Prayer & Singing - 18th January 2026

You can open your Bibles to Zephaniah.

I know everyone's like, "Oh man, that's

a rough one." So, Zephaniah, Hagi,

Zachchariah, Malachi. Start at the back

of the Old Testament and and move that

way a few a few books. Zephaniah is

where we're headed. Um, so I'm just

testing you. That was your first test

this morning.

Zephaniah chapter 3. As you find that,

Zephaniah 3 · chapter mention

I'm going to ask you a deep question

this morning. And that deep question is,

why do you exist?

Why do you exist? What what is the

purpose of your life? What is the the

reason for being? Have you thought about

that this morning? And you're like,

Steve, I could barely decide what to

wear this morning, let alone think about

deep philosophical questions. But

thankfully, thankfully you are in luck

because there have been people through

the ages who have thought of some of

these things for us. Although I do think

it's an important question we think of

for ourselves.

But there uh is a uh group of questions

and answers called the Westminster

Catechism. That's just a way to kind of

think about and learn doctrine and truth

with a kind of a question and answer.

That's what a catechism is. And the

question that this catechism asks is

what is the chief end of man? Which is a

fancy way of asking the question is

what's the sole purpose of humanity?

Like what is the one big purpose of

humanity? What is the chief end of man?

And the answer is to glorify God and

enjoy him forever. That is the sole

purpose of humanity. Our our lives are

to bring glory to God. What a calling we

have. We get to bring glory to God. But

it doesn't even end there. That's not

where it ends. We get to enjoy him

forever.

If we are God's, if we are the people of

God, we get to enjoy him together. Last

week we looked at why or how God speaks

through his word. Why do we preach? Why

is preaching so important in the church?

God speaks to us. This week we're going

to look at two means that God has given

us to speak to him. Two ways we've been

given to worship God. Singing and

praying. Why do we sing and why do we

pray? There there are many commands in

the scripture on how to use our voice.

Right? So to encourage, to rebuke, to

comfort one another, to give thanks.

There's lots of things we're to do with

our voice. But singing and praying are

two practices that the church can do

corporately. Not only corporately. I

know we might sing in private sometimes.

We might certainly we hope we pray in

private. But these are things that we

have as a part of our service every

week.

Every week we sing together and every

week we pray together. Both singing and

praying are two godgiven means for us to

glorify him and enjoy him. So this

morning, I would love for you to have a

fresh understanding of the joy and

privilege it is to come to God in both

song and prayer. That you can glorify

and enjoy him in both song and prayer.

So let's let's start with singing. When

we sing, we are consciously, audibly,

carefully

glorifying God. We tangibly tangibly

enjoy his presence and his character as

we sing. It's really hard to exaggerate

the the influence that music and singing

has had through the centuries. I mean,

if you really think about it, music is

all around us. You open your phone and

Spotify is there. You go to a wedding

and there is singing and music and

dancing. You come to church and we sing.

You go to a concert and there's

thousands of people there. You can watch

Ireland's Got Talent. You can watch

Britain's Got Talent. You can watch

American Idol. You can go and listen to

the TV commercials and there'll be a

little jingle or a little song. Da da da

da da.

McDonald's.

So, school songs, camp songs. I even try

to sing songs of which I don't know the

words. My family can tell you that. I

know the song exists and I'll just make

up the words because why not? Because

you got to try sometimes. Millions of

hours. I mean, just millions of hours of

recorded music in the last hundred

years. Listen, humanity likes their

music. They like we like our music. Now,

now imagine a world with no music,

no song.

How would that feel?

What would celebrations look like with

no music or no singing?

What would it be like to watch a movie

with no background music?

Would there be dancing in this world if

we had no song? If we had no music? What

would our church meetings look like if

we didn't sing together? It would be

weird.

It would be weird if we gathered here on

a Sunday and we didn't sing. Why would

that be weird? Because Christians sing.

I mean, Christians sing. We have

something to sing about. We have someone

to sing to. So, I want to just give you

two reasons this morning to worship God

that are related to singing. First, we

worship God because he sings. Look at

Zephaniah chapter 3.

Zephaniah 3 · chapter mention

Zephaniah, he's writing uh to Judah uh

and there is just trouble for Judah

because the people of God have always

had trouble because they don't listen.

Uh and he's prophesying what's going to

happen. But then at the very end of the

chapter, he prophesies just this this

restoration and this joy that they will

have at the very end. And there's this

he he's saying, why is there so much

joy? Why is there just this greatness

that's coming because of who God is?

And so look at verse 17 of chapter 3.

I'm just going to read that one verse.

The Lord your God, Zephaniah says to

Judah, "The Lord your God is in your

midst, a mighty one who will save. He

will rejoice over you with gladness. He

will quiet you by his love. He will

exalt over you with loud singing."

Did you know that God sings?

There is a reason. There's a reason that

music moves your soul.

God is a singing God. That verse says

that he is mighty to save. Yes, he is.

And that he rejoices over his people. He

rejoices over you.

But he doesn't only do that. He quiets

you with his love. But he doesn't only

do that.

For the people of God, he exalts over

you with singing.

What does God's singing sound like?

Just imagine. It's perfect.

It's beautiful. It's melodious. It's

soothing. It's exhilarating. It's

energizing.

Exalt means triumphant elation. It's

it's jubilation. It's delight.

Do you know do you know when something

reminds you of a song? I mean, this

could be when you hear a few words that

just remind you of a song or you hear a

tune or maybe it's a certain place,

maybe even a certain smell. Our senses

are kind of all connected to our memory.

When when I hear the phrase, "These are

the moments," I think of my bride.

I think about our wedding. Uh, I can see

the people, the the witnesses that were

before us on that day. I can feel the

excitement of a wedding. I remember the

horrible string quartet that we hired.

Often songs are linked to life's

realities and to moments,

especially with people.

If I say

we're halfway there, half of you might

be like living on a prayer. I mean, we

just like they're just like in our

heads. They're just in our heads.

National songs, anthems, they just bring

pride and unity.

You have I know you do those guilty

pleasure songs. You're in the car by

yourself. It comes on classic hits radio

or something and you're just belting it

out. You're singing down the motorway

like nobody's watching. I know you do. I

have them.

I have them.

Brother and sister,

God sings over you with everyone

watching.

With everyone watching, you are his

pleasure.

You are his delight. He sings over you.

He rejoices over you. He wants to be

with you. He wants to talk to you. He

wants to listen to you. He wants to have

a forever covenant relationship with

you.

Why do we sing? How can we not? How can

we not sing if this is the reality of

who God is and how he loves us? How

could we not sing? The one true God of

the universe sings over us. His his

waves of mercy and grace like a melody

compel us to to praise, to worship, to

adoration, to joy, to thanksgiving.

When you understand the Father's love

for you, when when you remember what the

Son gave up for you, when you realize

the indwelling presence of the spirit,

you worship God.

You worship God. Worship God

because he sings over you. You are loved

as a child of God.

Secondly, we worship God by singing.

There'll be a few verses on the screen

throughout because I'm going to be all

over the place and I don't want to

exhaust you by flipping pages. So, Psalm

95, we worship God by singing. We

worship God because he sings. We worship

God by singing. In Psalm 95 says, "Oh

come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us

make a joyful noise to the rock of our

salvation. Let us come into his presence

with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful

noise to him with songs of praise."

Psalm 100, which Myra read, verse two,

serve the Lord with gladness. Come into

his presence with singing.

We move into the the New Testament,

Ephesians 5. Do not get drunk with wine,

Paul says, or writes to the Ephesians,

for that is debauchery. But be filled

with the spirit, addressing one another

in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody to the Lord

with your heart, giving thanks always

and for everything to God the Father in

the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

submitting to one another out of

reverence for Christ.

We are imagebearers.

We are imagebearers. Meaning we are

created to reflect God's character like

a mirror reflects my image. We bear an

image of God.

We see that in Genesis. We also see in

Genesis that we have been given creation

to to dominate over to we are called to

take dominion to subdue it to control it

to make it ours. That includes sound

waves. That includes sound waves. We are

to own those for the glory of God. In

these verses, do you see who who are we

singing to? We sing to God. Yes. But in

Ephesians verse, we sing to one another.

We sing to one another. We saw that we

sing to God in the Psalms. He is the the

rock of our salvation. He sings over us.

We sing praises to him. and this this

beautiful dance of a relationship back

and forth. But we also sing to one

another. Listen, I need you to remind me

of the greatness of God.

And you need me to remind you of the

greatness of God. One of the ways that

we do this is through song.

It's through song. Psalm 105:2 says,

Psalms 105:2

"Sing to him.

Sing praises to him. Tell of all his

wondrous works.

Sing to him. Sing praises to him. Tell

of all his wondrous works. This is one

of the reasons why the music the

musicians excuse me stop playing. Have

you noticed that's a practice that we

have? The musicians will stop the music

because we need to hear each other.

We are the instrument. The the musicians

are just guiding our instrument of our

voice so that we can sing to God and

sing to one another. It reminds us that

we are a people together who worship

God.

So we stop the music every once in a

while so that we can hear really well

each other singing. And let's do that.

Let's sing so we can hear one another

sing praises. We see that scriptures

full of song.

Full of song. Moses and Miriam sang.

Deborah and Bareric in the judges book

of judges sang. Hannah sings. David

sings. Uh Mary the mother of Jesus

sings. Heavenly beings sing in

Revelation. There's a new song sung by

the saints in Revelation. All sing the

praises of God.

Think think with me. It's a little

illustration. The the most intense

sports final that you have ever seen. So

maybe that was a World Cup. Uh maybe

that was Six Nations. Maybe that was a

Super Bowl. Maybe that was just you in

some childhood league that just felt

like the biggest thing ever.

So think about that moment

or pretend with me for a second. It's a

sporting event. This the score is close.

The competition is severe.

Victory is in sight, but defeat. Defeat

is a real possibility. The the minutes

are ticking by. The score is going back

and forth. Uh maybe maybe your team's

down with only a couple minutes to spare

or even a few seconds to to spare. And

then then there's that moment. There's

that moment that that breakthrough, that

breakthrough where they're they're

they're running down the pitch.

Everyone's holding their breath. They're

holding their breath. What's going to

happen? What's going to happen? And then

suddenly they score. They score. And

you're like, "Is there a penalty? Is

there a penalty? Is there a penalty?

There's no penalty. The official calls

the game and it's a victory and you've

you've secured it."

What is the reaction from the fans of

the winning team?

Do they sit there

in silence

acknowledging

as stoically as possible

their team's victory?

Are they bored

and indifferent

to what just happened on the pitch?

Are they

yawning

or disinterested

in what just happened?

No, that's not what's going on. They're

they're they're clapping. They're

jumping. They're screaming. They're so

excited. Yes, we won. They're probably

like like hugging each other and they're

they're singing a song and they're

swaying back and forth and they're just

like they're elated.

That is what happens when your team wins

a severe competition.

How much more should we be declaring

with psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs the victory of the Lord of glory

over sin and death.

How much more victorious is that

than some game on a pitch with a ball?

That's why we sing. That's why we sing.

That's why we sing lines like Christ

before me, Christ behind me, Christ

within me every day. That's why we sing

all the redeemed washed by his blood

come and rejoice in his great love. It's

why we sing Jesus

friend of sinners

crown a crown of thorns you wore for me.

It's why we're going to sing in a little

bit. Now to the lamb upon the throne be

blessing, honor, glory, power for the

battle you have won. It's why we sing.

There is something worth singing about.

There is someone worth singing about.

We are a church that sings. We are a

people that sings.

