Sing, Sing, Sing. The Why and What of Singing In Church (Colossians 3:15-17) - Pastor Ryan Perry

Sing, Sing, Sing

The Why and What of Singing in Church

Colossians 3:15-17

So here we are at the final week of this three week series on worship.  I can imagine that some of you are on brain overload from all the information that has been shared over the past two weeks.

However, realizing that this was a lot to give you, my hope is that God has challenged you in your definition of worship, and in your understanding of why we gather as a church.

As a reminder of what has already been said, in week 1 we came up with the following definition of worship:

Worship is the joy-filled praise of and submission to a sovereign God in response to who He is, and His work on our behalf, in Christ, to make us His people, in accordance with His will.

We then talked about our corporate worship and said this:

Our reason for gathering is to encourage and equip each other for the work of the ministry as we remember and proclaim the gospel together.

We do this by walking through an order of service that reminds us of the gospel as we sit under the preaching of the Word, sing, pray, and take communion together.

Now, I think we all believe that all of these elements are important, but none of them is more debated and misunderstood than the role of singing in corporate worship.

And the hard truth, that we each need to own, is that most of us are musical snobs.

Our musical preferences often become the benchmark for what good worship music is, and although standards are good to have they are often grounded in a wrong understanding of the purpose of singing in the church.

This was my experience for a long time.  Early on in my Christian walk I thought worship music was mainly about giving me an emotional experience that made me feel closer to God.

I would go to worship gatherings hoping that I could have an emotional experience only to be upset with the musical selections when they didn’t do that for me.

In this way, I was lost when it came to the purpose of singing in the church, and my understanding of quality worship music was based on how each song made me feel.  In this way I missed God’s great purposes for why we sing as a corporate body.

Knowing that this could be you this morning, my hope is to start out this morning by giving you 3 reasons why we sing as a Church.

Once we have established our reasons for singing, we can move on and talk about what we should sing.  What are the parameters we should use when picking our music for our corporate gathering?  I will 3 parameters.

With that said, let’s open our Bible to Colossians 3:15-17.  This passage will give us a framework for our reasons for singing.  So let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read Colossians 3:15-17:

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Let’s Pray.

Why Do We Sing:

1.    We sing so that the Word would dwell in our hearts (Col. 3:15-16a)

Colossians 3:15-16a:

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”

This is Paul writing to a Colossian church who has let false teachers and doctrines into their church, and like the Galatians, have started to stray from the gospel.

As a result, Paul spends most of this book reminding this church of the gospel (who Christ is, and what He has done on their behalf).

So it makes sense then that he would tell them to “let the word of Christ dwell in them.” Now the idea behind the word “dwell” is that the Word of God (the Bible) would live within us and affect the way we live.

But then the question is how do we get the Word of God to dwell within us?  Paul, seemed to anticipate this question by giving the second half of verse 16 when it says.

 “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

So how does the word dwell in us? By singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  So the word dwells in our hearts and the hearts of the Colossians through singing.

Now understand I am not diminishing the role of teaching, reading scripture, or even memorization.

But it seems that God has set before us the reality that through singing we are able to sink the truths of God into our hearts in a deep, meaningful, and life-changing way.

So how does music do that?  How does singing let the Word of God dwell in our hearts?

It does this by helping us to remember and meditate on the truths of scripture.

Remember:

Q. How many of us can remember whole paragraphs of sermons that we have listened too?

Q. How many of us can remember and sing off the top of our heads the words to “Amazing Grace?”

The reality is that we remember what we sing.  God’s word even confirms this idea in Deuteronomy 31.

The Israelites are just about to go into the promise land, and God told Moses that Israel was going to reject Him and break the Covenant.

But instead of having Moses warn Israel, God has Moses teach them a song.  As Deuteronomy 31:21 says:

And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring).

Again, we don’t forget what we sing, and when we either sing scripture or truths derived from scripture they stick with us which allows God to use them to teach, correct, encourage, and comfort us as we sing and remember them again and again.

Meditate:

Psalm 1 calls us to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night.  The idea of meditate is not this sort of Zen/Yoga thing, but biblically, it really means to think more deeply.

So we are to think deeply about the words and truths of scripture.

And singing, unlike normal speech, allows us to draw out the words, repeat phrases, or pause in between verses so that we have more time to think about and grasp the meaning of the truths we just sang.

