Fill up!

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Alright, here we are. Yeah, those are some of our student leaders. Pray for us, right? No, it's great. It's great to see such joy, such fun, such excitement about all sorts of stuff. It's great to have you here today as we start in our second week of our Live It Up series, talking about what real life is like, and today it's fill up, fill up with the Holy Spirit. So before we begin, we're going to look at Ephesians 5, but before we begin, we want to pray because I need it today. We all need it, especially on this subject. Lord God, thank you so much for your love, your mercy, your grace. Lord Jesus, you said it was to our advantage that you would ascend, that you would go away, and you would send your spirit, and so we pray for your spirit to be here. The prayer that we keep asking, Lord, again and again, fill us. Fill us to overflowing with such joy that it's contagious. Bless this day, Lord. Bless all the churches in our area that are doing your work, your will, that are teaching your truth, your gospel. We pray for them all, and we pray for you a movement of your spirit in this county, in this area, from campus to neighborhood to business, everywhere, Lord, that you would, that the knowledge, your knowledge of who you are, what you are, and what you have done for us in Jesus Christ would flood this place like the waters covering the ocean itself. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we're in Ephesians chapter 5, and you can see that you can follow it along on our Bible app. What's great, too, is our app, as well, you can also find these sermons online on Tuesdays, and we are even live-streaming today again, so hello, Ashland, Wisconsin, right? We know there's a couple people at Curieno's up there that are watching, as well, and so you can tell people, too, if they're sick or they're not able to, they can actually get connected with Thrive, either by live or, I think, on Facebook later on during the week. It's just there, and you can watch the whole thing because it's so good you'll watch it again, right? Okay, it's on the app, so there you go. Okay, so we're in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 to 21. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. So, today we're looking at, in our second week of Live It Up, we're looking at how we live it up when, as Paul says here, the days are evil. Do you have any question that the days are evil? Is it really even an argument anymore that we're living in difficult times? I don't think so. I think you can notice it all around you, that there is so much going on in our world, in our society, the chaos is happening that seems out of line, that this verse, this section, makes sense. So, Paul is saying, what do you do? How do you live? And how are you going to live when things around you are absolutely a mess? Okay? So, how do you find when circumstances are tough, when you are struggling, or when you feel oppressed, or you are dealing with just being depressed, or that you just can't even digest what's going on? It's like, oh, I can't take it anymore. Where do you go for comfort? Where do you go for a refuge? Where do you go to find truth? Where do you go to center yourself? Where do you go for strength? And Paul says, don't be foolish, but be wise. Don't go towards the easy path, which would be, as he says, numbing yourself, you know, like escaping in one form or another from this world. And he uses the example in this text of drinking too much wine, of alcohol. It's kind of, and that leads to dissipation, other translations say. It basically devalues you. It diminishes you. It doesn't add to you. It doesn't give. It just takes away. But be filled instead with the Spirit. Now, the verb tense for being filled with the Spirit in this text is, I know, you're probably such a grammarian, Mike, right? You know, did you diagram sentences when in school? I know my son actually had to do that at the Christian school they went to, just like I did. I was so happy because it was such a pain when we did it. But that verse here, the Greek word for being filled, pleroma, is in the second person plural passive present participle. Say that, right? Second person is you, right? Passive means be filled. It's not like you do it. And plural means all y'all in Southern. All y'all, and being present means all y'all keep being filled with the Spiri...