Ephesians 5:18

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Ephes

ians chapter 5 and verse number 18.

We continue to work our way through this

section that began in chapter 4 and verse 1.

Maybe we could, there's a lot of ways we could

summarize or characterize this section. Maybe

one

way we could do that is principles of

Christian living would be a good one. Ephes

ians 5.18 is an

important verse that certainly brings about

controversy and differences of opinion in the

first part of the verse and in the second part

of the verse we get one of the most

significant

commands that is given in the New Testament.

So let's read verse 18 together. It says,

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is

dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit."

Being filled with the Spirit is a command here

for every Christian and the verses that follow

that go all the way up through chapter 6 and

verse number 9. Paul is going to describe for

us

how the filling of the Spirit affects you, how

it affects all your relationships,

how it affects your attitude each and every

day. He's going to show you how you'll sing

songs, hymns,

and spiritual songs coming up, how it will

affect other people around you, how it will

affect you

in your home as he goes over husbands and

wives and children, how it will affect you in

the workplace

by way of application when we get to that

section on servants and masters. The filling

of the Spirit

will affect every relationship that you are

involved in. Now remember in the last three

verses

we talked about walking wisely. Remember

walking being a pattern of life. So let's just

for the

sake of context here go back and read the

previous three verses that lead us into our

verse for today,

verse 18. Look back starting in verse 15 and

we'll read through verse 17 and think about

what we

talked about as we went through these verses

expositionally. Verse 15, "Therefore be

careful

how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,

making the most of your time,

because the days are evil. So then do not be

foolish, but understand what the will of the

Lord

is." And then he goes right into verse 18.

Look at it, right into verse 18, "And do not

get drunk

with wine, for that is dissipation, but be

filled with the Spirit." And so in addition to

what has

already been said, the final element of this

wise walk in context is to be filled with the

Spirit.

But before we get to that part of the verse,

this verse is in two parts. We first need to

deal with

this first part, verse 18, "And do not get

drunk with wine, for that is dissipation." Now

when it comes to drinking alcohol, some people

say Christians should never drink alcohol

ever at any time. It's always wrong all the

time. "Totaler" is a nickname still used today

that came out of the temperance movement that

moved into the prohibition era in the 1800s,

that term meaning total abstinence from

alcohol. Others say Christians can drink

alcohol in

moderation. The Bible is clear that God's

people drank wine. So let me make a blanket

general statement, which should be clear,

which should be obvious, and that you have all

no doubt

probably heard before. "Drinking alcohol is

not a sin, getting drunk is."

I don't think that's too hard to understand to

you. Is anybody, is that complicated for

anyone

here? Okay? Verse 18, look at it again, "And

do not get drunk." You see that? Doesn't say

do not drink.

Also another general statement I want to make

is for us to remember, when studying the Bible

,

you've heard me say this many times and you

will again, context is king, right? Just don't

pull a

passage out and go wherever we want to with it

. Context within a passage, within a chapter,

within an epistle for that matter. So another

element to understand here is that in context

clearly what the apostle Paul is doing here is

he is making a contrast. And the contrast that

he is

making is between drunkenness and being filled

with the spirit. Now, keep that in your

thinking

right there and we're going to get to the

context part a little later. For now, let's

keep dealing

with this issue of Christians and drinking

alcohol. The fundamentalist movement of the

late 19th century and on into the 20th century

in many ways put a very legalistic mindset

into

the psyche of the church, especially the

American church in general, in three ways.

Drinking, smoking and dancing. If you're a

lifelong Baptist especially, right? You know

those are the

big three. Now, dealing with those issues in

an unbiblical way has caused some major

problems

in the church that still exist to those days,

things like those three issues equated with

salvation. As long as I'm not doing those

things, I'm good to go. It's led to a lot of

doctrinal

confusion. It's led to not understanding Sola

Fide. You combine that with Charles Finney and

the

sawdust trail and walked the aisle and prayed

the prayer. And then that got labeled, equated

with

salvation, just praying the prayer as if you

could do this magical prayer that's found

nowhere in the

Bible, the sinner's prayer. And boom, you got

your stamp, go live how you want to. So there

's a lot

of problems that came out of the fundamental

ist movement in both the 19th and 20th century

still

exist today. Now, we've learned in these

previous verses leading up to this one, don't

be a fool.

