EVIDENCE OF BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (Ephesians 5:18-21)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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we've got a number of people out today. I guess the flu has has wreaked havoc on our community.

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My family has been the recipient of that this week and I've still got a bit of a cough so bear with me.

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Keith might actually have to turn the mic up a little bit today so y 'all can hear me, but I'm so glad that you've chosen to come and worship today and bring your gifts and and we're thankful for all of our guests that have been able to be here.

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If you didn't get a chance to get one of these connect cards, if you're a first time guest you got a bag at the front and it has one of these cards in it.

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It's just an opportunity for us to be able to answer any questions about who we are as a church and and then there's a section on the bottom to ask how we can pray for you and if you fill that out and you put it in the offering plate when it comes by here in a little bit it gives us a chance to be able to pray specifically for you and maybe answer some of your questions and we look forward to getting to know you.

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So thank you for for being here this morning. Before we start our service we always like to pray for a local church and this morning is a church that we've not yet prayed for.

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It's just recently gotten put on our list. It's a church from Black Rock, Arkansas. It's Mount Vernon Baptist Church.

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The pastor there, him and his wife actually attended, I think it was our grand opening service if I'm not mistaken.

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They took the Sunday off and just came and we pray that that was of benefit for them and restful time for them but we care for the saints over there and we just want to lift them up in prayer today.

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I messaged him and and he said really he said the prayer request that we're asking for is that is that we would be obedient to the sovereign will of God and I said well we can certainly pray for that brother so so if you wouldn't mind bow with me as we pray for this church

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Mount Vernon Baptist Church. Oh dear Heavenly Father, Lord we thank you.

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We thank you for your providence and in our lives as saints. Lord we we just want to lift up the brothers and sisters at Mount Vernon Baptist Church.

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God we pray for them. We pray that you would work in their hearts and in their minds Lord. We pray that you would grow them in the fear and knowledge of the

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Lord. We pray that that they would grow in their understanding of the of the the mighty

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God that we serve. God I pray that they would be gospel minded. I pray that their life would be saturated by grace.

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The grace in which Christ has bestowed upon each of them if they are in Christ.

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Lord I pray for for Pastor Trent. Lord I pray for him and his family. I pray that you give him boldness.

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God I pray that you give him clarity of thought as he proclaims your word this morning. I pray that you would help him to be true to your word.

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God I pray that he would be able to show the full counsel of God from your scripture so that the people may be impacted by that word.

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Lord help him to remember and to rest in the truth that that it is your word that has power not his.

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It is your opinion that has power not his. It is your moving that has power not his.

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God I pray that you would just give him grace. Help him to pastor the people well. To shepherd the flock that you've tasked to his care.

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God I pray that they would be a people that would love you. That would impact that community with gospel minded graciousness.

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In Christ's name amen. Amen. Well let's stand let's let's go ahead and start our service this morning with a call to worship.

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If you're a guest with us you may not be familiar with how we do this. We actually go through things like the

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Psalms. This morning's Psalm 100 and what we do is we break it down to where there's a read and a response.

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And you'll see that up on the screen and we do that for the purpose of of reminding us that this is a corporate involvement.

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This is not something you just come and passively partake of. This is something we're doing together in worship to our

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Lord. And I pray that this great psalm Psalm 100 would drive our hearts and our minds and our souls deeply into the throne room of God.

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So that we would see the glory of our great God and Savior. The psalmist says his steadfast love endures forever.

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It's a psalm for giving thanks. And he says make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth.

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Come into his presence with singing. It is he who made us and we are his.

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Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Give thanks to him.

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Bless his name. His steadfast love endures forever.

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Amen. And all God's people said it's his steadfast love that endures forever.

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This is why we worship this morning because it is not your faithfulness. It's not my faithfulness.

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Us showing up to church today wasn't an act of faithfulness. It's his faithfulness that that brought us here.

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It's his faithfulness that allows us to stand and worship him in spirit and truth. Right?

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Let's pray a prayer of adoration before we sing to our great God. Oh dear heavenly father we come to you once again and we we ask that you would be honored in our worship.

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God our worship is so short -sighted often. Our worship is so small and seemingly insignificant.

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Oh God but the Holy Spirit the third person of the Godhead is within us.

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If we are in Christ and and our savior Jesus Christ he is with us in this moment but I pray that you would you would be honored as we sing as we pray as we preach as we think of you as we ponder you as we encourage one another through through the songs as we encourage one another through our prayers.

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God I pray that we would drive drive our hearts towards you for you're worthy of all praise.

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Oh Lord I ask that it not be indifference this moment. Search our hearts. Lord if we come in here and we are numb to this or we are indifferent or our minds are elsewhere oh

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God I pray that you strip that from our our minds and our hearts and set our affections upon you because you are worthy of all praise in Christ's name amen.

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Amen. Behold again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Mercy for my pardon. For my pardon this

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I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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For my cleansing this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.

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Oh, oh, oh, dirty mounds I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Nothing for sin, nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Not a good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.

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Oh, oh, oh, dirty mounds I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.

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Oh, oh, oh, dirty mounds I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.

