10 and 2

Transcript

Ryan Bramlett • Rumble Strip • Ephesians 5

Traders Point, welcome. How are we doing this morning? 

It’s good to be with you. My name is Ryan, one of the pastors around here. To everyone at the campuses and everyone watching online, welcome. 

Just so you know that we are here for you, our mission as a church is to remove unnecessary barriers that keep people from Jesus. That’s why at every campus after every service we offer something called Growth Track. It is a tool to help you get connected around here, and hopefully draw you closer to Jesus. If you’re interested, please check out Growth Track before you roll out today. 

As far as today goes, we are finishing up this series we’ve been in called Rumble Strip. I just want to say off the top, has Aaron been killing it in this series, or what? I want to just say that off the top. Does anyone agree with me on that? Unbelievable. 

But just to catch you up if maybe you’ve missed the past few weeks, or if this is your first time. Let me tell you everything you need to know about rumble strips. I think a lot of us know what they are, whether we call them that or not, but they are those raised edges on the side of the road. As you’re driving, if you kind of drift off a little bit and your tire hits it, it kind of vibrates the whole car. That is to let you know, “Get back on track. Move over a little bit.” 

We know that rumble strips save lives on the road. On country roads they reduce vehicle accidents by almost 50 percent. And center line rumble strips reduce accidents by 91 percent on urban, two-lane roads. It is wild how well they work. 

What we’ve said is that rumble strips on the road aren’t the only place we need them. We all need rumble strips in our lives, these boundaries we can put in to keep us moving in the right direction. 

We need them for our finances. We need them for our relationships. We need them morally. We need them spiritually. We need these things we can come together on and say, “I need to be moving in the right direction,” because the truth is life is hard. Can I get an amen on that one? Life is hard, we’re moving fast, things pop up out of nowhere and we need to keep moving in the right direction. 

Because none of us plan on wrecking our lives. You’re not going to wake up the next day and say, “I think today is the day. Today is the day I’m going to do it. I’m going to mess this thing up.” We don’t plan on wrecking our lives anymore than we plan on wrecking our cars. The problem is we just don’t plan not to. 

So, for today, to kick things off, we’re actually going to go back, back to the beginning. I want you to go there with me, and to think back to when you were first learning to drive. Some of you might not have to go back too far, for others its been a few days since you learned how to drive in the first place. Remember how tense it was when you first got behind the wheel. 

I remember going to get my permit with my dad. I didn’t know it at the time, but his plan was to let me drive home from the BMV. We get out into the parking lot, he throws me that keys, and says, “Do you want to drive home?” 

Now, up into this point I had only driven in a cemetery. Let me explain what this is. It might sound weird, but that’s where my dad taught me to drive. He said I couldn’t hurt anything out there, so that’s where we went. And it’s just these tiny roads with sharp turns. 

There I am in the parking lot and he says, “Do you want to drive?”

“Yeah I do.” 

I’m nervous though. I get behind the wheel and turn onto the road and I’m locked in. Both hands on the wheel, I notice every car, every lane change. And we are almost home before I almost kill us. We’re going home and I’m about to turn into the neighborhood. The turn signal goes on with a click, click, click. 

And I remembered from class that when you turn you’re supposed to accelerate through the turn. You turn and you press the gas. So that’s what I did. We went into that neighborhood flying. We almost flipped that beautiful Chevy Astro van. Tires squealing going in, my dad’s yelling, “Brake, brake, brake,” and I finally got this thing to stop. 

I looked over at him, “Why are you hollering? I’m supposed to accelerate through the turn.” He was like, “Yeah, but you’re supposed to slow down before you make the turn in the first place,” which was fair. 

I can’t sit up here and say I remember everything from when I was learning to drive, but I do remember something. And it’s where your hands go, the recommended position when you drive. Does anyone remember that? Hands on the steering wheel, what is that position? Just yell it out? Ten and two, that is correct. Another answer could be nine and three. Apparently, that’s what they’re teaching these days. But pipe down, no one is doing that. 

Ten and two will always be how we learn to drive. But the thing of it is, most of us don’t drive at ten and two. When you leave here today, you will drive with one hand, you will drive with your wrist, and you may even drive with your knees. But, you won’t drive at ten and two. 

But you know when you do? When you do drive at ten and two, something is going on and you need extra control. When you’re driving down the road and a storm comes out of nowhere, you lose visibility, you notice your hands kind of shift up and they get to ten and two. 

Or maybe you’re driving along a mountainside, not in Indiana but you’re traveling out of state somewhere and you find yourself on a mountain, your hands shift up to ten and two. You need extra help. Do you ever think about why that is, why we were taught ten and two? 

Ten and two gives us the most control possible.

Ten and two gives you the most control possible. So that when you’re driving, if you need to veer left, you can go, or if you need to go this way, you can go. It gives you the most control possible. 

Here’s why that’s important: 

The right position gives you the edge in emergency situations. So, when the storm come crashing down, we have more control. 

What we want to look at today is we know that ten and two gives us the most control during emergency situations. What about life off the road? Life when we go to work, life in our families, life in other situations. What gives us the edge in emergency situations? 

And the thing we’re going to see today is thankfully, because of Jesus, we do have something. We have something that can help us along the way, every step of the way. And not in just a way to avoid crashing, but in a way that takes us through life in the best way. That we get the best views, we have the most control possible, and its all because of Jesus. 

And to see what this is and what it looks like, we’re going to be in a book of the Bible called Ephesians, Ephesians 5. If you have a Bible, you can flip or scroll there. If not, everything will be on the screen behind me. 

This letter is from a guy named Paul to a young church starting out in Ephesus. What he is doing is writing to them saying: Here are some things to help you navigate through life. Here are some rumble strips you can place in your life so you can continue moving toward Jesus. 

And look at the way it kicks off in Ephesians. “This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

Now, a little bit of a nerd-alert here. I just found this out this week when I was studying that this line here, this “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead,” actually comes directly from one of the first Christian songs that was ever sung. When people would get together and worship Jesus, they would sing together. Sound familiar? 

