1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,120 That we play and so it's necessary for us to understand 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,320 how we get to the music that we get to and what the principles 3 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:10,120 are that we use to determine what we will sing and what we 4 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:12,000 won't sing. And, and obviously there's 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,680 there's really not a double standard that you can have one 6 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:18,720 thing in the church and and do one thing completely different 7 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:20,520 at home. These are standards of music 8 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,520 that should be not just in the church, but in your home as 9 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:24,320 well. So all of these things that 10 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:26,320 we're going to talk about over the next couple weeks are things 11 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:28,960 I think that will be a help to us. 12 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,320 Added to that, we're going to add some new things to our 13 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,520 singing in this coming year. I'll talk about that in a, in a 14 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:36,560 little bit. But one of the things that we're 15 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,120 going to try to do is adding, adding some singing of the 16 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,080 Psalms. And not just we do that 17 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:42,480 sometimes. Hey, get your Bible out. 18 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:46,080 Let's sing these verses. But, but, but using a Psalter 19 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,160 like what they used to use in the 1800s and, and into the 20 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:52,480 early 1900s with Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley and some of these 21 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:56,960 men who took the entire Psalms and wrote them into a poem form 22 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:59,360 and then sang them. And they, they match different 23 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:01,040 meters and they match different tunes. 24 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:03,560 And, and some of them, most of them are tunes that we are 25 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:05,440 familiar with. They come from other songs that 26 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:07,640 we sing to make it easy. So you don't have to memorize 27 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,920 the tune and the words, but you memorize the, you sing it to a 28 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,880 familiar tune and then put those words with it that have the same 29 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,240 meter and everything else. And obviously it's very, very 30 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:19,600 doctrinal at that point because you're literally singing the, 31 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:22,440 the, the words right out of the Psalms. 32 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:24,520 And so we're going to be adding some of those kind of things and 33 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:27,200 I'll explain that later. But it's important to understand 34 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:28,920 some of the basic principles of music. 35 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,120 I did a long series on music back in 2022, the series that I 36 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:38,120 did on what I believe and why. And I'm sure where's my brother 37 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:40,560 Josh? I'm sure we have that in a, in a 38 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:44,040 playlist on our church YouTube page. 39 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:45,080 And you can go back and watch it. 40 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,200 I think I did 15 lessons on music. 41 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:49,920 So it's very, very extensive. This is not going to be anything 42 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:52,440 close to that. And, and honestly, this is not 43 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:55,720 even, I'm not even, I'm not even reteaching what I already gave 44 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:58,600 you. This is a completely new mini 45 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:00,080 series, I guess you could call it. 46 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,280 Obviously that many of the principles are going to be 47 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:05,000 similar because the the principles of music are always 48 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,960 the same. But in an effort to be somewhat 49 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:10,759 brief, we're not going to take a look at at all of these things 50 00:02:10,759 --> 00:02:12,880 tonight. But the Bible is filled with 51 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,800 music boy, if you start to go back through and I and that's 52 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,000 what I'm saying I wish we had some time to go back. 53 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,040 We would literally spend one whole service just looking at 54 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:22,960 verses that talk about music in the Bible. 55 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,000 There are hundreds and hundreds of references to music in the 56 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:27,720 Bible. The Old Testament was filled 57 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,440 with music. The the the largest book in the 58 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:34,400 Bible is a hymn book. The book of Psalms is all hymns, 59 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,440 all songs that they sang. And so when the Bible says that 60 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:43,040 Jesus after they a participated in the Last Supper and and they 61 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:47,800 went out after they had sung in him, right, where do you think 62 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,480 he's saying that him from? Wasn't likely. 63 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:52,920 It was straight out of the the hymn book that they had, which 64 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:55,680 was the book of Psalms. And so all the principles in 65 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,160 music that we'll look at tonight come from the hundreds of 66 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,200 references to music. Added to that, singing has 67 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:04,680 always been a part of the church from from the early church, the 68 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:07,480 first church to the early church to all the churches throughout 69 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,680 all the ages, they were singing churches and from all of what we 70 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:14,640 read and what of what everything is going to be like in the 71 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:17,240 future, we will be singing for all of eternity. 72 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,880 So what better thing to focus on and to pay attention to than the 73 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,600 music that we have in our church. 74 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,840 And not just that, but but when it, when it, when a church 75 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,160 starts to go in the wrong direction, one of the first 76 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,680 things to go is almost always the music. 77 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:34,360 The music always starts to slide and then everything else follows 78 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:36,680 closely behind it. That's when you lose your 79 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:38,760 standards in dress. That's when you lose your 80 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:41,560 standards in the word of God. And next thing you know, you're 81 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,120 not, you're still preaching from the King James Bible, but you're 82 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:47,640 using other versions to study from and using other versions, 83 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,760 versions to quote and mention. And the next thing you know, 84 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:52,640 you're not even using the King James Version of the Bible 85 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:55,000 anymore. Many times it starts with music 86 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:56,920 and you think that that's not the case. 87 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:00,920 I'm, I've been, I've been an independent Baptist for my 88 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:05,360 entire life, 42 years now. I didn't know what was going on 89 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:09,000 at 234 years old, but, but about 5 years old when I started 90 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:10,560 knowing what was going on until today. 91 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,000 I've seen many, many, many churches and I've been in 92 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,600 hundreds of churches myself and seeing exactly what I'm talking 93 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:19,959 about tonight. The music goes and everything 94 00:04:19,959 --> 00:04:23,400 else follows right behind it. This is not some, well, this is 95 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:24,840 something that we can do if we want to. 96 00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:26,800 This is something that we can pay attention to if we get the 97 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:27,880 time. This is something that we 98 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:32,080 absolutely must pay attention to and we need to understand music 99 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:36,200 so well that we can test it by the Word of God and test it by 100 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:38,920 those biblical standards. We have to be able to discern 101 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:45,520 things like soft rock and honky tonk and dance rhythms and, and 102 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:51,760 chords that are used in CCM. You can, I can, I can listen to 103 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,800 the 1st 10 seconds of a song and tell you if it's a contemporary 104 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:59,280 Christian music song or not. Because they use a certain type 105 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:01,320 of chord, they have a certain type of sound. 106 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:03,840 And those are things that we have to get to the point where 107 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:06,960 we can understand those, obviously the, the worldly vocal 108 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:09,480 styles. And I'll tell you this, the more 109 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,080 you listen to the world's music, the more your sacred music is 110 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,640 going to sound like the world's music because that's who you're 111 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:17,880 copying, right? And the more you listen to 112 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,840 contemporary Christian music, all of their vocal styles are 113 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:25,840 very similar to what you find in in rock songs or in light rock 114 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:29,280 songs or whatever you want to call it, pop music. 115 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,960 When that's what you're listening to, then even if 116 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:35,680 you're singing a hymn, it's going to sound like a pop song. 117 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:37,960 It's going to sound like a contemporary Christian music 118 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,920 song because that's what you're emulating and that's what you're 119 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:45,240 listening to. So it's not enough to just 120 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,560 publish a list of all the songs that we're not going to sing, 121 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:49,400 right? We don't have a list like that. 122 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:51,680 And there's, there's a reason why, number one, we're never 123 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,760 going to be able to exhaust all the all the songs that we 124 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:56,720 shouldn't sing. And #2 there's always going to 125 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:58,200 be more songs that are being added to it. 126 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,160 So rather than just saying all of these are songs that we don't 127 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:04,480 sing, and these are the songs that are OK, what we do is let's 128 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,480 look at some biblical principles that will help us to distinguish 129 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:10,160 between the songs that we won't sing and the songs that we will 130 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,520 sing, the songs that are not pleasing to the Lord and the 131 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:13,920 songs that are pleasing to the Lord. 132 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,120 And, and, and this is not something that that I'm just 133 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,360 forcing on the church. I'm putting this on myself as 134 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:21,880 well, right? We, we do everything we can to 135 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:24,400 listen to the right type of music in our own home. 136 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:29,800 It's something that obviously, you know, early on in, in our, 137 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,480 in the church, it was something that we didn't pay as close of 138 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,200 attention to, honestly, as we should have paid attention to. 139 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:38,400 And so now we're going back and, you know, we have a thick, thick 140 00:06:38,840 --> 00:06:41,720 notebook full of all the songs that we've sung as a family or 141 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:43,880 that I've sung or that my kids have sung. 142 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,600 And, and we were going through some of those songs last night 143 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:48,400 when we were trying to pick out a song that we were going to 144 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,080 sing for today. Well, maybe it wasn't last 145 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:52,200 night. It was earlier than that, I 146 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,240 guess, but we were looking through all of these songs and 147 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:55,920 trying to figure out what we're going to sing. 148 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:58,760 And it was like, well, that's a song that we used to sing, but 149 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:00,600 wow, I didn't realize where that came from. 150 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:02,280 All right, we're not going to sing that one anymore. 