This sermon emphasizes the importance of being Spirit-filled, focusing on constant thanksgiving, sharing scripture with others, and maintaining a heart of worship through psalms and hymns. It highlights the need for genuine love and submission in relationships as a reflection of one's relationship with God.

Okay, that's good. I'll give you some more time at the end of the service. It's so funny. It's so funny how different the services are. Like, first service, I couldn't get them to talk, and you guys, it's hard to get you to stop. And that's good, you know, first service, they read the Bible, though, and you don't. So, no, this is so good. I know some of you guys have been reading in Luke, and it's just been such a rich time. Here's what I want us to do. If I could get, like, four or five people who have been reading out of the book of Luke, that have your Bibles, if you could just come up and read, like, a passage of Scripture that's been meaningful to you. So, from the book of Luke. It's not time yet, honey. It's not time yet. Okay, you can sit up here. All right, have fun. Okay, from the book of Luke. That's all right. That's okay. That's my daughter. That's Rachel. You guys know that's my daughter? Yay, Rachel. Okay. She was going to play during the prayer time, and I think I threw her off. Okay, but someone, let's just come up and just read a passage from Luke that had an impact on you this week. Just four or five of you. If there are four or five of you who are reading Luke. Okay, good. There you go. There's four right there. Perfect. Two guys, two girls. Perfect. And you can share something about the passage. You can share something about the passage if you want to, but just keep it short so that I can preach. All right, the verse that really stuck out to me was Luke 14, 26. It says, Yes, and even his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. And I just was thinking about that. The part that stuck out to me was disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God. And how does my life reflect that? Am I caring more about my relationship with God than any other relationship in my life? And I'm willing to serve God no matter what. No matter what that looks like. I'm reading from Luke chapter 18, verse 1. Just a parable of the persistent widow. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray. And I have this underlined. And not give up. Now in my life, the Lord has done wonders in my life. A year ago, I was actually incarcerated. Incarcerated for 70 days for things in my life that, anyway. And I lost everything. And I basically lost everything. I mean everything. My apartment, my job, my car, my girlfriend, everything. I was destitute. The only person who was in my life was the Lord while I was in incarceration. And my faith was never faltered. The great thing, the other thing that was in my life was my son. He was always there for me. And so basically that, I realized that the Lord gave my son. And he was the most important to me. I'm trying not to get teary eyed, which I do usually. But now, a year later, I have a new wife. This is one month anniversary of a new wife. Three beautiful kids added to my family, to my son. So I've got four kids now. And I've got a job. I've got a car. And you know what? It's phenomenal how my life has turned out. And I thank him for everything he's given me. And so that's basically it. So we should always pray and not give up. Because you know what? The Lord will answer. In his own time, he will answer. Okay? Alright, so I'm going to be reading from Luke 6. And it's going to be about how Jesus calls Levi. And it's 29 through 31. And it says, And Levi made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And I think that that should be one of our missions in life. Like that it's hard because people, we should hang around all people. And that's one thing that I'm learning too. And so, alright. As I read through the book of Luke, it seemed to me as though there was this common error between many of the people that were listening to Jesus, whether it was the common people, whether it was his disciples, whether it was the Pharisees. And it clearly spoke to me, saying, They all got it wrong so often. But yet there was a few that were loyal. And because they stuck with it, they finally understood. There's many subjects, obviously, that Jesus teaches on. There's one that stuck out. If you ask a person, Do you want to be blessed? Everybody, I think, will raise their hand. And they'll say, Yes, I want to be blessed. But I think, here's an example in Luke, chapter 11, verse 27. It says, As Jesus was saying these things, I'll wait since you're turning. That is a good sound. So, Luke 11, verse 27. As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. And he replied, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Might I, might we, as believers, especially as believers, do just that and not be deceived. Thank you. I love that. I love just hearing what people are getting from the word of God. I love, seriously, I love just hearing the noise in this room when everyone's just talking about what God's done in their lives. See, that's really a better picture of what church was supposed to be, that everyone brings something to the table and everyone comes sharing what they've learned from God and being able to share their gift to encourage someone next to them. I just wanna encourage you, as you show up each week, as you're dropping the kids off at the Sunday school area or whatever, as you run into each other, think about ministering to each other. Because, I mean, even when you hear other people read a passage of scripture and just share a few thoughts, doesn't it do something to you? Like, that's really cool. That's really cool to hear all about that. And don't underestimate what God may wanna do through you each weekend when you show up. Something I wanted to do, again, corporately, is I want us to have a time of prayer. I've just really sensed like a spiritual battle, like what Steve was talking about last week, like a spiritual warfare. I don't know if you felt it this week, but it's just been kinda nuts. Even first service. First service was crazy. You know, we got here and, I don't know, nothing was just really working right. Jim tried to read a passage and couldn't even read. And the baptismal wasn't working, so they said, hey, there's gonna be no baptisms on the first service because we can't get water somehow. The water's not happening. It was just strange, you know. It was kinda dead and people were coming an hour late. And... But even just coming here, though, I just said, no, we gotta pray. We've gotta pray. And we just, we spent some time praying because sometimes, and this is largely my fault, you know, the Bible talks about how we're supposed to pray without ceasing and how this house should be a house of prayer. And sometimes, sometimes I preach unceasingly. You know, like I just talk and talk and talk and prayer can become an afterthought. And you know what's so cool is, you know, we just spent five, 10 minutes praying together as a body all just collectively asking God in heaven to do something and then I got done, you know, everyone got done praying and then we hear this water trickling in and it was baptismal. Like all the water started filling up and it was just obvious, you know, God, there's people that need to get baptized today. And sure enough, a couple people came up and got, it was just a cool celebration and just even a, just in a small way, seeing God's hand move and work. And so I think about how God would just love to see us united as one group of people to speak to him. Because there's something about us getting together when there's a group of us and we're all singing something in common and all praying something in common. It's not just about hearing a message because you can get a CD or listen to it on the podcast. But there's something special about God's people getting together to encourage each other and to pray for one another, to sneeze, you know, just to hang out and just be the body together. So what, right now, would you just bow your heads right now? Let's just clear our minds of everything else. Just forget all of your problems right now. Just think about God in heaven. Picture him sitting on his throne and the angels are just screaming his glory right now. He's our creator. Just start thanking him for everything you can think of in your life right now. Just pour out thanksgiving to him. Spend some time confessing some of your sins, recognizing that as you confess them, he forgives you. But just confess to him what he already knows. Now just start praying for the people in this room. They're your brothers, your sisters. Some of them you know, some you don't know. You can pray for them by name. But right now, just pray that we would fall more in love with God. Like seriously ask him to help us fall more in love with him. Pray for the people in this room. Pray for our church that we would love each other the way God wants us to. Just pray that God would create a love in us for one another. Pray for the people in this room right now who don't believe in Jesus. Pray that God would reveal himself to them. Whatever it takes. That they would just fall in love with God and have peace with him today. Now just pray that the Holy Spirit would fill us. It would fill you. It would fill everyone in this room. And that we could just visibly even just see the change in our lives because the Spirit being so evident in us. Father, we ask your power just to fall upon us. As we just heard from Luke, Lord, we don't want to just hear your words. Not do anything about it. Deceive ourselves. God, blessed are those of us who hear the word of God and obey it. God, help us to believe that. That we really will be blessed for hearing your word and then doing something about it, God. Please don't let us just hear another message without it just totally changing our lives, God. Change us. Make us more like you. Bless us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks. Thanks, baby. Thanks, Rach. I sent an email out on Monday telling you that I was going to kind of walk us through Luke. I should never announce on Monday what I'm going to teach on Sunday because it never ends up being the same thing. God's really gotten in my mind with a certain passage of Scripture that I'm going to teach instead of Luke today. It's in Ephesians chapter 5. I got hit with this Monday afternoon. It wasn't that I was reading it. It was just, you know how every once in a while a Scripture pops into your mind? That's what happened to me on Monday. It stuck with me