"Living Under The Influence" Rev. Dr. F. Bruce Williams

0:01 I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make a boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. Good morning, Alfred Street. It is good to be in the house of the Lord one more time. If you're glad to be in the house of the Lord, I dare you to give God praise. for just another day's journey hallelujah praise the name of our god amen amen i'm glad to be here today we honor god today i'm not confused about why i got up this morning it had nothing to do with my behavior yesterday it had everything to do with the goodness of god and so i'm grateful to be here today. God has been good to me. If he doesn't do another thing, he's done enough to make me praise him throughout the ceaseless ages. So I'm glad to be at Alpha Street. I'm always glad to be at Alpha Street. I don't know how many times I've been here. I never get tired of coming. I appreciate your pastor asking me to come back over and over again. I shared with the previous services. I'm not sure whether he asked me to come back because I'm doing a good job or he's just trying to give me a chance to get it right, but he keeps on inviting me to come. Do me a favor, would you give God praise for your pastor and my friend, Dr. Howard John Weston? Amen. What an extraordinary preacher, pastor, and leader and mind. I know you know you have a jewel of a preacher. Many of our members, he's their second pastor.

1:50 I'm the one who they look at in person. He's the one that they look at online. So, amen. But I happen to be in the same PhD program he's in. I'm in the second cohort. He's in the first cohort. In fact, I got to go to class tomorrow. After I leave here to go home, I got to go to class. It will be our first classes. And I have a sneaking suspicion he knew that. and he got me feeling some kind of way that he got me preaching. No, I'm just kidding. I'm glad to be here at Alpha Street and glad to be in the same program as your pastor. Listen, a lot of members here and a lot of leaders who are carrying the load and making sure things are running smooth and people are faithful while the pastor's gone. So I know there's a lot of people responsible for that.

2:44 But would you do me a favor and thank God for Dr. Judy Finchris Williams for her leadership as well. Amen. Amen. Amen. I am certain that your pastor is at ease while he's away because of her and people like her who are at Alpha Street. And this choir, y'all, I know we've got time constraints, but y'all got to let me say I have enjoyed being in the presence of this choir. The angels have got to be jealous because they sang to the glory of the Lord came down. I don't know your director's name. I don't even know your name, but it was worth the trip watching you direct the choir. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. You make me feel like I could sing the way you was directing that choir.

3:37 I could tell she was bringing out the best in them, so it was just good to be here. I'm going to tell on y'all when I see your pastor again that you all have rolled out the red carpet of hospitality. Been so nice, and I really appreciate it. And the worship experience has been wonderful. I love coming in atmospheres like this to preach. I've been at churches that were so cold you could see your words freeze in the air and fall to the ground right in front of you.

4:08 But y'all love the word and make preaching easy. And that's because y'all have got a preacher here for a pastor who sets the atmosphere. Well, I know you didn't come for preliminary remarks. You want to know, is there a word from the Lord? and so is anybody in here who wants to hear a word today I believe I can share a word with you do me a favor join hands with your neighbor next to you let's go to God in prayer father there are not enough words in the human lexicon to thank you enough for the goodness you have shown us for sending your angels to guard us all night and all day and then kissing us to wake us this morning to see a day that we have never seen before. Now, God, as we prepare for the preaching moment, we confess today that we can do nothing until you come. Bless your people. Make follow the ground of the souls of your people, that the seed of truth might find depth, that relationship might be established between some soul and the Savior.

5:11 then Lord help me your preacher breathe on my words and make them thine rescue me from me fill me and empty me at your will love me and do whatever you want with me you can be reckless without my permission hide me behind Calvary's cross make my preaching so thin in human wisdom that only the shadow of the cross can be seen beneath. Take your glory, but Master, please give us the blessings, we pray. We ask it all in the name of the preexistent, incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and soon coming King's name we pray. All the people of God said together, Amen. I dare you to put your hands together one more time for God. Hallelujah. If you would, turn in your Bible or tap in your Bible app to the book of Ephesians, and I want to lift up and line up for our considerations. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18.

