What A Singing Church Must Be | Colossians 3:16 | Dr. Brian Lee (8/15/25)

Good evening. It's always a joy to be here Friday nights. No better way to spend a Friday night than to be here in in the house of the Lord, praising him in song, feasting on God's word, and being with the saints. And, it's a joy again tonight. The title of the message is this, what a singing church must be.

What a singing church must be. And before we get into the main body of this message, I wanna highlight just a a couple of words actually from the title itself, the words singing church. One can hardly imagine there's a church out there that doesn't sing. Virtually every church you might think of, sings at their meetings or gatherings such as ours. And I'm sure when you walked in those doors today, one thing you expected other than the teaching and preaching of God's word and the fellowship of the saints is singing.

We sing pretty much every time we gather together. But while it may look very different from church to church of what that looks like, even the songs that they choose, I believe the Bible proclaims that there are foundational principles that are at hand, which every church must embrace in their singing. The Bible speaks. And the more I see what the Bible says about singing and music, the more I'm convinced that the Bible has everything to say about, well, the questions. What are we to sing as a church?

The Bible has something to say about that. Why we sing, even when we sing, where we sing, how we sing. All these things are in this book. And so I want us to be reminded of that, encouraged of that tonight because we sing all the time. And may we never lose sight of the fact that God has given us instruction of what every, every local church should endeavor to do, and that is to honor him by following and obeying his word joyfully.

The other thing with singing is that since we do it all the time, there's a familiarity and frequency to it. There's both a blessing and curse in that. Is there not? Because the blessing is that we get to do it every time we meet. It's a joy to do it, and there's practice in it.

But the curse can be that because it's so familiar, we lose sight of its true meaning. It could get mundane. It could get routine. And that's something we must guard ourselves against because of the frequency in which we do it. May we never take for granted every time we sing.

I hope your hearts were stirred, as we sing today. Every time is a a wonderful opportunity to to praise God together, to meet with him, to honor him in our singing. And so the frequency should not hinder us from doing that. When I say singing church in the title, the church local body, yes, but let's remember that it also means the individual members in a local church. Singing, as you know, is not just for the praise team or for those who enjoy singing worship songs.

It is for every single person of that local body. God's people have always been a singing people and always will be. I was stirred just singing about that in a couple of songs that we have an eternal song that we will sing. And this is in a way a a worship practice rehearsal for eternity that we get to do every time we gather. I'm reminded, I don't exactly remember which week it was, but, several weeks ago, there was a meeting we had and a reference we were pointed to a reference, I believe, in Exodus 27 about pure beaten olive oil.

I don't know how many of you were there and you remember that. And that came to mind as I thought of this because we all have something to contribute in our singing. We have every we have something to contribute. And that passage in Exodus 27 talks about it wasn't just the priests who brought this, it was the people of God, every person. Something costly, something precious.

And so just know that, you may not be on the praise team. You may not have, you may not even sing in tune. That's okay. We have something important and precious to contribute, and the Lord sees each of our hearts every time we gather when we sing. Lastly, before we get into the main body of the message, in order to understand what a singing church should be, we must understand what a church must be.

The purpose of the local body and the gathering of the local body is important to think about in the context of singing. Singing does not exist in a vacuum. We don't just do it because it's something we enjoy on its side. Singing is important. Yes.

But it is not the only ministry of the local body. And anything we do must be under the umbrella of the directives and purposes that God's word outlines in what the purpose of a gathering of a local church must be. And let me say one last thing before we get into, the main message. I couldn't help but think about the dear praise team here as I prepare for this message, that I have the honor, of serving alongside brothers and sisters, sisters, dear brothers and sisters on the praise team. And so while singing is for every single person here, not just for the praise team, I do wanna say something to the praise team in this message.

I praise God because the principles outlined in the in the study as I studied it studied it, it was just confirmation that every single member of the praise team are praised and God is using, and these principles are there. And I praise God for that. And having said that, I pray that this will stir your hearts, because on the praise team we have, we do have a higher responsibility as we lead in song. The vocalist, instrumentalist, sound team, media team, we all have a higher responsibility, to honor the Lord and how we serve. And so I pray that these principles as as they're outlined, it will stir your hearts to to pursue them even with more diligence, and never lose sight of these important truths week after week, day after day.

So, what I'd like to do is we're gonna look at five principles of what it means to be a singing church. What a singing church must be, five principles. And these are certainly not exhaustive, and they're not even that new. I think these principles most of you probably have heard all of these. But, again, I pray that we never get tired of hearing the truth no matter how often, that these will stir your hearts afresh again.

