Name reading is from Ephesians chapter 5 verses 17 to 21. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the spirits. Speak to one another with song, hymns, and spiritual song. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God, the Father, for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is the word of the Lord. Dear village church, apparently it's the Lord's will for you to get drunk. We see in the beginning of this passage in verse 17 that Christians are all about finding what the Lord's will is. They go through their lives, examining their actions, trying to understand what the Lord Jesus Christ wants. That's what Christians do, that's what we saw, makes them so annoying to non-Christians. They're constantly about trying to find out what the Lord's will is. That they would not be foolish, afron. That they wouldn't be fooled in pertaining to practical matters as appropriate to this latter part of the letter. Don't be foolish in how you live your life, Paul is saying. Don't be afron. And it is particularly important that we look closely at our lives and look at this text, because we are prone to misunderstand what the will of the Lord is. We're prone to misunderstand what God wants. Hence Paul's exhortation here to understand what his will is. Because we're prone to slipping into thinking that the Christian life is intended to be a life of prohibitions that God is after prohibition in our life when he's really after transformation. We're prone to make a Christian life a list of abstinences. We're prone to forget that the Christian life really is, must be intended to be a life of joy. Not necessarily a life of outward prosperity as Eric was bringing out in that reading. But certainly a life of inward ecstasy. A life characterized more and more by exaltation. Now, this is not how the Christian life is understood by its detractors. So when you live the Christian life and all its fullness, folks you are a puzzle to your neighbors. But that is also why the apostle Paul, when he's trying to describe what it is to be filled with the spirit, he thinks about getting drunk. He thinks about being drunk. He starts thinking about what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and he immediately thinks about being drunk. Now, I want to bring this out because this passage here is the last section of Paul's exhortations to us as individuals in community. He goes on from here after this passage to talk about family and work life. He leaves off instruction about individual responsibility in community and social ways. And I feel like we've needed a lot of instruction in here. I've enjoyed going through this part of the letter. So I hope that we can conclude well here and I can conclude well on this penultimate passage. Paul's last shot at us at individuals in community. There's a similarity here between being drunk and filled with the spirit that we just have to explore. Do not get drunk on wine instead, be filled with the spirit. Do not be drunk with wine instead be filled with the spirit. Now, one commentator on this passage writes that in verse 18, Carnal excitement is contrasted with that holy joy of which the spirit of God is the author and which produces entirely opposite effects. Now, I cannot agree with this commentator much as I respect him. The effects cannot be entirely opposite. Else the apostle would not have thought to put them in the same sentence. Rather, some of the effects must be the same. In fact, and I will argue that this passage is written to make out that they are more similar than different. That the Holy Spirit is that with which one can be filled like wine. Fortunately, Paul explains how they're different, right here in verse 18, when he uses the word translated to lottery in the NIV. This is a key word explaining the difference between drunkness and Holy Spirit filling. And Paul's charge here to not abuse substances is particularly important for Presbyterians to hear because we know that wherever there are four Presbyterians, there's always a fifth. A point that demonstrates, I guess you can't really tell a joke successfully if you don't know what it means. In fact, that's why many of us, though, are Presbyterians because we enjoy wine. But if we get drunk with wine or high with the plants of the earth, we sin. What's the sin about? Asotia, he says, this thing called debauchery. Asotia, very interesting is word that we use for salvation comes from the same word. Our word for salvation is sotaria. It means preservation, a holding together in wholeness. This is ah, sotia, which means a squandery, a dissipation, and the adverb form of this word is used up the prodigal sun and how he lived in that foreign country and that parable. When he squandered the family inheritance, remember that. The word can also denote a behavior which shows a lack of concern or thought for the consequences of an action. Senselessly, recklessly, what one does without thinking about it. And I think that both of these different meanings can be seen, can be seen to be true about substance abuse, right? Getting drunk on earthly substance is a wasting, leading to dissipation and thoughtless actions. Isn't that true? It drains your resources, financial, personal, interpersonal. At least the thoughtlessness leads to lack of control. So what Paul seems to be saying is that being filled with the Holy Spirit is like getting drunk but it doesn't waste your life. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is like getting drunk, only it doesn't leave you out of control. It doesn't leave your mind absent. Abandonment without recklessness. Joy without thoughtlessness. Pleasure without regret. What more could you want? So let's look at what he says being filled with the Spirit is like. Be filled, he says, you know that's a command. And if he's making a command here that implies certain things, does it not? The command to be filled implies that we have a responsibility in the matter. In regards to the Holy Spirit this is the command of the New Testament. Be filled with him. We're not told to be baptized with him. We're told to be baptized with water. The Spirit baptism is something that happens to us. And as we saw in a covenant entrance day before last, a reflection of the outward water sacrament. But this is our job. This is what the New Testament says. Be filled. It implies we have a responsibility. Also implies the Holy Spirit must be Lord coming. A command to be filled with him necessitates his availability. And his presence to fill up his readiness for us to be filled. So what