Sermons
The Power Of Song
THE POWER OF SONG
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / July 08, 2018
Last Sunday our young men did a wonderful job presenting messages on camp-related themes.
We thank them - - Josh Espinosa … Logan Pitney … and Dylan Wood.
You three made us smile for various reasons, but most importantly I think you surely brought a smile to the face of God.
This evening Rod Sheldon will be our guest song leader for our annual Songs Of Light.
Please plan to join us at 6:30 for this 22nd annual summer songfest.
We're having a delightful time with our Arizona family.
In addition to Betina and the boys arriving just prior to camp,
Isaiah & Sydney Jeanne arrived last Sunday PM with their three + one.
There is never a dull moment and its none-stop excitement with twins + a preschooler + two teen boys.
We're hoping to take an overnight trip to Niagara Falls, Canada, tomorrow.
Now we've decided to make it a day trip. Our problem is finding rooms on short notice. It's the strangest thing.
The reservations agencies (driven by greed no doubt) won't let you put more than four people in a room.
We were hoping to get two rooms side-by-side in the same hotel. Now they're insisting it needs to be three rooms.
It's like the robots are taking over. The human desk clerks are having a hard time over-riding them.
It reminds me of the discombobulation I encountered once at a local McDonald's
when I asked a young counter attendant to give me a small coffee in a medium cup.
When you have a mom & dad, twins just 1½ and a four year old you don't need three beds for one night.
One reason I'm telling you all this is in hopes that you'll cut me some slack with this morning's sermon.
Our house is a zoo. Our normal routines have has been turned upside. Chaos is reigning.
It's a cherished kind of chaos. Even Bodie the dog is looking at me as if to say, “What's going on?”
With tonight being our Songs of Light, I want to speak this morning about THE POWER OF SONG.
In Col.3:16-17, Paul gives this exhortation - -
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one
another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
An whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
In our fellowship we often appeal to this text (and a parallel passage, Eph.5:19-20) to emphasize the a cappella
aspect of our worship in song. A cappella is an Italian word that means, “in the manner of the chapel”,
which in turn has become a reference to “singing without instrumental accompaniment”.
Eph.5:19 includes the phrase, making melody with your heart to the Lord.
The implication here is that THE HEART is the instrument God calls upon us to employ.
These texts (Col.3:16f & Eph.5:19f) teach that, but they also teach much more than just that.
They not only teach us the source and nature of our singing, but they also underscore the POWER of song.
Congregational singing may prove to be entertaining, but that is not its ultimate goal.
Christian singing has two primary aims - - To praise God and to instruct one another.
Actually it might be more precise to say that our singing has three primary aims - -
praising God, teaching and admonishing others and serving self by educating and edifying.
So this morning, I want to speak a bit (in brief segments) and invite you to sing with me on four topics.
It is good to sing songs in the course of our daily lives that remind us of our DEPENDENCE.
In many ways this is counter-culture, especially in the U.S.A. - - did we not just celebrate independence day?
The Scriptures remind us that we are not autonomous creatures.
Prov.3:5 / Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
The apostle Peter writes (1Pet.5:6-7) - - Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting your anxieties upon Him, because He cares for you.
Let's sing together / I Need Thee Every Hour
As with our Christian walk in general, so it is with our songs, we need to focus on THE CROSS.
Without the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, we would be nothing and our future would be bleak.
As Paul notes in the opening verses of his epistle to the churches of Galatia (Gal.1:3-4) - -
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us.. .
Our lives must be cross-centered in order to be Christ-centered.
Paul closes the Galatian letter by affirming (Gal.6:14) - -
May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Paul's compass for life is revealed ever so clearly in 1Cor.2:2 - -
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
Let's sing together / Nothing But The Blood
A third emphasis that ought to find itself in the songs that we sing (to ourselves) is ABIDING.
In John's gospel (Jn.15) Jesus speaks about the importance of abiding.
His illustration comes from the growing of grape vineyards - - the vine and the branches.
Jesus says in Jn.15:4-5 - - Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine
and you are the branches; He who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit;
for apart from me you can do nothing.
I was impressed one day this past week when Mia (4 years old) quoted Philp.4:13 - -
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Apart from Christ, we can do nothing … but through Him we can do all things.
Let's sing together / In Heavenly Love Abiding
One final element of our personal ministry in song is GRATITUDE.
Vic Rossi is known for his occasional verbal slip-ups. He has a good sense of humor about it.
Sometime not long ago he said something in a prayer that was both especially eloquent and truly true.
He spoke of gratitude being the gravity of our lives that keeps us grounded.
In case you didn't notice it earlier, our key text has this thought through and through.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another
with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
In Eph.5:20 he writes, always giving thanks for all things in the name of Lord Jesus Christ to God...
Let's sing together / Father Of Mercies
If the only time we are singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is when we're assembled
together as a church family, something is quite deficient in our spiritual life.
Songs are precious to us and they are so powerful.
They shape our thinking. They mold our heart. They refresh our mind.
They supply us with stamina for a Christian walk that is not a sprint but a marathon.
Yes, when we sing together they minister as we speak to and admonish another.
But an additional power from song comes when we take it with us each and every day.
So then, let us learn to SING TO OURSELVES. Songs about - -
our dependence upon God … The cross of Christ … The importance of abiding in Christ … and the gravity of gratitude.
These four categories are just a sampling of dozens of specific Bible studies that we can engage in
teaching ourselves and others as we sing.
Our singing not only flows forth from allowing the Word of Christ to richly
dwell within us, it also serves to replenish the Word in our lives.
Based on the Scriptures, we sing.
But when we sing we are also storing up Scripture in our hearts.
It was a joy to witness two teens give their lives to the Lord recently at camp.
The power of baptism is that it is a baptism into Christ Jesus.
Paul writes in Gal.3:26-27 - -
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
If you truly believe in Jesus; if you have a growing, trusting faith in Christ;
we urge you to be baptized into Christ-center and thereby clothe yourself with Him.
Our invitation song is meant to encourage you to step out in faith and follow Jesus.
Baptism is God's way of re-enacting the crucifixion in our own life.
Listen to Paul one more time (Rom.6:3-4) - -
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
