1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,680 Psalm 95 and we are talking about principles of music and I 2 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:07,280 didn't quite finish up last week, so I want to finish up 3 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:09,680 this week. We really got to the meat of a 4 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,520 lot of it last week. But let me jump back and just 5 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:16,160 kind of review some of the principles that I gave you 6 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:18,640 already. Number one, I said music must be 7 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:23,680 overseen by the pastor. It's my job as the pastor to to 8 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,800 find the direction that our church ought to go in music and 9 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,080 then to follow that direction. I'm going to be the one that 10 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,159 stands before God and answers to him for what happened in our 11 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:34,880 church. And so it's my responsibility to 12 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,240 oversee that. But we said #2 church music must 13 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:40,920 be sung and played by spirit filled Saints who are indwelt 14 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:42,720 with God's word. That's important. 15 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:46,040 That's important. We're not just, you know, if, if 16 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,840 I had a dime for everybody that I've met who said, oh, you guys 17 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,640 have instruments and you have choir, I can sing, I can play, 18 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,080 I'd love to jump in. And I, I, I played the electric 19 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,320 guitar for a long time. I can come play with you guys, 20 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:58,360 right? Number one, I have no idea who 21 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,840 you are #2 it's, it's a privilege to be able to play 22 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,840 music in church and it ought to be sung and played by spirit 23 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,120 filled Saints or who are in dwelt with God's word. 24 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,280 That's what's going to bring the most glory to the Lord #3 the 25 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,880 music must be sound in doctrine. And that is so important. 26 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,880 You know, I think Brother Jim mentioned it to me last week. 27 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:22,120 You know, you can go into Wawa and hear a song that you heard 28 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:24,760 40 years ago and you can come out singing every word of it. 29 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,520 You know, music is, is powerful. It's a powerful thing that just 30 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,440 sticks with you, which is why it's a great thing to do to sing 31 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,080 the, the songs. You memorize God's Word by 32 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,400 singing them. And how many of you, let me ask 33 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:38,800 you this, how many of you know a Scripture song? 34 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:41,840 All right, that's just about everybody. 35 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,920 Why is it it's easy to memorize Scripture if it's put to music, 36 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,640 right? And the more you put those songs 37 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,240 to music, the more you put the verses to music, the easier it 38 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:54,400 is to memorize. And what we're saying then is 39 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,840 the music must be sound and doctrine because you're going to 40 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:59,040 remember that it's going to stick with you. 41 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,480 And if there's songs that are not sound in doctrine and you're 42 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:03,960 singing them, you're going to get wrong doctrine from those 43 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:05,920 songs. And it's, it's just a fact of, 44 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,240 of life and a fact of music #4 We said that the music must 45 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:12,840 emphasize the melody. And obviously then that that 46 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:15,240 really pretty much eliminates everything that has to do with 47 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:17,360 rock music. Because the rock music, the rock 48 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:20,800 beat is what is driving the song, not the melody when you 49 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:23,400 have that rock beat in it. We talked a lot about that 50 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:25,280 number six. We said that the music must be 51 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:29,280 spiritual and non worldly in sound again, eliminates all of 52 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:31,200 your rock music. It eliminates all your Christian 53 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:35,120 rock and most if not all of your CCM music because all of it is 54 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,400 mimicking the world sound. All of it is trying to sound 55 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,720 like the world. The breathiness and many times 56 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:44,440 not even just the sound, the look of everybody that's on the 57 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:48,080 stage that's singing these songs and, and the the drum set and 58 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,120 the, you know, the the electric guitars hung down at your knees 59 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:52,960 and all of those other things. Those are all things that are 60 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,320 imitating and and modeling after the world. 61 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:01,560 And so Christian music, church music must be spiritual and non 62 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:06,560 worldly in sound #7 we said that the music must edify. 63 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 Edify means to build up in the faith. 64 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,480 If you're not edified by the song, if you're not edified by 65 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,200 the music, then there is no point in doing that music right? 66 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:20,560 We are a body and your job is as, as a musician in any, in any 67 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:22,840 aspect of that is to edify the body of Christ. 68 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:27,120 And so obviously then all of our hymns should be edifying. 69 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,240 All of our special music should be edifying. 70 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:33,200 All of it should point us to Christ #8 We said that church 71 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,720 music must not produce a charismatic style, mystical 72 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,400 experience, which again, is what contemporary worship is designed 73 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:42,080 to do. It's designed to take you on 74 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,800 this emotional roller coaster up and down and, and, and, and take 75 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:47,840 you through all of those emotional experiences. 76 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,560 And people come out of those services saying, wow, we really 77 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:55,040 worshiped today because of the way it made me feel, right? 78 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,960 It's not, it's not about this, this mystical experience. 79 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,840 It's about strong doctrine. It's about edification. 80 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:03,840 How did that music point me to Christ number #9? 81 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:05,800 Then this is what we're going to jump into tonight. 82 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:11,640 Church music should be joyful. Psalm 95 verse #1 and boy, there 83 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,280 is, there's 100 verses that we could pick out of the book of 84 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:18,279 Psalms that really, that really goes right along with this same 85 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:21,040 thing. But Psalm 9510, Come, let us 86 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:24,400 sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to 87 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,600 the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence 88 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,920 with Thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with 89 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,800 Psalms. For the Lord is a great God and 90 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:38,240 a great King above all gods. Again, congregational singing 91 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,560 then should be enthusiastic. It should be, it should be 92 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,280 cheerful, which again, you know, a lot of these charismatic style 93 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:48,240 churches that, that like to do the CCM and everything else, the 94 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,880 congregation is not involved in it at all, right? 95 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,960 They're, they're either sitting there listening to a concert or 96 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,440 they're standing there kind of swaying back and forth with it, 97 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:58,040 but they don't know the words most of the time. 98 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:00,440 They Can't Sing along with it. It's somebody up here just 99 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:03,120 singing to them, right? The, the whole purpose of 100 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,800 congregational singing is for all of us to sing this together. 101 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:09,240 And, and, and you see that throughout the entire Bible, 102 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:12,640 God's people are coming into his presence. 103 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:16,360 The great King of kings is listening and he requires A 104 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,000 joyful noise. There's that you don't. 105 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,000 Most of you are standing out there looking this way, right? 106 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,120 But when you're standing up here and looking out at the 107 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:26,680 congregation and everybody's just mumbling the words and 108 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,720 barely singing and barely mouthing the words, it's, it's 109 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,920 not encouraging, right? And, and, and who are you 110 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:35,680 singing to? You're not just singing to the 111 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:37,400 person next to you. You're not just singing to the 112 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:39,480 song leader, you're singing to the Lord. 113 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,000 It ought to be a joyful noise. It ought to be a cheerful thing 114 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,120 that you're doing. You ought to be excited to do it 115 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:46,760 right. You ought to have a hymn book 116 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:48,640 out. And even if, even if it's a song 117 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,120 that you've sung 1000 times, you ought to be looking at the words 118 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,160 and thinking about those words as you sing them, right? 119 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,080 It's it ought not to be every time we come to sing. 120 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,400 You know, the whole purpose is to teach and to admonish one 121 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,280 another in song and to sing unto the Lord. 122 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:06,000 And that's not half hearted singing. 