What Does it Look Like? | Adult Sunday School

Okay. Come on in. Come on in. So before we begin, let me just answer the question that several of you have already asked in case anybody else decides to ask me.

I fell and sprained my ankle and my foot slipped off the running board of my truck and I fell and sprained my ankle.

So if you see me hobbling, that's why. So it was, it was classic, fell all the way, landed on my back in the driveway and so forth.

And then I did what any self -respecting person would do when they felt like that is to look around, see if anybody saw me and then pulled myself back up.

So anyway, ah, getting old, huh? Man, it is not for cowards.

Let's pray. We'll begin together. Father, thank you for your sustaining grace. It is just amazing to recognize the reality that we are dependent upon you for everything, including the very next breath that we will draw.

And you are so very good to us to provide for us in many, many, many ways.

Certainly first and foremost, through the redemption that you have provided through your son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is why we gather here. We pray now father for your enablement, that your spirit would enable the accurate teaching of the word of God and that you would help us to be good listeners to what we hear and then apply it as needed.

We ask it for Jesus sake. Amen. Open your Bibles up to the fifth chapter of the book of Ephesians.

We are back again to Ephesians chapter five. We're looking this morning at verses 18 through 21.

So five, 18 to 21, we're actually making some forward progress. You'd be amazed. So Ephesians five, 18 to 21, where Paul writes beginning in verse 18 and do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled by 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, who

God even the father and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Okay. So we're back again to this important study and we are looking at these verses together under a series of questions.

You'll remember, we're asking and answering a series of questions and they're designed to help us to understand what it means to live by the spirit and to live under his influence in our lives.

So we have looked at why is this study important? Secondly, we asked why warn about wine?

Third, we said, what is the filling of the spirit? Fourth, how is the filling different from the spirit's other ministries to the believer?

Fifth, we've looked at who does the filling? Sixth, what is the content of the filling?

Seven, how do I fulfill this command? And eight, can the filling leak out?

That was last week. So we're back again for question number nine. And this morning we're going to examine the outward manifestations of a life that is regularly being filled by the spirit.

What does it look like? And the question that we're asking is, is the filling of the spirit visible?

Okay. That's the question we have before the house this morning. Is the filling of the spirit visible?

Is it visible? The answer to the question is yes and no. Yes and no.

The actual work of the spirit in conforming us to the image of God's own son is invisible.

It is invisible, but the manifestations of that reality are very much visible and are to be very much visible.

To be reminded, Jesus says in John chapter three and verse eight, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.

So is everyone who is born of the spirit. There is that invisible aspect of the work of the spirit in our lives for sure.

So in that sense, yes, it is invisible. However, however, it is the outward manifestations of that inward reality that are very much visible very much.

So taking a look here at beginning in verse 18, a little bit of grammar again, just to kind of set the stage.

So grammatically the main verb, we've said this more than once, the main verb in this section of 18 to 21 is in verse 18, where Paul commands to be filled.

Plerao is the verb to be filled. And that is followed in verses 19 through 21 by five present participles, five present participles, and they describe the filling of the spirit, but they are not the means of achieving it.

So they are descriptors of what it means to be filled by the spirit. So here they are. They're in verse 19.

Speaking is the first one. 19 again, singing is another one. Making melody is your third.

Giving thanks in verse 20 is the fourth and being subject in verse 21 is the fifth. So those are the five present particles, participles that derive their force from the main verb in verse 18.

So as I say, they are the result of being filled by the spirit. They are not the means to achieve being filled by the spirit.

They are the manifestation of it when it's occurring. So the first four notice of these participles have to do with singing and prayer, singing and prayer.

So again, speaking, singing, making melody, giving thanks. Those first four having to do with singing and prayer and they have to do with the singing and prayer.

Again, notice this in the public gathering of the church, in the public gathering of the church.

And we see that by the use of one another in verse 19. One another, or perhaps even more literally among yourselves, among yourselves.

