Redeeming the Time: The Spirit-Filled Life of Worship

• Spiritual Awakening and Awareness [00:02:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts spiritual deadness/sleepwalking with being 'awake' and 'alive' in Christ, urging believers to look carefully at how they walk.
• Redeeming the Time (Kairos) [00:10:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explains the Greek distinction between chronos and kairos, defining 'redeeming the time' as actively purchasing or seizing moments of opportunity to do good.
• Spiritual Drunkenness vs. Spirit-Filled Life [00:07:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > Identifies drunkenness (literal and spiritual) as a state that skews perception and leads to foolishness, presenting being filled with the Holy Spirit as the antidote.
• The Evilness of the Days [00:15:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > Defines 'the days are evil' by referencing Ephesians 2 and 2 Thessalonians, describing the current age as dominated by the 'prince of the power of the air' and the 'mystery of lawlessness'.
• The Evil Age [00:16:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the current age is characterized by lawlessness and spiritual darkness, citing Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, and 2 Corinthians to refute post-millennial optimism and establish the reality of the 'god of this age.'
• The Two Wills of God [00:20:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between God's 'sovereign will' (decree, where nothing happens outside His control) and His 'revealed will' (precepts like sanctification), arguing that believers are responsible for the latter.
• Worship and Gratitude [00:26:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects giving thanks 'always and for everything' to a high view of God's wisdom and goodness, asserting that true worship acknowledges God's sovereignty even in the face of horror and pain.
• Types of Christian Song [00:30:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the categories of 'psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,' suggesting they represent biblical texts, formal hymns, and spontaneous Spirit-led songs, advocating for a diverse worship repertoire.
• Corporate Worship and Singing [00:31:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the variety of songs (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs) and the theological significance of singing 'to one another' and 'to the Lord' simultaneously, arguing that corporate singing is transformative.
• The Role of the Holy Spirit [00:32:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the Holy Spirit provides the ground, shaping, and goal for singing to keep it theologically sound and emotionally powerful.
• Heartfelt Worship vs. External Ritual [00:39:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts external actions (hands in the air) with internal reality (heart far from God), citing Jesus' words to emphasize that true worship requires the heart.
• Practical Steps for Being Filled with the Spirit [00:40:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines three biblical steps to being filled with the Holy Spirit: praying for it, turning to the Word of God, and believing what God says.

• Sermon Illustration [00:03:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the life of William Carey, a cobbler and missionary to India who translated the Bible into 20+ languages, using his motto 'Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.' to encourage the congregation.
• Sermon Illustration [00:08:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > An anecdote about drunk passengers on an airplane who believe they are 'more in touch with reality' when they are actually acting foolishly, illustrating how drunkenness skews perception.
• Sermon Illustration [00:14:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > A personal reflection on patriotism compared to C.S. Lewis's concept of 'Storge' (affection for a worn-out sweater), describing America as a comfortable but non-divine 'sweater' that feels like home.
• Sermon Illustration [00:21:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the example of the 9/11 plane crashes to illustrate God's sovereign power, noting that God could have easily moved the plane 60 feet to save 2,000 lives, thereby proving He governs all events.
• Sermon Illustration [00:23:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the mundane reality of daily decision-making, such as the unconscious movement of his left hand, to illustrate the vast number of choices humans make that are not explicitly stipulated in the Bible, necessitating the Holy Spirit's guidance.
• Sermon Illustration [00:28:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Christian experience of singing with tears and knowledge of others' pain against the world's perception that Christians are 'head in the sand' or 'ridiculous' for singing in a world full of horror.
• Sermon Illustration [00:37:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about an 80-year-old woman who lost her husband 12 months prior, yet continues to sing with her hand raised in worship, illustrating the transformative power of corporate worship on spiritual affections.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a moment of self-reflection where he glanced down at his associate pastor, Tom, who was deeply engaged in worship, which served as a rebuke to his own self-absorbed thoughts about his message.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a hypothetical scenario to illustrate empty ritual: someone raising their hands in worship but then going to sleep with their girlfriend that night, demonstrating that external action without heart engagement 'stinks in God's nose.'