6:18 Ephesians, the book of Ephesians chapter 5 in the New Testament record, verse 18. If it's your custom to stand, you may stand this morning out of reverence for the Word of God. Ephesians chapter 5. if you found it say amen Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 reads like this do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the spirit amen you may be seated in the presence of the Lord do not get drunk on wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit in your prayers, I want to talk to you from this theme, Living Under the Influence. Living Under the Influence. Look at your neighbor and tell him, I'm living under the influence.

7:16 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was pretty good. Look at your other neighbor. Tell him the same thing. Tell him, I'm living under the influence. Even though you don't know yet what I'm going to say, go and give God praise for the message ahead of time. living under the influence and I would that you would flank me with your prayers the words of our texts are penned by the famed apostle Paul and I believe I can say without fear of contradiction that Paul is among the brightest stars in God's galaxy of human greatness from the moment of his cataclysmic convergent experience on the Damascus road where he was going to apprehend Christians and got apprehended by Christ. He had a burning zeal and passionate desire to share the gospel with the wider world. Because Paul had this magnificent obsession with the divine compulsion, he ended up having many ports of call stamped on his gospel passport.

8:14 For in three missionary journeys, Paul literally honeycombed all of Asia Minor to share the gospel about a risen Savior who's alive, loose, and available. Paul was so passionate about it that he would go over land and sea just to tell one comfort about the goodness and the love and the mercy of God. Paul was a man who had passion, and don't ever underestimate the need for and the power of passion when you're pursuing the purposes of God. Paul had passion. Passion gave him the capacity to push past all the problems and perplexities that plagued him in his pursuit of carrying out the purpose of God. Passion gives you the capacity to take a lick and keep on ticking. When you got passionate about what God is calling you to do, you don't let when people are rolling their eyes at you keep you from coming to church. When you've got passion, you don't wave the white flag of surrender at the first sign of challenges and tests.

9:18 Paul had passion that helped him push past the things he had to face in pursuit of God's purpose. And if anybody had problems and tests and trials, Paul did. Paul says it in his own letters. He says, I was beaten. I was shipwrecked a night and a day in the sea. He was stoned at Berea and left for dead. He was deserted at critical times by his best so-called friends. He was stabbed in the back by people he trusted. He had his apostolic leadership called into question. The things he taught was twisted by his enemies and used for their own personal gain. Paul even had a thorn in the flesh and prayed to God not once, not twice, but three times. And God said, no, no, no. but he said my grace is sufficient for you if anybody had a reason to quit and give up it was Paul almost at every turn Paul had a problem or some problematic people that Paul had to deal with but because Paul had passion in the face of the problems listening what Paul writes Paul said I have learned in whatsoever state I am I've learned to be content I know how to be full I know how to be empty I know how to be rich I know how to be poor I know how to have good friends I know how to have no friends at all I know how to have a lot of money and not lose my mind and I know how to have no money and not lose my faith I know how to hold on because I got a lot of friends and stay faithful when everybody turns their back on me I can do all things anything everything through Christ who strengthens me Paul Paul was not about to let anybody turn him around. Paul says, I ain't perfect, but I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I'm not backing down because I know in whom I believe, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've entrusted to him that day. It was not easy. In fact, it was impossible to turn Paul around. He had been through too much. He had seen

11:26 too much, and he had experienced a personal experience with Jesus Christ. So, Paul was a man who had passion, but Paul was not only a man of passion, Paul was also a man of keen intellect. Apparently, he was the recipient of a grade A education. Paul not only had the best of education, but he also bragged about being able to sit at the feet of the famed Rabbi Gamaliel. Not only had a Hebrew education, but he was also educated in the ways of the dominant culture, in the ways of the Greeks. And so Paul was an intelligent man. And let me just pause and parenthetically and point out the fact that I'm glad somebody like Paul was a man of intelligence because it means that you don't have to leave your head in the vestibule in order to have worship. That it's all right to shout, but at least you ought to know what you're shouting about. And so Paul was a man who had passion and he had intellect and I'm glad that Paul was educated and had intellect because his intellect in the scriptures and in the culture served him well as an evangelist.

