Good morning, my dear friends. Right, as you know, we came up
with a thing that we wanted to see how we can bring worship as
a whole into all of our values. Today.
The value I'm looking at is biblical truth.
And when I'm talking about worship, I'm going to be meaning
song worship, singing worship and what it is that we do.
So as I say, it's what I do most weeks.
You see me up there most weeks strumming the guitar and singing
my little lungs out because I just feel that it is important
that songs are are what we sing like we saw this morning.
They're songs of truth. So when we we sing worship, when
we come together to sing worship, the first thing it
does, it brings us into the presence of God.
You can't help when you're actually declaring truth to
actually start raising up inside you.
Your spirit raises up inside you and before you know it, it takes
your hands up and you say, Jesus, like we said, the last
song, only you. When we sing in worship, we are
imparting truth to ourselves and to one another because as we are
in this room here, whether you know the song or not, it doesn't
really matter. People are singing and you can
listen, you can look at the words up on the on the board.
So it's really exciting to think that we are not just singing to
our to our own souls, our own spirit, but we are actually
singing to one another. And this is what we're called to
do. On a typical Sunday, if you've
been with us for a few times, it involves a time of worship and a
time of listening to God's word. Well, we've done the worship
bit. Now we're doing God's word bit.
But all this worship, worship goes starts here.
When you set your heart on coming to church in the morning,
that's when worship starts. It starts with the chairs that
are being put up, the first chair being put down.
It's it's going on in our kids work next door worship.
They are serving God because that's what worship is.
It's about us giving our bodies and giving it to God in worship
in every area of our lives. So although we're talking about
song worship today, worship has already been taking place,
right? So both worship and word have a
similar amount of time when we meet on a Sunday morning.
So it is important that what we do during worship, the singing,
the lyrics, the spiritual songs that we sing, prayers, scripture
reading are all based and it comes from the truth of God's
Word. Now we are all different and,
and I know some of you love the worship and some love the
teaching. It's just one of those things.
We are born differently. But what I will say is as I go
into the day that nothing replaces God's holy word.
Nothing, because it is from God's holy word that we worship.
It's from God's holy word that we serve.
It's from God's holy word that we get inspired to do whatever
the giftings He's given us. So nothing comes.
If we were just the church that's came here and worshipped
every Sunday morning, we would be lacking in so many areas of
our gifts. So we come here, the word is
Parliament about the and hearing biblical truth.
And it's from that that this is where new songs are comes from
guys over the generation from generation.
They sit down, they read a bit of scripture and then God comes
upon them and they think, I'm going to write a lyric about
this, I'm going to write a new song.
So every generation there's a new creation and new songs as
they come through. God is the creator.
We are in his image. So we also love to create.
And musicians will continue to create.
So it's not a case of staying back and doing songs, which we
did 20 years ago all the time. We move forward, move forward.
I try to as my responsibility as your worship leader in one sense
is to try to make sure it's paced right so we don't hear too
many new songs and suddenly we we're all learning at the same
time. So there's a balance between
bringing some of the good old ones with the, you know, the new
ones that we do. So I want you to be today.
It's more like an encouraging word.
And and that's what I want to look at, you know, encouraging
you that to say that in worship, you can really, really get some
true benefits. You know, there there's healing
in worship. There's battles to be fought.
You do it in worship and it it, it just helps.
This is what Paul says. He instructs us to follow as a
fellowship when we meet together.
He says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as a
member of one body you were called to peace.
So I hope as you came in here, you may have had a, you know,
you may have got up in the morning and it's a bit hectic.
But as you started to come towards church, I prayed that
the peace of God was in your hearts.
And as you sat down and you sung the first song, I wanted you to
say, Yep, I'm ready for you, Lord, I'm ready, ready to be
part of what you want me to be. Lord, we come in being thankful.
We let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you
teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms,
hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with
gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in
Word or deed, do it all in the name of Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him.