• Pastoral Charge [00:05:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > To attempt great things for God and actively engage in bold acts of faith rather than coasting through life.
• Pastoral Charge [00:20:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > To be filled with the Holy Spirit
• Pastoral Charge [00:31:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > To utilize a variety of songs (Psalms, spiritual choruses, hymns) in worship
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The congregation is instructed to pray specifically for cleansing and filling with the Holy Spirit each morning.
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The congregation is instructed to read Scripture and believe its promises of help and strength.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 to 20 I was asked to work on this text and you'll see why when we get to verse 18 and 19 20 it's about music but singing but that's not all there is here look carefully therefore how you walk not as unwise but as wise redeeming the time because
[00:00:35] Lord is and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart giving thanks always and
[00:01:01] for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ so father I ask now for me and all of us that there would be granted the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
[00:01:27] This is a great miracle, it's a gift, and it is a precious thing that we long for now and over and over again in our lives because we want to purchase the time in these evil days.
[00:01:48] We don't want anything to be wasted or slip by.
[00:01:55] We want every moment to count as we walk carefully.
[00:02:01] So come and by your word, through faith, fill us with the Holy Spirit, I pray in Jesus' name.
[00:02:13] Amen.
[00:02:17] Look carefully then, therefore.
[00:02:18] Therefore is pointing back to what went just before and what went just before is awake, O sleeper.
[00:02:27] rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you so picturing people before conversion is sleeping and dead awake o sleeper like Lazarus come forth from the dead Christ will shine on you and that relates to this drunkenness here
[00:02:54] sleeping spiritual deadness is like being drunk so therefore since you're awake now you're not asleep anymore Christian you were sleepwalking before you were saved you didn't see anything the way it ought to be seen and and now
[00:03:15] you're not and therefore look carefully because your eyes are open now you're alive and you know you're not gonna be drunk either you're you're alive your eyes are open and walking that's just a another way of saying live i mean can you imagine no cars
[00:03:33] no trains no electricity no motors everybody's walking everywhere that's how you live you walk look carefully therefore how you walk william carey is one of my heroes the missionary to india and he was just a cobbler.
[00:03:57] You know what a cobbler is?
[00:03:58] He's a shoe repair man, a lay pastor, and he spent 40 years in India, translated the Bible into about 20 languages, 29, I think.
[00:04:08] I was like, what?
[00:04:10] And he said, attempt great things for God.
[00:04:14] I mean, expect great things from God.
[00:04:17] That was the order.
[00:04:18] Expect great things from God.
[00:04:19] Attempt great things for God.
[00:04:21] I would just love for you to do that.
[00:04:23] you won't you won't do that if you if you just get up in the morning and just coast into the day you just coast you live you come home you have to turn on the news go to bed get up coast that's not walking carefully that's not being
[00:04:43] awake I would like you to I mean when you when you walk a few of you when you walked in here you on the brink of attempting something amazing if you were I don't know who you are, but you were.
[00:04:59] And I'm here to say, do it.
[00:05:02] Just do something crazy for Jesus.
[00:05:05] Okay, I'm pushing you over the edge.
[00:05:08] That's why you're here.
[00:05:11] Look carefully, therefore, how you walk.
[00:05:14] Now, then there's the three not but phrases, right?
[00:05:19] Well, before I go there, just redeem the time.
[00:05:28] No, let's do it in the reverse order.
[00:05:31] The three phrases are, let me see if I can put them in different colors.
[00:05:38] So look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.
[00:05:44] So that's the first, not but.
[00:05:47] And then the next one is redeeming the time because the days are evil.
