Staying Filled in the Spirit – Part 2

Everything Changes. And if you missed any of the lessons so far, you can catch up online at Bold Steps. But first, let's get started. Mark's going to be showing us how we can stay filled with the spirit.

empower you. Where God has such an influence on you that you begin to talk different, walk different, live different, think different because you are being influenced by God, not trying to live up to some standards of perfection, but because God is in you, changing you from the inside out. That is Christianity. That is God inside of you, the hope of glory. Too many people try religion and fail. Because the letter leads to death. Spirit leads to life.

If you've ever tried to live up to standards that are too high that you cannot achieve, you will end up being discouraged and feel like a failure. And who wants to feel like a failure all of the time? You'll end up giving up and then you'll say, I tried church. It didn't work for me. No, you tried religion and it didn't work for you because Jesus always works. He's living alive inside of you, the spirit. And what he says here, he says instead, you need to be

filled with the spirit. Now, what is the spirit? Is it a substance? Is it a liquid? Is it a power? Is it a wind? What is the spirit? Well, you need to understand that the spirit he's speaking of is referred to as the Holy Spirit. It's the third person of the Triune God. There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is God Himself, the person of God that comes

and lives inside of you. Once he's invited to live inside of you, as you yield your life to God and as you say, come inside of me, change me, make me new. I acknowledge Jesus as my Lord. I cannot live my life and control my life anymore. I want you to take possession and control of my life, and you invite the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the washing and regeneration of the blood of Jesus Christ. Then you have the spirit inside of you. Now the

spirit lives where you live. Someone says, where? Where is God's address here on earth? Is it the cathedrals in Europe? No. Is it the fancy churches with the stained glass windows? No. Is it the building on 51st and Keeler? No no no no no no, that's just the place where we meet. Where? What is God's address here on earth? God's address here on earth is you. Wherever you are. The Spirit of God dwells because His Spirit dwells inside of you. So

if you're it's like a moving GPS. If you're on 26th and Cal, the Spirit's there on 26th and Cal, if you're downtown and go to the loop, the spirit's there at the loop. If you go to the Sox game, he's at the Sox game. If you go to the Cubs game, yeah, he's even there. Um, so the spirit is hey, the spirit is wherever you go. Now you grieve the spirit. Of course, when you go to the Cubs game. Nah. Just kidding. I'm just. I'm messing with you. I'm messing with you. I know we have some Cubs

fans here. Um, yeah. Okay. They made their way to the South Side. And what Paul is telling us is the problem is that we get filled with the spirit, and then we get emptied of the spirit. We get filled with the spirit and emptied with the spirit. So Paul is telling us that we need to learn what it means to stay full of the spirit. Now, I don't I don't try to get too technical with, with with Bible verses and go to the Greek, but sometimes

you need to go to the Greek. The the New Testament was written in the Greek language, not the Greek language that's spoken in Athens today, but it was written in ancient Greek. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the New Testament was written in Greek. Greek was the English sort of the equivalent to the English commercial language of the day. It's what people spoke when they did trade. It was written in the Greek because most people in those days spoke or at least

understood Greek. And so it was the common language that people most commonly used in different places of the, of the empire of that time. If you look at this phrase in the Greek, where it says instead be filled with the spirit, you will realize that this verb tense is not just referring to a one time feeling like, hey, be filled and then it's over. You don't have to

be filled ever again in your life. Literally, the translation of that would be better rendered if it said, keep being filled over and over and over and over again with the spirit. It's in the progressive form, continuous form. That means this is not a one time action. It's something that has to be done over and over and over and over and over again. Just like you have to keep filling your car up with gas. It's not like, hey, did you fill the car up with gas? Yeah, last

July I did. Well, hey, it's not going to last you very long. I mean, I mean, you're going to run out of gas. You got to keep filling it up because the gas runs out, so you fill it up. And in the same way we get filled with the spirit. But if we don't keep filling ourselves with the spirit, what happens is we start operating in the flesh, we start in the spirit, and then with time, we go to the flesh. And so many of us find ourselves living and walking in the flesh when we need to

be filled with the spirit over and over again. So the Apostle Paul is saying, I want you to learn to be filled over and over with the Spirit of God. The spirit is not a liquid. It's not a power, it's the person. So when I'm filled with the person of God, it means that God is influencing my life. I'm yielding to God, and he's influencing my life so that when I'm filled with the spirit, I talk different,

