Life to the Fullest!

Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Well, welcome to Gateway Church.

Thanks for being here.

I uh it's such an honor to be in your presence.

I've been here a long time.

I am old, he's right, but it's but it's I've got to preach on this platform many times, but just never on the weekend.

And so this is my actually my first time just preaching on the weekend, so I'm excited about that.

I uh I love you guys.

I don't know if you know if we know each other, if we've met each other.

I've met so many of you and over the years, all the campuses and been able to travel and see see so many people.

But if you sit in this church, I love you.

This is my home, and it's such an honor to be here.

I want to thank Pastor James and Pastor Bridget, who I also love.

Um I could go, I could cry, so I'm just gonna say, I love you guys.

I'm very thankful for you guys.

It's an honor to be here with you guys.

And we love you, don't you love Pastor James and Pastor Bridget?

We love you guys.

Right.

Because I have so many things I want to say.

But based off of your response right there, what I want to say is that we may be going through a difficult season as a church.

And you may have all sorts of feelings, and those feelings are all fine.

You can have whatever feelings you need to have.

And you know, when a family goes through a season of loss, we mourn, right?

That's what we do.

But we do it together.

And what I was hoping today was I was hoping that if I just said that I love them, that you would join me like that.

And so here's what I want to say about you, Gateway Church.

We're a family.

We don't use that word a lot because we're the family of God, yes.

And that word gets overplayed and maybe a little under, and it comes out sometimes like it's not, it's people don't have a good connotation sometimes of family.

But in the family of God, we can walk through anything together.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you for being online.

It's an honor to walk this out with you.

And there are great days ahead.

I'm super excited for where we're going as a church.

God bless you guys, and thank you for being here.

Well, today is a really special day for me, but first I want to just tell you I have the privilege right now of having three of my kids here, and one of my kids is in Brazil watching.

Hey, Watts, he's in Brazil today.

He's doing mission work.

He just texted me, he said, You got this, dad.

Yep.

He's in Brazil and he's just with Gateway doing missions and having a great time.

But I want to tell you a little story real quick just to get started, because there's one member of our family that is so full of life that if you're around this person in my family, you're going to be impacted.

I'm not gonna tell you good, bad, or indifferent.

You're just gonna be impacted by the passion of this family member.

Anyone got a family member like that or a friend like that who's so full of life, they live life to the fullest, no matter what.

Well, about 13 years ago today, we gave birth to, my wife gave birth, we didn't.

My I was there.

It was a really hard day for me, not really.

Um my wife gave birth to our youngest, but months before that, when my wife we found out we were pregnant, we were pregnant with our fourth, we found out we were pregnant with our fourth and our fifth child.

We were pregnant with twins, and so one night Callie was leading worship, and she just doubled over and ran off the platform.

And I was in the sanctuary, and so I ran after her because that's something I'd never seen before.

And through a series of events, we ended up going to the doctor, we ended up in the hospital, and we found out that we lost one of the two babies very early in the pregnancy.

And I'm not gonna try, I'm I'm not trying to compare my story to yours.

I know that some people have very, very difficult stories, and I don't want to be insensitive, but we found out that that the chances are really low that the other twin will survive if one of them passes away.

Because the body doesn't really differentiate well between death and life.

And so we started praying just like you would.

And because we're a member of a faith-filled, God-believing, miracle-working church, we started getting text messages and phone calls and emails and visits, and people were coming to us, and and we started noticing a trend, and the trend was that multiple people were saying the exact same thing, almost verbatim.

They were saying, Not only is your daughter gonna survive, but she's gonna be so full of life that in her latter years, the passion that she has in her pursuit for Jesus is going to move you guys when we get older, move our hearts so much that we'll continue serving God for the rest of our lives.

Okay?

So this is the word we've got for for this daughter, and sure enough, she went full term, everything was great, and she we named her, we named her Callaway because the person we know in our life with that's the most passionate about life, the most full of life, is a lady, and her last name is Callaway.

So we named Callaway based off of the prophetic words of this house.

Well, lo and behold, she came out swinging, full of life, and she's been full of life ever since.

