Walk as Children of God Pt 3

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. If you are able to stand, please do. That's right, yeah. If you feel like it would be best for you not to stand, you just sit there. That's fine. This is a day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. It's a good thing as a group to worship in song and to study your word. We give you thanks and praise. We come just as we are.

We come as imperfect vessels. We come as sinners saved by grace. Just as we are. And you are faithful and we trust you.

By the end of sky and sea.

Merciful persons. Blessed persons. Blessed Trinity.

Not in three persons. You're great. Keeper of the star. Lord of time and space.

Who came to save. He is love of sinful man. Jesus, yes, my Jesus is your name. Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save, he will rejoice over thee. He will joy over thee with singing and he will rest in his love. Thank you, Lord. Lift him up, take my voice and take my body. The things we seek to do and try to handle ourselves ends up here. We stumble here, we stumble there.

Think of this song we're doing now. Psalm 121. Psalm 121. Psalm of Ascents. And the Jews would sing this Psalm as they were heading to Jerusalem, knowing that the trek would find them maybe dealing with robbers, rough terrain, discouraging times, but they knew that they would look to you to make the trip. Does my house mood make . Here's my head. Thank you, Lord, for your help always, Lord.

Your faithfulness to us, Lord. Would you all stand?

And then, Lord, I just lift up each one out here, Lord. You know what's going on in each of their hearts and what their concerns are, Lord. And may they just know that you are faithful.

Lost and lonely. Hallelujah. Oh, shout it, Lord, and scream it from the mass. Yes, and we're going to shout it. Yeah, Lord. Shout it.

Sing, sing, scream it from the mass that he is God. Shout it now. Ah, yes, Lord.

And scream it from the mass. As they sing out all day, we will sing.

Lord, you're worthy of all of our praise. We give you thanks now. And so, Father, as we continue our service, receive what you have today. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's have a little fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin the process of locating your seat, grab a bulletin.

We'll get ready to go over some announcements together. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you're here this morning. A few things in your bulletin to take note of. Over on the left-hand side are different places to get plugged in, different studies to be involved in throughout the week. So please take note of those and get involved wherever you can. Over in the middle section, some things to take note of.

Just a reminder, Great Pumpkin Chase is coming up pretty quick. You can talk to Tristan for more details on that. It's always a great time. We'll talk about Operation Christmas Child in just a minute. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. You need to build the stable and the star. There is going to be a sign-up sheet on the table in the foyer. So if you're interested in getting involved in that, I think it's going to be pretty cool. I'm pretty excited about it. So if you're interested in getting involved in that, please sign up and we're going to

make that thing happen. So that being said, while we're on the Christmas theme, because it's October, why not, it's time for Operation Christmas Child. So we've got a couple of things for you this morning. We've got a little video to watch. and then we got a guest to come up and talk to us. So let's watch the video.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. I want every child to know that there's a God. I want every child to know that God loves them, that God sent his son from heaven to this earth to take our sins.

We've got a charge to go into the world, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God, here I am. Take me and send me and use me.

What laid it on my heart, the Himbas, needs someone to give them the word of God. My vision for the Salma Khan tribe is that we will share the gospel and to establish a house, church here, so that they also can receive the blessing of Christ. Through the gift boxes, we are going places that no church will be allowed. Places like Ganvi, that floating village.

We are reaching those that have never heard the gospel. We find them having not even a Bible in their own language. Areas of the world where people need to know that God loves them and cares for them and sent his son from heaven to this earth for them. Operation Christmas Child opened doors to evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication. When a child receives a shoebox, it shows them who God really is

and how much he cares for them. We bring gifts to the children, also the mothers and the fathers, and their brothers and sisters also accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. Churches are using these shoeboxes, the Greatest Journey Discipleship Program, to reach out to the ends of the earth with the gospel. God's gift. God's gift. God's gift. God sent his son to this earth on a rescue mission.

Jesus Christ died and shed his blood on the cross for our sin. And then on the third day, God in heaven said it's enough, and he raised his son to life. This is the good news, and we've got a responsibility to take this message to the ends of the earth.

Okay, so, got a buddy to come up and join me to talk a little bit about Operation Christmas Child. My buddy Phil.

It's that time again. You did a little better that time. Yeah, practically. I got my old man glasses on here, you know, for old box glasses. Hey, everybody, it's time for Operation Christmas Child. And for those of you who don't know what it is, Calvary Chapel has been participating in Operation Christmas Child for years now. And what it is is, as you saw in the video,

it's an opportunity for us to give a gift, for a gift to be given to children all around the world. And some of these children have never received a gift in their life. But along with the gift, they get the gospel. They get to hear the gospel.

And so it's for boys and girls ages 2 to 14. You get to choose a child.

There's each box that we have out here in the lobby has a little sticker where you can choose a boy or a girl in the appropriate age group. And then if you don't have one of these boxes, you can use any type of shoe box as long as it's similar in size to this box. And we want everybody to get one. We want everybody to get about the same size box. Let's see.

