Acts 2:1-4 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
My wife is a little bit of a fanatic about keeping our cars full of gas…… all the time. She starts to sweat if the tank gauge gets to halfway.
I am the exact opposite. I am passionate about making sure I use all the old gas first, before putting in new gas.
My wife’s philosophy is that you never know when you will have an emergency.
I like to poke fun at her for that, but we all know that if you have an emergency and you only have a few miles left in your tank, it will make a stressful situation even more stressful.
Nobody wants a problem on top of a problem.
But you and I both know, when we go through life on empty, a perfect storm is brewing!
It is not just one thing that goes wrong, but it seems like one thing after another thing, after another, after something else, and on it goes!
Sometimes our reaction is to run and fill up with the wrong fuel.
Have you ever put the wrong fuel in a tank? That happened to me once with a weedwhacker. Somehow regular gas got poured into the tank instead of 2-cycle fuel. I ran to the store to try to undo the problems putting in the wrong fuel had caused.
In life, we fill ourselves up with things that only numb us for a moment and takes the edge off so we can get through the day.
Because if you put regular gas in a 2-cycle weedwhacker, it will run for a very short time. Quickly though, it will break and quit working all together.
That’s like what happens when we put the wrong fuel in our tank of life. If we want to truly be filled, we have to stop numbing ourselves with the things in this world and be filled with God.
Psalm 23:1-5 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
Strong’s Concordance says that the term used here for “runneth over” means to be completely saturated.
Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
Ephesians 3:17-20 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
In other words, the fullness of God should saturate us!
When we are filled with the fullness of God, we produce His Fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 NLT “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
When we are filled with the fullness of the world, we produce the enemy’s fruit
Galatians 5:19-20 NLT “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”
The question today is simply this – where are you filling up?
Are you putting the wrong type of gas in your car? Are you putting the appropriate fuel in your life? The wrong gas might work for a short season, but you will eventually find yourself empty AGAIN!
Be filled with God! Be filled with His Spirit. Let His goodness overflow in your life.