Right? We just read it. Be wise. Don't be a

fool. Understand what the will of God is for

your life.

And now, don't be drunk. Be filled with the

Spirit. And let me tell you from

personal experience with myself and with

others, the biggest fool, the most unwise

person

is any person at the moment that they are good

and drunk. That's the biggest fool that there

is.

One of the most embarrassing things that

anyone can ever witness in human history

is drunk middle-aged white people trying to

dance to rap music.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

I mean, every second of looking at that is the

cringiest cringe at the highest level of

cringe

that there is. Okay? So, the clearest way to

act like a complete fool is to get drunk.

I've been drunk many times. I've dealt with

drunk people many times before salvation,

before I met Christy. I can't, I don't have to

go back and really think about,

I don't know why I moved around so much. I

probably lived, I'm not even joking,

probably 15 different apartments and rent

houses and stuff. I just was constantly always

moving.

I don't even know why that was, but I can't

even count the number of times police called

out

to wherever I was because we were parting in

heart all the time, which would result in all

manner

of things. I got so many stories you wouldn't

even believe. I've forgotten half of my

stories,

probably by now. And let me tell you that all

that you have to do is deal with a drunk

person when

you are not drunk to ascertain how stupid it

is to get drunk. You ever dealt with a drunk

person

when you're not drunk? Biggest fool there is,

you're dealing with them. On the other hand,

Paul is teaching us the wisest person who does

the will of God is the person who is filled

with the Spirit. And that's the comparison

here. Being filled with the Spirit is the will

of God

and is wise. Being drunk is obviously stupid

and foolish. Not only that, but I don't have

to tell

you, I don't have to go through the litany of

problems that alcoholism has caused in our

country

and in our world, do I? The abuse of alcohol r

ips apart families. The abuse of alcohol and

alcoholism causes a chronic problem of

domestic abuse in our land. It destroys

careers. I could

stand up here for an hour and give you the

ripple effect of the disastrous examples of

the result

of alcoholism. And for sure, that is partly

what Paul has in mind with this verse, the

negative

effects of the abuse of alcohol. So first, I

want to do this. I want to look at this from

a couple of angles. I want to look at it from

this angle first. In a general sense, I think

Paul is

saying, look, if you're looking for joy and

you're looking for escape from your problems

in comfort

and contentment, don't look for it at the

bottom of a Bible. Seek all that in being

filled with the

Spirit, because that's the only place you're

ever truly going to find those things.

Everybody wants

to be happy. Is there anybody you've ever met

who wants to be miserable all the time? And

guess what?

God wants his people to be happy and joyful

and content with their lives, even when he

brings

suffering for your sanctification into your

life. Because as Christians, we know our joy

is not

based on our circumstances. Our joy is in

Christ, the one who gets us through the

circumstances for

our good and his glory. And the Beatitudes,

every time Jesus says that word, "blessed,"

like "blessed"

are the peacemakers, the word for "blessed,"

there is "happy." You can go read that in

Matthew now,

the Beatitudes. Every time you see "blessed,"

"happy," in Ecclesiastes, the Preasures looks

at life,

and there's a point where he says there is a

time to laugh. Time for joy. The Bible says,

"A merry heart does good like a medicine."

That's true. John says in 1 John 1 verse 4,

"These things we write so that our joy may be

made complete." But God wants us to find the

resource for true joy in the right place and

not in the wrong place, not the artificial way

.

People, now, they abuse alcohol for different

reasons in the same way that people abuse

alcohol,

I'm sorry, drugs for the same reason. And a

big one for both is this. They want to be

happy,

but their circumstances make them miserable.