123 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,200 It shouldn't be done that way since Christ, the Bible makes it 124 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,640 very clear in Revelation chapter 3, he hates the lukewarmness, 125 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:15,520 right? We shouldn't be lukewarm in our 126 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:17,560 singing either. They should be something that's 127 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:21,200 done cheerfully, joyfully. And those in the choir know this 128 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:24,520 because I say it all the time, but not only should you enjoy 129 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,240 yourselves, but you should look like you're enjoying yourself, 130 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:28,920 right? I can't tell you how many 131 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:31,600 churches I've been in, and I've been in hundreds and hundreds of 132 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,040 churches. And the choir doesn't sound bad, 133 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,600 but they all look like they sucked on sour grapes the 134 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,440 afternoon before they got up to sing, right? 135 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:43,040 Everybody's just grumpy, man. If, if you're excited about it, 136 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:45,360 tell your face and let it be excited too, right? 137 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,200 You ought to have a pleasant expression on your face if 138 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:51,800 you're thinking about the words and you're thinking about who 139 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:55,080 you're singing to and you're thinking about that worship. 140 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,680 It should be an easy thing to have a pleasant expression on 141 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,200 your face while you're singing the song, right? 142 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,720 We don't always feel like singing unto the Lord, but we 143 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:04,880 have to be in control of our fear feelings and we have to 144 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,880 stir up ourselves with the truth of God's Word. 145 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:11,680 When I come to, when I come to the song service in the church, 146 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,560 I have to say to myself, it's time to worship God. 147 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:18,280 I know that I'm, I'm dealing with a lot of things at home. 148 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:20,920 I'm dealing with a lot of things at work, but it's time to set 149 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,120 all of those things aside and sing to the one who really cares 150 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,840 about me. And it's time to, it's time to 151 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:29,640 forget about my problems and focus on the, on the great 152 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,480 Redeemer and on your work for him. 153 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:34,640 You should sing out when it's time to sing. 154 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,560 Boy, I tell you what, especially in an auditorium this size. 155 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:39,640 And I think we do pretty well with it, but I think we could do 156 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:41,640 better. I think we ought to fill this 157 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:45,200 place up with, with music, fill it up with sound, all right, Not 158 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:47,040 just because we have the instruments and all of those 159 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:49,680 things, but because the voices are just filling the auditorium, 160 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:52,760 because everybody's just singing out because you're singing to 161 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:57,480 the Lord #10 Turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 10. 162 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:02,840 First Corinthians chapter 10. We kind of talked about this a 163 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,800 little bit, but this is a little bit digging maybe a little bit 164 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,600 deeper into some of the actual principles of of contemporary 165 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:11,400 Christian music and why we don't do it. 166 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:15,440 Because #10 church music must not borrow from and thus build 167 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:19,200 bridges to the world of contemporary Christian music. 168 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,000 Church music must not borrow from and thus build bridges to 169 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:26,640 the world of CCM. First Corinthians chapter 10 and 170 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:32,440 verse #21 you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of 171 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:36,159 devils. You cannot be partakers of the 172 00:08:36,159 --> 00:08:38,640 Lord's table and of the table of devils. 173 00:08:39,919 --> 00:08:43,080 You can't have it both ways. Look at First Corinthians 174 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:47,240 chapter 15 and see that's what the world of CCM is trying to 175 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,320 do. You're trying to take a church 176 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,680 song, church words, and mix it with the devil's music. 177 00:08:54,680 --> 00:08:57,040 God's very plain about that. You can't drink the cup of the 178 00:08:57,040 --> 00:08:59,360 Lord and the cup of devils. First Corinthians chapter 15 and 179 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,640 verse 33. This is talking about building a 180 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:02,920 bridge. Be not deceived. 181 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:06,320 Evil communications corrupt good manners. 182 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,680 All right, let's go over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 again. 183 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:14,240 Lots of verses that that back up this principle, but here's just 184 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:16,280 a few of them. Second Corinthians chapter 6, 185 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:22,640 verse #14 B. You're not unequally yoked 186 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:26,360 together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath 187 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:28,440 righteousness with unrighteousness? 188 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:31,920 And what communion hath light with darkness? 189 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:34,720 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? 190 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:38,000 Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 191 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:40,480 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? 192 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:44,040 For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said. 193 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:47,360 I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, 194 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:51,040 and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among 195 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:55,280 them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the 196 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:58,440 unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a 197 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,320 father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the 198 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:05,520 Lord Almighty. That's pretty plain. 199 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:08,680 You cannot take the world's music and try to mix it with 200 00:10:08,680 --> 00:10:12,040 Christian words and pretend that God is pleased with that type of 201 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:13,640 music. You just cannot do it. 202 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:18,160 We should be separating as far away from that music as we can, 203 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:22,800 not trying to see how we can blend it with church music. 204 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,920 I talked about this already, but rock music was designed to be as 205 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,160 sensual and worldly as it possibly could be. 206 00:10:31,560 --> 00:10:34,120 And all of those who are in that rock music world, especially 207 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,880 those who were at the beginning of it, and, and the founders of 208 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,200 rock, if you will, some of them are still alive and they have no 209 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,240 problem telling you exactly what rock music was designed for. 210 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:45,400 It was sex music. That's exactly what it was 211 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,400 designed to be. And now you're going to take 212 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,400 that music and mix it with some Christian words and expect that 213 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,080 God's going to be OK with that and expect that, that, that I'm 214 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:57,640 going to try to get close to that music and say, well, we 215 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:01,440 can't, we Can't Sing that music, but we can get as close to it as 216 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:04,120 we can, right? And God's pleased with that. 217 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:05,760 No, God's not pleased with those things. 218 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:08,680 Church music should not borrow from and thus not build bridges 219 00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:12,520 to contemporary Christian music. Contemporary Christian music is, 220 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:16,520 is, is a major element of building the apostate one world 221 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:20,240 church. Look at the CCM industry and 222 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:22,280 look who is involved in the CCM industry. 223 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:27,000 You have people from every denomination that sing it, that 224 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,920 write it, that play it, that promote it, that come together 225 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:33,720 to sing it and promote it, right? 226 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,720 You have Catholics who come together with Presbyterians and 227 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:39,240 Methodists who come together with Charismatics and Baptists 228 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:40,760 who come together with Catholics. 229 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:44,160 And everybody's all one because we're just worshiping under this 230 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:47,560 huge umbrella of contemporary Christian music, right? 231 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:49,760 That's a one world apostate church. 232 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:53,840 And the devil has gotten so many people hoodwinked into thinking 233 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:58,320 that this is all OK because it's just it fits with everybody. 234 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:00,680 All this music just works together with all of us. 235 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:04,440 No, it doesn't because most of it is not doctrinal. 236 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:09,200 Most of it is very worldly and most of it is, is, is building 237 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:12,800 that bridge to other denominations and other 238 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:16,400 religions that are completely anti Bible, right? 239 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:17,680 You have, you have so much of that. 240 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:21,960 And in, in, in, in former times, God's people were not in much 241 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,720 danger of being influenced by the authors of songs and hymns, 242 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,200 right? Because you, in order for that 243 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:32,160 to happen, you, you know, you would have to, you'd have to go 244 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,240 find a songbook and you would have to go, go to a concert and 245 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:38,200 find out who this person was. The Internet has changed all of 246 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,640 that. And that's why, OK, it might 247 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:45,760 have been OK 40 years ago to go sing a song that was written by 248 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:48,760 a contemporary artist and sing it the right way and do it with 249 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:52,640 the right music and sing it with the right everything. 