The sermon explores the profound role of singing in the life of a believer and a Christian community. Drawing from Ephesians 5, the speaker underscores the transformation believers undergo from their past sinful lives to their renewed lives in Christ, emphasizing that singing is a natural response to this transformation. Singing is presented as a form of thanksgiving and a reflection of being filled with the Spirit. The speaker illustrates how singing impacts both the individual and the congregation, fostering a spirit of joy, unity, and encouragement. The sermon also highlights the contrast Paul makes between the old life of sin and the new life in Christ, encouraging believers to avoid dissipation and embrace a spirit-filled life that expresses itself in song. Additionally, the sermon stresses the importance of singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, noting that this practice not only glorifies God but also strengthens and admonishes the church body. The speaker calls on heads of households, particularly fathers, to lead by example in singing, as this forms a crucial part of family and corporate worship, and even spiritual warfare.

Some of the simplest and yet profoundly greatest Moments of joy for me as a father are when I hear one of my little girls, I've got four of them, when I hear one of them, or all four of them, maybe they're playing by themselves or she's alone with her thoughts. Out of nowhere I just hear a hymn start to be sung. Hum, sung, bits of a song being declared. You've seen that with your children I hope? When they're happy or when they're sad, when they're alone with their thoughts, they start to hum.

They start to sing. What comes out of them in song is what you've taught them. You've taught them how to sing and what to sing. If they don't sing, you haven't taught them. They do sing, you have taught them, but it does matter what they sing.

It's what comes out of their mouth, it just bubbles up like a fountain, the things that they're thinking about. Peace, security, hope, joy, happiness. What's so neat about that singing, I know this is the way it is for me, I'm sure it must be the same for you, is that when they begin singing, when your little girl starts to sing, it spreads to you. It spreads to you. It affects you.

I simply cannot hear one of those cute, beautiful hummings and singing from one of my daughters and just remain unfazed. I mean I smile every single time. I join in almost every single time. It's contagious. I could be out helping Carissa clean the kitchen.

One of my girls who's been put away in bed strikes up a tune. The precious little voice spills out into the kitchen. Jesus loves the little children, and I clean the kitchen bed. I'm humming the secret place with my daughters and considering the truths of those songs as I help fold laundry it's a glorious thing just again goes to show you just how much you can disciple and catechize your children by the songs you sing in your household. And it just goes to show you how those songs begin to shape your household corporately.

They very much shape your household. Last time we were together we considered the first part of Ephesians chapter 5. We were answering the question, how do you imitate God? What was Paul's answer to that? You imitate God as his beloved children and as his beloved child you love you imitate God it's his beloved children as you love as Christ has loved you and this morning Paul zooms in on that I'm doing this because I'm thinking of an iPhone.

Zooms in. It's funny how this would not have made sense 30 years ago. You imitate God as his beloved children, and he's zooming in on that. He tells you here's what it looks like to imitate God and to love as his beloved children. Here is a piece of what it looks like.

Here is what it sounds like to imitate God. Here is what love looks like. In fact, here is what love sounds like, at least in part. How do you do those things? How do you imitate God?

How do you love? You sing. You sing. A child of God sings. A soul that has been rescued by Jesus and knows the love of Christ, that soul sings.

And that's exactly how Paul begins these verses through the contrast from descent to ascent from tomb to resurrection from death to life if you've been rescued if you've been made alive from the spiritual dead singing happens It's like a baby that comes out of the womb and the baby cries out with an almighty piercing song. I'm alive! She shrieks in a different language. With a piercing wail, and I think a song of sorts so that everyone in the room knows immediately and is relieved That baby's alive. I heard her.

In a far better way, a sinner made born again through the power of the gospel, cries out in gospel song. As he's lifted out from the pit of his sin, he's raised to new life of Christ, he sings gospel. I'm alive! He's full of thankfulness. He's full of song.

And So I want to show you that briefly. I want to show you that briefly how Paul frames verses 19 in Ephesians 5 with constant contrast from tomb to resurrection, from descent to ascent, from death to life, and how that changes what comes out of here. It has to change what comes out of your mouth. Notice how Paul writes in contrast, look at verse 18 of our passage, Ephesians 5, 18, Paul prohibits what? Drunkenness.