The time is short. November 12th is collection day. So we need to get the boxes back here for that. And what's that, four weeks now? We got maybe four or five weeks. So we need to get started right away. Yeah, it'll come really fast. And we also would like to have Joe and Danielle and his family come up and talk about a packing party that they're putting on.

We're the Palmers. I have been packing shoe boxes since I was really little. And so this ministry is really near and dear to my heart. And it's been so special to get to share it with my kids. It's an awesome opportunity to do missions with the littles. I feel like so often we feel like ministry or missions is something we have to leave our families to go do.

And this is a really awesome opportunity to disciple them in that. So we would like this year. And I'll let Rylan tell you about it. We're going to be doing Operation Christmas Child Mission Day. And it's going to be October 22nd, Sunday, 1.30 through 4. And we like to invite all grade school through middle school with their parents to come pack shoe boxes with us.

We are going to be doing. We're going to be doing jump ropes, painting yo-yos. We're going to be doing bead bracelets. We're going to be to include with our boxes. And then we're going to be taking doing our boxes. And then we're going to be taking pictures to put in our boxes and then letters. And then we are going to pray for it. Good job, guys. So we will have all of the supplies needed to pack a shoe box.

What we're asking is for families. That are going to come and do this with us, there's going to be a there's a sign up sheet right right now out in the four year area. If you just write down your contact details, how many per family, if you could just provide like a we're asking for a twenty dollar donation just to help with some of the cost to get the shoe boxes where they're going, which also covers a little bit of the gospel. Am I forgetting all the gifts, shoe boxes, everything will be provided.

We're just asking that you just have the twenty dollar donation. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. That'll be fun. And so they'll have boxes and everything you need to do that. But if you want to pack a box yourself, grab one outside. Or if you have boxes you want to use, please do last. I think last year they they distributed the two hundred and nine millionth shoe box.

And last year, too, there was ten over ten million shoe boxes were distributed. And each one, each child that gets one takes it to their home. And a lot of these kids, when they take them home to their families in some of these places, you know, they just have dirt floors. They've never seen a gift before. But that the the gospel message and the gifts get passed around and the adults see it.

Everybody gets to see this. And they think they know from experience that up to ten additional people get to hear the gospel is just because of this one little shoe box. So, again, the Calvary Chapel sponsors every year a trip to Dallas. For those of you don't know about it. It's where we go down to the distribution center and at the distribution center. We get to go down and work a shift where we take the boxes and do some inspection.

Make sure that any boxes that are damaged or or they have toothpaste in them. We take the toothpaste out and the stuff that's not supposed to go. We're going to talk more about what goes into shoe boxes in the coming weeks. But those things that come out, the hygiene items that can't be sent, get put get distributed to local shelters, for instance, if they.

So the stuff all gets it goes somewhere for the for the gospel to help people. And so we'll be going down on December Saturday, December 9th. We have 40 places available. And is there a sign up sheet in the back? There's there's a sign sheet in the back in the lobby. So if you're interested in going, we'll leave here Saturday morning, go down and work and then come back Sunday.

So it's always a lot of fun. We go down here and eat dinner somewhere and then go to work together with lots of other church groups that are just like us. And we have a lot of fun. So please join us. Please join us if you can and sign up. All right. Thank you. I'm here for you if necessary. Awesome. OK. For our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 121.

For the responsive reading part, we'll look at the new American standards. So we all sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 121, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses.

Psalm 121, a song of ascents. I will lift my hands. Where shall my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade. The Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun will not smite you by day. To show us how faithful you are through your word. And Lord, as we learn of your faithfulness, may we respond with wholehearted devotion. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Before we get into our message this morning, I want to talk for just a moment about the events taking place in the world. If you don't know what's taking place, yesterday Israel was attacked.

And I've heard reports from anywhere from 3,000 to 5,500 missiles or something like that that were launched into Israel. The Iron Dome stopped a good number of them, but I think at least 2,000 of them found their mark. And Benjamin Netanyahu said, we're at war. And it's a very, very serious situation. And so I sent out yesterday the email from Ryan Karp, who is our Chosen Peoples Ministries missionary that we serve.

He's not in Israel right now, but he has family in Israel right now. And I found it kind of interesting that the Lord kind of orchestrated things the way that he did with this morning. The fact that I sent the information about the bulletin to Lauren before I knew any of this attack happened. So the fact that Chosen Peoples Ministries are who we highlighted today is kind of of God.

And then I chose the Psalm 121 after I listened to Amir Serfati last night because he talked about that verse that the Lord, who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. And then, of course, we sang Psalm 121 in worship. And it's just amazing. I want to, Ryan, please take a moment today in your services and pray for Israel, my people, and for my little brother, Sam, who is an Israeli soldier and is fighting right now at the Gaza border.

500 dead. Messages that you can think of that Christians normally use to take hope in the Lord apply directly to the Jewish people. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The headlines you're seeing are men and children killed. Women and children being taken hostage. Please pray. And so we want to do that this morning. And so I'm going to ask you to stand up one more time.

