Why We Sing - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

One simple verse. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Let's pray together. Father, we come in absolute reverence towards your word. We pray that this one simple verse would reshape the way we seek you, the way we know you, the way we do things, God.

We pray that you would enlarge our hearts, Lord, to fulfill the instructions of the living God. And we pray for a presence, your presence, to be known in this place in a way that would leave us in awe of who you are. Lord, would you put aside our presuppositions and our pre understandings, and may we humble ourselves to the authority of scripture. We pray father that you would fill us with the holy spirit. We need him.

We pray that you would open our eyes to see the beauty and the majesty of Jesus Christ, and we pray, lord, that it would produce a thanksgiving to God the father. And so, lord, as we address you, we now sit in your house, and we pray, speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

Colossians chapter three is a chapter that is dedicated to the Christian life that is hidden in Christ. It's really if you were to sum up the first few verses, it's talking about how we as believers are to live in a different mindset, how we are to put to death the old man and the things of the flesh and put on the new man. And so really what it's talking about is practical Christian living, how we ought to live as Christians, how we can maximize our Christian living on this earth. And so really he just throws out these bullet points of what it means to follow Christ, what it means to put the things of the flesh to death. And one of those things in in which we must do to put on the new self, to reflect the character and the person of Jesus Christ more and more is in verse 16.

It says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now let's just stop here. Is the Word of Christ in you richly? What would you categorize the level of Scripture in your life? The level of the words of God, the words of Christ, the words about Christ, the word is it richly, poorly?

What level does the Word of Christ dwell in you? And to the degree the Word of God dwells in you is the degree that you will experience what it means to reflect and be empowered and to project Jesus Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in your region. We talked about that. The rewards of treasuring God's word.

What it does to the person's heart. What it does to the person's mind. What it does to their outward living. But it's not just for the personal benefit. The Word of Christ dwelling in you and in me richly is beyond just you personally and me personally because he goes on to say, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

We all know that. We've learned that from Sunday school. Know your Bible. But not just for your personal gain, for what purpose? To teach and admonish one another.

One another. And so it's yes. There is a central there is an office of preaching and teaching that is designated for elders, that is designated for people who have been called by God to dedicate their lives to do so, but there is a corporate responsibility for you and I to know the Word of God, yes, for me, but also for my brother and also for my sister. And so that says something of what our relationships should look like. It it frames the the the subject of our conference conversation That at some point, if not at all times, we should have a road to Emmaus kind of friendship, where we're talking about the things of God, or we're talking about scripture, where we're looking at each other and we teach one another what you've learned in your personal devotion time, what God has spoken to you when you open this book.

And so what does that look like? Teach and admonish one another. I think an example is in first Thessalonians five fourteen. Let me just read it to you and we'll put it up on the screen. First Thessalonians five fourteen says, I urge you brothers, I urge you, what?

Admonish the idol, Encourage the fainthearted. Help the weak. And he goes on to instruct these different things that we must do for one another. Is there somebody that's lazy? There's is there somebody that's idle in their faith they lack discipline?

Admonish them. Stir them up. Hey, man. Wake up. What are you doing?

You lost your fire. This is what the Bible says. Encourage the faint hearted. There's somebody there that's going through hell on earth, and you can take scripture as a brother, as a sister, and yes, you counsel them. You're not a talking commentary.

You're counseling them and then you bring up scripture. You pour into them. You teach them. You admonish them because the Word of Christ is dwelling in you richly. And so that should be the the framework of our conversations.

We should have the scriptures oozing out of us that it's almost effortless and when we talk to one another. But it goes beyond that because now we see Paul saying, teach one another. Let the word of Christ dwell in you. Which one? He he kind of randomly jumps into this command to sing.

Sing songs. Sing hymns. Sing spiritual songs. And we go, What's the connection? What's the connection between the word of Christ dwelling in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another, and then singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs?

What's the connection? Why is he telling us to sing? He's not suggesting it. He's commanding it. I believe wholeheartedly in this generation that we have great misconceptions of singing.

