Sunday Morning - 01-25-2026 - Be Filled With The Spirit

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

You got to do it like a celebrity wedding.

Yeah. Hallelujah. Heat. Take a seat. And secondary second Hallelujah. Father, what a big choir.

Find 210 in your song book. When they're done singing these two songs they've practiced, we'll everybody can sing 210. You guys can stay up there and we'll all sing. All of us will sing saved by the blood together. Okay.

All right. So, uh, but we'll start with the teen choir singing a couple of numbers to the glory of God. They'll encourage us. I'll pray right now. Father, bless your singers while they sing, your players while they play, and I pray that we'd be pleased, you'd be pleased with our worship today, and we'd worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Heat. Heat. Heat. HEAT. I as the Lord. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. And we NEVER ALL Jesus is to be my EVERYTHING to the father. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT.

OH, someday I'll be on the way home. I have left this world behind. I WILL LIFT MY HANDS AND I'LL PRAISE his name. Shine through the sky. BLESS THE LORD. YES. BLESS THE LORD. Bless his holy name. LET ME raise up my hands TO THE GREAT I AM. LET ME NEVER BE ASHAMED. and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. BLESS THE LORD. YES. BLESS THE LORD. BLESS HIS holy name. LET ME NOT FORGET HIS BLESSINGS that he lift up my hands TO THE GREAT I AM. LET ME NEVER BE ashamed with all that is within me now is all.

There is no heat. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. YEAH. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. I will BE my Jesus. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. NO ONE BY HIS GRA. WHAT A DAY. GLORIOUS DAY I WILL BE. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. YEAH. HEAT. HEY MY BY THE BLOOD OF my Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEY MY BLOOD IS HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. YEAH. HEAT. HEY MY HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. YEAH. HEAT. YEAH. HEAT. YEAH. HEAT.

I see my heart. singing. We'll do the offering in a little bit. Let's get our pianist up here, please. Song leader. We're going to sing Our Great Savior. Amen.

Amen. Our great Savior. Number 49. Number 49.

Sunday. God inhabits the praise of his people. It's good to praise the Lord. Uh, someone said to me, "I just don't want it to feel like, you know, we're going touchdown." And I thought about that. You know, when Jesus touches down here, we're going to go hallelujah.

What a touchdown. That's the touchdown I'm thinking about. He's going to come back. He'll touch down on the Mount of Olives. And then he'll sit down on the throne of David and we're all going to be very quiet about that. Just kind of, you know, we're going to be saying, "Hallelujah. Amen." All over the world, we'll be saying, "He is wonderful. He is wonderful." Let's sing about our great savior. Jesus for Jesus my soul. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Sing to the end. Jesus and he be my dream. Heat. Heat. The end. Jesus. My heart is my heart my soul. Say to me Jesus Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. to the end. Jesus receive him. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. He is with me to the end. Amen.

Number 67. Number 67. How can it be? Number 67. Oh sior, as my eyes behold the wonders of my mind until the death in glorious lighting of creation thou has laid and yet Thousand. As the cross eye and gaze upon my glor and you the precious before my cruel so bruise for me my heart. How can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God shall love a soul like? Oh, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? was ever so good and free from height of this to death in loving kindness from sin and shame to resue me. Oh de, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should love our soul like? Oh, how can it be?

The next one. Amen. You and me say it. Number 57. Number 57, Jesus I am resting. Number 57 Jesus I am resting resting in the joy of what thou art. I am finding now the greatness of thy love. Thou estee grace upon me and thy beauty fills my soul. Lord by thy transforming power. Thou hast Jesus I am resting resting in the joy of what thou art. I am binding up the greatness of thy loving. Slipperly trust in thee, Lord Jesus. I will be holy as thou, Lord, and thy love so pure. Satisfies my heart. Satisfies his deepest body. He suppus I am resting resting in the joy of the Lord. I am finding out thy greatness of thy loving heart. Never lift my face upon thee as thy word for thee. Blessing need thy smile, Lord Jesus. Star shadows see brightness on my father's glory. Son shine on my father's name. Leave me ever trusting resting. Fill me with my Jesus. I am resting in the joy of your power. I am finding out the greatness of my loving heart.

All right, we'll have the offering in a minute. Go ahead down, brother. Yeah, brother Brownfield, you'll do your thing. But we understand that most of us put our offering in in Sunday school. So, uh, we may just kind of be going through plates getting passed around, but that's all right. We'll listen to a pretty song.

Amen. And if you didn't give in on Sunday school, now's your chance.

Amen. Well, that singing was a blessing.

Amen. First song, bless the Lord, that the teen class sang. There's a well, that's a precious song. And you can see that even on our YouTube, the Mitchell family singing that. I encourage you to listen to it. So, I have a couple announcements. And of course, everyone already knows there's no PM service tonight. We can rejoice that the the Lord made his will plain. We can we can uh still serve him no matter where we are. Amen.

But praise the Lord. Uh, so if you come here tonight, we won't be here. And then I'd like to thank all of the men that came out to Nshawa.

And that is a Amen. And that that is a tremendous is a is a blessing. I was blessed by it.

Really good preaching. Amen. And uh and it's good encouragement for the church there at NSHA for Bible Baptist Church and for Pastor Stockton. Seeing all of us coming out. So thank you for coming and I know you're blessed by it as well. And where there's food, Baptists usually are blessed. All right. So, let's have the men come forward, receive this morning's this morning's offering. If we want to call it this evening's or but All right. So, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that we get to sing for your glory. We were able to enjoy the teen class singing and we were able to sing along with them and then sing more songs and and I look forward to that day when we'll be singing songs up in heaven when we'll get to sing praises and glorify you for eternity. Lord, I pray that you bless this offering and use it for your glory to further your gospel. Be with our pastor as he preaches your word. Give him boldness. Help him, oh Lord, to to preach and demonstration of the spirit and of power. Help us, oh Lord, to be hearers and doers of your word, to receive your word, O Lord, in our hearts. And I pray that you would have your perfect way in each and every heart here today. And in Jesus Christ's name I pray. Amen.

Amen. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Amen. You all may be seated. Let's get our Bibles. Praise the Lord. We can be on the Lord's house today. We'll dismiss Junior Church with Brother Garrett. And he already has assigned helpers. So, whoever they are. Thank you all for serving in that way. We all right over here. We got a little accident. All right. Everybody look at Emily. Make her feel very awkward. All right. Zero in. It's all right. I've never been a believer in pretend things don't happen because you It's just weird. I' I've preached places, stuff's going on, and everyone's trying to act like it's not going on. And I'm like, you know, that that lady just fell over. You might want to help her, you know, see if she's alive or whatever. So, sorry you had the accident, Emily. Are you okay?

I didn't fall. Is Vera okay? You didn't fall. Just a You just knocked the chair over. All right. All right. That's all right.

What a what a great time singing and giving.

I decided I was in my early 20s when I heard a man say um he he got to the end of his message and he said, "Now everything up until now, all of that was just preliminary for this. This is the this is really what matters." And that was when they played the piano and he invited people to come to the front and pray. And I thought, huh? And I heard another guy say, you know, that song service was good, but all that that's that's really that's not important. That's just to set up everything for the preaching. And I said to myself, we are never having like song service, preaching service. No, it's all worship of the Lord.

Amen. When the plates man pass, we're worshiping the Lord. When we pray, we're worshiping the Lord. When a pastor is saying some things we need to know, that's to help the church of the Lord. We're worshiping God. When it's preaching time, singing time, it's one service. It's one service. And so, we have worshiped the Lord in singing. We've worshiped the Lord in giving. Yeah. There's been some praying. We have been worshiping God. Now, we're worshiping him with an open Bible, hearing the word of God preached, me preaching, you hearing, and us together in the word of God. So, we don't divide things up. It's we have one Lord, we're one body, and we have one assembly in which we're serving God. And that will help you. It's helped me ever since then in my own mind. I I don't divide this all up. And I thank God we have been worshiping and we are worshiping in spirit and in truth.