So we are talking about a public manifestation of the filling by the spirit. What does it look like?

Can it be observed? Yes, it can. Where? In the public setting of the church. Okay, the public setting.

So the public gathering, as we'd say. The fifth and final participle here in verse 21, being subject to that serves as the bridge.

So that's the bridge to the topic of the spirit filled home that begins in verse 22 of chapter five and runs all the way through chapter six and verse nine.

So that's our bridge that takes us into what our future studies will be here. Okay. So in all of this, in all of this, the emphasis is not upon individual or private experience.

That is not the emphasis here, individual or private experience, but the expression of a life filled by the spirit in regard to relationship with one another.

So it's about being filled by the spirit and how does it play itself out in relationships and the relationships of the church?

So in that sense, yes, the spirit's filling is very visible, very visible because it results in, among other things, worship, gratitude, and humble submission.

Okay. Worship, gratitude, humble submission. That is the outcome of a life filled by the spirit.

Now, since Paul describes the spirit filled life in terms of these five participles, it'd be profitable, profitable.

If I could speak it, it would be profitable. It would be profitable for us to spend some time and peek into these a little bit, don't you think?

So that's what I want to do with you in the time remaining is I want to look at the being filled by the spirit under these three headings, the headings of worship, gratitude, and submission.

So worship, gratitude, submission. If you're looking for an outline, there's your outline. Okay. Worship, gratitude, submission.

So first, worship. Let's talk about worship. In addressing the result of obeying the command to be continually filled by the spirit and its resultant growth in the likeness of Christ, Paul speaks first about the role of congregational singing.

He speaks about congregational singing, verse 19. See it? Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the

Lord. So this is the congregational singing. And again, there's a further division here in that he's viewing congregational singing both horizontally and vertically.

So he's looking at it horizontally and vertically first, horizontally and then vertically. And this is super instructive for us.

So he begins with the horizontal aspect of congregational singing. Notice he says speaking to one another.

And then he says in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Now, psalms. The word is psalmos.

That's the noun, psalms, psalmos. And it means fundamentally to touch the chords of a stringed instrument.

So to touch the chords of a stringed instrument. And when used in the New Testament, when this word is used in the

New Testament, it's a reference to the Old Testament psalms. The psalter of the Old Testament psalter was the songbook of the early church and is still the songbook of the church today to a certain extent.

Okay. So psalms to originally, you know, the word to touch the chords of a stringed instrument, it's speaking about Old Testament psalms being sung, being sung.

They were designed to be sung. Beyond that, he talks about hymns, hymnas, hymnas.

And that means a song of praise to God. That's what that word means, a song of praise to God, the word hymnas.

Notice how they're coming over right into the English. They're being translated and coming right over into the English. And it's generally universal in scope.

These are generally universal in scope, and they focus on the attributes of God rather than the personal experience of the believer.

So these are songs that are spoken horizontally, focused on the attributes of God, God's attributes, rather than our personal experience with God.

Spiritual songs speaks more of our personal experience with God. So oda domatikai is the

Greek, and it comes from the word ode in the Greek, which means a song.

And it flows over to us in English again. We know what about an ode is, right? We've heard of an ode.

So that's speaking of a song. And these are the kinds of songs that are composed in response here to the

Holy Spirit's work. So these are songs composed in response to the Holy Spirit's work in the lives of the believers, and probably in contrast to what one writer writes says as the crude singing typical of Greco -Roman feasting.

All cultures sing. All cultures sing, and it is not uncommon at all for them to make up songs to express their culture.

And so when a culture is degraded, its music is degraded. When a culture is lifted up, the presence of God, its music is lifted up for the presence of God.

So these are the spiritual songs. These are the songs composed to celebrate the individual believer's work, or the

Spirit's work in the life of the believer. Okay? Now, the three words themselves are used here.

It's hard to make great differentiation. So they kind of all, Paul combines three together, and it's hard to make hard and fast differences between them.