And so they put themselves into a stupor

with drugs or alcohol so they don't have to

face their circumstances while they're in that

drunken

stupor. People want comfort, they want

happiness, but they got problems. Alcohol and

drugs for that

matter is a way to escape in those moments.

There's even a whiskey called Southern Comfort

.

Do you drink a whole bottle of that in one

sitting? Let me tell you, you'll be anything

but comfortable.

I can promise you. And what Paul is saying

here is who is the comforter, the Holy Spirit.

Be filled with the Spirit. Getting drunk is

never the remedy for the cares of life ever.

In fact,

the track record is clear. All it ever really

does is cause more problems. And it's so crazy

,

just like I used to be and I see people now.

It causes some problems and they just keep

going

back to it. Like ramming their head in a brick

wall. And let me add, alcoholism and drug

addiction

are not diseases. Cancer is a disease. You don

't catch alcoholism. You don't catch drug

addiction.

It's a choice. It's a sin. It's a

manifestation of depravity. It's a sin that

needs to be confessed

and dealt with as a sin, not secular therapy.

I went to rehab four different times. It never

did me any good, not one bit of good, that

four trips to the rehab helped me. And I did a

lot of

group therapy, which I hated every single

second of. The only way to find true joy,

comfort, happiness,

contentment in this life is to be filled with

the Spirit. Every illustration that I could

find

in the Bible of drunkenness is a disaster. Now

, I won't go down a long line of litany for

time's

sake, but just go check out what happened to

Noah when he got drunk. Or how about Lot? Y

ikes!

That one is really bad. The people in the

church at Corinth got drunk and desecrated the

Lord's table

and God made some of them sick. Some of them

he executed on the spot. We read that every

time

we do the Lord's table. And drunkenness has

always been associated closely with all sorts

of immorality. Why? Because it dulls the

senses. It brings about unrestrained reckless

behavior,

loose lips, loss of inhibitions, and behaving

in a way that you would not normally behave

when not being drunk, right? Several times in

Scripture when there is a list given

of the characteristics of the people who will

not be entering the kingdom of heaven like,

you know,

covetous idolater, multiple times drunkards.

Now, let's be clear. Is it possible for a

Christian to get drunk? And if you get drunk,

are you going to lose your salvation? No.

What those lists are saying is that it's true

of a Christian that they are not a drunkard as

a

pattern in their life, as all of those listed

are meaning that. Getting drunk for the

Christian

is to be dealt with just like any other sin.

You repent. You ask God to forgive you.

Preach the gospel to yourself. Get back up on

the horse and you ride again. And I'm not

trying to

minimize sin. God will chasing you. He will

bring circumstances into your life that are

not good

for your good. And if you hear me say that and

you say, okay, you walk out here and you say,

okay, preacher said, it's okay for me as a

Christian to get drunk once in a while. And

all

I got to do is just run over there and ask for

forgiveness. And I'm good. Then let me tell

you

something. You haven't heard or understand a

lot of my preaching and you need to get with

me because

there's a lot you're not understanding about

sanctification. If that's how you hear me say

that.

But what I am saying is this, is that if

getting drunk is a pattern of your life,

you're giving evidence that you never really,

truly have been born again. In fact, look

again

at that word, verse 18, dissipation. That's

not a word we normally hear. Do not get drunk

with

wine for that is dissipation. That word is

defined as reckless or wasteful behavior. But

it's also

translated in other translations as excess and

debauchery. In general, if you broaden this

word out, if you understand this word from the

Greek and in the big picture, really what it

is,

is it is a destructive way of living, meaning

dissipation. It's not just getting drunk, but

it's

the broader consequences of drunkenness upon a

person's life. That is dissipation.

Scripture's clear. If you're characterized as

a drunkard,

you're not in the kingdom. Now let me give you

another angle in context.

