The title of the sermon tonight is Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
This is a phrase that is found over and over again in the Bible.
In fact, throughout the Bible, the term praise is used over 300 times.
And by some measurements, this is the most often repeated command in the Bible where
God is commanding you to do something.
He actually commands us to praise Him more than He commands us to do anything else.
All throughout the New Testament, there are references made to praising the Lord.
The Bible, for example, says in the book of Hebrews somewhere, it says by Him therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
The Bible says, I will sing unto the Lord.
In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.
And over and over again in the book of Psalms, the Bible just keeps repeating the fact that
we need to be praising the Lord.
It's no coincidence that the longest book in the Bible is a song book.
It's no coincidence that the book of Psalms is the central book in the Bible when you
let it fall open right in the middle.
You're in the book of Psalms.
The book of Psalms is considered so important that even when people publish just a New Testament,
they often will tag on the book of Psalms and have a New Testament plus Psalms.
The book of Psalms is a song book.
The book of Psalms tells us hundreds and hundreds of times to praise the Lord.
This is something that is obviously important to God in order for Him to devote so many
verses and so many chapters to it and to tell us over and over again hundreds of times that
He wants us to do something, we better be doing it.
Now let's read this scripture in Psalm 150 that we just read, praise ye the Lord, praise
God in His sanctuary.
The word sanctuary means the holy place.
This could also refer to the church, meaning the assembly of God's people, which is the
house of God in the New Testament.
It's saying praise the Lord in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord.
Let's go back to Psalm 145.
Psalm 145, the Bible reads in verse number 1, I will extol thee, my God, O king, and
I will bless thy name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works, and man
shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness.
They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness.
Now notice in these scriptures where he's telling us over and over again to praise the
Lord, to sing songs to His name.
One of the things that comes up over and over again are the reasons why we should praise
Him.
Because of His greatness, because of His power, because of His majesty, because of all the
mighty acts that He has performed.
Praise the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.
It's clear that God deserves to be praised.
He desires to be praised.
He ought to be praised, and praising the Lord is not once a week where we go to some worship
center somewhere and praise the Lord.
The Bible says every day in verse 2, I will bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever
and ever.
Every single day we should be praising the Lord, Monday we should be praising the Lord,
Tuesday we should be praising the Lord, Wednesday we should be praising the Lord, Thursday we
should be praising the Lord.
Look, if this is not a part of your life, you're wrong.
You're not fulfilling these commands.
God desires us to have His praises continually in our mouth on a daily basis.
Go to verse 21 in the same chapter, my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let
all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever.
God is holy.
God is so magnificent, He's so powerful, and He's worthy to be praised on a daily basis.
You know, we live in a world where God is disrespected and blasphemed.
People don't have a view of the Lord that's as high and lofty as it should be.
They don't see as Isaiah did in chapter 6 of Isaiah, where he saw the Lord high and
lifted up, but rather they don't have a high view of God.
So they'll actually be blasphemous towards His name.
Somebody asked me yesterday when I was out soul winning, what does blasphemy mean?
Because I was giving them the Gospel, and somehow I was mentioning a list of sins, talking
about the fact that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the fact that
we all deserve to go to hell, and that without Jesus Christ that would be our fate, without
faith in the Lord saving us.
And he said, what's blasphemy?
He said, I've never heard of that.
I've never heard that word before.
And I told him, I said, blasphemy is when we drag God down to a lower level than where
He belongs.
When we treat God with disrespect.
When we would treat Him how we would just treat a normal human being, or how we would
treat an animal, or how we would just treat something common or profane, instead of giving
God the proper respect and dignity that He deserves.
That's what it means to blaspheme.
It's to be irreverent, to be disrespectful.
When we talk about God, we need to be careful that we speak of Him with respect.
When we talk about Jesus Christ, we need to be respectful, not in a joking, mocking, foolish
manner where we drag Him down, or call Him, you know, the man upstairs, or Jesus is my
homeboy, or what, you know, all this.
No, He isn't.
He's the Lord of the whole universe.
We don't need to call Him J.C. and all these kind of nicknames.
What was it that everybody calls Him?
When we were at Soul Waning Brothers Segura in Spanish, they put like an Ito on the end.
What was it that they would say?
You remember that?
Come on.
Help me out, man.
I'm drowning up here.
We would go out Soul Waning ... What?
What is it?
Yeah.
I don't know.
We were out Soul Waning, and they ... Oh, Diosito.
Look, I'm not claiming to be a Spanish expert here.
Maybe I'm wrong about this, because Spanish is a second language for me, but I'm thinking
there's nothing Ito about Dios.
You know, Diosito, because Ito is like when things are small.
Right?
