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Well good morning. That was a good response. It feels like we're decently awake.

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I like that. I like that. It was rough this morning. It was hard. Yeah, for me

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personally, if we were just Friday and Saturday, we were in Des Moines for a

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youth conference and we got back at something, I don't know, 8.15, 8.20,

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which was like 9.20, but by the time I spent more time on my sermon and went to

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bed, yeah, not a good time for time change Sunday, but that's okay. I got a

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whole week to recover. So great to be sharing the word with you this

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morning. Go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter 5 if you have not already done

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that. If you are using one of the Bibles there in front of you, I want to say it's

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9.78. Maybe? Maybe it's 9.78? Yes. Okay. So while you do that, I'm going to grab

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something real quick. So just hold tight. We had to hide it. Otherwise you would have

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been like, why is there a bike on the stage? And you wouldn't have even paid

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attention to anything that the worship team was doing. This is my bike. My bike

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and I, we've spent a lot of time together, a lot of time. We have logged

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thousands of miles over the years, literally thousands, and we've gone up

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and down hills and mountains in the Bay Area. We've done some riding around the

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Quad Cities as well, of course, so it's not nearly as good as the riding in the

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Bay Area is. Just being honest. But we've descended some awesome descents on the

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eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, topped 50 miles an hour on a

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few occasions. Those are awesome. The not so awesome times are the few times, not

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related to those times, when I have laid it down. Those are not enjoyable times,

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but we've had some awesome times together. We've done a number of races. This

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is one race, this was probably one of my last races before we moved from

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California. That's me there in the middle in the green. Probably 20 pounds lighter.

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You're like, what? How do you do that? Yeah, lots of Chipotle is required to

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maintain that body during race season. It's hard. You just eat and eat and

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eat in order to ride 150 miles a week. So, we've spent lots of time together. It's a

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great bike. I like my bike. But you know what? Without me, my bike is useless. It

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can't do anything. Like if I set it down, that's not helping my point. Now, if I ask

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it to do something, what will it do? Nothing. It is not empowered and equipped

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to be able to do anything at this point in time. But when I take it outside and I

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get on the saddle and I put power to the pedals and I control where it goes with

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the handlebars, I have empowered it to do what it was made to do. It was made to

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get out on the road and go for rides. By itself, it can't do it. It needs somebody

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to come along and to help it out. So, just like the bike is transformed, when I

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take over the bike, when I allow the Holy Spirit to take over my life, to

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control my life, to fill my life, then I am able to do what I'm intended to do.

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Without being filled by the Holy Spirit, I'm not able to do the things that God

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wants me to do to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and walk the Christian

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life. I need to be filled by the Holy Spirit and then I'll be completely

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changed. So, going now to Ephesians chapter 5, I'd like to ask Mr. Kellan to come on up.

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I think this guy deserves a little round of applause. He was on the same trip and

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he was here for first service on Time Change Sunday. That is pretty commendable.

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I asked him, I was like, are you gonna be at first service? He's like, yeah,

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first service is the service he comes to. I don't, he never comes to this service,

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right? Yeah, so yeah, it's great to have Kellan here with us this morning. We'll be

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reading from Ephesians chapter 5. Now, our focus is verses 18 through 21, but, like

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we did last week, we're going to read in context. So, we're going to read Ephesians

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chapter 5 verses 15 through 21. Look carefully. Then how you walk not as

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unwise but as wise, making the best use of time because the days are evil.

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Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is

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and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery. But be filled with the

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Spirit addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing

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and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for

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everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to

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one another out of reverence for Christ. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for

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the opportunity to look into your word, your word which transforms us and changes

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us. So this morning as we do that, God, I pray that you would open our hearts to

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hear from you, that you would highlight any area of our lives where we need to

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bring them into conformity to you so we can be more like Jesus Christ. It's in

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His name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, Kellen. Now, earlier in the

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chapter, Paul's focus was on Christians walking appropriately. Christians putting

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away the deeds of the darkness and rather walking as lights and when we live

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the way Christians are supposed to live, we are said then to be the actual

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lights. Now verse 18 says, do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the

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Spirit. Now we can spend a lot of time trying to figure out what God's will is

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at this youth conference that we were just at yesterday. There was there was

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even a breakout session that was devoted to trying to determine what God's will

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is and there were hundreds of students in that breakout session. We always want

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to know that's one of those important questions when you're that age all the

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time, not just that age but especially at that age you're like what am I

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supposed to be doing in life? That's one of the important questions in life. What

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is God's will for my life? Well, great thing right here. He tells us his will.

