Turn in your Bibles, if you haven't already, to Ephesians chapter five. This morning, Ephesians chapter five. As you know, we're working on verses 18 to 21. And in those verses, Paul is teaching us all about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, a very, very critical and important subject for every believer in Jesus Christ. Let me read that text for you again this morning. We'll be there for, I don't know, maybe a couple more weeks before we're finished with it. But let me read that text for you again. As an introduction to our study today, let's go to focus on verse 19 We have kind of a fun subject actually a little bit lighter subject that we have to deal with today But nonetheless a very important one in verse 19. Here's what it says beginning in verse 18 Paul says and do not get drunk with wine. We're very familiar with this part of it for that is dissipation and but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Let's bow in prayer for a minute here and ask the Spirit of God be our teacher and our guide today. Father, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for this new opportunity we have now today to open it. Look at another verse of scripture that was breathed out of your mouth. And Father, as we teach and think about this very subject of being filled with the spirit, Father, we know that we need to be. Pray that you would fill me with your spirit, Lord. so that the words I speak will be profitable in the lives of these people, usable to you for eternity. And I pray that you would fill all of these people with your spirit, Lord, as the word goes out and that it would then lodge father in those corners of their hearts where you have intended it to lodge, where it will bear precious fruit in their lives for your glory and for eternity. And so father, we commit our study to you and our time together in your word now praying these things in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, three main points by way of outline in this text. We've already studied through the first two of them. I'll give you just a quick review. The beginning of verse 18, we have the contrast. You know all about that. Paul begins his teaching on this subject of being filled with the Spirit by striking a very helpful contrasting comparison through the negative analogy of drunkenness. How it works is like this. We've talked about it many times. To be drunk with wine is to be under the control or under the influence of that substance. And so Paul begins his teaching here by saying, listen, folks, don't do that. Do not be drunk on wine. Don't get drunk on wine. That is dissipation. That is something bad. That is something negative. That is something sinful, but do be under the control. or the influence of the Holy Spirit of God who lives within you. And as I said last week, really that analogy is so perfect here. It was breathed out of the mouth of God, penned by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is so perfect here. That analogy, in a nutshell, is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. If you keep that in your mind, you will not go wrong in understanding what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God. Now, as you know also before we went on, to that command to talk about it in more detail. We did spend a couple of weeks discussing what the Bible says about the Christian and the use of wine. And so that's where we are at the beginning of verse 18. Last week then we spent our entire time zeroing in on the command itself, the main command of this text. at the end of verse 18, literally reads like this. It's a command to be continually being filled with the Holy Spirit of God, who is already right there living within you. And you remember that distinction, of course, the dwelling and the filling are different. He is there. He lives within you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. But as you yield to him, then he will control you as you live the Christian life. To finish our study last time, I gave you four words that I hope were helpful. for you and understanding how to be filled with the Spirit. We talked about obedience, we talked about submission, we talked about permeation, and we talked about consistency. Hopefully those things were helpful. I'm not going to take the time to review them. They're all recorded there for you in last week's message if you missed that. This morning now, we're ready to move on. We're ready to begin looking at the results. We have the contrast or the negative analogy we have the command and now we have in the rest of this text the results of being filled with the Spirit going from verse 19, 20, and 21 all the way down through verse 21. Here's the question now. that we have to answer this morning. The question is this, what is this filling of the Spirit going to produce in me? What is it going to produce in me? How will this filling of the Spirit manifest itself in my life? We're going to get three answers from Paul on that in the rest of this text. In verse 19, let me just give them to you now. In verse 19, the verse we're going to look at today, Paul cites singing as the first direct result of being filled with the Spirit. That's kind of interesting. Singing is the first result of being filled with the Spirit. Secondly, in verse 20, that's the verse, by the way, that we jumped ahead to on the day before Thanksgiving, if you recall. In that verse, he cites giving thanks. as a direct result of being filled with the Spirit. And so when we get to that one by the way, we're going to skip over it rather quickly because we did the full exposition of that at Thanksgiving time. And then in verse 21, The final result listed here of being filled with the spirit will be mutual submission. And so here's what happens as we put it all together. When the spirit of God fills you or controls you, he will first of all put a song in your heart, a song that will be in your heart and will evidently, obviously at some point work its way out to your lips. Number two, he will permeate your life with an attitude of thanksgiving. You will be thankful to him for everything. and he will make you, number three, submissive to all the other people around you. And of course there's lots and lots that we have to talk about when we get to that subject. But that's the basic outline for verses 19 to 21. But before we just jump right into verse 19 today, can I take an extra couple minutes to say a couple of more introductory things that I really think need to be said about this three verse section as a whole. We're talking about results of the Holy Spirit, of being filled with the Spirit, and I just mentioned the three things that are there. The first thing that I need to say, the introductory thing that I think I need to say about this section all together is this. The results of being filled with the Spirit, please understand that this list in verses 19-21 is not intended to reduce the results of being filled with the Spirit all the way down to just three simple things. I think it's important for me to say that. These three things are just rather general categories that Paul is using here to summarize and collect all the many other results of being filled with the Spirit that could be on this list. He's collecting here some things that we've already seen in the previous chapters of this book and some other things that we will yet see from here on through the end of chapter 6. All of that, and it's important for you to understand that, all of that depends on and is a result of this one critically important thing. You cannot understand all the truth about who you are in chapters 1 to 3 of this book apart from being filled with a spirit and you cannot walk the worthy Christian walk in any of its dimensions that we've been learning about ever since the beginning of chapter 4. apart from being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Just think about some of these things. Walking in humility, preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, exercising your spiritual gifts, being different and distinct, walking in love, walking in light, and walking in wisdom. All of those things are things that depend upon and are all direct results of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. We move forward from there in this book. We're going to see even more results of being filled with the Spirit as when we get done here, Paul's going to define some relationships for us. He's going to define the relationships between Spirit-filled husbands and wives, the relationships between children and parents, slaves and masters, and then guess what? When we get to the end of chapter six, beginning actually in verse 10 of chapter six, Paul is going to show us what happens to those believers who are living every day under the Spirit's control. What happens to those believers? They become a threat, right? And thus a target for the enemy. And so to close out chapter six, I've told you many times, I can't wait to get there. To close out chapter six, Paul is going to teach us all about our spiritual armor, and the resources that we have as believers to enable us to do what? As it says there, stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We don't order demons around, but what do we do? We've been given this armor and these resources in order to what? Stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And so we'll talk about all of that in the days ahead, Lord willing. if he doesn't come for us before then, but we will get there otherwise. And so once again, as we approach this text, please don't think that Paul is, and here's my point, please don't think that Paul is taking something as grand as this and reducing it down, the results of this down to just three simple things. It's not that at all. Everything we're called upon to be and do in this entire book is a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. And we could even expand that out if we wanted to and include the whole New Testament in that, not just the book. of Ephesians and that having been said now, it is kind of interesting, let me point this out to you, it is kind of interesting to realize how well these three things do that, how well they collect and summarize and sort of wrap their arms around all of those other things. That I think is really Paul's intent here as he mentions these three things that sort of just wonderfully take in the scope of all of our relationships. Think about that with me just for a minute. The three things that we mentioned here, the spirit-filled singing that we're going to talk about today is kind of a personal thing, isn't it? Yes, it does worship God and it does edify others, as we're going to see today. But in a more basic sense, the singing that we're going to talk about today has to do with you. It has to do with what's going on with you. When you're filled with the spirit, folks, Everything is spiritually right with you, and what's the evidence of that going to be? It's going to be a song in your heart. The next summary result of being filled with the Spirit Paul mentions has to do with your relationship to God. When you're filled with the Spirit, you will be always what? Giving thanks. for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the father, that one has to do with your relationship with him. And then finally, in verse 21, there's that mutual submission that comes as a result of being filled with a spirit that would take in the scope of what all of your relationships with others, with the people around you, when you're filled with a spirit, here's the way Paul sums this up in our verses. When you're filled with a spirit, you're right with you, you're right with God, and you're right with others. All of that gets collected and summarized for us right here in verses 19, 20, and 21. Now concerning 21, we're gonna talk about this more when we get there. But for now, as you look at verse 21 in sort of an overview way, would you realize that that verse serves two purposes here in the flow of this text. It's number one, listed here as the third general result of being filled with the spirit. But then it serves another purpose. It's also going to launch everything that Paul will say about husbands and wives, children and parents, and slaves and masters going from there down through chapter six in verse nine. Mutual submission, very important subject. We'll spend a couple of weeks talking about it. Mutual submission is the key to making all of those relationships work as designed for the glory of God. And being filled with the Spirit is the key to mutual submission. So just kind of keep those things in mind and we'll move on to a greater discussion of that in the days ahead. Now let me land on a second thing. I said I had a couple things, preliminary things. Let me land on the second thing now that needs to be said about these results of being filled with the Spirit as a whole. And then we'll get to work on verse 19. When we realize the scope and the magnitude that I've just tried to portray for you again of these results, the scope and magnitude of these results, what does it remind us of again? Doesn't it remind us of the critical importance again of this command to be filled with a spirit. This is a critical central focal point of the New Testament. As I've said at least two or three times before over the past two weeks, let me say again today, there are only two possible states for you to be in at any given time. Keep that in mind. It's always going to be either one or the other. I mean, every moment of every day, it's always going to be either this one or it's going to be that one. You're either going to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and if you're not, there's only one other option. You're going to be under the control of the flesh. And folks, that's ugly. That's ugly. That produces ugly, ugly stuff. I've demonstrated that for you, haven't I? Over and over again. We've been in Galatians, and we've been all over the place to demonstrate that. The first state makes what you do and say count for eternity. The second state simply forfeits all of that. And I mean all of that. When I stand up here and preach, controlled by the flesh, you know what it counts for? I might as well stay home. It counts for nothing. When I'm filled with the Spirit, God will do something wonderful in your life, in and through you with it, with that word that comes forth. It's just that cut and dried. Filled with the Spirit, it's good. Not filled with the Spirit, it's bad. It's the flesh. It's not going to count for anything insofar as eternity and the glory of God is concerned. I've tried to make that point several times along the way this morning. Let me just emphasize the critical importance of being filled with the Spirit by saying it in yet one more way. We just try different avenues because this has to be burned in your minds. We talk about a lot of things that we say are critically important to the Christian life. Lots of stuff that we study, right? Doctrines that we say, boy, this is, and I'll stop a minute to say, listen folks, please understand how important this is to Christian life. Now, let me take all of that and collect it, and let me say this, if there's one thing, if there's one thing of importance, folks, that would supersede all other things of importance that we've ever talked about, guess what it would be? It would be this one thing that we're talking about today, being filled with the Spirit of God. I don't know how to say this in any other way, but I really think you ought to take a highlight pen, a red pen or whatever, whatever you need to do and draw a circle or a box or something around that command there at the end of verse 18 and Ephesians chapter five, mark it in your Bibles. So you will never forget that that is a focal point. That is the mountain peak, if you will, for this entire book of Ephesians and really for all of Christian living. You can't do any of it apart from being filled with the Holy spirit of God, everything worthwhile and the Christian life depends on that. It is that important. I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that this morning. Do you understand that? Do you have that? It is that important. And let's go on now to look at the first general result of being filled with the spirit that Paul elaborates on in verse 19. I want to focus your attention now on verse 19. Result number one is singing. Result number one is singing. And you say, well, as I read verse 19, I see a whole bunch of other stuff there. Yes, you do. There's all kinds of things. There's other things going on here. In verse 19, in addition to singing, as we will see this morning as we go along here, Paul mentioned speaking, singing, making melody. See it there in verse 19? Speaking, three verbs, speaking, singing, and making melody. And so why am I labeling it singing? Well, that's still a good label. Singing is a good label because you are going to see as we go along in our study today, that every one of these things has to do with various kinds of musical expressions, all right? And so we're just gonna sum it up and label it this way. We're gonna say singing, okay? And then realize that yes, there are some other things going on, but they all sort of fit under that category very nicely. They all have to do with various kinds of musical expressions. Let me read verses 18 and 19 for the flow here, and then we'll get into verse 19. And do not get drunk with wine, Paul says, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. And here now is what will flow out of that. Number one, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. This is not so much profound as it is beautiful folks, simple and beautiful. In fact, that's the first thing I would have you notice here and point out to you as we study verse 19 is simply how how beautiful and simple this whole thing gets started. What's going to happen when I'm filled with the Spirit? Well, you know, some people would say, man, oh man, if I could only get filled with the Spirit, you know what? I'd say to this mountain, be moved. And it would be moved. Or I'd go off somewhere and be a great missionary. Or I'd be a dynamic preacher. Or I'd do this or that or the other. I'd be something fantastic, something big and something great and something awesome. Or as they might say on TBN, oh, if I can only be filled with a spirit, I'd speak in tongues, or I'd heal somebody, or I'd have some kind of a bizarre ecstatic experience. No. Notice the Word of God. We get none of that here, do we? We get none of that over-the-top kind of stuff here at all. According to Paul, And I'm going to go with what Paul says. He was an apostle and this stuff came from God through his pen. I'm going to go with what Paul said. According to Paul, the very first result of being filled with a spirit, it's not some over-the-top incredible thing. What is it? It's a beautiful and simple thing. You know what it is? The first result of being filled with a spirit is a heart that sings. Isn't that beautiful? heart that sings when a believer is filled with a spirit this is beautiful folks I just couldn't get over the the beauty of this as I began to just think about it when a believer is filled with a spirit he or she will have an inside joy I mean a real inside joy I remember that day don't you mark I remember that day I had a song in my heart that I'd never had in my heart before And that doesn't mean I was able to sing it very well, but I had it, it was there, believe me, there was a new song there, an inside joy that manifests itself in music. Mark this, people, as we look at verse 19, the Bible says that the spirit-filled life produces music. Isn't that beautiful? And it says that immediately, right after the command in verse 18. First thing, very first thing, very first way to tell if you're filled with a spirit or not, and you say, well, now wait a minute, wait just a minute here. Might be a problem here. You see, I don't sing very well, right? Might be a problem. Making music just isn't my thing. And I'm not just saying that for somebody else, by the way. I'm really saying that. That's true. I don't sing very well. Making music isn't my thing. That's okay. That's okay. Music doesn't have to be your thing because you know why? Music is his thing. Doesn't have to be your thing, because it's his thing. And guess what? He's the one who's producing this music in and through you. Let me give you your first lesson today. Please understand something about this subject right now, before we go any further, something very important to understand right now, before we go any further into this verse 19. How well you sing, folks, is not the point here, even one little tiny bit. How well you sing is not the point here in verse 19, even one little itsy bitsy, tiny little bit. The kind of music that we're talking about here, folks, is the kind of music that comes as a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. It's the kind of music that's produced in you by the Holy Spirit who lives within you. And let me tell you something about that music. That music, people, is beautiful, wonderful, beautiful music, even when it rolls off the lips of someone who cannot carry a tune in a bucket. That is beautiful music. Let me give you what I think When I was preparing this message, an illustration of this came to my mind that I have to share with you. Maybe some of you know about this, maybe some of you don't. Most of you, I think, are familiar with Justin Peter's DVDs, are you not? He has a wonderful set of DVDs. We haven't watched them together as a church for quite a while now, but they're in the library, they were. And in those DVDs he came here one time to do that presentation actually But in those DVDs he exposes all of these modern-day Faith healers like Kenneth Copeland and Benny he and and all these guys that you see on TV all of these guys who by the way lie to poor sick helpless people and and take their money. Okay? Based on a twisted understanding of the scriptures, they tell these poor people that it's always God's will for them to be healed. That's a lie. It is not always God's will for people to be healed. That is not it at all. Bible never says that Jesus never healed everybody while he was here. It is not God's will for everybody to be healed. And then after they lie to those people, they pick their pockets and take their money. These guys live in lavish places with private jets, and they're picking the pockets of poor, destitute, sick people. Justin tells of a family, and this, I'm off the track here, but I'll get back on in a minute. He tells about a poor family, a poor mother who lugged her son around the country to these healing crusades in a van. She didn't have the money to do it. It cost her a fortune. She gave everything to support it. They picked her pockets. They can't heal the poor kid that she was hauling around in this van. And then when they got there, they picked her pockets and took what remaining money she did have, all based on a lie. This is horrible, horrible stuff that goes on. But anyway, to make a long story short, let's stop with that. Maybe you remember at the end of Justin's presentations when they brought out an especially made wheelchair. A man by the name of Garwin Dobbins, kind of an unusual name. Garwin was his first name, G-A-R-W-I-N Dobbins, D-O-B-B-I-N-S. And when they brought Darwin out, it was clear that he had some health issues, some serious health issues. He was riddled with some sort of sickness, some disease. to the point where he couldn't even hold his body straight. He couldn't hold his head up straight even. His wheelchair wasn't even a normal one. It was a specially made one. And they asked him about his disease and he gave some big long name that I can't remember what it was. But he said that the disease, he described it as a disease that was turning his muscle into bone. And so his joints just became stiffer and stiffer and he couldn't move. I really think, if I'm not mistaken, it was a short time after this that he died. Garwin died. But on this day, Garwin came out to some meeting of the church, gathered church somewhere. And he came out to this gathered meeting of the church folks, not to see a faith healer, not to see a faith healer. He came out to this meeting of the church for another reason. He came out to testify of God's goodness to him. He sat there in that wheelchair and the man put the microphone in his face and he sat there and told about all the wonderful things that God had done for him. and how thankful he was to the Lord for life and for health. He said, I'm thankful for health. I remember him saying that. And then he came out to sing that song that you probably are familiar with called I Can Only Imagine. They helped him up. A couple of guys had to help him up out of the wheelchair to bring him to his feet. And so he stood there sort of bent over a little bit, the best he could, and he started singing. And as Garwin started singing, It was quite obvious that Garwin was a man who couldn't sing very well at all. Garwin, folks, was not a polished musician by any means. He would not have won any musical awards anywhere. As he started singing, his voice was kind of broken. It was kind of raspy and he was just a little bit off key here and there. But you know what? I'm here to tell you folks that the music that guy made that day was more beautiful than any music you will ever hear from the finest polished tuned musician going. because it was coming from a spirit filled heart. It was coming from a man who loved and worshiped God right in the very midst of human pain and suffering to the nth degree. He was worshiping and glorifying God in his situation. He's a man who understood that God was sovereign over his life and that that was God's plan and purpose for him. And so he said, I worship you. and he sang this beautiful beautiful song If you Google search his name, Darwin Dobbins, Darwin Dobbins, D-O-B-B-I-N-S, I'm sure that you are going to find a little video clip of this presentation if you'd like to see it. It might be worth your while, but I'll just caution you, do make sure that you have a box of Kleenex close by because you won't make it without it. Darwin Dobbins, Darwin Dobbins is a good example of what we're talking about today. are on this subject of spirit-filled music. Mark your first lesson today from Ephesians 5.19. Spirit-filled music, folks, is not in any way hindered by a voice that is monotone and off-key. It's not hindered in any way by a voice that is monotone and off-key, and likewise it must be said that that music that we're talking about today is not in any way enhanced by a magnificent voice, a trained voice, or a musical degree. The beauty of this music that we're talking about today has to do with only one thing, and that is who is producing it. Who is producing it? If it's the Spirit of God who's producing the music, That music is going to worship God, that music is going to glorify God, even if the voice doing the singing isn't all that great. And I want to tell you that I'm personally very thankful for that truth. We have lots yet to talk about here in verse 19, but let me make just one more general point about this spirit-filled music that I think needs to be made. How well you sing is not the issue. That's your first lesson here in verse 19. Excuse me. Would you please also understand that the music we're talking about here today is always going to be new and different and distinct from all other music that comes from all other sources. How well you sing is not the issue. The second thing you need to understand here about this music, the singing, the spirit-filled singing, is that it's always gonna be new and different and distinct from all other music that comes from all other sources. And the biblical foundation for that is this. 20 times, I looked it up, 20 times in nine verses, the Bible defines the song that believers sing as what kind of a song you already know, a new song. It is a new song. And I'm going to read some of those verses for you here in a minute. But first, let me just point out the fact that the word new and every one of them refers to something that is new, not just in the sense of chronology. It's not new just because it came out today and it wasn't here yesterday. It's new. This word new means that these songs, this new song that the believer sings is new in the sense of quality and new in the sense of character. The new song that the believer sings is always going to be a different song. It's always going to be one that has a whole different quality and character to it than any other song he may have ever sung. as an unbeliever. This new song is a distinctly different song. Unbelievers, of course, cannot produce this kind of music. You understand that, right? Unbelievers can't produce this kind of music. Why? Because there is no spirit there. This is spirit-produced music. If there's no spirit there, then that music can't be produced. And by the way, Can I say this? That's why I have absolutely no interest at all in hearing Elvis sing the great hymns of the faith. I know he does, but I have no interest in that. You say, well, why not? The words are the same. The melody is the same. Yeah, they are. The words are the same. The melody is the same. Wonderful voice and all of that. However, when I hear Elvis singing the beautiful hymns of the faith, they're not beautiful anymore. They're ugly. and disgusting and even repulsive. You see the music and the life are not in sync there in that case. There's a completely mismatched combination there between the music and the life. And so I have no interest in hearing Elvis sing great hymns of the faith or any other believer unbeliever for that matter and something else here that should be mentioned at this point while we're talking about this subject in general please understand that what we're talking about today has nothing to do so many people want to go down this trail and spend all their time talking about this and it's just speculation what we're talking about today has nothing to do with musical styles it has absolutely nothing to to do with musical styles. That is not the point here in verse 19 either. And so if it's not the style, what is it? How is this, you know, you said this music is new and distinct and different and all of that. How is it new and distinct and different if it's not the style? I don't know. It just is. Believe me, it just is. You will just know it. There's a difference there. I don't know how to answer that question other than to say it this way. It's not a matter of musical style. It's a matter of spiritual life first. The Holy Spirit has to be there. And then secondly, it's a matter of being filled with the Spirit, at which point the musical styles will vary. But all of them will still be clearly and obviously different and distinct from any and all other kinds of music that come from any and all other kinds of sources. I can't answer the question any better than that. You will just know. It's different. It's just different and distinct. Spirit-filled music is not defined by the style. It's defined by the source. It's not defined by the style. It's defined by the source. And I told you I was going to give you some of those verses about the new song. Let me give you a few of them quickly. The Psalms, of course, are all musically oriented. In Psalm 33, one to three says this. Don't look these up, just listen. Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones. Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Sing praises to him with a harp of 10 strings. And then verse three, sing to him a new song. There it is. Play skillfully with a shot of joy. Why do believers sing? Believers sing because they can't help but sing. They've been purified from sin and made righteous. You can't stop them from singing. And why do unbelievers sing? I'm not quite sure why they sing. They have no legitimate reason to sing at all. The first three verses of Psalm 40. Oh, I love this. Also speak of this new song, but as they speak of this new song, they also portray a beautiful picture of salvation. We refer to this perhaps different times as the weeks go by, but listen to what it says in Psalm 40 verses one, two, and three. Waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry and then verse 2 I've always loved this picture of salvation. This this is what the Lord did for me It's what he did for Mark in the fall of 1983 verse 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction out of the miry clay and he set my feet upon a rock Isn't that a beautiful picture? He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay. I was there in that pit of destruction, wallowing around in the miry clay and he plucked me up out of there and he set my feet upon a rock, a rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, making my footsteps firm. And watch this now in verse three, here's a beautiful flow, right? After he did that, boom, he set me on the rock. Verse three, He put a new song in my heart. I remember that day and I remember that song. I don't know that I was singing, but there was a song in there. There was something new in there that was beautiful. I, some burden had been lifted off me and I was like floating that day. I was floating on a cloud that day because I knew that my life had been, I didn't understand a lot of theology. I didn't understand a lot of anything, but I knew, I knew that God had changed my life that day. and that hell was no longer my destination. I knew some basic things. I'm literally floating on a cloud that day. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust. The Lord, please understand again that this song the believer sings is a new song from a new source. He put that new song in my mouth, the psalmist said. And that's why it's different. It has to be different. It came from him. See, he's the source of it. It's not like the old song that we used to sing at all. It's a new song. It's a distinctly different song. from the one that we used to sing and the one that the world still sings. Let me give you some more. Psalm 96, 1-4 puts it this way. Sing to the Lord a new song. There it is again. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all. God's and under Psalm 149 one praise the Lord sing to the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of the godly ones folks listen God loves to hear the songs of his redeemed ones it brings him great delight and joy to hear us sing when God delivered the people out of Egypt Remember what happened? All the people came together and they sang a song. It says in Exodus 15, 1-8, after Deborah and Barak delivered Israel from the Canaanites, they sang on that day. It says in Judges 5-1, you remember, how about this scene? We just shared together a minute ago, a few minutes ago around the Lord's table. Remember what happened? You remember the scene? Jesus is there with those men in that upper room. They're sharing around the Lord's table. And before they went out to the garden, Before they went to the Mount of Olives and to the Garden of Gethsemane, what did they do? What does it say? Last thing they did. Before they went out, what did they do? They sang a hymn, it says, as they concluded that first Lord's Supper. They sang a hymn, Matthew 26, 30. How about another one you'll remember? While imprisoned at Philippi, about midnight, a couple of guys into stocks there, Paul and Silas, right? They're locked up for preaching the gospel. And what were they doing at midnight? They were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. It says in act 16, 25, And that's right shortly after that is when things began to shake a little bit, right? And all the prisoners were set free. Looking toward the future, I could go on and on with these, but I'll give you one more. Looking toward the future, it says this in Revelation chapter 5, verses 8 and 9. When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song. And there's our new song again, folks, saying, listen to this one. We're listening to this song that we're going to sing together in glory someday. Worthy are thou to take the book and to break it seals for thou was slain at its purchase for God with our blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Listen folks, if you don't like singing, you're not going to like heaven. There's a lot of singing and it's going to go, that's going to go on and have you read about it all through the book of revelation. Lots of wonderful spirit filled music in heaven. Um, but you know what, in contrast to that, let me say this, there's not going to be any music in hell. Lots of music in heaven. There's going to be no music in hell at all. And you know, as I thought about that, what a tragic reality that will be someday for all those folks who make those arrogant, ignorant claims that they make. You've heard it and so have I. Those people who ignorantly talk about going to hell to party with their friends, right? How ridiculous, how silly and stupid, really. Um, we studied the subject of hell one time. We know a little bit about what the Bible says about hell and I can assure you of something. I can assure you the fact that there's not going to be any parties there. Nothing but pitch black darkness there. It's not going to be any parties there. No music, no parties. nothing like that whatsoever. And so we understand this new song, this different and distinct music that's produced in the believer's heart by the Spirit of God to be sort of a major theme that really runs off through the scriptures. I just gave you just a few out of many other scriptures I could have read on this subject of music and singing to praise and worship and glorify and honor God with that introduction. Now that was just the introduction. Now we're ready to study verse 19. And as we do, we're going to find the answers to four questions this morning. I have them there on your sermon notes for you. Four questions are going to get answered about the kind of singing that will come as a result of being filled with the Spirit. Let's work down through them and we'll understand the verse, I think. Question number one is a very important one to get us started. Among whom do Spirit-filled believers sing? This is important. Very important and very much misunderstood today. Among whom do Spirit-filled believers sing? Notice what it says, mark what it says right at the beginning of verse 19, speaking to who? One another. speaking to one another, it says. Now we're going to get to the meaning of that word speaking here in a little while, so hold that thought. But for right now, I just want you to zero in on the words one another. And from those words, I want you to understand something. I want you to understand that our Spirit-filled singing is to be done primarily among the fellowship of believers. Spirit-filled singing, mark this, Spirit-filled singing is not for the benefit of the unbelieving world. Spirit-filled singing is not for the benefit of the unbelieving world. It is for the benefit of us, you and me believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that truth is consistent. I'm not going to give you a bunch of verses. I'll give you one, uh, other than to say that that truth is consistent throughout the scriptures. As I said, we'll, uh, I'll give you one. We just saw a similar statement in Psalm 149, one where it said that, uh, where it said, sing to the Lord, a new song and his praise in the congregation of the godly ones. And the verse I'll give you then other than that is, uh, the parallel one in Colossians three 16, that's another verse. that makes the very same point. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. When the New Testament says one another, folks, who's it talking about? I think you know, when the New Testament says one another, it's talking about us, right? Talking about believers in the church, talking about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, believers who are a part of the church. And so mark that, believers are clearly the ones in the plan of God who are to receive the benefits from this spirit-filled music. Spirit-filled music is for the edification of the saints and for the glory of God. Keep that in mind. It's for the edification of the saints and for the glory of God. And we'll get to that part in a little bit, but that's because, uh, why is it just for us? Why is it just for the edification believers? Because believers are the only ones who can really understand, you know, and appreciate, um, this unique music. Um, we're the only ones who can really get that. Um, I don't know if it's still a popular thing anymore or not, but let me tell you about something that I remember from my younger days as a Christian growing up in the church out in Michigan. Uh, back then, um, there was a lot of musical evangelism going on, and by that I mean this, out in Michigan there were lots of Christian colleges, and maybe more so than around here, and it was pretty typical for those Christian colleges to have musical groups that would travel around in the summertime, particularly I remember, and put on concerts in various places, some public places, sometimes in churches and so forth, and they would do a musical presentation, and then at the end of their presentation or their performance, we'll call it, they would interject some sort of an evangelistic appeal. Most times, tragically, asking people to do the, you know, raise your hand if you want to go to heaven kind of thing or some other silly thing like that. Just take this text and apply it to that and show you something here. There are two major problems with that whole deal as indicated by our text today. You see, the Word of God is our ultimate and final authority for what? All matters of what? Faith and practice, right? What we believe comes from the Word of God and how we do ministry comes from the Word of God. Let me show you two problems with that deal. Number one, this musical evangelism concept. Number one, we just said that unbelievers have no way of understanding or