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Spirit-Filled Homes · Enjoying the Journey

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  In our busy world, family time is frequently neglected.
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  It is vital that we give attention to our families while we
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  can, and it is especially important to give attention to
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  what God says in his word about our homes.
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  For the next few moments, Let's join Scott Pauley as we open
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  the scriptures and find God's message for your family.
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  And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled
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  with the Spirit. It's a great verse, isn't it? We love to quote
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  it, but did you ever notice that Ephesians 5 and verse 18 is
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  actually found in the context of the Christian home. That if
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  you look at Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5 is about family.
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  It is in fact one of the classic passages on the Christian
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  home, and right in the middle of it is this command to be filled
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  with the Holy Spirit. I'd like to talk with you today about
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  having a Spirit-filled home. Is your home filled
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  with the Holy Spirit? You know, the book of Ephesians is a book of fullness
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  in every way. That's really the theme of the book. In fact, if you study
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  Ephesians, you're going to find the fullness of God, the fullness
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  of Christ, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That's a lot of fullness.
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  It's all the fullness of God in us.
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  And so the application here to the family is that we are to
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  have God's fullness in our homes. So many
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  empty believers, so many empty churches, and so many empty
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  families. Most homes today are so filled with the flesh and
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  the world that there's no room for the work of the Holy Spirit.
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  And many homes that have been emptied of worldliness are
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  just sterile environments where everybody's trying to be good without God,
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  and they're trying to follow a list of rules, but they've not learned the glorious
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  joy and blessing and abundance of living and walking
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  in the Spirit. Look, the fruit of the Spirit is just that—
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  it is what only the Holy Spirit can produce. So if you want
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  love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
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  temperance, then friend, you need the Holy Spirit.
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  To be Spirit-filled, that's not about what you take out of your life.
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  It's about what you put into your life and what he puts into your life.
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  In fact, in the verse, be not drunk with wine wherein is
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  excess, but be filled with the Spirit, do you see the great contrast here?
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  Do you see how there's no room for the one because
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  the Holy Spirit is has his rightful place. You could take all
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  the wrong things out of your life and out of your family, but if
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  the Holy Spirit doesn't have liberty to move and work, you're going to
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  miss every good thing that God has for you. And here's the key:
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  Spirit-filled homes require Spirit-filled hearts.
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  The real question is not, is your home filled with
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  the Holy Spirit? The real question is Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
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  Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? In fact, the first
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  family in the New Testament, the family of John the Baptist—
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  I've always found it interesting that it says of his father Zacharias,
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  he was filled with the Holy Spirit. It says of his mother Elizabeth,
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  she was filled with the Holy Spirit. And then it says of John that he
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  was filled with the Holy Spirit. Every individual in the home was filled
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  with the Holy Spirit. You want to have a great family? Then let every
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  member of that family not only be saved— that's good, that's a start—
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  but let every member of that family learn what it means to be filled with
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  the Holy Spirit. So often I meet people and they say, well, we're all saved
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  but we're miserable, but we're all believers but something's
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  missing. Friend, the key ingredient of the Christian
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  home is the person of the Holy Spirit.
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  So what does a Spirit-filled home look like?
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  I mean, a family truly yielded to God. Well, in the context
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  we find so many things. Let's just walk through it. For example,
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  in verse number 16 it says, redeeming the time because the days
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  are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding
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  what the will of the Lord is. One thing that I think marks Spirit-filled
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  families is wisdom. Anywhere the Holy Spirit is at work,
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  wisdom comes, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
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  wisdom. So do you need wisdom today? Do you need wisdom
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  to make the most of your time, to make right decisions? Do you need wisdom
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  for some choice that's facing you, or direction for your home?
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  I'll tell you what you need. You don't need an answer.
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  You need the person of the Holy Spirit. And when you're yielded
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  to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, when you obey the Holy Spirit each day,
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  When you recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit, he will give you
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  the wisdom that you greatly need. And not only does the Holy Spirit,
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  when he fills, bring wisdom, but he also brings gratitude.
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  Listen to verse number 19: Speaking to yourselves
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  in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
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  singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always
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  for all things unto God and the Father in the name
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  of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm convinced that one of
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  the real missing elements today in most of our homes is gratitude,
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  just being thankful. Ingratitude is
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  the root of every sin. Every evil thing
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  grows in the soil of unthankfulness. And I think Eden
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  is a perfect example of that. Adam and Eve had everything, but because
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  they weren't grateful for what they did have, they could only look at the one
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  thing they did not have. Stop questioning the goodness of
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  God. If ingratitude is the root of every sin,
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  and dear friend, gratitude is the root of every good thing.
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  Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. Count your
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  many blessings. See what God hath done. If you will,
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  by God's grace, begin each day to practice
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  the discipline of gratitude in your home, to give thanks always,
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  for all things, unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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  you will soon discover that the Holy Spirit has
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  the liberty to move and work in an amazing way in your
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  home. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. used to say, when gratitude dies
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  on the altar of a man's heart, he's well nigh gone. Let me adjust
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  that just a little bit today. When gratitude dies on the altar of
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  your home, it is well nigh gone. Keep a thankful spirit in your
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  family. And then Spirit-filled
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  homes are not only marked by wisdom and gratitude, they're marked by joy.
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  Did you hear all the joy here of the singing,
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  the melody in your heart? Oh, only the Holy Spirit can bring that
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  kind of joy. You see, holiness and happiness—
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  I mean by that true holiness and God's happiness— always
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  go together. They're not mutually exclusive. You don't have to be miserable You
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  can enjoy the journey when the Holy Spirit of God has his way. And then
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  Spirit-filled homes are also marked by submission.
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  The very next verse says, submitting yourselves one to
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  another in the fear of God. Yes, it goes on to talk about wives submitting
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  to their own husbands, but notice it begins with mutual submission.
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  It begins with all of us submitting ourselves first of all
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  to God, to his authority, the fear of the Lord. And then submitting
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  ourselves to one another in every relationship, to the needs of
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  the other, in honor preferring one another. I'm going to tell
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  you, when Jesus is Lord of the home, when he gets his
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  way, home is no longer a war zone. Instead,
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  it's a wonderful haven of peace. You know what we need?
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  We need the Holy Spirit to control and fill our hearts and
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  our homes. A little footnote to this study today. If you take Colossians
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  3— you know, Ephesians and Colossians are twin epistles and they repeat
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  the same themes— if you take Colossians 3 and study it alongside of this
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  passage in Ephesians 5, you're going to find that the same
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  things— wisdom, gratitude,
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  joy, submission— are all seen in Colossians 3
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  as a result of being filled with the scriptures. Here's what I believe.
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  I believe to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the scriptures.
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  The word of God is the sword of the Spirit.
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  When you obey God's word, you get in step with the Holy
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  Spirit, and he produces every good thing in us.
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  Is your heart filled with wisdom and gratitude and
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  joy and submission today? Only when it is can your home be filled
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  with wisdom gratitude and joy and submission.
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  May the Lord help all of us to be Spirit-filled people
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  today, and by God's grace, to have Spirit-filled homes.
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  For more resources for your marriage and family, visit us at
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  etj.bible and click on the Take the Next Step
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  link, where you'll find many Bible resources that will strengthen
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  your marriage and equip you to raise your children in the ways
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  of the Lord. We highly recommend Scott's book,
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  New Testament Marriage. In it, you'll discover timeless
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  biblical principles from the husband and wife team Aquila and Priscilla,
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  and these principles are very applicable to your marriage today.
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  From all of us at Enjoying the Journey, thanks for listening
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  today, and until next time, We pray that you will enjoy
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  the journey.