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[0:00] Romans 8 verse 5 Romans 9 verse 5 But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,

[1:07] He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. I want to talk along the lines of course today as we think of Resurrection Sunday, of God's life reviving Christ again from the dead.

[1:28] The life of Christ as He was risen, the resurrection life, the power of God that was evident there at the tomb as Christ conquered in great power over death and hell and Satan.

[1:45] And the wonderful transformation that God can give to each heart because of Calvary, because of the resurrection today. So it's got a two-fold theme this morning.

[1:57] We're talking about the resurrection, but we're also talking about the Spirit of life. The Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead. The Spirit of God.

[2:09] The Spirit is life. We can have a personal encounter with Almighty God. It tells us here in this text that the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead can come and dwell and live and be alive in you and me by faith.

[2:28] Are we alive under the control of the Holy Spirit? Are we empowered for His service? God's Spirit is running the church.

[2:39] Or should be that God's Spirit is running the church. He's controlling our fellowshipping, our worshipping and our living as individual believers. The Word here tells you to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

[2:54] That's the kind of life that raised Jesus from the dead. That kind of life and peace is yours by faith in Christ today. And we know that the Word tells us that we are to be filled with the Spirit.

[3:10] To be filled with the Spirit. Now, I read an interesting quote and it asks this question. The question is, what are we filling the sponge between our ears with?

[3:23] What are we filling the sponge between our ears with? You've seen those adverts on telly of what that cigarette smoke does to your lungs. And they get that sponge.

[3:34] And they squeeze out all that muck and grossness that smokers have in their lungs. And does that just make you want to? Doesn't that just want to make you do that?

[3:49] Of course it does. And it's, oh, yuck, gross. Don't want to borrow it. Don't want to borrow it. And think of the sponge, as it were, of your brain.

[4:00] That is between your ears. That sponge. What are you filling it with? If God was to wring it out, would there be some gross stuff that would drip out of that sponge that is your brain?

[4:12] What are you filling the sponge with? Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever things are pure.

[4:23] Whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are a good report. If there be any virtue. If there be any praise. Think on these things.

[4:34] Think of your brain today. What is filling it? It's about one and a half kilos. Contains 12 to 14 billion cells. Give or take a few million.

[4:46] Some of you might have 12 billion cells. Some might have 14 billion cells. But what's in those cells? What's in that brain? It's got a great computing power, the brain.

[4:57] It's the control center. And what's most amazing is that our brain, our mind, can think the things of God. It tells you in 1 Corinthians 2, we have the mind of Christ.

[5:09] What's filling your brain? What's filling your mind? Is it sin? Is every thought, is every sin begins first as a thought in your mind. And the Word tells you, control your heart.

[5:22] Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Whatever controls the mind, controls the man. Is the Spirit of life controlling your heart?

[5:33] Is the Spirit of God the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, living in your life, in your heart, in your soul, in your mind? What our mind believes and desires for prompts our affections and our will to follow on.

[5:50] We need to take stock and think. What is it that is driving us, that our thoughts are dwelling on? Satan concentrates his attack on the mind.

[6:01] And life's battles are won or lost in the mind. And we're always soaking up information around us. Our brains are soaking it up like a sponge. Soaking it up.

[6:12] Our hearts are filling. Our minds are filling with that which is around about us. Our sponge, our brain, is soaking up things. And sometimes it's easier to soak it in than to discharge it, as it were.

[6:25] Once you let something into your mind, through the eye gate, through the ear gate, whatever goes in, sometimes it sticks around. And we have to be extremely careful what we put into our minds.

[6:35] Now the Word tells you of the Spirit of life. It tells you be filled with the Spirit. In Ephesians 5 verse 18. Not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.

[6:46] What a contrast. What does this contrast mean between drinking and the Spirit? Being filled with the Spirit. It's about what controls us. What's controlling you. It's about what's influencing and altering your behavior and your decision making.

[7:01] Ephesians 5 verse 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

[7:14] Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. That same Spirit of God that filled that empty tomb can come and fill that emptiness that is your heart.

[7:26] That same Spirit of life that entered that corpse in that sepulcher can fill your dead body and bring the life of God into your life.

[7:39] We think of a filling. A filling. I should make it look real here like putting some water in the jug. A filling.

[7:52] Now, there's a couple of things about filling something. It's hard to fill something that's blocked. It's hard to fill something that's closed.

[8:06] Isn't it? It's also hard to fill something that's full of something else. You know, if I was to put... Make it graphic here. Fill it with something.

[8:19] Something's in that glass. Makes it hard to put much in there, doesn't it? Right? You've got to get rid of what's obstructing. You've got to make it open. And you've got to get it empty.

[8:32] And that's what God wants to do with your life. An open glass. And an empty glass. Emptied of yourself and your sin. Your own ways.