We're in Ephesians and we have been preaching this series that the Lord put on my heart several weeks ago. The series is don't sin against the Holy Ghost. And I would encourage you to think about that. Um, you don't want to sin against the Holy Ghost. He He's God and he loves you and he lives in you and he's strengthening you and he wants to fill you and bless you. He wants to use you to your full potential for the glory of God.

Amen. That's all he wants to do. He's not here to be the big meanie who doesn't let you have any fun, who constantly makes you feel bad. No, he's here because he loves you. He wants to fill you with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. What an awesome life. A life full of that. A life filled with the Holy Spirit. He wants to work in you to pray. He wants to work in you to mortify sin. He wants to work in you to have power with God and power with man.

That's amazing. To walk in favor with God and man to strengthen you with might by himself in the inner man. to help you to walk in the victory that Jesus bought and paid for and that he has for you. He wants to work in you to help you understand the Bible to fit into the church. Well, awesome. Wonderful. Don't sin against him. You have potential and I have potential to quench him, to resist him, to grieve him. Don't do that. You don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. Rather, I want him to be leading me and controlling me and working in me to be everything the Lord has in mind for me to be for the glory of God.

So, we began by preaching, don't blaspheme him by refusing his testimony concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't blaspheme the Holy Ghost by refusing the Lord Jesus Christ and his salvation. And then don't resist the Holy Spirit. that context. Acts seven is don't resist the preached word of God by the preachers of God preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't fight against that.

Amen. I listened yesterday to pastor show say preach the word of God. I sat there with my Bible open. I never looked at my watch. I never looked at my phone to see what time it was. Why would I need to? It's not my business, not my responsibility. I'm there to hear the word of God. I actively mentally kept myself engaged. I didn't take a nap. I didn't look around to see what other people were doing. At one point he you brother show you said verse 19 and you meant verse 9 and that chapter did not have 19 verses. You said look at verse 19. I looked down. It wasn't there. I didn't try to find it. It doesn't matter. He's going to read it to me. I heard some men all around me trying to find it. It went on for maybe 60 seconds trying to find it. I want to say, "Guys, it doesn't matter. The man's got the Bible in front of him. He's going to read the right place. Even if he said the wrong place, it's a way for the devil to get you off track.

I can't find I wonder where he is. I wonder where he is. I want It's like he's he's there. Listen to him preach. And so the Lord the Lord helped me to not do that, but just listen. And the Lord helped me to stay engaged. And the Lord helped me to pay attention. And the Lord helped me to get everything possible out of that. I needed that message. It helped me. It edified me. It strengthened me. Some parts convicted me. I thought, "Oh, wow. I need to straighten up in that area. I need to tighten up in that area." Amen. I need to get my life lined up with that right there. If I sat there and just tried to find a mistake, tried to find, oh, I don't know if I agree with that right there. If I zeroed in on something and got hung up on it, if he said it says this over here, he didn't say to turn there. He just said it says this. And if I said, "I gotta find that right now. I gotta see it for myself." I could see it for myself later. If I did all those type things, I might be resisting the preached word of God. God's trying to work in me and maybe I get off now in my own Bible study. Maybe he said something, it dropped a thought in my mind and I thought, "Oh, that'd be something, a sermon I could develop." So then I start looking and writing and developing a sermon. And I might be sitting there thinking, "Boy, this is good. The Holy Spirit's given me a sermon to preach.

The Holy Spirit had me sitting in a congregation to hear a preacher preach. Now I'm doing my own thing. Don't resist the Holy Ghost. If I sat there and said, "I don't agree with this. I'm not doing it." Who's he think he is? Don't resist the Holy Ghost. Amen. Don't go against the leading of the Holy Spirit to mortify sin. We looked at that. Don't quench the spirit. We looked at that. 1 Thessalonians 5. Don't hinder the unity of the spirit of the church. Ephesians 4 1-16. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit or don't resist the renovator. We said Ephesians 4 17 through 32.

Today we get into chapter 5. Be ye therefore followers of God. As dear children. As dear. Have you ever sat and looked at that and thought of that? As dear children. Follow God as dear children and walk in love. You are walking. You are living. You are progressing through life. Here's how to progress through life as a dear child.

Amen. Walk in love and walk in love. How? What's the standard? As Christ also hath loved us, you'll never hit that standard. Without salvation, without grace, without walking in the spirit, walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Well, is there anything that would stand an absolute contra distinction to that? But fornication, walk in love. The world says, "Walk in lust." Just walk in lust. You want it, go get it. If it feels good, do it. Win every fight. Overcome all your overcome all your neighbors. Have better than them. Get the most toys. Do whatever feels good. That's lust.

Don't walk in lust. Walk in love. So, but fornication, see, that's the opposite of love. That's not what the world says. World says it's love. No, it's not. It's fornication. It's lust. So, walk in love. But so that's like on the other side of this against love but fornication and all uncleanness because you know the Lord knows how we can justify and we can explain and we can come up with all kinds of ways to talk ourselves in and out of all kinds of things. We're capable of reasoning into wickedness. Some of us, many of us are old enough to remember a man saying, "Well, it depends on what the meaning of the word is is." And then he said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." By his definition, uncleanness. And that's very prominent in our culture. And I'm sorry to tell you this, there's wickedness that goes on in churches. And people say it's not fornication, it's uncleanness. The fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. You know what's appropriate and fitting and that really becomes saints to have this stuff not even once.

Lord help us. Amen. Covetous not even named one time. Lord help us. Covetousness is degree to desire to have what God in his good providence is not allotted to me. Have I ever failed in that since I've been saved? Yes, I have. By the grace of God, it's not my lifestyle. If it was, if I'm a covetous man, then the Bible's plain. I'm not even saved. But you've failed in that since you've been saved. That's a tricky one. That's idolatry. The Bible says in Colossians, not once. Our our goal, our standard, what we ought to be striving for in this battle against sin is not once. Not once. Not once. It should be, "Lord, I want to go and sin no more." And we know what the Bible says. We're going to fail. We're going to sin. And we must confess sin. But the attitude is not, "Well, I'm going to sin, so might as well. Oh, no. It should be not once. Let it not be once named among you." Has become a saint. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking, nor chesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.

Now notice the connection for the she know when he says foolish talking justesting you know if you read that and you say maybe maybe your sevenyear-old says why was six afraid of seven because seven 89 that's justing the Bible says no justing if you think that's what that's saying you need to learn to study the Bible a little more look at the whole context of it it's filthy it's related to harmongering. It's related to uncleanness and all. There's dirty, obscene, unclean jesting and joking, offcolored. Then there's also in mind here too. I've done some reading and study on it. I believe from what I've read, there's in mind some of the ways of cutting and biting and devouring each other under the guise of just kidding, right? You know, there's some of that in mind there. There there can be sarcasm and there can be biting sarcasm. There can be wit and there can then be the the idea of wanting to be known as a witty person that's able to slice and dice everybody. When I was a kid, I read once I refused to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Have you ever heard that or read that? It's kind of funny, you know. And I would use that every now and then. Somebody would come at me with some sarcasm and I'd say, you know, I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person, but that's kind of cutting that to the to a very dear and close friend. That might be funny and we might laugh about that, you know, but you got to be careful with that. But also don't don't be someone that thinks any humorous anecdote is ruled out by this verse. The Bible has some humorous anecdotes. it, you know, sometimes it's okay to laugh a little bit.

It's related here to for this ye know when he says foolish talking justesting you know if you read that and you say maybe maybe your sevenyear-old says why was six afraid of seven because seven 89 that's justing the Bible says no justing if you think that's what that's saying you need to learn to study the Bible a little more look at the whole context of it it's filthy it's related to harmongering. It's related to uncleanness and all. There's dirty, obscene, unclean jesting and joking, offcolored. Then there's also in mind here too. I've done some reading and study on it. I believe from what I've read, there's in mind some of the ways of cutting and biting and devouring each other under the guise of just kidding, right? You know, there's some of that in mind there. There there can be sarcasm and there can be biting sarcasm. There can be wit and there can then be the the idea of wanting to be known as a witty person that's able to slice and dice everybody. When I was a kid, I read once I refused to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Have you ever heard that or read that? It's kind of funny, you know. And I would use that every now and then. Somebody would come at me with some sarcasm and I'd say, you know, I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person, but that's kind of cutting that to the to a very dear and close friend. That might be funny and we might laugh about that, you know, but you got to be careful with that. But also don't don't be someone that thinks any humorous anecdote is ruled out by this verse. The Bible has some humorous anecdotes. it, you know, sometimes it's okay to laugh a little bit.