All that I've just said is not the main point

of what Paul is saying. Okay. Now, all that I

just

said is true. All that I just said is a good

application of understanding what Paul is

saying

here. But Paul's main point, remember he's

writing to the church at Ephesus in the first

century,

Paul's main point here is religion. And what

do I mean by that? Well, remember we went over

the

intensity of the pagan religion that existed

in the city of Ephesus at this time. And dr

unkenness

was associated with pagan religion. Remember,

many of these Christians in the church at Eph

esus,

the Gentiles, not the Jews, of course, but

these Gentile Ephesians had come out of pagan

religion.

And the pagans believed that to commune with

the gods, you had to put yourself into a dr

unken

stupor to get to the highest level of

communion with the gods. This was part of what

was called

the mystery religion. It started off part of

the roots of the Greek and Roman mythological

systems.

They believed you could achieve and commune

with the gods through achieving a state of ec

stasy.

That's been occurring all throughout human

history with both drugs and alcohol.

There are shamans right now today. In America,

and you can go down to South America, who will

take

you on a trip. They supervise it through the

use of drugs like ayahuasca and DMT and

mushrooms.

And when you go, I've listened to people who

have done this and they all have the same

kind of trip. They go to meet these ascended

masters, these beings that give them a higher

form of life. And then it starts to turn dark

at some point. Timothy Leary, if you know that

name,

was thought of as the father of LSD in the

1960s. What did he preach? Well, you need to

take this

LSD to reach a higher level of consciousness.

And we see the disastrous effects that that

had

upon the culture in America here in the 60s.

Eastern mysticism, the occult in many forms

all

advocate this. It's nothing new. It comes

right out of the history of paganism, which

was happening

right here in the city of Ephesus with alcohol

. All forms of this are completely demand.

The Greek word pharmacia from where we get our

word pharmacy originally used to refer to the

use

of drugs and rituals is also translated in the

New Testament as sorcery, witchcraft. It's

always

warned against. Don't do this. Any so-called

God, little G, or ascended master that you

might

meet up with in an altered state of

consciousness, no matter how they present

themselves, is a demon,

period, every time. It's an old play from the

demonic realm. They've been repeating it over

and over and over in different forms and ways,

all through history. And at Ephesus at this

time,

Greek mythology was in play. I'm sure you're

all familiar with the top God in Greek

mythology, Zeus.

Nothing more than the satanic counterfeit of

God the Father. And this demonic

religion that developed, which is in full

bloom by the time we get to Paul writing this

letter,

was that human beings again could rise to

commune with the pantheon of Greek gods,

all of them by reaching this state of ecstasy.

And you got there, and it was wild in these

temples,

wild orgies, every kind of perversion that you

could possibly think of. They had this crazy,

wild dancing madness that they would do,

people wringing their heads around and all the

rest.

And how did it all get induced? It all got

induced by drunkenness. Every kind of wildness

that you

can think of, that you could possibly think of

, was all happening at the same time in these

temples.

A high point, when everybody was good and

loaded, everybody was good and wasted, plaster

ed and drunk,

they would eat the flesh of the mystic bull

that they would bring into the temple, the raw

flesh

of this bull. And they would all call out to

the God Dionysus. At that time they viewed him

as in

control of the earth, and they would call out

to him, "Come thou Savior." That was their

worship.

And Dionysus was known as the God of Wine, the

Roman name for him, the Latin name you might

be

familiar with, Bacchus, the God of Wine. Every

single Sunday night before Fat Tuesday in the

city of

New Orleans is the biggest Margie-Graw Parade,

the Bacchus Parade. Been to it many times,

very drunk

and very high. So Bacchus is still around

today. They even have him on the float, and

there's

always a celebrity that's the king of the

parade or queen of the parade. So understand,

when Paul

is telling these Ephesians, "Don't be drunk

with wine," he's not just only dealing with a

social

problem, though he is, he's dealing with a

theological problem as well from what these

Ephesians had come out of. This is way deeper

than just fun and games. This is Satan's

counterfeit

in these temple religions. This is how he was

capturing minds and bodies in this system

through

this method of drunkenness, which causes a

person to lose all their natural inhibitions

and act in

a totally unrestrained way from how they would

normally behave when not being drunk.

