Truth 3 – Spirit-filled The Amazing Plan God Designed To Keep Us Filled

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Lesson-7 Signs of Spirit Empty Life.docx

Truth-3: Spirit-Filled

The Amazing Plan God

Designed To Keep Us Filled

Ephesians 4-5

Transcript

This morning, boy, that’s hard to read from here. Maybe it’ll be easier to read there. I don’t like the font I picked, but it doesn’t look bad up there. It looked kind of like manuscript, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, but I think it’s too old. But we’re on truth three and what we’re doing is I’m taking you through as if I was discipling you and I’m explaining the elements of discipleship. Now you say explaining? Yes. When I was on staff with John MacArthur, he used to tell us, he said people are always asking me how I preach, he said the way I define it is I believe in explanatory preaching. He said, if you cannot explain to people how to go from where they are back to Corinth in the 1st century, or to Ephesus in the 1st century, and then explain to them how to get back to today with that truth, he said, you haven’t really done your job. Explanatory preaching is not just presenting the truth but explaining why God presented that and how we’re to live that. So, we’re looking at the third truth of discipleship.

The first truth is that we have to be saved. You can’t be a disciple if you’re not saved. In fact, being a disciple, being born again, being saved, are all synonymous terms. The second thing we saw is that there must be this, and that’s why we’re reading through the Bible in the year, we must be scripture fed. In other words, our souls, if we’re born again, can only be fed by the pure milk and the meat of the Word. So, there must be, if there’s a genuine salvation event, there comes a genuine hunger. And we went through that and looked at that. Now, the third element is that we were designed by God, if we’re saved and if He has implanted within us that hunger for the Word of God, we were designed by God to operate filled with the Spirit. And anytime we’re not, we’re off the plan, we’re off the general operating procedure.

And so, what we’re looking at this morning, and if you want to open in your Bibles back to Ephesians 4 and 5, we’re looking at the amazing plan God designed to keep us filled. God designed us to operate filled, but He knows that we live in a world in a time and in a body that is very leaky, spiritually. We live in our flesh. We’re a born, again, new creation within, but we’re still encased in the old flesh that is antagonistic and downright warring against everything God wants to do. Our flesh doesn’t want to go along with the new creation we are in Christ. And so, there’s a constant struggle.

So, this morning what I’d like to look at is explaining, and discipleship is all about and people constantly labor with can I really disciple someone? I haven’t been to Bible school. All discipleship is, if you just simply want to define it. Discipleship is explaining to someone else what God has said. See, it’s not what I’ve said. It’s not what I feel. It’s what God has said.

And so last time we looked at the idea of getting full, staying full, and living full.

Now, basically what I would like to do this morning is build on that. Now we had the incredible, in fact I still have, I took two. How many of you filled out your little funny money thing last time and turned it in? Yeah, on Sunday night. That was…, I told Nathan Clifton. I said, Nathan, that was such a powerful weekend of ministry that you offered. I know he labored, but the Lord used him to just communicate. I was watching as he taught and as someone who is in the communications business I saw the way the Lord used him just gripping my heart. And so, I hope that the Missions conference doesn’t end as he said with the end of the conference, but that it will go on.

 But living life, the way God designed it to be lived is what we’re looking at this morning. I want to explain to you, first of all from Ephesians 5 and verse 18, how God designed us. He designed us to be filled with the Spirit. But He says, we’re going to move back to Ephesians 4:30 in a moment. He says, watch out if we are involved in certain things, it punctures what the Spirit of God wants to do in our life. And Ephesians 4:30 says that we can grieve the Spirit of God. And if we persist in that grieving of the Spirit of God, we actually are deflated. As we grieve the Spirit of God, the fullness begins to depart. In fact, in my personal Bible reading I got started early and I just am in 1 Samuel. And so, I just zipped through Judges. And there’s one of the saddest notes in the Bible, it’s about Samson. And it says, in the old King James, samson wist, that means he didn’t know, the Spirit had departed from him. See, Samson only accomplished what he accomplished through the Holy Spirit. And when he told Delilah about his Nazareth vow and his hair and she shaved it off, his strength left him, by the power of the Spirit. And what I think about that is what’s going on in so many believers’ lives. They can’t figure out why they can’t do the great things they used to do anymore. And it’s because they are no longer filled with the Spirit. And God designed us to only live the way described in this book we’re supposed to live when we’re filled and we keep filled with the Spirit.