It's related here to for this ye know that no horarmongered nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idoltor. It doesn't say if I am a covetous as a way of life practice. It's my character of life. It doesn't say that I'm acting like an idoltor. It says I'm an idoltor. Have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. Don't you let someone deceive you. Well, but but hold on. I I know he's a hormonger and I know he's covetous and I know he's unclean and I know he just a constant stream of dirty jokes and everything, but I know he got saved. Let no man deceive you. Let no man deceive you. There's preachers that'll say, "Oh, no. They're saved. He's a saved hormonger. He's a saved No. Let no man deceive you. Let no man deceive you with vain words. They're not in the kingdom of Christ. Pray for them to be saved. Give them the gospel. Challenge their testimony.

For because of these things, filthiness and and fornication and uncleanness and covetousness and uncleanness and whoreonger, all that. Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Remember back in chapter 2 verse two, wherein in time past she walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now present tense workketh in the children of disobedience. The wrath of God's coming on the children of disobedience. God's children, what we do, we don't live that way. We are pursuing purity by the grace of God. Every man that hath this hope in him purifith himself, even as he is pure. Amen.

Be not ye therefore partakers with them. Don't partake with them. Don't partake with their music, their pop culture music that celebrates all that. Some of it celebrates all that even when there's no words being said. The very music itself is absolute sensuality. Amen. Designed to provoke lust. That's right. And to put images in your mind. Music is still a universal language. Don't be deceived. It's saying something. Don't be a partaker with them. Don't partake with them and their fashions. You walk in that mall and you see all these posters every which direction that are all basically saying, "If you wear this, you'll get lots of attention. Don't be a partaker with them. Don't be a partaker with them with their with their uh movies and their books. Don't be a partaker with them down at the nightclub at the bar. Amen. Don't be a partaker with them. No, we're children of God. We're dear children. Don't be a partaker. Don't Don't take part with them.

All that's going on, don't take your part. Don't jump in there with them. You could end up like Lot. Lot was a righteous man. And you wouldn't believe it if the Bible didn't say it. But you know, one reason you know he's a righteous man. Number one, the Bible says so. Number two, God got him out of that. He was a long time in a very wicked state, but God got him out because that's what God will do if you're saved. You cannot permanently stay in that type of way. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the spirit is in all what? Goodness and righteousness. Living right and truth. Not living a lie, living truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. It doesn't say proving what I can get away with and still be a church member.

That's right. Proving what I can get away with and not have dad get all over my case. Proving what I can get away with and not have mom say something. It's proving what is actually acceptable to the Lord. Like a sacrifice acceptable to the Lord. Amen. Prove that. We should be going for that. That's going for gold. Am I allowed to get away with this? Am I allowed to walk this close to the cliff and put my foot over? What do you think? How about proving what's acceptable to the Lord? Does this make Is this please God? Does God say that smells good? That sacrifice that's good. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. It's just one song. It's just one song on my phone. Other than that, I don't have fellowship with the unfruit. Have none of no no fellowship, but rather reprove them. That's a militant separation. Not only do I say I will not participate in that, I'm saying that's sin. That's wrong. That type of activity, that's wickedness.

We drove yesterday, Brother Bill did the driving in my van. We drove by a big billboard. Bill said, "It's not for kings." Because I preached on that to the men last week. Something on that billboard was not for kings. Amen. He was reproving that out loud. He was saying, "That's not good." Even when you're by yourself and you come across something that's not good, it is good to say to yourself, "That's not good. That's against God. That's against the Bible. That's a spirit of rebellion. That's lust. That's covetousness. That's not good.

For it is a shame even to what? Speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Now, don't pit. Hey, don't pit scripture against scripture. I had someone come up to me one day. It was a lady that was always wanting to control what I preached. She finally figured out, "You're not going to control what I preach. I'm going to preach the Bible and I'm going to answer to God. That's right. Amen. And she wanted to tell me off because I had warned about something in church. And she said, "It says in the Bible, it's a shame to even speak of." And I said, "That same book tells you, read Romans 1, read, read back in the book of Genesis, read the book of Judges." So, on the one hand, Paul says, "I would have you simple concerning that which is evil." Amen. We don't need to go into nitty-gritty details about all these different sins. But on the other hand, preachers that preach against sin that the Bible states, that's a that's a biblical preacher. And I said, "And don't you rebuke me and tell me how to preach." That's right. I'm not putting up with that. The Bible says, "Let no man despise you." And if I'm not letting a man despise me, I'm definitely going to not let a lady despise me. Somebody say, "Amen." Amen. It's just ungodly. It's ungodliness. But she tried to use that. And that's where you want to take a verse, you know, and smack somebody with it, ignoring the context. Ignoring the scripture. But but what we're talking about here is Paul's and by the way Paul's already said fornication uncleanness. So if he's saying never mention those things, but you don't need to come up and tell me, did you know that so and so he went in this nightclub and he met and tell me all these detail. I don't need to know all that.

We don't need to go into those details. If if a young person came up to me and said, what is a nightclub? I'm just going to say, well, it's a place where the pit of hell has like an entrance right onto planet Earth and you can walk in there and you're hanging around hell. It's a wicked, ungodly place and you don't even need to know what goes on in nightclubs and don't ever go there. Amen. But I wouldn't say, "Well, let me tell you all about the potential." No, it's a shame to even speak of those things. And if it's a shame to even speak of them, we certainly don't need to read about them. And we don't need to listen to songs about them. And we don't need to be watching m music videos about them and watching movies and shows that highlight all that glorify all that. It's ungodly.

Amen. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest or obvious or apparent is light. And see, we're light. We're children of light. So therefore, we don't have any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. But we say that's wrong. We reprove them. Somebody pulls out that dirty story, we say, "Whoa, hold on. That's wicked. That's ungodly. I'm not I'm not listening to that. I'm not listening to that. Don't do that. Reprove it." Sometimes you're in a situation, you can't necessarily reprove someone, but in your own mind, you can reprove that work. Amen. I I went to a funeral once. Says, "Preaching for a a pastor and he said, "There's a a fellow that I've known all my life, worked with him off and on." He said, "I want to go to his funeral. Would you go with me?" And it was in a air quotes Baptist church, air quotes. We got in there and there was a standing room only. This place was packed, hundreds of people. And we were standing way back in the back against the wall. Me and this preacher, a preacher I really, he's in heaven now. Love him. Looked up to him. Learned much from him. The reason we have men's meetings today is because of what they did in their church. I picked that up from him. I thank God for him. And we stood back there and we listened to this guy up there preaching air quotes preaching. And and he read John 14 where Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you and all of that." And then he said, "Now, who's to know if any of that is, you know, real or if it's just a a figure of speech? Is there a heaven? Maybe a better state?" Man, I'm looking at Brother Jones. He's looking at me and we're going, you know, I wanted to run out there and just shove him out of the way and say, "Let me tell you something. There's a real heaven. There's a real hell. And you need to flee hell and you need to go to heaven." But that was not my place to do that. But in my mind, I reproved that up and down. Amen. Sometimes you can't say anything out loud, but you and your you get in the car with your family and you say, "I want you to know that is ungodly. That is wickedness. That is evil. And you expose that. And sometimes you have to say, "We love them, but the way they're behaving is so wicked. Don't you look over at that. Don't you look Don't No, that's wrong.

Wherefore he Seth, See, that's being late. That's being late. That's reproving. Verse 14. Wherefore he Seth. Boy, it's a present tense. You know, when God says it, it's been said. Wherefore he sth, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. I believe that's referring back to chapter two. And there's some places in the Old Testament that he's quoting from as you put them together. But you were dead in trespasses and sins. And there came a time when the Holy Ghost by the word of God, by the preaching of the word of God, said, "Wake up. Arise from the dead." You heard the gospel and he said, "Wake up." And so now you're awake. Now you're alive. Now you've been regenerated and so put off these unfruitful things and reprove these things and walk as children of light.

So now he said wherefore he said awake thou the sleepest Christ shall give thee light. Verse 15 see then are you alive? Are you alive? I mean spiritually are you alive? Okay. So you're awake. Has Christ given you light? See them? He's given you the light. So now you can see so see see then that she walk that you live that you go through this life journey how circumspectly now circ indicates circle right so you're inspectly has to do with spectacle spec looking seeing so see then that as you go through life you are looking all around in the light God's given you and you're letting the light reveal what it reveals the Light doesn't make it happen. The light manifests it. That's right. So, you're you're w as you're walking, you're looking all around. You're saying, "Oh, that's avoid that. That's sin. Abstain from that. Oh, that's good. Do that. Submit to that. See then that you walk circumspectly, looking all around, looking, eyes open, walking carefully, not as fools, but as wise." You know how a fool walks? He doesn't look. He doesn't care. You walk through airports now. You fly through the busiest airports in the world and people are walking like this and you're having to like move all around. It's like playing Frogger back on Atari back in the 80s. You're having to dodge these droids, these people that like zombies. That's a great scriptural word. Kind of is because we used to be alive but dead. But anyway, I digress. We don't need to go off on zombies. Amen. All right. But they're they're they're going through and they're they're walking as fools. They're not looking around. They don't see. Don't walk that way. Now, you might walk wisely, but sometimes you have an accident. You didn't see something and you ran into it. But if you're a if you're a fool, you're just walking through life and everybody's either got to move around you or you're just bouncing off of things all the time or you're falling, you're getting in snares, you're getting in pits, you're in quick sand, you're just you're being devoured because you don't walk circumspectly.

See, then it says redeeming the time. Redeeming buying up the opportunities because, in other words, don't waste time. Wasting time is not a small matter, right? It's a sin. And we live in the easiest period in human history, I'm sure, to waste time. And I mean, I just want to move along because it's convicting on anyone talk about it because I'm up here now. I'm cutting my own self. Wasting time. Wasting time. Don't waste time. We're to use the time wisely. Redeeming the time because the days are people say, "Oh, the days are evil, brother. It's like the days of Noah. Well, then if you believe that, why do you waste so much time? I think a lot of people don't believe that. I think we think we have all the time in the world. Let's just pop open our smartphones and look at time that keeps track for us. Keeps track of the time that we spent doing stuff on that. Some of it's needed, some of it's useful. But how much of it is absolutely ridiculous? Amen. Amen. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Uh, get out of bed. Get a schedule going. Amen. We're gonna give an account. Why budget my money? You know what about your time? Amen. I'm just too busy. I doubt you're busier than a whole lot of other people in this room. We can do what we need to do. A lot of it is, let's get on a diet with time. Let's not waste time because the days are evil.

Wherefore, because the days are evil, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. So, what's the opposite of unwise? Walking circumspectly. What's the opposite of unwise? Redeeming the time. What's the opposite of unwise? Knowing God's will. Well, that's it, preacher. You say, "I'm trying to find God's will." Okay, I'll give you a blessing. Found. Found. Found. Take this book. Learn this book in the church God set you in. Learn to apply it to all of life. You'll be living in God's will. But I don't know who to marry. I don't know. I He'll He'll lead you. He'll direct your paths if you'll do what's revealed.

Isn't that encouraging? And be not drunk with wine, but Oh, hold on. Be not drunk with wine. Wherein in the drunk with wine is what? Excess. If you ever hear someone say be not drunk with wine to where you're drinking to excess, excessive drinking, they're manipulating the word of God. Now, I should rephrase it. They're trying to manipulate it, but it's still forever settled in heaven. It is not saying don't drink too much alcohol. It's saying be not drunk, wherein in the drunkenness there is what? Excess, but be filled with the spirit.

Amen. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms, help me understand. Help me understand a little bit of grammar. The sentence begins in verse 18 with the word everybody. How many of you when you were in school were taught don't ever start a sentence with and? Come on. I think the King James translators, you study their educational credentials, you study their linguistical skill, and you try to tell me they didn't know how to write, right? It starts with and. That's how God put it. Amen. I don't believe it's always a wrong to start with and, brother, because I believe that book. Amen. What do you think of that? But help me with my help me understand the help me understand words and sentences. So, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. Now, that little punctuation mark, there's two marks that make it a what is that called? A semicolon. But be filled with the spirit. What's that after that? So, does that mean the sentence is done? No, it's not a period. Don't put a period where God put a semicolon. Amen. Don't put a question mark where God put an exclamation point or a period. Right? So, be not drunk with wine. We're in a success. But, oh, hold on. I didn't say it right. It starts with what word? And. What does and let you know? We're in the same thought here. This is tied together. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit. Sentence continues. Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Now, before you say, "That's why I don't sing out loud because it just says in your heart." Uhhuh. Compare it with Colossians and you'll see we're to be edifying each other. And you can't edify me when you're just singing a private tune in your heart. So, don't don't pit scripture against scripture. The sentence continues verse 20. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sentence ends. No, it doesn't. Okay. Submitting yourselves one to another in something in the fear of God. You know another thing they would have told me in Skull Brother Gut that sentence is too long. That's a run-on sentence. Now, you saying, "Pastor, you're criticizing your own mom. You were homeschooled." I wasn't homeschooled till 10th grade. All that I learned way before mom was my was my homeschooling mom. I learned I learned you never start with end. I learned that sentence is too long. Well, you have to be careful. Uh I I try not to have when I write things. I don't want long sentences, but I'm never going to criticize God's word. That is one sentence. And I don't I don't believe you're going to understand this matter of be filled with the spirit unless you pay attention. That's right.

So here we have another verse and be not drunk with wine. We're into success, but be filled with the spirit. Here we have another verse that I've known my whole life. Anybody else like that? Heard it, quote it, heard it referenced multitudes of time and read it, believe it, preached it, love it. But who's this to? What's this about? Is there a context to this? First of all, there's it's written to save people, right? It's written to people set in a church. All right. It's it's written to a people in a real biblical church. It is not written to people in some church where some dude gets up and says, "I don't know if heaven's real. Maybe it's a maybe it's a good feeling." You know, I got to stop thinking about that or I'll be violating the previous chapter. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you. Because honestly, even going back, I was 23 years old. I'm Boy, that upsets me. What an opportunity for people to to be convicted and saved. And a false prophet had the microphone. Now, stop thinking about that. Real church, not that type of mess. Saved in a real church, real Bible church.

So we've looked at chapter 4, the unity, the members, the bodies, the gifts, the edifying of the body, the enemy of true unity. Doctrine being the antidote, the head, the edification, we saw the bond of peace last week, chapter 4:es 17 to 24, 25-32. We saw the reasoning. We saw the renewal process and we saw our responsibility. Put off and put on. Put off. Put on. Don't resist the renovator. Amen.

Now, we see. I'm going to give it to you this way. I'm going to do what one preacher said. Here's what preachers do. We tell you what we're going to tell you. Then we tell you what we told you we're going to tell you. And then we tell you one more time what we told you. Then we told you we're going to tell you. And then we say, "Do something with us." Amen. So, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you in this passage we see, be followers of God. Be faithful to God. Be fruitful in the spirit of God. Be followers of God. Be faithful to God. Be fruitful in the spirit of God. Secondary theme. Be followers of God. Walk in sacrificial love. Walk in sacrificial love. Sacrificial love to God and others. Other children of God.

