Walking Wisely Part 2

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 is where we're at, and we'll get to point number three today. This is Walking Wisely, Part 2. Part 1, "Walking Wisely," was last week, and so today's title is "Walking Wisely, Part 2." Today's message is going to help us to know God's will and be Spirit-filled.

As we go through the text, let's warm back up to these truths. Last week, take-home truth number one was that the wise walk intentionally. Look with me in the text in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15, at how we are to walk intentionally and that is carefully. In verse 15 the Bible says, "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise." And as you have seen in today's worship service thus far, we are as a church overly blessed with strong and very wise men of God — especially myself. I'm very blessed to have such wisdom and wise counsel and godly men around me, and I'm blessed by that. You are as well. People who walk according to God's Word — that makes you wise. And so if you are to be very careful how you walk, that means you're going to be intentional in the steps that you take.

So point number one is that the wise walk intentionally — not carelessly, not flippantly. And you know that as Paul has opened up this large subject of how to walk, it means how you think, how you talk, how you live, what decisions you make. It's a wide variety of metaphoric ideas on how you walk, and so we are very intentional in that, not careless.

And then point number two from last week is that the wise maximize their time. Look at the next verse, verse 16: "Making the most of your time because the days are evil." Now in the legacy translation — this is the New American Standard — it says that, but it also uses the word in other translations: "redeem the time." And this can be understood that the Ephesian Christians had lived the majority of their life as lost and in darkness, and now that they have been saved, they are buying back time, or redeeming the time that they have lost as lost ones living in darkness. And now they are maximizing their time and buying back their time, they're redeeming the time, and doing everything that they can while they can for the glory of God and to spread the gospel of Christ.

So this is point number two, and the truth we will discuss today is: the wise know God's will. The wise know God's will. Fools do not know God's will, but the wise do. And so in verse 17 the Bible says, "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." And so if you say that verse in reverse, the foolish do not know God's will but those who are wise do.

In fact, if you move forward to chapter 6, verse 6, you will see that we are to do God's will from the heart. This is speaking of slaves and masters, or the applied concept would be employees and bosses. In chapter 6, verse 6, "This is not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." And so we are to do God's will from the heart. That means you are in control of managing your heart. You need to align your heart with God's will, and you can do that. And so the wise know God's will and they do it from the heart.

In the Greek, "will" means pleasure or desire. And so whatever you desire, whatever you set your affections upon, whatever you desire to do — whatever you decide to desire — it's not as if your heart is out of control. Your heart is within your control. You can set your desires and your affections upon the right things, and you can take them away from things. And so this Greek word thelema, which is "will," is pleasure and desire.

Now at the beginning of this verse it says "so then." "So then do not be foolish." This "so then" is a connector. It connects this concept to the prior concept. This means God's will is for you not to waste time. And so again, read it with me: "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." And since it starts with the words "so then," verse 17 connects with the prior concept of making the most of your time. And so the will of God is for you to make the most of your time. The will of God is not for you to waste time. That's foolishness. Time is short.

And so furthermore, failure to apprehend and apply God's will is also — as the text would say — foolishness. Utter foolishness. Now however you would view the fool, Christians can be foolish, and the encouragement from the text is not to be foolish. Proverbs expands upon what the fool does and who the fool is. Read Proverbs if you would like and avoid being foolish. But here in the text it is talking about you apprehending God's will.

And so God's will for us conceptually is parallel with verse 10. Look at verse 10 with me in Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 10 says, "Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." If you are apprehending, comprehending, and entertaining what God's will is, it is also that which is going to be pleasing unto Him. And so these two ideas are parallel. If you know God's will and you do it, then you're pleasing God. And what pleases God is God's will for your life.

Examples of God's will being played out in the text in verses 18, 19, 20, and 21 is to be filled with the Holy Spirit — it's God's will for your life, it's a command. If it unfolds, then you will be speaking, thinking, thanking, helping, and even fearing Christ. You'll be speaking of Christ, you'll be singing of Christ, you'll be thanking Christ, you'll be helping others in the name of Christ. And you're doing that out of respect and honor — the same concept as fearing Christ. You understand that He died on the cross and rose again for you and He's got a purpose for your life. And so God's will is here described as these things.

