In his sermon 'Singing Lessons From Heaven,' Scott Brown explores the biblical and spiritual significance of singing in Christian life and worship. Drawing from Romans 12:1 and Psalm 100, he emphasizes that singing is a commanded act of worship, not merely an optional or cultural preference. Brown argues that singing serves as an essential means of grace, helping believers present themselves as living sacrifices, fostering unity within the church, and acting as a tool for making disciples. He highlights the historical and scriptural examples of singing in times of trial, such as Paul and Silas in prison, as well as contemporary stories of hymn writers like Horatio Spafford and Fanny Crosby, who found solace in song. Brown provides practical lessons on singing, advocating for whole-hearted engagement, singing in every season of life, and using song as a form of spiritual warfare. He underscores the importance of singing Psalms, including songs of lamentation, to address the full range of human emotions. The sermon also calls for men to lead in singing and for parents to teach their children to sing, reinforcing that singing can impact both personal faith and the broader community. Ultimately, Brown suggests that singing can even lead to salvation, as songs encapsulate the truths of the gospel in memorable and transformative ways.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, find verse 1 and also to Psalm 100. Those two places, I'll give you a minute to get there. Romans 12, 1 and Psalm 100, verse 1. And Psalm 100 verse 1. This is the inerrant all-sufficient sweeter than honey word of God.

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 then Psalm 100, verse one. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.

And then a couple of bonus passages that I just can't resist to read. Nehemiah 12 43, also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off. And then one more, Psalm 119 verse 54. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given us so many good things to do in this world that we can please you, and we can please you in presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and lifting up our voices to sing. Oh Lord teach us to sing. Amen.

You may be seated. So we're continuing to explore the implications of Romans chapter 12 verse 1 in terms of coming to church as one body to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God which is our spiritual work of service. And since as we've been saying, singing is a biblically required activity of the church. We don't do it because it's popular, we do it because it's commanded by God and we know it is good. It's singing is one of the ordinary means of grace that God has given to the church.

It's not optional at all. And I've decided to take a couple of Sundays to talk about the doctrine of singing and actually give the church singing lessons. And my intention really is to just to continue to shape the culture of this church in terms of our singing together. Singing is such a wonderful gift. And the songs that we sing really carry us through in our journey to heaven.

They're so pivotal. As you make your way through this wilderness world, make sure that you carry the right songs with you. And they are the songs that we sing here every week. You're going to walk through deserts, you're going to walk up mountains, you're going to walk through valleys, you're going to walk through storms. And you're also gonna walk through times of bounty and beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

Make sure you have the right songs with you. Now the context here of course is Romans 12, 1, a very practical verse. It really addresses every moment of your life from the time you open up your eyes to the time you go to bed at night that you have been presenting your body as a living sacrifice. But it also includes your life in a local church where we all come together as one body and we present ourselves to God. That's what we're doing today.

It's such a joy to do that and where we flow together in the goodness of the Lord and Singing is such a wonderful gift and songs do carry us through Before I get to the actual singing lessons, I just couldn't resist just thinking through how songs have carried the saints of old through their trials and tribulations. And Psalm 119.54, David says, your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Praise the Lord when that's true in your life. In Psalm 77 verse 6, David says, I call remembrance, I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate with my heart and my spirit makes a diligent search." Remember when Paul and Silas were thrown into Philippian jail?

What did they do? They sang. You remember what Miriam did after they'd passed through the Red Sea victorious the Egyptian army destroyed the devil wiped out they sang David wrote a song when he fled into a cave in Psalm 57 his first words were be merciful to me oh God. God gave David a psalm in the cave of Edulam in Psalm 142 he says I cry out to the Lord with my voice I cried out to you oh Lord I said you are my refuge You are my portion in the land of the living You can sing anywhere and it can help you everywhere Psalm 23 David said the Lord was his shepherd and That even though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, he was with him. And it was that song that upheld him.

Habakkuk sang even though the fig tree would not blossom in Habakkuk 317. Countless songs have been written by saints since then in times of tragedy, in times of happiness. Horatio Spafford, a Chicago attorney financially devastated by the Chicago fire, sent his wife and four children across the Atlantic. The ship sank, his four daughters were lost, and in the darkness and the sorrow of that moment as he crossed to go meet his wife, he wrote this, When peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot that has taught me to say It is well with my soul in the hardest times Fanny Crosby blind from infancy. She wrote 8, 000 hymns She writes blessed assurance Jesus is mine Joseph Scriven, after his fiance drowned the night before their wedding, he writes, what a friend we have in Jesus in 1855.