And he does not prohibit wine, He prohibits drunkenness. And for what reason? Well look in verse 18. Paul prohibits drunkenness because drunkenness is dissipation. Could be translated, drunkenness is debauchery.

It's a waste of life. The word dissipation and debauchery, they carry with it this downward descent, this downward spiral connotation. Don't give yourself to drunkenness, Paula's saying, because it leads downward. It goes down to the pit. It goes down to darkness.

Dissipation is the path that goes down to sin and death. It's where you used to be. It's where you used to be before Christ came and He rescued you. Dissipation is what used to define you, but by the grace of God and the grace of God alone, you aren't down there anymore, Christian. You aren't down there in the pit anymore.

So why would you go back? That's the argument. Think of what Paul has just said at the beginning of this chapter, chapter 5 verses 1 and 2. Look there again. I know we just were here last Lord's Day.

He tells you, Paul tells you, you've been made a beloved child of God. You've experienced the love of Christ. That's verses 1 and 2. So, because you've been made a beloved child, because you've experienced the love of Christ in verses 1 and 2, verse 4. What does verse 4 say?

Don't let sinful talk come out of your mouth. Instead, give thanks. Instead, look up and give thanks. Why? Why should you look up and give thanks?

Verse 8. Look in verse 8. Because you used to be in the darkness, but now you are in the light. So verse 14, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. It's consistent all the way through chapter 5 of Ephesians.

Paul is going back and forth, making contrast from who you used to be to who you are now in Christ. You used to be a child of God's wrath, and so you spoke like one under wrath. Now you are His beloved child, bought with the blood of Jesus, and so you speak differently now. You give thanks. You look upward.

You are to arise. You are to speak as one in the light. Speak as one no longer in the darkness. Speak as a child of God rescued from the pit. Contrast.

What your state was before in your sin and what your state is now in the Lord Jesus Christ. So back to verse 18. I just wanted to show you that this is a constant theme that's been going on in Ephesians 5. Verse 18 is no different, it's continuing with the contrast. Dissipation.

Dissipation. That's your old way of life. It's who you used to be. In fact, the pagans in Ephesus, I mean this would have hit really hard. The pagans in Ephesus worshiped a false god.

You know one of the, they worshiped many false gods. But one of the false gods that they worshiped was the God of Wine. Do you know that? This God was one of his names, Bacchus, the false God Bacchus, and their worship of the false God of wine in their worship of Him. They committed all kinds of evil, wicked, sexually deviant sin.

That's dissipation. With one another, they were committing abominable acts in their worship of the God of wine. That's your old way of life Ephesians. It's a downward spiral into death and depravity. You're gonna worship somebody and the worship of the wine god leads downward into the pit a descent.

Again, Paul is saying to the Ephesians and saying to you, that's who you used to be. That's where you used to be in the pit. You used to belong to that pit. You used to belong to that darkness and its revelry in sin. If It wasn't the wine god, it's some other god, some other idol that you worship.

And that worship is a dissension into the pit of your sin. And it will kill you forever in eternity and hell. But Christ. But Christ, how marvelous Christ is. He shed His blood to redeem you.

He shed His blood to rescue you. He poured out His life for you. He went down to the pit for you, and He shined the light of His gospel on you. Why? To bring you up.

To bring your life up from the pit. That's Psalm 40 verse 2. When you come up out of the pit of your sin and depravity, when you ascend from the spiritual grave, When you are spiritually raised up with Christ, no longer in the tomb, dead in your sin, but made alive by grace through faith, when you come up out of that pit, what comes out of your mouth, Paul says, must be Thanksgiving, if you have any inkling of a clue what just happened to you Must be Thanksgiving Your tune changes You sing a different song and what is that song? Well, that song is gospel. It's resurrection music.

It's notes of ascension. It's a melody of triumph. You sing gospel. God has done a resurrection work through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. And if you name the name of Christ this morning, He has done such a miraculous work in you.

And that flavors everything. It flavors everything about the way you obey Colossians 3.16 and Ephesians 5.19. It flavors everything about the way you obey Colossians 3.16 and Ephesians 5.19. It flavors everything about the way you sing. And so that's why in our music, here in this congregation, in our singing, we sing gospel songs.

