Worship - With Your Instrument w/Brent-Anthony Johnson

We have a special treat today. We've been going through our series on worship.

Worship with everything. The idea that really everything that is available to

us mentally, emotionally, physically, are ways and things and tools of which we

can use to worship God. We started by talking about the Shema, this prayer that

the Israelites would pray twice a day. Hero is real, the Lord our God is

one. One God. Worship the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul,

with all of your strength. Jesus taught this and said that was the greatest

commandment. That the second one is like it, that you should love your neighbor as

you love yourself. And so for us, worship is giving everything that we have back to

God and then worship affects the way that we love our neighbors. And then Scott

taught us about praying the scriptures and then last week we used the

scriptures to write a new song. And something that a lot of you have in

common is that you have played an instrument in some point of your life.

Tony is someone that I know that has played the instrument of the bass like

few people I've ever met and I really appreciated that he said yes that he

would come and talk to us about using your instrument as a way of worshipping

God. Please welcome Brent Anthony Johnson.

Well this is going to be brief.

Hi. How's it going? I am so blessed to be here with you guys. Sincerely. You don't

know what it means to me to talk to you. Try not to cry. Worshiping with your

instrument. It's something that I don't think people understand the depth of

doing and being and there's a great difference in doing and being. I think

the church has a lot of doers and I think times of doing it's very important

to be that person. In times of ministry or at the point of ministry it is very

very very important to be. And I think that there's a misunderstanding between

these two things. There's nothing wrong with doing nothing at all. Being however

comes from the inside. I was uh I started playing music at 11 and just had a

natural way of doing this. It was as if I was made for it. That was great. So I

found myself in bands and I found myself functioning with musicians and learning

about the musicians in my community. I grew up in East Moline and a lot of great

players and at a time when it was before the internet, it was

before it was when you went to see bands. I mean don't get me wrong I'm not

faulting the internet. I would much rather sit at home you know in sweats. Get the

best camera angles. Look at the best sound you know on my little device and

you know I'm eating pizza you know. This is a great show. This is fantastic.

You know whereas you know looking at the broad view you have to look at

everyone. Someone starts to play a solo and it's like oh it's that guy over there.

The camera doesn't tell me anymore you know in the live setting the camera

doesn't tell anyone where to look you know. That's good and bad I suppose. So I

came to Christ at 17 about five six years into this journey when I was playing

and came to came to that came to playing on worship teams through the world's

weirdest scenario. I won't even get into that right now. Suffice to say that I was

invited by a pastor of a church to show up. He kept calling me because I saw

something that was I saw pure evil. I saw something. I saw someone who was

possessed and she was the mother of someone I knew and the pastor came to me

and said you saw that. So I kept calling me to church and so and found out

what do you do? I'm a musician. I play in bands around town and stuff like that. So I was the

weirdo sneaking out you know my parents. That's my mom by the way. Say hi mom.

So she really encouraged it and it was it was really good for me so I started

playing at this church and from the moment I was that I came to Christ I

was playing music and it never stopped and later on in my life well a little

later on in my life I realized that it was kind of meant to be that that's what

I do and God recognized it and well obviously it was built that way. So really

it took a few minutes for me to start understanding the word it's applied to

my life okay. I was reading the Bible because it was cool and I was learning

things about God without ever really applying it to myself. I mean it was I

was learning about God you know and then God started talking to me. No wait hold

on that's wait you have words for me? Weird. And through that really wonderful

little still voice that thing that keeps talking and at one point

I was practicing and I heard God say this is what I made you for. Sorry. That was a