What this song is, it’s so beautiful, because it’s actually a call to people who don’t believe in Jesus yet. It’s a call to say, “Hey, rise up. There is this life-changing thing that can help you through life, both for now and for all eternity.” 

And I think a lot of us can relate to this, even if you do follow Jesus. Maybe it feels like you’re asleep at the wheel right now. And maybe God is saying, “Awake, O sleeper,” and you are thinking, “No, I can’t. I’ve driven off the side of the road. I’ve gone way past the rumble strip.” 

God is saying: No, you haven’t. There is no place you can go that’s past where I can get you. Rise up, bring it back. Let me give you this light and get you back on track. 

So, what’s he talking about here? What is this light? This light is actually the Spirit of God. And hang with me here. What we’re going to be looking at here in Ephesians, I think Paul might just do the best job possible of explaining who the Spirit of God is. 

And just to get us all on the same starting point, another word for the Spirit of God is Helper. So, think of it that way. You come to Jesus. You place your faith in him. And you say, “Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are,” and then he gives us this Helper. He gives us his Spirit to help us navigate through life, and its an unbelievably beautiful thing. 

God has given us external rumble strips. He has given us teachings of: Hey, don’t go over there, go over here. Stick to the course. He gave us external rumble strips, but he also gave us an internal rumble strip through his Spirit, through this Helper. 

It’s kind of like one these new cars, if you are driving and you slip into the lane beside you this alert pops up. No, no, no get back over. Get back over. There it is. That is some of what the Spirit of God does as he helps us navigate through life. Because God loves us far too much to let us continue going on the way we once did. 

So, as we’re going through life and the storms come, and we’re having a hard time with the visibility, God says: No, no, no, I want you to see things through my lens. Here’s my Helper. 

As we’re going through life and it seems like we get blindsided and run off the road, instead of retaliating or responding like we once did, God’s Spirit says: No, let me help you with this. Let me show you how we respond in love. Let me show you how we respond in grace. 

As we’re going through tough times, we need wisdom and extra help. God says: Let me send you my Helper. Let me send you my Spirit. 

If you’re here today and maybe you’ve had one thought or another about what a Christian is, can I tell you this is it? This is the thing we bank on: 

The Spirit of God. 

It’s not like we’re a bunch of people with a perfect driving record, it’s the fact that we don’t think we’re driving alone. We believe there is a good God of this universe, and he was willing to die for us, and now, from this moment on its all about him. 

Look at this in Galatians. “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

That’s the bottom line. We come before God and we get his Spirit, this Helper who helps us navigate through life in Jesus. He would actually go so far to say it is better, it is better for us to have this Spirit within us than even for him to be walking beside us. 

This is incredible. That Jesus is going to give his life for us, he’s going to die for our sins, he’s going to die on our behalf. And he says: Wait, there is more. Now I’m going to send you my Spirit, I’m going to send you this Helper to help you navigate through life every single step of the way, because I love you that much. 

In Ephesians, today, I believe Paul might just do the best job possible of explaining what the Spirit is, what he isn’t. He has this incredible way of making the Spirit relatable, kind of taking out the weirdness and the mystery behind it. 

Look at the way he explains it in Ephesians 5. “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. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 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.”

Scripture stands alone. We can just read it and celebrate it, it’s that good. So, what’s it like? What’s it like to be filled with the Spirit? It’s like being drunk—not really, but that is the kind of realm he puts it in here, comparing these two things. There is nothing that is like the Spirit of God, but there is a cheap substitute. 

In these lines he says, “Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” What’s kind of funny is the first time the Spirit comes, people mistake it for just a bunch of people being drunk. You can read about it this week, its actually called the day of Pentecost. 

What is going on is all these Jews are getting together from every nation. And they all speak different languages. As you can imagine, as these guys get up to communicate to all these different people who speak different languages, there is a little bit of a barrier going on. That’s when everyone becomes shook. 

As these guys stand up and start talking about God, it says they speak in tongues. What that means is that as they speak in their native tongues everyone out in the audience hears them in their native tongue. Everyone is like perplexed, taking a step back, “This is incredible. Are you hearing what I’m hearing?” 

“No, I’m hearing what I’m hearing.” 

And everyone is just blown away hearing about the goodness of God and what’s happened because of Jesus. I say everyone is excited, but there are a few people in the crowd who start yelling, “These guys are just drunk. That’s all it is.” 

And Peter, Peter hears this. If you know anything about Peter, you know he doesn’t stand for disrespect. He hears these guys step up and say: Go home, you’re drunk. And look at what Peter says. 

“Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming.”

He steps up and says: Pay attention. One, pipe down and don’t talk again. Two, listen carefully. This isn’t what you think. I hear you saying they could be drunk, but this isn’t what this is. 

And I love his response to why they can know these people aren’t drunk: Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.

He doesn’t say, “These are some good guys. You can trust them.” No. He looks at his watch and is like: It’s 9 in the morning. If you come back later, I can’t make any promises as to what is going down, but right now rest-assured this is actually the Spirit of God at work and it’s a beautiful thing.

But there are some things that get brought together here, as he uses these two things to paint a picture. Don’t be drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit. What is he talking about here? When you’re drunk on wine, when you’re drunk on alcohol, what do they say? They say that you are under the influence, right? 

Under the influence.

Let me make this clear. This is not about drinking in moderation. This is about being drunk—when you drink to the place where you are influenced by alcohol, where it changes how you see reality. When people get drunk, they begin to see a little bit less than what’s really there. 

The lights get low, you feel happy, oh so happy, and you get this courage. This courage you didn’t have before, but now that you’re under the influence this influence is whispering in your ear. 

That’s why there is always this one drunk guy about to jump off something. Because he has this liquid courage. He is under the influence, and now he feels like he can do this thing. 

And I get it. I’ve been drunk before, a few times. And I remember in college wanting to drink before I went out. Getting a few drinks before I went out, why would I do that? Drinks are expensive in college when you go out? Sure. It wasn’t that for me. For me it was because when I was under the influence, when I had a couple of drinks, it loosened me up. It gave me control that I didn’t think I had before. It allowed me to say things I couldn’t say. It allowed me to walk into a room and have confidence. 

