We Sing - We Only Sing - We All Sing! Pt - 1 We Declare the Gospel

GREET EVERYONE-

If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Today after worship Baptism Class

1. Sep 14 Small Groups kick off

2. Women - You are conference Sep 15-16

3. OCC - Packing Party Sat Sep 16 -

4. OCC Men Packing Party Men Here on Campus Sep 23

5. Prayer Sunday 24th

6. Welcome Home Lunch Oct 1

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND

Open it to Palm 96  this morning we will look at vs 1-3 this morning as well we will also be looking at a minor old prophet named Zephaniah - Chapter 3 vs 14-17 as we begin a new series this morning named WE SING. In this series we will be exposing what Jesus says about a Theology of Singing in and through the scriptures.

TRUTH

Psalm 96:1–3 ESV

1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Zephaniah 3:14–17 ESV

14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. 16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 17 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 exult over you with loud singing.

PRAY

PRAYER FOR THE SERIES AND MESSAGE

As the Holy Spirit of God laid on me this series of messages on Singing - I began to ask to what end. And God laid a simple prayer on my heart.

That at the end of this series, the holy spirit of God would renew in you and for some of us even plant in you a well spring of singing.

In other words - If you sing would sing more, - If you barley sing you would sing louder - If you don’t sing that you would be compelled by the God who love you and sings over you and commands you to sing - That by His power and by His might you would sing at the very top of your lungs - praises to His glorious name.

Not only that we would sing but that our collective and personal singing is one of the means by which three things are accomplished -

1st In our singing we proclaim and renew the Gospel in our lives and hearts.

2nd that our singing is one of the means that we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. It is one of the means of passing down those things first learned to faithful men. IT is a means of equipping the saints with doctrine for the word of service - It is a means of what the modern western church calls discipleship.

Lastly Our singing - our collective singing - Our public Singing - our Personal singing - is one of the means of taking the Gospel to the Lost world

SO Today we begin with the under girding truth that our singing proclaims and renews the Gospel in our life and in our heart.

BACKGROUND -

SO - WHY? You know the question WHY are you preaching on the Theology of Singing?

Every year for the last several years I have worked and prayed to ask God through his holy Spirit to let me look over the horizon of where we are and where we are going and where He wants us to Go as a church.

And in that vision to pour out His wisdom in planning out teaching and preaching that is in alignment with His desire for His Church.

In that He has developed for us an over arching thyme for h preaching year. The over arching thyme for this year is The Church - We began the year with our annual church series - - We then moved to the 7 biblical distinct core values of us as the people Stonewater Fellowship. We then delt with our Identity As Jesus followers - As parts of His body the Church

We then looked at Philemon - A book on adoptive relationship of spiritual restoration

Just a couple of weeks ago We finished out summer series The Summer of Adoption dealing with as the church we are adopted children of God and called out and commanded to adopt others for the sake of the Gospel

And in all of that as the Body of Jesus as the called out ones - The assembly of the called out ones -

One of the things that we do when we gather and in reality it is a unique thing that we do in the mirage of spirituality and religions of the world -

WE SING

We are unique in the fact that we sing - not only do we sing we are creatively creating new hymns of faith to sing.

and that is totally unique to any other religion the world.

The Jewish people sing - But not much new - After all we do not have Air 7 FM radio the Start of David network - New prayer music all day everyday.

The Muslim doesn't sing- The Hindu doesn't sing - The Baddest doesn't sing - The Rastafarian, The Zoroastrian - The Baha'i, The Shinto, The Conscious and the TAIO from china - none sing.

We - Jesus followers - Regenerated by the holy Spirit of God - Reconciled into restored relationship with the creator God- We sing and we create new songs.

So becasue we sing - and as the body of Christ we are commanded to sing - WE will prayerfuly declare the Gospel as we deal with Singing.

ENGAGEMENT

So lets talk about Singing -

Many many times we can all leave a gathering of the church - A worship gathering of the church and we can walk away asking the question or being asked the question “how was worship”

and so As we begin this series - I want to make sure that we are very clear becasue words are so very important -

Worship is way way way too heavy to be limited to singing -

We might find ourselves in a better framework if we were to ask the question: “how was the singing?”

You might say - “Pastor hold on there, when I am singing I am worshiping”! to which I would say - Yes Yes you are, in fact when we sing, no matter what we sing or when we sing, there is a lot going on but one thing is for sure - we are worshiping.

When you here we are worshiping Jesus.

When you singing in the car or in the shower...

What we are worshiping is another matter?

But loved ones hear me - When the singing stops the worship continues -You see worship is a life style - Singing is simply a part -

So we will interact with Singing -

How many of you sing?

Now notice I did not say to what quality?

I did not ask location?

How many of you sing?

Yes cool - There are some of us that don’t sing -

and Yet there are some of us that think we should not sing.

How many of us in that category?

Ya know very very few of us sing well enough to audition for Americas Got talent -

But why does that keep us quiet?

I think because most of us don't think or actually know we should not audition for Americas GOT Talent we have a tendency to not sing when we are together with the rest of the Body of Christ -

Unless that is that the volume is turned up so loud that we know the person next to us can never hear how bad we really are?

Reality is most of us are really pretty shy when it comes to singing.

or we just avoid it all together.

TENSION

Here is the problem - When we take that shyness or that avoidance to singing becasue we are not all that good by standards of this world - We are missing out on so much that God has for us in experiencing Him.

The Scriptures - bring the topic of singing into the narrative over 400 times.

There are 50 direct commands in scripture to Sing -

The Psalms are basically all song lyrics. They were Central - to the praise and worship in the days of their being sung.

In Exodus 15 - after God delivered His people by opening up the Sea - Moses sang and all the people sang with him.

2 million people - big choir practice.

David Sang - Solomon Sang -

Jesus sings at the last supper the blessing over the bread and the prayers of thanks and praise to His father -

On the Cross - Jesus quotes the lyrics to a song

The Apostles - Sing while in prison.

and in the End - IN Revelation When the Lamb takes the Scroll and the four living creatures and the 24 Elders fall down before Jesus -

They fall with harps and they all sing a new song.

Here is an interesting Contrast -

No where in the Scriptures will you find Satan or any of his demons the fallen angels Singing anything.

The Reality is that God loves singing becasue God is a Singing GOD. and Gods invitation is for all of us to join into his melody making.

UNPACKING

Let look at out Text

In the first two verses - We hear the command of the Scriptures - SING -

SING to the Lord SING to YHWY - a New song - A song that has not been sung before -

Sing a new song -

It is interesting that SING to YHWY is mentions twice in this verse alone -

in fact in all of the Psalms of the 204 times that singing praise to the Lord is mentioned - It is always focused TO YHWY

It does make me wonder if Singing is was originally intended to be only for and To YHWY

and Here in our Text - Sing a new song and then notice what it says in Verse - 1 Sin to the Lord “ALL THE EARTH”

ALL THE EARTH -

Not just the parts that sing well - Everybody Sing -

Look back one psalm and it takes away every reason why we don’t sing -

It says “let us sing to YHWY, let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation Let us make a Joyful noise to Him with Songs of Praise.

Back to 96 = VS 2 -

Sing to the Lord and Bless his name. Bless has a special meaning in the Hebrew it means to Bless - It also has the connotation of Saluting - of Boasting - of bowing the knee.

But you see the back half of verse 2 tells us how to Bless God -

We Sing, Bless his name in in our song we tell of His salvation day to day.

Vs 3

In song declare His glory among the nations

In Song declare His marvelous works among all the people.

You see church - Right here in the old testament is the great commission of Jesus in the New Testament -

and SO one of the things that happens when we sing is we should be declaring the Gospel.

His salvation day to day

His glory to the nations - His marvelous works to all the people.

When we sing - of his salvation day to day - WE are Declaring the Gospel - and Renewing the Gospel in our hearts and minds -

Think about some of the Song titles that you and I know -

Amazing Grace - My Chains are Gone - The Old Rugged Cross - At the Cross - Nothing but the blood -

The wondrous cross -

Some of you are thinking - man bring back the hymn books and others are thinking “thats old music” and still others sadly are thinking “i have never heard of any of those’

Here is the good news they all have been modernized into today's music genres.

SO church know this - When we sing loved ones - we are declaring the Gospel and through our song the Gospel is being renewed in our hearts.

