Why We Sing
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Introduction
Introduction
Songs: How Can I Keep From Singing, How Great Thou Art
5 when I started playing piano - been a part of my life ever since. Don’t know why it stuck - opened up some amazing opportunities.
My favorite music memories not concert halls and competitions but church music.
Music plays a huge part in the life of the church - For me, memories of standing on pews next to senior adults holding a hymnal and singing hymns of faith - or memories of being church pianist then playing in praise bands, etc. NW first church I’ve been at where I have not played every Sunday.
Church - a musical people - a singing people. ODD - What other organization gets together on a weekly basis and spends about half of their time singing together? Honest: kind of weird!
Psalms - Over and over called to sing - But not only in the Book of Psalms - - address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We’re not a walking musical - BUT - singing central to the faith.
- 3 reasons we are a singing people.
Let us sing to know God and make God known.
Let us sing to know God and make God known.
Let “us” sing - Pl. pronoun - we do it together. Corporate worship is not passive and you are not a spectator. You’ve come to participate with hundreds of others in this room of ascribing worth to the God of all creation. But why do we sing?
We sing to celebrate. Passage points us to the greatness of God who is our God (vs. 7). We are His sheep. You belong to the creator - through faith - you are His child. Hard to be bored in worship when you recognize who God is and who you are because of God’s grace!
We sing to engage our hearts. Emotionally loaded words - Joyful noise (2x), bow down, kneel. Joy and bowing flow out of a heart that is engaged in worship. Music is emotional and God is worthy of your emotions. Jesus is more worthy of your emotions than your favorite football team. Our hearts need to be stirred by God (not emotionalism - we’re after more than a feeling - but we want our emotions set on God)
We sing to engage our minds. Good to engage emotions - but music engages more than emotions. It engages the intellect. Singing is a great way to reinforce biblical truth. That God loves, His grace is amazing, He died for me and His blood has washed away my sins.
Songs: I Stand Amazed, Nothing But the Blood of Jesus, Amazing Grace
Three Challenges:
Use your brain when you sing - Don’t just let the words come across your lips. Think while you sing - what truth are you celebrating as you sing?
Use your heart when you sing - As you sing, thank God! As you sing, rejoice! Let your posture demonstrate that you are engaged in expressing your devotion to God through your worship.
Sing loud - As you sing you are declaring truth. You are testifying to everyone in this room, “This is what I believe.” A profound affect on those in this room who might not have a relationship with Jesus. Practice:
Songs: What a Beautiful Name it Is, You Are My King
We sing to acknowledge God’s presence and bow down before Him.
We sing to acknowledge God’s presence and bow down before Him.
“Let us worship and bow down.” Again - plural pronoun.
Bible full of stories of people bowing down before God. Moses at burning bush, Joshua when he met the commander of the Lord’s army. Isaiah when he saw God high and lifted up. Peter when Jesus was in the boat with him and told him to put the net on the other side. John in Revelation when in the presence of Jesus.
In Bible, people bowed when keenly aware of God’s presence. Sacredness of this moment - gathered to worship the King of kings with the real awareness that He is present among His people. We don’t believe in a God who is dead, or who is far away - BUT a God who is near, who we can experience.
Worship is a call to bow in His presence - thankful for songs that call us bow before Him in humble worship - bowing to recognize that He is King and we are not.
Song: Here I Am to Worship
The goal of worship: to bow down in humble surrender. We’re here honor God, hear God, and obey God. That’s it! This passage is a call to engage God with our heart, our mind, and our will.
The goal of worship is not:
To enjoy the service. Worship is not man-centered. It’s God-centered. We’re blessed to have technology, gifted musicians, etc. But, we don’t need these things because the goal is not a service for you to enjoy but an encounter with God. What we need for an encounter with God: God’s Word, the Spirit’s work, and worshippers with pliable hearts.
To evaluate the service. You’re going to walk away evaluating today. I am too. Was the service too long? Did I hear my favorite song? Was the preacher on point? Did I feel the presence of God this morning? Were my kids ministered to?
Reality: We’ve gathered to bring pleasure to God, not to please ourselves. AND, we’re not the ones doing the evaluating. God is the One who evaluates. This morning, He is evaluating your heart. Where do you stand before Him? As He evaluates, He’s revealing to you areas where you need to evaluate yourself - where you need to do business - calling you to surrender to Him.
Have you come to bow down? To lay your life before Him? Or, have you gathered to critique? Let this song be the prayer of your heart:
( Surrender All)
We sing to soften our hearts towards God’s greatness.
We sing to soften our hearts towards God’s greatness.
Passage shifts from a call to worship to an abrupt warning.
“Remember your your past and how Israel has hardened their hearts in the past. Don’t do it again!”
- People complain because they have no water. Moses: “What should I do with these people?” Struck rock and water came out - Place named Massah and Meribah as a reminder of their complaining.
- a similar incident. History repeats itself - And history continues to repeat itself. Yet this time, Moses wasn’t supposed to strike the rock - simply speak to it. Yet, in frustration, he struck it.
Instead of choosing to bow down - we often choose to complain about what God isn’t doing in our lives, when we don’t get our way, etc.
You need worship to soften your heart - your heart is prone to hardness - to disbelieve God, to complain, etc. Worship reminds you that God can be trusted.
Interesting - quotes verbatim and then: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” ()
What starts here continues. This morning - an encouraging site - God’s people together, humbled before Him, saying, “Yes, to His will.” What if we encouraged each other daily to worship? What if we encouraged each other daily to bow down before God? What if you called, texted, etc. and just encouraged people in their walk with the Lord?
This morning - see the greatness of God and let it soften your heart to Him.
He is worthy of your worship not simply because He created you but because He saved you - when you were dead in sin, He sent His Son to die in your place, to rise again, and to give you eternal life. He is worth not only your singing, He is worth your life. Unbeliever: give your life to Him this morning.
Believer: complainer or worshipper? Evaluator or evaluated? Going through religious motions or passionately devoted? Discourager or encourager? This morning: invitation to be a devoted, passionate worshipper. Repent and worship.
Song: O Praise the Name