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.
[BLANK_AUDIO]