Worship is anything we do that displays how precious and important God is to us. Worship can be prayer. When we pray, we turn to God and communicate with him. Prayer demonstrates that God is important because we depend on him.

INTRO

Our simple rhythm for today is worship. Worship is anything we do that displays how precious and important God is to us. Worship can be prayer. When we pray, we turn to God and communicate with him. Prayer demonstrates that God is important because we depend on him. Reading scripture can be worship. When we read scripture and find a passage that corrects or encourages us, it points to God as the person who transforms or comforts us. Singing praise and worship songs is worship. Worship songs proclaim our gratitude to God. This demonstrates how important He is to us. There are a lot of ways to worship, but it’s a common misunderstanding to limit worship to just singing. We have to remember that worship encompasses much more. Singing is just one of the many ways we can worship God and with that said, this morning, as we dive into the simple rhythm of worship, I will be focusing specifically on discovering rhythms when we sing songs of praise.

EAR WORMS: The phenomenon of music getting stuck in our brain

Singing and music in general, are impactful tools in our everyday lives. Think about all the different songs you learned in grade school that taught you important lessons like the ABC’s, the 50 States Song, and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. They have all helped us learn important information about the world around us. Companies have taken advantage of the science behind these simple tunes and created jingles to help market their product. To this day, commercials like

• Pizza Hut’s 488-8888, pizza delivery is really great!

• Empire Carpet’s “800-588-2300 Empire”

• And McDonald’s “ba-ba-ba-baaa-ba”

Continue to live rent free in my head and play whenever I they want to. Similarly, music does this too. Here’s a sample of the current rotation of music that occupies my head:

• The chorus to Rihanna’s “Work”

• The chorus to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”

• And the Chicago Bulls’ intro theme from 1997 NBA Finals game 6

This is phenomenon is called earworms and this is what Sean McCollum has to say about them.

“So far, no one knows why imagined songs sometimes get stuck in our minds. Still, the subject of earworms fascinates brain scientists. They have found that people’s memory for music is incredibly powerful. And putting information to music can help us remember facts and details more easily. For example, the ABC Song sung to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” probably helped you learn your letters, right? People can remember the melody, beat, and words to a song years after they last heard it.”

And while some of the songs that are stuck in our head are helpful while others are simply strange, the fact that we can remember things easier by putting information to music means this is a powerful tool we can use to help us grow in our faith and relationship with Jesus. If we think about it, the entire book of Psalms is 150 chapters of worshipping God through songs. And in the New Testament, we’re told to sing these psalms to each other. Colossians 3:16 says,

16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

And earlier, during scripture reading we heard something similar in Ephesians 5. That is where we will be to better understand the importance of singing to help us find rhythms to connect with Jesus.

Paul encourages the church to sing

In Ephesians, Paul spends the first half of the letter explaining to the church how Jesus has created a multi-ethnic community of believers. Before this, only the Israelites had access to the promises of God, but Jesus made it possible for everyone to experience these promises. We’ve been adopted in God’s family and in light of that, the second half of Ephesians talking about how we should live our lives reflecting Jesus instead of our past life. He encourages the believers to “live a life worthy of the calling [they] have received” by “no longer living as the Gentiles do”. Gentiles was a term used to describe people who were not Israelites and had no exposure to God. They didn’t know His commandments or promises. But because they have been adopted, Paul invites them to live differently. Instead of pursuing their selfish desires, Paul invites them to take on Christ-like attributes of being humble, gentle, patient, loving, forgiving, united, and peaceful. He encourages them to build each other up with God’s truth so they aren’t impacted by false teachings, but to grow and mature in their faith.

When we finally get to Ephesians 5:15-20, Paul invites the believers to live carefully and wisely, taking advantage of every opportunity to live a life reflecting God’s desire. He then offers this unique contrast of what godly living looks like in verse 18-20. This is what he says,

18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. [] Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead of getting drunk, he encourages them to be filled with the Spirit and sing to one another. Kind of a weird contrast, but let’s dive in deeper to see what it means.

