart of this. Let me tell you where the heart of this is at. It's not what we're doing at church. It's what we're doing or not doing outside of church. I remember, I'm a Datus. I know I got to move quick. How many remember Carlo, Petro, Paolo? Yeah, some folks there, you remember that. Brother Pietro Paolo, back when I was in Bible college, did an outreach with our church, how I came acquainted with Calvary. Actually, that was my first introduction. I was working as part of the college there, come up, going out visiting with church members, and we were knocking doors in the area. This was back in the 80s, late 80s, so that we don't feel too old. Everybody okay that knows and remembers that, okay? Back in the late 80s. And remember, when we were doing that, And I went that summer and I worked with him up in Pennsylvania for a month. I did, Brother Delp, our Pennsylvania choir leader. And I'm going to mention something else here in a minute that he probably doesn't know. I'm going to teach him a phrase, a Southern phrase. He is so Southernized right now, they don't even recognize him when he goes back. Tiffany, you've done a wonderful job. Okay, so anyway. So anyway, and by the way, I'm just picking on our music guy, okay? And I get to do that. It's just fun when he goes with me on meetings we do that. But anyway, I was up in Pennsylvania. Let's get back to the message, okay? And we was in a little coal mining town and he got lost trying to take me to the church I was supposed to preach in. And so that was back, no GPS. He pulls into the gas station. Y'all remember when you used to do that and ask for directions? Or your wife made you ask for directions? You know what I'm talking about? Alright, y'all with me on that? And so he goes in, and there's a guy sitting there, and you can tell that his life's sort of upside down. And the Holy Spirit said, you need to go share the gospel with him. And I got in an argument with God. Have you ever argued with God? I argued with God. Here I'm a Bible college student getting ready to go preach, and I'm telling God I don't have time, that Brother Carlo's going to be out at any time, and I don't have time to go talk to this guy, and all da-da-da-da-da-da. And I argued with God until Brother Peter Paolo got back in the car and we left, and I didn't witness to the guy. You know what I just did? I quenched the Spirit of God. God couldn't feel me and use me at that moment. Let me ask you a question. Have you quenched the Spirit of God in your life? Confess known sin. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just. We need our lives. Listen, nothing will short-circuit our lives quicker than leaving unconfessed sin in our lives. Deal with sin daily. When the Holy Spirit brings it to your mind, confess it. Because as long as it's there, He can't fill you. Number four, daily abide in Christ. Let me just mention this. John 15, 5. I'm going to give you the verses. We don't have time to turn to them. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. You and I can do nothing of spiritual value apart from the living Christ. He is the vine. We're the branches. Help me understand. The branches don't support the vine. The vine supports the branches. And the Holy Spirit is the life-giving sap that flows through the vine into the branches that gives us our fruitfulness. What I'm saying is develop your devotional walk with God. Abide in Him daily. Most of the time, here it is, Brother Delper, are you ready for it? You can jot it down. Okay? A lick and a promise. You've heard me use that one before, haven't you? He didn't know what it meant. Do you know what that meant when I used that the first time? No, he didn't. See, I'm helping him. A lick and a promise. Say, Preacher, what does that mean? That means I just gave it enough to say I did it. I didn't put any effort in it. I didn't spend any meaningful time with God. It's not how much you read church, and it's not how long you pray. It's did you spend meaningful time with God? What time you did use with God? Was it meaningful? Or were you just going through the motions in your spiritual life? And we all, at times, just go through the motions, don't we? Let me give you the last one and I'm done. Believe God for the Spirit's filling. Now we are going to turn to this verse because I want to clear up some confusion about it. Look at Luke 11. Real quick, Luke 11 verse 13. If you can't get there, just jot it down. This verse has been so misused and abused, it's unbelievable. Luke 11, I want you to find verse number 13. It's at the end of the Lord's teaching on prayer. The disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. And you come down to verse 13, and the Lord's finishing up. He's summarizing. He said, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children... He's saying evil. We're sinners by nature. Our very nature is corrupt. Why do we have the problems in our world? Because men are corrupt. I'm corrupt. You're corrupt. We're all evil. We have sinful hearts. We're fallen creatures. know how to give good gifts. If sinful people can do good things for their children, how much more shall your heavenly Father, who is perfect, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" This verse is used and taken out of context by those that claim that you have to beg the Holy Spirit into your life. That is not what this verse is saying. Because when you come to the New Testament and you study the epistles, you already find that the moment they're saved, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them. He is the seal who seals and secures my salvation. If the Holy Spirit, I have to beg Him into my heart, and for super spiritual people that finally beg Him into their heart, And it has these things attached to it that are signs that the Holy Spirit came in. If I have to do that, then all the time that I don't have the Holy Spirit, then I'm unsecure. I'm not sealed. See, it doesn't make sense biblically. I'm not sealed. And if you're not sealed, you're not saved. And the Holy Spirit's not going to live in somebody that's not saved. Because the sealing takes place at the moment we're saved. Saved and sealed go together. Okay? I'm not being unkind. We have to let the Bible be our faith and practice, church. Not what we experience, not what we see, not what we hear, but what does the Bible actually say? So he's talking about the Holy Spirit's enablement. Because I do seek that. And I believe we ought to express to God in prayer our desire for the Spirit who lives within us to take control of our lives. I believe we confess our own inadequacy, our own inability to live the Christian life on our own and yield ourselves anew to Him and ask God to fill us with His Spirit to give us His enabling power. And then consciously believe and claim it. Now I'm not talking about claim it, name it, claim it, tab it, grab it. I'm not talking about that. Okay? I'm saying just believe in that God will do what He says He'll do. Because I don't always feel filled. Did you catch that? I don't always feel saved, but I am. Because God saved me. Okay? Because it's a fact, not a feeling. The filling and the enabling of the Holy Spirit Church, you please tune in here. Do not, do not tune out. We have the idea that we feel Spirit-filled, and we operate off feelings rather than facts. When I am obedient to God, I desire Him. And see, this is not a checklist. This is just how I'm to live. Every day of my life, I ought to be hungry for God. I ought to desire Him. Isn't that true? I ought to live a yielded life in obedience to Him. I need to be dealing with my sin on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis. I need to daily abide in Christ. It's not, okay, check one, check two, check three. It's not that. It's just I live through the course of life, walk in the Spirit, and then believe that God will do what He said He would do. Whether I feel it or not. that God's Holy Spirit is enabling me and empowering me to be the person that God desires for me to do, and that He will equip me, and He will strengthen me, and He will give me the ability to say yes to Him and no to temptation, and give me the ability to live out the precepts and the principles of the Word of God in our life. See, if we're not careful, we're going to make all this mystical. And it's not mystical. It's very down-to-earth, practical, Christian living. Because the Holy Spirit's everything to us that we need. He's love, He's joy, He's patience. I need love, He's love. I need joy, He's joy. I need patience, He's patience. Ask Him to love through you. Ask Him to give you His joy and then rejoice. Ask Him to love and then love. When I make the effort to love, the Holy Spirit enables me to love. I decide I'm down in the dumps or whatever it might be and I need the joy of the Lord in my life. Well, you know, put a song in my heart and I begin to sing to the Lord and next thing I know, guess what? I'm being filled with His joy. Who's doing that? The Holy Spirit. I'm not doing that. He is. You see what I'm saying? You say, Preacher, what if I blow it? Oh, by the way, we all blow it, don't we? I can start out so good. And then I leave my front door. And sometimes I don't even have to leave my front door. Just begin to interact with people and somebody handles you the wrong way. Or somebody doesn't attend to us like we think they should and we mistreat a waiter or a waitress. Or we lose our temper with our spouse or our children. It's just the struggle. You know what I'm saying? I blow it. Because see, we want the Holy Spirit to fill us to do the big things. And the Holy Spirit wants to fill you just to be the person He wants you to be on an everyday basis in your home, on the job, out in the world, at school, college, wherever you're at. What happens if I blow it? One preacher said what you need to do is apply the principle of spiritual breathing. When you disobey, and when we disobey we're unplugged, right? We exhale confession of that sin to God. God, I blew it. God, you know I treated that person wrong. Or God, you know I have ill will in my heart. Or Lord, that bad thought that went through my mind. Or Lord, you know I shouldn't have lost my temper. God, I dishonored you. Or that ugly word. By the way, I don't curse, okay? God cleaned me up on that. But there's times that I use words that hurt people. I do. And I shouldn't. Do you ever use words that hurt people? And you shouldn't? God, I shouldn't have done that. God, I sinned. God, forgive me. Cleanse me of that. Aren't you glad He's faithful and just to cleanse us? We exhale confession. And then if you breathe out, you've got to breathe in, right? Now, I'm not talking about breathing in the Spirit. Don't get mystical on me. But we're getting back to a prayer. Lord, I wasn't filled. Lord, please fill me. I want to yield to you. Let your Holy Spirit control me. I don't want to be in control, Lord. When I'm in control, I make a mess. But when you're in control, Lord, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. Let me just ask you a question. How do you want to live your life on your terms or God's? You want to live out... I'm just telling you, when I'm in charge, I make a mess. How do you want to live? I want to get plugged in. I want to be plugged in. I don't want to be plugged in once, I want to stay plugged in. What about you? And we can't stay plugged in if we're not filled with the Spirit of God. Of desiring, yielding, abiding, and believing. Are you plugged in? Maybe you need to get plugged in. Maybe you need to slip forward and talk to God about some things in your life. Maybe you need to yield to God today. Maybe you need to deal with some sin. But every second that you go unyielding and unplugged in, you're being disobedient to God and the potential of making a mess in your life. God wants more for us. He wants you to be the mom, the wife, the dad, the husband, the Christian, the young adult that He wants you to be. Why don't we give it all to Him? Why don't we respond to Him today? Let's get plugged in. Father, take the message.