How to Have a Spirit-Filled Life | Part 1

What's the only way to win in spiritual warfare?

Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the timeless lessons and insights of pastor, teacher, and author, Adrian Rogers. This Christian life is a blessing, but if we don't understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it can feel more like a burden. The secret to a blessed Christian life is being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, what does that mean exactly, and how could we obtain it? If you have your Bible handy, turn to Ephesians chapter 5 and look at verse 18 as Adrian Rogers explains how to have a Spirit-filled life. Take your Bibles and turn, please, to Ephesians chapter 5 and a very familiar verse that we're going to look at in a moment, verse 18.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. Now, before we get into the passage, I want you to use your imagination. I'm going to give what may seem to you a ridiculous and silly episode, but I want you to imagine a man who buys an automobile. He's never owned an automobile before, and he doesn't understand an automobile, but finally he gets enough money to buy a brand-new automobile. And so he is very happy with this automobile. He shows it off to his friends. He shows them the beautiful paint job. He shows them the soft upholstery.

He has them sit in there and listen to the stereo. He shows them all of the amenities of this automobile, but there's one thing he doesn't understand about it. He doesn't understand that it has an engine in it. And so everywhere he goes, he has to push it.

Now, every so often, he's going downhill so he can get in and coast. But that doesn't thrill him too much because he knows he's going to have to push it up the next hill. And this automobile that is supposed to be a blessing to him has become a burden to him. And rather than it carrying him, he is pushing it.

He's very proud of it, very grateful to have it most of the time, but sometimes he wishes he didn't have it at all. And then somebody says to him, you know, there's something you don't understand about this automobile. And they show him a thing called an ignition key and said, put that right in there and turn it. And he turns it and he hears this surge of power.

He says, what is that? Well, that's the engine. That's the motor. Now put it in drive and push that pedal down there. And when it does, it roars away in a surge of power. And he says, why, this is wonderful.

This is glorious. Why didn't somebody tell me this sooner? You say, Pastor, really, that's kind of dumb. I mean, that's a stupid story.

Nobody could be that dumb. And you're right. Unless, unless it is the Christian who does not understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, friend, when God saved you, God gave you a faith with an engine in it. And there are many people who are pushing their faith rather than letting their faith carry them. And the faith, the salvation that is meant to be a blessing has almost become a burden to them. And they're grateful they're saved, but secretly they're saying this is such a difficult thing being a Christian.

So today I want us to discover the ignition key to this thing called Christianity. Look, if you will, in verse 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Do you see that? Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. May I ask you a personal question? Now, it's not polite to ask personal questions most of the time.

For example, how much money do you make or how much did that dress cost? You're not supposed to ask those kind of questions, but I want to ask you a personal question. Are you being filled with the Spirit right now? Are you being filled with the Spirit right now? Now, I did not ask, does the Holy Spirit indwell you?

He indwells all Christians. I did not ask, do you believe in the fullness of the Spirit? I didn't ask that. I didn't even ask, have you been filled with the Spirit?

I didn't ask that. The question that I ask you is a very personal question. Are you being filled with the Holy Spirit right now?

That's a personal question, isn't it? You see, our friend Stephen Olford said we ought to be consciously filled. We ought to be continuously filled. We ought to be conspicuously filled with the Holy Spirit.

Actually, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 literally says, Be ye being filled. Now, I want to talk to you about the fullness of the Spirit, and I hope that you can understand that being saved is not a matter of what you do for God, but it is a matter of what God does through you by the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Now, our outline today is going to be very, very simple, and the first thing I want to give you and I want you to think about are the reasons for being Spirit-filled.

And under the heading of the reasons for being Spirit-filled, I want to give you three reasons why you ought to be Spirit-filled. The first reason is your obedience. God has commanded it. This verse, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, is not a suggestion. It is not a request. It is a command of Almighty God.

Now, look, if you will, at the verse very carefully. Be filled. That's what we call the imperative move. When something is imperative, that means it is necessary. I might say to you it is imperative that you do this thing. This is not optional equipment.