151 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:04,560 All right, I didn't realize where that song came from. 152 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:06,480 That's not, that's not a song that we can sing. 153 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,080 And we've, we've, we've weeded out a lot of songs that we have 154 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,680 sung in the past that as you start to apply these biblical 155 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,640 principles to, you realize very quickly, these are not songs 156 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,080 that are going to move us in the right direction. 157 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:22,000 Maybe they're borderline songs that if you were to sing it, 158 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,080 it's not going to, you know, it's not going to push our 159 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:26,200 church into apostasy. It's not going to push our 160 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,000 church away from the truth of God's word and things like that. 161 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,000 But it's taking us in the wrong direction. 162 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:33,720 And it's building a bridge to something that we don't want to 163 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,520 be a part of, building a bridge to somewhere that we don't want 164 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:38,880 to go. And so that's why it's it's very 165 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,920 important when you bring music for approval there. 166 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,320 These are the basic principles that we want to apply to a song 167 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:48,760 to evaluate it. Sometimes it's not the song 168 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:53,560 itself, but who wrote the song. Sometimes it's, it's not only 169 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:56,520 who wrote it, but who sang that song to make it popular. 170 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,240 Let's be honest, with the Internet age that we live in 171 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:01,960 now, you hear a song that somebody gets up here and sings 172 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:03,800 and you like it and you want to go listen to it again. 173 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:06,640 What are you going to do? You're going to go Google it and 174 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:07,960 you're going to find it on YouTube. 175 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:10,480 And the first one that comes up, the second one, the third one, 176 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,520 the 4th one that comes up. It matters who sings it. 177 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:18,400 Because if, if, if I sang a song that I took and toned down and 178 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:21,400 made it sound OK. And the only thing that you can 179 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,400 hear when you to listen to that song again is somebody rocking 180 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:27,400 out to whatever song that I just sang. 181 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:30,000 That's not helpful for you, right? 182 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:33,000 Which is why when you turn in music, I say, where can I listen 183 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,159 to this song? Tell me, tell me where I can 184 00:08:36,159 --> 00:08:38,440 hear it. And you say, oh, go, go search 185 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,440 it on YouTube and I go listen to it on YouTube. 186 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,880 And the next thing you know, the rocking out together, It's not a 187 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,960 song that's going to be approved because who wrote it is 188 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,840 important, but also who made it popular and who is the popular 189 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:51,840 ones that are singing it today, right. 190 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:55,120 You could take, you could theoretically take a song that's 191 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:58,040 written by something like Hillsong or Elevation or some of 192 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,920 these other really popular contemporary Christian artists 193 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,280 today. And you can, you can tone it 194 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:05,760 down and take out all the, and drums and you can take out all 195 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:09,040 the sliding and all the vocal techniques and all of these 196 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:11,960 things that they use to try to make it sound like a pop song. 197 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:15,920 And you could sing it the right way, but it's building a bridge 198 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:18,400 to something else. Because what's going to happen 199 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,680 is number one, this is what I've always found to, to, to bring a 200 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:23,600 contemporary Christian music song into the church. 201 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,600 You have to be listening to those songs, right? 202 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,440 How did you even find out that it was a song that you could 203 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,120 possibly sing? Somebody's listening to it 204 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:37,000 somewhere, right? Somebody is jamming out to these 205 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,760 CCM artists in their car and they're like, oh, that's a song 206 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:41,840 that I can take and tone down and make it sound good for 207 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:43,280 church. Well, you're fishing in the 208 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:45,600 wrong pond. That's the problem, right? 209 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:49,000 There are thousands and thousands and thousands of hymns 210 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:52,280 that you can sing that that some are not even in print anymore, 211 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:54,080 that you can find in old song books. 212 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,240 I'm telling you, I just found one, believe it or not, at 213 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:01,360 Barnes and Noble of all places. Barnes and Noble, an old reprint 214 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:07,840 of a songbook from 1875. It has 13184 songs in that book. 215 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,560 13184 songs. Well, I can't find any music to 216 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:15,200 sing. Well, I got 13184 of them that 217 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,520 you can pick from if you want. We don't have to fish in the 218 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:21,720 contemporary Christian music pond to find songs that are 219 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:25,680 uplifting and songs that that honor the Lord at the same time. 220 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:30,440 And so the first thing that a lot of people do when they start 221 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:33,200 looking for a song is they're just listening to the radio. 222 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,080 Wrong place to start, wrong place to start. 223 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,480 Start in, start in the church. Go, go, go listen to some songs 224 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:41,320 that you hear from some of the preachers that we have coming 225 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,000 through. Listen to their services, figure 226 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:45,480 out what, what, what music they're doing in their church. 227 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:47,840 And if it's a song that, wow, that's a really nice song. 228 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,800 All right, let's evaluate it and see where did they find that 229 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:54,800 song from Just because it's it's a church that we associate with 230 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:56,120 or have a pastor that comes through. 231 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:58,600 Now, I try to be very careful with who comes through, and we 232 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:00,440 don't have a lot of people that come through because of that 233 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:06,200 very reason, but just because they have come to our church and 234 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,240 preached and they did this song in their church. 235 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:10,480 But maybe their standards is a little bit different than ours. 236 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,320 And listen, if that's what they want to do in their church, they 237 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:15,920 have the freedom and the right to do some of the to have a 238 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:18,120 little bit of that Christian liberty to play the songs and 239 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:19,440 sing the songs that they want to sing. 240 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:22,880 But at the same time, we are going to evaluate it by these 241 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:25,280 principles and we're going to try to hold our music standard 242 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:27,440 as high as we can hold it to make sure that our music is as 243 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,760 pleasing to the Lord as it possibly can be. 244 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,920 So I hope you understand the importance of having these 245 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,600 standards and having these this set of principles, if you will, 246 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:40,280 that we follow for our music. So tonight what I want to do is 247 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:42,480 give you some of these biblical principles of music. 248 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:44,200 I'm only going to give you a few of them tonight. 249 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:46,640 Really, I'm kind of laying the groundwork for some of the 250 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:48,280 things that we'll talk about the next time. 251 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:50,800 Next week will be different, but we'll pick it up the week after 252 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,360 that. But obviously these are not 253 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:55,720 exhaustive by any means. These are not all of the 254 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:58,800 principles, but they'll give you some things that you can use to 255 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:02,640 test the music that you sing, the music that you listen to. 256 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,320 OK, Because I know that not everybody in our church sings. 257 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:07,080 Not everybody in our church is musical. 258 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,600 Not everybody is turning in songs that they're going to sing 259 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,120 for church. But how do you decide what music 260 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:15,960 you should and should not listen to on your own? 261 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:18,160 Well, these are the principles that we want to talk about. 262 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:20,440 Let's pray. Let's, let's ask for God's 263 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:23,240 blessing on the message, and then we'll jump into a few of 264 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:24,680 these tonight. Father, again, we thank you so 265 00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:26,560 much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity 266 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:29,040 that we have to be here. God, may this be a help to us as 267 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:31,280 we study your word. Again, we thank you for all that 268 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:33,200 you do for us in Jesus name, Amen. 269 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:37,520 Now #1 and these are not necessarily in order of 270 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:40,360 importance. Some of these are going to kind 271 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:42,600 of overlap each other. So it might sound like maybe 272 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:44,320 that one should have gone first, this one should have gone 273 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,240 second, whatever. Some of these are going to 274 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,280 overlap a little bit, and so they're not in necessarily any 275 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:50,920 particular order. But here's what we have to 276 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,080 understand. First of all #1 music must be 277 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:56,600 overseen by the pastor. Music must be overseen by the 278 00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:58,080 pastor. You're there in Acts chapter 20. 279 00:12:58,080 --> 00:12:59,280 If you're not, you can turn there. 280 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:01,160 Acts chapter 20. I'm going to look at a few 281 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:05,400 verses here. Acts chapter 20 and verse #28 282 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:09,040 the Bible says, take heed, therefore, unto yourselves. 283 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:14,160 This is this is to the church there, and to all the flock, and 284 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:17,080 to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you 285 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:21,120 overseers to feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with 286 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:24,560 his own blood. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 13. 287 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:30,560 Hebrews chapter 13. He's made us overseers to feed 288 00:13:30,560 --> 00:13:32,480 the Church of God. It's the responsibility of the 289 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,120 pastor to be an overseer. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 290 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:40,320 #17. Obey them that have the rule 291 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:46,000 over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as 292 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:49,840 they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not 293 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:53,040 with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. 