Singing of Salvation

And you know, Exodus 15 is the uh the first song in the whole Bible, and it gets us thinking about music, and so I want us to think about music here in terms of the first device where you ever remember hearing a song?

Or can you can you think back?

Well, like, what's the first device you remember hearing that song on?

How many of you?

It was a record player.

A few of you, okay?

Uh, how many of you was eight-tracks?

Couple, alright, I appreciate the honesty.

Respect.

Uh, how many of you remember hearing music for the first time on a radio?

A few times on a radio.

What about a cassette player?

A few more there?

How about a C D?

A couple more?

Anybody, the iPod was the first time you remember hearing music played?

I see you.

Anyone remember the iPhone was the first time?

A couple more there?

Yeah, so there's a there's a whole host here.

Um now let me ask another question.

How many of you love to sing?

A bunch of you do.

There's uh there's a few of you like, I don't know.

Like, I we do it at church, I don't totally love it.

Um some people obviously you love to sing more, some some less.

In different ways, though, I think music touches all of us, and especially the power of singing.

Um in different circumstances call for different songs, don't they?

Like you're on your way to church camp, and I could just guarantee you, like this past summer you would have been hearing Josiah Queen and Forrest Frank on that bus, right?

Or uh you go through a tough breakup, and all of a sudden you hear somebody singing some T Swift about the teardrops on their guitar.

Right?

Or you get ready to mow the grass, and it's like you just you can't hardly mow the grass without some Toby Keefe.

Like those things just kind of go together, right?

Like 40th anniversary, grand celebration, it's incredible.

Like maybe by some chance you had the opportunity to go all the way to Australia, to that glorious Sydney opera house right there on the water, and you hear the 600-voice choir singing Handel's Messiah.

It's like, oh, how can you not burst out in song in the glory there?

Now I can understand there's there's a few of you guys, and I see you're like, just you're describing this stuff.

I don't do that kind of singing.

Look, we all know that when you get really frustrated and you're on your way home and you hear the intro for Inner Sandman from Metallica, like you're there and you're singing.

It just looks a little different for some of you, okay?

So, like, singing touches everybody in different ways, and different circumstances call for different songs, and yet God actually has a lot to say about the matter.

And uh, and so I think it's important that we come to Exodus 15 and realize God has a lot to say about how we sing, and man, was it good to hear you guys sing this morning.

Gosh, I love that.

I love Lincoln reminding us.

Yes, we're singing to the Lord, but we're singing to each other as well.

We're instructing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

And uh, so what I want to do, I want to go to prayer here before we we really dig into Exodus 15.

And I want us to ask God to give us a heart that wants to sing to him, not just lips that do sing to him.

That's the prayer this morning.

All right, let's let's pray that together.

Lord Jesus, we need your help this morning.

We want you to do a work in our hearts that we would have hearts that want to sing to you, not just lips that do sing to you.

So as we as we think about this song, would you speak to our hearts?

Show us how wonderful you are, how worthy of song you are, and would you be exalted in our midst?

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, so Exodus 15, we're gonna take a little bit different approach this morning.

Do things a little bit differently.

I want to make sure I don't bury the lead.

So Exodus 15 has a primary call to action.

Like, here's what I want you to do with this.

You don't have to wait for application past the 12-second mark this morning.

Here's the call to action.

Respond to God's salvation with singing.

That's the call to action.

If it's in your bulletin, if you got the bulletin, it's there.

If you're taking notes, write that down.

Respond to God's salvation with singing.

If you're new with this, we've been moving through the book of Exodus, and we have for the people of God, like their origin story, the greatest story of grace in the whole Bible.

How they are delivered by sheer grace from the mighty hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

They leave with the Passover, they cross across the Red Sea, and what's the very first thing they do after the greatest story of grace?

They burst out in song.

And our origin story is the people of God is a little bit different.

Like we're singing that we are saved by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone, but that's a great story of grace.

And we must burst forth in song as well.

You know, there's there's a lot of different metrics and indicators of like what is a healthy church.

And I'll just tell you, one of them is when the men are singing really loud right alongside the women who sometimes lead the way here.

That's one of the ways you know you got a healthy church.

And goodness gracious, Parkside, was it great to hear the men and the women singing side by side?

You will reign forever.

Let your glory fill the earth.

You will reign forever, let your glory fill the earth.

Like, oh my goodness, what a joy that is.

So, what we're gonna do this morning, I'm calling you to action.

