Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe. Today, Stuart Briscoe shows you how to be wise about the worship of God, part of his Be Wise series. He gets going momentarily.

So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled Finding God.

In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let him find you. By slowing down and putting yourself deliberately in his presence, you'll recognize that he's already there waiting for you.

You'll be uplifted as Jill explains how God worked in the lives of men and women in the Old Testament and how he works in your life too, even when you don't see him and feel his presence.

The Finding God series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, Stuart Briscoe and Be Wise About the Worship of God. It's today's Telling the Truth.

Stuart Briscoe: Colossians chapter 3, let me read to you from verse 15: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Someone has said too many Christians worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship. I don't want to explore whether people worship their work. I don't want to try and explore the statement that people work at their play. But I am interested in whether we play at our worship. Because clearly one of the most significant aspects of our humanity is that we are made capable of and are required to worship.

Human beings called to worship are required to praise. And we're going to notice that one aspect of praise is the utilization of music. Hence our text, that we are to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts to God. Now, having said that, I'm sure that there are all kinds of things that we need to look into.

First of all, let's explore the command. In fact, there are two commands that come together. The first one in verse 15: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." And the second one at the end of the same verse: "And be thankful." The first one is what I would call the peace command, and the second one is what I would call the praise command. Notice they are instructions. They are commands for Christians to respond to in obedience.

When Paul talks about letting the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, he seems to be addressing the idea of individuals coming to that experience of peace with God, which allows them then to experience what he also calls the peace of God—a sense of oneness of relationship with the living God.

But then notice the second part of the statement is not to do with the individual, but it has to do with the corporate experience of the believer. He goes on to say the peace of Christ should rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. In other words, if I experience peace with God and know in my heart the peace of God, one of the ways in which it is demonstrated is the peace or the unity that I enjoy in the congregation of believers. We bear in mind, of course, that God never intended that our spiritual lives were to be lived in isolation. They are to be lived in community. They are to be lived in congregation.

Now let me talk to you about the praise command. Notice what he says in very simple terms: "Be thankful." And this is not just an attitude of thankfulness in my heart. It is in the context of the congregation of believers, and it is to be expressed in terms of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I love the expression at the end of Psalm 150 which says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."

Now, I want you to check at this juncture before we go any further. Do you have breath? Please raise your hand if you do not have breath. Good. Everybody here qualifies. Now, the next question is this then: If everything that has breath should praise the Lord, how into praising God are you in worship, with particular reference to music? That is the point that we want to address.

Now let me give you just very quickly a little background. If you go into the Old Testament, you'll see some very delightful statements concerning God's people praising him in music. For instance, after the children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt, got across the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's host were buried in the sea, the first thing they did was have a worship service.

Exodus chapter 15 describes it. Moses, in the middle of a busy life, sat down and composed a song. He taught it to the people of Israel, and on the shores of the Red Sea, they all whooped it up and sang this great song. You say, "Whooped it up, where does it say that?" It doesn't. But it does describe how they sang it. Miriam got so excited about this song they were singing that she grabbed her tambourine and started dancing. All the other women grabbed their tambourines, started dancing, and in the end, the whole crowd were banging tambourines, singing and shouting and praising God, just to give you some little idea of how they did it in the Old Testament.

Psalm 150 sort of summarizes the attitude of the Old Testament people as far as worship in the sanctuary was concerned. This is what it says: "Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." You sort of get the idea?

So if you want to be biblical, ladies, bring your tambourines and dance in the aisles. And I promise you most of us would prefer to be unbiblical at that particular point. But you need to think about it because that was how they did it in the Old Testament times.

Moving right along into New Testament times, it's very interesting to notice that on the night the Lord Jesus was betrayed, you know that he had the supper with his disciples immediately prior to the betrayal. Have you ever noticed that they concluded the supper by singing a hymn? Have you ever wondered what hymn they sang? Well, it wasn't a Wesley hymn and it wasn't an Isaac Watts hymn and it wasn't a contemporary chorus. No, it was one of the Psalms, probably out of 115 to 118, called the Great Hallel. And it is quite probable that they sang Psalm 118 immediately before they went out and Jesus was betrayed.

If they did sing Psalm 118, isn't it interesting that among other things, he sang this: "I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord."