Charlotte Elliott, in a night of despair after all kinds of troubles and sickness, losing hope, she couldn't come and worship God with the people of God and she was so discouraged but at the same time she wrote these words just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me And that thou biddest come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Anne Steele, we have sung her songs here. In poor health, never got married, loss of a fiance. She wrote many hymns that reflect the trust in God, a true Puritan songwriter. She writes this song, come all you pining, hungry poor, the words, Lord, we adore thy boundless grace, the heights and depths unknown.

Well, this is the way of the believer. They sing along in the journey. And I just so encourage all of us to be those kind of people. We carry the songs with us wherever we go. They are, you can take them, you can put them in your pocket and they can help you all along.

So as we sing here in our congregation, as you know, our great desire is that the emphasis is on the sound of the voices. You know, we actually need more than preaching. We need more than prayer. We need more than the Lord's Supper. We need more than fellowship.

We need singing, And that's why God has prescribed it. It's such a good gift. It's such a wonderful expression of his love last week I brought us through two questions why sing and First sing because you must because God commanded us to sing second because God made you like a musical instrument and you should use it and fine-tune it. And then third, because singing helps you to respond with your affections and with your emotions. And then fourth, why sing?

Because singing is really a critical tool for making disciples. We learned that in Colossians chapter 3. It's a discipleship chapter and at the near the end of that chapter you find the discipleship tool of singing. And it's a tool for making disciples. And then I answered the question, how to sing.

And first, sing to teach one another. Second, to admonish one another. Third, to help you remember the words, because the songs drive the words deeper in your heart than you ever know, and when you get to, excuse me, dementia, the songs will come back to you, but no one else will. Isn't that remarkable? Fourth, sing strong with gusto.

Fifth, sing to proclaim the truth. And sixth, sing for the unity of the church. The church doesn't just sing the same words in the same tunes. When they sing together, literally the hearts of the people begin to beat at the same rate. It's a really remarkable thing.

So we should sing. So I want to continue to explain what the Bible teaches about how to sing. Worshippers need to be taught how to worship. How about that? It doesn't perfectly come naturally.

We need to be taught and of course that's why we're doing this. Now as you've noticed the focus of these messages is it has nothing to do with genre or tune or when a song was written it really has to do with the doctrine of singing, which supersedes all of that. And yet I recognize all of us are affected by our musical preferences. You know, there are worship wars always going on. They always have.

Sense radio, by the way, because there were no genres of music before radio. But now, you know, the church is all in pieces, you know, over what kind of music is going to be played. But if you're hung up on your genre, you're going to find it hard to worship God. And I know of a church years ago because they wanted to bring everybody into their own genre. One week they would have a country band, another week they would have sort of a traditional worship band and then they would have a country western band and then they would have a rock or rap band to come in just so that everybody could have their way about them.

But in the church we actually bring everyone under one voice. It's actually the responsibility of elders. You cannot tailor this to every individual. And so we are one body And when we sing we come together as one body and we sing one song one way together with all of our hearts The church moves together as a body And that's really important and church leaders have a responsibility to make sure that the Church of Jesus Christ has no generation gap, that all the generations are flowing together to the goodness of the Lord. And you know you can see how this worked in the wilderness.

All the people had the same worship experience in the tabernacle and in the temple. They didn't get to choose their flavor. God delivered the flavor to them that was actually best for them and that's why we have this principle of the regulative principle of worship. Only God has authority to design worship in the church of Jesus Christ. It's his church, and he alone is responsible to determine how worship goes on.

Okay, so are you ready for some more singing lessons? I'm going to give you 11 singing lessons here from the Word of God. First, sing with your whole heart. Zephaniah 3.14. Sing, oh Zion, oh daughter of Zion, shout, oh Israel, be glad, and rejoice with all your heart.

That's the operative phrase. With all your heart. It's very much like in the Ten Commandments you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart it's very similar and you know worshiping God is not like breathing it being automatic worship is a deliberate, intentional activity that one sets himself to with all of his heart. And in the worship of God, time is allocated, space is identified, activity is clearly defined, and the heart is engaged. We're all familiar with coming into the worship of God and feeling cold and feeling dead spiritually.