Respond to God's salvation with singing.

I'm gonna make you a promise.

This will be the shortest sermon I preach this year.

Because we're gonna finish the sermon and then we're gonna sing more than we usually sing at the end.

So you get an opportunity to put it into practice right away.

And so there's only two points this morning.

There's the act of singing and the content of singing.

That's the two things.

Number one, the act of singing.

This the song of Moses in Exodus 15.

I I told you in our announcement time, you turn around to the very end of the book in Revelation 15, and it says, in eternity, we're singing the song of Moses again.

So if you're somebody out there and you love new songs and you're a little hesitant on the old ones, they feel a little stiff, a little stodgy, a little old school for you, you just need to realize that if you're gonna be in heaven, you're gonna need to get used to singing old songs because we're all gonna do it.

But here's the other thing: Revelation 5 and Revelation 14 tell us of brand new songs being sung.

So, like if you're like longing for the hymns, you wish we had more old songs.

You don't really want to sing the new ones because they're not as good as the old ones.

Well, you need to get used to singing some new songs because that's what you're gonna do in eternity with the rest of us, too, new ones and old ones together.

In fact, next week we're introducing a new song uh that Lincoln sent over to me.

It's like 12 months old, brand new.

But in the queue for the next couple of months, there's three or four songs coming up, and we were talking about this maybe two weeks ago.

The newest one is 200 years old.

After the one from next week.

New and old together.

And we're trying to lead to find like what are fresh ways to sing these glorious truths about God while also seeing these timeless and time-tested old hymns of the faith and put those things together.

Because singing is a big deal to God.

In the Bible, there's more than 400 verses about singing, and more than 50, 5-0 direct commands to sing.

Which is kind of an odd thing if you think about it for a second.

Like the commands of God I'm used to thinking about, like, forgive one another, that's a command.

Don't commit adultery, that's a command.

Don't gossip, that's a command.

Thou shalt sing.

Like we don't usually think about that at the same level, right?

That feels a little odd to us.

Yet God says more than 50 times in the Bible, sing, sing to me, sing a new song, sing loudly, sing joyfully.

It's a big deal to God.

So why?

Why does God command singing?

Well, let me give you a real simple Bible truth here about all of God's commands.

God's commands are for your good and his glory.

It's for both of them.

Right?

So even we're coming up on the Ten Commandments in just a couple of weeks.

We'll get there.

And what do we notice?

The Ten Commandments come after the greatest story of God's grace.

He's saying, I've already redeemed you.

It's not like these rules are helping you earn your way closer to me.

But if you will follow my rules, like I will be glorified in your obedience, but it's actually for your good as well.

God's commandments always for his glory, but for our good as well.

So let me just tell you a little bit of things I found this week.

Because I was surprised by the amount of data from research universities about the value of singing.

That singing is actually for your good.

Listen to this.

Singing releases endorphins that lower anxiety, stress, and depression.

Studies show that singing stimulates and strengthens your immune system.

We were talking about this actually on the way into church today, and my one daughter who loves to sing the most, she said, Oh, is that why you guys get sick more often than me?

Because I sing more than you.

Studies show singing increases your pain threshold.

Singing helps with grief.

Singing has proven benefits for patients with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and quadriplegia.

I mean, it's unbelievable the value of singing across the board.

So, in other words, when we say that God's commands are for our good, maybe God knew what was good for us before the modern research university tried to tell us what was good for us.

And we haven't even talked about the content of the song yet.

Like we're talking about reminding ourselves of God's character, of his mighty deeds, of his grace in our life, of the most important things about us it reminds us of.

So, what would happen if we took the hard data of the research universities and then we add that to what God says about the act of singing?

I think there's three things I want to just talk real quickly about the act of singing, singing to God, singing to others, singing for the world.

Boom, boom, boom, real quick.

Sing to the Lord.

That's one thing we're told to do.

Sing it's a vertical dimension.

So, Exodus 15:1, you've got your Bible open.

Exodus 15:1

What's it say right out of the gate?

Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord.

That's what we're saying.

Singing is vertical.

It's to God and about God.

This is one of the reasons at Parkside, we are ruthlessly interrogating the songs we sing for lyrics that are telling us true things about God and rich things about God.

Like sometimes you go through a song and you say, Did it say anything heretical or untrue?

And I just think that's a bar that's too low.

Of course it should be true, but it should give you big truths about God that will guide and strengthen your life and carry you through the hard days.

And this is one of my major gripes with a lot of modern worship music, the stuff you hear on the radio and other places.

It's very me-focused.

It's like a catchy tune with a little bit of Jesus slapped on at the end sometimes.

Where we sing more about my feelings than the truth about God.

And then the reality is like a steady diet of songs about me and my own feelings might work out okay when the days of my life are happy and we're on vacation and enjoying the things we do on vacation.

But when the tornado and the hurricane and the earthquake of life hits, you're gonna want a foundation on big God theology that comes to you in songs that will carry you through those days.

And so we want to equip you here at Parkside by singing big truths about a big God that will carry you through all of life.

And that's what Moses does here exactly.

Now, a question as I ask along the way, is there a place for responsive singing?

I respond to who God is in this way.

And you bet the answer is 100% yes.

The newer song we've been singing recently, I believe.

That's a song of response.

I believe.

You are who you say you are, you'll do what you say you'll do.

You always come through, you are always able.

Right?

So it's a song of response.

But who's the main character of the song?

God is.

You are, I believe, you are who you say you are, you do what you say you do, you always come through.

I can trust you even when I can't see it.

So we sing to God.

But we do more than sing to the Lord, we sing to each other.

Now, this is what Lincoln told us in the song Behold Our God this morning.

It's really good.

But this is a Bible command, not something that a song leader this Sunday said.

Ephesians 5 has this specific command: address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Speak to one another in this way.

Colossians 3 says you actually have an obligation to teach and admonish one another in song.

Like maybe you haven't thought about that.

When I sing, I am fulfilling a biblical command to teach the other members of the congregation as we sing, as I address them in song.

And it's not just that you sing, but that others can hear you sing.

So that you can actually address them in song.

So this conviction that we have at Parkside about congregational singing flows out of these kinds of commands.

And it's so important to us.

We have a meeting every Tuesday in my office, we call it service review, and we review every single part of the service.

And the first question we ask every single week, Tuesday at 2 p.m., we'll be there.

How did the congregation sing?

And if the congregation struggled to sing, why was that?

Was there something that was holding us back?

Could we, are we putting blocks up or inhibitors in some way?

Because we think this is critical to how we gather.

We think congregational singing is so important.

We just spent a bunch of money to reorient the auditorium over there so that it will be better for addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

We're putting our money where our mouth is.

This is what God says to do.

And within that, we recognize there's instruments up here, and they serve the congregation and how it sings.

So sometimes that's louder instruments to help bring you to a crescendo, to a spot of worship and joy.

Sometimes it's softer instruments, or even no instruments, as we did, to help accelerate the congregation's singing as well.

You know, it's funny, you think about instruments and like people, everybody's got their preference, right?

And those are gonna change across time periods, like what they were doing a thousand years ago is not what they're doing today.

And it changes across cultures, because what they're doing today in East Africa is not what they're doing today in west side of Indianapolis.

But what is the constant instrument in the Christian church?

It's the human voice.

And that's what it's gonna be in eternity, and that's what we read about in the book of Revelation.

So one of the things that you may see me do, maybe maybe you've been creeped out by this, in the middle of our services, while we're singing, I will often turn, like almost a full 360, and look around as people are singing.

I promise you, I'm not like looking to judge or like figure out, you know, this or that, like, oh, pastor's looking at me, don't make eye contact, like, not trying to get weird on it, but I want to think really specifically about addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

And what would it look like?

Just play this out with me.

If you're looking around and you see a dude like two rows over that you don't know very well, and we're singing, Behold our God seated on the throne, and this guy is into it, man.

You're like, Well, I want to be like on fire, like that guy is.

He is telling me that God is worthy of this song when I feel like yawning right now.

That's speaking to me.

And what if you look across the next section over and you see a sister who just lost a loved one, and she's singing with all our might, Christ our hope in life and death?

And you think, man, I gotta pray for that sister right now.

Because for her to sing that with what she's gone through in the last four weeks, oh my goodness.

And what if you look across, you know, the other way and you see one of our students that's engaged in one-to-one Bible reading, and they got this friend at school who's not a Christian, and we're singing the song we just sang this morning, Strong to Save.

Our God is strong to save.

God breakthrough in that little girl's life where they're reading the book of James together on Tuesday mornings.

Isn't that beautiful?

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs so that your faith and your singing is personal, but it's never private.

