Living on mission requires that we live lives that are controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit...

This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter that a man named Paul wrote to early followers of Jesus that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Ephesians. Tuesday, we saw Paul explain that there is divine knowledge and understanding that is available to access so that we would be living our life in a way that is exercising that divine knowledge and understanding in order to produce positive results in your life.

 Paul then revealed that God has a desire for how we are to live our lives and engage those who are far from God. God desires that we live on mission as a missionary that loves and serves those that God has placed around us who are far from Him in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them. God desires that we humbly and the passionately to go to those who are far from God. God desires that we lovingly engage those who are far from God and far from us. God desires that we share God’s message of rescue to those around us who are far from God. God desires that we remove our excuses. God desires that we invite those who are watching us to experience Jesus with us. God desires that we live lives of integrity.

Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave, that sounds great in theory, but I have a hard time putting into practice what we have talked about during this series.  I just really struggle to live on mission as a missionary. What you are talking about seems beyond my ability, so how do I get to the place where I can live on mission?”

Today, we will see Paul reveal for us the answer to these questions. So let’s discover the answer together, which is found in Ephesians 5:18:

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

In this verse, we see the Apostle Paul paint for us a timeless word picture that reveals a timeless truth when it comes to living on mission: “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit”. To help us wrap our minds around what Paul is communicating here, let me share a story that vividly illustrates this word picture. My freshman year in college, after a home football game, I gave a teammate a ride back to Indianapolis so that he could visit his family. Now by the time we left campus and made it to Indianapolis, it was already past midnight. My teammate lived in one of the tougher sections of the city.

After dropping him off, as I waited at an intersection on my way back to the freeway, I watched as a very large and very drunk man stumbled to my car. As the man approached, I noticed that the front of his pants were soaked with urine. The man then reached my car, leaned across the hood, and proceeded to throw up all over the windshield and front of the car. After throwing up all over my car, the man then mumbled something and finished stumbling across the intersection and down the street.

Now if the Apostle Paul was riding shotgun with me on the trip, he would have called that man’s behavior dissipation. This word means to live a life that is of reckless abandon that is a waste. Instead of living according to God’s design and desire, this man’s reckless abandon resulted in a life that was wasting away toward destruction.

Paul then contrasts the life of reckless abandon of a drunken man with someone who is filled with the Spirit. The Spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit. Paul’s point here is that we are to carefully consider our lives when it comes to what controls and influences their lives. Instead of being controlled by something that results in a life marked by reckless abandon and that wastes opportunities to live wisely in relationship with God and others, we are to live a life that is controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit.

And it is in this word picture that we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us a timeless and true principle when it comes to living on mission. And that timeless and true principle is this: Living on mission requires that we live lives that are controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit. The timeless reality is that we are influenced by what influences us. Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you are influenced by what influences you. Your life does not occur in a vacuum; in your life there are external and internal forces at work in your life that influence your life.

And here we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us the reality that in order to embrace and engage in the kingdom mission that God has given us to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to others, we must live lives that are controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit.

As we discovered earlier in this series Jesus relied on the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit to live the life that we were created to live but refused to live in relationship with God and one another. And Jesus relied on the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the mission He was given. You see, Jesus shows us what it means to be truly human.

Jesus provides for us the example of how we are to live our lives here on earth and accomplish the kingdom mission that we have been given here on earth. As followers of Jesus we are to live Spirit filled lives. In other words, our lives are to be controlled, influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit so that we would reveal and reflect Jesus to others as we live in relationship with God and others.

Now a second question that arises here is “what does a life that is influenced and controlled by the Holy Spirit look like? And how do I know if my life is controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit?” That is a great question. And regardless of whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, a person can look at their relationships and the relationships of those around them and begin to recognize what controls and influences our relationships.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul begin to unpack four specific evidences that appear in relationships that are controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit...