More Coffee? | Ephesians 5:15-33

Takeaway Verse: Ephesians 5:18 & 19

…be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.

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Transcription:

Welcome to The Bible for Busy People. I’m Erica Parkerson. This is the place where we meet up to read half a chapter of God’s Word together and remember how loved we are. Jesus extends an amazing invitation to us in the Bible. He says, come to me and I WILL give you rest. This is us RSVPing: Yes!! to that invitation. So, take a deep breath and let’s get started.

Today’s episode is called, “More Coffee?” and it’s dangerous because now of course, I want more coffee. But I’ve already had about four cups today, so I better stop. Join me in a word of prayer, and then you and I, we’re gonna dive right into Ephesians chapter five, the second half of that chapter, that Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus to encourage them. He was in jail when he penned this letter, so always keep that in mind. 

Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you for this day. Lord, Paul was in jail, but he rose above his circumstances to encourage us today. Help my friend and I, who’s listening right now to rise above our circumstances so that we can shine for you in this dark world. Illuminate dear Lord, what you would have us to see in your word today. Open our eyes and our hearts to exactly what you want us to take away from this time together today. We thank you for being with us. It’s in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. 

All right, here we go. Consider this like a text from the apostle Paul to you, and to me today. That’s how we’re to look at God’s word because it’s alive and active. It was for the Ephesians, but it’s for us, right now, too. All right, Ephesians chapter five. We’re gonna pick it up in verse 15, I think. Yes. “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life.”

Here’s our takeaway, verse 18, “Instead be filled with the holy spirit singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your heart.” Wow. That’s powerful. “And give thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And further submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

“For husbands, this means love your wives just as Christ loved the church.” It’s a tall order, right? Whew. “He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church, without a spot or wrinkle or any blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies, for a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it just as Christ cares for the church, and we are members of his body.” Wow.

“As the scriptures say, a man leaves his father and mother, and is joined to his wife and the two are united into one. This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ, and the church are one. So again, I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Wow, a tall order on every side, right? How can we possibly do this? By his spirit, by his spirit. We opened this part of Ephesians chapter five with, “Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.” It is the Holy Spirit, God calls him our helper, our comforter, who helps us to live this way to live wise lives.

I was thinking about the pancake house. My husband and I love to go out to breakfast almost every Saturday morning. We do this, I get my one banana pancake, sometimes a side of hash browns, but always I have a bunch of cups of coffee. And I love it because every server, Denise, Lori, Lisa, these are just a few of our favorites, they’re all walking around with pots of coffee. And multiple people will ask you, it’s not just your server, “Want more coffee? More coffee?” Coffee is always available. I mean, we could have five cups and we would still be offered more. And it is the same way with the Holy Spirit in your life. There is no way that you and I can live wisely and love others around us without the help of the Holy Spirit, and the beautiful thing is, he’s always willing to refill us. He can refill our hearts with the love of Christ so we can pour it out on other people.

I love it because Paul says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit,” our takeaway verse, “singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts and give thanks for everything to God, the Father in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” So how do we live wisely? How do we live filled with love? We fill ourselves up with God’s word, which is what you’re doing right now. You are filling yourself up with something good: God’s word. It cleanses us. It cleanses us, and listen to worship music. I encourage you to go to spirit1053.com. Download our free app. Oh my goodness, you’re gonna love the worship music. Fill up on that and give thanks. When you’re filled up and there’s always an opportunity for a refill of the Holy Spirit, you’re gonna be able to live wisely and love people. Listen to worship music, give thanks, read God’s word, stick with this series, and you are gonna be able to live wisely, and to live a life full of love. It’s gonna be awesome. Okay, tomorrow we’re diving into a really powerful section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Can’t wait to dive into chapter six with you. 

Thank you so much for listening to the Bible for Busy People. If you need prayer or you’re ready to go a little deeper in your faith, we’ve posted some resources for you in our show notes. We’d love for you to share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review. It helps us reach even more people with the hope of Jesus. This podcast is part of Purposely, a podcast network designed with practical podcasts to help you find and live in God’s purpose for your life. Find more podcasts that will recharge you at onpurposely.com.