I know it's a little bit of Olympics this morning. And listen, Israel is to the east of us, okay? So I want everybody to turn and face east. I want you to hold your hand out. And we're going to pray for Israel, okay? So, Father, we come before you and we lift up the nation of Israel to you right now. Lord, I thank you that they are the apple of your eye. I thank you that they are your chosen people.

And I thank you that by your will you have brought them back together as a nation. You have put them back where they belong. Lord, we have seen you do miraculous things on behalf of your people in the past. And, Lord, we pray for that to happen again as they drive out the inhabitants from their borders, suffer the loss of their loved ones, that you would bring the comfort and healing to their hearts that they need.

Lord, I lift up all of those that are trying to travel to get back so that they can join up with their military forces. Lord, all the recruits and reserves that are trying to get back home. Lord, I specifically want to pray for Amir Tsarfati, who has been speaking in the U.S. and wants to get home to his family. And so, Lord, I just lift this to you. I lift up this nation to you.

And we just pray your blessing upon them in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. Be seated. I'm not one to usually speculate about a lot of things. I mean, I could go through the whole litany of, like, all of the players involved. The fact that Iran is probably behind this. The fact that Russia is probably behind this. All that kind of stuff. But that stuff is pointless.

I'm going to tell you to do two things, okay? Number one, I'm going to tell you to keep praying for Israel because we are told in Scripture that we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And number two, I'm going to tell you, you need to be ready. You need to be ready spiritually because Jesus could come at any time. And you need to be ready and prepared for whatever this is going to mean for us

because this business going on right now, this is no joke. This is not just some operation. It is a forest fire waiting to happen that's going to sweep throughout the world. And I think we need to be ready for that. We don't need to be scared. But we do need to be sober and be vigilant because this is a real situation. This is a real situation that we're dealing with.

We know that God is in control. And brothers and sisters, we're told when we see, lift our eyes up to the heavens because our redemption draws near. And so, be ready for whatever's coming next. And to be ready, we're going to keep studying God's Word. So, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. We've been looking at a series in Ephesians 5 called Walk as Children of God.

There's three things that we're going to talk about and have been talking about as far as walking as children of God. And we've covered the first two already. Number one, we were to walk in love. Second of all, we are to walk in light. But then number three is what we come to today. We are to walk in wisdom. Now, just by way of kind of introduction, I want to talk about wisdom for just a minute.

So, we live in what I would term, and I didn't come up with this term. I think somebody else came up with this term. I think culture came up with this term. We live in an information which we've never seen before. Last night, we were at dinner. Somebody asked a question. Three people pulled their phones out. And what did we all say? Hold on, I'll Google it, right?

Because that's what we do. And instantly, we can get 3,000 articles. You know why it's called Google, right? Because the largest number is at Googleplex. And so, that's how much information you get off of Google, right? And so, you get all of this information and it's all inundating us. But we do not have a great deal of wisdom. The word information is defined like this according to the dictionary.

Information is facts and insight. We have a lot of information. We don't have a lot of wisdom. Let me give you Ryan's definition of wisdom. Ryan's definition of wisdom is this. The ability to use knowledge properly. Or the ability to use information properly. Well, in James 1, verse 5, it says this. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach,

and it will be given to him. And from that, we realize that the world is lacking wisdom because wisdom finds its seat with God. Wisdom comes directly from God. Therefore, as children of God, wisdom should be something that we walk in. And so, we pick up in verse 15 of chapter 5, and this is what it says. Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,

making the most of your time because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. So under this heading of walking in wisdom, in verses 15 through 21, I feel like Paul gives us five things that we need to know.

We need to know about walking in wisdom. So let's go over those five things together. Number one for walking in wisdom is that we are to be careful how you walk. Be careful how you walk. The word careful means this. Constantly taking heed to how accurately you are conducting. How accurately you are conducting yourself. And as children of God, that's what we are to do.

We are to be careful in the way in which we walk. We are to be taking heed to know that the way that we are walking is exactly as God would want us to walk. That the way that our lives are lived lines up with how God wants our lives to live. And so underneath of that, I have two questions that I'm going to answer for you. Number one, why do I need to be careful how I walk?

Well, I've answered that in two ways. Number one, because my walk with God is the most important thing in my life. My walk with Jesus Christ has literally become the most important thing in all of my life. It's the thing that defines who I am. It's the place where I find hope. It's the place where I find peace. It's the place where I have found meaning and purpose in my life.

And the reason why is because that is why we were created, is to walk with God. So why do we walk carefully? Because our walk is of vast importance to our lives. But secondly, and I think more appropriately according to the context, the reason why we are careful the way that we walk is because I am God's witness. You see, you and I have a calling in our lives.

And the calling that we have in our lives is to be a witness to the world around us. And the only way that I can be a witness to the world around me is if I am careful in the way that I walk. Accurate according to what God's word has to say. Because wisdom is what the world is lacking. Therefore, wisdom is what the world is lacking. Therefore, wisdom is what the world is lacking.