Infrequency, people tell me that they come to church on a Sunday morning, as they put it, and they're so discouraged and they're so depressed they can't do anything. I want to tell you one thing you can do when you're discouraged and depressed. Not only that you can do, but that you should do. And that is, you should engage yourself in praise. You should engage yourself in worship. If that's what the Lord Jesus did immediately prior to his betrayal and his crucifixion, there is the model.

When we begin to think of instructions to the church concerning worship and praise and music, we have the two statements, of course, that we've already mentioned: the one in Colossians 3, the one in Ephesians 5. Let me look very simply with you and quickly at the statement in Colossians 3 so that we might understand the principles of the use of music in praise in the church today.

First of all, please notice in verse 16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." The first thing to notice about your praise is this: it must be based on doctrine. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."

The important thing about singing praise in the congregation is not whether you like the music. That's important, but that's not the key thing. The important thing is not whether it's one of your favorites. The important thing about it is this: can you honestly say that as you sing this, the word of Christ is dwelling richly within you?

That would suggest two things. Number one: in a practical, personal sense, I am living in the good of what the word of Christ is doing in my life. And it is out of the overflow of it dwelling richly in me that I'm expressing myself in singing his praises. The other side of it, of course, is that if I am letting the word of Christ dwell in me richly, I'm not going to be singing stuff that contradicts what I believe in a worship service. So I'm going to be utilizing my mind. As one of the Psalms puts it, we sing praises with understanding.

Notice the second thing that is so important: we are to sing. I want to keep this as simple as I possibly can. We are to sing, not to stand there. Not just to look around. Not to read the bulletin. Not to wander in late. To sing. Now, that may be difficult for some of us to understand. Some of us are going to say, "Well, I can't sing." Now listen very carefully. If you can't sing, you'd better learn. I'm serious. If you can't sing, you'd better learn.

And I'll tell you why. Because God has given you the ability to articulate his praise and he requires you to do it. It is no excuse simply to say, "I can't sing." You have got to take steps to learn how to communicate your praise through music. It doesn't say you've got to be a trained singer. In fact, if it's any encouragement to you, the Psalms talk about making a joyful noise unto the Lord. Now you can do that.

Let me put it to you in the simplest of terms as translated in Psalms Now, a modern translation of some of the Psalms. Psalm 66, verse 1 in that version says this: "It is high time we start making happy noises about God. It is high time we start making happy noises about God, that we boldly proclaim his name and shout his praises." Amen. I firmly believe that some of us need to learn how to get around to singing God's praises. And if you can't sing them, then shout them. And if you can't sing or shout, make a happy noise. But don't sit there looking as if you lost your best friend and call it worship. Sing.

Fourthly, notice the direction of this praise: we sing to the Lord. We sing to the Lord. So if we invite a choir to lead us in worship, they're not just singing for the congregation; they're primarily singing to the Lord. And if we ask a soloist or a quartet or whatever to sing, they had better understand they're singing to the Lord. But listen: when the congregation is given the opportunity to sing praises unto God, they'd better make sure that they are thinking in terms of the Lord and seeking to express to him what is going on in their hearts.

So I think the command is very straightforward: be thankful. In the congregation of believers, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Why then is music so important in worship? Well, a number of reasons. Number one: music affects behavior. Music affects behavior. Those people who study working conditions know that if they paint offices certain colors, they get more productivity. That if you give a better lighting, you get better productivity. And they also know that if they play a certain kind of music, they'll get better productivity. It is intended to affect our behavior as we come into the congregation. It is intended to change us. That is why we participate in it, that is why we respond to it.

Secondly, music impacts our emotions. It helps us express what we can't express otherwise. It impacts our emotions in that it helps us to recall things deeply felt. Have you ever been in a situation and looked at your partner and said, "They're playing our tune"? Have you ever been there? I haven't, but I've heard of people being in situations like that. "They're playing our tune." A recall of emotion. Well, that's why music is so important because, you see, your spiritual experience touches every aspect of your being, including your emotions.

Thirdly, music offers pleasure. It can be delightful. It can be uplifting. It can be encouraging. Worship should be a pleasurable experience. That's why he's given the gift to us. Fourthly, music reinforces culture. In other words, we all belong to culture. We're particularly proud of the culture to which we belong. We like to reinforce it, and often we do it by having songs that identify with our culture.