294 00:13:53,040 --> 00:14:01,360 One more first Peter chapter 5. First Peter chapter 5, verse #2 295 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:05,840 The Bible says this. Feed the flock of God, which is 296 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:10,200 among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but 297 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:13,280 willingly. Not for filthy Luker, but of a 298 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,120 ready mind. Pastors are called bishops, 299 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,880 which is an overseer. It's a Superintendent, if you 300 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,640 will. And as God stewards, it's the 301 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:25,080 responsibility of a pastor to watch over every aspect of the 302 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:28,880 congregation's life and of the ministry to make sure that 303 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:30,960 things are done according to God's will. 304 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,520 It is my responsibility to make sure that this church is going 305 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:36,400 in a direction that is pleasing to God. 306 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,760 They pastors have to know what's happening in order to protect 307 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,960 the flock from the danger that's out there and from the error 308 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:45,640 that's out there. And so it's my responsibility as 309 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:49,360 a pastor to study the issue of music and to understand these 310 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,960 principles of music and to know what the worldly music sounds 311 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:55,000 like and what the godly music sounds like. 312 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:57,000 And I'm not saying that I'm out here listening to all the 313 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:58,880 world's music. There's so much of it. 314 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,920 If you, if you know what the, what the, what godly music 315 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:04,480 sounds like, then the second you hear something that's not godly, 316 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:06,240 you can tell the difference, right? 317 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:10,400 Maybe you've heard this before, but there are there are people 318 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:15,280 in the government whose job it is to pick out counterfeit bills 319 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,400 and make sure that they don't get put into circulation or re 320 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:21,960 put back into circulation. Many times somebody obviously 321 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:27,120 makes a forgery and it goes into circulation and it's their job 322 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:29,680 to pull that out. Some of those counterfeits are 323 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:31,240 very, very close to the original. 324 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:33,880 But you think about how many people are out there making 325 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:38,200 counterfeit bills all the time. I mean, tons and tons and tons 326 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:40,040 and tons of people. Do you know how hard it would be 327 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,040 for them to find every single counterfeit bill and know where 328 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,400 every little mark on the counterfeit bill is to be able 329 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:50,120 to tell that it's that it's a counterfeit? 330 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,200 Oh, you know what they do? They study the real bill to the 331 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,920 point where they know every single thing about it. 332 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:01,920 So that the second they see a counterfeit bill, it sticks out 333 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:03,880 like a sore thumb to them because they're like, that's not 334 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,040 right, that's not right, that's not right, that's not right. 335 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,240 And they can tell not because they've memorized all of the 336 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,880 wrong bills, but they know so well the right one. 337 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:17,840 And that's exactly what it what it is when it comes to music. 338 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,840 We should know the principles of godly music so well that the 339 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:24,120 second we hear something that's not godly, it should really 340 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:26,720 stick out to us and we'll know this is not a kind of music that 341 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:28,720 I should listen to. This is not the kind of music 342 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:32,280 that we'll do in the in church because that's not it's, it's, 343 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:35,280 it's a counterfeit. So it's my responsibility to be 344 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:38,800 educated about sacred music and to know how to discern the 345 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:42,240 various popular sounds of music, the soft rock and all of those 346 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:43,840 things. And that something that I have 347 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,600 to be constantly learning. But honestly, it's something 348 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:48,400 that you need to be learning as well. 349 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:51,000 My job to teach you, but it's your job to learn. 350 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,680 And I'm so blessed that I took music lessons when I was growing 351 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:56,440 up and I've been playing music and singing my entire life. 352 00:16:56,440 --> 00:17:00,520 And, and so, you know, again, it's, it helps that I grew up in 353 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:02,640 a place that had good, strong music standards. 354 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,680 And so it's very easy for me to discern between the good and the 355 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,960 bad, But I'm human too. And, and, and the music of the 356 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:14,400 world will appeal to our flesh often and we like the sound of 357 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:16,520 it. So just because I'm the pastor 358 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:18,839 and just because I know what godly music should sound like 359 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:21,280 doesn't mean that I'm never tempted by those things either. 360 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:26,960 Listen, it's, it's, it's, it's easy to allow the wrong type of 361 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,360 music in, right? It's very easy because somebody 362 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:31,960 comes in, they want to sing this song. 363 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:34,080 All right, go ahead and sing it. And they're all over the place. 364 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:36,360 And it sounds like, you know, something that they just pulled 365 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:39,320 off of the, you know, top 100 charts or whatever it happens to 366 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,000 be. And well, I just won't say 367 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,120 anything about it. That's the easy way. 368 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:47,280 The hard way is to say, no, no, no, I'm sorry, but that's not 369 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:48,600 the kind of music that we do here. 370 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,640 That's not music that fits in with these biblical principles. 371 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,240 That's hard. It's I don't, I don't want to 372 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:56,560 tell people no. I don't want to say no. 373 00:17:56,560 --> 00:18:00,120 You can't do that because many times people come with a song 374 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:01,640 and they're like, oh, this is a really good one. 375 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:02,720 You're really going to like this. 376 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:05,080 And I look at it, I'm like, well, the words look all right, 377 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:08,480 let's go see about it. And only thing that I can find 378 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:12,560 is somebody that's singing out with, you know, purple lights 379 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,480 and dancing around on the stage and all of these other things. 380 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,160 And it's a bridge to the wrong place. 381 00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:22,400 And so I have to say no. And I don't like doing that. 382 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:24,680 But if you want to truly understand how to discern the 383 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:28,720 right type of music, then maybe take a sacred music class. 384 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:31,240 There's nothing wrong with that. Find a good book. 385 00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,160 I've got several good books on music that you could that you 386 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,280 could read if you really want to understand the idea of sacred 387 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,280 music. But it's the pastor's job to 388 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:42,160 appoint the right people to be in charge of the church's music. 389 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,480 And it's my, it's my job to approve all of the special music 390 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:48,600 because if, if somebody gets up and sings a song that's not 391 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,440 pleasing to the Lord, I failed, right? 392 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:54,080 And it may not be me. It may be somebody that I asked 393 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:56,800 to fill in that place and kind of be the gatekeeper. 394 00:18:56,800 --> 00:18:59,840 But nobody's looking at the gatekeeper and saying, Oh, the 395 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:02,080 gatekeeper missed that one. They're looking at the pastor 396 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:04,760 and they're saying, how did you allow that in the church, Right? 397 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:06,600 It's my responsibility. That's what I'm saying. 398 00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:08,200 I'm the one that's going to answer to God for it. 399 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:10,720 It's my responsibility. And I do have people in place, 400 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:13,920 particularly my wife, because she's well aware of our 401 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,320 principles of music and she knows what I'm looking for. 402 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,600 But many times she'll come to me and she'll say, what do you 403 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,360 think about this song? Here's here's what I found out 404 00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:22,440 about it. Here's the author. 405 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,600 Here's the, you know, here's the, this is what it sounds 406 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:26,680 like. What do you think? 407 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,280 And I have to make a decision. And sometimes it's, well, I 408 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,000 think that'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with that. 409 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,640 Or sometimes it's like, I think that's I think that's going to 410 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:36,640 take us in the wrong direction. We can't, we can't do that song. 411 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,760 And if I'm the gatekeeper than the wrong music is if I'm not 412 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,760 the gatekeeper, than that wrong music is going to slip in and 413 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:44,120 it, and it's going to become Levin. 414 00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:48,160 Levin that's going to increase and all of these principles that 415 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,480 we're going to talk about, they can all be true and, and and we 416 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:55,040 can have them and they can be something that we say we hold in 417 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:56,720 place. And we can say that these are 418 00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:59,640 principles that that we hold for our church. 419 00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:02,560 And this is the principles that we filter all of our music 420 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:04,720 through. But if a pastor doesn't take the 421 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:08,160 responsibility of training and inspecting and teaching and 422 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,040 expecting and overseeing and, and you know, then all of these 423 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:13,880 principles. They're not going to be taught, 424 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:15,120 they're not going to be enforced. 425 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,120 And who cares if you have them in place if the music that we're 426 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:21,040 singing is violating the very principles that we say that we 427 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:23,280 have. And I'm going to stand before 428 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:25,440 God someday and answer to him for what happened in this 429 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,320 church. And it's a, it's a great 430 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:31,880 responsibility on my shoulders. I'm going to answer to God for 431 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:33,480 what happened. I'm going to answer to God for 432 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,200 the direction of this church. And if I allow the music to come 433 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:40,000 in and move us away from where we should be, then I'm the one 434 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:44,160 that's going to answer for that. So of course, I'm going to do 435 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:46,680 everything that I can to make sure that our music is straight. 436 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:50,240 And I'm sorry if it offends you that I said no, you couldn't 437 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,160 sing that song. But I'm the one that's going to 438 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,240 answer to God for the church, not you. 439 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:58,280 Now, maybe God will judge you. I don't know if God's going to 440 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:01,080 judge you for introducing the wrong kind of music when you 441 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:04,000 knew that that it was wrong, or maybe you didn't know it was 442 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,400 wrong. But that's why it's my 443 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,880 responsibility. And that's why this first point 444 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,720 is that music must be overseen by the pastor. 445 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:15,040 Your responsibility as somebody who sings music in this church 446 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,040 is simply to follow the guidelines that we've laid out 447 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,800 to make sure that everything that's done in our church in the 448 00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,720 area of music is pleasing to the Lord. 449 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,400 So it is my responsibility to oversee the music. 450 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:29,680 The pastor has the responsibility to oversee the 451 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:31,800 music in the church. But here's the second principle 452 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:38,600 #2 church music must be sung and played by spirit filled Saints 453 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:40,200 who are in dwelt with God's Word. 454 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:42,400 Let's turn over to First Peter chapter 2. 