Example:

When we sing the hymn “It Is Well,” We sing the chorus over and over again:

It is well

It is well, with my soul

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

As we do, we are able to grasp on a heartfelt emotional level the reality that regardless of the storms and trials that come our way, it is well with our soul because God is our refuge and strength.  A simple reading of the text does not generally have the same effect.

So as we remember God’s word and His truths, and we meditate on them through song, they begin to dwell in our hearts and ultimately affect the way we live.

We sing so that the Word of Christ would dwell in our hearts.

2.    We sing to teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16)

Colossians 3:16:

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

Now it might seem a bit odd to you to think that your singing actually teaches and urges others to grow as a believer, but God is telling us in this verse that it does.

Let me give you an example from my own life.

When I first became a believer, life was hard.  Shortly after confessing Christ I was at work one morning when I had a severe panic attack.  I had never had one before in my life, so it hit me like a ton of bricks.

This was the beginning of what felt like the worst 8 months of my life.  I remember writing prayer after prayer in a prayer journal just asking God to take these anxieties and panic attacks away, and trying to figure out why I was going through this.

But God didn’t take it away for 10 months, and to this day I still have no idea why that happened beyond the fact that it was part of God’s plan for my good and His glory.

However, during that time I was attending a campus ministry where we would sing the song “Better is One Day.”

Better is one day in your courts, Better is one day in Your house, Better is one day in Your courts, than thousands elsewhere.

And even though my situation was hard, God used His people, singing together, to teach me that even though today is hard, one day with Jesus is far better than a thousand elsewhere, and that one day I will be with Him in His eternal courts and house forever.

Even though it was hard, even though I wanted to give up, God taught me and reminded me through His people in song, that life with Him is better than any other, and that one day I will be in His presence forever.

Now I don’t know your situation, but I can imagine that you all have songs that God uses, as we sing them together, to encourage you, teach you, and remind you to endure through the trials and tribulations in this life.

Likewise, God is using you, as you sing, to encourage and teach someone else the truths of scripture that they would also endure, with joy, the trials of this life.

3.    We sing to respond to who God is and His work on our behalf (3:16b-17)

…singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So we sing that the Word of God would dwell in our hearts, and we sing to teach and spur each other on in our faith.  But all of this is done “with thankfulness in our hearts to God…and we do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

This means that all of our singing is not just about God, but is also to God.

If we go back to our definition of Worship:

Worship is the joy-filled praise of and submission to a sovereign God in response to who He is, and His work on our behalf, in Christ, to make us His people, in accordance with His will.

We are reminded that we sing to God with thankfulness in our hearts in response to who He is and what He has done for us in Christ.  We can also see this clearly in Colossians 3 if we back up to verses 3-4 of Colossians 3.  They say:

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

When we understand that verses 15-17 are in response to these truths we come away realizing that we are to sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God because our life is hidden with Christ, and we will one day appear with Him in glory.

However, this is not just meant to be a passing thank you, but it is meant to be a heartfelt and emotional response to God’s and His work.

Puritan theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards says it this way:

“The duty of singing praises to God seems to be given wholly to excite and express religious affections.  There is no other reason why we should express ourselves to God in verse rather than in prose and with music, except that these things have a tendency to move our affections.”

Again, our singing should be a heartfelt and emotional response to God’s work.  It should excite our affections.

Now, I realize that most of you will probably not raise your hands or get overly exuberant when you sing, but at least realize that an emotional response to God is a good thing.

As Psalm 100:1-2, 5 say:

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!

Serve the LORD with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

For the LORD is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

It is joy in response to who God is.

So we sing so that the word would dwell in our hearts, we sing to teach and admonish one another, and we sing in response to God.

In light of these truths then what should we sing?

What Should We Sing:

1.    We should sing songs that are diverse (Col. 3:16)

Colossians 3:16 tells us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Now I am not going to try and tell you what all those mean because many really smart people disagree on this, but what I can generally say is that it is a call to sing all kinds of songs.

And for us as a church we take this to mean that we should sing songs that are old and new, hymns and choruses, stylistically varied, and cover all the themes that the Bible gives us.

Now, remember, I said at the beginning that we are all on some level musical snobs, and our preferences often become the benchmark for good worship music.

But when we sing songs that are both old and new, hymns, and choruses, and from a variety of styles we are not only worshipping together, we are joining in song with Christians all over the world and from ages past.

In this way we become connected to the global and historical church, and are given a picture of Christianity and worship music that is bigger than our own little body of believers.