all week long. I kept looking at it. I kept praying about it. I really believe it's what God was saying to me. It's such a beautiful passage. I think it stuck out to me because I realized, I'm not doing real well on this passage, but I want to. I want this. I got to have this. I'm going to just believe that it's going to be true for a lot of us in this room today. It's Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. It's a passage on being filled with the Spirit. It says this. It says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. He says in this passage, he goes, I don't want you to be drunk with wine because that's going to lead to debauchery. That is debauchery. It just leads you to doing all of these things because you're under the influence of this alcohol. He goes, Instead, I want you to be filled with the Spirit because when you're filled with the Spirit, what ends up happening is you start speaking to other people with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. There's a melody going on in your heart where you're constantly singing to God. You're giving thanks all through the day for everything. Everything you sing, you just thank God for. And it says, and then your relationships, you submit to one another out of this reverence for Christ. And as I was looking at this passage, I'm going, gosh, that's not me right now. I'm not speaking to other people with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. I'm not thanking God all day long. And yet I wanted that, and I wanted that idea of being Spirit-filled. And as I was praying about it, I just really believe this is what God wants us to talk about today. Because this idea of being a thankful person and thanking God all day long, thanksgiving is like the first thing to go when life gets difficult. You know, immediately you want to focus on your problems, right? And you want to fix it. And I've been talking to so many people who are really just going through hard times right now, and they're consumed with it. You just see it on their face. And when you ask them, hey, when's the last time you just had an awesome time of thanksgiving? They can't even tell you. It's been so long because we've been dealing with issues. And it's interesting because in this passage, right before he says this, he talks about how we have to make the most of our time. Make the most of our time because the days are evil. See, I like that phrase. I like that phrase of making the most or the best use of your time because the days are evil. See, he says, make the best use of your time, then right after that, he says, and be filled with the Spirit. And you'll speak to one in the Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, you'll give thanks. And that's weird to me. It's hard to get that. It takes tremendous faith to believe this passage because to me, making the best use of my time means I'm constantly working. And I'm constantly trying to accomplish something. I don't know if your personality is anything like mine, but I look at my life, just like that passage says, it says the days are evil. And it's this idea of the days are coming towards you. It's like an adversary. It's coming at you. And you gotta make the best use of it. You can't stop time. But you ever get to the end of the day and go, where did today go? I can't believe it's time for dinner already. I can't believe it's time to put the kids to bed. I can't believe, and it's just like, what happened? You know how a week, you just go, man, I'm gonna read through Luke this week. You guys understand. And it's like, that's the end of the week. I never even got to it. I didn't even get a chapter done. Where did the week go? Some of you guys are looking at the year and going, can you believe, can you believe it's 2010? Some of you are looking in the mirror. Just go, man, how did I get this old this quickly? Like, you look at your life, and remember how you used to look at people that are your age now and you just thought, man, that's so old. And now that's you or even beyond that. And you're just going, man, what have I done with my life? What have I accomplished? And so this verse is a big deal to me because I do pretty well with that. I think, okay, man, I wanna make the best use of my life. I don't wanna come to the end and go, what did I do with it? Did I just waste it? And it says the days are evil and there's just so much hardship that we go through that some people just wanna escape. And that's where the alcohol comes in. That's where some of us have really got caught up with just being on something to just even escape reality and just have a good time for a moment and escape our problems. And the Bible says, yeah, the days are evil, but don't get drunk with wine. That's not the answer. The answer is being filled with the Spirit. But the thing that I struggle with is making the best use of your time. In my mind, because of my personality, I think to make the most of my time means I try to do as many things as I can at once. And let me accomplish a bunch of things. So sometimes when we're on the phone, you're talking to me, I'm emailing at the same time. I'm just trying to get, sorry, I'm not paying attention to you, but I'm just trying to do as much as I can. And that type of mentality, in some ways, it can go against being Spirit-filled