What Happens When We Sing Together

00:00:00.000 | Well, how do I recharge my spiritual battery?

00:00:07.320 | Where is my spiritual energy refreshed in order for me to meet yet another week of temptations

00:00:12.780 | and trials?

00:00:14.340 | This was the topic on the table for Pastor John earlier in the year when he was ministering

00:00:17.960 | in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

00:00:20.940 | This is a tremendous clip and I wanted to make sure it was shared with you in the podcast.

00:00:25.640 | There's a story to come shortly and for that you need to know two other people.

00:00:30.400 | You need to know Chuck Stedham, who is the longtime worship leader who served along Pastor

00:00:34.520 | John and you need to know Tom Steller, a longtime co-pastor with Pastor John.

00:00:39.920 | There will be a scene in a moment with Chuck on stage leading musical worship and Tom to

00:00:44.620 | Pastor John's side during musical worship.

00:00:48.360 | Here now is Pastor John talking about how we recharge for the Christian life, which

00:00:53.120 | is really a celebration of corporate worship.

00:00:56.640 | Have a listen.

00:00:58.080 | The reasons that corporate worship, singing, praying, responsive readings, confessing

00:01:06.960 | our sins, preaching, is so uniquely powerful.

00:01:14.640 | I want to use a superlative here.

00:01:19.320 | That's risky because God shows up superlatively in one-on-one moments and you yourself alone

00:01:27.680 | with him moments and any one of those can be exquisite power.

00:01:34.560 | But on the whole, I would say my sweetest communion with God happens with Chuck.

00:01:45.160 | I mean Chuck is a symbol when I say that.

00:01:48.560 | He was the leader in those moments and so what I mean is corporate worship.

00:01:56.280 | Why is it?

00:01:57.280 | I've tried to...it just is.

00:02:01.160 | I think it is because I was made for this and you were too.

00:02:07.320 | You may be resisting it for all kinds of reasons, but you were made to see and savor God with

00:02:16.640 | his people in the manifold ways of corporate worship.

00:02:21.680 | That's what you were made for.

00:02:25.320 | And therefore, when you are experiencing it, you are experiencing something of the end

00:02:30.880 | for which you were made.

00:02:33.240 | And that's deeply satisfying.

00:02:36.160 | That's one reason.

00:02:38.640 | Here's a second one that I've watched in myself.

00:02:42.680 | Corporate worship becomes not only an awakening of affections that I did not bring into the

00:02:49.920 | service.

00:02:50.920 | I'm coming there to feed on what God is doing in that moment, on the truth there and on

00:02:57.840 | the beauty of our songs.

00:03:01.200 | I'm being awakened to be who I am, being awakened to know God, love God, delight in God, be

00:03:08.720 | satisfied in God by song and the truth of the songs and the beauty of the songs.

00:03:14.640 | There's something about profound biblical truth about God mingled with beautiful tunes

00:03:23.000 | that is uniquely effective in the soul of a human being.

00:03:28.040 | It's unique.

00:03:29.040 | It just is.

00:03:30.280 | And so that happens.

00:03:31.280 | Here's a third thing.

00:03:32.840 | I can remember moments.

00:03:34.320 | Here's Tom Steller, who's with me for 33 years, to my left.

00:03:39.800 | And Tom was saved in the Jesus People Movement.

00:03:42.520 | He's been a hand lifter from day one.

00:03:46.120 | I had to be converted because I grew up in you know what.

00:03:51.760 | And so I'm sitting there singing, going through the motions because that's what happens.

00:03:57.760 | You just lose, it doesn't always click, right?

00:04:01.000 | You're just going through the motions and my eyes glance over and Tom is like this.

00:04:07.800 | That very posture, knowing what I know about Tom was like an arrow repeatedly for my soul.

00:04:16.360 | That's corporateness.

00:04:17.920 | That's corporateness.

00:04:19.040 | Me being near somebody who's engaged with God is convicting, right?

00:04:24.260 | If you're near somebody who's really authentically not putting on any show, they're just engaged,

00:04:29.840 | they're loving God in their relationship with God and you're not, that's good for you.

00:04:37.560 | You see?

00:04:38.640 | So that's another piece of it.

00:04:41.400 | Here's the one that I probably remember most poignantly.

00:04:44.920 | I mean, everybody thinks, "Oh yeah, you've been married for 50 years, cool, got five

00:04:49.400 | kids, you're still married, must be wonderful."

00:04:53.000 | We've walked through such deep waters together, Noel and I, struggled with so many things.

00:04:59.560 | Kid problems and marital problems in and out of counseling maybe for 33 months total over

00:05:05.920 | our 50 years and tried to love each other better, not hurt each other with what we do

00:05:11.320 | or say.