I walk different, I operate different. How many of you know when you're filled with the spirit and when you're not? You can feel it. Have you ever said, man, I was in the flesh as your wife ever said, man, you were in the flesh. When you're in the flesh, it means you do what you would do in the old days. You operate your way. When you're in the spirit, it alters the way you operate. That's not how. That's the old you. But when you're walking in the spirit,

you operate under the new you. You respond different. You react different. You do things different. Why? Because you're full of God. Now, this is not just this high spiritual experience. What Paul is saying. This is how your normal life should be. You should learn to live day by day, full of the spirit. By the way, this is a command, not a suggestion. It's in the imperative form, which means this is a command be filled with the spirit. Now you say, well, pastor, how does that happen? How do

we stay filled with the spirit? Well, he explains to us in the next verses how to continue to refuel ourselves. Verse 19 through 21 speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Number two sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Number three always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, I'm about to

give you here. This is really, really important. I'm about to give you three very practical steps to stay refueled in the spirit when you when you keep getting emptied. Number one, it says, speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. What is a psalm? Well, it's found in the Book of Psalms. David wrote the Psalms. It's scripture. I love scriptures. I love the Psalms. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's one of the Psalms. There are tons of psalms that are prayers,

and we sing those Psalms to God sometimes. So Psalms are Scripture that we sing. Then there's hymns. Hymns are other people's songs. We just sung a bunch of songs today that other people had written that we sing to God. And then spiritual songs, I believe, are songs that you make up yourself to God. As you're worshiping God, your own words start coming out to God. Now let me just pause for a second and say, some of you view Sunday morning and you come in late because you think, well,

all they're doing is karaoke. And so I'm coming just for the teaching time. You know, they're singing. I'm not a real singer. So I wait till the singing is over and I come for the word. Okay. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Pause. We're not doing karaoke. We're doing worship. You say? Well, I've never been a singer. Well, let me tell you something. You're a Christian. You better start learning to sing, because part of worshiping God involves

expressing ourself through music and worship and singing. And what happens is, when we come to a place like this, listen, the reason that we worship first was song and singing is that there's something that happens when we are worshiping God and expressing our devotion to God, and it's spirit filled worship. It begins to soften our heart. It begins to open up our spirit. It begins to prepare us to receive the seed of the word planted in our soul.

And yeah, some of you skip the worship. Drive into the parking lot. You're all hurried, yelling at your wife. You sit down, you get in here just for the word. The word is preaching. You said I didn't get anything out of it today. I wonder why you walking in the flesh? You're just starting to loosen up. Starting to get ready to receive something by the end. What would happen if, first of all, you softened your heart and worshiped? You said, here I am, God, empty me. Speak to me, God,

make my heart fertile for the word. Whatever you have, I want to hear it. What would happen if you let the Holy Spirit speak to you during worship? What would happen if you allowed the spirit to fill you? And then as soon as the word came, man, you're like all over the word. It's planting in. The seeds are falling. Listen, before the seed can hit the ground, you gotta soften up the ground. Worship is the place

that our heart is softened up towards God. Worship is the place that gets our heart ready to receive the word. And so when you worship you, you, you make the word harder to get into your heart and your soul. You need worship because it softens you for the word. And God inhabits the praises of his people. When we worship, the spirit comes down upon the praises of his people and starts doing his word.

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Some silly jingle that you heard in your walk throughout the day, and you start humming the little melody and someone says, what's that? I don't know, I can't get it out of my mind. When you sing and you start making melody in your heart, it means that you are worshiping. There's this undercurrent of worship that's happening throughout the day. Oh, you may not be there at work going, Hallelujah, thank you Jesus, but in your heart you're like, Hallelujah!