I've given you some general idea of the differences, but they can't be sharply differentiated in Scripture.

Okay? However, however, their role in the congregational instruction is quite clear.

Their role in the congregational instruction here is quite clear. We're talking about singing to each other, and that provides an instructional role.

Notice where Paul says, speaking to one another. We're speaking to one another, and we are speaking of the attributes of God.

We are speaking back his word to him through the Old Testament Psalms, and we are speaking to, not to him,

I'm sorry, to one another through the Psalms, through the Psalter, and we are speaking to one another about God's great work of redemption in our lives.

Okay? Now, I think if we were to slip over to Colossians chapter three, we could find there, in what

I've called the sister book, some clarity in this area. So let's go ahead and do that.

So slip over to the left and go to Colossians, the book of Colossians. I said to the left,

I meant to the right. Yeah. Hold up your left hand. The other one.

Sorry about that. Anyway, Colossians is our sister letter, and so it can and often does lend some additional clarity to what's being talked about here.

What I want you to see first, though, in Colossians is how Paul identifies in chapter one his ministry.

Okay? So look at chapter one, verse 28. Chapter one, 28. Paul says, we proclaim him, that is

Christ, we proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

For this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me.

So Paul defines his ministry as that of admonishing and teaching with all wisdom for the purpose of presenting everyone complete in Christ.

That's what drove the apostle Paul. Now, slide over your eyes to chapter three and pick up verse 16 and notice this, where Paul says there, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.

We've talked about that a few weeks ago. Notice, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Now, doesn't that sound familiar? It should. We just read essentially an identical exhortation in the fifth chapter of Ephesians.

But what I want you to catch here is the repetition of Paul's ministry model in his statement here in verse 16 of chapter three, right?

He says in chapter 128 that for him it's admonishing and teaching with all wisdom.

That is his ministry. That's what drove him. Now, he moves to chapter three in verse 16 and he's speaking to the church at large, and by extension to you and I, and notice he's using the same kind of terminology.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, we could say be filled by the spirit, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another.

So, in other words, Paul wants us to pick up his ministry and carry it forward, carry forward his ministry model, and one place and way we do it is through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God, Colossians 3 .16.

So, Paul worked hard, he says, 129, to teach and admonish so that people might grow to maturity in Christ, and he wants the

Christian community to continue with that work. And how? By speaking the truths of Scripture to one another in song.

Back to Ephesians chapter 5. How does Paul want the

Christian community to continue his work of building the body of Christ? Well, in one way he wants it done is by singing.

It is by singing to each other, to one another.

And notice again, I just kind of briefly mentioned it, notice though in verse 19 of Ephesians chapter 5, speaking.

Notice the emphasis on speaking. It is because when we speak truth, that's how we grow in the likeness of Christ.

We respond to truth, right? The Spirit works when it comes in through the mind and down to the heart and then out through the hands.

That's how transformation occurs. And so, there is an emphasis here on the singing that it be speaking.

And I think what we could say is that the lyrics are important. I think we can deduce that, that the lyrics are important here, very important.

So, I think we can rightly say that congregational singing is part of disciple -making.

Let me say it again. I think we can rightly say that congregational singing is part of the disciple -making process.

It's part of the disciple -making process. But it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop there.

It doesn't just end with the horizontal, important as that is, and it is. But notice that besides the horizontal, there is a vertical element as well.

There's a vertical element and Paul picks that up in Ephesians 5 in the next two participles where he speaks about a vertical expression of worship and praise to God.

So, there we see it in the second half of verse 19, singing and making melody with your heart to the

Lord. So, singing and making melody.

That word there, making melody, salantes, it carries the idea of to sing along with music or even to play with a stringed instrument.

So, that's kind of running in the background of that. So, we sing to God. We offer our praise in music to God.

Why? Because it is a reflection of what

He has done in us. I think we could rightly say we can't hold it back. We can't hold it back.

