This sermon focuses on the concept of having our hearts "tuned" or aligned with God through gratitude and obedience. It uses the metaphor of tuning a violin to illustrate how our hearts can go "out of tune" and need to be realigned through remembering God's blessings and submitting to His will. Reagan encourages the congregation to consider where they would be without God's grace and to give their hearts fully to Him so He can "tune" their lives for His purposes.

Transcript

Somebody saw this case earlier and asked if I was going to play something for us. And I said, definitely not. I couldn't even if, uh, I wanted to because I don't know how. Uh, Brooklyn is learning how to play the violin. Uh, that's something that she's wanted to do for a long time. Well, she wants to learn how to play the fiddle.

Apparently you have to learn how to play the violin first. Uh, she got to do a little bit of fiddling the last time in her last lesson. She was excited about that. But I've learned a little bit along with her. Uh, I've learned, for example, that these strings are G, D, A, and E. And I've learned that because I am Brooklyn's personal assistant and tuner when it comes to this violin.

So apparently violins get out of tune pretty easily. They have to be tuned every time she plays. And so I'm the one who tunes it, uh, beforehand. And this, uh, A string right here is out every single time. And maybe you can't hear that very well, but it's a little off, isn't it? A little off. You can hear that.

Um, even if we're not super attuned, uh, to the exact key that we're supposed to be in and what it's supposed to sound like, all those sorts of things. You can hear that that's a little bit off. And an instrument that is out of tune, well, it doesn't make the sound that it's supposed to make. It doesn't play the way it was designed to play.

And I think that that is a really, really, really great image. for our hearts as Christians, and that idea of our hearts being in tune. So if you have your Bible with you, would you open it up, please, and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5, uh, as, uh, Daniel mentioned, he did such a wonderful job in leading us in worship this morning.

Uh, we'll also be looking at a song in our songbooks, number 420, O Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Uh, I know sometimes, uh, when I'm up here preaching, I talk about my favorite things, and maybe those favorite things change from time to time, or I have all of these provisos about why this is my favorite song.

You know, favorite New Testament verse for the way I want to live my life, and things like that, so I can have more favorites. But with no provisos at all, 420 is my favorite song. My favorite song to sing, my favorite hymn that we sing. And I love the words of this song, and it's going to be something that we're going to think about a little bit together.

And my favorite line in any song comes from that song, which is my favorite. And it's found there right at the beginning. O thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Uh, now there are lots of lines and songs that I really, really, really love. Uh, when we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun.

We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. I could go down the list of a ton that I really love. But I think that's my favorite. O Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace. And I'd like for us to think about that concept for a few minutes this morning, and we're going to actually have an opportunity to practice that together.

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. And that is a wonderful allusion to Ephesians chapter 5. If you've turned over there, let me get over there myself. Ephesians chapter 5, and let's read verses 18 through 20 together. Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 18. The Apostle Paul says this to Christians, And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation.

But be filled, the image is, be drunk with the Spirit. Not because we have, uh, lost our senses or lost our abilities, but because we are totally filled with the Spirit. Verse 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we are not tuning a mechanical instrument. And our voices being in tune, um, preaching this sermon is much, it was very, made very easy by you this morning because the singing was wonderful. It, it was so easy for me to worship alongside of you this morning. And, and everybody around me at the very least was in tune, at least as far as I could hear.

But our voices being in tune while important is not the most important thing. The most important thing to be in tune as we go to God in worship is our heart, our mind, our inner man, our will. that it is aligned with God and in tune with Him. The writers of the New Testament do not mention any use of mechanical instruments in the worship of the early church.

Um, uh, we love instruments. Uh, I had somebody found out that I went to a church of Christ not too long ago, and he said, oh, you don't like instruments. I said, yes I do. I like instruments. We just don't use them in our worship. And as you see, my daughter is playing a violin. Positively, we are commanded in Ephesians to sing.

Amen. And that's not just a command to a few who can sing really well, but for all who would worship God in song from the heart. For us to sing and make melody in our heart to the Lord. Now all the old time preachers always used the phrase, we don't use mechanical instruments. And when I was a kid, I always thought that was kind of silly.

Mechanical instruments of music. I think I had in my mind this giant pipe organ with all of these levers and so forth. Mechanical instruments. What are we talking about? Well, I think that distinction was made because we do have an instrument that we play, that we use in worship. It's just not a piano or a guitar or a harp or a fiddle.