12:32 Because whenever Paul went somewhere, he would first go to the Jews and use the Old Testament to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. But he said, even though I'm a Jew, I have been called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. But when Paul went to witness to the Gentiles, he could not reference the scriptures to witness because they did not have the scriptures. And so Paul had to find a place of meeting so that he could use it to touch them and bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's like when Paul was at Athens. You remember Paul had escaped to Athens and he was there in Athens waiting for his ministerial colleagues to come so that they could do ministry in Athens. But Paul looked in Athens and the Bible says he was disturbed by what he saw. He saw a people who were wholly given to idolatry.

13:27 And so Paul decided he just couldn't wait on his ministerial friends. And so he rolled up his sleeves and decided he would take Athens all by himself. And when he went to the Agora or the marketplace, he started preaching. And when they heard what he was preaching, they said, you need to speak to the people who are responsible for the spiritual well-being of the people. So he went to the Acropolis, stood out on the Areopagus, stood on the stone of imprudence and addressed the Athenian intelligentsia, telling them about a God whom they ignorantly worship. He said, you know, I've been through your town and I've seen all these altars everywhere. And he said, and I came upon an altar with the words inscribed to the unknown God. That's the God I want to talk to you about. And when he started preaching, he did not reference Old Testament scriptures, but he quoted one of their Greek poets. He said, it is in him that we live, in him that we move, in him that we have our being. And he was talking about God.

14:23 And even though he was not quoting the scriptures, he was telling the truth, even though it came from Greek literature, because truth anyway is for Christians everywhere. And what I'm trying to argue is that Paul was a man of passion and Paul was a man of intellect. And when his head and his heart held hands, it made for a combustible combination of evangelistic efficiency. Paul went throughout everywhere, sharing the gospel everywhere he went. And what I love about Paul is Paul ended up, because of his intellect and passion, writing most of the New Testament. And this book of Ephesians is simply more fruit from the tree of Paul's theological genius. And what a marvelous missive it is. I love this book, Ephesians, not only because of what's in it, but because where Paul wrote it. When Paul wrote it, he was not writing it while reclined in a plush, palacious palace, nor did he write this while he was sitting at some prestigious professorial desk and scorned in the hallowed halls of some prestigious institution.

15:27 But Paul wrote this from the vantage point of a jail cell. But what I like about Paul is Paul had this capacity to see the bright side in every situation. Paul, even though incarcerated, did not sit in jail with his thumb in his mouth, having a perpetual personal pity party, feeling sorry for himself. Paul understood that it is possible to bloom where you're planted. Paul decided he would make the best of a bad mess. Paul said, I don't like where I am, but instead of me serving time, I'm going to let time serve me. And so Paul, instead of being preoccupied with his own pain, had a mind lifted above himself and decided he would write to encourage other people. Let me put a comma here. I ain't going to stop. Just want to pause to point out that one of the ways you can get over your own situation is quit being so preoccupied with your own situation and try to help somebody else. Paul wrote. He wrote to the Ephesians to encourage the Ephesians while he was incarcerated. And when he wrote this letter, it's a letter that teaches with both substance and by its structure.

16:37 Just the way the book is put together is a teaching too. Because if you look at the book of Ephesians, roughly half of Ephesians, the first half is doctrine and the second half is duty. Paul tells us what we are to believe in the first half and then tells us how we are to behave in light of what we believe in the second half this is what you learn here this is how you live based on what you learn this is orthodoxy Paul says over here is orthopraxy Paul says first of all that this is what you are supposed to learn he gives some mighty doctrines there in chapter one He says, we have been redeemed. Let the church say redeemed. He said, we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And then he messes around in chapter 2. And he says, you've not only been redeemed, he says, but you have been resurrected. Let the church say resurrected.

