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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. Please turn your white handouts to Psalm 139. And we're going to be using only our white handouts tonight, so make sure you have one. Psalms 139 and your handout. Now we'll slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? For they speak against thee wickedly. For they speak against thee wickedly. And thine enemies take the high name in vain. And thine enemies take the high name in vain. Do not I hate them, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them thine enemies. I count them thine enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Amen. Pastor Shelley, would you open us in prayer? Amen. For our next song, please turn to Psalm 67 in the white handout. Psalm 67 in your white handout. God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all nations let the people praise thee, O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy for thou shalt judge the people righteously and governed the nations upon earth the nations upon earth see let the people praise thee, O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy then shall the earth yield her increase and God, even our own God, shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him let the people praise thee, O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy Amen. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you're still into bulletin, they're back on that cabinet. And then also we have on the inside our announcements, our service times, our soul winning times. Did we get a count for this afternoon? Three, so praise the Lord on that. And then also we have the congratulations to Matt and Rochelle Hill on the birth of their son, Elliot John Hill. And he was born the 24, 7 pounds, 5 ounces, 19 inches. So congratulations to them. Also keep the other expecting mothers in your prayers. We have our Bible memory, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And then on the right we have a special prize if you can memorize Romans 1 as well. So extra Bible memory there if you'd like to participate. We also have the wedding for Zach and Madison. I think I saw their hand out some really nice invites and so that's really exciting. And it's going to come sooner than you think. And that'll be great. Also we have the Shreveport Louisiana Soul Winning Marathon September 11th. And then we have the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. I put a bunch of those DVDs also. Our Sodomite Deception DVDs are out there. So feel free to hand those out liberally. And we have several hundred of them already here. And I can always get you more. But really exciting to have that into our possession so we can hand out. And also we had a lunch but we had so much food left over that if you want to stick around for round two. We got so many sandwiches and stuff. We'll grab some extra chips or something. And so feel free to participate. I think there's a lot of cupcakes too. I think we went round one cake. Now it's round two cupcakes. And so you know, hey, showers of blessing, right? Showers of blessing. And so really great to see you guys. And looking forward to the next time I come. But I'm not going to come probably between July or August just because of her due date. But then September I will be back and then normal kind of rotation, normal type of schedule. But if you want to see me in between then, you just got to come to the wedding. And then I'll be there. And that's the better sermon anyway. It's way shorter. You know, maybe I'll make them sweat it out. Make them take a little while. No, I'm just kidding. But it's really great to be here and see you guys. And the church is doing really well. And so that really makes me feel good to go back home and report. We didn't have any protesters but you know, you got to come down south I guess if you want that. But let's go to our third song, Psalms 126. Oh yeah, and the kids choir. I'm envious that I won't be able to hear that next Sunday. So that will sound really good. So Psalm 126. Psalms 126 and I can vouch from recent experience. Pastor Shelley does a great wedding ceremony. So, so be there for that. So Psalms 126. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them, the Lord hath done great things for us. Whereof we are glad, turn again our captivity. Oh Lord, as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them, the Lord hath done great things for us. Whereof we are glad, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them, the Lord hath done great things for us. Whereof we are glad. Amen. Great singing this evening. While the offering plates are being passed around, please turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians chapter number five. Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians five, the Bible reads, Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it be not once named among you as become a saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much for this day, Lord. We thank you for the souls that were one. Just pray that you'd be with them. And Lord, I just at this time pray you'd be with Pastor Shelley and fill in with your spirit. And just, Lord, I just pray that you'd open our hearts and our ears, that we might be edified in your word, and we give you thanks in all things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. Let's look back at verse number 18 where the Bible read again. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the title of my sermon this evening is this, Benefits of Singing Psalms, Benefits of Singing Psalms. And we have a real clear passage here where the Bible is telling us in the New Testament to speak to ourselves specifically in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. And then it's giving us the admonition to be singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And I have three simple benefits that I want to kind of talk about that the Bible clearly tells us. But the first one is mentioned here very clearly in verse 18 is being filled with the Spirit. We actually fill ourselves with the Spirit of God by singing. And it brings up a few different ways you can be singers or types of songs, kind of genre or styles. You kind of have a psalm, you kind of have a hymn, and then you kind of have this other delineation called a spiritual song. Now, what's interesting about verse 18 is, you know, when it says be not drunk and be not drunk with wine, most of the time when I have thought about this verse or looked at this verse, I typically think of it in the context of alcohol. I think of it as being an intoxicating beverage. But, you know, the word wine is really dependent upon the context of a chapter for you to really get the clear indication. Obviously, you shouldn't get drunk in the sense that we say today. Obviously, drinking alcohol, according to the Bible, is always wrong. And a lot of people that like to drink alcohol look at this verse and they try to put alcohol in here because it says in the next section wherein is excess. Because they say, oh, we don't drink alcohol in excess. And that's kind of like their way to kind of wiggle out of the idea of never drinking alcohol. But I actually think that this verse makes more sense if you put it in the context of wine not being alcoholic here. Because wine in another context is a picture of indulgence or a picture of luxury or a picture of kind of satisfying the flesh. And there's nothing wrong with drinking wine. But you don't really necessarily, being drunk just means to be completely filled. Okay? In the Bible, when we think of the word drunk, we only think of being inebriated and not sober. But to be drunk could just mean simply filled. And so, I think the context and the contrast that it's really trying to make is, you know, don't fill yourself on the things of this world. Don't fill yourself on the luxuries of this world. Rather, we should try to fill ourselves with spiritual things. And when it comes to our lives, you know, it's easy to overindulge the flesh. It's easy to overindulge yourself with food or with the music or the world, all the things there is to enjoy in this world. But really, we're supposed