Therefore, wisdom is what the world needs. Therefore, you and I as representatives of God are to represent wisdom to the world. But if we walk just like everybody else, if my walk looks just like the rest of the world, it's really hard for me to be a witness. Therefore, I need to be careful how I walk because my walk is important and I'm a witness to the world.

But the second question I have is how do I live a life that is careful in the way that I walk? Well, again, I think there's two things. First of all, it requires the examination of the word of God. It requires the examination of the word of God. That's going to mean some things for us. Number one, it means you're going to have to be in God's word for yourself.

If you are to examine your life according to God's word, then you have to be in God's word for yourself. Now, we just came into the month of October. That means that we are in the last one-fourth of the year. Now, I don't know how your devotional life has been for the first three-fourths of the year. But I want to tell you something. It's never too late to jump in.

And if you're not in the word of God every day, then I want to tell you today is the day that you should start. I've already given you a handful of verses. Perhaps you go home and read Psalm 121 again. But be in God's word every single day because it's the most important thing that you can do in your life. Because God's word reveals to us all of the things that we need to know about God.

And it reveals to us all of the things that we need to know about us. And it reveals to us all the ways that we need to know how to live our lives. How to relate to God as sinful human beings through the cross of Jesus Christ. And so you should be in God's word for yourself. But second of all, I want to tell you something about what you do, what you should do when you're in God's word.

You should stop and you should think. As you read what God's word has to say, you should stop and think about it. I don't know if you're a note-taker. I don't know if you're an underliner. I don't know if you're a highlighter. I don't know what kind of person you are. But you should be one of those people. You should either write something down. You should underline something.

You should highlight something. Because as you do, it causes you to think about it. What we like to do is we like to read God's word and say, Yep, just read a chapter of the Bible. And then you move on. You don't ever think about it. Meanwhile, God's saying, why don't you meditate on that for just a little bit. We're actually told in Psalm 1 that we are to meditate on God's word day and night.

You know what the word meditate in Psalm 1 means? The word meditate in Psalm 1 means to groan. You ever been so deep in thought that you've been like, Because the thoughts are so deep that that's all you can do is just kind of groan about it a little bit? Maybe I'm just not that smart and I have to think that hard. But I do that all the time. And that's what we're supposed to do with God's words.

We kind of groan over it a little bit. We think about it. You know why? Because sometimes we have to let God's word reflect what's really in my life. Right now, I'm in two places in my devotional reading. In the New Testament, I'm in the book of Acts. In the Old Testament, I'm in the book of Judges. If you want a mirror to be shined on your life, if you want a mirror to reflect your life,

read the doggone book of Judges, right? Because what you learn in the book of Judges is that there was a cycle of sin that the nation of Israel went through. And the cycle of sin looks like this. Fall into sin. Be judged by God. Repent of your sin. A judge comes and sets you free and you experience deliverance. Repeat. That's the cycle that the nation of Israel went through.

And when you read the book of Judges, Western culture Christians, we go, morons, I can't believe they always did that. Why do they always give me the exact same thing again? You see, that's me not allowing God's word to reflect my life. But if I will stop and think, I'll go, son of a gun, I do the same thing. Right? Because if I am to walk accurately, then I need to realize where I have failures in my life.

And that's what we have to do with God's word. How do we walk carefully? Well, first of all, we have to look at God's word. Second of all, we have to have a good amount of self-examination. Not too much, but a good amount of it. And allow it to really reflect what is going on in your life. He says to walk carefully. And then he goes on after that, underneath this same subheading to say,

and make the most of the time. Make the most of the time because the days are evil. Now there's two different ways that this verse is translated, depending on which translation you're reading. If you're Old King James or New King James, it says redeeming the time because the days are evil. If you're NIV, New American Standard, ESV, it says making the most of the time because the days are evil.

Now I've tried to decide which of those I like better. I always tend to lean towards New King James because that's my favorite. But I actually like both translations of this. Because let me read to you some of the definitions of what it means to make the most of the time. It means to redeem or to buy back. It means buying up for yourself the most opportune time.

And it means recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with truth and diligence. Do you know time is one of the greatest commodities that we own? No matter how poor you are financially, everybody has the most precious commodity possible, and that's time. You know why? Because if you lose all of your money, if you just went out and lost everything today,

it was all gone, you could always go and make more money, right? You can't make more time. Once it's spent, it's gone. And I will tell you from experience with my daughters, do you know what means more to them than anything in the world? My time. Do you know what means more to every person I've ever been around in the world? My time. Because time is one of the greatest ways to say you love someone.

Therefore, if we have the most precious commodity possible, and that's time, especially now that you're born again, you should make the most of every opportunity. Now, I want us to understand something. There's nothing wrong with rest. There's vacation. There's nothing wrong with recreation. I think those are absolutely vital. Jesus can still be at the heart of it.

Jesus can still be at the center of it. We went to a Christian family camp this last summer, and while it was amazing recreation, it was amazing rest, it was amazing time, it was an amazing spiritual experience. It was a spiritual experience for our family. Holy Spirit's at work in my heart when I can't finish a sentence without crying. Listen, I'm just an emotional human being.