Last time we looked at how to get full, that’s Ephesians 5:18. And what it says in there is, do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled. And that’s an imperative and it’s a passive imperative and it’s in the present tense and we went all through that. So, to get full, all you have to do is surrender and desire and ask the Lord to do what He promised. To stay full is what we’re looking at this morning. Last time we looked at some of the benefits which is when you live full, you have all those wonderful evidences of Christ’s personality, love and joy and peace. And we began to have His gentleness and we began to have His ability to not get irritated at the behavior of other people, which is, it’s just impossible. It’s supernatural. But we looked at that last time.

But this time, what we need to see is, God designed this plan to keep us full. And what I see is, a lot of people… In fact, I think in pictures and that’s why I have a phonographic mind. I’m narrating the pictures I see. And that’s why I love, I can go anywhere in the world that I’ve studied the archeology and I can just narrate because I see in pictures and I love doing that, and the same with the scriptures. I see it. Do you know, when I see the Spirit-filled life it reminds me of living out in Lawton. Do you know what’s in Lawton? Hills. Do you know what the hills are covered with? Bicyclists. And they’re spray painting our roads everywhere. Arrows. They’ll have three or four different groups and they’ve got all their colored arrows, and turn here and, this is the watering hole and all that stuff. And if you were riding along like on, what is that? “R”. One of the National Scenic Highway or back roads or whatever it is, with all those hills and the trees. And if you’re going like this and all of a sudden, you come up on a pack of about a hundred bikes, bicyclists, and every one of them are walking along pushing their bike like this. Wouldn’t you immediately think, what are they doing? They must have a flat tire. Maybe a comrade is in the ditch and they’re all walking, looking for them. But they’re not operating like they’re supposed to, right? If they’re just walking along pushing that bike, there’s something going on. Those bikes, 10, 20, 30, I don’t know how many speeds those things have these days.

In fact, I was riding with my sons and it, one side said three and the other said five. He said, what gear are you? And I said, 35. I don’t know how many, but it said three on one side and five on the other. And I just, I was on 35. And he said good. Leave it there, dad. Don’t do anything. You’ll fall. And a bicycle was not designed for you to walk next to it. Now it works that way. And I’ve seen people, like in China I saw someone once that had about a eight foot long bale of cotton on top of the seat. And they were using it like a hand truck. Yeah, you can do that. But that is not what a bicycle was designed for. It was designed for you to ride it. Now, if the tires get flat, I can see pushing, because you’ll just destroy your rims.

Now, I want you to think about that picture. When we look at what God designed us to be in chapter 5, because God designed us to operate best when full.

And if we follow what God says and if we are filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18, that is how we operate. And so, what is happening is many believers go through life not filled, and it’s like they’re walking through life pushing their little bike that God designed for them to sail through life. Did you know on 35 you can actually really sail along? In fact, if you go down to 25 and 15, you don’t even have to stand up. You can go up those hills. Yet, so many believers don’t operate their bike the way God designed them to be.

So, with that picture in mind, apply that to our life in Christ. Simply stated, our life in Christ is to live out what God designed us to be. Life is most of all about who we are in Christ. And that determines what we do. Who we are dictates how we behave. In fact, you put it this way, if you believe, you’ll behave. But it starts with believing the truth about who we are in Christ, what God designed us to be. That’s the essence.

Since God uses the term filled right there in verse 18, we start to think about the truth illustrated in life. Filled is a normal state of life that we are to pursue as believers. It is not only for the few. It’s not just that a few people finally get up to the state of being Spirit-filled. That’s normal. Can you imagine going down here on Stadium to one of these car lots and buying a new car, but it doesn’t run. You expect, if you buy a car, it’s fully functional and it runs. God says, normal state for believers is filled. It’s not for the few. It’s not for the rarefied. It’s not for the Super Saints. It’s for every saint. Every believer. Each of us today.

Now, spirit-filled living is so much like riding a bike. Either we get our tires filled or they’re empty. Either we keep our tires repaired or they go empty. Either we go through life riding as God designed us to do on full tires or we trudge through life pushing what God designed for us to ride, and we live with flat, tired, spiritually empty lives. Have you ever seen people pushing a car? You know it’s out of gas. Was a car designed to be pushed? Was it designed to have all of your friends huffing and puffing behind you, pushing you along through life? Yet that is a picture you can get in your mind of what living the Christian life looks like from God’s perspective when we don’t operate the way He designed us to operate.

