Turning on the Power

I remember a number of years ago, in fact the weather the past couple of weeks has reminded me of a lot of ice storms we used to have in North Carolina. Ten years that we lived there, we rarely ever got a major snow. I can probably count on one hand the number of major snows we got, but we got a lot of ice storms. And we lived in a part of North Carolina, the Piedmont region that had a lot of tall pine trees and whenever you get an ice storm you could just count on the power going out because pine trees would crack down the power lines. One time when Amy, our oldest daughter was just a year old, we had a really bad ice storm. And the power was out for at least 24 hours, maybe a couple of days. And we were thankful, Gene and I were, that we had a home that had a fireplace in it. And so we always kept the fire going in the winter and we cranked it up real good and hot. Our youth pastor and his wife Tim and Pam Darling did not have a way to cook food. So we had them come up to our place and we took chicken breasts and potatoes and wrapped them up in aluminum foil and stuck them in the coals of the fireplace and cooked dinner. Had a wonderful dinner. We had all those old popcorn poppers, you know, that antique deals that was just sitting on the hearth for decoration. And we thought we were going to see if that thing really works. And so we pulled it off, stuck a popcorn in it, stuck it over the fire, it's great. We loved it. Best popcorn we ever had. And we pulled the crib in, you know, and Amy slept in that room that night. We slept on the floor, we stayed warm. It was great. It was a real adventure. But I would hate to live that way for very long. It was fun, but I'd hate to live that way for very long. You know, there are lots of Christians who live that way all the time in the spiritual realm. Without the adequate power that is available to them or to us because of our great salvation. God has promised us a power source to enable us to live like He wants us to live, to live out our great salvation. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. And many Christians opt for scratching and scraping by however they can using their own resources rather than taking advantage of the power that is offered to us through the Holy Spirit. That's exactly what Paul is going to talk about today in the passage we're going to look at in Ephesians chapter 5. I invite your attention to the fifth chapter of Ephesians where Paul talks about the power of the Holy Spirit. Now in introducing this, and by the way, Paul has been talking about how to live out our great salvation. We've already seen that he says we must live in unity, we must live in holiness, we must live in love, we must live in light, we must live in wisdom. Today we're going to see he says we must live in power. Now in introducing this power of the Holy Spirit that he talks about in these verses, he begins with a contrast to spiritual power. You'll notice it there in verse 18, this contrast to spiritual power where he says, do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the Spirit. Now this contrast of drunkenness almost sounds like a comparison, putting the two together being drunk on wine and being filled with the Spirit almost sounds like a comparison. And there is a likeness to the two, there is somewhat of a comparison between the two, in that both of them have to do with being under the influence of something from the outside, something that comes into us, from the outside and influences us or controls us. But that's where the comparison stops. The rest of it is really contrast, what Paul really intends here is a contrast, the contrast of drunkenness with Holy Spirit filling or Spirit power. Because you see alcohol leads to lack of control. The Holy Spirit leads to self-control, one of the marks of, one of the parts of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control. Alcohol is ultimately a depressant, the Spirit of God is a stimulant to joy in the Lord. Alcohol is ultimately, will cause you to call attention to yourself. The Holy Spirit will cause you to call attention to Jesus Christ. Alcohol will make you make a fool of yourself. The Holy Spirit will make you glorify Jesus Christ and exalt Him. There is a great contrast between the two, and what could be said of alcohol in this passage, being drunk with wine could also be said of drugs. This is a warning to us, a command to us, do not become influenced by alcohol or drugs. Now what Paul is telling us here is not only a warning, but he's telling us that there is disaster ahead if you follow the path of in biblia alcohol or taking drugs. So look if you will at the disaster of alcohol. It's found in one word in verse 18. You're not drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Now debauchery is probably not a word you use every day. The word literally means wasteful, wasteful. The idea is if you come under the influence or the control of alcohol and drugs, that leads to a wasteful life, an empty life, a life with no direction, no purpose, one that ends up being wasted. It is a wasteful life. You see alcohol and drugs may be a temporary escape. It may give you a temporary high, but it only leads to worse problems in the long run. Alcohol and drugs may give you what you think to be a remedy to your problems and escape from your problems, but it is never a remedy for your problems. It is only, it will only lead to more problems in your life. It will cloud your mind. Alcohol will disrupt the normal function of your body. Alcohol will corrupt you, degrade you, and ultimately it will kill you. You know, studies have shown us that in the United States of America, 40% of all traffic accidents, all traffic fatalities are the result of alcohol-related accidents. 