because I'll think to myself, I don't have time to thank God all day long. What is that gonna accomplish? I don't really have time to sing a song and have this melody in my heart all day long. I got things to do. And I gotta accomplish some things for God. And it's very easy in my mind to go, gosh, Lord, seriously? Like go around speaking to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Like I gotta get together with other believers and figure out how we're gonna accomplish this mission. I gotta get together with believers and fix the things that are wrong in their lives. I gotta talk about this issue, this issue, this issue, but to just address someone with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and just talk about the praises of God. And then all day long to be thanking God for everything I can think about throughout the day, just thanking Him in Christ Jesus. And then spending the day having this ongoing melody in my heart. My personality struggles with that. Because I go, how do you get anything done then? The Bible says, I want you to be spirit-filled people. I want it to be so real. You know, it's like getting drunk where you can't hide it. You spend 30 minutes with, or 30 seconds with someone who's drunk and you just know. And in the same way, people should run into us and see the spirit so alive in our lives that we can't hide it. How many, actually this service, how many of you have not gotten drunk ever? Oh, good. Good, wow. The first service, they're all drinkers but they read the Bible. You guys, okay. You guys don't read the Bible, but you don't drink either. So that's cool. Okay, no. There's just more here. It's still two-thirds of you have gotten drunk. And I have only a couple of times and I'm not proud of that. And it was even after I knew better and I knew what was right. And I still remember one time coming home to my roommates and trying to hide it. Yeah, you're laughing because you really can't. My only hope was to not let them see me and just try to walk straight to my room and just get right in the bed and just pretend I'm asleep so that no one talks to me because you can't hide that. And it's just, you talk different. Your actions, it affects every bit of you. And what the Bible says is Jesus, I want you to be filled with the spirit. I want you to be that type of person. I mean, can you imagine if Christians, if people who called themselves Christians in America were actually spirit-filled and every time you interacted with someone like that you'd go, wow, he's on something. Or she's got this joy like I don't see in anyone else because there's this constant song going on in your heart. And as I was reading this passage, it just so hit me. I go, God, I want that. Because don't you know people like that? I know people like that. And don't you love being around people like that? It's just, they give you life every time you talk to them. It's just, they can be going through the hardest, it's not that their lives are easy. I mean, you see them go through the hardship and they're still full of joy, they're still full of life and you're going, man, how do you do that? Well, it's this passage right here. This is how you do it. It's about this ongoing, constantly being filled with the Spirit. It's a choice, it's a decision. Now, it's an interesting passage because it's hard to, if you look at the original language, it's hard to understand what comes first. You know, is it that if I keep thanking God all day and I keep singing to Him all day and I keep interacting with other believers and bringing up psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs and I submit to others and I love on them, if I do that, does that make me a Spirit-filled person? Or is it that if I'm a Spirit-filled person, then the natural outcome of my life is going to be these things? It really doesn't say absolutely. Basically, it says, here's the command, here's what happens to a Spirit-filled person. A Spirit-filled person will be a person who's quoting Scripture and sharing Scripture with other people. A Spirit-filled person is going to have that melody going on in their heart, but which comes first, it's up for grabs. You know, the point is, that's what I ought to be. And so I pray, and this week I've been praying for you. I go, God, can we have a Spirit-filled church? Can you just have more of our people just addressing each other with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? Can you put that melody in their heart to where all day long, they're just constantly singing to you? I've been praying that for you. I've been praying that you would have a heart of thanksgiving, even as life's been pretty crazy for some of us lately. It's like, could you just be thanking God all day long so that when the other people in Simi Valley come in contact with you, they see something different. They see a life about you. That heart of thanksgiving. Making a melody in your heart. Do you do that? Do you sing and make melody to the Lord in your heart? You ever get a song stuck in your head and you can't get it out? Sometimes it's the dumbest thing, right? From a commercial or just some song that you just don't even like but unfortunately has a catchy tune and you just, oh, I can't get this thing out of my head. I remember when I was in high school and in