What would you think of someone that bought a brand new car and had all their friends pushing them around town? You’d say, is this a joke? Haven’t you ever started that thing? Do you understand what discipleship is? Discipleship is finding people who are manually trying to make their Christian life work and come alongside them and say have you been to the gas station? Is this thing out of fuel? Have you lost the key? Do you know how to start it? Have you ever had driving lessons? Do you understand what I mean? That’s what discipleship is because many people are operating the Christian life, not how it was designed. And discipleship is just coming alongside of them and say, I went through this too. I used to walk my bike all the time and you just explain to them what the Lord said.

Pillar one, and I’m going to go through three pillars with you, three pillars of the Spirit-filled life. And pillar one is God designed us to only operate, you can only have the boldness sharing the Gospel, you can only have victory over the constant onslaught of the flesh and sin, or of doubt and discouragement, or whatever spiritual struggles you’re going through and I’m going through, we only operate (God designed us) when we’re full of His Spirit. That’s the first pillar that after someone is saved, and the evidence salvation, and the hunger for the Word of God, when you get into the spirit dimension with them, the first underlying truth is the normal state is that we operate full of the Spirit.

Now go back to your picture in your mind. The normal state of a bicycle that is in use is that it works. It’s used to ride places in full condition. That means the tires are full. You can jump on it at any time and just pedal off. Full tires means the bike is functional. It’s what it was designed to be. That’s what Ephesians 5:18 says. You and I were designed to be. Not under the influence of anything, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be constantly being filled with the Spirit. That is normal. Paul commands us that we are to stay how we were designed by God to be, which is full. And then he mentions, look at verse 19, the evidence. He says, this is what life is like when you’re riding along through life with full tires being filled with His Spirit. You speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, verse 19 says. You sing and you make melody in your heart to the Lord. Verse 20. You’re giving thanks always for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus. And verse 21, we have this submissive spirit. And it just, if we had time, it actually goes through every dimension of life, all the way down through chapter 6 and verse 9. Submission to one another flows into parent child relationships, husband wife, relationships, employer employee and back and forth all the way through life. But all of that flows from verse 18 being filled with the Spirit.

Number two. And this is probably the critical lesson. I think most people go along with the Spirit filled part, but what they struggle with is they don’t know, once they get off with a flat tire, they think that they’ve ruined their spiritual life, they think they’re bad, they think no one else has ever had a flat tire, they think that nobody else is walking along pushing their bike, and they’re actually, in fact, I hate to… he is not here this morning, and so I’ll tell. I took, when we first got here, we were on the a hundred homes and one of the homes was a dear couple, and they actually handed us a Kal Haven brochure of the Kal Haven Bike Riding Trail. And they said you have five sons and you’ve got four of them here. You really need to get bicycles and you can borrow ours and you need to try the Kal Haven. So, we really worked on it and we got our bicycles all up and we did it. We got on the trailhead at, I don’t know where, and we ended up, we saw water. Okay. I almost died.

But I will tell you the funniest thing happened along the trip. One of my boys is, they’re all adventurous, but one of them is very adventurous. Riding a bike for him is like being in a circus. He goes real fast and he goes off the ground and lands over here, and then he is going over logs and it’s just, come on. Just stay on the trail. I’m barely making it staying like this. And he would cut through the woods and come out ahead of us and jump over stuff. But about an hour into the trip, he was so far back. And I’d go [waving him up], I thought you’re worn out for a reason. You’ve been wasting all your time. And his face was red and you have seen him pedaling. And he’d get up in sight and I’d cruise on. And then about a half hour later, he’d be out of sight and I’d go like this [waved to come on], and he’d be red faced. When we finally got to the water, I looked at his bike, his tire was flat. All that jumping over the, he landed on something and punctured or got it off the rim. I don’t know what he did, but he didn’t, he felt so bad that this bicycle that dad got him to go on the trail and he didn’t stay on the trail, that he hoofed about 10 or 12 miles on a rim. And his face was beet red. I thought he was going to have a heart attack.

Did you know that’s what goes on at church? People are totally flat tired, but they don’t want to admit it to anybody and they’re trying their hardest to keep up with everybody else here, trying to be happy, trying to know something about the Lord, trying to serve the Lord, trying to do what they’re supposed to do, and they are totally flat. And normal spiritual life, now see this, this is what’s so important; normal spiritual life knows that we are going to be constantly in need of repairing the leaks that come in life.