But can I just say that walking through life with the lights down low, walking through life with this false sense of security, is no way to live. I can say it, but I think George Jones said it a whole lot better when he said this: 

“The bottom of a bottle’s always dry.”

And if I could say something to everyone, but especially students in middle school, high school, college—it is no way to go through life drinking and leaning on alcohol. That’s what Paul says here. He says that the bottom of the bottle’s always dry. You will always be left wanting. It is a sure-fire way to drive over any and every rumble strip that you have placed in your life. 

And that’s why he says there is something better. Don’t be drunk on wine, but instead be filled with the Spirit. You see, to be filled with the Spirit is to have what people get drunk trying to get. To be filled with the Spirit, you get real happiness. When you are filled with the Spirit, it doesn’t turn the lights down low, it actually opens them up and you see more. 

You don’t feel less, you actually feel more. You don’t have a false sense of confidence, you have the real thing. You don’t have a false sense of strength, you have the real thing. And when we talk about this, about being filled with the Holy Spirit, here is what we’re saying: 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is to live under the influence of God.

And I can stand here, having gone through both of them, knowing what it is like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I can tell you there is no comparison to what God is offering in being filled in the Spirit. There is nothing like it. 

And for some of you, its not enough. And you’ve seen too many YouTube videos of people being filled with the Spirit. You are like, “I don’t know if want to get smacked in the face. I like Harry Potter as much as the next guy, but you can’t tell me you believe in something like a spirit.” 

And I hear you. And I think there have been a lot of things done in the name of the Spirit. And if you’re here today and you’ve been a victim of something that happened to you in the name of the Spirit, whether it was manufactured, whether it was used to put you down and raise someone else up, I just want to apologize. 

And I want you to hear through the message today that that’s not the role of the Spirit. He’s a Helper. He is moving us along in the right direction. 

Can I say this? What a move of the devil to make us think we wouldn’t need the best thing God has ever offered us. If you’re here today, and maybe you’ve gotten to that spot and the pendulum swung and you are like, “I think I can do it on my own. Just give me the exterior boundaries. Tell me where to go, and I think I can do it.” 

Here me. Please don’t. You don’t have to. God has given this gift to me and you, so we don’t have to do this alone. Because neglect is also abuse. Thinking we don’t need the Spirit, overlooking it, that is abuse as well. And that’s why here Paul says: No, no, no, don’t be drunk. Be filled with the Spirit. 

And it is the incredible Helper who helps us every single step of the way, fills us up with all the things we need to travel through this life. We’ve already said what it does. How do we get it? Is that when the spell comes in? Is that when the incantation comes in? Is that when we need to pull out the Ouija board to conjure up this spirit. What does it look like for me to get the Holy Spirit?

And if I could just say there is no mystery in how we get the Spirit of God. God has made it overly clear. There is mystery in God. He is God, Creator of the universe. He speaks things into existence. He is massive, he is huge. But how we get the Spirit of God? It’s no mystery. It says that what we have to do is ask. We ask, we pray, and he gives. 

Look at what Jesus says. “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 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 him.”

We come to God. And we pray. We say, “God, I want you to send me your Holy Spirit. I believe you are who you say you are. I believe you died for me. Now God, send me your Spirit and fill me with your Spirit.” 

And it says he is a good Father. It says he hears our prayers and he graciously gives us his Holy Spirit. It’s unbelievable and the main difference here, where the bottom of every bottle is always dry, the Spirit is never dry. It’s not ending. There is no bottom to him, because the Spirit is as vast as God. 

God says: Come to me. Test me. Take drink after drink after drink. You will never be thirsty, you will be quenched and filled for the very first time. Like this is the type of stuff we have because of Jesus. So, what’s the drink? What do we need to order? What do we need to be sipping on to be filled with the Spirit? Because the fascinating thing is that the same way you get drunk is the same way you get filled with the Spirit. 

Drink after drink, day after day, especially back in Paul’s day. Drinks weren’t what they are today, they weren’t as strong or as potent. To get drunk was a job. You really had to put some effort into it, drink after drink. And this is the same way. The tense of the words he uses in Ephesians gives us this continual process. We’re not just filled one time and then good to go. Every single day we are filled. 

What do we need to get filled? Look at this. Look at what Jesus says. “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

What’s the drink? What do we need to be drinking? Every single word of God. The teachings of Jesus, every word of God. It says to place our minds on the things that are above, the things of the Spirit, which are the teachings of Jesus. That’s why every single weekend we get up here and preach and we provide Daily Bible Reading. It’s so that every morning when you wake up, you can have a drink. 

At 5 a.m.—it’s coming bright and early. You can open it up and read God’s word, and you can take a drink. It’s why our group content is sermon based. Because our sermons are Bible based. So, you come together as a group and have a drink. Every morning, night, and day we are taking drink after drink, doing everything we can to be filled in the Spirit. Being filled so we can have the only thing God offers, which is himself and he changes everything in our lives. 

All we have to do is take a drink. And some of you are like, “Okay, I’m in,” because you know what it’s like to be thirsty. You know what its like to not have a drink and you’re thinking, “What else can I do? How can I be filled with the Spirit? What does that look like? How can I take drink after drink?” 

And I’m going to tell you. And some of you might roll your eyes, some of you might get a little bit to excited. But one of the biggest ways the Bible says we get filled with the Spirit, and maybe it’s a surprise, is to sing. We sing. Singing is actually a marker that tells that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit in the first place. 

Read it again in Ephesians. “Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 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.”

If you’re filled with the Spirit, you will sing. I can already hear you, “That’s the big takeaway today. You want me to turn my life into a musical, and then I can get this Spirit of God. I hear you. This week I’ll be Hamilton. That’s what you’re saying, if I do that?” 

Kind of. It’s not just that we sing but what we sing changes everything. 

Oh, it’s not just that we sing, but what we sing about. It’s that we sing the very teachings of Jesus. And singing is a beautiful thing. You all know this. Everyone loves music. You would be hard-pressed to find something that everyone enjoys. Not even everyone likes tacos. Have you met those people? There are people probably amongst us today who don’t like tacos—not a hard taco, a soft taco, a breakfast taco, nothing. No tacos, they don’t like any of them. 

