Ephesians 5:18

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit

Transcript:

After Jesus was arrested, just before he was delivered over to be crucified, he stood before Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judea. As Pilate questioned Jesus, Jesus told him that he had come into the world to bear witness to the truth. To which Pilate responded, what is truth? John 18:38

We live in a similar age, an age where the concept of absolute truth has been challenged. The notion that it is possible to discover truth which is universal and applicable to all people seems today to be an impossible thought.

However, Jesus claimed that not only did he embody truth but that the word of God is truth – absolute, unchanging, always relevant truth.

And so if you were to ask me what I believe to be the core doctrines of the church I would say that in addition to the virgin birth and the victorious resurrection of Jesus I would also say that I believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible – that is, the scriptures are not just holy words, they are God’s divine truth given to us so that we might conform our lives and change our behaviors to model this truth.

Today’s Christian culture, however, is wandering from this belief. In a manner of speaking, we now hold the 10 commandments to be more like the 10 suggestions. Christian values are no longer different from the values of the world. Christian ethics are no longer different from those of the world. And perhaps, saddest of all, many Christian families are no longer different than the families of the world. Our values, our goals, our rates of divorce, the way we raise our children – we have wandered from the truth of God’s word.

Listen to what one writer had to say:

I fear that in our society in America, Christians have lost their perspective. They’ve lost the sense of their distinctiveness, and they’ve lost uniqueness. They’ve lost their moorings, if you will, and they’re sort of floating on an open sea. (One way I see this is)…, in the current preoccupation of American Christianity with a materialistic lifestyle. America has provided for us such an almost gross kind of lifestyle potential that Christians have been caught up in this to the point where they’ve lost the sense of eternal values. They’ve made some great exchanges for temporal things instead of eternal realities. I see American Christianity buying the whole American dream to a fault… We have in our contemporary Christianity an overindulgent, materialistic kind of approach that really is absolutely antithetical to everything that Christianity speaks of. That isn’t to say that it is wrong to be blessed by God. It is wrong to be wasteful with what God gives you and what God blesses you with. (John MacArthur)

And one thing we must not be wasteful with is our family. Not our relationships, not our marriages, not our children.

If receiving the forgiveness of Jesus and having a living, personal relationship is the greatest decision someone can make in this life, then we will be spending the next 4 Sundays dealing with the second most important decision: how will I allow my relationship to Jesus and the authority of God’s word to change my family?

That is why this series is called, The Spirit Filled Family…

And Message 1 is entitled, a Spirit Filled Foundation

If we are to be seek God’s will and be in the center of God’s will we must know God’s will. In terms of building our faith and taking our lives in the right direction we need to make certain that we are building on a solid foundation.

What are my values? What are my goals? What do I consider important?

In Ephesians 5:1-21 we will see 4 key phrases that show us what we must become in order to build a foundation of life changing truth:

1. Imitators of God – purity (Ephesians 5:1-14)

2. Redeemers of time – (Ephesians 5:15-16)

3. Understanders of the Lord’s will (Ephesians 5:17)

4. Spirit filled worshipers of Christ (Ephesians 5:18-21)

We are a culture in turmoil.

In contrast to a life in turmoil, a life that has no foundation, the writings of Scripture offer a compelling call to all believers to build our lives upon the solid foundation of God’s word.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download