Worship From the Word, Part 2

To quickly review, we talked about worship.

What is worship? We defined it most simply as a

right response to revelation. Right?

And each of those things are crucial.

First, there has to be revelation.

There has to be truth from God. Second, I have to respond.

And 3rd, that response has to be right according to what God has

said. We talked about the requirements

for biblical worship. First is regeneration.

You have to be saved. You have to be a believer in the

Lord Jesus Christ and belong to the Church of God.

You have to worship, as John 424 says, in spirit from within me,

with the right heart, attitude, with love, and with reverence.

And I have to worship in truth, according to His Word, according

to all that He has revealed, to the directions that He has given

us. We talked about from Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. What does the right response

look like? And we talked about 5 things

that Deuteronomy 10 shows us. A right response to God involves

in awe of God. It's a reverence for him.

It involves an allegiance to his ways.

It's a life of commitment and submission to him.

It's an affection for God. It's a love because we recognize

that he has loved us, which such a great love and inexpressible

love. 4th A right response involves activity for God's

worship. It involves service through the

duties that God has given us. And 5th, The right response of

worship requires an adherence to God's will.

It requires an obedience to the specific commands that He gives.

We talked about last week about how God cares about proper

worship and how Scripture contains many warnings for us to

heed. Scripture warns US against

unauthorized worship, which neglects truth, which neglects

the character of God, and which neglects the directions that He

has given us. And Scripture warns US against

unclean worship, worship that does not have a correct

attitude, with both reverence and love, realizing that He is

holy and He will be treated as holy.

We use Leviticus 10 with the death of the sons of the priest

Aaron as an example. Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel's

offerings. We talked about Acts 5, Ananias

and Sapphira. We talked about what the Lord

says in Psalm 50, warning His people the outward obedience was

not enough, but they needed to have an inward obedience, an

inward commitment and submission.

And we talked about how do we heed these warnings?

What is the way of worship? We talked about we must have

regulated worship, which means it's regulated, it's defined and

controlled by God's Word. And we must have reverent

worship. We have must have worship that

begins from the heart of understanding God's character,

not Kim coming before him in a trivial way, in a thoughtless

way, but a careful way, one that honors him and fears him as

Scripture repeatedly commands us.

And then we close with talking about Old Testament versus New

Testament worship, right? The outward forms look very

different, Old Testament and New Testament.

And thankfully we don't have to follow all the laws that were

laid down in the Old Testament. But we talked about how all the

principles behind Old Testament worship were consistent with

what we do now. We talked about how the

Levitical law, the ceremonial law showed the character and

work of God. It showed the transcendence and

holiness of God while at the same time reminding us He's

gracious. He allows us to come near to His

presence. It reminds us that we are

separated from God because of our sinfulness and that we need

to be forgiven, We need to be cleansed.

We need our sins atoned for. And we cannot accomplish that,

only God Himself can. The Old Testament taught us that

God wants His people to be separate and that he has

absolute authority over every area and every detail of life.

When we look at the laws, Leviticus, Numbers and

Deuteronomy, they set Israel apart and even such thing as

conduct clothing and food to keep them separate from being

defiled from the by the sins of the world and to keep them

distinct as a people who are possessed by God, who represent

him well. And so we talked about how those

principles are still true for us today.

God has the same desires. He has the same intention for

the guidelines that he's given us.

And so as we start tonight, tonight's conversation is going

to be a little more just that a little more free.

We began with all of the the the commands, right?

We know what God commands in worship.

We know what he requires, what he expects.

And as we move through, we're going to move to wisdom, we're

going to move to principles, we're going to move to the

things that we want to think about as we think about singing

and music, and we'll get there. As we begin, we want to touch

on, of course, worship with the body because we just finished,

remember, last week, everything came to the one point that

remind us worship is life. There's nothing in my life that

is not worship. And so Romans 12/1 says I am to

offer myself. I am the sacrifice.

I am both the priest giving offerings to God for his

pleasure, and I am also the offering that's continually

offered to him for his pleasure. And so there's nothing in my

life that is exempt. There's nothing in my life that

is not dedicated as worship. But with clarity and with common

sense, we know there's something special.