[00:05:51] Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
[00:05:59] and then the third one is do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with spirit now when i see patterns like that not but not but not but what i do is jot down the pairs
[00:06:20] so it would look like this so wise is the well let's put unwise here first since that's mentioned first unwise and then do not not unwise but wise and then the next one is not foolish i'll put
[00:06:41] foolish here not foolish but understand so put understand here and then not drunk so i'm going put drunk here, but rather full, be filled, filled with the Spirit. So I look at those lists now,
[00:07:08] and I ask myself, any order there? Anything from bottom to top or top to bottom? How do they relate to each other? That's the way I think about lists when I run into them. And my answer here as I try
[00:07:27] to think about this is, OK, I'm going to go from the bottom to the top and think about the relationship between drunkenness and being foolish and walking unwisely.
[00:07:46] So you get drunk, be foolish, walk unwise.
[00:07:52] And I think that's the order.
[00:07:53] I think that's the order of reality.
[00:07:57] And Paul is saying, the problem with spiritual drunkenness, and I think he has both real drunkenness and spiritual drunkenness in mind.
[00:08:07] Throughout the New Testament, drunkenness is used both ways often.
[00:08:11] You get these ringing in your ears of spiritual drunkenness.
[00:08:14] And the idea is, you can't walk carefully.
[00:08:19] You can't act wisely.
[00:08:21] You can't act with understanding.
[00:08:23] Drunkenness throws off your perception, Makes people crazy on the airplane.
[00:08:32] Don't you know I can hear every word you say from five rows back?
[00:08:36] Why are you talking like that?
[00:08:38] Because you're on your second beer.
[00:08:39] That's why you're talking like that.
[00:08:42] You're an idiot.
[00:08:43] You turned you into, become crazy.
[00:08:49] And they might think, no, no, I'm more in touch with reality.
[00:08:54] I'm more myself.
[00:08:55] I say, that's a lot of baloney.
[00:08:57] You're not more yourself.
[00:09:00] You're out of touch, and that's the way you don't want to be.
[00:09:06] You don't want to walk through these evil days out of touch.
[00:09:12] You need every fiber of your being awake these days.
[00:09:19] So drunkenness stands for perception that's all skewed, just crazy.
[00:09:24] You can't tell what's going on.
[00:09:26] You don't see the reality correctly, and therefore you're a fool.
[00:09:31] You're just crazy, foolish.
[00:09:34] And therefore, you act in all kinds of unwise ways.
[00:09:37] And then you go to the other side of the list and you say, what's the antidote to that, Paul?
[00:09:42] And he says, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:09:47] Be full of the Holy Spirit.
[00:09:49] That's what you need to be.
[00:09:57] Now, if that's the remedy, we'll come back in a minute to talk about how do you get full of the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:05] Is there any steps I could take tonight?
[00:10:07] If I don't think I'm full of the Holy Spirit, what can I do?
[00:10:11] And I'll try to answer that before we're done.
[00:10:16] So the first thing is just to see the three not but clauses.
[00:10:21] And now let's go into them a little bit more because we left out a bunch of words, right?
[00:10:28] We left out redeeming the time because the days are evil.
[00:10:36] So let's talk about each of those phrases for just a minute.
[00:10:38] I translate it redeem.
[00:10:39] I think the ESV has making the most of.
[00:10:42] The word exagoradzima means buy, like go to the store and buy, purchase, purchase the time.
[00:10:50] And there are two words for time in Greek, chronos and kairos. Chronos is a time that goes by like this from morning to night is chronos, and a moment of opportunity is kairos, and that's the
[00:11:02] word here. So you get up in the morning, you look carefully how you walk, and you see three or four or kairos moments, opportunities.
[00:11:16] Or if you don't see them, you make them.
[00:11:20] Because that's what you do.
[00:11:21] You redeem the opportunities.
[00:11:26] How many of us just amble through the day without any sense of, there are golden opportunities here.
[00:11:36] For what?
[00:11:40] Here's an example.
[00:11:41] This is Galatians.
