Be Filled with the Spirit

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. So here is my point. To be filled with the Spirit is about being under the control of and absolutely alive to the realities of God in the world. Fullness with the Spirit is a felt sense of the attributes of God. Listen to me, the Holy Spirit is more than a doctrine. When we first give our lives to Jesus, the Bible says that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

But what exactly does that mean? Is the Spirit just kind of a stamp that we get in our spiritual passport to make sure we'll get into heaven? Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer explains that we aren't just sealed with the Spirit, but a scripture says we're also filled with the Spirit.

That sounds like a pretty important detail, doesn't it? Today's teaching is part of our series called Rushing Wind. And if you missed any of the previous messages, you can listen online at jdgreer.com. Now let's dive into this message titled Be Filled with the Spirit. I'm going to talk about something that has somehow become controversial among Christians, which is a tragedy because this subject doesn't really need to be controversial. I told you a few weeks ago the irony is that God gave the Holy Spirit for the purpose of unifying the church. And the irony is in some ways it is our discussions about the Holy Spirit that has most divided the church. This is one, the subject of the fullness of the Spirit that really does not need to divide us at all.

I feel like a lot of the people that talk about this end up using different terms for the same thing and they end up talking past one another. Understanding what I'm going to say to you this morning is what makes the difference between a mundane spiritual life, kind of just a rote, sort of going through the motions spiritual life, and a life that is overflowing and exuding with joy. All right, anybody need more joy in their spiritual life?

Anybody? All right, Duke fans especially I'd say right about now. I think that applies to you. I think it applies to all of us.

This is for you, okay? Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to begin in verse 18.

I have your Bible and invite you to open it there. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18. You listen as I read these three verses in their entirety. Ephesians 5 18. And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are three questions about the fullness of the Spirit that I see answered in those three verses.

Here they are. They are first of all what is the filling of the Spirit? Then secondly when are we filled by the Spirit? And then lastly how are we filled by the Spirit? So what is it? When's it happen?

And how does it happen? You say well those are all three big questions to be answered in three short little verses. I know. They're all answered at least similarly in those verses. The beginnings of the answer and that's what we'll try to try to touch on. So let's just go through those in order.

Number one. What is the filling of the Spirit? The word filled in Greek that Paul uses here literally means permeated or saturated. It's when every part of you is consumed with something.

For example the same word in Greek is used in Luke 4 28 when it says that the audience was filled with rage. Have you ever been so angry at something that it wasn't like you could just isolate your anger to one area. It just consumed you. That's all you could think about. You just focused on that. You've been so angry at a friend or so angry at your spouse or so angry at the person who cut you off in traffic or whatever that you just it just consumed you.

That's filled. That's the same idea that he's using here. If you've ever been hurt and you've been filled with pain that gives you a pretty good picture of it. I several years ago came down with what turned out to be a staph infection and while they're trying to diagnose it. My knee was about the size of a basketball and so they needed to draw some fluid out of it. They needed to do it in an emergency situation because they were trying to figure out what was wrong is my temperature was up about 105 degrees. When they're in a hurry they can deaden the skin.

They can deaden the feeling in the skin but they can't deaden it down the bone and the tendons. They had to go through the kneecap and the tendons to be able to get this and when that happened you know I mean it wasn't my knee that hurt as they're driving that needle in there it's my whole body was alive with pain. I mean you know I couldn't see straight. I couldn't talk straight. I couldn't think about anything because you were because I was filled with pain.

That's the image that that he's giving there or you notice the contrast that he draws. Don't be drunk with wine but be filled by the spirit. Now he doesn't use the word filled with wine but that's what he means. Don't be filled with wine when you are when you are drunk and hopefully that's not any of you that think of this a lot from personal experience but when a person is drunk alcohol doesn't affect one part of their body.

It consumes all of them so that your thinking is affected, your speech is affected, your reflexes are affected, all of you. We can draw you know a blood sample from any part of your body and it's all consumed with alcohol and that's that's the idea of being filled being permeated by the spirit. I'll give you one last word picture since some of you maybe communicate better with that. All right let this this milk right here represent you. All right you're the milk. Let this chocolate right here represent the Holy Spirit which some of you would think is an altogether fitting picture and we put that in there like this. Now when I stir this up which is the only way that my kids will drink milk right so when I stir this up and then I say where is the chocolate in this it's in every part of it right. Every molecule there of the milk is attached to the chocolate so that when you drink it you get chocolate and that has been out here for a while.

All right let's move on. That's a picture of your field you're permeated so that every part of you is consumed by and saturated by and affected by and alive by the spirit. Now the contrast that he draws here to alcohol is a good one. He says don't be filled with wine but do be filled with the spirit because there are some ways that being filled with the spirit is similar to being filled with wine but then there are other ways that it is very different.