And one of those misconceptions about singing is that we really do not know why we actually sing. Think about it. We all in here have a general understanding of why we preach, why we teach. We all have a general understanding of why we pray, why we fast. We all have an understanding of the urgency to go out and preach the gospel and to evangelize, but why do we sing?

If somebody were to ask you, hey, somebody who's not a believer were to ask you, why do you sing? Why do you do three songs before you? Why do you do a couple songs after? Why do you actually sing? Why do you come together and sing and harm me?

I don't get it. How would you answer them? It's kind of something that we just allow to go in our mind as a model and a structure of the service. It's kind of like the the stretching before the workout. It's kind of the warming up of the blood before the the real thing, which is the word of God and the preaching of the word of God.

It's something that we just allow our minds to wander through as we kind of just bop our bodies and move our heads to the tune of the song. But the Bible has a different understanding of why, why we sing. And I wanna say this right off the beginning, I'm not here today to present my idea. I'm not here to present my preferences. I'm not here to present what I think singing is and what I think singing should be.

I'm not here to promote a genre. I'm not here to promote this or that. All I'm trying to do and all I'm asking God to help me do is present what the word of God says. What the Bible says. That's the safest thing you and I can do preacher is just present what the word of God says.

Because when people disagree with you, they're not disagreeing with you. They're disagreeing with the word of God. What does the Bible say about singing? What's the connection with this verse? Let the word of Christ dwell in you rich teach and admonish one another.

Sing songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Paul, what are you saying? Holy Spirit, what are you saying? What are you trying to present to us? The value, the purpose, and the framework of how we ought to sing and worship God in song.

Singing has a sanctifying and edifying power within the church. Singing has a sanctifying and edifying power within the church. The context suggests this, that you allow the word of Christ to dwell in you richly and that you teach and admonish one another. But one of those ways of teaching is not just Bible study, is not just having conversations, is not just counseling, it's actually singing together corporately. That the way we actually teach and admonish one another, one of the elements is not just looking at each other and just talking, It's actually coming together and singing to God.

That is a form of teaching within the church, and this is seen all over the Bible. When you go all the way to Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy thirty one nineteen, the people of Israel are about to go into the Promised Land. And what does God say to Moses? Moses, they're about to go into the Promised Land, so I need you to do something. I need you to teach them this song, and I want you to put it in their mouth.

Teach them the song, put it in their mouth. Why? That it may stand as a witness against them. So that when they do sin, they would sing the song and they would remember that I actually knew beforehand that they would do this, and they would remember my goodness. They would remember their unfaithfulness, and for generations to come, this would be a memorial and a source of almost producing a sense of conviction to repent.

And so he doesn't say preach a sermon. He didn't say let him memorize this sermon. He doesn't say no. He says teach him a song. Music, singing, melody, harmony holds the power to retain truths of God in a memorable way.

Let me give you an example. Have you ever asked somebody if they know the alphabet? I hope you that's a weird thing to ask. But if you've ever asked somebody just say the alphabet, you'll never, I doubt it, hear somebody say it like this, a b c d e. How did you learn the alphabet?

A, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, m, n, o, p. We could've used that for math because I forgot all math. Put a song to it. Singing, music, harmony, melody has this powerful ability to remain in the mind in a way which you can retain truths. And so God says, I want you to teach the people this song so that they would know who I am, and they would know what I have done, and it would be a way of remembering.

And so when we sing, there's an element of teaching to it. That the purpose of singing is to hear and proclaim who God is and what He has done for me. So we are to proclaim who Jesus is, what he's done on the cross, who God is. He's the creator of all things. He is sovereign.

He knows all things. I'm in the palm of his hand. He is resurrected. He's coming back again. And as we're doing that, we're learning and it's doing something to us.

It's being retained within our hearts and in our minds. Music has the ability to take the truths of God and to not just be intellectual but to stir the emotions alongside with it. That it has the ability to produce a sense of adoration and love towards the truths that we are proclaiming. And that edifies us as we declare the truths of God, as we declare the promises of God, as we declare the character of God. What else does that do?

