Yield!

Read Ephesians 5:1-33

“Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.
Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.” (Ephesians 5:18

Thoughts… “Be filled with the Spirit.” Between Ephesians 4:30 and 5:18, Paul details some of the practical ways that will either grieve or please the Spirit; behaviors that either deny him access or give him greater access to our lives.

It is God’s deep desire for us as Christ-followers that we live as Spirit-filled people. One of the great promises Jesus made to his disciples for the reason he was leaving them and going back to heaven after his resurrection was that he would give us the Father’s gift: the Holy Spirit.

It was and is God’s plan that we literally allow him to dwell in us by his Spirit. For the believer, the Spirit-filled life is not an option, it’s a divine expectation. Spirit-filled living is a Christian essential.

When Paul says, “Don’t get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery (meaningless, valueless, even self-destructive living)…instead be filled with the Spirit,” he was speaking to believers who’d come out of the pagan culture of Ephesus.

In their pagan worship and ritual, one of their idols was Baccus, the god of wine and drunken orgies. And they believed that to commune with their god and be led by him they had to get drunk. In their drunken stupor, they believed they could know his will and how best to serve him. And the sick bi-product was sexual immorality with cult prostitutes.

Just as depending on wine was a destructive counterfeit to Spirit-filled living in Paul’s day, so we need to be careful in our culture today where alcohol is the drink of choice to help people relax, feel confident, or take away the pain of whatever ails them, and make them feel good, that we don’t buy into that deceptive line.

I am not preaching against drinking, because I don’t believe the Scriptures explicitly forbid it. But unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians today whose drinking habits are no different from unbelievers. The truth is, it is still God’s desire that we depend on being filled with his Spirit to make us confident, competent and joyful rather than a drink, or a relationship or position or a possession, for that matter.

That’s what Paul is pointing out in this chapter: By being controlled by his Spirit, not only do you not have to depend on wine to feel good, as we see in verse 18, but verse 3 says you don’t have to depend sexual gratification apart from marriage, or greedily grab for anything other than Jesus to gratify yourself.

And verse 4 says you don’t have to gain attention by trying to be funny with foul-mouthed language and crude jokes. Usually someone with a foul-mouth is trying to impress you and gain ?your respect and get you to laugh…because they’re insecure and don’t know how to carry on a normal conversation that you’d expect in a healthy relationship.

Then verse 8 and following says you don’t have to follow the darkened logic of culture to find happiness…the upside-down reasoning that makes black look like white and continually expands the gray areas so everything becomes ethically fuzzy to the point you’re no longer guided by the moral compass. Rather you can live in God’s love, impact others by your godliness, walk in wisdom and know God’s will, and overflow with joy by being filled with God’s Spirit. That’s what the Spirit of God longs to do for you…if you will yield control of your life to him.

In truth, nothing compares to the Spirit-filled life to satisfy every longing of your heart and enable you to experience the good life. The greatest and longest lasting high in the world comes from Spirit-filled living.

Paul is not referring to that instantaneous infilling of the Spirit that we read about in Acts 2, but rather the ongoing submission of our will to God’s work through an active yielding of one’s life to the Spirit’s control.

Spirit filling in the book of Acts was an event, while the filling in Ephesians is an ongoing process. In Acts, it was evidenced by extraordinary, miraculous happenings while in Ephesians, it was evidenced by ordinary, everyday choices that submitted them to the Spirit. In Acts, the Spirit was received by asking in faith, while in Ephesians the Spirit is responded to by yielding in obedience. Both kinds of Spirit infilling are valid, and needed.

D. L. Moody once held up a glass and asked his audience, “How can I get the air out of this glass?” A man shouted, “Suck it out with a pump!” Moody replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass.” After numerous other suggestions Moody picked up a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. “Now, all the air is now removed.” He then went on to explain that living the victorious Christian life isn’t accomplished by “sucking out a sin here and there,” but by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit is not a matter of eliminating sinful or unproductive behavior in your life and passively waiting for God to supernaturally fill you, Paul is saying it’s about eliminating those things that grieve him and replacing them with passions that please him.

Paul gives us several areas of eliminating and replacing that will allow us to live as Spirit-filled people. Being filled with the Spirit is about yielding control of your life to him. Yielding your life is about the choices you make to please God.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit, here are some things you’ve got to do:

First, going back to verses 1-3, you’ve got to replace lustful desires with loving decisions. You’ve got to leverage your life so that the expression of it is characterized by agape love rather than simply living to satisfy your desires. Look at what it says:

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love [agape], just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality [porneia—immorality of a sexual nature], or of any kind of impurity [anything unclean in a general sense], or of greed [the expression of self-will, self-gratification and self-centeredness], because these are improper for God’s holy people.”

Second, you must replace a polluted tongue with praiseworthy talk. You’re mouth needs to communicate gratitude, not just spew garbage. Look at verse 4-7,

“Nor should there be obscenity [that which is degrading and disgraceful], foolish talk [from moros, or moron, which is stupid talk befitting one who is intellectually deficient] or coarse joking [twisting innocent words into suggestive innuendo], which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person–such a man is an idolater–has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.”

Third, you’ve got to replace foolish choices with fruitful character. Is your faith producing fruit, or are you characterized by foolish choices influenced by the dark logic of the world? Verses 7-8 say,

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible… Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

And fourth, you’ve got to replace self-gratifying actions with Spirit-inspired activities. Rather than pursuing activities please you, the Spirit wants you to submit your will to spiritually productive endeavors that please the Lord and bless those around you. Verses 18-21 say,

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Living the Spirit-filled life is about the daily choices you make to yield control to him. Choices to imitate God and eliminate immoral or questionable practices…

Choices to find out what pleases God…choices to find out what God’s will is.
The great evangelist D. L. Moody went to England for an evangelistic crusade, but was met with some professional jealousy. One pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated and inexperienced. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?” One wise pastor pointed out, “Moody doesn’t have more of the Holy Spirit than we do, but the Holy Spirit has more of Mr. Moody.”

Make a decision today to allow the Holy Spirit to have more of you! In every area of your life, yield control to him.

Prayer… Holy Spirit, take control of all of me—mind, tongue, hands, eyes—all my thoughts, words and actions. Have more of me, I pray.

One More Thing… “O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.” —Augustine