We sing gospel. We sing about the resurrection. We sing about our sin and the Savior who triumphed over that sin in His death and His resurrection because he took your life from the pit, he rose you up to be a new creation in him for good works that you might walk among. And so this theme of descent into dissipation and ascent being raised up to newness of life. This theme that Paul sets before us here at the beginning of our passage, that's why we sing songs that go up and down.

You ever think about that? Why do we sing songs that ne-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne? Why don't we just be monotone? It's not gospel. The gospel is a story of up and down, down and up.

Christ came down. The Creator came down. We were down in our sin. You were in the grave spiritually. And Christ went to the grave to redeem you and to raise you up with him.

To bring you up when you were down. He went down to bring you up. Trying to give you the emphasis. Ups and downs. And so our songs reflect that truth of the down and the up of the Gospel.

Again, have you ever thought about any of them? Have you ever thought, why don't we just sing Amazing Grace? Amazing Grace, how sweet this sound that saved a wretch like me. Be easier to sing, baby. We sing.

That's not how we sing amazing grace, because amazing grace is gospel. And gospel is ups and downs, Christ coming down, bringing you up. And so instead we sing songs like this. Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin, and nature's night. See me going down?

This is not an accident. What am I singing about? Sin. Your sin. You're singing about your sin.

You were low. You were helpless. You were held fast, bound in your shackles. You were slaves to sin. You're not singing that up in the soprano.

You're down. But it doesn't end there. Christ came. Christ was made low to raise you up from the spiritual dead. And so you sing up.

Thine I diffused a quickening ray, I rose the dungeon flamed with light. You know the song? It's upward. Did you hear me? I was down low, now I'm going up.

If you know the rest of the song, you should sing it with me. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. Amazing love, how can it be That thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Before Paul even gets to singing, he'd make sure you understand that you sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs, you make melody in your heart because you were dead in your sins, you were low, and God made you alive.

And so the gospel of Christ has freed you up to sin. You gotta understand that as we get to verse 19 of Ephesians chapter 5. And that's why we sing up in doubt in our songs. So that's what Paul says in verse 18. No longer be filled with drunkenness, no longer live in the pit.

It's your old way of life, but instead, because you've been raised, because there is an upward ascension in the songs that we sing, in the gospel, because Christ has raised you up, don't live in a pit anymore, be filled with the Spirit. Be filled, Don't be filled with wine, be filled with the Spirit. And so the question needs to be, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? And do you know the answer? Part of what it means to be filled with the Spirit is to sing.

To be filled with the Spirit is to sing. Or to put it another way, to imitate God is to sing. That's the end of verse 18 and all of verse 19. Be filled with the Spirit. What's that look like?

Looking at verse 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. A spirit-filled life is a life of obedience, and a life of obedience is one that sings. A spirit-filled life is a life of obedience, and a spirit-filled life therefore is a life of singing songs because God commands you to do so. I just want you to again consider the contrast.

The drunkard is filled with alcohol and he stumbles in what direction? Down. The drunkard is filled with alcohol, stumbles down. But the one filled with the Spirit is raised up. For the drunkard, wine controls him.

And what comes out of him is debauchery. For the Christian, the Spirit controls him. God is within him. And so what comes out of him is the opposite of debauchery, thanksgiving. Such were some of you.

That was me. Praise be to God. I am no longer in the pit. God is within you. And so what comes out of you is thanksgiving.

What comes out of you, Christian, is obedience. What comes out of the Christian is imitation of his heavenly father. I just really want to emphasize this I want you to see the continuity between last Lord's Day and this Lord's Day. Sometimes when we preach sermons we just kind of individualized chunks of passages but Paul didn't write Ephesians 5 in like, you know, multiple years. He just wrote it, I think he probably sat down and wrote it all right then.

He means for you to connect all these things. And so how did Ephesians 5 begin? I just want to say this again. Ephesians 5 verse 1, imitate God as his beloved child. What does that look like?

I'm arguing that it looks like singing. And if you're like, come on. He doesn't say that. Okay, you're right. Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17.

The Lord God says to you, Christian, the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save you. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you Christian by His love. And listen to this, He will exalt over you with loud singing. Did you hear that?

What does God do over you? It's amazing. The almighty Sovereign One bursts forth according to Zephaniah 3.17. The Almighty Sovereign One bursts forth in song over those whom he redeemed. You!

