[0:00] Please join me for a moment in Psalm chapter number 96. If you're familiar with Psalm 96, you know how wonderful it is that we are here tonight as a church in this psalm.
[0:10] And I enjoy testimony services. Open mic night at Vision always makes me a little bit nervous about what some people are going to say as they roast one another. But one thing is clear, we do know each other.
[0:22] We have shared life together and done ministry together. And those testimonies are very evident of that. Psalm chapter number 96, I'm going to read the entire chapter to you.
[1:27] Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and all the people with His truth.
[1:38] On a night like this, we could give many reminders to them about the leave. Tomorrow, there's packing lists. There's practical advice. There's advice about ministry. But I'm very grateful as a church before they leave out that our reminder given to us has to do with worship, which is at the heart and of the matter when it comes to missions.
[1:58] That this is a matter about worship, promoting the worship of Jesus around the world. Last Thursday night, Brother Frick took us through Psalm 95.1. And it said, And this psalm is a fulfillment of that promise that we are going to sing a new song.
[2:16] This isn't a prohibition to not sing old songs. Ephesians tell us that we sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs. And even in heaven in Revelation, it tells us in Revelation 15.3, that they will sing the song of Moses, the servant of God.
[2:31] That would be an old song. We'll also sing the song of the Lamb, which we do not yet know. But we will sing new songs and we will sing old songs together. But here we are called upon to sing a new song many times throughout the book of Psalms.
[2:45] Psalm 96, Psalm 98, Psalm 149 at the beginning of the chapter. Psalm 33 verse 3 says, Sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with a loud noise.
[2:55] Not only to sing a new song, but we're reminded where the new song is to be directed. Not to one another, but to our Lord. In Psalm 144 verse 9, it's added to the chorus and it says, I will sing a new song unto thee, O God.
[3:11] I pray that every one of you would make that decision, that you would sing a new song. Why is this the case that we ought to be people that have a new song? Psalm 40 verse 3 gives us some understanding of that.
[3:22] It says, And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear him and shall trust in the Lord.
[3:32] Or as God's mercies are new every day, and he continues to do new works in our heart, we should be finding new ways and new opportunities to express it.
[3:44] God has done a big work in your life, Millers. God has done a big work in your life, Chesley. But he's not done with you yet. New mercies every day. There's always something new to praise him about.
[3:54] If you just take what you have to praise him on, when you go there, you'll be really missing out. Because he has something new for you every day. And it requires a new way of communicating our heart.
[4:06] We need new songs because we have a new generation of people that want to communicate their love for the Lord. We ought to be looking for new ways to communicate it. Colombia and Peru are going to be new opportunities for you to sing the song that God has placed in your heart.
[4:22] As long as God shows his unmeasurable love to us, we should sing about it. Ephesians 2.7, That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.
[4:34] So go to Peru and Colombia and sing a new song. Go there and just meet with the Lord. Spend your time with him every morning. Recognize his goodness upon your life.
[4:45] And then leave wherever you're at and tell everybody about it. And then wake up the next day and learn how to do it even more. Your new song will be in Spanish for both of you. And that's a wonderful thing.
[4:57] Occurrences where this psalm is found gives us some understanding of how we can view a new song. 1 Chronicles 16, David has the Ark of the Covenant that's being moved.
[5:08] And we're told here as this verse is almost repeated in 1 Chronicles 16, is that God has a way in which he wants to be worshipped. In Revelation 5.9, we learn about a new song.
[5:21] And there we learn that God being worshipped by all nations is what this entire story is all about. It's that God wants to be worshipped by people in Colombia that don't know the song right now.
[5:31] They don't know the lyrics. They don't know the truth. They don't know the melody. They don't know anything about it. And you get to go there and show them what it is. Any of you that have traveled to the mission field and been to a place where you didn't know the language and you stood there and you sung with people and you say, I know this song.
[5:46] And you looked around and you heard people singing whatever song it was, the old rugged cross or amazing grace. And you said, even though I don't know the words, I know exactly what they're excited about. I know that new song.
[5:58] I know that new song. And we can sing it together. So I just remind you before we'll pray for you, is that missions begins with the worship of believers moving outward to the entire world.
[6:08] There's six imperatives here. Three times it tells us the saying, the saying, the saying, which is our hearts and our minds are joined together with our affections. Singing takes everything that we have.
[6:20] Ministry and missions takes everything that you have. It's just to give it your all. One of the songs I sang growing up and many of you as well, Come ye that love the Lord. And then one of the verses says, Let those refuse the saying who never knew our God, but children of the heavenly King may speak their joys abroad.
[6:38] There's some very silent places where you're going because they can't sing the new song because they don't know it. They are not children of the heavenly King, and they can't speak their joys abroad. But you're taking them that new song.
