In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice Through Singing', he discusses the biblical mandate for singing as a form of worship, referencing Romans 12:1 and Ephesians 5:17. He emphasizes that presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is an act of reasonable service to God, and singing is integral to this practice. The sermon outlines the importance of a biblically defined culture of singing in the church, highlighting how it pleases God and unifies the congregation. Brown explains that singing is a gift from God, meant to engage our entire being—mentally, physically, and spiritually. He argues that singing serves as a tool for discipleship, helping believers to emotionally respond to God's truth and to teach and admonish one another. The sermon also stresses the importance of singing with gusto and using our bodies as instruments, while making truth claims through the songs we sing. Ultimately, singing in church is portrayed as a vital practice that aligns with God's design for worship, contributing to both personal and communal spiritual growth.

Yes, please open your Bibles to Romans 12 and also put your finger in Ephesians 5 verse 17. I'll be reading both of those passages of scripture here in preparation for the preaching here This is the inerrant all-sufficient sweeter than honey Word of God Romans 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And now turn over to Ephesians 5, verse 17. Ephesians 5, verse 17. Therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not be drunk with wine which is dissipation but be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever. Would you pray with me? Lord I pray that you would come and shepherd your flock, that you would have mercy upon us and teach us the ways in which we should go, that you would take us further in our walk with you, that you would take these words and drive them deeply within our hearts Lord and let these words of your holy word guide us in the way as we're presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. Amen. Please be seated.

This is actually a very thrilling passage of scripture, particularly when you think about Romans chapter 12, verse one, Of course it's a very practical verse. It has everything to do with every minute of your life. It's that practical. But one of the things that's so compelling about this passage, particularly the first two verses, Is that it tells the believer that he can please God there is a spiritual service of worship That is acceptable to God that word means pleasing. You know what the believer can please God we can please God when we engage in these things It pleases God when we obey him.

And these admonitions here and instructions about singing have to do with one of those beautiful ways that the church comes together to please God. This is practical Christianity. Now it's really important that churches cultivate a biblically defined and a vibrant culture of singing in the church and Romans 12 one exhorts us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and we do this in two ways we talked about this last week first of all every day all day long from the rising of the Sun and we talked about what a blessing it is When the first moment that your eyes open that you gain consciousness in the morning that you say Oh Lord Take my body. I want to give my body to glorify you today And so it's very personal but at the same time there implications of The worship God of God the gather worship of God like what we're doing right now we all came from all parts of the community, we streamed in here to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, not just individually, but all together, mingling our hearts together and we've had many ways of that taking place already in the prayers and the reading of Scripture, but I want to focus the passage here on the whole matter of singing when we gather together in the worship of God.

And of course the apostle uses temple sacrifice language when he speaks of a living sacrifice being offered to God and he's giving the imagery of the priests and the people of God worshipping in the tabernacle and the temple And so this is what we're doing today. You know, last night I was reading, before I went to bed, a section of a biography of Sarah Edwards to Deborah. And Jonathan Edwards talks about this remarkable revival that was going on in the 1730s and 40s, and he talks about what was happening in the church as a result of the revival, and this is what happens in revivals. People just can't sing enough, and they can't sing loud enough, and they can't sing passionately enough, and so here's what he wrote. Our public praises were greatly enlivened God was served in our singing in some measure in the beauty of holiness.

I love that line. There has been scarce any part of divine worship wherein good men amongst us have had grace so drawn forth and their hearts so lifted up as in the singing of his praises. He just talks about the preciousness of the people of God lifting up their voices together, everybody streaming in from the community, their lives have been changed, and they're together, and they're mingling their faith together in the singing. And now, what we've been talking about in this matter of Romans 12, one, is the way that God has designed the worship. He has designed the worship according to his own word.

Man does not have the authority to make up anything he wants in the worship of God. This is called the regulative principle of worship and I believe I quoted last week John Knox all worshiping honoring and service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without his express commandment is idolatry so last week I wanted to make it plain how critical it is for us to dedicate our bodies to God from the rising of the sun until the time we lay down again. Now, I want to shift that and focus on the elements of the worship of God which are prayer, scripture reading, preaching, singing, the Lord's Supper, and baptism. These are the ordinary means of grace that God has commanded the church to engage in. Today though, I wanna take out one of those means of grace, just one of them, and focus on them.

I've been wanting to do this for a long time. And so I'm taking my opportunity this morning. But it's such a remarkable and beautiful subject. Why? Because it's very important that the people of God know what they're doing, and they engage it with all of their hearts.