250 00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:56,360 And it would be OK. Because how is anybody going to 251 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,520 find out what that person sounds like or what that person is 252 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:01,960 writing or anything else? Because it was very difficult to 253 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,320 find those things. Now all you have to do is get on 254 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:08,480 YouTube, right? And we're singing this song and, 255 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,600 and oh, wow, that was a really nice song. 256 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:13,440 Oh, this group is the one that did that one. 257 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:16,640 And they were rocking out to it. And they're, you know, they're 258 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:18,080 the ones who wrote it and they're the ones who are 259 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:19,440 promoting it and everything else. 260 00:13:19,680 --> 00:13:22,920 And now you just, you just, you just whetted the appetite for 261 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:25,160 that type of music. You just said that that's OK. 262 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:27,960 And, and #1 all right. If, if we're going to sing 263 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:30,160 contemporary Christian music, somebody's got to be fishing in 264 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:32,600 that pond to find the songs that we're going to tone down and 265 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:34,840 sing anyway. And I'm not going to be the one 266 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:35,920 fishing in that pond. Why? 267 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:37,560 Why would I? Why would I dig through the 268 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:40,800 trash to find one bone that has a little bit of meat on it? 269 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:44,840 Why would I do that? Right? 270 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,880 Is there is can you find some bones with a little bit of meat 271 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:48,960 on it? Probably. 272 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:53,040 But do you want to find it in the trash or would you rather 273 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:57,000 just go get it from, you know, someplace fresh, right? 274 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:00,240 That that's, that's the way that that's what this building this 275 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:01,280 bridge is. All right. 276 00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:04,000 There are probably some songs within the contemporary 277 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,080 Christian music world that are OK Keith and Kristen Getty are, 278 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,200 are a popular one. They, they do all kinds of 279 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:10,600 songs. And there's some of Keith and 280 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:13,440 Kristen Getty's songs that I, that I think are OK. 281 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:15,680 But you know what the problem with them is? 282 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:17,600 They're a bridge to everything else. 283 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:21,360 Read some of the quotes by the Getty's. 284 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:23,320 Read some of the quotes by Stuart Town. 285 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:25,800 And they, they, they work together very closely in a lot 286 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:29,120 of things. They have no problem accepting 287 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:33,040 Catholics and everybody else. They have no problem bringing 288 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,920 this whole church together. And when they say church, 289 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:40,240 they're not talking about a good, sound, fundamentally Bible 290 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,360 preaching church. They're talking about the 291 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:44,760 church. That's who they want to bring 292 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:46,440 together. And that's why the building 293 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:51,240 these bridges are so dangerous, because you're bringing all of 294 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:53,520 these things together under one big tent. 295 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,800 And it's not, it's not OK. I don't want to have the 296 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:59,960 apostate one world church involved in this church. 297 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,520 I wanted to be a pure church. I wanted to be without spot or 298 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:07,480 wrinkle, as he says, right? We, we reject any of the music 299 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:09,840 that's written by the contemporary musicians in order 300 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:12,640 to avoid building bridges to those people and to their 301 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:15,920 associates and to the dangerous ecumenical world that they 302 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:18,640 represent. And that is what they represent. 303 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,680 And not only that, but I've, I've read quotes to you before 304 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:25,000 by many of these people in one Corey Asbury that I just read 305 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,200 and I and I know that he's a popular musician. 306 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,640 I don't, I can't tell you any songs that he's written, but I 307 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:31,680 know he's popular. And one of the things that he 308 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:35,880 said is it's not genuine. They're not doing it because 309 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:37,600 they're trying to lead you closer to Christ. 310 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:39,400 They're doing it because they're trying to make millions of 311 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:42,720 dollars and he's, he's one of them. 312 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,600 So he's, he's being, he's, he's actually being honest about his 313 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:47,160 motivation. It's about writing. 314 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:50,680 He said the next worship banger so that it, that it gets really 315 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:52,320 popular. And he said, I myself 316 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,000 personally, I've made millions of dollars off of the songs that 317 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:56,800 I've written. That's why they're writing them. 318 00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:58,480 They want to be, they want to be popular. 319 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:00,640 They want to make millions of dollars off their music. 320 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:07,080 And then why, why would we, when there are thousands of of 321 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:11,880 doctrinally sound good hymns available to us, would we go 322 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:15,920 fishing in that world that's going to even make us think 323 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:17,800 about stepping closer in that direction? 324 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,440 Be separate, saith the Lord. And that, I mean, touched out 325 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:23,880 the unclean thing, come out from among them and be separate. 326 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,920 Yeah, let's do it. Accept the music. 327 00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:29,200 Let's let's see how close we can get to the world and still be 328 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:31,640 OK. It doesn't make any sense if 329 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,480 we're trying to be separate. And I like some of the songs 330 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:36,920 that, that that you hear every now and then and, and again. 331 00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:39,160 I, I don't, I don't listen to contemporary Christian music. 332 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,440 So I don't know but what kind of music is out there, but there's 333 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:46,440 some that are even written in hymn style that are being put in 334 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:51,560 some of these song books, you know, and it's they're mostly 335 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,240 OK. But the problem is who they 336 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:58,200 represent and what world they're opening up to you and what 337 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,440 bridge they're building to that contemporary Christian Church 338 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:04,359 movement and all the apostate one world church and everything 339 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:07,280 else that comes along with it. So I'm not going to borrow from 340 00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:10,000 contemporary Christian music. I'm not going to build a bridge 341 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:12,960 to contemporary Christian music. I'm going to try to stay as far 342 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,319 away from those things as I possibly can because my job is 343 00:17:17,319 --> 00:17:20,720 to keep you on the path that God wants you on. 344 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:24,319 And if I say, well, I'm not going to go jump off into the 345 00:17:24,319 --> 00:17:26,720 contemporary Christian music world because of one song. 346 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:29,360 I, I, you know, I'm not going to go onto YouTube and start 347 00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:32,120 watching these groups play these and rock out to all the other 348 00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:34,960 music that they do, right? Because even if they have one, 349 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:39,080 they usually have 15 others that are not OK, right? 350 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:43,880 But I LED you to their YouTube channel because you like the 351 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:47,320 song that we did in church. And now you're hooked on music 352 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,760 that you can't get away from because we built that bridge and 353 00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:53,440 said, just walk across that bridge for this song, but make 354 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:56,080 sure you come back. What happens is a lot of people 355 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:57,800 walk across that bridge and never come back. 356 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:00,680 And I built it. So we're not going to have that. 357 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,640 We're not going to do that. Those those songs here is even 358 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:04,800 though they're, well, what's wrong with this? 359 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,200 Doctrinally correct? It's got good words to it. 360 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:09,640 Understand there's, there's a few songs out there that are 361 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,760 like that, but it's building a dangerous bridge that we're not 362 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,480 going to build because we don't want anything to do with the 363 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,280 contemporary Christian music world #11. 364 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:23,680 Let me tell you this, Church music must aim for excellence. 365 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:25,960 Church music must aim for excellence. 366 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:30,000 First Corinthians chapter 10. You're not too far from there. 367 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:38,320 First Corinthians chapter 10, verse #31 Whether therefore, you 368 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:45,320 eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. 369 00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:50,280 Philippians chapter 1 turn over there Philippians chapter 1 370 00:18:53,480 --> 00:19:00,760 verse #10 Philippians one verse 10 that she may approve things 371 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:06,560 that are excellent, that she may be sincere and without offense 372 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,840 till the day of Christ. See everything about church 373 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:14,600 music must be done on purpose. I've said this many times when 374 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:19,080 it comes to to raising your family for the Lord, it's not 375 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:23,040 going to happen on accident. You have to be intentional about 376 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:24,880 doing it. And that's exactly what we're 377 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:26,640 talking about with this. If we're going to aim for 378 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:28,640 excellence, then we have to do it on purpose. 