======================================================================== THE ONLY SONG WORTH LEARNING by Sandeep Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of praising God with a new song that is birthed in trials, highlighting the difference between childish praise based on circumstances and mature praise rooted in faith. It explores the concept of new covenant praise written in afflictions, encouraging believers to see trials as opportunities to learn the new song God is teaching. The sermon delves into the significance of keeping pure and following Jesus closely in the midst of fiery afflictions, ultimately pointing to the central theme of God's compassion and mercy revealed through the slain Lamb. Duration: 28:33 Topics: "New Song in Trials", "Mature Praise through Faith" Scripture References: Isaiah 42:10, James 5:11, Revelation 14:1, Revelation 13:8, Psalm 118:24, Hebrews 8:10, Romans 8:18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of praising God with a new song that is birthed in trials, highlighting the difference between childish praise based on circumstances and mature praise rooted in faith. It explores the concept of new covenant praise written in afflictions, encouraging believers to see trials as opportunities to learn the new song God is teaching. The sermon delves into the significance of keeping pure and following Jesus closely in the midst of fiery afflictions, ultimately pointing to the central theme of God's compassion and mercy revealed through the slain Lamb. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I also actually wanted to share starting with the memory verse. So Isaiah 42 10 was what we had been sharing starting this week And I don't know if you saw the the picture that was associated with that that we sent out. I'll share that on the screen This was the picture that was sent out sing Isaiah 42 verse 10 It says sing to the unto the lord a new song sing his praises from the end of the earth um I love this picture I really, um so many every picture tells a story This is a nice way to imagine how we ought to praise god But what's wrong with this picture as it relates to our praises for god Um What's wrong with this picture is that this is childish praise I'm, not sure whether he's singing to god or not, but let's assume he's singing it But this is still childish praise What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that He I don't know if it's a boy or a girl let's assume it's a boy I'm 100 sure that this boy is in a good mood. That's what I mean by childish praise i'm 100 sure that this Child was in a good mood I'm 100 sure that this boy has got what he wanted. Maybe he wanted the accordion For his birthday and he got it and he's in a great mood and he's singing Having got the present that he longed for And getting to play and sing his favorite song of praise to jesus. Maybe he might be singing. Um Jesus loves me or jesus loves the little children with full energy and maybe his Parents took a picture and even took a video and sent it along to their family and they thought oh what a great child How precious that he's singing about jesus These are all nice things but All of us who have children know that this same child may be throwing a tantrum less than five minutes later Once his will got crossed with his father and mother's will If he didn't get his way then the songs of praises quickly disappear And it's followed by complaining murmuring shouting God wants us to be child childlike, but not childish And there are a lot of things in children as we know that should be corrected not praised and a mark of our childish Spirituality is that when we is that we praise god when things are going well But our singing is turned into complaining when things Circumstances change We heard last week about babylonian christianity the two streams This kind of childish praise is religiosity from the stream of babylon This is all covenant Christianity or in the best case. I don't want anybody to be discouraged in the best case. It is a mark of childish christianity and God wants something much better for us. He wants us to grow up and be mature in our faith and for that god says What is new covenant praise new covenant praise is a praise that is birthed in trials The new covenant song god tells us in that song sing a new song The new song is a song that is birthed and written in trials Every verse every chorus every line of that song is written in our trials I've heard of in the past. I mean i've heard of different worship Gatherings or worship leaders song leaders who want to write christian songs. They have worship gatherings and songwriters conferences Absolutely useless attempts of man To try to sing praises to god by getting together a conference God has a conference in which he tells us i'll write you songs of praise and that's trials of affliction That's where The gold records are made is when trials are turned into gold. Those are the songs that should populate our hymn books Is the songs that were written? From trials. Those are the songs that were lost. There's a beautiful verse if you want to turn there in isaiah chapter 48 isaiah chapter 48 Verse 10 Isaiah chapter 48 verse 10 the second line in that verse it says I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction That's how the king james version reads it. That's what the amplified says. I've tried And chosen you i've chosen you in the furnace of affliction That's where Jesus tells us that We are his There are so many voices that we can hear in our afflictions the voices of the devil the voices of our flesh saying get me out of here the voice of Reason or the voice of what we think is good saying lord. Save me from this hour But it's in that moment that god wants To hear us to hear his voice saying I've chosen you You're mine I'm the one who allowed you to go through this affliction You're on the team You're you're exactly where I need you to be you're wearing the jersey Unfit vile wretch that you were I've chosen you in the middle of your affliction. That's where he tells me that I am his in the furnace