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He says, do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit. So why is Paul

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addressing this issue of drunkenness? It kind of seems a little maybe I don't know

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out of place here in this moment. Was this was this an issue that the church

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was dealing with or what was it? Well, we do know first of all the Roman culture,

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we would not say that the Roman culture was one of restraint. The Roman culture,

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the culture, the predominant culture of the day of the early church, the

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predominant culture was the Roman culture and they were given to much excess

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whether it be in food or in alcohol or in taking their sexuality outside of the

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confines of marriage. So there was that but then there was also the Corinthian

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church. You see the Corinthian church, they had some people who would when they

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came together for their love feasts for to remember the Lord's sacrifice, they

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would approach this time in a drunken state. So this was an egregious abuse of

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the Lord's table. So these may be some of the things that that Paul has in the

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back of his mind when he says this to not get drunk with wine but actually I

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think what he's really getting at is bigger than those things. Those are

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important. Yes, don't get drunk. The Bible says that numerous times but what he's

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really getting out is what is influencing you? What is it that is

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controlling your actions? You see the drunk person is controlled by the alcohol

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that they've consumed. They are consumed by the drive to take in alcohol.

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Then after they've had those drinks, they're controlled by the actual alcohol

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that's in them and at that point we would say that they are under the

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influence of that alcohol. Once they're under the influence of alcohol then

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they will deal with issues such as muscle control and coordination and

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speech issues and memory and their ability to make rights and good

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decisions is drastically hindered by the alcohol that is impacting them. So Paul

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says don't get drunk with wine because that is debauchery. That is something

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that is that is excessive but be filled with the Spirit. So what is this being

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filled with the Spirit? Is this something special that I'm supposed to seek after?

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Well, sort of. Well see first of all when people hear about being filled with

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their with the Spirit the first thought is they think that's the indwelling of

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the Spirit and at the point where you acknowledge Jesus as your Savior and you

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place your faith in Him the Holy Spirit comes into you and you are said to have

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the Holy Spirit in you. He has indwelled you. Your salvation is sure and you are

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sealed in Him as a child of God. So that's the indwelling of the Spirit. But

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the feeling of the Spirit, the feeling of the Spirit is something different. It's

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something that we have to seek after. It's special in that it's it's a state

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that you may find on from moment to moment from hours, weeks, maybe even

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seasons you may find that it's difficult to be filled with the Spirit and to live

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under His influence and His control. When we live under the Spirit's influence and

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control, our speech will be changed, our actions will be changed because He is the

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one controlling and empowering us. Now just like my bike was transformed when

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when I take it over, the person who is filled with the Spirit is completely

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changed when the Holy Spirit takes over them. So what does it look like to be

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filled with the Spirit? Well the the rest of this section actually gives us some

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signs of what it looks like when we are filled with the Spirit. The first one is

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songs from the heart to God. When we're filled with the Spirit we will have

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songs from the heart to God. Scripture repeatedly calls us to sing to God.

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Psalm 33 verses 1 and 3 said, Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise

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be fits the upright. Sing to Him a new song. Then Psalm 40 verse 3 says, He put a

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new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. So singing to God is part and

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parcel to being filled with the Spirit. Now while we're on this topic of music, I

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want to pause for for a few moments to just talk about music because music is

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powerful. Music is a wonderful tool that God has given to us.

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Music can have an impact on us. All the music that we take in will have an

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impact on us. The question is, will that impact be for good or will it be for bad?

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Does the music you listen to make you feel things in your soul that perhaps you

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shouldn't feel? Does it make you feel angry, overly sad or depressed? Does it

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make you have feelings of lust? So we need to take inventory of what we're

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listening to to process that and see whether it's doing good things for our

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soul, whether it's refreshing our soul or whether the music is tearing our soul

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down in some sense and pulling us away from God. I'm not trying to cast

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judgment on listening to secular music. I listen to secular music some as well,

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but it's important for us to just be aware of what we're listening to and

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consider its impact in our lives. Now I've said this many times, but when we sing

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to the Lord, we're entering into battle. The battle is twofold. First of all,

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there's a spiritual battle that's going on all around us and singing to God

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pushes back the enemy. It declares where our allegiance is. It says that God is my

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God. He's the one who deserves my full allegiance. No one and nothing else gets

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that. He is God. And the second battle is a battle within. See the world tries to

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get us down. Satan works through the world to try to cause us to give into

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fears, to give into anxiety and worry, or to cause us to give in to the

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temptations that we face. By worshiping God in song, we're declaring that He, He's

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greater than all those things. He's greater than the worry, than the fear,

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than the temptations. When we sing, we're placed, we sing to God, we're placing

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our needs in his hands. And this gives us peace, no matter the season of life.

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In the last couple months, I've shared how I've been through some difficult times

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of fear. And there have been times where I just didn't know how to pray. And I would

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ask myself, what is it that God wants of me right now in this situation? What am I

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supposed to be learning here in the midst of this difficult trial? And as I

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would listen to Christian music, and as I would listen to worship music, and try

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to sing along to the words, the posture of my heart would be significantly

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impacted so that I'm orienting the problems of my life around God. They

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don't pale in comparison to who He is. And the worship music that I consume

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helps remind myself that He's greater, He's bigger. So that's music. And it's

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important for us to just keep that in mind as we go through our Christian life.

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Now that passage said singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and you may

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look at that and think, well I think I know what that is and probably know what

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that is, but what's that? Well, first of all, let's talk about Psalms. Psalms are

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found in the book of Psalms. And there are a couple other places where there

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are Psalms. But these are words of praise. The word Psalm means praise.

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So the purpose of this book of Psalms is to actually express praise. Now this

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happens all throughout the Psalms and it even happens in the Psalms that we

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call Lament Psalms. And the Lament Psalms, they start with a deep

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trial, a position of sorrow and hurt. But the thing about them, that may be where

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they started. But when you get to the end of the of the Lament Psalms, it will say

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something like, but yet I will put my hope in Him. There's a trust, there's a

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hope, there's an understanding. This may be for right now, but I know that God is

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greater than this thing. So the Psalms are just as relevant today as they were

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for the ancient, ancient Hebrews who would read them. So they're a great way to

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express our hearts to God. Then there are the hymns. The hymns actually aren't just

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that, that book that you have heard of, that hymnal. Actually most of those

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songs in there aren't actually hymns in the context of what we're talking about

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here. Now hymns were songs that were differentiated from Psalms.

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You see Psalms were actual Holy Spirit inspired scripture. So remember this is

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here in this time. Their scripture is the Old Testament. And so they would take

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the Psalms and they had those. But the hymns for the early church were

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differentiated from Psalms, which is Holy Spirit inspired scripture. These hymns

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actually had a specific purpose of teaching about God. They would sing songs

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that would help them know who Jesus Christ was and understand who exactly He

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was. There are a couple passages in scripture for sure that we have good

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reason to believe were songs, were these hymns.

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Philippians 2 verses 5 through 11, this passage says to let this mind, this

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attitude of humility that Jesus Christ had, let that attitude be in you. Because

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He came to this earth and He thought more of us set aside His own rights as

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God so that He could go to the cross and He's been exalted. So that's one song that

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the early church sang. And then there's another one in Colossians 1 verses 15

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through 20. Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God. He's the one who has

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preeminence. He has top priority in all of the world. So and it is He who

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holds the world together. This is another song that they would sing. And

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Paul has incorporated these into these books that he's written. Today, a modern

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hymn, today would be songs like In Christ Alone or That Great Christmas Hymn,

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Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Both of these songs, the purpose of these songs is to

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teach about Jesus Christ. And we would say in theological terms, we say they

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have a high Christology is what these songs have. So that's hymns and that

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leads us to spiritual songs. The vast majority of the music that we sing here

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at Cornerstone is spiritual songs. Spiritual songs are different in that

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their purpose is not necessarily to teach you about God, but their purpose is to

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tell us what He's done. They're much more personal, how God has worked in our lives.

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That is what spiritual songs do. So songs to God in the company of other

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believers is one of the signs of our fullness of the Spirit. Our hearts and

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our spirits overflow and worship and praising and glorifying God is just a

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logical reasonable outcome. So this is the first sign of being Spirit-filled.

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The second sign of being filled with the Spirit is thankfulness to God. Verse 20

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read, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the

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name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now when we look at the events of life, there are

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two ways to look at them. We can look at them through the eyes of the flesh or we

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can look at them through the eyes of the spirits. When we look at the

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eye, look at the events through the eyes of the flesh, we see every wrong thing

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that was done to us, every place where we've experienced some sort of injustice,

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every moment where we didn't get what we felt we deserved, what we were due. You

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may recall that earlier in the chapter and verses 3 and 5 Paul mentioned

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specifically covetousness and this covetousness when you take it out to

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its extents, it turns into greed and envy and this covetousness is something

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that can just completely take over your life. Covetousness and greed are never

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satisfied, always looking out for its own self-interests and it becomes a

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destructive force of nature that will undermine your life, it'll take your soul

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and it'll destroy your happiness and joy and this unhappiness then shifts our

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focus from the things in life that really matter and we start to lose all

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sense of what reality is, we start to complain. Now I have to confess to you

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that this is something I struggle with, actually maybe it's better to say no I

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don't struggle with it, I'm actually good at it. At various points this

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deficiency has been highlighted in certain situations whether in my work or at

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home. In a few years back I came across a personality tool that labeled me as a

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romantic and now what this means when when you're a romantic it means that you

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idealize all the situations and all the moments in life, you romanticize them and

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build them up to be this great wonderful thing. You want this event to go

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perfectly, it's gonna be this great thing, this vacation is gonna go just

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absolutely perfectly, everything is gonna go exactly the way it's supposed to go

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but you all live life as well, you know those things don't happen right and our

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expectations sometimes aren't met and so for the romantic the the tendency is to

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fixates on the things that didn't go right and to complain. So I need to watch

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out for this and I need to be grateful for the successes in life and in

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ministry so that I don't come across as self-centered and ungrateful. When we look

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at the world with the eyes of the flesh we'll lack gratitude, however when we look

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at the world through the eyes of the spirit we'll adopt a patently different

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perspective. We'll have gratitude in our hearts and this this attitude of

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gratitude it serves as a weapon against greed, it serves as a weapon against

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covetousness and we're able to find contentment. When we're when we're

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grateful we're able to see all the blessings that God has poured into our

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lives, the big things and the small things we find ourselves content with

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what God has provided. We don't feel entitled and we see all of life as a

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gift, the car I get to drive to the job that I get to go to, the house I get to

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come home to, the family I have. When we look through the eyes of the spirit then

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we're much more inclined to see all the blessings God has poured into our lives

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and to see life as a gift. In her bestseller the hiding place, Corey Ten Boom

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recounts how she and her sister Betsy arrived at Ravensbrook concentration

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camp. The sisters found the conditions there of course to be deplorable. They

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were overcrowded of course and to make matters worse there was also an infestation

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of the fleas. Now one morning their scripture reading was from 1st Thessalonians

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5 verses 16 through 18. It says rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks

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in all circumstances for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you.

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Betsy told Corey to stop and to thank God for everything about their sleeping

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quarters and of course Corey's first response was no and Betsy continued to

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drive at her and finally Corey relented and she started to give thanks for the

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conditions that they lived in. Now she started to do this she began to realize

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that she was able to grow a lot spiritually there at Ravensbrook. She

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was able to spend time in the Word and praying and they were seldom interrupted

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by the guards. Why? It's because they didn't want to be around the fleas. So when

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Corey realized this her gratitude increased. She was able to see the good

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in this situation. So the first evidence of being spirit filled was singing. The

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second evidence of being spirit filled is gratefulness and third evidence of

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being filled with the spirit is submission to one another. We submit to

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one another out of reverence for Christ. Now our English word submission comes

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from the Greek word houpotaso and houpotaso is a military term which

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actually means to arrange troops under the control in the command of the leader.

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And so I think we understand that well enough right? We understand that in

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the military we need to have authority and there needs to be people who are

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under that authority not everybody can be in authority or else they're not

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going to be able to accomplish the mission and the purpose that they have

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in the military. However when this word houpotaso is taken outside of the

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military context then it means to voluntarily orient yourself under

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someone else's authority. Voluntarily orienting yourself under someone else's

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authority. It takes a lot of humility to place the welfare of others before our

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own welfare and agendas.

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Submission isn't easy. I'm selfish. Thank you for not saying amen. We are

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selfish people. We want what we want and we struggle to give it up.

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Submission is where I'm laying my will down and I'm lining up under someone

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else's authority and preferences. The ultimate example of this of course was

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Jesus when he went to the cross. Luke 22, 42. There he prayed, Father if you are

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willing this is this is on the nights that he's he's arrested. He's about to

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go to the cross the next day. If you are willing remove this cup from me.

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Nevertheless not my will but yours be done. So that night when he prays in the

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garden he knew what was coming to him. He knew the agony that would be coming

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the type of death and how horrible that was to die upon a cross. He knew what

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that it was going to be this horrible thing to take sin when he'd never

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experienced sin before to take all of our sin on himself. So he didn't want to go

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through this thing but he says, but Father if this is your will then not mine.

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I'm submitting to your will and the reason he did that is because of his love

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for us and he knew what was on the other side. So he thought more highly of us

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than of his own desires. Now sometimes I wish that everyone could have a view of

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what happens in our elder meetings. Now we get together each month in this room

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full of men comes together and we pray and we press into God and we and we ask

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God to reveal himself and to move in our midst and we say God not our will but

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yours be done do what you want here and now you better believe that when we all

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come together we all have our own ideas we all have our own preferences our own

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ways that we want to do things here at Cornerstone but when we start to engage

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in conversation and address whatever issues personal preferences and agendas

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start to get laid aside we start to submit most importantly to God as we do

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that we're submitting to each other and there's this unity that comes about only

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because of the Holy Spirit's work and the Holy Spirit's filling that room in our

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lives. Now as we continue this section here in a couple weeks you'll see that

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submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ impacts how we live.

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Wives will submit to their husbands, husbands will submit to the headship and

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authority of Jesus Christ, members of the body of Christ will submit to others,

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children submitting to their parents, employees submitting to their employers.

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These are just some of the ways that we practice submission here in the body of

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Christ. Now we want to be filled I hope that's your desire this morning to be

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filled to be controlled to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Without that feeling

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we're useless in the in the Holy Spirit's work just like this bike is

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powerless all by itself.

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But our desire is to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit so that we can be

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tools used for his purposes and his glory throughout each day of our lives.

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Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

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As we've gone through these things this morning we've talked about what it looks

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like to be filled with the Spirit. Perhaps there was something that resonated

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with your heart. Are you inclined to sing songs from the heart to God? Are you

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more inclined to pull back and not want to express songs of worship to God? Do

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you need to take inventory of the music that you're even taking in? What about

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thankfulness in your heart? Do you go through daily life feeling entitled or

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are you content with what God has for you? You're able to see all the places he

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has blessed you in life.

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And then submission. Do you hold your will, your agenda, your your priorities

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above everything and everyone else? Do you need to lay those down? Do you need to

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say, God, I surrender my will, I surrender my desires to you? Would you

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work in me? Would you change me? Would you shape me?

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Father God, we thank you for your word that we can look at to help us know how

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to live this life that you've called us to. This morning God our desire is to

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live holy lives to eliminate sin from our lives to to live lives that are

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passionately obedient to you.

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May we be filled with the Holy Spirit each and every day as we start the day.

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Ask you to fill us God. Fill us so that we can serve you so that we can live for

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you. Jesus, then we pray. Amen.