Insight for Living

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: The world isn't looking for the amazing, but rather the authentic. I don't know of one other characteristic that draws people with an interest to the person of Christ more than authenticity. The filling of the spirit creates that kind of authenticity.

Bill Meyer: As followers of Jesus Christ, we strive to do what's right, but we sometimes fail because we haven't drawn upon our God-given source of power. But here's the good news. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will describe four measurable results of a spirit-filled life.

When the spirit fills us, the way we speak to people changes. Second, the way we worship changes. Third, the way we respond to difficulty changes. And fourth, the way we relate to those closest to us changes. Let's resume our message now with a helpful review, picking up in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20.

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: We're to glorify God in our bodies. Lord God, I'm yours. You have gifted me in ways that I wouldn't have ever expected, and I thank you. I'm here to serve you, and may my service be for you, and may it be authentic, and may it bring honor to your name. I reverence your name, oh God.

Now, in order for the gears to be engaged, for the fuel to be used that God supplies, there must be the filling of the spirit. Ephesians chapter five, beginning at verse 15: be careful how you walk. I would say that to every Christian. Part of the reason is you want to glorify God, so that takes care. Pay attention. Listen to his word. Come to him in prayer. Seek his help.

Furthermore, you're being watched. You and I don't think about that much. If we did, it would drive us nuts. It really would. We'd be uneasy if we knew how many people watched us. And furthermore, when you're under his control, verse 16, you make the most of your time because the days are evil. And God knows that's true. We make the most of our time.

And next, we discern the will of God. So then don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now, wait a minute. How can I, how can you walk as you ought to walk? How can you be wise when you tend toward being less than wise? How can we make the most of our time? How can we understand the will of the Lord? Well, we need his empowerment, enablement.

That's what the next verse is all about. Ephesians 5:18. This is the verse for the believer because this tells you how to live an authentic, empowered life. Pay close attention. It begins with a command. There are two commands in the verse. The first command, negative, is don't get drunk with wine. Now, why not? Because that's dissipation. When you're drunk with liquor, when you're drunk with alcohol, then you lose control.

But there's a positive command on the heels of that. Rather than getting drunk with wine, for that's dissipation, second command: be filled with the spirit. So allow me to point out four factors that you may or may not know up until this moment. I want you to know it before you leave today.

Look closely from the last part of verse 18: be filled with the spirit. First, it is a command. It is a command directed to us from the Lord himself. Be filled with the spirit. Second factor: it's a plural. Y'all. Okay? It's for all of y'all.

Look at the third factor: it's passive. It's called the passive voice. Be filled. Be filled. One of the translations renders it well: let the Holy Spirit fill you. So I take it that when we begin our day—this is what I do and have done for years—Lord, I am yours and I place myself at your disposal. I ask you to move through me and to work through me and to do your work because of me. Fill me with your spirit.

Which is the reason for the prayer: Lord, you take over. I have some tough decisions I need to make. May your spirit work through me in making those decisions. I have some relationships that are strained. May your spirit guide me as I try my best by your strength to work through those broken and strained relationships.

Now, fourth: it's in the present tense. So that says keep on doing it. Continually be filled. Frequently, habitually, regularly, continually moving under the power and the authority and the control of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at the results, and there are four of them right here in the same passage.

Wonderful thing about the Bible, if you read it closely enough, you'll see that it answers many of its own questions. Like a question is, what will be the result of being filled with the spirit? What happens when I pray that kind of prayer and Lord hears it and Lord completes it, answers it yes? What does he do? Well, look at the next three verses right here in front of us.

The first thing that occurs is that the spirit's filling affects my speaking. See, speaking to one another. Before we go on to the music part, let's stay with speaking. The spirit's filling affects my speaking. One man put it this way: we are on speaking terms with our brothers and sisters when we are filled with the spirit. We don't jump too quickly into our first impressions. We're speaking with them. There's a dialogue that happens. We enjoy a meaningful discussion. We share in the give and take of life.

In fact, the parallel passage to this is in Colossians, again, chapter three. And I only have you turn to verse 16 because it goes a little further on it. Let the word of Christ dwell richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. When I am filled with the spirit, I am teachable. I'm ready to learn from others, and you are ready to learn from others.

In fact, we're able to teach one another, to communicate information that is valuable and helpful and practical and useful. And the word admonition is the other side. We're able to receive and accept admonition. We're open to confrontation. We're not stubborn or proud or resistant.

When the spirit of God is in control, the speaking to one another includes the give and take of life, and we are grateful for that work of the spirit. We often call it fellowship, but that's another overused word. Fellowship includes the kind of meaningful dialogue that makes a difference in our lives. How much better we are because we have learned from others.

And the filling of the spirit, if you will, lubricates the gears. Makes us willing to hear and willing to accept. Every once in a while, a good friend or my wife or one of my own children will say, "Dad, there's something you need to know. And I haven't told you, but I want you to know this." And they'll bring up something that's been offensive or been difficult for them to deal with in me. And they admonish me. Or my wife will or a friend will, a colleague will do that.

