5. Be Filled With The Spirit - All Things New [Ephesians] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

open your Bibles with me to Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter chapter 5 and yes I assign my shortest passage in the whole series and that wasn't really intentional but maybe it was I don't know so so just kind of to paint the flow here for where we've been going for months months now so Paul's been immersing these new Christians in their new identity right this has been a big theme and so Paul in the first three chapters remember he's retelling the story of what happened in Jesus about God's decision about screwed up sinful self focused human beings to permanently commit himself to love us to bind himself to us by becoming human by creating a new reconciled family of Jesus people out of Jew and non-jew and where he takes up personal residence by means of the Spirit and so a big part of what we've been tracing is how Paul is just immersing these Christians in their identity you used to be whoever whoever you were before you heard the story about Jesus but if you've put your trust in Jesus and have become a part of his people and placed your faith in him then you are in new new think of all of the new types of identity that we've discovered here in in Paul's letter to the Ephesians your new kinds of humans he said this more than one time - what do times he said you're holy you actually are distinct and set apart now from your previous identity he says that you're more loved than you can possibly imagine your beloved children your children of the light you don't have to live in the dark anymore and so as we moved into chapter 4 and then 5 Paul's been really specific and clear you'll remember about laying out what we're calling parameters and these parameters are indications of what living into this new identity looks like what does sex and money in relationships and anger and work and generosity and work ethic and how does all of this look like in light of who we really are now in Jesus and so he's been painting these parameters and so over this little it's just a little paragraph right here chapter 5 verses 15 through 21 and he actually takes a new turn here because he doesn't really describe any parameters here what he does want to do is show the immense amount of freedom that we have and so I want to pick up illustration the JA shoes last week and then we'll kind of dive we'll dive into the text here any Josh mentioned this it really resonated with me and I kind of fought through it and I actually lived through it in this last week because he talked about Paul as being like a loving parent who's trying to give these kids these new children's spiritual children of his freedom by giving them parameters and that sounds paradoxical to us or maybe even contradictory but I mean free to we think of freedom as having no parameters I can do whatever I want but that's not at least the Gospels version of freedom doing whatever you want leads to ruined human lives and so it's actually in the freedom of having parameters so I actually just live I lived it this week because I'm the parent of a small two-year-old caveman and so and otherwise known as a toddler but toddlers and cavemen really they're about the same same kind of mentality and so in in love we have to lay down parameters one of my goals as a parent is is to just burn into this little guy's psyche how loved and committed we are to him no matter what for the long haul right that's about his identity but I also have as one of my goals as a parent to lay out parameters and keep him from killing himself basically which would happen almost every day I'm certain if I didn't intervene you write or Jessica did didn't intervene because he's just into everything and so we've laid out parameters like in our home where we have a whole room that's off-limits to him through the little door you know the little door prevented his door that guy that thing there and then we have about three cupboards that are that are off-limits to him because there's like knives in there and they're sewing needles up in the room and so on and so like we've created these parameters and we pay attention as pouring like a parameters that cramps my style or whatever we tend to focus on parameters what I'm being told I can't do but what we usually neglect and what roman often neglect when he's obsessing over what's in that cupboard is the fact that the whole rest of the house is open to him I mean even my stuff that I leave in his presence is open to him and he gets into it all of the time I often have packs of chewing gum that I buy specifically for the purpose so putting in my mouth when I finished teaching because you know I've been talking for a long time and so he just he can't he can't prevent himself from getting in to bite you and go I don't know what it is he just loves it but whatever you know the whole house is open to him except these little spaces this immense amount of freedom and so what Paul has been doing is just kind of map this on to Ephesians then is he's been laying out these parameters of what it means to live into our new identity and there's really not that many and what it does is it leaves open this whole part of our lives our day-to-day lives where there's just absolute freedom to live as these new kinds of people and the most of what we do in our day to day lives doesn't cross those parameters it involves just like work and family and finding some career path or providing for myself or others or doing so I mean that's that stuff and you search the Bible in vain for God telling you like where to move and where to get a job or something you know so like there's no parameters on that there's just freedom and so here's what Paul says to this community of his spiritual children he's laid out the parameters to protect the freedom of these new Christians and here he's going to guide us into the arena of freedom and what does Paul have to say as he guides people into areas of freedom read verse 15 he says be be supercareful be really careful then how you live not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil you know therefore don't be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is don't get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery a word none of us used in the last