He sings over you in love. God the Father sings. God sings. Will you not then as his child imitate him and sing too? You must.

You must. What was it in the beginning but a song when God created the heavens and the earth. It was God speaking, right? God said, let there be, let there be, let there be. You exist right now because God speaks.

You exist right now because God speaks. If he stops speaking, he's gone. You realize that, right? You're not independent of his speaking. Is it any stretch at all then to suggest, at least to suggest that in his speaking, in his creating and sustaining over all things that God sings?

Open up the window. I don't think it's at all a stretch to suggest that God sings even in creation, even in sustaining creation right now. God tells us in Job 38 verse 7, Job 38-7, that as God laid the foundations of the world in creation, he tells us that the sons of God, the angels, sang together and they shouted in joyful singing. God's creating the world, laying the foundation of the world, and the angels are erupting in song as God created. That's what Job 38-7 says.

Where did the angels learn that? They learned it from Almighty God is who they learned it from. God sings. God loves song. God loves song so much that He gave us an entire book of songs to sing.

And it's wonderful because it's in the very middle. What am I going to sing? Turn the middle of my Bible. There it is. The Psalter, 150 inspired songs to sing.

God loves singing. And if you are His child, if you are filled with His Spirit, you long to imitate Him, and so you long to sing. A Spirit-filled life is a life that sings. A spirit filled life is a life of obedience and God calls you, God commands you to obey him by joining with him in singing. Got that?

Good. Try to zone in back in here. I got a lot of wild eyeballs. Reminded me way too much middle school math right now. Okay, so filled with the Spirit, there's new creations of Christ Jesus, you sing.

But what's that singing doing? What's that singing doing? What does it mean to sing? But what does Paul say it means to sing? I want you to read verse 19 again.

Verse 19, speaking to one another in songs, in hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Speaking to who? Singing is speaking to who? Well, when you sing, are you singing to the Lord?

Yes. That's the end of the verse. Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. The praise is towards Him. The object of your singing is Him.

Singing is a melody to the Lord, a melody of praise and thanksgiving to God. But verse 19 says there's another audience. There's a secondary group that you are speaking to when you sing. Who is it? It's really obvious in verse 19.

It's one another. It's one another. That's the first half of verse 19. Speaking to one another. How?

How do you speak to one another? Paul says, sing. One of the ways you speak to one another, in fact, a huge way you speak to one another is not like I'm speaking to you, but in singing. So again, put this all together. Ephesians 5.1, imitate God as his beloved child, sing.

Ephesians 5.2, love one another as Christ has loved you. How do you love one another? Well One of the ways you love one another in this body is that you speak to one another in song. You speak to one another in song in this congregation. To love one another is to sing, or to put it another way, to speak to one another is to sing to one another.

Now just to reiterate, just to reiterate, the object of your singing is God Almighty, yes? He's the object of your worship. But, as you sing praise to God above, in this gathered body, what are you doing for one another? You're doing what Colossians 3.16 commands you to do. We just read it earlier in the sermon.

It's read it moments ago. In Colossians 3.16, God commands you, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another. How, Paul? How can we let the word of Christ richly dwell within us? How can we teach and admonish one another?

Paul answers in the next word. Singing. Singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. That's Colossians 3.16. That's the command.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Teach one another. Admonish one another. And Paul says, you do this, at least in part, by singing in your hearts and with your mouths to God. And as you sing to God, you love one another.

As you sing to God, God makes it so that the praise to Him results in sanctification and life to those gathered in His household, the household of faith, like this congregation. Praise to God in song on the Lord's Day that's coming out of your mouth in this room Radically affects every one of you in this room It's how God has made the world It's how God has ordained your sanctification Christian that you are sanctified in mighty ways Through congregational singing I Didn't make it up. It's right here, and you know this to be true personally don't you? You come You can come home as sour as an apple. Anybody done that?

Okay, nobody raised their hands. We're going to need to go back to the ninth commandment. You can come home as sour as an apple. You can enter that doorway of your home. And what greets you is a little girl's rendition of Psalm 1.

It hits you on the head. She's singing praise to God. She's not singing to you, at least she doesn't think so. She's singing praise to God from Psalm 1. You come and then sigh her as an apple.