It's just going to come out of our hearts. So, notice where he says, with your heart to the

Lord. And the Lord here is Christ. With your heart to Christ. So, the heart.

The heart is the inner human being, the inner human being where Christ dwells.

Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17. Paul says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Okay? So, Christ dwells within the heart. It is the inner human being.

It is the real you. It is the real you. And it's the aspect of our existence that Paul prays that the

Spirit would strengthen. Again, look at chapter 3, verse... He begins there in verse 14, for this reason,

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derive its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, and that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

So, Paul is praying there that the Spirit would strengthen them in the inner man, in the inner man.

And that is the heart, that which offers our expressions of praise to God.

The heart's also the faculty of the mind that Paul prays that God would enlighten with His Spirit.

So, look at his other great prayer in Ephesians here, in chapter 1, and beginning here in...

Well, we'll pick it up in verse 15. There, Paul is praying that the

Ephesian believers might understand the vastness of their blessings in Christ, the vastness of their blessings in Christ.

For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the

God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when

He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly praises, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him His head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Listen, we have a vast treasury of blessing via our union with Christ, and Paul prays that we might understand that, that we might understand that, and we would understand it there in the eyes of our heart, he uses that expression, that we might understand it in the deepness of our of the reality of who we are, okay?

These are prayers for transformation, prayers for transformation. So the vertical music, the vertical aspect, back to chapter five, the vertical aspect of our musical worship is the result of being filled by the

Spirit. So, the idea of singing with one's whole being to the

Lord Jesus. Now, I want to think about this together a little bit.

We put it all together, horizontal, vertical, right? We put it all together.

I think we can rightly say, are you ready for this? The state of our soul is revealed in the sound of our voice.

I think we can rightly say that the state of our soul is revealed in the sound of our voice.

In other words, Spirit -filled Christians sing words of praise to Christ and instruction to each other in a heartfelt manner as a result of the

Holy Spirit's work through the Scriptures. Let me say it to you again. Spirit -filled

Christians sing words of praise to Christ and instruction to each other in a heartfelt manner as a result of the

Holy Spirit's work through the Scriptures. That means, that means in terms of congregational singing, the implications here are huge.

They are huge. For example, our songs must be rich in biblical theology.

They must be rich in biblical theology in order to turn our focus to the praise of Christ.

So we need to sing spiritually rich, theologically profound music to each other and reflecting back to God the truth of who he is.

Beyond that, it's appropriate to have a variety in terms of tempo and rhythm, melody, instrumentation, and so forth in order to facilitate the music's role in carrying the praise and instruction of God's people, because that's the purpose of the music.

It is to carry the instruction. It serves as the vehicle to carry the instruction.

It is not the primary thing, but it is a helpful thing to carry the instruction.

Third, we've got to get outside ourselves. We've got to get outside ourselves and see our congregational singing as one of God's mandated means to fulfill the one another's.

We've got to get outside of ourselves and to see our congregational singing as one of God's mandated means to fulfill the one another's and to make disciples of the

Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, I need to hear you sing, and you need to hear me sing.

You may not like it. I do my best, but I need it and you need it, because it is a

God -ordained means of discipleship. So here's the bottom line. You and I cannot obey

Paul's command to be filled by the Spirit while at the same time refusing to participate or holding back in the congregational singing.

You cannot fulfill Paul's command to be filled by the Spirit and to hold back your singing or to refuse to participate in the singing.

That's a non sequitur. Beyond that, singing is an important means for making disciples of your children.

It is an important means of discipling your children. Teach your children the songs of the faith.

It will encourage them, and you should encourage them here Sunday morning when we gather to sing, to participate in the singing.

Don't allow your children to restrain or withhold themselves from the singing, which means you need to do the hard work

Monday to Saturday to teach them the songs so that they're familiar to them, so that they know.

I mean, even the ones who can't read can sing. They actually have an amazing ability to memorize music.

And so, disciple your children, and singing is one way to do it. So singing is very, very significant.

Gratitude. That was worship, right? That was the first of the three. Second is gratitude. Gratitude. The fourth participle here, verse 20.

Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who

God, even the Father. This fourth participle, giving thanks, eucharistontes is the

Greek word, and I only tell you that. I'll tell you why I tell you that in just a second, but you'll see. It addresses the outworking of the spirit -filling in terms of the practice of public or corporate prayer.

Again, remember, we set the context here is the public gathering of the church. So this is the outworking of a spirit -filled life in terms of public prayer, corporate prayer, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of thanksgiving.

This is a practice that Peter O 'Brien, in his very fine commentary on Ephesians, identifies with the idea of praise.

So praise and thanksgiving running very close to one another. So praise and thanksgiving are the normal biblical response to God in prayer for his good gifts.

It is the normal response. It is the normal Christian response to be grateful, to be thankful, to praise

God for his good gifts to us. And they are the overflow of a heart that has experienced the grace of God.

Grace is keres, and it is the root of the verb eucharisto, which means to give thanks.

So you see how it's bound together here. This idea of giving thanks is bound up in the root word keres, or grace.

So we give thanks because of the grace of God in our lives. It just flows out of us. It's just who we are.

You cut me, I bleed red. You cut me spiritually, I bleed thanksgiving.

That's the idea. Now, I want you to notice again here how

Paul outlines the comprehensive nature of this thanksgiving. He outlines the comprehensive nature of it as a result of the

Spirit's filling and in the process, he brings out the triunity of God. So who do we offer our praise and thanksgiving to?

We offer our praise and thanksgiving to the triune God. So notice here the comprehensive nature of it.

It's frequency. Always. You see it? Verse 20. What's the frequency of our prayers of thanksgiving and praise?

Always. That's the frequency. Always. In other words, constantly, regularly. Constantly, regularly.

What's the fullness of our thanksgiving and praise? For all things.

Again, verse 20. For all things. That includes the good and the bad, as what we would call bad.

Because why? Well, because God is at work in us, is he not? Conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. And we are most conformed to the image of Christ when we are most in a place of difficulty and thus dependent upon Christ in the greatest way.

What about the foundation of this comprehensive prayer and praise?

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the foundation of our prayer. In the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, based on our union with him and our sharing with him by virtue of that union with his exalted position.

If we had the time to work our way through chapter one, in that one long sentence that begins in verse four and runs to the end of verse 14, we could see there the exalted position of Christ and the union that we share with him.

And thus we are coheirs with him. So that's the foundation of it. It's the work of Christ on our behalf.

And the focus is God the Father. Right? In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the

Father, because he is the ultimate source of all goodness and all grace.

I will take you to chapter one, verse three, where that's what Paul says. Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

The focus of our prayer is God the Father in the name of Jesus, the

Son, for all that he has done for us in sharing with us through faith, our faith union with his

Son, right? Adopting us into his family. That faith union makes us coheirs with Christ, joint heirs with Christ.

So, one writer writes, those who are filled by the spirit, quote, should generously and frequently express their thanks to God when they gather with others for worship.

Read it again. Those who are filled by the spirit, quote, should generously and frequently express their thanks to God when they gather with others for worship.

For worship, okay? It should be common among us, common among us.

So, we've had worship, we've had gratitude. Third, submission. Verse 21, this is the fifth and final participle.

Being subject. Hupotasomenoi, and it speaks, it's a compound word, we'll deal with it in a second.

It speaks with the believer's response to God's ordained authority structures within the home.

Again, this is all about the home, right? So, it's talking about our response to God's authority structures,

God's ordained authority structures. And so, the verb hupotaso itself is comprised of two words.

There's a prefix, a preposition called hupo, which means under, and the verb is taso, which to arrange or line up.

So, the idea behind this, in its most basic meaning, is to line up under someone's authority.

That's what it's saying, right? So, we could translate verse 21, and line up under the authority of one another in the fear of Christ.

That's the most basic meaning of the verb, to line up under authority, somebody's authority, somebody's authority.

Now, I'm going to have a lot to say about this, beginning in two weeks, okay? So, you're going to have to hang on.

But I want you here to notice a few things, just in passing. The action of subordinating ourselves to God's ordained authority structures is a result of being filled by the

Spirit. It is a result of being filled by the Spirit. But the motivation, look at the rest of the verse, the motivation for this is our fear, or awe, or reverence of Christ, who is the

Lord and coming judge, right? And being subject to one another, notice it, in the fear of Christ.

In fact, we can, I think we're confident to say this, that one way the Holy Spirit enables us, enables us to fear or reverence

Christ, is by pressing upon us through the scriptures, his position as the Father's exalted ruler.

He is the Father's exalted ruler. Again, look back to chapter one, beginning in verse 20, middle of the verse, when he raised him, when the

Father raised him, the Son from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named.

That's kind of a comprehensive way to say these things. Not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

So, that kind of lays it out, right? Christ is Lord of all. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave his head over all things to the church, and so forth.

As such, as such, Christ has the authority, Christ has the wisdom, and Christ has the prerogative to mandate the interactions of authority and submission.

Let me say it again. Because he is the exalted one, he is

Lord of all, pardon me, therefore he has the authority, he has the wisdom, and he has the prerogative to mandate the interaction of both authority and submission, and that's what he's going to do.

Pardon me. Okay. Sorry about that.

Okay, let's talk about a little bit about application. Just a little bit about application. We'll kind of tip the hand here just a little.

I got a lot more to say, a lot more to say about the interplay between loving biblical authority and God -honoring submission.

Like weeks, and weeks, and weeks of things to say about this. But for now,

I want to make one simple, overarching observation. One simple and overarching observation.

Think with me. As the believers in Ephesus, they gathered together to hear this letter read.

The church gathered. They gathered in a home. They gathered to hear this letter read, and what they would have heard is they would have heard the

Apostle Paul address in turn each group common to a first -century household.

Each group common to a first -century household. And he would be addressing each one in turn with regard to what it means to be filled by the

Spirit. What does that look like in each individual relationship?

So what do we see? He addresses husbands. He addresses wives. He addresses children.

He addresses slaves, and he addresses masters, and he does it in turn. So he's making application to all the various constituencies that gather in the church in a home.

As they responded in faith to his command to be filled by the Spirit, their homes would have become both a place of private disciple -making that perfectly complements the public environment of the corporate worship.

In other words, we'll just say it this way. Monday through Saturday, they are working on these things of pursuing

Christ and being filled by the Spirit, and that is transforming them, and then as they gather publicly for worship, they have opportunity to instruct one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody, and so forth.

Okay, so you see there's a private -public aspect, but it's all kind of wrapped together around this house -church setting.

Now, you combine the public display of spirit -filled life.

Hold on. I got time. You combine the private display of a spirit -filled life with the numerous commands to hospitality that occur throughout the

New Testament, and the local church becomes an evangelistic hothouse.

The local church becomes an evangelistic hothouse in which the ministry of the gospel begins to flourish.

That's how it spreads. That's how they took over the Roman Empire. This, beloved, is why the elder,

Paul commands the elders have to be hospitable, right? 1 Timothy 3, 2,

Titus 1, 8. They have to be because it's within the confines of their homes that they demonstrate obedience to the command to be filled by the

Spirit, and then as people gather in their home with them, that obedience is put on public display, and the believers understand what it means for a mature man and woman to walk in the

Spirit, to use Galatians' language. Okay? So you see how these things wrap together. The home is critical.

The home is critical for the display of a spirit -filled life, which means that when we hold ourselves back from one another in our home environments—in words, we don't allow people in, inside the keep—then we can create a

Sunday illusion of spiritual reality that perhaps is not quite there

Monday through Saturday. But when we invite people into the keep and put our lives on display, they can see our progress in faith, and they can also encourage us in areas where we need to exert more effort in growing in the likeness of Christ, and we them.