calling. So I stopped immediately thinking about how to do it when God was

telling me be it. It went down on the inside and stayed there. Eventually I

found myself applying the word to my life and I stumbled across Psalm 333

for anyone who ever touched an instrument or ever sang or ever spoke

publicly it says sing to him a new song play skillfully and shout for joy. The

word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves

the righteousness loves righteousness and justice and the earth is full of his

unfailing love. How that works for worshiping through your instrument is

I've said everything I could ever say about worship right there. I don't have

to do this because you guys it's so weird that from this place the body that

I've been called to serve sees me operate my gift and so I never really

have to talk about it and that seems to be the place where the Lord uses me and

my job. This play skillfully thing is very important and I think that

oftentimes in the church people want to do that and it shows up in various you

know varying degrees of how that functions because we have lives we have

jobs we have things to do and so sometimes we get really busy and we find

ourselves at times showing up to do this thing to serve right. Unfortunately

sometimes that if you're not being it and you're not forcing yourself to live

it because a call is something that you don't have a choice about. You can't just

say well I was too busy doing this but I'm gonna do this over here. It's not

gonna show it's not gonna be gold but it'll be gold filled. You know we as a

body as believers we can't afford that we can't afford that. Not only do we give

God our absolute best and and prepare it but we can't do that to each other. We

can't do that because this place and when we get together is the thing that

helps us go on. It can be fake or half done. We can't afford that because this

is the lifeblood of who we are as a community. It's how we stand up it's how

we talk to one another it's how we present the idea of Christ in this world

right. So to be can be looked upon as arrogance you know I am the greatest you

know. He was though right and I think that we sometimes the church can kind of

place situations in a very weird light. Some years ago when Apple first started

doing it I know I kind of identified them as first to do it where they would

roll out new products right and the guy would come up in on a stage in front of

people and talk about that product now great that's gonna be you know you guys

realize that he got that from church right. Right so it's like it's like it's

like a service the whole thing goes down there's music and then the guy gets up

let me tell you how great we are. The church that he stole that from took it

back from them those people and changed it from being how great God is to how

great we are and it's heartbreaking because the church invented the

university we canonized music we're the first people to write it down we're the

first people to teach it and now look at it because it's been changed you know my

my heart cries to take that back and the only way I can do it is to be

proficient. As a cold worshiping musician on my instrument it is my it's part of

my daily routine to make sure that I can do that. My joy is to do it for you guys

because I get the best emails you guys worship.

Now I get to see it because I'm not there showing you how I worship that's

not the job I'm not teaching you how I worship I'm taking you there and it's

just not about that it's not about showing you how I worship I sometimes

can't even look at you guys because it's beautiful but the job is to be so able

to play that I'm not trying to play at the time that I'm leading I'm not

trying to play I can play does that sound arrogant no I can walk right right

do little things um but that's how that should be for for someone who's called

to do this task it's like putting on pants it's has anybody ever said you

know I love the way you stand there you can stand up looks like you've been

standing up for a very long time it's you know what I'm saying it's like it but

we try to sort of make things holy that are weird it's like that's normal you're

supposed to do this you're supposed to do this well there is nothing in the

word of God that says show up and figure it out throughout the Bible there's

400 more than more than 400 calls to worship more I mean you know I'm saying

there's numerous musicians named even in building the temple God said

specifically go get that guy go get that guy go get that guy go get that why I

built them to do this I made them I created them to do that can you imagine

sitting there having a cup of tea and the priest show up at your house God said

you do this well I do God says he's gonna build a tabernacle and you're the

guy what yeah because he created you to do this everyone functioning in this

body everyone functioning everyone walking and breathing Christ has a

calling we are born with fingerprints and we don't even use them unless we're

naughty a God who did that

so we have to stop showing up for position we have to stop wanting to

appear to be something we not and just simply be because we are all something

and it's a matter of addressing that and serving this body I you know we live in

this post-Christian age right we do maybe it's because we're not showing up

make you know maybe the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was give me your

soul for 30 years I'll give you a pension and they couldn't have your life

back what why are you in ministry you'll be poor I'm in I'm in ministry and I'm a

