The Spirit and Filling (2)

We're talking about the filling of the spirit and so because we're comparing and contrasting two different kinds of the filling of the spirit, we need to a little bit of review from last week to kind of get the flow of thought as to where we pick up tonight. We began by describing last week the meaning of the spirit's filling. We saw that it was not the same as the indwelling of the spirit. It's not the same as baptism in the spirit, but we saw that it has to do more with his action in taking control of the believer's life. When the Holy Spirit is in control of your thoughts, in control of your words, in control of your attitudes, in control of your actions, in control of your conduct, your labor, all that. When he's in control of that, then that is the filling of the spirit. That's the filling that we're talking about. We talked about the command regarding the spirit's filling and Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, where Paul definitely commands us, do not be drunk with wine, we're in his excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. So it's a command. It's something the believer is to obey. It's something we should experience on an ongoing basis. We saw that that verse includes both a contrast and a comparison. The contrast with being drunk with wine, of course the contrast is if you're drunk, you're out of control, but we have contrast. The spirit filling spirit control leads to self-control. And then the comparison is that when one is drunk, they are under the control of an outside influence that causes them to act in an unnatural way. And that is very similar to what the Holy Spirit does. When we're filled with spirit, we're under his control, under the control of not an outside influence, but a person who has come from outside to live in us, in dwell us, and he produces unnatural behavior, not erratic, remember, but behavior that is not normal for us, not natural to us as sinners, but behavior that is more in line with the holiness of God and what Christ would have us to be. So we talked about that last week and then we began, we kind of backed up a little bit and said, okay, let's take another run of this and we're going to go a little deeper this time. That's kind of the general overview introduction to the filling of the spirit, but when you back up a little bit, you realize the Bible talks about two different kinds of spirit filling. And we began looking at the first one. The two different kinds are that special sovereign filling of the spirit as opposed to the normal, progressive filling of the spirit. The special sovereign filling of the spirit is what we were looking at last week and we saw that we defined it this way. This is what it is. It's a sovereign work of God where a believer is instantaneously empowered for a special task until that task is completed and we kind of filled out that definition, described what all that means. It's a sovereign work of God. He chooses when he will grant this power of the spirit. We can pray for it and ask for it and God may respond to grant this, but it's not something that we can assume is automatically going to happen and we certainly can't presume on that and it's not something we're commanded to do. This is just something God does and grants power to do a special task. We saw that it was instantaneous. It is a sudden infusion of spiritual power and enablement. We saw that it was an empowerment for a special task, something that God wants us to do and it only lasts until that task is completed and then that infusion of power is no longer needed. So that's different from a normal, progressive control of the spirit over my conduct and attitudes and words and so forth. This is a fresh infusion of power for a particular task. We began looking at some of the examples of that last week and we saw a possible one in Bezelel, the builder of the Tabernacle. We looked at the 70 elders in numbers. We looked at Gideon and Samson in the book of Judges, Judges chapter 6 and Judges 14. Now that's where we left off last week. So let's pick up tonight with the book of Micah. Micah chapter 3 and verse 8. Daniel Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Micah. There it is. Micah. It's right there in the middle of the minor prophets. Micah chapter 3 and verse 8. Micah says this about himself and his ministry. He recognized this is what was going on with him. Micah 3 it says, but best for me, I am filled with power with the spirit of the Lord and with justice and might. Here's the purpose of that into the verse to declare to Jacob his transgression to Israel his sin. So this is a special infusion of power to be able to do a task and that is to declare God's message as a prophet to the nation of Israel. Now most of the ones we're going to see from here on out, especially the ones in the New Testament, typically have to do with an infusion of power to be able to proclaim the message, to be able to preach or announce the message of God. That's certainly true here with Micah. I says I'm filled with power with the spirit of the Lord with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression. Okay, let's look at some New Testament examples then and the first one is really quite unusual. Luke chapter 1 and verse 15 John the Baptist. Now it's not unusual that John the Baptist would be filled with the spirit, but the timing sure is John chapter or Luke chapter 1 verse 15. This is the angels announcement to his father, Zachariah in the temple about his birth and in verse 15 says for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other from it a drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. Whoa, he will be filled with the spirit while he's still in the womb. What is the purpose of that? What does that power, that infusion of power for a special task? What is the special task he's going to do in the