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Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…”

Think

I drove a Rolls Royce Ghost onto the stage at Fellowship Church. That is not a sentence I ever expected to say, but there it was, parked right in the middle of the platform under the lights. I sat in the driver’s seat for a minute before the service started, just taking it in. The color was unbelievable. The leather smelled like money. The dashboard looked like it had been designed for someone who had never been told no. Everything about that car whispered excellence. Engineering, craftsmanship, beauty. It was, without question, the most impressive vehicle I had ever sat in.

But here is what I kept thinking about long after that weekend. A Rolls Royce Ghost, with its handcrafted V12 engine and its quarter-million-dollar price tag, without fuel in the tank, is just a really expensive piece of furniture. You can admire it. You can sit in it. You can take pictures with it. But it is not going anywhere. Not one inch. Because the most beautiful car in the world is useless if the tank is empty.

The same is true of you and me.

God designed us with extraordinary precision. We talked about that last week. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are a Rolls Royce. But design without fuel is decoration. And too many of us are living decorated lives that are not actually going anywhere. We look good on the outside. The paint is fresh, the interior is clean, and people walk by and think, “That person has it together.” But under the hood, the tank is bone dry.

Paul understood this tension. He wrote to the church in Ephesus, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” Notice the contrast. Paul is not just giving a prohibition. He is offering a substitution. Do not be filled with that. Be filled with this. Two kinds of fuel. Two kinds of influence. One leads to recklessness. The other leads to purpose.

The word “filled” is important here. In the original text, it is not a one-time event. It carries the idea of being continually filled, like a gas tank that needs to be topped off regularly. You do not fill up once and drive forever. You fill up, drive, and fill up again. The Christian life works the same way. The Holy Spirit is a daily fuel source. And when you try to run on yesterday’s fuel, you will sputter out before lunch.

Think about what happens when someone puts the wrong fuel in a car. Diesel in a gasoline engine. The car sputters, stalls, and eventually the engine locks up. It is expensive to fix, and sometimes the damage is permanent. We do the same thing spiritually. We try to run on ambition, approval, pleasure, control, success, busyness. And for a while, the engine turns over. It feels like it is working. But eventually, the wrong fuel will destroy the engine God built.

I see it all the time. Someone fills their tank with career success. They climb and climb and climb, and one day they get to the top and realize the view is not what the brochure promised. Someone fills their tank with a relationship. They pour every ounce of energy into another person and wonder why they feel empty when that person cannot carry the weight. Someone fills their tank with social media, refreshing the likes, measuring their worth by what strangers think of a photograph. Those are all diesel in a gasoline engine. They were never designed to power what God built.

Here is the deal. Being filled with the Spirit is not some mystical, otherworldly experience reserved for super-Christians. It is practical. It is daily. It means waking up and saying, “God, I cannot run today on my own power. Fill me. Direct me. Lead me.” It means choosing God’s influence over the world’s influence in the small decisions, not just the big ones. What you watch. How you speak to your spouse. How you respond when someone cuts you off in traffic. Whether you reach for your phone first thing in the morning or reach for his Word.

I have been in ministry for over thirty years, and I can tell you this: the people who thrive are not the most talented, the most educated, or the most connected. They are the ones who stay filled. They go back to the pump every single day. They do not try to coast on last Sunday’s sermon or last year’s retreat. They fill up today because they know today’s road requires today’s fuel.

That Rolls Royce Ghost I sat in was a masterpiece. But without fuel, it was a museum piece. God did not design you to sit in a showroom. He designed you to drive. And the fuel he provides, his Spirit, is the only thing powerful enough to take you where he wants you to go.

Apply

Fill up first – Before you check your phone, your email, or your schedule tomorrow morning, spend five minutes asking God to fill your tank for the day ahead. Read one passage of Scripture and let his Spirit set the tone before the world does.

Pray

Father, I confess that I have been trying to run on the wrong fuel. I have filled my life with things that look like they work but leave me sputtering and stalled. Fill me with your Spirit today. Not once, but continually. I want to run on your power, not mine. Show me what it looks like to stay connected to you in the small moments, not just the big ones. In Jesus’ name. Amen.