And prayers must be offered with understanding, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 15 [see above].

Jesus said that we should avoid “vain repetition” in our prayers, Matthew 6, verses 7 and 8 [“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”].

So, one of the things that the early church did when they came together was to pray, Acts 2, verse 42 [“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”] and 1 Timothy 2, verse 8 [“I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting…”].

Third, singing is a part of our worship. In this regard, there is only one kind of music that is commanded, or directed, by God to be acceptable worship to Him, and that is vocal. We see Colossians 3, verse 16 [“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”] and Ephesians 5, verse 18 and 19 [“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…”].

This is an area of controversy among much of the religious world. Those who look at the church of Christ from the outside often identify us as being those who are sometimes called “water Christians” because of our insistence on what the Bible teaches regarding baptism for remission of sins. And we’re also characterized, or identified, because we do not use an instrument of music as part of our worship. Here’s another area that would be rich in study, an area that we could spend a lot of time on. I know I don’t have to convince you of this, but we may listen to the arguments, or discussions and comments, of people, and we may not always know how to respond to them. The Scriptures teach us.

One of the most effect ways that I have found is to simply point out what the Bible does have to say about the area of music as part of worship. Point out these Scriptures: Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5 [see Scriptures above] and so on, and look and see what it says. And of course the argument will come back saying, “Well, God didn’t say not to use a mechanical instrument of music.” Well, there are a lot of things that God didn’t say!

The Bible teaches that when God commands anything in any one area, He excludes everything else in that area. What did he tell Noah in the long ago when He instructed him concerning the building of an ark? He told him to build it out of gopher wood. He didn’t eliminate all the other types of wood so that Noah would be sure to understand. When God said, “build the ark out of gopher wood,” that meant “build it out of gopher wood!” No other kind would be acceptable. Noah understood that! [Genesis, chapter 6 — the account of Noah and the ark.]

And, what about the Lord’s Supper? We just spoke about the Lord’s Supper—the emblems, the elements, that are a part of that. We looked at the Scripture that talks about what they are. This attitude, or approach, that some would take—“Well, God didn’t say…” I don’t mean to be “flippant” about the Lord’s Supper, but God didn’t say that we couldn’t use cheese crackers and Gatorade on the Lord’s Table! He didn’t have to! He told us what to use and thereby eliminated everything else!

So when it comes to the music that is acceptable to God in worship, it is the human voice. He didn’t need to eliminate the harp and the lyre or anything else. His instruction was specific!

We might notice, too, that church history reveals to us that it was hundreds of years later that the mechanical instrument of music was first introduced into worship and then under a great deal of protest! Of course, now you wouldn’t see that because of the great use of instruments. In fact, some have full-scale orchestras these days.

Fourth, let’s now look at preaching and teaching God’s Word as a part of our worship.

Jesus gave the great commission, “Go into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” — “teaching them to observe.” [Mark 16:15—“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’” Matthew 28:19-20—“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”]

Well, we see that the apostles did that, and the early disciples did that, like Phillip and others. But we see, too, that this was done by the early church, Acts 2:42 [“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”]; Acts 5:42 [“And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”]; and Acts 20, verse 7 [“Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”]. Paul encouraged Timothy to preach the Word and the purpose or reason, of course, is for the benefit of reaching the lost [2 Timothy 4:2—“Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”].