Now look in Ephesians 4 in verse 30, right here is the verse, and think about this as a reminder of the leak causers. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now what is normal Christian life? Paul alludes to another way our spiritual lives can become. The first way is 5:18. We are supposed to stay full. But Paul said there’s a second level that Christians can get in. They can get into this dangerous territory of letting things come into their life that are total enemies of Spirit fullness. And these things grieve the one that fills us and causes His power in our lives to be dissipated by the little choices we make. Now stick with me, because this is probably the mystery in all the years that I’ve discipled for three decades, this is the piece where people, they know Spirit fullness is what God wants but they cannot figure out how to get out of their flat tire life. They think they’re cursed for the rest of their life, to be way behind in red faced huffing and puffing, trying to keep up with the spiritual pack. And they don’t realize that there’s this giant repair truck that follows them all the time and it can instantly, new tire, refilled, air it up, go. Have you ever watched the races? They have that little truck that’s right there to help them and handing out water bottles to them and fixing their tires on these big races. That’s the spiritual life. Only the designer of the bike, the one who gave it to us, is the one that wants to repair and refill.

Now, think how that works. Have you ever had a bike with a leaky tire? You always have to check the tire, grab the pump, get it back to full inflation. You find you need it when you jump on, it can’t hold you up. In fact, every time I go out with my boys, that happens. I go, oh you guys, hold on. The tire is soft. The bike won’t work the way it should. That is the state. We as believers find ourselves described in Ephesians 4:30, when we grieve the Holy Spirit. In fact, the word grieve in verse 30 is lypeo. In Greek it means to make sad, to make heavy, to make sorrowful, and to make distressed. Lypeo. The Holy Spirit is a person and our choices that we make, either gladden and please Him or lypeo Him, make Him sad, sorrowful, grieved, heavy.

And that process makes our Spirit-filled, lives leak. When we grieve the Spirit, we’re leaking out the pressure, the fullness of our lives. Using the bicycle analogy, think about a soft tire. There are many reasons tires lose their air pressure. They can have punctures, the wheel rim can be bent, a valve can be cut, so many possibilities. Now, I’m not a master bicyclist. On another a hundred homes, we went to a home where we’re talking about the real thing. This guy has things he puts on his feet that hook in. He doesn’t even have pedals. His feet hook right into the bike. If you fall over, you’re committed. You’re attached to that thing. And they wear those space suits, that are just so amazing. In fact, there’s one. I won’t even point at you, Dale. I know that you wear that all the time. And so, there are many ways, but I’m not a master bicyclist, but Paul in chapter 4 gives a list of actions that puncture, damage, and hinder our spiritual lives.

And so, what I call these… and now remember, this is not normal Sunday morning preaching. Actually, that’s why I warn you in the front, this is face to face. And actually say, hey. Can I give you some driving tips for your spiritual life? If your life is like riding a bicycle? Let me give you some tips.

Driving tip one. Beware of these items that leak out our Spirit fullness. And I say, mark them with me and look at, look in your Bibles. And I’ll just point them out to you. Ephesians 4:25 says, any falsehood in our life. Now listen carefully, I will illustrate audio form what falsehood does in our life. [pssssss – hissing air noise] That’s leaking air. Falsehood, verse 25 is a part of those choices we make that rob us of fullness of the Spirit.

Secondly, sinful anger. In verse 26, it says be angry and sin not. There is a righteous indignation. But being upset that someone has bothered me, has hindered me, has hurt me, has slighted me, has whatever’d me, is not righteous. You ever meet people, they’re just who’s that cartoon character that had the cloud over him? You can tell I used to read the Sunday cartoons. That’s the only thing we could do on Sunday when I was little that was fun. And we would read those cartoons and there was one guy that had the little cloud over his head. That reminds me of people that are angry. There’re just… They, their sinful anger, our sinful anger, whether we have much or little, it’s deflating the fullness, the Spirit. How about, this could be why we have a whole generation, I’m concerned about how much they’re going to be able to serve the Lord, through media, through games, through movies, through even music. In fact, it’s, what was it saying? It was in Tumblr and it was, had some cute name and I went to it. And you know what it was? It was, it had a cute name, but boy when you got there it wasn’t. It was something called World of Warcraft, and it was the faces of the creatures. If you could illustrate what the facial expression of Satan’s world would look like, there’s some artists that have done a good job, in there. And what people don’t realize is that leaves a place, don’t leave a place for the devil.