And we really desire as a church to develop a vibrant biblically ordered and holy Christian singing in our church that it's defined by the word of God. And I think that we have continuous improvement in this whole matter. I don't think we've arrived in our singing. And the scriptures today and probably next week will make that very, very plain. But there's nothing more important than we do than to come and worship God as we're doing here today.

So you have an outline in front of you and you've seen, I've kind of already introduced this by speaking briefly of the regulator principle of worship. I want to talk about the gift of singing and then I want to talk about why sing and then I want to talk about how to sing and you've got all the points in front of you so I hope you can follow along. Let's talk about the gift of singing. It really is a wonderful gift. It's an expression of God's love.

And we could make a long list of the different ways that God has expressed love to his children. If I said, okay, now get out a piece of paper and just write down the ways God expresses his love, we'd be writing for a while. But one way he has expressed his love is by uniting a local church around right doctrine and singing about it. And that's what we're talking about here. Luther had it said it this way.

I most heartily desire that music, that divine and most precious gift, be praised and extolled before the people. Oh, that's what we're doing today, by the way. Next to the word of God, only music serves being extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart. It is the governess of the feelings of the human heart. Singing is so helpful.

It's one of his multitude of mercies. Remember, by the mercies of God, present yourself as living sacrifices. This is one of the mercies of God that he has given to us. And now, I'm gonna call singing a double-barrel blessing. First, singing is itself a mercy.

It is in itself a mercy because God directs our minds, He shapes our dispositions, He transforms our feelings, He takes us to green pastures and still waters when we sing. So it is in itself a mercy. But secondly, it causes us to glory in his mercies. Singing infuses the grace of God into our personalities, into our thinking, and every part of our being. Because it actually engages our entire body.

We'll get to that in a minute. But you know, every once in a while you find someone who doesn't sing, or they sing heartlessly, or they're just mumbling, or they're not opening their mouth. By the way, when you're teaching your children how to sing, teach them to open their mouth wide. No mumbling, no mumbl, no no no no no. This is not how we sing.

So teach them to open their mouths wide and blow out that sound and let it ring. If you don't like to sing, Martin Luther has something to say. A person who does not see the wisdom of God in music and the gift that it is, that person does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God. He must be a clod hopper, indeed, and does not deserve to be called a human being. He should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.

So there you have it. We want you to love singing, okay? And maybe you're one of those men, it's usually men, who walk into the church and they just stand there, you know, like dead trees. And we're gonna be all over your case to sing. Well, I'm all over your case right now.

But here's the deal, we need more than preaching. We do need preaching. We need prayer. We need the Lord's Supper. We need baptism.

We need fellowship. We need to feast together. We need all that in the church but we need more than just preaching. We need singing and we need it desperately the way that God built us. He knows our frame, he knows what we're like, he knows what we need And so he's given us singing.

Okay, let's talk about why sing. Why sing? That's the first thing I want to say about this. Sing because you must sing. Because God has commanded his people to sing.

There are over 50 direct commands to sing, over 400 references to the blessing of God in singing that are listed in scripture. God prioritizes corporate worship as a means of sanctifying his people and singing is part of that. Sing because you must sing. I'll give you just a taste of this. Psalm 96 verse 1.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord bless his name, proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. So in that, in just those three verses we were commanded to sing three times. Psalm 47 verses 6 & 7. Sing praises to God, sing praises, these are commands. Sing for God is the king of all the earth sing praises With understanding the command to sing Appeared five times in two verses get the idea God wants his church to sing There are so many other places we could go, but for time we'll keep on moving.

Why do we sing in church? We sing in church because God commands us to sing. We must sing. We have to sing when we gather. It's very interesting.

Whenever Christians gather, they want to sing. Now, they do it really willingly out of the desire of their hearts, But the reason they do it is because God commanded it. And now it's just freely given as a joyful sacrifice to God. So, why sing? Because you must.

You must present your body as a living sacrifice. Why sing? Second, sing because God made you like a musical instrument. Lots of passages of scripture at the end of that entry there, but God made you very much like a musical instrument. The first musical instrument that God made was your body, and then he made other instruments later, but you were made to sing.

And other instruments were added in Genesis chapter four, 21 to 22. But singing engages your whole body and your whole being. Singing engages your mental and physical and spiritual life. It includes your voice, Psalm 100. It includes shouting, Zephaniah 3 14.