We are gathered as children of God.
We are gathered as one body, one family.
There is no me focus when you come in here.
It has to be Christ centred, God focused.
Our focus is like Paul said, there is Lord Jesus and giving
thanks to God the Father through him.
Now Paul wrote this letter also telling us that singing worship
can be a way in which we teach and admonish one another.
And quite often I do that 'cause when I get another song, I look
up on the board when I'm out there or when I'm looking
through these songs as I'm singing it, I, I, another truth
is revealed to me. I thought, wow, what a way of
putting it that that person in their time when they sat down
with God is actually giving seen something I didn't see.
He's not going off the truth, but he's putting it in a way
which I can understand. So I teach myself and also
sometimes we sing songs up there and we say like a like a song,
we say, I, I surrender all. It's a most hard song for us to
sing truthfully, I surrender all.
So it challenges us. Do we surrender?
Maybe we sit there and we think, OK, I need to, I, I need to sort
this out with God. I need to give this bit in my
life to God. So it, it does.
I, I believe Paul's very truth, what true, very right when he
says it is. It is for teaching and to
admonish us. And then there's the songs from
the Spirit. I know I've seen it.
I've been in churches for a long time and I know sometimes when
we start singing in the Spirit, you can feel uncomfortable, but
it's biblical. There are two types of singing
that we do from in the Spirit of God.
One is we use our own tongues. Nobody.
It's a gift of God. If you want it, you can just ask
God for it. It's where you spring.
And it may sound like gibberish, gibberish to you, but it's like,
you know, I can go into it now. That's my song.
I don't know what I said, but I was saying to God, OK, in when
we meet together, part of worship is somebody God may come
upon somebody and give them a tongue to bring and they speak
it out for the edification of the church for the to, to for us
all to say Amen to that. And so somebody will speak a
tongue. They don't know what they're
saying. They're looking for somebody in
here to interpret. This is part of worship.
This is song worship. What comes out of that is but
this that that tongue is not about our woes and our rights.
So it's not like, oh Lord, I feel in a dreadful way.
I know you can help me, but you know, I'm just giving it to you
now. That's not what would be about
what we would hear or the interpretation would be upward
to God. God, you're so magnificent.
Lord, I I can't understand why you would love a Wretch like me.
I can't understand. You provide everything I need.
You are the God of all creation. You are the God of salvation.
It's those type of prayers. They go up.
So it said edit. You know, we we're and then the
whole church can say, yeah, I agree with that.
That's magnificent. God's in this place today.
It's just absolutely fantastic. So now where was I?
Yes, OK, singing is good though. Look at this.
Sorry I don't know if you can read that, but Psalm 96 says
sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord or the earth.
Psalm 95.1 says come let us. Sing for joy to the Lord.
Let us let's shout to the rock of our salvation.
Psalm 100 and 433. I will sing to the Lord all my
life. I will sing to my God as long as
I live. We are called to be singers.
We are called to open our mouths and fill our lungs and declare
the praises of God. This is what we're.
This is what we're born to do. It's called worship.
Here you go, this. I love this song.
Love this song. Shout to the Lord.
All the earth burst into jubilant song with music.
Make music to the Lord with the heart, with the heart, and with
the sound of singing we trumpet and the blast of the ram's horn.
Shout for joy before the Lord the King.
Let the sea now even creation is coming on this.
They're singing along with us. Heaven singing, we're singing,
creation singing. Let the sea resound and
everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together
for joy. Let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in
righteousness and the people with equity, which he means
fairness. Now we have, we have some lovely
Nigerian brothers and sisters with us and I know that they
know how to worship in a loud noise, don't you guys?
You know how to hit the drum and you go, don't you?
Yeah, well, I think it's great. We ought to catch you up
sometimes. We ought to catch you up, I
reckon. Actually, I thought, I reckon it
was the Nigerians that actually would walk round Jericho.