455 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,800 See, when you're dealing with the music issue, God always 456 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:53,240 begins with the spiritual condition of the church and with 457 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:57,200 the individual singers and those who are playing instruments and 458 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,600 everything else. It's your responsibility as 459 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,680 somebody who is singing music and doing music in the church to 460 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:07,200 make sure that you are filled with the Spirit of God while 461 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,560 you're singing and doing that music and doing that doing the 462 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,400 playing first first Peter chapter 2 verse 5. 463 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:18,960 Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and 464 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:23,480 holy priesthood to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable 465 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:29,600 to God by Jesus Christ sound congregational singing and 466 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:32,400 that's why this is not just for the people who are singing 467 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,880 specials. It's the entire congregation. 468 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,960 All of us are participate in congregational singing. 469 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:43,080 Sound congregational singing requires a spiritual house made 470 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,920 of living stones. That's what the Bible says. 471 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,720 And that's referring to born again people who are actively 472 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:53,240 functioning as holy priests in that priesthood role. 473 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:55,720 Turn over to Ephesians chapter 5. 474 00:22:55,880 --> 00:23:01,160 We find the definition of spirit filling in the context of 475 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:05,400 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse #18 Ephesians chapter 5 and 476 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:10,400 verse #18 and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be 477 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:14,520 filled with the Spirit. What that means is, and that's 478 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:16,760 why we say let's go back a couple verses and look in the 479 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:18,760 context. It means not controlled by 480 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,840 anything other than the Spirit of God, verse 11 or sorry, verse 481 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,880 18. Not drunk with wine, not the 482 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,280 works of darkness as we read about in verse #11 spirit filled 483 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:34,640 means not spiritually asleep, not carnal, not lukewarm, right? 484 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:38,640 Verse 14 Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepeth, and 485 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:42,240 arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 486 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:46,600 Listen, it's, it's, it's not for the carnal Christian to get up 487 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,640 and sing in front of the congregation. 488 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,200 You ought to be spirit filled when you get up to sing in front 489 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,640 of the congregation. And, and it's your 490 00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,400 responsibility to make sure that you are filled with the Holy 491 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:01,120 Spirit. Now, most people are not going 492 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:04,000 to know, right? Most people are not going to 493 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,360 know when you stand up in front of the congregation to sing what 494 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:09,080 you have going on in your life. They're not going to know what 495 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,320 you have hidden in your heart. They're not going to know 496 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:12,800 necessarily. If you are filled with the 497 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:16,880 spirit now, it will become obvious at some point, but it's 498 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:19,760 your responsibility to be spirit filled when you get up to sing. 499 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,160 What is it that that makes somebody get up and sing and and 500 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,560 emulate the world in the way that they sing? 501 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,800 Even if the words are fine, you can sing a hymn in the wrong 502 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,560 way, right? What is it that makes you want 503 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,760 to emulate the pop stars and all of that stuff, right? 504 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:41,000 I mean, CCM is, is nothing but pop music with Christian words, 505 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,360 right? And when you're listening to all 506 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,240 of those things, you get up and sing like that. 507 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:48,600 A lot of it has to do with the fact that you're not filled with 508 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,200 the Spirit. Now these these CCM artists all 509 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:53,760 want to talk about how they're filled with the God, you know, 510 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,480 they're filled with the Spirit and God's just working through 511 00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:58,240 them and all of these other things. 512 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,040 The second they get the opportunity to crossover and go 513 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,800 into pop, they do it. It's not the spirit filling them 514 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,720 that's giving them the the ability to sing these songs and 515 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:09,400 do this music and all of that stuff. 516 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,080 It doesn't have anything to do with that in most cases. 517 00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:14,760 I'm sure there's probably exceptions, but you look at the 518 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,400 lives of most of these people who are singing the CCM songs, 519 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,960 they live wicked lifestyle. They're no different than then 520 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:26,120 people on tour who are, you know, doing drugs and all of 521 00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:28,200 these other kind of things. And, and, and you think that's 522 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:29,640 far out. It's not far out. 523 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,280 They do that. That's, that's the lifestyle of 524 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,160 many of these people who are in the contemporary Christian music 525 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,400 bands today. Their lifestyle is wicked, 526 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:40,080 wicked. And then they're going to get up 527 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:43,680 and, and, and try to give you this emotional experience where 528 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:47,000 you are meeting with God. And then they go back to their 529 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,680 camper and smoke their drugs again. 530 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:51,400 That's, that's, that doesn't have anything to do with being 531 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,960 Spirit filled. And that's why it's so important 532 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,560 then that we as musicians or people who are singing in the 533 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,160 congregation, or people who are playing instruments or whatever 534 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,080 it is, are filled with the Spirit. 535 00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:04,960 Because being filled with the Spirit means not careless and 536 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,120 not foolish, but rather walking in God's will. 537 00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:11,400 Look what He says in verse #15 See then that you walk 538 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:16,360 circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, 539 00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:19,600 because the days are evil. Wherefore be you not unwise, but 540 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:21,720 understanding what the will of the Lord is. 541 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,880 And that's when He moves in to verse #18 And be not drunk with 542 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,520 wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. 543 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,920 And why? Speaking to yourselves in psalms 544 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:35,160 and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in 545 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,920 your heart to the Lord. We get another look into that 546 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,600 idea in Colossians chapter 3. Turn over there with me, if you 547 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,480 will. We're talking about this idea 548 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:48,880 that church music must be sung and played by people who are 549 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,680 filled with God's Spirit, who are indwelt with the Word of 550 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,040 God. And that's what Colossians 551 00:26:55,040 --> 00:27:00,560 chapter 3 is talking about. Verse #16 Let the word of Christ 552 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:05,920 dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing 553 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,520 another. Here again in psalms and hymns 554 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:14,040 and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the 555 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:17,600 Lord. To let the word of Christ dwell 556 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,440 in you richly is another description of the foundation of 557 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:25,440 a spiritual song service. How you think about the the word 558 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:29,960 of Christ is to dwell in you. That word you is plural. 559 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,760 It's to dwell in the entire church body, not just in a few 560 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,160 people. Every member is to be filled 561 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:39,400 with the Spirit and being filled with the Word of God. 562 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,160 That happens when every member is born again. 563 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:46,680 That's why it's so important, again, as the pastor, for me to 564 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:49,280 be the gatekeeper and making sure that we are not letting 565 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:51,880 people into membership who are not saved. 566 00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:55,480 There ought to be a regenerate church membership. 567 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:57,960 And when you have a church full of people who are not even 568 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,720 saved, you're going to go in the wrong direction. 569 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,200 You're not filled with the Spirit if you're getting up and 570 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:04,840 singing and you're not even saved. 571 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:07,560 You're not filled with the Spirit if you're playing an 572 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,520 instrument and you're not even saved, right? 573 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,720 You can't be filled with the Spirit if you don't know Christ 574 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,920 as your Savior. So it's important that you 575 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,600 understand that to be filled with the Spirit, you have to be 576 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:20,800 a Christian to make that happen. And it's, it's not only left to 577 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,320 the musicians that are in front of the crowd, It's for all of 578 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:24,720 us. All of us should be filled with 579 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,760 the Spirit as we sing. That word of God is to dwell 580 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:30,120 richly. It's to fill our minds and our 581 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:32,760 hearts. The church must be immersed in 582 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:34,840 the Scripture. That's why I put such an 583 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,080 emphasis on making sure that we are memorizing God's Word. 584 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:42,120 How else are you going to be filled with the Scripture unless 585 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,920 you are reading it and studying it and memorizing it? 586 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,160 Those are all things that we should be doing collectively so 587 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,240 that when we sing hymns together, we are spirit filled 588 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,040 and it's actually reaching the ears of God. 589 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,040 Every believer is to let the word of God dwell. 590 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,720 It's a choice. Let the word of God, let the 591 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,840 word of Christ dwell in you richly. 592 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,000 We have a choice. We have a choice on whether or 593 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,080 not we're going to do that. I can fill my life with 594 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:10,720 Scripture. I can read it. 595 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:12,800 I can learn how to study it and understand it. 596 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,920 I can delight in it. I can meditate on it day and 597 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,360 night. I can test everything by the 598 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,560 word of God. I can exercise my my spiritual 599 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,480 senses as we read about in Hebrews chapter 5, but the word 600 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:27,880 of Christ is to dwell in all believers. 601 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,600 The Bible says in all wisdom, the word of God must produce 602 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:35,440 spiritual wisdom in the lives of God's people. 603 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:37,720 It's not an intellectual exercise. 604 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:41,920 It's not a matter of just just reading and and and learning and 605 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,240 memorizing. The word of God must get down 606 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,160 into every part of our lives and then our lives must be conformed 607 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,240 to the will of God to sing, he says with grace in your hearts 608 00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:53,920 to the Lord. That's a description of born 609 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:58,320 again people who are engaged with the Lord from the heart. 