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Oh, oh, oh, dirty mounds I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Let's sing this together, My Hope is Built. Hope is built on the goodness, then

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Jesus' blood and righteousness. Dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

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On twice a solid rock I stand Over the ground it seems insane

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Over the ground it seems insane Darkness veils his lovely face

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I rest on his unchanging grace In every high and stormy gale

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My anchor holds within the vale On twice a solid rock

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I stand Over the ground it seems insane

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Over the ground it seems insane He shall come with trumpet sound

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Oh may I then in him be found Trust in his righteousness alone

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Faultless to stand before the throne

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On twice a solid rock I stand

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Over the ground it seems insane Over the ground it seems insane

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One more time On twice a solid rock

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I stand Over the ground it seems insane

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Over the ground it seems insane Father we thank you oh

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God That we have that steadfast hope in you God It's only because of you Lord You brought us here to worship and honor your name

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Thank you Father Praise you Praise the

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Lord Praise the Lord His mercy is more

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Stronger than darkness And more every morning

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Our sins they are met His mercy is more

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Vengeance on knowing

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It's not for some Thrown into the sea

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Without bottom or shore Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Sing it Christian Praise the

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Lord His mercy is more

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Stronger than darkness And more every morning

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Our sins they are many His mercy is more

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With patience we'll wait As we call our sin free

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With a Father so tender As cold as snow He welcomes the weak

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And fire lifts the poor Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Praise the

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Lord His mercy is more

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Stronger than darkness And more every morning Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Reaches of kindness

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He lavished on us His blood was the payment

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His life was the cost We stood beneath the debt

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We could never afford Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Praise the

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Lord His mercy is more

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Stronger than darkness And more every morning Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more His mercy is more

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Stronger than darkness And more every morning Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Our sins they are many

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His mercy is more Do you feel the weight of that?

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Our sins are many I feel it often And we need that reminder

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His mercy is more His mercy is sufficient His mercy covers us

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If we are in Christ Let's Let's go to our scripture reading this morning Which comes from the second chapter of Philippians The first eleven verses

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Paul says so if there is any encouragement in Christ Any comfort from love

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Any participation in the spirit Any affection and sympathy Complete my joy by being of the same mind

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Having the same love Being in full accord and of one mind Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit

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But in humility Count others more significant than yourselves Let each of you look not only to his own interest

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But also to the interest of others Have this mind among yourselves Which is yours in Christ Jesus Who though he was in the form of God Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped

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But emptied himself by taking the form of a servant Being born in the likeness of men

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And being found in human form He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death

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Even death on a cross Therefore God has highly exalted him

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And bestowed on him the name that is above every name So that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven

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And on earth and under the earth And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord To the glory of God the Father What a glorious truth

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It's his finished work It's his It's his mercy is more

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Because he humbled himself and became like man The creature that he himself created

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So that he could represent us So that he could be the true and better Adam So that he could be the one to fulfill the covenant of works

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So that he could bring us into the covenant of grace So that his mercy is more

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Even in our sin Let's pray a prayer of confession and assurance Understanding that yes, we do continue to sin

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Oh, but we're in Christ there is Total forgiveness And we stand righteous before God Free Let's pray

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Oh Father Lord We acknowledge our sin before you

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God we acknowledge that as a people we do not We do not live selflessly

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We do not live as our Savior Jesus Christ did And calls us to We cannot

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We fall so short we become selfish Father We live for our own purposes

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And our own power and our own idols And our own means And we cause division

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We slander, we gossip We don't sing to you as we should

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We half -heartedly worship you when we come into the gathering place God we don't read our

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Bibles as we ought We do not seek your wisdom as we ought And when we do we don't obey it all the time

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We fall so short Our sins are so many

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Oh but There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus We stand perfectly clean

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In the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ our representative

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If we are in Christ today we no longer have any condemnation or judgment upon us

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Help us to rest in that this morning God As we continue to sing As we sing of Christ the true and better Adam God I pray that we would be reminded of that That glorious hope that is ours in Christ Jesus That we stand perfect And so as we declare your praise as we sing

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We know that our hearts and our minds are often covered with filth But they are completely washed in the blood of Christ We thank you

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Lord Work in our hearts and minds In Christ's name,

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Amen Christ the true and better Adam Son of God Son of man

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It's in you You're the healer of every soul

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He who makes the many righteous

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Brings us back to life again He who washed the cursed

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Rising Christ the saviour Christ the true

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Son of sacrifice Forbid to offer up His life

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Laid with paper upon the altar

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By His joy and holy Son Salvation was provided Oh what full and bountiful I've been from beginning to end

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Christ the story His the glory

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I believe Christ the true and better God to Thee New people

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Standing tall today God's great glory to be heard

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With His arms stretched wide to heaven

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See the waters part in two Sing the praises to Him forever

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Cleansed with blood we pass now through Amen, Amen From beginning to end

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Christ the story His the glory

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Hallelujah Listen to this verse

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It says Christ the true and better David Holy Shepherd, mighty King Christ the true and Holy Shepherd, mighty

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King He the champion of battle

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Where O death is now thy sting In our place

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He bled and conquered Crown Him Lord of majesty

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Shall be the throne forever We shall live in His glory

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Sing it with me Amen, Amen From beginning to end

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Christ the story His the glory

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Hallelujah Amen From beginning to end

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Christ the story His the glory

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Thank you for bringing us here to worship and honor your holy mighty name God we thank you that these words are true

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It says Christ the true and better David Holy Shepherd, mighty King He the champion in the battle

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Where O death is now thy sting Praise you God that we get these truths Thank you

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Father To you be all glory and honor forever and ever I know sometimes that song can feel a little confusing for some

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Because Christ the true and better Isaac The true and better David The true and better Moses The purpose for that song is to point to the fact that all of scripture

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Points to the plan of redemption It's all Christ Moses was a picture of Christ David was a picture of Christ These were all shadows of a substance to come

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And that incites in my heart is the worship that God had planned All the way back from before the beginning of everything

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To carry out this act of redemption And he fulfilled it And if he did it then he will continue to fulfill it now

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Amen Amen Let's go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians Chapter 5

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Ephesians chapter 5 As we go into I believe It's either week 51 or week 52

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Today of our study Through Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus That we've entitled

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In Christ In Christ Because this is a theme throughout the whole of Paul's letter here

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To the church in Ephesus There is no Jew nor Gentile There's no division We are all one in the body of Christ This is the overarching theme