to try and overindulge on the Word of God. We're supposed to fill ourselves. We're supposed to get to a point where we're just brimming with the Word of God. And what would be a way to kind of fill yourself is, in my mind, singing the Word of God to it. Because a lot of people, they sing all day long. But what are they singing? They're singing Metallica. They're singing John Lennon. They're singing The Beatles. They're singing, I don't know, what's the modern? What are modern, Justin Timberlake? He's probably not modern anymore. I don't know. What are the cool bands today? Fergie, is she still popular? I don't know. This is like 90s and late, early 2000s or something. I'm dating myself. I know them, I just can't think of them. Is it Kanye West? Yeah. He's gone like pseudo-Christian. No one wants to listen to that trash anymore. You know, what was the Spice Girls? The one that married David Beckham? Posh Spice or something? Victoria Spice or something? I don't know, I don't know. It doesn't matter. But I'm just saying, like, people listen to music all the time. You go to the store, you go to the restaurant. What are people doing in their car? They're pretty much just listening to music. And they're really just filling themselves with what? With the world. And so, I believe the Bible actually teaches the opposite, that we should be filling ourselves with the Word of God. And one of the best ways to fill ourselves with the Word of God is to sing the Word of God. And that's why the Bible has one of the greatest books called Psalms, which is literally a song book, just filled with all kinds of songs that we can sing to God. And I feel like Christians have really kind of let this doctrine or this benefit go to the wayside, because very few churches today are singing any songs. I mean, very few churches will take the Psalms and literally try to put it to music and try to sing it. But the Bible's telling us that that's one of the ways to fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit of God. And when you think about being filled with something, it's not that you don't, you know, if you're not filled, that doesn't mean you don't have it. It's just filled is like completion, or having more, or going to the upper limit of something, right? And so, when it comes to the Holy Ghost, we all have the Holy Ghost inside of us, if we're saved. We all have the Spirit of God. But being filled is a lot more than just having it. You know, in my mind, I want God to be able to communicate everything He possibly can to me. And the book of the Bible, the Psalms, it contains every doctrine. I mean, it contains all the wisdom that God has for us. It contains comfort. It contains exhortation. It contains, you know, rebuke. It contains, you know, all of the different ranges of emotions and these things. And when we're filled with the Spirit of God, you know, it's allowing the Holy Ghost to communicate to us and to talk to us through the Word of God, and to bring revelations into our mind, put us in the right attitude, put us in the right spirit. And really, we want to have victory in our life. It's going to come through, you know, the Word of God and being filled with that Spirit. Now, go through the Psalms 105 for a moment. Go to Psalms 105. I want to show you a few other places in the Bible where it literally just tells us to sing Psalms. And, you know, I believe that the Bible is a timeless book. So, it's not like, well, that was for them. Back then, they sing the Psalms. Today, we sing Chris Tomlin. You know, today we sing, you know, whatever the modern Chris Hill song. You know, no, I think we should still be singing the Psalms. We should still be singing this. And when he gave you the three different lists, he gave you Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Now, you have a hymnal, you know, in your chair. And really, what would be the biggest difference between a hymn and a psalm? Well, for me, I don't really look at it from a style as being very much different. You know, I try to make sure even the Psalms that we sing, we kind of stylistically, they sound like a hymn. They sound like some of the other songs that we have. But really, a hymn is not like a direct pull from Psalms. It's really just taking either random verses in the Bible that kind of all are on the same topic, idea, and kind of bringing them to life into a song. But it's not always necessarily verbatim quotes. Sometimes it is. That's kind of what a hymn is. A hymn is just kind of, you know, taking a good doctrine, taking a good thought, taking a few verses, taking a phrase, and kind of running with it and putting it together. And that's kind of a song that you have. That's what we have in our hymnal. You look at our hymnal, I mean, pretty much all of them are based directly on Scripture. Or you have phrases directly pulled out from Scripture. But they're not necessarily just coming from Psalms. They'll be coming from Romans, or they'll be coming from John, or they'll be coming from 1 Timothy even. You know, I know whom I believed in, you know, and that he is able. I mean, that's pulling from the pastoral epistles. And so you have all kinds of different other places in Scripture that are being put to music. And, you know, that's kind of what I look at the difference between a psalm, you've got a hymn, and then you kind of have spiritual songs. Now, modern Christianity really tries to run wild with this spiritual song section. You know, to me, if it is a spiritual song, though, it's not going to appeal to the flesh necessarily. And in order for it to be spiritual, it's kind of got to still contain Scripture. It's got to contain the Word of God. I look at this as being, you know, songs where they're not necessarily the exact same style as a hymn, but they're still arguably a spiritual song. It's not like, you know, something that the world would really be that interested in. It's not something that's going to appeal to the flesh that much, but it's still a spiritual song. What would be a song like this? Like the B-I-B-L-E. You know, the B-I-B-L-E is not really a hymn. It's definitely not the Psalms, but isn't it still a spiritual song you can sing? And my kids love singing these type of songs. You know, a lot of kids' songs in my mind are kind of like spiritual songs. You've got the B-I-B-L-E. You've got This Little Light of Mine. We love to sing this one with our kids. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Now, it's still based on what? Clear Scripture, you know, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And, you know, it's based on these principles in the Bible. Be careful little eyes what you see. I mean, there's a lot of little kids' songs that are pretty cool. So, this is the category of spiritual songs that I would sing. Now, I'm not going to say it has to be a kids' song, but I'm just kind of saying that's what I envision as a spiritual song. Because is the world going to sing B-I-B-L-E? No. They're not going to be singing This Little Light of Mine and B-I-B-L-E. It's still generally a spiritual song. Whereas, modern Christianity, they try to create a song where a person that doesn't even like the Bible would still be willing to sing it. And they make it so vague and just so much like, I love you and you love me and I just embrace your grace or whatever. And it's like, anybody can sing that. You know, you don't even have to be a Muslim and sing that. But that's not really a spiritual song, okay? Now, when it comes to these three categories, I personally believe from a day to day, I personally believe from a doctrinal perspective, though, that they're not equal. I believe that the Psalms are superior because the Psalms are just directly just taken out of the Word of God. I mean, you just got it straight here in the Word of God. So, that's going to be the number one doctrinally superior song choice if I get to choose them. Second would be hymns and third would be spiritual songs based on just the doctrinal integrity of them. And really, it's important to sing good doctrine. It's important to sing the Word of God because it does something into your brain. You know, a song you can learn so much easier and it kind of sticks