Be influenced by the holy spirit, not by spirits

Getting drunk on wine and being filled with the Spirit shared the idea of being influenced by something outside of ourselves, but they lead to two very different things. Getting drunk leads to debauchery, which means excessively indulging in things to fulfill your own desires and appetites. On the hand, being filled with the Spirit leads you to encourage others. Let me provide some more context to better understand what’s going on.

Many Bible scholars agree that Paul was addressing another religion that was common in the area that infiltrated the church. It was common for people to worship Dionysus, the god of wine. Followers of this religion believed they needed to get drunk to connect with their god so they would binge drink, which led them to engage in all sorts of crazy behavior including unrestrained sexual activity. When Paul makes the contrast that they shouldn’t get drunk on wine, he was addressing the social issue of drinking, but more importantly the spiritual issue of drinking. People thought that getting drunk caused them to connect with God, but they simply became more selfish versions of themselves. In contrast, believers who were filled with the Spirit were humble and thought of others before thinking of themselves and one way of encouraging others was singing.

When we are filled with the Spirit there is a joy that causes us to praise God with psalms, hymns, and songs. We sing these to one another and to ourselves. Now, if I’m honest, the image I get in my head from reading this passage is a Bollywood movie or a musical. Are we supposed to break into song with each other? It’d be cool, but not necessarily. It’s a lot more practical than that. When it comes to singing to one another think of moments like church service, at a concert with your favorite Christian artist, in life group, youth group, around the campfire, in the car, etc. When we sing together songs of worship we are singing to God and we are also singing to each other. When we sing praise and worship, it’s for God and we also get to encourage and remind each other these truths about God. It’s one of my favorite things about service. When I get to hear you sing and proclaim these truths about God. It encourages me to be faithful in the words that we are singing about God. And many of these songs are based on the Psalms in the Bible. These lyrics are based on the scripture, which is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness according to 2 Timothy 3:16.

We’re also invited to sing to ourselves. Paul says,

19 Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord

Similarly, it’s to praise God and remind us the truths about God. All throughout Scripture, singing is used to praise God. In Revelation, we’re given images of every creature in heaven and earth praising Jesus on the throne. In Exodus, the Israelites sing after the cross the Red Sea to escape Egypt and slavery. Notice a pattern of how creation sings to God. And because God created us, angels, and animals, God sings too! Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that God sings over us. This is what it says,

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

And in Hebrews 2:10-12, we’re told that Jesus sings. This is what it says,

“10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. [] 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

Singing is a rhythm that God and Jesus use to proclaim truth about themselves to us, so when we sing, we are simply doing what they do.

APPLICATION

Now, we don’t have to be musically and vocally talented to do any of this. At its core, singing is proclaiming truths about God, so I have two ways for us to find rhythms when it comes to singing.

Earlier, I mentioned about earworms, songs that get played in head over and again. See if there’s a part of a worship song that is stuck in your head. Sometimes songs that get stuck in our head have significant meanings and other times it’s random. If there isn’t a worship song stuck in your head, start listening to some and examine the biblical truth in the lyrics.

In the past few weeks, we’ve been singing a song called “Firm Foundation” and the bridge goes like this,

“Rain came, wind blew, but my house was built on you. I’m safe with you, I’m gonna make it through”

This comes right out of Matthew 7:24-27, which says,

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Find scriptural truth in the lyrics of the songs that you sing. Make that connection to remind you that they aren’t empty lyrics, but they are eternal truths abut Jesus found in the Bible. There’s a website called “The Berean Test” that examine worship songs to see how much of the lyrics line up with Scripture. It’s a helpful tool to use if you’re trying to find the meaning of any Christian songs you’re curious about.

Second, continue to engage with scripture on a regular basis and examine the songs you hear with the Bible. These songs are supposed to be inspired by scripture, but if they don’t contain any truth from scripture, it might be worth listening to something else that does or proclaim the truths from Scripture because we’re supposed to sing the psalms. We don’t sing just to sing. Singing proclaims the truth of Jesus to others and to yourself. So sing!

Let’s pray.