But music, that’s something different. Even if you can’t sing well, you like music. Even if you can’t dance, you like music. Have you ever thought about why that is? Why music connects that way, on a different level than anything else? It’s because God has put it there as a way for us to connect with him. This is his thing. 

We just went through a whole summer in the Psalms. The Psalms are a book of songs we sing. I just want to pull out a few of them. Look at this:  

“Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.” (Psalm 96:1-2, NLT)

“Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises!” (Psalm 47:6, NLT)

In the Bible there are over 400 references to us singing, 50 direct commands for us to sing. God, himself, even joins in on the singing in Zephaniah 3:17, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” 

Jesus, on the eve of his crucifixion. Do you know what he way doing? He was singing.  

“Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Matthew 26:30, NLT)

Before he went to die for me and you, he would sing. 

We worship a God who sings, and he wants us to be like him. Worship gives the Spirit access to our hearts and our lives. That’s why every Sunday when we get together, we sing. Not because it sounds good, because we gather together to take drinks together, to be filled with the Spirit. 

And the lyrics we sing, they are taken straight from the Bible from the teachings of Jesus. And if you remember, the way we kicked off today, we read that Scripture from one of the first songs, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

We pretty much sang this same song today. Instead of Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, we said, “up from the grave, he is with us now.” Two thousand years later on a different side of the planet, we are joining in on an ancient practice, joining in on singing the same songs the world has been singing since Jesus collided with it. And its never been the same. 

And now me and you, we get a chance to come together and we sing. We drink and we sing. Can I ask you? When was the last time you took a drink? Maybe you sat through the first worship set and you were distracted. Something was stopping you from singing, you couldn’t even mouth the words out loud. What is it? What are you under the influence of? 

Alcohol is just one of many things we can place ourselves under. There are all kinds of things—job, family, relationships, there are so many things that are fighting for us. We fight for ourselves. I can do this on my own, on my own strength. And God says: No, live under my influence. Because here is the truth: 

We will naturally reflect what we are influenced by. 

You know when someone is drunk. You can see it on their face, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in the way they speak, how they carry themselves. Because you naturally reflect what you are influenced by. So, church, can we all come together and say, “We are going to be influenced by Jesus. We are going to be influenced by the teachings of Jesus.”

Let me show you what that looks like. 

Filled with the spirit we reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

How do we move through life and have control in emergency situations? It’s when we are filled with the Spirit. That’s when we know we are being influenced by God. What we are about to have now is a moment to worship. And worship, it is more than singing, but it is not less than. 

When we come together and we raise our voices, we raise these cups and we take drinks together. And the words we sing, they come straight from the mouth of Jesus. The song we’re about to go back into, the title of it is It is Finished. These are the words Jesus said as he hung on a cross dying for me and you. He said, “It is finished.” Dying to pay the penalty for our sins. Dying so we could have access to him, so we could have this Helper. 

So, if you would, if I could just ask you, would everyone in the room at all the campuses just stand with us? Stand with us in this moment of worship. This moment for us to come together and to sing, It is Finished. 

I just want to set us up for this moment, to see how powerful these lyrics are, why they are filled with the Spirit. So, take a look at this. Look at these: 

Strongholds bowing to the Savior 

Resurrection power

Strongholds, this is any or everything that has ever influenced me and you. This is any and everything we have ever leaned on that said this is what we need to be alright. It says no: Next to Jesus, all of those things bow down. Next to Jesus, there is no comparison. Next to the resurrection power, all those things bow down in front of him so you can worship. 

This is a moment where you can worship freely, nothing tying you down. 

Mercy won I’m forgiven

Because of Jesus and what he did for me and all of us, we are forgiven. And what’s the response? 

Sing His name. He is worthy of our praise—Jesus.

So, we come together and we’re going to sing. We are going to sing, It is Finished, and we’re going to be filled with the Spirit. And if you’re here today and you want to know for followers of Jesus what it looks like to get our hands to ten and two, here it is. 

This is ten and two. [hands up in the air shoulder width apart] This is the spot we come to where we have the most control. It’s when we come to the end of ourselves, when we say, “God, fills us.” Because when we come to God asking him to fill us, we’re asking to be emptied of everything else, everything else that has influenced us. 

We say, “No, no, no God, we want to reflect you.” We come together and we sing, It is Finished. 

Some of us right now are in an emergency situation. And you feel like you’re white-knuckling that steering wheel, got your hands at ten and two as you thought they should be. You are trying to control, trying to maneuver left and right, but you just keep sailing off the road. You just can’t seem to get control. 

God says: It’s because your hands are in the wrong spot. Bring them up. Bring them to ten and two. [hands lifted to him] This is the spot where we get filled, where our minds are set on the things of above and God send us his Spirit. So, if I could just ask you right now, in a moment of vulnerability, in a moment of wanting to be filled with the Spirit, would you raise your hands? 

If you’re here for the first time and this is new to you, you can raise your hands in this moment. God is a good Father who gives good gifts. His Spirit comes in this moment. And what we are going to do in this moment, we are going to sing. I’m going to pray, and then we are going to sing. 

We’re going to sing, It is Finished, and we sing that with confidence because we know Jesus died for us. And if he died for us, why would he leave us now? No, he’s riding shotgun. He’s with us every step of the way. He is moving us in the right direction. He’s pointing out the pitfalls and the potholes and keeping us moving saying: This is the way you need to go. And our hands are up. 

Pray with me, and then we’re going to sing together. Let’s pray. 

God, we come before you this morning with hands open. God, let this be a symbol that we’re open to your Spirit, that we want you to fill us. God, if there is anything that is influencing any of us, anything that has taken your shine, taken away your light, God we pray that those strongholds would bow in front of your name. 

That, God, as we life our hands, as we worship you, let you fill us, let your Spirit come in here. That you influence us, not just today, but every day, we would never be the same. Let us reflect love. Let us reflect joy. Let us reflect patience. 

God, meet us in our moment of emergency. God, in your Spirit we find control. In your Spirit we find all the things we long for. In your Spirit we sing, “It is finished. It is finished. It is finished.” We love you, Jesus. Amen. 