[6:51] Then it also says the bless and the show and declare. I'm sure you're familiar with the analogy that people would have a canary in the coal mine and that the canary would stop singing and die, which means there was a problem.
[7:03] Once you lose a song in your heart, your life and ministry is going to have a problem. Every day, wake up and say, just sit there and speak to the Lord and say, God, I want to hear that song. I want to remember the gospel.
[7:15] I want to remember what you have done. Before I go out singing this song to anybody else, Lord, could I just hear it for a moment? Could I hear what you've done in my life? Could you just go through that song, what He has done in your life, giving your all to the cause of Christ, which is to live according to His purpose towards this world He came to redeem.
[7:35] You know, I love the stories of the student volunteer movement, especially love this one from the layman's missionary movement in the early 1900s. The movement was born among businessmen who were captured by a holy ambition to get behind what God was doing in the student volunteer movement.
[7:49] And this was written by J. Campbell White. It says, Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within the follower except the adoption of Christ's purpose towards the world He came to redeem.
[8:05] Fame, pleasure, and riches are but husk and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of His eternal plans. The men who are putting everything in the Christ undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.
[8:24] Taking this new song that God has put in your heart when He made you a new creature and going and living out the good works and going to Columbia and Peru is how that you will live out life's sweetest and most priceless rewards, which is living into the purpose that God created you for.
[8:39] And how could you not sing about that? And if you're not singing about it, if it's not in your heart, then you're missing out. Worship is specifically directed towards God who's revealed Himself through His Word.
[8:51] You know, if you were to Google the word worship, you're going to get a mischaracterization of what worship is. Any of you ever design anything and you think, I want to get something for worship? It's always going to be the same picture, and it's not a small picture.
[9:04] I mean, it's not a diverse picture. It's always about music, but it isn't men praying with their families. It isn't people sharing the gospel. It isn't churches standing up and giving testimonies about the goodness of God.
[9:17] But we have worshiped together. Here's some definitions of worship. A wholehearted response to God. Engagement with God on His terms where only He makes it possible.
[9:29] Worship is our innermost being, responding with praise for all that God is through all attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.
[9:41] Worship is all that we are, reacting rightly to all that He is. I love that one. But the one that I love the most is found here in Psalm 96, verse 8. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.
[9:54] Bring an offering and come into His courts. How is this reasonable service that you're going to leave your family and go to another place and celebrate Christmas separated? How is it reasonable that you would do that?
[10:05] Because you know that there is glory that is due unto His name. And you know there's people that aren't singing about Him because they just don't know. They want to sing. They're made to sing. Their hearts will never be satisfied until they sing.
[10:18] And so you've been taught so many things that most of the world does not know. Josh said that he had heard the gospel 2,000 times before at the age of 18. He had heard it so many times. So Colombians and Peruvians cannot praise Him for a salvation that they have not heard about.
[10:34] Psalm 96, 2. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Colombians and Peruvians do not know the salvation that is available to them.
[10:45] So sing unto the Lord and show forth His salvation as you walk the streets, as you set up for churches. When you know 10 words, use them to preach the gospel. When you know 100 words, use them to preach the gospel.
[10:55] And when you can speak the language well, still only use them for nothing more important than preaching the gospel. Colombians and Peruvians will not praise Him for being great if they have not heard of His great wonders.
[11:08] Psalm 96, 4. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised, for He is to be feared above all gods. Why do people worship lesser things? Because they've never heard of the wonders of our great God. They've never heard how wonderful it is that He would exchange His life for yours.
[11:23] Colombians and Peruvians will live in bondage to the false gods unless someone shows them the one that is the true God. Psalm 96, 5. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
[11:35] As you write that new song every day and you look for new ways to sing of salvation, remember these truths. Colombians and Peruvians will not know of the coming judgment if they are not warned.
[11:46] Part of our song is a warning. Psalm 96, 10. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously.
[11:59] How is it that we can sing a song about the coming judgment of the Lord? Because we know that we are hidden from the wrath of God in Christ Jesus. And so what is the most catastrophic thing that would ever come to you becomes something that we can rejoice in and that we can sing about because we know Christ.
[12:17] So say among Peruvians and sing among Colombians and until you get there, sing among Americans that the Lord, he reigneth. He shall judge the people righteously.
[12:28] And I'm thankful that he is going to judge me by the righteousness that's been given to me by Christ Jesus. Talking to Dustin Brown this week in Turkey and he was saying that his Muslim doctors, she's only attended a Christian church a few times and she said something that you probably heard before.
[12:43] She said, I just love to hear them sing. I just love to go to that church because I love to hear them sing. Nobody sings better than God's people about God's truth. And so go and sing and invite more people to sing with you.
[12:57] People do not praise him because they do not know him. Let's include more people in singing about our great God. Let's sing a new song. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[13:07] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.