If we turn together to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. The Gospel of John, chapter 14. And we're going to take a reading from the verse 15. The Savior is speaking here. John chapter 14, reading from verse 15. Christ says, if ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father that he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me keepeth not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. Ending there at the end of the chapter, trusting the Lord to bless His word as we've read it together. In that passage, there's some content concerning the Lord giving the comforter, the Holy Ghost, and we're coming to a connected theme when we turn to Ephesians again tonight. Ephesians chapter five, and we're going to be looking primarily at verse 18, Ephesians chapter 5 and the verse 18, perhaps we'll just read from verse 15 though. From verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things onto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And ending there, as I say, we're focusing primarily on the verse 18. According to his word, they were soon to receive the promise of the Holy Ghost. He told them to go to Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, the one who he had promised to them, even as we were reading together in John's gospel, the Comforter, whom the Father would send in his name. He said to his people in Acts 1, John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. And soon enough, the day of Pentecost arrived. And the disciples that were there, they were assembled, they'd been waiting as the Lord had told them, and the Holy Ghost was given to them. Just as in the days of Exodus, the pillar of fire signifying the presence of God rested on the tabernacle, so at Pentecost the tongues of fire came and sat upon each of the Lord's people. God had come to presence himself and dwell within his people. God had given his spirit to empower and to enable his people for godly service. Now, in recent times as we've come to the book of Ephesians we've been dealing with the more practical sections from chapter 4 and on. The more practical part of Ephesians and a section which places various demands on us. We've been called to live with a new life, a life that matches up to a new identity in Christ. We've been called to live a life of humble, patient love as we strive to guard the unity of the body of Christ. We are to strive as a body to know more of the grace of Christ in our lives. We are to see the body of Christ built both in terms of quantity, numbers added in, and quality as well, as we're sanctified and made more holy in serving the Lord. We are to live this new life and it means turning from old things, putting away lying and unjust anger and stealing and corrupt speech and so on. And we put away these sins and replace it with new traits or new conduct. We're not to be partakers with the ungodly and these old things anymore. We're not to be dabbling in those things that belong to the darkness. We're now light in the Lord. And we're now to walk in the light instead of the darkness. We're now to walk with wisdom instead of folly. We've seen these themes already. And in so doing, we're going to be witnesses for Christ, servants of Christ, redeeming the time. But here's something key. If we're going to do any of that, if we're going to fulfill any of these commands, if we're going to live in this right manner, we need what we're told here in verse 18. We need the work of the promised Holy Spirit. We're not to strive towards any of these things in the flesh. Turning from these various sins onto a new way of living, it is not just about trying harder. Living Christ-like lives is not just about thinking things through a bit and taking time to become more wise. If we're to live lives that are honoring to God, if we're to live in the light, if we're to walk with wisdom, then we need to take heed to this instruction in verse 18. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. In order that we might serve the Lord in the right manner then, tonight we're called to the Spirit-filled life. And that's, I suppose if you want a title, that's what we're aiming for, the Spirit-filled life. Now, first of all, notice with me the contrast to this Spirit-filled life. Before urging the believers in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit, Paul gives the instruction, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. Throughout the practical part of this letter, Paul has made use of various opposites. So instead of lying, there is to be speaking the truth. Instead of foolish anger, there's to be a putting away of wrath. Instead of stealing, there's to be giving. Instead of speech that is corrupting, our speech is to be edifying. So all of these themes have been touched on already. There's all these opposites used in Ephesians. Instead of bitterness, there's kindness. Instead of holding grudges, there's forgiveness. And yet when you come here, you might find this contrast a little bit surprising. I mean, would you not expect him to say, be not drunk with wine, but be sober, be sensible. And yet the contrast is, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. Now, let