I’m Ready Series #3, Pick Your Playlist

Series — “I’m Ready!”  Sermon —  Pick Your Playlist

Ephesians 5:18b-19 “…be filled continually with the Holy Spirit. And your hearts will overflow with a joyful song to the Lord. Keep speaking to each other with words of Scripture, singing the Psalms with praises and spontaneous songs given by the Spirit!

Psalm 69:30  “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

Psalm 50:23 (AMPC) “He who brings an offering of praise and thanksgiving honors and glorifies Me; and he  who orders his way aright [who prepares the way that I may show him], to him I will demonstrate the salvation of God.”

Study 2017 McGill University: Brain imaging studies show that our favorite songs stimulate the brain’s pleasure circuit, which releases an influx of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and other neurochemicals that make us feel good. The more we like a song, the more we get treated to neurochemical bliss…

Napoleon  “Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws.” 

Martin Luther “…A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard it [music] as a marvellous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being;…”

Martin Luther   “The devil takes flight at the sound of music, just as he does at the words of theology…After theology I give the highest place and greatest honor to music.” 

Psalm 57 Triumphant Faith To the Pure and Shining One. King David’s golden song of instruction composed when he hid from Saul in a cave  To the tune of “Do Not Destroy”

“Please, God, show me mercy! Open your grace-fountain for me, for you are my soul’s true shelter. ….

I will hide beneath the shadow of your embrace, under the wings of your cherubim, until this terrible trouble is past. I will cry out to you, the God of the highest heaven, the mighty God, who performs all these wonders for me. From heaven he will send a father’s help to save me. He will trample down those who trample me.

Pause in his presence He will always show me love by his gracious and constant care.

I am surrounded by these fierce and brutal men. They are like lions just wanting to tear me to shreds.

Why must I continue to live among these seething terrorists, breathing out their angry threats and insults against me? Lord God, be exalted as you soar throughout the heavens.  May your shining glory be seen in the skies! Let it be seen high above over all the earth! For they have set a trap for me. Frantic fear has me overwhelmed. But look! The very trap they set for me has sprung shut upon themselves instead of me! Pause in his presence My heart, O God, is quiet and confident.  Now I can sing with passion your wonderful praises!”

(KJV) My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

(Message) I’m ready, God, so ready, ready from head to toe, Ready to sing, ready to raise a tune:

Awake, O my soul, with the music of his splendor-song! Arise, my soul, and sing his praises!

My worship will awaken the dawn, greeting the daybreak with my songs of praise!

Wherever I go, I will thank you, my God. Among all the nations they will hear my praise songs to you.

Your love is so extravagant it reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness so astonishing it stretches to the sky

Lord God, be exalted as you soar throughout the heavens. May your shining glory be shown in the skies!

Let it be seen high above all the earth!

Elements Of A Golden Song:

1. It’s Honest

Be real — Express yourself!  “God, show me mercy!”  “Frantic fear has me overwhelmed me”

“Awake, O my soul.”

2. It’s Pointed

Directed to God Himself. “I will cry out to you … The Mighty God”  “Lord God, be exalted.”

3 It’s Grounded

Rooted in God’s nature and purpose. “Your love is so extravagant it reaches to the heavens; Your faithfulness so astonishing it stretches to the sky! …  Your shining glory … be seen high above all the earth!”

4. It’s Expectant

I’m the object of God’s affection. “From heaven He will send a father’s help to save me. He will trample down those who trample me. … He will always show me love by his gracious and constant care.”

5. It’s Transformative

Singing To God Changes Everything! “My worship will awaken the dawn, …Wherever I go, I will thank you, my God. Among all the nations they will hear my praise songs to you.”

Psalm 60:7  “Judah is My sceptre.”

Psalm 108:8 “Judah is My sceptre.”

Psalm 110:2  “The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!”

Psalm 101:1  “I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.”

Transforms:

a. Me — Spirit Soul and Body

b. Others — Will hear and be glad.

c. Circumstances — Aligned to God.

b. Creation — Exercise Governance.

e. Culture — Your Kingdom Come

“I’ll Overcome Some Day”, a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley

This Hymn was quoted by – Dr. Martin Luther King and it became an anthem for a whole peaceful movement.

Dr Martin Luther King … Memphis … short time before  he was killed.

Deep in my heart I do believe, we shall overcome.

Now I join hands often with students and others behind jail bars singing it: We shall overcome.

Sometimes we’ve had tears in our eyes when we joined together to sing it, but we still decided to sing it! We shall overcome. Lord before this victory is won some will have to get thrown in jail some more, but we shall over come. Don’t worry about us, before the victory is won some of us will lose jobs, but we shall overcome.

Before the victory is won, even some will have to face physical death. But if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children from a permanent psychological death, then nothing shall be more redemptive. We shall over come. Before the victory is won, some will be misunderstood and called bad names and dismissed as rebel-rousers and agitators. But we shall overcome. That’s the place true worship that is pleasing to God will take us. It will take us to jails, to lost jobs and even to death. It will be called rebel-rouser and agitator. It will sing the words of wholeness where the spirit and the body are at peace. 

Bono from “U2”

“One man come in the name of love, one man come and go, one man come here to justify, one man to overthrow. In the name of love, what more in the name of love.”

December 20. 1987 Tempe Arizona … Sing pride and it will be the last song you sing … He sang it and when he opened his eyes … Adam Clayton the Bass player was standing in front of him.

Psalm 104:33  “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath!”

Praise Overcomes Your Preference  …. I don’t feel like it right now  …. I prefer to complain and whine

Don’t declare the problem introduce it to great God.    —   Suddenlies will happen!!!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download