Because I'm filled with the spirit, I'm open to that. When I'm not filled with the spirit, I resist that. I don't want to hear that. And we all know both experiences. And so we speak to one another correctly when we are filled with the spirit.

Look carefully at the next response or result, back to Ephesians 5, verse 19: speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Here's the second result: the spirit's filling gives me a melodious heart. A melodious heart. We use music effectively and frequently in worship, and our worship is enhanced.

Not only by the music, but as the spirit of God fills us, we throw ourselves into it. We sing heartily to the Lord. It's a spirit-filled delight to share in song with one another. And they are divided for us into psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. What a way to express heartfelt worship. Can you imagine worship without music?

There's an old popular song: without a song, the day would never end. Without a song, the road would never bend. When things go wrong, a man ain't got a friend without a song. You know, probably doesn't surprise you to know every once in a while, I just belt out in a song. I have to be careful where I am, and I'm usually alone when I do that, or in my study or with Cynthia, who's gotten used to it.

Sometime, there's nothing like a song to get the worship expressed. At Thanksgiving time, we sing Henry Alford's wonderful words: come ye thankful people, come. Raise the song of harvest home. All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin. Back in a culture of the farm and harvest that comes to us.

I even found an old soldier's song during the Civil War as he paused in the following the bloody battle in 1864, he wrote this: we're tenting tonight on the old campground. Give us a song to cheer our weary hearts, a song of home and friends we love so dear.

I realize that some of you cannot sing, and I know you want to, and I don't mean this in any way the wrong way. But you're free to sing to the Lord. He doesn't come back to you and say, "You're not quite on pitch there," or "Your voice needs help." He doesn't do that. He hears the—see what it says—we make melody with our hearts to the Lord.

You don't have to audition to bring your melodious heart to the Lord. I would urge more of you to become students of the hymns, or the great choruses of worship. Learn them. Sing them. They will make a difference in your day. How valuable is music in our lives?

By the way, a melodious heart is never a grumbling heart. Never a grumbling heart. Which brings us to the third. Look at verse 20: always giving thanks. That's another result. The spirit's filling makes us thankful, thankful people. Don't miss the always and all things. Always giving thanks for all things. Always giving thanks.

Gratitude is an eloquent statement of the spirit's filling. Grumbling is a statement of the flesh in control. I'm not saying you don't have room to disagree. Of course you do. That's part of having discernment. But you don't grumble. Life for you hasn't boiled down to a bunch of gripes and grumbles. You're giving thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father.

And there's another. There's a fourth: and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Mutual submission. Remember the first word. Mutual submission. Not only are you submissive to those in authority over you, those who are filled with the spirit are submissive to you.

There's no rank in the body of Christ. All ground is level at the foot of the cross. There's no gender mentioned here. This is important, especially for us men, who love it when we get to verse 22: wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. That's the way we tend to read it. And we go, "Look at that, honey. Look at that. Right there in the text."

Several years ago, I was flying back from a Promise Keepers conference, and part of the conference had been spent with Jack Hayford, a friend of mine. Jack was sitting up here at this seat and I was sitting back here, and his chair was empty. He said, "Come on up here." So I walked up and sat down by him. What a delightful time. Jack's so much fun to be with.

He told me a terrific story. He said, "Hey, I got a story you can use sometime." So Hayford gets credit for this one. He said there was this couple that went to this two-day conference on marriage. And it so happened this was one of those speakers that just hammered away at the wife being in submission to her husband.

Well, the husband loved it. He was sitting there drinking it in and thinking, "Oh, let's stay late and get everything he has to say." So when they get home, they get out of the car and he slams the door and walks inside the house and closes the door and locks it. She looks at him, he goes, "I want to get something straight with you right now. From now on, that's the way things are going to be here. You got that? You submit to me." He didn't see her for two weeks. The beginning of the third week, he could begin to see her out of one eye.

So guys, be careful. Now, I've had a little fun with you, but I'm going to be real serious when I say I have never seen an exception of harmony in a marriage when both members are healthy, both are wholesome and healthy. Nobody's sick in this. By that, I include emotional sickness. Where there is a godly man and a wife who loves being with him, listening to him, respecting him.

In fact, the closer one walks with Christ, the more many people want to be near you. I've never seen a husband have trouble with a submissive wife if his heart is right, if his tongue is controlled, if his spirit is gentle, if his life is marked by wisdom, compassion, discernment, care, affection, consistency. What wife doesn't want to be around a man like that?

Why would we be like that? Look at the end of verse 21: be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. You know what that means? Out of respect for Christ. You know why I listen when my wife speaks? Because I respect Christ. You know why she listens to me when I say things to her that may be hard for her to hear? Because she respects Christ. When both of you respect Christ, it does an amazing thing to your ability to communicate. The barriers just seem to kind of drop and we're open.