That's how it is. And always by the time camp is done, we've gone twice now, and always by, when it starts, I'm still in, I'm still in rush mode, right? I'm still like, oh, I got to get here, and then I got to do this. And eventually I'm kind of like, no, I don't. All I got to do is sit right here and drink this cup of coffee and read the Bible and stare at the mountains.

That's what I got to do right now. All I got to do is go climb a wall with my daughters. All I got to do is go ride a horse. That's what I got to do right now. But then by the time I'm done, I go, Lord, I saw you. I saw you in ways I've never seen you before. You know why? Because even in the midst of your recreation and rest, you can still make the most of the time.

Same with work. You say, Ryan, I work 16 hours a day. Man, you're a stud. And I get it. Sometimes we work really long hours, right? Do you know that Jesus can still be at the center of your work? Do you know that Jesus can still be at the center of what you do? Every day you can be a witness for him in the things that you do simply by honoring God and making the most of your time.

I will tell you this. I did as much ministry when I worked construction as I do now. I just carried a hammer at the same time. And every now and then. No, I shouldn't carry a hammer now. That'd look bad. Anyway, I did just as much ministry then because I had to learn something in a job that I hated. And I had to come to this. In a job that I did not like, God eventually said,

you're going to be there until you're not there anymore. Make the most of it. He told me that out of the book of Jeremiah. And so I said, okay, I'm going to make the most of it. You know, the moment that I finally decided I was going to make the most of it out of obedience to God, he gave me ministry opportunities with everybody around me. Brothers and sisters,

make the most of the time. Why? Because the days are evil. The days are evil. How do you walk carefully? Examine yourself through the word. Make the most of the time. Because the days we're living in, they're pretty evil days. And our time is really short. And we have to pay attention to that. So number one, be careful how you walk. Number two, and I love this one,

do not be foolish. Now, he says in verse 17, he says, so then don't be foolish. He says, do not. That's probably proper grammar. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. The word foolish is kind of an interesting word for the word foolish. The word foolish means without reflection or intelligence. Without reflection or intelligence. Let me give you Ryan's definition of this, okay?

Someone who never takes the time to think. Someone who never takes the time to think. Aren't we filled with a world of people like that? They just don't take the time to think. Or if they do, who's usually at the center of their thought? I am. I take the time to think, I think about me and how it's going to affect me. Too many of us as believers in Jesus Christ

are living just like this. We're living foolishly because we never take the time to think. Well, what do we take the time to think about? Well, we take the time to think about the fact that what's going on over in the Middle East right now is not just an isolated event, it's a part of a greater movement of God to prepare his people to be brought home and to prepare the end of the earth for what we see in the book of Revelation.

When you take the time to think and you take the time to read scripture, you start realizing that. When you take the time to think as believers in Jesus Christ, you realize that living according to those things of the world, well, that didn't do anything for me, so why would I keep living like that as a Christian? When I take the time to think, I start realizing there's people around me that are hurting and in need and I need to be sure that I'm reaching out to those people. But it always starts with me taking the time to think.

He says, do not be foolish. But instead, what are we to do? We are to understand what the will of the Lord is. That word understand is exactly what you think it means. It means to know or to discern exactly what the will of God is. Do you know what everybody wants to know? What's God's will for my life? I used to always say that only young people ask this question.

Young people always want to know what's God's will for my life. I thought that because I worked with young people a lot. But you know what I know now that I don't always work with young people? Everybody has the exact same question. The oldest people in the world, the youngest people in the world, they all want to know the same thing. What's God's will for my life?

How can I discern, how can I understand what the will of the Lord is for me? Do you know where the understanding of the will of the Lord always begins? Knowing the Lord. Let me give you a little bit of an example. I can tell you right now that I know the will of my wife in a situation. So, this afternoon at 3.25 p.m., the Kansas City Chiefs will play the Minnesota Vikings.

I have no idea if Taylor Swift will be there. I hope she's not. It was fun the first couple of weeks, but now I'm like, listen, I'm gone now, okay? Let's let them play football. Anyway, so if at 3.25, I went to my wife and I said, hey, would you rather watch the Chiefs game or go shopping? I can tell you unequivocally, she will say, I want to go shopping. What would you have done

if I had said watch the Chiefs game? You'd all be like, what? Right? No, she'd say, I want to go shopping. That's exactly what she would say. You know how I know that? Because she's my wife and I know her well enough to know that's the choice she's going to make. Not long ago, I went down into the basement. We have a basement that's kind of a playroom and I went down there

and I look at the basement and all I could think was, that's not good because it is completely covered with all of the girls' everything, right? So, I go down to the basement and I'm like, girls, what do you think is going to happen when mom comes down here and sees this? I'm like, that's right. Nothing good's going to happen, right? I'm going to get caught in the crossfire.

Nobody wants that. I don't want that. You don't want that. Mom's going to go ballistic on all of us, right? Somehow I'll be involved too and I will step back and say, get them, right? We all know that's what's going to happen because that is the will of your mother is that the basement would be clean. You know how I know that? Because I know her. So, if you want to know the will of God,

what should you start off doing? You should know God because the more that you know God, there's no question in your mind what God's will is. Because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I may not know the exact right decision to make in this situation, but I can begin to ascertain what God's will is. You know why? Because God's will always involves sanctification.

