Good morning. Good to see you. If you’ve got your Bible, go ahead and get it out with me. We’re doing an off topic, an In Focus message, still on worship. We did “A Primer On Biblical Worship” last week, and the title of today’s message is “How To Sing A Worship Song”. I added the term “worship”. I was going to call it “How To Sing A Song”, but I didn’t want to teach you how to sing like, you know, “Man For Man”, or something like that. You know, some of y’all don’t know who that is. I love doing this to you guys. No, that’s not man for man, “Blinded By The Light” is somewhere else. Okay, let’s go on. Alright, so when we start with this, “How To Sing A Worship Song”. We need to get a few definitions, working definitions, right? First of all, what it is not. This is not one of the points. I just want to make this clear what a worship song is not. A worship song is not a performance for people. It’s not manward, we would say, it is Godward. A true worship song is a song that is sung to the Lord, about the Lord, His person, which are His attributes, His glory, nature and character, as well as His works. We glorify God by reflecting back to Him what He says about Himself, which we know is true because it’s in His Word. It’s not manward. It’s not a performance. It’s not a special music although the hearts may be in the right place. In that sense, watching someone perform worship is not a worship song. That’s not what that is. Worship is when the people of God address the glory of God and magnify Him and lift Him up and worship and exalt Him. So that’s what it actually is.
Let me show you what we would consider the flag verse for this entire message. It would be Colossians 3:16. It says, “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 heart (so that’s inside your hearts) to God.” There’s the key. The singing is to God. It is a song that is to God. It is not to people. It is to God. We have to get that down so once we settle that, that people are not the goal. People are not the evaluator of what worship is or whether it was good nor do we get to prescribe to ourselves how God will be worshiped. We covered those things last week. If you missed that, I would encourage you go back and get the foundation for this second part of what is essentially a two-part message.
So, when we say a worship song, let us get a definite worship definition. Here it is a working definition:
Worship Song: “Accurate, biblical truth set to music.”
“Accurate”. Accurate, how? Both it’s in the context. It’s accurate in the context. It’s accurate in the focus. It’s accurate in the application. In other words, we’re taking biblical truth and we’re singing it. That’s what a worship song really, actually is. Now, it may not be in the exact verbiage of the Bible per se, but the truths are unchanged. Again, the context, the focus and the application are all going to be what the Bible had in the authorial intent of what we’re singing. Okay? So, we say it this way, and people have said this throughout history, but we definitely say this at Sherman Bible, we say this, if we can’t teach it from the pulpit, we won’t sing it from the platform. Even if it’s vague, it needs to be accurate, it needs to be clear, it needs to be precise. It needs to say what the Bible says. And when we come across songs that don’t have that precision, if we feel like the remainder of the song maybe is redeemable and it’s effectual in that sense, what we’ll do is we’ll change the lyrics. We’ll modify those lyrics to accurately reflect what the Bible actually says what it means by what it says, and how it applies to our lives in the finished work and the person of Jesus. That is what a worship song actually is.