And what Paul is saying to this church is, "

Look, a lot of you have a background

of communing with the so-called gods through

drunkenness, and I'm saying to you, if you

really

want to commune with the one true God, don't

get drunk with wine like you used to do in

those

temple worship services. Be filled with the

Spirit." That's what he's saying. This is a

great truth that

certainly just is applicable to us today, just

in a different way. "Instead of seeking joy,

contentment, happiness artificially through

alcohol, enter the presence of God through the

filling of the Spirit." Because again, it's

the only place where it's found. You can go

try whatever

you want to try from the world's perspective,

from a man-centered way. You're not going to

find joy,

contentment, happiness. Now, let's shift gears

. While drunkenness is a sin,

God forbids it. We have repeated warnings.

There are many of them in the Bible. You can

just

go look them up. For time's sake, I didn't

list a bunch of them, but at the same time,

at the same exact time, alcohol is commended

in the Bible, and it's not a sin to drink it.

It's commended as something good. In fact, in

Exodus 29 and Leviticus 23, the people are

commanded to

bring drink offerings of, guess what, wine.

Alcoholic wine wasn't Welch's. It was wine. In

Judges 913,

there's a parable. Jotham is giving of trees

asking for a king. Is there asking for a king?

Look what he says, "But the vine said to them,

'Shall I leave my new wine which cheers God

and men

and go to wave over the trees?'" And Psalm 104

-15 starts out with this, "and wine which makes

man's

heart glad." So, there is a way to enjoy the

goodness of God with alcohol that produces

gladness

without getting drunk. Isaiah 55, he actually

uses wine here in Isaiah 55-1 as an example

when he's giving a salvation invitation. Look

what he says, "Oh, everyone who thirsts come

to the

waters and you who have no money come buy and

eat, come buy wine and milk without money and

without

cost." And you know, Jesus changed the water

into wine, the wedding feast in Cana. Again,

this was not non-alcoholic grape juice. In

fact, the head waiter of that wedding was

amazed in

verse 10. Look what he says in John chapter 2.

He said, "Every man serves the good wine first

,

and when the people have come and drunk freely

, then he serves the poor wine,

but you have kept the good wine until now."

Now, there's, of course, disagreements over

what the

good wine is within the church, but I think it

's clearly more than just taste the way I

understand

this. Paul told Timothy, Roger Dale read it

this morning in 1 Timothy 5-23, "No longer

drink water

exclusively, but use a little wine for the

sake of your stomach and your frequent ail

ments." So,

it had a medicinal value to it. My mom can

tell you, the doctor told her when I had to

whooping

cough when I was a kid, giving him some

whiskey in the spoon to calm that down. Over

and over and

over in both the Old and New Testaments, the

staple of drink of people was wine. They

couldn't go

to the store and get monster energy drinks or

bottled water or any of that thing. And, of

course,

the consummate example is the inescapable

reality that Jesus used alcoholic wine when he

gave his

command and instituted the Lord's Supper for

all time. So, we find in Scripture two things.

There's

wine alcohol as a destroyer, mocker, something

that causes a great sin of drunkenness. But on

the

other hand, we see alcohol as acceptable in

many places in Scripture. So, what do we do

with that?

Well, it's like so many things. That little

grape that hangs on the vine as a potential

for good

and it has a potential for great evil, kind of

like the Internet has a potential for good,

it has a potential for great evil. How you use

it is what makes the difference.

It's really pretty simple for the Christian.

Don't get drunk. It's not hard. Now, what

defines drunk?

