All right, let's get right to it. We're going to finish our series on worship by asking, what should this, what we're doing right now look like? What should our corporate gatherings look like? And don't act like you don't have opinions about that, because I know that you do, because you often share them with me, which I'm super appreciative of. But what does the Bible say? What kind of directions do we get from scripture about this gathering? What should this look like? And I don't know if you've ever noticed in your own Bible reading that in the Old Testament, we get a lot of details about what the corporate kind of gathering to worship God should look like. Like, when it should happen. What should happen when it happens, down to the fabrics you should use and the animals you should sacrifice. Like, tons of detail about what corporate worship should look like in the Old Testament. But then you get to the New Testament and it doesn't really say anything at all. I mean, you don't get a lot of description on what the Christian corporate gathering should look like in the New Testament. And can you imagine it if it did? Like, if it did give a lot of detail? Like, this is what you're supposed to wear. Like, you gotta wear a suit and tie. And they didn't even have suit and tie there, so that'd be hard to play out. These are the instruments that you have to use. You know, once a year, you could use a kazoo or like once every 12 years or something. Like, you gotta have a band, or you gotta have a sound system, organ or chairs or pews, like, giving those directions or this is how long it has to last or go for. Like, we don't get any kind of detailed directions in the New Testament on purpose on that because it transcends culture and time. I share with you guys. Last year, went to Zambia Kabanta, small village in Zambia. Worshiping there in a brick building. No roof yet, no instruments. Oh, no. There was one guy in the audience that brought a drum and he played the drum. But, like, no sound system. No. They stood and they danced, and it lasted like four hours. And if I was there and I was like, no, no, wait, you're doing it wrong. Like, where's the sound system? Nobody has a guitar. Like. Or if I left there thinking, boy, we're doing it wrong, like, there's not this kind of one way that these should look like. We don't get a lot of detail on how our worship gatherings are supposed to go in the New Testament. And it's been different throughout history, and it's been different throughout cultures and time periods and church. That's kind of the point. Like, the gospel goes beyond a culture, it goes beyond a time period. It transcends all those things. And Jesus fundamentally changed worship. You remember, I think week one, we pointed out that kind of dialogue Jesus had with the woman at the well in John chapter four, where they turned into this kind of debate on worship on, like, which mountain and which place is the right place to worship. And Jesus is like, you're missing it, that God is seeking for himself people who worship him in spirit and truth. And then he starts talking about himself like, I'm him, I'm the guy. You need to drink here. And Jesus transforms worship. It went from one nation and culture kind of to everyone. And it went from a geographically located place like this mountain, this city, this temple, to anywhere and everywhere. So if there are a lot of different expressions of Christian worship, what is the common kind of connector between them all that makes it uniquely Christian worship? Like, despite the differences, what should this gathering look like or entail, no matter where you're at, that a follower of Christ from Iowa, and this is my story, that I can be here on a Sunday morning with you, and there's a band and big screens and we can worship here and then go to community, Gabansa, Zambia, in, you know, the heat and no sound system, and just sing and dance there. To kind of privately or secretively in an apartment in China, to being a part of a large African American church downtown Phoenix, where the music kind of accompanied the sermon all the way through, or to a part of a Korean church in Chicago where it was very reflective, but despite all of those differences, it was all Christian worship. What's the connector between all of it, despite styles? Because it can be easy to focus on the differences. They do it this way, they do it this way. It's different and we miss the similarities because whether it was here or in Africa or in China or in Phoenix, there was something that was the same in every place and would be the same in any time period. This is what we're going to do. We're going to preach and we're going to sing. Now, the expression of singing and preaching may have been different, but the common denominator in any of those contexts is we're going to preach and we're going to sing. Why? Why do it that way? Why has that kind of been the defining mark of Christian worship throughout history and cultures? That that's what Christians do. And what's the point of this? That we're going to gather and we're going to do it this way and is it that important? Or as long as you believe in Jesus and you try to be a good person, you don't really need this. You don't need to come to church. Just kind of be a Christian. Like, is it this important? She gets