Saved to Sing to the Lord (2)

INTRODUCTION

Good afternoon everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you all this afternoon!

I feel honoured to have the opportunity to speak to such a wonderful group, with so much wisdom and experience.

And if I’m honest, I’m a little nervous.

You all have seen and experienced so much in your lives, you should be the ones teaching me!

This afternoon I want to speak to you about what we’ve just done… which is singing to the Lord.

I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to engage you with some questions along the way so that I have an opportunity to learn more about you, and to learn from you.

But first, I will share a little about myself so you get to know me.

My name is Joseph Penner.

I’ve been married to my wife, Jessica, for 14 years.

We have 4 children. Cole is 12, Liam is 9, Reid is 8, and Elyse is 5. (She is the only girl.)

I serve as a pastor at the Leamington Evangelical Mennonite Church here in town.

OPTIONAL OPENING QUESTIONS (2-3 minutes)

I want to start off by asking…

Is there anyone here who enjoys cooking?

What is your favourite meal to prepare?

Has anyone ever cooked a ham before? Maybe at Thanksgiving...

Did you ever cut the ends off the ham before cooking it?

There is a story of a man and wife…

Lead into opening illustration.

OPENING ILLUSTRATION

“The story of the ham”

Wife cooking ham, trims off 1” from each end.

Husband asks why… “That’s a waste of good ham!”

Wife doesn’t know why, “That’s what my mom used to do.”

Husband asks why she did it.

The wife doesn’t know.

Let’s call her and find out.

Wife asks mother, “Why did you cut the ends off the ham?”

Mother responds “I did it that way because my mom did it. I just assumed it was the right way to do it.”

Determined to get to the bottom of it, they call the grandma.

“Why did you cut off the ends of the ham?”

“I couldn’t afford a baking pan big enough to fit the whole ham, so I had to cut the ends off.”

They all couldn’t help but laugh, realizing that this tradition had gotten passed down through the generations without anyone truly understanding the original purpose.

TRANSITION TO TOPIC

The point that this story makes is that we sometimes do things based on tradition, and don’t really know why.

Maybe some of you grew up in church, or if not, maybe you have gone to church before.

And one of the things that happens in most churches is that we sing.

In almost every church,

no matter what country it’s in, or

what the background of the people are,

they sing.

Why?

Because singing is one of the ways we worship God.

It is a way for us to praise God.

We sang here before I came up to speak here this afternoon.

Make reference to song that was sung… and what it was praising about God.

WHERE DID SINGING COME FROM?

We read in the book of Job that the angels worshiped God when He created the earth.

Job 38:4-7 ““Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Very early after creating man, we learn that God gave people the gift of music.

We learn that Jubal…

Gen 4:21 “… was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.”

Music is a special and unique gift given to us by God.

Music is a powerful way of expressing truth.

Music engages our emotions.

Music helps us learn, and helps us remember things easier.

Music connects us to the past.

Does anybody here have a favourite song that takes you back, or reminds you of something or someone in the past?

TRANSITION TO EXODUS

In the book of Exodus we read the very first time that the Bible records God’s people singing a song of praise together to Him.

We find this in Exodus 15, and it is called the Song of Moses.

10 Plagues

God’s people had been in Egypt for over 400 years, as they suffered as slaves under Pharaoh.

Then God raised up Moses, who went in as God’s chosen servant to lead His people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

God displayed His mighty power through 10 plagues.

Does anybody here remember any of the plagues that God brought on Egypt? (2-3 minutes)

Turning the Nile to blood

Frogs

Gnats

Flies

Pestilence/plague on livestock

Boils

Fire/Hail from heaven

Locusts

3 days of darkness

Death of firstborn

In all of these plagues, God showed that He was more powerful than all of the “gods” of Egypt.

God was also showing that He was more powerful than Pharaoh.

Pharaoh probably thought he was the most powerful man on earth, and that he didn’t have to listen to anyone.

But God humbled Pharaoh by giving him a small glimpse of how powerful He was.

After the final plague of killing the firstborn in Egypt, God led His people out of the land of Egypt.

They were finally free!

Red Sea

Then God led them to the Red Sea.

As Pharaoh hears about this, he thinks they are lost, and changes his mind.

He regrets that he let them go, and he chases after them.

As the Israelites see the Egyptian army closing in from behind, they realize they are trapped.

They have the Red Sea in front of them, and the Egyptian army behind them.

They have nowhere to go!

As the Israelites are trapped by the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army closing in from behind…

Does anybody remember what God did next?

He parted the Red Sea!

The walls stood up in a heap on their right hand and on their left,

and there was a pathway in the middle for the Israelites to walk through the Red Sea.

But after God’s people got through to the other side, the water came crashing on top of the Egyptian army…

and every single soldier died.

God delivered His people from the enemy.

What do the Israelites do next???

The Israelites Sing

They sing a song of praise to God for His salvation!

Their song of praise comes from their gratitude toward God for saving them.

Exodus 15:1–21 (ESV)

1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.

The Israelites sang to God because He saved them in their moment of great need.

Their worship naturally came out of their grateful hearts.

Their worship was praising the greatness of God.

Just imagine them crossing the Red Sea,

the water standing up in walls on their right hand and their left,

and as they finish crossing, they turn around to see the walls of water come crashing down on the Egyptian army.

I don’t know exactly what it might have been like, Scripture doesn’t tell us everything that happened,

But I just imagine after the water settled down that some of the Israelites would have lifted their arms and praised God...

maybe others fell down to their knees, or bowed down to the ground.

God’s power on display would have left them in awe and wonder.

This is the spirit and attitude of their praise.

Teaching/Exhortation

THE ISRAELITES

We see the loving hand of God who delivers His people.

We know that the Israelites are not perfect…

We know that they spend a lot of time grumbling and complaining…

But they are the people that God has chosen, and at certain times, their desire is to follow God and HIs will.

That is the case in this story.

They have been obedient to all that Moses had told them to do in Egypt, and now they are following God as He led them out of Egypt.

In their humility as God’s people, they are relying and trusting in Him,

and because of this, He saves them.

THE EGYPTIANS

Not so the Egyptians!

Everything that they are doing is going against God’s will.

They have disobeyed everything that God has asked them to do.

They did not let God’s people go, and now they were pursuing them to kill them, or bring them back as slaves.

In their pride, they are exalting themselves above God thinking they can overpower Him, or outwit Him.

Because of their arrogance and pride, God humbled them and destroyed them.

This reminds us of a familiar passage in…

James 4:6 “6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.””

God opposes those who are proud… who think they don’t need God… who fight against Him.

But God gives grace to those who are humble… who recognize they do need God… and come to Him for help.

APPLICATION

Singing to God is one of the ways we humbly come to God, and recognize our need of Him.

So one of the things we sing about is that we know we have sinned before a holy God.

We’ve all told lies…

We’ve all stolen something that did not belong to us even if it was small…

We’ve all desired something that was not ours…

We’ve all gotten angry…

or used foul language…

or used the Lord’s name in vain…

and these are just a few examples.

We know that we have all sinned…

But we also know that …

John 3:16 “16 “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

So we sing about God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

and our songs are filled with truths about Jesus.

Truths like:

Jesus came into the world as a man…

He born of a virgin…

He Was fully God…

He Lived a perfect life according to God’s law…

He Died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin…

He Was buried for 3 days, and then rose again…

and then He ascended back to heaven…

He did all of this for us, so that if we put our faith in Him, our sins are washed clean.

When we put our faith in Jesus, His perfect life of righteousness is given to us and it’s as if we never sinned…

and our lives of sin are placed on Him, and He died in our place.

This is the wonderful good news of the gospel.

Because of God’s great love for us, we sing!

We praise His name for His grace and mercy toward us!

This gives us such a wonderful hope, so that we don’t need to be afraid of death.

None of us knows when we are going to die, but we know that everyone will die.

Each one of us is going to have to stand before God on that day, and give an account of all that we have said, done, or thought.

And if you’re like me, there have been lots of sins. I would be guilty!

But for those who have trusted in Jesus, their penalty has been paid by Jesus.

He took the punishment we deserved.

If you believe that today, all of your sins can be washed away, and it will be as if you never sinned… like you lived His perfect life.

Then you will joyfully sing songs of praise to Him, because of His greatness, and love for you.

We know that Jesus is coming back one day, and so while we wait for Him to return, we live to praise Him, and tell others of His great power!