Well, one definition I found is this, any

point in which the alcohol takes over any part

of your

faculties. When you lose your inhibitions,

when you act in a way that you don't normally

act,

and that's a gray area. And guess what? There

's no set amount because the amount of alcohol

to make

a person drunk is different for different

people. Some people can get drunk from just a

little small

amount of alcohol. And man, they could get

plastered. The eighth wonder of the world,

Andre the Giant, a professional wrestler,

whose hand I shook as a kid, by the way,

he was famous for the tremendous amount of

alcohol that he could consume at one sitting

without passing out. And it would make most

people pass out fairly quickly. But I mean,

he was seven foot four and 490 pounds. And but

he was always drunk. But those who always

tried to meet the challenge of drinking with

Andre, nobody could ever hang with Andre in

drinking.

The issue of drinking alcohol for the

Christian comes under the heading of what we

call Christian

liberty. Okay, now listen carefully. This is

an area where we can have disagreements

with one another. And guess what? It's okay to

have disagreements. But in this area,

Paul, I think, gives us the wisest

instructions in Romans chapter 14. In Romans

14, he's dealing

with these massive issues of Jews and Gentiles

being together now in one church. And there

are

all these threats to their unity. For example,

strong Jewish believers understood that the

ceremonial law was no longer binding upon them

. But weaker Jewish believers were still

struggling

with that. And you can understand that they've

been taught all their life of a certain way in

prescription for the ceremonial law. Mature

Gentile believers understood that idols were

not really

gods. And so they understood that they could

eat meat that had been offered to idols that

they sold in the market. And it was okay. But

in both cases, the weaker brothers' consci

ences

were troubled. And then they were even tempted

in their environment there to violate their

own

conscience to eat the meat, even though they

felt bad about it. Same thing with the Jews

who did the ceremonial law. Never good. Never

good. I'm going to get to that in a minute

to violate your conscience. So knowing that

the mature saints would understand these

struggles,

Paul addresses them most of all. Let's look at

it real quick in Romans 14 and see what he

says.

Verse 21 to 23. "It is good not to eat meat."

And remember, that's meat offered to idols

that

the pagans were doing. They had leftover meat

in the meat market. "Not to eat meat or to

drink wine

or to do anything by which your brother st

umbles. The faith which you have has your own

conviction

before God. Happy is he who does not condemn

himself in what he approves, but he who doubts

is condemned if he eats, because his eating is

not from faith and whatever is not from faith

is sin." So what is he talking about? Well,

there's a few things we can glean

out of this passage. And this is going to be a

very quick run-through of this. I can do a

full

exposition, but number one that sticks out in

those verses is, "We don't ever want to cause

a

weaker brother to stumble." That's first and

foremost. However, if, Christian, you

understand

your liberty, such as being able to drink

without getting drunk and that it's not a sin,

then Paul

says, "Enjoy this good thing that God has

given you." Look what he says. "Happy is the

one who

does not condemn himself in what he approves."

That's what he means there. Hey, in your

liberty,

you want to do that? Enjoy it. But in addition

, for the stronger brother, you maintain a

healthy

conscience by also not causing your brother to

stumble with your liberty. But on the other

hand,

again, look in verse 23, "But he who doubts is

condemned if he eats." And his illustration

there is eating the meat to idols for the Gent

iles there. Because his eating is not from

faith.

And whatever is not from faith is sin. So just

apply that to alcohol. So put drinking in

there.

Drinking, if drinking any alcohol at all viol

ates your conscience, Christian, do not do it.

Because then, guess what? You will be sinning.

Whatever is not from faith is sin, he says.

That's what that means. And that would be the

thoughts and action of your conscience that

condemns you. Are you with me on that? You

understand that? A good example is something

that I learned from my mentor in the faith,

Huey Moke. I just somehow, I don't know, I

just knew

when the four years I spent at Foster Road

asked this man as many questions as you

possibly can.

And I did. I was peppering him with questions

anytime I could get with him. And we would

talk

about this subject. I asked him about it. And

he said, "Number one, he would say, most

important

is I don't want to cause any believer to

stumble." He said, "Put that top of mind right

out the gate.