it. See, here's what can happen with the focus, I would say, especially in our culture, on a personal relationship with Christ. There seemed to be a devaluing of the corporate gathering. You don't really need to come to church. You don't need to do that. You don't need to be here. As long as you believe in Jesus and you're trying to follow him and your own individual self and your own individual, individual life, then this isn't that important. But what if all of this is more important for you than you realize? And what if you are more important for all of this than you realize? Now we're going to go to Ephesians 5, and I didn't even have this on there. I added it this morning because, like, how do we talk about corporate worship and not go to Ephesians 5? So we're going to at least talk about it quickly. He says this. Look carefully then how you walk or how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise. So this is about living wisely as a Christian, making the best use of time because the days are evil. So there is a wise way to live in this kind of evil time when it's limited. And there's a foolish way to live as Christians in this limited evil time. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So he's just kind of coming right out and saying, this is what the will of the Lord is for you. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But contrasting getting drunk with wine. Be filled with the Spirit. So don't be under the influence of the world. That's foolishness. Rather be under the influence of God through his Spirit. That's a wise way to live. Great. We all agree with that. How do we do that? Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. You can't obey that verse on your own. Like we have to gather to be obedient to that text. So you guys have heard the statistics. We've talked about them here. I think the average professing Christian comes to church like two times a Month, that's rounding up. I want to try, I want to try to help us recapture the prioritizing of our gatherings. But listen to me now, not in some, like, legalistic way, like, we gotta be here, we gotta go to church, we gotta come to church. I want to help us better understand the purpose and power of these gatherings that will not just inspire better attendance, but better engagement and better excitement. We gotta know, like, what does God do in the life of believers when believers gather and preach and sing that is so essential to our own growth and development that we would want this? And I want to not just increase intendance, but, but engagement, right? Because you can. Like, we live in a health obsessed culture. It's like you can understand the importance of the value of going to the gym, right? But if you just go to the gym and sit and watch, wouldn't it be foolish if you're like, I tried the gym, it's not working. Like, okay, maybe some of you come to church like that. Well, I came to church, it's not working. But there is a right way to come to church and a wrong way to come to church, right? And we want to come to the church in the type of way that the power of God transforms us. So we want to learn what this should look like. Now, you might not like to hear this, but to a certain degree, by design, like, God intended it this way, by design, our relationship with God is dependent on others. And we don't like that because it's like, no, it's my personal relationship. It's me and the Lord. But by design, to a certain degree, your relationship with God is dependent on other people. And he set it up that way because what does he tell Peter? The resurrected Lord tells Peter, like, instructing him in his ministry. He says, feed my sheep. So he's saying, like, hey, I got sheep and they need feeding and you need to go and feed them. You need to nourish them, you need to shepherd them. Like, they're gonna need a taught the word of God. You get to Ephesians 4, it says that Jesus gave to the church some apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers for the equipping of the saints. So he's saying, like, I have given gifts to different people for the edification of the body. So, like, the body needs these leaders and the leaders need the group. It's like, it's set up that way. In Hebrews 13:17, it tells, Obey your leaders, for they're keeping watch over your soul. So he's saying, hey, by design, you need somebody to kind of watch over your soul. I set it up that way. And in Ephesians 5, the passage we looked at, and then Colossians 3, where we're eventually going to get to, we're commanded to sing to one another, to address each other in singing. Well, what's that all about? Why. Why are we doing this? Why are we supposed to. And I say supposed to. Why are we commanded to gather together? And why is our time when we are together given to preaching and singing together? Can't I just, like, listen to a podcast? I mean, you have access to some of the most amazing preachers throughout history. Then you got to come here and listen to us. It's like a little bit of a letdown. But, yes, engage in all those wonderful Bible teachings. But you're thinking like, well, if I do that, why do I have to come? Can I just, like, listen to other preachers and then make a playlist on Spotify worship music? Yeah. No, you can't. Like, so why is this so important? What is God doing through us and