month I'm certain perhaps debauchery instead be filled with the spirit speaking to one another with Psalms hymns and songs from the spirit sing and make music from your heart to the Lord always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ this all this all goes together and actually as we read that paragraph it's kind of like reading a little top ten like bumper sticker verses that Christians like to put on their cars or something like that you know it's still got a bunch of great little one-liners about that oh yeah wise and you know discern the Lord's will and be filled with the spirit and Psalms and stuff but how does all of this go together this is all what Paul is doing what are your guiding light as you go out into your life as a Christian you know what the parameters are but most of your life is just open there before you like what are you supposed to do and how do you know how to make decisions in the areas of great freedom that we have as Christians and Paul says Paul says wisdom discerning God's will and being filled with the spirit as your guiding lights as you go into your freedom as a Christian and you know that you're tapping into and using those when your life results in being connected with music giving thanks and submitting to other people so do I need to say any more I think I'll just kind of wrap it up right here at me go settle off so so no no there's many things we could explore and we don't have time to do them all I just want to really what I want to focus in on is how these three these three things with them discerning God's will and being filled with the spirit because they go they go together look down with me at verse 15 he begins by saying is you consider this arena of freedom in your life he says just be super intentional be super careful your decisions matter what you do in your day-to-day life it really matters how you live matters be really intentional and careful and then what he gives is these three three pairs there's three little contrasting pairs and you may not have noticed them as you read as you read through but there's three pairs he says not this but this not this but this not this but this three pairs did you see them here what's the first pair you see it he says not as unwise but wise making the most of every opportunity verse 17 therefore it don't be foolish but understand the Lord's will don't get hammered but be filled with the spirit do you see them there these three pairs now let me kind of throw them up here and my alignment got off there there you go perpetual PowerPoint problems there's a lot of peas in one sentence so serif you've got if you want to work I don't know work on that in between in between the service was where so but you guys see that there you see the three pairs right so and they're not just a ragbag of topics like here Oh Paul just thought of wisdom that's a good thing to talk about now and no deserting God's well you know oh it's good to put that in or something nice really really you really choosing his words carefully and all of these the three don'ts and the three dues are all connected right so so in this area of freedom as we approach our lives there's no rules there's just go be a human being so here's the parameters sex that can really set you you're often money and generosity in relationships so let's get the parameters there about what it means to be a huge new human what are you going to do with your life now and he uses these three these three pairs right here wisdom discerning God's will and being filled with the spirit and they're all connected so somehow Paul's definition of what it means to be a wise person is waking up and having an intuition or learning is you going through like what God's will for that day is and if you're going to be a wise person who knows how to discern God's will for what you're doing on any given day what that means is you need to learn how to be influenced by the Spirit and there's going to be three behaviors that are constantly going to sabotage your ability to be a fully mature human being and that's being stupid and getting drunk because that's going to ruin everything it's going to set you back strides from growing and maturing as a Christian so let's kind of let's dive into these real quick here into these three and you'll see how they how they issue into the the spirit influence applies so he says be careful don't be unwise but wise and here's what's interesting when you hear the English word wise I think most of us we we think of something that happens in your head right we think of someone's wise we think of someone who's smart writer who has a lot of a lot of insight and that's involved in what the Bible's trying to get as it talks about wisdom but there's a number of things going on but the Bible has is a more robust really different version of what wisdom is the Bible talks about knowledge it talks about understanding but you notice it has different words for that wisdom and particularly Paul's it has one Old Testament passage in the back of his head here and this might Joe it always point this out to you because I'm a geek right so it's from Exodus chapter 31 and lets us read the passage here and you'll see how Paul's drawing on the language of this passage here this is where the Israelites are at Mount Sinai they've been redeemed out of slavery in Egypt and God's designing his own personal dwelling place in the midst of his people that he's redeemed and so the Lord said to Moses he said see I've chosen Bethel lo the son of early the son of who are the son of Judah and I have filled him with the Spirit of God with wisdom come on right it's right there you see it you see it so and and because I like to do this kind of thing here's the Hebrew word for wisdom right right there you want to take a crack at pronouncing it it's a yeah right here like what those are not sounds my mouth is used to making so the KH is the letter in Hebrew oh right oh ho ma don't you lay with me oh c'mon okay I have filled him with my spirit that is with hokhmah and understanding and knowledge with all kinds of skills rescue - and and what's the how do you know this guy is filled with the Divine Spirit and hokhmah we'll look he's going to make artistic designs for work and gold and silver and bronze and to cut and set stones and to work in wood and engage in all