Let me give you an example. Here’s a perfect worship song. It’s actually flawless because the Holy Spirit breathed it out through the psalmist. Psalm 96:1-9. “Oh sing (who?) to the Lord (note that to the Lord, not to the people around you) sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!” Repetition is the price of knowledge, and so we see this on repeat in the Psalms. Sing it to the Lord, bring an offering to the Lord, go to the Lord, lift your hands to the Lord, shout to the Lord, clap unto the Lord, do these things to the Lord, bow down before the Lord. It’s a very Godward. We would say, godly action. Verse two, again, “Sing to the Lord, bless his name; and tell of His salvation from day to day.” What’s that? That’s the gospel. People say, “Oh, but when the Psalm was written, there was no gospel.” Oh, absolutely, there was, there was the promise from Genesis chapter three, what’s called the protoevangelium. And that is what? That’s when God told Adam and Eve and told the serpent, what? The seed of the woman will crush the (head) of the serpent and you will bruise His heel. That’s the very first mention of the good news that God would save people through a Messiah that He would send. So there always was the good news of His salvation and not just temporal. He goes on in verse three, “Declare (what? Declare) his glory among the nations…” Now, what does that mean? Do we just go around and say, “God’s glorious”? No, we describe His glory. We describe it. Describe His nature and His character, all of His omnis, all of His transcendent perfections and what He’s chosen to do with them, His love, His mercy, His vengeance, His jealousy, His wrath, His patience, His long suffering, all of those things are attributes, and we tell of His glory. This is the declaration in worship songs, His marvelous works among all the nations. There it is again, verse four, “For great is (who? Great is the Lord, you notice our name is not in here, right?), and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. (Watch this) For all the gods of the people are worthless idols…” Can you imagine us getting up and in our worship song, we call out false teaching, false gods and false idols? The Bible does. It says every other so-called god, is a false god and a worthless idol. But the Lord, He did what? Here’s one of His works. “…He made the heavens.” We’re ascribing something to Him. It goes on, verse six, “Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. (Watch, verse seven) Ascribe to the LORD…” This means to credit. So, if I said I ascribe something to you, oops, that’s an “E”. Credit. To give Him the credit. We give God the credit for something. “Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the earth, ascribe to the LORD glory, (His attributes), strength, (His deeds).” This is a worship song. This is a perfect worship song. The Holy Spirit breathed it out, and it’s worth our following the pattern. He says it again in verse eight, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name…” It’s “The glory due His name”. How much is He due? All glory, all honor, all praise, all thanks, all worship. You will never over worship God. You’ll never have God say, “Oh, please calm down. You’re being a bit too extreme. I mean, I’m great, but shucks.” No, never. You’re never going to overdo it. You can often under do it, but you’re never going to overdo it, because we ascribe Him the glory of His name. “…Bring an offering and come into his courts.” Talk about more of that later. Look at verse nine. Finally, here’s the sum total, “Worship the Lord and the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!” That’s what a worship song actually is.
This is a five point sermon. This will go by fairly quickly because we want to cover the five places where worship emanates from, if you will, and what it involves. I’m going to tell you all five points in advance. Here they are,
5 Aspects Of Singing A Worship Song: (They are in order.)
Spirit
Mind
Will
Emotions
Body
Spirit, mind, will and emotions, which we would generally call the soul, and the body. So, we have these five, and they are in order. Let’s take them. So, if we’re going to sing a worship song and we’re going to sing a worship song biblically correctly and glorify God rightly, here’s what’s required.
Here’s number one,
1. Spirit
It must be done by the Spirit. It has to be by the spirit of man. Now there’s a problem with that because in Genesis 2:17, what does God tell Adam? He says, “But if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the day you eat thereof, you’ll surely die.” Well did Adam die physically? No, he didn’t die physically till 930 years later. Did Adam die in his soul? Did his mind? No, now those things devolved through his life. We can be assured he died spiritually. That’s what we have in Adam. We inherit deadness of spirit. In Adam, all die. That’s what the scripture means. We covered weeks ago in Romans in understanding justification. But our spirit is the issue. We have to worship by spirit. Jesus says this to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:23-24 Jesus says, “But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in (what?) in spirit and in truth…” We’ll get to the truth here in a moment. But notice that, “…For the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” In other words, the spirit must be made alive. There has to be a regeneration of what was dead. In other words, the human who’s born in sin and in spiritual death must be regenerated, must be born again a second time. That’s what Jesus was telling Nicodemus in John chapter three. Let’s look at two verses three and five. Here’s John 3:3. “Jesus answered him ‘Truly I say to you, unless one is born he cannot see (that makes sense, doesn’t it? You can’t see unless you’re born, Jesus says, unless he’s born again, he can’t what? You can’t see) the kingdom of God.’” How can you worship the King of the Kingdom? If you can’t see Him, you can’t, you won’t. Jesus says that’s a requirement. How do we know that’s born of the Spirit? Well, look down in John 3:5, it clarifies it for us. It says, “Jesus answered ‘Truly, truly. I say unto you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit (that’s called regeneration) he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” You can’t see where God’s value is nor can you enter into His presence unless you’re born again. Now this means someone needs to be really regenerate by grace through faith, the Holy Spirit takes the gospel, causes it to be effectual, and raises them from the dead. And when a man is raised from the dead by the Spirit of God, he does two things immediately. He sees his sin and repents. He sees his Savior and he loves Him, and he puts faith in Him. That’s what our part is but it’s a gracious gift. Both the repentance and the faith. Worship is the natural response to a new creation. It has to be of the Spirit. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t sing a worship song without being regenerate. You can. You can do it with your body only. We’ll get to that. We’ll get to that. But doing it with your body only is not how to sing a worship song, because anybody can sing “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.” And they’re lying if they’re not regenerate. They would better change the lyrics. “I once was lost, and still I am. Was blind and I can’t see.” Right? But that wouldn’t sell many records, would it? You have to be born again. You must be born again. You have to be regenerate. So, what we’re going to do is, from that point, we’re going to somehow assume that we’re talking about a Christian because only a Christian can really worship. All other gods are false gods. You have to be born again. That’s spirit.