me try and suggest the reason for this contrast. In trying to understand why it's given, why this command is here, some suggest that there maybe was a particular problem with drunkenness in Ephesus. And so, I suppose like with, it seems in Corinth as well. So Paul is maybe just cutting into his letter with a warning against drunkenness. But I put it to you, there's no real evidence for that. And I suggest to you that this instruction in verse 18, It's closely connected with the commands of verses 15 through 17. There, if you remember what we were looking at previously, we are called to redeem the time and we saw there the need to walk carefully, circumspectly, that is accurately, with wisdom. We made the comment we're not meant to be mindless, unthinking, we're not meant to be stupefied as we proceed through this life, rather we're to be understanding what the will of the Lord is in order that we walk in wisdom. And so when you recognize that context, verse 18 makes perfect sense. It is building upon this theme of not being mindless, but rather knowing the will of God so as to walk wisely and redeem the time. In verse 18, Paul then makes mention of this primary, this obvious, clear danger to wise living. And that is drunkenness. Drunkenness. It's the very picture of mindlessness. If you want an example of living a mindless and therefore a reckless life, you just look at the drunkard. It's the perfect picture of it. He's the one who has given himself over to the drink and therefore has lost control of his senses. We're called to walk circumspectly, carefully, accurately. And therefore we need our wits about us. We need our wits about us. But the one who is intoxicated, they've given control of their wits over into the hands of the drink. I mean, that's why the verse says, verse 18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. Now that word translated excess, it has the idea of a lack of control, a lack of restraint, a lack of inhibition. It's translated riot a couple of times in the King James Version. It's used as an adjective of the prodigal son. If you remember the account of him, He took his father's money, the inheritance that was due him. He went away off into the far country and he wasted his substance in riotous living. That is, he lived a life without restraint. He indulged himself in whatever pleasures he would see presented to him. He ran after this thing and that thing and the other and he wasn't held back in any of it. It was riotous living. He gave himself over to it. His limitations, his inhibitions were gone until his money was gone. Well, even those who disagree with the Bible would have to agree with this point that that drunkenness leads to excess. It leads to this riot, this lack of restraint, this loss of inhibitions. I don't need to take time to prove that to you tonight. It's very obvious. You see the evidence of it on the news at various times. You see the evidence of it all around you. And certainly if you've ever seen someone who's been drunk, you'll be very clear about it. They've lost a lot of their senses. It leads to reckless abandon. And it leads to that kind of life because the one who has given themselves over to drunkenness has handed over control to the wine or at least they've suppressed their senses. The person has dulled their senses and dulling their senses they then naturally go on to live like a fool. But why the contrast with the spirit? Why not call the people to be sober? Well again it ties in with the recent context. We're not to be mindless, foolish, unwise in verse 17, but rather the opposite. We're called to be specifically understanding what the will of the Lord is. And that requires more than just mere sobriety. That requires more than just abstaining from drunkenness or drink. If we're going to understand what the will of the Lord is, that requires the teaching of the Spirit. You see, the Spirit is the great teacher. We read John 14 in verse 26, Christ said, when the Comforter, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. In John 15, verse 26, Christ spoke of sending the Comforter and described him as the Spirit of truth. and said, he shall testify of me. The spirit of God is the great teacher. He takes the truth of God's word, especially, and he applies that truth to God's people. He is the one who brings God's word to us with applicatory force. That is, he molds and shapes our lives as he uses God's word, so that when we come to scripture, we're not just reading words and leaving it there. No, the spirit of God takes those words, living words, and applies them with force to our hearts and changes us by the word. He's the teacher. He leads us on to Christ. The wider context here, it sets out two courses. Two paths to follow, two extremely different routes. You have mindless folly and you have a reasonable understanding. Mindless folly brought about as you give yourself over to drunkenness, as you dim your senses and run after all forms of corruption. Or this reasonable understanding of the will of God to walk in wisdom brought about as the Spirit fills and blesses and works in our lives. Drunkenness leads to mindless folly, but if you're