kinds all kinds of crafts the the base vision of wisdom in the Bible is actually not necessarily your IQ or how smart you are do you have to have advanced degrees to be an artisan no you just have to be really good at doing this kind of right and you get how do you get good at doing this kind of thing well you do a lot of it right you practice and so on and then in this case God is animating this skill set that this guy has so wisdom at least in these passages and a lot of others like the Bible wisdom is a skill that you cultivate about bringing potential out of something and making something awesome it's about taking the raw materials here's a like a whole bunch of gold earrings melt them down vessel and make something awesome that this functions as a candle right so there's make sure there's that place for seven candles but just go for it it needs to have flowers on it okay Rhett just go right there's just freedom here take bring the raw potential out of this material and make something awesome that's wholesome ah and and God apparently takes great joy in investing his own personal presence in the lives of people to inspire them to make something and so when Paul saying be careful how you live not as unwise but as wise look how he defines it look back down here at verse 16 how did he define what it means to be wise not as smart or super intellectual or bookish what does he say in verse 16 what is wisdom he says it's making the most of every opportunity so this isn't actually particularly religious well Paul saying is this whole just swath of our lives their day-to-day lives there's just relationships and work and bills and what you do with your time and you can as a Christian be really stupid and just not make the most of your life and you're still a Christian Jesus is utterly committed to you and He loves you but you're just not you're not being wise with your lives how then should we live in our new identity he urged is going to urge us every one of us by the presence of God in our lives has this presence that's urging us to become more and more capable of just making good decisions with our lives you have people you have relationships you have your past you have your history you have whatever your story is and you are absolutely loved and cherished by your Creator Jesus loved you and gave himself for you here's your life go for it and be wise make the most of it it's just very practical you couldn't get here and there's this connection between being wise and just making wise decisions with my life and God's commitment to be personally present with me so let's keep on going so that's the first one don't be unwise of you wise make the most of every opportunity look at the next pair he says so don't be foolish but rather understand what the Lord's will is so if I'm wise it means I'm cultivating this understanding that in any given day I can make decisions that are more in line or less in line with God's will and this is one that really throws a lot of SRI loop I think and because many of us have a conception of God's will as if it's like some secret hidden purpose that you need to figure out for your life something you know and so is that God's will that I take this job or that I look should I try to get married should ask her out do I want to you know this is it God's will and I think many of us the way we talk about it in my hem God's will am I going against God's will we think of God's will as if it's like some hit like it's like a point on a map and I need to find out where the point is and then figure out how I'm supposed to get there and that's not how the Bible talks about God's well Paul himself he talks about God's will sometimes to talk about the parameters the God has set in place for our new life as new kinds of humans in Jesus and so he says for example sexual integrity sexual purity having sex with someone that I'm not in a marriage covenant with that is just never God's will for session Latinas chapter 4 this is God's will for your purity with regard to sex this just never God's will and so that's okay that's where the pressure is there that's a way to ruin my life real quick and start having sex with someone I'm not married to so that's one way you can refer to God's will most of the times that Paul and and the other biblical authors referred to God's will it has to do with discerning what's pleasing to God so for example my little son Roman you know we've blocked off the door there and the three cupboards now he has the whole house available to him what I'm not going to do is like when he has a free afternoon it's like a day off for me and I'm home and and so he's got the whole afternoon I'm not liking hover you know and in the time of his freedom be like play with a play with your trucks now okay now it's time to stop that now we're going to build a tower now Brahmin we're going to play with your teddy bear like that's obnoxious that's better so I'm not going to do that he's free so just do whatever and all of those would be my will which is that he flourish as a little boy and be creative and have fun it will never be quite well for example that he pushes the stool up to the kitchen sink and throws silverware in the garbage disposal that will never be my well even though he really thinks that is cool you think that's cool so there's another parameter we had to make around the garbage disposal but so yes you know I'm saying here all kinds of things could be God's will and in many passages in Paul Paul talks about the renewal of your minds in Romans chapter 12 and he says when a Christians mind is renewed when your new identity in the gospel he says you will be able to cultivate the skill of discerning what God's will is he says is good pleasing and perfect will it just it's just how it's gaining the intuition now some of us might be easier said than done you know so I guess I'm supposed to be wise and I'm supposed to do what's pleasing to God okay so how how does that actually work and that's what the third element of the contrast is and this is where where I want to focus so Paul talks this is the third contrast verse 18 he says don't get drunk with wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the spirit okay now there's a number as a number of things one is about debauchery debauchery I've never I never say the word so I actually