Ryan Bramlett • Rumble Strip • Ephesians 5

Traders Point, welcome. How are we doing this morning? 

It’s good to be with you. My name is Ryan, one of the pastors around here. To everyone at the campuses and everyone watching online, welcome. 

Just so you know that we are here for you, our mission as a church is to remove unnecessary barriers that keep people from Jesus. That’s why at every campus after every service we offer something called Growth Track. It is a tool to help you get connected around here, and hopefully draw you closer to Jesus. If you’re interested, please check out Growth Track before you roll out today. 

As far as today goes, we are finishing up this series we’ve been in called Rumble Strip. I just want to say off the top, has Aaron been killing it in this series, or what? I want to just say that off the top. Does anyone agree with me on that? Unbelievable. 

But just to catch you up if maybe you’ve missed the past few weeks, or if this is your first time. Let me tell you everything you need to know about rumble strips. I think a lot of us know what they are, whether we call them that or not, but they are those raised edges on the side of the road. As you’re driving, if you kind of drift off a little bit and your tire hits it, it kind of vibrates the whole car. That is to let you know, “Get back on track. Move over a little bit.” 

We know that rumble strips save lives on the road. On country roads they reduce vehicle accidents by almost 50 percent. And center line rumble strips reduce accidents by 91 percent on urban, two-lane roads. It is wild how well they work. 

What we’ve said is that rumble strips on the road aren’t the only place we need them. We all need rumble strips in our lives, these boundaries we can put in to keep us moving in the right direction. 

We need them for our finances. We need them for our relationships. We need them morally. We need them spiritually. We need these things we can come together on and say, “I need to be moving in the right direction,” because the truth is life is hard. Can I get an amen on that one? Life is hard, we’re moving fast, things pop up out of nowhere and we need to keep moving in the right direction. 

Because none of us plan on wrecking our lives. You’re not going to wake up the next day and say, “I think today is the day. Today is the day I’m going to do it. I’m going to mess this thing up.” We don’t plan on wrecking our lives anymore than we plan on wrecking our cars. The problem is we just don’t plan not to. 

So, for today, to kick things off, we’re actually going to go back, back to the beginning. I want you to go there with me, and to think back to when you were first learning to drive. Some of you might not have to go back too far, for others its been a few days since you learned how to drive in the first place. Remember how tense it was when you first got behind the wheel. 

I remember going to get my permit with my dad. I didn’t know it at the time, but his plan was to let me drive home from the BMV. We get out into the parking lot, he throws me that keys, and says, “Do you want to drive home?” 

Now, up into this point I had only driven in a cemetery. Let me explain what this is. It might sound weird, but that’s where my dad taught me to drive. He said I couldn’t hurt anything out there, so that’s where we went. And it’s just these tiny roads with sharp turns. 

There I am in the parking lot and he says, “Do you want to drive?”

“Yeah I do.” 

I’m nervous though. I get behind the wheel and turn onto the road and I’m locked in. Both hands on the wheel, I notice every car, every lane change. And we are almost home before I almost kill us. We’re going home and I’m about to turn into the neighborhood. The turn signal goes on with a click, click, click. 

And I remembered from class that when you turn you’re supposed to accelerate through the turn. You turn and you press the gas. So that’s what I did. We went into that neighborhood flying. We almost flipped that beautiful Chevy Astro van. Tires squealing going in, my dad’s yelling, “Brake, brake, brake,” and I finally got this thing to stop. 

I looked over at him, “Why are you hollering? I’m supposed to accelerate through the turn.” He was like, “Yeah, but you’re supposed to slow down before you make the turn in the first place,” which was fair. 

I can’t sit up here and say I remember everything from when I was learning to drive, but I do remember something. And it’s where your hands go, the recommended position when you drive. Does anyone remember that? Hands on the steering wheel, what is that position? Just yell it out? Ten and two, that is correct. Another answer could be nine and three. Apparently, that’s what they’re teaching these days. But pipe down, no one is doing that. 

Ten and two will always be how we learn to drive. But the thing of it is, most of us don’t drive at ten and two. When you leave here today, you will drive with one hand, you will drive with your wrist, and you may even drive with your knees. But, you won’t drive at ten and two. 

But you know when you do? When you do drive at ten and two, something is going on and you need extra control. When you’re driving down the road and a storm comes out of nowhere, you lose visibility, you notice your hands kind of shift up and they get to ten and two. 

Or maybe you’re driving along a mountainside, not in Indiana but you’re traveling out of state somewhere and you find yourself on a mountain, your hands shift up to ten and two. You need extra help. Do you ever think about why that is, why we were taught ten and two? 

Ten and two gives us the most control possible.

Ten and two gives you the most control possible. So that when you’re driving, if you need to veer left, you can go, or if you need to go this way, you can go. It gives you the most control possible. 

Here’s why that’s important: 

The right position gives you the edge in emergency situations. So, when the storm come crashing down, we have more control. 

What we want to look at today is we know that ten and two gives us the most control during emergency situations. What about life off the road? Life when we go to work, life in our families, life in other situations. What gives us the edge in emergency situations? 

And the thing we’re going to see today is thankfully, because of Jesus, we do have something. We have something that can help us along the way, every step of the way. And not in just a way to avoid crashing, but in a way that takes us through life in the best way. That we get the best views, we have the most control possible, and its all because of Jesus. 

And to see what this is and what it looks like, we’re going to be in a book of the Bible called Ephesians, Ephesians 5. If you have a Bible, you can flip or scroll there. If not, everything will be on the screen behind me. 

This letter is from a guy named Paul to a young church starting out in Ephesus. What he is doing is writing to them saying: Here are some things to help you navigate through life. Here are some rumble strips you can place in your life so you can continue moving toward Jesus. 

And look at the way it kicks off in Ephesians. “This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

Now, a little bit of a nerd-alert here. I just found this out this week when I was studying that this line here, this “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead,” actually comes directly from one of the first Christian songs that was ever sung. When people would get together and worship Jesus, they would sing together. Sound familiar? 