Not in the palace Not with a golden silver spoon in our mouth It's in the furnace of affliction that we want god wants to tell us I have chosen you I only as far as I know, there's only one time we hear sing jesus singing When jesus said let's sing a hymn and that's In some of the in the middle of his one of his worst trials Definitely the worst trial anybody would go through in the middle of that trial right after he broke the bread And drank the cup day. He said let's sing a hymn a few minutes before gethsemane A few hours before the crucifixion and the separation from the father. He sang a hymn. That's the one time we see jesus singing him we don't know what song they sang but In the passover, they used to sing some One of the verses if I remember reading it right to psalm 118 And let's give thanks to the lord. This is the day that the lord has made That was definitely one of the songs that he grew up singing at the passover time It's a song of praise to his father when we hear jesus singing us hymn It's a song of praise to his father in the middle of his worst trial. This was not when after he Broke the bread and five thousand were healed Fed it was not after people walked on water I'm sure they sang songs then but the time that the holy spirit said you must write down that jesus sang a hymn Was in the middle of his artist trial There's only one time as far as I remember we hear about paul Another great old covenants. Oh new covenant saint singing him and that's in acts chapter 16 if you want to turn there That's when what's the surroundings of it. His feet are chained And he's been beaten with many blows it says there in acts chapter 16 verse um 23 It says that it beaten him with many blows and then they first 24 fastened their feet to the stocks Now let's put this also in the context remember what paul had gone through just recently paul had just split In verse at the end of chapter 15 a few there's the chapter before that he had split from his biggest encourager barnabas the son of encouragement Probably his closest friend in the faith. He barnabas is the one who reached out and grabbed Paul and helped him and encouraged him and he was one of the prophets and teachers in antioch And was a close co-worker for many years and i'm sure paul looked up to him for many years What has happened recently His closest older brother in the faith. They've just split And now he's found a new co-worker silas And now here they were beaten badly and imprisoned And paul could have given into all kinds of discouraging thoughts Is this god's punishment for how I? treated barnabas Did I make a mistake? Should I have done and you know early in this chapter? They were put in prison because he cast out a demon possessed girl and they had been walking many days hearing this demon possessed girl And he had not said anything him and silas just walked by It says there Right. He said there for um many days verse 18. He was This woman was kept keeping on continuing and they'd said nothing And i'm sure paul could have wondered should i've done things differently? And it says in verse 1918 that paul was greatly annoyed Paul could have asked was I impetuous should i've checked with silas? Should I have waited more patiently all legitimate questions? But that could wait what paul Because those thoughts in those and that moment a lot of those questions would have led him to become discouraged a lot of root cause analysis a lot of what what if questions Can come in we're in the middle of a very difficult trial where we've been beat up And it looks like our circumstances saying is this is god's judgment on you That's not the time for root cause analyses That'll come later not saying those questions shouldn't be answered that'll come later when our feet are in the furnace when our backs have been Beaten what that's the time for us to not give in to those thoughts of discouragement to tell the devil To tell the fellow prisoners and to tell our feelings That god is on the throne and to sing praises of god I remember richard wormbrandt when he was um Chained he and the fellow prisoners who were christians were saying we don't have instruments But god has given us these chains Let us use these chains as the drum beat to praise god And that was i'm sure he learned that from paul the furnace of afflictions Is where god says i've chosen you I remember reading I want to give you a quote from charles porgeon charles porgeon said It's no mean thing. It's not a it's not a trivial thing to be chosen from god By chosen by god Because we're chosen in the furnace not in the palace Because it's in the furnace that beauty Is distorted all of our beauty is distorted All of our fashion Our good looks is destroyed All of our strength melts away into weakness all of our glory is consumed But this is what's virgin said this is where eternal love tells us his secrets and tells us and declares His choice in us. It's in the furnace where all of our beauty All of our glory all of our strength gets crushed melted distorted completely gone But it's in that same furnace that god says I want to reveal to you my secrets He reveals the secrets in there and most of all and first of all he tells me I have chosen you In the fire of afflictions. Oh dear brothers and sisters how we've missed That voice we've heard a lot of other voices, but have we heard the voice of god saying I chose you Look at the jersey you're wearing look at the name that's in the back of your jersey bought redeemed by christ You're a christian You you have my last name So what if the afflictions are fiery? Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego even if god doesn't deliver us from this fiery furnace lord I'm not going to bow down to the idols of babylon That's my first point my first point is lord I want to see every affliction as the place where I Learn the new song The new song is birthed written every verse every line in the fires of affliction The next point I want to say is every song is a praise to god The worship song is not a praise to me Revelation chapter 14 talks about this new song That is sung It's a new song that is sung on mount zion Revelation chapter 14 1 through 5 talks about this new song that is sung And they stand and they sing it they stand before the throne and they're singing it And the worship song the new covenant songs must be to god This is what i've noticed as you turn to revelation 14 i've noticed that it's so easy for a lot of christian songs To evoke not a worship of god but a worship of self because It talks all about how the storms Around me are failing it talks about all the tsunamis and oceans that are overwhelming me But it's not the triumphant Song of a soldier who knows the victory has already won And it is not the triumphant song of a child who knows that his hand is in the father And I have to inspect a lot of the songs I sing very carefully because it can have all the right words And it can have god and christ written all of it Written all over it but self Still is on the throne and it makes me cry and it makes me weep But it's really tears making me feel sorry for myself and my situation and my circumstances it is not a song of triumph It is not a song of saying though he slain me I will trust in him And god is my everlasting rock and let my name be crushed and let his name be glorified That is what I mean by our songs must be a song to god the path of every trial is in fires, but what god is wanting me to say is I want the fourth person to come in the midst of the trial So that even the world Sees no, no, no. Hold on. There's nothing that great about three people in the fire, but there's a fourth one In the trial who's like the son of god that is shining what a Ordinary miracle, it would have been a miracle But what an ordinary miracle if shidrach meshach and abednego were untouched by the fire, but there were only three But the real glory the real thing that touched nebuchadnezzar Was that not only was there three untouched but there's a fourth one that validated that they were of the true god Walking amidst them in the midst of their trial We see that in revelation chapter 14 Jesus is Not on the throne here, even though he deserves to be on the throne. He steps down from the throne And he joins the bride. He joins the 144 000 Just sing with them and they sang a new song. Who's it? It's The lamb standing verse one with the 144 000 Who are these 144 000 We have no idea what their names are Because it's very important that we don't know what their names are because And it says in verse one the name of his father and the name of jesus Is written on their foreheads Is is paul in that number he most probably is but his name is not paul's name is not written on his forehead There will not be a verse in the song not a mention of even the great apostle paul It'll be named the father and the son that's written on their foreheads And that's the purpose of the trial dear brothers and sisters to birth that song so that at the end of the trial my name Has been completely and utterly Wiped out obliterated crushed removed the person who Went through probably the greatest and the hardest trials in the bible besides jesus was joe and I've never heard of anybody who was in all of human history who almost is as god-fearing and righteous as as joe Yet, I also don't know anybody in human history who suffered as much as joe Such a righteous person in the old covenant without even the law, but so afflicted So we read the story of joe in the book of joe when we understand god's Mind and heart not only about how the righteous can suffer but how he allows suffering But dear brothers and sisters, let me ask you a question What is the conclusion? of the book of joe What is the conclusion? Most people and i'll tell you me included Would go and read the whole book of joe and read And come up finally in job chapter 42 And read the conclusion, but what's in job chapter 42 job triumphing triumph triumphantly returning eventually Getting back double of what he lost. I think And his fortunes and his fame and his favor grew even more than ever before Yes, it's a horrible story from job chapter 2 all the way to job chapter 1 all the way to 41 But 42 is the triumphant verse triumphant chapter but I discovered that Job 42 is not the conclusion The conclusion is actually in james chapter 5 So you can turn with me before we go back to revelation james chapter 5 tells me the one sentence summary of the entire book of joe Job chapter, sorry james chapter 5 verse 11 The one line summary of the entire book of joe is written here in james chapter 5 james Chapter 5 verse 11 james was one of these um, you know, I think it was the brother of jesus and Knew the scriptures knew the law Was extremely strong in his knowledge of the law He studied job. I'm sure very carefully and here he says through inspired by the holy spirit. You've seen the outcome Here's the summary of god's dealing with job. What is it? The lord is full of compassion and mercy Dear brothers and sisters, I don't know how many of us Came to that same conclusion at the end of all of job's trials It's got nothing to do with joe That's what I learned We have 42 chapters talking about all of job's trials and wondering about how bad it got He got it worse than we'll ever get it But the summary of that own book is that the lord is full of compassion and merciful Dear brothers and sisters, did we come close to that conclusion after reading the book of joe? I didn't I didn't thank god for james. Thank god for the holy spirit who said that's the Summary of the whole book of joe Is that god and it's not just the name of god is that god is compassionate and merciful May this be the end. You know, this is how the lord spoke it to me It's not just theory the way the lord spoke this to me is something you're going through trials. You've gone through trials Is that the summary of the trial in? March of 2011 to April 2013 there was this huge trial in sandeep's life Well, I don't have all the time to explain it to you. But what's the summary of that whole trial for two years? When you had a difficult trial at work, what's the summary? That's what the lord was telling