Here’s number two,
2. Mind
The mind. There is something of the cognition and the intellect and the reason that must be incorporated into true biblical worship. Why is that? Well because God Himself commands it both Old and New. Here’s a New Testament example, Matthew 22:36-37 a man asks Jesus this, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God (so here it is. It’s the love of God) with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” The mind. Why is that? Because the mind is the place where we grasp truth. Truth is cognitive. Truth is able to be declared and described didactically. And it’s where it can be received and understood intellectually. We have cognition. We’re able to put you know, the cogs are turning. You’ve heard that. That’s where we get that root. We’re working this out in our mind. In other words, it makes sense. Someone describes God and talks about who He is and what He’s done in Christ, and how glorious His works are, the mercies he’s had. As we start off our services, we always do this. We remind you. We bring that to your mind again. Why? So that the mind can actively be engaged in loving the Lord your God. In fact, that’s what we’re told to actually do. The mind is to be filled with truth. Again, let me read you Colossians 3:16. We covered this in just a moment ago. But look, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” What does that mean? That means you are taking in truth, you are understanding it, and you’re seeing how it applies in the finished work of Jesus. We say it this way. We want to know what the Bible says. What does the Bible mean by what it says. And how does it apply to my life in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ? That’s what this is saying. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” And when it does, what are you going to do? You’re going to teach and admonish one another. So, we’re going to exposit the Word, and we’re going to understand it intellectually. We’re going to catch this and then after that, “Admonishing one another in all wisdom, (look at this next) singing psalms and hymn and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” But it’s not mindless chatter, it’s not rote repetition. It’s not like when you get an ear worm stuck in your head, you know, and you just sing that thing. You know, I’ve told you that. I’ve confessed my failure to you, right? Having that song stuck in my head, I had Cyndi Lauper stuck in my head for a week of my life. Can’t ever get that week back. And I was not meditating on those words. I wasn’t thinking about those words. All I knew was, “Girls want to have fun.” I wasn’t thinking it through. Do they really? Is that really all they want? And if you don’t know that song, don’t go Google it. You can pass on that one. But we’re to be inundated with truth. That we’re thinking clearly, thinking correctly. Listen, let me say it to you this way, thinking with soundness of mind. God didn’t give a Christian a spirit of fear but power, love and soundness of mind to where our intellect is actually being renewed and redeemed.
This is required in worship that we don’t just sing whatever comes up on the screen. We want to know what it says. And let me let you in on a little secret. If words come up on a screen and it’s, I don’t care where I am, if I don’t understand what it’s talking about, I don’t sing it because I want to understand what I mean. And so, we procure those kind of lyrics so that you can say, I’m singing this because I understand what this means from the Bible. I remember years and probably decades ago, there was this song that I could never sing in it. I’d go to churches, I’d guest speak somewhere, and they would say something like, “Hey, you know we’re going to, you know…” They do this the worship service. And usually, you know, if you’re the guest, you’re sitting somewhere on the front row, and people are wondering, you know, what’s he going to talk about and all this. And maybe people are watching here, well, I don’t know it happens. And then these lyrics come up, and this song goes “Spirit. Lead me with where my faith is without borders. Let me walk upon the waters wherever you may lead me.” I don’t know what that means. It could mean anything. I could connive that to mean a discount at Walmart. Lead me to some esoteric, sensual feeling. I couldn’t sing it. So, I just, you know, it just has to go over you. I encourage you. If you’re in Sherman Bible, you’re here and you come and you worship here. If it comes on the screen and you’re like, “I don’t know what that means.” Don’t sing it. Go find out what it means, and then you can sing it with your mind, loving God and understanding Him rightly.