You put an Ito and an Ita.
Spanish is not my best language.
I speak German a lot better than Spanish, and in German, you got the same thing.
You put an ending on the Chen that makes things smaller, or a caw cat in Hungarian.
I'm kind of familiar with that concept, and they're talking about, oh, Diosito, Diosito.
I'm thinking like, there's no Diosito.
Like little God?
How about the great, giant, big God who spans the heavens with His hand?
The creator of the whole universe.
I'm saying, we don't want to be blasphemous, or disrespectful, or belittling of God.
We want to give Him the glory due to His name.
That's why the Lord's Prayer starts out, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
name, giving God the proper respect before we even get into prayer, starting out by just
putting Him in His proper place as our Lord.
That's why, in the Bible, it talks about getting on our faces, or on our knees, to pray unto
the Lord.
Why?
Showing total respect, total submission, total reverence to God.
Look at chapter 146, verse 1, in Psalms, it says,
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul, while I live will I praise the Lord.
I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
Now let me ask, is that your motto today?
I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
I mean, if I'm still alive, if I have any breath in my lungs, if my vocal cords can
still work, I will be singing praises to God.
That's why Paul and Silas, when they were thrown in jail in the middle of the night,
they're singing praises to God, and the prisoners heard them, and God was glorified in the ears
of the heathen that they were incarcerated with.
Singing praises to the Lord.
Look at chapter 147, verse 1, Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto
our God, for it is pleasant and praise is comely.
Look at Psalm 148, Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise him in
the heights, praise ye him all his angels, praise ye him all his hosts, praise ye him
sun and moon, praise him all ye stars of light, praise him ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters
that be above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.
He hath also established them forever and ever.
He hath made a decree which shall not pass, praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons
and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains
and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and
flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth, both
young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord, for
his name alone is excellent.
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
He also exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints, even of the children
of Israel, of people near unto him.
Praise ye the Lord.
I mean this is some pretty strong language here.
I mean God's demanding some serious praise here.
And he's not talking in small terms.
And he's not just casually mentioning this as, oh, here's another commandment.
No, no, this is an emphasis in the Bible.
It's an emphasis in the book of Psalms.
And I remember also in Revelation, when the Bible talks about in chapter 5, everything
that's in heaven and everything that's on the earth and everything that's under the
earth, singing praises to God in Revelation chapter 5, for example.
Look at chapter number 149 there, Psalm 149 verse 1.
Praise ye the Lord.
Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints.
Now that right there shows that we don't just sing the Psalms from the book of Psalms, but
we can also sing new songs in the sense that they're not songs in the Bible.
They're just songs that people have written thereafter, different songs and hymns and
spiritual songs that we can sing to praise the Lord.
He says, sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him.
Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in the dance.
Let them sing praises unto him with the timber and harp, for the Lord taketh pleasure in
his people.
Look, the Bible is saying there that God enjoys listening to his people sing.
He enjoys being praised by his people.
He takes pleasure in that.
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
Verse 5, let the saints be joyful in glory.
Let them sing aloud upon their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute
vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute upon them the judgment written.
This honor have all his saints.
Praise ye the Lord.
Go to Psalm 100.
Psalm 100, you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I don't have a good singing voice.
I'm not able to sing.
I don't have the ability to sing.
Well, here's why.
Because you don't sing.
Here's a news flash.
Honestly, everything in life is 90% hard work and 10% talent.
That's pretty much everything in life.
Sure, different people have certain talents or predispositions, and maybe certain people
are born with a better hardware of a tongue and vocal cords and a throat and lungs that,
you know, work a little bit better than someone else's.
But honestly, 90% of whether it's sports, whether it's music, whether it's learning
a foreign language, whether it's anything, 90% of it's just hard work.
And people who have talent are usually people who just like to do certain things.
So they spend a lot of time doing it, and then they get good at doing it, and then everybody
says they have talent.
Talent is a myth by people who don't work hard at things.
So they invent this myth that, oh, well, they're just so talented.
I'm just not gifted like that.
That's why I don't do anything.
That's why I don't get any smarter.
That's why I don't learn anything or excel at anything, because I'm just not talented.
No, you just don't work on it.
You are good at the things that you work on.
Now it's easy to just sit back and think that certain people are just so gifted at this
and that.
You know, it'd be easy, for example, to look at our piano player, Catherine, or our other
piano player, Matt Adams, and look at them and say, oh, what amazingly talented individuals.
What talent.
And to just think that Catherine just rolls out of bed on Sunday morning with the ability
to play this piano.
But did you know that she comes here for hours, multiple days per week.
She'll come in here sometimes five days a week and play piano for three or four hours
at a time.