It includes clapping hands, Psalm 47 verse 1. It includes lifting hands, Psalm 63 verse 4 and 134 verse 2. It involves spreading out hands, Psalm 88 9. It involves kneeling, 2nd Chronicles 6, 12 through 13. It includes bowing down, Psalm 95 verse 6.

In fact, I mean the Hebrew word worship actually is best translated to bow down and that's what we do when we sing. The Psalms make all this very very clear. Singing is not disconnected from the body. It's not some ethereal thing just in your heart. It's very physical and embodied.

But the very simplest part of your musical instrument is your voice. Your vocal cords vibrate. They're a little bit like guitar strings that vibrate when you speak. My voice is vibrating because God made me to speak and God made me to sing and vibrate. You have resonance chambers, your throat, your nasal cavities.

These are resonance chambers that project. It's like a sound chamber. If you've ever put your ear up to a guitar, it's one of those beautiful sounds you'll ever hear. Just strum that guitar and listen to the sound vibrate. Well, your voice is like that coming out of your resonance chambers.

You have percussion, you have our bodies are outfitted to clap and these are for keeping beat, percussion, instruments you know serve this as well as your own body. And then you have all the different kinds of voices. All voices are not the same. Every voice has a particular range and depth and some are high-pitched, some are low. And listen to all the classifications of the voice.

Bass, basso profundo, bass baritone, baritone, lyric baritone, dramatic baritone, tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, well there are many more I'll stop. It's hard to pronounce all of them. Your body is a musical instrument in the midst of an orchestra of voices That's what we are when we gather together and this is one way that we present our bodies a living sacrifice holy pleasing to God Because we can please him We can please him this morning. You may think you're such a worm, nothing's right with you. Not true.

It's just not true. You can please him. What a blessing that is. Why sing number three? Because singing helps us respond emotionally.

Now the Psalms address nearly every human emotion. Joy, praise, hope, encouragement, despair, grief, sadness, peace, repentance, forgiveness, and lamentation addresses all of them right there in the Psalms. I provided verses for you to see that. But music provides a right expression of emotion. And I'll quote from Scott Anial, Music actually educates our emotions so that they develop to maturity.

Words cannot adequately express what we feel. Church music, that is poetry, is set to music and it provides the language we need to express our affections. So in a church service as we contemplate truth and goodness, we use music to help us take the next step and respond with our affections. So music helps us to engage our affections, which include our emotions. Jonathan Edwards said it like this, the duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections.

No other reason can be assigned why we should express ourselves to God in verse and to do it with music, but only that such is our nature and our frame, and these things have a tendency to move our affections." Well, it will fail me to quote Jonathan Edwards more, but I have more, but just to make it very clear, God made music because he wants to help us respond emotionally. Here's one beautiful thing about singing music that is consistent with the scriptures. The music tells you what to feel, but the words tell you why. Now this is something that we should think about because we often sing all kinds of songs and the music may be good, but they're telling you a wrong reason why to sing. And so we should be very careful what we sing Because music tells you what to feel but what you have which is so superior to every other Kind of singing is that they tell you why?

You should sing and that's really a blessing And when we present our bodies as living sacrifices, it's very important that we understand what God is doing through it. He is helping us to adjust our emotions and our affections. Fourth, why sing? Because singing is a critical tool for the making of disciples. Now I've listed Colossians 3 verses 1 through 17.

We can't walk through this. I had Scott Anial preach a sermon on this at one of our conferences awhile back, how singing works for the making of disciples, because singing is a critical discipleship tool. What he did is he had us all open up to Colossians chapter three, and he read verse one to verse 17. And those verses leading up to singing speak about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So it begins with that and then itemizes various elements of discipleship.

And then one of those elements of discipleship is singing. And Paul is telling us what kind of disciples we are meant to be. Starts with, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And he says, Once you've solved that, then now here's how you live. And he first talks about earthly passions need to be killed.

That's in verse five. Then put on hearts of compassion, verse 13 and 14. Live in harmony with one another. And then let the word of Christ dwell richly, singing. So singing is a discipleship tool.

It isn't just the instruction of the word. It isn't just the reading of the word, but singing is actually meant to be a discipleship tool. God is shepherding his church when his church sings with all their hearts. And so Discipleship language is connected to singing and a very critical element of the curriculum of the discipleship of the believer should be singing the words of sound doctrine and singing is an essential means for discipleship. Hey, it's not just to prepare for the preaching.

It's far, far more than that. Okay? And a lot of people think of it that way. I used to know guys who they'd make sure they only showed up for the preaching. They had no clue what the Bible says about singing and how critical it is.

