We Sing - We Only Sing - We All Sing! Part 2 - We sing and Disciple.

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.

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LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND

Open it to Psalm 98 and Psalm 147  today as we continue in our preaching series called “we Sing” exposing what God says about singing. Unpacking and unwrapping a Theology of Singing.

TRUTH

Psalm 98 (ESV)

A Psalm.

1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song,

for he has done marvelous things!

His right hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for him.

2 The Lord has made known his salvation;

he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness

to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;

break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,

with the lyre and the sound of melody!

6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn

make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

the world and those who dwell in it!

8 Let the rivers clap their hands;

let the hills sing for joy together

9 before the Lord, for he comes

to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with equity.

Psalm 147 (ESV)

1 Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;

he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

3 He heals the brokenhearted

and binds up their wounds.

4 He determines the number of the stars;

he gives to all of them their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;

his understanding is beyond measure.

6 The Lord lifts up the humble;

he casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

make melody to our God on the lyre!

8 He covers the heavens with clouds;

he prepares rain for the earth;

he makes grass grow on the hills.

9 He gives to the beasts their food,

and to the young ravens that cry.

10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,

11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;

he blesses your children within you.

14 He makes peace in your borders;

he fills you with the finest of the wheat.

15 He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

16 He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;

who can stand before his cold?

18 He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

19 He declares his word to Jacob,

his statutes and rules to Israel.

20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;

they do not know his rules.

Praise the Lord!

PRAY

PRAYER FOR THE SERIES AND MESSAGE

My prayer for this series has been that during and after this series the Holy Spirit of God would renew in all of us that endures for years to come and for some if not all of us even plant in us a well spring of his spirit that compels us in 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 we would come to know that our collective singing and personal individual 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 -

In other words

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

Earlier this year as we walked through our annual church series - as we unpacked that fact that The Church is a Gospel Centered people on a Gospel Centered message we unpacked the frameworks by which people, All people, according to the scripture, Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

And the Paradigms that you will find throughout the scriptures both old and new can very easily be distinctly organized under the headings of 4 words.

All of them Beginning with the Letter “M”

We Grow in the Grace and the Knowledge of Jesus through 4 Things and these are not in any particular order of importance.

In fact I might lean on that they are all equally important.

Because leave on of these 4 out and you stunt your growth

Here are the 4 things:

Message - This is collective Bible Study in your small group. Private or individual devotion to the word - and sound bible based doctrinal, relatable Preaching of the word.

Mediation - This is prayer. Both collectively and individually as we plead before God to help us in our time of trouble.

Mission - As we go into the world, in obedience to our lord both collectively and individually to proclaim the Gospel both in word and in deed to all creation making disciples.

I love what Adrian Rodgers once said - You cannot know God by Bible Study - Bible Study only gives you knowledge about God. Obedience give you and intimate relationship with God.

John 14:21 ESV

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

You see Jesus says if we love him we will obey him and when we love him through obedience He will manifest himself to us.

When we make disciples from all nations baptizing and teaching he promises to be with us.

Many in the church today have unfortunately made the great commission of Jesus the great Omission and as a consequence they know a lot about Jesus but they don’t know him face to face.

The Last “M” in the 4 words that we Grow in the Grace and the Knowledge of Jesus is MUSIC or better yet Melody.

SO Today we step into the under girding truth that our singing our joining in with God in His melody making - Is ONE of the ways we do Discipleship.

Let me take a side note for clarity here just a moment.

DISCIPLESHIP - is not a new testament word. There are not a Greek word or combination of Greek words anywhere in the new testament that says: “Discipleship”

There is no command anywhere in the new testament from any of the new testament writers that says Gather in Holy huddles and do discipleship with one another.

Discipleship is a word that was first used in the early 1500 to define an activity by which people would engage in bible study with another person.

Over time what we have come to do is we have Substituted the actions of Discipleship for the actions of Disciple Making.

So the church has taken on this idea that we evangelize the lost and we disciple the saved.

Come of you may have a hard time with this but that paradigm is not what we find in our bible.

What we find in our bibles is we disciple the lost unto salvation -unto sainthood - and then we equip the saints for the work of serving Jesus.

and in the Great commission of Jesus when he commanded that the church “make disciples” that word means literally “ to cause someone to become the student or pupil of another.

and SINGING is ONE way we equip the saints - Grow in the grace and the knowledge of God -

In other words - Singing is one of the ways we make disciples and one of the ways we do discipleship.

ENGAGEMENT

How many of us have grown up?

Ya know when you were a late teenager or maybe in your early 20’s and you parents said “Grow up kid!”

How many of us have “Gown up”?

Ya know the reality of what mom or dad or both people were saying was “stop thinking like a kid and think like an adult”

There are many many ways that this needs to work it self out in our own life but also in the life of our kid.

