In his book called Worship Matters Bob Kauflin writes:

“Every time we lead the church in worship we are doing more than just singing songs. We’re leading believers in a battle for the truth. The world has been trying to squeeze us into its mold, allure us with its smiles, frighten us with its frowns. Our flesh tells us that following God isn’t worth it.  He can’t be trusted. We’re constantly tempted to believe lies.”

Now I don’t know about you, but a lot of Sunday’s I don’t exactly feel like I am leading a battle charge. Most Sundays we show up at church. We warmup and practice our chorale anthem, and most of the time we sound pretty good. We walk on stage and lead the church in singing, a few people are engaged and look like they believe what they are singing. Others look somber, and others don’t sing at all. They just stare blankly into space. Still others stare at us like they’re mad, which is really disquieting when you’re trying to encourage people to worship God. We sing our anthem, the pastor gets up and speaks, we sing a closing song, and then everyone leaves. Most of us forget what the pastor spoke on by the time we wake up from our Sunday afternoon nap. Then we show back up the next week and do it again.  It doesn’t feel like we’ve led people in a battle for the truth. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t even feel like what we’re doing is important at all. But let me tell you something: Worship Matters. Worship matters to God, and it should matter to us too.

We have one hour a week to remind people that God is bigger than their problems and their joys, greater than their sorrows and their successes, more significant than their testing’s and their triumphs, and that their lives are to be lived for His glory. – Bob Kauflin

Worship plays an essential part in leading believers in the battle for that truth.

Worship matters to God. We see music at the beginning of creation. In the book of Job, it says that when God created the world the “morning stars sang together for joy.” We also see it at the end of all time in the book of Revelation. In John’s vision of heaven, we see all of the redeemed gathered around God’s throne singing His praises. In fact, one of the only things we know that we do here on earth that we will continue to do in heaven is sing. You don’t see any preachers in heaven talking about how awesome God is. They’re not needed. We’ll be with God and when we are, our natural response will be to sing out endless praise.

God is a musical God. Scripture shows us that entire Trinity sings. In Zephaniah, God sings over us. In Hebrews, Jesus sings with us “in the midst of the congregation.” Jesus also sang a hymn with the disciples after the Last Supper. In Ephesians, one of the fruits of being filled with the Holy Spirit is singing.  The longest book in the Bible, Psalms, is a book of songs. There are 50 direct commands in Scripture to sing including: Sing to the Lord all the earth, sing joyfully to the Lord, sing to God you kingdoms of the earth, sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises, and my personal favorite sing to the Lord a new song. There are over 400 references to singing in the Bible. In Ephesians and Cololssians, we are instructed to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” to God and to each another.

These are not suggestions. They are not preferences. They are not good ideas. These are commands.  We worship a triune God who sings, and He wants us to be like Him.  So, Why does He want His Church to sing? Why does He want people to be specifically trained in leading His church in worship? Why does he put such an emphasis in on music in His Word?  There are many reasons.

First: Singing helps us remember words.  Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”  There is a connection between singing and letting God’s Word dwell in you richly.  We remember lyrics to songs.

Did you know that Martin Luther wrote 36 hymns? Luther wanted to get reformation theology into the hearts of his people. So he preached sermons and he wrote songs. In fact, he used tunes that were common folk tunes everyone knew, and he changed the words to get across Biblical theology. His most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, is thought to be set to the tune of a famous German drinking song. Can’t you picture a bunch of Germans sitting around singing that tune? Luther was trying to infuse Biblical theology into a group of people who knew nothing about the Bible, and the best way he knew to do that was to use music.

God did a similar thing in the book of Deuteronomy. Did you know that God taught the children of Israel a song?  In Deut. 31, the Israelites are about to go into the Promised Land and God tells Moses that the people are eventually going to turn away from Him. God teaches Moses a song to teach the Israelites so it will be a “witness” to them of the great things God has done for them. He says that their children will continue to sing it for generations.  God taught them a song to help them remember! Luther taught his people songs to help them remember.

The application for us is clear. We sing to remember all that God has done and will continue to do for us and the words will dwell in us richly. Because when you set words to music people remember the lyrics.

Second:  Singing expresses and engages our emotions.  In every culture, music is a language of emotion that helps us express what we feel. “My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.” (Psalm 71:23).  The words of his redeemed soul overflow into song. Joy and singing go together. Emotions and music go together. Have you ever been to a movie without music?  No, it would be a terrible movie. When the movie is intense, there is intense music. When the hero wins there is triumphant music. When two people find true love, we have the Titanic theme song. The music expresses the emotions of the characters!  John Piper says, “The reason we sing is because there are depths and heights and intensities and emotions that will not be satisfied by mere words. They demand music to express what we feel.” What else could express our gratitude at being saved from our sins and an eternity without God? How could we possibly express our thankfulness without music?

Third: Singing reflects our unity across generations. What else do we all do together when we gather as the church? What action could we perform that would involve everyone from 9 year olds to 90 year olds? We don’t do anything together that involves all age groups except sing. We break up for CE classes. We divide small groups up by ages. We have different pastors for different age groups. What do we do to show our unity as the body of Christ? We lift up our voices and worship God together. Singing is the only inter-generational act that we perform together. That’s why I love involving members of our Youth Group on our Worship Team at FCC Salina. We have 60 year olds and 16 year olds playing the same songs and leading in worship together. I’m quite sure if you took a poll, every one of them would prefer a different style of music, but they put that aside and fully engage in worshipping the God that saved them. What else could a group with that large of an age gap do together that would unify them in their faith and their beliefs? Only music could do that!

Fourth: Singing is a public way of showing that you follow Christ. “Praise God in the great congregation; praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel.” (Psalm 68:26)  “…in the great congregation I will praise the Lord.” (Psalm 26:12b) When you stand up in a worship service, in a crowd of people and sing God’s praises you are publicly stating that you follow God. You are telling the people around you, you are stating it to your family, and most importantly to your children. When you raise your hands in worship, when you clap your hands, when you lift your voice, it is a public declaration that you and your house serve the Lord.

We have a pretty extensive lighting system at our church and it plays an important part in worship. It helps us see people’s faces. It minimizes distractions. Yet we don’t automatically turn the lights down as soon as the music starts. We lower them for half the songs, but we leave them up for the other half.  That’s intentional. The lights are up during our closing song. They’re up at the beginning of the service.  It’s so that people see you worshipping, and you see other people worshipping. It’s not only a statement by you, but it’s an encouragement to your brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are not alone; we are living out our faith together in community.  That’s why the verse in Ephesians says to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God and to each other. It is encouraging when we gather together and sing God’s truths.

These are just four reasons why we lead people in worship every Sunday. This is why we practice and rehearse songs. We are leading people in a battle for the truth. We are reminding them of God’s Word when we sing Biblical truths. We are stirring their affections and emotions in such a way that it allows them to express their thankfulness to God. We are helping them show their unity in Christ by leading young and old, male and female in worship.  We are allowing them to publicly state their belief in Christ and in doing so encourage their fellow believers. God gave us singing to deepen our relationship with him, to encourage each other, and to allow us to express our joy at being redeemed. When we lead the church in worship it has eternal significance.

Worship matters. Music matters. Don’t ever think that it doesn’t.

Categories: Paul Austin Uncategorized

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