We design our services to walk through all the ordinary means of grace. It starts with the reading of scripture, and then there's a prayer, and then we sing, and then there's more prayer, and there's more scripture. But all of these things are meant to be couched around this glorious discipleship tool of singing, but it isn't just the preaching. Singing does things that nothing else can do. And we do it when the church gathers together as one, and we all come and we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God.

Okay, why sing? Because we must, because God made you like a musical instrument, because singing helps us respond emotionally, and then finally because singing is a critical tool for making disciples. Now let's shift and let's talk about how to sing. First we sing to teach one another. We're not only taught but we sing to teach.

When you sing, hey by the way, you know there's this very popular idea that singing is before an audience of one and you lose yourself, you know, and you close your eyes. There's nothing wrong with closing your eyes, but the truth is God actually created singing that you would sing to teach one another, okay? Isn't it strange? Singing is so diverse and complex. You're singing to God, you're singing to your own soul, and you're also teaching one another.

All at the same time. And you're worshiping him at the same moment. Singing is actually this very complex and beautiful thing that God has given us. Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, how? Teaching and admonishing one another, how?

In Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So here we are told how to sing. We sing to teach one another. We are instructing one another in our singing. Martin Luther said this, God doesn't need your good works but your neighbor does and in the same way your neighbor needs you to sing clear and loud and with all of your heart.

Your neighbor needs instruction just like you and as it turns out as you're instructing him you're instructing yourself so it's just fantastic But we see that the word of Christ must dwell richly in our singing. The word is very critical. The singing must be consistent with the Word of God. You know in pagan worship you just sort of lose yourself in an altered state of emotional ecstasy and there's all this mindless repetition you know of the great pagan world religions. But the Psalms connect us with the words.

This is one of the great things about singing. Songs connect us with words. And they actually connect us with words for a long time, probably your entire life long. Songs that I used to sing, bad songs. They come and terrorize me.

I'm trying to go to sleep and this ridiculous song is through my head and I wish I had never heard it. I wish I had never learned those words. You should be really careful what kind of words you learn because they're gonna follow you all the days of your life. Those words are so critical, but the music connects you with the words. It binds you together with them in a way that nothing else does.

And so that's why the Apostle is saying, let the word of Christ dwell richly. You know, we've all probably been exposed to teaching our children how to learn the alphabet through a song or the books of the Bible through a song. Songs are very very helpful and that's why God provided a hymn book called the Book of Psalms with all the words that we need to worship God. The Word of God must dwell richly and there are many many different kinds of songs. There are songs of praise, songs of thanksgiving, there are wisdom songs, there are lamentations, there are royal songs and pilgrim songs and penitential songs, there are historical Psalms and enthronement Psalms.

The list could go on, But there are many different kinds of songs to connect us to the Word of God. Here's a question. What kind of words do you not want to remember? You probably ought to think about that. Because the words you really want to remember are ones that are consistent with the word of God.

The world is full of silly songs. What kind of words do you want to remember all of your life? And we and we teach one another by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. We're not here to do our own thing. We're here to do what God has called us to do.

And then secondly, how to sing. We sing to admonish one another. Colossians 3.16 again we have this matter of admonishing one another. Ephesians 5 verses 17 through 20 makes this very very clear that we are to speak to one another. And Colossians 3.16 makes it clear that we are also not just teaching, but we are also admonishing one another.

And the Greek word for Admonishing is a familiar term It's the word. It's the term we get our word Newthetic you familiar with newthetic counseling Newthetic counseling Means to to warn to advise someone from danger in this context with the Word of God. In counseling, in admonishing, your desire is to move a person from one position to another in the counseling because they've fallen into a hole. And you need to take them out of that hole somehow, help them get out of that hole. That's what admonishing does.

And there are many songs that we sing that are admonishing songs. How about Take Time to Be Holy? The church is admonishing one another. How about sing the wondrous love of Jesus? That's admonishing one another.

We're telling one another to sing the wondrous love of Jesus and then stand up for Jesus. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. That's it. The church is admonishing one another because sometimes we are laggards, you know, and we need to stand up. And we know it, and it helps to have the encouragement of the whole church saying, hey brother, sister, stand up for Jesus.

But there are many, there are many songs that we can sing for admonishment. You know there's a, there's the admonishment of your own soul. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. This is admonishing your own soul. So songs are designed for admonishment.