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And I've actually titled today's message Evidence of being filled with the spirit

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Evidence of being filled with the spirit Evidence of being filled with the spirit So let's start reading there In Ephesians chapter 5

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Starting in verse 15 So we can get the context here Paul says Look carefully then how you walk

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Not as unwise but as wise Making the best use Of the time

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Because the days are evil Therefore Do not be foolish

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But understand what the will of the Lord is And do not get drunk With wine for that is debauchery

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But be filled With the spirit Addressing one another in songs

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And hymns and spiritual songs Singing and making melody To the Lord with your heart

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Giving thanks always And for everything to God the Father In the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ Submitting to one another Out of reverence For Christ This is the reading of God's word

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I want us to stop here I want to go to the Lord I want to pray that the Holy Spirit Would illuminate our hearts and minds of this truth today

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And guard my lips from error Please bow with me Lord we come to you now

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And we ask that you would help us in our frailty Lord I am but a man

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And my opinions Mean nothing My thoughts Are futile

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But your word is clear And true and good And everything we need for life and godliness

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And so we ask that we would See them clearly today We would see what

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Paul is telling us Here in these few verses in Ephesians And that it would penetrate into Our minds

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And then make its way into our hearts And then make its way Out from our lips and from our fingertips

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Out into the congregation God, into the world And the sphere of influence that we have

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Give us clarity And wisdom, give us discernment Lord help us to see the truth

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As it is in Christ's name Amen Last week we saw how Paul is telling us

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To be filled with the spirit There in verse 18 like we just read And that is of course the

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Holy Spirit You see it's capitalized there And how this is written In the passive voice

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And in the present tense Oh come on Don't want to talk about grammar here right

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But this is important Essentially what we're looking at This is probably better translated

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Be being filled Be being filled Put off the old self

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And put on the new And be led, be dominated By the spirit

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It's much like The sail on a boat The sail is hoisted Into position

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But in order for it to function In order for that sail to do its job To go anywhere

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And be fruitful in any way It must be filled by the wind You see this is walking

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In the spirit Are we Are we hoisted into position

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Are we in position Ready to be filled Ready to be moved along by Ready to be empowered by Ready to be dominated by That wind

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That is the Holy Spirit Or are we As Paul mentions earlier

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Grieving or elsewhere Quenching the spirit Being unfruitful

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Like Paul says The imagery I think of Is are you wadded up on the deck

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Of a boat gathering rain water And subsequently mold Like an old tarp

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Laying out in the yard Being filled by drunkenness or worldliness Or anything other than the spirit

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Sometimes it's hard to tell I know in my own life It's hard to tell

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Most of us in this room We don't go out getting drunk We don't

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We don't go out cheating on our spouse We don't do these things For the most part we try to play by the rules

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That's kind of the good Christian thing to do right At least outwardly we do Sometimes we

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Much like the Pharisees of Jesus' day We're very good at making sure That the outside of this cup is clean

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So that everybody sees it And we can hold it up and say Look how clean this is

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Look I don't go out and Party like the world does I don't cheat on my spouse

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Like the world does I don't do this like the world does I have all of my stuff together

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It looks clean Even though the inside of it is filthy It's filled up It's filled up with rain water and mold

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And you've not taken care of it Because of this Our own self righteousness

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Makes it so hard to tell When we are actually being filled By the spirit Or when we're being filled by the spirit

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Of our own self deception Because of our self righteousness I mean yes we have the fruit of the spirit

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In contrast to the works of The unfruitful works of darkness Listed over in Galatians 5

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Which we read last week That list of the fruit of the spirit Love, joy, peace, patience

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Kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gentleness, self control But yet we still deceive

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Ourselves by perverting And misunderstanding the things Within that list We justify our actions thinking

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That they are actually present in our life So how do we know

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If we are truly being filled By the spirit How are we supposed

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To discern this Well good news I believe Paul addresses this

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I think he points to this He gives us some insight into it here in our text You see as soon as there

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In verse 18 he tells us to be filled With the spirit He points to three identifying markers

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Of what that looks like And the first one That we see is

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Being filled with the spirit Always leads To singing Being filled with the spirit

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Always leads to singing Look at verse 19 He says addressing

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One another in psalms and hymns And spiritual songs Singing and making melody

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To the Lord with your heart Now we have to point

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To the fact that Paul is not telling us that If we want to be filled With the spirit we must sing

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A lot of times we get that backwards We think well If I want to really feel the spirit

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If I really want to get in the mode Where I'm really being led by the spirit Then I've got to start by conjuring it up I've got to sing

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I've got to come to church And I've got to be moved by the music I've got to be moved in some way

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So that I can then be filled by the spirit But that's not what Paul is telling us here He's telling us that if we are filled

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With the spirit we will sing You see the difference But unfortunately

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In our culture today Doing this or I should say Doing this properly has been lost

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In most cases Now let's be honest We're not a singing culture

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Most of us in here Don't even know how to sing parts And how many of you In here know how to sing like a baritone

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Or tenor or soprano part Harmonies A few of you Thank goodness we ought to have you up here

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A few people do But this would have been common practice Throughout much of history you realize that right

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Even in recent times In recent history some of you older saints Probably remember learning how to sing

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Parts and read music In school right This was a common place but it's not

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For us now It's not as though we don't like music Music is probably a bigger part of our life

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Today than ever in history Music and music artists Permeate our culture

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There are heroes in many cases You can't turn anything on without seeing Taylor Swift today can you

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She even took over football It's everywhere Yet corporate singing is rare Outside of the church

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Of course However even there it is still Often malformed

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Deformed Distorted And I think it's because the evil one

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I think he's played a cruel trick on us Right he's The evil one

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Is got this world Under his sway right He's distorting things and perverting

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Things that God calls good I think he's numbed our senses And I think he's deceived us

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Into a distorted relationship to music And I think he's done it in order to Restrict God's people from this beautiful gift

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Don't get me wrong There's beautiful music that gets created Today I'm not downing music today I'm saying

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That somehow some way Things have been twisted To Hinder God's people

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From partaking in this Beautiful gift that he designed I'll give you some examples

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Now when I give examples I always get pushback right These are generalizations okay

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There are exceptions To the rule My wife is the one that gets on me every time She goes

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I don't fit into that bill I'm like yeah babe that's why I married you You're not typical You're better than everyone

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Points for me But these are generalizations okay Women tend to be drawn

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And to prefer extreme emotionalism Especially when it comes to music right

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Extremely sad songs Right here's the exception I actually like sad songs You turn on some

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Celine Dion And I get goosebumps on my arms right I don't know who can't do that But most guys can't right

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But women are drawn to either sad songs Or and extremely happy songs

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Pop music The happy stuff The stuff that has a good repetitive beat

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And has uplifting lyrics And melodies and all that go with it And because of the feminization

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Of our culture Permeating into the church And neutering our gatherings Most of our worship music

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Is geared towards this Most of today's worship

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Gatherings and music Are essentially Don't give me a lot of lyrics

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To remember Give me an emotional build And a really catchy easy melody

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That's what we want We're not so worried about The precision of our theology

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We don't want to have to Think about it We want to know how it makes us feel

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Ultimately leading us to Heretical garbage Like reckless love Right Where you're attesting something to God That is totally

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Against the very character and nature Of a God who is anything but reckless Well We've seen how this is

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This has continued To permeate into our culture And even though this kind of music

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Is also appealing to effeminate boys Parading as men within the church The actual men are alienated by it

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They're alienated Leading the men away from doing What Paul is telling us to do here in verse 19

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I'll be honest I am one of those men at one time In my life that was thoroughly alienated by it

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Nevertheless Women are not the cause of this By no means Not the cause of this

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Matter of fact I put the blame On the men Where it always is Men Around my age we have a distorted view to music

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We have a distorted relationship To music We tend to be drawn to aggressive and angry

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Songs don't we Let's be honest Don't put on your holy face We all grew up on Rage Against the

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Machine and Tupac Right? That's what we prefer I'm not sure what you younger guys are listening to But I can promise you it's not healthy

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I can't understand what they're saying But it's not good But then on the other extreme

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Some of you older saints in here You grew up in the era of John Wayne You're like well

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John Wayne's not in music But here's what I mean There's this unspoken mentality of Well singing's for the little lady

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I have to be stone cold I have to be rigid You know I'm an island unto myself

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And everyone relies on me to be the hero And we detach You may say

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Well man I don't know anybody like that I grew up in church I know exactly what this is I remember as a boy watching the older men

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Even with the hymns Hymn books are open And the older men they're just barely mumbling some words

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If they sing at all Most of them just stood there staunch But then When that one part of it is well

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They had that real low bass part that was a repeat Then they'd sing that part out And then they'd just be quiet for the rest of the time

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You know what I'm talking about if you grew up in church That was the mentality of that generation You can see in every generation

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We've been distorted in different ways And now because of this Our preferences and world view

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Have poisoned the well And we've distorted this view Of singing together

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Within the body of Christ Some have answers to this

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The reformed world has an answer to this They have a response to this Some of them not all of them

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In my opinion not a biblical one Their answer Over the past few years has been

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Let's take out all emotion Remove the emotion of it

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Let's make it rigid Let's make it lofty and heady That way the men can sing

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Very theological Doesn't even rhyme half the time But it's rigid

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And we throw it to some cheap melody But is that really worship? Or is it just more catechizing

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With a melody It's not the answer It's not healthy

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It's not what God has prescribed Well how do we fix the problem? How do we fix the problem in our own lives?

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How do we fix the problem here Within this congregation? Well just like we fix every problem

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We look to God's word Right? Let's see what God's word has to say It's not our opinion, it's not our resolution to it

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Our fix typically is nothing more than A band -aid on a gunshot wound That wound needs to be healed

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And only the words of God Give us the cure So let's look at what he says Look at verse 19 with me again

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Notice he says addressing Addressing one another This word in the

44:23

Greek It's the same word that Paul used back in chapter 4 In verse 25 when he says Therefore, having put away falsehood

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Let each one of you Speak It's the same Greek word

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The truth with his neighbor You realize what that means right?

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If Paul's using this word addressing one another He's saying speak to one another Now it's translated addressing because later on He defines it as singing

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But this means that it requires A physical verbal communication To each other

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We don't just sing Together on the Lord's day So that we can get our blood flowing and ready

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For the sermon I think there are many within Theological, really theologically driven

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Circles that if they could Get away from the singing In scripture, if they could just get rid of a few

45:12

Of those verses, they would And their service would just be Prayer, scripture reading, and teaching

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And they wouldn't sing at all But they feel like they have to There are many within that world that would do that Because they're like I don't get anything from the music

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It's just a time for filler Maybe it gets our blood flowing, gets our mind set for that But we also don't sing

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As individual time For you and the Lord That's where most of our culture

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Goes now The reason We don't black out these windows And dim these lights down to black

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To where you can't see anyone else In the room is because that's not what this Lord's day gathering is about This is not your time for you

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And Jesus That time has already passed this week That time should have been you and Jesus In your closet, in your room

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In your car, that time is for you And you should do that, and that's good You should worship the

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Lord That's why God has gifted us with music There's great music we can turn on in our house And we can worship

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We can sing praise to the Lord Just you and him, but this is not the time

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This is corporate When we come together

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This is something communal As we see here in this text