As a matter of fact, if she comes down the stairs in the morning, she comes down the stairs full of life.

You can hear her coming from a mile away.

If she makes a good grade, she celebrates full of life.

If she makes a bad grade, she's mad about it full of life.

She's so passionate and full of life that everybody that brushes up against her is like, wow, there's something extra special about that girl.

Whatever's inside of her just comes out.

And as she's grown in the Lord and matured in the spirit, those things are getting more and more and more Christ-centered and powerful.

But I want to stop for a second and honor her today because today is her birthday.

Callaway, happy birthday.

I love you.

And then I want you to stop and pray for me because because it's her birthday and she turned 13 today, that means I have four teenagers living in my home right now.

So if your kids aren't a member of the youth ministry, they can just come to my house.

We have a youth ministry at my house as well.

There's so many teenagers, and it's a really, really good time.

But I'll honor you, baby.

Happy birthday.

She really does live life to the fullest.

And when I was praying about what to talk to you about, I really feel like the Lord dropped that phrase in my heart: life to the fullest.

Life to the fullest.

Why would Jesus leave the throne room of heaven, be born as a baby in the dirt, the most humble position ever, live a perfect life, and then get treated like a like a convict, like a murderer, and die a sinner's death, only to go into the grave, resurrect, walk for, walk around with his disciples, and then ascend to heaven to go and make a place for you and me.

Why would he do that for us to have a boring life?

Why would anybody do that?

Why would the King of Kings leave heaven to come and die for his people, to make a family for himself, to reconcile the body of Christ with the Heavenly Father if it was supposed to be boring for us in a life of just the mundane, maybe just going to church, cracking your Bible here and there, listening to the radio, singing a song?

What if, what if, why would God do that?

Why would God leave heaven for you to have a boring life?

I think, and I submit to you, that if you're truly passionately following Jesus, it is the most dangerous, most awe-inspiring, most thrilling, electric, passionate life you could ever have.

But I say that, and instantly many people in this room go, well, that's not the life I'm living.

Well, then my question is, who are you following?

Because if you follow Jesus, good luck having a boring, common life.

It's not boring, it's not common, it's dangerous, and it very likely could cost you everything.

And if it costs you everything, what you get in return makes everything look silly.

Jesus is called you to live life to the fullest.

He gave his life so you could have life and life more abundantly.

So today, if you find yourself sitting in church, living in the United States of America, happy Fourth of July this week.

If you find yourself going through the motion, eat, sleep, repeat, pray a prayer, read the Bible, go to work.

Your next door neighbor doesn't know what you believe, who you serve, your office mates don't know.

If you find yourself in the mundane, boring life of American Christianity, then perhaps you're just not following the dangerous Jesus who's laid his life down so you could have a real life.

So today I want to talk to you about life to the fullest because I believe that we're in a culture, a dark, dark culture, probably the most dark and dismal culture of all times, and what an honor and a privilege it is to be a carrier of light in the darkest season ever.

Come on.

If you have the light of Jesus inside of you, the darker it is out there, the brighter we shine, right?

I'm signed up for the type of life that is dangerous, that is a that has big rewards, that could cost me everything, and it has cost me a lot, guys.

I can preach to you today because I have deep wells of pain.

I can preach passionately because it's cost me a lot.

And it's been worth every single penny and every single moment.

Today, I ask you, do you live life to the fullest?

If Jesus paid for you to have abundant life, do you live the abundant life?

Are you a comfortable Christian, living in the comfortable home, closing your garage door in your safe little house, and following Jesus in private?

I don't think that's what he has for you.

Today I want to call you to a higher level, a higher pursuit.

I want you to consider following Jesus the way he wants you to follow Jesus, but trust me, it's probably gonna cost you everything.

Jesus called a bunch of people, he said, follow me, and they left everything and followed him.

And we still read about them every single day.

We don't read about the people who say a prayer, walk an aisle, and then go back to their life.

We read about the people who gave it all, even their life.