in us when we gather? And here's what you need to know. I'm going to tell you, and then I'm going to try to defend it or show it to you in Scripture. Your corporate worship is instrumental in your perseverance and development. Your corporate worship is instrumental. I use instrumental. It's kind of a pun that's kind of fun because we do instruments. I don't got that. I felt proud about it. Your corporate worship is instrumental in. In your perseverance and development. Like you're continuing on as a Christian and your growth as a Christian. There's a preventative work that's going to happen, that God's going to use this gathering in your life and there's a development work that he's going to do. And you could add, your corporate worship is instrumental in the perseverance and development of others. You matter in other people's spiritual growth and perseverance as well. So I said that. Let's see it in scripture to together. Hebrews, chapter three. Take care, brothers. Least there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart. Now he says, brothers, he's talking to the church. So he's like, these are people who are at church because they profess a belief in God. But he's warning them that there might be an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened and by the deceitfulness of sin. Then he goes to Hebrews 10. He continues this argument. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Why does he say that? Because there's a threat of wavering. For he who is promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. So there's this warning, like, of falling away, of losing your faith, of kind of abandoning your profession to follow Christ. And he's saying, you got to not neglect getting together, gathering together, challenging each other. So listen, disbelieving often starts with devaluing. I don't have to be there. I don't need to read my Bible. We don't have to get together. And it's like, no, you don't have to. It's not a requirement for salvation. But you begin to devalue what you shouldn't devalue, and then pretty soon you begin to disbelieve what you shouldn't disbelieve. Like, the warning that the author of Hebrews is giving out here is not a warning against all of a sudden, like, I believe and then I don't believe. The warning is against this hardening, like, over time, being deceived by sin, believing things you shouldn't believe, neglecting things you shouldn't neglect, and then finding yourself in a place you wish you wouldn't were like, that's the warning. There's a slow drift to it. J.C. ryle, as a pastor in the 1800s, he said this. It's a little bit longer of a quote, but it's so worth it. This is what he says once, give over caring for the Sabbath, and in the end, you will give over caring for your soul. The steps which lead to this conclusion are easy and regular. Begin with not honoring God's day, and you will soon not honor God's house. Cease to honor God's house, and you will soon cease to honor God's book. Cease to honor God's book, and by and by, you will give God no honor at all. Let a man lay the foundation of having no Sabbath, and I am never surprised if he finishes with the top stone of no God. You let that sink in, guys, I'm telling you, if you are inconsistent in your attendance, you are vulnerable in your faith. And you're like, wait a second. Are you saying that you can lose your salvation if you don't come to church a lot. No, I don't think you can lose what you didn't get. You didn't save you. You can't unsave you. Like, God is faithful to finish the work that he started. But we have grossly misapplied eternal security in our culture. Truly being saved, like born again, regenerated a new heart, like, changed from the inside out, does not put someone in a lackadaisical position about their soul. I don't have to do that. I don't need to go there. I don't need to read my Bible. I don't know. Like, I said a prayer in junior high when I, you know, like 40 years ago. I'm good. Like, like total misapplication of what it means to be saved. Like, to truly be born again as a Christian, to kind of have a new heart. The opposite is true. Like, it creates a longing for Jesus. It creates a longing for God, a desire to please him, a desire to know him. And the corporate gathering is a tool in God's hands that he uses to anchor his people to himself in a world that's pulling his people in all different directions. And to neglect the gathering is to pull up the anchor and go with the current. But it's not just preventative. There's a crucial growth aspect to this gathering that we shouldn't neglect. Go over to Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three. And we're going to anchor here for a little bit so you can open up your Bible. It's best if you see it in front of you. Colossians 3:16. Everybody knows John 3:16. I challenge you to remember Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Now, don't get confused with the word let, because we hear let in English and it's like, allow it to happen. We wouldn't that be nice if it happened. This is a command, okay? Even though it says let, it is a command. Like, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's the command. So what's being commanded here is that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly. So hold on to that. We're going to come back to