By the way, this is why we start services by reminding you, re minding you in order to stir you up in your sincere mind. Let me read you where that is in the Bible, two places, 2 Peter 1:13, Peter writes this, “I think it right, as long as I am in this body to look to stir you up…” Now, hang on a second. Now, normally, when we say stir up, we think emotions, don’t we? “Hey don’t get all stirred up.” This is not talking about that. This Greek word, actually it’s one Greek word. It actually means to awaken fully. It has the inference of, “Hey, wake up”, to stir you up. How? “…By way of reminder.” It’s two words, isn’t it? Now you can’t remind what’s not been minded so you know it but maybe you haven’t been thinking about it, or maybe you’ve kind of quasi forgotten it. Maybe your eyes have gotten distracted, and you’ve gotten on things that are normal in Earth and cares and worries of the world, and you come into worship, and we say, what? Here’s who Jesus is. Here’s what God has done in Christ. That’s our reason to sing. Let’s pray and then let’s offer to Him a sacrifice. That’s why so that our minds are now engaged. It’s our minds that matter. Here we’re reminded. Peter makes it clear by the power of the Holy Spirit in 2 Peter 3:1-2, the same book. He says, “This is now the second letter that I’m writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am (here’s the term, again), I’m stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.” And how does he do it? He does it with the Bible. How do we know? Because look at his next statement. He says this, “That you should remember…” You can’t remember unless you or you can’t remember unless you’ve remembered that you should remember. Remember what? Here it is, “…The predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” You know what we call that? We call that the Bible. Now was the Old Testament. Yes, it was. That’s what they preached out of then until the Canon was complete. This is what he’s saying. I’m stirring up your sincere mind by reminding you, your brain being activated, you understanding what you’re saying to God and that you’re bringing an offering of truth. We’re doing that as we place our mind somewhere.
Colossians 3:1-2 says it this way, “If you then have been raised with Christ… So, this would be regeneration spirit, check. You’ve been raised with Christ. You’re born again by grace through faith. You’ve heard the gospel. You’ve abandoned your own righteousness. And you’ve clung to the only one that can save you. You have your faith in Christ. “If then you have been raised with Christ, (look) seek…” That means to look for. It doesn’t mean to casually inquire. If you ever told a child, “Hey, go find your socks or shoes,” and they’re like, “I looked everywhere”. “Really? You looked everywhere? You looked behind the moon and they’re not there.” We used to tell our kids, “I know you looked now, go seek them.” This is what this means, “Seek the things that are above, (right?) where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Now, how do we do that? Listen, this is didactic. This is good. Don’t miss it. How do I seek the things that are above? Here’s how look at the next verse. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.” You want to seek well? Set your mind. It doesn’t say “sit”. It doesn’t say “soak”. In fact, charismatics tell me that the way they relate to God is they just get in God’s presence and then they just soak. They just soak. That is turning off your mind. That is called mindlessness. That’s not spiritual. It’s dangerous. You’re to understand what you think. You’re to understand what you say. You’re to understand what you sing. You’re to understand the Scripture in that. You are to understand God as much as He’s revealed Himself. Why would we rob ourselves of that. You want to seek God? Set your minds on things that are above. So that’s what we do in worship, we set our minds where they belong, on the things that are above Jesus, His person, His work, God, in His greatness, the work of His Spirit. This is how you sing a worship song. So, we have spirit and we have mind.