Be followers of God. Walk in sacrificial love. Be faithful to God. Walk in separated love. Separated unto God and other children of God. Love demands separation. Right? Amen. Be fruitful in the spirit of God. walk in spiritfilled love to God and other children of God. So you maybe wrote down there the main points. All right. The message obviously is don't sin against the Holy Ghost but be filled with the spirit. Be followers of God. Do you see it in the first part that we read? Be therefore followers of God is what kind of children? Dear children, if you're saved, you are no longer a child of disobedience.

Amen. Now, this morning, we're going to be a little longer. I I I've made it a real effort the last few sermons to preach shorter, to be more But we're not having church tonight. I'm I'm just going to do this.

So, can you walk in love? Can you say, "I need this. I need this. I need this." The Lord has helped me with this so much. He'll help you if you let him. Be followers of God as dear children. You're no longer a child of disobedience. You're no longer a child of hell. You're no longer a child of the devil. You're a child in this passage, a child of light and a child of the Lord.

Amen. You got that? I am a child of light. If you're saved, say it out loud. I am a child of light. It's powerful statements to say I am when it's biblical. If you believe in manifesting things, a lot of that's a bunch of new age gobbledegook. But if you believe in just agreeing with what God says, I am a child of light. Say it again. I am a child. I'll tell you what, there's dark forces. They don't want you thinking that. That's right. You're depressed. You've always been a failure. You'll never get over it. You'll never move past this. You just can't. And you say out loud, "God's word says, I'm a child of light." Amen. I am a child of light. God's word says you're a child of the Lord. Therefore, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. The therefore hearkens back to the previous. Let all bitterness, let all wrath, anger, all of it put away. Be ye kind to one another because God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Hallelujah. Amen.

So therefore, follow God as dear children. Walk in love as Christ. Well, how did Christ walk in love? He died in our place for our sins. Amen.

So we can be forgiven. So if you're going to follow God and walk in love, you're going to have to say, "For Christ's sake, I will be kind. For Christ's sake, I will forgive. For Christ's sake, I will not hold grudges. For Christ's sake, I will love and be tender-hearted," one to another. What do you think of that?

You know what that's called? That's called sacrificial love. Because I have every right to be bitter. I have every right to hold on to my grievance. You don't know what they did to me. You don't know what they said to me. You don't know the sleep I've lost, the price I've paid. But you know, I'm actually free to sacrifice all that. I'm afraid to say, "I'm going to give all that up."

I'm gonna just give all that up because I'm a child of God. I'm I'm like Christ. I'm glad Christ isn't like he did this and then he did that and then he said this pro and he didn't keep that promise and I'm glad the father's not marking all my iniquities, but for Christ's sake, he offered himself up in my place as a sweet smelling sacrifice to God. So for Christ's sake, I can do the same thing for you and you can for me and we can one for another. To walk in love as Christ, we've got to be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving, that sacrificial love.

You know, I if I won't sacrifice, it's got to be my way. All of chapter four and five is about submitting one to another. Me giving one to another. Letting go of all my rights, letting go of all my grievance, all my hurts, all my stuff, all my baggage. Give it up, but I can't forgive. I have a right to be bitter. You know something? Humanly speaking, you got a right to be bitter. And I do, too. And you want to you want to sit down together and we can all go through why we have a right to be bitter. We can go for it. Won't that be good? Won't that be awesome when we're all done? Won't we be filled with the spirit and rejoicing and singing? No. We'll probably end up in a fight with each other about who's had it harder. You know, if we all got our problems out and our hurts and we all put them out on a table and we wrote them all out and then we traded them all around, you'd probably want to take yours and I'd probably want to keep mine. Amen.

I can actually forgive just as God forgave me. I can do it for Christ's sake. I can offer up myself to God like Christ did. I can sacrifice self-love and self-interest and self-preservation. Well, here's where the devil will get you with this forgiveness, not forgiveness thing. I want to forgive you, but I'm afraid I don't need to forgive Miss Diet of anything. This is just a madeup illustration, but I'm I'll forgive you, but I've got to protect myself. Are you hearing me?

So, if I I'm going to forgive you, but it's going to look like I forgive you. You can come this close, but no closer. You come that close, I do this, and I'm going to always maintain three feet. It's not forgiveness.

That's self-preservation. I might get hurt again. I can forgive David, but I'll never trust him again. I'll never let him get close because he might do it again. I'm sure glad God doesn't do that. Here he sits on his throne. I forgive you for the sake of my son who died for you, but you keep a distance. Oh, no. He says, "Come up here."

Amen. I'm Abba, father. Amen. Amen. Oh yeah, we're not fools. It could be that a game starts getting played by a de devilish person and they keep wanting to use scripture against scripture and they don't really ever want to change. They don't ever want to repent and they just want to play games with you. Okay, let's talk about how to deal with that scripturally. Not this morning. That's not the message this morning. Yeah, there are people that are just full of devils and they're going to try to play that. But we're talking about normal church life. We're talking about normal saved people. They love God. We can forgive each other for Christ's sake.

Two, it's written it's written to save people set in the church people. People that are interested in serving God, being filled with the spirit. And so, you're going to have to offer up your self-preservation, your self-love, for the unity of the body, for the bond of peace, for the renewing of our mind, for submission to the re renewer. You know how you answer it? You answer it with, "I'm a dear child."

How about another How about another biblical biblical affirmation, everybody? I am a dear child. You know something about that? You ever wonder who God's favorite is? Well, that's easy. It's Christ. Yeah. Amen. I mean, you just you study the word, even dear children, and you study beloved. It's Christ. But you know, in Christ, I'm his favorite, too. But so are you. Christ is his favorite, but we're all with him. You ever feel like, you know, he loves me like I'm his only child? Amen. Same with me.

If we can just look at each other and say, "Praise God. Dear child, dear child, dear child, dear child in Christ, if we're going to follow God, and that's our first point here, be a follower of God, we're going to have to walk in sacrificial love for God and other children of God. And that involves being loving, kind, forgiving. And so that leads right into we must also be faithful to God. Be faithful to God. Now, you say, "Why did you choose faithful?" Well, because he goes into not this, this this this this. You take all those and put them together. That's just be faithful to God.

You know, when Dana and I stood in the Marinatha Baptist Church, Tallahassee, Florida, and we were led in marriage vows, Dana did not stand there and have and my dad and her dad both did the ceremony. I don't know remember which one exactly took us through all that. But she didn't stand there and say, "I will cling to Bobby, forsaking Billy and Willie and Sammy and Timmy." Amen. She just said, "Forsaken all others." She was just saying, "I'll be faithful to him." When I stood and made my vows, I didn't think through every possible woman I ever knew. and and and all I mean is no is a friend, whatever. You know, there were some I'd had a little bit of romantic interest in, but I'd say is a very immature romantic interest and all that. I mean, you know, I'm not going to say, well, I was in love with Loren Hughes in kindergarten. It's ridiculous. You know, I was I was a kid and idiot, you know, no offense kindergarteners, but I didn't stand there go I forsake Loren Hughes because by third grade that that burned out. Say that. I forsake Wendy Fox because between kindergarten and third grade for a little while there I I I I liked her more than Loren. No, I just said I cling to Dana.

So that necessarily means nobody else. Amen. Follow the Lord. Be faithful to to the Lord. That necessarily means fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, justing, whoreongering, uncleanness, covetousness, and uh partaking with all that, walking in darkness, you know, unfruitful works of darkness, shameful things done in darkness, uh getting drunk, walking as a fool. It's I for I'm faithful to God.

Amen. You understand that? This passage, it's just a bunch more of put off, put on. Isn't that simple to think of it that way?

Remember Pastor Kenuni James, our dear friend over in Uganda, the pastor there. I was asking him about the situation in Uganda and the the HIV epidemic there. They've had an unbelievable epidemic for decades and and it's actually trending in a better direction. That's great. But I said, "Brother James, how do you you know, with all the people you preach to and you work with, how do you deal with this HIV thing?" And he said, 'Oh, brother Mitch, I wish I could say it in his voice with his accent. It's so much better. But he said, 'I tell them, HIV is not running up and down the road to jump on you. Just be faithful to God. Just be faithful to God.

Amen. It's like, yeah, it's hard to argue with that. You see, he's saying to them, "Don't be involved in hormonger stuff and covetous stuff and unclean stuff and and don't be involved in fornication. Don't be involved in adultery and don't be involved in sodomy and don't be involved." Just he's just wrapping it all up. Just be faithful to God. Amen.

Be faithful to God. You see, love demands faithfulness. Walk in separated love. separated unto God who you are to love and then the other dear children of God who you are to love. And so love demands separation. I love her but I also love her her her. Then you don't love her like you want.

You got it. I love God but I also kind of I got a little place for Baal here and I got a little place for Krishna and I got a little place for Aphrodite and I got a little something for Buddha. And you don't love God.

Love demands separation. I love gardening, but I also love weeds. No, you don't. Love. If you love gardening, you separate from weeds. Love demands separation. I love America just as much as you do. But I don't want any borders. Then you don't love America like I do. Every nation on earth has to have borders. That's not a big point today. But your clothes have to have borders. This communion table has a border. Otherwise, it's the building has a border. Amen. Your property line has a border. And there's got to be some laws that apply to borders. I'm glad God made me with borders.

My skin is a border. There's things I don't want coming through my skin. It's a border. A nation has to have a border. A town has to have a border. There's got to be some separation. I don't want communists taking over my country.

That's right. Because I love America. I don't love communism. I hate communism. It's evil. Amen. And by the way, a lot of it's rooted in a total twisting and perverting of scripture.

That's right. I I hate communism. I hate abortion because I love life. Amen. I love marriage. Therefore, I hate things that purport to be marriage that are lies and perversions of marriage. Amen.

Love demands separation. Love demands you're gonna you're gonna write some things out. And if you love God and if you love the Lord's church, then you got to say, "I hate hormonger stuff. I hate uncleanness. I hate fornication. I hate covetousness. It's all enemies of the church of the living God. It's all enemies of God. So separation is demanded by love. And so are you a loving church or a separated church?

Boy, that's a ridiculous question. That's like saying, do you love your wife or are you separated from everybody else? I love my wife. That's why I'm separated from everybody else. Amen. Amen. That's why I don't have an account on Facebook dating. Even if I was single, I wouldn't. I'm a Christian. That's foolishness.

That's right. I don't have an account on some dating app. What? No. I'm separated unto Dana. Love to man. Separation. And that's all through this section. Separate from these unto a life pleasing the Lord. What does that look like? Well, we read rather giving of thanks. That's a life pleasing the Lord. giving thanks, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, reproving sin, walking circumspectly, redeeming the time, okay? A life separated unto God.

Be real careful with the separation thing. If you live your life on everything you're separated from, you become a Pharisee. I got a longer list of stuff I don't do than you do. I've been around people. Do you go to barber shops? Yeah. Would you let a woman cut your hair? I heard one guy, he said, I believe no woman should ever cut a man's hair. He said, except I knew this fell. He got saved out of a homosexual thing, so I believe it's better for him to have a woman cut his hair. I'm sitting there going, I mean, really? Hey, if you believe it's not a good idea for you to have a woman cut your hair, don't have a woman cut your hair. Don't do that. But if that becomes like you're the special guy, you've got that standard. If that's what you need, that's fine. But that now you're distinguishing more and more. We start comparing who doesn't do what and we get really going. You could just get into fleshly carnal bickering at some point. Really easy. That's like the old I've done it before where I've proved I'm the best Christian here. You want me to do it again? How many of you have never heard me prove I'm the best Christian? All right, brother Re. Okay, if you Okay, I'll just start the pastor show. You preach? Me, too. Do you play the piano?

I win. But you know the bad news is he could say, "My turn. Do you preach?" "Me, too." He could say, "Do you build houses for the glory of God?" No. Now he's a better Christian. You want to play that game? It's ridiculous. And also, who's the most? We ought to be separated everywhere the Bible says. And in some areas there has to be some personal line drawns because my heart is my heart. My ears are my ears. And we got to be wise. I'm saying you better have the emphasis be separated unto loving God and loving others. If your separation is rooted in showing everyone you're going to be the most separated looking and acting person and walk around with bitterness and unforgiveness and hypocrisy. Believe me, I've seen it.

And believe me, I've been there. You ever been there? Man, I'm the most separated man in this crowd. And meanwhile, I got a bunch of bitterness and I've got a bunch of pride. Amen. Not you, pastor. Yes, I've been there. If you think about it, you probably have been too. If you never have, good. Don't go there.

It's tough to have to deal with that stuff. Be faithful to God. You've been raised from the dead. You have light. Walk as children of light. And so, be what's the first one? Be followers of God. Walk in sacrificial love. Be faithful to God. Walk in what kind of love? Separated love. Now, be fruitful in the spirit of God. Walk in spiritfilled love. Everybody say, "Walk in spiritfilled love."

Walk in spiritfilled love. So, let's keep this context. All right. You with me? No evening service. We got to go a little longer this morning. Get the evening ser evening service begins right now. Welcome to the evening service. Just sit there and pay attention. All right. It's a great service so far. Be fruitful in the spirit of God. So, the context following God, walking in love, sacrificial love, separated love. Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Walk carefully. Careful to love God and others. It's going to mean saying no to some things. Certainly means saying yes, put off, put on, right? Redeem the time. Be not unwise. And B, now we're finally at this verse. We've known it our whole lives. A lot of us, we've heard it. We we we maybe understand it, maybe don't. Now we've really got a context in mind. We want to get this. Anybody else want to understand it?

Okay, he starts with what a place to start. Hey, you know, let's talk about being filled with the spirit. Well, let's start with drunkenness. God knows what he's doing. God's man knew what he was doing. Sometimes you think, "What in the world is he doing?" I might know what I don't claim I always do, but I usually know what I'm doing. Just stick with me. We're going to start with drunkenness. Well, remember this church was located in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus. You know, one of the primary gods they worshiped there, Bakas, Bakas. Balian festivals. Ephesians would celebrate their wicked demon god, Buckas. You know, one way they would celebrate, they'd gather around with strong drink. The liquor be flowing and they would begin to embibe. They were putting themselves under the influence of spirits, alcohol, devils. Yeah. They were saying, "I want to get under the influence." What do we say today? Somebody's driving under the influence. Driving while intoxicated. Under the influence. They would get drunk and their festival. You say, "Well, I can't. That's just horrible. I'm glad America doesn't have anything like this. Man, what have they turned St. Patrick's Day into?" What have they turned Cinco de Mayo into? What have they turned being thankful to God for a good year and now here comes another year? What have they turned it into? That's right. What if many turned Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, what have they turned it into? What if many just turned the weekend into? Some people even every evening, they would get drunk. These Ephesians would get drunk and they would have parades. They would march through the streets arm in arm singing and making melody carrying on with carnal revalry songs. What are the type of songs people want playing in the bars and nightclubs? Honky tong saloons. They're not in there singing bless the Lord, oh my soul. Singing about their sin. Singing about their dejection, their depression. Singing about their disgust. singing about things they're bitter about, singing about people they want to murder, singing about fantasies they have that are ungodly. You you listening?

Yeah. You better flee all that. Amen. These Ephesians, they would sing about all that and they would carry on with all these pleasures as they yielded themselves to sin. Now, are you still able to think? I know it's hard for the mind to comprehend more than the seat can endure. You ever heard that? It's true. But can we We just a few more minutes. Be filled with the spirit. Okay. Active or passive voice? What do you think?

If you know, you can say it. It's a passive voice. Yeah. It's be filled with the spirit. It's not I make myself filled with the spirit. It's I am being filled with the spirit. I am commanded to be being filled with the spirit. Does that make sense? Does that help you? Let me help you with it if it doesn't make any sense. He just said, "Be not drunk with wine. We're in a success." So, if you get drunk, do you make chemical reactions take place in your body?