Now furthermore, if you were to go into other parts of the Bible and grab on to this idea of God's will so that we can fully understand it — we'd be here for a couple of years, I think. But just a few concepts. Bear with me if you would.

2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9 — turn with me there if you would and see more about God's will. God's will is not for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing" — or other translations say "willing" — "not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance." "Repent and believe the gospel" — Mark 1:15. The Bible says in Luke chapter 13, verse 3, "Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish." It's God's will not for you to perish. God's will is for you to repent and believe the gospel. Repent and be saved.

Turn if you would to 2 Corinthians, and you'll see in chapter 7, verse 10, more about God's will. This is superbly fascinating when it comes to repentance and salvation. 2 Corinthians 7:10 speaks of God's will as well. The Bible says, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God." I don't know about you, but I do not enjoy a cup of sorrowfulness. That's not what I wake up and ask the Lord for — the rottenness of the soul, or hardships in life, or stomach-turning events. I don't enjoy sorrowfulness. I don't enjoy regret. None of that stuff is stuff that I wake up and say, "Lord, please" — and in fact it's the exact opposite. "Lord, please keep me from these things. Help me to live a godly life and not have to endure these things."

But here in regards to repentance, your sorrowfulness for sin that you've committed brings you into a deep sense of sorrowfulness. 2 Corinthians 7:10 reads, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God." You see that God has in store for you His will of enduring some sorrowfulness, because "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." You know that, right? And so we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory. We've all had sin in our life and none of us are going to be perfect until we see Christ. And so as we go through life and we sin, you can expect sorrowfulness to come upon you. It's really a gift. It's the will of God for you to experience that soul-weighty regret, because that's going to lead you to repent of the sin.

You see that in the text: "the will of God" — it produces repentance. Now if you've never been saved and this repentance is without regret leading to salvation — for the sinner who has never embraced that sorrowfulness and repented, if they do, then they will be led into salvation. God will save their soul. But for us, if we embrace the sorrowfulness that comes from engaging in sin, it'll lead us to repentance.

Now I just want to say you can gauge how closely you're walking with the Lord depending on how fast you repent. And so if you sin and you stay in your stubborn ways for days, that's exactly the extent to which you are stubborn and mule-like. But if you sin — which we all do — and then you feel the sorrowfulness, and that prompts you to repent right away, then you are truly walking closely with God. You're not stiff-arming the Lord, you're not keeping Him at bay, you're not trying to do it your own way. And so my spiritual advice is to confess your sins as you do them. That's going to help you to walk closely with Christ. And if you like colloquialisms or mountain talk: "Confess them as you does them, don't bunch them." That's mountain for confess them as you do them. Don't let them bunch up in your life and weigh upon those around you.

And so the will of God oftentimes is to embrace the sorrowfulness, and that leads to repentance unto salvation. It's God's will. But more so in regards to God's will — being saved — is for you to have what's called sanctification. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. You need to see that God's will for your life is your personal sanctification — not only salvation, but your personal sanctification is God's will. You cannot stay where you are. You must grow in your faith. You must be developed. You must be sanctified, be being sanctified. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 3 — I'm going to read everything around it, but verse 3 first: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." You can't get out from underneath God's will here. It's very clear. God's will for your life is your sanctification.

Now just for context, I want to read verses 1 through 7 and let this set in for us. Verse 1 says, "Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God" — both of those concepts are in our text in Ephesians 5 — "just as you actually do walk, so that you excel still more." And so Paul wants them to excel more than where they are. Paul wants more for their spiritual walk than where they are. They're doing good, but he even wants them to do better, and this is for their benefit for the glory of God.

In verse 2, "For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality." There's your part. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" — James 4:7. "Flee from your youthful lusts" — 2 Timothy 2:22. Your job is to get out of the darkness. Your job is to avoid, to abstain, to run from these things. When things come on the screen that you ought not see, close your eyes until it passes by. Do not allow your soul to be violated when it comes to immorality. It sticks. Some sins stick. Some sins are stickier than other sins. Immorality is one of those that is terrifying as to the potential results and ramifications of how it is never satisfied. Now grab onto your life. Don't allow Satan to get a foothold on your mind and on your heart. Flee from immorality. Sanctification is God's will for your life.