Here’s number three,
3. Will
Now this is where it gets a little dicey, and I want to help you with that. I want to help you with that. And what I’m going to do, I don’t want to go there yet, Olivia, but I’m going to go to Joshua now. Joshua, the book of Joshua, gets twisted a little bit because people tend to project themselves as, “Oh, I’m Joshua. I’m now fulfilling.” No, no, no, Jesus fulfilled Joshua. Jesus is the greater Joshua. You and I are the Israelites who are soiling themselves, terrified of obeying. We need a greater Joshua to lead us into the Promised Land, just so we know, okay? But there’s an example in Joshua of the will being activated, and how the will works is very telling when we understand the whole counsel of God. Let me read you these two verses. This is Joshua 24:14-15, this is at the very end of his life. He’s going to die soon. It’s my contention. My humble yet accurate opinion is he’s probably glad because these guys were tough to lead. They’re not like you. You guys are like Thessalonica. You are a pastor’s dream. I got it so good. It’s so wonderful. Joshua had a hard time. And so, this is what he says to them. He’s about to die, and he’s going to task them with setting their minds and their wills, right? Here it is. “‘Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. (Now watch, here comes the crux of the verse) And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, (we’ll come back to that) If it looks evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, (here it is) choose (there’s the will) choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers, that your fathers serve in the region beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we here, it is the will we will serve the Lord.’” Now, why is this such an important verse well, because this helps us understand how the will works. This word, let me hear. I’m going to freak you out by using a different color. See how creative I am? If it seems evil now, who would, whoever would be out there thinking evil, satanic, like you got horns and it’s satanic. It’s bad if he says, if it’s evil in your eyes, to serve the Lord, this word in the Hebrew is Raha, by the way, if you want to learn to speak Hebrew, you just got to clear your throat. Raha, ra, now, ra, it doesn’t just mean wick. It doesn’t really mean wickedness. Listen to this literally it means to spoil by breaking in pieces, if it seems Raha to serve the Lord. In other words, if I took a glass, say I had a glass up here, and I just took it and I just shattered it on the ground, I would ra ah, I would ruin it. That’s what it literally means, but figuratively, it means to make or to be good for nothing. That’s what this word means. So, if, in other words, what he’s saying is, if to serve the Lord to you, looks like it’s good for nothing, then choose to do something else. But here’s the problem with the will. The will will always follow after and choose what it thinks is most valuable. Now, the will can be deceived. The nature of deception, right? Is that you think you’re getting something good, so your will chooses it because you think you’re getting something good, but then it turns out you don’t. That’s how the devil deceives. That’s how false teachers deceive. You think you’re getting something good but you’re not. But if the will thinks it’s the best and it’s worth it, the will finds it very easy to choose. Let me say it to you this way, will follows value. Will follows value. And, by the way, it does it automatically. The will of man follows his perception of value. So, what is he saying to the Israelites? He’s saying this if it seems like it’s no value for. You to serve God, then don’t or you won’t because they wouldn’t. He wasn’t giving them permission not to only honor Yahweh or break the commandment. Know what he’s saying, you won’t do it. Your will be set against Him. Why? Because they don’t value it. Oftentimes, Christians don’t, rightly value the person and the work, we would say, the glory of God. And therefore, when they come into worship, their will struggles to present that offering. Well, let’s help you fix that.
Watch this, this is a description of the will following value. Philippians 3:7-8. Paul writes, “But whatever gain I had, all the stuff I count as lost (why?) for the sake of Christ.” In other words, I thought this was valuable, all this stuff about that I had and that I done, but then I saw something more valuable. So, my will went from that right to this because of the surpassing value. He says it in verse eight. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.” In other words, I’m willing to give this up, endure this because look at the reward. The will automatically follows the value. You don’t have to pray about it. You don’t have to think about it. Happens automatically. I’d like to illustrate that for you. How many of you know of a guy named Mike Rowe? Mike Rowe did a show years ago. It makes, I think it’s still syndicated, called “Dirty Jobs”. “Dirty Jobs”. Very entertaining show, very dirty show, actually, physically dirty. And what he does is he goes and he does the dirtiest jobs on earth that you can all. You almost can’t believe that anybody does well. They did a viewers poll years ago about which was the dirtiest job in the dirty job series. And I want to give you a description of what it is, it’s a career path that you could take. It’s in New York City. Keep that in mind. And it is. It’s called the sewer inspector. I want to give you just a quick description. It’s not too graphic. Here it is, this is from their own their own words. “Aside from sloshing through a relentless chocolate tide (some of y’all are like, ‘Stop’. Don’t worry. It peaked at the beginning). Inspectors encounter a myriad of man-made products that shouldn’t be flushed down toilets, along with roaches the size of a thumb, rats the size of bread loafs. It’s hot, dirty and too smelly to describe.” Now I have a question for you, how many of you want that job? No takers? By the way, this is not just some normal plumber. They get girded up and they go down in sewers that you can walk through. That’s how big they are. Now, nobody wants that job. I get it because why? Because you see the cost and it’s not worth the value, all you see is the expense. But let me change a little bit. How about this? What if I told you, if you do this job, you’ll get $1 million per eight hour shift, cash upon completion at the day end. Now, some of you guys want to sign up right now, your greedy little heart. Some of you guys are here and you’re like, some of you dads with small kids, you’re like, I’ll put in 10 days work. Some of y’all are really greedy. You’re like, I’m in no matter I want to retire doing that. Right? Why? Because we just, we gave you, we gave you a surpassing value. So, the will follows value. And you know, you’re going to have to go into that sewer and you’re going to see those things and do those things. But what are you what are you going to be thinking? It’s worth it; why? Because look what I get in the end of it.