No, you do not. Absolutely you do not. Listen to this incredible definition. I did deep research. I went on Google and I clicked the AI button. Okay? So, now you can say, "I knew it. He uses AI for his sermon preparation. All right, you can say that if you're if you're a critic, you can say that Bobby Mitchell, he calls it study and all he does is AI. Well, I did for this definition. It's pretty good definition. You ready? So, drunkenness, I'm quoting Google AI. Drunkenness is caused by the chemical breakdown of alcohol ethanol in the body which releases toxic intermediate compounds and by alcohol's direct inhibitory effect on brain neurotransmitters. Now, see, I had to tell you that wasn't me because you'd have already known that if I sat up here and said other, you'd been like, the process primarily involves the liver metabolizing ethanol into acetal. Oh my goodness, I even looked it up and practiced it. Acetalahhide there, I remembered acetalahhide. the liver metabolizing ethanol into acetalahhide and then to acetic acid causing widespread neurobbehavioral changes. These key chemical reactions and processes result in drunkenness. Now what did you think of that? Have you you used to be in the Navy brother? What are sailors? I'm sorry. A bunch of drunken sailors. Isn't that what people say? They're out like acting like a bunch of drunken sailors. Did you ever work with guys that went out drinking all the time? He says, "Anybody else? You ever work with people, been around people?" They say, "Let's go out drinking." You have never heard someone say, "Let's go out and have our livers metabolize ethanol and acetalahhide and then to acetic acid causing widespread neurobbehavioral changes." Have you ever heard anyone say that? Yeah, man. Let's do it. They'd probably be like, "Sounds to me like you're already smoking something." All right. No, they don't say that. They say let's go drinking. And that's terrible, but that's what they say. But when they say let's go drinking, they are saying I want to go enjoy these intoxicating beverages. And if they do that to a certain point, it will all of it will affect somewhat, but when they get to a certain point, it will be they will be filled with under the control of the influence of the alcohol they're consuming to the point they are drunk. They actively, brother Keegan, drank. Passively though, forces acted upon them. As they ingested that material, processes took over to where they did not cause, we could say in a sense, they did not cause the chemical reactions that result in drunkenness, but they are responsible for consuming.

You with me? Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, which means profleacy, the abandonment of moral principle and vice. You listen to me. If someone's trying to get you to drink, they have ulterior motives. Don't you ever forget that. They either want you. Now, I've told you before, I'll sit on an airplane, some guy next to me, go, "Can I get you a drink?" He's not necessarily trying to take advantage of me, ruin my life, get me to be a fool. But if I say to him, I do not drink. I'm a Christian. And he's now he's really trying, he's got ulterior motives. He's a devil.

Okay, you have somebody that's wanting you to drink and get you drunk. They either want you to act like a fool or they want to take advantage of you, maybe in a sexual way, maybe get your money, something. This is a dangerous person. They want to get you to where you abandon your moral principles. Paul says, God says, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with a spirit that's passed the voice." You see, you do not make yourself have the chemical reactions that result in drunkenness, but you do ingest the alcohol. You do not make yourself filled with the spirit. But you know what you are responsible to do? You are responsible to be walking circumspectly, redeeming the time, understanding the will of the Lord. You are responsible to be speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart, giving thanks. All that works together. All of those Elijah are very practical and so is be filled with the spirit. Right? When you get to Ephesians chapter 5 and when you get down there to verse 18, you do not leave the realm of the real Christian practical life and all of a sudden you're in some land where the what in the world is this about?

Amen. Maybe I'll be barking like a dog, mooing like a cow. Maybe I'll be swinging from the lamps. Maybe I'll be running around the people's houses speaking in languages I can't understand. I don't know. It's practical like everything else there. And you say, 'Yeah, but you already said it's passive. I don't fill myself with the spirit. You're right. What you do is just like you would yield to alcohol, you yield to the Holy Spirit of God. You ingest what he has for you. You consume what he has for you. You learn to submit to the relationships you are in as it applies to those relationships. That sentence ends with submitting yourselves one to another. That's gonna look like me saying to me, "Stop wanting it your way and learn to work with others."

Amen. Amen. We'll get into that later. How you submit in the various relationships is practically spelled out in 521-69. Daniel does not say to me, "You need to submit to me in the fear of God." No, it's spelled out. 21 is like the headline. 22 down to 6:9 breaks it down in the different relationships. Don't study that out right now, but do it later. Look at it. Because I've heard people, they get weird with us, man. They play games. They're like, "Well, my parents are supposed to submit to me in the fear of God." So, submitting yourselves. That's ridiculous. We're all to be submitting in the fear of God as it applies in the various relationships.

Otherwise, it makes no sense. It doesn't work with the rest of the Bible. All right. So, we've got to we've got to conclude and I'm glad for how the Lord's helped us. You are to be saved, separated to God, serving God and others. That's what I'm to be. Spiritfilled church member, moved along by the spirit of God. Filled with the spirit of God. Not filled with drunkenness. Not filled with wrath. Not filled with bitterness. Not filled with unforgiveness, uncleanness, foolishness, fornication. Not filled with all that. Filled with the spirit. This will happen. This will happen. He'll accomplish this. As you submit to his influence as you and I yield to him, he will fill us with himself. We won't be quenching him and grieving him and resisting him. He'll be free to flow as a fountain, as a river, as rivers. He'll be free to flow unhindered, ungrerieved, making us fruitful with his fruit.

Amen. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Don't sin against the Holy Ghost by hindering his filling of you. The sail doesn't make the wind fill the sail. Neither does the sailor. But the sailor gets the sail into position for the wind to fill it. I don't make myself filled with the spirit, but I yield to him. I submit to him. I reveal his will as it's laid out for me. I learn to love God and love others. I am separated in my love for God and others. I am faithful in my love for God and others. And as I do my part, he fills me with the Holy Ghost.

Amen. Amen. I think every one of us can understand it. But if you don't understand that, if you say, "I don't get that." Please tell me, this is not like optional. Well, if I'm ever a preacher, well, if I'm No, no, this is for you.

That's right. How dare you try to homeschool your children, ma'am, and do it in your own power and not as a spiritfilled mother. How dare you try to be that wife your husband needs without being a spiritfilled woman? How How could you settle for that? How could you? How could I settle for being a husband, a dad, a brother, a son, a preacher, a grandpa, and not be concerned with being a spiritfilled man? You can understand this. And this can be your reality, and it is a command. It's not like, well, you know, some of you there are pastors and full-time servants. No, it's every member.

So, don't sin against the Holy Ghost. Be a follower of God, walking in sacrificial love. I didn't preach it and I'm not going to do a bunch of time on it, but walk in love is present tense. It's our lifestyle. Amen. Be faithful to God. Walking in separated love, let it not be once named is present tense. It's our lifestyle. And then be fruitful in the spirit. Walking in spiritfilled love. Be filled is present tense. It's our lifestyle. Stand up with me, please. Oh, Sunday's coming. I've got to preach. Oh, I better get filled with the Holy Ghost.

That's wrong. That's wrong. I'm to be filled with the Holy Ghost tomorrow morning. Amen. I'm to be filled with the Holy Ghost if I wake up in the middle of the night. I'm to be filled with the Holy Ghost if I'm out here shoveling snow. Amen. If I'm out here digging a car out. If I'm trying to help somebody else get out of a ditch. Amen. If I stub my toe. That's right. If I run into the woodshed and split my head open, Brother Barrett and be filled with the Holy Ghost. You know, I we saw Brother Barrett the other night. Hit the woodshed. Don't worry, he didn't harm the woodshed. Everyone stopped worried about it. Poor brother Barrett hit hit his head there. He came in our house. It it hurt. He had blood all coming down all over, but he didn't act like a God cussing lost man. He wasn't inflamed. Why didn't you warn me? Why isn't there some orange paint? What in the world? He didn't act like that. He acted like a spiritfilled man that just had something hurt. We're to be filled with the Holy Ghost all the time. It's present tense and we get to be. Don't sin against the Holy Ghost. Be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Is that for you? If you need help with that, let me know. Let's pray. Father, I believe I can say on behalf of all of the church here, we receive this. We submit to this, Lord. It's not given by you to put us under a constant guilt complex and have us stressed out all the time and and walking around just afraid and just all messed up in the head. But it's given to encourage us and to show us how to please you and to walk in love, to walk as Christ. and may we embrace it. May we live it. And Lord, that this is what we want. It's it's got to be the most important thing in my life that I that I obey and I fellowship with you and I walk in love and I'm filled with the Holy Ghost. It's got to be more important, Lord, than getting some more money, paying a bill, coming across as a nice guy, wanting everybody to pat me on the back, or seeing something, going somewhere. Lord, it's got to be. It's seeking first the kingdom of God. It's got to be that. And I'm glad it can be. Help us, we pray, to be really honest. Are we faithful to you? Are we filled with your spirit? We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.