to have this reasonable and correct understanding of the will of God to walk in wisdom, you need to be filled with the Spirit. Now, think with me a moment about the significance of this contrast. And the significance is that just as the ungodly and the foolish give themselves over to drunkenness with wine or whatever they drink and they reap dreadful consequences as their inhibitions go and the restraint is gone and so on. They plunge into further and more damaging sin. Well, in contrast, the child of God is really to give themselves over. You who are a believer, you're to give yourself over, not to drink. but to the spirit, to the spirit who's going to do the opposite, who's going to sanctify you. The drink would lead you into corruption. The drink would dull your senses and suddenly make all sorts of sins seem all the more tolerable and exciting to you. The spirit will do the opposite. You give yourself into his hand and he's going to sanctify you. He's going to lead you into godliness and truth, Christ-likeness. The point is that our lives are to be lived under the control and the leading of the Holy Ghost. I mean, that's what's happening with the drunkard. They have, if you like, placed their life under the control of the drink. The Lord's people are to ensure that we place our lives under the control of the Spirit. We need to lead lives that are under the influence, but not of wine, not of alcohol, but of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God. You know, when Paul writes here, be filled with the Spirit, I think there is something worth saying on that point. He's not so much teaching that believers get a literal measure of the Spirit that comes and goes, you know, as if it's possible to have half of the Spirit and you seek to have all of the Spirit. I mean, the Spirit is a person. It's worth remembering that the Spirit is a person. He's not a substance. He's a person. It's not like you can have half of a person. It's not like we need to have the full person and we only have half of him sometimes. No, it's not talking so much about a measure of the Spirit, but rather the point is this Spirit who dwells as a full person within every believer, by the way. Rather, the idea is that we are to yield ourselves willingly to the Spirit's sanctifying work so that he might pour his grace, his sanctifying work would be done, pour his grace into our soul and produce all the fruits of the Spirit. love and joy and peace and long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithness, meekness, temperance, the fruits of the Spirit. The idea is that he would have the fullness, the full of us. He would have control over the full of us and shape our lives in the right way. Our lives are to be lived fully under his control and by his leading as he shows us the will of God, as he shows us the gospel, Quite opposite to producing a life of excess, of unrestrained living, he produces godliness. It wouldn't be a right translation of it, but if you let me paraphrase the sense of it, Paul's really saying in this wider section, you're not to be mindless. You need to grasp the will of God. And therefore, don't be giving yourself over to wine. which would produce mindlessness and carnality. Give yourself to the Spirit. Let him change you more and more into the image of Christ. Let him have the fullness of your life. Let him shape every area of your life so that nothing's left untouched. And let him make you more and more into the image of Christ that you're meant to be. Now is your life in its fullness given over to the Spirit? Does He have control of every part? Is the Spirit given alliance to take the Word and apply it to every area? Because let's face it, we can be willing perhaps to let the Spirit shape some areas of our lives and then we keep that little closet there of some area in life that we don't want touched, we don't want changed and we're not giving the Spirit access to it. No, are we giving the Spirit access to it all? To deal with our lives, whatever is found there and to change it, shape it entirely as he would see fit. To lead us in righteousness. Is your life given over to the Spirit of God? The ungodly, at least some, will give themselves over to the control of the drink. Are you giving yourself fully to the control of the Spirit? Now think with me then about the duty towards this Spirit-filled life. The duty. And here I'm picking up on the fact that this is a command. Don't miss that. It's a command. This is an instruction for believers to take heed to and to respond to with obedience. Be filled. Be filled with the Spirit. Now, this command, it's stated in the passive voice. Well, it's the same in English, I suppose, but in Greek, verbs can be active, passive, or even middle voice. The active voice, that's where you're doing something. You throw the ball, you're doing something, you're throwing. That's the active voice. The middle voice is when you're doing something to yourself. So maybe use it if you're getting dressed, you clothe yourself. That's the middle voice. You're doing something, you're taking action, but it's affecting you. And then there's the passive voice, and that's where something is