17:33 He said, you've been raised in Christ from the dead, which means that before you met Christ, you weren't just lost, you were dead. But he said, because of Christ, you have been raised to new life. Not only does he talk about being resurrected, but in the next chapter, in the same chapter, chapter 2, he says we have been reconciled. Let the church say reconciled. He said you Gentiles were far off with no hope and no way back to God. He said, but you have been brought close. I don't know why somebody ain't shouting in here right now. He said you were far away. You couldn't even get to God, but the God you couldn't get to came to you. He said you have been brought close. Y'all don't even know what the gospel is about. It's about a people who couldn't get to God, but God is so good that God came stepping through 42 generations to come see about you and to see about me. So Paul says that we have been redeemed, that we have been resurrected, and we have been reconciled.

18:35 And he says now, in light of that second half of the book, he says, walk worthy, chapter 4, of the vocation wherewith you have been called. Same chapter, he says later on in chapter 4, he says, make you know that you ought to pull off the old you and put on the new you. Then in chapter 5, beginning with verse 1, he says, be imitators of Christ. Then around verse 8, he says, you were darkness, now you're light. Notice that he did not simply say you were in darkness, but now you are in the light. He's not talking about environment. He's talking about identity. He said you were darkness, but now you are light and then by the time he gets to chapter 6 He says in light of what you know in God He said this how to fight the good fight of faith put on the whole armor of God That you might be able to stand put on the girdle of truth the breastplate of righteousness Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace have the helmet of salvation the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God that cuts coming and going and he says after having done all when the dust settles he says stand look at your neighbor and tell him stand that that's what Paul does Paul takes the ethereal and revisit to what's real makes it practical he takes what is conceptual and he concretizes it by saying this is all right to know what you believe but you don't learn what you should believe so that you can impress people with what you know you know it so that you can live it the old folks say if you got good religion y'all ain't helping me you ought to show some sign in fact martin luther king says one of the problems of the church in his day was that they suffered from a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds and i i've got issues these days with the white evangelical church my issue is that you say you know the bible and you're steeped in what you call the doctrine but I can't tell by the way you treat

20:43 people who are not like you I said it I meant it I'm here to represent it Paul says it's one thing to believe but it's another thing to behave in a way Jesus said why do you call me Lord but you don't do what I tell you to do. And so it's instructive even in the structure. But my brothers and sisters, what shouts me is that God tells us what we are to believe, and then he calls us to a way that we are to behave. But you can't do God's work without God's help. You can't live a godly life without help from heaven. What I love about God is God never calls you to live a certain way without giving you what you need to live. And the key to living out what you know is chapter 5, verse 18.

21:40 It's the hinges on which the door of opportunity swings. The door of obedience swings on chapter 5, verse 18. Here's the key to living out the life you are called to live. Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. I can tell by your faith. I need to break that down like a fraction, don't I? When I said, Paul says, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. That is the key to having what you need to live life God has called you to live. And this is what I love about Paul. Paul has this incredibly ingenious way of being able to look at negative circumstances and find positive things. because Paul finds a positive principle by looking in their negative past. When Paul had them read the letter to the Ephesians, they heard, be not drunk with wine.

22:38 And when they heard it, some of them had flashbacks. Like some of y'all are having right now. You can look all sanctimonious if you want to, but when I said, be not drunk with wine, some of y'all know what it's like. Quit being so holy to be drunk with wine Paul knew how to reach into what's negative and makes I'll prove that Paul had this propensity to reach into something negative and pull something positive Go back to chapter 6 when we talk about putting on the whole armor of God I wonder where he got that idea from Can I tell you where he got it from? Paul spent a lot of time in jail And he spent a lot of time chained to Roman soldiers But because Paul refused to feel sorry for himself God breathed on his mind while he was looking at a Roman soldier and see Paul realized that when you look at something the way God wants you to look at it that he wasn't chained to a Roman soldier the Roman soldier was chained to him which means that he had a captive audience help me preach Holy Ghost can you imagine the conversation that must have gone on between Paul and the soldier Paul must have been there writing or studying or reading and he looked at the man said so what's your name my name is Paul you have a family you have any kids how long have you been a Roman soldier do you like the job that you have how long is your shift and before you know it in the course in the interchange and exchange conversation Paul had to say do you know who Jesus is and whether that soldier wanted to hear it or not he had to stay there and listen to Paul for his whole shift talk about the goodness of God but that ain't even the point I want to make the point I want to make is he's looking at his enemy but God breathes on his mind and he shows him by looking at his enemy that he could take something from his enemy and use it to teach something positive to his friends he looked at the armor on the soldier and said we could use

