Swinging the Hammer

March 2008
I feel like the last few weeks have been a time of a heightened connection between the choir and the congregation. I hope you have sensed it, as well. Our services are great pictures of what Paul described in Ephesians 4:16 – “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Every Sunday, there are teachers ministering to needs and ushers and greeters helping people all over the grounds. Inside the Sanctuary, there is Pastor, along with singers, musicians, audio/video people, and intercessors all doing different aspects of ministry. Here’s what I’m really getting at: on some weeks, praise and worship is where a real connection happens for the congregation; other weeks, the audience really engages during the choir song; while still other times, the sermon is where the real moment of the service occurs. Obviously, the ideal service would be one where the congregation joins in equally from the beginning until the final amen. Realistically though, it is usually one segment of the service that breaks the door open for everyone to enter in. Recently, the Lord has honored us by using the choir song to be a gate opener for the rest of the service. I’m telling you this to commend you for your spiritual and musical preparation, but I also am urging you to feel the importance of every joint and ligament being in place – especially when God is using you guys in such a marvelous way. Last Sunday was extraordinary… morning and evening. What if you hadn’t been in your place Sunday night? Would we have had the breakthrough we experienced? I don’t know. It is not that God can’t work without us, but we are the ones entrusted with leading this body into the Most Holy Place.

I want to leave you with one really cool scripture I found today. Jeremiah 23:29 says: “’Is not My word like fire’—the LORD's declaration—‘and like a sledgehammer that pulverizes rock?’”You see? There it is! We are delivering His Word in the songs we sing. When we sing “My Help, Psalm 23, or The Majesty and Glory of Your Name,” we are directly quoting scripture… swinging that sledgehammer, so to speak. From the opening scripture and praise chorus, through the choir song and the sermon, to the benediction we are either directly or indirectly using God’s Word as a sledgehammer. If you’ve ever used a sledgehammer, you know that the first blow may not break through whatever you are pounding; sometimes it is the culmination of a number of blows. Every blow is equally important, though; and we want to get our licks in every time we are handed the hammer. Isn’t that a cool picture? Can you see the Holy Spirit handing the hammer to Pastor to open the service; then him turning around and giving it to the Praise Team, who pass it on to the choir who, in turn; give it back to Pastor? The rock may break on the first blow or the one hundredth, but it will break, because “a sledgehammer pulverizes rock.”

Keep swinging,
Danny