And so verse 4 says, "That each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification." This is so important — that we are not fooled by the ways of the world into thinking that we can dabble in darkness and participate in sin and yet walk with a holy God.

And so beyond God's will for salvation and sanctification, now I want you to understand that I cannot express to you how important it is for you to know God's will. It's more than being wise — it is being wise, but it's so much more than being wise. It's so important that Jesus prayed for it to be done. In Matthew chapter 6, the model prayer given to us by Jesus is stated. Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 and 10 says, "Pray then this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done.'"

It's so important not only for God's will to be done, but for you to know God's will. And now let me show you — turn to Matthew chapter 7, verse 21. This is important for you to see in your Bible. This is the difference between those who go to heaven and those who do not go to heaven: knowing and doing God's will. Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 gives us this vital information about God's will. Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father is the one who will enter into heaven."

Folks, what you say matters little, but what you do explains the kind of fruit that you have — where your feet go, what your mouth says. It explains the fruit. It describes who you are on the inside. What you do, where you put your feet to the pavement, that matters. If you are doing God's will, if you know and do God's will, those are the ones who are actually going to heaven. And so how important is it for us to be wise and know God's will?

Point number three is the wise know God's will. You need to continue to pursue God's will and do it from the heart. Your willpower is something that should be placed in submission to the Word of God. And so therefore you are fulfilling God's will for your life. If you are saturating yourself in the Word of God and Christ is in you and living through you, then you are aligned with Him. Stay close to Christ and God's will will be being worked out in your life. Fools don't pray for God's will to be done in their life. It's foolishness to them to think, "I'm going to submit to the Lord." But those who are saved are like John 15:5 when Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me bears much fruit."

And so God's will then includes things like joy and learning, suffering, obedience, and even soul satisfaction. God's will is such a large subject. Allow me just a few more moments to help you to understand that the Word will do the work and achieve God's will for your life. And what that will do is it'll take a person from being depleted to overflowing. It'll take a person from sadness to gladness, from ignorant to knowledgeable, from disobedient to obedient. And it'll take a person from emptiness into being satisfied in Christ. This is the work of God's Word fulfilling the will of Him in your life.

And I'll prove it to you. So walking wisely is to delight in doing God's will. If you delight yourself in the Lord, He'll give you the desires of your heart. And that's beautiful — to have your desires aligned with God's will because you enjoy what you're doing. You actually want to do what you are doing. Psalm 40:8 says, "I delight to do Your will. Your law is written on my heart."

Also, walking wisely is to be taught God's will by God personally. And this is interesting. Psalm 143:10 says, "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God." And so if you sit at the feet of Jesus, underneath the presence of the Holy Spirit, with your Bible wide open in prayer, saturating yourself with the Word of God, He will teach you. John chapter 14, verse 26 says that the Holy Spirit's role is to teach you. He will enlighten your mind and give you the understanding that you need to know. And then now it's up to you to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness — 1 Timothy 4:7 — and fulfill God's will.

Walking wisely also means that we see suffering as part of God's will. Just because you're in pain or in suffering doesn't mean that you've done something wrong and you're outside of God's will. A biblical worldview of suffering will see that it is part of God's will. Matthew 26:39 says, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, yet not as I will, but as You will." And verse 42, "Your will be done." You see, Christ says, "If it's possible, remove this from Me." Was it God's will for Job to endure such suffering? Yes, and Job responded well. And it is granted unto us not only to be saved, but to suffer — Philippians 1:29. This is important for us to have a biblical worldview of suffering because it is part of the will of God, and you will be confused as a Christian if you don't understand that part of God's will for your life is suffering. And just because you're suffering doesn't mean you've done something wrong.

Now I definitely recommend — "fess them as you does them, don't bunch them" — and confess everything you possibly can while you're hurting. That's just a natural response to fall on your face and say, "Oh God, do that." But don't condemn yourself. Don't be overly anxious to think of God as one who is pounding you with a hammer. That's not the heart and attribute of God. In fact, He does things in us and through us for His glory and our benefit. A lot of these things are only accomplished through the refining fire.

And so having a biblical view of God's will includes joy, it includes learning, it includes suffering, but it also includes your personal obedience. Your personal obedience. Now in walking with Christ and in God's will, your personal obedience is verification of true faith. The Bible says in Mark 3:35, "For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister." And so Jesus is saying, as He looks around at the crowds, "Whoever is actually doing the will of God, you're My true brother and My true sister in the faith."