musician I'm broke I ain't I'm saying I mean that's not that's not the career

path that one chooses for oneself trust me but worshiping on the instrument it's

such a when Greg and I talked about this I couldn't really talk about playing I

mean people want to talk about that thing when they see me do that thing

that's great that's wonderful it's really sweet and I love the fact that

you love how I speak into the music of this place I do thank you but the music

I speak into in the world out there that is my witness because I can't walk in

proclaiming Jesus and not be able to do the job I got hired for none of us can

afford that right thank you we can't afford it so oftentimes I'm my greatest

witness and how I get to talk to people about Jesus is because I showed up and

did something well you know people say weird things to each other right you

seem rather spiritual I just asked for pizza um I'll bless it don't know we

back in a second it you know but that is how I am able to talk to people about

the Lord and that's the only way that's all I got and I love it having one thing

one thing by which you can speak in the world because life is big it's like a

mountain it's imagine Everest right you're gonna climb Everest there's so

many ways to get up there and if you find the right Sherpa to take you up the

way you want to go it's usually successful trip if you want to go up a

different way and you find the wrong Sherpa this Sherpa says you gotta go

find you gotta go talk to Ted I don't do that I've been up there 500 times just

not that way you gotta find the guy that takes you up the right way that you want

to go right otherwise as a mountain it's just too big this is the way I get up

the mountain that's it so many way know how to do it it's the only way I want to

do it hmm and there are bodies going up there that did it the wrong way or

something and I so so all that said

worshipping on your instrument it's a really interesting and weird task um it

comes down to you how in the world we're ever going to be able to say anything

about how wonderful God is we you know well with with with singing and worship

being mentioned so often obviously God means it obviously means it and you know

people sort of fall into this idea let's make a joyful noise I can't really sing

fine you know however if you want to sing you can learn to sing you can learn

to sing anybody can learn to sing actually if you sing enough at home

you'll sing better in public if you want to be if you want to sing not to be a

singer but if you want to sing sing all the time sing all the just do it just

go out this walk through it I I sing I sing all the time and I don't even know

I'm doing it I didn't turn the radio on in my car I'm driving down the street

singing I know so I'm gonna stop light and I'm sure people like wow he's into

that song you know the window comes down and there's no music maybe he's on his

phone maybe he's singing with someone online maybe they're you know maybe

they're doing a podcast I don't know Wow thank you for letting me do this

there's all kinds of things here the other thing I want to identify is that

worship is warfare it's warfare and if you aren't prepared for that you're

gonna get run over we are gonna get run over we as a musician I've always kind

of you know when I teach I I make this comment that if you're going to go fight

a battle wouldn't it be wonderful to be a specialist like special forces right

I'm into military history and all that stuff if not for an amazing wonderful

case of a stigmatism I would actually have had a military career when I was

young you couldn't get corrective surgery to do that sort of thing and

they weren't taking people with us you know and they were saying oh you'll

probably end up typing or something great why go um but I really part of me

wanted to be like Green Beret or Navy SEAL or Rangers you know and I wouldn't

want to go into warfare any other way than with specialists I I give the

example of how as a team very small team usually six people or so everybody

knows someone else's job in the team in case something happens but applying that

to music when when in this in this church the way we work together Greg and

I there's a there's this wonderful dialogue that goes on and I'm paying

more attention to that really as I as we lead because they'll say something or

play something and I'll play something back you play something back that's a

wonderful conversation that happens a lot you think about jazz musicians it's

a conversation it's usually not about the song the song is merely a platform

to be around people you love and care for and who care for you and how there's

this beautiful relationship that it's beyond words you know I'm saying it's

we don't have to talk to each other about the song it's not about learning

the song as you try to lead someone to the throne of grace that's an

impossibility you know what I mean imagine a pastor preaching and is

learning the Bible as he or she does so that would be weird imagine learning how

to drive and driving someplace never having touched the wheel never having

been behind the wheel of a car before you're gonna go to California I don't

drive you are now but by the time you get there you might be better at it yeah

if you get there um you know you're gonna drive through every major city

between here and the West Coast good luck that so that's that's that's not

something to do nobody you know that's absurd ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and yet in