And Garrett said that's right, because he's here sometimes and here's her doing it.
We have live music here when we work in the office.
It's great.
We have a live pianist down here.
It's a great work environment.
Now we just need nap time and bean bags and ergonomic office chairs.
But honestly, you know, she's down here playing for hour after hour after hour after hour.
Talk to Matt Adams.
He plays for hour upon hour upon hour.
Everyone who plays the piano well has spent hundreds of hours to even become a decent
pianist.
And if they're an excellent pianist, they have spent thousands of hours.
You know how long it takes to become a virtuoso on any instrument?
Ten thousand hours.
That's the rule of thumb to become an expert level anything, whether it's pianist, guitar
ist, clarinet, flute, whatever.
The rule of thumb is ten thousand hours to become a professional.
I'm not saying, I mean, you can get good in a lot less time than that.
I'm saying to become a professional level of anything.
Now just stop and do the math on that.
Just stop and think about that, okay?
Let's say you practice for one hour a day, right?
Every day, one hour, that's pretty committed.
That's pretty good, right?
One hour every day.
Okay, so 365 days a year, okay.
Let's just say that you miss 30 days or so in the year.
So just to use round numbers, if you practice for pretty much an hour almost every single
day, one hour, okay, then in three years you would be at a thousand hours.
That means if you practice for about an hour every day, it would take 30 years to become
an expert, to become a professional.
And when you see people that are professional, violinists, pianists, cellists, or whatever,
and they're in their 20s and 30s, that's because they practice for four hours a day, three
hours a day, five hours a day.
And people just sit back, whoa, the talent.
They practice their piano for three minutes a day and then say, I have no talent.
Oh, God just didn't bless me with the talent.
No, God forgot to bless you with the work ethic.
That's what you weren't blessed with.
I'm serious.
And look, I know because I grew up learning the piano, playing the piano.
And as a piano player, I am below average as a piano player.
But here's the thing.
And I've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours practicing to just become a somewhat less
than mediocre pianist.
Now I could be an expert if I would put in the time and work and effort.
It's a lot of work.
It's hard work.
It's a lot of commitment in order to become good at something.
Now what does that have to do with anything?
Well, I'm not saying that we should all devote three or four hours a day to playing music.
Some people, that's their calling.
That's what they're doing.
And it's a blessing to the rest of us when people put a lot of work into something like
that.
And we can enjoy the fruits of their labor through skillfully played music.
But when it comes to singing, let's apply it to singing.
How do you get good at singing?
By spending 10,000 hours singing.
That's how.
You could be a great singer.
But you could even be a good singer with just a few hundred hours of singing or a thousand
hours of singing.
Now, I've noticed that there are people who can't sing.
They can't carry a tune, okay?
And then there are other people who sing and don't sing anything of it and just say, well,
of course I know how to sing.
Usually people who know how to sing, it's because they grew up singing.
Usually it's because they grew up in church.
And that's one of the great things about bringing your children to church.
Bring your children to church and make sure that they sing during the singing time.
When we're singing the hymns, get them singing.
And listen, they will grow up knowing how to sing.
Why?
Because they're going to spend hundreds of hours singing in church.
And by the way, that's why we don't have a bunch of performers up here.
The average modern church today, you show up and you just sit back and enjoy the show.
We have an interactive congregational singing.
We have no choir, no special music, no solos, no duets.
Why?
Because we want you to sing.
The Bible says in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee?
And all of our children are growing up and singing.
And you say, well, pastor, I'm just not a good singer.
Well, listen, if you start singing, you'll get better at it.
And the less you sing, the worse you're going to sing.
And the more you do it, the better you're going to get.
And here's the thing, even if you sing bad, God still wants to hear you sing.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, the Bible says.
And you know what?
When my children sing, I like it.
Now other people might think, oh man, your kids can't sing.
But I always like listening to my children sing.
Even if they sing bad, even if they sing wrong, when you're the parent, you like it.
Because when you're a parent, you like virtually everything that your kids do.
Because you love your kids, you enjoy your kids, and it's fun to listen to them sing.
And the younger they are, and the more wrong they get it, the more you like it.
Well, why would God be any different?
If God's our Heavenly Father, and he takes pleasure in his people, I guarantee you that
if you just start belting out the hymns off key in the shower, God is going to like that.
God's going to be pleased.
Because at least you're obeying.
And he knows your heart, too.
And as you belt it out, you will become better at singing.
You know, I noticed that my wife, over the last 16 years that we've been married, has
gotten a lot better at singing.
When I first met her, she didn't have a lot of experience singing.
She didn't grow up in church.
But after 16 years as an adult, sitting in Fundamental Baptist Church and singing, now
she can sing on key, and hit the notes, and sing on point.