What this song is, it’s so beautiful, because it’s actually a call to people who don’t believe in Jesus yet. It’s a call to say, “Hey, rise up. There is this life-changing thing that can help you through life, both for now and for all eternity.” 

And I think a lot of us can relate to this, even if you do follow Jesus. Maybe it feels like you’re asleep at the wheel right now. And maybe God is saying, “Awake, O sleeper,” and you are thinking, “No, I can’t. I’ve driven off the side of the road. I’ve gone way past the rumble strip.” 

God is saying: No, you haven’t. There is no place you can go that’s past where I can get you. Rise up, bring it back. Let me give you this light and get you back on track. 

So, what’s he talking about here? What is this light? This light is actually the Spirit of God. And hang with me here. What we’re going to be looking at here in Ephesians, I think Paul might just do the best job possible of explaining who the Spirit of God is. 

And just to get us all on the same starting point, another word for the Spirit of God is Helper. So, think of it that way. You come to Jesus. You place your faith in him. And you say, “Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are,” and then he gives us this Helper. He gives us his Spirit to help us navigate through life, and its an unbelievably beautiful thing. 

God has given us external rumble strips. He has given us teachings of: Hey, don’t go over there, go over here. Stick to the course. He gave us external rumble strips, but he also gave us an internal rumble strip through his Spirit, through this Helper. 

It’s kind of like one these new cars, if you are driving and you slip into the lane beside you this alert pops up. No, no, no get back over. Get back over. There it is. That is some of what the Spirit of God does as he helps us navigate through life. Because God loves us far too much to let us continue going on the way we once did. 

So, as we’re going through life and the storms come, and we’re having a hard time with the visibility, God says: No, no, no, I want you to see things through my lens. Here’s my Helper. 

As we’re going through life and it seems like we get blindsided and run off the road, instead of retaliating or responding like we once did, God’s Spirit says: No, let me help you with this. Let me show you how we respond in love. Let me show you how we respond in grace. 

As we’re going through tough times, we need wisdom and extra help. God says: Let me send you my Helper. Let me send you my Spirit. 

If you’re here today and maybe you’ve had one thought or another about what a Christian is, can I tell you this is it? This is the thing we bank on: 

The Spirit of God. 

It’s not like we’re a bunch of people with a perfect driving record, it’s the fact that we don’t think we’re driving alone. We believe there is a good God of this universe, and he was willing to die for us, and now, from this moment on its all about him. 

Look at this in Galatians. “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

That’s the bottom line. We come before God and we get his Spirit, this Helper who helps us navigate through life in Jesus. He would actually go so far to say it is better, it is better for us to have this Spirit within us than even for him to be walking beside us. 

This is incredible. That Jesus is going to give his life for us, he’s going to die for our sins, he’s going to die on our behalf. And he says: Wait, there is more. Now I’m going to send you my Spirit, I’m going to send you this Helper to help you navigate through life every single step of the way, because I love you that much. 

In Ephesians, today, I believe Paul might just do the best job possible of explaining what the Spirit is, what he isn’t. He has this incredible way of making the Spirit relatable, kind of taking out the weirdness and the mystery behind it. 

Look at the way he explains it in Ephesians 5. “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. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 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.”

Scripture stands alone. We can just read it and celebrate it, it’s that good. So, what’s it like? What’s it like to be filled with the Spirit? It’s like being drunk—not really, but that is the kind of realm he puts it in here, comparing these two things. There is nothing that is like the Spirit of God, but there is a cheap substitute. 

In these lines he says, “Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” What’s kind of funny is the first time the Spirit comes, people mistake it for just a bunch of people being drunk. You can read about it this week, its actually called the day of Pentecost. 

What is going on is all these Jews are getting together from every nation. And they all speak different languages. As you can imagine, as these guys get up to communicate to all these different people who speak different languages, there is a little bit of a barrier going on. That’s when everyone becomes shook. 

As these guys stand up and start talking about God, it says they speak in tongues. What that means is that as they speak in their native tongues everyone out in the audience hears them in their native tongue. Everyone is like perplexed, taking a step back, “This is incredible. Are you hearing what I’m hearing?” 

“No, I’m hearing what I’m hearing.” 

And everyone is just blown away hearing about the goodness of God and what’s happened because of Jesus. I say everyone is excited, but there are a few people in the crowd who start yelling, “These guys are just drunk. That’s all it is.” 

And Peter, Peter hears this. If you know anything about Peter, you know he doesn’t stand for disrespect. He hears these guys step up and say: Go home, you’re drunk. And look at what Peter says. 

“Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming.”

He steps up and says: Pay attention. One, pipe down and don’t talk again. Two, listen carefully. This isn’t what you think. I hear you saying they could be drunk, but this isn’t what this is. 

And I love his response to why they can know these people aren’t drunk: Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.

He doesn’t say, “These are some good guys. You can trust them.” No. He looks at his watch and is like: It’s 9 in the morning. If you come back later, I can’t make any promises as to what is going down, but right now rest-assured this is actually the Spirit of God at work and it’s a beautiful thing.

But there are some things that get brought together here, as he uses these two things to paint a picture. Don’t be drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit. What is he talking about here? When you’re drunk on wine, when you’re drunk on alcohol, what do they say? They say that you are under the influence, right? 

Under the influence.

Let me make this clear. This is not about drinking in moderation. This is about being drunk—when you drink to the place where you are influenced by alcohol, where it changes how you see reality. When people get drunk, they begin to see a little bit less than what’s really there. 

The lights get low, you feel happy, oh so happy, and you get this courage. This courage you didn’t have before, but now that you’re under the influence this influence is whispering in your ear. 

That’s why there is always this one drunk guy about to jump off something. Because he has this liquid courage. He is under the influence, and now he feels like he can do this thing. 

And I get it. I’ve been drunk before, a few times. And I remember in college wanting to drink before I went out. Getting a few drinks before I went out, why would I do that? Drinks are expensive in college when you go out? Sure. It wasn’t that for me. For me it was because when I was under the influence, when I had a couple of drinks, it loosened me up. It gave me control that I didn’t think I had before. It allowed me to say things I couldn’t say. It allowed me to walk into a room and have confidence. 

