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Speaker 2For those of you who have missed some and are keeping up with the study through the website, all the audios are on the website except last week's. Something happened with the... Yeah. The first week, we didn't make it. Deborah's first teaching.
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And last week, Becca taught, and the recording just didn't happen. So apologize for that. We're set and ready to go for today, though, so you can relisten to today's or catch up. That's easy to do. If you need the website again, let me know.
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Another announcement is we have next week and then one more week, March 25, I believe, is our last week. We'll do like a big potluck that week, and so you can be thinking of your favorite dish. And if you can stay afterward, try and carve out some time after our small group to stay for just a celebration lunch before spring break happens. Let's pray. Gracious lord, thank you for today.
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Thank you for bringing us here together to worship you. Thank you for allowing us in your throne room. Lord, we just pray blessing over this time. Lord, your favor, Lord, and may this worship be a fragrance to you. And may Deborah's teaching, Lord, be your words, penetrating our hearts, Lord, and changing our lives.
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It's And in your son's name we pray. Amen.
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Speaker 1Good morning. What a day it is. I can't wait to unpack this lesson with you because the fir... When I first read it, I was like, Lord, it's not speaking to me that much. And then as I just sat with it, I...
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It's one of my favorite passages I think I've ever taught because it is so incredibly powerful. If you wanna turn in your Bibles to Ephesians five, I'm gonna be covering verses 18 through 33, but really camping out in the middle of the passage. Last week, Becca ended with verses 15 through 17 where she said, be careful how you live. Don't live like fools. And I loved Becca's definition of being a fool or living in futility.
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Do you remember what it was? She said that a fool lives with no purpose, no significant results. And I thought, wow, that that's why God is telling us here through Paul, don't live like that. We make choices of eternal value. So we are called to live like the wise, make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
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Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. And then Paul goes right into it in verse 18 and he says, what does the Lord want you to do? He doesn't want you to be drunk with alcohol, but be drunk or filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't you think that's an interesting contrast? Why did Paul choose to use being drunk with alcohol and being filled with the Holy Spirit?
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Why would he use that contrast? Well, the world is very drawn to alcohol, and we know that alcohol is a depressant. So what does that mean? Alcohol depresses my guard for self control, for saying wise things, for, just good balance and wisdom. But what does the Holy Spirit do?
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The Holy Spirit doesn't depress my guard. The Holy Spirit stimulates my guard. The Holy Spirit stimulates me to be a wise person, to speak with discernment, to speak with wisdom. So you see the contrast is very interesting, isn't it? I mean, have you ever had too much to drink or been with someone and you you say, man, that was a stupid thing they said or a stupid thing I did.
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But do we ever say that when the Holy Spirit's in control of us? Do we ever say, I can't believe what a stupid thing I said when the Holy Spirit had control of my tongue. We don't do that. And Paul's like, make sure that you're under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And Paul says, to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Now the reason I found this so fascinating is because just like we'll learn at the end with the word submission, the phrase being filled with the spirit has taken on a really bizarre different meaning than what Paul tells us it means. I was talking to a friend recently in California, and she said, I'm looking for a new church. And I said, what are you looking for? And she said, I'm looking for a spirit filled church. And I said, well, what's that mean to you?
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It was very fascinating her definition of a spirit filled church. It wasn't at all What Paul shows us is being a spirit filled person or a spirit filled church. I wonder what your definition of a person who spirit filled what they would look like to you. Paul gives us three manifestations that we're gonna talk about. But before we do, I just wanna clarify something.
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In Ephesians one thirteen, Paul tells us that having believed, we've been marked with the seal, the promised Holy Spirit, meaning that all of us having believed have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. And he goes on to say in first Corinthians twelve thirteen, we were all baptized by one spirit to form one body whether Jew, Gentile, slave, or free, we were all given the one spirit. So we are all baptized with the same spirit. I don't get a little bit more of the spirit than you, and you don't get a little bit more than me. So just to clarify, having believed we've been baptized, but we are not always walking full of the spirit, are we?