Why?
Just from practicing.
Just from doing it.
That's how you get good at anything.
How do you get good at preaching?
Doing it.
How do you get good at soul winning?
By doing it.
How do you become a good reader?
Oh, I'm just not a good reader.
I'm just not talented like that.
No, you just don't read.
And the more you read, the better you'll get at it.
Oh, I'm no good at running.
Because you don't run.
I'm no good at this.
I'm no good at that.
Do it.
That's how you'll get good at it.
And singing and praising the Lord are not something that are just optional for a select
few where God just gifts certain people and they're the singers.
No.
God said, let everything that have breath praise the Lord.
So you say, well, I want to be exempted from singing in church.
I want to be exempted from praising the Lord, at least on Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays,
Fridays and Saturdays.
I'm only going to sing in church.
No, no, no.
As long as you're breathing God's air that He lets you breathe, that He can take away
from you at any time, you owe it to Him to praise Him tomorrow and Tuesday and Thursday
and Friday and Saturday and every single day of the week.
This praise should be continually in our mouth.
We should be singing praises unto God.
You know, I remember when I was a kid, my mom and dad and my brother and sister, you
know, they would sing with me and they would record me singing on a little cassette recorder.
Because you record little kids when they sing and so forth.
And I remember going back and listening to tapes of myself singing as a two-year-old.
And I was singing.
This is how it sounded.
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, wah, wah, eh, eh, wah, eh, wah, eh, wah, eh, wah, eh, wah, eh.
Praise God!
Dwelling in Beulah Land.
And they loved that.
Why?
Because I was their brother.
Because I was their son.
Because they liked it.
A little kid.
Well, you don't think that God likes to look at babes in Christ and people that have been
saved for six months or people that have been saved for a year or two years or three
years singing hymns and singing them wrong and making a mistake.
You know, it's a sweet sound to him.
Just like our children singing is a sweet sound to us.
You know, it's funny how kids, they get the words wrong in the songs, right?
I remember when we were kids, we used to sing Sound the Battle Cry when we were little kids.
And we thought it was, Christ is Captain of the Mighty Thumb.
You know, Christ is Captain of the Mighty Thumb.
And look, what kid doesn't think it's we three kings of orientar bearing gifts, we travel
so far?
You're like, wait, isn't that what it says?
No, that's not what it says.
We traverse afar, right?
What are some of the other ones that kids have gotten wrong?
Testify.
Has anybody got one?
You got one?
Yeah, he punched me to victory.
Did you?
You did that too?
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
My kids would say, he punched me to victory instead of he plunged me to victory.
Yeah.
They'd put their fist up in the air.
He punched me to victory.
What's another, what's another one from our family?
Kids, help me out.
What'd you do?
You don't want to admit it, huh?
Putting you on the spot.
Oh yeah, and then they would sing, my kids would sing higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand, but they would sing, Lord, pick me up then put me down.
By faith on heaven's higher ground, you know, they mix up the words and get it, you know,
and then I remember my son Solomon who's one year old would sing the B-I-B-I-B, the B-I-B-I-B,
the B-I-B-I-B, the B-I-B-I-B Bible.
Anybody else got one?
Am I the only one?
Sophia, again.
Swing low, sweet cheerio, that was a Sophia original.
The point is, it's not really about the talent, and here's the thing.
This is not American Idol Baptist Church.
This is not Star Search Baptist Church, you know.
We're not here trying to show off the talent and here to glorify self.
Look, when we're singing praises to the Lord, the goal is not to glorify self, it's to glorify
the Lord.
In fact, I've often said to people, and I only said this to people that I knew really
well because, you know, and use tact and discretion, people, okay.
Don't say this to people that you don't know very well.
I'm saying I said this to people that I knew really well, close friends.
Don't be rude to people, okay.
I've said to somebody, hey, you know, why do you sing in that self-glorifying voice?
Why don't you just sing normal?
Why don't you just sing praise to the Lord, you know, instead of it seems like you're
trying to put on too much of a show and kind of draw attention to yourself.
You know what I'm talking about.
And the style that I'm talking about is sort of like when people sing the Star-Spangled
Banner before sporting events.
Now here's the thing about the Star-Spangled Banner.
The whole point of people singing the Star-Spangled Banner, I'm assuming, is to somehow praise
and glorify the United States or show some kind of a feeling in their heart of patriotism
toward the United States of America, but I feel like whenever these singers get up and
sing the Star-Spangled Banner before a sporting event, the last thing on their mind is the
God that's mentioned in the Star-Spangled Banner or the United States or patriotism
or anything like that.
It seems more like it's just about glorifying self.
Where they do this kind of just, oh, say, can you see it?