It builds our faith. It's not just merely intellectual. It builds our faith. There's another verse parallel to this one in Ephesians five nineteen. It's another strange verse.

It says, addressing one another addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your hearts to the Lord. So he even instructs him in Ephesians, I want you to address one another in Psalms, in hymns, in spirituals. What does that look like? Does that look like me going to Gil and saying, hey, Gil. How great is our God?

Sing with me. How great is our God? Is that addressing one another? No. It's an indirect way of when we come together corporately as we sing to God and we hear the things about God, we are being addressed by one another.

So think about this. Here's somebody coming in. They went through temptation all week. Satan has been knocking on their door day in and day out. And as they come in, here are the people of God singing together with their hands lifted up, their eyes towards heaven, roaring the truths of God.

And there's that person who's gone through hell all week, who's been tempted, who's been buffeted by Satan, hearing the truths of God, stirring something within their hearts, and provoking them to understand. Yeah, God is good. He's faithful. He's powerful. He is faithful.

Yeah, He is there for me. I can't see Him right now, but as I step into this environment where people are declaring with faith that God is faithful, God is powerful, God is all seeing, God is good, God is love, it does something to you. There is a stirring element. There is a stirring power. There is a faith building, edifying element to corporate singing and worship.

It has the ability to shape the mind and to stir the heart, which makes me think something. And I'm gonna go on a little tangent here. Bear with me. If Christian singing, if spiritual worship has the ability to shape the way I think and to stir my emotions and to dictate my heart, to place it in the right way, What kind of power does secular music have? If that's the power of spiritual songs, if Paul is admonishing and saying, hey guys, sing.

Because when you sing, something happens to your faith. When you sing, something happens to your heart. When you sing, your mind is cleared from the junk and the things that you believed all week that are not according to scripture. What kind of power does worldly music have? Young people ask all the time, is this should I listen to this song?

Should I not listen to this song? Is this song Christian? Is this genre Christian? Is this God honoring? I'll just give you the Bible.

I'll just give you the biblical criteria of how you can filter and understand this. Philippians four eight says this, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things. So let's go through the list. This this will help you so much. Is it is it true?

Is is what you're allowing to come into your mind, is it true? Is it just? Is it honorable? Is it pure? Pure.

Is it lovely? Is it commendable? Meaning, if somebody knew you, would they commend you and say that that's great. Is it excellent? Is it here we go.

Is it worthy worthy of praise? Colossians three two, as in the same chapter here, what does it say? Set your minds on things above and not on the things on the earth. How are you gonna set your minds on things above and not on things of the earth if you're listening to things that glorify the things of the earth? When the Bible says set your mind on things above, it wants you to get to a place where you think about eternal things, about spiritual things, about godly things, not on things on earth.

But how is that possible if I listen to music that glorifies the flesh, that glorifies sexual immorality, that glorifies murder, that glorifies the abuse of drugs, that glorifies sensuality, that glorifies the body, that glorifies me, that glorifies her, that glorifies relationships? How am I gonna do that if that's what I'm injecting in my mind hours in a week? And it's amazing in the book of Daniel in chapter three, when Nebuchadnezzar wanted to set up a golden image and he wanted everybody to bow, he wanted to unify his people because of the threat that he received from the dream that Daniel interpreted that his kingdom would fall. He goes, no no no no no. I'm gonna build a golden image, and I'm gonna get everybody to be unified.

I'm gonna get everybody to worship this image so that we can become one people and become stronger. What was the cue for the people to bow down and worship the golden image? The sounds of music. When you hear these sounds, you bow. Because music has the ability to weaken your knees.

Music has the ability to enter into your heart and to make that pill easier to swallow. If Paul is saying here, I want you to sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in the context of putting on the new man, I wonder if I do the opposite, I'm gonna resurrect the old man. It has power to stir your flesh. If this has the power to put on the new man and to renew my mind and to renew my heart and to clear my thinking, I wonder what the filthy things do. I wonder what the worldly things do.

