“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  Ephesians 5:18–20

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34–36

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1–2 

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” 2 Timothy 2:3–5

Paul and Jesus share the same conviction… I believe that Paul is not merely warning against drunkenness in Ephesians, but in retrospect of Christ’s earlier words Paul is also warning against the cares of this life and their weighing down, or burdening our hearts in such a way that the Lord’s return find us unready because rather than having feet strapped with the readiness of the Gospel that makes peace with God and wanting to share it, we become weighed down and heavy hearted–our feet our fit with the readiness of the cares of this world, we are ensnared by its cares. Country music lyrics are on the tips of our tongues, gossip of icons in culture, putting others down in order to exalt ourselves, and an uncanny commentary on todays trending entertainment. Our hearts are the driving force behind all we do. They provide the motive, energy, and will to do anything. They either work to serve the desires of our flesh, or serve the desires of the Holy Spirit. Jesus and Paul both say, “lay these things aside… So that you can run” as opposed to stumbling, and that to a point of destruction. Isaiah lays out the ideal in painting a picture of the pace of those who serve the Spirit saying, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Is 40:31 And this is exactly what happened when the disciples of Jesus waited upon the Lord in Jerusalem during Pentecost. And did they not indeed run after this filling? They ran ferociously and with a pace unmatched by many of us! All because of the Spirit of God. 

So Paul says rather than be weighed down by this life, its cares, and drunkenness, we must be filled up in an ongoing manner. Constantly immersed in the power and presence of the Spirit of God who is given to those who obey Christ. 

Then, having laid aside every weight and sin and distraction, and FILLED with the desires of God [and time to serve Him as we ought] —we can truly run with endurance the race in front of us. 

Cares and ongoing worldly entertainment are both replaced by singing and making melody to the Lord with our hearts and giving thanks. Addressing one another and having a readiness to gossip, mock or slander is replaced with speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. 

Amen! Yes, God! What a miracle and testimony in a world full of people delighting and immersing themselves in their own cravings, satisfying the flesh and entertaining themselves late into the night, it is so wonderfully and so beautifully, and so eternally contrasted with YOUR people who are called by YOUR name, who night and day, early in the morning and late into the evening satisfy their souls with YOU.

The more we are filled with the Spirit of God, the less of a need/drive we have to entertain ourselves and fill our time with things that if weighed on God’s scale of importance would mean nothing and like chaff burn before us on judgement day, our soul if possible passing through the flames (I Cor. 3:15). 

Like Paul we must aim to join him at the last in saying, “I have FOUGHT the good fight, I have FINISHED the race, I have KEPT the faith. HENCEFORTH there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:7–8 

Lord, let me live today for that day when you, the only Righteous judge will award to me a crown of imperishable righteousness! There are many civilians chasing all very “normal” things around me, but me? I remember the one who enlisted me. And He has rules, rules for my life. Yes, He is all I want. He is all I need! Like David, my heart cries “Lord, one thing I ask and that I seek… That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing upon your beauty and inquiring and conversing with you in your temple (emphasis mine).” Psalm 27:4

The instructions above, are some of the very reasons my wife and I do not even have a TV in our home. It resides in the garage and if we ever do want to watch a movie we may bring it in for the evening. But even then, I feel the voice of God in my heart each time reminding me, “Isn’t there something more important you could be doing?” I think it is easy to forget that the God of eternity past, present, and future lives inside of us and so when we consider Him asking us to let go of such weights in our lives, it sounds outlandish when it is totally normal for Him to ask such consecration from/of us.

I used to listen to more country music than I do now. It now feels more defiling to me than it used to which can only be God. Now it is rare that I ever turn it on choosing instead worship or instrumental music. 

All forms of Video games; music that gives a pedestal to immorality, drunkenness, jealousy [“I want that, I need this”], and covetousness; circles of friends that gather and share a meal or coffee over the drama / sin of others defiling themselves and carrying the name of the Lord as a professing believer in vain; weekends spent entertaining ourselves “because its the least we deserve after a long work week” at bars, broadway, defiling shows, movies where unmarried characters commit fornication and we entertain ourselves with it, or fast forward it in order to justify our watching the “rest of it”; and meals with the kind of company that corrupts the precious morals of Christ— all these and others are “weights and sins” that easily entangle. All these things are the happy pleasures that Satan, the prince in the city of destruction fights every day to exalt, celebrate, normalize, and justify for the saints on their way to the celestial city knowing full well all these things and more will keep that happy saint from ever entering in. 

But can you see the day in your minds eye where Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the righteous judge is standing before you? Can you picture the crown in his hand? What a day!

Can you believe that it’s possible to have an ongoing melody in your heart, a symphony of ongoing joy that is so powerful, causing wave after wave of contentment and joy in the Holy Spirit that you would find more joy in living every moment for God than you would caring for and stroking the desires and needs of the flesh? May the flesh be cut off today with a conviction of the Holy Spirit so deep and so wide, that cutting through every layer of self-righteousness and all that we have normalized up until now washes us clean and gives us an insatiable love and hunger for the only righteous judge! O’ that we would have one master again vs the many we have normalized. O’ that we would have the melody promised whose octave and chords would drown out the competing sounds of this world!

It’s possible. Come Holy Spirit, come Lord Jesus Christ! Feed me with the food which is needful for me! Fill me with your Holy Spirit! Consume me from the inside out! We lay all we have craved for and satisfied ourselves with aside. We want to always be “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your [our] heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (emphasis mine).”

In Jesus name, Amen.