There's something that God has commanded here when we meet

together, and that's worship with His body, the church.

You know, the command in Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

In fact, why don't we just turn there briefly, Hebrews 10.

If somebody ever talks to you and they express a reluctance to

be with the people of God, maybe they cite past difficulties or

past ways that they've been hurt or misled and so they've lost

their trust in the church and the leadership of God of God's

people. This is the first place we have

to take him. It says in verse 23 of Hebrews

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. Let us hold fast the confession

of our hope without wavering for he who promised this faithful,

remember, just got done talking about Christ was the atonement.

He completed and fulfilled everything in the Old Testament.

Now you have access to God's presence to the most holy place,

as it were, because of Jesus. He's brought you near.

And so the author of Hebrews is going on to say, let's draw

near. Let's hold fast to our hope

without wavering, without looking back, without being

weak, because God's faithful and directly connected to that in

verse 24, he says, and let us consider how to stimulate one

another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling

together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one

another in all the Moors. You see the day drawing near.

So everything about our salvation leads us to the

church. It leads us to being part of the

body of Christ. Ephesians talks about how we

were all made part of that. If you're saved, you're given

the Holy Spirit and you are made a part of the church, OK, in a

way that cannot be broken, that cannot be taken away.

And the author of Hebrews gives the command, don't forsake,

don't forsake our assembling together because it's God's

command and it's God's plan. If we look at Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

if you'll turn there, remember we did, we talked about Romans

12, verse one, offering myself as a living sacrifice.

Immediately after that, the very next section is talking about

spiritual gifts. It's talking about being

connected with the people of God.

It's talking about serving when God's people meet together.

So the biblical command and the assumption all throughout

Scripture is that God's people must and they will gather

together. It's a natural thing, it's a

commanded thing, but naturally, if you're really saved, you will

make a priority the meeting and the Church of God.

So again, we have worship as an individual.

I'm a living sacrifice, and we have worship as a church.

That's something special. God has designed the body of

Christ to be united and to build itself up through the Word by

the power and gifting of the Holy Spirit.

Now, when I look at worship in my life personally, and I look

at worship with the church, there's going to be a lot of

overlap. There's going to be a lot of

similar things. OK, But that just that

underlines the fact that we should be the same people during

the week and on Sundays. We should be the same people

with my family or alone that I am.

When I come to church and I meet together with the body of

Christ, I should have the same heart attitude that leads me to

obedience and service. And Scripture is clear.

If you love God, you'll love others, beginning with the

people of God. First Corinthians 13 talks about

love, right? That's not about marital love

primarily. The context before that is the

church. It's using spiritual gifts, the

way we serve. And then Paul goes on in First

Corinthians 13 to talk about love guides that love motivates

that the greatest commandments as Jesus sums up in Matthew 22

or what love the Lord with everything you are and love your

neighbor as yourself. Deuteronomy 6 and 10, it has the

same connection. So our love for God, our worship

of God, of God, will naturally lead us into worship with the

church and a love for the church.

In First Corinthians 14, right after it talks about love, Paul

is dealing with selfishness in the practice of the church.

The believers were trying to practice tongues in a

counterfeit way because they wanted some recognition.

They wanted to seem cool. They wanted to seem like they

had something special. But Paul attacks that, he

attacks that attitude, he attacks those motives, and he

points out that everything that we do together is out of love

and to strengthen the church. He says, what is the outcome

then, brethren, when you assemble, you have a Psalm, you

have a teaching, you have a revelation, you have a tongue,

you have an interpretation. Let all be all things be done

for education. Education, edification.

Sorry, that's a hard word. Edification.

So worship of God leads us into meeting with the church.

When we look at Acts 242, it lists some of the specific

things that the first church that early believers after

Christ returned to heaven practiced.

It says in Acts 242 they were continually devoting themselves

to the apostles, teaching into fellowship, to the breaking of

bread and a prayer. In verses later, it talks about

giving and meeting needs. It talks about evangelism.

