Efésios 5
Wayne Barber · Citado em PreceptAustin
Efésios 5:18
Barber asks "How do I live wisely in a dark, hostile world? I am constantly saying to the Lord, "Yes, Lord, whatever it is." By saying "yes" to Him, I am saying "no" to my flesh. I am being controlled moment by moment by moment. I am constantly aware of His presence in my life, moment by moment by moment, practicing the presence of Christ as I am willing to yield to whatever His will is in my life. (Sermon) C H
Efésios 5:18
Barber on filling - As we yield to the Holy Spirit of God Who resides in our spirit, as we surrender to Him, as we allow Him to control us, we experience the fullness of all that He has given us in Christ Jesus....We are never to grieve the Spirit. We are to continually be under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. When you and I are willing to do that, we start tapping into that which is ours in Christ Jesus. Then comes the fullness of God (Ed: He is referring specifically to Paul's prayer for fullness of God in Eph 3:19). The degree of my surrender determines the degree of my realization of the fullness that He offers. J N Darby wrote "To have the Holy Ghost is one thing; to be filled with the Holy Ghost is another. When He is the one source of my thought, I am filled with Him. When He has possession of my heart, there is power to silence what is not of God, to keep my soul from evil, and to guide in every act of my life and walk; so that in both I am kept apart from the world. The Word of God teaches the Children of God how to live while the Spirit of God supplies the power to live for the Glory of God. Dr Howard Hendricks has a witty exhortation that relates to the saint's continually letting the Word of Christ dwell within "The text (1Peter 2:2) tells us: in order that you might grow. Please note, it is not that you may know. Certainly you can’t grow without knowing. But you can know and not grow. The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image. Not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts but to transform your life....How many years have you been a Christian? Nine months? Seven or eight years? Thirty-nine years? The real issue is, "How much have you grown?" Step up to God's growth chart, and measure your progress. That’s what this passage is teaching. So the first reason for studying Scripture is that it is a means of spiritual growth. There is none apart from the Word. It is Gods primary tool to develop you as an individual. (Living By the Book Revised - Howard Hendricks). Warren
Efésios 5:18
Barber - How do I live wisely in a dark, hostile world? I am constantly saying to the Lord, "Yes, Lord, whatever it is." By saying "yes" to Him, I am saying "no" to my flesh (cp Gal 5:16-note - walking by the Spirit effectively "neutralizes" our natural fleshly desires). I am being controlled moment by moment by moment. I am constantly aware of His presence in my life, moment by moment by moment, practicing the presence of Christ as I am willing to yield to whatever His will is in my life. John
Efésios 5:18
Barber explains what being filled with the Spirit does not mean. (1) Being filled with the Spirit of God does not mean a dramatic and sudden experience that somehow catapults you into some kind of spiritual hierarchy, into a permanent state that is called the second blessing. Forget it. That is not what Paul is describing. In fact, we have every blessing in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:3-note). Why would we want to look for a "second one?" (2) Being filled with the Spirit is not some act of our own flesh that seeks God’s approval. It is not someone saying something like "Okay, God, I love you and I am going to go out there and do your work and You help me out." That has nothing to do with being filled with the Spirit. 3) Being filled with the Spirit is not the same as possessing the Spirit or being indwelt by the Spirit. You possess the Spirit the moment you became a child of God (Ro 8:9-note). 4) Being filled with the Spirit is not a process of progressively receiving bigger and bigger doses of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever been around some of these pious, "I am more spiritual than you are" people? They walk around as if to say, "Man, I’ve got a bigger dose of the Holy Spirit yesterday. How much did you get?" They act as if they had more of God. That has nothing to do with what Paul is talking about. As a believer you have all of God you will ever get (cp Col 2:10-note). It is God now getting all of you that is a key to being filled. 