certain churches right now there's someone on a platform trying to lead

people trying to learn this thing this this thing no we have to take the time

to get our craft together that happens at home that happens at home none of the

stuff happens in public it shouldn't I spend hours and hours and hours and

hours and hours every week to maybe play well there's three songs here on Sunday

I might do a commercial session I might do this I might play on someone's

record I would say that if I'm not playing live from not touring if I'm

not doing that sort of thing there's not a week that goes by that I played like

ten songs unless I'm trying to learn something but to learn the songs that I

need to present is worship everything's worship everything goes back to being

and not doing I can't do music I can't I can't there are days I don't want to do

music really honestly there I'm sure there's days that Robin doesn't want to

dance great doesn't want to preach I'm sure of it you know you we all have jobs

do you want to go every day and do it is anybody really good at their job is

anybody really really good at their job I mean no I'm asking a serious question

who's really good at their job yeah right right but isn't that a weird isn't

that weird okay so if you're really good at your job and you love your job how

many of you are called to your job yeah right right I guarantee you that if you

feel that way it is far more effective not only for the job itself but for

everyone around you I love it when I'm hanging out with somebody who's working

and they're really good at their job you just want to be next to them you just

want to like wow this is cool um this person is really called to do this and

you learn so much just the conversation about it and so as we talk about music

it I don't know that I can play music anymore without worshiping I think

that's been the case for 40 years maybe and I it doesn't matter what I'm playing

I will cry in a minute to Eleanor Rigby the song the Beatles I think I met the

Beatles just comment um and I say all the time when I'm when I'm talking with

the Christian singer songwriters if that person can make a two minute and 34

second song that is that profound that is a worship song I don't know what to

say here say Jesus okay that's great this worship song good in the context of

that song two minutes 34 seconds we're introduced to two characters one of them

pies and there's all this aftermath in this how life can be life and this sort

of thing that's amazing I think that I think that God meant us to hear that so

it's not just Christian songs it's not just worshiping as a worshiping musician

as a worshiping through my instrument for this it's simply being every and

honestly trying to develop a skill set and trying to you know have chops that

sort of thing it's I think the thing that I bring to music it's that I'm

worshiping all the time I just worship to you know playing a track for a bank

commercial for Geneseo last week and I found myself worshiping not the bank um

but just because I don't know that there's a magic place where as a

musician where I'm playing something that I didn't know I could play that

really doesn't happen it's really sometimes in that context it's just very

profound I think that's the Holy Spirit I think that's what that is I think that

notes are just notes and God brings them to life through the player through these

hands through this voice through you know and that and that's really all

there is as a Christian as a believer as a musician we well doing this doesn't

automatically make it holy because we can't put that on and take that off at

will we can't do something and expect God to go yeah that that right there

it's how we come into the scenario and it's who we are in this moment in time

ordained to present this idea so um hmm God's calling doesn't exonerate those

called from the hard understanding of being become as skilled as possible

anymore than playing in a church makes itself holy I am so glad I was able to

do this I hope I made sense um

I'm asking all of you to be and stop doing please please please be be because

you are that's why you are just just be ask God ask him he'll tell you he'll

tell you he'll tell you a lot tell you when you want to do something else

because he's always spirit is waiting to use us to talk to this place they need

to hear and how we get up the mountain how we get there is unique completely

individual God's very creative he gives I mean look at each other Wow there's a

lot going on here that you can't just sit down and write what we see every day

we take for granted every day Wow because this is how he's gonna do this

he's gonna use us hmm I am relieved that I'm done talking now I'm really got

through that I'm also relieved that um that I was able to be blessed with this

thing to do this little bit this little tiny bit so that's what it means to

worship through your instrument the instrument is a vehicle worship is of

course the idea it's how so if you take a moment and think about how you worship

and what that means and what that could mean for outside of these walls thanks