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Some people will take this These few verses, or this verse particularly And they'll say well Paul's not

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Talking about The corporate gathering Of worship I have a problem with that Because we don't live in a musical

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Right Either Paul's talking about the corporate gathering Or he's talking about us walking around Katie would like this, right

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We're walking around and every time I walk Into someone's house I start singing things to you It doesn't work like that Paul's obviously not talking about this

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Paul's talking about the corporate gathering We are addressing We are speaking, we are declaring

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To one another And we are to do so As he says in psalms and hymns

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And spiritual songs Now there's some debate As to why Paul phrased it in this way

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Why he listed three things Are they different things, are they the same thing Said three ways

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I'll be honest, I hold to an interpretation That Paul is giving us variation I think there's

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Variation within the Addressing one another The speaking, the declaring to one another

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Through song Let's look at the first one, psalms To me it's pretty obvious It seems as though Paul is referring to the

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Old Testament Book of Psalms, isn't he The psalms Is the largest book

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In all of scripture and it's a compilation Of what most believe to be songs That the people of Israel Would sing and worship to God Many of the songs

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That we sing and hear on Sundays Are derived From those psalms

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Because they're Very much, in many cases They're almost word for word, the psalms

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We're declaring, we're essentially Singing back to God his own words But then also

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Singing to each other his words And his words are the only ones with power

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Aren't they That's why we proclaim his word His words are the only ones with power

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God's words The only concrete sure truth So it is essential that we are Present and are addressing

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Each other in the word We are diving into the word And singing those

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Psalms To God and to each other Paul also mentions hymns

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The Greek word That he used here is This is really a

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Greek word that wouldn't have been Common to just the church This is something that would have been

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Common in culture It's referring to a song of praise To their gods

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Or heroes Or conquerors So this humnos would be sung

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A song written in praise Of a conquering general that would Come back from a battle

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And they would write a hymn A humnos to them And they would sing it as a people

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In praise to this hero But of course In our context, in this context

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From Paul, he's obviously using it In reference to songs of praise To our mighty God There are

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Christians who hold to what's known As exclusive psalmity Believing that it is forbidden

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To sing anything except the verbatim Words of scripture They'll only sing the psalms

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Word for word It sure seems to me

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That Paul is contradicting that With his use of this particular word These hymns, these humnos

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Are songs, they're declarations Of praise to their gods Or heroes And they wrote these types of songs

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About the one true God The early church wrote songs About the one true

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God Some of the old hymns that we still sing Today, things like Amazing Grace Most people don't realize this

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These were lyrics written in a certain cadence And put to bar tunes

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Of that day That was back when Even the world sang together

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When they would gather They would have certain melodies that all of them knew And they would just throw lyrics to those melodies

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So a lot of the old hymns that we sing Were actually derived from The world's music

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Some of you are like, well man, I love hymns I thought they were super holy and that's how God really loved I thought that was like the church

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No No That's not the way it has worked But these are humnos These are hymns

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This would have been commonplace And thirdly He lists spiritual songs

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Songs sung in praise Glorious Spiritual Truths I think what

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Paul might be referring to here is Songs written about Spiritual matters

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With new and fresh melodies Maybe not a rigid hymn type

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Of cadence Much like the psalmist declaring In Psalm 96, right?

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He said, oh sing to the Lord a new song Something new In your heart

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Being creative Being poetic While maintaining theological precision of course

51:52

That is always essential Look at what

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Paul says next In verse 19 He's telling us, hey, addressing Speaking, declaring to one another

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In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Singing And making melody

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To the Lord With your heart Now of course

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I mentioned a moment ago He is speaking of corporate gathering This should mark

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Our gathering This should be a A massive

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Part of our gathering People would say Well which one can I get rid of If I had to get rid of singing

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Or preaching I would definitely get rid of the singing And I would say you don't have the option

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That's not on the table Because to get rid of the singing Is to disobey King Jesus And now your preaching is worthless

52:54

Because it's King Jesus Who said to sing Because he's telling us Through Paul here

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This should mark our gathering And if we are being filled with the spirit You will not be able to merely stand there

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And half -heartedly mumble These truths in melody Interesting enough

53:13

Ronald Allen in his book Worship He wrote a book about worship Rediscovering the missing jewel

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He made this statement He said when a non -singer becomes a Christian He or she

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Becomes a singer When a non -singer becomes a Christian He or she becomes a singer

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You may say well pastor I'm just not into music I'm really more into that preaching

53:40

After all that's the important part of the service Well let's again let's look at what

53:47

Scripture has to say about that Let's see what Scripture has to say About singing

53:54

Singing to the Lord is referred to Over 400 times throughout Scripture And it's always in reference

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To melody To truly singing It's not just some metaphor of the heart

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And I said a moment ago The largest book in all of Scripture Is a list of songs David essentially

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Established the very first praise team We've got a pretty good praise team up here We were missing half of you this morning

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But we've got a great team up here We've got great musicians here He enlisted for the people of Israel Of that day

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Four thousand trained musicians Four thousand

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That were chosen at childhood And were Immersed into Learning, growing, and knowing music

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And that being their craft That being their entire future They took it serious didn't they

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He had 220 chief musicians To lead the four thousand We've got

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Justin and Ryan They had 220 They took it serious right Men that were trained

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And skilled to train The four thousand and lead them Over in Isaiah chapter 12

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You can jot this passage down Verses 5 and 6 He says

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Sing praises This is one of our references here to singing Sing praises to the

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Lord Four Why do we sing praises to the Lord Why is he worthy of singing out

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For he has done gloriously Let this be made known to all the earth

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Sometimes in here When we come in and gather And we sing praises to our glorious king

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Very few people can hear Can they We should be singing so loudly