done to you. Well, this is the passive voice. This is the passive voice. If I tell you, be taught, that's the passive voice. You are to be taught. Someone else is doing the teaching. They are teaching you. This command is the passive voice. Be filled. It's not you that's doing the filling. It's the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the active one here. It's not that you're filling yourself up. He's doing the work. He's filling you. And yet, it is a command for believers. Be filled with the Spirit. We're not to recognize, we're not to look at this text and say, well, the Spirit fills us. It's His work to do it. And therefore, I'm just gonna sit back. This is the Spirit's work, so I'm going to leave it to Him and have no interest in this myself. I'll just wait and see what happens. We're to give attention to this. It's not a suggestion, it's a command. It is the expected pursuit of every believer. This is not just for the missionary, it's not just for the minister, it's not just for the exceptional servant of Christ, whoever that might be. This is for every believer. The regular person in Ephesus, the husband and father in the home, the wife and mother, the child, the master, the servant, the slave. This is for the regular believer, be filled. with the Spirit. And we're not to be slack in giving attention to this. We are to pursue this. If I command you, be taught, to take that example, a teacher is going to be doing the action. They're going to be teaching you. And yet, if I were to command you that, what I'm gonna mean by that is that you are under obligation to receive what they are teaching. You have to be receptive to it. you too have a part to play as you seek to take instruction from the teacher. So if I tell you, be taught, and well, you recognize, well, it's the teacher doing the work, he's the one teaching me, but then you sit in the room and you take out your novel and you start to read a story or you take a crossword out and you start to fill in the answers, you're not listening. Well, then you're not obeying the instruction. There's a part to play for you there, even though the teacher is doing the work and teaching. Well, so it is here. The Spirit is doing the work. It is the Spirit who fills us, who sanctifies us, who produces Christ-likeness in us. But you need to be diligent. You need to be earnest in seeking this filling of the Spirit. You need to pursue this. The student needs to be earnest in seeking to be taught. The student needs to pay attention, as the teacher would teach. Are you earnest, diligent in seeking this provision of the Holy Ghost? Are you diligently looking to the Lord to fill you with all that you need by the Spirit? Commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry said, we cannot be guilty. of any excess in our endeavors after these. Nay, we ought not to be satisfied with a little of the Spirit, but to be aspiring after measures so as to be filled with the Spirit. He says we cannot be guilty of any excess in our endeavor. We're to endeavor after this. And we're to endeavor after this provision by the Spirit and with the Spirit. We're to endeavor with urgency. Are you endeavoring to be filled with the Spirit? Are you endeavoring to receive and to know His gracious influence in your life? You know, instead of tarrying long at the wine like a drunkard, are you tarrying long at the Word where the Spirit is pleased to speak to you and minister to your soul? Are you crying unto God in prayer for more of His influence in your life? Are you guarding yourself from those sins that would grieve the Spirit and would hinder His work within you? In fact, we could add to that, are you confessing those sins that have grieved the Spirit that they might be forgiven and put away? Are you diligently seeking to be under the influence of the Spirit of God and receptive to His work in your life? Because you have a duty towards that end. As I said earlier, If you're going to fulfil any of the instructions that you have in Ephesians here or any other portion of God's word in terms of living a godly Christian life practically for the Lord, if you're going to fulfil that in the slightest, it has to be by the enabling of the Spirit. You have no reserves of strength within yourself to do it. You have no power. It must be by the enabling of the Spirit. Are you seeking to live your life under His influence? That it might be godly and glorifying to the Savior. Think then as well with me about the, I'm gonna call it the continuity in the Spirit-filled life. The continuity in the Spirit-filled life. We read the instruction in verse 18, be filled with the Spirit. What doesn't come across quite so clearly in the English is that this command is in the present tense, the continuous tense. Greek grammar has a way of distinguishing between something that's ongoing and something that is sort of a one-off event. And the command here is speaking about something ongoing, something continuous. One of the real problems I think we have when we come to a text like this is that In the back of our minds somewhere, we are influenced by the sort of Pentecostal second blessing type thinking and we sort of think