610 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,360 They're abiding in Christ. They're communing with Christ, 611 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,960 they're walking with him, they're walking in the light 612 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:05,120 with him. They're the people who are 613 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,520 making changes in their lives when those things are exposed by 614 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:10,040 the preaching of the word of God. 615 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,720 Listen there there's we, we, we, we have a lot of new Christians 616 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,680 in our church, a lot of, a lot of people who have never really 617 00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:21,720 been discipled in their lives. Lots of, lots of you are in that 618 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,200 category. And you're, you hear a lot of 619 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,200 things from God's word that you've never been taught before. 620 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,920 It is important that you respond to those messages and that you 621 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:32,880 respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 622 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:35,560 That's how you're going to be draw closer to him. 623 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,120 That's how you're going to walk in the Spirit. 624 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:39,480 That's how that's how the Spirit fills you. 625 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:41,960 You go with the light that you have right? 626 00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:44,480 You might, you might have claimed ignorance before because 627 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,400 I didn't know. I've never heard that before. 628 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,000 But once you've heard it once, you've seen it from the Word of 629 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,360 God, and we don't, I don't get up here and preach a message 630 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:57,040 unless it's bathed in Scripture. You know that my messages have 631 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:00,120 just verse after verse after verse because it's not my ideas, 632 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,560 it's God's ideas. And when I show you these things 633 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,600 from the Word of God, your responsibility is to do what the 634 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:08,680 Word of God says. Not well. 635 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,680 One day I'll make that decision. One day I'll start doing that. 636 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,840 One day I'll stop doing that. Whatever it happens to be, when 637 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,360 you find out what God's Word says, you have the 638 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,360 responsibility to do what God's Word says. 639 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,960 If you want to be spirit filled, you don't have the choice to 640 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:25,640 decide. I'll do that later. 641 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,280 You need to do it now because He's showing you these things 642 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:33,600 now and it, and sometimes I know that it that it's a difficult 643 00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,760 decision because, well, I've never done that before or I've 644 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:40,280 always done this fill in the blank, whatever it happens to 645 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:41,880 be. God speaks to our hearts about 646 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,200 lots of different things. But if you want to be spirit 647 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:50,040 filled, then you have to do what God says when you find out what 648 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,880 God is saying. And it's the responsibility of 649 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:54,800 all of us to do that. It's important to make those 650 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:56,920 changes. Once we're given those changes 651 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,640 from the word of God. There are people who are saved 652 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,080 by grace or walking in grace. Those are the type of people 653 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,560 that sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 654 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,440 No other kind of people can sing in that way. 655 00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:10,560 I'll be honest with you. That's why you know, people come 656 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,080 in from the outside and they say, wow, something, something 657 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,560 about the service was just different than anything I've 658 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:17,560 ever experienced before. You know why? 659 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:21,560 Because the Holy Spirit is here. It's hollow when it's empty, 660 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:24,280 when you're going to these massive mega churches and all 661 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,320 they're doing is just putting on a performance and the people are 662 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:30,000 up there, you know, making money and they don't care. 663 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:32,720 They wouldn't be doing it if they weren't getting paid for 664 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,040 it. They're just doing it because 665 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,640 they're performing, because somebody's giving them money to 666 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,160 do it. It doesn't have anything to do 667 00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:42,480 with, I want to draw these people closer to Christ. 668 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:44,080 I want to make sure I'm filled with the holy. 669 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,120 You can't tell the difference between most of those people and 670 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:48,760 any other rock band in the world. 671 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,720 They're in fact, they're doing everything they can to look 672 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:54,320 exactly like the rock bands in the world because they think 673 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:59,680 they're cool. And then they come in here and 674 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:01,600 there's a whole church full of people that are filled with the 675 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:06,280 Spirit singing hymns that are doctrinal and that are based 676 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,400 directly on the Word of God. And all of our hearts are knit 677 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,280 together because it's the same Holy Spirit inside all of us. 678 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:17,200 And they come in and they say, wow, something's different about 679 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:19,040 that place. I'll tell you what it is. 680 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,680 The Holy Spirit is here. And that's why it's important 681 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,840 that we all are filled with the Holy Spirit when we sing, 682 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:28,080 whether you're up here in front of everybody or whether you're 683 00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,640 out there and trying to blend in so nobody can hear you sing 684 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:33,680 because you don't want anybody to hear you sing. 685 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:36,960 It's all it's, it's the responsibility of all of us to 686 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:38,800 make sure that we are filled with the Spirit. 687 00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,520 How can you expect the song service and the special music to 688 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,240 be spirit filled if the ones who are playing and singing the 689 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,360 music are not? You can't. 690 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,360 You can't and it's not going to be pleasing to the Lord. 691 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,520 We have to desire to be godly in character since we are 692 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:58,160 ministering godly music. Our example sings the loudest. 693 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:02,000 And that's why we have you know, we, we have our our our workers 694 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,280 training once a year. And that's why we have a manual 695 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:07,920 for what we expect you to do and how we expect you to act and how 696 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:09,920 we expect you to look when you are up here. 697 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:15,679 You are an example. You are leading the music when 698 00:34:15,679 --> 00:34:18,360 you're up here singing, you are leading the music and you are 699 00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:22,600 leading all the other spirit filled people in praise of the 700 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,800 Lord. You are an example to your 701 00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:28,719 children. You are an example to all the 702 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:30,080 rest of the children that are in here. 703 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,120 You are an example to the adults and to the to the visitors that 704 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:34,719 come in. You are an example of all of 705 00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:38,120 those things. Worldliness cannot be sanitized. 706 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,120 God doesn't just accept whatever people offer. 707 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:44,800 Do you personally listen to bad music? 708 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,840 It's going to affect you. You listen to the music of the 709 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,440 world. It's just country music. 710 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,760 It ain't going to hurt anything. Yes, they're singing about a 711 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,480 tear in their beer and the one night stand that they had and 712 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,360 this person that they left and that person that they picked up, 713 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:03,720 and it's going to affect you. Music is not immoral. 714 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,840 Music is very moral one way or the other. 715 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,480 How can we pray for God's blessing and at the same time 716 00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:15,920 shake hands with the world? You can't have God's blessing 717 00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:19,320 and do that at the same time you're attracted to or addicted 718 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,600 to worldliness in music. Those are the things that we 719 00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:23,840 have to consider if we're going to be spirit filled. 720 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:26,280 So it's very important, and that's why I'm saying these are 721 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,640 foundational things. Church music must be sung and 722 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:34,080 must be played by spirit filled Saints who are indwelt with 723 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,280 God's Word. Turn back over to Colossians 724 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:37,680 chapter 3. I'm going to give you a third 725 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:42,520 principle, and this one is very, very important #3 the music must 726 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:47,880 be sound in doctrine. The music must be sound in 727 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:51,840 doctrine. Colossians chapter 3, verse 16 728 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:53,720 that we already read makes that very clear. 729 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:58,920 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, 730 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,320 teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and 731 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,400 spiritual songs. How do you teach and admonish 732 00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:08,920 and have the word of Christ dwell in you richly and have a 733 00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:10,960 song that is not sound in doctrine? 734 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:14,720 Right, Which is why it's important that you know what 735 00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:20,160 doctrine is, that you know what the Bible says, that you study 736 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:25,080 the Word of God to show yourself approved unto God, right? 737 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:28,120 You need to know what the Bible says so that you can read a song 738 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:31,920 and read the music to a song or listen to a song being sung and 739 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,320 know if it's doctrinal or not. And there's a lot of songs that 740 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,880 are not doctrinal, especially when you move over into the CCM 741 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:41,400 side of things. But the words of the songs must 742 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:45,040 be theologically sound according to the teaching of the Bible. 743 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:48,600 A great deal of the contemporary Christian music is unacceptable 744 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:53,360 because it represents charismatic doctrine or or 745 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,120 presents this vague message and it and it lacks that doctrinal 746 00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:59,680 clarity. You know, it's it's called many 747 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:03,360 times Jim be music. Jesus is my boyfriend, right? 748 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,680 You singing this song and you can't tell if you're singing 749 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:07,840 about your boyfriend or if you're singing about Jesus, 750 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:11,040 right, because it's so vague. The music is so vague and the 751 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:14,000 message of that song is so vague, you can't even tell who 752 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:19,360 you're talking about, right? But one of the most, I shouldn't 753 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:21,760 say popular because I don't even really know what's popular, but 754 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:25,440 I remember when this happened. There's a song called You Light 755 00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,600 Up My Life, and I forget. I, you know, I couldn't really 756 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:30,920 tell you anything else about it. You light up my life, blah, 757 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:32,440 blah, blah. It was popular in the 90s, 758 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:34,760 probably. Next thing you know, they're 759 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:40,080 singing the song in church about Jesus, You Light Up My life. 760 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,480 It was never written to be a song about Jesus. 761 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:44,440 It was written to be a song about a boyfriend. 762 00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,480 But somebody was like, oh, that could apply to Jesus, and they 763 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,960 started singing it. That's not doctrinally sound 764 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,840 music. Oh, it might sound nice. 765 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:58,960 Oh, you light up my life. It #1 it's so, so, so shallow, 766 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,920 which is what a lot of the songs that are being written today are 767 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:03,920 so shallow. There's nothing to it. 768 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,640 If you actually start dissecting, it doesn't even say 769 00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:09,360 anything, right? You light up my life. 770 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:14,040 What does that even mean, right? Not to mention the fact that it 771 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,680 was never written to be about Jesus anyway. 772 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:18,760 It was written to be about something totally different. 773 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,880 But just because it has a pleasant tune and people like it 774 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:23,280 does not mean that it's acceptable. 775 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,520 And, and honestly, just because it's in a song book that is good 776 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,240 does not mean it's acceptable. There are some songs that have 777 00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:33,440 been put in song books that that are not acceptable songs, right? 778 00:38:34,240 --> 00:38:35,440 I'll talk some more about that later. 779 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:37,960 But we want more than just theological soundness. 780 00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:44,880 We want theological depth at the same time we want the richness 781 00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:47,200 of truth. That's going to edify deeply and 782 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:51,240 it's going to edify broadly. So we don't want only a diet of 783 00:38:51,240 --> 00:38:53,800 what we would call revivalist songs. 784 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,680 Nothing wrong with them, but they were written for mixed 785 00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:00,840 multitude evangelistic outreach services songs, many of them 786 00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,120 written by like Ira Sankey for DL Moody's Evangelistic Crusades 787 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,200 and things like that. Nothing undoctrinal about them, 788 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:11,920 but when all of your music is all of these evangelistic type 789 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:15,560 songs, it's theologically sound, but there's no theological depth 790 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,680 to them and there's a difference. 791 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,680 Brother Cloud wrote this. Sankey's songs were simple and 792 00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,280 direct, appealing to the heart and leading to a decision. 793 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,000 Examples are tell me the old, old story. 794 00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:29,480 There'll be no dark valley. Throw out the lifeline. 795 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:31,840 Wonderful words of life. I need the every hour, the 796 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,000 cleansing fountain. Faith is the victory. 797 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:38,080 Trusting Jesus, he says the sword of the Lord's soul. 798 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:41,520 String songs and hymns is the Sankey revivalist tradition. 799 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,400 They're all good hymns and they have their place, but there was 800 00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:48,520 also a need for hymns of greater spiritual and doctrinal depth to 801 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:52,320 challenge the people and better educate them and to build them 802 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:55,040 up to a higher level. And that's where I say there's 803 00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,400 there's a difference between theologically sound and 804 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:01,400 theologically deep. Theologically deep songs bring 805 00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:02,920 us closer to Christ. Right. 806 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:04,720 Nothing wrong with telling me the old, old story. 807 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:06,640 It's it's yeah. Tell me that story again. 808 00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:08,640 That's what I got saved on. Right. 809 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:12,280 Throw out the lifeline. It's great. 810 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,720 It's a great reminder to be a witness for Christ, but it's 811 00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:16,520 not. It's not drawing us deeper into 812 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:21,640 our relationship with Christ. But you take a song like, oh, 813 00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:25,920 the bitter pain and sorrow that a time could ever be, when I 814 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:29,440 proudly said to Jesus, all of self and none of thee. 815 00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:34,200 And the song goes on and it's a little of self and a little of 816 00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:38,040 thee, and then it's less of self and more of thee, and then it's 817 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:42,480 all none of self and all of thee. 4 verses in that song. 818 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:44,680 Look it up. Oh, the bitter pain and sorrow. 819 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,440 But it's a great song. It's theologically deep. 820 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:51,960 It moves us to say, wow, I need to have that deeper relationship 821 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,200 with Christ. It's not about me, it's about 822 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:55,960 him. And I need less of me and more 823 00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,600 of him. Those are the songs that drive 824 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:00,560 at the heart of where we are as Christians. 825 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:02,240 Right? Throw out the lifeline. 826 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:04,760 Yeah, I'm already saved. Right? 827 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:06,560 Tell me the old, old story. It's great. 828 00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:08,920 There's nothing wrong with them. They're doctrinally sound. 829 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:12,560 But we need some songs that are doctrinally deep to help drive 830 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:14,520 us deeper in our relationship with Christ. 831 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:18,000 So the point is that the church's music people have to be 832 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:22,000 very careful to choose songs with good theological content, 833 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,760 spiritual depth, rather than just those that are shallow or, 834 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,720 or many times just sentimental. We need more spiritual meat. 835 00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:32,480 One of the things that we're going to be doing in the new 836 00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:36,200 year is singing these Psalms. They're very deep theologically 837 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,120 because they're, they come directly from the Psalms. 838 00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,160 And, and, and I think it's going to be something that'll help us, 839 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,200 but it comes from the, you know, the Psal trees that Isaac Watts 840 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,040 wrote and Charles Wesley and some of these others. 841 00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:49,920 Those are the 2 popular ones. I say popular, the two that are 842 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:53,160 the most that, that did the most with it. 843 00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:55,720 I think Charles Spurgeon did some with it as well. 844 00:41:55,720 --> 00:41:58,840 Just just getting to these songs that are theologically deep 845 00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:00,960 because they come directly from God's Word. 846 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:05,400 And many of the songs that that that speak to us the most or 847 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,280 that mean the most to us or help us the most in our relationship, 848 00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:11,400 there's phrases in there that come directly from God's Word. 849 00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:13,640 And many times we don't even know it until one day we're 850 00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,880 reading and we're like, oh, that's where that song came 851 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:16,960 from. All right. 852 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:20,080 And that's, that's what makes it theologically sound and 853 00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:23,720 theologically deep. The point here is that every 854 00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:26,840 song must line up with the Word of God if we're going to sing 855 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:28,920 it. Let me give you a fourth 856 00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:31,920 principle and turn over to Ephesians chapter 5. 857 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:34,240 We already looked at this one, but I want to look at it from 858 00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:40,000 this angle, if you will. The music must emphasize melody. 859 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:43,400 And this is where we get into a little bit more of the meat of 860 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:46,560 what music is. And those who sing and those who 861 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,560 play music will understand a little bit more of these kind of 862 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:51,960 things. But the melody is, is the 863 00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:55,920 simplest part of the music. It's the basic tune, Ephesians 864 00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:59,680 chapter 5 and verse #19 says speaking to yourselves, speaking 865 00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:02,520 to yourselves and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 866 00:43:02,720 --> 00:43:06,600 singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. 867 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,200 That's the part of the music that can be sung and hummed and 868 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:10,880 whistled. You know, those are, that's what 869 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:12,920 you're, that's what you're whistling during the week or 870 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:15,280 singing during the week. No one ever cared for me like 871 00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:18,880 Jesus, right? All the songs that that, that 872 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:20,600 just get in your head and stick there. 873 00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:24,360 I wish I had given him more. Those are the songs that are 874 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:27,520 theologically deep, that drive our relationship with Christ. 875 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,840 By and by, when I look on his face, I wish I had given him 876 00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,240 more. That's going to make you make 877 00:43:32,240 --> 00:43:35,280 decisions today that will help change your life, right? 878 00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:36,600 Those. But that's the melody. 879 00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,920 And a good melody reinforces the words and helps God's people 880 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,280 remember the words and edify themselves with those words all 881 00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:48,360 throughout the day. By emphasizing the melody, God's 882 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:51,320 Word is teaching us to keep the music simple so that it doesn't 883 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:53,680 distract from the message of the words. 884 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:57,480 There should be a good singable melody and the rest of the music 885 00:43:57,480 --> 00:43:59,720 should not overwhelm that melody. 886 00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:02,640 And, and, and honestly, the music should never be so 887 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:07,280 complicated or harmonic or loud that it draw drowns out that 888 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,600 simple melody. I remember this and this was 889 00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,640 actually a church in this area. Been 10 years ago, probably now, 890 00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:17,520 maybe close to it, but they invited us to come over for a 891 00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:20,640 service that they were doing on it was a different church night, 892 00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:22,480 so different than a church night. 893 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:24,160 And so I said, all right, you know what, let's go over there. 894 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:26,840 They invited us, Let's go see. And so we went to, we went to 895 00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:30,760 the service and I mean, for the most part, the, the songs were 896 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:33,280 fine and everything else. And they sang out of the hymn 897 00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:37,120 book. The choir got up to sing and 898 00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,440 they, they used a soundtrack for the choir. 899 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:44,360 And I get it sometimes, you know, the, the a church doesn't 900 00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:48,400 have the ability to accompany. And so they'll use something 901 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:52,440 like that. The music on the soundtrack was 902 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,120 so loud that you couldn't even hear the choir singing. 903 00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:00,760 And about halfway through, the drums came in so loud. 904 00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:03,800 Alex was probably 4 years old and he probably doesn't even 905 00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:05,520 remember this. He was sitting there like this. 906 00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:10,080 And I was like, all right, last time we're ever coming to a 907 00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:12,200 service here. But that's what happens. 