does it look like when we do this? How do we know that we're actually being filled with the Holy Spirit? Well Paul goes on to tell us what the Holy Spirit filling looks like in this passage. Verses 19 through 21 are actually one sentence in the Greek. The Apostle is giving us four different examples of what a Spirit filled life looks like. And what does he say? Just summarize. Speaking to one another with melody. Singing in your heart. Giving thanks for everything in your circumstances. Submitting to one another. That is, the Holy Spirit filling becomes apparent in how you communicate internally with the Lord. How you communicate with others in your community. Your attitude and resulting actions and behavior to one another. And your attitude and resulting behavior to your circumstances. Now listen, church. I don't see much about signs and wonders here as evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I would not put a past the Holy Spirit to do signs and wonders. I wouldn't have passed in to do anything that was in accordance with his character and his plan. The plan of God, whom he is. But please note that being filled with the Holy Spirit here is typified not by anything flashy, but by your communication and your attitudes to one another, to your circumstances. And honestly folks, that's flashy enough. What I see here is that what the filling looks like in these areas is drunkenness. Let me show you what I mean. I'll take these, take them in a little different order. Let me show you with each one. Sing and make music in your heart. Sing and make music in your heart. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Sounds like there's a metaphorical melody going on inside of you. Now listen, we were made to talk internally, to communicate. Guess why? People make fun of each other for talking to themselves. But mumbling to yourself is just misplaced communication. You can tell that you are made to have what they call an internal dialogue. You can tell that. But you know, there's no such thing as a dialogue unless there's someone else there to talk to, right?
So why do you think you are that way? You were made to talk to God. That's what you were made to do, only if you don't have God. You just end up mumbling to yourself. And she was filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul is saying, has a melody to the Lord going on in that internal discourse. That is being filled with the Holy Spirit is like being a drunk, you know, who can't really sing. But goes around acting as if she can. You know, feeling good was good enough for me. Good enough for me, Mabimagi. Janice Joplin, I don't know, maybe she was drunk. But a feeling good sense, a sense of well-being, whether you could sing or not, you act like you can. Speak to one another with songs, hymns, spiritual songs. Okay, what does this mean? Speak to one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Does this mean that we should only address ourselves, address each other and hymns? How are you, friend? Morning has broken. Right, so you're having a good day so far, huh? How's that apartment search going? Oh, my dear fortresses, I've got a bulwark never failed. Oh, not so good, huh? I can't find a place. Have you tried uptown? Set my feet on higher ground. And have you seen my glasses? Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Now, you know, I don't rule this out as a possible way to communicate. I'll be at a annoying way, but a possible way to communicate with one another. But, you know, knowing Paul, I don't think this is what it means. A sine qua non, a spirit filling. I think that's what he's getting at. Summit interpreters really find this text relevant to what goes on in our worship service. Could be, if you're thinking that Paul is referring to what should happen in a worship service here, even if he is talking that way, a worship service must be a reflection of what's going on generally, what's generally happening among us. But I would say in comparison with the parallels in the Colossians letter of these things, that these words bear more on our communication with one another, or that they certainly do bear on our communication with one another. What do I mean? I mean that our communication with one another should be melodic. It should be like we're singing to one another. There should be a lightness and airiness, often a joyfulness, a musicality to our words. If he Paul is mixing here, music with communication, because music, it could be considered an extra. It's an aesthetic, it's art. And Paul is trying to convey that in a spirit filled life, there's a quality to what we say to one another that goes beyond the transfer of information. The transfer is decorated. And with what is it decorated? A sense of well-being. A sense that things are okay. Because, you know, among all peoples, this people, among all peoples, things should be okay. Even in difficult situations of communication. When we're trying, when we're telling, you know, one another, things like you offended me, or I think you're doing wrong here, there should still be in our voices this underlying hope for the other person, that forgiveness is available. Words that convey a sense of well-being. You know, like a drunk person. Things are okay. You crash into a drunk's car. What does he say? Hey, you just tuddled my car. Let me buy a drink. Things are okay. Just like a drunk. Now, I'm not a good example of this. Speaking with melody. Because when I honestly look at my life, I have to tell you that I find more often than not, I do not convey a sense of well-being with my speaking. So I spent much of the week confessing my deficiency here. I'm afraid that this is an instance where I'm teaching you the Bible, but I cannot say, look at my life, look and see it here. It proves, I guess, that I'm not very filled with the Holy Spirit. And not to absolve me in any way from that, but I must say I don't hear it in the words of many people. Some I do. But this feeling seems uncommon in our midst to me. Dear village church, we're Philistines. We bludgeon each other. Let's instead be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak like drunks to one another. Let's do that. I can hear various reactions from people who know what it's like to be drunk. Don't worry. That's okay. You're equipped. God can turn evil to good in your life. Now, if you cannot speak that way with music to one another, with forgiveness for the coming, then you ought to wait around until you can. Many of us should wait a little longer before we speak what we feel we need to speak to one another. Submit to one another, he says. Now, there's a chief mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit. People submitting to one another. And this is a marvelous occurrence. You don't find it many places outside of a church, but it's a truly magnificent expression of the life of God in someone to see someone delight and to submit himself to another. It's like a drunk. The drunk is often amenable because of the sense of well-being. He does submit. Sure, I'll go along. And it draws a great distinction between those who are filled with the Holy Spirit and those who are not. And then finally, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. You know, this is this excertation should give you some discomfort, if you think about it. He's really telling you to thank God for everything. Pantata who pair panton, always for everything. You know, in everything, each time, you should come to a place of thankfulness. Now, this is nearly, remember Flashback time, is nearly an application of what he explained earlier in the letter about God's sovereignty. You cannot thank God for everything unless you believe he's in control of everything, both positive and negative. Right? And usually Christians talk about this verse when something goes wrong. But let me emphasize that this verse instructs us to give thanks for everything. You know, that includes good things as well. When something good happens, do you share it with God? Or are your communications to him just about problems? Is God in on the good stuff of your life because, you know, it's from him too? And if you spent more time considering and thanking him for the innumerable benefits of your life every day, you wouldn't have such a skewed and depressed view of how things are going, folks. In this way, being drunk is like a regression into childhood, into being really like a five-month-old. A five-month-old, five-month-old, are great. They're terrific because they're amazed by whatever happens to them. Did you notice that? They're amazed when they've woken up. They're amazed that they're in a baby swing. They're amazed that they're getting to eat. They're amazed when they're picked up. They're amazed that having been put down. They're amazed that you're looking at them. There's a truth here that these five-month-olds are bringing into our lives. It is amazing that we wake up again. And I had some fun with my son, Enoch, as he grew. I cultivated this surprising enjoyment of waking up. Whenever he woke up in the morning or from his nap, I would say, did you wake up? That's something parents do. So he got in the habit of coming to tell me after he woke up that he had woken up. There was news that he had woken up. See, merely the initiation of our waking hours is caused for thanks. And that's just a beginning. Now, yes, for things positive, it also means certainly thanking God for things negative. Sure. Now, that doesn't mean calling evil good or saying that ultimately they're the same thing as in Hinduism, or saying that nothing matters. Now, what it means is having the faith to believe that God is so powerful, that even evil, though not his initiation, becomes a tool in his hand. So, for example, if you're sick, even though that is bad, being filled with the Holy Spirit might mean thanking God for the limitations. It shows you of yourself. Or a meditation on the contrast between this life and the next. Or an appreciation of the death with the capital D that will conquer all sickness. If you cannot find an apartment, being filled with the Spirit will mean giving thanks because you can continue to believe that God has your ultimate wealth there in mind. Sure, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as the song says, evil serves only to remind me of good. In short, again, it's like being drunk all as well. I just lost my job. Right by a drink. Things are okay. And let me tell you, you're looking at the world in a way that seems wacky to those who are not drunk. That's what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, all as well. But the strange part is, when you're filled with the Spirit, you are the one who's in touch with reality. Your Harvey is real. There really is a six-foot rabbit who's befriended you. All is well. How is this so? Dear friends, how can this be? Well, do you notice how Paul brings Christ in here? The submitting is in reverence to Christ in verse 21. The giving thanks for everything is all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 20. And from last week we learned that being in the name means you're being named. Means you're under the authority of the one naming you. You're owned by him. And here Paul is saying, name your actions. So what Paul is saying is that you come to act in this drunken way. You are so filled with the Holy Spirit by being owned by Jesus Christ as Lord. You get filled by asserting your being owned. And you got owned when Jesus died for all your false escapes, all the ways in which you respond wrongly to the difficulties in your life, all your dissipation and all your waste. It's Christ's work on your behalf that inebriates the Christian. And that's why even in this discussion of the Holy Spirit Paul brings in Jesus Christ as the motivation for these behaviors out of reverence for it in the name of, this feeling is made possible by the historic work of Jesus Christ on your behalf. For all the times when you did those things, he died. He did it out of love for you so you didn't seek escape elsewhere. In all your escapes, Jesus looked upon you and loved you. While you escaped, he deliberately forewent escape from his pain, the greatest pain of all, separation from the Father on the cross. He forewent wine or any pain killer on the cross, any sense of well-being so that you could forever have the Spirit to fill you with well-being. So where does that leave you, folks? I hope that you see that this leaves you in the same place that King Lemuel was in when his mother talked to him. Let's take King Lemuel's mother's advice as was printed there in your bulletin. Let the people who don't have the Holy Spirit get drunk. Give fear to those who are perishing. Of course, their lives are miserable. Of course, it's intolerable. Let them escape their misery. But that cannot be you, friend. That cannot be you, Christian. You are not the poor. Find it in his love. It's better than red, red wine. Or as the song of Solomon puts it, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is more delightful than wine. Will you stand with me as we come to the table?