John 4:34 explains that being in God's will is more satisfying than food when you're hungry. Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work." And so as Jesus and the disciples were hungry — no doubt — He would easily forgo mealtime to continue serving the Father. John 4:34 again: Jesus said, "My food, or my satisfaction, or what makes me feel full, or what fulfills my true desires is to do the will of God. My stomach is not my God. My soul desires God, and fulfilling the will of God is my soul's desire, my pleasure. I have delighted myself in God's will." And we use self-control in these other things. So following God's will is more satisfying than any type of sin or any type of meal or any type of cheap thing in this world.

God's will includes joy and learning and suffering and obedience and soul satisfaction. And I would love to continue on God's will forever and ever and ever. But just for the sake of time, let's continue to move through the text.

Back to Ephesians chapter 5. We've seen how the wise walk intentionally, they maximize their time, and they know God's will and they do it. And now point number four: the wise do not get drunk. Look at this: "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." Now this is not a prohibition against drinking, though I must be honest with you, I wish it was. This is a prohibition against drunkenness. And so as we look at the controlling substance of alcohol — that is what is not to be your influence. Your influence is to be the Spirit of God. And so, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Did you know that Proverbs chapter 20, verse 1 says that wine is a mocker and strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it — if you are completely beyond your wits and influenced by drunkenness, it's going to mock you and it's going to destroy the very things of your life that you value most. Intoxication is not just unwise, it's sin. And so avoiding drunkenness is another way to walk wisely. And those who impair their cognitive functions walk right out of God's will quickly. Careless living is a result of drunkenness. You lose your cognitive thinking, you lose your acting. They've called it "liquid courage," and it leads to reckless living and results that are just so destructive that they truly harm the innocent ones around you.

Not doing that — Paul says, however, to put drunkenness in opposition to being filled with the Spirit. And so if you are headed toward drinking and drunkenness, you are heading in the opposite direction for which Paul is prodding and pushing. And so drinking leads to more drinking, which leads to drunkenness — that's that path. Paul is pointing in the opposite direction and saying, "Head this way." And this is going to be your soul satisfaction. This is going to be where the best learning is, the best obedience is, the best joy is. And so the lesson in this verse is that God must be your influence. Don't subject yourself to worldly influences. Don't be under the influence of anything else other than the Holy Spirit. Don't be under the influence of the world. Be under the influence of the Word. It's been said: don't get a DUI, get an LUI — Living Under the Influence. Don't get a DUI, get an LUI. Live underneath the influence of the Holy Spirit of God.

Now bear with me for just another moment as I compare and contrast the two. If you're filled with wine versus being filled with the Spirit — it seems that by and large you could say that those who are filled with wine unto drunkenness enjoy secular music and not spiritual music. They are reckless rather than careful. They are foolish rather than wise. They are unaware of time rather than being aware of time. They are speaking filthiness and silly talk and coarse jesting — verse 4 of chapter 5 — versus speaking the scriptural truth that we are to be speaking — verse 19. And then as well, they fear nothing versus fearing Christ.

Now I just went straight through the passage and gave you the pros and the cons, and you see exactly how that works its way out in life. And so the tremendous sin of drunkenness oftentimes influences the next generation, and you will live to see the pain and the suffering lived out in them. If you've ever been around someone — as I have — to whom alcohol has destroyed their whole family, then you too would develop a hatred for the results of that type of sin. And you would encourage people to withhold from even going anywhere close to that area, because drinking is not leading to what pleases God. It leads you away from what pleases God. Drinking will put you in a position where you are risking what is most valuable. And so the things that are precious and the things that are vulnerable, and the influence passed down from one generation to the next, will see — if you want an illustration — both a beer and a Bible in your life's hands, and that will cause your influence to be diminished in regards to God. At the same time it may cause those watching to do something that you will regret because they may not have the same self-control as you perhaps would. And so it's unwise to head down that road.

Paul's direction is heading in the other direction. So drinking alcohol is walking in an unwise, opposite direction. Instead, drink and consume Christ. These are strong words — Jesus said them and I say them to you. Jesus said in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life." And so He equates Himself as that filling and satisfying. Also He said in John 6:53, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves." And so my encouragement is to drink and eat all that you can of Christ. Consume all of who He is. Understand. Digest Him. Apply Him to your life. Let Him flow through you.