womb? Well, I think it might have something to do with what happens then in verse 41. Verse 41 really talks about the filling of the spirit for his mother Elizabeth, but there's a little notation about John as well. Then in verse 41 this is when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, verse 41, when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby leaped in her womb. It could be that that special infusion of power is the ability to recognize the Messiah, the ability to recognize that Mary is carrying the Son of God. That's certainly a miraculous thing. The baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now notice the result of that in verse 42. In a loud voice she exclaimed, blessed are you among women and blessed as the child you will bear and she goes on to say some other things about God's blessing upon her. This is kind of an infusion of power to give this prophecy before Mary even says anything to her about why she's there. Elizabeth is given this special ability by the Holy Spirit's power to know that she is expecting the Messiah and how blessed that is. So that's quite remarkable really on the part of both Elizabeth and John the Baptist. Let's finish out the family in verse 67, verse 67, her husband and John's father Zachariah. His father Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied and then his prophecy goes on through verse 79. He proclaims a message about why John the Baptist is going to be born and what he will do, what his ministry is going to be like. So this is a special infusion power to be able to proclaim this prophecy that God gives him. So obviously all three of these fascinating but endowment with power to do a special task. Before we move into the book of Acts, let me just pause, see if you have any comments or questions to this point. Okay. Alright, let's look at some well-known examples in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2 and verse 4 passage. We've spent a good bit of time on already in our study on the Holy Spirit. They have been a cost, the disciples, the apostles in the upper room, praying, waiting for the gift of the father, which Jesus has promised them in chapter 1 would come. Verse 4, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now we've spent a lot of time talking about the speaking in tongues. We haven't spent as much time connecting it to the filling of the Spirit, but you can see how that fits with what we're talking about here. This special sovereign filling of the Spirit was an infusion of power to do a specific task, in this case a miraculous task to speak in languages they'd never studied, but it comes as a result of this instantaneous sudden infusion of power from the Holy Spirit. So it's quite clearly the kind of filling of the Spirit that we're talking about. By the way, I'm not just pulling this out of thin air. There's actually a particular word that's used for this filling that's different from the normal progressive filling that we'll look at later. This is a Greek word, Pimplei-me, the other one is Play-R-O, two different words entirely. And so the writers of Scripture delineate their two different kinds by using two different words. So that helps us to understand that when Pimplei-me is used that verb, then it's clearly this special sovereign filling when the other word is used and you'll see the differences in the two quite clearly. But here it's the instantaneous power to do something miraculous, and that is speaking languages they'd never studied. All right, chapter four, verse eight, this is Peter in the temple. This is after they have been a cause when they go back into the temple. Remember, they heal the man at the gate of the temple in chapter three. They're arrested. And verse eight says in response to the high priest's question in verse seven, by what power or name did you do this? Verse eight says, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people. If we're being called to account today for an act of kindness, shown to a man, goes on to describe the name or proclaim the name of Christ. In verse 11, indicate that salvation is found in no other in verse 12, verse 13, when they saw the courage of John, Peter and John realized they were unschooled ordinary men. They were astonished. Well, why? Why do they have this kind of courage? Well, it says they recognize they've been with Jesus. I mean, what that basically is saying, I know we get a lot of devotional preaching out of that that you can tell they'd walked with Jesus. Basically, these men, these rulers were just saying basically, we know who these guys are. These were disciples of Jesus. They walked with him. The reason for the boldness of Peter to proclaim the message of Christ was the filling of the spirit. That's quite clear from verse eight. Peter is filled with the spirit and he responds. So this special sovereign filling of the spirit is for an infusion of power to speak boldly the message of Christ disregarding what it may cost him, but we have persecution. That kind of spiritual boldness is this kind of filling that we're talking about. Now, remember the story that when when they are threatened not to teach in the name of Jesus anymore, they go back to where the rest of the disciples are gathered and they tell them what's happened. Verse 23 on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people reported all that had been said and then they began to pray. They began to pray that God would give them boldness to still proclaim the name of Christ. Now look at verse 31, Acts 431, the next verse, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and what's the result of it and spoke the word of God boldly. So here again, this is an infusion of power to give them boldness to speak the word of God. And so regardless of threats against them, they're going to be bold. Why? Because the Holy Spirit's giving them a special sense of