379 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:30,880 It's not just going to accidentally show up and be 380 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,040 good, right? Church music must be done on 381 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:35,560 purpose. Everything about it and, and 382 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,680 with biblical and spiritual wisdom, always aiming for the 383 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,880 very best, very highest, never satisfied with mediocrity, 384 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,480 constantly progressing in excellence. 385 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:49,760 What we're doing is not for the glory of man, it's for the glory 386 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:52,920 of God. That's why I said it last week. 387 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,440 You know, that's, that's one of the reasons we don't clap when 388 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:56,840 everybody, when somebody finishes. 389 00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:58,960 And I really appreciate you working on that today. 390 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,280 I didn't say anything about it, but I noticed a couple times 391 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:03,400 people went oops, shouldn't have done that. 392 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,120 Right. But but if we're going to 393 00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:08,880 replace it, we need to replace it with Amen, right? 394 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:11,840 There ought to be a strong Amen when we finish up singing, when 395 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,400 somebody finishes up playing Amen, glory to God, praise the 396 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:17,160 Lord. That's what we're doing, right? 397 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:20,440 Those are the appropriate responses to somebody finishing 398 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,160 a a special. Praise the Lord. 399 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:23,960 That's what we're doing anyway, right? 400 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,080 And if you're thinking about the words that they're singing or 401 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,760 you're thinking about the words that they're playing, then it's 402 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,360 all for the glory of God anyway. And so if we're doing it for God 403 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:36,800 #1 it's not for man's applause, but #2 we should do it to the 404 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:40,160 best of our ability, right? What if, what if you had the 405 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,480 opportunity to play or sing for the President of the United 406 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,160 States? Do you think that you'd be like, 407 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:48,640 well, I've done this song a bunch of times, It'll be fine. 408 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,160 Let's just run through it right before we get there and we'll be 409 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:53,080 good. You think that's what you would 410 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:55,000 do if you were going to play for the president that was going to 411 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,120 be televised on national TV and everything else? 412 00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:00,000 Probably not. You'd practice and practice and 413 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,440 practice and practice till you could sing it in your sleep if 414 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:05,320 you needed to, right? Because you're aiming for 415 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:07,280 excellence. Because the office of the 416 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,160 President of the United States deserves excellence. 417 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,040 And we want to represent ourselves and we want to 418 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,760 represent Christ well, and we want to represent this nation 419 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:17,040 well. And we want to have a good 420 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,200 showing before the President of the United States. 421 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:23,720 And yet we're getting ready to sing before the Lord of heaven. 422 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,720 We say, well, brother, praise the Lord. 423 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:28,960 We didn't get to really practice much this week, but we'll see 424 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,880 what comes out right. Hope it comes out all right. 425 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:34,800 Right. Who are you singing for? 426 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,160 The brethren that don't care what you sound like? 427 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:39,640 Or are you singing for the Lord? All right, I get it. 428 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:45,160 I've been in many churches where the people Can't Sing, where the 429 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,880 song leader Can't Sing, where the choir can't carry a tune in 430 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:52,160 a bucket, right? It's not because they didn't 431 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:53,760 practice, it's just because they don't know how to sing. 432 00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:55,880 They're making a joyful noise unto the Lord. 433 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:58,960 They are doing it to the best of their ability, right? 434 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:01,120 And that's all that he's asking from us. 435 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,040 Do it to the best of your ability. 436 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:07,000 And if the best of your ability is I don't have to hack my way 437 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,520 through a song, then you shouldn't do that. 438 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,560 It should be done with no mistakes. 439 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,840 It should be done without messing up if, if that's your if 440 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:17,600 that's the ability that you have, right? 441 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,320 So we have to aim for excellence in the standards for for singers 442 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:26,160 and for musicians and in the selection of every song in hymn, 443 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:28,400 right? If we're aiming for excellence, 444 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,040 it's not just in the performance of it, it's in the choosing of 445 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,520 that song. Is this song excellent? 446 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,120 Is it going to edify? Is it going to be pleasing to 447 00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:37,720 the Lord? Is it going to be building a 448 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,680 bridge to somewhere we don't want to go? 449 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,040 Everything about it has to be excellent. 450 00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,840 The conducting of it, every aspect of the song service, the 451 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,080 quality of the singing and the playing, right? 452 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:52,000 There are just some people who who are not cut out to sing in 453 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,480 church. You can join the congregational 454 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:57,760 chorus, all right. You can join the congregational 455 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,880 choir. But everything that we do, if we 456 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:03,000 have the ability to do it, should be done with excellence 457 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,760 and for the Lord. So that standard then requires 458 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,000 continual education, which is why we're going through this in 459 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,440 the 1st place. This is why we are are are 460 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:13,400 discussing the principles of music. 461 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,720 We have to do everything in an excellent way because of who we 462 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,480 are doing it for. The goal in our music should not 463 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,680 just be to hold the line, right? And I think that's a mistake 464 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:27,400 that a lot of that a lot of people make. 465 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,240 We're holding the line and it gets, gets harder and harder and 466 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,560 harder and it's not joyful. It's not, it's not exciting, 467 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:36,520 it's not wonderful because you're just, you're just hanging 468 00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:39,240 on for dear life, hoping that that line doesn't break and you 469 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:42,800 fall into the water, right? What we're trying to grow in 470 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,560 wisdom and knowledge and discernment in order to please 471 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,120 the Lord at an even higher level. 472 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:50,840 We want to take our music up and to the right. 473 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:52,520 We don't want to just hold the line. 474 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:55,400 We don't want to just not fall into contemporary Christian 475 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:56,880 music. We want to take it up and to the 476 00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:58,520 right. Look, anything that we can. 477 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,000 That's that's part of the reason why we added the orchestra and 478 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:03,720 that you look at, you look all the way throughout the Old 479 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,800 Testament especially, they filled the temple with music. 480 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,520 They filled the temple with playing instruments, right? 481 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,360 That that's why I'm saying if you have the ability to play an 482 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:14,760 instrument, you ought to be playing it, right? 483 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:16,320 Well, I haven't played in 10 years. 484 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,040 Then get it out and practice and start playing it again. 485 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:21,880 Use it for the Lord. He gave you the ability for a 486 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,480 reason. Use it for him and get good at 487 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:27,560 it. Don't just show up and oh, I've 488 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,160 never seen this music before, right? 489 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,920 All over the place, right? I don't, I don't know where my 490 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:36,880 place is at in the in the music. I get it. 491 00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,400 Sometimes people get nervous and you mess up, right? 492 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,040 I've done it. I get I get when I play my 493 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,880 trumpet, I get nervous. Don't know why I don't. 494 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,000 I'm fine down here. When I play my trumpet as a 495 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,080 solo, part of it is because it's so loud that if you make a 496 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,080 mistake, everybody knows you made a mistake, right? 497 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,000 I can make a mistake and preach and I can say actually, no, 498 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,880 that's not what I meant. What I meant was you can't do 499 00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,960 that on the trumpet. Oops, I didn't mean that. 500 00:24:59,960 --> 00:25:01,480 Let's back up and start again, right? 501 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,200 You can't do that. So it takes more practice, it 502 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,400 takes more effort, right? And, and, and everything that we 503 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,120 do should be excellent when it comes to our music. 