So let's talk first about the ways that being filled with wine and being filled with the spirit are similar. When you are filled when you are filled with alcohol as I mentioned everything is affected by the presence of that alcohol. How you think, how you react, how you talk, it's all affected. Certain things that that used to bother you don't bother you anymore and certain things that don't usually bother you start to bother you. When you are filled with alcohol when someone is filled with alcohol they lose a lot of their inhibitions.

Is that not true right? When somebody is drunk they lose their inhibitions. This past week I was flying back here to Raleigh Durham and on one of the legs of my flight I got upgraded to first class which was an awesome you know benefit and so I go sit down in first class I'm feeling pretty good and I sit down next to this friendly looking lady and she starts up a conversation and about three sentences into it I'm like this lady's drunk. She is I mean before we got on the plane she was drunk she's sitting there and she's just I mean she's just chatty Kathy you know the whole time and you know normally I like to be able to share Christ with the person I'm sitting next to but you know I was like this woman's not going to remember a thing that I'm saying here and but I noticed how just how she was saying stuff that I don't think she would typically say. She's just talking everything comes into mind she's just talking she's like she says she says I think I recognize you from our previous flight and she said because I noticed you and and then I think she felt how awkward that was and she said not that I was checking you out or maybe I was you know and I was like oh my gosh so so I you know I I take my I did I pulled my first maneuver that I always pull when I don't want to talk to the person next to me it's my book you know so I take my book not the one I wrote but just a book and I I put it right up close to my face and I start reading it do you think that stops this woman of course not she's like what are you reading now typically that would be a great you know entrance for me to say it's about the Bible it's about God and get into sharing Christ with her but again I knew this was that was a useless pursuit so I was like well that's kind of you know I could I knew that she'd be like I love the Bible and start crying or something like that so I just you know I was like well so I um so I pulled my second maneuver and which is to um I laid my head back and uh leaned it like I acted like I was going to sleep um and uh do you think that stopped her absolutely not she you know leans over and like starts messing with my light she's like I'm gonna turn off your light for you make sure that you're comfortable and I was like oh my goodness so every two or three minutes she keeps talking um so I pulled my final maneuver to get people to get her is I put my headphones in and I turn them up as loud as they would possibly go um comfortably and uh do you think that stopped her no she notices that my headphones are on that I can't hear her so I kid you not she starts yelling at me over the headphones about what she wants to talk to me about now I would I would guess that typically this lady was not like that but with all this alcohol in her system her inhibitions have been removed well one of the things that happens when the spirit of God comes into somebody is I don't want to totally say in a similar way but in a similar way their inhibitions are removed hopefully not in a chatty annoying way but see they begin to begin to not care as much about things they used to care about because they care about other other things so for example when you see the spirit of God come into the church in the book of acts you see they have an uncanny boldness so that peter in acts 2 and he's filled by the spirit stands up in front of a hostile crowd and says you need to repent you need to believe in Jesus to the same people that crucified Jesus this was the same peter mind you that lesson or a month or so before had denied Christ three times in the space of an hour you know and once one of those are due to a middle school age girl now he's in front of a hostile crowd filled with confidence and courage same thing happens in acts four they're standing in front of the sanhedrin he and john are filled with the spirit and they testify boldly to who Jesus is the whole church is filled with the spirit at the end of acts four and it says that they went out everywhere preaching the word boldly it says acts 4 13 that the people were astonished at the boldness of the early church acts chapter 7 steven you know standing in front of people who have rocks in their hands about to stone him filled with the spirit and testifies boldly to Jesus now these people were not all type a loudmouths that wasn't a characteristic personality of the of the early church it's that these were normal people who were just so filled with the spirit for the mission of God that they spoke with boldness and power before I move on can I just ask you this has that ever happened to you has anybody ever been astonished by your boldness you're so alive with God's heart and his emotions so aware of his glory in a situation that you forget about your reputation sometimes you forget about danger because your eyes are opened to the glory of God and the mission it's you're so consumed with him that you forget about all those things you normally care about remember I've told you before that the presence of God is when the spirit of God makes God's attributes come alive to you you want a definition of the presence of God listen listen very closely the presence of God in your light is when the spirit of God makes the attributes of God become real to you you start to feel them and the place that I get that definition is from Exodus 34 when Moses says to God let me see your glory all right let me let me feel your presence so God says to Moses well you can't really be my presence with sin and live so you can't see my face and Moses says please and God says okay he puts him in a rock covers him with his hand and his presence passes by now that's presence right his presence passes by and then it says while his presence is passing by God declares his name to Moses so what you've got is God saying I am Jehovah I am a God that is full of compassion I'm a God of mercy I'm a God who forgives sins I'm a God who forgives