Sing to admonish your brothers and sisters. And how do you do that? You first must present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Third, how to sing. Sing to help you remember the words.

I'm going to repeat this. Let the word of Christ dwell richly and the singing helps us to meditate and savor on the words. Have you ever done that? You're singing and this word catches you and you want to hang on to that word. It's so beautiful.

Your soul needs it. But The singing causes you to meditate on the words. It gives you an orderly meter and pattern to meditate on those words. You know how you often get distracted in your reading? But singing helps you to keep moving on words.

And it actually, it harmonizes God's people. It harmonizes God's people with truth, the words of truth, and the affections. You know, words are so critical. I'm gonna give you an illustration. Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy in the last month of his life, on the last day of Moses's life, before he walked up Mount Pisgah and God took him.

God commanded him to write a song and teach it to the children of Israel. Okay? He didn't have much time. And he wrote a song. It's a long song at the end of Deuteronomy.

And he taught Israel the song for a particular reason. He did, God did not want his children to forget and they needed a song so they wouldn't forget and they were given the words of the song so that it would bring back the truth of what Moses wanted to communicate. Here it is, Then it shall be when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants. The song connected them with the words so that they would not forget them. You know, that's so critical.

Anybody who's ever known anyone or been to a an end-of-life nursing home type situation, they know that you you always find people, they can't remember your name, their wife's name, and they tell you the same story looping over and over again. But when somebody gets on that piano and starts a song, they know every word of those songs because the music connected them with the words. It's so critical that we do this and it's so critical that your children learn hundreds of songs. They memorize them. They commit them to their hearts.

You who are raising children do not underestimate the power of singing and the connectivity of the brain with words and sounds. It's so critical And that's why Moses said what he did, so that they might remember the words, because they have a song. So be careful what you sing. Be careful what you sing. Be careful what you sing.

Be careful what you sing. Because these words will go with you. They will go with you, and they will never leave you or forsake you all the days of your life. For good, or for evil, or for silliness. That's the way God wired us, it's amazing.

But songs are wonderful in that sense. Sing the words that God wants us to remember. I heard Bob Coughlin say that in a message one time. You do this by presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice. Number four, how to sing.

Sing strong with gusto. There's no shortage of passages of scripture that tell us to sing with gusto, to really go for it, to blast it out. You know, no mumbling, you know, no dragging, blast it out, and there are many reasons. Psalm 81 verse 1, sing aloud to God our strength, make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Nehemiah 12 verse 42, the singers sing loudly with Jazer Haia the director.

Psalm 98 verses 4 & 6. Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Break forth in song. Rejoice and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with harp, with the harp and with the sound of the psalm, with trumpets and the sound of a horn.

Shout joyfully before the Lord the King. Psalm 47 verse 1, Oh clap your hands all you people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph. And that psalm goes on. We're not left alone to figure out how to sing. I'll give you one word, loud, or as in the psalm, aloud.

Psalm 100 verse 1, make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. Psalm 150 verse 5, praise him with loud cymbals, praise him with clashing cymbals. Psalm 33 verse 3, sing to him a new song, play skillfully, shout with joy. Well in these passages of Scripture and many many more loud sounds and and the worship of God and joy are all connected together and it's very, very critical. In Psalm 63, I will lift up my hands unto thy name.

What a beautiful picture. David says, I spread out my hands to you. Now let me just say something that I want you to absolutely hear. No one should feel funny if they raise their hands, okay? It's not just okay to raise your hands.

There's actually a biblical warrant for it. So don't feel weird if you raise up your hands Let's raise our hands to God can you do that everybody doesn't have to do this I'm just saying I'm just saying do you spread out your hands? You know, You know one of is really really strange. I saw a video of one of my kids, one of my grandchildren was singing and without any coaching or without any ever seeing anything like this she was singing and her hands were raised out like this. No one told her.

She didn't learn it in this church. Ha ha ha. Wesley said, sing lustily with good courage, Different meaning for lustily. Beware of singing as if you were half dead. He said beware of seeing if you were half to half asleep but lift up your voice with strength be no more afraid of your voice now nor be ashamed of it when it is heard." But he said, but he added this he said, don't be ashamed of its being heard than when you sung the songs of Satan.

How to sing? With gusto. And remember, God made you a musical instrument. It's okay to use all the instrumentation that God gave you in your body. I know that might make people uncomfortable, but I think the word of God makes it very clear that the whole body should be used.

You know, this is very difficult in some reformed circles. We're just so conservative. It's amazing, you know? And we just can't stand the idea of doing such a thing. How to sing number five, to proclaim the truth.

We sing to proclaim truth. That's why we're very careful with songs. They must proclaim the truth of God. We try very hard to screen the songs. There are lots of songs that really disfigure the truth of God.

Christian songs that disfigure the truth of God. And while they might engage your emotions quite well, They do not engage the truth of God well at all and both actually must be The case sing to proclaim the truth. I'll just give you one passage of scripture There are many Psalm 105 verse 2. I will sing of mercy and justice These are all categories of God's truth. To you, O Lord, I will sing praises.

In Psalm 101 verse 2, I will talk of his wondrous works. These are, this is the whole idea of when we sing we are making truth claims. When we sing we are making truth claims and we're explaining the matters of doctrine. We're singing to ourselves, we're admonishing one another, we're teaching one another, we're also extolling the truth and the wisdom of God from our hearts, all at one time. And all of this really defines who we are and where we're going in life.

And God gives us songs to verbalize truth. You know, when a person is saved, the first thing they do is they come into a church. And for many, the first time they ever really sang with people was in a church and they thought wow this is really weird they haven't really heard the sound of their voice it's very awkward super awkward and But most people have not sung songs to declare truth, but that's what we do. That's what the church is engaged in. And when we sing, we're actually proclaiming what's important to God and also to us.

When we sing, We're proclaiming what kind of God we worship. He is holy, holy, holy. When we sing, we're declaring what kind of gospel we're proclaiming. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin.

When we sing, we're declaring the basis of our unity. Blessed be the tide that binds. When we sing, we're declaring the kind of people we want to be. Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel. When we sing, we are declaring what kind of feelings we want to have, that we need to have.

Jesus, the joy of loving hearts. When we sing we are proclaiming what kind of messages we want to proclaim. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. When we sit when we gather to sing we want to say to one another, a mighty fortress is our God. There are so many contours, beautiful contours in the singing, And it's very important that human beings understand the truth claims of their identity.

Singing does that. And we're verbalizing what we believe, and we're declaring what kind of people we want to be, and we're declaring what kind of people we desire to be walking out this door into the world. Standing on the promises of God. We do this when we present our bodies a living sacrifice. And sixth, how to sing.

Sing for the unity of the church. Psalm 147, there are just so many places. Actually, the entire corpus of the Book of Psalms indicates that the church is united around these truth claims, because they are all songs. Think about it like this. When we sing together, the singing unifies this church around the truth.

We're saying the same words, we're proclaiming the same doctrine, we're desiring the same feelings, and we're bound together in unity. And when we're singing, we're not doing our own thing. We're doing what, we're doing what God wants us to do, and we are being what God wants to be, one body. Isn't that amazing? We sing the same tune and the same words.

And so singing promotes the unity of the church. But it goes beyond just the words. It goes beyond the feelings and the truth claims that are unifying us. Researchers are telling us that singing together actually causes a particular kind of physical unity. When the church is singing The same tune, it's been studied quite extensively.

The heartbeats of the people are beating the same when they sing. The modulation and the meter, as they rise up and sing, everybody's hearts are beating at the same rate. How about that? Check your heart monitor. So it goes actually beyond just being unified in the doctrine, Bound together in the words and all the other things that singing does it actually unifies us in a Fizz a very physical profoundly physical way Singing is good We've been singing songs oh for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise.

Then we sang, I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise. I sing the goodness of the Lord that filled the earth with food. We sang Psalm 98, oh sing a new song to the Lord, for wonders he has done.' And then just before the preaching, we sang, I will sing of my Redeemer, and his wondrous love for me." We're proclaiming the gospel in every song. And at the end of the worship service, we're going to sing Hallelujah What a Savior. When he comes our glorious king, all his ransom home to bring, then anew this song will sing, Hallelujah What a Savior.

At the end of the day perhaps the most important thing about singing is that it points us to Jesus Christ our only hope in life and death. Praise God for singing. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for your wisdom, for the way that you take care of your sheep, for the various mercies that you have bestowed upon us. Lord I pray that you would teach us to sing with all of our hearts even more than ever.

That we would have all the freedom of your Spirit to sing the way that you have prescribed in your word. We thank you for the boundaries that you've set. We thank you for the freedom that there is in Jesus Christ to sing with all of our hearts of that wondrous love. Lord I I pray that you would bless this congregation with sweeter and sweeter singing as the days go by as they order themselves according to your word and are regulated by wisdom from heaven. Amen.