Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Statement Of Faith

Holy Spirit Part 2

INTRO: Mediocrity: Webster defines it as 'the quality or state of being mediocre. moderate or low quality, ordinary'

     Mediocrity is what the world often sees when it looks at the Christian life. Mediocrity is often what the church sees when it looks at those ministering  in the pulpits. Mediocrity is what church leadership often sees when it looks at the service and ministry of the people of God.
     Mediocrity...it's good enough for the church...it is enough to get by...God knows that I am not perfect. We don't hear these words but they are often on the minds of those Christians who are resigned to the belief that this is all there is. Why do many Christians languish in mediocrity?

ILL: In W. Texas there is a famous oil field known as the 'Yates Pool'. During the Depression, this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money on his ranching operation to pay his mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. Whith little money for clothes or food, his family, like many others, had to live on welfare. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling W. Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he was going to be able to pay his bills.
     Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told Mr. Yates that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a well and he signed the lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. the first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test on one of the wells showed that it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
    And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he was living on welfare. A multimillionaire living at poverty. The problem? He did not know the oil was there. He owned it, but he just didn't know what he truly possessed.

     I can't think of a better illustration of the Christian life. When, by faith, you become a child of God, you become an heir of God and all of His resources are made available to you. Everything you need to be a man or woman of God and to be fruitful in your life and ministry is available to you in Christ. But, we still live in spiritual poverty for a lack of knowledge and perhaps faith that God will keep His promises to us.

    The Christian life is a life of purpose and power. Christ has given us an almost unbelievable promise in
Jn 14:12 'I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.'

     Do we really believe that? Many Christians would have to admit, if they were honest, that they did not believe that promise is for them...others more spiritual perhaps, but not for them...not for the average Christian.  That is very sad.

     It is true that we can do nothing on our own, in your own energy and with your own resources that will account for great works before God. BUT, it is Christ Himself, living in you in all His resurrection power, walking with you in your body, thinking in your mind, loving in your heart, speaking with your lips.  It is He who will empower you with His Holy Spirit to accomplish,  not mediocre but great things in and through your life. The Christian life lived in the power of the Spirit is for everyone.

     The problem we have to deal with is that the modern evangelical church lacks power because of an under emphasis on a personal, powerful and dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit. We're uncertain, afraid of whee the Holy Spirit might take us. Yet, 2 Tim 1:7 tells us that God has not give us a spirit of timidity or fear, but of power.

TRANS: Turn to Eph. 5:15 where Paul answers the question on all our minds, what are we to do?

I. What are we to do? (Eph. 5:15-17)
Read: Eph. 5:15-17

     What are we to do when our life is not the abundant life promised by Jesus. Understand what the will of God is. What is the will of God? According to this text..2 specific actions on our part.

1. Walk carefully and wisely in life.
     Live as people taught by God through His Word. Live as people who have received wisdom for God and have been enabled to walk in a manner worthy of your calling in Christ. Discerning, making right choices, not living foolishly.

2. Make the most of every opportunity God has given you.
     This is a metaphor taken from the marketplace. It means buying opportunities. And time is of the essence here.  Empowered Christians use their time wisely and with eternity in view. We are to 'seize the day' when God places before us an opportunity for ministry or service or comfort or evangelism. Why? Because the days are evil. Because times are difficult. Because we will be tempted to fall away from God and be lazy in our efforts, mediocre in the  fulfillment of our opportunities and responsibilities.

    We are to make the MOST of every opportunity God places before us. What usually happens is that we say, 'well that was the best I could do.' In fact that is a true statement when you do it w/o Spirit empowerment. It may be perhaps the best you can do but it will be mediocre, of low quality in the sight of God and to the world as well.

     These two ( walking carefully and wisely in life and making the most of every opportunity) are closely related. To walk (live) carefully and wisely you need to make the most of the opportunities God gives you. But to make the most of these opportunities, you have to live wisely, be discerning, and make wise decisions.

     To raise your Christian life from the depths of mediocrity. To have a personal, powerful and dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit which brings joy and passion to your life and ministry requires that you understand that the will of God is for you and all believers is the same.