You know, I kind of thought and wondered — is it joy that those who get drunk are pursuing? I would say this as an antidote: Psalm 16:11 says, "In Your presence is fullness of joy." Psalm 16:11 — in God's presence. You open the Word of God and you get underneath the presence of Him, and you dwell and you think and you worship and you understand — you are truly entering into the fullness of joy.

Now point number five is that the wise are Spirit-filled. And this is an amazing point, because as you think of what it is to be Spirit-filled, I hope to apologetically defend a normalcy of being filled with the Spirit and address this climactic chase in life that we see the unsound doctrine of the charismatic movement perpetuating across our land and across the globe. I'm telling you that the Word of God is enough. It's sufficient for your life and godliness. It's sufficient for the amount of joy that you need. It's sufficient for all of life. And God's will will be worked out in your life, and it will cause you as you are Spirit-filled to speak the things of Christ, to sing the things of Christ, to always be thanking Christ, and to be submitting to Christ. That is the outflow of the text in regards to being filled with the Spirit.

And so the liberal side of things — I just gave you the biblical side — now the liberal side, the side that has perverted this concept: they would try and do some hermeneutical gymnastics and try to interpret the text in some type of weird way to make it sound spiritual, in that drunkenness is actually spiritual, it's actually filling yourself with God. And they have to go to the extent of saying that the Spirit is a substance, and so the substance of the Spirit would then be alcohol. But that's ridiculous, isn't it? But that is their hermeneutical basis for saying that drunkenness is a spiritual thing.

And there's nothing new under the sun. In ancient Rome they equated drunkenness and even orgies as having communion with deity. Well, those who go down that route are definitely filled with a spirit — but that's a lowercase s spirit, not the Holy Spirit of God. They're definitely drunken-spirited, they're definitely high on life, but they are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

Some of the hermeneutical gymnastics would try and assign this as a pun that Paul is using between the two ideas here. But the Greek language has never used these two ideas — drinking unto drunkenness and being filled with the Spirit — as a pun, and so it's not. So drunkenness is something that will lead you down the wrong road, but being filled with the Spirit leads to a very different result.

Look in verse 18: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation." Well, what is dissipation? Dissipation is more than just wastefulness — it's riotous living. Riotous living. It's living out of self-control. Whereas the fruit of the Holy Spirit — if you remember Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 — one of the elements of the fruit is that of self-control: not riotous living, not uncontrolled living. But drunkenness leads to dissipation. And so in this verse, verse 18, you have first the negative injunction and then the positive injunction. This is an injunction — an authoritative statement. You have this authoritative statement put in the negative and then in the positive. In the negative: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation." And then in the positive: "But be filled with the Holy Spirit."

And so if you allow dissipation to creep into your life — which is lasciviousness, that is sexual living, that is living promiscuously — then that is grievous to the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit."

The Ephesians were tempted with this. The Ephesians actually thought that this might be a way that they could experience union with Christ. Many of the pagan temples in the area did this type of debauchery, and the pagan temple in Ephesus had this false god named Diana, and she was celebrated in this way — communion with the deity through drunken orgies. Paul even corrected the Corinthian church with similar ideas and said, "This is to dine with demons," and told them not to do these things.

And folks, simply put: pursue Christ. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do what's right. Live in the light and it will be all right. James 4:4 says that friendship or partnership with the world is hostility toward God, enmity toward God. If you want to put yourself in a place to be punished, then pursue the worldliness of this world. But if you want to put yourself in a place to experience the fullness of Christ, then pursue Christ. 1 John chapter 2, verse 15 says, "Do not love the world."

You see how it's your personal responsibility to set your desires on the right things? "Do not love the world." That means that you should love Christ. Set your desires on things above and not on things of the earth. You should truly harness the emotions, harness the willpower that God has given you, harness the heart and point it in the right direction. Tell your heart what to do according to the Word of God. Be in control. Have self-control.