power. So the apostles are in mind here. Okay, a couple more and these have to do with with the apostle Paul. In chapter 9, same type of thing, there's boldness given for a particular task, power given for a particular task. In chapter 9, Saul goes to Damascus to arrest more Christians and Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus. You remember the story and he gets saved very dramatically and is blinded by that episode of seeing that light and goes into the city of Damascus. He's told to wait for Ananias to come. Look at verse 17, then Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul. He said, brother Saul, the Lord, Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes. He could see again. He got up and was baptized. And after taking some food, he regained his strength, spent several days with the disciples, notice verse 20. At once, he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who are hurting were astonished. They couldn't believe. This is the guy that came to arrest Christians. And now he's preaching the name of Christ and look at the end of verse 22, or the verse 22, Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus. So the prophecy of Ananias is you're going to be filled with Holy Spirit. What's the direct result of that? Preaching Christ and preaching it with great power and growing power as he proclaims Christ in the synagogue. So you see that happening quite clearly. And again in chapter 13 verse 9, same thing with Paul on the first missionary journey. They come to verse 6, pay for us, the Medi-Jewish sorcerer, false prophet. He sent for Barnabas and Paul, the pro-concil did and elements the sorcerer, opposed them, tried to turn the pro-concil from the faith. Then look at verse 9, then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elemus and said, you are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right. You're full of all kinds of deceit and trickery where you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord. Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You're going to be blind for a time and not even see the light of the sun. Wow. Paul is infused with power of the Holy Spirit to boldly and very personally declare God's judgment on this false prophet and to have the revelation from God to know exactly what was going to happen to him. So this is a special sovereign filling of the Spirit. This came on on Paul to give him power to do this task and that task and then he went on about his business later on. Okay, we've looked at a lot of different examples. I think you can see with all of these quite clearly this is not an ongoing growing progressive control of someone's character and making them more like Christ. This is obviously a special infusion of power to do something right there and to carry out a particular task. In most cases it is to proclaim a special enablement to proclaim boldly the Word of God. And so I'm convinced that that still happens today because it goes right on up into the church age in the book of Acts. So I'm convinced that that still happens today that God still does that. Okay, comments or questions about this special sovereign filling of the Spirit. John. Okay, John is saying these are examples back from Bible times currently. Do we have any examples we can claim? Yes. Now, let me say it this way. Yes and no. No in the sense that we don't have miraculous sign gifts anymore. So the Holy Spirit is not going to give power to speak in tongues or to utter a revelation from God that is a direct prophecy of what's going to happen. That doesn't happen anymore because all of those miraculous sign gifts were designed for the age of the apostles. But you'll find that a lot of this was just the boldness to proclaim the message. And in several of these cases there was no miraculous stuff going on like with Peter in chapter four. He just boldly speaks the message of Christ. And then all the apostles had the boldness to proclaim the Word. That definitely still happens today. Any preacher can tell you they have they have known when that happens. It doesn't happen all the time. I wish it did. But remember this is again a special sovereign work of God. He chooses when it will happen. But I think on a Sunday night I think I read to you an introduction that Kent Hughes gives to all of it in all of his commentaries a word to those who preach the Word. And he talks about times when you are proclaiming the message and you just sense that the Holy Spirit is just taking control. And it's almost like an out of body experience. It's almost like you're watching what's happening. And the way he describes it is there's an unusual quiet that falls over the over the audience. And I love the way he says it. My words he says, say all like arrows. And you can just tell they are piercing hearts. And that's not due to the speaker. That's not due to any eloquence or special ability to speak. That's the Holy Spirit. And every preacher who's ever preached the Bible faithfully has had experiences where that's happened. There is no question in my mind. That's the same thing. Same thing we're talking about here. Some of the current day false prophets could also use it to their glory as well. You can. You can. False prophets. It is very dangerous. False prophets can masquerade and look like they're doing the same thing. You remember back when Moses, I've just been reading an Exodus myself lately. Moses cast down the rod, turns into a snake. Well the magicians of Pharaoh did the same thing. Is that the special filling of the Spirit? No, it's demonic power. Okay demons have power too. And they can mimic what God does. And so that's where it gets really confusing. And the only way to sort those out is the test of this book. That's why John would say in first John 4, test the spirits to see whether they are of God. Because there are a lot of false spirits that can