of believers being saved and that's the first step and there's this need then for a second definitive moment in our existence when we're then filled with the Spirit and from that particular moment everything changes. Let me be clear, that's not what this verse is teaching about. This verse is not urging you to seek a particular second experience after your conversion where you receive the fullness of the Spirit. Now, there are particular times when the Spirit comes upon someone in special power, when the Spirit comes upon someone enabling them for a particular task and gives them real power for a certain season of service. I'm not taking away from that. But that's not what this verse is really speaking about. I mean, you'll see that type of thing in Acts at various times. when the Spirit came upon the Lord's people and gave real and special help in certain settings, mainly to be witnesses for Christ and to be used in gathering souls unto Christ. That happens, but that's not so much what this verse is talking about. It's not talking about a particular dramatic event, if you like. This verse is commanding us towards something that is the ongoing daily experience of every believer. You could translate it, be continuously filled or be being filled with the Spirit. May this filling constantly be occurring. That's the sense. Now again, this ties with what we were saying earlier. We were talking about the Spirit day by day, exerting his influence in the lives of God's people, producing fruits of righteousness, producing Christ-likeness. This is to be an ongoing thing. And the challenge is, day by day, Are you seeking this filling of the Spirit, this influence of the Spirit as He would come and have control in all of your life? When you wake up in the morning, you're not to rely on the blessings of yesterday. But again, you're to begin the day coming in prayer to seek the help of the Spirit in the work of the day, whatever it might be. Again, to come to God's word that the Spirit might apply it freshly to your soul and sustain your soul with nutrients and nourishment from the Lord. That He might, yet again, through the Scriptures especially, pour His influence into you. Day by day, you're to be coming to the Spirit that He might fill you up with Himself and His blessing, His influence. that day by day he might continue to make you what you ought to be as a child of God. I said again this is not presenting some one-off experience that you get and then all of a sudden you're done with it. This is commanding us to a daily walk with God, looking to the Spirit of God for his grace and help. Now let me apply that to you today as you got out of your bed and started to think of the duties that lay ahead of you. Did you specifically seek the Lord for this help, that the Spirit of God might be your teacher, teaching you more of the things of Christ, conforming your life to Christ? Not necessarily to do some very dramatic thing, although perhaps at times that's needed. But did you seek the Lord simply to help you walk with God today? Did you seek the influence of the Spirit as you came to God's Word? And if you're not seeking the influence, the power, that help of the Holy Ghost day by day, continually, it's no wonder then if you're not making the progress that you ought to be in your Christian experience. It's no wonder when you stumble and fall into sins of the flesh that really you should have had the power to resist had you been leaning on the Spirit. When you go about the day in your own strength, you're going to fall. You need to be continually waiting upon the Spirit that he might apply the things of Christ to your soul. We have before us then a duty given that we're continually seeking the influence of the Spirit upon us, producing these fruits of righteousness, conforming us to the Savior, leading us not into riotous living, but into godly living. Now, we began by thinking about the contrast to drunkenness and the corruption that that brings as we surrender our control in drunkenness. But finally, consider with me the description of the Spirit-filled life. If we've had something of the description of a life of drunkenness wherein is excess, it leads to this riotous living. What does the spirit-filled life look like? What does it produce? The description. Now, again, probably because of the influence of Pentecostalism and charismatic notions, we tend to have the idea that the filling of the spirit is always connected with the dramatic. Now again, let me stress, sometimes it is. Sometimes believers are suddenly filled with the Spirit and what is meant there is that the Spirit comes upon them with great power. For example, the day of Pentecost is a key place where you'll see that. They were there assembled, and then all of a sudden, they were filled with the Spirit. They were given the miraculous ability to speak in various different languages. They had power to preach the gospel, and they had power to gather souls onto Christ. Again, in Acts 4, the church was facing great persecution, and they were together praying to God that he would give them boldness to witness for Christ. And in answer to prayer, the place was shaken where