Pastor Tunde Netufo – PICR Region 71

Spiritual Melody

Can somebody in the house shout hallelujah! Our Father and our God, we want to thank You for a beautiful moment in Your presence, thank You because we have no doubt in our minds that Your presence is here. Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that as we worship You this morning, as we sing hymns to the praise and glory of Your name, that You will pay us a divine visitation in Jesus name.

We pray Lord for open heavens, we pray for divine inspiration, we pray for blessings, we pray for encouragement, we pray for healing, we pray for salvation, we pray Lord for the manifestation of Your power in our midst such that we will not forget today in a hurry. Father let it be so in Jesus name.

Lord Almighty, as we take on this very short exaltation, Lord, speak to our heart in Jesus name, and let Your word be a blessing to us, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed. Praise the Lord!

Welcome to our hymnal service today, once again, I pray that you will not leave here without being blessed in Jesus name.

Very quickly, I want to remind us of the inauguration service of our region that is coming up next week Sunday. By the grace of God, we’ll have our usual first service, Thanksgiving service, having our first course and of course incorporating our daddy as usual, then after that, we’ll pause the service for a while to have a Sunday school, then by 12, the second service, which of course is for the inauguration service, will commence. So we look forward to having every one of you and the Lord will bless you as you do so in Jesus name.

Let me also seize this opportunity to register our profound gratitude to those of us who have been very magnanimous in sending us financial support for the purpose of the occasion. I pray in the name of Jesus that God will bless you with extra large blessings in Jesus name, may you never walk alone and may you never know dryness in the name of Jesus.

Brethren, today we have come to do something that is spiritually deep, and when I say spiritually deep, I mean the word in every sense of it. We have come to do something very inspiring, we have come to do something comforting and something that is gainful.

We have come to offer God a spiritual melody, and that’s why when pastor asked me yesterday, what is the theme for today’s service? I said call it the Spiritual Melody; we have come to offer God a spiritual melody. Hymns are not just accessories to our weekly worship services, neither are they fillers in our programs.

We don’t just sing hymns to fill the gap, but they are very critical aspect of our worship. Hymns are so profound, they are profound blessings to the Christian community serving as a divine bridge that connects our hearts directly to the throne of grace; hymns are spiritual melodies offered from an inner heart, our heartfelt expression of worship, joy and praise that link us directly from our spirit to our God.

We have our contemporary songs, there’s no doubt about that, but while contemporary worship songs bring (what I call) vibrant energy to our congregation, the timeless hymns of our faith carry a unique weight of glory in itself.

Suffice to say that they are not merely songs; some of the songs we’ve taken this morning and the ones we’ll be taken after, they are not mere songs, they are deep theology set to melody tested by time and forged in the fires of human suffering and divine revelation.

The blessedness of hymns can be seen in diverse ways but we’ll only consider a few of them today (because of our time).

Number one, hymns anchor our theology. For instance, hymns like ‘holy, holy or a mighty fortress is our God’ act as a musical crits that set the principle for spiritual worship. They teach us who God is, and of course they anchor our minds and sound doctrines so we are not easily tossed about by changing cultural winds.

Like the word that had just be taken, ‘I have a message from the Lord. Hallelujah,’ and it tells us some of the things that we need to know about God, things that we need to know that form the basis expectations of God from mankind.

Number two, hymns comfort our souls. Many of our greatest hymns were written during moments of intense grief.

For example, Horatio Spafford wrote, “It is well with my soul,” after his losing his children. He was a missionary, he was a pastor, he had five children, one boy and four girls, the first boy died of hay fever.

As if that was not enough, there was a day they were traveling on the waters, so on the British coast and there was a collision, the four children, the wife, sank, and by the time rescue came, it was only the wife that survived it. And the wife sent a message to him, “saved alone, I’m the only one that got saved,” where are the children? They all gone. It was then that the man decided to write that song – It is well with my soul.

By that singular act, he gave the church a new vocabulary for suffering, and that’s why when people die today, we sing ‘it is well’, is a new vocabulary, it’s a song of comfort.

Hymns meet us in our darkest valleys and remind us of God’s unchanging character that it doesn’t matter the situation, like Job said, he said even though He slay me, (he said) yet will I trust in Him.

One of the reasons why items like service of songs are put together in honor of the memories of the deceased is simply to comfort, strengthen and encourage the family and shift their focus from their grief to the only One who does not die or change.