And I reckon it will come down in three days, not, not 7.
But there you go anyway. Research tells us that there are
benefits to singing. There are.
It reduces stress. So I hope if you're stressed
before you came in here this morning, your stress levels have
gone down because you've been singing.
It improves mood. Now I know there's a few that
could have their moods improved. No one could come in in here
Moody. How can you be Moody when you
start singing those songs? I'll tell you all, how can you?
You know we come before God. I'm going off script already.
You come before God and you sing songs.
Now if you get before the Lord with prayer, sometimes you can
do your shopping lists. I wonder.
Sometimes you can come before the God and read His Word again.
You get interrupted and you start to wonder.
You will not wonder if you're singing worship songs.
You you try it. How great is our God?
I've got to pick the kids up the 5:00 sing with me.
How great is our God? I've got to get the eggs from
the shop or we'll see how you don't work, does it?
You got it. Worship keeps you in the place.
Singing keeps you in the place of worship.
So that's why it's good. I think it's good.
It also is great for mental alertness, memory and
concentration, enhances lung function, boost immunity, just
to name a few. You're right now I was brought
up on secular music and some of their songs were good.
You know, I love Fleetwood Mac, I love Courtney Rebel, I love
Elton John. This could go on, but Dire
Straits is my favourite. I love the I love the guitar in
Dire Straits. But if I was listening to a lot
of well, most secular songs are about love, whether it's a good
relationship or a bad relationship, but it sort of
twists a little bit onto lust as well.
It's they're the most popular songs, but there's songs on sex,
there's songs on drugs, there's songs on political views.
And most of them don't make any sense because I've checked out
the lyrics I looked through when I was students.
I looked what were the best over the last 10 years?
What's the top singles that are being sung?
I got, I can't tell you, but I was looking at them and now I've
looked at the lyrics and I thought I am a clue what you're
singing about. I have not got a clue.
I know. Thank you, my darling.
But good worship, good. And I do say good worship
because not all worship is good. And this is what we're saying.
Biblical truth songs that sing biblical truth.
People talk about bring back the good old hymns.
We're not going to tell you there's some pretty bad old
hymns, and there's some pretty bad modern songs as well.
So good worship songs are very different.
Within these songs we find truth, we find purpose, we find
the person of Jesus, real love and restoration from the good
Father and true hope and identity in God the Holy Spirit.
And I, I did my research on singing and I came to a part
where I said, do you anybody know what The Who wrote the
first song that was actually recorded in the Bible?
It's Moses. Moses, Moses, remember Moses, he
met God in the burning Bush. Moses was sent, sent by God to
go to the Hebrews who were in K in captive in Egypt.
And he was going to lead the matinee.
And he leads the mountain. He gets them across the Red Sea.
And then just as they thought, Oh no, we thought we'd escaped
the, the Egyptian Chariots and armies come across the Red Sea.
But God says, no, no, you're not coming any further.
The oceans fall over them and he destroyed the armies.
Moses knew he experienced. He saw what God did and the in
in Exodus 15, you get the whole song, but I've just taken like a
a little bit of a snip bite of this and it said it starts by
saying I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exhorted.
The Lord is my strength. He says the Lord is my defence.
He is my salvation. He's my warrior.
Who among the gods are like you, Lord?
He was lifting them back. Remember, the Egyptians had a
load of gods. The whole world had loads of
gods. But he knew the one God who is
like you, Lord. Then He goes, You are who is
like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working
wonders in your unfailing love. You will lead the people you
have redeemed. He is leading us today by His
Spirit. We have been redeemed.
We are walking His way. He lives within us by His
Spirit. In your strength you will guide
them to your holy dwelling. The Lord reigns forever and
ever. Moses knew where his salvation
comes from. And if you know Jesus today, you
know where your salvation comes. That song or that that song
speaks exactly today. God is our strength.
He's guiding us through this life to the eternal heaven, new
heaven and earth, which we we will be part of.