504 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,040 Let's go over to First Chronicles 15. 505 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:14,960 Here's number 12. And this kind of goes right 506 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,320 along with this. But I want to say, say this in a 507 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:20,520 little bit different way #12 church music should be skillful. 508 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:26,400 Church music should be skillful. And it goes along with exactly 509 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,280 what we've been saying. Jesus Christ is worthy of our 510 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:36,880 very best First Chronicles, chapter 15 and verse #21 and 511 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:43,200 Mattathiah and Elephila and Miknaia and Obeditum and jail, 512 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:47,800 and Aziziah with harps on the Sheminith to excel. 513 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,600 And Shenaniah, chief of the Levites, was for song. 514 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,360 He instructed about the song because he was skillful. 515 00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,680 Psalm 33. Psalm 33, I'll just read this 516 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,720 verse to you. And verse #3 the Bible says, 517 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:07,120 sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud 518 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:09,760 noise. See the hymn says, give of your 519 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,320 best to the master. And that's what we want to do 520 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:14,320 with sacred music. We want to lead it. 521 00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:16,440 We want to play it. We want to sing it with the 522 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:20,120 highest level of expertise and prep, preparation that we can 523 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:23,160 produce not for our glory, but for God's glory. 524 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,600 We want to be better educated about music. 525 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,840 We want to understand what is right and how it's right and 526 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,480 what is wrong and how it's wrong when it comes to our church 527 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:35,280 music because we we want to play skillfully and for the Lord. 528 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,440 That's why we're doing it. We need to be better, better 529 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,880 prepared. We need to be stronger in every 530 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,560 area of our music. That's the that's the path of 531 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,520 spiritual victory and revival. And our music should reflect the 532 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,720 excellence should reflect excellence, because our God is 533 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,280 excellent in everything that he does, right? 534 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:56,840 That's, that's we ought, to, we ought to refuse and resist the 535 00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,520 casual look, the casual feel, right? 536 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,320 That's, that's one of the things that characterizes contemporary 537 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:07,240 Christian music and everything about it, right from the pastor 538 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,800 on down. Everybody shows up in jeans and 539 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:13,680 AT shirt with their, you know, $500 tennis shoes that they have 540 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,000 their pants tucked into them. And everybody's got to, they got 541 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,880 to walk like this because you can't crease them. 542 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,760 You know, that's what that produces, right? 543 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:26,960 It's all a production. It's all about what everything 544 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,560 looks like up here, right? And we want it to be excellent, 545 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,800 but I could care less about what everything looks like on a 546 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:35,320 video. Be here. 547 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:39,000 If you want to see it and hear it and experience it, then be 548 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:39,840 here. Be in church. 549 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:41,880 That's what it's for. The video is there in case you 550 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,480 can't be here because you're sick, right? 551 00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:47,160 It's not about a production. We're not trying to produce a 552 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,000 wonderful product. Everything should be done to the 553 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,560 highest level of excellence. But it's not a production. 554 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,520 We don't have TV, you know, I mean, video cameras all over the 555 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,360 place and, and, and catching people from every angle and all 556 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:01,760 of that kind of stuff. But but when your musicians are 557 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,040 up there wearing their beanies that are hanging off the back of 558 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,800 their head and they got their skin tight jeans and their and 559 00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,760 their tennis shoes and their T-shirts that that say Jesus on 560 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,560 the front of them, they're leading the worship. 561 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:14,480 What do you think? Everybody else is going to show 562 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:18,320 up like right. I think it's so funny. 563 00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:22,400 We, we just and miss Tawana was there too. 564 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,480 We just we went to the governor's mansion last week or 565 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,200 earlier this week, I guess, and the government had a reception 566 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:33,240 for the faith leaders, right? And all of these people that I 567 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,160 see all over the place, they're all, they're all people in this 568 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:41,640 area show up in church T-shirt, you know, maybe mostly in the 569 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,280 pastors and mostly not wearing shorts up there, but T-shirt, 570 00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,440 you know, just just very casual, very relaxed. 571 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:48,600 They show up at this thing in a suit. 572 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:51,920 So that's probably the first time they've worn a suit all 573 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,480 year long. But you're going to wear a suit 574 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,400 to meet the governor. But then when it's time to 575 00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:00,560 worship the Lord, let's have the most casual attitude that we can 576 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:04,040 have about this. Something's backwards here. 577 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:06,880 But that's what the music is producing. 578 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,400 It's designed to be casual because have you ever seen 579 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,840 somebody wear a suit to a concert, right? 580 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:15,840 A rock concert especially. You're not going to wear a suit 581 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:19,280 to a rock concert because you got to be able to bang out with 582 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,880 the music, right? And it produces that casual 583 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,520 attitude because that's not what you wear to a concert. 584 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,480 And then you take that same attitude and you bring it over 585 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,520 into the church and the only thing you change is a couple of 586 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:36,520 words to make it sound like it's church music and you have the 587 00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:38,880 same casual attitude. And it's not excellent. 588 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:41,680 It's not we're doing this for God's glory. 589 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:43,720 It's we're doing this for the production. 590 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,640 And well, of course, I have to wear $500 shoes. 591 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,760 I'm going to be on TV in front of the entire nation, all right? 592 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:51,400 Of course I got to have designer clothes. 593 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:52,680 Everybody's going to be watching me. 594 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:55,160 All right? Of course we have to have this 595 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,680 production with the smoke and all of this other stuff going on 596 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,000 because people are going to be watching this and it has to be, 597 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,720 it has to keep their attention, right? 598 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,400 Who you doing it for? If you're doing it for the Lord, 599 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:08,680 you're going to deal with excellence anyway. 600 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,280 But that's why we resist the casual look, the casual feel. 601 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:12,880 That's why we dress up for church. 602 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,440 It's not because I love wearing a tie and I want everybody else 603 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,360 to wear it too. I hate wearing a tie. 604 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,120 If I didn't have to wear a tie the rest of my life, there would 605 00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:25,120 be nobody happier than me. But in our culture, wearing a 606 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:29,120 suit is still the way that you show the most respect that you 607 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,240 can show for somebody else. That might change. 608 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,600 Maybe one of these days we'll be wearing kimonos or something, I 609 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:36,720 don't know. But right now it's a suit. 610 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,520 So I'm going to wear a suit and I'm going to dress up because of 611 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,440 who I'm representing and who I'm singing to and who I'm 612 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:48,920 worshipping when I'm here. We're going to implement some 613 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,520 things for our young people that that that sing and play to make 614 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:52,800 sure that we're holding that line. 615 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,200 I'm not going to make the adults do it, but for our young people 616 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,840 especially because we want things to be excellent, right? 617 00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,280 We're going to have them sing for, for somebody and let, let 618 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,000 somebody listen to them sing it before they just get up there 619 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,200 and hack their way through a song, right? 620 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:07,880 They're, they're working on things, they're practicing and 621 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:09,880 it's great. It's, it's, it's a wonderful 622 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,880 thing that our young people are involved in the service and they 623 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:15,920 can sing and play and do all of those other things. 624 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,760 But we don't need the young people to be involved just for 625 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,840 the sake of having an extra person sitting up here or an 626 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:23,600 extra person standing up here to sing. 627 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,160 It's that's not why we do it. We're doing it because it can 628 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,960 fill it up more and it gives them an opportunity to sing for 629 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:31,440 the Lord and be excellent for him. 630 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,600 So if that's our goal, then even our young people should do 631 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:38,000 everything at an excellent level, right? 