 Walk carefully and wisely in life and make the most of every opportunity that God places before you.

Trans: That is the WHAT...but the big question is the HOW. How can we do this which God requires? Let's continue in the text. Verse 18

II. How are we to do it? (Ephesians 5:18)
Read: Eph. 5:18

 Paul gives us his answer by stating a negative and positive command. First the negative. Do not be drunk with wine.

    A. Negative Command
         Now I realize that none of you will know this answer but I will ask it anyway. What do they call the special time at bars where their are reduced drink prices and often free food?  Happy Hour. And why do they call it happy hour? Because there is sadness, depression, anxiety and fear in many lives today.  Many drink to forget their past troubles, their present disappointments or their future worries.

         Everyone wants to be happy. There is a certain kind of joy or uninhibitedness that comes from being drunk. Drinking does make the heart glad (PS. 104:15)  But that is not all drinking brings. Your judgment is impaired. The alcohol takes control and you lose control. You do things that you normally wouldn't do and it often gets you in trouble. This is what the text calls dissipation.

         The person who gets drunk allows him/herself to be placed under the control of the alcohol. So Paul says don't be drunk with wine, don't give up control but if he was speaking here of temperance it would have been out of place.  Instead Paul is  relating being drunk with wine and it's controlling effect with being filled with the Holy Spirit. Which is his positive command.

         But, before I look at the positive command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I want to take a sidebar and examine something I found to be very interesting about being filled. You see God is in the filling business.

SIDEBAR:
EX. 35:30-31 ' Then Moses said to the sons of Israel, "See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. "And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge and in all craftsmanship'

Deut. 34:9a ' Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom.'

1 Kings 8:10-11 'And it came about when the priests came from the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.'

Psalm 71:8 'My mouth is filled with Thy praise, And with Thy glory all day long.'

Luke 1:15 'For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor; and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in his mother's womb.'

Acts 4:8a 'Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them'

     Many, many times all throughout Scripture we read of God filling people, the Temple and even the whole world  with His goodness, glory and praise. God is in the filling business and we are meant to be filled. The problem is, we will often fill up on the cheap gas instead of getting the good stuff.

Psalm 123:3-4 'Be gracious to us, O Lord, be gracious to us; For we are greatly filled with contempt. Our soul is greatly filled With the scoffing of those who are at ease, And with the contempt of the proud.'

Esther 3:5 'When Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, Haman was filled with rage.'

Genesis 6:11-12 ' Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.'

Proverbs 12:21 ' No harm befalls the righteous, But the wicked are filled with trouble.'

Acts 5:3 'But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?'

     Many, many places all throughout Scripture we read  people, places and even the whole earth being filled with evil. We will be filled with something and it seems Satan is in the filling business as well.

     If you are not experiencing the personal, powerful dynamic Spirit filled life God offers to you, it may be because you are being filled with something  besides His Holy Spirit. Whatever it is you are filled with, that is what will control you and you will reap the consequences of that filling. Whether it be greed, anger, lust, pride, envy or even alcohol, you will surrender to it's control and it will master you. You will not understand the will of God. You will be walking unwisely, foolishly and not making the most of your time. And by your own actions  you will be contributing to the evil in the day. AND you will not know the peace and power that comes from being filled by the Holy Spirit.

     Perhaps the only joy you will know will be at the bottom of a bottle of booze, or some other distraction from your true need, being filled with the Spirit.

Luke 16:13 'No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.'

     If you are not filled with the Spirit of God you will be filled with something else and that something else will be the cause of the mediocrity in ministry and service to the Lord. And it then ought to be no surprise that you will lead a powerless, passionless, unfulfilled Christian life.You see, power, passion and fulfillment in the Christian life only comes by being filled with the Holy Spirit, by being under His control and by reaping the fruit of His labor in  and through you.

     Well, I will end here. Next week we will look at the positive side of the command in vs 18. We will examine what it means to be filled, how we go about being filled and how we will know it when we are filled.

Until then, let me challenge to do the hard job of examining your life. See what or who it is you are filled with. The world....or the Holy Spirit.