So the holy place, his holy dwelling.
So as he did with the people back then, it was a foreshadow
of what he's doing to his people or through generations, leading
them, walking amongst them. Then I saw are you there's no
one if you're going through battles, This is where a song
can really help you. The songs it it could be an
illness, it could be cancer, it could be a marriage break.
They something that you see the mountain and you start looking
through the eyes of your own human eyes.
And when you look at a mountain from our perspective, you're
looking up and it looks big. If we can get ourselves into the
presence of God and see it through his eyes, we see a
speck. It's not as big as what we ever
think it is. So there's a, there's a, there's
a lovely story again in the Old Testament, two Chronicles 20, we
read that there's an army of Moabites, Ammonites, and some
Mennonites. They're all Knights and bites
and they wage war against King Jehoshaphat.
He's the Jew, the king at the time.
And the first thing, so here's here's here's here's the first
lesson. When you're facing a battle,
when you're really struggling and you see no way out, the
first thing they do is they say he inquired of the Lord.
Then all of Judah came together to fast and seek the Lord.
They cried out to God saying we have no power to face this fast
army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but
our eyes are on you. You facing a battle now,
whatever it is in your life, get before the Lord, get before the
presence, get him, get it there and seek him, but trust him,
trust Him. You, you seek him in faith.
And I don't know what to do, but my eyes, no matter where.
No, that's getting a bit close. No, I don't.
I'm not looking at that. Oh, that's getting that, that
that deadline's arriving. No, I'm not looking at that.
I'm going to keep my eyes on you.
Martin Smith even makes a song. I don't know what to do, but my
eyes are on you. It's a lovely song, really.
So God answers them, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.
How many times has God got to tell his children, do not be
afraid, do not be discouraged. We need to hear it more often.
So often we, we, we, we, we get ourselves into a situation and
then we call God into it. We need to give the other way
round. We need to have God with us.
So when we walk in the situation, we know that God is
there with us. So.
He says do not be afraid, do not be discouraged because of this
vast army, for the battle is not yours, but God's.
We sing the song on that one, don't we, Phil Wickham?
Don't he? You know the battle belongs to
you. When I fight, I'll fight on my
knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to
you. And every fear I lay at your
feet I sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to
you. They would not even have to
fight, but we're told to take up position and stand firm and see
the deliverance of Yahweh. When you're in a battle, you do
not sit down and think, oh, I'm a cup of tea and have a coffee.
I'll sit and watch TV, Netflix or something like that.
I'll just let God get on with it.
No, we are still called to position ourselves to stand firm
if you want to. I think it's in Peter.
I think it says those who stand firm in their faith, that's when
the devil will flee. So this is what happens.
Jehoshaphat sent appointed singers to go before the army
singing of God's splendour and holiness, saying give thanks to
the Lord, his love and yours forever.
If you want to be join me up here in this worship group.
Be wary because you might, we might be the ones out in the
front of the battle and we won't have any swords or any
instruments. All we have is our voices
declaring the praises of God, and that's more powerful than
anything else. It's a great, great, great sort
of weapon to use. The invading armies at the end
of the story says the invading armies turned against one
another and Judah. All they had to do was carry off
the plunder of these armies. See, worship is a great weapon
to help us look to God and allow him to be our strength in every
way. Maybe another story I've got
here from again, the Old Testament is about do you
struggle with anxiety, fear and peace.
In one Samuel 1623, we read that Saul, now Saul was the first
king of Israel, the first king, but sadly he was disobedient to
God. He did a few things that God
that was against God, what God commanded him and God took his
anointing off him. And also then God also allowed
an evil spirit to torment him and this tormenting.
So he he he sort of really sort of like struggled.
So he searched the land for somebody who could soothe him
and they found young David who would become King David
eventually, who slew Goliath. He was a guy that could play the
the leer, the harp. And in the middle of our Bibles,
you'll find a load of Psalms. A lot of them Psalms are David.