I don't even want anywhere close to doing that

." So for that reason, he said, "I would never

drink

alcohol in front of anybody in any of these

situations that we get into social or

otherwise,

because I may not know what the conviction of

that person is. So as a general rule, play it

safe.

Don't do it. And guess what? If you don't, no

believer will ever stumble because of you,

guaranteed. But however he used to say, with

my liberty, if I want to drink alcohol without

sinning in the privacy of my home with no

possibility of causing anyone to stumble,

I'm free to do so. I have the liberty to do so

. And that's not hiding anything. That's just

being

wise with your liberty. Now, there are those

who disagree with that assessment. And I say

to them,

guess what? It's okay. We can disagree. This

is an in-house issue within the church,

that Christians should be able to discuss this

and debate this without losing their minds

over.

The main thing to remember out of this passage

is if drinking alcohol at all violates your

conscience, don't do it. Don't forget that or

you'll be sinning. Now, to wrap this up,

while the Bible does say, we read it, wine

makes a man's heart glad, never ever fall into

the trap

of using alcohol for the purpose of finding

joy, contentment, and happiness and gladness

in your

life. Again, that only comes through the

filling of the Spirit. And we're going to get

into what

that means next time. We don't have time today

to get to the second part of the verse. And I

want

to be clear. And this goes for any sermon that

I ever preach. If you got any issue with what

I said

today, please don't be afraid to come talk to

me about it. If you got any questions about it

,

please come ask me about it. Don't, don't

wonder. Maybe I haven't been clear enough.

Maybe you need

some more clarity on this. Or even if you

disagree, come, let's talk about it. It'd be

fine. I promise

you, we won't, there will be no violence if

you disagree. Okay. As the Bible says, come,

let us

reason together. We need folks to be able to

sit and have conversation in areas where we

may disagree

without all the hostility that we see so much

of in the church today, especially on the

Internet.

If you're on Christian Twitter, even Reformed

Twitter, the fighting that goes on

in secondary issues is just, it's out of

control. Having discussions and even debates

that are not primary, like Virgin Birth,

Trinity, Deity of Christ, those are primary.

There's no

debate over those things. You don't believe

those primary things. You're not a Christian

at all,

period. I'm talking about second level, third

level things. Being able to discuss those

things in

a reasonable way gives evidence of one of our

primary goals as a church family here at Prov

idence

and also individually growing in spiritual

maturity. That's what we want to be doing.

If you're a believer, if you placed your faith

and trust in Christ Jesus who died for your

sins

and you've been born again, that's what you

should be shooting for, more and more of every

day,

spiritual maturity. In the areas where we can

and sometimes disagree, if we're spiritually

mature, we should be able to sit down and talk

about these things. You give your reasons for

scripture and I don't care whether it's eschat

ology or whatever it is, sit down and reason

together

from the Word of God as we grow together

towards spiritual maturity. Next time,

whatever that time

is, I am not going to guarantee you that it's

going to be next Sunday because who knows what

a week

I'm going to bring, but I plan to be back in

Ephesians 5/18 next Sunday and we'll get down

into

what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit

and you read ahead as we look toward next

Sunday.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for

this day. Apostle Paul's teaching on this.

Lord,

help us to understand this the way you would

have us to understand it. Help us to buy our

actions.

Lord, let it play out in our life in the way

that is right, in a way that is biblical,

in a way that is pleasing to you. As

Christians, that's our goal. Our goal is to be

pleasing to

you with our life. Our goal is to bring you

glory with our life. Our goal is to grow in

spiritual

maturity. Help us to do that and as always, if

there are any here who have not come to

saving faith in Christ, I pray you would draw

them to yourself and they would come talk to

me

and say, "Hey, I need to talk to you. I got to

tell you something." Lord, we will rejoice

with

all those in heaven at one center. Thank you

for this day. Thank you for your church. Thank

you

for the opportunity to preach to your people.

Bless the ending of our service and we pray

that all that we've done today has been done

in such a way as to bring you all the glory.

Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

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