It's like a Jimi Hendrix Star-Spangled Banner with their vocal chords where it's like, whoa.
They're like tuning in a receiver.
They're looking everywhere for the note until they finally find it.
Not only that, but a lot of times they get this bedroom sensual voice, this seductive
voice.
You know what I'm talking about.
Don't look at me like I'm crazy.
Where they sing in this seductive voice.
You know all these women singers out in the world.
They get a real seductive voice and it's a bedroom style voice.
It's not about praising the Lord.
It just becomes about glorifying themselves, drawing attention to themselves, or even more
wickedly seducing men unto themselves, which is even more wicked, especially if they're
singing about the Lord.
This is what a lot of the contemporary Christian singers, they sing like they're seducing a
lover and they're supposedly singing praises to God.
But are they really praising God or is it really about glorifying themselves?
It's about glorifying the Lord when we sing of the Lord.
That's why it's not about talent.
It's not about wowing everyone and impressing everyone.
But have you ever heard people that sometimes they sing normal and then sometimes they switch
into this really weird self-glorifying, pretending to be a star mode?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Only very few people know what I'm talking about.
Well, you know what?
That's why I'm here telling you about it, so that you will know what I'm talking about.
Because it's out there.
It's where they get into this mode where instead of just singing normal, it just becomes this
putting on a show and drawing attention to me, me, me instead of just singing right.
Singing normal.
We need to be modest about our singing anyway and basically sing so as to glorify the Lord.
Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't sing skillfully.
We should.
We should sound as good as we can and sing as skillfully as we can and sing as loud as
we can.
The Bible talks about on musical instruments to play skillfully with a loud noise.
But it should be in our heart.
And here's the thing.
You know your heart and God knows your heart, whether you're playing skillfully and singing
skillfully in order to glorify God or whether it's like a look at me.
Everybody.
Hey, everybody.
Check me out.
Look at me.
Look how awesome I am.
And you know what?
That spirit is huge, whether people like to admit it or not.
That is a big thing in worldly music.
And these rock stars and these singers are worshiped as gods and goddesses.
And images of them are just adored and venerated by their fans.
People go to sleep at night with the poster up on the ceiling.
And they go to these concerts and almost worship at the feet of these rock stars.
And if they get to go backstage, often they're bursting into tears and they're shaking.
And who knows what I'm talking about?
Yeah.
So there's a music that's out there.
And there's a style of singing that's out there.
And there's an attitude that's out there that's not using music for anything that glorifies
the Lord.
But rather, it's just a carnal self-worship, glorifying of self, the pride of life, arrogance,
and lifting up of people instead of lifting up of the Lord.
And this is the Christian contemporary music industry in a nutshell.
Many of the people in the Christian contemporary music industry don't even believe in Christ.
It's true.
They don't believe in Christ.
Many of them, if you actually read up on the bands and the history of the music, a lot
of them, they get up and perform these Christian concerts.
And then they go get drunk.
They go snort cocaine.
They go fornicate.
I mean, it's everywhere.
I'm thinking of Christian bands that I went to see as a teenager, where I went to a Christian
rock band.
And then later, you're, oh, by the way, when you saw that guy, he was addicted to heroin
and he was committing adultery.
Literally.
Heroin.
He's a heroin addict.
And he's getting up there praising the Lord, right?
No.
It's about making money.
It's about getting fans.
It's about the fame.
It's about the rock and roll lifestyle.
That's what it's about.
And so we need to beware of never letting that spirit come into our church.
Now look, there are other good churches.
There are other independent, fundamental Baptist churches that are great churches, godly, righteous
churches that will have special music.
They will have choirs and duets and solos.
But honestly, we don't do that here.
And the reason that we don't do that here is because we don't want it to degenerate
into a talent show.
And we want singing in church to be all about praising the Lord.
And we want it to be something that everybody participates in.
And we want to hear all voices that we can.
And you know what?
If you keep coming to church and you keep singing loud and you sing seven days a week,
you'll get better at singing.
But until you get better at singing, hey, I like listening to you just the way you are
anyway.
So just come and sing as loud as you can and sing it out and sing it from your heart.
And listen, I'd rather listen to a bad singer by the world standards that loves the Lord
and that sings from their heart than some worldly paid performer that doesn't really
feel the music because they don't really understand the doctrine.
You know what I'm saying?
You know, I can't even tell you how many times I have sat in a church service or in a funeral
where somebody sang a solo who had a horrible singing voice.
But it was moving because you could tell that it was from their heart.
Like I remember I went to a funeral where this guy had died and his pastor sang a song
to sort of eulogize him.
And he sang one of the hymns out of the hymnal.
And he wasn't a good singer at all.
