FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (7 OF 7)
by Roger Thomas
Scripture: EPHESIANS 5:15-21
This content is part of a series.
Filled with the Spirit (7 of 7)
Series: The Care and Feeding of A Soul
Roger Thomas
Ephesians 5:15-21
It hasn't happened in a while, but I've done it before. I've ran out of gas. Years ago, I can remember more than once coasting into a gas station just as I ran out of gas. A year or so before we moved here I ran out of gas on the East-West Toll Way just west of Chicago. I knew I was low on gas. I fully intended to fill up before I headed back from a meeting about a forty-five minute drive from home. But I forgot. Not until I was out on the six lane expressway in the middle of traffic and my car started to sputter, did I remember my gas. Too late! I managed to coast to the side of the road. No gas. No cell phone. I hadn't a clue what I would do next.
No sooner had the car rolled to a stop than my guardian angel pulled in behind me. He was in the form of a big white toll way emergency truck. I didn't even have to get out of my car. I explained my problem. The driver put five gallons of gas in my car, gave me a voucher and an envelope to mail in my payment for the gas and sent me on my way.
That's a good picture to keep in the back of our minds as we explore this text. The human soul doesn't work well on empty. Some of us have tried. The solution to an empty soul is to "be filled with the Spirit." I want to ask and answer two questions that are bound up in this text: What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How does it happen? Both questions are important.
First, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? The short answer--to be filled with the Spirit means to be filled with God. That's what Paul had prayed for a couple of chapters earlier. Remember that benediction we have used so often to close our services, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more ...." That's the end of Ephesians 3. The prayer comes just before that, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together ...
Series: The Care and Feeding of A Soul
Roger Thomas
Ephesians 5:15-21
It hasn't happened in a while, but I've done it before. I've ran out of gas. Years ago, I can remember more than once coasting into a gas station just as I ran out of gas. A year or so before we moved here I ran out of gas on the East-West Toll Way just west of Chicago. I knew I was low on gas. I fully intended to fill up before I headed back from a meeting about a forty-five minute drive from home. But I forgot. Not until I was out on the six lane expressway in the middle of traffic and my car started to sputter, did I remember my gas. Too late! I managed to coast to the side of the road. No gas. No cell phone. I hadn't a clue what I would do next.
No sooner had the car rolled to a stop than my guardian angel pulled in behind me. He was in the form of a big white toll way emergency truck. I didn't even have to get out of my car. I explained my problem. The driver put five gallons of gas in my car, gave me a voucher and an envelope to mail in my payment for the gas and sent me on my way.
That's a good picture to keep in the back of our minds as we explore this text. The human soul doesn't work well on empty. Some of us have tried. The solution to an empty soul is to "be filled with the Spirit." I want to ask and answer two questions that are bound up in this text: What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How does it happen? Both questions are important.
First, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? The short answer--to be filled with the Spirit means to be filled with God. That's what Paul had prayed for a couple of chapters earlier. Remember that benediction we have used so often to close our services, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more ...." That's the end of Ephesians 3. The prayer comes just before that, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together ...
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