Ephesians 5:15-21 ESV
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the 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 for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
This morning the Lord Jesus is leading me to focus primarily on this subject of being filled with the Spirit and addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart. And the reason this is important is that the Lord intends for us to do just that. And this has nothing to do with a worship service in a church gathering where all the music is being controlled by the music director and where the congregation just sings whatever is put on the screen for them to sing. This is different from that.
This also has nothing to do with entertaining anyone or having a really cool sound or a great voice or great instrumentation and rhythm, etc. This is not for show! The person singing the song doesn’t have to have a great voice at all! In fact, he or she may have a mediocre voice or an old voice, and that shouldn’t matter, for the Holy Spirit can give songs through whatever voice he wants to give them, for he is going to pick his singers based on their walks of faith in Jesus Christ and their love for the Lord, and not for their cool sound and great guitar and drums in the background.
Do you hear what I am saying? We need to get what this is saying here, for the body of Christ needs this. And this isn’t about me. Please understand that. This is about the need to release those who God has given them songs to share with the body of Christ, which are biblical, and which are for the encouragement and spiritual strengthening of the body of Christ, to be given the opportunity to share these songs with the rest of the body of Christ, and to not be critiqued on the basis of worldly standards, but on the basis of godly standards regarding the message that is in the songs.
The songs should just be biblical messages put to music. And they are for us, the body of Christ, to be sharing with one another, kind of like in the old days when we used to have special music in the church gatherings and people could share a song they believed that the Lord put on their hearts to share, and some of those were original songs, and some were not, but they got to share with the body a song God put in their hearts to share with the rest of the body for their encouragement. So many of these modern market-driven churches of today have gotten away from that, and we need that!
For you see, the body of Christ, we the people of God, his church, are to be encouraging and exhorting and urging and provoking one another to the love of God and to doing the works of God which he has for us to do, and for us to live godly and holy lives, lives given over to the Lord for his service. And we are all necessary to the proper working of the body of Christ to bring us to maturity in Christ, and we each should have a message to share, but it needs to be biblical in nature, and definitely not contrary to Scripture. And some of those messages will be given to the body via song.
Anyway, to illustrate this message today the Lord had me share in a video me singing along with a recording of one of the songs that he gave me to write in 2012, and he had me share a little bit of my testimony as to how that all came about. And my voice has definitely seen much better days. Usually it gives out on me now quite frequently, but the Lord kept it going throughout the entire song. Below is first of all the video from today with me singing along with the song, and below that is the recording without me singing along with it today. And here you can also read the words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy8Pj4AM6s4
Caution: This link may contain ads
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
https://vimeo.com/379406352
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