Like this is not just a you in Jesus phone booth moment with a couple other people around.

It's the gathered assembly together.

I think one of the things I love at Parkside, even that helps to embody this, like as a song crescendos, and we get to the part about you know things about the resurrection or Jesus victory, a lot of times there's spontaneous shouting and clapping, and it's like, yeah, I should be that excited.

Like when you do that, you're addressing me in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, saying, This is really worth getting fired up for.

We don't think about that all the time, but in Psalm 96, it says this.

It says, Sing to the Lord a new song, declare his glory among the nations.

So singing is to God, yes, to others, but it's also for the world.

Like there are members at Parkside that as I have my membership meeting with them, and I'm hearing how they came to Christ.

They became a Christian through hearing songs sung by Christians.

And they remember the songs more than they remember the sermons.

That doesn't offend me.

I praise God for that, because it's exactly what Psalm 96 says is going to happen.

Singing is missional.

So you say, well, Justin, what are some of the ways we evangelize as a church?

Well, one of the ways you do that is you you show up and you sing.

Like we gather to sing as part of our evangelism to the world.

But it's not just gathering to sing, you can scatter and sing an evangelistic way.

I know of people who sing a song at dinner every night, and when they have unbelievers over for dinner, they don't change their thing.

They just do what they always do.

And like, hey, we sing a hymn before we eat.

You're free to join, you don't have to.

This is what our family does.

Great, do that.

This past summer, uh, our family, cook family, we're in in Montana, we're hiking.

And we were kind of off the grid in the bear country, and one of the things they say is you want to make sure you make a lot of noise so that the bears know you're there, and if the bears know you're there, they're not gonna get freaked out, and if they don't get freaked out, they don't eat you.

I don't want to be eaten by a bear.

Neither did my kids.

So we take the song sheets that we've been using all summer in gym church, we stick them in our backpacks, and we're just singing these songs as we're hiking on the trails.

Well, two things that were interesting from that.

One, I discovered my own lack of faith and my fear of man, because we're singing, and we start to come up on people, and you know what automatically happens?

I'm like, oh, I probably shouldn't sing so loud, because like, what if they're not Christians?

I'm like, man, like fear of man creeps up in like the weirdest of places.

Like the whole thing is they need to hear this song.

Why would I shrink back?

But then the second thing that happened, we're singing uh the Phil Wickham song, Living Hope, and we're going down the trail, it's like 15 minutes after I got all convicted, so I made sure I kept singing the next time we saw people.

And uh and we're going down a trail and we're singing the song, and as we're going, you know what happens?

The dude going the other way jumps in and sings with us.

It's amazing! And he's finishing the line.

So we gather and sing as part of our evangelism, but we scatter and sing as part of our evangelism too.

So singing is to the Lord, singing is to each other, and singing is for the world.

Which is really amazing.

If you think about three of our four core values, the first one delighting in the gospel, the second one growing through relationships, the fourth one sending into the world, singing is an integral part of every single one of those.

I realize that's not like the normal way we think about that, but it's literally right on the pages of the Bible.

Super cool.

The act of singing is super important.

But the second point this morning is the content of singing.

The content of singing.

The central theme in Exodus 15 is this God is victorious over all challengers.

He's victorious over all the challengers, which is continuing the theme of the plagues.

Right?

You remember a couple weeks ago we talked about the plagues, and what did we say?

In each plague, God is attacking one of the false gods of Egypt, the God of the Nile.

I'm over that.

Right?

You go on through him, and he's saying, I am greater than all the false gods.

I'm more worthy of praise than any of the false gods.

And this is what they sing about.

So I want I want to show you this at several points, because this is.

The most consistent and repeated theme in Exodus 15.

So look at your copy of the scriptures, and I'm just going to kind of blitz through a couple of verses.

15 1.

He has triumphed gloriously.

The horse and the rider he's thrown into the sea.

15 4.

Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea.

15 6.

Your right hand shatters the enemy.

15 7.

In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your enemies.

15 11.

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

This is the content of the song.

That God is the victor over all the challengers.

There's none like you.

You crush all the enemies.

Your hand is strong to save.

That's what we're singing over and over and over.

Now, for the Israelites, they have passed through this Red Sea, what you might call the waters of judgment, that brought the judgment on Pharaoh and all his army.

And they've gone through, by grace, on the dry ground to the other side.

They've been saved.

And all their enemies have been defeated.