Fifthly, music communicates a message. We all know how quickly words can disappear. It takes music much longer to disappear. Music communicates a message that stays in our minds. So if you're not interested in music, all I can say to you is this: well, get interested. Because it is God's gift to us to assist us in praise, which is part of worship, which is our noblest duty: worship.

Secondly, creatively presented. One of the unique things about being a human being is you're created in the divine image, which means you're creative. What we should be looking for is creative ways of demonstrating that we truly are made in the image of a creative God. Thirdly, it should be competently performed—not perfectly, competently. And number four, it should be carefully selected.

But here's the final question. What about those who don't participate? What about people—you know, some of you sitting out here right now and you say, "Hey man, this just isn't getting close to where I'm at." What should we do for you? What should we do for people like you? I think the main thing is we've got to educate and we've got to encourage.

When it comes to the word of God, we have an objective word of God. If I teach something that you think isn't correct, I say, "Well, come and talk to me and bring your Bible and we'll sit down and we'll discuss it." We have an objective thing that we can address. When it comes to music, there's nothing objective. It is subjective. It is up to taste.

Taste, you may be surprised to know, is learned. And if taste is learned, it can be unlearned. The point is this: there is no right way of doing it. What we have to recognize is simply this: worship is a priority. Praise is part of worship. Music is a gift to enable us in our praise. All kinds of music can be utilized individually and congregationally. But make absolute certain that wherever you're coming from on this issue, let everyone that has breath praise the Lord.

Guest (Male): Thanks for being with us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message encouraged you and helped you experience life in Christ. John and Lisa have a word of encouragement that we think will encourage you too. They share: "With this ever-changing world, we're going back to our roots with Telling the Truth for our spiritual journey. You fill our hearts with God's word like no one else can. Thank you for all you do." Thanks, John and Lisa.

So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled Finding God.

In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let him find you. The Finding God series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Tomorrow it's more of Stuart Briscoe's series Be Wise. Do you ever feel uncertain about God? There are things about him that our human minds will never be able to comprehend. Next time, be wise about the whatevers of God. We hope you'll be listening then for Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe, and experience life.

Guest (Male): Stuart, why does worship lift a believer up when they're struggling? What is it about worship?

Stuart Briscoe: Well, I'm not quite sure how you begin to answer a question on worship in a matter of a minute or so. But let me just give you one example here. There's an old statement I learned many years ago. It goes as follows: "Two men looked through prison bars. One saw mud and the other saw stars."

The point here is this: if you look all around you in this world at this present time, if you look at the circumstances in your life, it's very possible that you'll become very, very despondent and very, very discouraged. Mud all over the place.

Now there's another option, and that is called worship. And worship is looking at the stars, looking at the stars rather than looking at the mud. It does not mean that the mud goes away. What it means is you get things in perspective. And worship is all about lifting your thoughts, lifting your longings, your aspirations up into the realm where God reigns on his throne and Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for you.

The mistake many people are making about worship today is they think worship is all about them and meeting their needs. It isn't. Worship is all about God and honoring him. And in doing so, you find that you are inspired, your thoughts are elevated, you are raised above the mud.

Guest (Male): Stuart, what would you say to the believer who thinks there's only one type of worship style, or a song that is the correct way to praise God? That it has to be all hymns, or all choruses, or all instruments or no instruments, or clapping or no clapping and dancing—well, you get the idea.

Stuart Briscoe: Well, that's a long question, but I can give you a very short answer. Well, first of all, I'd point out to them that there's a whole lot more to worship than just singing. But the second thing I'd point out is if they think there's only one style of doing it, they're wrong. You check with scripture and find out what it says about the style of our worship.

And it says it should be in spirit, it should be in truth, it should be with reverence, it should be with awe. And it says about the musical part of worship that it should be from the heart to the Lord. Now you tell me what it says about the worship style or—well, it says a lot about worship in its broadest sense. But if we're talking about the musical aspect of worship, what do all those verses say about the subject? And the answer is absolutely nothing. It has to come from the heart and it must be directed to the Lord. And it's not about me and what I like, it's about him and what he finds acceptable.