it. But it's truth driven command. Now, there's other aspects that are connected to that. So we should be a group of people that are all around the Word of Christ and that should dwell in us richly. Okay, what does that look like? Practically, it is going to involve teaching and admonishing. So if you think of teaching as instruction, let me tell you what the Bible says. Let's teach the doctrines of God in scripture. I want to help people understand. But then admonish is like, okay, I want to challenge you to apply those truths. All right, do it. Stop doing it. Like, that's the admonished part. So you're going to both teach the word of God, and then you're going to admonish people to follow the word of God. And the other part of the command is that we would sing. That singing would be a part of our gatherings. Now, who is our singing directed to here? Yeah, it says at the bottom there, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Right. But we're also to do this to one another. Remember Ephesians 5? He says it may be a bit clearer in that passage to address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. So when we gather as a church, are we singing to each other or to God? Yes. Yeah. And you'll notice, like, sometimes when you're singing a song, it's like this song is directed to God, and other times where it's like, it's not directed to God, it's directed to one another. And both of those are happening. Both, in fact, both, I would argue, are happening at the same time all the time. The fact that we're singing to the Lord makes it worship, and the fact that we're doing it together makes it corporate. And when we're singing to God, others hear that and are encouraged. And when we're singing to each other about God, others hear that, or God hears that and he's honored. Like, it's all happening. God's people get together. God's people sing to God. They address one another. God's God is honored and worshiped in all of it. It's all happening. And this is what a faith community needs to be doing. We need to be have the word of God dwell in us richly. We need to have a lot of Bible, like, all over a Bible all the time. Like, the word of God is just prevalent everywhere. And we need to take the word of God and we need to teach it and help people understand it. And we also need to challenge them to live it and then sing about it. Like, it's not complicated. Like, whether you're in Cabana or China or something, Cedar Rapids. That's what we do. That's what we're commanded to do. We need to understand, though, the cooperative Work between preaching and singing. See, both are part of worship. Don't fall into thinking of, like, worship is something we do when I'm done, right? Like, hurry up, I want to sing. Like, let's get to worship. You're at. You're in it right now, okay? Like, don't think it's something different than this. Both preaching and singing are part of worship, and both are a part of your development. In fact, both are a crucial part of your development, which means you can't just come to church and be like, I really love the teaching. I'm just gonna take notes. But when we sing, I kind of check out. Or, I really love the worship and the singing, and I'm just kind of daydream during the message. But then when we sing, then I'll get up and get engaged. You can't do that if you kind of engage in one and not the other. It's not only not honoring to God, it's stunting your growth. It's not acknowledging the tools God wants to use in your own development. Let's look again in our text. Go to Colossians 3:16. All right. Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching it, admonishing one another in all wisdom. Let's stop there. Now, in some of your translations, it's going to add a preposition. After that, comma, it's going to say, admonish one another in all wisdom in singing psalms and hymns, or through singing psalms or hymns, or with singing psalms and hymns. All right, it's not in here, because this is the esv and they translated. They didn't put it in there, because in the Greek, it's not in there. Now, a little defense of it. In English, we need the preposition to make sense of the statement. But in Greek, they're much more relaxed in sentence structure or order of words and implied prepositions. So you don't have to repeat the preposition after every phrase. It's implied. So if your translation does have a preposition after that comma, the. They didn't add something that's not in there. They made an interpretive decision. And I think they made a good interpretive decision. But here's the point. It's not that we learn and are admonished and then we sing. It's not a separate act like, hey, do your teaching, and you're admonishing, and don't forget to sing some songs. He's saying, no, you teach and admonish. Let's throw that back up there. You teach and Admonish one another in all wisdom through singing psalms and hymns and spiritual. It's part of your teaching and, and it's part of your admonishing. It goes together. Which means we need to sing songs that both instruct and admonish or I'd say and express. So if teaching is about, I want to help you understand who Jesus Christ is, what he's done, what he's accomplished and the promises he's made, that's teaching. Admonishing would be then, okay, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I admonish