This means that we can and should sing a great hymn like “How Great Thou Art” which connects us to our brothers and sisters from 1800’s while singing “Forever (We Sing Hallelujah)” by Kari Jobe which connects us to our own cultural context today.

And since they are both communicating heartfelt truth about God, we should sing them with all the passion and voice that we have in our being as we sing praise to our God, our Savior, and our King.

This keeps us from believing that the only good worship music is our personal preferred style.  It keeps us from being snobs.

We also want to sing songs that are diverse in themes.  The Bible is full of many different themes from praise and adoration, to confession and lament, to God’s goodness and love, and our sinfulness and need for Jesus.

The reality is that there are a lot of biblical themes.

And they are meant to give us an accurate picture of who God is, who we are, what He’s done for us in Christ, and how we are to respond.

And when we fail to sing of all of these themes we run the risk of becoming deficient in our understanding of who God is, and who we are.

So for example:

If we sang lots of songs about God’s love, but never sang songs about God’s justice, we might start to think that God is so full of love that He will never judge anyone or send them to hell.

In this way our music shapes our theology.  So we must sing of all the varied themes and subjects in the Bible.  This will give us a more complete picture and understanding of God Himself.

So singing diverse songs connects us to the global and historical church, and singing the diverse themes of scripture give us an accurate view of God, ourselves, and our response to Him.

2.    We should sing songs that are theologically precise

If we want God’s word to dwell in our hearts and we are to teach one another, and respond rightly to God’s greatness, then we must sing music that in accordance with God’s Word.

This means that our music must be true and should not potentially blur things which are clear in scripture.

For Example:

The song “Above All” by Michael W. Smith has these words in the chorus:

Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

This is a great chorus up until the last line, “You thought of me above all.” Why you might ask?  Because it is not theologically accurate to say that the main motivating factor in Jesus dying on the cross was our Salvation.

Look at Jesus words in John 7:18:

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

Jesus is making it clear that He was sent to seek the glory of the Father.

Or Jeremiah 13:11 says:

For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory,

So God created people and draws a people to Himself not to make much of them, but to make much of Himself.  He does it for His own glory.

So it is incorrect to say that “He thought of me above all” when scripture is clear that Jesus is thinking first and foremost about the glory of God in what He is doing.

If we are singing songs that are theologically deficient then we run the risk of creating Christians who are deficient in their walks with Christ because they are believing false things about God.

So our music must be theologically precise.

3.    We should sing songs that are God-centered and Gospel-centered.

If our worship is in response to Who God is and His work on our behalf in Christ then these two categories should make up the vast majority of the music that we sing.  So what does God-centered and gospel-centered mean?

God-centered:

This means that our songs should praise God and be directed toward Him and should not be focused on our subjective feelings or purely on the benefits that we get from Him.

Now there is a time and place where we can reflect upon ourselves, our state before God, and what we has given us, but it should always be connected with bringing God glory.

This takes the majority of our focus as a corporate body off of ourselves and puts it on the author and perfector of our faith.

This is why we sing the song “Glory to God Forever” by the group FEE.  It centers itself on who God is, His acts in creation as the sovereign King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Then in response to this we say, “take my life and let it honor you that you might get the glory.”

Gospel-centered:

Understand that we sing about God and submit to His will because of what he has done to redeem us both individually and corporately through the work of Christ.  This means that our response to God is always set within the context of the grace that we have received in Christ.

Our music then, should focus on the grace that we have received in Christ and should point us away from the idea that our own merits can somehow earn us favor with God. 

Now we can and should sing about our devotion to God, but we must make sure that it is always in response to His divine action on our behalf in Christ.

This is why we sing songs like “Christ be all around me.” It is a prayer to God that Christ would be seen in all that we do because of the life, death, and shed blood of Christ.

In this way our songs always point to something and someone greater than ourselves.

Conclusion:

Summary:

So we sing that the word would dwell in our hearts, teach and admonish one another, and allow us to respond to who God is and His work on our behalf in Christ, as we sing diverse, theologically precise, God and gospel-centered songs.

Does this mean that there will be songs that you love that we won’s sing?  Probably. Why?

Because we all love songs that maybe good for our own personal hearts, but may not fit the criteria of what is best for God’s gathered people.

But my hope is that you will now be able to sing each song, even if it isn’t your favorite, with an understanding that we sing them with a purpose.