Now we're going to tell that story just a little bit differently as Christians today, but it's not actually that different.

We're going to say, Jesus passed through the judgment, not of the water, but of the cross.

And because of him taking the judgment, we can walk on dry ground by grace alone to the other side with the hope of eternal life.

And so we're going to sing of our salvation in a very similar way of how they sing of their salvation.

And if you're not a Christian this morning, this is the core message for you to hear and believe and to call out to Jesus that any who call on him by faith, you say, Jesus, I see your blood shed on the cross, and somehow it counts for me, because I could never work my way to you.

He will forgive you of your sins.

He'll bring you through to the other side, and you'll have eternal life with him.

That's the message of the gospel right there.

He did for you what you couldn't do for yourself.

So you trust him instead of trusting you, you go his way now instead of your way.

Like it's a little creepy.

Why are we always singing about blood?

Here's why.

Because it's the blood of the cross that shatters and defeats the enemies, and it's Jesus' resurrection three days later that we celebrate there, and we say, This is our story, this is our song, praising our Savior all the day long.

This is what we're going to keep doing.

We're celebrating Jesus' victory that we receive by faith.

And we're proclaiming Jesus' blood speaks a better word over my life than anything in my life.

Like his blood and what it says about me, that I am forgiven, redeemed, adopted, and loved is better than me on my best day.

And goodness gracious, on my worst day, I can never lose what his blood says about me.

And so we celebrate and we sing that, that on the best or the worst, his blood is better than anything else we bring to the table.

We celebrate that.

Now let me step back a second and think about singing.

Because I think there's lots of songs that we sing that are not Christian songs, just secular songs, that do this exact same celebrate this thing in the song that crushes all the challengers.

Let me give you one example.

I'm already looking forward to next year's because we're gonna get to sing Lee Greenwood.

God bless the USA.

And basically the point of the song is that America is better than any of the challengers.

And by sitting down and singing that song together, it's like, oh, that is amazing.

From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee, across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea, from Detroit down to Houston, and New York to LA, there's pride in every American heart, and it's time we stand and say to each other, right?

Isn't that how it goes?

We're singing to each other, reminding ourselves, all the challengers fall short compared to the greatness of this country.

Listen, can that happen like in an idolatrous way that's bad?

Sure, it can.

I'm not talking about that.

There's a good and godly kind of patriotism.

That's what I'm talking about.

But the underlying principle of the song is what songs all over the place do.

And when I get to the end of the 4th of July, I'm always more thankful for America than I was on the 3rd of July.

And so spiritually, what we're saying is like, I need a weekly 4th of July to remind myself of how awesome our God is and how glorious the gospel is.

Because it's real easy for me to spiritually live in July 3rd mode.

And when we sing together, I get to experience that July 4th of like, yes, here is the story of grace I get to celebrate.

And when the struggles of life they start to pile up, when my spiritual enemies start to pile up, when life starts to get difficult, it is really easy to turn to something else besides the Lord our God as my first call.

It's real easy to do that, right?

It's easy for us to worship what medicine can do for us.

It's easy for us to worship what money can buy for us.

It's easy for us to worship what our personality can influence.

It's easy to worship what my hard work can accomplish.

It's easy to fill in the blank.

When things get hard, when it's not going well, I turn to those things.

And I'm not against any of those, by the way.

Like I'm pro-medic, pro-emotional intelligence, pro-hard work, pro-God's good gifts of money and pleasure and everything else.

But in the act of singing, we're reminding ourselves, no God, you are the one who crushes all the challengers.

We remind ourselves of Psalm chapter 20 and verse 7.

Psalms 20 · chapter mention

Some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Okay, can we just take that principle and make it kind of personal for a second right here?

The psalmist says, some trust in chariots, some in horses, we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Like, if I ask you, Parkside, what are the chariots and what are the horses that you're most likely to trust in?

What are they?

Do you know?

What are the ones this past week where I thought, man, if I had that thing, I think we could get through this.

I think my life would be this much better if I had that thing.

And naming those proverbial chariots and proverbial horses is absolutely critical for us to turn from them, repent of them, and say, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, sometimes that's me.

But today I'm saying, no, I turn away.

I trust in the name of the Lord our God.

He is the one who's strong to save.

He's the one who will reign forever.

He's the one whose glory will fill the earth.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

He's the one we'll be praising forever and ever and ever.

Well, I think there's a time for us, even in this service this morning, to repent from those chariots and horses we want to trust in.