you, put your faith in Christ. Or connected to admonish and maybe more in a positive way is expression expressing, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's saying both of those are a part of teaching. And we see that in preaching. Like who's ever up here will explain the text and they'll try to apply it. Like, okay, do it. But that's also a part of our singing ministry that we're going to sing songs that teach and we're going to sing songs that express and notice the variety of songs included that we would sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now some people can try to make a case that those mean different things. Like the psalms kind of refer to the Old Testament psalms or the hymns would be more of a comprehensive composition and the spiritual songs might be more impromptu expressions. Maybe, maybe. But what's really clear is that he uses three different descriptions of singing. Because there should be a variety of worship brought to our praise. There's a lot of ways that we should express praise to God. I mean, there's something about God's majesty that deserves like, hey, get a choir, get some horns, practice, play skillfully. We're going to make this really good for our God. So let's, let's work on it. And then there's other things that there's just something worshipful. It's like, okay, stop playing and let's just simply sing. Lord, I love you, I exalt you. God is so good. I want to worship you, I want to follow you. Like it's fitting to make those expressions. And we should sing songs that, that are very theologically robust and teach people good doctrine. And we should sing songs that just express our desire and our love for God. Both are fitting and just kind of a caution or a warning. Any songs that express our desire or our actions are not automatically self focused worship. It can be and that's a danger or ditch. We don't want to fall in. And often people make worship about ourselves. But that doesn't automatically equal that. The psalmist often talks about how he loves the Lord and how he's devoted to the Lord. If I tell my wife, like, I love you, I want to spend all day with you, you make me happy, she's not going to be like, well, sounds like it's all about you. No, she's going to be glorified that I find joy in her, right? So when I say I love you, that makes her look good. When we, when we come and worship and we're like, I want to follow you, it says something about God, right? And both are fitting and should be a part of our worship. All teaching songs with no expression or declaring songs is not right. It's like, okay, I know that Christ came and he took away the sins of the world, and he's holy. And I get it. The substitutionary atonement's in the song. Like, I love it, I get it. But now I just want to say, yes, I love you. Can I express that like, well, there needs to be time and places for that. And all expression songs with no teaching songs is not right either. I just keep saying about how I love you, how I love you, but who? Why? What did you do? How are you worthy of love? What happened? So both are important. We need both. But listen, because this is really important. It starts with instruction. Instruction, or the teaching, has to come before the admonishing or the expressing. It has to flow from it. But it can't just stay there. It can't just stay in instruction. And this, I think, is key to the means of God's transformative power in our corporate gatherings. This is why preaching and singing are to go together. Listen, guys, affections matter. Like your affections, your emotions, your passions, they matter. They're crucial for killing sin and living a God honoring life. We're told to hate what is evil, to abhor what is evil. We're told to love the Lord our God with all our heart. Our affections matter. You should hate evil. You should love good. It's important. And we all know people who know all the right answers, but they don't love God. I mean, you could sit them down and they can give you great doctrine. There's just something missing. They're not passionate in love with their God. They're not devoted to Him. So how do we fight for the right affection? How do we fight for the right feelings? I mean, if they're so crucial to our devotion that it can't just live here, it's got to live here. How does it go from here to here? And if we have them, how do we keep them full and alive and active? Because we live in a world that is at war over our affections. Wanting you to love things that you shouldn't love, treasure things that you shouldn't treasure more than God. God is desiring our affections. What does it say at the end here? Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart, your hearts to God. I want you to know, I want you to follow, teach and admonish. I want you to sing, and I want you to be grateful. And I want it to come from your heart. Like, this is worship. This is what we're called to. It matters. And there's a reason that this command for heartfelt expression, praise to God is accompanied with the command to sing with music. Music can stir up affection. Like music's powerful. God made music. Music was a language, speaks of the heart. And music can stir up affections, Right? You know that. Let's say you're a married couple and your kids went to youth camp and you find yourself all alone, the house is empty, and the husband says, let's put on some music. What's he saying? You don't have to answer that. But hear me now. You don't want music to produce affections. You want music to accompany affections. Do you know what I mean when I say that? Because this is where it gets twisted. It's not about getting somebody in a mood that is foreign to them. That's manipulation. That's like, well, if I light some candles and put on some Marvin Gaye, then maybe I'll get this outcome right. But you don't want to manipulate emotions. You don't want to produce emotions that aren't there. You want the music to accompany emotions and vows and commitments that are there. And it can be helpful to emotions that exist. So worship or music and our worship gatherings are not here to manipulate your emotions. We don't want to take the approach of like, turn the lights down on, pump in some fog, get a light beam down and just kind of, you know, give. Give a groove and just to. People just want to raise their hands. Like, I don't know why I'm raising my hands, but this is awesome. I want to cry. Like, we don't. We don't want to kind of try to manipulate people's emotions in our music. But emotions are a part of worship. They matter. So music and our worship services should exist in. To accompany emotions that truth has stirred up. You track with me on that. That through teaching and emotion, we learn, okay, I know that God is holy. I know that I'm a sinner. I know that his grace is sufficient. I know that he's promised to come and get me again. I know that he will make all things new. And it's like somebody bang a drum. I want to sing, like, this kind of news that gets stirred up in us. We get so excited that we want to express and. And what's the dominant emotion in Christian worship? He says this with what? My voice is cracked. I'm getting excited with what's the emotion? Thankfulness in your hearts. The dominant emotion of Christian worship is gratitude and celebration. That's not to say that we ignore the pain of this world. Like, what about lament? Okay, first off, lament is predominantly in the Old Testament. There's some lament in the New Testament, but not a lot. And even in the lament psalms, they get to a point where there's a but God or But I will rejoice. Like, there's always this turning point. And if history is one big lament, Jesus is the but turning point in history. So we're at a point where it's like, we got reason to sing. Christian worship comes out of news. It's a proclamation of news. God accomplished something, and we're responding to. To good news. So we're going to celebrate. And that is a expression of Christian worship. That's why preaching and singing go together. We talk about good news and we respond to good news. And there is a cooperative work between the two. And they both have a distinct role to play. We got to understand that. I think we have to understand that to really understand the value of this. So look back at Colossians 3. There's a word I want us to really notice. Let the word of Christ what? Dwell. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. There's got to be a lot of it. It's got to live there. To dwell is the key here. And you're like, okay, what does that mean? And how do we do that? What does doing that do? Well, to dwell is to live. And we want the word of God to dwell in us. Not just know it, but it lives in us. What's he saying with that kind of descriptive language? Because he's saying it's more than just knowing it. There's a big difference because a lot of people know it, but it's like, yeah, but it doesn't live there. Like, you know it, but it doesn't live in you. It's not dwelling in you and church. When it comes to our transformation, we don't just learn and change. It's not like getting the right information is going to automatically change you. And we don't just feel and change. We can just kind of manipulate your emotions. You're going to be different. Both approaches are often tried and fall short. But it's not truth or feelings. It's truth or born feelings. Or to say it another way, we dwell to change. And dwelling is the work of truth accompanied by faith producing emotions. So even you see in the Psalms, David talking about, we dwell on the. On the word of the Lord. What does he mean by that? It's like, well, you already know. He doesn't say, we learn it. You know it. You're dwelling on it. You're thinking about it, you're pondering it, and you're staying there until it produces in you the emotions that it calls for, because you believe it. So if you dwell on the holiness of God and you really understand how big and powerful and awesome he is, until puts you and you're like, I believe that about God. It puts you in a state of awe. You dwell on your own sin, how you've offended a holy God. You believe that until it puts you in a place of brokenness and contrition, you dwell on the sufficient grace of Jesus Christ. You believe that. That his grace is sufficient for your sins, and his work does reconcile you back to a holy God. And you dwell on that until you're blown away and it produces in you emotions of gratitude and praise and excitement. So what is the way that that work happens, this dwelling? Well, it's in the text. Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom through singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing is an important part of dwelling and getting truth into our heart. Think of it this way. We recently moved. We now dwell somewhere else. We have a different address. And in moving, we had a lot of help. It was really overwhelming. We had a lot of help, and we moved a bunch of boxes and furnitures from one address to another address. And you had a lot of people coming and unloading a truck and bringing your goods into your new house. It's like, where do you want this? Right there. It's fine. Put it down. No, I'm just kidding. Marcy had everything labeled basement rooms, but when they left and you're now just in your house, you just have a bunch of stuff in a new address, and it's your house. But it's not necessarily your home. And when all the movers left, we. And by we, I mean mostly Marcy unpacked, hung up pictures and arranged furniture, painted walls. It's like, oh, this is our home now. Like, this is where we dwell. Like, we live here. And if preaching is someone helping move some information into your mind, singing is you hanging it up in your own heart. You're like, I believe that. I agree with that. I'm excited about that. I want that. And that work is part of God's work of transforming you. And where the word of God dwells in us richly is key to our transformation. You're like, why do you say that? Because, guys, that's what the chapter's about. We looked at one verse in a chapter, Colossians 3:16. But do you know what the chapter is about? Putting on the new self. Putting to death the old self. It's all about transformation. So he gets down towards the end, he's like, okay, you want to know how this transformation happens? Well, the word of God has to dwell in you richly. If you want to be a different person, that's how it's got to happen. Well, how does the word of God dwell in me richly? Well, learn it, do it, sing it. And this singing part, like, together, coming together is crucial in your perseverance and your development. When you just not only know the truth, but there's an. There's an expression, an overflow of your commitment and belief in the truth. Where you're singing matters. You think of it this way. Singing moves truth into the heart for living. Singing moves truth into the heart for living. Now, that's an oversimplification. I mean, singing by faith moves truth into the heart for living. But it's this expression because you can sing and not believe it, but that's not worship. What I'm talking about is I'm singing because I believe it. I'm excited about it. I'm owning it. And you doing that does something in you. That's why it's commanded. So, guys, when it comes to our gatherings, I hope we would be a singing people. Like, if people had to say something about Veritas Church when they would come to visit. They're man, those people sing. You hear the room singing loud. Not just because we love music, because we love God. We're passionate about God. We believe what we've just been taught. We believe what we're singing about. We own those truths and we express them. And weekly coming together to open God's word and singing to God together would anchor us to himself in a world that's pulling us in a lot of different directions. And when we would sing, it would move the things we claim to believe from our heads to our hearts to more impact our lives. This is important. This is important. And what's not important is whether there's a choir, a guitar kazoo, a drum. That's not important. What's not important is how long the service lasts. What's not important is all the order of events that we do those things. What is important is that the Word of Christ dwells richly and we teach the Word of God and we admonish people in the Word of God, and we express our faith in the belief of the Word of God through singing together. And our singing is motivated because it's true and we own it. And if you need some motivation to sing this morning, then here's what you need to hear. That the blood of Christ is the new covenant, and it was shed on your behalf, and it is fully sufficient. Okay, I know. The crying baby just left. Everybody kind of pull back. Be with me in this moment. Okay? It is fully sufficient to atone of your sins, which rightly damns you to hell forever and separates you from holy God. But because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, you are completely forgiven. And you can now experience the holiness of God in which you were made for. And if you believe that, sing. And if you struggle to believe that, sing. Let your head tell your heart what you believe. Because when we get to a posture of thankfulness in our hearts to God, it's the soil for transformation, for His Word to take root in our lives, that we would be different people. Amen. Pray, Father. It's easy to take things lightly we shouldn't take lightly, or to not fully understand the weight of what's happening in these services or the work you're doing through these services, I pray that you would wake us up from this drunken stupor of this world that just captures our attention with lesser things, and that we would believe you are who you say you are, and you have accomplished what you said you've accomplished. And you would light our hearts on fire to praise you. And through our expression of praise, you would transform us. Pray this in your name. Amen.