That actually is part of our humanity and it is difficult to deal with. But singing is meant to draw our heart and our mind into the goodness of God. It's designed to move us in a direction. The singing moves us. Like if you come in here feeling sort of cold, God has given you singing to move you along, to move you from one position to another, which is what God is so good at with his people.

And now there are some hard issues that we often experience. First, there's emotionless ritualism. And second, there's ritualistic emotionalism. And then there is I'm just going to call it determined intentionalism in other words where you have come to intentionally Present your body as a living sacrifice with all your heart This is your heart's desire to enter into the worship of God and say, oh God tune my heart to sing thy grace as the words of the song come thou found say. We need God to come and tune our hearts to sing his grace.

So when you come into the congregation to present your body as a living sacrifice Remember to sing with your whole heart. Engage your whole heart. Put it in drive and mash the gas pedal. Don't leave it in neutral. The second lesson, sing to be sing to be changed.

Sing to be changed. God has designed singing to change us. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful the Lord Builds up Jerusalem and get this He gathers together the outcasts of israel He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. That means that singing is designed to change you. You might be brokenhearted, you might be wounded, but God gathers the outcasts together to bind up their wounds, and he does it through singing.

Sing to be changed. Let the songs seep into your sorrows. Let them be the balm of Gilead. You know there's enough sorrow in the man of sorrows to cure all of your sorrows. There's enough balm and Gilead in all of these songs to take you where you need to go.

You're not there now, but you need to go there and God has given you a way. And we said last week that songs are meant to, that we are meant to admonish one another in the singing and to, in other words, they're meant to correct us. When you're singing across the room, you're actually correcting your brother into into better ways and through the ups and downs of your life, through every season of your life. Here's the reality. Thoughtful, prayerful singing is the best antidote to pride.

It's the best antidote in dealing with failure or fear or anxiety or hurt feelings or many other sins that we engage in in this life. That's why Martin Luther called music the governess of the feelings of the human heart. Music is the governess. You know, the governess is one who has authority to take care of things. Is the governess of the feelings of the human heart.

And that's why when David played his harp in front of Saul it changed his heart Luther said this music drives away the devil and makes the people happy. I Hope that's done that for you today. That's what it was meant for We sang so many thrilling songs this morning. Luther said, after theology I give music the highest place of greatest honor. It is the governess of the feelings of the human heart.

Everybody knows already that music sharpens the affections and moves the emotions and stirs the soul. Songs are designed for that and and this is why the devil uses them so so carefully to lead us astray. But you know how often has a song encouraged you? How often has a song picked you up in the moment where you didn't know what to do or what to think? I can look back so many times in my life and I've been rescued by a song in the worship of God in the midst of the congregation and I'm so thankful for that.

So when you come to the congregation to present your bodies as living sacrifices, sing to be changed. Sing to be changed. The third lesson, these are singing lessons, the third lesson is sing to do battle. Sing to do battle. Psalm 59 16 says, but I will sing of your power, yes I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning, for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.

God gave us songs as a way of doing battle in this world. When we're singing, we're engaging in spiritual warfare. You want to engage in spiritual warfare? Sing. It ushers every true believer onto the front lines of the battlefield.

And in fact the very first song that you encounter in the Bible was a song that came out of a battle. Exodus 14 to Exodus 15 19, the Lord and this great line which many are familiar with after the rescue at the Red Sea, The Lord is my strength in my song. He has become my salvation. You know this picture in Exodus 15 is the central picture of salvation that's used all through the Bible. The rescue of the people of God from the grip of Pharaoh.

And it's a song of victory in battle. There are many Psalms. In 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18, David sings a song of deliverance after God delivered him from his enemies. And singing really is the battle line of defense for the preservation of the Church of Jesus Christ. We sing in going into battle and coming out of battle as well.

The German Jesuit Adam Conson in 1620 remarked, Luther has converted more souls with his hymns than he has with his books and his sermons. Arrasments said that the Catholic Church was more afraid of Luther's hymns than his sermons because the people would remember them, because that's what songs do to you. They sink the words into your memory banks. And the Lord can take the most difficult experiences and he shoulders them in the midst of your battle. Now there's so many kinds of songs.

There's a song of war, song for war in 2 Chronicles 20. This was a song that was sung before the children of Israel went into war with the Moabites and the Ammonites who had gathered to attack Judah. Here's the verse that I picked out to read. Now when they began to sing and to praise, remember they're getting ready to get attacked. They began to sing and to praise.