And may you now be better equipped to respond to God’s glory with a whole-hearted affection for Christ, as you make a joyful noise in song to our Lord and King.

Let’s Pray.

Why Do We Gather? The Why and What of Corporate Worship. ~ Pastor Ryan Perry

Why Do We Gather?

The Why and What of Corporate Worship

Sunday, June 21st, 2015

By Ryan Perry

If you were here last week you know that I opened with a question, and that question was “What is Worship?”  We then answered that question by walking you through Psalm 95, and in so doing, come up with the following definition of worship:

Worship is the joy-filled praise of and submission to a sovereign God in response to who He is, and His work on our behalf, in Christ, to make us His people, in accordance with His will.

So we as individuals joyfully praise and submit to God because of who He is and what He has done for us in Christ.  And we praise Him and submit to Him by obeying His Word.

Now, understand that I was talking about worship in a more individualistic sense meaning that this definition of worship applies to each individual person whether you are at work, home, or church.

But this definition does not give us a full understanding of why we worship together as a corporate body.  It does not help us to understand the purpose and importance of corporate worship in the lives of the believer.

So like last week my goal today in addressing the topic of “why we gather” is twofold:

1.    To give you a clearer understanding of the purposes and goals for our gathering.  In doing this I will give you 4 reasons that the Bible gives us for gathering.

2.    Is to show you what we are supposed to do to accomplish these purposes and goals when we gather.  I will also give you 5 ways that this is accomplished.

As a side note, we will touch on singing in the church very briefly today, but as a reminder singing and music in the church will be the complete focus of my sermon next week.  So make sure you are here for that as well.

But before we jump right into the first points let’s take a moment and go to the Lord in prayer and ask that He would speak to us in our time together this morning.

Let’s Pray.

Like “worship,” my contention is that we all have our own thoughts about why we gather and what it is supposed to be all about.  Maybe we gather for spiritual growth, or maybe we gather for inspiration, others might say community, and there might be one or two of you who are bold enough to say that you come here because your family does it.

Many of these are good reasons to come to church and are part of the purposes for corporate worship, but hopefully as we look at these four reasons and purposes for gathering it will give you a greater holistic understanding of our reasons for being here today.

Why do we gather?

1.    We gather because God commands it.

Hebrews 10:24-25:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

My hope is not to belabor this point a lot; however, if our worship is joy-filled obedience in response to who God is and what He has done for us in Christ, then, we should desire to joyfully obey God’s Word by meeting together as His people.

It is important for us to know that God’s desire for us is to meet together.  And because it’s a command of God it is not only meant for His glory, but as His people, it is meant for our good. 

This means that when people say they are believers, and they decide not to go to church, they are basically telling God that they know what is better for their lives than He does.  They are walking in open rebellion to His perfect life giving word, and they are trying to be their own God.

I remember in college when I decided that the church was full of hypocrites and that they were not really preaching the Word of God the way they should be, and as a result I left.

I missed the fact that, despite the church not being perfect, God commands me to worship with His people. 

And again, if God’s Word and commands are good, then God desires this command to “not forsake the meeting of the saints” for my good, encouragement, and my being built up in faith.

So it is good and right to gather with God’s people.

2.    We gather to encourage one another.

Hebrews 3:13:

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

I think we all get that the Christian life is not easy.  Worshipping God and submitting to His will can be hard work.  And we are constantly bombarded with images, thoughts, and philosophies that try to convince us that we would be better off without this thing called Christianity.

These may not be overt attacks (although some can be), but we live in a world that wants to tell us that the meaning of life is found in whatever makes us happy.   And that thing that makes us happy probably isn’t a God who expects us to obey Him.

This means we are walking in a world of land mines just waiting to go off.

Now, we absolutely believe God is sovereign and that He holds our eternities in His hands.  We also believe that He is the one who wills and works on our behalf as it says in Philippians 2:13.

But the Word tells us that one of the ways that God has ordained for us to stay the course in our worship of Him as the one true and living God, is by gathering together to encourage one another to remain faithful to Christ.

We come into this place at times weary, discouraged, and down trodden only to leave uplifted as we sing, pray, and sit together under the preaching of the word.

And in so doing we remind each other that we are saved by a sovereign God who has graciously called us to serve Him by the power of His Holy Spirit, because of the work of His Son Jesus Christ on our behalf. 

In this way we gather to encourage one another with the promises of God, and to remain faithful to Christ.