Who here can play an instrument, a mechanical instrument? Um, who here can play one? Alright, hands down. Who here cannot play an instrument? I raised my hand the first time, but really this is where my hand should be up, right? So some of us can, some of us can't play a mechanical instrument. But in worship, we all can play an instrument.

The instrument that we play is our heart. The Greek word in Ephesians 5 for making melody is the word psalo. And though by the first century it had come to be a synonym for sing, it originally meant to pluck, to play, like an instrument. And we have an instrument that every single one of us can play in our worship to God, and that is our hearts.

And I encourage us to play that instrument, brethren. For our hearts to be in tune to God, and to be played, To make a joyful noise to the Lord with our mouth sometimes, as some of us sing better and some of us sing worse, but that all of us lift up to God that pleasing sound, heard by Him and Him alone.

playing the song that he wants us to play. But what does it mean for our heart to be tuned? To make melody with our heart? And maybe more importantly, how do we bring our heart back into tune if, like Brooklyn's violin, it goes out from time to time? And I think all of us who are sitting here who have been Christians for any amount of time will admit That there are times where my mouth is singing but my heart is just not as in tune as it ought to be to God and to the worship.

So how do I make my heart in tune? Well, it really begins by establishing what does it mean for our heart to be in tune. Well, notice a couple of things with me. We read here in Ephesians chapter 5, in verses 18 through 20, and in verse 19 it says, Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, If I want to know what it means for my heart to be in tune, I think I can just look at what comes next in Ephesians chapter 5.

It talks about when we sing, we are speaking, we are singing, we are making melody, and then the very next thing, along with all of these, uh, Other participles that we see, these I N G words, what do we see in verse 20? Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All this is how we praise God in Psalms. And what we are ultimately doing when we are speaking and singing and making melody in our hearts is we are giving thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even in this, O thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace, streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me ever to adore thee, may I still thy goodness prove. Amen. While the hope of endless glory fills my heart with joy and love. As I contemplate what God has done for me, I give thanks in my heart. Allows me to give thanks with my lips as well. We don't just see this in Ephesians chapter 5. If we compare what we have read here in Ephesians chapter 5 with Colossians chapter 3 in verse 16.

If you'd like to turn over there, I'll also have it on the screen behind me. Ephesians chapter 5, I've highlighted some words here. Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Well, if we compare that with Colossians 3, 16.

We're filled with the Spirit. In Colossians 3, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. We're filled with God's Spirit when His Word gets into us, and we know His will and desire that will. Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Amen. Well, when we're speaking, we're teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

I'm teaching you, and you're teaching me. But then notice this parallel at the end of the verse. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, that's our question. How do we get in tune in our hearts? Well, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. I sing with grace in my heart. And most of us know exactly what that is meant by that.

The same thing when somebody asks you to say, Grace, I am giving thanks to God for what He has done. In fact, the ESV translates it this way. With thankfulness in your hearts to God. So, if my heart is in tune, my heart is grateful, my heart is thankful, my heart sees what God has done for me and desires to thank Him for that.

I return the grace that He has shown and given me with grace in my song. I tune my heart to sing Thy grace, that I've received grace from God, but even more importantly that I'm returning grace back to God with my thanksgiving, my gratitude for what God has done. And that's why the song says this. I'm singing with thanksgiving for God's grace.

Streams of mercy never ceasing call for these songs of loudest praise. So my heart is in tune when my heart is thankful to God for what He has done. And this gratitude is what should motivate my praise and my worship. You know, God gives us all sorts of reasons in the scriptures why we should worship Him in song.

Because He tells us to. Because, That's what His desire is, and we always want to fulfill His desire because it elicits emotion in us, because we express emotion, because we are all involved, and frankly, we're all involved body, soul, and spirit. We are actively involved when we're all singing together. All of these are good reasons why we should sing.

Ultimately, we give praise to God because of what God has done for us. And in our gratitude, we are motivated. To sing and sing out in thanksgiving. For what he has done. Haven't you ever been there? I remember a number of years ago. Um, my family was up in Ohio and we went to one of these ski resorts. Uh, we were there at Christmas.

I think it was Christmas time, not Thanksgiving. So we went up to one of these ski resorts in Ohio and, and it was not, you know, the kind of I've never been skiing. I'm just going to admit that right now. But I've heard about how awesome it is in Colorado and Utah with this fresh powder and all these sorts of things.