But can I just say that walking through life with the lights down low, walking through life with this false sense of security, is no way to live. I can say it, but I think George Jones said it a whole lot better when he said this: 

“The bottom of a bottle’s always dry.”

And if I could say something to everyone, but especially students in middle school, high school, college—it is no way to go through life drinking and leaning on alcohol. That’s what Paul says here. He says that the bottom of the bottle’s always dry. You will always be left wanting. It is a sure-fire way to drive over any and every rumble strip that you have placed in your life. 

And that’s why he says there is something better. Don’t be drunk on wine, but instead be filled with the Spirit. You see, to be filled with the Spirit is to have what people get drunk trying to get. To be filled with the Spirit, you get real happiness. When you are filled with the Spirit, it doesn’t turn the lights down low, it actually opens them up and you see more. 

You don’t feel less, you actually feel more. You don’t have a false sense of confidence, you have the real thing. You don’t have a false sense of strength, you have the real thing. And when we talk about this, about being filled with the Holy Spirit, here is what we’re saying: 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is to live under the influence of God.

And I can stand here, having gone through both of them, knowing what it is like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I can tell you there is no comparison to what God is offering in being filled in the Spirit. There is nothing like it. 

And for some of you, its not enough. And you’ve seen too many YouTube videos of people being filled with the Spirit. You are like, “I don’t know if want to get smacked in the face. I like Harry Potter as much as the next guy, but you can’t tell me you believe in something like a spirit.” 

And I hear you. And I think there have been a lot of things done in the name of the Spirit. And if you’re here today and you’ve been a victim of something that happened to you in the name of the Spirit, whether it was manufactured, whether it was used to put you down and raise someone else up, I just want to apologize. 

And I want you to hear through the message today that that’s not the role of the Spirit. He’s a Helper. He is moving us along in the right direction. 

Can I say this? What a move of the devil to make us think we wouldn’t need the best thing God has ever offered us. If you’re here today, and maybe you’ve gotten to that spot and the pendulum swung and you are like, “I think I can do it on my own. Just give me the exterior boundaries. Tell me where to go, and I think I can do it.” 

Here me. Please don’t. You don’t have to. God has given this gift to me and you, so we don’t have to do this alone. Because neglect is also abuse. Thinking we don’t need the Spirit, overlooking it, that is abuse as well. And that’s why here Paul says: No, no, no, don’t be drunk. Be filled with the Spirit. 

And it is the incredible Helper who helps us every single step of the way, fills us up with all the things we need to travel through this life. We’ve already said what it does. How do we get it? Is that when the spell comes in? Is that when the incantation comes in? Is that when we need to pull out the Ouija board to conjure up this spirit. What does it look like for me to get the Holy Spirit?

And if I could just say there is no mystery in how we get the Spirit of God. God has made it overly clear. There is mystery in God. He is God, Creator of the universe. He speaks things into existence. He is massive, he is huge. But how we get the Spirit of God? It’s no mystery. It says that what we have to do is ask. We ask, we pray, and he gives. 

Look at what Jesus says. “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 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 him.”

We come to God. And we pray. We say, “God, I want you to send me your Holy Spirit. I believe you are who you say you are. I believe you died for me. Now God, send me your Spirit and fill me with your Spirit.” 

And it says he is a good Father. It says he hears our prayers and he graciously gives us his Holy Spirit. It’s unbelievable and the main difference here, where the bottom of every bottle is always dry, the Spirit is never dry. It’s not ending. There is no bottom to him, because the Spirit is as vast as God. 

God says: Come to me. Test me. Take drink after drink after drink. You will never be thirsty, you will be quenched and filled for the very first time. Like this is the type of stuff we have because of Jesus. So, what’s the drink? What do we need to order? What do we need to be sipping on to be filled with the Spirit? Because the fascinating thing is that the same way you get drunk is the same way you get filled with the Spirit. 

Drink after drink, day after day, especially back in Paul’s day. Drinks weren’t what they are today, they weren’t as strong or as potent. To get drunk was a job. You really had to put some effort into it, drink after drink. And this is the same way. The tense of the words he uses in Ephesians gives us this continual process. We’re not just filled one time and then good to go. Every single day we are filled. 

What do we need to get filled? Look at this. Look at what Jesus says. “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

What’s the drink? What do we need to be drinking? Every single word of God. The teachings of Jesus, every word of God. It says to place our minds on the things that are above, the things of the Spirit, which are the teachings of Jesus. That’s why every single weekend we get up here and preach and we provide Daily Bible Reading. It’s so that every morning when you wake up, you can have a drink. 

At 5 a.m.—it’s coming bright and early. You can open it up and read God’s word, and you can take a drink. It’s why our group content is sermon based. Because our sermons are Bible based. So, you come together as a group and have a drink. Every morning, night, and day we are taking drink after drink, doing everything we can to be filled in the Spirit. Being filled so we can have the only thing God offers, which is himself and he changes everything in our lives. 

All we have to do is take a drink. And some of you are like, “Okay, I’m in,” because you know what it’s like to be thirsty. You know what its like to not have a drink and you’re thinking, “What else can I do? How can I be filled with the Spirit? What does that look like? How can I take drink after drink?” 

And I’m going to tell you. And some of you might roll your eyes, some of you might get a little bit to excited. But one of the biggest ways the Bible says we get filled with the Spirit, and maybe it’s a surprise, is to sing. We sing. Singing is actually a marker that tells that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit in the first place. 

Read it again in Ephesians. “Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 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.”

If you’re filled with the Spirit, you will sing. I can already hear you, “That’s the big takeaway today. You want me to turn my life into a musical, and then I can get this Spirit of God. I hear you. This week I’ll be Hamilton. That’s what you’re saying, if I do that?” 

Kind of. It’s not just that we sing but what we sing changes everything. 

Oh, it’s not just that we sing, but what we sing about. It’s that we sing the very teachings of Jesus. And singing is a beautiful thing. You all know this. Everyone loves music. You would be hard-pressed to find something that everyone enjoys. Not even everyone likes tacos. Have you met those people? There are people probably amongst us today who don’t like tacos—not a hard taco, a soft taco, a breakfast taco, nothing. No tacos, they don’t like any of them. 