He was a songster. Is that right song?
I write songs. He I don't know.
And every time David played, the evil spirit left him.
Every time without fail, the evil spirit would leave him.
Please don't mishear me here. I'm not saying if you struggle
with anxiety or you struggle with fear, peace or or or or
depression, do not say, Oh, I got an evil spirit.
I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying though, is in
those times you feel it rising up.
How about trying to play some worship music and you know, and
try to find relief like because it, it's in those times, people
say, why don't you pray when sometimes you don't even feel
like praying. Sometimes you don't.
You don't want to open God's Word, but what's wrong with
having a worship set alongside you?
All you have to do is press a button.
Prepare for those days, you know, just press the button.
You don't, you're not even going to think, oh, I don't know what
song. Get a get a set list together,
press the button and just sit. If you can open your mouth and
sing, you can. If not, don't.
This is the most beautiful way I think Psalm there is.
I'm just going to leave it up there.
You can read it. It's Psalm 23.
I think it just, if you read it and just let it go into you,
your spirit, I just think it just, it brings so much peace to
me every time I read this particular Psalm.
But while that's up there, I'm going to go on to another little
story. Now we're coming to the New
Testament. Acts 16, we read after being
flogged and imprisoned, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns.
What time was it? Midnight.
You know what happened, He said. All the ones in the gaol, they
were, they listened to them. So through songs of worship to
God and truth, the other prisoners around them heard
truth. OK, now what happened?
Then a big earthquake came. Their chains were broken.
The prison gates were opened. And the prison, the gaoler
thought that all the prisons escaped.
He was going to kill himself. But poor shouts out to him, No,
don't, don't do that. Don't do I'm we're all here.
We stayed in and he's in all his responses.
What do I need to do to be saved?
And that night, him, the gaoler and his whole household became
saved. And that's all through these
guys starting in declaring even the dark place of a cell, they
just sang out. Now it's interesting when we
sing our songs on Sunday morning here, or like we did at
Christmas or like we did at Easter we did on the streets,
visitors or passers bys hears the truth of the songs we're
singing. Now we do not know what they're
going to do with that truth, but who knows that a little seed may
not have been woken, a little phrase that they heard might
linger in their heads and who knows where salvation is?
Jesus is on their case. The last little illustration,
but it's just a very quick passing is basically before the
darkest night of Jesus life. And after he had the supper with
his disciples, his friends, they got up.
Jesus knew what was going to he was going to they got up, but
they still sang him to the Lord. They still sang a song to the
Lord to lead you on a Sunday morning in worship.
I tell you what, it is a great honour.
It is a great privilege. I've ever since I've been here
and I believe in this one thing. I know you guys absolutely are
with me. I hear your voices like we did
this morning. I'm sure Ben would have heard it
from there. It's different when you're that
side you don't always hear. You suddenly hear the voices
shouting out praises to the Lord.
That's worship and it's a privilege to lead you in that.
I realise not all the songs I pick probably are everybody's
taste, but I do have three questions that I ask of myself
when I pick a song and I ask of those who I share these songs
with. But by the way also I love it
and keep doing this. Please keep doing this.
In this church, we have a WhatsApp page and it's where the
church just share information. It might be a prayer request,
but sometimes you put a song on or you do put a verse on.
It is good to encourage one another.
I listen to them songs, Some I put in the back of my ankle can
I use on a Sunday morning sometimes some I think what a
lovely, you know, song to have to sit and just sort of listen
to. I see where this person moves,
So what moves you? Please share it, keep doing it.
That's what I want to do, encourage you to keep doing
that. But the three things that I, I
look at is, is it God focused? Is it Christ centred?
Songs have to have to be Christ said.
I'll tell you why. Because if a non believer comes
in here and joins us, I want them to know who it is we're
worshipping, though I don't want any doubts about that.