Worship is the exact same way you the will follows value. When you see the value of the person and the work of God Almighty, and what He has done, your will becomes a nonstarter. That’s why to vivify and see Jesus in Scripture is to have your affections changed and your will starts to function automatically. The mature Christian life, you start doing what you really do want to do. You really do because the things you want to do are aimed at His transcendent value. Let me spell this out in a really easy way. This is Hebrews 11:6, which teaches us this, you’ll see it. It says, “And without faith (so faith here is our operative context, without faith), it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God…” Now, there’s going to be two requirements. Now, if you say worship is a drawing near, absolutely, here’s the two requirements. Let’s see if we meet them. “…Whoever would draw near to God must, (here’s the first one), believe that he exists…” So that’s an easy even the demons do that, right? Even the demons, the Bible says they believe and they shudder. Sure. You must believe that He exists. There’s a second one, “…And that he (what?) rewards those who seek him.” Oh, here’s the issue in worship, is when it comes to our will, we actually answer the question, how much do we actually believe that God’s a rewarder of those who seek Him, which is to what? It’s to what? It’s to seek Him in His Word, it’s to be filled. It’s to set your mind. That’s how we do it. And what we do is we count our investment, listen our sacrifice, our offering, some of us our tithe, we count it as a net loss. We say that to serve God is evil in the Hebrew because, why? Because when I do it, it’s a net loss. When I get done, I’m going to have a less energy, less of a reputation, less pride, somebody saw me sing, somebody heard me sing, right? And therefore, I’m going to have something less than when I started, because I’m going to bring the offering and I give it to the Lord now, I’m not going to have something. That is unbelief of the second qualification. You can repent right now. And you know, the same thing goes true with people that have been rightly taught about tithes and free will offerings. It’s not a message on money, but it pertains, because this shows where your heart is. Listen to me. We’re going to cover that again in the fall. We’re going to do a series called First Fruits. You’re going to understand it crystal clear, 3D HD, I promise you, it’s not the way you’ve probably heard. It’s not the Old Testament blessing and curse, nor is it the prosperity gospel. There is a new and living way, and it only activates through love. But people that hold on to that at that tithe, they say this, “No, because if I give, if I seek the Lord and return this which what He prescribes, then I’ll have what? I’ll have 10% less. I’ll have a net loss. He doesn’t reward. It costs me something.” It’s the same thing in worship that we come and we come to bring an offering. We’re like, “It’s going to cost me something. It’s energy, it’s effort. I have to be intentional. I have to sing. Oh my gosh.” Yes, yes, if that’s your will. But the problem is not that He doesn’t reward the problem is that you misperceive Him. You’re not seeing Him clear enough. That’s why more Word of God goes in you. That’s why more teaching, more reminder, till the day comes where you say, “Oh, I get it. You’re worthy of my song. And not just in the sanctuary with the body, but when I’m alone and when I’m in my car and when doxology rises out of my heart, it’s like You are worthy of Your name.” That’s a wonderful life of properly valuing the person and work of God. What do we have? We have spirit, we have mind, we have will.