don't even know how to pronounce it so so debauchery so that whatever I don't know where the word came from an English none of us use it anymore the word that Paul uses this just means without restraint without any boundaries without any parameters and so some people have thought at this point that actually Paul is making a comparison don't get drunk with wine rather get hammered in the spirit and so I'm and there's large traditions in which the idea is that if I'm a spirit influenced human or spirit filled human it will lead to behavior that might be similar to but just is not actually induced by alcohol is induced by the spirit but it still very bizarre strange behavior and so this is one of those points again god bless Christianity huge tent family lots of different kinds of people but I do think that's one of the places where Paul would be like wow wow it didn't see that one didn't see a misunderstanding of what I was trying to say so clearly it's a contrast don't be unwise be wise don't be foolish understand what the Lord's will is their contrast right don't get drunk that's a whole kind of behavior that we'll talk about in a second be filled with a spirit that's a completely different kind of behavior the only similarity between the two is that we're talking about some kind of outside influence now you can be wise and unwise of your own accord but to get drunk or to be influenced by the spirit means there's something outside yourself that's influencing you that's the commonality here and so he uses yes this image here of not getting drunk with wine and all of a sudden the idea of making the most being totally on point discerning making good decisions discerning whether this decision what I'm doing with my day if that's going to be something that's pleasing to the Lord that involves like you beginning to think about your lives and one way that you cannot think about your life is to get drunk right and that in fact is one of the primary reasons why many people drink regularly is because they thinking about their life is too painful and so Paul in this new humanity he's laying another parameter here in this new humanity there are all kinds of influences you want to avoid especially influences that will in any way impair you from being able to make good decisions in the moment and discerning what God's what God's will is now there's this who go alcohol and Christianity that's not controversial at all is it right so I have three minutes to talk about it so what so here's what's happening here you you will not find a prohibition anywhere in the Bible that says that you drinking is a sin or consumption of alcohol is is a sin in some way you guys with me on that one so actually I should tell you with me that is the case you will not find that verse in the Bible what you will find is the exact opposite so Psalm 104 it for example talks about celebrating the gift of human family being able to cultivate the harvest out of the ground and being able to enjoy oil and wine which gladdens the heart have meant Psalm 104 verse 15 and Jesus when he was celebrating the creation of this new family at the wedding in Cana he turns the water into not grape juice this is a wine okay so the Bible talks about when it does talk about alcohol it talks about its potential to be something beautiful and always connected to celebration of good things and lies but there are just as many passages that while they don't prohibit drinking they absolutely warn about the abuses of alcohol this is one of them proverbs chapter 31 is another really poignant profound passage and to me there's no there's no coincidence that Paul is talking about alcohol in the context of being wise or being foolish alcohol is one of those things that you have to be very wise with isn't it because for some people enjoying a bottle of wine at dinner with friends going out for a drink is actually a way of celebrating their friendships is celebrating that manhattan's when they're done well tastes really really good it's so you know what I mean like the craft beer it's part of the culture of Portland right support the local economy that kind of thing you know it's great it's a way to enjoy the culture of our city and for some people the same exact behavior might be their way of just thanking Jesus for good taste and friendship here in Portland and for another Christian the same exact behavior might be utterly foolish utterly foolish and destructive because of that person's unique story because of alcoholism that runs in their family because they know that their temperament tends towards addictive kinds of behavior or because I know that I'm in a tough season in life and there's a temptation right here to have another nun a third and then another because I don't want to think about my life right now and that's exactly what Paul is focusing on this it's an outside influence but not just deaden it deadens your mind actually what what alcohol does is if you google I don't know why I'm smiling about this but well actually you see in a second so if you uh if you google alcohol and brain science which is just a really interesting experience if you do that what you'll find is Wikipedia pages they have all this summaries of research on how alcohol affects your brain and how about go affects your brain it affects a lot of things about your brain one of the main parts of your brain is called the prefrontal lobe now I had already known about the prefrontal lobe because I learned that on ago that it develops much more slowly in males than in females and your prefrontal lobe is the part of your brain that my son lacks right now and it's the ability to to be aware of and think through multiple sequences of consequences to your action so when he has his like big metal truck and he still wants to throw it at the window he's he's actually not thinking about what will happen to the window he's just like that's cool this right he's just thinking at this moment right here and what alcohol impairs is exactly the part of your brain that allows you to wisely think through the consequences of your decision right as this is not rocket science and we didn't need brain scans to tell us that getting drunk makes you stupid okay but it's really interesting because this all it's all fits together then pulse pulse point is that if I'm a Christian if I'm a