This is not a suggestion. It is a command from God, and the Christian who is not Spirit-filled is living in rebellion against God. Now it is in the present tense. So that's the reason I ask you not have you been filled, but are you filled? Be filled right now in the present tense.

Now it is plural in number. That means be ye being filled. That is, the command is not just simply to the pastor or to the minister of music or to the soloist or to the missionary. The promise is to you and to your children and as many as the Lord our God shall call. Every boy and girl who knows Jesus ought to be Spirit-filled. Every evangelist ought to be Spirit-filled. Every layman, every laywoman ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be ye all of us filled with the Holy Spirit. It is plural. It is plural in number. It is passive in voice. Now what does that mean? He doesn't say get filled. He says be filled. It is not what we do. It is what He does in us and through us.

Now it's very interesting. This verse, look at it carefully. It says, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. We camp on the first part of that verse, don't be drunk with wine, and I don't think a person ought to be drunk with wine, but I want to say something to you that it is a greater sin not to be filled with the Spirit than to be drunk with wine. Now I know that most of you are disagreeing with me right now.

I know that most of you are disagreeing. You're saying, no, no, no, no, getting drunk, that's far worse than not being filled with the Spirit, but I will disagree with you. It is a greater sin not to be filled with the Spirit than it is to be drunk with wine. The Bible teaches that the sins of omission are greater than the sins of commission. It is a greater sin to fail to do what you ought to do than to do what you ought not to do.

Why is that? Because if you're doing what you ought to do, you cannot be doing what you ought not to do, but if you're doing what you ought not to do, you will not be doing what you ought to do. I'll never say that again.

So I hope that you heard it. The sin of omission is a greater sin than the sin of commission. For example, I've had far more difficulty in the churches that I've pastored with people not being filled with the Spirit than I have with people who have been drunk.

Isn't that true? Carnality, that's the great issue in the church. Now if Brother Whitmire were to come up to this platform this morning to lead the singing, and let's suppose he staggers up here, and let's suppose his eyes are red and blurry, and let's suppose his tongue is thick, and let's suppose he stumbles around a little bit, and we would say, I believe Jim Whitmire is sick. Somebody help him. And you get up close to him, and he reeks with alcohol. He's drunk.

And we say, Jim Whitmire is drunk. Now that's never happened, and it will never happen. It will not happen. Will it? No. It will not happen, absolutely, beyond the shadow of any doubt.

It will not happen. But how many times may a person come to the platform not filled with the Spirit? You see, listen, it would be more wrong for him to come up here not Spirit-filled than it would be for him to come up here drunk. And you see, if he's filled with the Spirit, he's not going to get drunk because being drunk is the devil's substitute for being Spirit-filled. What I'm trying to say to you, friend, is I'm not saying, believe me, I'm not putting a premium on getting drunk or I'm not making light on getting drunk.

The Bible says don't be drunk. I'm just simply saying that why should we be Spirit-filled? Number one, obedience. It is imperative. The Bible says it is imperative that you be filled. It is a command to obey as well as a blessing to enjoy.

And here's a second reason. Not only our obedience, but our obligations. Have you ever thought about the obligations that are yours as a Christian? Have you ever thought about what the Bible commands you to do? How are you going to do what the Bible commands you to do? You don't have the strength to do what the Bible commands you to do. For example, we're in chapter 5, verse 18.

Let's just continue to read. Look in verse 19, and that speaks of our worship life. Verse 18 says be filled with the Spirit, and then verse 19 says, 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 unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In our worship life, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Have you ever been in a worship service that's where people are trying to worship God in the flesh, and it's just carnality, it's just some kind of a circus, it's some kind of a program?

How tedious and how tasteless that is. But you've been in worship services where those who are leading the worship are filled with God's blessed Holy Spirit, and the congregation, the people, are singing praises to God, and they're worshiping God in spirit and in truth. The only way you can truly worship God is to worship Him in the spirit, but not only in your worship life, but in your wedded life. Look in verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, the Bible teaches that a wife is to respect and love and be submitted to her husband as if he were Jesus Christ. You say, you mean that two-legged devil?

That's right. You are to submit unto him. Now, I didn't say that. God said it right here.