And the blood that they spilled, and the sweat that they spilled, and the tears that they spilled watered the seeds of the gospel, and here we sit today, the church of Jesus Christ.

That's the kind of life I want to live.

I have a key scripture today, and we're gonna come back and forth to it a few times, but it's Ephesians 5, 14 through 19, and it says this it's Paul writing to a church in Ephesus, and it's literally the same culture that we live in, just antiquated.

It's a culture that was had heightened sensuality, sexuality.

The church had intermingled with with the uh with the gods of that day, and so you had prostitution in the church, the government was corrupt.

It was a very corrupt and dark culture, and there's a church that was planted there in the middle of that culture that was thriving for a minute and kind of lost its way.

Paul was there, John was there, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there for a while in Ephesus, and Paul writes a letter, and I think he could have written this very same letter to us today.

The same culture exists right outside here, man.

Good luck getting on social media and not realizing that we live in a dark culture.

Turn your TV on, turn your open your laptop, open your phone.

We live in the darkest culture, but we are the church in the culture, the lighthouse in the culture, the light of God, a city on a hill, in the middle of the culture.

So maybe, just maybe, Paul would be writing this to us today.

So let's receive this as individuals, the church, but individuals in the church, and see how God speaks to you today from this scripture.

Ephesians chapter 5, 14 through 19 says this Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and don't get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

But be filled with the Spirit.

Awake, O sleeper.

The days are evil.

We got work to do.

Can't be sleeping on the job.

I'm depending on you, you're depending on me.

God is wanting to expand his kingdom, there's ground to take, and we got people asleep.

Dead, asleep.

Dead, asleep.

Might as well be dead.

If you're dead asleep.

I got three points for you today.

If you want to live the life to the fullest, if you want to live the life that Jesus gave his very life for you to live to the fullest, I got three points for you today, and some of them may sound simple, but search your heart, church person.

Search your heart today.

Because there is a chance that there are people in this room that go to church, that do good things, that pay their tithes, that love people, and they could end up in hell.

Search your heart.

Because today we're gonna challenge the fact of cultural Christianity and how it's on the rise in the United States of America and in the West.

Search your heart because I don't want you to leave today thinking that you are a part of the body of Christ and you're gonna partake in the inheritance of Christ if you're not, but if you do figure out today that you are not quite alive, man, today is the day of salvation for you.

So search your heart.

Why don't we just get real in here?

Why don't we just get real in our campuses, in the prisons?

Let's be real people.

I don't want to fake it and not make it, right?

I don't care what you think about me if I'm not going to heaven.

It doesn't matter if you think I'm righteous and holy, if God doesn't even know me.

Come on, search your heart today.

The first point, if you want to live a life to the fullest, according to that scripture, is you have to be born of the spirit.

Born of the spirit.

I say born of the spirit and not saved because some people think saved is synonymous with American.

Or if you grew up in a Christian home, some people think being a Christian is just growing up in a Christian home or not doing bad things.

But that's not what Jesus said.

Jesus said you must be born of the Spirit, or you'll never see the kingdom of heaven.

Ephesians 5, remember it says, awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and then Christ will shine his light on you.

A couple scriptures you don't have to put up, but one is in John chapter 1, it's talking about Jesus when he came from heaven.

John 1 · chapter mention

Since in the beginning was he was the word, and he was the word, and the word was with God, he was with God in the beginning and became flesh, he became Jesus, and the light of heaven was in him, right?

The light was the life of all mankind, and it shine in the darkness, and the darkness could not overtake it.

He's calling people to be alive because he's planted us in a dark culture and he's given us his light.

But we have to be born of his spirit to get his light.

Matthew 5 says it like this you're the light of the world.

Therefore, what?

Do your good deeds, so people will glorify your Father in heaven.

But listen, Jesus one night is sitting in Nicodemus, y'all know this story, comes to Jesus.

He's the one of the religious elites.

He knows everything about everything about religion.

But he's convicted because now he's seeing a man who teaches everything differently, who heals the sick, who raises the dead, who walks on water, who feeds with nothing and turns it into something.

And he's teaching a totally different gospel.