do a lot of powerful things. And the question is, are they true to the word of God? That's how you determine whether it's true or false. So you're exactly right. It can be very deceptive. Well. Yes. He was he was he was speaking to to Israel. I think specifically to to Judah and it would have been similar. I don't remember exactly from Mike. I have to go back and read it. It would have been similar to the kinds of things all the prophets were saying about Israel and Judah. And that is pardon me. Turning from God in justice. In fact in Micah 6. I do remember this. It is very clear in Micah 6. What a man has got to require of you. Micah 6 verse 8. But that you do justly. You all come with your God and practice mercy. So they were not being just which in Israel society meant they were down they were hurting poor people. The widows and orphans. They were not providing for them and so forth. Which was very important in the mosaic law. So it was social sins. It was religious sins. Idolatry. Turning away from the Lord. All of those kinds of things. Yeah. Yeah. If you read if you read the book of Micah you'll know that. See a lot of things. He was preaching against. But he's he's basically saying I'm I was given the power to preach against their sin. Kind of using that as a generic collective word for all of their sins. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anything else? Any other question? Come in. Okay. Now let's let's get to the filling of the spirit that we're more familiar with. The one that we actually started describing when we got into the filling of the spirit. And that is the normal progressive filling of the spirit. Let me give a definition. And I think as we define it and describe it you'll begin to see more clearly the the differences the contrasts between the two. This normal progressive filling. I'm going to define this way. It's the normal work of God in which believers are strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Okay. The normal work of God. This is not a special sudden infusion of power. This is the normal work of God in which believers are strengthened by the spirit to be growing more and more. Normal work of God in which believers are strengthened by the spirit to be growing more and more in maturity that is characterized by the fruit of the spirit. So the the believers as a result of this kind of filling of the spirit are growing more and more into a maturity, a spiritual maturity that is reflected or characterized by the fruit of the spirit. So this is this has to do with your character. This has to do with the way you you live and act and think and speak and how your character is being developed. This is also a work of the Holy Spirit. This is not something I get because I'm trying harder. Obviously, you have a responsibility to be diligent and obedient and all those things. That's clear in scripture too. But this is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a more normal, continual, progressive, growing kind of work of the spirit whereby he gives us the strength to be growing more and more into a maturity that's characterized by the fruit of the spirit. You can see just a point of definition. That's very different from this sudden special infusion of power for a particular task. Very different. So let's do a description and just like we did with the special sovereign filling, just pull out a few of the key words of that definition. The normal work of God. Let me highlight that word normal for a moment. Normal by that I mean this is for all believers and it is an ongoing thing. This is not God choosing a Samson, a Gideon, a Paul and suddenly infusing them with power to do a particular task. This is normal. This is normal for every believer. Should be normal. It's not always normal in our experience, but it should be the norm for every believer. So it's normal work of God in which believers are strengthened by the spirit. I use that word strengthened intentionally to contrast with this sudden infusion of power. This is not a sudden infusion of power. That's the special sovereign filling. This is a strengthening, an inward strengthening of the Holy Spirit, an ongoing evidence of his power and control in your life. This is very different. Normal work of God in which believers are strengthened by the spirit to be growing more and more. This is a continuous development. As we are yielded to the Lord and we are obedient to him, this is an ongoing process. That's why Paul in giving that command in Ephesians 5.18 says, remember it was present tense, be continuously being filled. That really describes that ongoing growing in maturity by the strength of the spirit. Anytime he is in control of what I'm thinking and doing, that's the filling of the spirit in this sense. So that can be a growing and continual thing for a believer. It shouldn't be our experience. Okay, growing more and more toward a maturity that is characterized by the fruit of the spirit, this is a consistent display of Christ-likeness. Fruit of the Spirit is Godly character. So the result of this normal progressive filling is Christ-likeness, growth in maturity and Godly character. Whereas the result of the other one was a special infusion of power to do a particular task. You see how different they are? Very different. There are clearly two different kinds of filling of the spirit in the Bible. We are going to look at some examples which I think will even sharpen our focus a little bit more and clarify the picture a little bit more. But before we jump into those, comments about what we're talking about. Here are questions about what we're talking about. Okay. Yes, Gene? Yes, a good question. Does the Holy Spirit make any contact or effort toward a non-believer? He does, but not in this sense, not in the sense of filling or control, the contact with a non-believer would be conviction. To convict them