3. HOW TO PRODUCE A LIFE OF WORSHIP

Drinking at Joel's Place must become a continuing experience, and our continual drinking will result in continual fullness, and that continual fullness will produce a life of consistent worship. The "how" of this great truth is taught in one of Paul's inspired, vivid contrasts:

Ephesians 5:18-20 "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

There is an emphatic command in the contrasts, "do not" and "be filled". We are not urged to be sober, we are commanded to be sober. Again, we are not urged to "be filled with the Spirit", we are commanded. It is not an optional matter.

Paul specifically denounces drunkenness that comes from drinking alcohol. It is never beneficial to seek satisfaction through the gratification of fleshly, sinful desires. Drunkenness robs the drinker of all self control, and throws the drinker's personality out of adjustment, disarranges the power of the mind and will so that they do not function normally. Many drunkards have sobered up only to face the consequences of their alcoholic condition that has led them into moral and physical disorder. How terrible to sober up, only to be charged with having taken a young life while driving under the influence of liquor.

When ministering as a factory padre, a young woman confessed that the child she was carrying was not her husband's. Some four months earlier, at an office party, she had been persuaded to take her first intoxicating drink. One followed another. She woke up in a strange bed with a man beside her who was not her husband. Her man was away doing his military service. He was due to return home to a pregnant wife, but by another man. How was she to explain? Would he understand? What kind of child would she have that was conceived in drunkenness? "Do you still drink?" I asked her. "No, no, I hate the very smell of that awful drink that has brought me so much misery and shame." I am sorry to say, the consequences of that one drunken night were not over for that distressed young woman. Her husband divorced her, and she was left to provide and care for a sickly child.

This tragic story may be smiled at and passed off as an exception, by those who regard drunken partying as fun. The death toll on our roads, and the many broken homes bear unmistakable and woeful witness to the multitudes of men, women and children who have been robbed of decent homes and some of their very lives, by drunken "joy" riders and debauchery. For behind drunken alcoholism follows destruction, disease and demon possession. Drinking alcohol to excess is forbidden for the Lord's people. They are commanded "do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery..." The Ephesians were exposed to the dangers of drunkenness. It was a vice to which that city was much addicted.

Albert Barnes, in his commentary on this verse, wrote:"It is not improbable that in this verse (Ephesians 5:18 ), there is an allusion to Bacchus, or to the festivals celebrated in honor of that heathen god. He was 'the god of wine', and during those festivals men and women regarded it as an acceptable act of worship to become intoxicated and with wild songs and cries, to run through the streets and fields and vineyards."

It leads to debauchery, lust and dissoluteness. Paul claimed that these things followed the drinking of wine, meaning any intoxicating drink, and in the authority of the Holy Spirit, commanded Christians: "Do not get drunk on wine."

The positive side of the command is "be filled with the Spirit". This is a daring simile, to be filled with wine is to be under the influence. Similarly, to be filled with the Spirit is to be under His control. Its most blessed result is that, filled with the Spirit, our thoughts, feelings, words and actions become involved in corporate worship of the Lord. Worship is a command performance by order of the King. Every believer must begin to drink. The details of this beginning to drink according to John 7:37-39, are given in 'Participation exercises for all the family.'

"If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink ..." Involved in obedience to the command "be filled with the Spirit", is continued drinking. "Be filled" is in the present tense, therefore being filled is a continuous process. Ours is not to be merely a life in which there is worship, rather our very life is to be worship to the Lord; a life always under the control of the Holy Spirit, satisfying the Father's desire to be worshiped "in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24 ). In contrast to those who exhibit the effects of being drunken with wine, we are to display the characteristics of those "filled with the Spirit", offering a life of true worship to God.