You know the bible even tells us what it looks like grow up -

1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

and here is a lot of the time what happens -

We turn off one of the most impactful learning tools that we have and that is singing.

and believe it or not our education system supports turning off singing.

Lets think about his just for a minute.

If you grew up in church

when you were growing up - How did you know that you knew that Jesus loved you.

You mom or you dad sang it to ya and you sang it your self.

Jesus loves me this I know.

Sing it with me -

TENSION

Here is what happens to us. When we take this paradigm of “out growing” singing into our relationship with God.

We loose one of the most powerful ways implanting the grace and knowledge of Jesus into our minds and hearts.

WHY? Because - Singing shapes us. The Songs we sing - The words that we sing - Impact our heart.

Our heart is the seat of our emotions feelings and responses to the world around us.

and the words we sing impact our minds which is the center of our self conscious -

Our minds - where reason, logic and self awareness occur is the very place where we have the most dense likeness of God as we were made in His Image.

Andrew Fletcher - A Scottish politician and writer - What today would be called an influencer - Said back in the late 1600 or early 1700. “Let me make the songs of a nation and I care not who makes it laws.”

A century Later - English Congregational Church leader R.W.Dale said: “Let me write the hymns of the church and I care not who writes its theology”

The Truth that Dale was communicating was that Song, singing, is more powerful than academics.

That truth is more on display today in america than ever before -

AS our culture has seemingly slipped into insanity - The songs of our nation and of our culture slipped there way before the system did.

Singing Shapes us and Shapes those around us.

UNPACKING

Lets look at our Test this morning.

Psalm 98 -

AS a side note - THE thing that we must remember when we look at a Psalm - Especially one that says “A Psalm” or “To the Choir Master” or “A song of praise of whoever David or who ever”

A Psalm is the Lyrics to a song - These words were SUNG - They were put to melody and they were sung -

Now Originally they were in Hebrew so they may have rhymed better than they do in english But we have to place at the forefront of our minds these are song lyrics.

Psalm 98 is a song of instruction but it is also a song of Remembrance - Reminding the singer who is singing this of what God has done and is doing.

VS 1

Sing to YHWH - Instruction

What do we Sing “a New Song” - Instruction

WHY?

Because he has done marvelous things - Reminder

His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for Him - reminder

VS 2 AND 3

All reminder

Psalm 98:2–3 (ESV)

2 The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Reminder!

VS 4-8

Instruction

Instruction to who?

All the earth -

That certainly is to all who have voices -

Then in verse 5 the Song gives instruction as to how - With the Lyre - (modern day guitar)

AND with the sound of Melody -

The Sound of Melody is vocal singing.

vs 6 with trumpets and horns - Make noise.

vs 7 But notice He also instructs the Sea to sing it its voice -

ALl the people of the Earth

Instruction tot he Rivers in their voice -

The Hills in their voice.

One of the things I love about this Psalm is God is never instructing something or someone to sound different than what they are -

God gives you and I and the Lyer and the Trumpet and the Rivers and the Sea the voice we have to use it to make songs of singing to him and about Him.

Psalm 98 then Ends with a Reminder

VS9

Reminding us that YWHW is a Judge-

and reminds us of his character -

He judges the world with Righteousness and He Judges people with Equity.

So Just in Psalm 98 we are commanded to sing to YHWY

We learn the Why of our Singing and we learn of the How our singing is to be.

Psalm 147 - Notice there is no heading of this Psalm -

What is this? Is this to the choir master or what -

no This one is a continuation of a collection of Songs that King David wrote.

Look back at 145 - The Heading “A song of David”

David begins 145 with “i will extol you” and then 146-156 He begins each one with Praise the Lord.

VS1

David instructs and reminds.

Instruction “praise the Lord”

Reminder - It is good to sing praises to our God -

It is pleasant to sing songs that are fitting.

Love ones - Hear what the Song lyrics have just told us all -

WE must sing songs of praise that are fitting to YHWY

WHY? Because singing shapes our thoughts - You see when we sing we take our fear and our anxieties and we speak the truth of gods word and the truth of who God is and what he does to them.

When we sing we take truth of God word and who God is and what God does and we saturate our fears and our anxieties with them.

VS 2- V6

These 5 verses then sing the truth of who god is and what god does - Church imagine David - On his balcony - with his family and his court - Singing these lyrics.

Psalm 147:2–6 (ESV)

2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.

VS7

Instruction again - Sing with thanksgiving and then a HOW - Make Melody to God on the guitar.

Then again - verse 8-11 Singing the truth of the word, the truth of who God is and what God does.

Listen to these marvelous words -

Psalm 147:8–11 (ESV)

8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth;

he makes grass grow on the hills.

9 He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.

10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, 11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

in those who hope in his steadfast love.

VS 12

Instruction to all of Gods people PRAISE - and every time the word praise is used in the psalms - it is undergirded with the understanding that the word praise is referring to SINGING.

becasue after all these are song lyrics.

Listen to the truth of who god is and what god does in these song lurics.

Psalm 147:13–20 (ESV)

13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.

14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.

15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.

16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?

18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel.

20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules.

Praise the Lord!

AMEN? AMEN!

STICKY POINT PRAISE TEAM AND PRAYER TEAM

APPLICATION OR IMAGINE

One of the things that I believe is that the Psalms are the Songs that Gods people sang.

and those song lyrics are given to us to hear and to sing of the might works.

They are also give that we, who are saved, might join in with God in His melody making. And God still is writing His music today.

In other words there are modern Psalms being written to this day. Now don't miss understand me, The Psalms of the Bible are certainly more important than the Psalms of history found in a hymnal or the Psalms of today heard on the radio. But God is still inspiring the writing of His music today!

But I want to share the lyrics of one of my favorite ones of the modern day. Just to let you know that singing accurate fitting songs is not limited to the Hymnal of your grandparents.

God of creation, There at the start, Before the beginning of time

With no point of reference, You spoke to the dark, And fleshed out the wonder of light.

And as You speak, A hundred billion galaxies are born, In the vapour of Your breath the planets form,

If the stars were made to worship, so will I. I can see Your heart in everything You've made, Every burning star, A signal fire of grace, If creation sings Your praises, so will I

God of Your promise, You don't speak in vain, No syllable empty or void.

For once You have spoken, All nature and science, Follow the sound of Your voice

And as You speak, A hundred billion creatures catch Your breath, Evolving in pursuit of what You said, If it all reveals Your nature so will I. I can see Your heart in everything You say, Every painted sky, A canvas of Your grace, If creation still obeys You, so will I

So will I, So will I, If the stars were made to worship, so will I, If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I, If the oceans roar Your greatness, so will I, For if everything exists to lift You high, so will I, If the wind goes where You send it, so will I, If the rocks cry out in silence, so will I If the sum of all our praises still falls shy, Then we'll sing again a hundred billion times,

God of salvation, You chased down my heart, Through all of my failure and pride, On a hill You created, The Light of the world, Abandoned in darkness to die,

And as You speak, A hundred billion failures disappear, Where You lost Your life so I could find it here, If You left the grave behind You, so will I

I can see Your heart in everything You've done, Every part designed in a work of art called love, If You gladly chose surrender, so will I

I can see Your heart, eight billion different ways, Every precious one, a child You died to save, And if You gave Your life to love them so will I

Like You would again a hundred billion times, But what measure could amount to Your desire?, You're the One who never leaves the one behind

There are modern Psalms that are oh so fitting to Sing to God that will be on of the tools that God uses for us to Grow in the Grace and the Knowledge of Jesus.

The tools of Discipleship.

There are three spheres of singing that I want us to imagine walking out as we begin to apply the paradigm of singing to our life.

Singing to Grow - Singing to Discipleship - Signing to Shape us.

The 1st sphere of singing is we must sing praises to God when we are by our selves.

In our private moments in the shower or in the car or in our morning quiet time. Develop a personal play lists.

All of us or most of us have the tech in our hands to use modern tech to have a play list.

Make a play list on what ever music app that you have and daily play those and sing with them.

Let the melodies of God that are or were written by Gods people for the singing of who god is saturate your life.

An old hymnal is a great place to start. This will give you ideas on what to look for in your music.

Play that play list every day.

Here is a great test to know where you are.

DO you know the lyrics of Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson - or Two Pac or 50 cent or Taylor Swift or Miley Syrus

Or are you more familure with the lyrics of Issac Watts, or Martin Luther, Robert Lowery, King and Country, Casting crowns or Phil Whickam?

The SECOND place we need to sing is with our families. Family singing has been cast aside for most families. Take you play lists and play it with your family and encourage all of them to sing with you.

This will implant the Truth of God deeper into our minds and hearts.

Lastly - Sing with your church family - In small group or in Sunday morning worship gathering. Sing -

to prep us for singing - on Thursdays we send our the Stonewater weekly - In the weekly there is a section called “As ONE” This section is for singing - For when the church gathers Sunday morning we sing “As one voice” to the audience of ONE.

This section is the songs for Sunday - It is the Play list of the songs we will sing Sunday morning - So Sing them. Sing them in your shower - Sing them in the car - Sing them with your family - Sing them in your devotional time - So when Sunday comes - The Songs of God - Of who God is and What god does can be heard among all the earth.

Baptism

PRAYER TEAM!