We Sing - We Only Sing - We All Sing and Proclaim the Gospel to the lost world.

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 70 as we come to the conclusion of exposing what Jesus says, in His word about singing in our current series called “We Sing”

Where we have been unpacking and unwrapping a Theology of Singing.

TRUTH

Psalm 70:4–5 (ESV)

4 May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”

5 But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!

Psalm 71:14–24 (ESV)

14 But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.

15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.

16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

17 O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

18 So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.

19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?

20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

21 You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.

22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

23 My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.

24 And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.

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!

PRAY

DESIRE FOR THE 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, Today - AS we conclude our series unwrapping a Theology of Singing - My Prayer is that we would come to know and to exercise well that fact that Our singing - our collective singing - Our public Singing - our Personal singing - is one of the means of taking the Gospel to the Lost world

ENGAGEMENT

Have you ever heard some one say in reference to someone else.

Like your in a conversation and your talking about someone who is not in the conversation. That’s called gossip By the way -

Gossip can happen when you talk good things and bad things.

But how many of us have been in a conversation about another person who is not in the conversation and one of you say about that other person,

“They are good people” or He is a good dude” Or she is a “great person”.

I have heard that a lot - He is a good dude?

I have even heard that spoken about another person in prison From one prisoner about another prisoner. Ah man Yea I know him and He is a good dude.

Now I don't know if “He is a good dude” is code in prison for something else. But of all the 42 participants of this last Kairos weekend and in fact every Kairos weekend - When the intros to the participants happen, the guys that know them say about them “awe he a good dude”

Ya now if there ever was a place that you would have thought some one would say of some one else - He is a Bad dude” would have been prison.

But nope that is not how it went down. To the man - Naw dog” he is a good dude”

You see I think it is in the heart of every person to think of them selves as good people and it is also in the heart of most if not all people to think of others people as “good”

or at least if we think they are bad we gonna keep our opinions to our self. After all who are we to Judge.

How many of you think of someone in your life that you would label “a good person”

I saw a Meme on face book this last week. That said “Dear Bible people - only bad people should fear god. Good people have nothing to fear. So - become better people and you wont have to live in fear of God our creator.

Let me ask a question:

How many of us have ever made a mistake without knowing it?

YA know we do something and it just doesn’t work out the way we thought it would.

Even though we keep trying and trying and trying?

Ever been there - No matter how many times you take the thinky majiggy apart and put it back to gether you just can get it to work?

Ever gone out evangelizing? - Declared the Gospel to maybe lots of people and no one I mean no one came to faith?

and you keep doing and doing and doing the same thing and nothing?

What can happen to us is we get stuck on the method of the HOW TO and we forget the reality of the message and the individuality of the person in front of us.

TENSION

We do this a lot of times becasue we know that the Method used to work or someone said it used to work.

You see one of the things that I think we have found ourselves in, and I see thins in the the Social media posts of people who claim Christ, is that we are using old methods to reach a lost world with a saving message.

Here is what I mean -

How many of us can remember some where in our life someone saying to us “you are a sinner”

in a lot of ways what the world is hearing is “Your calling me a name and you are thinking you are better than me.” and you are hateful towards me and you are bigoted towards me and you are discriminating against me and dehumanizing me becasue you are calling me names” -

And the very next think you will hear is “I don’t feel safe”

Church - The method of calling people sinners is not working -

Now don't get me wrong - The realization of being sinful and that fact that that sin had broken the relationship with God and the only work that can repair that relationship is the finished work of Jesus on the cross is still the message.

But here is what happens to us - We think - or we present to others, in an accidental way, like to the person we are sharing the Gospel with, that we believe that we are better than they are that we are not a sinner just like them.

I think we do this That becasue we are forgiven we have forgotten our depravity.

But the songs of His salvation remind us that we are all in the same boat and if it were not for the grace of God exercised in finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit upon the elect we would all be headed to a christless eternity.

UNPACKING

The Psalmist in Psalm 70 ( in this case King David) writes a Psalm to the Choir Master - which is the worship leader - Lyrics for Him to put to music and to be sung during the time when Israel participates in the memorial offering.

Here is what the memorial offering was. It was a celebration that celebrated a certain event that happened in the initial time David was king of Israel.

That even was the Ark of the Covenant being brought back to the center of Jewish worship - Back into Jerusalem.

SO David - who wrote lyrics to a song then is writing lyrics to a song now.

This is what He says - “if you love God for what God has done - Then say over and over and over “god is great!!!

Then watch what David writes= This is King David - One of the most powerful people who was living at the time and a man whom GOd said is a man after Gods own heart.

If there was anyone who may have been causght in the trap of thinking that they were Good it may have been David/.

But look at what he says - I am poor and needy - Hasten - (which means come quickly) OH GOD!