100% of all traffic fatalities in America are the result of alcohol. Over 18,000 Americans every year lose their life because of alcohol-related accidents. The Depression era comedian Will Rogers used to say, we have killed more people celebrating Independence Day than we lost fighting for Independence Day. He was right. The tragedy of this is the effect of alcohol and drugs on our young people. Did you know that alcohol-related highway deaths are the number one killer of young people age 15 to 24? Number one killer of young people age 15 to 24. Every year in our country, 35% of all wine coolers that are sold in our country are sold to teenagers. 1.1 billion cans of beer a year are consumed by teenagers and by law, they're not even supposed to have access to it. It's a huge problem in our culture that must be addressed from a biblical perspective. The Bible warns us very plainly, do not get drunk on alcohol. Do not be drunk with wine. Do not put yourself under the influence of anything that will make your life wasteful like this. Someone wrote a little piece called an effective solvent. It goes like this. Alcohol is a product of amazing versatility. It will remove stains from designer clothes. It will also remove those clothes off your back. If by chance it is used in sufficient quantity, alcohol will remove furniture from the home. Cogs from the floor, food from the table, lining from the stomach, vision from the eyes, and judgment from the mind. Alcohol will also remove good reputations, good jobs, good friends, happiness from children's hearts, sanity, freedom, spouses, relationships, man's ability to adjust and live with his fellow man and even will rob you of life itself. As a remover of things, alcohol has no equal. That's why the Bible warns us. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to a wasteful life. That's the contrast to spirit power. But it's only one warning in the Bible. The Bible is replete with warnings about the danger of alcohol, how dangerous it is even to get started down that path because it will lead you to a wasteful life. For instance, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 23 verse 19, listen my son and be wise and keep your heart on the right path. Do not join those. We would say today don't hang out with people who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, describing a wild lifestyle that has no limits. He says for drunken and glutton's become poor and drowsiness close them in rags. He goes on to describe those who give into alcohol in this way in verse 29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Who linger over wine? Who go to sample bowls of mixed wine? And then this warning, do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In other words, the attractive nature of drink don't give into that because he says in verse 32, in the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind imagine confusing things, the effect of alcohol on both the mind and the body. And then he says in verse 34, you will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. They hit me, you will say, but I am not hurt. They beat me, but I don't feel it, the insensitivity, the just being out of it that's a result of alcohol or drugs and then the most condemning statement of all of alcoholism. The last part of this verse, verse 35, when will I wake up so I can find another drink? After going through all of that, all you want is another drink. That's the kind of wastefulness, wasted life that alcohol leads to. And that's why the Bible says in Proverbs 21, wine is a maca and beer, a brawler, whoever is led astray by them is not wise. You see, alcohol and drugs will mock you because they will make you feel better off when you're really worse off. They will mock you because they will make you feel smarter when really you're more foolish. Alcohol and drugs will mock you because they will make you feel happier when in reality you're just dazed. Alcohol and drugs will deceive you while they slowly destroy you. And that, my friend, is why the Bible warns us against alcohol and drugs. Take the warning seriously. Remember the pictures drawn in the book of Proverbs about the wasted life of those who've given in to that first temptation offered by a friend and you feel like you got to give in to be accepted or to be popular. This is where it ends up. The Bible is true when it warns. You will end up a wasted life. The contrast to spiritual power is very clear. But so is the command for spiritual power. Paul goes on in verse 18 to say, do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the spirit. Now here's the command. And I want us to see first of all what the command actually says. What does it say? First of all, it is a command. It's not an option. We don't have a choice here. This is a command that is to be obeyed. This is not just for some people. It's plural. It's for all Christians. So it says you plural, all of you without exception be filled with the spirit. It's passive in the sense that we're not to fill ourselves with the spirit. We are to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. And it's in the present tense which means literally be continuously being filled with the spirit. So it's not something that just happens once or twice or a half dozen times in your life. This is to be a continuous lifestyle choice to be filled with the spirit. That's what it says. Now let's look at what it means. What does this command mean? What the command means is not in the sense of being filled in the sense that we normally think of it. We might think of, we might think of, okay, you get a container, a cup and you fill it up with milk or water or something like that or a container, fill it with gasoline. That's not what this means. The word filled is used in a different way in the New Testament. For