Here’s number four,
4. Emotion
Emotions. Now emotions are part of your soul. And let me just give you some pastoral counsel, here it is: Don’t worry about this!” Don’t worry about it. You say, “So pastor, sometimes I just don’t feel it. Sometimes my emotions just aren’t there. I want to sing, but I just don’t feel it.” Well, here’s the problem with emotions, they make terrible- or they make they make great servants. They’re terrible masters. Because your emotions come and go. You have highs and lows. But God’s worth never changes. If worship is and it is, is the declaration of God’s worth, the worth ship of God, and who He is, what He’s done, then that does not depend upon your emotions. So, your emotions cannot dictate whether or not or how you will sing a worship song.
Let me illustrate it for you. Can I get a blank slide? I’m going to draw for you. You’re welcome. Okay this? I love the awkward silence in this deal right here. Can anybody guess what this is? Choo choo? It’s a dead bird. No, this is a train. You sillies. This is a train. And this is the this is the Soul Train. Anybody? It is. This is the Soul Train. Guess what leads the Soul Train? Your mind. What you think will take you where you’re ultimately going to be as a man thinks so, is he in that sense, and that’s literally a misperception of that verse, but it’s still the mind steers followed by what? The will because the mind will make the evaluation and the will will always choose what it perceives to be most valuable. Guess what follows along in the caboose? Emotion. If you turn this thing around, if you turn the beat around, look first and third service don’t get this kind of quality. If you turn this around, and your emotions lead, you will have an unstable, confused mind, and you won’t know which way your will should point. People who are led by their emotions are miserable people. They’re either up or down. They’re never steady. So, and when it comes to worship, let the Soul Train function as the Soul Train supposed to function. Would you please? That’s the blank slide. Emotions come and go. God’s Word stays the same.
Let me give you an example of this Psalm 42:1-6a, “As the deer pants (that’s panic, he’s been running scared) as deer pants for flowing stream so my soul (there it is, mind, will, emotion) so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? When will I bring my offering?” This is an emotional man, by the way, a lot of men of God in the Bible were. Verse three says, “My tears have been my food. (That’s emotion) My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” He’s being scoffed by unbelievers. Verse four, “These things, I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throne and lead them in the procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multiple keeping festival.” And then he makes a statement. He’s going to talk to himself. He’s going to speak to his own soul. Most Christians would benefit from stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself, but he’s going to speak to this emotional heart of his. Verse five, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you a turmoil within me? Hope in God (tells himself, hope in God); for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God…” Look, this is the emotional life. Let the mind and the will tell the emotions what to do. The emotions will follow. That’s what we do in worship. We come in and we say, this been born again by the Spirit. I’m going to worship from the deepest part of who I am. I was born with this instinct, but now my mind’s reminded of truth, and as I think about it, my heart is stirred and my will sees what’s valuable. So, I’m gonna say, I’m going to sing, I’m gonna take every thought captive to the knowledge of the obedience of Christ, and I’m gonna sing this song, and I’m gonna think upon truth. I choose that today, and whatever my emotions do, let them. God’s worthy no matter what. And you lead your soul into that before you know it, those things start following. They just can’t lead the train.
This brings us number five,
5. Body
Now this is an intricate part of worship because God describes it that way. God never just says it’s only internal. Now, God does look to the heart. Because if all you have is the body doing these things, that’s called vain worship. You worship in vain because you can draw near to Jesus with your lips while your heart is far from Him. I got it, but don’t think the body’s not involved. And if you’re going to sing a worship song, you’re going to need to use your mouth. Yeah, really, it’s okay. People say, “Well, I’m singing on the inside.” Okay, well, then we’ll wait for you. Bring the offering when you’re ready to actually do something with it. This is Psalm 107:21-22, “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful his wondrous works to the children of man! And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell, that’s your mouth, right? Now, why is it called a sacrifice? Because it costs you something. That’s what a sacrifice is. You say, “Well, that doesn’t seem like it costs a lot.” Well, it doesn’t really, especially given the far surpassing greatness of who you’re worshiping. We don’t bring goats and calves anymore. That’s been fulfilled in Christ. But we still bring offerings. We still bring sacrifices. And what are they? Their songs. They’re the fruit of our lips and of our lives. Psalm 116:16-17. “O Lord, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.” That’s salvation. “I will offer to you (this is the result) the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord.” This involves your body, beloved. You cannot get away from it. It’s sometimes called a sacrifice. It’s because it costs you something. And it is to be our body that is being used in what the Bible would call our spiritual service of worship. Is it required? It is. It is. If you say, “Well, I’ve got spirit, mind, will, emotions, but I want to withhold my body.” I’m going to argue that you have not got those other because the body follows the Soul Train. Do you know that? Want your body to do different things? Let your spirit lead your soul, by the way. Now I’m into a whole other part of the Bible. But look at this, Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies (look), present your bodies as (what?) living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” It involves the body. You have to use the tongue. In fact, it’s a wonderful thing to have that discipline to say I’m going to sing when I see that truth and I understand it in my mind, what it means, and I understand I’m going to set my will, because that’s the highest value is to worship Yahweh God and the emotions they can take care of themselves with my body. You’re going to obey. You’re going to do what I’m telling you to do. Instead of telling me what you want to do. You’re going to sing out. You’re going to eschew embarrassment. You’re going to stop looking at you. You’re going to quit worried about what you look like and what somebody else hears is everybody else singing. Is the band on time?” Forget all that. Give your body to Him. It’s all about Him. That’s the leadership providing the opportunity to do that. When you do that, you’re actually putting your tongue under control. Did you know James 3:2 says, if you learn to do that, you’ll control the rest of your body, right? We lead a horse by a small bridle. A ship is steered by a really small rudder. The body’s turned to and fro by the tongue. Worship will train your discipleship. It will spill over into words you use toward people. That’s just a glorious attribute and an overflow of that control the tongue and use our body to glorify God.
Hebrews 13:15, finally, speaking of Jesus, it says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, (that is, what?) the fruit of lips (there’s the body right there) the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” What is it? What are the fruit? What are the lips doing? They’re acknowledging His name. This word “acknowledge” right here that we marked is homologeos. It’s Greek word “homo” means same. “Logeos” means word it literally in the Greek means “to say the same thing”. This is the word used in 1 John 1:9, where it says, “If we confess (that word, ‘confess’), we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That simply means we come into agreement when the Holy Spirit points at us and says, “You’re in sin here.” We say, “I’m in sin here, forgive me.” That’s what this means. The fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. So, when the Bible says that God is omni anything, or God is powerful in this way, or God has done these things, or God has done these things in His personal work of Christ, or the Spirit is at work in the church’s way, we sing it back to Him. We’re saying the same thing. We’re not making it up as we go along. We’re saying what the Bible says about God. That is us acknowledging His name. That is how to sing a worship song: regenerated by the Spirit, the mind engaged in truth, spirit and in truth, right? The will comes in line because it sees the intrinsic value, the surpassing value, and it chooses it, no matter the cost, right? And then the emotions, well, they’ll come. You say, “Well, if I’m not, what? If I come in here and I just don’t feel like it. Oh, Pastor.” Aren’t you glad we don’t start worship services this way? “How you feeling? How you feeling?” You want to know the truth? I mean this in love when we’re about to worship, I don’t care how you feel. He’s worthy no matter how you feel. In fact, if you don’t feel it, it’s more of a sacrifice bring Him that let the emotions come behind it. And we use our bodies and we sing to the Lord a new song. We laud His praise, and we ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. We ascribe to the LORD the glory and the praise to His name. And that is an offering, a sweet savor that ascends to the Lord like incense in the tabernacle. All those things have been fulfilled in Christ. We walk them out in a new and living way. It’s a joy to do it. Do not be robbed of this. May we be a people who rightly worship in spirit and in truth, who know what worship actually is and how to sing a worship song. If you got this, you’ve got this, it’s a matter of just doing it.
KEYWORDS
Gospel, Grayson, Texas, Bible Sermon, Church, Worship, Music, Spirit, Mind, Will, Emotions, Body, Soul Train, Worship Song, Truth, Biblical Worship, True Worship, God’s Glory, Accurate, Spiritual Songs, Regeneration, Mind Engagement, Will Choice, Value, Tithe, Emotions, Body Involvement, Sacrifice Of Praise, Spiritual Service, Fruit Of Lips, Ascribe, Credit, Seek, Protoevangelium, Homologeo, Confess, Acknowledge, Evil, Worthless, Raca, Sacrifice, Fruit
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc