DO YOU EVER FEEL EMPTY
ESH-31
141109AM
Short Clips
DO YOU EVER FEEL EMPTY
What you would think if you can upon a huge group of bicyclists along a country road, and they were all walking their bikes? One simple thought should be: Why are they doing that? Walking bikes along a country road would not be using the bikes for what they were designed to be. Bicycles are designed to glide along as they are mounted, not to be pushed.
If those bicyclists were pushing their bikes because they all had flats tires, they just need to get their flats fixed. Looking at each bike we could see the tire repair kit attached to their bicycle, but unused. Continuing to walk and push a flat tire is not the best plan, the best plan is to pull over, repair the tire, and get on the way.
That sight of pushing a bike that has a fixable flat would be a perfect illustration of what goes on so often in the Church Christ purchased. Believers were:
 
DESIGNED TO OPERATE BEST WHEN FILLED
Now apply that to life in Christ. Simply stated, our life in Christ is to live out what God designed us to be. Life is most of all about who we are because of Christ, and that determines what we do.
Since God uses the term “filled”, in Ephesians 5, as we turn there, we will start to think of that truth illustrated in life.
Ephesians 5:18 (NKJV) And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
Filled is the normal state of life we are to pursue as believers. It is not for only a few, it is for all. It is not for only super-saints, rather for every saint, every believer, and each of us today.
Now, let me share how I explain this to a believer when we sit down in a Bible study. This lesson is so vital because many believers are stymied by this term, what it means, what it looks like, and so on.
Spirit-filled living is like riding a bicycle:
We either get our tires filled or they are empty; and
We either keep our tires repaired and filled or they go empty; and
We either go through life riding as God designed us to do, on full tires or we trudge through life pushing what God designed for us to ride, and live with “flat-tired, spiritually-emptied” lives.
Each of those contrasts reflects a series of choices. If our spiritual life were compared to the tires of a bicycle we ride, then the three “states” of bicycle riding would closely parallel the three pillars of our spirit-filled lives described by Paul.
 
PILLAR-1: GOD DESIGNED US TO OPERATE FULL OF HIS SPIRIT

 


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