they were, assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness and there the Spirit came upon them and there was this special power equipping them to go out with boldness and to face the dangers and to witness for Christ. Again it was by being filled with the Spirit that Stephen was able to dramatically and yet calmly allow his life to be taken as he became a martyr for the Lord. So the spirit does come with particular power in certain moments. And when we're serving Christ, we should seek him and seek the spirit for power in that service. But what I want you to notice here in Ephesians 5 is that the filling of the spirit is also, and we could say normally, demonstrated in what we think of as the ordinary. Now, because of the verse divisions, you might have missed it, but from verse 18 to the end of verse 21, it forms one continuous sentence. And having told people to be filled with the Spirit, Paul then goes on to list a number of different things that flow from being filled with the Spirit, a number of things that you could say are evidences of Spirit-filled life. Now, I'm not going to go into all of these today, But let me simply point them out to you. Be filled with the Spirit, in verse 19, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And there's fellowship there, as believers exhort one another with the truths of the gospel in spiritual song, in our praise. Be filled with the Spirit, singing, halfway through verse 19, singing and making melody in your heart. to the Lord. And there's praise and worship as we joyfully sing unto the Lord who deserves our all. We could say, be filled with the Spirit, verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is contentment and thankfulness in all that the Lord has given us. Be filled with the Spirit. And here's a final description. Submitting yourselves. Verse 21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And there you have order as we serve the Lord within the system of discipline and authority that He's established. Submitting ourselves to authority. Now sometimes we think of the spirit-filled life as one where someone is away off doing something dramatic. They're doing these amazing, interesting things all the time. And yet here, Paul directly describes the spirit-filled life as one where believers operate together within a community. They're exhorting one another, together praising God with thankful hearts with contentment in all that God has given and done. And as we operate orderly, one with the other, within the structures of authority that God has appointed within his church and within family life and so on too, submitting ourselves one to the other. Now we'll take time to look at some of these in more detail in days to come, but the Spirit-filled life is one that gathers believers together, to mutually bless each other as we rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ and together let it shape our lives. I suggest to you that this is a practical way of describing what was said in Ephesians 2. Back in Ephesians 2 in verse 21, we had been told that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone and it says in him that all the building You have there the picture of this temple of God, the church, being built, joined together, lifted up through the Spirit. The Spirit at work to build this temple. And that's what's being described back in chapter 5 here in more practical words if you like. The spirit filled life is one where God builds you a believer into the community of God's people as a participant within the life of Christ's church and where together we grew in community as God's people and together we rejoice in what God has done for us and for this world in Jesus Christ and together we are brought to labor and show forth together the glory of God. The Spirit of God does not lead people to be vigilante servants. Quite the opposite. I mean, that's sometimes the way it's put almost, isn't it? You've got someone off and they've got no connection with God's people. They're just off doing their own thing and, oh, the Spirit's leading me into this. I don't know about every case, but certainly in the main, that's not how the Spirit works. The Spirit-filled life is one where God's people are brought together to serve God within the community of God's people. Are you earnest to be filled with the Spirit? Are you striving to serve God within God's church for the glory of Christ? Now, we'll see more about some of these aspects of the Spirit-filled life in time to come, but the challenge to us today is that the command has been given to you. You're not to be foolish and unwise and mindless, but you're to be understanding what the will of God is. And so that you might have that understanding and walk with God, the Lord has provided you with his spirit. Will you give your life believer totally under the influence of the Holy Ghost? Will you let him have control? Will you let him deal with every dark corner of your being? Will you let him be your teacher, your guide, your source of strength, your molder and shaper, enabling you to humbly serve God among God's people? May the Lord apply his word to us tonight for his name's sake. Amen.