new kind of human if Jesus has taken up residence in my life this whole freedom the whole freedom is opened up to me of becoming a new and different kind of person that's that's actually saying no to influences that are going to they're going to dehumanize me then make me less of the human that God is calling me to be and for some of us that might be alcohol and so Paul he doesn't say don't drink he says know who you are don't get drunk don't get drunk and if I had time I would just say a whole long aside here that I'll try and wrap into 30 seconds that will probably be 45 is that as your friendly neighborhood pastor and I know a ton of people around or hope I know a lot of you not really well but I do know a lot of you and I do know that there are a lot of people around to our hope that are celebrating their freedom in Christ because we're that's big part of who we are as door of Hope is centered on grace and avoiding legalism at all costs and there's a lot of people around door of hope that's just straight up drink too much and you know you know if you do you know who you are and so I just want to urge you as your pastor it's not the way forward and perhaps one of one of the most significant moments you could have in your spiritual journey would not be to get all legalist and be like no one's drinking and if you drink your sub Christian or something like this ridiculous right so but at least like maybe you need to take a break for a while maybe you need to just say you're not just out of out of deference to Jesus and wanting to have him be the primary influence in my life I'm just I'm going to call six months right here take a break I'm not going to hold anybody else to it but out of devotion to Jesus I need to do this to make sure I'm not being influenced by alcohol in an unhealthy way that is my minute and forty five aside to those of you who need who need to hear that and the flip side of don't get drunk then is be filled with the spirit and now there's a lot that can be said about this I'll just say a couple things the New Testament uses lent the language of the Spirit this image be filled with the spirit and it might be a very common phrase to most of us we have maybe even use it so many times we don't even know what I mean anymore so when when Paul talks about being filled by the spirit he's not saying you need to somehow get the spirit back into your life again because you've lost Jesus's presence with you the Spirit is the Bible the way of talking about Jesus and God's personal presence being directly with you within you and in our midst is Christian and what the New Testament talks about is that when people wake up to the story of Jesus when you hear the story of Jesus and when it clicks and they realize like holy cow Jesus is and what he did for me the Bible talks about that person making a conversion making a confession of faith in Jesus so that's a work of the Spirit that's Jesus's direct presence and the perking up to that and there's a new awareness and the new sensitivity and a new reality of the presence of Jesus in my life New Testament uses words like baptism like being immersed in the presence of Jesus or even look just quickly turn across the page to chapter 4 look at chapter 4 verse 30 here's another word Paul uses to talk about this Paul says don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were what what does he say here not baptize he says with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption so if I've made a profession of faith in Jesus if I'm making her attempt to just grab on to him and trust and faith and given my devotion to him so if that was a three-month process if that was a year-long process is that was a moment or an evening whatever your conversion process looks like you were you were baptized immersed in the spirit or to use another metaphor it's as if God took a stance and he just said mine put mine marked and sealed and it's actually the presence of Jesus with you that is part of that seedling it's like your mark your stamped you can't do anything that you can't undo it you know you've got your number now from here on out right but what you can do you can't unbaptized and seal yourself but what you can do is grieve the presence of Jesus what you can do is what Paul says elsewhere is extinguish or put out the flame of the Spirit in your lives or to say it more positively what he is inviting us into is newer and newer experiences of having the presence of Jesus influence and fill up more and more and then refill and fill up more of my life and just when you thought like wow I'm actually getting some traction as a Christian have you discovered this whole other area of your life where he's not filling up any part at all and then you got to get you know what I'm saying here what'd he say be filled with the spirit now how does that work if it was simple we wouldn't have to talk about it but it's not simple and so I'm going to both close and then also just kind of share the the one way that this has made most sense to me over over the years and has to do I shared about my children i'ma share about my my marriage tread lightly here right so so I Tim Maki I am without a doubt I am the best version of myself as a human being when my wife is present in my life with without a doubt getting married her was the best possible thing I could have ever done believe me believe me and so when and I know this I know that I'm the best version of myself when she's in my life is because when she goes away she occasionally will take like the boys up to be with her parents a few hours away or something and when she's gone for more than a day I just revert back to these old ways and these old ways for me involve staying up way too late watching skateboard videos on Thrasher calm they involves eating way too much ramen or frozen pizza and I just becomes a disorganized I'm actually not that organized of a person I tend to procrastinate on things and and there you go and it's just like I just watch my life crumble but when I don't live with my wife there's something about her actual presence I love you sweetie wherever you are in the room in my life she makes me a better human being now here's what here it raises an interesting question then is so her presence in my life she just by her presence compels me inspires me to want to be