As we continue in our series in Epehesians, we look today at a third principal related to Chapter 5:18. We have examined the contrast between seeking worldly means for personal peace with that of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We developed and understanding of what it means to be filled with the Spirit as opposed to being indwelt by the Spirit, and now Paul takes us into a brief discussion on the consequences of a Spirit filled life.
III. The Cosequences.
Ephes. 5:19-21 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, [20] always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [21] Submit to one another out of reverance for Christ.
The primary consequence of this fullness is that it introduces to us a life of amazing power. The Spirit filled life is a life of overcoming power, and supernatural understanding. It endues us with the power that is necessary to accomplish all that Paul has outlined as our purpose as Christians. It instills in us the wisdom which is necessary for us to even begin to understand the inheritance which is ours in Christ, or the Lord's will for our lives. In the following verses of chapter 5, we will be given instructions on how to survive the onslaught against the family which is prevalent today. Without the fullness of power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit this would be a futile pursuit. In the next chapter Paul is going to reveal to us the nature of the onslaughts that come against us from the evil one. To survive these onslaughts the fullness of the supernatural power of the Spirit is imperative. Yes family, this is probably the most significant passage in all of scripture and does us well to grasp it fully.

An American was showing his visiting English friend the Niagara falls, when he said to his friend, "Come, let me show you the greatest unused power in the world." He took him down to where the falls thundered into the river below and said, "There, the greatest unused power source in the world." The Englishman immediate replied, "Ah, no, my friend. The greatest unused power source in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God!" The Holy Spirit actively operating ion the life of the believer is the greatest power force in the world today. There is nothing that the believer cannot do through the power of the Spirit, in accordance with the Father's will. There is nothing we can do effectively without it. The greatest unused power source in the church today is the Spirit of the living God. This in spite of the fact that every believer you speak to will not deny that without the Holy Spirit operating in their lives, they would be powerless and defeated.

Here are two evidences of the Spirit filled life revealed in our text.
1. Singing; 2. Saying thanks
When God's Spirit controls us, he puts a song in our hearts and on our lips.
He gives us a thankful heart. He makes us willing to carry out the wishes of others. That is a three dimensional result. It is an inward, upward, and outward response. This is what the filling of the Spirit results in. It causes us to be rightly related to ourselves, God and others.

So lets look firstly at:

1. The Inward Result - Singing.
This becomes evident by means of the song that Spirit puts in our heart.
The only two religions that give primary importance to singing in their worship are Judaism and Christianity. Atheism is songless. When Robert Ingersoll, a world renowned agnostic died, these words were printed in the funeral notices. "There will be no singing" The unsaved have nothing to sing about, but the Christian has everything and more to sing about. The spirit filled Christian is a singing Christian. Whether he has a good voice or not, the Spirit filled Christian has a song in his heart.

It is significant that Paul did not follow the Command to be filled with the Spirit by saying you would have amazing theological insight. Or you would be filled with faith to move mountains. Or you would be given ecstatic spiritual experiences, or you would be anointed to preach great sermons. No, the first thing he said we would do is sing. The first result of being filled with the spirit is a joyful heart that wants to sing.

My Dad demonstrated this truth when he got saved at the cenotaph through the witness of a young Sunday School teacher. He had gained the reputation as the village drunk. He had decided that day to take his life at the town square. God had other plans. He was gloriously saved. As he ran home he had a song in his heart. He did not know the words. He knew no Church songs so he sang at the top of his voice, "it's a long way to Tiperary." The neighbors scoffed. "Clemmy is drunk again". But no, Clemmy was singing because of a different kind of Spirit this time. When you are Spirit filled you have a song in your heart. Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Spirit filled singing starts in the heart and is directed to the Lord. James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Singing is an expression of joy in the Holy Spirit. Redemption gives man a new song.

It is not so much how we sing as it is the spirit in which we sing. Church, you can have the greatest choir and the greatest music program in you church and still be a bunch of miserable people. But when the Spirit is present in fullness, it doesn't matter how insufficient the instruments may be or how croaky the voice, God hears a choir of angels. A sweet smelling aroma. Our praise rises to Him as incense.

There is much ado about singing in the church in these days. Perhaps it would be good to see what this passage may teach us about Spirit filled singing as opposed to performance. Three questions we will try to answer.

How do Christians sing? b. What should we sing? and: c. To whom do we sing?

a) How do we demonstrate the song in our hearts?

vs 19. "Speaking.......singing and making music. Three ideas:
1) Speaking, which is to say more accurately, communicating.
This is an interesting word, laleo. Used in the Creek to describe the chatter of little children. It also describes the singing of birds and other sounds that animals make. It is onomatopoeia. A word which sounds like the action it is describing. When little children babbled and chattered, the sound was la, la, la, la, la, and that is how they came up with the word. It is not justification for those who would say that there should be spoken praises only. Later it was also used for some other sounds. Revelation 4:1 "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." laleo is used here to describe the musical instrument. Revelation 10.4 "And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write;" Here John uses the same word to describe the thunder.

So it is safe to say that Paul is telling us to use what ever means we have to communicate that joy which is in our hearts to each other and the Lord. It may be through a spoken chorus or praise. It may be through a beautiful voice or a croaky voice. It may be through an instrument. A saxophone, a guitar, or a drum. It is all born out of the fullness of the spirit and it is a joyful noise unto the Lord.

The second question has to do with what we sing. Paul says we should sing psalms, Hymns and spiritual songs. We have such different understandings of these three elements of worship today, that it would probably be a good idea to do a quick word study on all three.
a. Psalms, taken from the Greek psalmos means exactly that. To sing the psalms. In fact Luke in Acts 13:33, and Luke 24:44 used the word specifically to refer to the Psalms. Today, either the singing of the Psalms in scripture, or anything along the same pattern would be akin to this idea. Songs which speak about the nature and work of God, specifically in the life of believers.
b. Hymns. The Greek word for hymn literally means a song of praise, and referred mostly of praise for the work which Christ did on the cross.
c. Spiritual song is a reference to the singing which describes what has happened in the life of the believer. A song born within the heart of the believer which expresses spiritual truth.

I think what the Holy Spirit is saying to us through Paul is that there is no restriction whatsoever on the songs you use to communicate your joy to each other and the Lord, as long as they are in line with spiritual truth. And as long as we don't stop singing. Jesus said in Hebrews 2:12, speaking to His Father, "I will declare your name to my brothers. In then presence of the congregation, I will sing your praises. And you know how Jesus sings? He sings through us. God has chosen us, you and me, as Channels for Christ to do His work. There is nothing that Jesus wants more than to sing praises, to declare the praises of His Father, and he uses us to do it. When you quench the Spirit, you also quench the song of Christ to Father.
Singing is the inward result of the Spirit filling the believers life.
How is your song doing? Can you sing, "There's within my heart a melody,"
Now we look at:
2. The Upward Response. Saving Thanks.
Ephesians 5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. A Spirit filled believer gives thanks to God for all things. Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Commentator William Hendrickson said that when a person prays without thanksgiving, he has clipped the wings of prayer so that it cannot rise. Being thankful is one of the truest acts of spiritual worship. Recognizing that God is the source of everything, one is able out of absolute trust in a sovereign God, to thank Him in the midst of all circumstances of life.

Notice what Paul says about the When of giving thanks, beginning vs.20
Does he say we are to give thanks only when things are going well? Always. Romans 8:28 is the reason behind that thanksgiving. Knowing that all things work out to the good for those who are in Christ Jesus and are called according to his purpose. Because of that, the believer is able to give thanks:
a. After a trial.
Turn with me to Revelation 15. 1-3 1 saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues - last, because with them God's wrath is completed. [2] And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God [3] and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. That is a description of the martyred saints of all the ages who will be able to sing with thanksgiving that the battle is over and the victory is won. There will always be a time when the dawn of a long dark night will break and there will be opportunity to look back and to thank God for the victories.
But there should also be thanksgiving:
b. Before the trials.
The thankfulness in anticipation of the victory. This is where true faith comes in. It is believing God before anything happens. John 11:39-44 Jesus was at the grave side of Lazarus. A difficult situation. Everyone crying, and he says, "Take away the stone." They protest. They remind him that Lazarus has been there four days. He stinks already. But Jesus simply cries out to the Father in thanksgiving. The trial was yet to begin and Jesus says, "Father thank you that you have heard me. And I know that you always hear me."

We ought to thank God for his answers even before the trial begins. But perhaps the hardest of all is to thank Him:
c. In the middle of the trial. But it is necessary. The Christian who can thank God in spite of the trials has reached the level of spiritual maturity that few Christians ever reach. Joni Ericksen Tada is one such person. In her book Joni, she wrote about her experiences after a diving accident that paralyzed her. She learned through her many trials that giving thanks is not a matter of feeling thankful; it's a matter of obedience.
And the final line of vs. 20 is the key. We are able to be thankful, because we give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus who gives us the strength to endure all things.

A missionary in London was called to an old apartment building where a woman lay during the last stages of a terrible disease. The room was cold and small, and the woman had nowhere to lie but on the floor. When the missionary asked if there was anything he could do, she said, "I have all I really need; I have Christ!" Hearing of this account, someone wrote these words. In the heart of London City, 'Mid the dwelling of the poor, These bright, golden words were uttered, "I have Christ! What want I more? Spoken by a lonely woman, Dying on a garret floor, Having not one earthly comfort "I have Christ! What want I more?"
Family, Christ seeks to bring our hearts into tune with himself through the Holy Spirit. He seeks to bring us into peace with himself. He longs to sing his song through us. He longs that we should respond to His fullness with hearts that are full with thanksgiving because of the joy that lies there. Do you know His peace this morning? Can you honestly say "My heart is right with God, my conscience is clear, my sin is forgiven, I am happy? If you do not know Jesus Christ as Savior, Master and Lord, how can you honestly say these things. In the midst of a world filled with so much hate and sorrow and wickedness, Jesus still whispers. "Peace"
In Los Angeles in the early1940's there was a radio station whose call letters were KHJ. A shepherd lived in the hills about 100 miles from Los Angeles. He owned a crystal set with a pair of headphones. Sometimes he would spend weeks away from home, and his only companion was this crystal radio. KHJ was the strongest reception he could get. He also had a fiddle and he used to pass much of the time by playing with the orchestra's he might hear on the radio. One day his fiddle got out of tune. He tried to tune it, but the orchestras went so fast, he could never hear the right note long enough. Several days went by, and he became discouraged, when a man on horseback came by.
He stopped the man and asked him if when he got to the city he would drop a card in the mail box to KHJ telling them of his dilemma and asking them to have someone, sometime, in the studio to play the note of "A" on the piano long enough for him to tune his fiddle. The stranger laughed, "I sure will, friend." So the message was sent, and when they received it they announced that they would strike A on the piano the next morning at 10 a.m. for the shepherd of the hills. The next morning, the shepherd was ready, and everything in that great studio stopped so that the shepherd could tune his fiddle.

Family, some of us have disharmony in our lives, but when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, he strikes A in our lives and brings it back into tune. He brings us back into harmony with himself. We need the filling of the Holy Spirit. If that is what it takes to come to a place of harmony in Christ, then we must have the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.