[00:11:44] So then as we have opportunity, same word, kairos, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
[00:11:55] So one example would be, purchase the opportunity means, can you do some good here when you go home tonight?
[00:12:03] On the way home, is there something good you could do for anybody?
[00:12:08] If your whole mindset is, I'm gonna buy some opportunities before I go to bed tonight.
[00:12:12] I'm gonna say a word to my wife or my son daughter or phone call or an email that needs to be I'm gonna do something I'm gonna buy this night the devil is not gonna have this night these evil days
[00:12:25] are not gonna have this night so that's the idea of redeeming the time goes hand in hand with look carefully how you walk I mean you know people have written all kinds of books about the Protestant work ethic the last since the Reformation and
[00:12:44] it's sometimes scoffed at but produces workaholics and and all kinds of things like that and so it's incentivized with things that are not healthy and all kinds of things are written badly about the Protestant work ethic for the last
[00:13:00] 500 years that happened to build a whole Western world and and I don't I don't kind of give a rip about the Western world because the the globe is my parish like John Wesley said, there are no borders to my kingdom because I belong to King Jesus and he has
[00:13:18] no borders and no nation except the church. However, the spinoff effect of this kind of living is where that comes from. I mean, just read this. I mean, you can't say the Bible is just coming to
[00:13:35] your culture. Some tribe in Papua New Guinea never had any exposure to Western culture at all, never has read before never has had the Bible before and over 20 years you're saturating yourself in look carefully how you walk don't be foolish don't be
[00:13:51] drunk stay awake look for opportunities redeem the time I mean what does that do in a culture makes people productive that's what it does makes them crazy productive I mean and you you go around the world if I go around the world and I
[00:14:05] think, you know, patriotism for me, I didn't, I shouldn't go here, but patriotism for me is like an old sweater. I get this from C.S. Lewis and the four loves. There's a love called Storge
[00:14:23] and Storge is the love you have for a sweater your wife wishes you would throw away. Why do you wear that? I don't wear it outside. It's got holes in the elbow. It's just my favorite sweater.
[00:14:36] I wear it.
[00:14:37] I feel good in this sweater.
[00:14:38] That's how I feel when I come home to America from anywhere.
[00:14:41] Like, I'm at home here.
[00:14:43] It's my skin.
[00:14:44] It's my culture.
[00:14:46] It's not God.
[00:14:48] It's just a sweater.
[00:14:51] And if you're from somewhere else, that's the way you feel about...
[00:14:54] I met a pastor from Ireland.
[00:14:56] He should probably feel that way about Ireland.
[00:14:59] He says it kind of funny, you know.
[00:15:01] Ireland.
[00:15:05] Why did I go there?
[00:15:08] All that from Redeem the Time.
[00:15:10] I mean, really, you will become, you and your family will become a certain kind of family.
[00:15:17] Your church will become a kind of church.
[00:15:20] The mission-drivenness of your church will feel a certain way.
[00:15:25] If you live like that, if you look carefully, if you're wise, if you buy up every opportunity.
[00:15:32] Now, the days are evil.
[00:15:34] What does that mean?
[00:15:37] Which days are evil?
[00:15:42] Now, that's relevant today.
[00:15:46] I mean, big time relevant.
[00:15:47] Let me see if I can avoid not spending too much time on it.
[00:15:51] But that means, well, let me read you the text and you decide what it means first before I sum it up.
[00:16:00] So I'm just gonna give you a bunch of texts where I think shed light on the days are evil.
[00:16:05] Like, will tomorrow be evil?
[00:16:08] 100 years from now, would that still be an evil day?
[00:16:11] Or is there a day coming when you won't say the days are evil anymore?