This is very important because the flip side of things is to be submitted to all this charismatic chaos that's going on in the world today and thinking that you are able to enjoy the worldliness and be a Spirit-filled Christian. There's nothing new under the sun. The Israelites perverted the Old Testament love feasts and made them into drunken orgies. Peter corrected his crowd and he said in 1 Peter 4, "Do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation." I hope you see that this temptation of living like this is not just in the world — it's in the church as well. These are the people of God who are acting like this: the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the Israelites, being corrected out of this worldly living and into being Spirit-filled.

Apologetically, I want to say to you that the devil would have the Ephesians' way of life be characterized by drunkenness, but God would have the Ephesians' way of life be characterized by being filled with God.

Now this is exegetically how you walk. This is a walk. Follow me. I'm going to drive home an apologetic point that hopefully you'll never forget. This is a walk. This is how to be Spirit-filled — it is a walk. This is the context of this passage. It's not a run. It's not a leap. It's not falling down. It's not shaking. It's a walk. Follow me. It's not waving. It's not rolling. It's a walk.

For you to be filled with the Holy Spirit is not to engage in a worship service with all of these types of things — rolling around, roaring like a lion, waving, running. There are some hilarious YouTube videos out there where people just take off running through a worship service, and one guy actually ran up and fell in the baptistery. This is not of the Lord. At first you laugh and then you ache. But this happens all around us. This is charismatic chaos. And so to be filled with the Spirit is a walk. It's not chasing a mountaintop experience, trying to get some type of climactic, drunk-like experience in life. We are to be self-controlled, biblical, walking in Christ, walking in the Lord. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

And so this means that Christians chasing some type of high — getting high on Christ or drunk in the Spirit — this is not biblical. But it's out there and it's everywhere. And children, you'll grow up and you'll have friends, good friends who claim to be good Christians, that will make you think that this is the way that you are to experience abundant and free life in Christ — when it is done by salvation, as John 8:32 says.

And so this spiritual high, equated to drunkenness, throws off restraint and brings shame. This spiritual drunkenness throws off restraint and brings shame in areas of life that you will regret for the rest of your life. And so be wise how you walk. W-A-L-K. Walk. Don't run into these traps. Literally, they are just miles away from here in several places of so-called worship.

And so walking in the Spirit is not getting into some type of emotional high or some type of emotional experience. Countless websites for churches say, "Come and experience God with us today." That's not the aim. Knowing Christ and walking with Him — Christianity, I'm telling you, it's not a frenzy. It's not out of control. It is in control. It's a denial of the flesh. And so it's not mindlessness. It's mindfulness of Christ. You're not emptying yourself. You're filling yourself with God. In fact, Christianity is intentional, intellectual, and self-controlled. And so through worship services, it is intellectual and it is very intentional. So we're not going to borrow the ways of the world and try and develop some type of swaying frenzy to where people empty themselves and are chasing an experience. You're overflowing with love — which love is the peak emotion. Your relationship with Christ is emotional. But what the Bible says is sufficient. And you need not chase things outside of what the Bible is saying.

And so what does that look like? Well, we're going to wrap up now and continue next week. It looks like speaking, singing, thinking, submitting, and fearing. "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." Now verses 19, 20, and 21 tell us what being filled with the Holy Spirit looks like: "Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus to God, even to the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ" — be subject, or submissive, or even helping one another in the fear of Christ, or in the respect of Christ. And so these are how we are to live as ones who are being filled with the Holy Spirit.

But this charismatic chaos — guess where it's at? It's in Thailand, it's in Africa, it's in your neighborhood, it's on TV, it's on YouTube. America is the number one exporter of the prosperity gospel and the charismatic chaos. And so for us to go through this passage and to spend just a little bit of time apologetically defending what it is to rightly walk with the Lord — that is wise.

Now I don't know about you, but when I was growing up I was kind of unwise once in a while and I did not know what it was to use self-restraint. And so when I wanted to run and play I was without any type of self-restraint. Well, that didn't do me a whole lot of good.

And as you grow and as you learn, as you grow a little bit wiser — especially in the things of the Lord — you get a little bit more understanding and you learn what it is to harness the mind, harness the flesh, harness the emotions, and submit to the will of God. Wise people know God's will and they submit to that and they walk in it.