It will always involve me being made into the likeness of Christ, fashioned into the likeness of Christ, right? Sanctification is always going to be involved. I also know that God's will is always going to line up with God's word. Have you ever had somebody come to you and say, I think this is what God wants me to do. And it has absolutely nothing to do with what God's word is.

And you're like, I don't think so. That doesn't sound right. Matter of fact, that sounds stupid, right? I think every now and then it's okay to use the word stupid. If somebody wants to do something stupid, listen, you should tell them that's stupid. That's a stupid idea, right? I'm going to get to that in just a minute. At number three, we always know that

it is God's will to bring glory to God. So God's will will always bring glory to Him. And then of course, last of all, we always know that it's God's will is always for my best. God's will is always for my best. It may not always feel like it in the moment. It may not always feel like it in the situation. But as you are not foolish and take time to reflect,

you look and go, man, it's a good thing God did what He wanted to do and not what I wanted to do. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Number three, do not be drunk with wine. Which you notice what it says in verse 18. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, I'm going to handle the text,

but then I'm going to go outside of the text and still use the Bible and deal with the topic of alcohol for just a minute. So the first thing it says is don't get drunk. The word drunk literally means intoxicated. Actually, the definition of the word drunk in the Greek is to be fully saturated. Now, I can tell you, that's about what it is to be intoxicated, right?

You are fully saturated with something that you should not be fully saturated with. And he says do not get drunk with wine. Why? Why does he say that? Because he tells us right there. He says do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation. No, I don't know about you, but in my daily conversations, I've never used the word dissipation. So let me tell you what it means.

The word dissipation means wickedness, corruption, wait for it, stupidity. He just said don't get drunk with wine because that's stupid, right? Because it's dissipation. You know what everybody does after somebody gets drunk? They laugh at them. Why? Because they did things that were stupid, right? And sometimes it's kind of funny. Listen, I've been around some really funny drunk people.

I knew some guys in high school that every time they got liquored up, they rapped. Funniest thing in the world, right? I will not lie and say that that's not true. But it was still stupid, right? I would have preferred them rapped sober. Actually, it might have even been better if they would have because they've really been bad at it then. But always, that's what happens.

But you know what else usually happens when you get drunk? You do things that are wicked. How many parties has a person been to where a fight starts? You know where fights always start? Right outside of nightclubs. You know why they always start right outside of nightclubs? Because people are drinking. I had a friend in high school and every story that ended with

so I ended up in the emergency room always started with this one time we were drinking. But you know what else? It also ends in corruption. Because how many stories end with I got so drunk and I went home with this guy. Or I got so drunk and I went home with this girl. See, we do things we don't intend to do when something else is in control of our lives. He says don't get drunk.

Now, alcohol is a little bit of a hot button issue in the church today, right? Because, it was interesting, I read a commentary on this and he said, we know that really this isn't a message necessarily for the church today because most churches teach complete abstinence from alcohol. And I thought, that's not true anymore. Matter of fact, not very many churches at all teach complete abstinence from alcohol.

Because it is a little bit of a hot button issue. Matter of fact, about 10 years ago I sat at a youth pastor's conference where we had a question and answer time and there became almost an open forum debate in a crowd about three times this size about whether or not youth pastors should be able to enjoy a beer every now and then. Now, do you have freedom to do that in Christ? Sure, you do.

As long as you don't get drunk. But I need us to think about some things. Some things that the word of God does say about alcohol. Okay? So, this is not by any stretch of the imagination an exhaustive list of what all God's word has to say about it. Just a handful of things that I think we should think about when we take the freedom to drink alcohol. Number one is that the Bible says not to be drunk.

So we know that it should never stretch into something where we begin to lose control of our senses or become completely saturated. But number two, the thing that we need to think about when we choose to take part in drinking of alcohol is that we are not to stumble others. We're not to stumble others. And one of the things I think about and one of the things that I have learned in ministry is there's a lot of people who've had a past with alcohol.

There's a lot of people who at one point in time in their life had alcoholics in their family or were alcoholics themselves. And it wouldn't take much to stumble them. So we just need to be aware of these things as we use this freedom with alcohol. Number three is you are not to ruin your witness. Because we're to do all to the glory of God. So we have to be aware of that.

Is me walking outside of the store with a 12-pack in my hand going to be something that will ruin my witness? Because I guarantee there's a lot of people in the world that would see somebody doing that and they would ask that famous question, but I thought you were a Christian. Again, you have freedom. These are things we have to take into account as believers in Jesus Christ because we're held to a higher accountability.

And then the last thing, and this is the one that I always ask, it's the one I always land on, that only you and Jesus can answer together, is it profitable? Is it something that is beneficial in your walk with Jesus Christ? Now I want you to be aware of something. I have some very good friends from Bible college that I'm very close to, and they love Jesus with all of their hearts and they're always posting pictures of themselves with their favorite beer on social media.