3.    We gather to be equipped for the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Now I can imagine that there are those of you who look at this point and say, “wait a minute, I come in to this place for refreshment and encouragement, but I don’t come in here to work!  That’s what you three pastors do.”

And you are right, God has called us as pastors here to work, and according to Ephesians 4:11-12 our work is to prepare you for the work of the ministry.

We are called to get you ready through teaching, preaching, music, discipleship, counseling, etc… to be ministers who use your gifts for the building up of the body of Christ.

This means that we do not just come to this place to be encouraged and have our happy fellowship time with our friends (not that there is anything wrong with that). But we mainly come into this place with our sleeves rolled up ready to be equipped with the knowledge and understanding we need to be able to serve God’s kingdom and His people.

Once we are equipped then we must go and build up the body of Christ.  We must use our gifts as God has apportioned them to us for serving and building God’s people up.

Why do we do this?

Look at verse 13 of Ephesians 4:

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

We are equipped and use our gifts to build up the body so that we will all be united in faith, grow in our knowledge of Christ, and become mature in Christ.

To say it another way: We are called to use our gifts to grow one another into mature disciples of Christ.

An interesting point of note, is that according to scholar Larry Hurtado, the word for “Church” in the New Testament is “Ekklesia” and in its historic Greek usage this word designates a public assembly of citizens gathered to conduct civic business.

Now there usually was a religious component to this, but the word “Ekklesia” emphasizes the work of the people.

This means that we gather to do work which is using our gifts to build up the body of Christ.

Not out of drudgery or duty, but with a joy-filled heart in response to God’s work on our behalf. 

As 1 John 5:3 says:

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

God’s best for you is that you obey His commands and use your gifts for building up His people, that this would be your joy and not a burden.

Are you joyfully using your gifts for the building up of God’s people?  Are you here to work, or are you here just for yourself?

4.    We gather to remember and proclaim the gospel.

Hebrews 10:19-23

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

So we do gather to encourage one another and we do gather to be equipped and to build up the body.  But what are we being encouraged and built up in? 

We are being encouraged and built up in our knowledge and apprehension of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It’s that simple.

We gather to remember and proclaim Christ to one another that we would understand, remember, and live out the gospel.

That is why Hebrews 10:19-23 gives us a great reminder of the gospel and then tell us to “Hold fast to the confession.” 

The idea of holding fast is that we are to hold firmly or occupy our confession which is Christ. This means that when we gather we are working together to get a better grasp and understanding of what Christ has done for us and how that applies to our everyday lives. This is why we teach Empowered Christianity and Sonship because we need to take hold of the gospel every day and really figure out by God’s grace how it is meant to affect the way we live.

An since the gospel is the “confession of our hope,” it is not just something that you are supposed to remember and hold onto, but it is also something that you are to proclaim and tell other people about that by God’s grace they might themselves take ahold of it and believe it.

This then becomes the over-arching purpose for our gathering.  So we do gather because it’s commanded, we gather to encourage one another, and to be equipped and build each other up.

But over all of this is the reality that we gather because of what Christ has done on the cross on our behalf (The gospel), for the purpose of understanding and growing in this gospel, and how it applies to our lives, that we may then proclaim it to others.

So understand then that when we gather, we gather because we have work to do, but our work is ultimately gospel work. So with all of that said what are we supposed to do?  How are we to encourage and equip each other with the gospel when we gather for corporate worship?

What of corporate worship?

1.    We encourage and equip each other with the gospel through the Word.

1 Timothy 4:13:

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

This is a call from Paul to Timothy, a local church pastor to devote himself to the public reading, teaching, and preaching of scripture.  Why are we to do this?

Because it is the Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, which teaches us, corrects us, equips us, and moves us to maturity.  As Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I hope you see how important the Word is in our spiritual growth as Christians.  Growth doesn’t just happen on its own.

It is God working through His Word that teaches us and equips us as it lays before us what Jesus has done for us and how those promises propel us to action.

This is why we believe that what happens in this pulpit is the most important thing that happens on a Sunday morning, and it is also why our services are saturated with the Word.

Because this is the only time of the week in which God’s people gather together to hear, receive, and respond to His Word that we may be complete and equipped for every good work.

2.    We encourage and equip each other with the gospel by singing together.

Colossians 3:16:

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

I am not going to spend a whole lot of time on this because this will be a big part of my message next week, but know that when we sing together, God is using these songs to teach us and to sink the truths of what Christ has done for us deep into our hearts.