One final little story and I'll close with you in prayer. Before my wife and I got married, there was a woman in the church — I was on staff — and this lady was actually an NAR, New Apostolic Reformation lady. And boy, she was looked upon as one who was super spiritual. She was a super saint. I mean, she was filled with the Spirit — or so people thought — but I looked up to her because she was just, you know, way above everybody else in regards to being filled with the Spirit, and there was some type of aura that she had more of God than we did. What a bunch of hogwash.

Well, she wrote me a letter and she titled it "My dear son" — as if the Father is speaking to me: "I am your Father and I want to impart to you some knowledge." Oh man, I looked at this thing and I thought, "Man, I want to ball it up before I finish reading it." But I read the whole thing, and she presumed to write the words of God to me — that I should not marry my wife, that I should not marry. I was engaged. And I'm telling you that I'm so grateful that even though I was the youngest man on the totem pole on the pastoral staff, and even though the pastors on staff did not know what to do with that letter — they could not apologetically defend the truth — God helped me through that time and I balled it up and threw it away and married my wonderful wife. Praise God. You have no idea what she has endured in helping me grow in the faith and in being self-controlled. I love her so much.

Let's pray together. Father, we love You. Your Word is paramount. Your Word is the standard. God, Your Word is truth and it sanctifies us. Your Word says in John 17:17, "Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth." And Father, I pray that as a church congregation, as we continue to memorize John 8:31, we would be ones who continue in the Word and so prove that we are disciples of Yours. God, I pray that we continue in the Word, to study the Word, to know the Word, and to live the Word in such a way that it becomes our all-consuming passion. Help us to deny the flesh and take up the cross and follow You. Help us, dear Jesus, to be ones who know how to please You and do it. Lord, give us the steps each day that we need to take in order to be in Your will. Help us not to get all caught up in the things of the world.

Lord, help us to be able to discern the times and to be aware of the things that would drag us away from a steady and consistent and normal walk with You. God, we're so grateful for the heightened sense of love that You place in us. You first loved us, Your Word says in 1 John 4. We're so grateful for these heightened senses of knowing You, and we're overwhelmed by Your presence oftentimes. Lord, help us not to be given to chasing climactic experiences through worldly means. Help us, Lord, to be able to see the truth for what it is, so much so that we develop a burden for those who are perhaps trapped in a charismatic lifestyle. Help us to be able, Lord, to lead them to a normal walk with You, if not even to salvation. Help us, dear Jesus, to impart Your wisdom and Your gospel to the lost, so that many would be saved, that many would follow You and be sanctified and baptized, belong to a church, be able to study Your Bible, and go forth and make disciples.

Lord, if anyone here has never ever been saved, God, I pray that You would draw their soul down to sorrowfulness even now. Help them to know that it is You who is able to reach into the depths of their heart and to convict them of sin. God, help them to know that You are drawing them closer to You through sorrowfulness, and they must repent and apologize to You, because it is their sin — all of our sins — that put You on the cross. It's the reason why You had to die in our place, to pay the penalty of our sin. God, I pray that You would help them to be saved from this perverse generation — Acts 2:40. I pray, Father, that You would save souls. Help them to turn to You and be saved, dear God. Help us to be ones that have a conviction to evangelize, to impart the truth to those who do not have it, because this life is soon to pass and eternity will be before us before we know it, side by side with You, Lord.

I pray — oh, I pray — that those who are coming into contact with us will get a clear sense as to what side of judgment they're on in eternity. Lord, there are so many in our circles who are trapped in a lifestyle in which they think that they are Christians but they are not. They think that they raised their hand, or they think they decided as a child or some time in their life, but that was just words. Father, You regenerate the soul first — You're the One who goes first. So I pray that You'd save souls, and then as a result of their conversion, dear God, that they would repent, they'd confess You as Lord and Savior, and be baptized.

God, I pray that You would help us to be saints who are about the things of eternity and not about the things of this world. Help us not to worry about the things of this world. Help us to set our affections and our delight on things above. Help us to think about these things and dwell on these things. We live in the world but we're not of the world — we are of You, dear God. Thank You for these commitments that You have helped to establish in the hearts of those who have come today, and I pray, dear God, that You would continue to strengthen this local congregation. Add to our numbers for Your glory, we ask. Help us to spread Your glorious gospel, we ask. Help us to make disciples who can make disciples who can make disciples, we ask. And dear Jesus, we'll give You all the glory, for it is in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.