The 'Choir Performance' sermon by Matt and Elise Sykes at the 2024 Church and Family Life Conference highlighted their experience in leading the Making Disciples Children's Choir. The Sykes, alongside Joy Craft on piano, worked with the children for three days, accumulating five and a half hours of practice to prepare a repertoire of hymns and arrangements praising God. The children, divided into three age groups, demonstrated their hard work and dedication, prompting the addition of a second song for the 6 to 10 year olds. The performance included individual age group presentations and culminated with a combined choir singing of Psalm 23 and 'I sing the mighty power of God.' The Sykes emphasized the importance of instilling good values and proper singing techniques in the children, encouraging them to continue practicing their skills beyond the conference, and hoping that parents would discuss and reinforce these lessons at home.

So at this time I'm going to ask you to be seated if you will. And as you see we now have our 2024 Church and Family Life Conference, Making Disciples Children's Choir. That's quite a lot. Applause So I'm Matt Sykes. For those of you I haven't met yet, and I'm the pastor of discipleship and worship at Praise Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia.

And with my wife, Elise Sykes, over here, and my mother-in-law, Joy Craft, who's going to be on the piano, getting herself ready over there. We have had the joy and the privilege of working with your children for the last three days. And it has been such a tremendous honor to be able to put together this Children's Choir for this conference. We got a call from Scott Brown a few months ago with the idea for doing a Children's Choir. And as soon as I heard, as soon as we heard about this, we said, yes, we definitely have to do this.

And I think we can all say, I think I can speak for us, hopefully, that it has been a greater blessing than we ever imagined for us. And we hope that it has been the same for your children as they have participated. They worked really hard for about, I think It's been a total of five and a half hours total for three days, which sounds like a lot, but it's not really a lot to put together so many different selections of music, hymns to our great God, wonderful arrangements for choir, for children's choir. We've stretched them and challenged them to the point where we thought we would push some of them a little harder than we could, but actually with our six to ten year old group, we got here and my wife Elise, she led that group and she said, I need to find another song for us to sing, because all these children came really prepared and they knew their music really well. So she added yesterday a second song, a second arrangement for them to be able to sing for you today.

So we're really pleased and grateful for that as well. We're going to have how this is going to work. We have three different groups. As you can see, they're sort of in age order up here. The first row here are your wonderful three to five-year-old children.

And they're going to sing first. And then when they're done singing, we're going to have them sit, and then behind them we have our 6 to 10 year old children, and they're going to sing two songs by themselves, and when they're done, they're going to sit down, and then we're going to have our 11 to 14, I believe, 14 year old children, and they're going to sing two songs that they worked on. And then at the end, we're going to all stand back up together, and we're going to close with singing Psalm 23, a wonderful through-composed setting of the words straight from Scripture, Psalm 23, a setting by David Erb, the Lord is my shepherd. And then we're going to close with Isaac Watts's great hymn that he wrote for children, I sing the mighty power of God. So again, we are grateful to be able to have the opportunity to do this and to be with you for this conference.

And we do hope that you are encouraged and edified by your children as they now lead us. As we feel the warm air, the praise that we all sing. As we feel the warm air, the praise that we all sing. Sing us a little praise, sing us a little praise, when we do, when we dance, when we sing, let us know what we're after for the year, let us know what we're after for the year. I'll see you again.

I'll see you again. Thank you. Thank you. The majestic is her name, O Lord. The majestic is her name, O Lord.

All of the earth is her name, O Lord. Praise the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise our Lord, who art blest in blood. Because There's our love and our blessings flow Our destiny's the game of love Our prayers and our dreams are still below Our destiny's the game of love Our prayers and our love, the end we know Where sin the creatures still be loved, And where destiny's again undone, Where sin the loving hand be done, With earth, through earth and house, With love, earth, sun, and holy God. To heavenly host, raising Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

All of our prayers sing in your name, O Lord. All of our prayers sing in your name, O Lord. Call up the earth, we'll join with heavenly host, raising father, son, and holy ghost. Raise father, son, and holy ghost. ["Pray For Pitcher"] ["Pray For Pitcher"] Oh, I'll adore the mountains and hills, from south of the sea.