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So what does he mean by that? And I wanna just unpack the word with you because, you know, so often in the English, it doesn't give us the full meaning of a word like the Greek or the Hebrew. That's why we always pull out the Greek or the Hebrew. The Greek word for to be filled is pleurao, and it has three layers of meaning. The first meaning implies pressure.
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Amy, do you wanna show slide one? And this is a good kind of pressure, a pressure that motivates us to move. And the Greeks would have known that this is the kind of pressure that fills up or billows up the sails of a ship, being the impetus for that ship to sail through the waters. So spiritually speaking, when I'm filled with the spirit, the spirit is motivating me to move in his direction. That's that little nudging we feel when we feel like, okay, that's a green light.
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I I feel, like, called to do that. I just feel like this magnetic pull when we're seeking his will or that little check-in our spirit not to go in a certain direction. That's what the the word plerao means in the first meaning. So it's a pressure and impetus to get us moving in the right direction. The second meaning is one of permeation.
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So when we are baptized with the spirit... Some of you have seen me use this illustration before. I have the Holy Spirit in me symbolizing the chocolate syrup, but I look the same, don't I? Why? Because I haven't been permeated with the Holy Spirit.
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The spiritual disciplines permeates my mind and my emotions and my choices, and the spiritual disciplines symbolize my spoon. So when I'm in the word, studying God's word, when I come together in fellowship, when I pray, when I serve the Lord, when I confess my sin, when I just talk to him, I change. I change. He's permeating my being. This is just walking in the spirit.
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This is just being in connection with the Lord. This is putting his word in my mind, in my heart. This is praying. This is coming together. I have allowed the spirit to permeate me.
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That's why this... We come together in Bible study because we wanna learn more about the spiritual disciplines. And the third meaning is one of domination and self control. The Holy Spirit, play Ra'o, his job is to have control over me, for me to be poor in spirit to submit to him. But where does that control begin?
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What controls how I feel? What controls what I say? What controls the actions I do? It all starts where? By the renewing of my mind.
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When I'm in the word, I open the door for the Holy Spirit to control my very being. You know that verse, out of the overflow of the heart speaks the mind... Speaks the the mouth. Well, what affects the heart? It starts up here, and it goes down to my heart, and then it comes out of me.
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So the three technical meanings of plei rao, being filled with the spirit, the first one implies a pressure or a motivation. The second one is to be permeated, and the third one is to be dominated. Colossians three sixteen says, let the message about Christ, the word of God, in all its richness fill you. And I love that. Let the message, the word fill you.
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Timothy Keller says, the practical the practical result of being filled with the spirit is there is an ongoing fullness that just comes from repenting, from knowing God, from trusting him and obeying him, and that develops an intimacy with him. That develops a sharper ear to hear that nudging. That develops a sharper heart to know what direction I should go. And we know what breaks intimacy. What stops the feeling?
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Sin. Sin quenches and grieves the feeling, and it breaks the intimacy. And we know that's true. Even though there is a a false teaching permeating our churches in America that I don't need to confess my sin. Are you kidding me?
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I mean, we know that's not true. Just think about any relationship that you have. Just with my husband, let's just say he and I wanna snuggle down and watch a movie, and he bites my head off. It breaks my intimacy with him. I don't wanna snuggle with him anymore.
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But if he's like, okay, you know what? I'm sorry. I'm really stressed about business. That was the stupid thing to say. I'm like, okay, let's watch the movie.
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It's no different with our relationship with the Lord. We break intimacy when we sin with him. We break that filling. So God just says, just confess to me. And he's even better than we are.
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He is always faithful and just to forgive. He doesn't have to take time to get over it, does he?