5) Being filled with the Spirit is not the same as the baptism with the Spirit. Remember, there is no such thing as the baptism of the Spirit. It is baptism with or by, by the means of. We are baptized into the body of Christ with the Holy Spirit. That is salvation. When we were baptized into the body, we received every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. In Him is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. CONTINUAL CONTROL BY THE SPIRIT Pastor Wayne Barber helps us understand what it means to be continually controlled by the Spirit... How do you explain this? Take a glass of water. Some people think that being filled with the Spirit means to fill that glass up and guzzle it down. But after you do that it is empty. Now you have to be filled again, so you fill it back up and drink it down. Now it is empty, so you have to fill it up again. So you are constantly being filled, emptied, filled, emptied of the Spirit. No, that is not it! Take the glass, the same glass, and knock the bottom out of it. Make a conduit out of it, a pipe that something can travel through. Take that glass, put it into the water and let the river flow through it. That is being filled with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is already there. It hasn’t gone anywhere. You can’t empty yourself of Him. He is already there. However, you can clog it up. You can shut it down. You can stop the flow. So therefore, constantly in my life, I have to stay unhindered so the Holy Spirit of God can flow and minister His life through me. I can’t minister to anybody. I can’t do anything. It is Christ doing it through me. What do I do? It involves several things. First of all, it involves a confession of sin. Confession is the word homologeo. It means to say to God, "You are exactly right. I want to agree with you. Everything in my life is a result of me. It is not the result of you. I’ve missed the mark, which is what the word sin means, and God, I agree with you." The more I confess sin, the more I am aware of the old garment. The more I am aware of the old garment, the sicker I am going to get of it and the more I want to wear the new garment. Confession of sin is very, very important to the believer’s life. Moment by moment, day by day, it is constant. I guess Romans 12:1, 2 helped me more than anything else, when you think of being filled with the Spirit as involving confession of sin, surrender of will, surrender of intellect, surrender of body, surrender of time, surrender of talents, surrender of desires, and surrender of possessions. Romans 12:1-2 drew a picture of what it meant to be constantly "be being filled" with the Spirit of God. In this passage Paul writes... I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Ro 12:1-note, Ro 12:2-note) It is a process folks, day by day, constantly being broken, constantly yielding. It is not an arrival. It is a pursuit. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Think of this as a blank sheet of paper. You sign the bottom of it and give it to God. It is like going to a surgeon who says, I am going to do surgery on your life. Here is a blank sheet of paper. Sign it. We say, No, I am not signing it if it is all blanks. What are the blanks for? He says, That is what I may have to cut out of you when I do surgery on you. Everything I cut out of you is keeping you from being everything you ought to be. I am going to go home and check this guy out. God says to do the same thing for Him. Give Him permission to your body. Give Him permission to your life. Present yourself afresh day by day and moment by moment. God, cut out of me anything that is hindering me from being everything you want me to be. I give you full rights to myself. I want nothing but what you want in my life. Let me ask you. Have you laid everything at the altar of Jesus Christ? Are you being filled with the Spirit of God? (Ed: Be careful here - don't think that you're "laying everything" on the altar wins God's approval. That is another very subtle form of legalism. It's not you "doing" as much as it is your "being." Surrender your will to the sweet will of the Spirit and He will fill you.) Are you so full of yourself that somehow you have meshed the two garments together to the point that you don’t know the difference from one or the other? You see, being filled with the Spirit is a constant surrendered attitude to Jesus (the Spirit of Christ - Ro 8:9). He wants whatever it is that usurps His authority to be Lord and king of our life (Ed: As an aside, whatever comes between you and God is a form of idolatry!). What is it in your life? I want to tell you, folks, when you start letting Him control you, the garment comes on, the strengthening starts and it is all the same thing. He said the same thing three different ways. You need nothing from the outside. Oh, no. That is dissipation. You already have it on the inside. Be strengthened from the inside out, not from the outside in. (Ephesians 5:18-21 - Be Filled With the Spirit - 2) Harry