appreciating the value of true spirit-filled Christian music, right? It's meaningless to them. What good is it going to do to share spirit-filled music with an unregenerate heart? No good at all. It was never intended by God to be for them. And then the other obvious implication of that is that music was never intended by God to be evangelistic. Music was never intended by God to be evangelistic. Listen, folks, you tell me if I'm wrong, but nowhere in scripture do I know of any place where it says that we are to sing the gospel to anyone. I know of lots of places where it says that we are to preach the gospel. Nowhere does it say we are to sing the gospel. We're to preach the gospel. And when we do preach the gospel, God has promised to honor that in the lives of those individuals that he is in the process of drawing. We don't do any of the saving. He does. We're just scattering the seed. We're not to sing the gospel. We're to preach the gospel. You see, it's not music. that is the power of God unto salvation. It's the gospel, Romans 1.16, that is the power of God unto salvation. And let me tell you the problem. There's always a serious danger involved when that gospel gets replaced by music, and that danger lies in the fact that music, folks, does have the ability to manipulate human emotions. That's true. And we know that from the Old Testament. David played his harp. Remember King Saul? King Saul had all kinds of problems. And David's harp, we're told in 1 Samuel 16, 23, was able to successfully soothe the heart, the troubled heart. of Saul. Music does have, more could be said about that, but music does have a very real effect on our emotions. And so think about it. When those emotions get played upon through music, or can I say it in a little harsher way? When those emotions get jerked around, can we put it that way? Through music, the hearts of unbelievers get jerked around through music without a clear presentation of gospel truth to the mind. Okay? We got this emotionally jerking music affecting these people without a clear presentation of gospel truth to the mind. What can the results of that be? a false profession of faith based on emotions, not on truth. And what does that do? That creates false Christians, deceived people who think they're saved when they're really not, and probably going to make it more difficult down the road if they do hear the truth of the gospel. I already tried that and it didn't work. didn't make any difference in my life at all. There's a danger in that, folks, using music in that way. In addition to that, we could just say that using music as a primary means of evangelism reduces the gospel to a trivial matter of entertainment. There's certainly a place for music. I'm not saying that, but to use that in place of the gospel is dangerous, critically and seriously dangerous. You know, I don't want to get too carried away with this, and I won't. but I'm gonna say it, that whole contemporary Christian music thing today, folks, is a great, big, huge mess, a real mess. There is tons of money being made, number one. Let me give you a list, all right? There's tons of money being made. There are even copyrights all over the place. How in the world can someone copyright what the Spirit of God produced, right? How can that be? The musicians, in many cases, are celebrities, right? The music that they play sounds in many cases, not all, but in some, sounds a whole lot like the very same stuff that the world plays. There is, you know, that distinction that we talked about a while ago that I can't really define for you other than to say it's just there. It's not there, okay? In much of this contemporary Christian music, it's not there, that distinction. And lastly, well, no, there's one more on my list. In this contemporary Christian music, it's very common to see a slaughtering of sound doctrine. A slaughtering of sound doctrine, and much of it is being used on a large scale for evangelistic purposes, something we just talked about. Absolutely none of that, folks, has any place whatsoever in the realm of true Christian, true spirit-filled Christian music. Thus saith the Lord, in Ephesians 5.19. Certainly, and I know what you're thinking, so let me just throw this out there, a little disclaimer. Certainly, I know and I realize and I understand that the truth of God's word is so powerful and the gospel is so powerful that if the truth and the gospel were portrayed accurately and completely through the medium of music, I am absolutely sure that somewhere in somebody's life, God has used that to bring about their salvation. I know that. I understand that. I'm sure of that. But nonetheless, even if that's true, that is still not. We still go by the Word of God, right? That is still not the primary intent of Spirit-filled music and therefore should not be the way we approach evangelism. You see, we've talked about this before. The end doesn't justify the means ever, biblically speaking. In this case now, we can say this, an exception to the rule doesn't change the rule. In the Old Testament, God used a donkey to get his message. God can do whatever he wants to do. We understand that. But an exception to the rule, folks, doesn't change the rule. What is the rule? It's the one we have in our text today. The inspired rule is that spirit-filled music is for us. It is an expression of worship to be sung among believers for the glory of God. where from where the spirit filled believers sing among whom now from where way towards the universe 19 we get the answer with your heart with your heart speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord with your heart here literally means in your heart or from your heart and that is the simple answer to this second question comes from your heart produced by the Spirit of God in your heart comes from your heart When the Spirit fills you, a song will just come oozing out of your heart. A song will come oozing out of that new spiritually alive inner man where the Spirit of God dwells and where the Spirit of God is in control. And let me just say this, concerning the second question and its answer. If you are a true believer and are not filled with a spirit, the best advice that I could give you is to stop singing until you take care of that heart problem, whatever it is, because any singing you do at that point will be repulsive to the Lord. Now, I know what I just said sounds rather harsh, but the reason why I said it that way is because it's true and I want to give you the support for that. The Lord issued a warning about that very thing one time through the prophet Amos to a disobedient people. You see, what was going on here is that these people kept singing, they kept their singing up, but their hearts were wrong. In Amos 5, 21-24, jot that reference down. You may want to look at it later. I'm going to read it for you now. Amos 5, excuse me, 21-24 says this. I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies, even though you offer up to me burnt offerings, and you're doing all the right stuff, your grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings." And then verse 23. Listen to this. This is the Lord speaking to the people through Amos. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." You know what that last verse is saying? God is saying to these folks, listen, until you get the justice right, until you get the righteousness right, I want you to know that I have no interest at all in hearing your songs, said the Lord through the prophet Amos. And a couple chapters later, he even took it a step further in Amos 8.10, the Lord said, then I shall turn your festivals into mourning. you think you're having a party, I'm going to turn it into mourning. And your songs, I'm going to turn them into lamentation. If your heart isn't right, folks, the song you sing isn't going to please Him, no matter how well you sing it. But on the other hand, if your heart is right, if you're filled with the Spirit, as we've already said today, the song you sing will be sweet music to the ears of God, even if your voice cracks and your tune is a little bit off-key. And can I throw a disclaimer in there on that now, too? You know, I've said that a couple times. Don't get me wrong. When I say that now, maybe for the second or third time today, this whole idea of God being pleased even if your voice cracks and you're off key. When I say that, I hope you understand what I mean by that. He is, and I believe that's true. But when I say that, I'm not advocating sloppiness here. I'm not advocating laziness in what you present to the Lord. I'm not at all advocating a shoddy or a half-hearted effort when you sing, not at all. I believe with all my heart that we, all of us as believers in Jesus Christ, I believe that we ought to strive for excellence in whatever we do in service to our Lord. Whatever you do, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Give it everything that you have and do it with excellence. You see, here's the way we need to understand this. Faithful, obedient service to the Lord, whether you're teaching Sunday school, preaching a sermon, or just singing with the congregation is not all about being the best there is. It's not all about being the best there is, but it is all about being the best you can be. See the difference? It's not about being the best there is, but it is about being the best you can be. It is all about being the best that you can be with the abilities and with the talents that he has given you. God never requires you to be the best, but he does expect and he is worthy of your best that's that's the idea here if you are giving him your very best effort he will accept that and be honored and worshiped and glorified by that even if that means the crackling voice of the off-key tune see you see what I mean you understand what I'm saying here well we have two more questions just to go for this morning let's take a third one way at the universe 19 To whom do spirit-filled believers sing? I've probably already answered this question. We've already answered the question among whom, now let's answer the question to whom. We sing among ourselves, right? But that singing is always to be directed to the Lord, it says, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. And so now we pull this all together and understand that the Lord is the audience to whom we sing, which makes our singing what? Worship right makes it worship Among one another makes our singing edification to the Lord makes our singing Worship the Bible says we're to sing among ourselves to the Lord and say well, how does that work? Well? True spiritual music is designed by him to edify us as it then rises up to the Lord in worship adoration and praise but let me tell you what goes on and Instead of that, let me tell you what goes on in churches today all around this town and everywhere else. I've seen it and you've seen it as well. They've taken this music that God intended to be a beautiful thing that edifies believers and worships God, and they've turned it into cheap entertainment. Churches today are turning music into cheap entertainment as a part of that unbiblical church growth movement. Churches today are using music. I'm not making this up. I wish I was. They're using music as entertainment. to entice unbelievers are all about filling the pews with unbelieving people. That's an unbiblical thing in and of itself. And they're using music to do that. They're turning the spirit filled music into cheap entertainment for that purpose. And then what do they have to do when they get those people in for that reason? Then what do they have to do? They have to keep that entertainment going, of course, in order to keep those folks there. The end result of which is a gathered group of folks, maybe a rather large gathered group of folks, but what you have there is not a real church, right? Because a real church, is made up of believers. That whole thing is wrong on two counts. The true spirit-filled music, as we've learned today, is not for unbelievers, number one. And number two, let me say what I've said so many times in past months and years, the church is not for unbelievers. They're welcome here, but it's not for them. We don't design it for them. The church is for believers. As we think about spirit-filled music this morning, Would you please mark a clear and sharp distinction between worshipful edification and entertainment? Spirit-filled music in the church was never meant to entertain unbelievers, nor, by the way, is it ever meant to entertain you. Spirit-filled music is not, you don't come, I hope you don't come here so that James can entertain you with his music. That's not what he has in his mind when he gets up here, and that shouldn't be in your mind either. Music in the church is not to entertain you. If the Sunday morning, how about I put it to you this way? If the Sunday morning gathering of the church you go to seems more like a rock concert or in any other kind of concert for that matter, you've been robbed and seriously short, short changed. And you probably ought to start looking for another church, a different church. And before we go to the fourth and final question for this morning, I'm going to take a minute to read something for you that I think is a beautiful expression of music in the old Testament. It's an Old Testament worship setting that says this in 2 Chronicles 5, 11-14. The setting is the dedication of the first temple when something incredible happened. Listen to this. Don't turn there, just listen. 2 Chronicles 5, 11-14. And when the priests came forth from the holy place, for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves without regard to divisions, and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jedathon, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres standing east of the altar and with them 120 priests blowing trumpets. Try to get this picture. Blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice. See a unified thing going up with a unified voice to praise and to glorify the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praise the Lord saying he is, he indeed is good for his loving kindness is everlasting. Watch what happens now. then the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud. You know what that means, right? That's the Shekinah glory of the presence of God among his people in the Old Testament. A cloud came down and how thick was the cloud? Well, it says this, The house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister because they couldn't even see because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. It's the moral of that story. Please understand this morning that God is glorified through music that is truly Christian music. There's a fourth question answered in verse 19, and that is this. How do spirit-filled believers sing? And you say, well, we've got a lot of words and phrases yet to go. Yes, we do. And this is the question that will answer and we'll cover all of the rest of what's here, all the mechanics of verse 19. This is the question, the answer to which we'll sort of pick up all the remaining words and phrases that we haven't talked about yet. And don't worry, it won't take us very long. It's all pretty straightforward and simple and easy to understand at this point. Notice, please mentioned it going in that there are three verbs in this verse. Speaking, singing, and making melody. All right, and what we're going to do right now is just work right down through them and we'll get it. All the foundation has been laid. Let's just pick up the pieces now. Speaking, singing, and making melody of the verbs. We'll take them one at a time. Speaking is the first one. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, comma. We'll stop right there for now. When we talk about speaking, You know that we normally don't think of speaking as a musical expression, right? When we use the word speaking, we usually think of that as talking. We think of speaking as articulating words, as a means of communicating with someone. But I want you to understand now that the Greek word translated speaking here is the Greek word laleo. And it's a word that simply means to use the voice to make a sound. It could be any sound, but in this context, we know what kind of a sound it is. What's in this context? In this context, it's clearly a musical sound. As I begin to look at that word a little bit, I found that laleo is one of those, see if I can pronounce this, laleo is one of those onomatopoeic words, right? Did I say that right? Onomatopoeic words like buzz or hiss, right? It's one of those kind of words that gets defined by its pronunciation. Laleo is kind of like la la la. And that's exactly what it means here in this context. Paul is talking about using your voice to make musical sounds, which would include singing or maybe even whistling or humming. I whistle and hum better than I sing. And so I'm glad for that. And then on this first verb, notice that Paul goes on to give us three ways that the spirit filled heart will speak. Let's look at them. Spirit filled believer will speak in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. He says, now, as you might imagine, The commentators just go all over the place with their definitions of these things. Much of what is way out there in the realm of speculation, I'm going to try to keep this very straightforward and simple for you. Psalms is an easy one. That would obviously refer to the Old Testament Psalms, but to music, right? That's what it is. The Psalms were intended to be sung. And that's by the way, is how the early church did most of its singing. They sang the Psalms. The Psalms speak primarily the nature and work of God and the lives of believers. And when you sing the Psalms, you're singing scripture. It's a beautiful thing. which above everything else magnifies and glorifies God. You know one great thing about singing from the psalter is that you never have to worry about sloppy doctrinal content like you do when singing hymns or choruses. You're singing scripture. There's no bad doctrine there involved that you have to worry about. We have a psalter. It's that little sort of brownish colored book. I believe Joel had a sing out of that last week, if I recall. We have a Psalter. We use it once in a while. I wish we could use it more. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing to sing the Psalms. Paul also says that the spirit-filled believer will speak in hymns. And so now we have to answer the question, what in the world is a hymn? Again, I'm gonna make this real easy. How about if we say that a hymn would be all the other songs of praise and worship that are not psalms, right? That's basically the answer to the question. A hymn doesn't necessarily have to be scripture-based, but many times it is. Many commentators suggest that various New Testament passages were used in the early church as hymns. I think I've pointed some of these out to you as we've studied sections of Ephesians 4, You know, talking about Christ going down into the deepest part of the earth and so forth, that section was considered to be a hymn. Ephesians 4, Philippians 2, some of that is considered to be a hymn. Colossians 1, those are all examples of texts that many think were sung as hymns in the early church. And there are even choruses, by the way, that would fit into this category of hymns based on scripture. such as ones we sometimes sing called, how about this one? Seek ye first the kingdom of God, right? Remember that chorus? That's based on a verse of scripture. That's a beautiful kind of a chorus. And then we have the third way that the Spirit-filled believer speaks, and that is in spiritual songs. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. What is that? Well, that's a rather broad category that would give latitude for all kinds of musical expression to exalt the Lord. Some make the distinction like this. I'll suggest it to you. I don't know if it's true or not, but this is what is suggested by more than one commentator. They suggest that the term spiritual songs here would emphasize songs of sort of spiritual or personal testimony as opposed to songs that have doctrinal or scripture content that makes sense could be what is intended here examples of this would be songs like I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold or Make me a servant right we sing that one sometimes songs like that folks are are not so much doctrinal expressions or scriptural or expressions like the Psalms and the hymns these kind of songs are instead more expressions of a heart's desire in response to that known truth and so what's the bottom line when we get to the end of all that the bottom line is that if you're filled with spirit you're gonna be doing what all of that going to be doing all of that. That's what Paul says. You will be speaking to one another, how in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Let's move on. Verb number two, verse 19 is singing. The first verb includes singing. Now Paul zeroes in on singing. No, no mistake about what he means here. This is the word that very specifically refers to singing with the human voice. And, um, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that this is a word that really needs no further explanation. You know what the word singing means. You know what it is to sing. Let me just say that the human voice is a wonderful gift from God that can be the most beautiful of all instruments. It really can be. It has capacities that no human instrument or other kind of instrument, man-made instrument, have. You can worship God for your human voice and then you can turn right around and worship him with your human voice it's a beautiful thing wherever you are anytime day or night you can bring joy and glory to God with your human voice through spirit-filled singing. Now let's look at the third one now the third and final verb And verse 19 is making melody, speaking, singing, making melody. Solo is the word of the Greek. It's the word of course, from which we get our word Psalm. And there's something kind of interesting that I want you to note about this particular word. I don't know if any of you remember this or not, but I do. There was a time here in this country when the whole idea of bringing a guitar into the church was a very controversial thing. Anybody remember that? I'm not sure where it came from, but I mean, you just didn't do that. You didn't bring a guitar for some reason into the church. I don't know, maybe it was an association with the Beatles. I don't know. It could have been, and I'm not sure what the reason was, but I do remember that playing a guitar in church was thought of by many people as a very unspiritual thing to do. Is it? No. It is, however, not at all an unspiritual thing to do because of what it says right here in Ephesians 5.19. Making melody, mark this. Making melody, salo, is a word that literally means this. It literally means to pluck on a stringed instrument with your fingers. That's what it means, to pluck on a stringed instrument with your fingers. James very wonderfully demonstrates that for us here every Lord's Day morning. A harp, of course, would probably have been primarily in view here, but no stringed instrument is excluded from the meaning of this word. And so from making various musical sounds with your voice to singing with your voice, Paul now adds musical instruments to the mix as our spirit-filled hearts make music to edify believers and worship God. And so Paul says, we come to the end of verse 19, Paul says in our text today, Christian, be filled with the spirit. We spent a couple of weeks talking about that and contemplating what that means. Christian, be filled with the spirit. And now he says today, when you are, here's the first evidence of that in your life. You will be speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Beautiful, beautiful verse of scripture. Next time we'll go on. to take a look at the other two evidences of being filled with a spirit that Paul will mention in verses 20 and 21. And verse 20 is that of giving thanks. Like I said, we're going to skip over that one without too much comment because we've already studied it. And then we're going to land on that third one, which has to do with mutual submission. So think about those things, take a look at those verses, kind of roll them around in your mind a little bit in preparation for our time in the word together next Lord's day. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for another opportunity we've had today to gather here in this place with your people, to open your word and to share around the Lord's table and to enjoy fellowship and to pray. And also, Father, to sing together with spirit-filled hearts. Thank you, Father, for teaching us about that very subject today. And as we sing again here in just a minute or two, I pray that you would be pleased with that. I pray that our singing, Father, would bring you joy and that you would accept it as worship from our hearts. We love you father and we thank you and we praise you for who you are and for what you've done for us. Thank you for your word and pray these things in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.