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Speaker 3Like we do. I mean, he
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Speaker 1is amazing. Well, Paul goes on from the technical meaning to show us visibly what it means to be filled with the spirit. And he tells us in verse 19, the first manifestation of being filled with the spirit is that we will sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves. We will make music to the Lord in our hearts. So the first song is...
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The first sign is there will be a new song in your heart. You will sing a different song from the world. You will. John MacArthur says, okay. I think this is hard for many of us to understand, to wonder just how the matter of singing relates so directly to the great doctrinal truth of being filled with the spirit.
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But he says there is a visible manifestation of being filled with the spirit that you have a different song on your lips. And we see that from Genesis to Revelation. And what I find so fascinating in the NIV, did you know the Lord mentions singing the same amount of times he mentions praying? And we all know praying is important, but singing is just as important to him. I mean, just think, right out of the gate in Ephesians four, the Lord's telling us about Cain's descendants, and he tells us, and then there was Jubal in verse 21, the first to play the harp and the flute.
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That's recorded in the eternal word of God because it was important to him. Moses and the Israelites to honor the Lord when they were freed from Egypt. There's a song recorded that they wrote in Exodus 15, and they sang unto the Lord. And we're told that his sister, Miriam, led the women with tambourines and dancing. And what about king David?
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We know that he wrote at least a 150 of the songs mostly recorded in psalms. I think that's amazing. And we know that from the tribe of Levi, so many of them in the temple were singers, and they were heart players and flute players because that was part of worship, and it was important to the Lord. In fact, the last verse in Psalms, Psalm one fifty six says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
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Even Jesus, you know, he's sitting in the upper room with his disciples. They just had the last supper. He's on his way to the Mount Of Olives. And what did they do? The men up there sang a hymn before he left for the Mount Of Olives.
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And Paul and Silas are in Philippi, and they're sitting in prison. And all the prisoners in that prison, the the scriptures tell us that they stopped and they listened because Paul and Silas were singing a praise song in prison. When we have a different song in our heart, it brings attention and glory to the Lord. It makes us look different than the world. I think the most compelling, beautiful description of a song to me, because I think you and I are gonna be doing this someday, we're gonna be singing.
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This song It's from John in Revelation. John writes in Revelation five, and when the lamb, the lion of Judah, took the scroll, The four living beings and the 24 elders, they fell down before the lamb. They had a harp, and they had gold bowls of incense in their hands. You know what that incense was? Our prayers going up before the Lord.
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And this is the song they sang. You are worthy, so worthy. You were slaughtered and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation. And you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God, and they will reign on earth. And then John says, I looked around and I saw millions of angels singing, you are worthy to the lamb.
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And then this is the most fascinating thing he saw. He said, I saw every creature in the sky, on the earth, and in the sea. The creatures were singing, worthy worthy is the lamb. Can you imagine that? I think we can draw a logical conclusion from Genesis to Revelation that singing to the Lord is very important to him.
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I know when they open, it settles my heart down because I come in, and my heart's racing from running around. And I'm like, answering text messages sometimes when I'm driving, but I talk into the phone. I talk into the phone. I don't do it like that. And I come in, and my mind's just a whiz, and they settle me with their praise song.
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And then at the end, we seal the word with praising the Lord. So it's a manifestation. The second manifestation that Paul gives us is in verse 20. He says, being filled with the Holy Spirit, give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We just did a whole study on being grateful.
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I just felt like the Lord said, really want you to sit here for a while to unpack this again. It's so important to him. I mean, recently, my husband and I, we have this couple in our life. They've been through so much recently. So we we said, let's bless them.
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We wanna give them something really nice to bless them. So we gave it to them, and I told my husband, I said, are you sure they got it? Because we haven't heard anything. And he's like, no, I'm sure they got the gift. And so finally, he just couldn't take it anymore.
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He said, did did you guys get what we gave you? And they they were like, oh, yeah. How does it make you feel when someone doesn't thank you when you've given them something? You know, when we say thank you, we're recognizing that we've been enriched and blessed by others. And I think, wow, Lord, don't let me do that to you.
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Because you know what? I don't really wanna bless them anymore. That's just how I feel about it. That how often does the Lord enrich me and bless me? And I don't even stop to say thank you, Lord.
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Thank you. Now, this verse says, give thanks for everything. You know, John Piper says, we gotta be careful here because we're not gonna dance around the coffin or say, let's have a party. I just got diagnosed with cancer. That's not how the human being reacts.
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But we have to get to the point of saying, thank you, Lord, because what happens if we don't, guys? We become bitter, we become very cynical, and we become rebellious. You know why? Because we're not recognizing that God is sovereign and His eye is on us. I will tell you that, last Thursday, my husband and I were skiing, and it was just this glorious sunny day.
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And I'm just skiing down the run singing Hosanna just at the top of my lungs because no one can hear me singing. These guys know I can't carry a tune to save my life. So I always sing when I ski. And I go into the lift line, and I'm just like, so happy. My husband comes in behind me, clips my ski, crosses my ski, and I don't even know what happened.
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Within seconds, I'm on my back screaming. And this lady beside me in line, she's like, what just happened? I'm like, I have no idea. And my poor husband, his name is Greg. His name means protector and guardian.
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And he takes that role very serious. So he's like, that wasn't me. I know I didn't touch you. And he's like, Deborah, you you must have moved or something. And I'm like, just laying there, my boot is this way and my knee is this way.
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And it was such a beautiful day. I'm like, we're gonna keep skiing, and that didn't happen. I had to actually go straight to the clinic. And the clinic said, you need to get an MRI. Something's wrong.
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The next morning, I wanted to be here at the World Day of Prayer. And Greg is in town, and I'm sitting on the couch. And I... I've had ACL surgery, so I was just terrified I tore my ACL. And because of my sensitive stomach, I couldn't take any meds.
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I had to get through the whole recovery of physical therapy with no meds. I... Oh my gosh. Most painful thing ever. And so I'm sitting on the couch, and I'm just like, Lord, I am not thankful.
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I cannot give you thanks. My knee is killing me. By Friday, my knee was like this big. Like, I just can't do surgery. I mean, in January, I had walking pneumonia.
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In February, we had the accident. And now March is an injury. I want a do over. I don't want twenty fifteen anymore. And I'm just having a complete meltdown.
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And and I'm sitting there and my small group leader Nancy texts me and she's like, hey, where are you? I'm like, Nancy, grab some women and pray for me. I'm going to get an MRI. I don't want surgery. I can't do surgery.
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And I'm seeing my kids in two weeks for Easter, and that's, like, the thing I look forward to most in this world. That would have been canceled. So I'm just having the biggest meltdown ever, you all. And I look over, and there is sitting my little thanks giving journal. And I'm like, Lord, seriously, I'm not writing Thanksgivings right now.
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And and I picked it up, and I just started writing what I'm grateful for. By the time I was finished, I told the Lord, okay. If I have to have surgery, it's you and me. We'll get through it. And I believe this didn't slip by you.
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I believe you have a greater good, and I'm just gonna trust you. I was completely calmed down. Greg walked in and he was like, oh, good. Things are going good now. And we
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Speaker 3go to doctor Corey.
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Speaker 1He does the MRI. He comes in with his PA. And I was like, did I tear my ACL? And he goes, no. Deborah, your ACL looks fantastic.
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He's like, it looks so great. I'm like, are you serious? I don't need surgery? He goes, no. He goes, you fractured your tibia bone, so you can't do anything for a while, and you have to ice every hour.
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I'm not kidding you guys.
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Speaker 3I go, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. I'm so, so happy. Thank you.
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And I'm just having my own little celebration,
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Speaker 1and I look over and doctor Corey and the peer are just looking at me, and I'm like, okay, I know that was weird. I'm just so happy, you guys. He's like, yeah, you usually don't get that reaction when I tell someone they fractured a bone.
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Speaker 3Thank you, Lord.
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Speaker 1But thanksgiving changes everything. It really... It gave me the courage to go in and whatever it was gonna be was gonna be. It just changes everything about your perspective. You know, and I just wanna encourage you too.
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Amy, can we show the tracks? I think that's image three. Rick Warren, in a in a very interesting interview, the year his book, Purpose Driven Life, crushed it, became a bestseller, same time his wife was diagnosed with cancer. And in an interview, I love what he said. He said, I used to think that life was hills and valleys, ups and downs.
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You go to the mountain top and back. He said, I don't believe that anymore. Rather, I think life is like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times, you have something good happening in your life, and at the same time, you have something bad. He said no matter how good things are in your life, there's always something that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are, there's always something good you can thank God for.
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And I think understanding that life, this side of heaven, is just full of paradoxes. There's good and bad and good and bad. I think it helps us to have a perspective to not only survive it, but to actually thrive during it. Check out what Paul said about these paradoxes in second Corinthians six eight through 10. Paul's talking about him and Timothy and Barnabas, the guys that he's serving the Lord with, and he says, we serve God and people despise us.
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We are honest, and they call us imposters. We are ignored even though everybody knows who we are. We live close to death, but we're so alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we have joy.
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We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. Paul said, we own nothing, but we have everything. I love that because that will promote an attitude of gratitude. When you understand that this life is just full of paradoxes, You know, seeds of thanksgiving produce such a harvest in our soul, and one of the things it produces is joy. A complaining heart grieves the Holy Spirit.
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You can't be filled with the Spirit and be complaining at the same time. Now we have issues we need to work through, but a complaining, grumbling heart is not the way to work through the issues. The Bible teaches us the joy of the Lord is our strength. The way to be filled with the spirit is by saying, I trust you, Lord. No matter what, I trust you.
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That sparrow didn't fall from the tree without you noticing. I didn't hurt my knee without you noticing. Nothing happens without you seeing it, and I know that you're gonna work good from it. I believe that. Warren Wiersbe says, the devil moves in when the Christian starts to complain, but thanksgiving in the spirit defeats the devil and glorifies the Lord.
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Isn't that incredible? And I was thinking about the people that I know that are the most grateful people. And you know what came to me? The people who love God the most are the ones who thank him the most, and they're the same ones that seem to find love all around them. They see the beauty in everyone.
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They see the good in circumstances, but they're also the ones who thank the Lord the most. Romans one eighteen through 21, I'm just gonna start with verse 20, is a very interesting passage. Paul says, since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people, they're without excuse. I mean, they see the incredible nature and the order of the universe. How did this happen?
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There is a divine designer and he is God. But this is the interesting verse. Paul said, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. And their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. And Becca shared last week what happens to a foolish heart, those six points of corruption and living in darkness.
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Timothy Keller, and and I didn't know this, but many theologians, including Timothy Keller, believed that ingratitude is the root of all sin. I had to stop and think about that because I've heard that jealousy and envy, and I can get that. But, you know, as you start unpacking the 10 commandments, why do you commit adultery? Not grateful for your spouse. Why do you steal?
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Why do you covet? Certainly not grateful, are you? Why do you worship other gods? So fascinating. Timothy Keller laid down two examples that were just so interesting.
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He said, think about plagiarism and treason. Pretty serious offenses in our country. You can get kicked out of college if you plagiarize. Treason, you turn your back on your country. That carries a heavy sentence, doesn't it?
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It used to be the death sentence. I don't know if it still is anymore. But what is the root of both of those things? The root is that I won't give credit or thanks or acknowledge the source. And I thought, wow, that's exactly what Paul said in that Romans passage.
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That although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. How often do I plagiarize the Lord? I don't thank him for being the source of everything that I have and everything that I am. Or treason. I don't wanna live in the land of God sometimes.