Because look at Exodus 15, 19 and see what happens.

When the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked through on dry ground in the midst of the sea.

Every chariot gone, every horse gone, every warrior gone, and Yahweh crushes all the challengers.

So that when we come to the Lord's Supper here in a few minutes, that frees us up to say, look, Lord Jesus, I bring nothing to the table because you brought everything to the table.

Nothing in my hands I bring simply to your cross, I cling.

And as the Israelites sing this song, what's the next thing that happens?

They grab a tambourine and they start dancing.

In other words, they're saying this.

The songs we sing are more than lyrics coming out of our mouth.

It touches my whole being and it moves my whole body.

And then there's some of you, especially the fellows in the room, you're like, Justin, I'm gonna fact check you on that.

It was the girls that did the tambourines and the dancing parts.

Anybody say amen there?

Oh, you're scared.

I'll call you out.

Look, technically you're right.

It was the girls who did that.

But in 2 Samuel 6, you know what David did?

He came back from battle and sang this great song about the victory the Lord had accomplished.

He dances in the middle of the street, his wife gets upset at him.

She's like, You look ridiculous, bro.

And he said to her, he said, No, honey, I will become even more undignified than this because my God is worthy of it.

So what happens is when we encounter the salvation of the Lord, it's not just something we talk about.

It stirs our whole being and it moves our whole body.

And freedom in worship is a good gift to be embraced.

And then I understand, like, some of you are more reserved, some of you are more charismatic.

I'm not trying to make you do something that's like totally outside the box there.

I do know in my own life, like I spent a long time singing in the casket position.

You know that one?

You sing in the casket position long enough, any kind of movement is gonna start to feel a little weird.

And it doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't, it just means it might take a minute to get used to it, and that's okay.

Can hands up doing stuff, can it be distracting?

Could it be performative to try and look a certain way?

Yeah, that's all possible.

Don't do that in a performative way.

But be free to express yourself before the Lord.

And I would just think about it this way like if you go to a baseball game, somewhere like in the fourth, fifth, sixth inning, they usually have some kind of a military recognition time.

And what's everybody do without thinking about it?

They immediately stand up, immediately start to clap, and if you look around, you're gonna see a bunch of tough men with tears streaming down their eyes.

Because the glory of the honoree is worthy of a free expression.

And if we can do that for our military, and we should, how much more for our Lord?

Because his glory is far greater than that of our military, and it brings a freedom of expression all the way around.

Look, I think sometimes we're just afraid of what people think around us that holds us back from freedom of worship.

But underneath that, I think it's worse.

I think we haven't actually delighted in the gospel that much yet.

And sometimes our freedom of expression or our lack thereof tells us this thing hasn't stirred in my heart yet.

And so what we know is our spiritual posture speaks to our physical posture.

Like sometimes you're feeling it, right?

Some of you that's like a toe tap, and you're like, I mean, that's as like as hardcore as it gets.

Right?

Others of you, it's just both hands up, you're all over the place.

Your spiritual posture speaking, your physical posture, right?

But it goes the other way too.

Our physical posture tells our spiritual posture what it ought to be.

So there are times where in my heart I don't yet feel it.

So we might saying, Lord, I need you, and I'm just gonna put my hands open as a way with my body telling my soul, you should be saying, Lord, I come open-handed before you.

And what I do with my body tells my heart how it should be feeling.

Right?

So it goes both ways on that.

And we need to understand the way God has wired us.

The ladies here, they sing, they dance.

2 Timothy 1 says, Paul says, I long for men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer.

Because it says, God, you're worthy.

So, what do I want to do?

I want to give us a chance to practice this together.

Just set your Bible down for just a second, and I'm gonna do a little repeat after me action here.

I want you to hold your hands open, and I'll I'll say a short phrase, and I just want you to repeat it back to me.

Here we go.

We are weak in battle.

Our cup is empty.

You crushed the enemy.

You crushed the enemy, our cup overflows.

Alright, that's good.

Let's do this again.

We are weak in battle.

Our cup is empty.

You crushed the enemy.

Our cup overflows.

Jesus, you are the king of the ages, you are the victor, you destroy all enemies.

We come empty-handed, needing your help, asking for your grace, that as we sing these songs, Lord Jesus, would you stir in our hearts a joy for what you've done?

Would you remind us of the gospel?

Would you give us overflowing, abundant joy because you've done what we could never do?

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.