YOu are my help and YOu are my deliver Oh Lord do not delay.

You see church David was more concerned about in this Psalm is His weakness and His need for God -

In His Psalm he admits his weakness and he admits his helplessness and His poverty -

He cant do it and He needs God!

This is KING DAVID - The same Guy who Killed the enemy of God’s people Goliath for God, By the Power of God and in the Name OF GOD - all for the salvation of the People of God

This is the same Guy who Patiently waited and waited through all kinds of issues and endured the death threats of King Saul - But would not touch the anointed King king Saul.

Psalm 71

VS14

David still composing song lyrics -

“I will hope in you - and praise you more and more

VS15

My mouth will tell of your acts no my acts.

Of your deeds of salvation - nothing that I did.

The deeds of your salvation - the things you did God to save me are too numerous for me to count or understand.

VS16

With eh mighty deeds of the Lord I will come and I will remind them of what you have done -

Loved ones - i want you to hear what David is saying in these first verses -

Telling of His salvation is telling about Him - Not about me.

VS17-21

All about what God does -

VS22

David says “I will praise you with the harp — I will sing praises to you with the Lyre

VS23

I will shout for Joy when I sing praises to you.

Loved ones - That means other people can hear you!

Then watch what David says: My soul” the deepest part of me will sing to you - That is the part you have redeemed!

VS24

my tongue will talk of you all day long!

ALL day Long -

Church I want you to notice the focus on God -

Here is also what I want you to notice -

When the focus is on the Lyric Writer - Two things

God I need you and how I am going to praise God and Share God with the rest of creation so they may know the greatness of our God.

The reality is that David and Solomon and Asaph and all of the other Psalm writers agreed on one thing - They were not ever Good people.

They did not make that mistake.

Great Hymns of the Faith have done the same-

Lets listen to some of the lyrics

Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind but now I see

What if those lyrics were different -

I want you to think about it just for a second.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound That blessed a good person named me I once curious, but now I found God Was seeking but now I I have found what I was looking for.

That would loose all the power of that Song

How about this great hymn

Alas! And did my Savior bleed And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?

Chorus At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day!

Verse 2 Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

Nothing about our goodness - Reminder and reminder about our need for Jesus Every day!

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain: O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon this I see: nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this my plea: nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Washing away my sin - Repairing my brokenness and making me whole - I am condemned and needing pardon - Pleasing a guilty sinner -

I am dirty and there is nothing that can make me white as snow - nothing but the blood of Jesus!

How about Redeemed how I love to proclaim it -

You don t even need lyrics for that song to understand the writers need for His own redemption -

How about the Grace of God -

1 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured– There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Refrain: Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!

2 Sin and despair, like the sea-waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater– yes, grace untold– Points to the Refuge, the mighty Cross. [Refrain]

3 Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! All who are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive?

Open willing confession that the song writer acknowledges his sin and know His own great need for Pardon and for forgiveness.

1 I hear the Savior say, "Thy strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all."

2 Lord, now indeed I find Thy pow'r and Thine alone, Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart of stone. [Refrain]

3 For nothing good have I Where-by Thy grace to claim; I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calv'ry's Lamb. [Refrain]

4 And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete, "Jesus died my soul to save," My lips shall still repeat.

Refrain: Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

The helplessness of our Human condition - The power of the Saviour to save and the Proclamation of the Gospel to the lost world.

There is a fountain filled with blood   Drawn from Emmanuel's veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,   Lose all their guilty stains:  The dying thief rejoiced to see   That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he,   Wash all my sins away:  And there may I, though vile as he,   Wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood   Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed ones of God   Be saved, to sin no more:

E’er since by faith I saw the stream   Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme,   And shall be till I die:   Redeeming love has been my theme,   And shall be till I die.

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue   Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song,   I’ll sing Thy power to save:

The work of God - The Power of the Blood - The vileness of the song writer on display - The Love and work of God - The evangelism of the World — The certain Hope of eternity -

What A glorious proclamation of the Gospel - What a declaration of Allegiance to Lord Jesus - What hope and what a song.

all based and all coming from the proclamation of God

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!

Sing to the Lord - Sing all the Earth!

Bless His name - Tell of His salvation Day to day.

Declare His Glory among the nations

Declare His marvelous works among the people.

APPLICATION OR IMAGINE

Loved ones - Christianity is not a faith PRIMARILY of outward expression. Loved ones Christianity is first and foremost the faith of inward reflection, contemplation and confession.

Seeing our need for Jesus through the Love of God and our realization that we are sinners saved by grace through faith.

Living a spirit filled life becasue of our salvation all the while in a fallen, yet to be redeemed flesh.

all of us imperfect, still dealing at some level the brokenness of our humanity, but imperfectly chasing after Jesus to be more and more like Him as the Father conforms us to His image.

Loved ones there are two things this morning that I want to close with.

1- is comes out of a concern for the souls of men and women every where, which includes us who are here this morning or on life stream.

In the scriptures that we have examined this morning and the lyrics of the hymns of faith we have heard over and over again, in both direct and indirect ways, that it is God who does marvelous things, it is God who ushers salvation, it is God poured out His blood on the Cross of Calvary, it is God who washes away our sin as far as the east from the west.

It is That work of God that ultimately gives us the only hope of knowing that we are his children if we have responded to the Love of God that was on display, publically, on the cross of Calvary.

There are many of us this morning who are just like the rich young ruler who ask Jesus “What must I do to in inherit eternal life?”

Jesus reply paraphrased was “be good” He actually quoted some of the commandments and said “do these things” In other words “be good”

The rich young Ruler said in response “I am Good” I have kept all of these for a long time”

The scripture says that when this rich young ruler looked at him, Jesus look at Him and His prideful self righteousness and the Scripture says “Jesus loved Him!”

Jesus said” there is sill one thing - You have to sell what you have and give it away - so you can have treasures in heaven - Then Jesus said “Follow me”

Jesus just extended the invitation for this young ruler to become a disciple and it is a relationship with Jesus that would have led him to Eternal life.

But it required that the rich young ruler place Jesus in authority over his life as Lord and Master.

Many many of us today, have placed our trust in a prayer that we said many years ago as the mark or the indicator that we are a “christian” but have never submitted to Him as Lord!

Many of us have placed out trust in the fact that one day in our life we have walked and isle, answered an invitation to state publically that we have invited Jesus in to our hearts. But have never submitted to him as Lord and master over our life.

Loved ones - Hear the Holy Spirit speaking this morning - The Bible says the biblical, Holy Spirit driven, new life in us response that must take place as a result of us receiving Him, to know that He has saved us, that we have been truly saved by the works of God, Saved us from the wrath of God, reconciled our relationship to to God, and done so all for the Glory of God -

we most confess Him as lord and master of our life -

Repent - meaning turn our life over to Him and his will and his way for our life. Not once and done but daily. Daily turning our life over and over again -

I have and old friend that prays - Lord we surrender afresh to you to day!

Pick up our cross daily and be obedient to his commands as Lord.

The beautiful thing about the Gospel is that God loves us and this life that he is calling us all to is more beautiful and more amazing than any life we could have for our selves.

SO this morning - If you have placed your hope of thinking that you are a christian by a prayer you said, an isle you walked or the work of maybe even baptism, please please please loved one.

Abandon all hope you have placed in any and all of those works - For we are not saved by any works that we can do.

Abandon all hope in any event or effort on your part and simply come to Jesus as the real and risen Lord - Submit your life to the Lover of your Should who came to give you life and give you a life that you could never imagine. Confess Him as Lord, put your hand to the plow and never never look back. and be made new regenerated by the power of the holy spirit.

If this is you here in a minute there are people that will be here in the wings - Come and pray with them- and simply say - I surrender all to the Lord ship of Jesus and then pray.

2- Here is what I hope happens to us from the instruction of Scripture this morning and from the renewal that the psalms and some of these song lyrics have renewed in us.

I hope we change the method of our proclamation of the Gospel to the world.

I hope that we openly and readily confess and admit our constant and continual need for Jesus and our own sinfulness as these hymn writers did when we share Jesus with Someone.

That we begin to stop singling out certain sins as worse than other sins especially if we don't sin that way, or struggle with those kinds of sin.

I pray that the lost world will see and hear and be amazed with our humility before God when we don't talk about their sin but they hear us in our prayers and in our song confess our sin and admit our depravity and our own need daily for the washing blood of jesus over our life and thoughts and actions.

I pray that we would stop making the mistake of presenting ourselves by accident or on purpose as better than them simply becasue we have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.

That blood, the lambs desire to wash all sinners clean of all sin is the love of God on display.

and It’s tough - Sometimes the sin of others is so far away from even our thinking of what is even possible.

Some times it’s so far away from our sensibilities -

Sometimes its so grotesque or has seemingly has so deeply effected someone we love dearly and it makes us angry and think to our selves - “i’m not that bad” which just like the rich young ruler is saying “i’m good compared”

When those thought come church here is what we can do!

We can sing -

Sing Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a WRETCH like me.

Sing of his salvation Day after day -

Sing of His righteousness to all the peoples

Sing of His glory among the nations.

Sing “what can wash away my sin? nothing but the blood of Jesus”

Sing - Redeemed how I love to proclaim it!

Sing it is well with my soul!

Sing my chains are Gone!

Sing I'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to the Lord!

Sing the song of this morning - He picked me up - He turned me around - He placed my feet on solid ground - I thank the master - I thank the savior - I thank God.

Sing loved one sing!

PRAYER TEAM!