Now I know that they love Jesus. We have prayed together. We have talked together. I know that it's true. But I always think, I just can't imagine myself holding a beer and having a conversation about my faith. It's just something to think about. It's between you and the Lord. But those are some things from God's word that you need to pay attention to. But he says,

don't be drunk with wine because that is dissipation. Instead, we are to be filled with the Spirit. Now I want us to understand something. He correlates those two things together. Don't be drunk with wine. Do be filled with the Holy Spirit. But there's not necessarily a direct correlation between drunkenness and the filling of the Holy Spirit. I say that because there was at one point in time

a movement called being drunk in the Spirit. Because as Christians, we're idiots sometimes. We're like, that sounds great. Let's take it to a full extent. No, that's not what it means. The idea is this. Well, let me read to you what it says from some other translations. It means to be filled, to be constantly guided by, and to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

You know why he puts those two together? Why do most people want to get drunk? Because they're looking for joy. Right? They want to have fun. Where is the source of joy in our life? It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Alcohol can tend to control our lives. What should be in control of our lives? The Holy Spirit. So he says we are to instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now it's interesting because in the Greek, that statement, be filled, is a passive imperative. Okay, this is your grammar lesson for the day. It's a passive imperative. You can impress your friends with that later. What that means is, it is passive in that it's not something that we can manufacture, but it's an imperative in that it's a command. You can't manufacture the filling of the Holy Spirit,

but you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, a true reading of the Greek there would say, be being constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. So I hope the natural questions arising in your mind, how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, the filling with the Holy Spirit always starts first of all with the emptying of self, right? I got to empty myself of the things that are there

that are not pleasing to God because I can't be filled with something if something's already there. So what do I empty myself of? Well, I empty myself of my pride. I empty myself of my self-righteousness. I empty myself of my hypocrisy. I empty myself of the sins of the flesh, all of the things that keep me from knowing Jesus. And then I begin to ask for that filling of the Holy Spirit.

I ask Him for that filling of the Holy Spirit. And listen, I don't just ask Him once. I ask Him over and over and over again. Every Sunday morning, when I roll my sleepy rear end out of bed, I start asking Jesus, Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit, because the only way that I can stand up here and do what I do is by the filling and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, I'm just a mumbling idiot up here. Probably you're thinking, wow, what would He be like without the Holy Spirit? Anyway, but that's what it would be. I wouldn't have anything to say. I would just be like, uh, right? And so I need that filling of the Holy Spirit. But do you know what else I ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit for? For how I can raise my daughters and love them

and teach them in the things that they need to know. Because the only way that I can raise two beautiful little girls to know and love Jesus is with the filling of the Holy Spirit. And the only way that I can love and care for and lead and guide my wife is through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Dear God, the only way I can go to Walmart is by the filling of the Holy Spirit, right?

Because I need it for every aspect of my life. And you need it for every aspect of your life. Because if you are to live as God has called for us to live, brothers and sisters, the grace of God says it has to be with the power of the Holy Spirit. Because I don't have what it takes. I can't be the man God wants me to be. I can't be the father God wants me to be.

I can't be the husband God wants me to be. I can't be the pastor God wants me to be. Unless I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. Unless I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. And you can't be who God's called you to be either without that filling of the Holy Spirit. And it needs to be constant. The first thing you ask for in the morning, what you ask for throughout the day,

the last thing you ask for when you go to bed, Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit. So he says, be careful how you walk. Don't be foolish. Don't be drunk with wine. And number four, speak with wisdom. Notice what he says in verse 19. Speaking to one another in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs. Singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord. Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God,

even the Father. To speak with wisdom. If you take a note of over the past few weeks, this is now the third time we've talked about what comes out of your mouth. The first time it was let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. The second time it was let no coarse jesting come out of your mouth. This time it's let only praise to God come out of your mouth.

Because speaking with wisdom means speaking with praise. Now he says something here. He says, speak to one another, that means we're not talking to God, we're talking to each other, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now, I believe that those are three types of praise that would have been used in the early church. Psalms, of course, coming directly from the psalms that were put to music.

And then hymns and spiritual songs are songs that the early church leaders or early church members would have written that they sang. Now, let me first of all tell you what he does not mean here. What he does not mean is you should not just walk around singing to each other all the time, okay? Listen. If I walk around singing to you all the time, you all are going to avoid me all the time, right?

That's what my girls do when I start singing. I start singing and they say, Dad, shh. And if I don't, they run from me. Or Violet covers my mouth. Right? That's what happens. Because we don't always want to hear everybody sing. Now, some of you all got some singing voices. You come at me singing, I'm like, bring it, right? But for the most part, that's not how we feel about it.

Because that's not what he means. We don't live in a musical. That'd be weird. Usually. I think. It would be weird. So, what does he mean then? He means that we should have words of praise on our lips in the way that we speak to each other. You know why? Because those words of praise, they build each other up, right? Those words of praise, they keep pointing each other to Jesus.