sins for generations on end I'm a God of justice basically he declares the gospel to Moses and so from that you see that the presence of God is when the spirit of God is taking the gospel the attributes of God and he's making them come alive to you so that in that moment you are so consumed with them you are so filled with a sense of his mission that you speak with boldness so much so that it astonishes people because you see what they don't see you feel what they don't feel it's so real to you that you forget about everything else reminds me of the words of Charles Spurgeon who said that if you want to make somebody into an evangelist put them into hell for 30 seconds if you could do that imagine the boldness that you would share Christ with if you had spent 30 seconds in hell and came out with that kind of understanding when you've seen the beauty of who God is when you've seen how great his salvation is when you've seen how great the danger is you speak with an uncanny boldness that it astonishes people so that's how I would say being filled with the spirit is like being filled with wine all right but let me show you some ways that it is different in the spirit you don't lose control of your mind like you do with alcohol you gain control the reason I point this out is because there's a whole movement out there that's like well you need to get drunk on Jesus you get drunk on Jesus and you start acting like you've lost your mind you're so in some churches that do this you'll see you go in there you know they're falling down and they're they're hooping and they're hollering and and laughing and barking like a dog and clucking like a chicken it's not none of that is exaggerated or made up and you're like what's what's what's and you're like I just drunk on Jesus I just lost my mind for Jesus just like Paul said no Paul said that is not what it's like he said you see that that is debauchery in fact when Paul is talking to the Corinthians about their church services first Corinthians 14 one of the things he criticizes them about is he says people come into your church service and nobody's running around like they're you know like a chicken with their head cut off and and you guys are yelling this and hooping and hollering and screaming in tongues he said the guest or the unbeliever comes in and thinks you've lost your mind that's not a compliment he's giving to them like and then they know that you're drunk on the spirit and he's like that's a bad thing he in fact he ends his discussion of what a spirit-filled service looks like with first Corinthians 14 40 let everything be done decently and in order drunk people don't do things decently no they can't even walk a line decently in an order right so so the spirit of God doesn't make you lose your mind you gain greater control of your mind that's one way it's different here's a second way in the spirit you're not deadened to reality in the spirit you're awakened to reality when you're filled with wine you're deadened to reality because it reduces your sensitivity to things that hurt you emotionally and physically that's why people go to it that's like the theme of every country music song I've ever heard but the tragedy in that is alcohol cannot selectively deaden or dull one part of you it can't just deaden the part of you that's hurting it deadens all of you so that that you are less alive you're less aware of reality you're not as intelligent you are not as quick and responsive because all of you is dulled and deadened by contrast get this the spirit makes you more alive more alive look back at the verses in your bible leading up to verse 18 go back to verse 15 three verses here look what paul says look carefully than how you walk not as wise but as unwise therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the lord is do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit you see those words careful wise understanding those are words you don't use about somebody when they're drunk they're not careful they're foolish not wise right they don't have understanding because fullness of the spirit get this is not a dulled consciousness fullness of the spirit is an expanded one your eyes are not closed to the pain they are awakened to a god who is greater than pain your eyes are not your heart is not shielded from pain your heart is open to the glory and the presence and the beauty of jesus for some of you the only way you've ever known how to deal with pain is to deaden yourself to it and the tragedy is you've made yourself less alive for some of you it's because you were hurt in a relationship you quit trusting people that's less alive for some of you you've literally drowned it in alcohol for some of you you've drowned it in distraction there are some of you men that bury yourself in your work because your marriage is so bad that is less alive what god's spirit does is he doesn't deaden you to reality he opens your eyes to reality so that you see the greater plan of god the greater goodness of god within the pain give you a couple biblical examples on this um second kings chapter 6 one of my favorite old testament stories which they're all my favorite whenever i'm talking about one of them okay so this is really one of my favorites though second kings chapter 6 um elijah um is coming into a city in israel not far from jerusalem and he's with one of his servants and the entire syrian army huge has laid siege all around the mountains and you know around this valley where they are and elijah's servant is just beside himself as you would be if you think this hostile army is about to come wipe your country off the face of the map and you know elijah is just kind of you know ambled along he doesn't really seem like it's that big of a deal and elijah's servant is out of his mind and he's like what's wrong with you don't you see these people about to destroy us and elijah just um says this uh this this this little casual comment to his servant or actually to god and says god open his eyes and all of a sudden god opens his eyes and around this entire syrian army his servant sees a greater army which is the armies of god angels in chariots of fire who outnumber this syrian army 10 to 1 and they are standing there with their flaming swords and with their chariots of fire and all of a sudden elijah's servant sees and he's not as terrified anymore about that syrian army now you see what just happened there's