instance, there are descriptions in the New Testament of people who are filled with faith, filled with wisdom, filled with joy or even filled with grief. And when the Bible uses the word that's the same word that's used here for filled, when it uses the word that way, it always means someone who is dominated by that characteristic, whose life could be described by that characteristic, whether it's wisdom or knowledge or grief. If they're filled with that, they're dominated by it, they're controlled by it, they're described by that. The best way to describe it is to be under the control of whatever you're full of. That's the biblical meaning of this. So when the Bible says, be filled with the Spirit, it's talking about being controlled by the Spirit, being under the control of the Holy Spirit. He directs your life, he motivates your life, he controls your life. You say, okay, all right, I got that. How do I get that? How do I get the control of the Spirit in my life? Well, if you study the Bible and look up the references to the Holy Spirit and figure out what this is all about, you'll basically come up with three things that are important to the filling of the Holy Spirit. One is there must be a moment by moment yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. In other words, you've got to yield your way to the way of God. You've got to yield your way to the Lord's way. So yieldedness is extremely important. Secondly, confession of sin is important. The Bible says that we should not grieve the Holy Spirit or quench the Holy Spirit. Grieving the Holy Spirit is done when we sin. We found references to that back in Ephesians chapter four where we talked about, don't grieve the Holy Spirit by all these sins that he listed. So yieldedness on a moment-by-moment basis to the Lord rather than your own way, confession of sin and thirdly obedience to the Word of God. It's that simple, my friend. When you live in obedience to the Word of God, then you are under the control of the Holy Spirit. There's a very interesting parallel passage to this passage in the book of Colossians. By the way, actually the whole books of Ephesians and Colossians are very similar. Paul wrote them at the same time from the same prison to two churches that were very close to each other in geographical location. And they're very similar in their thought structure and pattern. In the second half of the epistle in particular, Paul deals with the same issues in both letters. And in Colossians three, he deals with this issue of being under the control, being under control spiritually so that it results in the same kind of consequences we'll see in a moment in this passage. But interestingly enough, in Colossians, rather than the main command being befilled with the Spirit, it's different. Look at this verse on the screen. Colossians 3, 16. Here's the command that kicks this passage off in Colossians. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. As you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing, Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And that's going to sound familiar in a moment when we get back to Ephesians. Same subject matter, but in Ephesians he says, the way you kick that off is by being filled with the Spirit. In Colossians he says, the way you kick it off is by letting the Word of God dwell in you richly. In other words, letting God's Word control you. So Spirit control is the same thing as the control of the Word of God. If you are confessing sin, yielding yourself to the Lord on a continual basis and obeying the Scripture, your life is under the control of the Holy Spirit. That's what this command means. Now we have to undo some things that maybe we've heard or other people may tell us about the filling of the Spirit. So for a moment, before we proceed on, let's talk about what this command does not mean. We've got to undo some of the things that a lot of people say about the filling of the Spirit. We've seen that biblically the filling of the Spirit is when you are obedient to the Word of God, confessing sin and yielding to him, then your life is under his control. The filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as the indwelling of the Spirit. You see, the biblity teaches that when you accept Christ as your Savior, when you are born into the family of God, at that moment the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence within you and you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And the biblity teaches that he will never leave you, that he is there permanently. The Holy Spirit comes to indwelling you at the moment of salvation and stays there until you go to heaven. So the filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as the indwelling of the Spirit. So when you're filled with the Spirit, it's not that you receive the Spirit. It's not that you get more of the Holy Spirit than you had before. That's not the same thing as indwelling. Secondly, the filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as the baptism of the Spirit. A lot of people get confused about that. Not the same thing. The Bible teaches that the baptism of the Spirit happens at the moment of salvation when we are placed into the body of Christ. Corinthians 12, 13 says, for by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body and we have all been made to drink of the same Spirit. Paul says. The idea being that to Eucharend the Incese writing to and to every other believer reads that, when you got saved, you were placed into the body of Christ. You were united with Him in His death-barrel resurrection. It's something that God does as a transaction in heaven. You were placed into Christ, into His body. That's the baptism of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit places you into the body. Has nothing to do with the filling of the Spirit. Never in the Bible are you ever commanded to seek or pray for or long for the baptism of the Spirit. That happens the moment you get saved, you're placed into the body of Christ. Filling of the Spirit is something all together different. So the filling of the Spirit is not the same as His indwelling, not the same as the baptism of the Spirit. It is not the same thing as the ceiling of the Spirit. Twice in this same letter in Ephesians 1, 13 and Ephesians 4, 30, Paul has talked about the fact that we are sealed with or by the Holy Spirit. Here's what that means. It means that the moment you get saved and you are placed into the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells you. In addition to that, the Holy Spirit becomes a seal, a mark of God's ownership of you from now on. The Holy Spirit's presence in your life is that seal that you belong to Christ, that you belong to God. That again happens at the moment of salvation. It's never repeated again. He maintains Himself in your life as the mark of ownership that God has over you. So the filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as the indwelling, baptism or sealing of the Spirit. It's an entirely different issue. What it is, as we have seen, is the continual control of the Holy Spirit of your life. It comes as you yield yourself to Christ daily, as you are dealing properly in confession with sin and you are living in obedience to the Word of God. The filling of the Spirit doesn't need lead to some kind of ecstatic feeling or zap that leads you to a new level of Christian living from now on. That's not what the filling of the Spirit is. It simply means you are living in obedience to the Word of God. You are confessing sin whenever the Spirit makes you aware of it and you are yielding yourself to Him daily. When you are doing that, your life is under the control of the Holy Spirit. That's the command. That's what it means and that's what it doesn't mean. Now what does it look like? This spiritual power that we have in our Christian lives is going to show up somewhere. It's going to evidence itself somehow. Paul goes on to describe in verses 19 through 21 the consequences of spiritual power. I want you to see something here. There are five verbs in the next three verses. Really, the King James Version does the best job of translating these as part of Cyples. There are words that end in I.N.G. and they support a main verb. The main verb is in verse 18. Be filled with the Spirit. The five participles are, verse 19, speaking to one another, singing, making music. That's the first three. The fourth one is in verse 20. Always giving thanks and the fifth one is in verse 21, submitting to one another. Verse 5 words describe and support what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Now we know that because that's the way Paul wrote it. That's the structure he used to help us see that he's describing what it means to be filled with the Spirit. The reason why it's so important to see that is because a lot of people say, if you're filled with the Spirit, you'll speak in tongues, you'll perform miracles, you'll do all kinds of wild things, have mystical experiences. Where is that in Paul's writing? It's not here. Paul mentions none of that kind of thing. Paul says, when you are filled with the Spirit, listen now, it is going to make a change in your heart and attitude. It's going to be an internal change that you cannot fake, you cannot put on like a religious garment and then take off when you walk out the door of the church. It's not like that. There is going to be a basic fundamental change in attitude and your heart when you are filled with the Spirit. Whenever you are under His control, these three things will be true. First of all, you will have a joyful heart. You'll have a joyful heart. See how He says it there in verse 19. Speaking to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs singing and making music in your heart to the Lord. Now joy, my friend, joy is simply a deep sense of confidence and trust and hope in the Lord regardless of your circumstances. It's not quite the same thing as happiness. It includes happiness, but joy is much deeper than happiness. You see, you can have joy when things are going bad and joy doesn't mean that everything is going to be good in your life. It's going to be a smooth road and you're all the time going to be happy. But joy means that no matter what's happening in your life, there will be an underlying confidence in the Lord, trust in Him and hope that He is working all things together for good. And it's that deep-seated joy that will keep you going in life. Now it's interesting that Paul says this joy is going to be expressed in singing. You see that? It's going to be expressed in singing. Speak to one another with what? Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. This joy is expressed in singing. This is the music of the heart that must become verbal. It's got to have an outlet, but it comes from the heart. This is not something that's put on. You can sing and never have the joy of the Lord in your heart. But if you have the joy of the Lord in your heart, it's got to find a verbal expression in praise. Now this has nothing to do with your voice. It has nothing to do with having the quality of voice that would put you in the choir or the praise team. Some of you should not be in the choir or the praise team. Please don't volunteer. But this has nothing to do with the quality of your voice. This has everything to do with the quality of your heart. It has to do with a joy that wells up inside you that must find expression verbally. And so it must come out. It's a contented soul and a joyful heart that desires to express itself in praise. This kind of joy is not hindered by a monotone. It is not enhanced by a magnificently trained voice either. The issue is not the quality of your voice. The issue is I have joy in my heart to the Lord that must find expression. It will find expression. It is pure heartfelt joy that erupts like a volcano in praise. And it doesn't matter if the person in front of you is covering their ears. That's not the issue. The issue is my heart must express itself in praise. I love the music of Chris Tomlin. One of my favorite Christian artists. He's put out some wonderful worship music in recent years. The song that is off of his recent album that's actually playing on the radio right now is this very kind of song. It says, how can I keep from singing? The words go like this. There is an endless song. Echoes in my soul. I hear the music ring. And though the storms may come, I am holding on to the rock. I cling. How can I keep from singing your praise? How can I ever say enough how amazing is your love? How can I keep from shouting your name? I know I am loved by the king. And it makes my heart want to sing. I will lift my eyes in the darkest night for I know my Savior lives. And I will walk with you knowing you'll see me through and sing the songs you give. I can sing in the troubled times, sing when I win. I can sing when I lose my step and fall down again. I can sing cause you pick me up. Sing cause you're there. I can sing cause you hear me, Lord, when I call to you in prayer. I can sing with my last breath, sing for I know that I'll sing with the angels and the saints around the throne. How can I keep from singing? What a testimony of this kind of joy that must express itself in praise to the Lord. A joyful heart is a result, a consequence of the filling of the Holy Spirit. And notice, Paul says there are two audiences. I know sometimes we talk about singing for an audience of one, but really Paul says there are two audiences for this music. The first one in verse 19 is one another. He says, speak to one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You know when we sing together as a congregation part of what we're doing is we're challenging one another. We're inspiring one another, we're informing one another, we're rebuking one another maybe. We are strengthening one another, we're speaking to each other to one another. And when someone gets up this morning and sings the kind of song like Joseph and Scarlet did, what a powerful song that really addresses the hypocrisy that sometimes the garment that we put on, the stained glass mask array, we put on sometimes when we come to church. Are we willing to really let our hearts be known and really let the joy of Christ show through? And someone sings that to me. I'm rebuked in my spirit for times when I have put on that mask and I'm challenged in my spirit to be open to the Lord and open to others sharing my life in genuine Bible fellowship. That is speaking to one another in good music that challenges, that informs, that encourages, that inspires. But the second audience is the Lord. You see, verse 19, into the verse, sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. You see if there's joy in the heart it must find expression in praise to God. The ultimate one to whom we give praise, and that praise may instruct and help and encourage and bless others, but the ultimate, the ultimate person to whom we give that praise is God Himself. So there are two audiences in this praise, and He even tells us how this praise should be expressed. Three kinds of music. You see them listed there and they had nothing to do with style. Nothing at all to do with style. They have to do with content. These words do. He says we're to speak to one another, first of all, with Psalms, then hymns, then spiritual songs. Now we sometimes have our Western English version of what those words mean, and it's always good to get back to the meaning of the biblical words. The word for Psalm in the Bible, in New Testament times, was literally a Psalm, a portion of the book of Psalms that was lifted out of the writing and put to music. And most of them were written to be sung anyway. So in our day we would say that a Psalm is any portion of Scripture which is put to music and sung back to God. It is uniquely scriptural in the sense that it takes a passage to Scripture and sings it. It may have been written 400 years ago, holy, holy, holy, right out of Isaiah 6. It may have been written two or three years ago. How can I help but sing your praise out of Ephesians 5, 19? It's music lifted out of Scripture and put into music. The second word hymn, we think of hymns as traditional old songs of the church. That's not what the word means. A hymn is any song that specifically offers praise to God. It is focused on who he is and so it praises him. So a hymn may be an older song. The mighty fortress is our God. It may be a newer song like we sang this morning. A song that gives praise directly to God. There is joy in the Lord. You see, or a song like that that directly praises him. So a hymn is any song that directs praise to God. A spiritual song is any song that expresses our testimony. It's not maybe specifically focused on the character of God and praise to him, but it is focused on telling our testimony. It may be a song that expresses our love to Christ. Maybe an old song like if ever I loved you, my Jesus, to his now. Or it may be a new song like I could sing of your love forever. But it expresses our testimony of what the Lord has done in our lives. So the purpose of Scripture is not to tell us what style of music to use, whether contemporary traditional bluegrass, folk, classical, whatever. That's not the point. The point is when you sing, you sing with words that are from Scripture, or you sing with a song that specifically focuses praise on God, or you sing a song that gives your testimony of what God's done in your life. That's Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. That's the way we're to express our praise when we sing to one another. And you know, whenever in church history there have been great moves of the Spirit of God, there's always been a surge in the writing of music to express that. When you can trace this through church history, the Reformation in the 1500s, Martin Luther wrote hymns, songs, spiritual songs, and the church started singing again when they hadn't for so many years in the dark ages as a congregation. When the great Wesleyan revival swept through England, Charles Wesley wrote 6000 songs that came out of that move of the Spirit of God. When Moody was preaching in the last half of the 1800s, he had a man at his right hand, Aras Sanky, who was cranking out songs that expressed what God was doing. From the late 60s through the 70s, there was a move of the Spirit of God, particularly in college campuses across our country. It's well documented, some of the great moves of the Spirit of God. And out of that came a fresh new music that continues today, contemporary Christian music. Every time there's been a move of the Spirit of God, there's been a new wave of music that's been coming out as well. God's people express their joy in their singing. So by all means, when we are singing as a congregation, don't stand there like a lump on a log, express your joy to the Lord. That's the time when we have to express our joy to the Lord. Again, it doesn't matter how you sound. Some of us will thank God you're not up here singing solos, but that's not the point. The point is, seeing from your heart to the Lord. The result of the feeling of the Spirit consequences, a joyful heart. Secondly, it's a thankful heart, a thankful heart, verse 20. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving thanks, He says, being grateful to God for who He is and what He has done. When it says, giving that thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's not saying just end your prayer within Jesus name. That's okay, but that's not the point of this verse. The point is, the name of God or the name of Christ stands for who He is and what He does. So we are to thank Him for who He is and what He does. We're to have thankful hearts. Now, some of us really struggle with this thankfulness. Some people are ungrateful simply because they think they're deserving of everything. Their whole life is lived from this perspective. I deserve this. I don't deserve that. I didn't deserve to be talked. I didn't deserve their whole life is lived from that perspective. And that's the reason they can't be thankful. Because they think life is, they're deserving of everything. Some people can't be thankful because they don't recognize the hand of God in their lives. And so pride keeps them from recognizing that God is the originator of every blessing we have. So some people are not thankful because of that. Some people are unthankful simply because they're pessimistic by nature. We call those people in greats. Joe in great. And people like that. They're just not thankful because they just have a pessimistic personality and everything is negative in their lives. Some of us need to learn what it means to have the joy of the Lord expressed in our lives and to be grateful and thankful. And Paul says, be thankful always for everything. Now be careful how you interpret that. Nowhere in the Bible does God expect us to be thankful for things that are contrary to his nature and his purpose and desire. There's a movement in America today that teaches that you should express thankfulness for everything no matter what it is. Your spouse commits adultery. Thank God for it. If your daughter is assaulted, thank God for it. If a Christian falls, thank God for it. That's not what this is saying. Remember the context. He's talking about being thankful in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. For everything that is consistent with God's character, who he is and what he has done. Now no matter what happens in your life, if it's any of those bad things, I mentioned or any other bad things, we can also in those circumstances be thankful that God is still God, that He is with us, and that He will see us through those circumstances as we trust in Him. But nowhere in the Bible does God tell us to be thankful for evil, for that which is against His character. So be careful how you use that verse. But it does mean a Christian ought to have a thankful spirit, regardless of what's happening in his or her life. So a thankful heart is a result, the consequence of the filling of the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fills our hearts, it does away, does away with all grumbling and complaining and negativeism and a sour spirit. Joyful heart, thankful heart. There's a little girl by the name of Chelsea Thompson, who eight years old in California, who recently had surgery to enable her to smile. She had never smiled in her eight years of life. And it was not because she was just an unhappy little girl. She had a rare syndrome that only about 1,000 people in the United States of America have called mebius syndrome. It's a syndrome that deals with the facial muscles and renders the sufferer of that syndrome unable to smile. And so, by the way, some of you have that disease. This little girl had three surgeries. Doctors in California took muscle and nerves from her leg and built her muscles to where she could smile. And when she came out of surgery, began feeling a little better for the first time in her life, she smiled. Some of you need that surgery. Seriously, on the spiritual level, some of us have never experienced what it means to have joy or seldom experience, what it means to have joy and a thankful heart to God. And maybe it's because we're living by our own resources and not in the power of the Holy Spirit. Because when the Holy Spirit's in control, there's a joyful heart, there's a thankful heart, and then thirdly, quickly, there's a submissive heart, a submissive heart, verse 21, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Now, a lot of people get kind of spooked when we start talking about that word submission. Because people think, well, that means to be kind of passive or weak or your life is dominated by everybody else. You're a doormat, you have a low self-image. That's not what submissiveness means. Again, an understanding of the word itself helps. The word, the Greek word is Hupostasso, which means simply to place under or to assign or rank under. The idea quite simply is this. I willingly put others ahead of myself. That's what submissive means. It is not coerced. It is not forced on anybody. It means you willingly put the needs of others before your own. Paul describes it beautifully in Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4. Look at these verses. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or a vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. That's the idea. Considering others better than yourself, considering their needs before your own, their interests as more important than your own. It's the opposite of someone who is brash, assertive and self-promoting. So being submissive to one another. And in that interesting concept, it's mutual submission. There's not one group that's always to be submissive to the other group. So one group is never to be submissive. That's not the idea. There's a mutual submission. Submit to one another. Oh, there's a lot to be said for that. And I'll say more about it in the next few weeks because Paul gives some examples of this. This verse really is the opening verse for the next few sections of the epistle. And he'll talk about husbands and wives being submissive to each other. Mutual submission. You think, I thought submission was for the wives. We'll talk about that, but it's not exclusively the wives. Wives would be submissive to their husbands. Husbands express their submissiveness by loving their wives as Christ loved the church. What did Christ do when he did that? He put their needs first. He put our needs first. He sacrificed himself for us. That's mutual submission. Paul mentions parents and children. Children show submission to their parents by obeying and honoring their parents. Parents show submission to their children by sacrificing themselves for their needs and training them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord in a way that does not exasperate them in a way that doesn't satisfy the anger of a parent, but in a way which does what's best for the child. That's mutual submission. Many talks about masters and slaves. And he says, masters, you should treat your slaves with respect. He says, slaves, you should treat your masters with submission. There's a mutual submission there. And there are a lot, a lot of applications to this. Pastors in a church. The Bible talks about people in the church being submissive to the leadership of pastors, but it also talks about pastors being a servant to the needs of the flock. Mutual submission. Mutual submission goes all the way down to how we do ministry in a church. If you're using a room in this church for a ministry, mutual submission says, I'm going to take into concern the needs of other people who use this room. And so I'm not going to leave it a mess for them. I'll take care of it so that it's ready for them to come in and have their ministry next week or whenever. That's mutual submission. Now standing up for our rights says it's my room. I'm going to do my ministry is more important or whatever. So I'm going to do, no mutual submission says, I'll take them into consideration, put their interests first. And I'll take care of it for them. Lots of applications to this, my friend. Lots of applications. But it is a natural consequence of the Holy Spirit's filling and power. This is what the filling of the Spirit looks like. You can talk all you want to about ecstatic utterances and tongues and miracles and all that kind of stuff. And there was a place for those in the New Testament times by the apostles to give credentials for their ministry. It's very plain. That was the purpose. Paul never talks about that when he talks about the filling of the Spirit and the epistles. What he does say is if you're under the control of the Spirit, there'll be a fundamental change in your attitudes. You'll have a joyful heart, a thankful heart, a submissive heart. And you know what? In a world that is just the opposite of all three of those. What a testimony. This is of our great salvation. What a testimony it is of the change Christ makes in our lives. When we demonstrate to a complaining world, a joyful spirit. When we demonstrate to a sour negative pessimistic world, a thankful spirit. When we demonstrate to a world that stands up for my rights and my way, and I'm get what's coming to me, a submissive spirit, what a testimony of the changing power of Christ in our lives. Let's bow together in prayer. Mother, how often we fall short, how often I fall short, of evidencing the control of the Spirit. Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand and not only understand, but to live out what it means to have the Holy Spirit in control of our lives. May it make a difference in the way we treat our families this week, Lord, the way we treat our neighbors, the way we respond to an unsaved friend at work, or the way we relate to one another in the church, pray that it will make a difference in the way we live. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.