And my prayer is for them to encounter the truth that will
set them free. And they they may get it another
way through the word. But I just through worship, it's
still my thing. Two things most people go out
with on a Sunday morning. It's the word of God in their
heart or maybe a song, but both that I want it to be the truth.
So when we leave here, we want to be rejoicing in truth.
The second thing I I will look for is biblical correctness.
So I want every song. So if there's any doubt in that
song that I think that is confusing, maybe people won't
quite understand that phrasing or that terminology, then it may
be a great song. But I'm, I cannot, I, I think,
no, I'm not going to put that we're talking about corporate
worship here. There's many songs that I do not
do that you can listen to at home and you worship on your
own. Go for it.
And the last thing is it's congregational.
And that's what I'm talking about.
Is it congregational? There's a lot of very much
personal songs. Even the songwriters probably
would think I've not wrote this for congregation.
I was sat down and I just felt the love of God come on me.
And I was overwhelmed by his love.
And I think, you know, great song for being at home sitting
down and thinking I can just relax in this like a glass of
wine. I can just sit here and watch
this. But maybe not quite right
because what we're singing will not actually, it's too much for
some of you to understand. It's too much for you to say
Amen to. So we have to be very, it has to
be congregational as well. So in conclusion, in all areas
of our life, biblical truths needs to be the foundation on
which we build anything, whether marriages, parenting, career,
finances, and even, you know, it's the main way that we serve
you or serve one another is through biblical truth.
And that is here. What we do here is, is through
the preaching and the teaching of the full council of God,
God's Word with worship being a true reflection and in line with
the same truth. Let me encourage you.
It's starting this week. It was great that Pete came out
this morning. And will you come preparing
yourself, preparing yourself with a verse, with a prayer?
Do not discount whether you heard it on Monday, this
afternoon, anytime in the week. Hold onto it and bring it to us
so that we all benefit from something that you read now.
If you don't prepare and be intentional about it, it's never
going to happen. So try to be more prepared.
I said thanks, Pete, for saying thank you for sharing this
morning. That's great.
So that's another thing I want to sort of just, that's the sort
of the, the homework because your contributions enrich and
enhances the worship. And we got time to finish on our
song. Can I have the worship group
back a minute 'cause we're gonna just wait to finish.
See. Cause true worship is body
ministry. So if you struggle, just ask God
the Holy Spirit, I help you. And you know he, he never fails
us. Try, as I said about the
battles, try putting worship in front of your problems.
Head them off with worship. Get the singing into your lungs.
Blast it out. Let worship help you in times
when you when fear, anxiety, depression knocks at the door.
Again, I said be prepared. Get a song list together.
So all you've got to do is hit that button and you've got music
going round your head. Singing is good for you.
Fill those lungs, move that body, raise those hands and
declare the truth about our most awesome God.
Let us rejoice in our God of all creation, His power, His might,
His grace, His mercy, His provision, His forgiveness,
salvation, protection, faithfulness, hope and truth,
and the list goes on and on and on.
We can sing so much about a great God.
Let us never be silent when we're praising God, Praise his
name. Ben's going to the crew's going
to lead us in the last song. Amen.
All right, let's stand. We're going to sing.
We're going to sing to our gods. It says up from the ashes your
love has brought us What wantable truth.
Out of the darkness you put us into the light, Lifting our
sorrows, bearing our burdens, healing our hearts, and then to
our gods. We lift up our voice, we sing
loud, we sing clear in one voice.
That means we're all singing to the same gods, the same Jesus
Christ. We sing our song.
We lift up our Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Praise the Lords.
Second verse as Tolu walked us through earlier.
Chains have been broken again. Wonderful truth.
The addiction bondage can be broken in Jesus Christ.
Is it Jesus? He breathes on us.
We were once dead, but now we're not just alive, but we're a
living army of of bones that have been dressed with flesh.
We have been. We are victorious.
Death is defeated. Let's sing Hallelujah.