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I wanna go live in my own land. I turn my back on him. Pretty serious offenses. And then I was just thinking about other sins. You know, worry.
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Worry. Gratitude is the solution. Hasn't God brought me here? I mean, I'm still here. Guilt.
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Gratitude is the solution. He lavishes his grace and mercy on me. Why do I feel guilty? He says, I wash you as clean as snow. Am I not grateful for that?
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And one that I just think we struggle with as women because we just don't forget things. Bitterness, unforgiveness, holding a grudge. If the root of that is ingratitude, can I just encourage you? You know, we're in the Lent season leading up to Easter. Bless yourself.
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Take some time with just you and the Lord and put in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. And as you're watching that, just keep in mind, he did that with your name in his heart. He did that with you in mind. I don't know. That helps me let go of my silly little grudges.
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That helps me get to the point where I'm like, Lord, you just constantly forgive me. With your Holy Spirit, I can forgive that offense. I can forgive them again and again because every day you forgive me. Hebrews thirteen fifteen says, let us offer to Jesus a continual sacrifice of thanksgiving because when we do, we proclaim allegiance to him. When I am not grateful, I'm betraying my Lord.
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It's a serious thing. But you know what? We can't be grateful in all things without being filled with the spirit. That's why Paul says this is a visible sign. And the third one, I'm sure us ladies would just like to rip this little page right out of the Bible.
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I'm not gonna totally unpack it, but I I do wanna give you some things to think about. Verse 31, verse 21 says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. The third manifestation requires a submissive spirit. A new song in our heart, thanksgiving, and a submissive spirit. I don't think there's anything harder for us than to submit to someone else and usually to our husband.
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It's a very difficult thing to do. Verse 22, for wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. And I'm gonna skip down because then it really talks about the husband. And actually, you know what? They have a much difficult, much more difficult calling.
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They're supposed to love us as Christ loves the church. I think that's harder than what Paul is telling us to do. Paul says in verse 33, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Paul says, love your wife, but wives, you respect your husband. You know, Christian divorce rate is just slightly better than nonbelievers divorce rate.
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And I can't tell you how many times my husband and I have been out with another couple, a Christian couple. And the wife is so disrespectful to her husband. What does that word mean? And I I think it's just a a good time for us to say, okay, am I doing that? The Lord is speaking to our hearts.
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Forget about what your husband does. The Lord is speaking to us today. And can I just remind you, when we stand before the Lord, we're not gonna have our husband standing beside us? It's just the Lord and me. And the Lord is gonna say, Deborah, did you respect Greg?
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Did you appreciate him? Did did he know? Do do I ever say thank you, Greg, for all the things that he does? Was in a Bible study once, and this lady raised her hand, and she goes, I just don't have anything I could thank my husband for. And after going through it with her for a while, she came up with one thing.
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He he takes the garbage out. And I was like, okay. That's a place to start. Thank him every time he takes the garbage out. And later on, there were more things to be thankful for, but they started with taking the garbage out.
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You gotta start somewhere. Do you ever appreciate him in public? Do you know what that does for a man? That shows such respect. Do you consider his point of view in an argument?
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Do you ever take a step back and say, Lord, show me where he's coming from. I fully get where I'm coming from, and I know I'm right. But where is he coming from? Like, I don't get it. I need to understand that.
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Do we admire them? Do we just give them compliments? I don't know why it is, but I just can admire and adore my son and daughter. I can just lavish them with all kinds of love and praises. And it's harder for me to do with my husband.
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I don't know why. So I'm working on that. Just thanking him and admiring him and pointing out anything good that he does. You know, the word for submission from the world's perspective has a connotation of being weak or caving in. Let me share with you the biblical perspective.