Well, in Ohio, at least at that time and in this place. There was fake snow, and mainly it was just ice. And it was slick, and it was fast. And so we didn't go skiing, instead we went snow tubing. Anybody in here ever been snow tubing? That is fantastic. It takes zero skill. In fact, the fatter you are, the better you are at it.

And so, we decided that we were going to start, like, chaining things together. And there's a bunch of high school kids that are working at this ski resort, so they don't care, you know. And we've got 16, I think, in our party. And so we're just putting everybody together. All the adults, all the kids. Coming down and seeing how far we can go down the hill.

In fact, if we can make it all the way to the grass, that was our goal after the snow runs out. So we do that a number of times and it's lots of fun, but we're not the only people there. There are other groups who are even more rambunctious than ours, I'll put it that way. And what we had to do was, when you come down these different chutes, you have to go all the way over to the side.

And then go up the conveyor belt to get back to the top. And which means sometimes you're crossing traffic with the other people coming down the hill, with other chains that are coming down the hill. And there's a high school kid there who's supposed to tell you, Stop. Okay, now it's safe to come. So we obey the high school kid who says, Stop.

And then says, Okay, it's safe to come. And we're going along and I look up the hill and I see a train coming. I'm saying, It is not safe to come right now. Where?

And I look back, and there's one of them.

And I see the train coming, and I can't get there in time. And my brother in law, Todd, forever in his debt for this, runs over, scoops her up at the last second, gets his legs taken out by that train, does a full flip in the air, lands with her on top of him.

And I run over there, and she's crying. I might have been crying, I'm not sure.

And we go back to the little hut they've got set up with the concession stand and stuff and the paramedics come over and make sure everybody's okay. Please don't sue us, please don't sue us. And I had to tell everybody about what my brother in law had done. I was so grateful for what he had done. I had to tell everybody how thankful I was.

You see the connection. If we truly see what God has done for us, if we truly get a picture of His grace and His mercy and the salvation that is offered in Jesus Christ,

that's why we sing. That's why we sing out. That's why we make a joyful noise, whether it's, whether it's pretty or not. That's why we make a joyful noise. Because of our gratitude for what God has done. And God's people, Old Testament, New Testament, have always done that. Even when those people maybe weren't exactly what they should have been, they still, they had these songs of praise to God for what He has done.

In Exodus chapter 15, when those people cross over on dry land, uh, cross the Red Sea, they get over to the other side and God says to them, what's the very next thing? They sing the song of Moses. And they sing together for what God has done. Praise to Him. Even in Numbers 21, in those rebellious people who were always mumbling and grumbling and complaining.

And we say, they were never grateful. That's not really true. In Numbers 21, they actually sing a very short song of praise because God gave them water. Even those ungrateful people saw, you know, this is something God gave us. We should probably be a little thankful for it. In Judges chapter 5, another occasion where God delivers His people, this time with Deborah and Barak.

And they thank God for his deliverance in this song of Deborah that's found in Judges chapter 5. In Luke chapter 1, when Mary is told by God what, what she is going to receive from him in giving birth to the Messiah, in giving birth to the Son of God, she writes this song that, that people refer to as the Manificant, where she is giving thanks and praise to God for what he has done.

And of course we think about the book of Psalms, which contains laments, and all of those laments, save one, end with a note of praise and thanks to God for what He has done, even in the midst of trial. But we've sung from Psalm 148 already this morning, and here in just a moment we're going to sing from it again.

So I want us to turn to Psalm 148. We've been thinking a lot about Psalms as we've been studying these Psalms of ascent. And while this is not a psalm of ascent, it is in a special section of the psalms. Here at the end of the book of psalms, we have psalm after psalm of praise to God, where we find this word that Daniel has talked about this morning.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And so you see this phrase over and over. Psalm 146, praise the Lord. Psalm 147 begins, praise the Lord. Psalm 148 begins, praise the Lord. Let's read this psalm together. And then we're going to sing this psalm together here in just a moment. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord from the heavens.

Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His hosts. Praise Him sun and moon. Praise Him all you stars of light. Praise Him you heavens of heavens and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for He commanded and they were created. God is their creator.

He made them. And so they praise Him for what He has done. He also established them forever and ever. He made a decree which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures in all the depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind fulfilling His word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children, Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted.

His glory is above the earth and heaven, and He has exalted the horn, the strength, the dominion of His people. The praise of all His saints, of the children of Israel, of people near to Him. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So whether you are a king, or a prince, or a young man, or a maiden, or an old man, an old woman, or children, whatever you are, We should praise the Lord and we praise him for who he is, but we praise him even more for what he has done because we are thankful for who he is and what he has done.