So we have that back -and -forth mutual accountability and encouragement.

Okay? Is that all making sense to you? All right. Well, I was thinking—I'm about to do something kind of crazy for me—but

I was thinking about how to apply this morning. And, you know, when we hear the

Word of God, we should be thinking about, how can I apply this? Right? We don't want to just hear it and then, you know, be like James says, you know, a guy who looks in the mirror and then turns his face away and can't remember what he saw.

So we want to be doers of the Word, not hearers only. So we've been hearing a lot about speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing, making melody in our heart to the

Lord. So it seems to me that an appropriate way for us to apply that message right here and right now is to sing together.

So are you ready? I hope so, because otherwise you're going to hear a solo.

Because I want to sing the doxology together. It's simple. We all know it. Are you ready? Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen. Thank you.

Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have given us a voice, the ability to create beautiful music and to speak to one another and to you the wonders of your grace.

O Lord, may you continue to encourage us as a body to press into singing.

May Kootenai Community Church become known as a place that knows how to sing and that we would exhort and encourage one another.

We would admonish one another in the teaching ministry of the public singing of the church.

We pray for our young children that they too would learn this gospel vocabulary and that it would become a very much a part of their lives as well.

We commit it to you in the name of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. It's 1015, so we have to hang in for five more minutes.

So we can just stare at each other for five minutes or you can stand up and fellowship for five minutes.

And Peter has a question he's persistent on asking. Go ahead, Peter, ask your question. That is correct.

The first thing that would come to my mind is to invite the unbelieving world into your home, that they might see how does a

Christian live. They have oftentimes very confused and mixed up understandings of what it means to be a follower of Christ, maybe through prior religious experience that was defective or maybe and increasingly so they've got no religious backgrounds at all.

So they have no idea what it is. So invite them in. And it's not like you have to dump the whole boatload of the gospel on them that first night.

I mean if opportunity presents itself you should speak to them about Christ. But if it's a follower of Christ you can't help but live and speak about Christ, right?

I mean you're different than they are. You're seriously different. And they're gonna they're gonna see it.

Is that helpful? Okay, thank you. Yeah?

We talked about Psalms being a stringed instrument. In order to be completely filled with spirituality, do you then learn to play a string?

His question, in case you didn't hear it, he said my observation that Psalms speak about the plucking of an instrument.

And so do we need to learn to pluck an instrument? No, I don't think we need to. I think if you move that way, go for it.

There is something. I mean these Psalms where you can see in the superscriptions that there are musical notations for some of these.

Like on a stringed instrument or you know there's different musical terms and there's some differences of opinion exactly what those

Hebrew words are communicating. Is it crescendo? Is it pause? You know is it pianissimo?

Or is it forte or double forte? You know those are kind of musical notations, right? So you see that stuff in the

Psalms. But I would say that yes, when the Psalms were sung, they were typically sung with some sort of musical accompaniment.

So if you don't play, find somebody who does and invite them for a hymn sing in your home.

Does that make sense? You can sing, of course, you can sing a cappella.

We just did. That is true. That is true. The voice is probably the greatest instrument of all, isn't it?

It's just saying, you know, I need to tighten the strings and you know a little of that. But indeed.

Okay, good. Thank you. Our love for one another, won't they?

Yep. John 13. You can't shove the gospel down somebody's throat, okay?

It cannot be done. You can be very offensive to people, but you can't shove the gospel down anyone's throat.

Okay, sweet. All right, we'll come back next week. We're going to finish it with the 10th and final question, which is,

I can just, I'll tip my hand a little bit. It's kind of a review of all nine quickly. And then the 10th question is, where do we gain the power to live like this?

Okay. And the answer is the gospel. Okay. So there it is, but you still have to come and hear it.