11/01/2025
This is a prelude to my sermon for this Sunday... You do not have to agree, you do not have to even read this... But please consider...
Very interesting... We are to welcome the filling of the Holy Spirit. - If you try to make changes on your own or try to live the Christian life in the power of your own flesh, you’ll fail. Listen to verse Eph. 5:18: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” While the Bible does not forbid the drinking of alcohol, it does strongly warn against drunkenness. Here are just a few verses:
I
saiah 5:11, 22: “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink.”
Romans 13:13: “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in or**es and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.”
1 Peter 4:3: “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, or**es, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.”
Proverbs 20:1: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”
Proverbs 23:29-35 vividly spells out six adverse effects of alcohol.
Alcohol has harmful, never helpful consequences. Verse 29: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?”
It promises what it can never deliver.
We see this in verses Eph. 5: 30-31: “Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.”
Alcohol can kill you. Listen to verse 32: “In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.”
Alcohol corrupts reality. Check out verse 33: “Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.” In light of that, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised alcohol is referred to as “spirits.”
Alcohol causes physical impairment. Verse 34 portrays the unsteadiness of one under the influence of alcohol: “You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.”
Alcohol will disorient and control you.
We see this in verse 35: “‘They struck me,’ you will say, ‘but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.’”
Interestingly, the word “debauchery” has the idea of “wasteful and excessive squandering.” The way of the world is wasteful, isn’t it?
Am I controlling my life or is it the Holy Spirit?
Instead of getting drunk, we are to be filled with the Spirit. At its core, this verse is helping us see the ultimate issue is control. Who or what is running my life? Is it alcohol or drugs or po*******hy or codependency or anger? Am I controlling my life or is it the Holy Spirit? Am I addicted to me, myself, and I? Am I controlled by outside influences or by the Holy Spirit who dwells within?
The word “but” shows a contrast, or antithesis.
Instead of squandering your life, surrender your life by being filled with the Holy Spirit. The word “filled” means,
“to make full; to cause to abound; to fill to the brim so that nothing else is wanting.”
This is a command, not a suggestion. It’s an ultimate imperative. Because it’s in the present tense, it means, “to be filled constantly” or “to keep on being filled.” If you are saved, you received the Holy Spirit at conversion. The question is not, “How can I get more of the Holy Spirit, but how can I give more of me to Him?”