Then the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. A song leads to the defeat of three nations that were coming against Israel. In Psalm 32 you have songs of deliverance. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble.

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. In Isaiah 26, there's a song that the people of Israel sang before a tremendous attack. They started out the song with these words. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah we have a strong city that's the beginning of the song we have a strong city there's so many songs like that in the Bible song is a Singing is a form of spiritual warfare. And so when you come to church, when you gather into the congregation to present your bodies as living sacrifices, sing to prepare for battle or sing after a battle.

Because the truth is, the way it is with everybody's life you're either in a battle out of a battle or waiting for another battle That's the Christian life and mature people need to just understand that. The fourth singing lesson. Sing in every season of life. The reason that we should sing in every season of life is because the Bible gives you a song for every season of life. It's pretty simple.

Every predicament, every feeling, every hardship, God deals with in song. David says, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing, in other words, encompassing his whole life, all of the years of his life. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to him.

I will be glad in the Lord." David is saying, I will sing praises to God while I have my being. As long as I have breath, I'm going to sing. And that means that you can sing through every phase of your life, and you should. Even from little children. In fact, I know many fathers, they sing to their babies in their mother's womb.

They start singing early. That's what you should do. You know, there's so many songs of different moments. There's the song of the well in times of privation, Numbers 21, 16. There's the song of Moses for times of transition.

Moses was commanded by God to write a song the last day of his life to teach it to the children of Israel so they wouldn't forget it years later when they had departed from the Lord. Moses writes a song for the Sabbath day in Psalm 92. There are songs of consecration. There are joyful songs. There are songs after you get good news.

That was true in Isaiah 38 verse 20 when Hezekiah sings because God just granted him 15 more years of life and what does he do? He sings. He sings because the good news came. There's so many songs to sing through suffering and the Psalms are full of them. There's the song from the pit, Psalm 40.

I waited patiently for the Lord. He is inclined and heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and has set my feet upon a rock and a new song in my heart. He's established my steps. There are, there's the song of the prisoners in Acts 16 with Paul and Silas.

There are songs of celebration all over the place. Check out Nehemiah 12. Two Thanksgiving choirs are singing. It's a beautiful picture. The fifth lesson, sing to impact the people around you.

Sing to impact the people around you. Actually much of what's said in the New Testament makes this very clear. This is one of the great purposes of singing. Singing is infectious. We sing a song, maybe out loud or we hum it, and often whoever hears it gets infected with that song, either for good or for ill.

Over and over in my life, when my kids were in my house I would get in my car and I would start humming a tune and then I would start singing it and then it occurred to me that one of my kids was whistling it or humming it in the car and in the house and I caught the infection and I didn't even know it and there I was now in the car seeing this great song to buoy up my soul as I was driving to work. I've also had the experience of people singing ungodly songs or ridiculous songs and I can't get those out of my head either. So it goes both ways. Here's the reality. What we sing at church is what we'll hum in our hearts.

And what we hum in our hearts, we might end up singing in our homes, and what we sing in our homes will belt out in our cars, and what we belt out in our cars will hum while we're at work, and what we hum while we're at work might infect others and what we hum to others they might start singing as well at home. So singing is infectious and I think you know as the body grows together as the body is joined and knit together by every ligament of by what every part supplies The body builds one another up by the things that they sing and the things that they hum So when you come to present your body as a living sacrifice Remember to sing to impact the people around you The sixth lesson, sing the Psalms. Sing the Psalms. God gave us songs to cover every human emotion And those songs are in the Psalms, not just the Psalms. Isaiah, Moses, Habakkuk, all kinds of other people wrote songs as well.

I really like the way Scott Anial speaks of this. There is a psalm for every feeling you will have, every difficulty you will ever face, every enemy you will ever have to grapple with. It is a compendium for every situation And that's one reason we should sing the Psalms. He wrote a great book on the Psalms that I had a chance to endorse. But some people say that it was the songs that sustained Luther through the Reformation.

Luther tells us that Romans and Galatians gave him his theology, but the book of Psalms gave him his thunder because it covered every possible corner of his life, of his heart. So God gave the church a hymnal with a hundred fifty Psalms. It is an authoritative hymnal. It's the best hymnal ever printed and there are so many historical and theological reasons the church should sing the Psalms. Now, psalm singing is kind of experienced a resurgence here at this point in the 21st century and it's a good trend.