Thank you Jesus, because you are good. Blessed be the name of the Lord because he he he is good. Praise be to the name of God. And it's kind of it's kind of in there. It's kind of in there. And once in a while it just kind of pops out a little bit. Yeah. Thank you Lord, you, I bless you. Then you get back to work and then as soon as it surfaces, you're walking down the hallway. Jesus is good. Praise his name for you. It just kind of comes out of you. Why? Because you are

singing this melody in your heart. You are worshiping God. Now, now you're still a good worker and you're not sitting behind your computer saying, Celebrate Jesus, celebrate. No, no, no, no, you're not singing out loud because I don't think your boss would like it. And if you have a voice like me, your co-workers wouldn't like it either. But, but, but it's in there. You're worshiping God. You have this God consciousness, this God presence throughout the day because your

heart is there. You're being filled with the Spirit of God. And then he says, the third thing is listen. He says, verse 20, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. You're trying to tell me I get a flat tire? You want me to thank God for it? Well, yeah. I mean, you're not saying. Wow, praise God I got a nail in my tire. But while you're changing the tire or calling up the triple A, you're saying thank you, Lord, that you're good. Because listen, here's what the Bible says.

All things work together for the good of those that are called according to his name. So God can even take the bad and turn it into good. Listen, you know that when bad thing is happening, that good things are being squeezed out of it. It means you maintain an attitude of thanksgiving and praise throughout every aspect of the day. Because, listen, it's really easy to start getting critical, negative, pessimistic in life, isn't it? It's really easy to start

thinking the worst. It's really easy to get that, start becoming a nitpicker about things. It's really easy for our spirit to get polluted. But listen, it's hard to complain and be negative when you're being thankful. It's hard to be critical when you're saying, bless you, Jesus. Thank you, I pray. I thank you, God. Thank you for my husband. He's not always the He's gotta work on his encouragement skills. But thank you that he's there, Lord. I bless you

and thank you for this car. I know it's rusted. I can't open this door, but thank you. I can still get in the other door, Lord. And I know, Lord, this window doesn't go down. But praise God that that window does go down. And thank God it's paid for. I know I paid 500 for it, but thank God it's paid for. Praise God, you know. You begin to find things to bless God over and listen when you start. Here's here's how it works. There is a connection between

the spirit and joy. The Bible tells us. For example, in acts chapter 13, verse 52, it said the disciples were full of joy and the Holy Spirit. In Nehemiah chapter eight verse ten, it says, the joy of the Lord is your strength. There's a connection. The kingdom of God is made of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. There's a connection. Let me tell you what the connection is. You cannot be filled with the spirit

without being filled with joy. You cannot be filled with joy without having energy in God to accomplish the purposes that God has called you for. Listen, if you have if you're not filled with the spirit, then you won't be filled with joy. And if you have no joy, you will have no energy. And if you have no energy, you will not be able to accomplish the things that God has called you to accomplish. And some of us, because we're not filled with the spirit, we have no joy.

And since we have no joy, we have no energy. And since we have no energy, we drag ourselves through life moaning and complaining about how tough life is. And then when we try to tell people about Jesus, are you surprised they don't want your Jesus? Yeah. Why don't you come to church with me? Life is so tough and tough. Yeah. Come on. I think you really enjoy it. Really? And you say. I don't understand why they don't come. They must be really dark and lost. No, no, no,

they're not dark and lost. They look at you and say, I don't want to be like them. Listen, when you don't have joy, it's hard to drag yourself out of bed. It's hard to face the problems that you have because you feel like, man, I'm just surviving. When you don't have joy, it seems like one other thing just tips you over the top. It's like I just can't handle it. When you don't have joy, then you start just getting into survival mode. You don't touch anybody, help anybody, empower

anybody because you just become real self focused. Because you could. All you could do is manage to survive yourself. No joy, no energy, no energy, no opportunities, no opportunities, no impact, no impact, no significant work for the Kingdom of God. Oh, you may you may say, well, I just need a vitamin B6 pill. Maybe you do take multivitamins, but you know, the body, soul and spirit are connected, and maybe it's

more than just a multivitamin. Maybe part of your problem is that you have you're not filled with the spirit because you're worried and negative in thinking about this. You're not inviting God into it. You're not filled with him, so you have no joy. Listen, the kingdom of God is made up of joy. There's something about the joy of God that gives you power to overcome any trial. Or I'm not saying that you don't have problems because you can. You'll have the same problems even when you

have joy. But there's something about joy that just kind of pushes you over that problem. Like it can become overcome. This is not the end of the world. God is in control. He's still on the throne. He will give you the power. What happens is, when you're filled with the spirit, you're filled with the fruit of the spirit. Love. Joy is the second fruit of the spirit. And there's something about joy that gives you hope in the future and gives you power to be able to move on.

I believe that we need a church that's full of the spirit, because a church full of the spirit is full of joy, and a church full of joy is full of power.

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