And Nicodemus wants to know more, so he comes to Jesus in the cover of the night.

And in John chapter 3, verses 3 through 6, we pick up right here and it says, he's asked Jesus, How do I?

John 3:3–6

How do I get to heaven?

Jesus says to him, Truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Well, Nicodemus said to him, now this is the religious leader.

He says to him, How can a man be born when he's old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

And Jesus says, and we learned last week, if Jesus says anything twice, it just emphasizes it greatly.

Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Kingdom of God, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.

In other words, if you have not been born of the spirit, you will not be going to heaven.

If you have not been born of the spirit, you will not be able to partake in the inheritance that Jesus paid for.

I'm not talking about saying a prayer, I'm talking about being born again.

Going from natural to supernatural.

If you've been born of the spirit, you know it.

One day my mom and dad were on the verge of divorce in Virginia.

I wasn't even born yet.

And my mom and dad, my mom was a journalist, my dad was a dentist, and they were living a decent life, and they just hated each other.

And my mom had one or two friends in her life that knew something about Jesus, but not much.

And one of them said, if you'll just give your heart to Jesus, if we'll turn your life over to Jesus and follow him, he'll change everything.

Well, she was on her very last leg with my father, and she hit her knees.

My dad had already left.

She hit her knees and she just said, Jesus, I don't know what I need, but I know I need you.

I can't do this anymore.

I'm so sorry that I haven't done this the right way.

I just want forgiveness and I want to follow you.

And my mom said she got up and walked out of the front door, and for the first time in her life, it was like she saw in color.

That's the way she puts it.

Do you think my mom, before she hit the ground and after she hit the ground, thought something was different?

You see, when the word, when the Spirit of God breathes life inside of you, like he did inside of dirt in the Garden of Eden, and you take that first breath, you know it.

You know it.

Have you had that experience?

Where you come alive and you feel like you see in color for the first time, and now the things that you used to do just don't do it for you anymore.

As a matter of fact, you're convicted and you're like, why am I so convicted?

I still do these things, but now I don't even like to do these things, and slowly but surely you're becoming more and more and more alive as you grow in your new life, in your new birth.

Have you been born of the Spirit?

If you want to live a life to the fullest, well, we got to be alive.

I think we're preaching a church that's full of dead people sometimes.

And we raise our hands and we go out there and live like the world and we wonder why isn't anything changing?

Well, maybe you've never been breathed in by the Spirit of God.

And today is a day of salvation for someone in this room, and today you can have the life that Jesus died to give you, but you have to be alive.

And you have to be alive, but if you're dead asleep, you gotta wake up.

You might be dead, and man, we can we can ask the Lord to breathe his life inside of you, but some people have been born again, they just fallen asleep.

And Paul says, Wake up, oh sleeper! Wake up and let the Lord shine his light on you.

We got we got light to shine, there's dark days out there.

Can't be sleeping on the job.

I think a lot of believers think that that when we're born again, that's the finish line, that's the starting line.

And we think, man, when you follow Jesus, this is like Disney World or something, like it's gonna be amazing.

And yes, it is amazing, but when you when you when you come alive in the kingdom, war.

It starts war.

Because you can't be sleeping in a war.

If you sleep in a war, you get taken advantage of.

Wake up, oh sleeper.

What a great time in the history of the church to be awake and alive.

You can do the smallest thing and change the whole world.

You got a phone in your hand, you can talk to anybody all over the world with a click of a button.

Nobody, no generation, has ever been able to say that before.

We're sitting on the verge of revival, but the church can't be asleep if we're gonna see the world change for our king.

Amen?

If you want to live a life to the fullest, you gotta be alive in the spirit.

Paul moves on after this.

He says, You gotta be alive.

Then he says, Okay, so you're alive.

So look carefully then how you walk.

Not as the people that are unwise, but as wise, making the best use of time because the days are evil.

Therefore, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

The second ingredient for people who want to live a life to the fullest, you gotta be alive.

Born by the Spirit, but you also gotta be led by the Spirit.

Led by the Spirit.

Have you ever just trusted your good old flesh to make huge decisions?

Come to find out you didn't know anything, and you let yourself down when you're born of the Spirit, and when you're led by the Spirit, you're connected by the agent that knows everything about everything, and he works backwards.

The Bible says our God knows the end from the beginning.

He's just calling you into a relationship, saying, follow me, follow me, follow me, because he has a great life for you.

My father-in-law actually is here, and a couple weeks ago he was he was teaching my son how to drive, and he's learning how to drive in like a F 250 diesel truck, which is really hard, it's really long and hard to park.

But um, I'm just gonna say it, Watts.

I know you're watching, he's just not very good at driving yet.

So we asked my father in law to teach him, you know.

We're like, we don't want to do this, you do this.

So um he takes him to Lowe's the other day, and they pull out of Lowe's.

Take a left, and my son Watson took a left into oncoming traffic.

I know.

I just found out today.

This was weeks ago.

And my father-in-law, I clarified, I said, Did you like put your leg over and hit the brake and grab this?

He said, Yeah, I did all of it.

I did all we're going to oncoming traffic, you know?

And so he he stopped the truck and grabbed the wheel and you know gently said, Back up, and he backed up and they moved backwards and went down and they turned and went down around the median and got in the right lane and came on home and they made it, guys.

They made it.

It's amazing.

But I was thinking about that, and I was like, man, if my son was left to his own instincts, he would be driving in oncoming traffic.

But there was a guide sitting next to him who's been driving for a long time.

Matter of fact, he drives heavy machinery, diesel trucks, big trucks, little trucks.

He's driven all over the place.

Tons of experience, tons of wisdom and maturity.

And when it came time for some direction, some correction, and my son was headed towards imminent danger, a simple, hey, stop.

Turn.

Don't do that.

Took him out of harm's way and brought him to his destiny.

Jesus, by his spirit, speaks.

The book is called The Word.

And Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

My sheep, they hear my voice, they know my voice, and they follow me.

So if you've been born of the Spirit, you got ears to hear.

But you have to be awake to hear.

So many of us are just kind of meandering through life, just doing our best, taking our best shot, making our best guess.

And we look up and we're failing after failing, or just getting into relationships that we shouldn't be in, or moving down the road, just going, hope we make it okay.

We'll see how it goes.

And all along, there's a chair in your house, there's a chair in your car, there's a corner of your house.

If you'll just go sit there, the Spirit of God will speak to you, and wise counsel will come to you, the word of God will open to you, and your relationship will create an ear to hear, and all day long, every single day, the Spirit of God will direct you.

If you want to live a life to the fullest, you gotta be a born by born of the Spirit, alive in the Spirit.

And you gotta be led by the Spirit.

There's this great story in the Bible.

It's about a follower of Jesus named Philip.

And I don't have time to tell you the whole story, but I'm gonna read the first part, and I'm just gonna tell you the rest.

It's Acts chapter 8, and in 20, verse 26 it says, An angel of the Lord said to Philip, Go south to the road, the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

We've been here a lot about Gaza lately, right?

So he started out on his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Kandake.

I looked up how to say that, so correct me if I'm wrong, but Kandake.

Come on, y'all awake?

Alright.

If you're awake, say Kandake.

All right.

Which means the queen of the Ethiopians.

This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home, he was sitting in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.

And watch this.

The spirit told Philip, Go to that chariot and stay near it.

That's all that he said.

So Philip goes and he stays near it.

And then the guy goes, Hey, will you get in my chariot?

And he gets in the chariot and he says, I'm reading this one little page of scripture.

I don't know what it means.

It says that like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter.

Who's he talking about?

Is the writer talking about himself?

And Philip goes, No, actually, I know him.

I was there.

And he begins to open up the gospel to this Ethiopian eunuch who had traveled so far and didn't know anything, but his heart was beating out of his chest and he wanted to know more.

And Philip, who was just standing by the chariot, gets in the chariot, leads the guy to Jesus.

They go down the road, they find some water.

He goes, Can I be baptized?

He goes, Sure, there's some water.

He gets out, he puts them in the water, he baptizes them, they come out of the water, and Philip disappears.

Have you read the story?

I used to be dumbfounded by the fact that Philip disappeared and then just appeared somewhere else in a different city.

That's not even the miracle of the story.

Salvation.

But come on.

The Spirit spoke to Philip, and all he said was, go stand by that chariot.

We overcomplicate this, you guys.

We overcomplicate, oh Lord, what do I do?

I can't even take a step.

What do I do next?

And the Lord's like, why don't you just get up?

Hey, go to Starbucks.

You never know what's waiting on you there.

We've overcomplicated this whole thing.

You want to live a full life?

Take a chance.

Listen to the Spirit and do what he says.

We have a mantra here.

It's called Hear, Believe, Obey.

Try it.

It's wild.

It's wild one day.

I was, this was years ago.

I was like, Lord, I was just learning about the Holy Spirit.

And I was like, God, I've been safe since I'm five years old.

I want to be led by your spirit.

I want to be filled with your spirit.

And I was driving my little white car.

Can't have a little car anymore.

I've had too many kids.

I was driving my little white car home down a country road, and I passed this place every single day.

It was called the Water Gardens, and I didn't even know why because there was never a car there.

I was like, how's the place even open?

And one day I'm driving, I'm like, God, fill me with your spirit.

Lord, I want to be led by your spirit.

And I've been praying and worshiping, and all I heard in my heart barely was turned into the water gardens.

And I was like, ooh, that can't.

I don't know if that's the Lord or not.

I don't even know what the water is.

I just see the gardens.

It was a it was a nursery.

Turned in.

Parked.

Nobody there.

Now I'm sitting at the water gardens.

I'm like, Jesus, was that you?

I got out of my car.

I was like, well, might as well see why they call it the water gardens.

I get out and walk around, and sure enough, turn the corner, they were selling ponds and koi fish.

Big ones too.

Like, I might come fish up here later on.

See, I was a country boy at that time.

And I started walking around.

There were shrubbery lanes.

It was acres and acres of just bushes for sale.

And so I'm walking through the water gardens, just kind of standing by the chariot.

And off in the distance, I see this guy, and he was wearing clothes that would indicate he was from the Middle East.

He's watering bushes.

I was like, well, maybe he knows why I'm here.

So I started walking towards him.

When I got close enough, he had a name tag on it that said Ibrahim, like Abraham with an eye.

And he began to talk.

He said, Hey, how are you today?

And that was clear that he was from the Middle East.

And I said, I don't know, I don't even know why I'm there.

So I asked him about the bushes.

I said, What kind of bushes are these?

And he's like, Oh, these are hydrangea.

I don't know what they were.

That's not even a bush.

I made that part up.

These are box wood.

I don't know.

I don't, I'm not a bush guy, you know?

So he's like, he began to tell me about the bushes, and I looked at him, I said, Where are you from?

And he said, Where he was from?

And I said, What's the main religion there?

And guys, you would have thought.

I thought I was about to fight.

Because I'm from Louisiana, okay?

And if you say the wrong thing, you just end up in a fight.

It's just what it is.

And so I said, his eyes got so big.

I said, Is there a religion?

What religion are you?

And his eyes got so big, and I took a step back.

And he said, Are you the man in my dreams that God's been saying is gonna come and tell me about Jesus?

Never happened to me before or since.

And I said, Yes, I am.

Oh, yes, I am.

And I put my hands down too.

And I just laid the gospel out the best I could.

I was young.

And me and Abraham hit our knees in the water gardens.

And that man, that man who was destined for hell and following a false God turned his heart to Jesus that day.

And all glory to God.

I'm not even making this about myself because all I can do is turn into the water gardens.

Listen, you want to live a life that's abundant, a life to the fullest?

Well, first you got to be alive.

If you're alive, you gotta be awake.

And if you're awake, you gotta turn your ear to the king who's saying, Go here, turn there, do that, know my voice, know my voice.

I'm all about people, I'm all about saving people, I'm all about seeking and saving the lost.

If you're not participating in seeking and saving the lost, you're not listening to the voice of Jesus.

He wants to turn the world upside down.

He already did it.

He said, It's better if I go, I'll send my spirit, and then you'll all have the power.

Are you bored?

Who are you following?

Probably not Jesus.

If you want to live the life to the fullest, man, you gotta be alive in the spirit, awake.

You gotta be led by the spirit.

And Paul wraps up those instructions and he says in Ephesians chapter 5, don't be drunk with wine.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

I'm not gonna preach on drinking wine today, okay?

I almost did.

It's a different message.

For that's debauchery.

But be filled with the spirit.

You want to life to the fullest?

Well, come on, you gotta come alive in the spirit.

You gotta be led by the spirit.

And if you want the power to follow his voice, you gotta be filled with the spirit.

It just is what it is.

The word filled in the Greek.

You can read story after story after story in the book of Acts and beyond.

It says, when they were filled with the Spirit, when they were filled with the Spirit, boom, the church is launched.

People are healed.

They disrupt the whole town.

They go to jail, the jail falls apart, and they walk out of the jail.

When they're filled with the spirit, they sell everything they own and give it to the poor.

Who does that?

People that are filled with the spirit.

But the word filled in the Greek, specifically in this text, is the word pleo.

I'm gonna put it up there.

It's P-L-E-R-O-O.

It's actually plei ro-o.

I don't know how to say it right.

But it's a word that just means to make full, to fill completely.

But it means three things.

There's three connotations I'm gonna share with you real quick because this will let you know what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God.

You are awake when you take in the breath of Jesus.

The breath of Jesus is like the wind.

It goes wherever it wants and it blows on whoever it wants to, and then you come alive.

And when you're awake, you start training your ear to hear the word of God and to follow his heart.

But you gotta have the power to do it, the power to overcome sin, the power to be bold when the forces feel like they're against you, the power to get that sin that so easily entangles you off of you, the power to evangelize and spread the gospel.

The first connotation of the word plairux is the word force.

Force.

And when it says force, it means this.

It means like the force of wind in a sail.

If a wind fills a cell, if a wind plaire's a cell, then what happens is you have a vessel, you have a boat, you have a captain, you have a steering wheel, you have a rudder, you can have a crew, you can have a mast, you can have a cell, you can have a destination, you can have an ocean, but if the wind doesn't fill the cell, you're not going anywhere.

Come on, don't you know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

God is calling his people to a destination, a destiny to go out and do the work of Jesus, to be the hands and the feet of Jesus.

But if you're not full of his spirit, be being filled every single day.

God, fill me, fill me, fill me.

You're just a boat with a way with a sail with no wind.

And that boat has a destiny, but it's gonna sit in the harbor until the wind, Plairux, fills it with the power, the force it needs to move across to the other side.

The second thing is this force, the first thing, the second thing is flavor, and the flavor means like a perm like a permeation, like if you were to take a bottle of water and then you poured a crystal light pack.

Anybody like that?

You just can't do the water, but I can drink water if it tastes like blueberry, you know?

It's probably bad for you at that point, or it needs a little caffeine in it or something.

But if you have a bottle of water and then you pour a crystal light pack in it, or any kind of pack, a Mio or whatever, liquid IV, and it changes the color and the taste of that water, that's flavoring that water, or filling the water with the substance that was outside of it before and changing it from within.

Man, when you're filled with the spirit, good luck staying the same.

You welcome the Holy Spirit to fill you with the word fill in and of itself means the eviction of every other spirit.

You got the spirit of lust in you?

You got the spirit of fear, spirit of mammon, the love of money, the spirit of greed, the spirit of selfishness.

What spirits are ruling and reigning in your life and guiding your life and playing, playing captain in the control room of your life will invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and the word fill in of itself, it begins to permeate you and push everything else out and evict it from the temple.

Right?

Flavor.

And I got even better news.

You want to live a life to the fullest?

When the Holy Spirit begins to flavor you and starts to flow out of you, then he starts flavoring the environments around you with his spirit.

You can just put your feet somewhere, walk into some dark place or some backwards-looking place, and all of a sudden, man, people around you start to change because the presence of God is flowing out of you and not just into you.

Force will move you to your destiny, flavor will change your destination when you get there.

The last thing it means is freedom, and it means freedom from self-government.

Just like I said, any other thing that's trying to drive your life has to go when something fills it up.

There's a control room in your life, there's a throne on your heart, and your whole life until you're born of the Spirit, you're led by the flesh and by the soul.

Your flesh is what you feel, and your soul is what you think.

Every decision you've ever made is what you feel or what you think until the Holy Spirit gets involved.

And then the Bible says, be led by the Spirit, and it's really hard to do.

It's really hard to do because that old flesh will fight against you every single time.

And your feelings will fight against you, and you might not feel like it, like Pastor Kimtell was talking about, and it might not, it might not, you might not think it's the right thing to do, but when the Spirit says it and you do it, then it always works out for your good and for his glory every single time.

But you're so conditioned to be being led by the flesh and led by the soul that sometimes the spirit, you don't even hear it.

But if you want to live a life that God has died for you to have, a life to the fullest, a life that changes that culture, man.

You gotta be overflowing with the presence of God.

You gotta be alive, awake, led by the spirit, governed by the spirit, filled with the power of the spirit, so you can do what you're called to do.

Well, how in the world do you get that?

I wish it was really, really, really difficult and I had to put my like theology hat on to explain it to you.

So it would make me look smart or something.

But let me just read this to you.

In Luke chapter 11, it says this.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

It says, Everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, and everyone who knocks, the door will be open.

Your fathers, if you children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?

Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask them?

Awake, O sleeper.

Wake up.

Arise from the dead.

If you don't have the Spirit, you gotta rise from the dead.

You need to receive the gift today of new life.

And Christ will shine on you.

Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and don't be drunk with wine, for that's debauchery.

But filled, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

A fulfilled life, a life to the fullest, a fulfilled life is possible when you're filled full.

You want to be fulfilled?

Be filled full.

This is what I know today.

I know that there's people in this room and watching at all the campuses, the prisons and online, that know that you don't really know Jesus.

You know a lot about him, but you don't know him.

And I declare to you today that the Spirit of God is present here and wants to pour out himself in you and give you real life.

Just gotta receive it.

There's people in here that have been asleep.

And today you hear the call, wake up, oh sleeper.

We got work to do, guys.

We've got work to do.

It's good work, it's fulfilling work.

Wake up, O sleeper.

There's people in here that have been following their emotions, following their feelings, and the Holy Spirit's saying, Why don't you get into the Word, get into my presence, let me lead you and guide you every single day.

It may be as simple as standing next to a chariot, and I'll change the world through you.

And we have people today that are trying to do it on their own power and it's just not working.

You got iniquity, you got sin in your life, and you're tired of it.

But today there's an evicting spirit called the Holy Spirit that when he takes residence in your life, he becomes the president of your life.

What do you need?

We probably all fall into some one of those categories.

What do you need?

I'm gonna pray for you.

When I say amen at every single campus, our worship team is gonna play.

And what I want you to do at every campus is I want you to search your heart.

Search your heart and ask the Lord, what are you saying to me today?

Do I even know you?

If not, I invite you to come into my life.

Or maybe you need to repent because you've been following your own ways and it's just not working.

Or maybe, just maybe today, you should ask the Father to give you his spirit to the fullest and just see what happens.

You want to live the full life, then make a decision today during this worship to reach out to the Lord and cry out to him and let him change your life forever.

Father, thank you so much that you love us so much that you died for us.

But you didn't stay dead, you rose for us, and you've gone to the right hand of the Father to make a place for us.

And today, God, we do not take that lightly, God.

And if we've been living the boring life, calling ourselves followers of you, God, today, shake us up, shake our church, and use us for your glory.

We invite you in.

We invite you to be our guide, and we ask you, great Father, fill us with yourself so we can know what it really means to pursue you with our whole heart, so we can live a life to the fullest in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.