908 00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:15,800 You can't concentrate on the words of a song when the music 909 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:19,840 is so loud that that's all you can think about is men. 910 00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:21,320 They need to turn this music down. 911 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:22,960 It's so loud. I can't hear anything right. 912 00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:26,600 But honestly, that's, that's what most of CCM is, right? 913 00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,360 And, and, and, and it's, it's meant to take you on this 914 00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:34,600 emotional journey, right? Every single contemporary 915 00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:37,280 Christian song sounds exactly the same. 916 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:42,320 Starts off nice and quiet and then it grows and then it builds 917 00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:44,400 and then it builds and then it builds and then it goes back 918 00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:48,240 down to quiet, and then it grows and grows and grows and builds. 919 00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:51,000 And then that, you know, the, the drums are going crazy and 920 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:54,440 then it goes back down to quiet. And then maybe if, depending on 921 00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:57,120 how long it is, it goes back up there and does the same thing 922 00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,280 again and then it goes back down to quiet and it ends. 923 00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,280 And usually it ends on a dissonant chord. 924 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:04,520 There's no resolution in it. And it sounds like there should 925 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:07,240 be one more note that they play, but they don't actually play 926 00:46:07,240 --> 00:46:09,880 that note. That's one of the that's one of 927 00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,920 the ways that you can tell if a song is a contemporary song or 928 00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:14,760 not. It doesn't resolve, the chords 929 00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:19,280 don't resolve, but it's designed to take you on this emotional 930 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:23,880 journey, right? And honestly, many times that's 931 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,360 what a movie is doing too, right? 932 00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:28,760 There's a little plot at the beginning. 933 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:30,360 Everything's happening, happening, happening. 934 00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:32,320 And then the climax and then it ends, right? 935 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,560 And they got all the music in the in the middle of it and to 936 00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:36,640 do all the same things to you and everything else. 937 00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:41,160 And sacred music is very different. 938 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,800 It should be a, a simple musical arrangement that's, that's 939 00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,240 superior to an overly complicated one. 940 00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:52,240 If, if you have to concentrate so hard on what you're singing 941 00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:55,680 that you can't think about the words, then the music is too 942 00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:58,800 complicated, right? And you're not getting out of 943 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,160 that music what you should be getting out of it because it's, 944 00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:04,000 it's too complicated, right? It should be simple. 945 00:47:04,240 --> 00:47:07,880 It should be easy to hum the tune later on, right? 946 00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,600 That's that. Those are principles of music. 947 00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:12,840 The music should emphasize the melody. 948 00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,000 Let me give you this number 5 and we'll end with this one 949 00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,800 tonight. Music is not neutral. 950 00:47:20,720 --> 00:47:23,840 It is a language. And the message of the music 951 00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:27,680 much must match the message of the lyrics. 952 00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:31,160 I think as we go through this, you'll understand a little bit 953 00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:33,120 more about what I'm talking about, but the foundational 954 00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:36,960 philosophy of CCM, contemporary Christian music, is the idea 955 00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:41,720 that the music is neutral or a moral, and that any style of 956 00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:45,440 music can be used in God's service as long as it's got 957 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:47,840 Christian words. The music doesn't matter. 958 00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,920 The words are what matters. Music is a moral. 959 00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:56,440 Music does not move you in One Direction or another, right? 960 00:47:56,440 --> 00:48:00,120 Music is not godly or ungodly. That's what we mean by, AH, 961 00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:04,280 moral, right? There's a Christian rocker's 962 00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:08,400 creed, and it says this. We hold these truths to be 963 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:11,440 self-evident. That all music was created 964 00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:15,760 equal, that no instrument or style of music is in itself 965 00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:18,120 evil. That the diversity of musical 966 00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:22,800 expression which flows forth from man is but one evidence of 967 00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,240 the boundless creativity of our Heavenly Father. 968 00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:29,200 In other words, what they're saying is it's not the music, 969 00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:32,520 it's the words. So we can rock out to Jesus 970 00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,360 loves me if we want to. The music doesn't have anything 971 00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,440 to do with that. It's the words, right? 972 00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:43,320 Harold Best, he's he, he wrote a book, but he said this music is 973 00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:46,560 morally relative. It is essentially neutral in its 974 00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:50,160 ability to express belief, creed, moral and ethic, 975 00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:54,480 exactitudes or even worldview. Don Butler, former head of the 976 00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:58,200 Gospel Music Association, said this every style and form of 977 00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,920 music can become gospel, whether it's jazz, pop, rock'n'roll or 978 00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:03,960 rap. Rick Warren, that's probably a 979 00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:06,960 name that you'll recognize. He said there's no such thing as 980 00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:10,120 Christian music. They are just Christian lyrics. 981 00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:13,280 But that's why contemporary Christian music is composed of 982 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,840 every music style out there, right? 983 00:49:17,720 --> 00:49:24,040 They have they have head banging Christian music, they have Hard 984 00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,960 Rock Christian music, they have pop Christian music, they have 985 00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:31,120 jazz, they have rap Christian music and Christian is used 986 00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:33,720 very, very loosely. That's what they would call it. 987 00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:36,160 But they're saying the music does not matter. 988 00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:38,200 The music is not what makes it Christian or not. 989 00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,240 It's the words that make it Christian or not. 990 00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,680 And I'll be honest with you, I've been in places before where 991 00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:47,800 Christian music is being played. Christian music is being played, 992 00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:51,120 and you literally have to stop and really concentrate on what's 993 00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:53,520 being said to determine if they're actually playing 994 00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:56,000 something that they're calling Christian or if it's actually 995 00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,280 just a pop song that they've found somewhere. 996 00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:02,240 Because you can't tell the difference unless you hear Jesus 997 00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:04,280 in there sometimes. They usually don't say Jesus. 998 00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:07,720 They will say God, or they'll say love, or they'll say, you 999 00:50:07,720 --> 00:50:10,120 know, whatever else. There's other terms that they 1000 00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:13,080 use that kind of give you the indication that it's supposed to 1001 00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:15,840 be a Christian song. But the concept that music is 1002 00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,280 neutral is fundamental to contemporary Christian music. 1003 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:22,800 Music is neutral. If you say anything other than 1004 00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:25,080 that, the contemporary Christian music does not work. 1005 00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:28,600 So as soon as that's accepted, the battle is lost. 1006 00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:32,000 It erases all of the boundaries, and the very concept of sacred 1007 00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:37,000 music is completely lost. But no one except the defenders 1008 00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:40,080 of contemporary Christian music actually believe that music is 1009 00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:41,840 immoral. They would say that. 1010 00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:43,520 Now, I don't know if they really believe it or not. 1011 00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:46,960 They would say that, but they're the only ones who defend that 1012 00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:49,040 anyway. If all musical styles are 1013 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:52,680 neutral, then why does a military March never sound like 1014 00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:56,760 a romance ballad, right? Why do you not play a military 1015 00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:00,880 March to try to put your baby to sleep at night, right? 1016 00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:05,400 Why does the military not March to lullabies, right? 1017 00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,320 If all music is our moral, then it should all do the same thing 1018 00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:11,240 for us, right? I mean just something that 1019 00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:15,080 simple proves that that that music is not our moral. 1020 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,360 The reason that that music is not is that music is not 1021 00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:21,360 neutral. Music itself is a language. 1022 00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:24,840 Rock and rollers don't believe that music is neutral. 1023 00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:27,520 Tons and tons and tons of quotes. 1024 00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:31,920 Timothy Leary, 1960s LSD guru, pop culture hero. 1025 00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:34,800 He said this. Don't listen to the words. 1026 00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:37,160 It's the music that has its own message. 1027 00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:41,360 A rock historian by the name of Robert Palmer wrote a book 1028 00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:43,360 called The Illustrated History of Rock'n'roll. 1029 00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:48,000 He said the transformative power of rock lies in the music 1030 00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:51,800 itself. You think about even even movie, 1031 00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:56,080 movie text creators, you know, the sound they create these 1032 00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:58,480 soundtracks, they don't believe that music is neutral. 1033 00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:01,720 You think about, you know, they know the different styles of 1034 00:52:01,720 --> 00:52:05,120 music that create different emotional responses, right? 1035 00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:09,640 If, if something is supposed to be creepy, the music changes and 1036 00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:11,720 it's got a creepy sound to it, right? 1037 00:52:11,920 --> 00:52:15,560 If the music, you know, some, some football team finally made 1038 00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:18,400 it to the championship and they're about to win and what 1039 00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:21,360 the music is behind, it's not some creepy sound in music, is 1040 00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:24,520 it? No, it's this big full 1041 00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:28,160 orchestration that's meant to make you feel like, yeah, they 1042 00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:30,880 just won the game, right? Why is that? 1043 00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:34,040 It's because music is not neutral and they know it. 1044 00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:36,040 They're not Christians. They know that music is not 1045 00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:38,920 neutral. John Debney, he was one of the 1046 00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:42,440 top composers of movie music. He said this. 1047 00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:46,200 I think music is the voice of the soul, of the emotional 1048 00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:50,160 fabric of the film. Orchestra, composers, 1049 00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:52,640 conductors, they don't believe that music is neutral. 1050 00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:56,120 Every style of music that's played by an orchestra creates 1051 00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:59,920 different feelings and thoughts in the people who are listening 1052 00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:02,760 to it. Howard Hanson, he's he directed 1053 00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:06,120 the prestigious Eastman School of Music for 40 years. 1054 00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:11,600 He said this music can be philosophical or orgiastic. 1055 00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:15,800 It has powers for evil as well As for good. 1056 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,040 Frank Garlock, maybe it's the name you recognize. 1057 00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:19,800 He wrote a book called The Language of Music. 