It's a needed trend. I'm going to tell you a few things about this song book. First, it is the hymn book of the church. All of them are divinely inspired. The Psalms are the most highly quoted book in the New Testament.

The New Testament commands the church to sing Psalms in Ephesians 519 and Colossians 316. And of course many of the Psalms are Christological. They point to Jesus Christ. Jesus said this of the Psalms. These are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

Jesus says that the Psalms were about him and we should sing them throughout the ages. Now when you read the Psalms it's pretty clear that these words are designed to mature a Christian and thereby maturing a whole congregation in everything they face because they will assist you through every emotion you've ever had. They will carry you through every trial you will ever have. They will hold you up in disappointment and attack and slander and everything else that happens in life. It's really, you know, it's really no accident that the first word in the Psalms is the word, do you know what it is?

Blessed. Happy. Happy. These songs were written for your happiness, to carry you through, to walk with you in your whole journey of your life. So when you come into the congregation to present your bodies a living sacrifice, sing the Psalms.

Sing the Psalms. The seventh lesson, sing songs of lamentation. Now why would why would I break this out of a discussion about the Psalms? Because the Church of Jesus Christ hardly ever sings songs of lamentation. The 20th century and 21st century popular songs.

They don't deal with that. They just want kind of a happy, clappy religion that isn't facing reality about what's going on. But singing helps you deal with the complexities of life. Singing songs of lamentation. There are many songs of lamentation.

We sang one this morning, Psalm 130. Out of the depths I cried to you, oh Lord, hear my voice. That's a song of lamentation. This is not a happy clappy song. This is a song that picks you up right where you're at and it carries you where you ought to end up, to end hope.

There's tremendous advantage in singing the Psalms because they cover a much wider range of emotions and truth than many of the modern hymns. It's really hard to find hymns of lamentation. For some reason, and I don't know the reason why. The songwriters don't want to bring the church into lamentation but God does, God does. I'll quote Scott Aniol again, there's a psalm for every feeling you will ever have, every difficulty you'll ever face, every enemy you'll ever grapple with.

When you come into the congregation to present your bodies a living sacrifice, don't forget to lament. There probably should be a song of lamentation in every worship service. You know, God hasn't told us how to connect all these things, but it's probably a good thing. Here's the truth. Every time when we gather together, there's somebody who's really going through a hard time and they're lamenting, they're really lamenting and they need someone to help them through their lamentation, their time of lamentation.

Hey guess what? Bad things actually happen to us. But God knows our frame. He knows exactly what we need. And so He gives us a way to lament in an appropriate, life-giving way.

There's a way of lamentation that is ungodly. There are people who sorrow like the wicked, but God's people deal with lamentation and troubles very differently, but the Psalms will perfectly take you through them in a way that's appropriate. The eighth lesson is sing you men, sing you men. Now I do think the men of our church sing so I'm not this is not a big condemnation But the truth is men Sing David sang Isaiah sang The Apostles sang and they are men and men should sing. The apostles sang in the upper room in Matthew 26 verse 30.

And one of the most powerful experiences you can have in a church is to hear the manly voices blasting away, the strong manly voices who are singing like men. But in the modern church, often men don't sing. I don't completely blame them, actually, because so many of the songs are so feminized. They're soft breathy songs. They're not conquering songs.

Men are made to conquer. That's what we do. We take ground. We take territory. We rescue people.

We speak the truth. We're willing to rebuke and we're willing actually to come under God's authority for it all. But The modern worship songs, many of them are just on the soft side. And many of them, you know, are just, they're sung by beautiful women, and they're just so soft songs, such soft songs. And I'm gravitating away from soft, feminized songs.

I think some of them are very helpful and good because they actually deal with some of those right thoughts and emotions. But a few years ago, there was an article that appeared. What men want macho hymns, fewer flowers, and less dancing in church. That was the title of the article. And the message was men wanna sing strong songs that declare the truth, that say what is, and rather than songs that are too emotional or to quote the article, too girly.

They took a survey. Here are the most popular hymns among men. Onward Christian soldiers, and can it be? Guide me, oh thou great Jehovah. Be thou my vision, how great thou art, amazing grace, our God reigns, okay?

Those are strong songs. It's good to sing strong songs. And maybe one reason we lose men is because we sing, we sing girly songs. Feel free to come and talk to me after this. I'd be happy to talk to you about it.

But let this be an encouragement to the men. Sing. Sing like men. I charge you in the presence of God, sing like men. And again, I'm not throwing a rebuke on this congregation.

