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Sermon: Why We Sing #2

Don Ruhl

Sermon: Why We Sing #2

 

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03132016WhyWeSing#2DonRuhl

 

 

Purpose: To emphasize the biblical support for vocal music rather than merely arguing against instrumental music

Why We Sing #2

This is not a sermon about instrumental music; it is a sermon about singing!

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • March 13, In the year of our Lord, 2016

Scripture Reader and Reading: Wayne Duncan – Psalm 95.1–7c

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Phil Joseph – Songs about singing

Prelude:

  1. This is part 2 of a sermon I gave in 2012.
    1. And since that was four years ago,
    2. here is what I covered:
  2. Singing Connects Us to God

    1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
    So pants my soul for You, O God.
    2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When shall I come and appear before God?

    5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
    And why are you disquieted within me?
    Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
    For the help of His countenance.
    (Psa 42.1–2, 5)

  3. Singing Connects Us with One Another

    19 …speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord… (Eph 5.19).

    16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col 3.16).

  4. Singing Connects Us to Power
  5. Singing Connects Us with Heaven

    17 The LORD your God in your midst,
    The Mighty One, will save;
    He will rejoice over you with gladness,
    He will quiet you with His love,
    He will rejoice over you with singing.
    (Zep 3.17)
  6. I want to add to those things, these.

Persuasion:

  1. Singing Works on Our Faith
    1. Where a sermon might not move you,
      1. a song just might do it.
      2. How do the following affect you?
        1. Our God, He Is Alive!
        2. How Great Thou Art
        3. The Battle Belongs to the Lord
        4. Unto Thee, O Lord
        5. Night, with Ebon Pinion
      3. What happened in Acts 16 to the jailer and the prisoners who listened,

        25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them [So was the jailer] (Acts 16.25).
      4. Think on what Paul said in First Corinthians 14
        1. when an unbelievers comes in among us, and
        2. say that God is among us,

          15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding (1Co 14.15).
          1. This enables the uninformed to say, “Amen.”
          2. Verse 25 shows how it affects unbelievers or the uninformed,

            25 And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you (1Co 14.25).
    2. Instruments of music
      1. make us feel good and
      2. bring pleasure to our hearts, but
        1. they do not communicate words of truth
        2. that move people as Acts 16 and First Corinthians 14 picture.
  2. Singing Releases Our Emotions
    1. In Luke 1, Mary has just gone to the home of Elizabeth,
      1. who in her old age,
      2. has become pregnant with John the Baptist.
        1. As Mary entered the home of Elizabeth,
        2. her unborn baby leaped for joy, and
          1. the Holy Spirit filled her,
          2. revealing to her that Mary shall give birth to the Lord,
            1. although Mary was not yet pregnant, nor
            2. had Mary said anything to Elizabeth about Gabriel.
              1. This older woman blesses the younger woman, and
              2. reveals that the Lord had told Mary things.
      3. What she heard Elizabeth say
        1. moved Mary to begin to say,

          46b “My soul magnifies the Lord,
          47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
          (Luke 1.46b–47)
        2. Singing gives us the opportunity as a group to do what Mary did,
        3. pour our hearts out for anyone to hear.
          1. Someone persuaded us a long time ago
          2. that getting emotional is unscriptural.
            1. How sad.
            2. Many of our songs move us to pour out our emotions.
              1. When you hear something wonderful as Mary did,
              2. you want to sing…emotionally!
    2. Why do we have an invitation song?
      1. We know that people have heard a sermon.
      2. We then hope that the words of a song,
        1. will release their hearts and
        2. they will obey the Gospel.
          1. Should conversions awaken our emotions?
          2. If not, something is wrong with us.
            1. In Luke 15, Jesus said that the angels of heaven
            2. rejoice over one sinner who repents.
              1. Can we not also?
              2. Is not rejoicing an emotion?
    3. Ask people their favorite spiritual songs and
      1. you will get an explanation of emotions,
      2. especially as they recall what connection that song has with their past.
    4. How can you read the Psalms and
      1. not see the psalmists open their hearts and
      2. pour out deep emotions?
        1. Psalm 42 shows the sons of Korah in an emotional state,

          1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
          So pants my soul for You, O God.
          2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
          When shall I come and appear before God?
          3 My tears have been my food day and night,
          While they continually say to me,
          “Where is your God?”
          4 When I remember these things,
          I pour out my soul within me.
          For I used to go with the multitude;
          I went with them to the house of God,
          With the voice of joy and praise,
          With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
          5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
          And why are you disquieted within me?
          Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
          For the help of His countenance.
          (Psa 42.1–5)
          1. Ephesians 5.19 says that we should use the Psalms in our singing.
          2. Does that not authorize us to use Psalm 42?
            1. Does using Psalm 42 mean we can get emotional?
              1. The psalmist said that he cried so much
              2. his tears became his food day and night.
            2. He also asked himself why his soul was cast down.
              1. Has your soul ever been cast down?
              2. Do you ever thirst for God?
        2. Psalm 42 is an emotional psalm,
          1. that truly characterizes many of the psalms.
          2. True, we have to make spiritual adaptations
            1. of some elementals in the psalms,
            2. such as references to sacrifices, because
              1. the sacrifice of Christ has replaced those, and
              2. other similar things.
                1. Psalm 66 says,

                  15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,
                  With the sweet aroma of rams;
                  I will offer bulls with goats.
                  Selah
                  (Psa 66.15)
                2. We cannot do as the psalmist, but
                  1. we can adapt it,
                  2. referring to making sacrifices in other ways.
        3. However, the pouring out of the heart and soul of the psalmists
          1. happened so often,
          2. we have to characterize it as a trait of psalms,
            1. which the New Testament expects us to imitate.
            2. We can and should use the Psalms to release our emotions.
  3. Singing Preaches and Teaches
    1. Something that instrumental music just cannot do.
      1. I understand that you might disagree, but
      2. consider what the New Testament says about the communication of truth.
    2. Colossians 3.16

      16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col 3.16).
      1. First, you get the word of Christ into you liberally.
      2. Then we can teach and admonish one another in song.
        1. Our singing is not only horizontal, but
        2. Paul said it is vertical, to the Lord.
    3. Ephesians 5.19

      19 [Speak] to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord (Eph 5.19).
      1. This passage also shows the horizontal and vertical nature of our singing.
      2. We speak to one another,
        1. using psalms, for example, because
        2. they communicate precious truth.
      3. We also speak words to the Lord in our singing, and
        1. we make the melody in our hearts.
        2. The Lord likes hearing melody played on the instrument He invented.
    4. God is Spirit.
      1. We are spirit.
      2. Singing is in the spirit.
        1. Therefore, our vocal music makes a spiritual connection with God.
        2. Our hearts touch
          1. the heart of God through singing, and
          2. the hearts of our brethren through singing.
            1. Song writers used wisdom
            2. to put together the words and the music, and
              1. we use their efforts
              2. to teach and to admonish one another.
  4. Our Singing
    1. God wants all of us to sing.
      1. Perhaps we think that we do not sing well.
      2. He also asks us to do our best,

        10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going (Ecc 9.10).

        23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men… (Col 3.23).
        1. So open your mouth and
        2. blend your voice with the people around you.
    2. Singing expresses things that we have difficulty putting into words.
      1. That then begs the question on the difference between singing and talking.
      2. [show a wavelength on speaking and then singing]

Exhortation:

  1. Therefore, when we sing,
    1. not only should we raise our voices, but
    2. we need to understand the words we sing,
      1. as Paul said in First Corinthians 14,

        15b I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding (1Co 14.15).
      2. If you fixate on the words of our songs,
        1. it will lead to singing with the spirit and
        2. it will lead to singing in the spirit.
  2. You will find singing as an enriching spiritual experience.
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