1058 00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:24,760 He graduated from the Eastman School of Music and was 1059 00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,640 underneath this guy and, and obviously it had a big impact on 1060 00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:29,680 him. But the Christian rockers Creed 1061 00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:34,760 that music that that that no music style is evil, denies the 1062 00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:40,480 very fact that man is evil and that he can create evil in his 1063 00:53:40,480 --> 00:53:45,080 art or in his music. If if there's no if, if music 1064 00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:48,840 itself is not evil, then it's taking out the fact that man can 1065 00:53:48,840 --> 00:53:51,600 actually be evil. The first musical instruments 1066 00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:55,760 were made by the sons of Cain, and they were in open rebellion 1067 00:53:56,600 --> 00:54:00,480 to God in their lives. It's ridiculous to think that 1068 00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:02,520 they were using those instruments as anything other 1069 00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:05,920 than evil, right? The Christian rockers creed that 1070 00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:09,640 no music style is evil denies the existence of Satan as the 1071 00:54:09,640 --> 00:54:14,560 God of this world. The devil hates God and and he's 1072 00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,000 attempted to corrupt everything that God has created. 1073 00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:19,960 He's called the God of this world in second Corinthians 1074 00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:22,600 chapter 4, The spirit that now worketh in the children of 1075 00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:24,560 disobedience. That's what that's what he's 1076 00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:28,840 called and he's working through them through music, right? 1077 00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:32,640 Why is it that that when people are, are, are getting strung out 1078 00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:35,800 on drugs and everything else, they're not listening to some 1079 00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:38,400 nice little ballad. They're not listening to 1080 00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:42,640 Christian hymns. They're rocking out to hardcore 1081 00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:47,080 metal music and you know, the head bang and stuff and all of 1082 00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:47,840 that. Why is that? 1083 00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:50,560 It's because that music is driving them to, it's demonic, 1084 00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:53,760 it's devil music, right? Turn over to 1st Corinthians 1085 00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:55,640 chapter 14 coming to a close here. 1086 00:54:57,440 --> 00:55:00,040 Music is one of the most powerful influences in society. 1087 00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:04,720 To think that the devil has not corrupted music for his own 1088 00:55:04,800 --> 00:55:09,800 wicked purposes and for sensual enticement of fallen man is 1089 00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:12,520 contrary to everything that the Bible teaches. 1090 00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:16,840 So the issue then for for a Christ honoring believer is to 1091 00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:22,240 find the devil's fingerprints in music and then reject that 1092 00:55:22,240 --> 00:55:25,360 music. The Bible is very plain and 1093 00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:27,240 teaching us that music is not neutral. 1094 00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:30,920 Different styles of music present different messages and 1095 00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:32,520 have different emotional effects. 1096 00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:37,520 You think about in Exodus when when Moses came down from the 1097 00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:41,640 mountain and there's Aaron with the golden calf and all the 1098 00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:44,480 people are dancing around naked, right? 1099 00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:49,400 What was it that Moses said? There's the sound of war in the 1100 00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:51,600 camp. Certainly didn't sound like 1101 00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:55,040 music, right? But if it was the same music 1102 00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:59,080 that they had played in the Tabernacle and in the temple and 1103 00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:02,400 all of the instruments out there and, and singing praise to the 1104 00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:04,040 Lord, do you think they would have been dancing around a 1105 00:56:04,040 --> 00:56:08,000 golden calf naked? Probably not, right? 1106 00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:10,760 It's the music that drove them to those things, because music 1107 00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:14,240 is not neutral, no matter how much you want to claim that it 1108 00:56:14,240 --> 00:56:16,920 is. The Bible also talks about music 1109 00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:19,560 in First Samuel 16 as being a refreshing sound. 1110 00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:22,720 There's all kinds of different sounds of music, and depending 1111 00:56:22,720 --> 00:56:25,640 on what sound you're listening to, it's going to turn your 1112 00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:28,800 spirit one way or the other. Paul teaches that music is a 1113 00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:33,520 language in First Corinthians verse, chapter 14 verse #7 and 1114 00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:36,480 even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, 1115 00:56:36,480 --> 00:56:38,400 except they give a distinction in the sounds. 1116 00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:41,480 How shall it be known what is piped or harp for if the trumpet 1117 00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:45,840 give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? 1118 00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:48,600 If the people know that they should be preparing themselves 1119 00:56:48,600 --> 00:56:53,200 for battle and the trumpeter blows a tune and it's the wake 1120 00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:57,640 up tune, what in the world? What is that, right? 1121 00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:00,880 They're not going to go get ready for battle because the 1122 00:57:00,880 --> 00:57:02,800 trumpets blowing an uncertain sound, right? 1123 00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:05,000 Music is a language and in fact it's one of the most powerful 1124 00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:08,480 languages in human society. Music, and I don't know exactly 1125 00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:10,680 who it was that called this, called it this, but music has 1126 00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:14,000 been called the language of the soul and the language of the 1127 00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:16,880 emotions. Turn over to one last passage in 1128 00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:20,000 First Thessalonians chapter 5. See. 1129 00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:23,920 So in Christian music, the message of the music must match 1130 00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:28,000 the message of the lyrics, and both of them must be spiritual 1131 00:57:28,800 --> 00:57:32,520 in their character. That's the very definition of 1132 00:57:32,520 --> 00:57:37,440 sacred music or styles of music that preach a message that's 1133 00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:40,640 contrary to God's Word. And those are the things that 1134 00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:42,640 should be avoided in the service of a holy God. 1135 00:57:42,640 --> 00:57:46,200 So we have to exercise discernment if we are going to 1136 00:57:46,200 --> 00:57:50,120 be choosing sacred music. Some of the questions that we 1137 00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:53,280 have to ask what, what kind of message is this music 1138 00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:56,640 presenting? Same thing in the type of in the 1139 00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:58,840 music that you're listening to, right? 1140 00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:02,000 What it what would what would Christ say if he was sitting 1141 00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:06,000 next to me listening to this song about this topic, right? 1142 00:58:07,080 --> 00:58:10,240 Does the message of the music fit the message of the lyrics? 1143 00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:12,160 We must do exactly what the Bible says. 1144 00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:16,640 First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse #21 prove all things, 1145 00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:22,720 hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of 1146 00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:25,920 evil. So since music is a language, 1147 00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:29,360 God's people must be very careful and we must very wisely 1148 00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:34,160 test the language of every piece of church music and even use 1149 00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:37,400 that to test the music that you listen to in your home, in your 1150 00:58:37,400 --> 00:58:41,560 car, wherever you happen to be. What is what is the music that 1151 00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:45,640 you listen to say about you? What does it say about your 1152 00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:47,880 spirituality? Could somebody listen to the 1153 00:58:47,880 --> 00:58:50,640 music that you listen to and say this is a person who is 1154 00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:52,080 obviously very close to the Lord? 1155 00:58:53,160 --> 00:58:57,200 Or does the music that you listen to say this is a person 1156 00:58:57,200 --> 00:58:59,080 who might claim to be a Christian because this is not 1157 00:58:59,080 --> 00:59:04,200 horrible music, but they're probably just kind of nominal in 1158 00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:05,440 their relationship with the Lord? 1159 00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:08,880 What you listen to says a lot about where you're at in your 1160 00:59:08,880 --> 00:59:11,080 spiritual life. You want to you want to do a 1161 00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:13,520 self evaluation. What are you listening to? 1162 00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:18,400 What are you listening to? What is the predominant message 1163 00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:20,280 that you are bringing in through music? 1164 00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:24,400 You want to determine how spiritual your home is. 1165 00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:28,640 What kind of music are you playing in your home throughout 1166 00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:33,160 the day? What kind of music is drifting 1167 00:59:33,160 --> 00:59:35,360 into yours and your children's ears? 1168 00:59:35,720 --> 00:59:39,120 That'll tell you where you're at spiritually, right? 1169 00:59:39,120 --> 00:59:42,000 Because music is not immoral. Music is not neutral. 1170 00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:47,040 Music is a language, and the language of the music must match 1171 00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:51,840 the message of the lyrics. It matters. 1172 00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:55,200 You Can't Sing a Christian song to rock music. 1173 00:59:56,280 --> 01:00:00,880 Rock music was designed to be wicked, wicked music, and the 1174 01:00:00,880 --> 01:00:03,120 people who created it will tell you that in a heartbeat. 1175 01:00:03,120 --> 01:00:05,960 It was designed for that. And then we're going to take 1176 01:00:05,960 --> 01:00:08,720 that wicked music and put Christian words to it and expect 1177 01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:11,400 that God's going to bless it. God can't bless that. 1178 01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:14,280 It's not his music. It's the devil's music, right? 1179 01:00:14,440 --> 01:00:17,840 The same thing with all of these other pop music, jazz, I mean, 1180 01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:20,160 all of those. Anything other than sacred music 1181 01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:23,560 has its roots and something that was not based on the word of 1182 01:00:23,560 --> 01:00:26,640 God. So where's your music, right? 1183 01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:28,920 These are these are these are the basic principles. 1184 01:00:28,920 --> 01:00:31,800 We're going to get into some more specific things when we get 1185 01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:34,880 back to this, but these are things that you have to 1186 01:00:35,440 --> 01:00:39,440 determine before you even start looking for music, right? 1187 01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:41,360 Where are you? Where's your base? 1188 01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:42,920 Where are you starting at? Where are you? 1189 01:00:43,160 --> 01:00:45,600 Where are you coming from with your music? 1190 01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:49,200 You have to understand the basic principles of music if you're 1191 01:00:49,200 --> 01:00:51,880 going to understand how to choose music that is honoring 1192 01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:54,640 and pleasing to the Lord, right? And that's what we, that's what 1193 01:00:54,640 --> 01:00:57,520 we want to do in this church. We want our music to be as, as, 1194 01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:01,000 as pleasing to the Lord and as edifying to the people who are 1195 01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:03,280 listening to it as possible, right? 1196 01:01:03,560 --> 01:01:06,920 So we have to have some tests that we put the music to, to 1197 01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:09,880 determine whether this is music that is pleasing to the Lord or 1198 01:01:09,880 --> 01:01:12,520 not. These are the basics, right? 1199 01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:14,440 These are the, these are the foundational principles. 1200 01:01:14,760 --> 01:01:17,800 And we'll talk about some more of those as we move forward over 1201 01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:19,720 the next few weeks. All right, let's pray. 1202 01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:21,720 Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us. 1203 01:01:21,720 --> 01:01:24,000 We thank you for the opportunity that we've had to be here 1204 01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:26,520 tonight. Thank you for the fact that your 1205 01:01:26,520 --> 01:01:28,160 word is so clear on so many things. 1206 01:01:28,160 --> 01:01:30,720 And music is one of those. God, may you help us. 1207 01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:34,440 May you help us to play godly music, Christ honoring music in 1208 01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:36,640 our homes. May you help us in our church 1209 01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:39,960 to, to land on the principles that are going to give us the, 1210 01:01:40,960 --> 01:01:44,640 the, the most help through the music services and through the, 1211 01:01:44,960 --> 01:01:47,640 through the ministry of music here in this church, God. 1212 01:01:47,640 --> 01:01:50,640 And may you use it to help us be what you want us to be. 1213 01:01:51,600 --> 01:01:56,240 And may you, may you help us to figure these principles out, 1214 01:01:56,240 --> 01:01:58,480 understand these principles so that we can determine for 1215 01:01:58,480 --> 01:02:01,320 ourselves what is going to be right and pleasing to you. 1216 01:02:01,840 --> 01:02:04,640 And may you help us as a church to always be going up and to the 1217 01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:05,920 right. May you help us to be going 1218 01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:08,880 forward for the cause of Christ. God, may you help us to get 1219 01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:12,080 closer to you in the process. Again, we thank you for all that 1220 01:02:12,080 --> 01:02:14,040 you do for us. In Jesus name, Amen.