 When I eat salads, I cannot use a fork. I have to use a spoon. Why am I telling you this and what purpose does it serve, biblically, to know this? As many of you know, I had spent some time in prison. As a matter of fact, 13 years in prison. Prison can be pretty violent, and so oftentimes they want to minimize the opportunity for you to use or have access to anything that can be used as a weapon. Because of that, they'll give us utensils, eating utensils, one, never metal. We don't have metal utensils in prison. They're always plastic. There are some plastic forks and they're plastic spoons. Oftentimes the forks are gone missing. And what will happen is we'll go to commissary to buy extra utensils to make sure that we can at least have utensils when we go to the chow hall, because sometimes, believe it or not, they don't have enough utensils for you to eat. Imagine going to eat and you don't have utensils. That's prison sometimes. Well, because I got used to keeping my spoon with me, just like every other inmate, you may want to stir your coffee or you may want to eat your food or what have you. You keep your spoon with you in many cases unless you're going outside to work out. But I'd gotten in the habit, especially because we didn't always have forks, I'd gotten in the habit of eating everything with a spoon. Well, that didn't seem like a big deal. As a matter of fact, even when it first started off there in prison, it was a bit frustrating to eat with a spoon only. I'm used to eating with a fork on certain things and spoons on certain things. But now I'm in the habit of eating with the spoon almost exclusively. Now, when I get home and I'm giving food, spaghetti, salad, those sort of things that you would typically eat with a fork, not meat. It feels strange. It feels foreign. As a matter of fact, I'm more comfortable with the spoon. There can be lingering effects. No matter what it is you've been delivered from, no matter what it is you've come out of, there can be lingering effects from where you've been. Things that may be a good thing, but there's also a lot of times bad lingering effects, things that you just need to shake. Well, the Bible recognizes as well. You have spent the majority of your life, most of us, especially if you're coming to Christ for the first time, you spent all or the majority of your life in some sort of sin and there's gonna be some lingering effects. There's gonna be some residue. As a matter of fact, all of us have spent the majority of our life in some sort of sin. And so how do we get past that? Because in my case with the spoon and the salad, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a weird thing, but not a bad thing. But what about the effect, the residue, the lingering aspects that come as a result of having sin? Well, what do you do? Well, it's not as though the Bible doesn't understand it. It's not as though the God doesn't get that. And so what does Paul tell us to do? He says in Ephesians 5, 18, he says something that might seem eyed at first glance. He says, do not be drunk with wine. That's dissipation, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he did not, he's not kind of comparing the two. He's not saying, instead of being drunk with wine, instead be drunk on the Holy Spirit. He's not saying that. We're not to be drunk off of anything. As a matter of fact, one of the results of having the Holy Spirit, the carposs, which is the Greek word for fruit, meaning results, one of the fruits or results of having the Holy Spirit in you is self-control. So he's not telling you to be drunk with the Holy Spirit. What he's telling you, it's a contrast instead of being drunk off of wine, instead be full or filled up with the Holy Spirit. In other words, having control. And in order for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that means you have to submit to the Holy Spirit. That means you have to relinquish your own thoughts. You've got to make sure that you are in a place to receive from him. How do you do that? Well, primarily one by praying and by reading. The more you hear of him, the more you think of him, the more you communicate with him. And even also something else, the more you communicate with people who are like-minded, the fellowship with other saints who can also strengthen you. And in that regard, you are allowing yourself, you are submitting yourself, you are yielding yourself to be filled and let the Holy Spirit kind of move in you because your mind is now focused on him. Now, if I wanted to, I can go back and kind of train myself to eating salad with a fork and eating spaghetti with a fork and not making people look at me like I'm a weirdo. I could do that. But I've kind of grown accustomed to and comfortable with my spoon. But you don't want to grow comfortable with your sin. And so what you'd rather do is instead grow comfortable with the Holy Spirit. And so in that regard, spend more time with him. Spend more time in his words. Spend more time in prayers. Spend more time in study and in more fellowship. And watch how you become more accustomed to the good things of the Spirit, controlled by the Spirit, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit versus these lingering effects. And so in that regard, you will not have to worry about anything from the past interfering with your future destiny in Christ. Amen.