Any theft. I’m talking about tax theft or padding the expense accounts or being paid and not working. Any rotten talk, it just empties, grieving the Spirit. Any,Ephesians 4:31 says, any bitterness. Any bitter attitudes, all of these are punctures. These are damaging to our spiritual life. So, tip number one, beware of items that leak out.

Driving tip two. When punctured, pull over and get repaired. Don’t try and keep up. Don’t act like everything is just fine and you’re just going to try harder. See when, what that’s talking about is, when your bike tire gets soft because of wear or damage or punctured, do you park the bike and say it’s useless and will never work. That’s what some people do. When they are totally, because they’re any of those anger or theft or lying or whatever is in their life, they just quit. They said, I just never can be used by the Lord again. What would you think of a child that you bought them a perfect brand new 35 speed biker, however many they have and they just left it in the garage. You said, why? They said, the tire’s flat. You’d say you need a little lesson how to get it repaired. And what’s even nicer is when you have a truck following you.

The Lord Himself wants us to not be empty. He wants us to be repaired and that’s why He tells us. In fact, look in chapter 4. The repair kit is right in chapter 4. Look across in verse 20, you have not so learned Christ. Verse 21 of chapter 4 of Ephesians, if indeed you’ve heard of Him and been taught by Him as the truth is in Christ Jesus. And here’s the repair kit. Verse 22 put off concerning your former conduct. The reason that you are starting to have a little repair needed is you are going back to the old ways. Put it off. Stop that the Lord says. Put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt. Verse 23, be renewed. The Lord says, I’m following you. I want to repair you right on the spot. My goal is not for you to be red faced and so sad that you are deflated and you’re trying to keep up with the pack. Pull over and let Me fix you right now, the Lord says. If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just, to already have forgiven us, and to cleanse us to get us back. To get us, look what it says in verse 24, put on the new man.

He, actually, what the Lord does is He doesn’t patch up the old tires. He just puts on; we have a new beginning with Him. That’s what’s so neat about Christian life that we have a new beginning. If anyone is in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation. The old is passed away and the new is coming. There’s just an endless string of new beginnings in Christ. Driving tip two, when punctured pull over.

Do tires get injured when you ride on them? Yes, it’s expected. It happens quicker if we choose to ride over nails every day, if we crash the bike against the curbs, if we ride through piles of trash and sharp objects. But here’s the spiritual lesson. Spirit filled life explained by Paul as this, avoid those things that grieve the Spirit that list in 4:25-31. When the Spirit is grieved, we get less and less able to operate the way we’re designed to operate, we slowly go flat. We can’t get through life the way we’re designed. Pause and ponder that. If you’re pedaling your spiritual life and not making it, park and ask the Lord. Confess. Say, yep. Yeah, I’ve been running over all those nails of untruthfulness stuff, whatever it is, jealousy. What whatever sin grieving and quenching and ask Him to refill.

Driving tip number three, expect tire damage. You know what some people think, this is the most fascinating part when I sit with people. I say, you know what? You are going to be punctured. You’re going to have blowouts in life. And they go, I thought when I got saved, I was more than a conqueror. In Christ you are, but we don’t happen to always operate in Christ. Expect tire damage. Expect the struggles that we go through. Life is full of dangers. Life is full of punctures and sharp objects and many unseen and unexpected events. Disciple makers come to spiritual bikers and say, it’s all right; we all get leaks. You are not a bad bicyclist, you are normal. And here’s what you do to ride longer between leaks. Just because you lose your fullness it’s not time to give up and never ride. It’s time to pull over and get repaired to get reinflated and to go on. That’s the normal life of a believer. No one stays full every day, all day from start to finish. Not Paul. Not the heroes of the faith. And not any of us. Expect tire damage. Expect things that rob us of operating in the fullness of the Spirit.

Here’s driving tip number four. Use the tire repair kit. Get to know the put off, be renewed, and put on of verse 22, 23, 24. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all about saying, God, I agree with you. I know that every time I get in near whatever, I respond in the wrong way. And so, God says. If you confess to Me that you’re leaking and ask Him to check what happened and come to Him as the only one that can refill us, then He’ll get us right on immediately after fixing us. It’s normal to need to get repaired and the Lord is right there next to us. And He wants us operating the way He designed us to be in Christ more than we can ever comprehend.

And here’s the final tip. By the way, this is what spiritual maturity is. Start avoiding things that damage your tires. Right? That’s what sanctified, mature, and godly living is all about. If you always crash when you operate in the dark, stay in the light. If you cut your tires every time you are on a certain road, avoid it. Tell others how you’re always deflated and ask them to remind you not to go that way. You see how we work together. See how the Christian life has lived in community. I remind that one son because I noticed him starting to jump, we’ll go back to the Kal Haven and whoop over one of those logs he’ll go. And I’ll say, mm-hmm, do you remember when you were red faced four years ago, a mile back? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And he stays kind of on the road. That’s what the community in Christ is for. We work together. We’re all on bike tires that are equally vulnerable. We help each other stay safe on the road and repair flats. God wants us to avoid anything that punctures and destroys our ability to stay filled. Its spiritual maturity to avoid things that always damage our tires. Why?

Because, and here’s the last pillar before communion. 1 Thessalonians 5, if you want to turn there and mark it, this is a very strong word. Do you know what 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says? Do not quench the Spirit. That word speaks of a dousing and extinguishing. It’s used for a fire retardant where you just foam the whole thing and bury it, so it’s just out. The Holy Spirit is first illustrated in the New Testament Church as a flame of fire. This is foaming and suffocating that flame. And here’s the third pillar of the Spirit-filled walk. Any unrepaired leaks that we leave unmitigated, undealt with lead to a life of flat tire living. A life of being agonizing that everything that you know about Christ, the assurance, the joy, the hunger, the more than conquerors, the wisdom, the boldness, the passion, the compassion, everything, isn’t working. And there are actually believers that go for days and weeks and months in a state of quenching the Spirit.

Communion is when we say to the Lord, You designed me to operate full of Your Spirit. I know that when I get in certain realms of media, when I go to certain events, when I am around certain people, it starts leaking, my spiritual fullness. And Lord, I want to have You repair and restore and refill me. And I want You to keep me full of Your Spirit. But I know, if I sin that I don’t have to keep going through life like nothing’s wrong. I just pull over, confess, forsake, be renewed, put on the new man. Remember, no matter how far back we are, it’s only one step to get right back where we should be. And that’s confessing and forsaking. So, let’s bow right now and as we bow, I invite the elders and deacons to prepare to serve us communion. And we’re going to sing a song that’s like a reminder of who we are in Christ. And it’s before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great High Priest whose name is love; whoever lives and pleads for me. Communion is where we look up and say, Lord. I want You to restore to me the joy of my salvation. I want to be refilled. I want You to give me a fresh, new beginning. And by Your grace, I want to more and more and more deny those things in my life that make Your Spirit grieved. And I don’t want to live one day of my life quenched.

Father in Heaven, we bow before You this morning. And as we prepare to take these pictures in our hands of Your body and of Your blood, we’re reminded that You died, that we should no longer live under our own power. But You died so that we would live filled and overflowing with Your Spirit. I pray that we would renounce flat tire living. That anybody here that’s red-faced and huffing and puff and we can’t tell, they just all, we all look like we’re great this morning, but down deep in their hearts they know they’re operating in their own power. And everybody seems to be needed to push them to make it through life. Rather than a pit crew that gets them back on the road they just want to sit in their car and be pushed, I pray they repent of that. That they’d confess why they’re out of the fullness of Your Spirit to You. You already know. They just need to agree. And then ask for Your precious refilling. And immediately we’re right back on the road surrounded by other fellow travelers. And we say that apart from Him, we can’t do anything. He’s the one that fills us and energizes and You O Christ are the one that repairs us. May this be a communion where we follow Your amazing plan to stay filled with Your Spirit by being careful of anything that grieves and quenches Your Spirit. Thank you for this bread. Remind us as we sing our worship to You. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Notes

Discipleship is Explaining What God Has Said

Discipleship is all about explaining what God’s Word says about God’s desires for our lives as believers. Every generation needs those who will explain God’s Word to the next generation. Not just the facts, but also the application. As the Great Commission puts it: “teaching them to observe all things”.

I have spent an immense amount of my life explaining God’s plan as it has been recorded for us in God’s Word. That is what you have joined today, an explanation of what God says. That is why my friend, John MacArthur, once called what he does: “Explanatory Preaching”.

We are in the midst of going through the Basics of discipleship, which always has two parts: 1). Explaining what God designed us to be (this can be called our Position); and then, 2). Explaining how that translates into daily life (the can be called our Practice) .

First we looked at Truth-1: Saved, saw that disciples are born-again Christians, those terms disciples & born-again are synonymous; and we also saw that normal, First Century believers were baptized after they were saved, as a testimony of obedience to God.

Next we saw Truth-2:  Scripture Fed, with God’s Word as the food for our souls, and the map for our lives.

Then we came to Truth-3: Spirit-Filled lives, and are right now in the midst of seeing what God has said it means to live life in step with the Spirit of God.

Living Life The Way God Designed it to Be Lived

Last time we saw:

How to Get Full, Stay Full & Live Full of the Holy Spirit

Now we need to examine:

The Amazing Plan God Designed To Keep Us Filled

As we open to Ephesians 5, think with me what your answer would be if you were sitting across the table from someone in a discipleship session, and they asked you, “Are you living the way God designed you to live?” How would we answer that depends on how much we understand who we are in Christ.

Let me illustrate this profound spiritual truth from scenes we could come across in every day life.

What you would think if you can upon a huge group of bicyclists along a country road, and they were all walking their bikes? One simple thought should be: Why are they doing that? Walking bikes along a country road would not be using the bikes for what they were designed to be. Bicycles are designed to glide along as they are mounted, not to be pushed.

If those bicyclists were pushing their bikes because they all had flats tires, they just need to get their flats fixed. Looking at each bike we could see the tire repair kit attached to their bicycle, but unused. Continuing to walk and push a flat tire is not the best plan, the best plan is pull over, repair the tire, and get on the way.

That sight of pushing a bike that has a fixable flat would be a perfect illustration of what goes on so often in the Church Christ purchased. Believers were:

Designed to Operate Best When Filled

Now apply that to life in Christ. Simply stated, our life in Christ is to live out what God designed us to be. Life is most of all about who we are because of Christ, and that determines what we do.

Since God uses the term “filled”, in Ephesians 5, as we turn there, we will start to think of that truth illustrated in life.

Ephesians 5:18  (NKJV) And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

Filled is the normal state of life we are to pursue as believers. It is not for only the few, it is for all. It is not for only super-saints, rather for every saint, every believer, and each of us today.

Now, let me share how I explain this to a believer when we sit down in a Bible study. This lesson is so vital because many believers are stymied by this term, what it means, what it looks like, and so on.

Spirit-filled living is like riding a bicycle:

We either get our tires filled or they are empty; and

We either keep our tires repaired and filled or they go empty; and

We either go through life riding as God designed us to do, on full tires or we trudge through life pushing what God designed for us to ride, and live with “flat-tired, spiritually-emptied” lives.

Each of those contrasts reflects a series of choices. If our spiritual life were compared to the tires of a bicycle we ride, then the three “states” of bicycle riding would closely parallel the three pillars of our spirit-filled lives described by Paul.

Pillar-1: God Designed Us To Operate Full of His Spirit

First, the “normal” state of a bicycle that is in use, that works, that is used to ride places is “full”. That means the tires are full. You can jump on at any time and just peddle off.  “Full tires” means that the bike is functional, it is what is was designed to be as a transportation tool, the bicycle works, and the bike can be used at any moment.

That is the Ephesians 5:18, “full” condition Paul just described. Paul commands us all to stay what we were designed by God to be which is full. Then he mentions the evidences in v. 19 of the Spirit overflowing our life.

Normal believers were designed by God to be over-flowingly “filled” by God’s Spirit.

Pillar-2:  Normal Spiritual Life Involves Repairing Any Leaks

Second, Paul alludes to another way our spiritual lives can become, which is also illustrated by how our bicycles can become. Have you ever had a bike with a leaky tire? You always had to check that tire and grab the pump and get it back to full inflation? You find that need when you jump on and it can’t hold you up.

The tire is soft and the bike isn’t working the way it should. That is the state that we as believers can find ourselves in, as described in Ephesians 4:30. Now turn there with me and see the warning about the ‘leaking” spiritual life.

Ephesians 4:30 (NKJV) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption

In Ephesians 4:30 the word “grieve” is the Gk. lupeo, which means to make ‘sad, heavy, sorrowful, distressed’. That is what makes our Spirit-filled lives leak, when we grieve the Spirit.

Using our bicycle analogy, think about a soft tire. There are many reasons for tires to lose air pressure: it can have a puncture, a bent wheel rim, a valve cut, and so many other possibilities.

Since I am not a master-bicyclist, just roll that thought over to Ephesians 4:25-31. Paul gives a list of the types of actions that puncture, damage, and hinder spiritual lives staying full or useful for God.

Driving Tip One: Beware of These Items That Leak Out Our Spirit-Fullness

Look at this amazing list of items that can injure us each day. I think of them as all sorts and sizes of road hazards, like potholes, nails, sharp objects.

With that picture in your mind, look with me at all the ways Paul says believers get deflated, un-filled, and unusable in their spiritual walk. Each of these dangers litter the road of life, we all drive over, around, and can get injured by these on a regular basis, because they grieve the Holy Spirit:

Ephesians 4:25 any falsehood

Ephesians 4:26 sinful anger

Ephesians 4:27 occultic exposure

Ephesians 4:28 any theft

Ephesians 4:29 rotten talk

Ephesians 4:31 bitter attitudes

Driving Tip Two: When Punctured Pull Over & Get Repaired

Now the question is, “When your bike tire gets soft because of wear, damage, or puncture, do you park the bike, and say it is useless, it will never work?” Or do you check the damage, repair, or replace, and re-inflate the bike’s tire so you can keep on riding?

Do tires wear out? Yes.

Do they get injured? Yes. It is expected. It happens quicker if we choose to ride over nails each day, and crash the bike against curbs, and rise through piles of trash, sharp objects, and so on, right?

Now here is the spiritual lesson of the Spirit-filled life explained by Paul: avoid those things that “grieve” the Spirit. When the Spirit is grieved we get less and less able to operate the way we were designed to operate. We slowly go flat, and we can’t go through life the way we were designed by God to go.

Pause now and ponder the lessons:

Driving Tip Three: Expect Tire Damage

Life is full of dangers, punctures, sharp objects, many unseen, and unexpected. Disciple-makers come to spiritual bikers and say, that’s all right, we all get leaks. You are not a bad bicyclist, you are normal, and here is what to do to ride longer between leaks.

Just because we lose our fullness is it time to give up and never ride? No. We pull over, get repaired, re-inflated, and go on. That is normal life as a believer. No one stays “full” every day, all day, from start to finish. Not Paul, not the heroes of the faith, and not any of us.

It is normal to expect tire damage.

Driving Tip Four: Use the Tire Repair Kit

That is what the “be renewed” of 4:25-27 is all about. The put off, be renewed, and put on is the constant cycle of spiritual living. God made us to keep getting re-filled because we only operate as He designed us when we are full. But a mechanism for repairing leaks has also been sent by God, and He is also always there. It involves confessing to God that I am leaking, asking Him to help us check what happened, and coming to Him as the only one that can refill us. Then going right on immediately after getting fixed.

It is normal to need and get repair.

Driving Tip Five: Start Avoid Anything That Damages Your Tires

That is what the sanctified, mature, and godly walk is all about.

If you always crash when operating in the dark: stay in the light.

If you cut your tires each time you are on a certain road: start avoiding it.

Tell others how you always get deflated there and ask them to remind you not to go that way.

See how we all work together? We all are on bike tires that are equally vulnerable. We help each other stay on safe road, and repair flats. God wants us to avoid anything that punctures and destroys our ability to stay filled.

It is spiritual maturity to avoid things that always damage your tires. Why? Because:

Pillar-3: Un-Repaired Leaks Lead to Flat-Tire Living

Turn over with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:19. In this verse we see the most miserable condition a believer can operate in: a time of the Spirit of God being quench. Note how simply Paul says it:

1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NKJV) Do not quench the Spirit.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:19 the word “quench” is the Gk. sbennumi which means ‘extinguish, stifle, retard, choke’.

Go back with me to the image of someone trudging along, pushing a bike with a flat tire? Or think of one of those cars abandoned by the road after a tire blows? Both are constant reminders of a spiritual condition we also can face.

Bikes pushed long distances: are not living up to what they were designed to be.

Cars left by the road because their tires won’t hold them up for travel: are not living up to what they were designed to be.

Believers who are empty spiritually, not overflowing with the Spirit’s fruit & power: are not living up to what they were designed to be.

This morning, no matter how far we have trudged along through life instead of riding filled with the Spirit, it is only one step back.

The words of an old hymn from 1922, written by Helen Lemmel says it all. That once step back, of putting off, being renewed and putting on is captured in her poem:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.