00:05:12.320 | And so I'm a pastor, right?

00:05:14.960 | We're talking about 33 years of sitting on the front pew with about five or six, 700

00:05:20.320 | people behind me and I'm going to preach in a few minutes and I'm singing and this is

00:05:27.000 | the worst week of our marriage, right?

00:05:29.600 | What do you do?

00:05:30.600 | How do you carry on?

00:05:31.600 | How do you not be a hypocrite?

00:05:34.540 | And I cannot tell you how many times some beautiful expression of the mercies of God

00:05:43.680 | broke over me with such conviction of my selfishness.

00:05:50.600 | I stayed married.

00:05:52.680 | I felt hope again.

00:05:55.000 | I think I can go home and say, "I'm sorry."

00:05:58.200 | I mean, where do you get the strength?

00:06:00.320 | I'm talking to the guys right now, okay?

00:06:02.400 | Same issue with the ego with the women, but it's a little different with the guys.

00:06:05.740 | Where do you get the strength to just humble yourself and say, "I was wrong.

00:06:12.740 | I'm sorry."

00:06:13.900 | Or even if you don't think you were wrong, to say something sweetly conciliatory because

00:06:20.780 | that's your job.

00:06:23.420 | I get it on the front pew in the middle of, I mean, we weren't singing His Mercy is More

00:06:30.860 | in those days, but it would do it today.

00:06:33.180 | It would do it today.

00:06:35.020 | So that's another piece.

00:06:37.700 | And maybe one last reason why I exist when I'm a pastor, I exist to create a God-loving

00:06:46.340 | people.

00:06:47.340 | That's why I exist.

00:06:49.180 | My preaching is designed to build truth about God into the mind and affections for God into

00:06:56.620 | the heart.

00:06:57.620 | That's why I exist.

00:06:59.060 | That's my whole life in corporate worship.

00:07:02.180 | I can hear it happening.

00:07:04.740 | I mean, even now I know, I mean, hundreds of people have come to Bethlehem since I left

00:07:09.260 | in 2013.

00:07:10.580 | Half the people downtown don't know me.

00:07:12.820 | I'm sitting there as the 33-year veteran and they don't know me.

00:07:16.660 | That's awesome.

00:07:17.660 | That's glorious.

00:07:19.020 | But I also know half of these people were under my ministry so that when I'm four pews

00:07:26.040 | up from the back on the left-hand side under the balcony with Noel in our little spot and

00:07:31.540 | 15 people around me that I can recognize and know have their hands in the air at some magnificent

00:07:39.380 | climax of a hymn to God's glory, I feel I didn't live in vain.

00:07:45.740 | So those are a few reasons why those moments...

00:07:51.220 | One more, one more.

00:07:54.700 | I got cancer, I got pancreatic cancer and the biopsy was on our anniversary, December

00:08:01.500 | 21, 2005.

00:08:03.700 | The surgery to take out the prostate gland was on Valentine's Day.

00:08:15.660 | Between December 21 and February 14, those were the sweetest corporate worship experiences

00:08:22.780 | of my life because I didn't know I was going to live.

00:08:27.420 | It's wonderful to get a cancer diagnosis and still live.

00:08:32.800 | Everybody should get that opportunity.

00:08:34.980 | Otherwise we take so much for granted.

00:08:37.860 | So standing at the front pew for those...

00:08:44.300 | What's that?

00:08:45.300 | About eight weeks or so?

00:08:47.880 | Every Sunday was more intense than ever and it was glorious.

00:08:54.580 | If that was to me a foretaste of what it would be like to get ready to die when the cancer

00:09:00.500 | is not going to be healed anymore, that's okay.

00:09:04.940 | That will be okay.

00:09:07.180 | Incredible reminder of the eternal things happening in hearts on Sunday mornings in

00:09:11.380 | musical worship and just a great reminder of what Sunday morning represents for the

00:09:16.220 | people worshiping around us.

00:09:17.940 | There's a lot happening in hearts as God recharges, confronts, builds up, and prepares people

00:09:25.100 | for a week of news that's unforeseen.

00:09:27.380 | It's really amazing what's happening in that room together.

00:09:31.060 | And thank you for listening along to the podcast.

00:09:32.780 | Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube for

00:09:36.780 | our archive of episodes or to send in your own question, go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:09:43.140 | And speaking of the power of the gathered church, how would Pastor John revitalize the

00:09:46.880 | church from the pulpit?

00:09:48.820 | It's a question from an elder with ramifications for each and every one of us.

00:09:53.420 | That's next time.

00:09:54.420 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:09:55.420 | We'll see you on Friday.

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What Happens When We Sing Together

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