with you. And when you're singing doctrine, it has all these tangible benefits that the Bible kind of tells us. One is literally being filled with the Spirit because if I have it on my tongue and it's something I can sing, then when I'm going through my day or I'm having a hard time, sometimes that song can just kind of come to you. And it's like the Holy Spirit can just sit there and just hit you with the Word of God and it can change you. It can change your attitude. It can affect your decisions. It can affect your mood and all these things. And it's really just enabling you and helping you be filled with that Spirit. Look what it says in Psalms 105 verse 1. O 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 and his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. And so the Bible literally says in verse 2, sing psalms. Notice the Bible is just telling you again, just like it said in Ephesians chapter 5. Hey, let's sing these psalms. Here it's saying sing psalms. Why? Because God gives you real direct, real clear instruction. Go to Psalm 33 for a moment. Go to Psalm 33. And I also believe this, that the most important thing when it comes to worship is that you are singing. You know, a lot of people go to a big church where they have, you know, professional musicians. And when I say professional, I mean in the sense that a lot of them are even paid. You know, a lot of these big churches, they're literally on staff as a worship leader and they're playing music. I mean, that's professional in my opinion. If you're getting paid to do something, you're a professional. And so they literally have professional people singing. They have a beautiful voice. They may even be tweaking stuff on the soundboard to make them sound even better. You know, I don't know how to do that. I just probably make it worse. But, you know, they literally have, this is an art. They practice. They're working on these things. And people like to go and they like to just listen. They like to just go and hear and it's so loud that nobody even knows that they're singing or not. But see, here's the thing. That's way inferior than you actually singing. And when it comes to glorifying God, God doesn't get all this extra glory and it just sounding good. He gets glory in people just genuinely in their heart believing it and singing. That's where he actually gets the glory. And so some people might come and they show up and maybe you don't even have a piano player that day for just singing a cappella. But here's the thing. You singing out loud is actually more beneficial for you and to God than having just some great beautiful sound coming up here and you not singing. And when it's a cappella and it's just here, you're actually sometimes more forced to sing because if you're not, it's more awkward. I mean, if just I was up here singing, you'd kind of notice a lot easier to be awkward whereas you're in a big room with some people singing, it's easier to blend in by not singing. It's easier to just kind of be a participant, not really participate but just being an observer or just being a spectator. And look, worshiping God is not a spectator sport. It doesn't make any sense. It's not logical. We're all here to worship God together. And it seems like kids are better at this than adults for some reason. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou is perfected in grace. I mean, they sing with gusto. They sing with fervor. I mean, even if they don't know the words, I mean, they're just busting it out. And sometimes their words are not the real words. They've made up words to try and interpret the song because they don't even know what it is. They're just saying. But they're so excited and they're singing praise to God. And that's what we should be like. And if you want to get benefit out of the Psalms, you need to sing them. You need to actually enjoy them. And obviously, you need to believe them. Obviously, lip service isn't really giving any glory to God. But that's why it's great that we can just pull it straight out of Psalms. And if you believe the Bible, you can have confidence in every verse, every line, everything you're saying. Whereas there's been some hymns at times where I kind of read that verse and I'm thinking like, What if I completely agree with that? You know, sometimes the hymns have issues every once in a while. Whereas, look, how could you go wrong singing a song? I mean, you shouldn't. Obviously, some people would take offense to Psalm 139, but it's straight out of the Bible. How can you get mad at singing the word of God? And sometimes it actually helps correct us on our attitude. It helps correct us on our viewpoint. It helps us correct on our doctrine. I mean, it'd be really hard. Think about it this way, okay? But wouldn't it be kind of hard for them to get up and preach a whole sermon on how God loves everybody after they just sang Psalm 139? So what does it do? It forces you to even have the right doctrine because it's going to be real hard to get up and preach certain doctrines whenever you're singing the exact opposite right before. So that's why it's really beneficial to sing the doctrine and to sing the word of God and that we can all be free to do that. and that we can all be filled with the Spirit and then, you know, it helps you preach. You know, sometimes even myself, I show up and I'm not necessarily like in the perfect mood to preach, but actually singing a few songs helps you get in the mood. Why do we sing psalms when we show up here? We all want to be filled with the Spirit. We all want to be filled when we're here to hear the word of God being preached. We want the preacher to be filled with the Spirit. So it's important to sing these psalms so that we can be filled with that Spirit. Look at Psalm 33 verse 1. 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. For the word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth. So notice he's even telling you specifically, use the harp, use the psaltery, use an instrument of ten strings. You know, singing unto him a new song, playing skillfully with a loud noise. So notice God's wanting you to participate. God's wanting you to take this seriously and to put in effort, energy, and playing these things and having joy in your heart. And this is going to help you fill, you know, yourself with the Spirit. Go to Psalms 89 for a second. Go to Psalms 89. And I'm looking at a lot of different psalms here that are literally telling us to sing these things. Look at Psalms 89 and look at verse number 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known my faithfulness to all generations. So notice we are individualistically supposed to sing and with our mouths and we're supposed to do this forever. He's saying, hey, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. You know, I can't force you to sing. And it doesn't say, listen to the beautiful sound. No, it says that you're supposed to sing, right? We're supposed to sing it because that's going to help you be filled with the Spirit of God. Look at Psalm 96 and look at verse number 2. Psalm 96, look at verse number 2. Sing unto the Lord. Bless his name. Show for the salvation. Notice this from day to day. So it's giving you even, hey, you're supposed to sing this forever. Well, how specific day to day, just every day, just singing praise of the Lord, singing Psalms to the Lord. And it's going to help you be filled with the Spirit on a regular basis rather than being filled with the world, rather than being drunken on the pleasures of this world, on the luxuries of this world, being filled with that. Because ultimately, if you're full of anything, what does that also indicate? You don't have room for anything else. You know, if my glass is full, then I don't have room to pour anything else in it. So if I'm full on the world, if I'm full on the things that are carnal, then I don't have room for all these spiritual things. Rather than being filled with spiritual things, now I don't have room for what? Carnal things. So the opposite ends up working out too. And this is going to help you have victory in areas of your life. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. Now let's get real specific with some examples of being filled with the Spirit and how that benefits God's people. 2 Chronicles, we're going to look at a story here. 2 Chronicles chapter number 20. And I want to look at verse number 10 to start with. This is a time when Jehoshaphat is the king, and they're basically being attacked by multiple groups of armies. They're being attacked by the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, and also Ephraim. And so it says in verse number 10, And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and destroyed them not. I think I said Ephraim, but I meant Edom. Seir is Edom, which is Esau. So basically you have three groups. You have Ammon, Moab, and Edom. Ammon and Moab are the descendants of Lot. And then you have Seir, which was Edom, which is Esau. So you kind of have the rejects, you kind of have the bastard children, as it were, in a sense that are here, that are not really the true children of Israel, but they're kind of related, they're kind of kindred. But they've come against the children of Israel, and they're coming against Jehoshaphat. It says in verse 11, Behold, I say, how they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given to us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children. Then upon Jehazael, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jael, the son of Madaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation, and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid, nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. And so we have this great host coming against the children of Israel, specifically Judah at this time, and we have Jehoshaphat as the king, and we have a Levite saying, well, hey, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He's like, we don't need to worry. You know, the battle's not ours anyways. God's gonna fight for us. But what's interesting about this person is it tells us that he's a son of Asaph. Okay? Keep your fingers. I'm coming right back to the story, but I want to define this person for you. Just flip the page to chapter 35, Second Chronicles chapter 35. We have to understand about Asaph is his family is noted as being the singers. They were appointed as the singers by David, and so they're kind of this family. In fact, a lot of the Psalms you'll see like at the top some of the notes and we'll talk about this is from Asaph or, you know, this is something about Asaph because he was a mighty singer and he's, you know, involved with the Psalms. But look at what it says in Second Chronicles 35 verse 15. And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the commandment of David. So notice David at a certain point had delineated all the Levites into their different positions and all their different basically roles as it were in serving God and some of them were designated as being singer that tells me I guess singing can be genetic. So apparently it's just like this family. But if you're the sons of Asaph, it's kind of picturing the singer. And so basically have a Levite whose primary job and role is singing praise to the Lord, praising God, you know, dealing with the Psalms and the Spirit of Lord comes upon him and he's telling them, hey, guess what? The battle is not ours. It's God's. Okay, verse 16. Go back to Second Chronicles chapter 20 and look at verse 16 now. Tomorrow, go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the clip of Ziz and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jirel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves. Stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not nor be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head and with his face to the ground and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord and were worshiping Lord and the Levites of the children of kothites and the children of the korhites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. So they're singing praise to God. They're excited. Look at verse 20 though. And they rose early in the morning and went forth to the wilderness of to Koa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God. So shall you be established. Believe his prophets. So shall you prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord. And that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and to say, Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. And I like how this is worded. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambush mitts against the children of Ammon, Moab and Mount Cedar. So does it saying, Hey, when they started singing, as soon as they started singing, began to sing, then the Lord set ambush mitts against their enemies. And then let's keep reading what happens to them. It says, which were come against you. Then they were smitten. So they sing songs. They're singing, praise the Lord. And then what happens? The Lord just wins the battle for them. So what gives them the victory raising God? Well, give them the victory singing the Psalms being filled with the spirit and then letting just God fight your battles for you. Isn't that great? They could just, Hey, all I have to do is just sing praise to God. And then he'll just defeat all my enemies for me. That's all I do. I mean, you think about other times in the Bible, like Jericho, what do they do? They just blow the trumpet and the walls is coming down. I mean, look, God wants us to be filled with the spirit and then he'll just give us the victory. You know, a lot of times people and I think this is a great idea, but they'll sing a couple songs before they go out. So winning why so that the Lord will just go ahead and give you the victory before you even go out and you'll just find the people that need to hear the gospel right away rather than thinking is by your strength or by your might, you know, the battle is not ours. It's the Lord's and so just putting our trust and being filled with the spirit and that's how God can give us those victories. They had so much victory. They're just constant for three days. This is a verse 25 at the at the end and they were three days after the gathering of the spoil. It was so much. So all of them fight each other am in Moab and eat them. Just fight each other and kill all of each other. And then they don't. All they do is just walk in and just gather this oil. They're just walking in and just reap. Isn't that what we kind of do? We go soloing. Sometimes it feels like you just walk in and you're just reaping. I mean, you're not even really doing a lot of the fighting and not doing a lot of the battling. And so that's why it's important that we sing praises to God. Let me show you another example of this, but let's go to Psalms 59 and then I want to show you another example. Go to Psalms 59. But literally, I think sometimes we don't even realize how God wants to fight for us. And you know how we can get him to fight for us is by just singing praises. Just glorifying him and thanking him for the victory and what he's going to do for us. Look at Psalms 59 and look at verse number 10. The God of my mercy shall prevent me. God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. Slay them not, lest my people forget. Scatter them by thy power and bring them down, O Lord. For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride and for cursing and lying which they speak. Consume them in wrath. Consume them. They may not be. And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob under the ends of the earth, see thou. And at evening, let them return and let them make a noise like a dog and go round about the city. Let them wander up and down for meat and grudge that they will be not satisfied. But I will sing of thy power. Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy. Notice this. In the morning. For thou has been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. Under thee, O my strength, will I sing. For God is my defense and the God of my mercy. Now, I don't know what they were singing. But wouldn't it be cool if they were singing this? They're sitting here saying like, hey, we're going to sing in the morning and God's going to give us the victory and, you know, I don't even have to fight. And then it's just like exactly what happens. As you have to understand, there's a spiritual benefit to singing the psalms and singing praises to the Lord. And notice he says, hey, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. Isn't that what they did in the morning as they began to sing? What did the Lord do? He set ambushments against their enemies. And so sometimes, you know, I think we discredit the idea of of how God may just fight all your battles for you if you just go ahead and give him praise. But how many times do people wake up and they don't start their day singing in the Lord? They don't start their day singing praises to God and asking him for their favor and trusting the Lord to fight their battles for them. And maybe if you did that more, you'd have less battles you had to fight. You'd have more just rewards that you could take and you say, well, how do you know that? It takes faith. But I'll show you another example and not just in the morning. Go to a song or I'm sorry, go to Acts chapter 16 first. But Acts chapter 16. But what's one of the benefits of singing psalms? God may just give you the victory without you even have to fight. That sounds great because I can't beat my enemies necessarily. I don't have the physical strength. I'd rather the Lord just set ambushments against them and I don't have to do anything. I just know he's going to take care of my enemies for me and I'll just give him the praise and honor or anything. Acts chapter 16, look at verse 25. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. Isn't that kind of interesting? Paul and Silas get arrested, thrown in prison for preaching the gospel. And then at midnight, instead of bellyaching about all the trouble that they're going through, what do they do? They sing praises to God. At midnight, they're praying, they're singing praise, they're praising the Lord. Verse 26, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loose and the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm. We are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must they do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved in my house. Now think about this, isn't this the most receptive guy you've ever found in the Bible? I mean, he's falling down. He's on his knees asking for the gospel. Now I've had a few people ask something similar. I've never had anybody fall down on their knees begging me how to get saved. And you say, well, how did that happen? They were singing praises to God. Hey, what happens when you sing praise to God? You get filled with the spirit. Talk about a perfect combo here. Hey, I just got happened to get filled with the spirit and I just happen to have a guy that wants to hear the gospel right away. And so don't discount the idea. Hey, the people that are singing Psalms of God, the people that are singing praise to God, the people that actually believe, look and live. You don't think that those are going to be the same people that go out and actually find people that and then tell them, hey, all you have to do is look and live, brother. Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus now and live. I mean, we sing that with gusto. Why? So that we can then go out and preach the gospel. But even beyond that, why don't we even sing the Psalms knowing, hey, Psalm 126. He that go forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing a cheese with him. And getting that in our heart and in our mind as we go out and we're singing and when we're filled with the Spirit, what can God do? He can give us victory. He can give us victory. Go to Psalms 119. What's interesting about this, they sing at midnight. I don't know what they were singing again. But here's my guess, all right? Psalm 119. Because I showed you my guess for the other one where they're singing in the morning. Well, let's look at Psalms 119 and look at verse 62. Psalm 119, verse 62. At midnight, I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. Wouldn't that be a pretty cool verse for them to have been singing at midnight? Because, remember, at midnight, Paul and Silas begin singing praise unto the Lord. And then look at the Bible. Look at the Psalms. At midnight, I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgment. Usually it's so I can use the bathroom. But, hey, I'm getting older, you know. But here's the thing. Even on your way to the bathroom, just sing and praise the Lord. Hey, when you're in jail at midnight, think about this verse. And maybe God will just open the doors for you. Hey, that's my plan. Go to Colossians chapter number three. Go to Colossians chapter three. So point number one is this. Why sing the Psalms? What's the benefits of singing the Psalms? You're filled with the Spirit. And when you're filled with the Spirit, all other kind of doors are opened up to you. You know, the possibility of victory, the possibility of people say, obviously, in the Old Testament, they were literally winning physical battles. But in the New Testament, winning spiritual battles, like Paul and Silas, where they're preaching the gospel and they're getting people saved. Look at Colossians chapter three. Let's look at another benefit, though, of just singing the Psalms. And some of these seem like real basic. But here's the thing. The Bible is basic. It's not like, you know, the Bible just tells you things that are real simple. I mean, the gospel is like the simplest thing ever. Believe in Jesus, right? And when it comes to singing the Psalms, you just get some real basic benefits. But I think a lot of people are missing out on those benefits. Look at Colossians chapter three, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So here's another benefit, just wisdom. You know, when you're singing the Psalms, you know, these kids in this room, learning all these extra songs and learning all these extra songs and everything like that. They're going to have so much more good doctrine. I mean, I mean, my kids already are starting off way better than I did. And having so much better doctrine, so much more wisdom, so much more benefit in their life. And it's going to be hard. I mean, can you imagine if you could literally get to the point where your 18 year old knew every song could sing every single song? How hard would it be to convince them of false doctrine if they knew every song? And look, I don't know if we'll get there. We might as well try. And even if we got to half or something, I mean, that's great. I mean, the more that you can give them, the more that we have to music, the more that we can sing, the more word of God that we can get into our hearts, the more that we're filled with the Spirit of God, the less we're going to have error, the less we're going to be led astray. Wisdom is going to help us perform our daily actions in serving God. Go to Psalm 61 for a moment. Go to Psalm 61. And when you think about the word wisdom, there's a lot of words that are kind of similar and they have overlap, but I think there is a little bit of distinction between words like wisdom, knowledge, understanding. And while all of them have a little bit of overlap, you know, to me, knowledge is, is, is more closely as, you know, defined as just having particular information in familiar with a subject. Okay. Cause you can have a lot of knowledge and not have understanding or wisdom. Okay. Knowledge is simply just having the information. You know, I run into somebody and they can quote to me, John three 16, they may have the knowledge of John three 16, but then if I asked them, well, what does that mean? And they say, well, you have to be a good person to go to church and go to church to get saved. They don't really understand the verse. They'll do that. Even though they know the verse and look, there's lots of people that can quote that verse to me yet. They have no idea what it means. That means they lack understanding. Then there could be a second person. There could be a person that knows it. They could explain what it means. They could say, well, what John three 16 means is if you believe in Jesus Christ, when he put all your trust in him, he'll give you everlasting life. Go to hell. That would be person that has knowledge and the understanding. But here's the thing. You could have that person still not have wisdom. And you say how, because an atheist could tell me that and not believe it because wisdom is going beyond knowing it and understanding it. It's also applying. It's the application of the word of God. You cannot look at someone that's not applying the with the knowledge and understanding they have and then still consider them wise. Would we look at someone that has the knowledge of John three 16, understands John three 16, but has never done it and say that person's wise? No. If your kids say, you know, my parents told me not to play in the street because I can get hit by a car, but they're playing in the street. Would you say that's wise? No. So here's the thing. Wisdom comes with the actual application of the knowledge and understanding that you have. So you need all three. And when it comes to singing the songs, what did it say that it give you? Knowledge, right? It's the mute of that, you know, you're teaching the motion, but more importantly in all wisdom, meaning what you're actually going to apply these things in your life. So when you sing it, it helps you in what executing God's word, following God's word, putting it to practice in your life. It's going to encourage you to do these things because it's hard to be singing things and not. And the opposite is very true. I mean the world today, they love to listen to certain music to get them in the mood to do something. You know, workout music, right? Or, you know, people want to commit crimes and they listen to what rap music that's talking about shooting people and killing people and being a whore or order. I mean, people put certain music on to put them in the mood to what do that particular activity, whatever that activity is. The same can be said with the songs by putting you in the right attitude, mood, behavior to then what execute God's word and every area for life. Psalm 61, look at verse eight. So I will sing praise under thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows. Notice he's attaching a purpose, a reason to why he's singing. Why would he sing under the Lord so that he's going to can daily performance my vows? What would the daily performing of the vows be wisdom? So notice you get the benefit of wisdom by singing because it's encouraging you, reminding you, exhorting you to what end up actually doing it, teaching and admonishing one another in what Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It's also, you know, when you come to church and you have whoever 50 people here, all singing, going out, preach the gospel, you know, singing songs, 126 or singing a particular thing. It's kind of hard then to resist that too, isn't it? Cause you're teaching and monitoring one another to do what, put that information and understanding to use and some wisdom, get some wisdom today. And you know, a lot of people are lacking in wisdom. You know, it's not enough to just have the knowledge and understanding. You need to actually do it because I'll say this, having all the knowledge and understanding and not doing it is about the same as just not having the knowledge, you know, and you don't want to get so puffed up and be like, wow, I understand how to go soul winning. And I know how to go soul winning. Well, do you go? No, you're getting as much done as the guy that doesn't even know what soul winning is. That's why it's so foolish. That's why you don't want to get this arrogant attitude. Why go to a soul winning church? Good for you. You know, and our church, we don't want to sit here and be like, well, we understand the Bible better than anybody. Okay. But are we applying better than other churches? Cause who cares if you have all the knowledge in the world, it really cares that you're doing it. Why know that we should be singing the Psalms? Yeah, but you do it right. Hey, we written music to the songs. Well, do you sing it as it's more important to actually be doing it and notice by singing it, it's going to encourage you to do other things and look every year of your life. Every year of your life, it'll encourage you not to lie, steal, cheat, be carnal, do all these different things. You know, singing the music on a regular basis will kind of put you in the right spirit and the right frame of mind to then go ahead and live that day for Christ. Go to Psalm one 11 for a moment. So I'm one 11 and look at verse 10. So I'm one 11 and look at verse number 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Notice the Psalm is telling us, Hey, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But when you don't fear God, what's going to motivate you to actually do anything for him, what's going to motivate you to actually follow his commandments and do that, which is right. And so that's why it's important to be seeing, Hey, and when you're singing this song, isn't that going to kind of help you get in the, I need to be fearing God. If I'm not doing right, I'm not really fearing God and you that can help you start fearing God, a good understanding of all they, that notice this do his commandments, his praise, endure forever. Now, again, there's obviously overlap when it comes to knowledge, understanding wisdom. Don't you understand things that you do better than if you don't do them too. I mean, someone that's never gone so winning is going to have a hard time understanding it as well as they could rather than someone that's done it. Okay. So the more you do it, the more you understand it too. So your wisdom can then end up what giving you more understanding or more knowledge. And they all kind of overlap and have, you know, basically they benefit one another, but I'm just kind of giving you some distinctions between them to go to verse, uh, go to chapter 90, verse 12, but a chapter 90 verse 12. So here's a couple of Psalms that help us in the aspect of wisdom, which is what applying God's word. And we really need to apply it even more. And it's great to be singing it because it's going to put you in that attitude. When I notice I'm singing stuff, and I don't really listen to secular music much anymore, but especially when I did all the time, I mean, it definitely would, I know that it affected it would affect, you know, certain music would affect how I drive, right? You're listening to certain music. You kind of want to drive a little bit more, uh, you know, aggressive or you might want to drive a little bit crazy or whatever, you know, it affects the things that you're doing, the things that you're thinking about kind of the way that you talk, what you want to do next. And so, you know, if, if the world can have that effect on me, why would the word of God not have the same effect on me? And it certainly does. Psalms 90, look at verse 12. So teach us the number of our days that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom. So again, you know, the Psalms are going to put life in perspective. The word of God puts, puts your life in perspective and helps remind you the fact that, you know, you're not going to be here forever. Pretty soon you're going to blink and it's like, you're on your deathbed. And it's going to be like, what did I do? You know, you really want to blink and be on your deathbed and think, like, I didn't do anything for God. I never applied any of that wisdom, but they need the knowledge. I understand. I really not a wise, or do you want to blink and be under death bed and me thinking like, I'm ready to go. Like, it's time to see my Lord and savior. I'm, I'm, I'm excited to receive that crown of life. You know, when you're under death bed, they can't really threaten you with death. You know, you're like, I'm there, you know, take me home, you know, you're ready to go. And then you, you know, you're going to be like, I'm ready to go. I'm going to be a light. I'm ready to go. And then you're going to be like, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. Go to James chapter five, go to James chapter five. So my last point is this though, the last benefit I have for you this evening. And it really even comes from Ephesians chapter five too, because Ephesians chapter five, it said singing, making. Melody. In your hearts to the Lord. So, so that kind of indicates