In this sermon, Scott Brown discusses the importance of singing in the congregation. He emphasizes four ways that God wants to grip our hearts and minds through singing: realizing we are not alone, singing to one another, admonishing one another, and singing to the Lord. Brown highlights that Jesus is present among his people as they sing, teaching and counseling them. He also encourages the congregation to be intentional and proactive in singing to one another. The sermon concludes with a mix of corporate and personal songs, inviting everyone to sing about living waters.

As we gather to sing here now for the next few minutes, we're declaring what kind of people we are, what kind of church this is, what kind of gospel we preach, what kinds of things we want to live in our hearts. And before we begin this time of singing, I want to speak about a few things about singing. And I want to talk about four ways that God wants to grip our hearts, four ways that God wants to grip our minds in our singing. And the first is that we're not alone, second that we sing to each other, and third that we sing to admonish one another, and fourth that we sing to the Lord. And I just want to move through these very quickly to just remind us of what we're doing here this morning.

First of all, we're not alone. Hebrews chapter 2, verses 10 through 13 says that Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brethren. He's actually within the congregation, and he's bringing many sons to glory. And he says this in Hebrews, I will declare your name to my brethren. The Lord is doing that.

This morning, he's declaring his name to his brethren. That's us. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you." So Jesus Christ is in the midst of his people, and he's declaring his name to us through the singing. He's actually speaking to us in the singing. And then he says, He says, here I am and the children whom God has given me.

So there he is, he's in the midst of the congregation, he's singing, he's speaking to us. And he's saying, here I am, I'm right here in the midst of the congregation. And the second way that God wants to grip our hearts, not only by just reminding us that He's with us, but that we sing to one another. And in Colossians 3.16, it says that we're to teach admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now, we are teaching one another.

Jesus is teaching us, and we're also teaching one another. And this word teaching there in Colossians 3.16 is the word for teaching, didosco. And God wants to provide instruction for us. He wants to, in this setting, instruct us through the teaching, through the singing. And then, He also is admonish, we admonish one another.

The third way that we, that God wants to grip our hearts as we sing is that we admonish one another. And we talked last week that this word admonish is the word newtheteo, which is where we get our word for counseling, newthetic counseling, literally. And when you come in to sing, you're in a counseling session. God is counseling you. You know, people spend lots of money for counseling.

Guess what? This is free. And it's some of the best counseling you'll ever get. And you might actually get a lot farther, a lot faster with this counsel from these songs than you will from any professional counselor who's trying to figure out what's going on in your heart and you don't even know what's going on in your heart, but God does. So we counsel one another and this is a counseling session and then you know and I think these two these two things that we teach one another and we admonish one another, it makes it very clear that when we're here, we're not just thinking of ourselves.

We are self-conscious in our singing, but we're not selfish in our singing. And it's been occurring to me that the person who is leading singing in a congregation like this has a distinct advantage because the song leader is looking at you. And he scans across the congregation, and he's actually desiring to minister to you. That's what happens when song leaders get up and they look you in the eye and they want those words to pierce your heart and change your life and comfort you and refresh you and bring you out of your pity party and help you to move on. You know, that's what these do.

Now you have a disadvantage. You're looking at the back of people's heads. And it's easy just to be thinking, you're not thinking rightly about it. Even the screen, you know, you're looking at the screen. But I get to look at you.

I get to look at you in the eye, and it's a tremendous advantage. Now, I was in a church many, many years ago where it was in the round, and everybody sang to each other in the round. And I don't know, maybe we should just turn toward each other. It would be kind of odd, you know, to turn around and start looking at each other. It could be just because of the way we've always done it, right?

But in your heart and your mind, be intentional, be proactive, and sing to one another. Teach one another and admonish one another. And then the final way that we sing is that we sing to the Lord. And by the way, this morning there are songs of both types, teaching and instructing and admonishing one another and singing to the Lord from our hearts. And for example, Joy to the World, that was a corporate song.

We were teaching one another, the Lord has come, let earth receive her king. Don't let sin and sorrow grow anymore. We were saying that to each other. We're going to sing a song, Living Waters. Are you thirsty?

We're doing that again. It's corporate. We're singing to one another. We're crying out to one another. Are you thirsty?

Are you thirsty? Come and drink. Lead your children to the shoreline. We're instructing each other. And then we have some personal songs.

Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. That's a personal song. And I ask the Lord that I might grow, that's a personal song. And we're going to sing Wonderful Merciful Savior at the end. And that's a corporate song as well.

So We have a mix of corporate and personal songs this morning. But let's sing to one another about living waters. Let's stand and sing.