I would argue that it resurrects the old man. Now people say, is it a sin? I wouldn't say it's a sin. I would say it's a seed. Not a sin, but a seed planted in your mind long enough.

Planted in your mind long enough. Planted in your mind long enough, and you will reap what you sow. Let me sing, not sing, God forbid sing, a psalm, Psalm one eighteen verse 14. The Lord is my strength and my song. The Lord is my strength and what?

My song. You know what he's saying there? The theme of my song is God. The theme of my singing is His salvation. The theme of what it means to sing and to allow into my mind is hymn.

The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous. You know what kind of music is bopping into the tents of the righteous? In the tents of the righteous, in the homes of the righteous?

Songs of salvation. The Lord is my strength and my song. Now please don't pin this your old school thing. Listen. I'm I'm your age.

I'm not coming from a different generation. I'm we're we're same generation. There's power in this stuff. Be careful what you let into your mind. Be careful what you allow in your ears.

The Psalmist says, He's the theme of my song. He's the reason why I sing. He's the melody in my heart. And all the blessings that we just talked about, about how we are sanctified in a sense, and we are edified, and we are taught the truths of God through singing, through corporate singing, through what we just did a few minutes ago, and what we're about to do. This is very important.

Those blessings, that power cannot be a reality unless this truth is implemented, and it is this, unless the music is centered on the Word of God. What's the connection here? Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly to teach them one yeah, we get it. Teach and admonish one another, but also to sing.

That the overflow of my singing, the overflow of my music, the overflow of our worship should be the overflow of the Word of God bursting from your heart. Now let's just get practical here. How would you judge a sermon? How would you judge a sermon? Would you judge it by its enthusiasm?

Would you judge it by the charisma? Would you judge it by the emotion that it produces in you? I mean, those things are partly important, but there's one central thing that we must judge all messages by, and we don't need to guess it. There are these men in Acts 17 that give us a model. They were known as noble minded men called the Bereans.

And if there was anybody that was empowered by the Holy Spirit, anointed of the Holy Spirit, Apostle Paul was. And the Apostle Paul was so I mean, his handkerchief healed people, never mind his hands. He was so endued with power that people took us a piece of his clothing and put it on the sick, and they were healed. But you know what? That didn't faze the Bereans.

They heard his message, and you know what they said? That's awesome, apostle Paul, but we gotta go into the Bible, and we gotta get back to see if this is true or not. Bear with me here. Follow me along here. If we were to judge a sermon by the scriptures, but also alongside with that, singing has an element of teaching to it.

Why wouldn't we judge songs by the same standard? By its content, by the truths that are being declared in it. Why wouldn't we or do we judge music by how some people judge sermons, the way it makes me feel, the charisma, the emotion that it invokes within me? Listen, charisma, power, emotion, false teachers are charismatic. False teachers are powerful in their speech.

False teachers are not necessarily boring. But my point is there, if we were to use that standard of, hey, that's not necessarily right or that's very shallow or that's kind of off for a sermon, why wouldn't we use that same standard for songs if there's a teaching element to it? If the purpose is to sing to God and to sing about God? And so it must be centered upon the Word of God, and I wonder and I really wonder if the reason why we are pumping out in this generation so much shallow worship music is because we really don't know our Bibles. It's shallow.

It's it's it's not there's no depth to it. It's not centered around truth, it's centered about almost me. It's me centric. But it's supposed to be the overflow of letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And he says, sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Now hold up there because so many people debate what those things mean. What is a Psalm? And what is a hymn? And what's a spiritual song? This is how I interpret it.

Disagree with me if you would like. I believe what Paul is saying here, he's not giving us a description of what these things are. We can argue what these things are, but I believe that he is naming these things because he is for a diverse way of worship, That we can sing this way, and we can sing that way, and we can sing this way. Paul is not arguing for style like so many people do. Paul is arguing for substance, not style, substance.

Oh, we shouldn't use these instruments. Oh, we should use these instruments. Oh, we should do acapella. Oh, we can only do these songs. Oh, we can't do these songs.

Oh, this song is too fast. Oh, this song is too Paul is not arguing for that. You know what Paul is arguing for? Is it biblically sound? What's the substance of it?

Not the style of it. Is Paul against is the Bible against instruments that can stir our emotions in a way that makes us love God? God created our emotions. I hope that they would be directed towards God. Why do people think emotions are sinful?

I don't understand. Read the Psalms and see tears bursting forth from joy. That's emotion. Though Paul is arguing for sound and biblical and Jesus centered music, he's not arguing for stiff people. He's not arguing for people to be impassionate and just intellectually, theologically, and logically precise.

That's not what Paul is arguing. How do you know? Because he's saying with thankfulness in your hearts to God. He wants the heart and the mind. God wants the heart and the mind to be involved in singing.

Is he against instruments to stir emotions? Not necessarily, and that can be dangerous in a sense. And on a personal level, just to be transparent, I wanna get to a place in my faith where I'm not stirred emotionally towards God because of instruments, but because of the truths of God that are being accompanied with the instruments. I don't want to be gripped by, oh, and it just gave me goosebumps. I don't want to be stirred by that.

I want to be stirred by the truths of the cross. I want to be stirred by redemption. I want to be stirred by salvation. I want to be stirred as I'm saying how good God is, as I'm as I'm singing about the blood, as I'm singing about the resurrection, my emotions are stirred by the truth that I'm declaring. That's maturity.

That's where we need to get to. That's why content is so important. The blessings of singing will not happen unless we are centered upon the Word of God, unless our worship is centered upon the Scriptures. Let me just sing one hymn here. Not sing it.

I keep saying singing. I apologize. Let me just read this. O for a thousand tongues to sing. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease, 'tis music in the sinner's ears, 'tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean.

His blood availed for me. Does that not stir you? Did you hear? I just read it. The the truths in that, he cancels our sin.

His blood can make the foulest clean. We are so caught up in cotton candy fluff, slushy music, and it's a result of not letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Am I against simplicity in worship? Is the Bible against it? No.

Our problem is not that. Our problem is experiencing the power of singing that is rooted and anchored in this. And so if you are a worship leader, if you are aspiring to be a worship leader, not only worship leader, if you want to grow in your singing to the Lord, and your love and adoration for God, there is a tremendous responsibility that you carry. We should not downplay worship. We should not downplay worship.

The same way we should not downplay a sermon, and we should not downplay the proclamation of the Word of God behind a pulpit. And so in my song selection, why am I choosing these songs? What is the purpose for this? Am I am I am I desiring to reach the mind but not the heart? Or am I aiming for the heart and not the mind?

Here's a really important part. What am I leading the people to know about God in song, and what am I leading them to say to God in song? Which leads to the next important part, probably the most crucial part. That though worship has an element of teaching and admonishing one another, and though that cannot be true unless it is centered upon the Word of God, ultimately, when we sing, we're not singing for one another. We're singing to God.

He says it here, what? Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. To God. Ephesians five nineteen, yeah, address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord. He's the object of my worship.

So what does that mean? Worship is not about me. Worship singing is not about me. Let's take it even further. It's not even about how I feel.

It has nothing to do with it. It's a declaration of faith every single time. Jesus is the center of worship. Hebrews we know this in Hebrews. He says it in Hebrews 13 verse 15.

What does he say? By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise, who? To God continually, that is the fruit of lips giving thanks to his name. And the ESV says to acknowledge his name. So I am to give a sacrifice of praise, and we've heard this before.

Why is it a sacrifice? Because you don't feel like doing it all the time. And it's a sacrifice of praise that I am giving my praise to Him whether I feel this truth or I'm experiencing this truth or not. I'm declaring and acknowledging not my name, not my life, His name, His name. Why does God want us to sing?

Have you ever asked? I mean, he could ask us do a lot of things. Why why ask us to sing? I believe one element is because it requires the whole man. It requires the whole man.

In what sense? When I sing, really, when I really sing passionately, when my heart because it says to your heart. God wants passionate worship. God wants us to take the truths, yes, in our mind, but also the emotions of the heart and to come into harmony with one another to give Him what He deserves. It involves what?

The heart. It involves what? My emotions. It involves what? My mind.

It involves what? My strength. That with my voice I declare to God His goodness. It requires the whole man and that is a part of worship. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind.

We should include all of those things in worship. My heart, my soul, my strength, my mind, it's a sacrifice. I'm giving myself over to worshiping him and expensing my energy and giving him my focus, not letting my mind wander when I sing. I'm not twiddling my thumbs. I'm not on my phone.

That's not a sacrifice to praise. No. I make Him the center, the object of it, and to Him, I'm literally let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. The psalmist gives us amazing revelation about singing. It's a profound truth.

It's something that maybe we could even miss. He says in Psalm 69 verse 30, I will praise the name of God with a song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. He says, my singing to God will actually be more appreciated and honorable to him than a sacrifice on the altar.

With a full mature animal with its horns and its hooves, my singing to him will be more acceptable, will be more pleasing to his ears. God values when his people sing. It's pleasing to him. It's an aroma to him. It's something that he longs to hear from his people who could choose to do otherwise.

Singing is not always something that God wants to hear. The only time in which singing is actually something that God doesn't want to hear is in Amos chapter five. You know what? Let's just turn there just to get an idea because there's also an overemphasis on worship, and we need to balance that out in in the book of Amos. Amos chapter five.

Verse 21. I hate, the Lord says. I hate. I despise your feast. I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs. Take away from me the noise of your songs to the medley of your harps. I will not listen.

Now why would the Lord there's an instrument in there. There's a harp. He says, you're singing. You're coming together, and you're worshiping. I want not I don't wanna hear it.

It's actually defilement to me. It's actually annoying to me. It's actually something that I plug my ears to, so to speak. Why? Verse 24, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

They were not practicing righteousness. They were not practicing the things of God, and they thought that they can cover that up by some good worship and a good concert, and God says, I'm not listening to it. Listen. We can pack out stadiums and have the best worship set ever, but if we're not living holy, God is not hearing us. God is not impressed by our worship.

Do you really think that God isn't he's not it doesn't say he's impressed. It pleases him because it's a will of it's the will of man to declare his goodness and to give all that he is to him. He has thousands upon thousands of angels that sing with perfect pitch. He's not impressed. And so we also have unfortunately an overemphasis on worship in some sense in which we think that if we just do this thing this is what this is all that God wants.

He wants good music and good concerts. And He doesn't care if we're not living righteously. He doesn't care if we're not living for justice. He doesn't care if we're ignoring His word. In fact, He doesn't even want to hear it.

Singing. We sing for God. I wonder what our mindset is every time we come to the house of God. Singing has an element of teaching and admonishing one another. And maybe you've heard this or maybe you've thought this thought before, running late for church.

Well, I'm just missing the worship. I'll make it for the sermon. No. What you did miss is the ability to come in unison with the people of God to proclaim the goodness of God and to stir up your brother and sister in Christ in doing so. And what you did miss was being able to be stirred by your brother and sister through song because somebody's voice was not there.

Somebody told me once they went to a church down in Texas, and they thought that thought. It was a big church. I won't name the church. And they said, oh, we're late, honey. Him and his wife.

We're late, honey, but at least we'll make it for the message. And when they got to the service, they were ten, fifteen minutes within the message. And what they realized was they don't do worship before the service. They don't sing before the message. They sing after the message.

As a response to the word of God, they sing to him and to what they just heard. They adore him. They let the word of God fuel their minds, and in response to him, they sing. And though the preacher has a responsibility to preach the truths of God from the pulpit, the people of God that listen have a responsibility to declare the truths of God through song. There is a marriage between the singing and the preaching.

Singing is crucial in corporate worship. Singing is an important element to the corporate experience of worshiping and loving and responding to God. It's not a secondhand thing. Is there a premium on preaching? Is there a necessity to proclaim?

Do people do way more worship and have shallow preaching? Absolutely. But can we just get to the place where we do both excellently in this generation? Passionate preaching, yes, but also deep in the truths of God. Passionate singing, yes, but also deep in the truths of God.

And partnered together, it will have lifelong effects upon the individual believer. Music can get into the science of music. We can get into the science of what happens to the brain and what you listen to in music and how you participate in music. We can get into the surgeries that are done with music being played for the sake of different reasons in the background. We can get into all the things that happen when we listen to music.

Be careful, young people, what you listen to. Andrew Fletcher said this. He was a he was an old political activist, I believe. And he said this, don't give me the responsibilities to make the laws for a nation. Just give me the ability to create its music.

Don't give me the responsibility to make the laws for a nation. Just give me the chance to give it its music, and I can see a generation turn in a certain direction. Music has a sanctifying and edifying element within the church. Music must be centered on the word of God or else the blessings of singing corporally will not be experienced or they will be experienced but on a shallow level. And music ultimately is for the ears of God.

It's for the ears of who he is. And so I have to ask myself, man, what am I saying to God in song? What am I saying to God? We think that just because there's a tune or a melody to it, it's it's it's it's okay. It's lighthearted.

No. You're singing to him. You're saying things to him. I met an individual who says, I can't sing these songs because I know my life doesn't back this up. I appreciate your honesty and your reverence.

At least you understand what you're doing when you're singing. I'm just not just giving words to him and have an Amos five twenty one response by God. No. I'm singing to God. What am I saying to Him?

Is the reverence towards Him? Is what I'm saying actually true? Does it line up with this? The way I'm singing to God, is it different the way I might talk about and sing about somebody else? Are the attributes of who He is being magnified in song?

There is depth to this. Let's not get caught up by, Oh, it sounds good and if this that's okay, but God wants us to experience the fullness of song when we line up to this verse. Let the word of Christ dwell on you richly. And out of that, you will be able to teach and admonish one another and you'll be able to sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and in that, reap the glories and the edification and the building up that is available through it. Why does God want us to sing?

I believe it's because we get a taste of heaven. Because out of all the things that God has commanded us to do, there is one thing that we will do when we step into glory, and that's singing. Nobody's preaching in heaven. Nobody's praying in heaven. Nobody's evangelizing in heaven.

Everybody's saved. But there is one thing that we are doing. We're gonna be singing. And as one preacher said, we don't start or finish a worship set. All we do is join what heaven is doing for twenty four hours a day.

Would you stand because we're gonna sing together? Gil, if you can just get on the piano, we're gonna sing one one song, and then I know the worship team has a set, but we're gonna sing how great is our God. And if we can transition to How Great Thou Art. And as you sing, just take in everything that you just heard concerning the power of this thing called singing. Take in everything that you just heard about how this is really given to the ears of God, to the fact that when we corporately participate in singing, it does something to the person that we're sitting beside.

It edifies. It stirs. It builds up, and that is only available and possible for us when we marry passion and truth together. When passion and truth are married in corporate singing, we will reap the benefits of what God wants us to experience. And in your own personal life, yes, don't find yourself in a place in which you well, if it's not deep, it's not right.

Listen, I can give you quote after quote of men of God who said the beauty of music, if it serves to stir your emotions in your personal time with the Lord, do it. Let your emotions be stirred towards God. But don't neglect this, that we should be a people in which we allow the truths of God, not just the melody, not just the harmony, not just the nice guitar in the background, not just the synthesizer, not just that, but the words that are being declared be the element of stirring our passion for him. So father, we thank you for your instructions about how you have framed this thing called singing and how there are angels that surround your throne that sing. And one day there will be every tribe and every nation and every tongue coming around your throne to do one thing, to sing of the Lamb of God who sits upon the throne.

And so, Father, today we say yes to your word and we come together as the people of God to say how great how great how great is our God. Sing with me how great is our God. And this isn't about who's standing in the front. This isn't about if the band is here or not. This is about coming together and singing as one body, as one body singing unto the Lord how great is our God.