I'm just presenting what the Bible says about singing. And you've got men singing, strong men singing, in prison, in storms, and in all kinds of things, and they're singing. Praise God. So when you come into the congregation to present your body as a living sacrifice, sing you men. The ninth lesson, sing to teach, teach your children to sing.

I've talked about this before, I want to talk about it again. Most children, unless they're trained and led by their parents, they won't sing in church. They won't sing unless you intervene. Parents are actually given to children to intervene, to actually help them create a positive culture in their lives. But parents often don't intervene because they're afraid of their children.

They're afraid to lead their children And they feel that Asking them to do something they don't want to do, you know would somehow damage their relationship and They think well, you know little Johnny he'll pick it up eventually you know well here's the deal the Bible commands people to sing when they come into the congregation doesn't matter what Johnny thinks what matters is what God thinks I mean Solomon said a child left to himself, what, not good happens. Proverbs 29, 15. So here are a few tips. I'm gonna give you a few tips for teaching your kids to sing. Are you ready?

I'm gonna go super fast. First, make it plain when your family goes to church, we're going to sing. We sing because it's the right thing to do. We sing because this is what we do in church. This is God's kingdom.

You're coming into God's kingdom. You're gonna do what God tells you to do. God commands the church to sing. Second, don't let them mumble their way through the songs. That means it would be good to teach them some of the techniques of singing to improve their singing.

For example, teach them to open their mouths and project their voices, not mumbling. How about show them the posture of singing, Because if you're slouching, it's harder to belt it out and to make it clear and to actually exercise this body, this musical instrument that God gave you that includes your mouth, your vocal cords, your diaphragm, and these resonance chambers that God's given you, sitting up straight helps, don't let them slouch. Next, remind them to sing when they forget to sing, because they might forget, and you'll need to bring them back on track as a happy father or mother. Also, little children especially, when they're young, they don't know how to say all the words and they can't pronounce them. But here's a really good thing you can do.

Just have them hum the tune. Just have them hum the tune and hum it out loud as best they can. They'll pick up the words in time. Don't worry about it. They have time.

You have time. But start them out and have them hum the tune. They can generally follow the contours of the tune. And then also just, hey, make it fun. Sing songs at home, sing songs in the car.

Help them learn the lyrics so that they know what they are and and they'll and those songs will come back and bless them for many years so When you come into congregation To present your bodies of sacrifice make sure you've been a good parent and that you've taught your children to sing. Sila. Tenth, the tenth lesson, sing on the way to church. Sing on the way to church. There's actually a biblical pattern for this.

In the songs of ascent, We sang the very, we sang one of the songs of ascent this morning, Psalm 130. These songs, there are 15 of them, from Psalm 120 to 134, And they are songs that were sung by the families as they made their way up the mountain to Jerusalem to worship God. They were sung along the road. They were sung on the way to worship God in Jerusalem. And every family should sing these songs.

But they cover everything in your life, including this one we sang this morning in Psalm 130, a lamentation. So sing on the way to church. And then finally, the 11th lesson, sing to be saved, sing to be saved. A person can be converted when they're singing these songs. It'd be interesting to know how many people were converted singing a song.

The songs we sang this morning, a person could get converted by singing them if they believe them and embrace them. Out of the depths I cry to you from darkest places I will call. That's a person who knows they need God. Yet forgiveness is with you. Or how about a person who if finally hits them that they have a wonderful, merciful Savior, a precious Redeemer and friend?

You can be saved in a song like that. How about Psalm 150? You made the starry host, you traced the mountain peaks, you paint the evening sky with wonders. In other words, you can acknowledge God in all of his glory and his majesty in a song. Or, yet not I but Christ and me.

What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer? No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave. So when you come into the congregation, whoever you are, if you're dead in trespasses and sins, you can sing and be saved.

Singing is such a good gift. So, 11 lessons. Sing with your whole heart, sing to be changed, sing to do battle, sing in every season of life, sing to impact the people around you, sing the Psalms, sing the songs of lamentation, sing you men, teach your children to sing, sing on the way to church, And if necessary, sing to be saved. Would you pray with me? Lord, we are so grateful for this wonderful gift to carry us through every season of our lives.

All these songs in the keys of life, all these wonderful helps you give us through our pilgrimage in the world. Oh God, I pray that you would help us to be a church who sings the right songs with the right words here and when we depart from this place. Amen.