And because we are singing together we are not only singing for ourselves, or to God, but we are encouraging and teaching one another as our voices echo together throughout the room with words that are saturated with the scriptures, and are empowered by God.

So we encourage and equip each other with the gospel through the Word and singing.

3.    We encourage and equip each other with the gospel through prayer.

1 Timothy 2:1-2:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Again, Paul is giving instruction to Timothy, a local church pastor, that His people should pray all sorts of prayers for all people.  This is a call to not only pray for the lost, or those in high positions, but also to thank God and pray for His people.

The reality is one of the best ways that we can love people is to pray for them in their need, hurt, and even in their lostness.

And when we gather together as a people and pray for those outside the church and for each other, we are not only calling on God to act mightily in people’s lives (which He does), and we are not just asking Him to do a great work in our gathering (which He will), but we also are loving people as we thank God for them and ask God to work on their behalf.

In this way, prayer helps bind our hearts to one another as we seek God together on each other’s behalf.This is one of the reasons that we will be starting a new prayer ministry in July where every week we will have a couple people up front who are available if you need prayer.

We want you to know that we care, and we want to seek God on your behalf with whatever it is that you are going through so that you can be encouraged and equipped with the truths of the gospel to be able to walk through whatever trial you are facing.

4.    We encourage and equip each other with the gospel through communion.

1 Corinthians 11:26:

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

I hope this is very straight forward, but the Christian life was never meant to be lived in isolation, and the gospel is not something that is just for you the individual, but it is meant for a people, us, the church.

So when we take communion together, we corporately are reminding ourselves and each other of what God has done to redeem us and save us both on an individual level and a corporate level.

This is a public proclamation or profession of the gospel at work in us and our church that we are to partake of until Jesus returns.And as we remember the gospel and what Christ has done for us, we are reminded that our little church community is a glimpse and foretaste of the glorious eternity to come.

So the word, signing, prayer, and communion are all things that God wants to use in our corporate gathering to encourage us, equip us, and remind us of the gospel so that we are stirred up to love and good works as we experience a foretaste of the eternal community to come. But there is one final thing that happens in our corporate worship which ties all of these elements together.

5.    We encourage and equip each other by walking through a gospel-centered liturgy.

Now I realize that some of you don’t like the word “liturgy” but all this is conveying is that our services have a form to them.  Now you may not realize that we have a form but we do, and our form is the gospel.

Actions in Liturgy:                                                                                 Progress of the Gospel:

Ø  Adoration (Recognition of God’s greatness)                                   God is Holy

Ø  Confession (Acknowledge our sin and need for the gospel)           We are sinners

Ø  Assurance (Affirmation of God’s grace through Christ)                 Jesus saves us

Ø  Thanksgiving (Expression of praise for God’s grace)                             

Ø  Petition (Expression of dependence upon God)                                      

Ø  Instruction (Acquiring the knowledge to grow in our faith)                   

Ø  Charge (Being sent out to live out the gospel)                                Jesus sends us

Ø  Blessing (Being sent with the promise of the gospel)

We tend to open with a call to praise God or a song or word that is praising and adoring God and His greatness.  God’s greatness naturally leads us to see our sin and confess our need for the gospel.  That’s Confession.Then we receive the assurance of the gospel as our music, prayers, readings remind us of what Christ has done for us. We then thank God for what He has done for us. This can come in the form of verbal or sung thanksgiving, and it even happens as we physically give our financial offerings to God. We now are able to petition Him and express our utter dependence upon Him as our God and savior which prepares us to receive the instruction of His Word. This instruction is what God uses to grow us in our knowledge and understanding of His Word and His desires for our lives as His redeemed people. After the instruction we are given a charge from His Word to take what we have learned from His Word outside these walls to be witnesses for Christ.

Finally we close with a blessing or prayer that reminds us that God is with us and that because of Christ He will empower us to live out the truths that we have just received.

This is a gospel liturgy that takes us from the holiness of God to an apprehension of our sin to our need for a savior and ultimately to being sent out to do the work of the ministry both inside and outside of these walls.

Now I realize that I have given you a lot this morning, so let me close by saying this.

We must understand that that we gather as a redeemed people with work to do.  We gather to be encouraged and equipped with the gospel through the word, singing, prayer, communion, and a gospel liturgy that we might go and build God’s people to maturity and proclaim the gospel to a lost world until he returns.  So my hope for you is that you will now go worship and work.

Let’s Pray.