me You'll know you've come to the end of that trial you learned you know that you've learned The real purpose why I took you through that trial when you can honestly Not repeat because it's in the bible, but honestly and genuinely say lord This too is the summary that the lord not about the boils not about the loss of property Not about the loss of family not about the final earthly validation of what god did finally to redeem my this so that no This is it. The lord is compassionate and merciful Otherwise, that's what the lord was telling me. You've not learned You've not gotten to the one-line summary of this trial Trial is over Hard boss has been replaced by good boss Bad financial situation bad health situation has been solved. You haven't learned the one-line summary Summary of job's life is god is merciful The only name written on our forehead Is god and because we Meditated on his word name on day and night And I also like it. It's not the father and the son in revelation 14. It's not the name of Dear brothers and sisters yaweh elohim Jehovah and it's not yeshua prince of peace No, it's father and son It's the father and son such personal Intimate that's the name of the father and the son not far away names, even though they are very much his names but on our foreheads It's a family matter It's a family anthem It's a song that we sing at the dining table in the back room with the father and the son That's the name that's now written on our foreheads So, what do we do in revelation chapter 14 verse 4 and 5 We take our fiery afflictions as a compliment And say we'll bring out our harps And say now is the time to learn the song Now is the time to learn the song god is trying to teach us to sing And it's a song to god not about my name not lord. Save me from this hour Not lord. Save me Validate my name validate my ministry validate this or that None of that lord obliterate it if a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies if that name is completely Dead then it can bring much fruit and four and five also tells me very simple Keep yourself pure. That's what verse says. Keep yourself pure from being tainted by the harlot. That is babylon that's what it says, they're not defying by the The adulterous nature of babylon as we heard last week keep ourselves pure Follow the lamb wherever he goes Nearness to god nearness to jesus is my good fires of affliction lord be that fourth person In the fiery trial, even if it's heated up seven times over though the valley of shadow of death be my path I will not fear For the nearness of god Is with me God is with me pure mouths. It also says that no lie was found in their mouth God's very particular so many times over with our speech Watch our speech what we say with our lips Watch what we post on social media Of course most of all watch what our minds think about that's what the lord was showing me too from this about this You know our minds are the name written on our forehead He's promised the new covenant as we've heard in hebrews chapter 8 says that the He'll write His laws in our hearts and in our minds. He's promised to etch it permanently even our minds and so that eventually it just comes out on the outside too But that's where the transformation begins not for some tattoo or etching on our outward skin God says you etch my name on your mind Day after day week after week month after month year after year through every fiery affliction you etch my name And when the books are opened In the final days come god will reveal what is on our forehead. He'll bring to our fourth the forehead What has been etched in our mind all along? So let us abide with jesus. Let's make him the sole object of our dreams and ambitions It'll come out paul said that whatever is noble trustworthy and excellent dwell on these things Paul did that he was not giving advice that he didn't follow. He meditated on that day and night So when his time on earth was come he said I know what's up ahead of me crown of righteousness Why because I've longed for him I long for him long for his appearing. I look for him to be coming. And so i'm finally going to see him And i'm sure the name of jesus was etched on paul's forehead because that's what he Meditated on the name of jesus not the name of paul And it'll be worth it all because on mount zion jesus will sing our names will be gone Our scars Through the fiery afflictions will all be gone. Our tears will be wiped away his scars will remain and so as we're standing with jesus, there'll be one hand that was scarred because We'll remember it is about him We remember that it was his side that was pierced are his hands that were pierced for us It won't be a reminder of guilt But it'll be a reminder of love it'll be the trophy That we'll all look forward to remind us that he redeemed us that he loves us forever I'll end with that verse in romans. Sorry revelation chapter 13 verse 8 um the king james bible it says Um revelation 13 verse 8 that the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world This is before the heavens and the earth were created which is written in genesis chapter 1 verse 1 the lamb was slain What that tells me is even before the earth was created God's demonstration of love included the slain lamb And that was the centerpiece Of the story even before the earth was created before adam and eve sinned before I sinned The centerpiece of the story of god was the slain lamb That was there before the earth was created. That'll be there for all eternity And I want to keep that In the center of me in of my view all the time The slain lamb, that's the ultimate statement of love. That's the main point of the story Is the slain lamb may that be true dear brothers and sisters in the fires of afflictions That's where the song is going to be sung A song birthed in the fires of affliction and sung to god May god help us ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/zjS_oH0g-oo.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/the-only-song-worth-learning/ ========================================================================