Our God is unchangeable, our God is unquestionable, our God remains the same forever and ever. So when we see people singing songs, it is so to encourage, to strengthen, and of course to comfort.

And lastly, hymns connect us to the cloud of witnesses. When you sing a song, you are not singing alone, I want you to take note of that. As we are singing here today, we are not singing alone; as we are singing, we are joining our voices with generations of believers who sang those exact words hundred of years before us, reminding us that we belong to a timeless global family of faith.

Every song was composed and written by individuals many years ago. I remember my father, my own biological father could sing many of these hymns one after the other, line by line and stanza by stanza, either when he was working or resting after the days’ work, it could be very inspiring and very exciting.

In fact, when I hear some songs today, I remember my father. my mind will just go back to him where he sat on his armchair and would start singing without taking the hymn book. I think those days they had that discipline to learn offhand, how many of us, even pastors, can sing those songs today? But the man would sing line by line not missing one word out, he would take it from stanza one to stanza 5.

And there would be a kind of an atmosphere when you sing good songs and you are in tune; there is always an atmosphere of inspiration of God moving in the midst of His people, and I can sense that today, God will move in our midst, and when God moves you know miracles always happen. So today you will not leave here without receiving your own miracle in the mighty name of Jesus.

In Colossians 3:16, we are commanded, it says, let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual song, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Brethren, we must do everything possible never to lose the sacred things of these songs, they carry the power to teach our hearts, comfort us in times of grief, and of course lift our eyes to the beauty of Christ at all times.

For examples, songs like ‘my hope is built on nothing else and the blessed assurance’ that was taken not too long ago, above many, confirm that a believer’s eternal salvation, peace, and security rest exclusively on nothing else but Jesus Christ. Specifically His sacrificial death, His blood and His righteousness rather than human achievements, good works or shifting life situation.

Even Ephesians 2:8 confirmed that by grace ye are saved through faith, it says, it is the gift of God, it is not by work, it is not by righteousness; if God should mark righteousness according to the scripture, none of us will be able to stand here today. So this in effect means that true salvation cannot be earned by personal efforts or moral behavior, it relies completely on what Jesus accomplished through His death and righteousness.

And the song itself, ‘my hope is built on nothing else’, was inspired by the parable of the wise and the foolish builders in Matthew 7: 24- 27.

So as I close, I want you to permit me this morning to present Jesus Christ to you today if you are here and you have not received Him into your life as your Lord and personal Savior, as a matter of fact, He is the reason why we are here today, and I can assure you that He is here with us with an open arms to receive as many that will confess their sins and repent of them today.

Shall we rise on our feet?

[Music]

Brethren, the secret to long life, the secret to eternal peace, the secret to a joyful and a blissful experience here on earth and in heaven lies in you looking at Jesus.

Shall we bow down our head and pray to God. Father, I’ve heard Your word this morning, help me to apply Your word in the name of Jesus. I want to live, but to live we need to look up to Jesus, help me Lord to look unto You now and forever more in the name of Jesus Christ. Say that prayer within yourself.

And if you are here, you have not given your life to Christ, you may not have a better time than today to just pray to God and say Father, I’ve heard Your word this morning, I want to live, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to continue my life of struggle, and so I invite You into my life today in the name of Jesus.

Let Your grace perfect itself in my life, let Your grace as expressed on the cross of Calvary, Lord Almighty God, perfect His works in my life, let me encounter Your mercy this morning, in Jesus name we have prayed.

[Altar call]

Father, we just want to say thank You; thank You for the entrance of Your word that giveth life, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus.

We have heard Your word, Lord, and as we continue in this program, Father, we pray that may we all be divinely refreshed in Jesus name, may we all be divinely inspired in the mighty name of Jesus. And we pray that the benefits, the sacred benefits of singing hymns and worshiping You, Lord Almighty, let it be the portion of every one of us today in Jesus name.

And above all in Your kingdom, please count us worthy to reign with You. Blessed be Your name forever, oh God, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.

Thank you very much for your time. God bless you.

Thank You Jesus:

Salvation Prayer:

If you don’t Know Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour and would like to accept him into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, Please say this prayer:

Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from You. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward You. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that Your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send Your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your Will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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By Chukwuemeka Obiorah Ogwo.