two ways that elijah could have dealt with his servant who was afraid out of his mind he could have been like you're scared take a shot of whiskey here's a shot of jack daniels let this calm your nerves then you'll be okay but he didn't dull his consciousness he expanded his consciousness he helped him see the the greater power of god in the midst of the powers that were arrayed against him does that make sense hey give you a second example second corinneas chapter 6 paul this time is talking about how hard his life is and he says we are always sorrowful yet always rejoicing we are poor yet we possess all things we are are beaten down but we're not forsaken and he says all this by the way second corinneas chapter 6 in the spirit he says why because what's the spirit of god done to him in the midst of his pain he showed them that there was a god who had a greater plan than the people that were causing his pain did he was in the midst of pain seeing that there was a god who was sweeter than pain deeper than pain a god who ultimately controlled everything in the midst of his poverty it wasn't like god just gave him a ton of money and said here this fixes it his eyes were open to see that he possessed all things what happens when you're in the midst of pain listen to this here's how the spirit of god deals with this some of you the only way you think he can help you deal with pain is to get you out of the situation that you're in god heal this disease god fix this financial problem god make this person go away take away this pain y'all and you should pray for that i and i pray that god does that for you but i'm telling you that sometimes what god does is he actually gives you a greater knowledge expand your knowledge into pain so that you say romans 5 5 god sheds abroad his love in my heart so that romans 8 28 i know that in all things god is working for good too for those who he loves and those that love him i know romans 8 16 that he is bearing witness with my spirit in the midst of pain that i am a child of god though i feel forsaken i know that i am not though i feel poor i know that in him i possess all things though i feel like i'm beaten down i know that in all things i'm more than a conqueror through him who loves me though i've been cast off by every person that i know hebrews 13 5 i know that he will never leave me or forsake me i know that his purpose is for me for good his plans for me are secure his promises are eternal and i have nothing to worry about because goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life that's the fullness of the spirit okay that's what god wants to do with you and in you and through you as he wants to expand your consciousness so here is my point to be filled with the spirit is about being under their control of and absolutely alive to the realities of god in the world fullness with the spirit is a felt sense of the attributes of god listen to me the holy spirit is more than a doctrine and for some of you that really is all he is he's just a doctrine to you he is a doctrine okay i'm not against doctrine i'm i got a phd in doctrine i love doctrine i'm telling you it's more than doctrine it is a felt sense of his manifest presence i feel like d martin lloyd jones the pastor i referred to a lot he said this he said i feel like i spent half my time telling you to care about doctrine and the other half my time telling you that doctrine isn't enough doctrine is not enough it is a felt sense of god's love some that you believe in it as a doctrine is that you sense it and you feel it so that what you hear in the midst of your pain is that there is a god who is greater than your pain what an important distinction sensing god's presence and nearness is a function not just of the doctrine of the holy spirit but the real life person of the spirit who is in us thank you for joining us today on summit life with pastor author and theologian jd greer to hear this message again or to share it with a friend visit us online at jdgrier.com jd we've been listening to your teaching about the holy spirit for a few days now can you tell us why you titled this teaching series rushing wind yeah good question when the holy spirit came first to the church in acts chapter two an english translation says it came in like a mighty rushing wind right you know scholars say it means like a like a tornado it was something that was somewhat terrifying it wasn't like a calm breeze but something that communicated power in the lives of believers that was going to change the story change the the conversation that's a recurring picture of the holy spirit that you're going to see throughout the new testament we're supposed to be in such a a dependent posture on him that we couldn't imagine getting up and going throughout the day without his energy and his wisdom making spiritual truth a reality giving us christ's mind in his heart our newest resource is gonna it pairs so perfectly with our our study it's it's 20 devotionals it's also called rushing wind and it's got um scripture passage some devotional thoughts a couple of follow-up questions a short prayer guide it'll help if these truths are resonating with you from this series then this study will help layer it so that it begins to saturate your life so that that these are not just concepts you're hearing but truths that are transforming you we would love to give you a copy if you donate just go to jdguirre.com you becoming a gospel partner with us um just as our way of saying thank you we'll put this resource into your hands like jd said we'd love for you to get in touch today when you call us you'll have the option of donating to support this ministry so that we can continue to equip people with gospel centered teaching every day on your radio station when you give it the suggested level of 25 or more we'll say thanks by sending you pastor jd's newest resource it's a 20-day devotional that's all about the holy spirit it includes teaching from pastor jd reflection questions and a prayer guide for each day you can ask for your copy of this book called rushing wind understanding the holy spirit when you donate by calling 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or go online to jdguirre.com i'm molly vidovich i'm so glad to have you with us and be sure to listen thursday when we continue learning how to be filled with the spirit on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries