Eph. 5:18 KJV Session 14 Maintaining a Spirit Filled Lfe: We now know what getting empty looks like, and hopefully, we now know what that feels like also. We have learned how to achieve the status of "filled" with the Holy Spirit. As we work and live in a state of yieldedness and obedience, the Holy Spirit produces radical changes within us. New qualities and attributes replace our old life prior to our salvation. Everything we do in this world must be maintained, or else we eventually lose it. For us now, we must learn how to maintain a state of fullness of the Holy Spirit. This grand renovation we are now undergoing demands of us vigilance to maintain all God has wrought in us, and will continue to create in us throughout the remainder of our life on earth. Constructions and renovations are exciting things. Maintaining what has been built however, tends to fall into the category of "chore" rather than privilege. Jesus said, "To whom much is given, much shall be required." In other words when God blesses us, he said expects us to be faithful stewards of those blessings. Maintenance is good stewardship.  In verse 15 of this fifth chapter Paul instructs us to "walk circumspectly." In verse 17 he emphasizes wisdom. From these two verses we clearly get the message maintenance requires vigilance. I Thessalonians 5 commands us to avoid sleepiness. Stay awake!  Again, God has ordered a fresh start every 24 hours. He is well aware of our human weaknesses and challenges. Virtually every human activity must be managed. Schedules, protocols and procedures aid our labor. Companies have long known the wisdom of systematic operations. Why then, have we Christians failed to make these connections with our spiritual life? The maintenance programs in the corporate world insure both the survival and profits of businesses around the world. Let's see what the Bible says about spiritual maintenance and the Spirit filled life. Vigilance ✅ Monitoring our spiritual systems✅ What are our spiritual systems? Our mind (thoughts, intellect, perspective, meditations, imaginations, dreams) Our desires Our attitudes Our motives Our associations (relationships and fellowships) Our time management  Our labor investments Our words (conversations) Monitoring these eight spiritual systems follows a specific intention: do these please the Holy Spirit? (See I Thess. 4:1 and John 8:29) We must not stutter or stammer. The answer is either yes or no. Any no answer to this question demands an adjustment on our part. If we fail to adjust, we begin "leaking" our filling. Feeding our thirst for Christ ✅ Starving our fleshly cravings ✅ If it aids our spiritual enrichment we keep feeding it. If it feeds our baser, fleshly nature we starve it to death. (See Gal. 5:16-24; Rom. 6:10-14) Selfless service ✅ The Spirit filled life is an active life of selfless service. Our Lord modeled this for us everyday of his ministry. But what is the focus of this selfless service? Ironically, it is not a focus upon felt human needs primarily. It is not service intent upon creating or preserving an institution. Even if that institution is a local church. It is a focus upon service that manifests Jesus to others. Our Lord always emphasized his Father, not himself, his sermons, or even his works. It is a focus away from the individual rendering the service. But how does service aid the maintenance of our filling? That's an easy one. No one can long serve selflessly within one's own capacity and stamina. Selfless service demands dependence and full reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Perpetual worship and fellowship with the Spirit ✅ A central commonality among Spirit filled people is spontaneous worship, ongoing communication and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The more time, effort and passion we put into making time for worship everyday, the more desire we have to maintaining fullness of the Spirit. Spirit filled people talk to God all through the day, every day. They are conscious of his abiding presence. They are attentive to his activity, his comfort, and his enabling. Gentleness and approachability ✅ Has it occurred to you as you read the life of our Lord, that he was always approachable? Likewise, he was gentle in his ministry to others. He was only stern with those who made claims of self righteousness and who were actually hypocrites. Paul tells Timothy, "The servant of the Lord must not strive: but be gentle to all men..." (2 Tim. 2:24) This gentleness is born of meekness and humility which only the Holy Spirit can produce in a person. Compassion ✅ This is sorely lacking in most of our ministries today. Watch our Lord as he encounters people. "He saw...and had compassion..." Our service is cold, and distant, condescending even where there is no compassion for those to whom we minister. Sense of vision and mission ✅ Jesus saw the human condition, and he saw his mission. The Christian life under the fulness of the Holy Spirit cannot be sorted out in little boxes or compartments. The entire life is consumed with the vision of our suffering Savior dying for the sins of humanity, and our mission to herald the divine invitation to come be forgiven and saved. The Spirit filled man and woman is always on mission. There is no vacation, no retirement, no punching out the time card. We go where we are called. We go when we are called. We do what we are sent to do regardless of our personal circumstances or state of being. The Holy Spirit called upon me to witness to an EMT in the back of an ambulance while I was having a heart attack. I knew God had commanded I share Christ. My state of health was not to get in the way of what the Spirit wanted. Amazingly, I felt incredible peace, not the slightest concern for my health but only the eternal destiny of that young latino man. Human beings aren't capable of this within ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can do these things. Peace, Power, Provision, Protection in Adversity ✅ We all experience adversity. Being filled with the Holy Spirit does not qualify us for exemption status from trouble, pain, sorrow, even loss and death. Being filled with the Holy Spirit does produce indescribable, unexplainable peace, power, provision, and often protection in life's worst moments. Now, it must be pointed out here, that we shall not experience these things unless, and until we find ourselves in the valley of adversity. People tend to avoid signing up for adversity. Jesus made a lot of promises to us. One of them is: "In the world ye shall have trouble." Another one goes like this: "The world hated me. The world shall hate you also." Not what we sign up for is it! We sign up to miss eternal hell and suffering in fire. If you are saved, you already know you cannot take only part of Jesus, the parts you like. We take all of him, or we take none of him. Today, Christians are the most persecuted people group on earth. That's getting worse, not better. It's going to continue to get worse; much, much worse. This reality is a major reason we must get filled with the Holy Spirit and maintain that filling continually whatever it takes to accomplish this. God has never been pleased with nominal Christian living. He calls that "lukewarm," and "sickening." He has warned us repeatedly, the world is going to grow more and more wicked, perverse, and violent. He has warned, we are going to be hated, persecuted, and even martyred for Christ's sake. Living full of the Holy Spirit is not optional. It's never really been optional. Today, Spirit filled living is essential and existential. Attitude of Gratitude and Praise ✅ Finally, every Spirit filled person I have ever known or read about were people who lived in a state of thankfulness, and praise toward God. This only comes through vigorous maintenance of these other qualities. Seeing God's presence, activity, provision and feeling his peace prompts us to rejoice in thankful praise for who he is, and all he has done and is doing in our lives. A person with chronic complaints is not a Spirit filled person. There are many Spirit filled people who have an abundance of reasons to complain but they refuse to do so. Even in their greatest challenges they see God's provision and blessing. They praise him for what they have instead of complaining about what they don't have. We mentioned contentment earlier. Contentment is obtained intentionally. It's believing that if I don't have it, I don't need it either. It's trusting God's wise provision and providence. It's rejoicing in that he cares for us. How is your maintenance operations dear friend? Diligent investigation here will tell us whether we are filled, or empty, or somewhere in between the two. I urge you, as I speak directly to myself as well, to adhere to the voice of the Holy Spirit in these matters. God wants his very best for us. We can have his very best. There must be due diligence on our part where we are called upon to obey the Holy Spirit, and the precious written word of God. Do you enjoy music? That's up next for our consideration. It's a session we all are sure to benefit from, and enjoy.