24:48 those as symbols of what we need to live a victorious life Paul is just doing that again when he looked at the past of the people he said the key to your victorious living is found in the past that you've been living in he says you used to get drunk he said but the key to your living now is don't get drunk with wine don't be scared of the holy ghost he said but be filled with the holy ghost don't be drunk with spirits with a little s but be drunk with the spirit with a big S. Unless you think I'm pushing the metaphor too far, you need to come with me into the book of Acts.

25:47 You remember once Jesus caught a cloud and worked his wondrous way back to heaven. He left 120 people in the upper room and said, stay there for the promise. And they were praying and waiting. And the Bible says the Holy Ghost fell on them like cloven tongues of fire. and they started praising God in unknown tongues. And watch this, the Bible says they were in church praising God, but they took their praise from the seats to the streets, from the inside to the outside, from private praise to public praise. And when they went outside praising God, people who had come from the four winds saw them praising God and heard the praises of God in other tongues. Some were confused and others said, these people are drunk. and Peter stopped praising and started preaching. He said, no, these people are not drunk as you suppose. Y'all a tough cry.

26:40 Paul said, I'm not saying they ain't drunk. They just not drunk as you suppose. They not drunk with what you think they're drunk with because it's too early in the morning and the liquor store ain't open. This is what the prophet Joel spoke about. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, sons and daughters shall prophesy young men shall see visions old men shall dream dreams and when paul says be not drunk with wine but be filled with the holy spirit that's exactly what paul is talking about paul says the key to victorious living is learning how to live under the influence

27:20 you got to learn how to live inebriated i'm almost finished with my little sermon because I got time constraints. You got to learn how to live a little tipsy. You got to learn how to live drunk. Don't be offended because watch the parallels because you can tell when somebody's drunk with wine. Can't you tell? You don't even have to know them and you can tell whether they're under the influence. Because when you are under the influence, it gets in your talk. you don't talk like you used to talk in fact when you are inebriated you will say things drunk that you wouldn't say sober i wish i could get some help at alfred street when you are under the influence you can tell because it gets in your walk you don't walk like you used to walk you can tell when somebody's inebriated in fact when you are inebriated it affects how you treat the people around you oh my god and paul is saying remember how you were when you were drunk in the world he said god just wants you to be drunk in the kingdom but God wants you to give you the high without the hangover the day after.

28:54 He said if you are drunk in the spirit, he says you can, it'll get in the way you talk. You'll talk to people about Jesus that you usually wouldn't talk about and you'll say things to people that you wouldn't say when you were not under the influence. You'll say, I love you. You'll say you're forgiving. You'll be patient. In fact, it'll get in your walk. you don't go where you used to go you come on help me preach you don't do what you used to do you can tell when somebody is drunk when somebody's under the influence look at your neighbor and tell them learn how to live drunk yeah yeah now if you would pick this apart I'm almost finished you when you pick this apart you got to see in the original language what it means what Paul is saying when Paul says you be drunk, the you is plural. The implication is Paul is saying that this experience of living under the influence of the Holy Spirit is not an experience reserved for some super group of Christians.

29:58 It's supposed to be the normal lifestyle. Not only is it for everybody, but Paul says that it's not something you do, the Greek says, is something you allow. It's in the passing tense. You can't manufacture being filled with the Spirit. Ham and organs don't fill you with the Spirit.

30:24 You have to, by faith, receive what you know God promised and just ask God to fill you with his precious Holy Spirit. And this experience is not a once and for all experience. It's an experience you should have over and over again because the Greek says, keep on being filled. And the reason why you got to keep on being filled is because you leak. and you know that you need to keep on being filled because when you are not filled you can tell that you are not filled y'all looking all holy have you ever had to go to work and deal with a foolish boss you left the house and prayed lord fill me on the way to work but by the time you got to work and had to deal with them you were saying to God listen you gonna have to keep on feeling me because I can feel the old me trying to come back to me and I'm starting to remember words that I thought I'd forgotten y'all not saying that have you ever been talking to your boss and praying to the Lord at the same time Somebody say be filled.

31:57 Ooh, but I'm so glad. God, I got to quit. I got to sit down. But I'm so glad that God has not left me in this world to fend for myself. Because, see, just because you saved don't mean you don't have to deal with trials and tests and haters and hardship and hell. and high water but i'm so glad that god has equipped me with what i need in order to have victory you see when i'm filled with the spirit it's not god giving me more of the spirit because i got all the spirit i needed when i was saved the issue is not whether you have more of the spirit the issue is does the spirit have more of you because some of us are trying to live letting God influence some areas of our lives and not giving God access to our whole house.

32:55 Can I get a witness? But God doesn't just want the front porch. He wants the vestibule. He doesn't just want the vestibule. He wants the living room. He doesn't just want the top floor. He wants the basement, not just the basement, but the bedroom, not just God wants everything in your life. And I dare you, I'm trying to take my seat, but my soul is getting happy. I dare you to give your whole life, every area of your life, and put it under the influence of the Holy Ghost. You know what will happen if you put your life under the influence? You'll end up talking crazy to people. You'll bless them that curse you. You'll do good to them that hate you. You'll pray for them that despitefully use you. whenever you are under the influence, you won't let hardship and hell keep you from serving God.

33:51 You may have a frown on your heart, but you'll have a smile on your foot. Because when you are filled with the Spirit of God, it reminds you that there is available to you joy that the world didn't give and joy that the world can't take away. And when the world is falling apart around you, that Holy Ghost will kick in and you'll have peace that just don't make no sense. The Bible says it's peace that surpasses all understanding. Is there anybody in here mature enough to admit that you can't do it by yourself, but you need some holy help and you need some divine assistance? people get on your nerves but when they get on your last nerve the Holy Ghost can kick in and you can forgive people who do you wrong you can love people who are very unlovable when you are filled with the Holy Ghost not only will you shout in church but you'll serve after the benediction when you are filled with the Holy Ghost you can have cuts and bruises and still have a smile on your face because you are filled with the Holy Ghost.

35:08 Is there anybody in here who knows that there's something that happens when you're filled with the Holy Ghost? Grandmama says, it'll put clapping in your hands. I'm trying to quit, but my soul is getting happy. It'll put running in your feet. It'll make you sing, and ain't nobody playing music. It'll make you cry when nothing's wrong with you. Thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. You know why we can have the Holy Spirit? It's because one day, one bright day, one glorious day, Jesus, my elder brother, your Savior and Lord, carried your cross and mine up the Via Dolorosa to die on behalf of your sins and mine. He carried the cross as far as he could.

36:03 Did he stumble and fail and a black man named Simon of Serene helped him carry the cross Inspiring the song must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free No There's a cross for everyone and there's a cross for me the Consecrated cross out there till death shall set me free and then go home my crown to wear for there's a crown for me they riveted his feet they nailed his hands they hung him high they stretched him wide he hung his head for me he died but that's not how the story ends three days later he rose again you ask me how I know he lives I can feel him In my hands I can feel him in my feet up. I can feel him all over me

37:10 I feel I Feel a little drunk now. I feel a little hot. I feel a little tipsy When you leave here, remember to live under the infirm.