So the original plan as I prepared this message was looking at these five principles in five different places in the New Testament, five very separate passages. And upon going to the first passage, I was so blessed to see that these principles were inherent not only in this passage, but in the chapter itself and in the book, the context of the chapter in the book. And so we're gonna stay, for the most part in this chapter and in this book, but we will go around a little bit. So the passage that is the center of our study tonight is Colossians three verse 16. Let's turn there and read it together.

Colossians three sixteen. 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. Lord, this is your word, and it is our delight to come before it again, as the church. And, Lord, we don't come here on our on our own authority.

It is the authority of your word and your lordship over our lives. And so may that be true, during this time in the teaching and preaching of your word. We ask that, your authority, your voice would be heard loud and clear above anyone else. And so we give this time to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before we look at the five principles, I do wanna make a quick mention about these three kinds of songs the Bible actually commands us to sing, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And let me just make a quick mention of that. It's amazing the Bible actually tells us what to sing, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now there's been, no shortage of debate, I would say, about what these three things actually mean in the local church context. And by the way, hymns don't mean those books or those hymns songs we see, on hardcover books are binding.

That's not necessarily the definition of hymns here. But let me just say something real quick about it. Perhaps if you look at the original Greek for each word, it gives us a little bit of insight, not to be dogmatic about this because it is a little bit uncertain. But Psalms here, I believe is the word for praise. So we're to sing songs of praise.

And, it's interesting. This is, in the English translation, it's it's lowercase p, which is different from the word that Jesus uses, the resurrected Christ, when he says, I'm the fulfillment of the of the law of the prophets and the Psalms, capital p. And so even though this may not be literally the book of Psalms, I still think it gives us instruction to sing the Psalms, to sing praises. It is a book of praises. And I'm always blessed every time we sing songs that are rooted in in the word in the Psalms here.

The second word, hymns, the Greek word here is an ode to a god. And, you can imagine in ancient Greece, ancient Rome, there were many gods, lowercase g. And I believe this indicates using songs that give honor to god directed to him. Words and, a posture perhaps are direction. First and foremost, direction towards God.

And the third word here, spiritual songs, I believe in the Greek, if you look at it, implies something, more of a personal nature, a connection of the human spirit to something divine. So perhaps songs that are a little bit more personal. And that's why I don't think I I don't know if you've heard the criticism, all the contemporary songs, they have a lot of those me, I, mine kind of words, not enough about God. And there's there's a lot of truth to that, actually. But nevertheless, there is, I believe, biblical freedom to sing songs that talk about the personal, me.

I mean, the Psalms are filled with it. Right? Create in me a clean heart, oh god. Me, I. And and as long as they are directed to the lord.

You see? It's not about me per se, but it's it's direct those personal emotions are always directed to the Lord. So I just wanted to make a quick mention of that. And I praise God that the Psalms contain, those things, that the hymns and spiritual songs that this alludes to. Alright.

All that to say, this shows us that the songs that we suck, the music that we do in our gatherings, ultimately, is not about the music itself. I believe that's the paradox. It's not about the style of music. It's not about what instruments to use or whatnot. Those are important questions to ask, and they should be done so with wisdom.

But this passage alone, among others, points us to the importance of the text, the lyrics. What are the words that we sing as the church, as a local body? So Colossians three sixteen, the first principle is this. A singing church must be a church that honors the word of God. Simply put, the singing church must be a church that honors the word of God.

What do we mean by honor? Well, many things can be said about that, but it is not merely it is not enough merely to believe in the word of God. We must honor the word of God. The Bible is the highest authority. It's the entirety of scriptures, the whole council of caught a whole council of God that we, we seek, that we that we preach, and that we sing.

It's the surrender and sufficiency of this book that we honor above all else, and that should be applied in our singing. Now this perhaps is the most obvious principle as we see the verse at hand, But, nevertheless, it's important. It's at the head of this verse. It's obvious, is it not? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly connected to the singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

You just have to look a few other places throughout scripture that verifies this. I mean, it's no accident that the songbook of the Bible, the Psalms, at its head, just like the head of this verse, Psalm one, as many of us know, talks about delighting in the law of the Lord. That is how the book of Psalms starts, about delighting and meditating on the law of the Lord. Another place I'd love to go to as a proof text to this and, let's turn there, for a moment. It's Psalm one nineteen.

So we have the first Psalm, but we also have the longest Psalm and certainly the longest chapter of the Bible. And so we're gonna go just look at a couple of verses in Psalm one nineteen that, hopefully, enhance our, our look at Colossians three sixteen. So Psalm one nineteen, let's look at verse 54. I will read it. Psalm one nineteen verse 54 says, your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.

