Preaching From The Pews

How are we able to sing?

Singing is pretty amazing when you think about it.

Somehow, we humans are able to push air up our throats over some sort of flexible fleshy membranes that vibrate at different speeds, changing the pitch of the sound we’re producing, which we intuitively know how to do, all the while reshaping our tongues and lips and mouths to form words while making this happen.

22 times the Bible tells us to “Sing to the Lord.”

Illus: A famous preacher named Spurgeon once said:

• “Do we sing as much as the birds do? Yet what have birds to sing about compared with us?

• Do we sing as much as the angels do? Yet the angels were never redeemed by the blood of Christ.

• Birds of the air, shall you excel me?

• Angels, shall you exceed me?

• You have done so - but I intend to emulate you, and day by day, and night by night pour forth my soul in sacred song.”

Spurgeon had no intention of letting birds or angels sing more praises to God than he did. He intended to sing because he had a reason to sing.

Illus: Ken Idleman (the preacher at the SE Christian Church in Louisville, KY) told of being out in the park on a hot, miserable day. He was sweating profusely and was not in a good mood.

But out of the corner of his eye he saw a man in work clothes carrying a hose over his shoulder, and the man was whistling... on this hot, miserable day.

As he watched, the workman arrived at his destination - a port-a-pot. The man had come to clean it out... and he was whistling... on a hot and miserable day.

And what was he whistling?

Idleman marveled at this - here was a man cleaning out a port-a-pot on a hot and miserable day whistling "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!" Without even realizing he was doing it, this workman was praising God and declaring God's glory for the strength God had given him on a hot sweaty day to clean out a port-a-pot.

Let me ask you a question.

Here is the question: “Have you ever thought why church services like ours, after opening in prayer start their services off by singing?”

There is a reason for that.

Because…

(1) Singing is a way giving the congregation an opportunity to preach Christ from the pews.

Preacher….what do you mean that SINGING IS A WAY PREACHING from the pews?

Every week as a minister I preach from the pulpit but when the congregation sings each week they are preaching from the pews.

For example, on Easter…

Illus: And I heard this congregation PREACHING FROM THE PEWS singing… “I serve a risen Savior, He is in my heart today…He lives!”

You may not be in the pulpit preaching but from the pews of this church you preached HE LIVES loudly and clearly.

Singing is a way for the congregation to PREACH CHRIST FROM THE PEWS.

(2) Singing is a way of Confession

As we sing hymns, we are confessing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

• When we sing, “He is Lord,” we are preaching from the pews that Jesus is LORD!

• When we sing, “How Great Thou Art,” we are preaching from the pews the greatness of the God we serve.

(3) Singing Demonstrates the Unity of the Church

We read in Romans 15:6 “You may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Also, in I Cor. 1:10 we read, as a body of believers we are to be united. “I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”.

As we lift our voices in harmony, we have the opportunity to show that unity. We are preaching unity from the pew's harmony.

(4) Singing Expresses Deep Religious Emotion

James 5:13, we read, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms”.

While emotion must never be the focal point of our religion or our worship, there are often deep emotions embedded in our worship of the Lord Jesus. Singing allows us to express that emotion.

There is something special about walking into a church and:

• Not half the congregation,

• Not one third of the congregation

• Not one fourth of the congregation

The entire congregation is singing with emotion.

Illus: I like that kind of singing in a church service because even if you do not have a singing voice, you can cut lose and sing and nobody, but God is going to hear you.