Sermon Tone Analysis

One of the many talents I have is singing songs based on phrases people say.

My kids and wife experience this more than most…because I don’t want people to feel bad after hearing my vocal abilities.

But in any given conversation, if you speak a phrase that I recognize as a lyric from a song… I just might start singing that song out loud.

If I don’t, I am at least singing it in my head.

The reason I do that is because I like music and I don’t mind singing either.

I am not great at it… but I enjoy it.

Some people don’t sing out loud because they don’t like the sound of their voice.

They hold it in....but in private…they let the dogs loose.

In that moment..singing in the shower or singing in your car…how would you explain that feeling?

I would say it is freeing…singing has a liberating effect.

The reason why is because singing is part of the fabric of our being as humans.

God created us with the physical abilities to speak and sing as responses of worship to Him as God.

We were created to know God, to have a relationship with Him.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

One way we glorify him is to sing praises to Him and about him.

It is what we are created to do.

I would further in saying that any singing we engage in without God in mind is merely a substitute to who we are as humans.

Love songs capture the hearts fleeting emotions but that is an artificial sweetener to the Lord who is truly meant to capture our hearts.

Who does love a good upbeat, rock out drum solo or guitar riff that gets our feet tapping and our heart pumping.

I would say there is nothing wrong with those things.

What fulfills that musical accompaniment are true words about God and His work in this world.

Music is a gift to humanity from God.

One of the greatest gifts to the 21st century church is Keith and Kristyn Getty, who have composed many of the most popular theologically rich, Christ-centered hymns that we sing in our church today.

In their book, Sing, they speak about the ways that God has formed and made us to praise Him through song.

They write,

“When singing praise to God, so much more than just the vocal box is engaged.

God created our minds to judge pitch and lyric; to think through the concepts we sing; to engage the intellect, imagination, and memory; and to remember what is set in tune.

God has formed our hearts to be moved with depth of feeling and a whole wide range of emotion as the melody-carried truths of who God is and whose we are -sink in.” - Keith and Kristyn Getty

David literally contemplates the ways in which God created his body, mind and soul and his response to all God has done in making and knowing him in relationship is singing songs of praise to God.

Don’t miss this major truth…what David understood about God’s character and his works…led the physical, emotional, and spiritual act of singing praises to God.

Therefore, what we know and understand about he Lord fuels our worship of Him in learning, praying, and serving and singing.

In other words, our singing is not uninformed ranting and squawking gibberish.

It is words that are true about the One True God.

Those truthful words fuel our spirit and our will to sing about the joy that we have in our hearts regarding the Lord.

So what we know of the Lord, all of his ways and works....should then lead us to a joy in the Lord…which leads to a song in our hearts and in our mouths!

But churches across America, the worship leader gets up to lead the church in singing and many never even move their lips during the singing.

Some of you might fall into this category and I have to ask the question, why? consider some reason people don’t sing in church:

distractions: circumstances of life, fear of man, sin

disinterest: unbelief, unaware of need to sing

My prayer from these passages today is that the Lord would renew or create a clear understanding of every blood bought believer in Jesus Christ not only was given a new song to sing when Jesus saved them, but should sing among God’s people as a testimony to God’s glory in this world and in our individual lives.

A Truth of the Lord Ezra 1-Nehemiah 12:26

Last week: God’s grace

Today: God’s faithfulness

This will probably be the longest passages I have included in one point of a sermon.

Erza 1- Nehemiah 12 is 21 chapters of this small portion of the history of God’s people that reflect God’s character and his works in their lives and the world.

One of the main themes we looked at last week that the Jews meditated on was God’s grace towards them in their weakness and failures.

Secondly, another major theme that we have spoken of countless times in this study is his faithfulness.

All of these chapters include the theme of God’s faithfulness to his people regardless of how they treated him.

God is faithful and he will carry out his promises of the covenant.

He can be trusted because He never has nor ever will fail us.

He cannot fail because of his power is unlimited and his love is unconditional and failure would lead him to deny his own nature and cease to be God.

Chapters 11-part of 12 is the final crescendo of God’s musical arrangement of redemption for the Jews during Nehemiah’s day.

He has once again provided an exodus like during the time of Moses.

This time, the escape is from the Babylonian captors.

God’s promise to restore the people to the promised land, first attained under Joshua and now attained again under Zerrubabbal, Ezra and Nehemiah.

