A Closer Walk Through Our Singing

Give it up for Jesus

An important part of our worship is our singing, singing praises to His name, engaging together.

It is also something you should do in your private time, in your private devotion to Him.

Rightly so, it has the potential of great spiritual benefits to those who do it, who engage in it properly

look up and read

Ps146:1-2 “1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”

If something is good to you, you respond to good, right? So if God is good, we should respond to the goodness of God in a good and cheerful way and sing praises to His name as noted in (Jm5:13)

Have you lost your joy, know a church where there is no joy in the singing? No emotion, where some don’t even sing as commanded, or feel there should be no singing for should only be the supper and the preaching?

A closer walk with thee can come when we understand the joy of our singing with the purpose of our singing and how to get more out of singing.

Purpose of our singing

Even in the times of imprisonment Paul and Silas were praising the Lord; with a hymn of praise (Act16:25)

Praising God should be natural for the Christian in song just as everything else. Just as prayer was to David, so was praise.

Turn to and read

Ps28:6-7 “6 Blessed be the Lord, Because He has heard the voice of my supplication. 7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.”

We can offer the sacrifice of praise (Heb13:15) and it is acceptable to God (1Pt2:5) - don’t you want to do what is acceptable to God - OK, that is a rhetorical question.

Another purpose is to teach and to admonish one another

quote

Col3:16 “16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

The word is directed toward God and toward one another with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing.

The singing is meant to teach one another, it is meant to be a blessing and an enjoyment as we do it together. It is congregational singing and congregational teaching too.

When we do it properly, singing is a wonderful blessing, now how can we get even more out of it? Glad you asked.

Getting more our of Singing

Engage your mind as we sing

Remember “we” sing, teaching and admonishing one another. This means we have to engage our mind

This means we need to understand what we are singing

It is more than just joy, enjoyment, it has to have understanding to the words we are singing too, there as to be significance to the words more than some of the popular songs of today. So, give attention to the words

Engage the heart as we sing

Quote or turn to

Col3:16 “16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Making melody (Eph5:19) and with thankfulness (Col3:16) so it takes all that you are, mind and emotions it will be seen in your countenance

Happy heart makes face cheerful; heartache crushes the spirit (Pro15:13 ref); so don’t be a hypocrite when your lips say one thing but your heart another (Mt15:7-8)

Get more out of your singing, sit with each other, for when we do, it is easier to sing to one another and it sounds better when we sing joyfully with one another as a family.

Get more out of the congregational singing some lays upon the song leaders that help us to understand the songs we are singing, the words, the purpose, the tempo even at times. Then it is better as we sing with our heart and our mind.

Heart and mind are involved, so now, maybe it’s time for each to think about evaluating your singing

Evaluate your singing

Do I engage both my heart (my emotions) and my mind (my understanding)?

We are to sing with heart, soul and mind (consider Mt22:37) not just our lips and our heart is far for that is vain worship (Mt15:7-9)

Do I know whom I am singing to?

We want to bless the Lord O my Soul His Holy Name (Ps103:1)

Have everyone turn to Ps34:1-3 (do not put on screen)

Ps34:1-3 “1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul will make its boast in the Lord; The humble will hear it and rejoice. 3 O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”

Have I lost the joy of singing personally?

Consider we should be spontaneous in our singing in even tough situations

Look up and read:

Act16:25 “25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;”

Am I hindering others, judging others around me in their singing of praises? Or by where they or I sit?

In closing give you a couple of verses to consider

look up and read each one (not on screen)

(Insert a previously used song service slide here, lift up your voice)

PS104:33 “33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.”

Ps147:1 “1 Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is becoming.”

(Invitation slide) - invitation, song (Prayer slide) (Close slide)