632 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,080 I'm not going to make Brother George sing it for me before he 633 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,040 gets up there. You messed up too many times. 634 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,560 You Can't Sing tonight, sorry, brother George, you're going to 635 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,120 have to, you're going to have to take that home and practice a 636 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:50,040 little bit more, right? I expect that the adults will, 637 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,040 will do that themselves. And I and I trust that that 638 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:55,080 you're practicing and that you're working on those songs 639 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:56,880 and everything else so that they are excellent. 640 00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:59,280 But church music should be skillful. 641 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:02,880 It should be excellent #13 and we're almost done here. 642 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:05,000 Number 13. Church music should be 643 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,040 unquestionably right and safe. Turn over to 1st Thessalonians, 644 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,560 Chapter 5. Church music should be 645 00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:18,080 unquestionably right and safe. First Thessalonians chapter 5 646 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:25,120 and verse #21 The Bible says, prove all things, hold fast that 647 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,640 which is good. Verse 22. 648 00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:32,480 Abstain from all appearance of evil. 649 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:40,320 All appearance of evil. I'll, I'll pick on on these 650 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,720 because it's, it's a glaring example, but you ever, you ever 651 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:48,160 gone on to Hillsong, their website or their YouTube and 652 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,800 looked at just a video of their church service. 653 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:55,960 If you didn't purposely go to Hillsong's service, you would 654 00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,360 have to sit there for a while and try to figure out if you 655 00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:00,480 were watching a rock concert or if you were watching a church 656 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,080 service because you cannot tell the difference. 657 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:09,400 You cannot tell the difference is that abstaining from all 658 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:14,760 appearance of evil, it's not because it looks exactly like 659 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,400 the evil of the world, right? Brother Cloud actually just 660 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:24,440 wrote an article that he sent out in an e-mail and it was it 661 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,000 was called The Sexuality of the Contemporary Christian Movement. 662 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:35,000 And he had about 40 examples of people that are in the last 20 663 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,760 or 30 years, very popular contemporary Christian musicians 664 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:43,440 who have had affairs, who have, who have been convicted of, of 665 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:49,000 child pornography, who have done all kinds of heinous things, 666 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,360 cheating on their wives, you know, all, all kinds of stuff, 667 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,360 all kinds of stuff that all of these contemporary musicians. 668 00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,680 And, and it's not to say that, oh, you're a Baptist in a, in a 669 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:01,520 good church. And so you're immune to those 670 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:02,960 things. There's plenty of those things 671 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:06,880 too, but it's very prevalent because that's the kind of 672 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,800 lifestyle that happens when people are travelling in music 673 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:13,120 groups on the road. And, and some of the ones, some 674 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:15,199 of the contemporary Christian musicians who are actually the 675 00:34:15,199 --> 00:34:18,600 most honest will tell you it's all about drugs, women. 676 00:34:18,679 --> 00:34:22,960 It's no different than the lifestyle of a rock musician 677 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,440 other than you're getting up and leading worship and you're 678 00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:31,679 getting up and you're, you're singing songs about Jesus and 679 00:34:31,679 --> 00:34:33,440 you and, and OK, here's the argument. 680 00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:37,679 Well, that's, we don't do that in our church, but you're 681 00:34:37,679 --> 00:34:42,760 singing their songs and you are promoting that group and you 682 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:44,920 are, you are promoting their music. 683 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,719 And there's obviously zero of the Holy Spirit in that music. 684 00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,239 God's not giving him those words when they write it. 685 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,199 You can't live like that and expect that the Holy Spirit's 686 00:34:55,199 --> 00:34:58,600 giving you a worship song to give to everybody else, right? 687 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:03,040 So what we're trying to do here, as the Bible says, is abstain 688 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:07,640 from all appearance of evil, to hold fast only that which is 689 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:11,120 good, avoiding every, even the appearance of evil. 690 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,680 That's the highest possible standard for music, right? 691 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:15,720 And if we're trying to be excellent, and if we're trying 692 00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:19,520 to be skillful, then we should be trying to reach the highest 693 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,760 standard for of music that we possibly can. 694 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:25,000 The standard is not just the bare minimum. 695 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:26,960 It's not mediocrity, it's not borderline, it's not 696 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,080 questionable in any way. And again, that's the reason why 697 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:32,920 we don't have drums. It's the reason why we don't 698 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,640 have a trap set, It's the reason why we don't have the electric 699 00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:37,720 guitars and all of those things, right? 700 00:35:37,720 --> 00:35:40,720 Obviously you can play any musical instrument in a wrong 701 00:35:40,720 --> 00:35:45,400 way, but there are some that are associated with the music of the 702 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:47,520 world. That's why we don't do them, 703 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:49,680 right. How many times I've had people 704 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:53,080 I'm playing, play the electric guitar, I can shred an electric 705 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,400 guitar. I'll play in your church, right? 706 00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:56,960 No, thank you. I appreciate the offer. 707 00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,040 Right. We don't, we don't do that here 708 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:02,800 because we're trying to hold that standard as high as we can. 709 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,080 We're trying to avoid all appearance of evil. 710 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:07,600 That's our fundamental music standard. 711 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:09,720 If a song or hymn is questionable, then we want to 712 00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:11,480 avoid it. If we weren't, if we aren't sure 713 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,600 if it's right or sound or healthy, we want to avoid it. 714 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:19,680 There is there is a wealth I have, I have probably 3 or 4 715 00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:23,560 books at home that make up that take up about this much room on 716 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:27,880 my shelf of all old hymns that have been written over the past 717 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,920 100 and 5200 years. Some of them even, you know, 718 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,320 fairly new. But thousands of hymns that are 719 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,200 just old good hymns that because they don't fit in the song. 720 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,600 But you can only put us so many songs in a song book that they 721 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:42,560 end up getting moved out of print. 722 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,400 And you come along and you finally say, wow, how did this 723 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,760 song ever stop getting printed? This is a wonderful song about 724 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:51,960 Christ or it's a wonderful song about a doctrine that we find in 725 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:53,960 the Bible. There's a wealth of 726 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:57,400 unquestionably sound, doctrinally correct, spiritual, 727 00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:59,680 non worldly, non charismatic music. 728 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,960 So to avoid a piece of questionable music never harms a 729 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:09,720 church, but using questionable music can definitely harm a 730 00:37:09,720 --> 00:37:12,240 church. And the first thing to go in a 731 00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:15,280 church when a church starts moving in the wrong direction is 732 00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:20,680 always the music. The standards in music drop and 733 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,400 then the standards in everything else comes right behind it. 734 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,360 And the next thing you know, it's a full blown contemporary 735 00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:29,040 church that has nothing to do with what it used to be. 736 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,800 That requires constant testing of the church music, but that's 737 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:34,720 the standard of wisdom and safety. 738 00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:38,040 Let me give you this number 14. God's people should aim to learn 739 00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:42,480 to sing and play music. God's people should aim to to 740 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,200 learn to sing and play music. We're commanded to praise God 741 00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:47,920 with trumpets, with sultries, with harps, with timbrels, with 742 00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,480 stringed instruments, with organs, with loud cymbals, high 743 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,000 sounding cymbals. I'm summarizing Psalm 150. 744 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:57,640 That's an orchestra, right? And, and, and, and born again 745 00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:59,200 Christians. The Bible tells us in first 746 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,840 Peter are priests, right? And the priests in the former 747 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,320 dispensation were singers and players of instruments. 748 00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,520 As we've seen, children and young people should be learning 749 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,640 to play instruments. That's why we put such a strong 750 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,960 emphasis on it. My, my parents did a lot for us 751 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:16,560 growing up. We, we went to a Christian 752 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,480 School. I, I, I started playing the 753 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:19,880 piano when I was in second grade. 754 00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:25,120 And the one mistake that I wish my parents had not made was that 755 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:27,520 when I got into 7th grade, they gave me the option to stop 756 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:30,520 taking piano lessons if I wanted to because I was playing sports. 