So let's sing with this kind of gratitude and thankfulness in our hearts. Let's uh, let's warm up a little bit. Let's tune our hearts. Are you grateful? Are you grateful to God for what he has done for you? Can I hear your head rattle? Are you grateful for what God has done for you? Well, Daniel is going to lead us in praise the Lord.

As we sing and ask the question, Is my heart in tune? Am I singing out of gratitude for what God has done for me? Uh, okay, Daniel, you'll come forward and lead us in that. Would you be standing while we sing this together?

So that's what it means for our heart to be in tune. We're grateful, and we sing out of that gratitude. So what do we do if it's not in tune? If I don't have the kind of gratitude that I ought to have, how can How do I bring my heart back into tune again with God? A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how, uh, gratitude is something that we should be focused on as Christians.

In fact, this month, as we think about the Psalms of Ascent, we studied from Psalm 124. And we thank God for His help and deliverance in the face of the world's attacks. And that psalm tells us that gratitude must be realized. We have to come to the realization of what God has done for us. That gratitude should be expressed, and we talked about a number of different ways that we should express that gratitude in song, being one.

And if we realize and express our gratitude, then that's going to impact our outlook and our attitude. Our heart is going to change if we remember and count our blessings and all those sorts of things. And we talked about a number of practical ways that we might do that. But let me add just one more, by way of application this morning.

If we want our heart to get back into tune for what God has done. We might go through and talk about all of the things that God has done for us. Positively, we might count our spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ. That's a wonderful exercise. I've done that several times over the course of this month. But may I suggest the opposite question as well?

Not just what God has done for us, but maybe we should ask ourselves, where would I be without the Lord?

If you look there in 420 again, Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus taught me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. Ebenezer just means stone of help, and it commemorates God's deliverance of His people from the Philistines in 1 Samuel 7.

And Christ is our stone of help. In Him is deliverance and victory. As the next phrase says, Hither by thy help I've come. I am here, in this place, because of the help of God. And without His help, I would not be here. I would not be who I am. It is by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus Christ that we have hope.

I have hope of heaven. Christ, the Good Shepherd, laid down His life for me, for His sheep, even though I had wandered from the fold. And sometimes when you've had a blessing for so long and so abundantly, sometimes we forget how great a blessing it is until, what? It's taken from us. Until we don't have that blessing anymore.

And, and I realize this and it kind of Brought about some of these thoughts over the last week when, um, Some of you live out there in the Hudson area. That's where Stephanie and my family, that's where we live. Uh, there was a water main break out in Hudson. And for, uh, about three days, uh, the water was contaminated.

We were in a, a, a boil notice. And it included, supposedly, you couldn't even wash your hands, you couldn't even wash your face. You think about that, that means, uh, making showering a little difficult. Certainly it makes washing the dishes difficult. Uh, all those sorts of things. And, um, I don't know. I, I've tried to go through that exercise of, you know, praying like a little kid.

We talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Thanking God for everything. And for whatever reason, running water was not on my list. Clean running water was not on my list. But it is now. Clean running water that's hot on demand? That's fantastic, isn't it? Well, amen! I mean, what a blessing! And that kind of corresponded with, uh, I was exposed to this, uh, person who set up this charity to provide clean water to people in all these sorts of different places where they don't.

I started reading this book that he wrote about that, and I was just floored. Something I just take for granted because it's this abundant blessing that I have all the time. Just by doing this with my wrist. And yet so many people don't have it. In three days without it, I was reminded how great a blessing it was.

So, ask yourself, if you took Jesus out of your life, where would you be? You ever thought about that?

Somebody said, I don't want to. I agree. I'm asking you to. For just a, for just a few moments. Being a preacher has advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is I've met brethren all over the country, all over the world, for that matter. And it's funny having this conversation or conversations like it with people, you know, an answer that I've, I've heard a bunch of times.

In fact, there's somebody in my family who says this same thing, but I've heard this from lots of Christians. In fact, a few even in this room, I would be dead. I'd be dead without the Lord. And I'm not talking about, you know, older people with, you know, who've been delivered from some illness. I'm talking about people who say, I would not have lived through my 20s without the Lord.

Because where I was going before the Lord was the path to literal, physical death. And without the Lord, I'd be dead. You hear that, and you say, that's pretty tough to top, isn't it? And for others of us, maybe it's not so extreme. But I do not want us to limit this question to just our physical blessings and advantages that we have in the Lord.