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This is from doctor Martin Lloyd Jones. And I think when Paul shared this, they would have got this in the Greek because this is what it means in the Greek. It is a picture of soldiers in a regiment, soldiers in a line under an officer. The characteristic of a man in that position is that he, in a sense, is no longer an individual. He is now a member of a regiment, and all of them together are listening to the commands and instructions which the officer is issuing to them.
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When a man joins the army, he is signing away his right to determine his own life and activity. This is an essential part of his contract. When he joins the army or air force or navy or whatever, he doesn't just go on holiday when he wants to go on holiday. He doesn't just get up in the morning when he wants to get up in the morning. He doesn't just do all day what he wants to do.
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He is not independent. He is interdependent on his team. What Paul is saying amounts to this, that we who are filled with the spirit are to behave voluntarily in this way. We are members of a team now. We're members of a great army, the army of God.
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It's not just about me anymore. And when I marry that man, it's about him now too, not just me. David Gusick says, submission doesn't mean I'm making myself inferior, and it certainly doesn't mean that I'm silent. I have a responsibility as a child of God to speak against sin. As unto the Lord, if my husband asks me to do something that is in direct conflict with God's word, again, I just think of the 10 commandments.
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I'll just throw one out. He wants me to lie on our tax forms. No. Not gonna do that. I will not submit to that because God is my higher authority.
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But we have to be very careful here, ladies, because as unto the Lord isn't just our way of making the Lord's will my will. It's when it's clear in the Lord's will. And you know what? Our husbands are gonna ask us to do things that we know are just stupid. They're not sinful, but they're not the right call.
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As unto the Lord, you know what that means? I'm gonna do it. Because I trust the Lord will override anything that my husband does. He has my best interests in mind. I'm gonna submit to him more than I'm going to submit to what I want.
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I'm gonna have trust in my Lord. And if it's something I disagree with, I'm just gonna do it. If it's not sin, if it's not against God's word, that's submission. Do you think that if we actually did this, we would look different than the world? How many marriages could be saved if it just started with us truly respecting, honoring, appreciating, admiring, building up, encouraging those husbands of ours.
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Let me tell you, I went through hell on this subject when my husband was not a believer. I thought the Lord was gonna give me a heart attack. I said, Lord, I can... Oh my gosh, I cannot do this. My husband would wanna do things, And I would say...
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And certain things I would say, no. I'm not gonna see those movies anymore because I can't sit there and listen to them take the Lord's name in vain twenty four seven. But some things he just wanted me to do and I just had to do. And the Lord kept telling me over and over, take every thought captive to my obedience before you open your mouth, Deborah. And sometimes I would feel like I was just going to explode.
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And I would stop. I would say, Holy Spirit, I need your help. Please help me. And then I would very calmly answer my husband because you know what Proverbs says. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words, they're gonna stir it up.
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And the Lord was constantly telling me, Deborah, don't stir it up. Don't stir it up. But praise God, my husband eventually did become a believer. But even now as a believer, we have differences. We just celebrated our thirty first anniversary on Saturday,
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Speaker 3and we were just sitting there going, by the grace of God. Absolutely, by the grace of God.
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Speaker 1But I love that man and the Lord has given me his eyes because I constantly ask for it. You know, I don't know what your definition of being spirit filled is, but there's no way we can have a new song in our heart. There's no way we can be thankful for hard painful things, and there is no way we're gonna submit without the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul says, you wanna look at a person who is really filled with the spirit for real? They're gonna be these three things.
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And he's he's there. We just have to activate him. We just have to stir it up. Lord, thank you so much for your word today. It is a powerful word, Lord.
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I thank you for how you convicted me during this message and just got me right back on track with you. And thank you, Lord, for every soul in this room. Bless them. Lord, give us that Holy Spirit motivation to want to obey you because that is the sweetest place to be. Thank you, father, for loving us to pieces.
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Thank you for just lavishing your grace and mercy on us all the time. Help us, Lord. Help us to just glorify and honor you. And may every one of us just fall more in love with you every single day. In Jesus' holy name, amen.