[8:42] So He can fill you. Fill you. And He fills us overflowing, doesn't He? He doesn't stop at that. He fills us full and overflowing. And friends today, the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that filled Christ's corpse in the tomb, can come and regenerate and enliven and activate and empower you for service, for transforming your life.

[9:07] Just like the timid disciples in Acts, they were transformed by the power of God. As Christ gave the Holy Spirit, they became ardent witnesses for Christ.

[9:19] If the same Spirit, if the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, it's possible. It can happen. Paul says, we can have wisdom in the context of Ephesians 5.

[9:33] Wisdom to know how to... The days are evil. We should redeem the time. How we should be an understanding of God's will. How we should have a joyful heart, singing His praise in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

[9:47] How we can have a heart filled with thanksgiving. Giving thanks. And we can have a submission attitude towards one another. Wurst puts it, be constantly controlled by the Spirit.

[9:58] Another way... The command...

[10:14] Be ye filled with the Spirit. God's command, God's will. It's imperative. So in other words, it's for every Christian to be filled all the time.

[10:26] It's in the present tense. It's got the idea of continual action, of thee being filled. Not just a one-time event, but an ongoing. The continually filled is the sense of it.

[10:37] It's in the passive voice. So what that means is we don't fill ourselves. It's passive. We're just like an empty glass.

[10:49] The filling comes from Him. Be ye filled. The sense is that it's not the sense that you fill yourself. He fills you. He does it. You just have to be that receptive vessel for Him to fill.

[11:03] It's passive. Be filled. It's the filling of the Spirit of God. It's the work of God. It's not some conjured up effort and manufactured emotional doing of our own.

[11:15] It's His gift. It's passive voice. And it's the normal way of life for the Christian. And it's a plural command. It's got the sense of let every one of you.

[11:27] It's a command for every Christian. If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell dwell in you. Isn't it great to think as we think of resurrection someday of the empty tomb He's alive.

[11:44] He's risen. The filling of the Spirit can fill your life too. That same life. Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.

[11:55] Drunken and Spirit filled people have one thing in common. They are controlled people. Their lives, their behaviour is affected. It's radically changed by what fills them.

[12:09] If a man is filled with anger then anger controls his life. If a man is filled with greed then greed controls his life. If a man is filled with love then love influences all that he does.

[12:22] If the Holy Spirit fill you He will have the control of your life. Don't you want that? But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken or make alive your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwell in you.

[12:45] You're going to have life. Life with a capital L. Being filled with the Spirit doesn't mean we have more of the Spirit. It means the Spirit has more of us. And we want to have that influence that control that comes from Him that power that's always available that great need that we have to be filled and it's in the present tense.

[13:07] It's continual. As we're free to as the Holy Spirit we allow the Holy Spirit to be free to empower us it's His moment by moment provision and it's a command it's God's plan for your life.

[13:22] Now in the context it says that every Christian has the Spirit. You're not of His if you have not the Spirit. But there is a sense where there's a filling and there's a being filled and there's an ongoing being filled with the Spirit.

[13:38] And sometimes we can get a bit empty. Amen. We can get a little bit like that. Maybe you've just got a little bit left. You know we can get a bit empty we get leaky as Christians and we need to be being filled.

[13:51] We need to ask the Lord to fill us to not be a container with a lid on but to let our hearts be receptive to the Holy Spirit.

[14:02] Of course not we're not talking about goosebumps and emotional experiences per se. We're not talking about some conjured up kind of thing.

[14:18] we're talking about that spiritual life. We're talking about knowing Christ and walking in the Spirit. We're talking about being word led and spirit led. We're talking about that closeness as we draw near to Him He draws near to us.

[14:35] And that openness that receptiveness and that emptiness too that we're not filled with our own self and our own will but we're wanting to be empowered and filled with Him and having that willingness that Lord I'm open let your Spirit fill me now and be being filled the life that Christ had in the tomb as the Spirit touched His body it re-energized those parts of His body that His body was revitalized and we know as believers as churches we pray for revival real revival revival means a coming to life again a Chinese prayer goes like this Oh Lord change the world begin I pray with me He brings revival He brings life resurrection life life from the dead

[15:36] I've seen a body without life I've touched that body that hand it was cold cold and clammy and dead that was what Christ's body was like in the tomb and then resurrection day life life the Spirit of life entered and revitalized and transformed that body back to its living form and likewise too for you as His people He wants you to be alive from the dead we know later we've got a baptism time and what another graphic picture of resurrection of burial and of rising from the dead of life re-coming to that life that life of God coming as God transforms and friends think as we close resurrection it's about life it's about power it's about transformation the Spirit of God that same

[16:52] Spirit the Spirit of God if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you it's possible it can happen and as believers we have that same Spirit dwelling in us living residing permanently dwelling in us but let's be being filled let's be being filled let's let Him touch us and work afresh again that working of His life of His power and of His transformation let us pray Lord we praise you today for the resurrection that Lord you work of His He died Thank you.