But music, that’s something different. Even if you can’t sing well, you like music. Even if you can’t dance, you like music. Have you ever thought about why that is? Why music connects that way, on a different level than anything else? It’s because God has put it there as a way for us to connect with him. This is his thing. 

We just went through a whole summer in the Psalms. The Psalms are a book of songs we sing. I just want to pull out a few of them. Look at this:  

“Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.” (Psalm 96:1-2, NLT)

“Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises!” (Psalm 47:6, NLT)

In the Bible there are over 400 references to us singing, 50 direct commands for us to sing. God, himself, even joins in on the singing in Zephaniah 3:17, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” 

Jesus, on the eve of his crucifixion. Do you know what he way doing? He was singing.  

“Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Matthew 26:30, NLT)

Before he went to die for me and you, he would sing. 

We worship a God who sings, and he wants us to be like him. Worship gives the Spirit access to our hearts and our lives. That’s why every Sunday when we get together, we sing. Not because it sounds good, because we gather together to take drinks together, to be filled with the Spirit. 

And the lyrics we sing, they are taken straight from the Bible from the teachings of Jesus. And if you remember, the way we kicked off today, we read that Scripture from one of the first songs, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

We pretty much sang this same song today. Instead of Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, we said, “up from the grave, he is with us now.” Two thousand years later on a different side of the planet, we are joining in on an ancient practice, joining in on singing the same songs the world has been singing since Jesus collided with it. And its never been the same. 

And now me and you, we get a chance to come together and we sing. We drink and we sing. Can I ask you? When was the last time you took a drink? Maybe you sat through the first worship set and you were distracted. Something was stopping you from singing, you couldn’t even mouth the words out loud. What is it? What are you under the influence of? 

Alcohol is just one of many things we can place ourselves under. There are all kinds of things—job, family, relationships, there are so many things that are fighting for us. We fight for ourselves. I can do this on my own, on my own strength. And God says: No, live under my influence. Because here is the truth: 

We will naturally reflect what we are influenced by. 

You know when someone is drunk. You can see it on their face, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in the way they speak, how they carry themselves. Because you naturally reflect what you are influenced by. So, church, can we all come together and say, “We are going to be influenced by Jesus. We are going to be influenced by the teachings of Jesus.”

Let me show you what that looks like. 

Filled with the spirit we reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

How do we move through life and have control in emergency situations? It’s when we are filled with the Spirit. That’s when we know we are being influenced by God. What we are about to have now is a moment to worship. And worship, it is more than singing, but it is not less than. 

When we come together and we raise our voices, we raise these cups and we take drinks together. And the words we sing, they come straight from the mouth of Jesus. The song we’re about to go back into, the title of it is It is Finished. These are the words Jesus said as he hung on a cross dying for me and you. He said, “It is finished.” Dying to pay the penalty for our sins. Dying so we could have access to him, so we could have this Helper. 

So, if you would, if I could just ask you, would everyone in the room at all the campuses just stand with us? Stand with us in this moment of worship. This moment for us to come together and to sing, It is Finished. 

I just want to set us up for this moment, to see how powerful these lyrics are, why they are filled with the Spirit. So, take a look at this. Look at these: 

Strongholds bowing to the Savior 

Resurrection power

Strongholds, this is any or everything that has ever influenced me and you. This is any and everything we have ever leaned on that said this is what we need to be alright. It says no: Next to Jesus, all of those things bow down. Next to Jesus, there is no comparison. Next to the resurrection power, all those things bow down in front of him so you can worship. 

This is a moment where you can worship freely, nothing tying you down. 

Mercy won I’m forgiven

Because of Jesus and what he did for me and all of us, we are forgiven. And what’s the response? 

Sing His name. He is worthy of our praise—Jesus.

So, we come together and we’re going to sing. We are going to sing, It is Finished, and we’re going to be filled with the Spirit. And if you’re here today and you want to know for followers of Jesus what it looks like to get our hands to ten and two, here it is. 

This is ten and two. [hands up in the air shoulder width apart] This is the spot we come to where we have the most control. It’s when we come to the end of ourselves, when we say, “God, fills us.” Because when we come to God asking him to fill us, we’re asking to be emptied of everything else, everything else that has influenced us. 

We say, “No, no, no God, we want to reflect you.” We come together and we sing, It is Finished. 

Some of us right now are in an emergency situation. And you feel like you’re white-knuckling that steering wheel, got your hands at ten and two as you thought they should be. You are trying to control, trying to maneuver left and right, but you just keep sailing off the road. You just can’t seem to get control. 

God says: It’s because your hands are in the wrong spot. Bring them up. Bring them to ten and two. [hands lifted to him] This is the spot where we get filled, where our minds are set on the things of above and God send us his Spirit. So, if I could just ask you right now, in a moment of vulnerability, in a moment of wanting to be filled with the Spirit, would you raise your hands? 

If you’re here for the first time and this is new to you, you can raise your hands in this moment. God is a good Father who gives good gifts. His Spirit comes in this moment. And what we are going to do in this moment, we are going to sing. I’m going to pray, and then we are going to sing. 

We’re going to sing, It is Finished, and we sing that with confidence because we know Jesus died for us. And if he died for us, why would he leave us now? No, he’s riding shotgun. He’s with us every step of the way. He is moving us in the right direction. He’s pointing out the pitfalls and the potholes and keeping us moving saying: This is the way you need to go. And our hands are up. 

Pray with me, and then we’re going to sing together. Let’s pray. 

God, we come before you this morning with hands open. God, let this be a symbol that we’re open to your Spirit, that we want you to fill us. God, if there is anything that is influencing any of us, anything that has taken your shine, taken away your light, God we pray that those strongholds would bow in front of your name. 

That, God, as we life our hands, as we worship you, let you fill us, let your Spirit come in here. That you influence us, not just today, but every day, we would never be the same. Let us reflect love. Let us reflect joy. Let us reflect patience. 

God, meet us in our moment of emergency. God, in your Spirit we find control. In your Spirit we find all the things we long for. In your Spirit we sing, “It is finished. It is finished. It is finished.” We love you, Jesus. Amen.