more on point more responsible get better sleep patterns you might be more generous just better in every way and I know this is because that changes when she leaves so so because of her influence on my life I think back over the 12 years that we we've been married and I think of all of the ways that she's enhanced and made me grow as a human being now the interesting question is this is is that me is that me doing that and growing and changing as a human being is it me or is it her you guys get my question here in other words I know for a fact that I've grown and changed as a human is that just me making really good decisions and doing that or is it her and see that's the wrong question to ask because she has a high degree of influence on my life but I also allow her to have a high degree of influence in my life so sometimes she'll just like suggest things to me like why did you say that that way to that person yeah or you know like so or all the time she'll be even more force like what were you thinking when you were doing that are you you know are you see are you kidding me right now does that just happen you know so whatever whether it's really nice or maybe a little more aggressive whatever she has a degree of influence but at the end of the day who has to make the decision to come under the influence of her I do it's me I have to make the decisions that will be difficult that will be about setting new habits and new patterns of behavior but there's no way I would ever be motivated to make those decisions if she weren't in my life in the first place do you see where I'm going with this here that's what I think this is exactly what Paul means if it weren't for the presence of Jesus in your life speaking into your life you wouldn't care you wouldn't you would just be kind of be the human that you think is the right way to be a human being or you can open yourself up to this new person who's trying to speak into your life and whose presence will both convict and also speak new truths and point out ways like yep that's totally like outside the parameters that's just not wise that's just stupid you know like don't make that it's about opening myself up to this new relational presence and so look what he says here he says don't get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery but be filled with the spirit allow this new presence to so fill your life that you actually it's like having a new person in your lives and that might seem weird to us cos like well Jesus is invisible so like how does he talk to me yeah my god so Jessica she's just right there but like Jesus how is he and this is exactly what he goes on to say what does in the fruits of the spirit filled life one of which let's just keep going this finished reading passage he says speaking to one another with Psalms hymns and songs from the spirit sing and make music from your heart to the Lord the Book of Psalms was the songbook of the earliest Christians the Scriptures have always been the primary prayer book and songbook of both Jewish and Christian traditions and so it's precisely through the scriptures but also through each other that we allow Jesus to begin to have input into our lives and if specially you know that a community of Jesus is alive with the presence of Jesus and its myths when there's new poetry there's new music that when we sing we're actually teaching each other but we're also singing and giving thanks he goes on giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of Jesus worship is not just about singing songs it's about new poetry inspired by the scriptures where we're teaching each other and giving each other new language and ideas about what it means to be a Christian and then as we go throughout our day you're at 3:00 p.m. you had a hard morning at work and then all of a sudden is just the voice in your mind like do that what you said to that person lame lame and when you made that decision last night stupid stupid and you know and you go holy cow and and all of a sudden there's their scripture there's words from a song and then you go out for your weekly or bi-weekly you know a cup of coffee with your friend to read the Bible together pray for each other because it's part of what it means to be in a community and then you're like dang it from them to really and then all of a sudden you have this outside influence speaking into your life that's compelling you to change into Grau and then what it leads to in the last verse verse 21 is then the last fruit or the outcome of the Spirit in our lives is submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ it's actually that we allow the community and the scriptures to speak into my life and actually being open to submitting humbling myself like if left of my own devices I'm actually probably going to be pretty stew and make dumb decisions I need the input of others into my lives and that it seems to me is the picture that Paul is painting right here he lays out the parameters of what it means to be a new human he gives us this huge area of freedom and then he talks about influences becoming a new kind of human being wise learning how to discern what God's will is on any given day and how do you do that you become open to the influence of Jesus presence of Jesus and the Spirit in your life and you submit to it because that's the way that we're going to grow that might have been the shortest little sermonette I've given a door of hope period and I'm really proud of that so I'm going to close in prayer and I just what I want to do is just challenge you there's so many different angles that this could connect and and connect with our lives but I would just like just ask yourself the simple question are you even aware or are you open to the presence of Jesus influencing your lives what if it's some part of your life that you don't want to change or you don't think needs to be changed like what if the spirit being filled with the spirit it's going to mean going there are you open to that and that will tell you whether or not you will be open to being filled with the spirit or not let me close with a word of Prayer you

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[u/EstablishmentNo2571]

That part is true. But owning everything in your world vs complete submission to Christ is something I have not understood clearly