[00:16:15] Like if you're a post-millennialist, which i'm not and i think it's not a good thing to be but i love you anyway i have friends i mean i do i really do i think it's wrong on this like there's going to come a day when the nation will
[00:16:37] be christianized and the world be christianized and and then after there's a golden age of four or five hundred years of wonderful christian permeation of all culture then jesus can come back i think that's just wrong headed one of the reasons i think that's wrong-headed
[00:16:54] is this sequence of texts about the days are evil so here's ephesians you were dead in in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the age of this world it's translated course the age of this world what does that mean the age of this world
[00:17:13] there's there's a world and there's an age that goes with the world and it's pretty bleak you were following it following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now when's
[00:17:23] that when is that now at work in the sons of disobedience or here's second thessalonians for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work meaning that there's a lawless season coming jesus said lawlessness will be multiplied in the love of many will go cold lawlessness is creeping
[00:17:47] over the world it's already at work in the first century paul says only he who now restrains it will do so till he is out of the way and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the lord
[00:18:00] that's called the man of lawlessness elsewhere whom the lord jesus will kill with his breath the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming that's when these days of evil end or second corinthians 4 4 in their case the unbelievers the god of this age
[00:18:21] that's the devil has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of christ so there's a god of this age jesus is lord and for reasons that
[00:18:33] we are puzzled by he gives an amazing leash to the devil in this age so the devil is the god of this age under the lordship of jesus and therefore we will be in battle to the end two more texts on
[00:18:53] this three more for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness what's that this present darkness when's that end against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the
[00:19:12] whole armor of god etc and then two more here they are galatians 1 colossians 1 christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age the days are evil present evil age
[00:19:27] he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son glorious miracle that has happened to most of you in this room I thank God some of you not probably
[00:19:40] but that's what needs to happen namely we need to be delivered from this evil age now back to the text here therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is
[00:19:56] do you know what that refers to the will of the Lord.
[00:19:59] So don't be foolish.
[00:20:02] Understand what the will of the Lord is.
[00:20:04] Be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to understand what the will of the Lord is.
[00:20:08] We need the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:14] Understand what the will of the Lord is if you know what the will of the Lord means and there are two meanings.
[00:20:25] This is going to be new to some of you but old to many of you this if you don't get this distinction it will be very hard for you to make sense out of the bible what are the two uses of the term will of god in the bible here's one
[00:20:45] in christ this is ephesians 1 in christ we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will So what is the will of God? Everything is the will of God, period. Whatever happens is the
[00:21:08] will of God. If it weren't the will of God, it would not happen. God is God. So this is called the will of decree or the sovereign will. It's used many times this way throughout the Bible.
[00:21:21] What is, is God's will because God is God. He could stop it if he didn't want it to happen.
[00:21:27] You don't have to believe, if you don't want to, that he causes everything, but I don't know how you can be a biblical Christian if you don't believe he couldn't stop it if he wanted to.
[00:21:39] He can stop anything he wants to.
[00:21:42] So when the plane flew into the tower on 9-11, all he had to do was go, and that plane misses the tower by 60 feet, and you save 2,000 people.
[00:21:56] You think he could not do that?
[00:21:57] he governs the wind and the waves the Bible says so he can stop anything he wants from happening if he doesn't stop it he wills it to happen that's the will of God sovereignly but here's another use of the word will for this is the
[00:22:16] will of God your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality so if a student comes to me and asks me what's the will of God for my life I know the of god for your life it's sanctification that's the will of god for your life holiness stay out
[00:22:34] of bed with your girlfriend that's the will of god for your life and he can he can disobey that and break the will of god cancel the will of god in his life so that's clearly not the same meaning
[00:22:47] as the will of god in the first case so you get two meanings of will of god and that's utterly crucial as you come to that phrase over and over again so what does it mean here don't be foolish
[00:23:01] understand what the will of the lord is you're not required to know the sovereign will of god you don't know it i don't know it you're not held responsible to know it but you are responsible to
[00:23:16] know the revealed will of god like the ten commandments or the sermon on the mount or Romans 12. And that's what we're supposed to do. And the reason you need the Holy Spirit is because in your day, just think of this. My guess is you have thought about it. Even if you
[00:23:35] haven't articulated it, you've experienced it. You read your Bible in the morning and you see maybe five or 10 things it says you should do. And then you make about a thousand choices during the day like this left hand of mine is in the air but i did not think about that it's just there
[00:23:56] so there are a thousand decisions that you make which of those should you make 90 let's just let me just guess 98 of them are not stipulated in the bible well what how do I know what to do kiss my wife goodbye when I go yeah don't the
[00:24:28] Bible Wow Connie is you got any sense at all and many many such things you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit conforms you to Christ he saturates you with the word he exalts Jesus he weaves together
[00:24:57] implications of texts and you sense his leading into yeah kiss your wife for goodness sake you love her she would love that don't just walk out and go to Dallas now we're at the sing part don't get drunk with wine for that is
[00:25:29] debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another. There are four participles.
[00:25:41] So be filled with the Holy Spirit is the main verb here. And then you've got addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. And it goes
[00:26:04] on, submitting to one another. But I left that out because we can't do everything. So there really are five participles. And we're only going to talk about the musical ones here. Let's start with giving thanks. This is really amazing. You know, if I tried to, if I could write the list down here,
[00:26:27] I won't take the time to do it. My list again, put four things in the list. Addressing, singing, making melody, giving thanks. Giving thanks is the is the internal one here, right? Singing is out loud, it's what you do with your lips and voice,
[00:26:46] making melody is addressing one another is, but it's giving thanks, or at least experiencing thanks. Being a thankful person is inside, and it says giving thanks always, amazing, always and for everything. Doesn't it say in
[00:27:05] everything? It says in everything in 1st Thessalonians. It says for everything which is simply wild and crazy and great. Really? I mean you just heard a great message from David Mathis about the place of grief and sorrow. To give thanks
[00:27:29] for all of those. In order for that to be true eventually, if not in the moment emotionally when the terrible, horrible, horrible news comes, in order for that to be true you have to have a very, very high view of the wisdom of God
[00:27:53] and the goodness of God and the power of God. How else can you give thanks for the bad things that happen in your life, which is why I think it is foundational to all singing.
[00:28:14] A belief in the sovereign wisdom and goodness and power of God is essential for all worship, at least worship in a real world of horror.
[00:28:26] I mean, my guess is that the world who's aware of the horror in the world looks at Christians singing on Sunday morning and says, those people have their head in the sand.
[00:28:36] I mean, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen they sing they sing like like they're in paradise. No, we don't We always have tears on our faces when we sing always Because we always know somebody's in pain. We always have a kid. We wish were different than
[00:28:53] He is we always know the person down the pew is walking through hell. We always know we're not Fools, we're not idiots But we know God is good and God is strong, and God is wise, and God has his purposes, and that's why we can sing.
[00:29:15] So I think, with Paul saying, giving thanks always and for everything is his way of saying, your father is good to you. He doesn't give a stone to those who ask for bread. He may not give
[00:29:33] the bread that you're asking for because he's not a father who's contemptuous towards his children he always has our good at his heart and he does so in the name of the lord because jesus christ
[00:29:46] has died for us god designed it that way so that everything could work together for sinners like us then you back up to addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody. So you have three kinds of songs, namely psalms, hymns,
[00:30:12] and spiritual songs. And you have two kinds of singing, singing, making melody. And I've read a lot of commentaries and nobody knows what this means. That is, I mean everybody knows what it means but nobody knows the precise distinctions between these three words
[00:30:38] just go ahead pick your commentary and read it and they're all guessing it might be that Psalms refers to the hundred and fifty Psalms in the Bible hymns refer to formal gods more of the formal songs about God and spiritual songs this being
[00:30:57] the very broad word for songs would be spontaneous songs that have come to people's minds I've had several people sing spontaneous songs over me like spirit given in the moment songs very moving you could you wouldn't sing them
[00:31:13] in worship because they're usually not very melodic it's just the way it is when you're spontaneously singing but in the moment it's very powerful very beautiful thing so we just don't know so what we do know is that's a lot of
[00:31:29] options meaning cover the ground cover the field with your singing yeah do the psalms do the spiritual choruses do the hymns i mean if we lay it on the contemporary scene those present realities would not probably be far off from paul saying don't be stuck i think to be a psalms only
[00:31:57] church is probably a mistake don't offend anybody i love singing the psalms the trinity hymnal is great the psalter is great everything is great that's godward right and that's why we have to be filled with the holy spirit because i think the holy spirit gives the the ground and the shaping
[00:32:18] and the goal to our singing so that it doesn't get off base it doesn't go crazy theologically so psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and then singing and making melody you know I have somewhere in here um where did I put it yeah singing and making melody those are greek words
[00:32:45] that's for two or three of you anyway um same thing these two words this means singing and this means singing and the and the translators mix it up because that would sound funny if you said spiritual songs singing and singing so they say singing
[00:33:10] and make humility because they are different words and if we knew more if we had more uses of the words we might be able to make clear distinctions between them but they're used throughout the rest of the New Testament and as far
[00:33:22] as I can tell in looking them all up there are no distinctions between them that I can make out which means that I think gives us permission to sing in various ways there are all kinds of ways to sing so what here's what is special
[00:33:42] about these words that we need to take pay attention to addressing one another that's that's significant and making melody to the Lord well which is it addressing one another as we sing or singing to the Lord and then thirdly
[00:34:04] from your heart those three phrases are massively important to think about when you're planning how to sing with a group and the first one singing to one another is what we did in the first two songs when we sang tonight right for
[00:34:24] example here's come Christians join to sing hallelujah men loud praise to Christ our King hallelujah amen let all with heart and voice before his throne rejoice praise is his gracious choice hallelujah amen I'm saying that
[00:34:43] to you come on you weren't you didn't come you didn't you didn't come come Christians join to sing so that's to one another right and then you have songs like, great is thy faithfulness, O God, my Father, singing it straight to him. I mean, I'm so biased
[00:35:03] in my own preference for that kind of singing that I'm changing words all the time while we're singing. Is he worthy? Are you worthy? Are you worthy? Yes, you are worthy. I can hardly let
[00:35:15] myself say he. I love that song. He or you, either way. But here's the thing. So if you're supposed to do both. Is he saying, sometimes you do one, sometimes you do the other? I don't think so.
[00:35:33] I think in a corporate setting with two or more people, you're always doing both. God is always listening to your songs, right? Always listening to your songs. So you are, if you have any awareness of that fact, singing before him, to him, even if you're singing to each other.
[00:35:52] and if you're singing to him you know this person right here is listening to you he's aware that you're singing to him which means you're aware that he's aware of you're singing to him and
[00:36:05] therefore you're you're addressing him i see this is just huge in my life i've i've i've stood as a pastor for 33 years and now what 12 years since then uh in corporate worship as just about the
[00:36:23] favorite hour of my week I don't even think I need to say just about I love corporate worship I love it something happens to me in corporate worship something happens when in our church maybe 500 people in the service lift
[00:36:41] their voices the the instruments don't drown them out and talk about that later in the Q&A the instruments don't drown them out because God loves corporate voices singing and we sing and the emotion of those people changes me it
[00:36:58] does and it's designed to the spiritual affections rising and you can tell that some of them are bored stiff and and you don't pay attention to them that they got that's between them and God they got issues and and they need they need to be
[00:37:15] here too but but you're not you're not looking at them you're looking at that That old lady that just lost her husband, and you just came back from a year away, and she's there with her little baggy, skinny arm here.
[00:37:29] She's 80 years old, and she's got her hand up like this, singing her husband's in the grave for 12 months, and she's still singing, and everything in here says, yes, right?
[00:37:40] Yes.
[00:37:42] I mean, corporate worship is designed to be utterly transformative for a church.
[00:37:48] It's designed to draw people like me in.
[00:37:52] You've been crabby with your wife, right, on the way to church or the night before, and you're singing now of the sweet mercies of God and his patience towards you, and you are broken.
[00:38:06] And she's standing right here, and you say, I'm an idiot.
[00:38:13] Why?
[00:38:14] why in view of this glory is that little niggling thing wrecking this relationship and your whole world is fixed it's just fixed in a moment right that's happened to me over and over again and with tom stellar my associate for 33 years is down the road and and i'm thinking about
[00:38:37] my message and am i ready and are the people going to like the message and i'll just self-absorbed stuff and i happen to glance down there and there's tom in the third heaven that is a total
[00:38:55] gift to me it is a total rebuke to me and a gift come on piper forget about yourself get into this this is about god it's not about you so addressing one another in spiritual songs and doing it to the
[00:39:15] lord are not alternatives they're both happening all the time and and maybe the last thing to say would be from the heart i'm looking for my original slide where is it there it is from your heart with your heart jesus said this this people honors me with their lips
[00:39:38] but their heart is far from me so the job of a pastor and a worship leader is to do everything we can in prayer and design and the feast of the word to help people wake up, that their hearts
[00:39:56] come alive. I don't think it's worship if it's just words or just hands in the air. You put your hands in the air and sleep with your girlfriend that night. It happens. That's not worship.
[00:40:12] that stinks in god's nose says so in the bible so it really matters that we cultivate with your heart so let me end with okay if fullness of the holy spirit be filled with the
[00:40:30] spirit is the key to that all of that how do you get filled with the holy spirit and i'll give you Just three steps that I think are biblical.
[00:40:41] Number one, pray for it.
[00:40:43] That's how I began tonight, right?
[00:40:45] I asked for it.
[00:40:46] I asked that God would fill us with the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:50] If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
[00:40:57] That's Christians.
[00:40:58] It's not the unbeliever asking to get the Holy Spirit.
[00:41:01] That's Christians asking for a greater measure of the Holy Spirit, just like here in Ephesians.
[00:41:07] I pray, this is Paul praying, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.
[00:41:22] So this greater indwelling, this greater empowering, this greater control, this greater experience of the Holy Spirit comes through faith.
[00:41:35] Just like it says here in Galatians.
[00:41:37] does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law no or by hearing with faith yes hearing with faith hearing what and that's the last step
[00:41:57] faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of God I don't know any other way to help you walk by the Spirit or be filled by the Spirit than to say, get up in the morning and say,
[00:42:11] God, please, I feel very dry, even guilty, I need to be cleansed, I need to be forgiven, and I pray that you wash me clean and that you'd come now and fill me with the Holy Spirit
[00:42:25] so when I go to the breakfast table, I can be of some use to my family.
[00:42:29] Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
[00:42:31] And then secondly, you turn to a word of God.
[00:42:38] I will help you.
[00:42:40] I will strengthen you.
[00:42:41] I'll hold you up with my victorious right hand.
[00:42:45] And you believe it.
[00:42:47] Three steps.
[00:42:48] Pray, look at the word, and believe.
[00:42:51] And the Holy Spirit moves through the word by the belief.
[00:43:03] I think I'm going to save these because my time is up.
[00:43:05] I've got about eight controversial statements to make, but maybe in the Q&A, we'll see.
[00:43:14] Let me pray, and I'll let the powers that be make that call.
[00:43:24] Father, you have met us, you've helped us, and I pray that anything I have said that is out of sync with the spirit of this text or the truth of this text would be canceled
[00:43:38] out from these people's minds so that they're not hurt by it and if anything I have said is in accord with this text and this truth that you would confirm it and as I said at the beginning
[00:43:52] with regard to purchasing the time and some people walking in here on the brink of doing something risky or crazy for Jesus that they would feel empowered by the Holy Spirit to press on and look carefully how they walk
[00:44:13] and expect great things from you and attempt great things for you because they are snatching up every opportunity of all the days.