757 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:35,000 And as a 7th grader, the first thing I said was goodbye, No 758 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,400 more piano lessons. And I wish I'd kept playing 759 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,440 because you know what, my body's old and broken. 760 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,440 I can't play sports the way that I used to play sports. 761 00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:46,520 But you know what I could play if I knew how to play it? 762 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,120 The piano. I'm thankful that I started 763 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:51,480 playing the trumpet in the 4th grade. 764 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,240 And I played that all the way till I graduated college and 765 00:38:54,240 --> 00:38:55,640 after. And I still play it now. 766 00:38:56,120 --> 00:39:01,160 That's a skill that I have that hopefully I'll be able to do 767 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,000 till I'm old, right? You can't do that with sports is 768 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,000 important, right? It's, it's, it's necessary, 769 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,160 teaches you discipline and all of those other things. 770 00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,600 But nobody in this room or anywhere close to it is going to 771 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:13,960 go pro in sports. You're not going to make 772 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:18,000 $1,000,000 in it, right? It's, it's a good thing to have, 773 00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:20,680 but it's going to be gone, right? 774 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:25,160 If you find a place to play somewhere, it's going to be once 775 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,440 a week, once a month, once a year that you play sports. 776 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,440 But you can use the ability on an instrument for the rest of 777 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:37,440 your life, right? Get your kids music lessons. 778 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:39,920 Pay for it. Don't just say, hey, I got this 779 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:41,600 beginner book for you. Go learn how to play the 780 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:43,640 trumpet. All right, Give them some 781 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:44,600 lessons. Pay for it. 782 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:46,720 It's a it's an investment that's worth it. 783 00:39:46,720 --> 00:39:48,680 All right. How many parents are willing to 784 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:51,440 go buy their kids $200 pair of basketball shoes and they won't 785 00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:53,120 spend a dime for them to play music? 786 00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:56,200 Those basketball shoes are going to be long gone and they're not 787 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,040 going to remember that. You know what? 788 00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:00,600 They will remember how to play the musical instrument that you 789 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:02,400 spent a little bit of money for them to learn. 790 00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:05,480 Right, the, the, the Internet is an amazing thing. 791 00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:09,080 You can find a good teacher in a good church who's willing to 792 00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:13,560 teach your kids music on Zoom. It happened. 793 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:16,080 There's there's a lot of people that are doing it and it works 794 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,240 really well. Get your kids some music 795 00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:19,800 lessons. Let them learn how to play the 796 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:21,200 piano. Let them learn how to play the, 797 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:23,960 the trumpet and the violin or some other brass instrument. 798 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:26,320 All right, Let them learn how to play those things. 799 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,000 Those are skills that they're going to take with them for a 800 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:30,600 very, very long time. And, and by the way, it's a good 801 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,480 incentive to holiness into the wholesome use of time because 802 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,960 practicing an instrument sure beats watching TV or playing 803 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,600 video games, right? Which is what most kids are 804 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:41,520 sitting around doing. Even basketball and sports. 805 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:43,640 I mean, it's again, it's good to practice those things. 806 00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:46,000 It's good to to have some of those skills and some of those 807 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,320 abilities. God can use those too, right? 808 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:50,480 It's a great way to help stay in shape and everything else. 809 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:54,360 But at the same time, you practicing an instrument, you 810 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:57,520 learning an instrument is going to go way farther than anything 811 00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:00,600 else that you can do. In fact, you have to take your 812 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:02,440 kids out of school and teach them how to play an instrument. 813 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,680 I'm just kidding, don't. But I've used my instrument way 814 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:10,280 more than I've used math. I can tell you that much #15 the 815 00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:11,920 last one here. Let's turn to 1st Corinthians 816 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:17,560 chapter 5 and we'll be done because I don't even have to use 817 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:18,960 math anymore. I just go to the computer and I 818 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:24,680 say, hey, Google, how do you, what is what's 55 * 55? 819 00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,440 You know, Google tells me the answer to it, but Google can't 820 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:29,120 play an instrument for me. I'll tell you that much. 821 00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:33,560 First Corinthians chapter 5 #15 And this is the last thing. 822 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,880 And very quickly, church music must avoid incrementalism. 823 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,840 Your glorying is not good. Paul says in verse number six, 824 00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:47,080 No, you're not that A little Levin leaveneth the whole lump. 825 00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:50,480 Relation chapter 5 and verse 9 says the same thing, a little 826 00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:52,640 leaven leaveneth the whole lump. When it comes to church music, 827 00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:56,160 little can be big. Meaning this the wrong music 828 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,320 usually enters a church gradually out overnight. 829 00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:05,080 One way that enters is through specials, through courses, 830 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,400 through youth ministries. When that happens, the church is 831 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:11,720 is doomed to continue moving away from the spiritual and 832 00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:14,680 toward the contemporary unless there's a dramatic move to stop 833 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:16,840 the progression. And that very rarely happens 834 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:20,280 because the reason many times that it happens is the pastor 835 00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:23,000 is, is 100% on board with moving in that direction in the 1st 836 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:24,640 place. Right? 837 00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,520 But that's why it's so important that we hold the line. 838 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:29,560 That's why it's so important that we don't just hold the 839 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,240 line, but that we continue to move up and we continue to move 840 00:42:32,240 --> 00:42:34,440 forward in excellence with our music. 841 00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:38,240 Because it rarely happens that once music starts sliding in the 842 00:42:38,240 --> 00:42:41,280 wrong direction, it's very hard to grab the rope and pull it 843 00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,760 back in the other direction. It almost never happens, in 844 00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:45,560 fact. And the next thing you know, 845 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:47,880 that church is a contemporary church that doesn't hold to the 846 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,280 King James Bible, has 0 standards of dress and 847 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:52,840 everything else. But that's why we test every 848 00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,920 song. That's why, that's why we ask 849 00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,400 you to turn the music in before you sing it. 850 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:01,320 We got to test it. I've got, I've, I have the 851 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:04,440 responsibility of testing the music and making sure that it 852 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,040 lines up with the principles of the word of God, that it lines 853 00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:09,200 up with these principles of music that we've been going 854 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:10,880 through. That's, that's why you turn the 855 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:14,280 music in. That's why it's not just, well, 856 00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,280 I, I was able to put this together last night. 857 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,360 This is a song that I found and, you know, I found it on the 858 00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,440 Internet. I think it's pretty good, right? 859 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:26,120 It might be, it might be OK. It might be a decent song, but 860 00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:28,160 it might lead us in a direction that we don't want to go. 861 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:33,120 And here's the problem. Brother George gets up and sings 862 00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,320 a song that is a contemporary song that he toned down. 863 00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:41,680 Now I'm in a position that either got to get up and correct 864 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:44,600 Brother George in front of the whole church, which I'm not 865 00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:48,480 going to do more than likely, or, well, Brother George saying 866 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:49,920 that. So I guess the music's OK. 867 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,000 I guess we have to let that go because I let him do it. 868 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:54,320 I can't say no to this person, right? 869 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,400 If you turn the music ahead of time and we look at the song and 870 00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,280 we evaluate the song and we look at it through the eyes of, of, 871 00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,800 of the word of God and all these principles of music that I can 872 00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,280 say, hey, brother George, that's not a bad song. 873 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,280 But here's why we're not going to do that one. 874 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,120 And now there's no embarrassment, Brother George. 875 00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:12,640 And I know his attitude toward it. 876 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,160 All right, fine. I'll find another song. 877 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:16,120 Plenty of them out there. All right. 878 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:18,720 That's why we do it. It's my job to make sure that 879 00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:21,520 the music stays on the path that it should stay on and that we 880 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:23,480 don't veer to the left and we don't move toward that 881 00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:26,400 contemporary compromise that comes with all of those things. 882 00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,160 But my job as the pastor is to test the music and make 883 00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,080 judgments regarding the music that we have in our church. 884 00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:35,320 And it's a difficult, it's a difficult spot because I don't 885 00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:37,920 want to tell you, no, that's not a good song to sing or no, you 886 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:39,640 can't do that song. I don't, I don't like doing 887 00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:43,320 that. But if you can evaluate the 888 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:46,560 music in light of these principles of the word from the 889 00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,920 word of God, then it'll help you to pick out songs that are 890 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,240 pleasing to the Lord. And it makes the process very 891 00:44:52,240 --> 00:44:53,640 easy. And that's why it's my job to 892 00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:56,600 teach you what music is acceptable and what music is not 893 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,640 acceptable. Some, some genres of music, some 894 00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:02,120 authors, some types of music have very slippery slopes. 895 00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,360 And we want to be as far away from that slippery slope as we 896 00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:07,680 possibly can be. There may be a couple songs on 897 00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:13,240 the edge that are OK that, that we just have to say we can't do 898 00:45:13,240 --> 00:45:16,880 that because it it leads us to the edge of that slope that's so 899 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,760 close that if we take one more step over, we're sliding down in 900 00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:23,640 a in a very fast direction, very, very the wrong direction 901 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:26,280 in a very fast way. We just, we can't do it. 902 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,840 We don't want to do it because we want to be as as excellent in 903 00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:33,640 our music as possible because of who we're doing the music for. 904 00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:37,160 It's not about production. It's not about what you sound 905 00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:40,360 like, not about how good you sound or how bad you sound. 906 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,000 If you can't really sing, and I know we joke about that, but 907 00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,840 that's what the Bible says, make a joyful noise, right? 908 00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:49,360 I would rather have somebody get up here and sing. 909 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,760 I'd rather have Jesus off tune than somebody who gets up here 910 00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:54,760 and sings. What a beautiful name it is, 911 00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:58,600 right? Nothing wrong with either one of 912 00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:02,760 those songs, really, right? But what a beautiful name it is. 913 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:06,800 Was the number one contemporary Christian music song a couple 914 00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:09,880 years ago and everybody saying it came from Hillsong. 915 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:13,160 Their their music is taking everybody in the wrong direction 916 00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,320 because it's all about them and all about the production and not 917 00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:20,480 about Christ as much as they want to say that it is right. 918 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:26,000 So these principles will help us in our music and, and hopefully 919 00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:29,120 it'll help you and your music, even the music that you listen 920 00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,600 to, right? Not every single song that you 921 00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:35,120 listen to in the car has to be a hymn, right? 922 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,440 There are some, there's some music that's not sacred music 923 00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:40,880 that we're not going to sing in church, but that's probably OK 924 00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:42,360 for you to listen to in your car, right? 925 00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,520 Take Me Home, Country roads. Go listen to it if you want to, 926 00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:49,680 right? Roy Rogers, go listen to it. 927 00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:53,560 Not, not all music is bad music, but these are all principles 928 00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:56,120 that you should apply, right? What? 929 00:46:56,120 --> 00:47:00,400 What, what, what about that music is right or wrong? 930 00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,040 Those are the things that you need to evaluate, right? 931 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,400 Have yourself a merry little Christmas. 932 00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:06,440 We're not going to sing it in church. 933 00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:08,840 But it's not nothing wrong with singing that or listening to 934 00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:12,320 that in your car, right? There's some music that that 935 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,640 that we just wouldn't sing in church because it's not sacred. 936 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:17,040 But it's not wrong either, right? 937 00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:19,920 You have to evaluate all of these things as principles of 938 00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,080 music by the word of God. And there's a lot of there's a 939 00:47:22,080 --> 00:47:23,480 lot of things that we could look at. 940 00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:27,080 I mean, I told you this before we spent 15 weeks a couple years 941 00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,720 ago going through music and these principles of music. 942 00:47:29,720 --> 00:47:32,440 This was 3. So it's, it's really, you know, 943 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,360 zoomed down. You can go, you can go on 944 00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:36,920 YouTube and find the entire series and, and, and listen 945 00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:38,680 through it. But the important thing is, 946 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,000 especially when it comes to our church music, we want everything 947 00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:46,200 in our church to be as excellent as it can possibly be, because 948 00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:47,840 we're not doing it for our glory. 949 00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:50,040 We're doing it for the glory of God. 950 00:47:50,720 --> 00:47:53,240 And he's the one that I want to please. 951 00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:56,760 I don't care if everybody else in this church is pleased. 952 00:47:56,760 --> 00:48:00,600 If God's not, it doesn't matter. And if God is pleased, it 953 00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:02,880 doesn't matter who else is displeased, right? 954 00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,440 I, I, I am not a confrontational person. 955 00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,960 I do not like to be the bad guy. But when it comes to these kind 956 00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:13,560 of things, I will be because I have to be. 957 00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:15,840 I'm going to answer to God for it, not you. 958 00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:20,640 I want to be able to say I did what was what was needed when it 959 00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:23,360 came to music. I was faithful to do what God 960 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:26,400 wanted us to do in music. That's what I want to be able to 961 00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:29,520 say and I hope you'll help me with it. 962 00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,040 You don't want me to look bad in the judgment seat, do you? 963 00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:35,840 Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so 964 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,040 much for your goodness to us. I thank you for the opportunity 965 00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,280 that we have to discuss these things and look at them from the 966 00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:44,160 Word of God and to see these principles from from the 967 00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,960 biblical perspective. God, I know that in many 968 00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:50,280 churches, these are not things that are being preached and it 969 00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:53,000 doesn't make us better than anybody else, but we want to 970 00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,360 hold our standard as high as we can so that you can be pleased. 971 00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,440 And God way, I, I pray that you'd help us in our church to 972 00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:04,360 have music that is, that is 100% pleasing to you, that is 973 00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,560 excellent, that is well practiced and skillful because 974 00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:10,160 we're doing it for, for you, God. 975 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:12,720 May that be our motivation for everything that we do in this 976 00:49:12,720 --> 00:49:14,480 church. May it be done for your honor 977 00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:16,120 and your glory. And may you be pleased by 978 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:19,240 everything that happens here. Again, we thank you so much for 979 00:49:19,240 --> 00:49:21,520 all that you do for us in Jesus name, Amen. 980 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:22,920 Go ahead and stand at your seats. 981 00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:25,520 We're going to have a short time of invitation. 982 00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,320 Maybe there is a decision that you need to make when it comes 983 00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:30,600 to your music. And again, you're not, you're 984 00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,120 not making the decisions in our church necessarily for the 985 00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:35,920 direction of the music. But maybe you, maybe you need to 986 00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:37,840 raise the standard in your own home. 987 00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:40,880 Maybe you need to raise the standard and the things that you 988 00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:43,880 listen to personally, maybe you need to take that, that up a 989 00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:45,480 notch. You know, the reason why people 990 00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:48,520 are so drawn to contemporary Christian music is because 991 00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,200 you're listening to the wrong things. 992 00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:54,800 I, I'll be honest with you, I'm not even tempted by contemporary 993 00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,680 Christian music. It's not like I'm thinking, oh 994 00:49:56,680 --> 00:49:59,080 man, I wish we could do that song because I really would like 995 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,440 to. I'm not tempted by it because 996 00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:05,440 I'm not listening to it. I'm not fishing in that pond and 997 00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:08,360 I'm not trying to hold myself up as some great standard bearer or 998 00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:10,520 something like that. But all I'm saying is it works. 999 00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,160 If you don't want to be tempted by those things and don't, then 1000 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:16,080 don't put yourselves in a, in a, in a place where you're going to 1001 00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:18,440 be tempted by it. And maybe you need to make a 1002 00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:21,280 decision to raise your own personal standard of music so 1003 00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:24,880 that you're not dropping it in the church, so that you're not a 1004 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:29,400 hindrance to the music of God's church going forward. 1005 00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:33,440 I don't know, but I want to give you an opportunity to respond if 1006 00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:34,800 God spoke to your heart about something. 1007 00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:37,960 So as the piano plays the invitations open, you come.