So stand for frequency. Lift up your voice like a trumpet, like a trumpet sound. Sing me daily in all my ways. Lift up, lift up, lift up your voice like a trumpet sound. Praise the Lord, lift up your voice like a trumpet sound.

There's a song that's always with something out. There's a song that's always like a strong head song. There's a song that's always with a strong head, like a strong head song. All that is on your mind, like a trumpet, like a trumpet sound, will sound in the days when we start our ways. This song of the evening star, let us hum your voice like a trumpet sound.

For let us sing in your choir now, For you shall go round with joy. Amen. I See now my vision, O Lord of my heart. God be your house to me, safe and well-honed. All else to me save that foul heart.

No one has come by day or by night. Day or by night. Waking or sleeping, my presence my light. My presence, my light. I know my wisdom, and Thou my true word, Thou ever with me, and Thou with me whole.

Thou my great Father, and I Thy true Son, Now my great Father, I thank thy true Son, He dwelleth in me and with me more. And let me walk. Riches I need not, nor man's empty Praise. Thou mine inheritance, now and always. Thou holy person, my heart, my King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

Thou treasured Thou art. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. My friend, glory, God, may I reach heaven's joys of bright and sun. Everybody sing together. Everybody sing together. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go to the music. Oh, for a thousand times to sing. Oh, for a thousand times to sing. Oh, for a thousand times to sing, Oh, for a thousand times to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of God's praise. Thy gracious master and thy vow assist me to proclaim, to stand through all the earth abroad, the honors of thy name.

The honors of thy name. He's thus the name that calls our fears, that brings our sorrows cease. His music in the center's ears, This life and health and peace. Oh, for a thousand times we sing thy great Redeemer's praise, the glories of thy God and King, the triumphs of thy grace. By thy King, that triumphs over all things, and as it does to see.

It has been a privilege, as I said earlier, to work with your children this week. We have two more. This is going to be a combined children's choir for our last, our psalm and our hymn. One other thing I wanted to tell you is that we really believe that this time together was not just to put on this performance for you to hear your children sing and put something together, although that's a great benefit. The greater importance of what we've done these last three days, as we've tried in a very short period of time to instill good values to instill skill, as Pastor Scott Anil was preaching earlier this morning, the skill of singing is something that we all must be dedicated to as Christians.

And so it needs to begin early at this age. And so we've really sought to instill some of those skills, proper singing techniques, breath support, all of the things that go into singing. And we hope that you will encourage your kids, you'll have conversations with them about what they learned and they will take those things home and they will keep practicing these skills that they've learned over the last three days. Again, thank you, it was a joy to be with you. We have Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, followed by I sing the mighty power of God.

The Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd, my one. He made me to my downing green pastures, He has given me tender still waters, Here I soar with my soul, He has redeemed me, in the hands of righteousness, for his they say. With a white wall through the valley and the shadow of death, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, thy rod and thy sand will offer me. God, we pay our tabel before thee, in thy presence and thy heaven's peace.

Now I notice thy hand before me, and now, now I'm head over head. In the presence of my enemies. Now I'm righteous, my head made full. I've got a proud head over. Shedding goodness and mercy shall follow me O'er the days of my life, When I will burn that house with the Lord forever.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

I sing the mighty power of love that made the mountains rise, As red the flow'ring seas agrow and bill the lowly skies. I sing the wisdom that ordains the skies to rule the day. The moon shines full and hits the men and all the stars obey. And all the stars obey. I seek the goodness of the Lord, and fill the earth with gloom.

We are the preachers with his word, and then pronounce them good. For now our wonders are displayed, and there are truth by eye. If I serve in the ground, I tread For days upon the stride. The sky. There's a love when dwarfs are begun, that makes the glories up.

And out of right hand set this song, I order you from my throne. I know that what I've tried from thee is ever in my hand. And every driven can be, now the Lord Thank you.