Maybe the life of sin would have taken your physical life if you'd continued down that path without Jesus. But I want us to consider especially the riches that we have in Jesus Christ. Where would I be without the Lord? What if I could not pray? We talked about that in Bible class this morning. We're going to talk about it again in the sermon tonight.

What if I could not pray to the Lord with the assurance that He hears and answers according to His will? What if God didn't listen and God didn't care about my needs? What if we did not have the Bible and we could not read it in order to find God and to find God's will? What if we did not have one another in Jesus Christ?

This group of people, a church of disciples serving and working together. What if we did not have Christ's sacrifice that allows us the path to salvation through His blood? What terrible what ifs those are! Where would I be without the Lord? I know where I am with Him and I am abundantly blessed and I am thankful for that.

But I am just as thankful when I consider where I would be without Him.

in my sin and shame, deserving only of death and eternal punishment, without the hope of reconciliation with God. We are blessed, and that blessing should be expressed in our praise. And that expression of gratitude and praise will permeate our daily lives. If we are grateful and we express that gratitude, it will change our outlook, it will change our attitude towards God.

It will change our actions. Let's read the last verse. Oh, to grace, great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. What a line! I said the first line is my favorite. It still is, but this is a great one, isn't it? Oh, to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. I am painfully aware of my inadequacy, and daily I am constrained.

I am compelled. I must serve God because of what He has done. It is almost a vow of service and commitment to God. I am bound to Him. Yes, as His servant. Yes, as His slave. But also as a son. As a son of God. And a fellow heir with Jesus Christ. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Amen. Never let me wander from thee. Never leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Oh, take and seal it. Seal it. Quartz above. A seal signifies ownership. This belongs to me because it's sealed. It, it, it signifies security. This is sealed and you can't open it. It signifies authority. There, here is the seal of the county, or the king, or the president.

It signifies a formal ratification or agreement. All of those things are in mind there with a sealing. And my heart is sealed to God. He is the one who owns me. He is the one who keeps me secure. It is by His authority I have a right to heaven above, and I am sealed in this covenant with Him, both now and forevermore.

And I will not turn my back on that.

And I am grateful that I have given Him my heart, so that His will may be done. Might be my will and that I might be right in his sight. Here's my heart. Oh Lord O. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. And if my heart is sealed to him in that way, then my heart will be in tune with gratitude for what he has done to express praise to him.

My grateful heart is tuned to him, but most of all, my grateful heart is tuned by him and he makes me into something that I never could have been on my own. It gives me value and hope and peace and love. It is his ownership of my life that can truly tune my heart. Let's come back to the violin one more time.

For many of, uh, the kids here in elementary and junior high, the UIL academic competitions, uh, some have already taken place. Others are coming up. Both of my daughters are in a competition called Oral Reading where they select a poem and then they read that poem before some judges with feeling and emotion.

When I was in elementary school, I was in that same event, Oral Reading, and in 4th grade, 4th or 5th grade, I couldn't remember which, I meant to text my mom and I forgot, but 4th or 5th grade I read a poem called The Touch of the Master's Hand by Myra Brooks Welch. So let me conclude by reading that poem.

With much greater understanding than I had then, but hopefully a little less dramatic than 5th grade Reagan, okay? 'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. 'What am I bidding, good folks? he cried.

'Who'll start the bidding for me? A dollar? A dollar? Then two? Only two? Two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three, but no. From the room, far back, a gray haired man came forward and picked up the bow. Then, wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loosened strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as caroling angels sing.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said, What am I bid for the old violin? And he held it up with the bow. A thousand dollars! And who will make it two? Two thousand! And who will make it three? Three thousand once, three thousand twice, and going and gone, he said. The people cheered, but some of them cried.

We, we do not quite understand. What changed its worth? Swift came the reply, the touch of the master's hand. And many a man, with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin, is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin. A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game, and he travels on.

He is going once, going twice. He's going and almost gone. But the Master comes and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand.

All of us who have put on Jesus Christ have been there in a life battered and scarred by sin. And yet the Master can pick us up, tune our hearts so that we might sing His praise both now and forevermore. And so I ask you, and Jesus calls you, to give God your heart this morning. Give God your will, and your mind, and your spirit.

Give Him all of you. Come in humble submission and obedience, saying, God's will be done, not mine, and whatever He requires, that I will do. And if we can help you with that even this morning, come now, while together we stand and while we sing.