Now, we're going to go and I wanted to be with you this evening, but it it does was not happening. And so, um, so you know, what do we do if six o'clock, 7 o'clock, there's not even a snowflake. Oh, we missed the will of God. No, you make decisions in the will of God based on the information you presently have. So, don't ever worry about that. Don't worry about it. God in his providence is letting you have a an evening. You know, my brother and I always had a joke when he lived here. Big blizzard's coming. Better cancel church. So, you want to go to the mall with us? Yeah, that was always our our joke. We didn't go to the mall. I don't like going to the mall no matter when. I just don't like the mall. But um but we don't we don't judge each other on that. If if you say, "Man, I got a four-wheel drive Jeep and I want to go visit." So, I don't care. I don't care. Just be filled with the spirit. Just do right. But our family, the the five of us, I call them the final five, but it'll be down to the final four, then the final three. And you know, but the final five, we're flying out. We're scheduled to fly out Tuesday if everybody's dug out in Baltimore because we go through there. We're scheduled to go out to Sparks to preach out there to visit family and all and should be home. We fly Tuesday and we're supposed to be home a week from Wednesday. So, we should be gone. It comes out to eight days. So, I really hate to not be with you this evening, but uh that's how it is. That's in the will of God. There's some big moves going on. And one thing I'll be doing is going all through bunch of nitty-gritty details with the finances and all of Pastor Mitchell, Pastor Vant, a place that they're on the verge of signing papers on. We need the Lord to move some things with that. It's a great place. It's in a strip mall. It has an entrance directly into it from the street and all. And brother show's got a great design already made for it. And it's looking like they'll be able to get it with a three-year lease. And if we can get that, they'll have a nursery. They'll have a broom for junior church. They have a a nice vestibule to greet people when they come in. Office for the pastor. Seating potentially up to 100. So, you know, you start with you put up like 55 seats because they're having about 30 people there. So, feels, you know, feels like it's filled up, but then you can add more. And what did I miss anything that will be available in there? Just great. It's got a kitchenette. Little kitchenette, you know. So, pray about all this. Listen, God's doing huge things. God's doing huge things.

Pastor Mitchell's in negotiations with them. They offered uh well, you do this and we're going to give you I think it was 16,000 uh from the owner of the strip mall. We'll we'll put 16,000 in your hands for you to do these renovations, build this out. It's just empty show. Pastor Mitchell goes back and says, "How about 32?" Okay, 32. He was Trump before Trump. That guy, he's something else. So yeah, and they said, you know, uh, we're going to increase by 3% a year, but it's going to be this much rent. He said, how about this much rent, but increase, you know, so lower, but increase by 5%. And so, but there's some details we're working out. I when I say we, I mean he. And so pray for him. Great wisdom, great energy, great all that he needs. 77 years old almost. And then um, uh, they, you know, there's just some things. Oh, you got you got to show us from the city they're going to approve. This is a meeting place. Well, there's several, you know, Looney Tune churches, air quotes around there that are doing that in strip malls. You know, things like, you know, the, you know, the church on the move and the and the living tree, you know, whatever, you know, the root seller, you know, all those generic names. So, that should happen. They have this kind of weird request right now. They say, "We want this backed by the full faith and credit of Mid Coast Baptist Church." Well, amen. Of course. Yeah. Well, but we also want it backed by we need one man to stand as the guarantor. One person that'll guarantee three years rent. If anything happens, that one person will be respon. Well, no. We do not want that. We do not really love the sound of that. So, Pastor Mitchell said, "Look, folks, there's big things happening. If money scares you, then just plug your ears." All right? I'm scared of money. God uses money.

Amen. Money represents time, energy, life. There's a sister church that called the other day and said, "We're sending a check for $72,000 to cover 12 months of $6,000 rent. It's probably going to be 66. We got to pray we can come up with $600 a month. I'm messing around. That's unbelievable." It's what? There's a God in heaven. He's doing big things. I think he's seeing people saying, "We believe God can do big things. We're going to do big things."

So, so they're saying, the owner is saying, "We'll give 32,000 for renovations." This other church is saying, "We're sending 72,000 for a year at 6,000 a month." 6,000 a month is huge for rent, but in that city, that's like 50% of what everybody else is paying. Yeah. If you're going to do big things for God in big cities, you're going to have big money come through your fingers and you're going to be excited about it and not think stupid thoughts like, "Oh, it's too bad we couldn't keep half of that and put it in an IRA or something for the church." Come on. Amen. So, Pastor Mitchell is going to them and saying, "We don't want to do this one person be a guarantor. We're going to say, "How about you take that 32,000 plus another 40,000? We'll just pay all that upfront, and can you trust us to keep paying this rent with a three-year contract?" And so you pray they're going to look at him and go, "Yeah, okay." Because they should. They absolutely should. And so we'll see if they say no, we still then we say well we actually have another 42 because that 72 minus 30 is for you know so uh so we say how about that and and it's some and I think they're going to say yes. We just don't like the idea of one person being a guarantor. Okay. So you pray as he negotiates and deals and the king's heart is in the hand of the lord the king of kings. He can do big things. And then we're we have because of the faithful giving. God lets us give. God's given through us. We can do the renovations. We can get that done. There's even skilled men out there. And there's there's all kinds of guys out there building stuff and we can hire some guys. We can get that going. But you pray about all this huge stuff. God's doing huge things to get Brother Brownfield to Canada. Amazing things. So big, big stuff. You pray. I'll be out and I'll be dealing with some of that. We'll be just dealing with a lot of stuff. preaching Thursday and then three times on Sunday, Lord willing, coming back. Will everybody pray for us?

And I'm praying for all of you. What a what a God we serve. And what a work we're in that's bigger than I ever dreamed. It's I feel like at this point, half the time, Brother Gutch, I feel like I am a twig on a stream and I'm trying to act like I'm swimming. I know what I'm doing. I'm going down. I'm just God's just carrying me along and carrying us along and stuff's going on. I'm just going what a mighty God we serve. Hallelujah. But we can know the will of God. We just do our part as little bitty tiny servants and he's just doing things and I think he sits on his throne and smiles to see us saying, "Wow, wow." And the Lord could say, "Oh, that's nothing." We have no idea what all he's got in store. Amen.

Amen. All right, Lord. Thank you again. We praise your name. give wisdom. All of this, Lord, it's bigger than us, but it's always been bigger than us. It's It was bigger than Solomon or David. It was been is bigger than anybody, Lord. We're just glad we get to be little servants just kind of running around the house doing your will. Keep us right in it, we pray. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We trust you to see us through this storm. May you be glorified in it, Lord. Help us all to look out for each other. If we can help each other today, tomorrow with all this, help us to be availing ourselves and to be good. Do bless as we travel, Lord. Bless your work out there. It's incredible what you're doing. And uh Lord, we don't we don't want to do anything that would hinder your spirit in your work and your will. And we don't want to do anything, Lord. The confidence that other churches have in us, we don't want to do anything to ruin that. because we love them too. And Lord, we don't want to do anything to where you'd look at us and say, "I can't use them. I can't trust them." Help us to be a humble people. In Jesus name we pray it. Amen. God bless you. Enjoy a good evening. Stay try to stay warm and safe if you