They keep pointing each other to the Lord. Those words of praise are what encourage us. The only time I've ever seen there be debate over praise music is whether or not Reckless Love is a good song and whatever. I don't care. It's about the only time I've ever seen anybody get real worked up about whether or not a praise song is okay. But man, if we're speaking those words of praise and those psalms

and those hymns and those spiritual songs to each other, isn't that just uplifting? Right? But I want you to notice what he says. He says, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, notice where it starts, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. So, if I want the words that come out of words of praise, if I want the words that come out of my mouth to be words of praise

that point people to Jesus, where does it have to begin? It has to begin in my heart. Therefore, I have to take special care of what all goes into my mind because what goes into my mind is processed through my heart and then comes out of my mouth. That means that what I take in is what eventually is going to come out. So, brothers and sisters, meditate on God's word

and listen to those songs of praise so that that's what comes out of your heart. So, we speak with wisdom, first of all, by speaking to each other, those songs of praise, but speaking with wisdom also means always giving thanks to God. Notice what it says, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Now, I don't know what you've always been taught about giving thanks to God about things, but I've always been taught, because it says it, it words it this way in other scriptures, listen, you don't have to thank God for everything, you have to thank God in everything.

Because there's a lot of things that it's really hard to thank God for. But I want to read this verse to you again. Always giving thanks to God, or always giving thanks for all things, for all things, not in all things, for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. We've struggled with this verse a little bit this week, because there's some things I'm not always real thankful for.

But the longer that you walk with God, the more you start to realize you truly can be thankful for all things. There's a little illustration I use at funerals a lot, and I'm going to share it with you. When I was 15 years old, we took a trip down to Florida. My parents used to run a Christian school here, and they went down to a principal's clinic down there.

I was a freshman, my sister was a junior, she was going to check out Pensacola Christian College. So we're driving down there, and as we're driving down, we drive through some pasture land in Oklahoma, and it was the time of the year when they had burned all that pasture land off. I remember being kind of sad about it. I'm a lawn guy, right? I like flowing grass.

So all this, at one point in time, flowing pasture land, amber waves of pasture, right, are nothing but black charred death. And I remember thinking, that's so sad. It used to be this beautiful pasture, and now it's just nothing. It's just death. So I didn't think too much about it. We drove down to Florida, spent a week down there. It rained the whole time, and it rained here too.

We used to do that. And then on our way back, because it had rained, all of a sudden where there was all this black charred stuff, these little shoots of green grass were starting to come up. It's one of the very first times I really feel like God ministered something to my heart. And all I could think was, God brings life where there's death. You see, we can be thankful for all things,

because God causes all things to work together for good. To those who love God and to those who are called according to Him. So brothers and sisters, there may be moments where you're like, Lord, I don't know how I can thank you for this. I don't know how I can be thankful for this at this point in time. Lord, I know that you're going to do something in it.

So I'm going to thank you for it. I'm going to thank you for the lessons that you're going to teach. I'm going to thank you for the way that you're going to grow me. And I'm going to be thankful for what is the most difficult thing I've ever gone through in my life. You see, when we speak with that kind of wisdom, and start talking about it, and start praising God for things and thanking God for things,

instead of complaining about everything, it changes our perspective on life. And it changes our perspective on our difficulties. But you know where that all begins? I can't speak the words of praise, I can't thank God for everything, if I am not first filled with the Holy Spirit. Because I don't have it in me. We still need that grace of God and work in our hearts to be who He's called for us to be.

And that brings us to number five. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. That word is translated differently in the New King James. That word is translated submit. Ooh, nobody likes that word. That's an evil word in our world today. Submit. I ain't going to do that. That word submit is a really important word in Scripture.

As a matter of fact, that word submit means to put yourself under subjection, or to be under in rank. It doesn't always speak about who's better. It just speaks about being under in rank. Let me put it to you the way Paul put it in Philippians. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Instead, think of another as being better than yourself. You see, as we subject ourselves,

as we submit ourselves to one another, it's humbling ourselves, ultimately, under the mighty hand of God. Now, I'm not going to spend any more time on that, because for the next several weeks, we'll be talking about relationships in which mutual submission is really important. It'll start with a marriage relationship, and then we'll talk about parents and children, and then we'll talk about workplace relationships. But that word subject, that word submit, is a really important word.

So, don't not come next week, because I'm going to talk about it. It's still going to be fun. We're still going to laugh. We'll just all be a little offended, myself included. And we'll roll on from there. Amen. But brothers and sisters, we need to know something. We need to know something. The world needs to see a church that is walking in wisdom. They need to see a church that exemplifies the wisdom

that can only come through Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I thank you. Thank you for who you are. I thank you for what your word has to say. I thank you that you are so willing to convict us, and then comfort us by the power of your Holy Spirit. So Lord, move in our hearts. May only the words of you continue.

May the words of me just fall by the wayside. And Lord, be glorified in the lives of every person that's here today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Be moved in each life today, Lord. May they know you are a faithful God. We give you praise. In Jesus' name. Amen. Lord bless you all. Have a great week.