Both exodus events provide miraculous demonstrations of God’s power over all things.

Under Moses, God displays his power over the false gods of Egypt and the false worship of their leader Pharaoh.

The Lord shows through the plagues that his power surpasses all false idols that man has created in Egypt.

God demonstrates his sovereignty over human leaders so that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened as a direct result of God carrying out his will to display his glory until, finally when the Israelites were set free, it was as God determined and planned it.

Notice the song that Moses sings at the exodus in response to God’s faithfulness

Turn with me to Exodas 15

Likewise, in the story of Exiled Jews of Babylon, the Lord sends a deliver, this time not a Jew, but a Persian King named Cyrus, to set the people free.

Once again by the mighty hand of the God, the Jews were released, resources were provided to them for their travels and resettlement, security was given along the way, until finally they temple, city and walls were rebuilt!

This is where our story takes us today.

Chapters 11 and half of chapter 12, testify to the faithfulness of the Lord to complete his work as he promised.

Chapters 11 and part of 12 are once again lists to consider as markers of God’s faithfulness to accomplish all that he plan to accomplish in this world.

We read in Neh 11:1-3 “1 Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem.

And the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine out of ten remained in the other towns. 2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

3 These are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem; but in the towns of Judah everyone lived on his property in their towns: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon’s servants.”

Earlier we looked at chapter 7 where the city was rebuilt, the walls reconstructed and yet there wasn't many people living there.

For the remaining chapters of Nehemiah, the people according to their proper genealogy as the tribes of Judah and Benjamin moved back into the city.

Chapter 11 gives us this description of their resettlement into the city.

Notice in verse 1 how the people trusted the Lord to guide who would actually be the families who moved back into the city.

They determined this by casting lots, which was a way the people surrendered to God’s providence in their lives.

They selected a percentage who would return but left it up to the Lord’s work as the lot was cast.

A percentage accepted the Lord’s will and moved from the otter villages to within the city walls.

This was a joy to the people to come into the city and a privilege because the temple was there.

To dwell inside the city was to dwell close to the Lord’s presence at the temple.

How different it is in the New Covenant where the Lord does not reside in a building but in our hearts.

He is with us as we the church gathers together, not because He dwells in this brick and morter but because He lives in us by His spirit who indwells all believers.

The others towns mentioned were villages in the Judaic region but outside the city where a farming communities existed and supplied crops for the economic stability of the region.

So the rest of chapter 11 then focuses on the leadership that dwelt in the city and represented and served the people and the temple.

The focus is on the lineage of priests, levites, the gatekeepers and servants of the Jews.

The focus of these families is because they were the ones who lead the people in the worship of the Lord.

v. 10-14 Priests and their families

v. 15-21 Levites and their families

v. 22-36 deals with the rest of God’s people who lived outside the city in neighboring villages.

Beginning in Chapter 12, there is a specific accounting of those Priests and Levites since the return of the Jews to Jerusalem who would serve the people and the Lord at the Temple.

Again this first section of chapter 12 recounts God’s faithfulness to preserve the lineage of Aaron with the priests and the lineage of Levi with the Levites who serve the temple and lead the people in worshipping the Lord.

Chapters 12:1-26 trace the work of the Lord from the beginning of the exiles returning under Zerubbabel and Jeshua to the current day of finality under Nehemiah and Ezra.

The summary statement can be seen in verse 26,

The point of this summary is to show that what God established with the order and structure of the temple under David where he ordered the function and service of the priests, levites, gatekeepers and singers was still going to be in effect after the exile.

David created a structure of service for the temple service and those Levite families and those families from the sons of Aaron would dedicate their lives to serve their alloted time.

For example a priest would serve roughly two weeks straight per year in the temple.

There were 24 divisions of priests so each division served two week allotments for the entire year.

That structure gave order to the worship and that administration made the overall functionality of the worship at blessing to the Lord and to the people.

These lists point to the continuance of that order from David after the returned exiles resettle.

Again, the faithfulness of God shines forth not only to accomplish his purposes, but to use God’s people to lead in effective ways in bringing about his purposes.

With the reflection of God’s faithfulness on their minds, it leads to worship and celebration on their lips as they sing praises to his name in our final verses of this chapter.

Understand that proper worship flows out of a realistic reflection of God’s character and work.