Christ, of course, speaks of church discipline.

But in all this, there's a consistency from what we're

doing at home, and that leads into something special at

church. And in everything we recognize

that the truth is central. At home we will study the word

of God. At home we will pray, at home we

can sing. At home we have an attitude of

fear towards God and love. And all those things are true at

church. But God has given us the church

and a special way to serve and to build one another's up.

And so the Bible commands that we hear the word of the Lord.

The truth is central. The Bible commands that we read

Scripture, that we sing Scripture, that we pray, what

Scripture says, that we give, that we have that same attitude

of reverence. The Bible commands that we

observe baptism and communion, and in every elements the truth

of God's Word is central, and it draws us together.

That's why in our church, the preaching is the preeminent part

of the service. Not that nothing else matters,

not that we want to downplay anything else, but the preaching

is the place where you get the deepest expression and study of

the truth. And so it's the time that is

most devoted to, it's the time that's emphasized in corporate

worship, while having some elements that are unique and

special instructs us in the things that we should be

practicing daily. So we want to see a consistency,

if we're living a life of worship individually and

personally, that will lead to a life of worship in the church,

that will lead to an energy, to a love, to a service in the

church. And so we draw these lines and

connections to lay a foundation so that we can talk about

singing. All right, I lead worship

ministry. When you think of the word

worship, you think of music for better, for worse.

And that's not a wrong association, but everything that

I've talked about previously was to remind us that worship is

broader than that and that it's helpful for us to be careful how

we use the word worship. What are we really talking

about? Are we being confusing or do we

really mean worship, which means my whole life devoted to God?

And that means everything that happens here with us together is

also worship because it hinges around God's Word and it's

dictated about it. In your outline, we're going to

talk about why do we sing? I'm going to go over those

briefly. Some of these are taken from

this book scene Sing. This is written by Keith and

Kristen Getty. They're modern hymn writers of

the church. Everything they write is

wonderful. All their songs biblical.

And so some of these points are from their book.

There are five reasons why you need to sing.

The first one is that we are created to sing.

You were created to sing. No matter what you think of your

musical ability, God made you to sing, MacArthur said.

This music is the gift of God, a common grace to the world to

give them a means of expressing their emotions.

Music was made as a tool for people, and we were made from

music. That's why music resonates with

every person. It may in a different way, but

it has a significance to every person and in every culture

across the world. We're a relational response of

beings. We're designed to respond, to be

worshippers, and to express that response.

You see that in sports. You see that in a response.

When you see a natural wonder, something beautiful in nature,

When we see a feat of strength or ability, or when we receive

exciting or alarming news, we're responders.

That's who God made us to be. And music is an Ave. of response

that God created in US and for us.

When we understand God's creation, it points back to his

nature, right? It underlines the fact that God

delights in beauty, that God creates beauty.

He doesn't just make things to be functional.

He makes things to be enjoyed and being made in his image.

We enjoy what he enjoys and we we desire to enjoy things as

well to appreciate beauty. It points us to the fact that

beauty is not in the eye of the beholder.

Beauty is not subjective. And that's kind of a

conversation outside of tonight, outside the scope of tonight.

But I would encourage you to think about that.

God creates beauty. God defines beauty in creation.

What does it say? Everything he made was good.

God made the trees pleasing to the eye and good for food.

And so we were created to engage in music.

And music is unique because it doesn't just express or or allow

us to feel or enjoy. It carries words with it.

It communicates specifically. And the most thing, the most

important thing that music can communicate, that it can carry

is truth. And so I would encourage you to

think about the fact that we are created to sing OK, someday in

heaven you will sing well, you will sing perfectly, but for

now, God created you to sing second, that we are commanded to

OK, this is the easy one. All throughout the Psalms it

says or sing to the Lord a new song for he has done wonderful

things. Psalm 33 says sing for joy in

the Lord. O you righteous ones, praise is

becoming to the upright over and over and over.

We are commanded to sing. That's pretty cut and dry,

right? It's a command for us.