If we are highlighting the glories of

Christ and declaring the wondrous works

of God through song,

then what we sing on Sunday matters. It

matters what we sing. We don't just sing

any song that claims to be Christian.

We don't sing anything that pops up on

spirit radio. Like I said yesterday or

last week,

we are declaring God's truths back to

him.

A guy named Kent Hughes says that music

must be the servant of preaching.

Songs reflect what is preached. We we

preach the Bible

unashamedly.

So our songs should unashamedly clearly

teach this book.

This is why the elders choose the songs.

I don't know if you knew that the elders

choose the songs we sing because songs

teach and it's the elers's

responsibility

to know what's being taught.

We also need to be careful how we sing

songs. So songs on a Sunday should be

easily sung by a congregation. And

that's not true of every song. It's not

true of every Christian song that's been

written. It's not easily sung by a

congregation. We're not looking for for

solos, a performance. It doesn't mean

that we never have special music.

Special music is fine,

but that shouldn't be the the norm.

That's the exception. We should be able

to sing together. Songs shouldn't have

an an impossible range to them.

It should be able to be easily sung. And

we should be able to do that joyfully,

knowing that we are all different. And

we are not going to sing the same. We

don't all have the same skills in

singing.

But can I just be really clear? The Lord

does not care

your skill in singing.

He made you just the way you are.

And he can receive worship from you

through song just the way you are.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't maybe

sometimes think about the way we sound

and even desire to sing better as a

congregation, but that's often through

singing a lot and making sure our songs

are chosen well so that we can sing

them. You know what singing also does

for us? It just kills your pride.

It kills your pride. I was singing

earlier like in like, you know, you get

a crack, you just clear your throat and

you keep going. That's okay. Singing is

vulnerable because you're pouring out

your heart to your maker. And that's

just good. That's a good thing. It's

good for us to be in that place. It's

also good to remember just like I said

with preachers, musicians have different

skills, too. This is not about

musicians. It's about us praising and

singing glory to God.

We have different skills.

But we should be focusing on who God is

and what we're singing about him.

We're also we're also holistic beings.

We we we are embodied souls. Meaning

meaning that that we have a soul and we

have a body and those things cannot be

separated. We will exist that way

forever. When we do die, we are

separated from our body but just for a

season.

Everyone will be resurrected. Some to

life and some to death. But everyone

that is here today will exist as body

and soul forever. And so we don't just

worship with our souls. We we we aren't

just I mean imag like just how

ridiculous would it be if we just sat

here

and I'm singing. Did you know I'm

singing? I'm just I'm doing it in my

head.

Like no. Like we have a body, like we

have a voice. So we are singing not just

in our heads. We worship with our

bodies. We worship with our voices.

Psalm 100. Myra read it. Make a joyful

noise to the Lord all the earth. I don't

know how to make a noise except for my

voice.

I can do I can clap too. These are some

ways we can make noises.

We also stand.

Do you know why we stand? Well, first

it's biblical. Nehemiah 9 says, "Then

the Levites said, "Stand up." The priest

said, "Stand up and bless the Lord your

God from everlasting to everlasting.

Blessed be your glorious name which is

exalted above all blessing and praise."

So we stand. We also stand because you

just sing better when we stand. You just

sing better when you stand. It also

helps us to show reverence to God. It it

also shows corporate unity. We're

together. We're standing together. We're

singing to each other.

Sometimes people are tapping the floor.

They're tapping the side of their leg.

They might be tapping the front of the

chair.

We have a drum.

Psalm 149 says, "Let them praise his

name, making melody to him with

tambourine and liar." Rhythm is not a

bad thing.

Rhythm is in the scripture.

Tap your foot, tap your side, clap your

hands. Like that's okay. We we we

worship in body and soul. We smile. I

would encourage you to smile. Make a

joyful noise to the Lord.

If we're not going to smile about what

Christ has done for, what are we going

to smile about?

That's something that we can do. And

yes,

yes, you can raise a hand in worship.

I know we're Baptists and sometimes we

seem to be fairly stoic sometimes, but

we are biblical.

David Psalm 63, so I will bless you as

long as I live in your name. I will lift

up my hands. We see Solomon lifting up

his hands to pray

as he uh was um blessing the finishing

of the temple. We see Ezra play praying.

We see Paul write to Timothy, I desire

that then in every place the men should

pray, lifting holy hands. This is not a

command. I just we want you to feel

free. Those are biblical ways to

worship.

And I really struggled with this when I

was younger of seeing people um in in

different ways, not just not just

lifting up a hand or or or or maybe

maybe even just other biblical ways of

worship because I thought it was a

drawing attention to themselves.

And I think in lots of things in life,

we have mixed motives and that's just

true. Like we're not going to have pure

motives this side of heaven and almost

of anything we do.

But then I had some just good teaching

and some looking into the scripture and

seeing like it's actually just

surrendering to Christ. I think that's

the heart

of of that. It's vulnerability. It's

dependence on Christ. It's affection for

Christ. It's it's Christ focused.

Imagine for a moment with me

singing in heaven.

We have little pictures.

But my imagination

I I can see the Lord Jesus Christ high

and lifted up on a throne. You would

just imagine the the millions and

millions of people whom he died for

around that throne.

I don't know what the music is going to

be like. Is it just our voice?

I imagine singing with a voice that

doesn't crack. I imagine singing with a

voice that maybe I can harmonize with

myself.

Maybe I can have multiple harmonies all

coming out of my own voice. But we're

all we're all praising the Lord Jesus.

And it's not like we're praising here

where we're just reading words on a

screen.

We are looking at him.

We are looking at him and we can see his

face and we can see his nailpierced

hands.

I think we will worship

in body and soul in that moment. We'll

be bowing.

We will likely be lifting our hands. We

will for sure be using our voices. I

can't imagine that we're seated. I think

we're going to be standing if not face

down.

May we never though, may we never hold

back ourselves from biblical ways to

worship because we're self-conscious.

I think that's often the case. We're

just self-conscious and we care too much

what people think. So I just want to

free you to reverently tap your leg or

raise a hand as you sing songs and even

as we pray. It's not a command. There's

not pressure. We are all different. We

have different personalities and

preferences. And that's the beauty of

the body. As a part of this, we also

need to remember that we are called to

worship in spirit and in truth. John 4.

So I I I just said it biblical ways. One

one of the the the the really important

things we have to think about is that

our worship is has to be restrained

by the word of God. What do we see are

biblical ways to worship God

in spirit and in truth? Biblical and

reverent ways to glorify God. Worship

God, brother and sister, because he

sings over you.

and worship him by singing

body and soul.

Not only are we able to lift our voices

in song to God though, we are also able

to lift our voices to God in prayer.

Turn to Psalm 34.

Psalm 34.

There'll be a few more verses on the

screen after this as well. But when we

think about praying to God, I want to

give you two

reasons we worship God

related to prayer.

Worship God because he hears you.

Psalm 34, look at verse 15.

The eyes

of the Lord are toward

the righteous and his ears toward their

cry.

The face of the Lord is against those

who do evil to cut off the memory of

them from the earth. When the righteous

cry for help,

the Lord hears

and delivers them out of all their

troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

Every week we have multiple

opportunities to pray together.

We have a prayer time before this

service at 10:15 to 10:45. We have a a

pastoral prayer where one of your elders

will pray with you and for you, but you

are praying. It's corporate prayer

together. We have Wednesday nights where

men and women spend a good chunk of time

praying together.

Why do we offer these times of prayer in

the life of this body? Well, the psalm

tells us the eyes of the Lord are toward

the righteous and his ears toward their

cry.

The one true God of this universe

hears his people.

He hears you when you cry out to him.

I've seen moms in our midst multiple

times. He hear their child crying child

who's not with them know that it's their

child and can distinguish.

Thank you Josiah. That's great help.

distinguish that it's my child and it's

like across the building. Like a mom

just knows the cry of their child.

The Lord knows the cry of his people. He

hears you. You have a little faith,

he hears you. You who are struggling

with sin, he hears you.

You who have fear

and crushing doubts,

he hears you.

He hears you when you're at your lowest.

He hears you when you have haven't

spoken to him in a really long time.

He gives you undivided

attention because his attention can

never be divided.

He is all knowing. He is all present. He

is all powerful. He knows you better

than you know yourself. And when you

have no idea what to pray, when you have

no idea what to pray, the spirit of God

prays on your behalf with groanings too

deep for words. We saw that in Romans 8

a couple months ago.

In the States in the early 2000s, there

is a a mobile phone company called

Verizon,

and they had this ad campaign that ran

for about a decade where you had this

guy and he'd be like on a remote

location, you know, on an island

somewhere or somewhere else or at the

top of building

and he's on his phone. He'd ask the

question, "Can you hear me now?"

He'd have a pause and he he'd say,

"Good." and be the other location. Can

you hear me now? Good. Can you hear me

now? Good. And it was this very

successful, ridiculous ad campaign that

ran for 10 years, uh, much to Verizon's

delight of, "Can you hear me now?"

You never have to ask God that question.

You never have to ask God, "Can you hear

me now?"

He hears you. The psalm says, "When the

righteous cry for help, the Lord hears."

The Lord hears.

Worship God because he hears you.

But listen, if you're here and you are

not a Christian this morning, that's a

different story for you. If you are not

in Christ this morning, God is all

knowing. So, he hears everything. But

the scripture says, Proverbs 15,

the Lord is far from the wicked, but he

hears the prayers of the righteous.

Isaiah 59 says, "Behold,

the Lord's hand is not shortened that it

cannot save, or his ear dull that it

cannot hear. But

your iniquities, your sins have made a

separation between you and your God. And

your sins have hidden his face from you

so that he does not hear.

If you are not in Christ, you have no

access to God. You have no favor with

God.

He does not hear you.

But there's good news.

There is good news that you can be heard

by God if you turn to Christ in

repentance and faith and cry out, "Save

me from my sin. I cannot do this on my

own. I believe that Christ died for the

ungodly, and that's me."

He will always hear that prayer. He will

always hear that prayer.

He will answer you. And that's my final

point today.

Worship God

because he hears you, but worship God

because he answers you. He answers you.

Psalm 38. Turn there. It's a couple

pages over from Psalm 34. Psalm 38.

Another Psalm of David.

Verse 15,

Psalm 38:15 says, "But for you, oh Lord,

Psalms 38:15

do I wait. It is you, oh Lord, my God,

who will answer.

I wait because I know you will answer."

David says here, he's declaring that the

Lord answers prayer. David waits knowing

that he will get an answer.

The New Testament calls us to pray all

over the place.

Philippians 4, do not be anxious about

anything, but in everything by prayer

and supplication with thanksgiving, let

your requests be made known to God.

Be constant in prayer. Romans 12. Pray

at all times. Ephesians 6. Continue

steadfastly in prayer. Colossians 4.

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5.

Prayer is essential to us,

but it's also effective for us. James 5,

the prayer of a righteous person has

great power as it is working.

You're like, I'm not righteous. If

you're in Jesus, you're righteous.

You're justified. It's the prayer of a

believer has great power as it is

working.

We are commanded to be a praying people.

You know, this would be really

difficult. It would be impossible

and pointless if God were deaf and

powerless.

But he

is not deaf nor powerless.

God answers your prayer.

He answers your prayer. We forget this

sometimes. It's not the answer we want.

But that doesn't mean he's not

answering.

We forget.

Paul Miller, and I'm going to use

several bits of some of his thoughts in

the rest of this sermon, but he says,

"We often struggle to pray well

because we are focusing on prayer and

not God."

You ever feel that? struggling to pray

well because I'm just too focused on my

prayer and I'm not focusing on God. We

don't we don't experience God. You get

to know him. You submit to him. You

enjoy him. It's like he's a person

because he is.

It'd be like sitting with a friend or a

child or your spouse and you're just

trying to focus on your words and not on

them

or men. Men, if you are if you are

flirting with your wife, and yes, you're

allowed to flirt with your wife. If you

are flirting with your wife and you're

too worried

about what you're saying that you that

you miss her smile, you got it wrong.

You just got it wrong.

Focus on God. God answers your prayer.

Pray to him like that is true, that he

hears you. Are you cynical

in your prayers?

Meaning that a doesn't matter. That's

what cynical means. Ah, what's the

point? Many Christians give in to a

quiet cynicism that really leaves us

paralyzed

in our prayer life. Are you too busy to

pray? Well, learning to pray doesn't

make you less busy. It just gives you a

less busy heart.

Are you too weary to pray?

You're in luck. The guidelines for

coming to Jesus is weariness.

Whatever overwhelms you, when you're

overcome with life, when you have a

wandering mind,

go to him messy.

When you pray, you are connecting with

God who answers. And when we do that,

when you realize that I'm talking to the

all powerful God of the universe who

will answer me, prayer becomes an

adventure.

Becomes an adventure.

So I would encourage you when you come

here on a Sunday morning and you're not

busy with a particular roa of service,

which I know so often is the case, but

when you come here,

join us for prayer.

We're in the back 10:15 to 10:45.

You can come in and out of that time.

You don't have to be there for the full

30 minutes. Pop in for five minutes. pop

in for the whole thing. Wouldn't it be

amazing if we needed a bigger room

because we don't all fit to pray

together. When one of the elders is

praying during the service,

strive to listen and agree with eager

expectation that those prayers will be

answered. When you are at men and

women's group,

pray.

It's an opportunity. Pray big prayer. I

don't mean pray long prayers. I just

mean pray big prayers.

Ask God for big things. Don't worry what

you sound like or what people are going

to think about you. You don't have to be

eloquent in your prayers.

And I know some for a lot of you,

English is your second language.

That is so humbling for you, but it's

humbling for me to think that you're

praying in a language that's not your

first language. That sounds terrifying

to me.

Thank you for doing that.

Talk to God in those moments like he's

in the room because he is. He's in the

room.

We get to We have the great privilege to

worship God with our words.

It's a great privilege we have both in

song and in prayer. The God that you

sing to and the God that you pray to, he

answers those prayers.

And it is the same God

who sings loudly over you. He He

delights in you so much in Christ

that he sings over you. Why Why do we

sing and pray?

Well, God proves his worthiness over and

over and over and over again.

He's worthy of our song. He is worthy of

our prayer. We should rejoice in that

privilege and then take advantage of it.

There may be one day where you don't

have a voice.

I know of a woman who's lost her ability

to speak.

which means she can't sing.

And of course, she can sing in her

heart. So, she it's not that she she's

just like being disobedient or or any

less of a Christian because of that, but

that would be really hard.

Let's sing and pray well together while

we can glorify God and enjoy him forever

through song.

and through prayer.

I'm going to pray now. We're going to

pray together to the God who answers.

And then we're going to we're going to

stand and we're going to sing. We're

going to sing All Sufficient Merit.

Let's sing it like we've never sung it

before.

Let me pray. Father, we thank you. We

thank you that you are a God that sings

over us with with loud singing. You

exalt over us with loud singing. Praise

your name.

That you find us worthy in Christ, God.

That we have value. That we bear your

image. We thank you. May we be a singing

people that unashamedly, unabashedly

worship you, that we would not be

self-conscious

and so worried what other people think.

May we be a praying people that know

that you hear and answer our prayers.

Forgive us when we're when we when we

think that that just never happens.

Show us yourself, God.

Show us yourself as we sing and as we

pray.

Help us. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's stand and sing together.