As I see through all the ground we've covered here and call to mind the importance of the subject, a couple of things sort of stand out in my mind. One has to do with the world, the world system, and the other has to do with the church. In the first regarding the world, the world isn't looking for the amazing, but rather the authentic.

The world doesn't expect Christians to walk on water. Most folks in the world don't expect us to be perfect, but they do expect us to be real. I don't know of one other characteristic that draws people with an interest to the person of Christ more than authenticity. That includes teenagers as well as those getting up in years. The age spectrum is broad. Authenticity is always appealing.

The world isn't looking for the amazing, but rather longing to find the authentic. The filling of the spirit creates that kind of authenticity.

The second is this: the church doesn't need monthly miracles. We need daily enablement. We as a church don't have to have miracles regularly. That's not the way God operates. But we do need the enablement, the infilling, the empowering, the dynamic of his presence among us.

We sang earlier a wonderful old chorus: spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, mold me. What? Fill me, use me. It's in that order. Be glorified in the fellowship as I speak to one another, other people in my talk and in my dialogue. Be the reason for my thankfulness. Be the core, the center of my thankfulness.

Deliver me from my circumstances looking to them to make me thankful. Remind me that you are the one that gives me a thankful spirit. Be honored in my submissive attitude. Be magnified as a result of my openness and vulnerability with my brothers and sisters. Be the source of my authentic life. Be the reason that's true. Be the supplier of my daily fuel, Lord.

It's terribly important that every one of us come to terms with the spirit and the flesh. The spirit and the flesh. The spirit leads us faithfully into a life of righteousness, authenticity, genuine godliness. The flesh turns the attention on ourselves. Makes us defensive, argumentative, nitpicking, demanding, hard to live with, hard to deal with.

When I'm under the control of the spirit, it does wonders in my relationship with my family, for example. When I'm under the control of the flesh, it's amazing the destruction that follows, especially verbal destruction.

I'd like all of us to just bow our heads right where we are. Just sit quietly and sit there with your eyes closed. Remember the prayer I offered earlier: Lord, I'm in the process of fulfilling your will. Fill me with your spirit. Fill me with your spirit. I want to glorify your name because I belong to you. I pledge my allegiance to you today.

Enable me in my walk to have the discernment to walk in obedience, not disobedience. Guard my tongue. Guard my eyes, my mind, my decision. I want to be under your control today. If you have never met Jesus Christ in a personal way, that prayer is premature for you.

Your prayer is: Lord, today I acknowledge that you and I aren't even on speaking terms. I've never trusted in your son as savior. Today I want to do that. I invite him to take charge of my life. Believe in him. Trust him.

So Lord, thank you for your presence and thank you for your promise to give us an enablement that comes directly from you. Deliver us, our Father, from looking for the sensational and then being disillusioned when it isn't a reality. Bring us face to face with what you have promised, and that's the power to live the life of Christ in the world like this one.

Now dismiss us with that hope and assurance, and bring those who've never trusted in your son to faith in him, I pray. Do that soon, Lord, I ask. In the name of the savior Jesus Christ. Everyone said, amen.

Bill Meyer: So here's the bottom line: we need to stop chasing the sensational. That's the liberating message at the heart of everything Chuck Swindoll has taught us this week on Insight for Living. God has already provided everything we need to live an authentic, Christ-honoring life. Not through dramatic experiences, but through the daily, faithful filling of his spirit.

If you're ready to fully explore what it means to walk in the spirit, remember that helpful resources are waiting for you at Insight.org. Chuck Swindoll's 12 sermons for this series are available on CD or MP3. Plus, there's a spiral-bound Bible study workbook that's part of our popular Searching the Scriptures studies.

The workbook includes thoughtful questions to guide you, and there's plenty of room to jot down your personal thoughts and reflections. The title of this series is *How Great Is Our God*. You can ask for it when you call us at 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/offer.

Does someone in your life have questions about heaven? Maybe it's a friend wrestling with grief, a family member who lost a child, or someone asking whether a loved one who died could possibly be with the Lord. These are tender, urgent questions, and they deserve thoughtful, biblical answers.

Insight for Living's *Understanding Heaven Passport* was designed with those conversations in mind. Each section explains what Scripture teaches, and it also equips you to speak confidently and compassionately to the people in your circle who may not know the Lord or who simply need the comfort that only God's truth can provide.

Don't let these conversations catch you unprepared. This beautiful resource is available to you right now, absolutely free, when you visit insight.org/heaven. Just download your copy of the *Understanding Heaven Passport* and feel free to share it with friends and family as well. That's insight.org/heaven.

Do you ever feel God quietly nudging you? Chuck Swindoll talks about those unidentified inner promptings Friday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, *What Does Being Filled with the Spirit Mean?* was copyrighted in 2008, 2009, 2016, 2019, and 2026 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.