It was very powerful.
Why?
Because it was real.
You know, and I think that's what the Lord's looking for is just real praise.
Praise that comes from our heart where out of the abundance of our heart our mouth sings
praises to him.
And so praising the Lord is a big subject.
Did I have you turn to Psalm 100, Psalm 100?
Look at verse number one.
It says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord, he is God, and it is he that hath 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 unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good.
His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations.
Go back to Psalm 95, Psalm 95, Psalm 95, verse 1, O come, let us sing unto the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Look at the next chapter, Psalm 96, verse 1, O sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless his name.
Show forth his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people, for the Lord is great and
greatly to be praised.
He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the nations are idols.
But the Lord made the heavens, honor and majesty are before him.
Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people.
Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.
Bring an offering and come into his courts.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Fear before him all the earth.
Now, here's the thing.
If we would sing songs about the Lord and to the Lord on a daily basis, don't you think
it would change our attitude toward him?
Music has a way of affecting us and affecting the way that we think.
And if we're constantly praising the Lord and thanking the Lord, don't you think that's
going to change our heart and change our attitude?
And don't you think that people would be less blasphemous and less irreverent if they were
constantly singing about God's magnificence?
Don't you think they would have more of a healthy fear of God if they kept singing songs
that said fear before him all the earth?
It would change our attitude.
Go to Psalm 105.
You say, why don't we have special music?
Where's the choir?
You must just not have enough talent in the church.
Where are the duets?
Where are the solos?
Look, I don't want to waste any time in the church service.
I want the church service to be maximized, and I'd rather have more time for you to sing.
You to sing.
You need the practice.
You need help.
You need to learn how to sing.
You need to spend 15 minutes on Sunday morning or 10 minutes on Sunday night and 10 minutes
on Wednesday night, 15 minutes singing and praising God so that you'll have something
to practice for the rest of the week.
And you know what?
You need to keep singing the rest of the week.
That's why I always say this.
If you don't have one of the hymnals, take it home.
You say, well, I feel funny about taking it home.
Take it home.
Who doesn't have a hymnal?
Put up your hand.
Take it home.
Say, well, you know, it belongs to the church.
It belongs to you.
Take it home.
I want everybody in our church to own a hymnal.
I want everybody in our church to be able to open that book and sing the praise of God
throughout the week.
You say, well, I don't know the tune.
Well, sing the song that we just sang yesterday.
Look it up.
You just did it yesterday.
Hopefully, it's fresh in your mind.
You say, well, I still don't know.
Well, here's the thing.
We've uploaded personally hundreds of congregational hymns at our church.
We've uploaded them to YouTube.
Sound quality is not that great, but it's something to sing along to.
You can practice to it.
I know Brother Matt Adams, he'll put it on his headphones and play the trumpet to it
and practice his trumpet to the tune of the congregational hymns on YouTube.
We have a playlist on our YouTube channel that has, I think, nine hours of congregational
hymns from Faithful Word Baptist Church.
What about the fact that there are thousands of other YouTube videos where they've uploaded
versions of it?
You've got to be careful to get past all the goofball self-glorifying versions of the hymns
and find a sensible version that actually sings the song and doesn't tune in the woo-woo-woo-woo-woo
and doesn't try to make love to the microphone while singing the hymn to you and actually
sing normal, actually sing praise to the Lord.
Once you find a good ... Look, I'm telling the truth.
That's what's going on.
That's what's up.
You know what?
Look on YouTube.
You'll find a good channel.
You can do the hymns from our church.
There are a few other good channels.
You can ask around the church.
I know some people have found good channels that actually have a lot of good congregational
hymns.
You can get on there and you can learn the tunes and you can use your hymn book and you
can sing these songs throughout the week and it will change your life.
It will.
I take the baby for a walk in the evenings and I walk around the neighborhood and I sing
to the baby and the baby loves it.
It makes the baby happy.
Most of my kids have liked songs and hymns and singing them.
I remember Solomon loved it the most.
Probably why he has so much talent where he plays piano, organ, bass guitar, guitar.
The reason he has talent is because he just spends a lot of time working on it.
He likes it.
Why does he like it?
Possibly because I used to come home from work when Solomon was a baby when we only
had one.
I literally had a hymnal open and he would lay there and I would just sing through the
hymnal cover to cover and just turn the page and just sing for an hour.
Just crank it through page after page of the hymnal singing to the baby and then they grow
up loving the Lord.
They grow up knowing doctrine.
They grow up with the right attitude toward him because they hear his praises and they
sing his praises.
You can sing the hymns in the car driving down the road.
Sing the hymns in the shower.
Sing the hymns out on the walk with the baby.
Sing the hymns while rocking the baby to sleep.