Your statutes have been my songs. Turn a few pages later to the end of Psalm one nineteen. At the very end, it reminds us of this truth. In the very last section of Psalm one nineteen in verse 171, it reads this, Psalm one nineteen one seventy one, my lips will pour forth praise, for you teach me your statutes. My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right.

So in the Psalms itself, at the beginning at the head, in the longest chapter, it tells us that the word of Christ, the word is to dwell richly in our singing. Let's turn back to Colossians. Even in the context of the book of Colossians, we see this quite, quite obviously. In Colossians one verse 24, Paul writes here, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known.

And so this passage seems to indicate that, Paul as he's, talking about his sufferings for the sake of this church in Colossae, One of the main purposes of this is for the church, for this body to know the word of God in full, to make the word of God fully known. That is the context of this book where where we are commanded to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Go to a few verses down. Verse 28 in chapter one of Colossians in Colossians one chapter 28, verse 28. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Did you catch it? The warning and teaching is a a direct connection to our verse in Colossians three sixteen that says, to admonish and teach one another, to warn and teach one another through the singing of songs. And so this verse here, talks about really the purposes of singing the word of God is one of the main purposes is to teach and to warn. And I wanna offer three applications of how we can do this on a practical level of how a church can honor the word of God. The first is one way a a singing church honors the word of God is simply in the songs that they select.

What songs is that local church selecting for every gathering? It is said that one can tell a church's theology by the songs they choose to sing on a regular basis. What is the content of the lyrics a church sings? And as we have looked at already, the Bible champions for the people of God to sing the word, to sing the scriptures back to him in praise of him. Him we proclaim, it said in Colossians one twenty eight.

And if we proclaim Christ, we proclaim the word. He is the word. When we sing the word, we sing Christ. And to think that the ministry of the word simply is the preaching and teaching from the pulpit, and as important as primary as that is, I believe is a faulty notion. The ministry of the word extends to the singing of the local church.

What we do is we sing the word. It is, an extension of the ministry of the word. They work in tandem. They work together. They are meant to work together.

And I praise God that, the songs that we sang earlier, they just by God's grace, they align with the principles that we are looking at tonight. Let's go back to our main verse in Colossians three sixteen. We talked about how, one of the purposes of singing is to teach and admonish one another, To teach and warn or to warn and teach that we saw in Colossians one. And do songs do this? Do songs teach and warn?

Absolutely. And this is not new to the scriptures. We see at the end of the wilderness journey of God's people, I find it very interesting that God, uses a song at the end of the wilderness journey as in a way a final teaching and a final warning to God's people before they enter the promised land. He uses a song. It's called the song of Moses.

And I wanna briefly turn there to emphasize this point of teaching and warning. In Deuteronomy 32 verse 44, it says this, after the song has been said, Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, He and Joshua, the son of Nun. And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today. That you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. So this song was meant to teach the people of God.

And if you know the song of Moses, this epic song that we see, it reminds the people of God of the wilderness journey and teaches them God's law, but it also warns them the times that they rebel, the times that there was idolatry, the other nations and their idols. There are warnings throughout the song. And, you know, we can think probably of a lot of songs that teach us. Right? That teach us of the things of God.

It's not as easy to think of songs that we sing, or that are well known that actually warn. And I found this to be true. I was trying to think of a song, that, we may know or that we sing, and it was hard to think of one. And I'm sure they're out there. Maybe some just something didn't come to mind right at first.

But here's a song that I found, written by Charles Wesley. He's the prolific hymn writer, who wrote things like, oh, 4,000 tongues to sing, come thou long expect to Jesus. And this is a a hymn that is titled, and must I be to judgment brought? I just wanted to read these words and just give you a taste of what a song that could warn might might sound like or or or feel like. See, there's a this is one verse from it.

And must I be to judgment brought and answer in that day for every vain and idle thought and every word I say? Yes. Every secret of my heart shall shortly be made known. And I receive my just dessert for all that I have done. I don't know how you felt hearing those words, somewhat stark, maybe, poking at us, but song words of warning.

Words of warning. And I believe the Bible does call us to choose songs, maybe even write new songs that do warn the people of God. And this is not to do so, of course, to scare people necessarily. But, you know, we've we've talked about this at different meetings, how how love warns. It is the love of God, that warns.

And I believe that could be made known through songs. We do so in a way that honors God and encourages people for a passion for holiness and strengthens our confidence in the gospel. There's one other song that actually I thought about that does warn, and this is more of a personal account perhaps. But, we all know the song I surrender all. In fact, I think we sang it last Friday at our meeting.

I don't know about you, but there have been many times in the past when I've sung that song, and it warned me. It warned me. And I always felt uncomfortable singing that song for for many years. I I've known that hymn since childhood. But anytime we would sing that song I mean, what are the words?

I surrender all. I surrender all. Well, that voice of mine would say, well, do you really? Do you surrender all? All to him, I freely give.

In his presence daily live. Well, do I? Do I live in his presence daily? All to thee, my blessed savior, I surrender all. And that even a song of confession in a way or song like that can warn us.

And I praise God for that because I believe it's meant to lovingly warn us and and, call us to the truths of that song. So one way a church honors God is through, honors the word of God in their singing is choosing songs in that way. Another way is, singing church honors the word of God is through the songs that are not selected. So again, I know these are simple points, but nevertheless, let's see if we can gain some insight from it. One way of singing church honors the word of God is by the songs they choose, but another way is in the songs they don't choose.

I mean, there are countless songs out there to choose from on a weekly basis. What goes through the minds of those responsible in a church, in a given church, to choose those songs? The obvious here application is that we should stay away from songs that are light theology, weak in the bible, very surface level in the words. That's obvious. But perhaps not so obvious is refraining from choosing songs, from ministries with that teach a false theology, that teach a false gospel, where the word of Christ is compromised.

The source of the songs, where does the song come from? And in this day and age, many songs, especially in the contemporary realm, are songs from local churches or para church ministries. And it doesn't take much for us to investigate what does this local church teach? What's the theology? Who are their leaders?

Who are their who are their pastors? Does the word of Christ dwell richly in that congregation, in that ministry? It's interesting to note that our verse that we're looking at today about letting the word of Christ dwell richly in Colossians, the book of Colossians, like, one of the big context of it is to warn the church at Colossians of false teaching. That's one of the context of why Paul wrote this. And I wanna just turn there real brief briefly.

If we go back to the book of Colossians in chapter two, you'll see the context there. Colossians two verse four says this, I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. No one means no one. Perhaps within the church, outside the church, no one persuade you with plausible arguments. Look at verse eight of the same chapter.

Colossians two verse eight. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. And one of the dangers of choosing songs and I'm talking about songs that are even biblically sound and wonderfully written songs. One of the dangers of choosing such songs from ministries who teach, a false gospel or where the word does not dwell richly is that it points, it points others, especially weaker brothers and sisters, in the faith to that ministry, to be perhaps to the teaching of that ministry. Or even to the unbeliever, it may point, especially in this day and age, information age, it doesn't take much with a few clicks to see where the song came from.

It could point the weaker brother or sister or the unbeliever to the teachings of this ministry. And this calls for wisdom. In our verse, Colossians three sixteen, it does say in all wisdom. We are to do this with wisdom, with discernment. Colossians four five actually talks about outsiders, unbelievers.

It says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. And this, of course, does not mean in any legalistic way that we just completely think we're better than any other church because we do this. It's not meant to be legalistic. In fact, Colossians, especially in chapter two, warns of legalism. It's not that, but God sees our hearts.

Do we wanna honor God? Do we wanna please him, in the songs that we choose? And I think it does call for wisdom. We are to be very careful in choosing songs no matter how wonderful they are, where the source of them are from a church, that teaches false doctrine, and and a false gospel. It has been my observation that, there are a number of pastors out there, who neglect this or, you know, I could be wrong about this but it seems that from what my understanding is that, there used to be a time where the lead pastor would, very much be involved with the music ministry of overseeing shepherding the selection of songs.

And, it's been my observation that there are a number of churches where that's not that doesn't exist. It's it's relegated to the worship director or the worship leader without much oversight if at all. And, I mean, think about it. A a pastor is supposed to be a shepherd protecting the flock. And, one way you protect the flock, especially the weaker sheep, is, I believe, just one of I mean, there are many ways, of course, but in this topic, it's it's to, not, unintentionally to unintentionally point someone to these ministries.

And so, I praise God that we have pastors here in this place that oversee and and counsel the praise team, on song selection in every regard. The last point I wanna make, I have to move because we're still on principle one, I realize. But, the word of God it it'll it'll go quicker. The word the first principle of honoring God's word, a singing church must honor the word of God in the songs they choose, the songs they don't choose, but this is probably the most important one. It is the most important one.

The way we honor God is that the word dwells richly in us in us. Again, I I know I'm stating the obvious here, but let's not miss it. The word of Christ dwell richly in you. In you, not around you. K?

We have, and this is my testimony, being around the word of Christ, but never really dwelling in me, being around Christians a lot, around the church a lot. But does the word of Christ dwell richly in you? Not in your pastor, not in your parents, not in your professor, but in you. And that is a, I mean, that's vital. That's that's a prerequisite here.

If we are to sing in a way that glorifies God, we must have the word dwell richly in us. One of the signs of a mature believer, of course, is that we don't just get fed like infants are, but we learn to feed ourselves. And let me just say something that when we I I mentioned at the onset, we all have something to contribute in our singing every time we gather, the pure beaten olive oil. And one way we can give our best is that we put our nose in this book in private every day and delight in it and just see how, God can work in that, that our singing becomes richer, because the word is dwelling richly inside of inside of us. And I know that kinda can go up and down in our in our in our schedules and whatnot, but may it always live dwell, live in us richly as we sing.

Alright. Let's move on to the second. I I did promise it would go quicker, so it it we're gonna move. Second principle, what a singing church must be a singing church must be a spirit filled church. Interestingly, the book of Colossians, doesn't really mention the Holy Spirit except for maybe once or twice.

It I think in part because the focus is the supremacy of Christ. But what I'd like to do is turn to the other passage that mentions Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in the New Testament and that's in another letter, and that is Ephesians five. Let's turn there briefly. Couple of books before Colossians. And there's no doubt these two verses are connected together by the Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs references.

So here's what Ephesians five eighteen says. Again, a well known passage, but let's remind ourselves of it. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Now, our time does not allow for us to do an in-depth dive on what it means to be filled with the spirit. So I just wanna offer two, hopefully, simple but, important principles here.

The first is when we, think about being filled with the spirit, this is, our pursuit for the presence of God. For the presence of God. Colossians three passage said, let the word of Christ dwell live. And we're inviting the Holy Spirit, the person of the spirit to to be near us, to to fill us. And may we do that every time we sing here, asking God for the Holy Spirit and the filling of the spirit in our midst.

So it's the presence that we seek. And remember, there's a difference between the indwelling of the spirit. When you become a Christian, you are sealed with the spirit. That's permanent. There's a difference between the indwelling and the infilling of the spirit.

We must continually ask for the filling of the spirit. I think DL Moody's famous words is that I leak of the spirit, so I must be filled with the spirit. His presence, his power, his favor every time we sing. One of the most helpful simple but helpful ways I have heard this preach about being filled with the spirit is that it's not that we get more of the spirit because the spirit is whole, total, but being filled is that he has more of us. He has all of us filled with the spirit.

And interestingly, we see the context of singing here with the filling of the spirit. And so the presence of God is what we invite every time we sing. The second principle about the about the filling of the spirit, as we sing, is what we reject what we reject. In our passage in Colossians three, I know many of you are familiar with this chapter, but before we get to let the word of Christ dwell richly, there are a number of commands that, that come before it. And two of them here look at verse five.

Colossians three verse five, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And then it lists those things, what we are to kill, to put to death. What is the implication there? Well, if you want the word of Christ to dwell richly as we sing, we must put to death these earthly things, the flesh. Look at verse eight of Colossians three.

But now you must put them all away. And it lists those things there, including obscene talk from your mouth. Put them all away. We must put these away before we allow the word of Christ to live inside of us and fill us. And it's the same in the Ephesians five passage.

Do not be drunk with wine comes before, but be filled with the spirit. We must learn to reject things that harm us, that intoxicate us, before we invite the presence of God, the spirit of God in us. And I believe, of course, when you sit when you read do not be drunk with wine, yes, alcohol, of course. The sin of being drunk with alcohol. But this is also a picture, I believe, of, of of the world, the wine of the world.

And in the bible, the wine is used in in that regard, the ideologies of the world, the teachings of the world. And even and this is even not a new concept, but the images of the world. I mean, there have been images throughout time. Right? And we see the idols that were put in the high places in our study.

But we live in a day and age of constant images. It is doesn't take much for us to be intoxicated with images, on an hourly basis, on a daily basis. And if I could just if I could just say something here, simple but, hopefully, as a reminder, it is not the best practice or strategy for us before we come into the house of worship to to worship the Lord, to sing. It is not the best practice to scroll through our social media for an hour beforehand or even maybe even the night before the Lord's day. We are to have a sober mind.

We are to, not try to fill our our minds with images that we scroll through and and, again, get drunk from it, even tipsy from it. But the bible champions sobriety of the mind. And we compromise our worship and our singing if our minds are not sober. And, I know that's a fight for all of us, really, in this day and age with our phones. I try, especially on the lord's day, to refrain and and and put it aside.

And may that be, may that be, again, by the lord's enablement. He can help us. He will help us if we ask him, to give us that self control and to be disciplined about that. Again, not for any legalistic reason, but to honor him and to please him, in all that we do. Okay.

Before we move on to the third principle, I just wanna just say a couple things about this feeling of the spirit as we sing. Just two we're not gonna turn there. I just wanna reference it before we move on. I'm reminded of the example of King Hezekiah in second Chronicles 29. Again, we don't have to turn there now, but it's one of the most vivid, glorious pictures of musical worship that we see in the Old Testament.

At the end of second Chronicles 29 about music and singing instruments but that comes at the end of the chapter. At the very beginning of the chapter in second Chronicles 29, it says that when king Hezekiah became king at the age of 25, I think it says, like, the first month or his first order of business as a leader was to cleanse the temple. And, in the ESV, it says to remove the filth from the temple, to open the doors of the temple. And there are other things along the way before we get to the music there in that chapter. But I think that's a picture of us, to ask God to cleanse us every, before we sing together as God's people, to cleanse us of sin, of any coldness of heart and so forth.

We could talk about David too and how it says the lord was with him when we're first introduced to him, but, we'll do that another time. Third principle, what a singing church must be. A singing church must be a praying church, a praying church. And in the Bible, I'm sure you've caught it as you've read through the Bible. Whenever singing is mentioned, prayer almost always it's by its side.

It's always side by side. Almost always. Very often. A lot of parallels between singing and praying. Right?

We think of prayers of thanksgiving, songs of thanksgiving. We thank and praise the Lord through our prayers and also also through our songs, perhaps laments. I mean, we just have to look at the book of Psalms to see that. I believe our passage in Colossians three sixteen is, loaded in the context of the book with a call to prayer. So let's take a look at that, in Colossians three sixteen.

So I'm just gonna point I know we've read it before. Look at the very end of the verse. At the end of three sixteen in Colossians, it says, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And in the very next verse, verse 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the father through him. Well, I know prayer is not mentioned there, but it says giving thanks to God.

And how do we say thank you to one another? We we we say it. We communicate it. I believe this is embedded in this passage is a call to prayer. We give thanks to God.

We we pray, always side by side with singing. Colossians is framed with prayer and I wanna take a look at that really quickly together as we go through this principle. Look at the beginning of Colossians. In verse three, Paul writes, we I believe that means Paul and Timothy, as outlined in verse one. We always thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you.

So it seems like Paul and Timothy were prayer partners, brothers praying together fervently, and in this case, praying for the church in Colossae. So at the beginning, we have prayer, but it's not just prayer, it's continued prayer. Just go down a few verses later in verse nine. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. And it goes on from there.

They did not stop praying. Continue continued prayer from Paul and Timothy. Let's go to the end of Colossians. So this is the last chapter, chapter four. Look at verse two.

Again, a call to pray in the context of singing. Chapter four verse two. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison. And so it's obvious I'm off of course, I'm staying the obvious here about our call to pray.

We are to be a house of prayer. But be encouraged, be inspired, I hope, by the word of God tonight that in the context of singing, there is a call to pray. We are to pray. And how can this apply to us at Maranatha Bible Church? Well, of course, in many ways, pray in private, pray, in the closet in your in on your own, cultivate and develop a prayer life with the Lord, on our own, and that could be part of what we contribute in our singing and our gathering.

But as you pray, pray for our gatherings. Pray for our singing that the songs would bless the Lord. They would bless one another. Pray that the songs that we sing, which are heard on live streams, would bless those listening on the live stream. Pray that these songs would bless, in that way.

Pray for the praise team that the Lord would continue to use us and use us more and more and in in in in a deeper ways. So singing in Colossians is framed with a call to pray and not just to pray, but steadfast pray prayer and prayer for one another. Before we leave this, principle of prayer, there is an individual I do wanna highlight, and I think it's worth highlighting here. In Colossians four, if you turn to verse 12, I'll just read that verse here. Colossians four twelve.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. We have a model here among Paul and Timothy, a brother named Epaphras. And again, briefly, I just wanna highlight just how how packed, his model is here. We see him praying an example of a man of prayer. But notice the words always struggling.

He's laboring in prayer. And it's not just for him. I imagine he prayed for himself, but it says always struggling on your behalf. Praying for others in his church, always struggling on your behalf on his prayers. The description of him, a servant of Jesus Christ.

One way we can serve Christ is to pray and to pray for one another struggling in prayer, always struggling on the behalf of our brothers and sisters here. And I I love this description of him. Epaphras, who is one of you? This, I believe tells us that he was a gentile from Colossae. But more importantly, perhaps this points to Epaphras being, not some superhero in the faith, even though he may very well have been.

But he was one of you. He was he was flesh and blood, and yet he still prayed, struggling. It is possible. And it reminds us of the the ending of James where it talks about Elijah in this way, right, where he was, he had a nature like ours and yet he prayed fervently. And so, I hope that encourages you to see the example of Epaphras as someone who prayed.

We won't turn there, but on your own, if you feel so let, after the study, one of the best pictures of this one of the most glorious pictures of this, of course, is act 16 where it says about midnight, Paul and Silas. They didn't just sing a hymn in that prison, but they prayed. Prayer and singing by its side. And I believe they're actually on their way to a prayer meeting when they prayed in prison. So prayer, the importance of prayer.

I'm reminded that as we looked at the first three principles, the word honoring the word of God, a singing church must be filled with the spirit, Singing church must pray. These three these three things work in tandem, do they not? They're not separate from one another. They work in tandem. Okay.

The fourth principle. What a singing church must be? A singing church must be a prophetic church. Must be a prophetic church. And, let me just say what I mean by that in two very simple ways.

Prophetic church, one, preaches, sings about future events. And this, of course, doesn't mean future events that one might make up in their own mind, but the future events that clearly is predicted and prophesied in the word of God. It's our call to do that. It's our joy to do that. I we did it in the songs we sang earlier, where it talked about a time not yet.

And, make no mistake about it. All the prophecies that were fulfilled in the old testament about the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, came true. And all the prophecies that are in the old testament and new about his return, his rule and reign will come true. And it is our joy to sing about that and remind us about that. I mean, for one good reason.

I mean, there are many, but it should stir our hearts to look forward to eternity, to remind us that this is not our home. And and singing songs like that can can really stir our hearts and remind us of that truth. And, again, I'm always blessed when we do that here, at every meeting. It's interesting to note that the book of Revelation, that book of prophecy, the words of prophecy, has by far the most references of singing and songs, and music, in the new testament. And that that is not a coincidence.

We are called to sing about the future events that are prophesied in this book. We've by the way, we we see this in the context of Colossians three as well. I'll just briefly read them. Colossians three verse four, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. So prophecy in the midst of Colossians three verse six.

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. And so we see even in the context of Colossians three, these prophetic passages. The second aspect of prophecy that I wanna talk about is simply this, that we are called to sing and proclaim the truth. I mean, prophecy in its very clinical definition talks about, a discourse from divine inspiration, and declaring that. But the the simple biblical explanation, I believe, is just simply proclaiming the truth of God's word.

You're being prophetic by proclaiming truth like the prophets of the old testament who said, thus saith the Lord. And we are to do that in our singing. So that is true, but perhaps there's one aspect of this, that we don't think about as frequently. And and and I wanna end this section, with this. And that is when we sing, we are making declarations of truth, prophecy, if you will, against against the domain of darkness.

Have you ever thought about our singing as a way to engage in spiritual warfare? It very well could be, I believe, based on what the bible says. If prayer and singing are closely linked, and we think of prayer often as a way to engage in spiritual warfare, so can our singing. And I I I believe we have that, throughout, the bible as examples and so forth. I wanna point briefly to Colossians two verse 13.

13 to 15. I'll read this. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

I believe the rulers and authorities here, he's talking about the heavenly places, forces of darkness. And I believe we see this in Ephesians too. We don't have time to to look at it, but Ephesians talks about the heavenly places. And we know even from the book of Job. Right?

Satan has access to the heavenly places. He approaches the throne of God. And so I believe that as we sing, it's a way to make declarations of truth, if you will. I was thinking of this even as we're singing earlier, and, open shame of the enemy. I think the Psalms illustrate this.

How many of the Psalms that date does David write where he says, put them to shame, deliver me from my enemies? I believe this is a picture of our spiritual war and our spiritual enemy that we have. And, I think a beautiful picture of this is, for those of us who've who've been to the Love Life, partnership, when we sing in the city of Chicago, you know, we're not just singing worship songs and hymns there. We are, singing almost making not almost. We are making declarations of truth in the city of Chicago in front of that abortion clinic saying, you know, the gates of hell won't stand.

We're engaging with a spiritual realm. And I wish we had more time to really, dive into this, but I do wanna get to the last one for the sake of time. But, the picture of Jericho and the and the walls falling down, I believe, is a is a picture of this as well. Lastly, a singing church must have the love of Christ in them. Apparently, the book, or the church in Colossae was known for its love for one another, it says in verse four of chapter one and and and elsewhere.

Yet it's interesting. In the middle of the letter, Paul, in chapter three, reminds them to love one another. You know, it says to put on kindness, humility, to forgive one another, love one another. And so you have to ask yourself, if you're if the church was known for their loved one another, why is Paul saying, well, okay, love one another? And, I guess you can think of a number of reasons.

Right? We just have to look at our own lives. Our love can sometimes go cold. We are forgetful people. We might love one day.

We're just inconsistent with our love. And so, I believe this call this context of singing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, the context of love is is there. And he actually says, above all, put on love. And, oh, there's so much more I could say about that, but, I wanna point us to two passages, as we close. You know, that famous passage of about love in first Corinthians 13, I find it striking that Paul uses the analogy of a a musical instrument to warn us about not having love, the lack of love.

Right? If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I am nothing. I gain nothing. And in that chapter, by the way, there's prophecy when we will see him face to face and all those things future events.

But the passage that I want us to to close with that demonstrates the love of Christ in a marvelous way, and I believe contains the five principles we looked at. Is Mark 14 verse 26. So as we close, let's turn there. One way to guard against a coldness of heart or a lack of love is to remember God's love for us. And I praise God that we sang songs related to that earlier.

Mark 14 verse 26. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount Of Olives. That's it. That's the verse. But of course, it's the context that's just marvelous about that verse.

Let me put it this way. Let me see if I can tie the five principles that we looked at into this passage. Of course, this verse is in the context of, of the Lord's supper, the night before Christ was crucified. And he's here with his disciples. And I believe the five principles we looked at are all contained in this story in a marvelous way.

First, was the word of God present here? Well, very likely, this was Passover week. Chances are they may have read some scripture related to Passover. They actually may have even sung this hymn. Some people actually we don't know for sure, but this hymn, some people point to a Passover Psalm, Psalm one eighteen.

So it's possible, quite possible they sung, a a psalm in this hymn. And, of course, Christ, the word incarnate was there. So the word was there. Was the spirit was his was Christ was the presence of God there? Yes.

Christ was there. Was there prayer? Yes. Look at the verse before. I'm sorry.

I can't see the verse right now, but when he says when he took the bread and and and the cup, he gave thanks. It says giving thanks. They prayed at this gathering. Not to mention that that night the Lord prayed in Gethsemane. So there's prayer here.

And is this prophetic? Yes. Absolutely. Look at verse 25. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

It's prophetic too that they went to the Mount Of Olives as well. Is there love here? Oh, yes. There is. The love of Christ.

How marvelous. How wonderful. Of course, our our our savior knew what he would endure the next day. Our savior knew, what would transpire that night, betrayal and denial. And yet, he still worshiped with his disciples.

He sang a hymn with his disciples. He washed their feet and he loved them to the end. And so I I believe in this verse, in this passage, we have a marvelous picture of these principles and perhaps above all, we have a beautiful picture of the love of Christ. Alright. I said that was gonna be the last one.

I'm gonna I'm gonna point us to one more passage. I think it's, I think this might be a good way to end it. There are other ways I wanted to end it. If you have time, later on in your own study, Colossians has embedded what we call the hymn of Christ, very possibly, song lyrics to a hymn from the early church. If you wanna look at that, Colossians one fifteen to 20 that talk about the supremacy of Christ.

But I do wanna end, pastor Daniel earlier said, oh, this is you're you're going to the new testament because I guess the other times I I spoke it was the old testament, but I'm gonna end in the old testament. Book of Zephaniah, near the end of the old testament. And another three sixteen, Zephaniah three sixteen, we saw a picture of Christ singing with his disciples. And here we have a picture of that day when the Lord will sing. Zephaniah three sixteen and seventeen.

We'll end it here. On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, oh Zion. Let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness.

He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. And I know people debate whether this is figurative or literal. I believe it's literal. It's not hard to believe that God will sing over us in that day because of his love for us, and our love for him, as we saw the picture of Christ singing with his disciples.

I praise God that these principles are here at Maranatha Bible Church, and I pray that we would only continue to grow and mature and deepen our faith in them by the authority of the word of God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. It is your word that we delight in, and we ask that we would only delight it in more and more until our final breath. We thank you for showing us out of your love for us, revealing yourself to us.

And ultimately, in your son, the word that became flesh, who died on the cross for our sins and rose, and gives us the promise of the resurrection. We thank you for his love, for reminding us of your love for us. Lord, thank you that, thank you that we love to sing here. Thank you that we get to sing every time we gather. And, Lord, just keep us.

Help us grow in that. Help us mature in that. May we never lose sight of what your word says and leads us, in how we sing and why we sing and what we ought to sing. May you receive all the glory and honor every time we do that. And in this meeting, receive all the glory we ask.

In Jesus' name, amen.