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That the neighbors around here hate us On Sunday mornings Because the glory of the

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Lord Is being Magnified Through the voices

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Of declaration from his people To shout And sing for joy

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And sometimes I'm afraid I'm distracting I just get so wrapped up I'm up here on the front row And when a song's done

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I shout something out And I'm like man don't be distracting Then I have to remind myself no no no

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God's called me to do this Like if I'm excited about the glory of the Lord Then I shout I declare it

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We shout and sing for joy Oh inhabitant of Zion That's us

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For great in your midst is the holy one of Israel He is great Is he great

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Well we say that We say that And we say he's great

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The Lord is wonderful and he's glorious and he's magnificent And then we stand and we sing

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Of the glories of Christ With our hand in our pocket Mumbling the words As if it doesn't actually matter to us

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To then turn around next Saturday And scream at the top of our lungs until we lose our voice For our favorite football team

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Who's your God It isn't the glorious God It's something else

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I'm feeling that in my own heart I'm not preaching I'm not yelling at you I'm sorry if I get aggressive

57:21

I'm yelling at myself Because I know my own heart I know my propensity

57:26

To turn and to be numb And be indifferent But the word of God sing praises

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Shout and sing for joy A non -Christian A non -singer becomes a

57:37

Christian Becomes a singer Because God has called us to Turn in your Bibles actually to Psalm 47

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Psalm chapter 47 Let's look at one of these very songs

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And as we read this I want you to think of the people of Israel Singing this declaration out

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And I promise you This was not done monotone That would be awkward Psalm chapter 47

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Starting in verse 1 what does he say Clap your hands You ever noticed

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In a really theologically minded church The two or three people that clap their hands Make it awkward for the rest

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Why Maybe we're not being filled by the

58:41

Spirit Maybe we're being hindered By our own flesh

58:47

Clap your hands all peoples Shout to God With a loud song of joy

58:54

For the Lord The most high is to be feared And we don't fear him

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He's a great king over all the earth Sets enthroned

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Over all things He's the great king over that football team

59:18

That you love so dearly That you're willing to worship He's the king over Whatever concert you go to And pay all the money for And dance and sing and clap

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And worship before the altar Of something other than the king above all things

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And then you come in here And you're indifferent Verse 3 he says

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He subdued peoples under us The nations under our feet He chose our heritage for us

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The pride of Jacob whom he loves He chose Salem What a good and gracious God He says

59:54

God has gone up With a shout I want you to notice that We're going to go back to verse 5 here in a moment

01:00:01

But God has gone up with a shout The Lord with the sound of a trumpet

01:00:08

Sing praises to God Sing praises Sing praises to our king

01:00:13

Sing praises For God is the king Of all the earth Sing praises with a song

01:00:21

I think if we're going to repeat it That many times there's something to that isn't there Sing praises

01:00:27

To the one who is worthy God reigns over the nations God sits on his holy throne

01:00:33

The princes of the peoples Gather as the people Of the God of Abraham For the shields of the earth belong to God He is highly exalted

01:00:43

He is worthy of our praise David knew this didn't he

01:00:51

David danced in the streets Naked for God Please don't do that You don't have the right to do that But he declared the praises of God He was so overwhelmed by the majesty

01:01:05

Of the almighty King over all the earth And he's saying sing

01:01:11

Sing praise But I want you to look Think back at verse 5 I just told you

01:01:17

God has gone up with a shout Notice even our God sings Even our

01:01:25

God sings Says he's gone up with a shout The Lord with the sound of a trumpet

01:01:32

In Zephaniah chapter 3 Verse 17 It says the Lord your God is in your midst

01:01:38

A mighty one who will save He will rejoice over you With gladness He will quiet you with his love

01:01:45

He will exalt over you with loud singing We're called to imitate

01:01:57

God aren't we We didn't create singing

01:02:04

We didn't create melody He created It flowed from him

01:02:11

And he sings over us He shouts over us

01:02:19

For his glory For his worship After all singing is part of our

01:02:26

Eternity isn't it Over in Revelation chapter 5 It says

01:02:32

And when he had taken the scroll The four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down Before the lamb each holding a harp

01:02:38

That harp wasn't for battle was it What was it for Melody Beauty music art

01:02:49

And they sang A new song They sang it They didn't just chant it they didn't declare it

01:02:56

They sang it saying worthy are you To take the scroll and to open Its seals

01:03:01

For you were slain and by your blood You ransomed people for God From every tribe and language and people

01:03:09

And nation There is singing to King Jesus Because he's worthy of that Praise I wish

01:03:19

I knew the melody to those lyrics I'm sure it's a beautiful Declaration we'll hear it one day right

01:03:26

They're singing We will be singing We see the act of it all throughout The book of Revelation Is he knowing what we know

01:03:34

About God that he is greatly to be Praised do you think he's honored and Mindless emotionalism

01:03:42

With theologically inaccurate Truths about him Repetitiveness Of just saying a phrase over and over Again until the kick drum hits in And that quarter note and drives you and makes

01:03:54

You feel something no different Than a concert Is that what

01:03:59

He's honored in Do you think he's honored in emotionless

01:04:05

Boring lazy melodies That are created cheaply He's the God of art he's the God of music

01:04:10

He created it and he made you in his image To create art to create beauty To create melody

01:04:17

And to take it seriously To create beauty in it Goodness in it

01:04:22

To declare his goodness And his grace Just because It's theologically accurate doesn't

01:04:30

Mean it's praise to God It may be good to remind Yourselves of those truths I gotta step back

01:04:39

I get in front of the speakers I get too excited But it's not worship Do we think he's honored

01:04:46

In half breath mumbling Do you think he's honored In hands in your pocket ready for the sermon

01:04:53

To start no Scripture points us to something Far greater Something much bigger

01:05:00

Than what we in our own Sinful flesh have distorted I for one

01:05:08

I desire For us to truly worship In spirit and truth I desire for our church to be

01:05:14

One that worships in spirit and in truth I don't want us to be one of those Rigid lifeless emotionalist

01:05:20

Reformed churches God tells us to raise our hands God tells us to Clap our hands

01:05:27

God tells us to Shout with joy And we hinder that If God truly is what we claim he is

01:05:40

What we see in Scripture and we can take or Leave the singing portion of Sunday There's a disconnect somewhere

01:05:50

Something's wrong The truth must not have

01:05:56

Renewed our minds and made its way Into our heart as much as we thought it had Pray with me over the next

01:06:04

Few weeks as a church that we Would have our minds renewed And our hearts when it comes to music

01:06:09

That music would be redeemed in our lives And used towards the worship Of our great God That we would be a people

01:06:18

Who address one another In songs and hymns and spiritual Songs that we would sing

01:06:24

And make melody to the Lord with our hearts You see you will most

01:06:31

Certainly be able to tell if a people Are being filled by the spirit Because we will be a people singing and making

01:06:37

Melody will we not This is one thing that Paul lists here

01:06:44

As a as an evidence Of being filled with the Spirit But remember just because someone is singing

01:06:52

And making melody doesn't Mean it's from the heart that's why

01:06:57

We can't this can't be the only Distinguishing marker I'm moving

01:07:03

We'll get through the next two faster Which leads us to the second thing I want us to see being

01:07:09

Filled with the spirit always Leads to satisfaction Verse 20

01:07:18

He says Giving thanks there's a Word that he uses there for giving

01:07:24

It's it kind of has this understanding Of an ongoing always A continuation

01:07:30

Of it a continuation Of giving Giving thanks

01:07:36

Always and For everything What's everything

01:07:43

All circumstances Everything Absolutely Good the bad the ugly

01:07:51

Give thanks always and for everything to God The Father In the name of our

01:07:57

Lord Jesus Christ You remember over in Philippians Paul's chained to a

01:08:03

Roman Guard he's lost his freedom He's been wrongly imprisoned And he says

01:08:09

I know How to be brought low I know how to abound In any and Every circumstance

01:08:17

I have learned the secret Of facing plenty and hunger abundance And need I can do all things through Who who strengthens me

01:08:24

Him Right we are to give thanks For everything to the

01:08:29

Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ In him we have the strength

01:08:35

To give thanks This verse is not about Winning the

01:08:41

The Yeah or scoring the winning touchdown It's not about You able to run that Extra mile

01:08:50

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Like you can do all things through a verse taken out of Context right

01:08:57

Paul's saying that I can withstand I can I can find Thankfulness and joy

01:09:03

And praise in the midst Of all of this Because of him Because of Christ You ever notice the times

01:09:14

You're not thankful That you're not being filled with the Spirit Are the times where you are

01:09:20

Discontent with your circumstances You ever been around a

01:09:26

Christian like that It just sucks the life Out of everything doesn't it Somebody that always comes to church they're never

01:09:33

Satisfied with their lot Always upset about Their circumstances they want

01:09:39

Something more different from God Whenever you see it

01:09:44

In your own life Or in others just know you or they Are not currently being filled

01:09:50

With the Spirit Because being filled with the Spirit always Leads to satisfaction

01:09:57

An ongoing giving Giving thanks Praise to God Now the good thing is

01:10:06

When you do see it in others or yourself It gives you an opportunity To point to point them or yourself

01:10:12

Back to the glorious inheritance That is theirs in Christ Jesus That's what Paul is saying right

01:10:17

To be reminded of it John Piper famously said God is most glorified In us when we are most

01:10:24

Satisfied in him God gets all the glory

01:10:31

When we are resting in Christ Seeing the big picture not being Short sighted about our momentary

01:10:38

Afflictions But realizing That no matter what they are He is sovereign and in control

01:10:45

And they are being used As Paul said over in 2 Corinthians To prepare us For an eternal weight of glory beyond All comprehension

01:10:56

And he goes on he says as we look to the things Unseen When we are not content when we're not satisfied

01:11:04

We're looking to the things that are seen My circumstances The situation that I'm in Sometimes even my own sin

01:11:14

I'm looking at my own sin I'm looking at myself I'm looking at my ability to get myself Out of this circumstance

01:11:19

I'm looking At anything and everything Except for the unseen The secret

01:11:26

Things the secret perfect plans Of God for our life and for his Glory because all things

01:11:32

Work together for the good of those that are That love him and are called according to his purposes Right all things

01:11:38

No matter how Tragic but we must be able To find satisfaction there

01:11:45

When you and I are being Filled and we are being dominated by the Spirit the third person of the

01:11:51

Godhead within us we are comforted We are resting in that sovereign Perfect will

01:11:57

In our good and gracious savior God And being satisfied

01:12:05

Helps us in this third Evidence this third and Final point that I want us to see is

01:12:10

Being filled with the spirit always Leads to submission Look at verse 21

01:12:18

There he is He says submitting to one another Out of reverence for Christ this is a compound

01:12:27

Greek word hupotasso It's actually a military Term that was used by the

01:12:32

Greeks This is a military term The compound is hupa Which means under and tasso to Arrange or to place in Order and when it's put together

01:12:43

It's it's referring To a hierarchy of Authority structures within a military

01:12:50

Setting And Paul uses this compound Where Paul's not telling us that We are to submit to one another

01:12:57

As if there are no authority structures As some would interpret this Many would interpret this

01:13:04

Versus well we're all no matter There's nobody there's nobody in any kind of authority We're all just submitting to one another

01:13:10

That's mass chaos As a matter of fact over the next few weeks we're going to look in detail

01:13:16

At some of the authority structures God has given Us as he speaks about husbands

01:13:22

And wives children and parents slaves And masters but as he Introduces this here in verse 21

01:13:27

He's pointing to the fact That someone who is being led By the spirit is someone who submits

01:13:34

Themselves to the God -ordained design You show me someone who cannot

01:13:43

Submit themselves to the authority of the church And I'll Show you someone who is not submitted

01:13:49

The authority of Christ I'm going to say that again You show me someone who is not

01:13:55

Submitted to the authority of the church They are someone for Certain without question and without Doubt not submitted to the kingship

01:14:04

Of Christ I tell all my children That their mother

01:14:11

My wife Is my representative when I'm not home They are to submit to her in the exact Same way that they are to submit to me whatever

01:14:19

She says is if it's from Me because she's My bride One flesh right

01:14:28

Just as the church is the bride Of Christ Brought into his body

01:14:33

And is his representative until He comes home Is it not

01:14:40

Just like in my Home the only authority that I have Is that in which God has given

01:14:46

Me that's it that's where it stops I can't tell my children Or my wife to sin

01:14:51

My authority Stops there I can't just Rule over with an iron fist my authority

01:14:57

Stops there my authority Is a servant Foot washing leader

01:15:03

That lives sacrificially For his family That's where my authority stops

01:15:08

Just like Christ's leadership

01:15:16

Or the church Leadership within within Christ prescribed means is the only authority

01:15:21

They have is that which Christ Has given A pastor doesn't have authority over you

01:15:27

In many areas of your life I can't come Into your home and tell you to show me Your tax return I have no authority over you in that area

01:15:35

My Authority ends at just spiritual Oversight And structure within the church

01:15:43

But it's still there And it's not me alone we're a plurality Pastor Jeremiah soon brother

01:15:49

Keith Pastors equally Under the submission of Christ I like what

01:15:55

Martin Lloyd Jones said about this verse I want to give you This quote we're about to wrap up here But in this particular

01:16:01

Verse he says Paul gives Us a picture of soldiers here Aligning under one mighty

01:16:09

Captain of course that's king Jesus Right no man Remains an individual

01:16:15

He's now part all Of them of the regiment All together taking orders

01:16:21

From one and from one Captain and when a man Joins the army he signs away the rights

01:16:27

To determine his life and Activity and that's The core of his contract that He no longer governs himself

01:16:35

Governs himself he can't go on Holiday when he likes he can't get up Late in the morning as he likes

01:16:41

He's now a man under authority And a captain and the orders Dictate his call and anything else

01:16:47

He says is insubordinate You join the military

01:16:54

And try and live on your own outside of Authority and see what happens Doesn't work does it

01:17:01

There's a structure That's given there The church is very similar here We do not belong

01:17:09

To ourselves we were Bought with a price there's no longer I but Christ who lives in me the head

01:17:14

Of the church the king Jesus The one who purchased us by blood ransom Brought us into this glorious Inheritance setting at the right

01:17:23

Hand of the father now and He's the one the only one who gets To govern our lives that's

01:17:28

It why do you think we take this Word so important why do you think We focus so closely in on It because I have no wisdom for you

01:17:36

If you're following me I'm gonna lead you astray I'm Sorry that's bad news

01:17:43

For you But if I can be like Paul and say Say imitate me

01:17:49

As I imitate Christ That's the way it's Supposed to go because Christ is

01:17:54

The head it's how the church should be Structured and how we should

01:18:00

Live within that paradigm And we should do so through a life of Submission let me close with This are you being filled with the spirit

01:18:11

That's the question right If you Are it will show

01:18:17

They're singing and Praising God It will Show by being satisfied

01:18:23

In his gracious providence It will show By your submission to his authority

01:18:29

By submitting to one another Within his prescribed me If those aren't present you're not

01:18:39

Currently being filled by the spirit It's a good chance

01:18:48

For us to evaluate our lives isn't it We can deceive ourselves So easily I deceive myself so many times

01:18:54

I think I'm more spiritual than I am Do you feel it I deceive myself

01:19:00

I look at I look around And I compare myself to others or I compare Myself to what I was before and I think

01:19:06

Okay well I'm doing good I must Be being filled with the spirit I must Be walking in the spirit

01:19:11

I must be doing As I ought to do And then I hold up this Mirror that is the word of God and I go

01:19:18

Oh no I see myself

01:19:25

I see Myself for what I truly Am because it exposes All of the faults and all the things

01:19:32

That I didn't know were there And shows that I am not I'm not being

01:19:38

Filled with the spirit I'm being filled with the spirit of self Deception at times so if that's

01:19:46

You I ask now that We would stop for a moment Pray Search your hearts ask

01:19:53

God To search your hearts more Except in too close Ask God to search Your hearts and as We do that here in just a few

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Minutes I would like For us to then go to the table Go to the table and rest in Christ Because you're gonna fail

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Oh my that's why We continually come back to this

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And then we go over to The table and we see the wine that Represents the blood spilt for us

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That covers us we see The unleavened bread that represents His perfect spotless body

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As a representative for us and we Partake in that element those elements And we are reminded

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Of our Position He is our righteousness We have none

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And we rest in him Amen Fair enough

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For those of you that aren't familiar With this here in just a moment when we do this Brother Keith will be on this side Brother Jeremiah will be over here on this side

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The elements are on tables right here We go around the outside Maybe some of this back row over here

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If maybe y 'all could come over on this side To even out the balance You can get the elements you can go back to your seat

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Through the middle you can pray together As a family you can pray individually You can worshipfully

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Partake in the elements And then we will sing once again And we will continue our time of worship

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Through fellowship Let's have a moment now Where we bow our heads