You can sing while driving down the road.
You go to church and sing some more.
Sing the praises of the Lord on a daily basis.
This is what God commands.
Look at Psalm 105 verse 1.
Psalm 105 verse 1, oh give thanks unto the Lord.
Call upon his name.
Make known his deeds among the people.
Sing unto him.
Sing psalms unto him.
Talk ye of all his wondrous works.
Glory ye in his holy name.
Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
Look at Psalm 113.
Psalm 113.
And look, we're not even scratching the surface.
Do you think we're really reading every verse that tells you to sing?
Every verse that tells you to praise the Lord?
First of all, we're only in one book of the Bible tonight.
We're only in the book of Psalms and we're not even looking at everything that Psalm
says about this because there wouldn't even be time because it's the whole book of Psalms
and it's the longest book in the Bible and is continually telling us to sing and praise
and bless the Lord.
Where did I have you turn?
Psalm 113, verse 1, Praise ye the Lord.
Praise all ye servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be
praised.
That's a lot of praising.
Sun up to sun down, somebody better be praising the Lord, he said.
I mean, is that what it says?
Verse 4, the Lord is high above all nations in his glory above the heavens.
Who is like unto the Lord our God?
Who dwelleth on high?
Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifted the needy out of the dung hill that
he may send him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.
Psalm 135, verse 1, people today battle depression.
Isn't that a thing that you hear a lot, right?
Depressed, battling depression, need to see a psychiatrist, need to take drugs, right?
Well, wait a minute.
How often are you praising the Lord?
Because it's kind of hard to be depressed when you're singing praises to the Lord.
Singing the hymns will cheer you up and put you in a better mood.
I'm not saying that's the only thing you need to keep you from being depressed, but you
know what?
There's a start to help get a better attitude and get in a better mood and not be so angry
all the time, not be so bitter all the time, not be so down in the dumps and gloomy all
the time.
You know, it's pretty hard to sing blessed assurance and to God be the glory and then
be gloomy and down in the dumps.
Psalm 113, or where do we go, 135, Psalm 135, praise ye the Lord.
Praise ye the name of the Lord.
Praise him, O ye servants of the Lord.
Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise
the Lord, for the Lord is good.
Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant.
Go to Psalm 81.
While you're turning to Psalm 81, I'll read for you Psalm 66.
Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands.
Sing forth the honor of his name.
Make his praise glorious.
unto God.
How terrible art thou in thy works.
Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee.
They shall sing to thy name.
Selah.
Psalm 81, sing aloud unto God our strength.
Look, sing out loud.
God has to really spell this out.
Sing aloud.
Be well, I'm singing in my heart.
Not good enough.
Sing aloud unto God our strength.
Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Last place, Psalm 33 is the last place, Psalm 33.
God wants us to praise him.
God commands us to praise him.
God is pleased when we sing unto him.
God wants us to sing to him with a loud voice.
God wants us to sing with as much skill as we can.
Look, does God not want to hear us if we sing bad?
No, he wants to hear us anyway.
But he wants us to do our best.
And so if we can improve and sing better, then sing better.
Practice.
Sing more.
Psalm 33, verse 1, rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
For praise is comely for the upright.
Praise the Lord with harp.
Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song.
Play skillfully with a loud noise.
God wants us to sing.
He commands us to sing.
It's really important.
And if it were not important, why are there so many verses about it, so many chapters,
so many repetitions?
If God repeats something 300 times, we better be doing it.
And when we come to church, don't think that we just sing songs at the beginning because
we know people are going to be late and we don't want them to miss the beginning of the
sermon.
So we've got to kill a little time, kill about 15 minutes, that way people don't miss the
sermon.
No, that's not why.
Well, it's just a tradition.
It's just what we've always done.
No, no, no, the reason that we sing the songs is because we believe it's an important part
of the church service.
It's actually very important.
You know, most churches that I, okay, all churches that I grew up in, and virtually
every church I've ever been to, they don't sing all the verses.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
They skip the third verse.
The third verse is always skipped.
Sometimes the second and the third is skipped.
They're like, hey, let's just do the first and the last.
The song has four verses, five verses, they say, oh, let's just do the first and the last.
Here's the reason that we don't do it that way.
When I started the church here, I said, I want to sing all the verses every time.
There's a reason why we're different than 99% of Baptist churches in that we sing all
the verses.
Here's why.
Because when you sing the first and the last, you don't have time to learn the song.
You see, our church isn't about just babysitting a bunch of people that have been saved their
whole life, babysitting a bunch of people that got saved when they were 10 years old
and they're 50 now and we're just kind of a place for them to put in their time.
No, no, our church is about reaching new people, winning people, Lord, adding new people to
the church.
Well, here's the thing.
If you add new people to the church, they need to learn the songs.
Who here grew up in a Baptist church?
You grew up in a Baptist church, put up your hand.
Who here did not grow up in a Baptist church?
You see how 90% of people didn't grow up in a Baptist church?
Here's the thing.
When you come to church and you don't know the songs, well, you sing the first verse,
you don't really know the tune, you're kind of getting the hang of it on that first verse.
And then the second verse, you're starting to get it a little bit, you're getting a little
better and then it's over.
And then we'll sing that again in three months.
Whoa, how are you going to learn?
The point is that you sing the first verse, you don't really know the song, but you're
kind of getting the hang of it.
Second verse.
Okay.
Third verse.
By the time you sing the fourth verse, you're good at it.
You know the song, you know the tune.
The point is to learn.
So why do we sing before church?
Some people have said, hey, the singing before church is to prepare your hearts to receive
the preaching.
Well, you know what?
I agree with that in the sense that the Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit and
speaking to ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
And that part of the purpose is to get ourselves in the right frame of mind, get ourselves
in the right spirit and the right mentality to be ready to receive preaching.
But not only that, number two, I would say the reason for singing the songs in church
is because it's just an end in and of itself.
God commands us to sing, so we're doing it just for the sake of singing.
Singing for the sake of singing because it's a command to praise Him and to sing.
And at least we're helping people fulfill that once a week or three times a week at
least.
But thirdly, the reason that we sing before church, or I mean, I'm sorry, before the preaching
is because we're teaching you songs.
That's the goal, to teach you new songs.
So that you can sing them on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Because you learn them at church and then you sing them throughout the week.
Now a lot of churches have a small repertoire of songs.
The typical church probably sings about a hundred songs.
How many songs did I say that we sang here?
Does anybody remember?
I told somebody.
I told you.
You don't remember, do you, Brother Baker?
I told you how many songs we sang.
Give me the number now.
Tell me the dream and the interpretation.
It's going to be cut in pieces.
How many songs do we sing here?
Does anybody remember?
I've talked about this.
Nobody listens when I talk.
Well, let's see.
I think I calculated.
Okay.
Look, we're not moving on until I figure this out.
So just sit tight.
There are about 13 church services a month, right?
So there are 13 church services a month.
And we sing four songs at every church service, 52 a month.
And I think we said every four to five months we repeat songs.
I think I said every five months we repeat songs.
We have to repeat because we're just out of songs.
There are certain songs we like.
We sing a little more often than that.
So I believe the number is 250.
And next time I call upon you, I want you to know that.
No, I'm just kidding.
I've got to go back and check that because I have them all written down, all the songs
that we sing.
The hymnal has like 470 some songs in it.
But we sing out of those songs like 250 songs.
So we sing a lot of songs.
The point is to teach you a lot of songs so that you can sing a lot of songs so that you
don't get sick of them.
So you can have a lot of variety of hymns and praises to the Lord to sing.
And so, you know, coming to church, yeah, you're learning the Bible.
You're learning doctrine.
That's great.
But you're also learning how to sing.
You're learning good songs that have good doctrine and that are honoring to the Lord
and that are easy to sing.
Have you noticed that the hymns are easy to sing?
You know, I remember when I went to these liberal NIV type churches and we sang the
contemporary worship style, it didn't really work well for congregational because it was
songs that were written by expert performers.
And it was more designed to be sat back and listened to.
So it took a lot of skill.
You know what I mean?
The hymns are so easy.
They're really simple songs.
Jesus Loves Me, Nothing But the Blood, Rock of Ages.
They're musically easy.
They're beginner level songs, most of them.
And that's for a reason so that every child and every adult can jump right in and start
singing.
So I want you to take it seriously.
And don't just walk out and say, oh, singing's not my thing.
Make it your thing.
And if you don't agree with me, then go home and read the book of Psalms a couple of times
and then come back and tell me that it's not important after you've read it hundreds of
times for yourself.
Let's pray.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your greatness and your salvation through the Lord
Jesus Christ and all the wonderful, amazing things you've done for us in our lives.
And Lord, as these Psalms have said, you really have lifted us up from the dung hill and set
us among princes.
And you've put a new song in our mouth, Lord, and you've done so many great things for us.
Help us to sing of your wondrous acts and praise you every day, Lord.
Every single day, Lord, help us to sing your praises.
And Lord, if people here say, well, I don't know any praises to sing, Lord, I pray that
they would learn them.
I pray that they would take home a song book.
I pray that they would go on YouTube and tune in to the congregational singing and show
up to every church service they can and sing every song that they can, Lord, and fulfill
this duty that you are so worthy of to receive praises from us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.