youth group, they would talk against secular music and they would say, yeah, don't listen to this. It's from the devil. You're singing these words, these lyrics and there's some truth to that, absolutely but I really think the saddest part of getting so consumed with music that has nothing to do with God is that's the melody that's going on in your heart all the time. That's a song that's going on in your heart all the time. God's a spirit-filled person has a different melody going on. It's a song of worship. It's a song of praise. You know those times when you get a praise song stuck in your head and just all day long wherever you are, you're just singing. You're just naturally just coming out to the Lord. There's certain songs that it just seems like just come to my mind at different times of worship and I just keep it going. See, there's something about singing that's, it's deeper than just talking to God. It's almost like you've got so much in there, so much of this thanksgiving to give to God and so much love you want to show Him. Not just with your mind, but with your heart, your soul, everything in you. You just want to express it and there's this ability that we have with singing where we can get that out and God says, I want that going on in your mind all day long. Imagine if you thanked God from the moment you woke up till you went to bed. Can you imagine how great your life would be? Or how great it would be to live with you? If that was your mindset, you wake up and, you know, first thing in the morning, whenever the alarm goes off, it's like, God, thank you for another day. But usually that's not what we think when our alarm goes off. Right? It's like, oh. Rather than like thanking God another opportunity because, like the Bible says, we only got a short time here on earth and then it's too late and so you go, God, I got another day to worship you with. I got another day to actually make the most of every opportunity. Thank you for another day. Just everything. You know, I don't know what you do next. You know, you walk in and go brush your teeth. It's like, oh God, thank you. I get to brush my teeth. You know, people in Arkansas that don't have teeth. You know, it's just, it's really great. This is good. You know, the running water, everything. But just going and saying, God, there's so much to be thankful for. Man, this morning, I just got in the office and I just said, I just want to see how long I can go just thinking about things to thank God for. You know, as far as my salvation and spiritual things. And it was just so good. I don't know when the last time was that you just sat down and tried to thank God as long as you could. I realized, wow, I'm not good at this. I'm a problem solver. I focus on issues. And yet, the spirit-filled person is someone who thanks God all the day. And has a melody going on all day. And when he comes in contact with other believers, he did what we were doing earlier. Sharing scripture with one another. And sharing psalms. The psalms, do you understand what the psalms were? Psalms were, they were poetry. They were thought through praises of God. It was, you know, someone thought through, you know, whether it was a lament or going through a difficult time or just writing a song. A lot of them were meant to be sung. It was just as poetic. Here's what I think about God. And sharing those praises with other people. And so often, when we get together, we talk about nonsense, right? I mean, when's the last time you shared a passage of scripture with someone else? That's why this month we're saying, you know, let's get in the Bible together. You know, like last month, we started doing with 1 John and more of you were doing because it was shorter. And, you know, but it was just, let's run into each other and say, hey, this is what I got from 1 John. Let's run into each other this month and go, hey, this is what I got out of the book of Luke. You know, and to share scriptures with one another. The things that lifted our hearts, the things that encouraged us because, man, even between services. After last service, I heard some things that were going on with some of the families here in the church and my heart just got grieved again. Like, there's a lot of crazy things going on right now. And just to be uplifted by other people rather than just on Sunday morning by one person standing up here was collectively us running into each other and sharing our psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And then it says, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. It talks about our relationships and that's where he goes off on talking about husbands and wives and how husbands should really take care of their wives and serve their wives like Christ served the church and loved the church. And then it talks about the relationships between parents and their children and the way the parents ought to treat the kids and the way the kids ought to honor the parents. And then it talks about the slaves and masters and it's like those who are in authority, the kindness that they should use and the care they should have toward those who are under them and those who are under, to have this reverence and respect for those who were their employers or their friends or their leaders. And it's very important because a lot of times what