or pictures, the idea of what. Joy. What are the benefits of singing the songs? melody, being happy. James also gives us a picture here when it comes to singing. Look what it says in James chapter number five and let's look at verse number 13. The Bible says, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. And what's merry synonymous with? Being happy, joy. And so notice what the Bible's picturing, the idea of what? You get a benefit of joy from singing the Psalms. And obviously it's kind of a, it's kind of a bow, right? I'm happy, so I sing the songs, but singing the Psalms will also make you happy. It kind of works together. And whenever you are happy, what should you be doing? Singing praises of the God. You should be thanking the Lord for what he's done for you. Go to Psalms 149. I'm gonna show you a couple more, a couple of other Psalms here. But we should be singing with joy in our hearts to the Lord. Look, we're saved. In my morning sermon, I mean, how many benefits are we gonna get when we get to see the Lord? I mean, we get the access to the tree of life. We get that new white raiment. We get that new white stone with the new name written in it. I mean, we're gonna be able to sit with God in his throne with Jesus Christ. I mean, all kinds of cool stuff is gonna happen. I mean, how can you not have joy when you realize, look, you're a child of God. Nothing can take away his love that he has for you. We're gonna get the victory. You know, even though you'll never be able to afford the earth, you get it anyways. You get to inherit the earth. You know, people are trying to get as much wealth as they can right now to what? Be the world conqueror, you know, or dominate the world or to have it all. But you know what? They're never gonna get it. And we do. And you say, well, what do I have to do, Pastor Shelley? Die. That's it. It's real easy. Because then you'll get it. You're an inheritor. We're more than conquerors. Like, why can you not have joy in your life? And you say, well, some of it's gonna be suffering. Okay. But at the end of the day, this is the life that God gave me. And it just gives me more opportunity to get more awards. The more suffering I have, you know, whatever day I have, that's another day God gave me. I wasn't promised anything. Like, I didn't do anything to get a life. And when I look at the life that I have, I mean, I have four beautiful children. I have a fifth on the way. I have a gorgeous wife. I have great brethren that I get to hang out with. I love getting to come here. I mean, I have so much to be joyful about every single day. Any of the little suffering that's going on, it's just so inconsequential. It's just something I should just totally shove out of my mind. And I should be focusing on all the joy that I should have that God gave me another day. There's always something to live for. There's always another door to go knock. And, you know, invest in other people. You know, I love the kids choir. You know, there's nothing carnal you're gonna get out of that, but you know what? Investing in other people, investing in children, that's priceless. I mean, teaching other people, loving other people, investing in other people, you know, going out and getting someone saved, that's priceless. You're gonna see that person in heaven, and they're not gonna be high, you know? They're not gonna be a derelict anymore. And you're like, they're not even gonna be in Vile Raymond. We're all gonna be wearing nice clothes. And they're gonna be in good shape, and they're gonna be so excited to be there with you. And we're all gonna get to see Jesus. I mean, it's like, we have so much. And you say, well, Biden's president, who cares? He doesn't know. Why don't we just forget that he's there too? Because does it really matter? I mean, how many presidents could you even name? I mean, how many people can you name that are ruling in other countries right now? I mean, does it really matter? Who really cares about any of that stuff? We get all nervous, and we get all stressed out about all these things that are gonna eventually be destroyed, and we'll never worry about them again. I mean, when I think about the news, when I think about social media, you know what I notice? After about 30 days, all of the news has completely been eradicated from everybody's mind. I mean, whatever they were talking about 30 days ago, nobody cares about it anymore. No one's talking about it anymore. It's just been completely erased. And obviously, there's some things that kind of have a lingering timeline or whatever that you kind of talked about a little bit. But it's like, eventually, nobody cares anymore. And I mean, huge events. Whoever won the Super Bowl, I mean, nobody even knows. Nobody even cares anymore. Whoever was the president, I mean, we forget. We don't even remember anymore. And those are big events. All the little stuff, I mean, that really gets eradicated. Nobody cares. Nobody's interested anymore. You missed it, and you didn't miss it. You know, you didn't miss anything. And we worry and we stress about all these things. You know, you stress about meals, but you don't even remember 99% of the meals you've eaten in your life. You can't even remember 99% of your life. I mean, you have no idea what you were doing at three o'clock three weeks ago. Maybe some of the women. But I'm just saying, like, you forgot. You forgot about most of your life. You know, if I think about my life at age five, it's like a few memories, maybe. And I don't even know if it was five. It all blends together at that age, right? Whether it was four, five, six, seven, and lots of times we remember things and it's not even right. We remember our house when we were kids, and it was like this giant house. And then you go look at it and it's like, that's tiny. You know, or I remember things a little bit differently than they really were, or what was going on. And I say all this to say what? That we get worried and stressed about all these things that we end up forgetting about anyway. What we should really be doing is just being joyful and praising the Lord. And one of the benefits of singing Psalms is it can actually give you joy, because it can remind you of the eternal things. It reminds you of the things that actually matter in this world and in this life. The fact that you're saved, the fact that you're a Christian. I mean, all the other stuff in your life doesn't matter. Your clothes, what job you have, your house, your car, your relationships, they're all gonna be fine. You're like, well, I have the best marriage ever and I have the crappiest marriage ever. Well, you know, eventually it'll be like, neither of you were even married. That's what the Bible says. It literally says the guy that wasn't married, it'll be like, no one remembers that he wasn't married. And the guy that had the greatest marriage ever, it's like, he didn't remember that he was married. Because it doesn't matter. All the stuff that we worry and we stress and we have anxiety about and we have the wrong emotions about, it just doesn't matter. We just need to learn how to be joyful in the Lord. And you know, he's the one that gives us joy. He's the one that gives us strength. Like what it says in Psalms 149, verse number one. Praise ye the Lord, 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. Look at that. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praise on him with a timbrel and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify them equal salvation. Let the saints be joyful and glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. And look where he's putting the position of us singing. Our bed. You know, how many times have you gotten up and just sang with all your might on your bed? But isn't that what the Bible's saying? And I'm just showing you verses in the Bible. And look, they challenged me too. It's not like I'm any different. But I think we would go through life a little bit happier if we sang a little more songs. What's some of the benefits of the Psalms being more happy? You look at people that are not happy, they're probably not singing any songs. Right, and the people that are happiest, you know, especially Christians, I guarantee they'd probably sing a lot more. I'm just telling you, you say, I need to be happier. Okay, we'll sing some more Christian music, sing more Psalms. That's one of the benefits. If you want joy in your life, sing more of God's work. Go to Psalms 32, go to Psalms 32. If you find yourself in a good mood, just start singing to God and put yourself in an even better mood and start filling yourself with the Spirit of God. And maybe God will just destroy all your enemies for you. And then you can be even more excited when he's destroyed, you know, evil and wicked people. Psalm 32, look at verse 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. Notice, we should be the people that are the most excited, the most happy people in the planet. Why? Because we're God's children. The God of the universe is our Father. He loves us. Nothing bad can happen to us because even if you kill us, we're going to heaven. You can't destroy. Hey, every time you hurt me, it's another reward in heaven. It's like, you know, you play those video games or whatever and you hit the person and like coins drop out. It's like, you're just like sweet. I mean, all the suffering in this life, it's just more blessing. The Bible even says, whenever we're being persecuted, we're supposed to leap for joy. We're supposed to rejoice. I mean, if we had the right mentality, and I'm just trying to be real frank here, if we had the right mentality, our only emotion would really be joy. Obviously, the Bible says to weep within that. And obviously, when you have a lost one, when you lose a family member, you lose people, you can have a moment of sadness. But even if I lose somebody that's saved, I can still rejoice the fact they're in heaven. He gives us hope. And so the life of a Christian should be one of constant joy, of constant being married, constant having all this excitement and shouting and look, I'm not saying other emotions aren't legitimate. What I am saying is that we probably should all have more joy in our life. And how we get that benefit is through singing Psalms. Go to Psalms 67. Go to Psalms 67. Some of these are kind of ones that we sing and are popular. I love this song. I think it's a great one. It always puts me in a good mood. Look at Psalms 67, look at verse three. Let the people praise thee, oh God. Let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Notice what the Bible's saying. They're supposed to be singing with joy in our hearts. You know, there's a lot more joy that we should be having. And we get that through singing the Psalms. Go to Psalms 126. Go to Psalms 126. And sometimes it's nice to slow down and pay attention to the words that we're singing. These words just kind of jump off the page whenever we're putting them in context. Look what it says in verse four. Turn again our captivity, oh Lord, as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Notice, what is the benefit of singing Psalms? It's joy. Hey, when you're filled with the Spirit and you're applying God's word, meaning you're wise, and when the soul says, wise, then what happens? And you're singing the Psalm, you get joy. And what's better than joy? Isn't that what everyone's chasing after? Joy, the pursuit of happiness, even in our founding documents as a country. The pursuit of happiness as being something that's so important to people. And I'm like, you know, well, let me tell you how you get there, singing songs. That's one of the best ways to get there. Go to Proverbs 17, the last place I'm gonna return. Proverbs 17. And I try to show you this to motivate us as a church to sing more Psalms in our daily life. And to be encouraged to sing the Psalms and embrace the Psalms and teach your kids the Psalms. And hopefully people will put even more of them to music. And I say the more the merrier. I don't even care if there's different versions of the same Psalm. That's great. To me, it's like, if you don't like mine, then write a better one and we'll start singing it. But until we have your version, we'll sing the inferior version, okay? But you know what? Even the inferior version gets the job done, doesn't it? And it gets that doctrine in your heart. It fills you with the Spirit of God. It still gives you that wisdom. And you can still get that joy. Proverbs 17, look at verse 22. The Bible says, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bone. And I'm trying to make this sermon really positive. Again, when you're not doing these things, when you kind of have a bad attitude, whenever you're basically the opposite of having joy, notice what it can do. It can kind of destroy you. And look at the opposite. A merry heart is what? It's like a medicine. It's doing good unto you. It's benefiting you. And you look, we need joy in our lives. We need to have a good attitude towards this world, because look, frankly, this world doesn't have a good attitude. And it's, you ask me, it's real easy to get negative real quick. Look at our world. You look at the things that we have. Even though we have a lot of blessings, it's hard for us to truly be excited about them or appreciate them, because we're kind of on a decline. And even though you have all this great stuff, instead of looking at it with a positive attitude, you kind of look at it as like, well, it used to be better or something. It used to have more. It used to have X, Y, and Z, as opposed to just realizing all of it's going away anyways. And I still have so much to be thankful for that I need to go ahead and just have a merry and a happy and a joyful spirit. And you know what that's gonna do? It's gonna be a good medicine. Know when you're having a hard time, when you're going through things that are difficult, whenever you have kind of a rocky path, let me tell you something you could do. Sing some songs. And that can be a healing medicine in your life. If you're struggling every morning, maybe sing a couple extra songs. Maybe try to put yourself in the right spirit. And maybe God will start taking out some of your enemies before you that day. So not only are you in the right mood, he already just takes care of a lot of the battle for you, as opposed to what? Waking up, being in a bad mood, then having to fight all the battles you didn't have to fight. And then basically not having the joy. I'd rather just start singing praise to the God. I get all the victories, I just get in all the spoils. And then I basically just have all the joy that comes after. So let's be encouraged to sing more songs in our life. Let's go in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the Psalms. Thank you for giving us this great book of the Bible and all these songs that we can sing. Thank you for being willing to give us victory through your strength and through your power and through your might. I pray that we'd realize all the benefits that come through singing the word of God and that instead of filling ourselves in this world and filling ourselves in all this excess nonsense, we would rather be filled with the spirit of God. We'd rather decide to fill ourselves with the word of God and realize that we can't have enough. And that the more of God's word that we have in our lives, the better our lives are gonna be and the more joy that we can have. And I pray that you would just help all of us to have the best attitude that we possibly can in serving you. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Go to Psalms 15. Actually, in response to that sermon, we're gonna sing both Psalms 149 and 150 right through. Okay. Thankfully, so if it's in your white song book, it should just be a turn of the page. We're gonna go a smooth transition from Psalms 149 into Psalms 150. Praise ye the Lord. 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 timbrel and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. 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 Lord. 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 of all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God 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 symphony. Praise him with the high sounding cymbals. Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. In three persons. Amen, with that you are dismissed.