of their sin, righteousness and judgment that they need a savior. That would be the work of the Holy Spirit toward an unbeliever. Now, in a more general, big picture sense, God in His sovereignty can control the life direction and how even He will arrange things to use unbelievers. Like in Isaiah 45, verse 1, Isaiah calls King Cyrus, a Persian king. God calls him my anointed. And he's an unsaved pagan king, but God had arranged the historical circumstances to place a man like Cyrus on the throne at just the right time who had a policy in Persia to let people, captive peoples, go back to their own lands and worship their own gods. And it was just at the right time when the 70 years of captivity was up and Israel goes back to her homeland. Well, that's why he was God's anointed. He was an unsaved pagan king, but God was sovereignly directing the flow of history to place him on the throne at the right time. So in that bigger picture sense, God does control, we might say, even the steps of an unbeliever, but in the sense we're talking about the filling, growing more toward to be more like Christ, now that would not happen with an unbeliever. It would be more the conviction of the spirit to get them to Christ first. Okay, great questions. Any others? Okay, ready for the examples? Let's look at Acts, chapter 6 and verse 3. And remember what we're looking at here is being strengthened by the spirit to display a growing and mature, godly, Christ-like character. Well, this is a description of the first deacons. If you want to call them that, they're not called deacons here, but they seem to be kind of the initial phase of deacons in the New Testament. This is the men who are chosen to take care of the feeding of the widows in the early church. Verse 3, brothers and sisters, the apostles speaking, brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. Now, a couple of things here that helps us understand what we're talking about here is this normal, progressive filling of the spirit, control over a person's conduct and thinking and so forth, which results in Christ-like, godly character. A couple of things that clue us into that. One is the use of the word play-ra-o, which I mentioned earlier. This is not simply me, the sudden infusion of power. This is play-ra-o, full of to be characterized by. And the other thing that helps us understand, that's what it means, is he includes wisdom. To be full of wisdom means that you are characterized by wisdom. That you're known for that. And we even use that expression today. We say, well, this person just full of joy or they're full of baloney, or whatever. We're saying, that's just kind of the way they are. That characterizes them. So when you say someone's full of wisdom, you're saying, that's their character. That's the way they are. They live. So when you say they're full of the spirit, you're not talking about a sudden infusion of power for a particular task. You're talking about they are characterized by the spirit. In other words, they live under his control. So it's pretty clear that's different than what we've been talking about so far. These are men that you're supposed to be looking for in the church who have godly character. They're full of the spirit and full of wisdom. In two verses down, you've got one of them singled out. Stephen, this proposal, please, the whole group, they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. So here you find again another attribute coupled with the Holy Spirit, which helps us to understand what's being talked about here. Stephen was known as a man who was full of faith, which means this is the way he lived. His whole outlook, mindset, response to life was controlled by faith. And in the same sense, his outlook, his response to life, his character was controlled by the Holy Spirit. So he's a godly man in that sense. Okay, another example, Acts 11, 24. This is Barnabas again describing his character. Acts 11, 24, he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. So this filling of the spirit is obviously again that which characterizes your lifestyle. It's a spiritual maturity, godly character, Christ likeness. He's described this way. He's described as being a good man and a man of faith and a man who's full of the spirit. Okay, next example, Acts 13, verse 52. This is just a whole group of disciples who were one to the Lord in Antioch, Positia, under the ministry of Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Okay, they're filled with joy. In other words, that characterized them. You can see it in their lifestyle, the way they spoke and reacted. And so the filled with joy also filled with the spirit. They are under the control of the Holy Spirit. So that ties in beautifully with Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, the command that we are given to be filled with the spirit. Remember that Ephesians 5, 18 that we saw in the beginning of this particular part of the study, do not get drunk on wine which leads to the bottery instead. Be filled with the spirit. Now, you can't be commanded to be filled with the spirit in the sense of a special sovereign filling. That's not a command we obey. That's something God chooses to do in his own way in time and pleasure. And it's a sudden infusion of power for particular tasks. But if I'm commanded to do something, that means I can respond in obedience and see this become a part of my life. And this obviously then is talking about this control of the spirit that leads to Christ-likeness, spiritual maturity, godly character, the fruit of the spirit in Galatians. One other passage, and that is Philippians 1, which is, doesn't talk about the filling of the spirit, but that's why I have in Princess here. It's a parallel concept. It's the same kind of wording. Paul is expressing his prayer beginning in verse 9 for the Philippians that your love may have bound more and more knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, verse 11, filled with the fruit of righteousness. It's not filled with the spirit, but it's the same word pattern and same concept. It's obviously that he's praying for godly character for them, pure, blameless, growing in knowledge and depth of insight, and he wants them to be filled with controlled by, characterized by the fruit, which is righteousness, the fruit of righteousness. So it's the same kind of wording, which serves as a good parallel and helps us to understand when you say full of righteousness, you're talking about being characterized, but that is lifestyle. So when you're full of the spirit, or you're filled in the spirit in the Ephesians 5, 18 cents, that means to be characterized by the spirit, to show a growing maturity that is leading you toward Christ-likeness and the fruit of the spirit, godly character. That's very different from a special sovereign infusion of power for a particular task. Okay, any questions or comments about this filling of the spirit, how it differs from the one we looked at first. Okay, so when Paul, to summarize, when Paul says, be filled with the spirit, he's not saying, okay, get the willies and just start boldly proclaiming, you know, he's not talking about some infusion of power. That's a different kind of filling. When he says, be filled with the spirit, he's saying, okay, get your heart right with God, make sure you're walking obedience with him, confess and don't put new roadblocks in the way of the Holy Spirit and let him control your thoughts and heart and mind and response so that you're growing more and more in maturity to be Christ-liked. That is the control of the spirit and that's what we're commanded to do. Now, we'll look next time at what it means to be filled, what it looks like, the consequences, how can you tell when you're filled with the spirit, Paul gives us specific things that will be true in your life if you're filled with the spirit. You can actually tell whether or not you're walking in that filling of the spirit and then we'll look at some of the things that must be true in our lives in order for that to happen. Okay, we'll do that next time. Yes, John? We do have time. In fact, I was ending a little bit early and I was going to check myself to see if I had a temperature or something. These people who talk about in the Bible that say so and so was filled with Holy Spirit, that person's actions in their life is already determined because God has directed it, they have been filled with the Holy Spirit and that they are going to do the right and obedient things is that the visit that it absolutely says this person will still be the Holy Spirit. They're going to go out and act amongst the community in all God-liked sessions. Depends on which filling you're talking about. If you're talking about that special sovereign filling like forgetian or samson, no. It had nothing to do with their character. It had everything to do with God saying I'm going to use you to accomplish my purpose right now. Samson lived a wicked life for a lot of what I was doing. I believe he was the kind of man that he loved the Lord. He wanted to serve the Lord, but he had some sinful passions that he never learned to control and he lived out those passions sexually in ways that were impure. But there were times when God said, I need a man who will, I can use to defeat the Philistines and this sudden infusion of power came on him, but it did not have anything to do with his character because that's a different kind of filling. Now in the New Testament where it says he was full of the Spirit, then that means yeah, his character is godly in Christ-like. So the special sovereign one is where God just sovereignly decides I'm going to use this person to accomplish a task. Yeah, and I don't think we should see get in and samson and some of these other people in the Old Testament saw is another example King Saul. I don't think we should see them as pagans. They were men who believed in God and did follow him to some extent. They just had serious weaknesses that they never really dealt with in over game. Yeah. And for all the rest of his life as you read about Paul and the Bible, straight up all the time. Does the ever Paul first? Yeah, he had to because nobody becomes sinless. I mean nobody becomes sinless. We just don't read about Paul's failings after that. Although one of the last letters he writes, he calls himself the chief of sinners and I think he recognized on a deeper level some of the sins that maybe in his own heart, and I think we all do that. The closer we grow to Christ, the deeper levels of sin we get uncovered and it kind of peels off like layers of an onion. I think we all recognize that. Great, great questions, but you may be go over time. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity you've given us to study your word and to try to understand better what you've given to us in your word. And most of all, the person you've given to us in your spirit, thank you Father that he is there to grow us progressively more to be like Christ and to display Godly character. And we pray that we will be filled with the spirit. And Lord, we also recognize there will be times when we will need a special infusion of power to witness to that neighbor and have boldness to overcome our fears or to do the right thing at work when we're afraid to do it. And we know that you're always there to give us that special enablement in those occasions where you want to. And we thank you for that as well. And we pray that that whenever we see that happening, we'll not pat ourselves on the back and think how great we were and how we rose to the occasion, but we'll be careful to humble ourselves and give you the praise for amazing holy God choosing to use us like you do. Thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.