And what she's singing to God, it hits your heart. And all of a sudden, I've been admonished. I've been admonished by the word of God dwelling richly in my little girl. I've been admonished by the Word coming out of her. Stop that sour attitude, Mr.

Grant. Are you not thankful? Do you live in the pit still? I dare say no. Have you not been raised with Christ?

How then can you walk through that door sour? That's the admonishing. One step in. If my little girl, just one tiny voice, can admonish me and teach me and exhort me in a moment of pride and selfishness to repent and look upward. How much more each of your voices corporately towards one another, how much more will the multitude of voices in this body on the Lord's day admonish, teach, and exhort all who have ears to hear.

Great praise to God corporately results in great sanctification corporately. What is corporately vertical very much affects the corporate horizontal. You can't miss that. So do you know what this means, brothers and sisters? Do you know what this means about what you're doing when you sing on Sunday morning?

Do you have any idea what this means? What you are doing, what you are doing when you sing each and every Lord's Day is you are fighting in the trenches with your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are laboring alongside a downcast one. You are rejoicing with another. You are reminding one another of the truths that you each so desperately need.

I need your voices. My family needs your voices. You need the voice beside you. You need the voices behind you. You need the voices of this church.

God says so. Unless you think that I'm off base, I'm taking, I'm making too much of the need for hearing one another's sin. You know, maybe you're thinking, well singing, it really, I mean yeah, he commands it, but it's, is it really that important? Well Colossians 3 16 and Ephesians 5 19 weren't clear enough for you and by the way, they should be But they weren't listen to the author of Hebrews Hebrews 2 12 I will proclaim your name to my brethren. He's talking to God.

I will proclaim your name, God, to my brothers and sisters. That's what the author of Hebrews just said. How? How will he proclaim the name of God to the brethren? Listen to this, Hebrews 2 12.

I will proclaim your name to my brethren. How? In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise." What's implicit? Borderline explicit in Hebrews 2.12. Hebrews 2.12 is telling you, part of your job on Sunday morning, part of your job, your job, part of what God calls you to do, not just the preacher, but you is to proclaim His name to the brethren.

You're responsible for the brethren in your singing, in your praising of God. And that's what Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 tells us, That when we meet, it's more than just individualism. When you come to the Lord's Day to gather with the saints, it's not just about you and God. You need to stop thinking that if you think that. Do you think that?

I come to church, me and God. Yeah, but no, it's not about you and God alone. If you think that church is all about you and God, you've got to stop thinking about that. Because God says it's not about just you and Him. It's about y'alls and Him.

It's about His family, His family worshipping Him together in his household in love, covenanted together with one another and with him. Together. Don't come on the Lord's Day individual. And that's what Hebrews 10 says. That's on the Lord's Day, verse 24 and 25.

Hebrews 10, 24, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. You are responsible to stir one another up, to love and good deeds. How can you stir your brothers and sisters up? How can you encourage your brothers and sisters in the gathering together? Ephesians 5, 19, Colossians 3, 16 give you at least part of that answer.

What is it? By engaging in true worship of God through singing. Singing. A singing to God that then speaks and teaches and admonishes one another. That's a spirit-filled life.

That's a spirit-filled congregation. Want to be spirit-filled? Sing. Demonstration of being spirit-filled is singing. Hearts that want to obey.

Hearts that sing and make melody to the Lord and to one another. Brothers and sisters, we need it. We need it. We really need singing. You need it.

I mean, how often do you come? How often do so many of us come to this Lord's Day gathering? And we are struggling. You ever come here struggling? I do.

We're wrestling. We're fighting sin. We're battling discouragement. We're dealing with spiritual depression. We're mourning the loss of loved ones.

We're fighting unbelief in our hearts. We've been busy all week plucking out spiritual eyeballs and chopping off spiritual hands as We fight sin all week long. We come in here discouraged, mourning over our sin. We come in guilt ridden over having just given yourself over to some sin. We were sharp with our wives just two hours ago.

We were impatient with our children. You kicked the dog on the way out the door. You come here, and you gather us at church, That's you. That's all of us in one or more of those categories. You need, we need to hear the word preached.

We need, You need to hear the word prayed. You need, we need, to hear the word read. But we also so very much need the word of Christ to dwell richly in us through song as we come alongside one another and sing. Songs like this, Oh soul are you weary in trouble? No light in the darkness you see?

There's hope, there's look at the Savior, A life more abundant and free. To the one battling guilt and shame, they need you. They need you to speak and teach and admonish them lovingly with songs like, Before the throne of God above. You have a strong and perfect plea, guilt-ridden one, a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for thee. My name is graven on His hand, your name is written on His heart.

Those kinds of songs. You need this. To the exhausted mother, to the worn out and burnt out saint. They need you, and you need them to cry out for your soul and for His. There is strength in the name of the Lord.

There is power in the name of the Lord. There is hope in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You need it. And to the one who's fallen into sin, who's coming to this congregation with just a thread of hope, barely hanging on, You need to declare to Him that He needs you so badly.

You need Him. As you declare to Him and to God songs like, This the power of the cross. Christ became sin for us. You, me, took the blame, bore the wrath, we stand, you stand, I stand, we stand forgiven at the cross. You stand forgiven at the cross.

You're singing that when we say we stand, there's a we there. We stand. It's a corporate element that God says has to exist in His body. And you desperately need it. That's why you sing to one another.

If you've come here this morning and you, I need you to hear this. Some of you I know, I'm just talking to you this week. You doubt the love and care. You doubt the provision of God. Have you come here doubting some of those things, wondering about the love and care and provision of God in your life?

Did you hear the voices all around you 30 minutes ago? 40 minutes ago? Did you hear those voices? Do you doubt the love and care of your heavenly father? Look at where he's placed you.

In His household, on His day, reminding you of who He is and what He's done with His finished work of His Son, as His people, your people sing. Look at where He's placed you on His day, in His household, as His people sing all around you. There's evidence of His love and care and provision for you in His house. Beloved, God has so ordered the cosmos, He has so ordered the corporate gathering of his church so that part of what it means to be taught, part of what it means for the word of Christ to dwell richly within you, part of what it means to admonish one another, Part of what it means to do all of the one another's, including love one another, is to sing loudly. Not badly, loudly.

Because each of you need to hear the other. And that really starts with the heads of households, doesn't it? So put it all together, heads of households, fathers, husbands, I am speaking to you. If you are to imitate God as His beloved child, you sing. He sings, so you sing.

Your Heavenly Father loves singing, so must you. And so then, your children and your wife, they will seek to imitate you. They will seek to follow you and your leadership. They'll follow your headship as you teach them to sing. You know where's a really good place to start teaching them to sing?

Right here in this gathering. And in your own homes, yes. Teach them to sing, disciple them to sing right here. If you are a man and yet you do not sing on the Lord's Day, you're not being a man of God. So sing loudly.

Show your children as you sing. And by the way, if you don't know how to sing, learn. Find someone that does know how to sing and say, man, can you help me? Learn. You learn other things.

Show your children on the Lord's Day. Here's what it means. As you're singing, you know you're telling your children, here's what it means in part to love God. Here's what it means in part to love one another. You want to know what loving your neighbor looks like?

Watch me, son. Watch me. See? So man, I just really want to encourage you this morning, disciple your households. Disciple your children.

Disciple your wife. Disciple your neighborhood. Disciple the nations. Beginning here in this congregation in singing out loudly, beautifully. They need you.

We need you. My family needs you. God says so. Okay? That's the exhortation.

There's one thing you take away, singing matters more than I thought it did. The gospel theology leads to doxology. Singing. And so a spirit-filled life is a life that sings, a spirit-filled life is a life that loves, and the way to love, not the only way to love, but a good way to love, is to sing. That's what we said so far in this sermon.

And so the final consideration, What are you to sing? This is a little briefly. What are you to sing? And Paul's answer is simple. In both Ephesians 5 19 and Colossians 3 16, what does he say?

Sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing the Bible. Sing the Bible. Sing the Psalms. That phrase, Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, in the past, I've believed those things to be three distinct types of songs.

For a long time I thought that those were, there were psalms and there's hymns which are something different and then spiritual songs, but actually it's actually very likely that these three things, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, are all referring to the same thing. They're all referring to the Psalter. There's different opinions on this, but it's very likely that they're all referring to the Book of Psalms. Because in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, those three things, Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, They're used as headings throughout the Psalter in the Greek Septuagint And so it's likely that these three things are actually all pointing to the same book of the Bible the Psalter So sing from the Psalter Sing Psalms and so beloved in case you've been wondering why we've been singing more Psalms, it's because Paul says to sing Psalms. It's a good reason.

Sing the Bible. Sing songs that God likes. That's why we never ever ever when we plan a service we never start with this proposition. What songs do I like? We don't start with that proposition.

No we start with what songs does God like? And the songs that God likes sound like the 150 Psalms He gave us. The songs that God like makes His Word dwell richly in us. So we're not exclusive song singers, but every song that we sing must have elements of the Psalms in them. So no fluff.

If you've ever wondered why we sing certain songs and why we don't sing others, it's because we are singing songs and songs that God approves of. It's not a song that we sing. It needs to be a song that does exactly what we just described earlier. It's teaching, admonishing. It's full of the word of Christ, it's chock full of gospel.

Songs are theology systematized, catechized so that it sticks here and Lord willing here. So that's why we sing what we sing. We sing Psalms and we sing songs that are saturated with Bible. And singing holy writ to God and to one another is very much well pleasing in His sight, and it is very much a blessing to all who hear. And if you have any ears at all to hear, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Children, I wanna end this sermon speaking with you. Children, can I speak to you again? You're learning lots of hymns, learning lots of hymns, songs, the dinner table, learning to sing some songs perhaps over family worship time. They're your fathers And your mothers, they're teaching you how to worship God in spirit and in truth. They're teaching you at school and around the dinner table, during family worship, how to sing.

Are they doing that? Yes? Oh! Are you, are children, Are they doing that? Yeah, thank you.

You can talk to me. I have been working out a lot, so I appreciate it if you think I'm scary looking. Do you know why children, it's really important what they're doing? Why they're teaching you songs, how to sing, Psalms to sing. Do you know why it's important that your parents are doing all that?

It's important because they're teaching you how to do warfare. They're teaching you how to put sin to death in your life. They're showing you how to resist the devil. They're showing you how to make war on the flesh. How to be more than conquerors to Him who loved you.

Worship is warfare. Children, Every time you're around that table at home, children listen to me, every time you're around that table at home, every time you're around this table here in this congregation, when you sing, when we sing, we are declaring war and triumph. You are doing battle and that's how battles are won. I'm not making it up children. I'm not making this up at all.

You think well singing, that's not how battles are won. Yeah right. It is how battles are won. There's a story and it's a true story. It's in God's Word it's so true.

It's found in your Bibles, this story. It's found in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. You ever heard about the story of the singing in 2 Chronicles chapter 20? Children, have you ever heard of it? There's a king in 2 Chronicles 20 who serves God, he's faithful.

And yet there is this king with this smaller, much smaller looking army, and there's this vast army of evil men has come up against him. And in the story, this dark and evil army, they far outnumber the army of light. And as this vast army approaches, and you're reading, you think, oh, they're going to get slaughtered. And the vast army gets closer and closer, and they're threatening to destroy. And do you know, moments before this army reaches and smashes the army of light to bits.

Do you know what the army of light does? They lift up their voices. This is a true story. It really happened. And they sing praise to God.

And do you know What happens to the army of darkness? Smash the smithereens. The army of darkness fights themselves. They turn and flee because of the song. That's a true story.

Darkness triumphed. Darkness conquered triumphed by song. That's not a fairy tale. That's a real life. Sing, children.

Sing, adults. Sing. You know, it's no accident that, it's not a coincidence that only after Paul instructs you to sing, that in the very next chapter, He tells you to put on what? The armor of God. Sing, pray, fight.

It's no accident that he tells you to sing and then he goes to the next chapter and he's talking about how to resist the devil, how to fight the darkness that you're wrestling not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of wickedness. He tells you to put on the armor of God and make war against the evil. It's no coincidence that singing and the armor of God are back to back in the book of Ephesians. It's one of the reasons we sing and family worship children. It's a huge reason we sing together each Lord's Day in this congregation.

Worship is warfare. And we need each other, don't we? So when we sing here in just a bit, sing. Sing and learn to sing. And you will be happy.

And this congregation will be loved well. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this your word. We ask that it would do its intended and wonderful work, that you would bring and spur on your people to greater affection for you and for your brothers and sisters in this congregation. And that part of that would be come out in the way that we sing, for Jesus' sake and the joy of your people.

In His name we pray, amen.