Filled with the Spirit

In one paragraph

Deborah taught from Ephesians 5:18-33, tracing what Paul says a person who is genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit actually looks like. She worked through three visible signs: a new song in the heart, a life of thanksgiving, and a submissive spirit. All three, she argued, are impossible without the Holy Spirit's active work in us. Paul opens this section by contrasting being drunk with alcohol...

Read together

1. Ephesians 5:18-33 main passage for the sermon, covering being filled with the Spirit, thanksgiving, and submission
2. Ephesians 5:15-17 recap of previous week's teaching on living wisely and not like fools
3. Ephesians 1:13 believers are marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit
4. 1 Corinthians 12:13 all believers are baptized by one Spirit to form one body
5. Colossians 3:16 let the message about Christ fill you
6. Ephesians 4:21 Jubal, first to play the harp and flute, recorded in God's word
7. Exodus 15 Moses and the Israelites sang a song to honor the Lord after being freed from Egypt
8. Psalm 150:6 let everything that has breath praise the Lord
9. Revelation 5 the song sung before the Lamb by the four living beings, elders, angels and every creature
10. 2 Corinthians 6:8-10 Paul describes the paradoxes of serving God, having joy amid hardship and owning nothing but having everything
11. Romans 1:18-21 people knew God but neither glorified Him nor gave thanks, and their thinking became futile
12. Hebrews 13:15 offer a continual sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jesus, proclaiming allegiance to Him
13. Ephesians 5:21 submit to one another out of reverence for Christ
14. Ephesians 5:22 wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord
15. Ephesians 5:33 each man must love his wife as himself and the wife must respect her husband

Talk about it

1. Deborah described three layers of meaning in the Greek word for 'filled' as it applies to the Holy Spirit: pressure or motivation, permeation, and domination or self-control. Which of those three feels most real or most lacking in your own walk with God right now, and why?
2. Deborah said that sin quenches the filling of the Spirit the way a harsh word breaks intimacy between spouses, and she pushed back on the idea that confession is optional. How does that land with you, and what does regular confession actually look like in your daily life?
3. Deborah shared that writing in her thanksgiving journal during a painful moment completely changed her perspective, and she cited Rick Warren's image of two parallel rails, good and bad running at the same time. Can you think of a season in your own life where gratitude and hardship coexisted, and what did gratitude do for you in that moment?
4. Timothy Keller's claim that ingratitude is the root of all sin came up in the sermon, with plagiarism and treason used as illustrations of failing to acknowledge the source. Does that framing change how you think about any particular sin you tend to minimize or dismiss?
5. Deborah described submission using the image of soldiers in a regiment, interdependent under an officer, and said a submissive spirit is one of the three visible signs of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Where do you find submission hardest, whether in marriage, a workplace, a community, or toward God himself, and what would it look like to approach that differently?