As we come, tonight, to the Word of God and to our discussion of a subject at hand, I want you to open your Bible to the fifth chapter of Ephesians and just that eighteenth verse that we looked at last time, Ephesians 5:18. And it's really going to be a launching point for us into our discussion tonight.Now this will be a little bit sermon and a little bit lecture, a little bit Scripture and a little bit history. But I hope it's going to be helpful for you. The latter half of the book of Ephesians is about the Christian life. It begins the practical section of Ephesians in chapter 4 verse 1, where we are implored or begged to walk in a manner worthy of the calling...that's that same effectual calling we talked about this morning. We have been begged to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. And then starting at that point and sweeping all the way through the final three chapters, 4, 5 and 6, the Apostle Paul talks about what the worthy walk looks like and what kind of life we are to live. And there are many, many elements of instruction there.
At the heart of this worthy walk, at the heart of living a godly life that honors the Lord is this reality called "being filled with the Spirit." Verse 18 speaks of being filled with the Spirit. Filled, not in the sense of filling a glass, but at filling a sail. Moved along in the direction that honors God by the power of the Holy Spirit, parallel to that is Colossians 3:16, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." So it is having a Word-centered life and thus a Holy Spirit controlled life. It is moving through life under the power of the Holy Spirit by conformity to the revelation of the Spirit on the pages of Holy Scripture. So we talked about the idea of a worthy life being a life filled with the Holy Spirit, moved and controlled and empowered by the Spirit of God....
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