we do is I'll hear people say, oh no, I am so in love with Jesus right now. I can't stand my wife. She's driving me crazy but I love Jesus. And the Bible says that's impossible. Can you remember in 1 John when he says, how can you love God whom you can't see when you hate your brother who you can? That doesn't make any sense. God's always connected our relationship with Him with our relationships with one another. He wants to see love in this room. He wants, you know, it's just like if you have two children and they're fighting with each other and they can't stand each other and say, oh but I love you dad. You just go, well if you love me then get along with your sister because that's what I'd love to see. And it's the same thing. It's the same thing here with God. He says, you love me? You love me? Then love each other. After Jesus washed the disciples' feet, He says, now do that to each other. And Jesus says, hey, whatever you do for the least of these, you're doing it for me. See His love was a lot more tangible. He didn't just say, you know, if you love me, just sing the song to me. He goes, no, I want that melody going on all day long but your relationships are very important too. That's a part of being spirit filled. That's a part of your worship. And I didn't wanna, I didn't wanna spend a lot of time talking today. I mean, you guys get the point. And I think most of you, I can see it in your faces. You know, you know, you know this stuff. It's just hard to stay focused on Thanksgiving. And so here's what we're gonna do. First, let me just say this. I'm gonna lead us in a time of prayer and thanksgiving and Jim's gonna lead us in some worship. But there may be some of you in this room that you don't have a relationship with God. Maybe you come here today and you just don't have this peace that I'm talking about. You don't have this confidence I have right now where I think if I die today, I know where I'm going. And it's nothing I even fear. I mean, sometimes I don't even long for it. Like God, I just, I'm tired of this earth. I can't wait to get out of here. I can't wait to just be with you forever. But I know there's things for me to do down here. And so, let me make the most use of every day but I cannot wait to be with you because I know I'm forgiven and I know I'm gonna spend eternity with him. Even when I confess my sins to God, there's a sense of joy. As I'm sick to my stomach of what I did, there's this joy of, I know I'm forgiven because I believe that Jesus died on that cross for me. And I know that he's put his spirit in me because when I do this, I can't stand my sin and I see myself putting it to death and I see these changes in my life. Oh God, that's who I want to be. I want to live for you. But maybe you've never gotten to that point. Maybe the baptismal started working for you today. I know every time I teach, I try to give an opportunity, even if it's just a 30 second explanation of what Jesus did on that cross for you so that you could have him come into your life. And maybe you've heard this so many times, but I want you to know that I was praying specifically for that this week. I was praying for, we were praying for that. For those of you in this room that are just visiting and just checking things out. But some of you have been checking things out for a long time and I just, oh God, could this be the Sunday? Could this be the week where it just finally clicks in your mind? And you realize nothing else is working. And you've tried to change on your own, but you just feel powerless. So what we're talking about here today, about being filled with the Spirit of God, is not wishful thinking or good thoughts or think happy thoughts and you'll be a more powerful person. No, it's about God himself literally coming into your body. Becoming a part of you. To where suddenly there's a power about you and you realize, you know what, there isn't anything on this earth I can't do. There's no sin in my life that's too great. So we were singing that song, our God is stronger. Our God's higher than any other. A lot of us, we sang that with conviction because we've seen it in our lives. Like we once were powerless. We once just felt so hopeless and God literally came into our lives and it's been different. It's really different. It's not just some mind game. No, we've experienced him. And if that hasn't happened in your life, but you hear this message and you do in your heart say, no, I do believe he died on that cross for me. I do believe he rose from the grave and I want that power in my life. Then I ask you to come and pray with someone during this time of worship, during this time of prayer. Just spend some time praying with someone and maybe today's the day you get baptized and you know, I'm just done with everything else and I want to follow him now. And I want him to just enter into me and the Holy Spirit just fall upon me and change me. And if that's you, I really encourage you to pray with someone today. There'll be some pastors and some leaders here, but right now, as this gym just kind of plays softly, I just want you to, just again, we've just read about being spirit-filled and the characteristic of a spirit-filled person is you just keep thanking God non-stop. So I just want you to bow your heads and just spend some time thanking him again.