Well, in this day of each person standing up for himself or herself, how is a person going to do that? Well, that's not human nature to do that, and I don't know a wife in the world who can submit to her husband without being spirit-filled, truly submit to her husband without being spirit-filled. She might do it grudgingly, but that's not the way we're to submit to the Lord Jesus.

Gladly, wonderfully, happily, we're to submit. This does not mean that the wife is inferior to the husbands. Many women are superior to their husbands.

I know mine is superior to me. She says, I don't want to be equal. I'm not coming down for anything. She didn't say that.

She'll get me at home for saying that she said that. Men and women before the Lord are all equal, and yet the Bible says that wives are to submit to their own husbands. Well, it's not in human nature to do that, and then you say, well, why does the Bible always tell the hard things to the women? Well, it really doesn't.

Continue to read. Look, if you will, in verse 25. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Now, the wife is to submit to the husband as if the husband were Jesus Christ, but the husband is to love the wife as if he were Jesus Christ. And how does Christ love the church? Well, he loves the church sacrificially. He died for the church. He gave himself up for the church. A husband ought to love his wife so much that he is willing to die for her and shows it by the way he lives for her.

And incidentally, most women wouldn't have any difficulty submitting to a husband who loved her enough to die for her and showed it by the way he lives for her. I think Harry Ironside said that a man came to him one time for counseling, and Dr. Ironside said, what is your problem? He said, my problem is my wife. He said, are you having difficulty?

He said, no, no difficulty at all. He said, I just love her so much. I worship, I adore her.

I think about her all the time. I'm just afraid that maybe I love her so much it's a sin. Dr. Ironside said, well, do you love her as much as Jesus loved the church? He said, I wouldn't say that. He said, well, get with it. Get with it.

You haven't loved her enough. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. I can't do anything as Jesus did it. I don't have the ability to do anything Jesus did.

The only way that I can do what Jesus has done is for Jesus in me to do it, isn't that right? For the Holy Spirit of God to love Joyce through me. That's the reason that Joyce doesn't mind being second in my life because Joyce knows that when Jesus Christ is enthroned and I'm Spirit-filled, I will love her better than I could if she were number one in my life. When she's number two in my life, she receives far more love than if she were number one because God is loving her. Every now and then some man will come to me and say, well, you know, I just, I don't love my wife. I just don't love her.

As if that's some excuse to separate or divorce. That's no excuse because everything that God commands you to do, you can do. What if God were to save me? Adrian, jump over this building.

Well, I can't jump over this building. What kind of a God would command me to do something I cannot do? When God says husbands love your wives, that means you can do it, but you can only do it through his power.

What am I saying? Look, in your worship life, you need to be Spirit-filled. In your wedded life, you need to be Spirit-filled. And then in your work life, you need to be Spirit-filled.

Just keep on going. Come on down to chapter 6 and look, if you will, in verse 5. Servants, the word literally is slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ.

Do you know what that means in plain English? You serve your boss as if he were Jesus Christ. You say, I can't do it. Why, he's not a Christian. He's not right with God. How could I serve him as if he were Jesus Christ? Continue to read verse 6. This is chapter 6, verse 6. Not with eye service as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. You work for him as if he were Jesus Christ, and when you go to work, you ought to come through with the same enthusiasm for that man and that business as you had for this church and this business when you came in this door. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says you serve him as if he were Jesus Christ.

I want to let you in on a secret. If our people would begin to live like that on Monday, people would start believing what I preach on Sunday. Do you know that?

Yes, they would. You know, people would say of Christians on the job, and what a better place could there be to witness for Jesus Christ than the job? Your job is your temple of devotion. It is your lampstand for witness.

What better place to let your light shine? The boss would say, you know, I don't understand these Christians. Why, they're here on time. They work with a smile on their face. They're very careful. They're honest. They wouldn't steal a thing. I could trust them with the entire business. Why, they seem to be devoted to the business as if they own the business. Why, you would think they think I'm the Lord the way they serve here. When a man goes to the employment agency and he needs somebody to work for him, he ought to say, by the way, if you have any spirit-filled Christians, send them over. Send them over.

Those are the kind of people I want. Well, that's not in human nature to do that. Human nature is to get by with as little as you can and get as much as you can, get all you can and can all you get, sit on the lid and poison the rest is the motto that most people have rather than saying, I'm going to give myself, I'm going to serve. Well, how are you going to do that? I don't have what it takes to do that. That's not my nature.

By nature I'm selfish. But being spirit-filled you can do that. And then look in your war life. Skip on down to chapter 6 and verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God.

It's all still in the context of being filled with the Spirit. We're in a battle. We have an enemy.

He is real. He is malevolent. He is cunning. He is sinister.

He is active. He has marshaled all of the forces of hell against you and your family. He wants to sabotage your life. The bomb is in place. The fuse is laid out.

The match is struck. He wants to bring devastation to your home, to your health, to your happiness, to your future, to your faith. You have an enemy and you're no match for Him. He is stronger than you are. He is powerful.

He is cunning and sinister beyond belief. But the Bible says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. The only way you're going to win in this warfare is to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And then not only in your war life, but in your witness life. Notice, if you will, in verse 18, he says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

He's still on the theme of the Spirit. Watching too with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, and for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel. How important it is that I be filled with the Spirit, because all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down.

I've told you many, many times, I can preach truth, but only the Holy Spirit can impart truth. And I am so dependent upon Him, and we all are, whether we're witnessing on the street, whether we're witnessing in the business, whether we're witnessing in the classroom, whether we're witnessing in the home or from the pulpit or from the choir, oh, that we might be filled with the Spirit of God. I've given you two reasons to be Spirit-filled. One is our obedience. Number two is our obligations.

Let me give you the third reason, our opportunities. Now, turn to Ephesians 5 again. Look, if you will, in Ephesians 5, verse 14.

Wherefore, he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the light, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly. Now, that means looking around. Circum means around.

Speckly means watching, looking. 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. What is the will of the Lord? And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Now, what's he saying? Well, the key is in verse 16. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Is there anybody who would deny that these are evil days?

Is there anybody? Now, if that was true in Paul's day, how much more true it is in our day? We're up against the organized, mobilized, demonized forces of hell, and it comes in every way.

Sometimes it's a frontal attack. Sometimes it is very subtle, but there is a war, and if you don't know there's a war raging today, friend, you are deaf, dumb, and blind to spiritual things. Now, there is a war, but there has never been a greater day, a greater age, a greater opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus than right now. There is more hunger for the gospel now than ever before. There is more openness to the gospel than ever before. You say, Pastor Rogers, I thought you said things were getting bad. They are. Well, you say, is the world getting better or worse?

Yes. As the night grows darker, the saints grow brighter, and the hungers are more intense, and there are people who are looking, waiting, wondering. Can we find a way? Is there an answer? And there is an answer, and the answer is in Christ. But, oh, we need a generation of Spirit-filled people because of the opportunities today. What a convicting message. There has never been a greater day, a greater age, a greater opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus than right now. And we'll hear part two of this message coming up tomorrow.

I hope you can join us then. Maybe you have questions right now, though, about who Jesus is, about what He means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Him. If you would, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources and materials, answers to the questions you may have on your heart right now. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD.

Ask for the title, How to Have a Spirit-Filled Life. This message is also part of the insightful Back to the Basics series. For that complete collection, all 18 powerful messages, call that number, 1-877-LOVE-GOD, or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio, or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Now, many of the messages in this series are also featured in our new resource called the What Every Christian Ought to Know Study.

Utilize this tool at lwf.org slash radio. Well, thanks for studying with us in God's Word today. Remember, as Adrian Rogers said, a flesh-filled person is grumbly hateful, but a spirit-filled person is humbly grateful.

Do you bear the markings of someone filled with the Holy Spirit? Make sure you tune in tomorrow for part two of How to Have a Spirit-Filled Life, right here on Love Worth Finding. A Facebook friend reached out to us recently with this kind thought about Adrian Rogers, saying that he has a unique way of making you feel he is right with you. He makes excellent illustrations to connect the dots so anyone can understand.

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