This does however leave a lingering question:

But why Song? Why Singing?

WHY IS SINGING Important to God and consequently must become important to us!

What God knows is that Singing words make them come alive in our hearts at the seat of our emotions and in our minds the very self aware consciousness that God breathed into us when we were made into His image.

Here is an example -

And IIIIII eeee IIIII will always love youooooooo ehhhh iiiiiiii will always love you -

You see when we say it - the impact is ever so slight - and I would bet there is not one of us here in this room , no matter the hardness of our hearts - whose eyes didn't water, even if ever so slightly, when you heard Whitney Houston sing that for the very first time.

and from that moment forward - in our minds - Those lyrics are ingrained with that melody and in some of our minds her voice as well.

Lets take another - one of the most simple that we have probably all sang at one time or another.

I love you lord - And I lift my voice - To worship you oh my soul rejoice - Take joy my king - in ‘n what you hear - let it be a sweet sweet sound in your ear.

You see when we say it - it just doesn't quite make it all the way home. But when we SING -

SING IT

We join our hearts and minds with God heart in His melody making.

So Singing then become vital to our hearts and minds in knowing God and being connected to Him. BECAUSE SINGING take the words all the way home Singing then becomes the influence that shapes our thinking - What we sing shapes not only what we think about but how we think about things.

The more we sing truth the more the truth shapes us!

The opposite is also true - Singing lies shapes us and the way we think - How many of us know the lyrics of the Beatles tune imagine -

Imagine there's no heaven - It's easy if you try - No hell below us - Above us, only sky - Imagine all the people - Livin' for today

Imagine there's no countries - It isn't hard to do - Nothing to kill or die for - And no religion, too - Imagine all the people - Livin' life in peace

Imagine no possessions - I wonder if you can - No need for greed or hunger - A brotherhood of man - Imagine all the people - Sharing all the world You may say I'm a dreamer - But I'm not the only one - I hope someday you'll join us - And the world will live as one.

A song that placed the blame of human suffering on the reality of our humanity and dreamed of a day where there was no human suffering at all. Peace and sharing for all-

You see - AS those lyrics rang in your head - One of the things I hoped you realized is some 50 years after that song was released we now see a western culture, bent on doing everything in its own power, including the rejection of any form of objective truth - To dream with John and to achieve a world of imagination where there is no suffering.

Singing shapes our thinking and what we sing is so very important -

WE must SING as the assembly of the called out ones so the gospel can declared in our hearts and renewed in our minds.

WE must sing when we are by our selves songs of truth - So the gospel can be declared in our hearts and renewed in our minds.

We must sing with our families and our children - Songs of the Gospel - SO the Gospel can be declared in our hearts including theirs and in our minds including theirs.

SO WHY is GOD so focused on Singing -

Zephaniah 3:14 - God says to His chosen people -

Sing -

Shout -

Rejoice and Exalt -

Let me just stop right here for a minute -

Here is what God just told his chosen people -

I am a volume freak - I want you to sing and I want you to sing loudly so lout that I want to hear it.

God is not and did not concern himself with the quality of any one individual voice - He finds beauty in the collective voice of His people.

VS 15, 16 and 17 - This is the Gospel - Right here in the Old testament- The Gospel is pronounced

Listen to these words and tell me do they sound familure - and lets move the subject for Just a second.

VS 15 - The Lord - YHWH has taken away the judgement against you and cleared away your enemies -

This is so important to know and understand.

From the very beginning IT is GOD doing the saving - It is God doing the forgiven - IT is GOD -

It is GOD in Christ reconciling the world to Him self -

It is GOD - Who made us alive in Christ even though we were dead in our trespasses and sin.

IT was God who is forgiving all of our trespasses

It is God who cancels the Record of debt that is against us with its legal demands -

It is God who set aside our debts by Nailing our debts on His son to the Cross

It is God who put to open shame the rulers and authorities that are against us, disarming them by triumph in the finished work of His Son Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.

and Right here in verse 15-16 and 17

We see God - Speaking to his chosen people - YHWY has taken away the judgments against you.

YHWH has cleared away your enemy -

YHWH - The King of Israel - Jesus - in in your midst and you shall NEVER again be afraid.

vs 16

Fear not chosen people - Do not grow weak -

Jesus - The Lord your God a mighty one who will save is in your midst -

and Here is what God does -

Church - Loved ones - Look at this wonderful truth -

God rejoices over us with gladness -

God quiets us by His love.

Look loved ones -

God Exalts Over us

Exalt Over - Interesting set of words in the original language -

Here is what it means - It means to be Glad or Joyful - But there is a definitive extent in the original language that is so much more than just being Glad or joyful -

The words there have this connotation of someone spinning around under the influence of violent emotion such as joy and gladness.

God is Spinning around in joyful gladness over His chosen people who are saved by grace through faith - made new by His powerful regeneration and adopted to be his children.

and how does he display this - What does he add to this joyous gladness -

He adds singing

God adds LOUD SIGNING - GOD SINGS - and he SING OVER US LOUDLY.

SO when we sing We sing the Gospel and the Gospel is proclaimed in our collective singing

When we sing the Gospel is renewed in our hearts daily as we sing of his wonderful works.

STICKY POINT PRAISE TEAM AND PRAYER TEAM APPLICATION OR IMAGINE

In Chapter 9 of OS Guinness’s book The Call -

chapter Titled “the Audience of ONE”

The highlighted character is a historic figure, a 19th century Christian soldier that served in the army of Great Britain named General Charles Gordon -

General Gordon wrote : The more one sees in life the more one feels there is the necessity to keep oneself from shipwreck. The only way to do that is to steer life by the polar star - in a word - leave everything to God and never pay attention to the smiles and favor of men. Because if God smiles upon you - neither the smiles nor the frowns of men can effect you.

Gordon also said: I live before the Audience of ONE - Before others I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain and nothing to loose!

Can you imagine the freedom of life?

This is the freedom that Jesus came to set us free into!

What is we just began with this kids of freedom in singing!

Singing to the Audience of One - Before everyone else around us - noting to prove. nothing to gain and nothing to loose.

How much freedom would we have? How much life would we experience?

one of the things that is so important is the use of words.

The Scripture says words have power. In fact words are so powerful that can communicate life or they can communicate death -

As a fellowship There are a couple of ways we use words to specifically articulate biblical truths -

One of those is when we ask “who is the church” and we say “we are the church”

We do that becasue the church is a people not a location or a building. and just as important the church is a collected people, and assembled people. The Assembly of the called out ones.

the building or our campus is our gathering place.

Another way we use language is we don't call our time together a service - We don’t say our worship service is at 10:07.

We say - Worship gathering - 10:07 Sunday morning is when the people gather together for worship - and we worship together in working on a team - in prayer - in singing and in the declaration of the word of God in preaching and teaching.

I want you to imagine for a minute if we changed our use of words -

I want you to imagine with me how much impact the Spirit of God would have in our lives if we changed the way we used words to talk about our Sunday morning gatherings.

I want you to imagine with me if every time we left this place we can ask and answer - How was the SINGING?

and imagine with me what if we said - The Singing was wonderful? We all sang - We all joined in with God in his melody making -

We all sang loudly, we all sang joyously, we all sang with freedom - we all sang as God sings over us... loudly... because we were singing to the audience of ONE

and Imagine as we sang the Spirit confirmed in us that our singing was declaring the Gospel -

Imagine if our singing was such that what we experienced the Gospel renewal in our minds and hearts becasue we all sang together for the Audience of ONE.

Imagine with me - If we began singing the songs we sing of Gospel truth with-our families and with our co workers - for the Audience of One

Imagine with me if we sang in our cars and in our showers and in our times of alone singing, if we sang the songs of gospel truth - How our lives and how our thinking and how the worlds around us would be renewed and transformed when we sing - all for the audience of ONE

SO this morning and Every morning - LEt the Gospel be declared and renewed by our singing -

Which means for some of us we will have to begin singing -

Some of us we will sing more and others of us will sing all the more - Until the praised of Him who saved is declared and renewed in our hearts.

INTRODUCE PRAYER TEAM AND INVITE TO PRAY!

As we pray - Let us stand and Sing, joining God in his melody making Singing to the Audience of ONE and let the gospel be declared and renewed in our our hearts