It's not arbitrary. We're commanded to sing for our

good because we were created to 3rd.

We are compelled to sing. We as believers have an inward

response to revelation that causes us to sing.

Colossians 316 and 17, if you want to turn there and we'll

stay. There is a crucial text for

talking about singing in the New Testament, and it says that we

sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

Believers are compelled to sing because they have received a

great salvation from a great God and they are overwhelmed by it.

They were overcome by it. A motivation to sing is

unchanging. We're motivated by the sacrifice

of our Savior and the glory of God.

Now something to distinguish is emotion and volition.

OK, we talked before about a spirit and attitude of worship.

Too often we get confused because we think singing and

worship music should be about emotions.

But that is not what worship is about because that makes it very

man centered. What worship is about is a

choice, is a response, is an attitude that I bring as a

worshipper to exalt God. And therefore I can always have

that same response regardless of how I feel, because how I feel

is based on my circumstances. But my worship is not about how

I feel. It's about my choice to respond.

It's about me understanding the grace and glory of God and

saying He is worthy. And I cannot help but sing and

respond. John Piper said singing is the

Christian's way. God is so great that thinking

will not suffice, There must be deep feeling and talking will

not suffice, there must be singing.

So it's not that there's no emotion in worship.

We can fall into one of two camps, thinking that emotional

experience is everything or no emotion.

I must sing. Intellectually, I wonder which

way our church leans. But the truth is neither of

those extremes. The truth is that worship and

seeing is a response from my heart that's based on knowledge,

knowing God, knowing what he's done, but comes out of a

response that naturally wells up in my heart as I'm thankful for

what I'm for, what God has done. And when I choose to praise,

when I choose to obey and do what he's commanded by singing

to him, by acknowledging, then my emotions are corralled, my

emotions are corrected. Bob Coughlin, who is one of the

leaders of the Sovereign Grace Ministries, we sing many of

their songs. He says suppressing or ignoring

your feelings when you sing contradicts what singing is

designed to do. Passionless singing is an

oxymoron. So the trick is, if my emotions,

if my feelings aren't right when I come to sing, I can't be

deterred by that. I have to choose to sing because

I choose to respond to the revelation of God in a right

way. And as I sing, as I'm reminded

of who God is, what he's done, as I'm reminded of who I've

become because of his work in my life, I will sing.

I will be compelled inwardly, not outwardly, but I'll have a

right response. So we sing because we're created

to, because we're commanded to, we're compelled. 4th We sing

because we're congregated to, because God says sing together,

because there's a significance in the gathering.

In Colossians 316 and 17 it says that we teach and admonish one

another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

So part of our instruction and our encouragement and our

building up one another is singing to one another.

It's singing with one another. We are congregated, we are

gathered to sing, and there's a significance there.

And if we're so focused on ourself and my experience, we

forget. I'm gathered with the people of

God for them. God put me here for them to

benefit them. And of course, I'm corrected and

convicted and encouraged as well.

But my attitude should be thinking about the people around

me. Years ago when Drew was here in

youth ministry, Pastor Lance's son, before we went off to

Indiana, they had a kind of a joke, a running gag that they

would say in the youth group, right when they talk about the

meeting of the church together and about singing, they would

say, I just want to be served. I just want to be served, all

right? Because that's the attitude that

most of us come with. We come to church to be served.

We come to church to gain something.

But that that's not our attitude.

That's not a biblical Worshipful attitude.

Because I if I love God, then I love the people that I'm going

to see on Sunday. And I think about how can I help

them? How can I build them up?

How can I encourage them even in the way that I'm singing when

I'm standing next to them. And 5th, we are commissioned.

Singing is a witness and it's designed by God.

That way there is something powerful when the people of God

sing together, united in spirit, united in truth, singing with

vigor and with passion and with delight.

Psalm 89.1 says. Psalm 89.1 says I will sing of

the loving kindness of the Lord forever to all generations.

I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth.

So singing is a witness. It's a call to believers and

it's a call to unbelievers saying this is our God.

This is the one who demands to be worshipped.

So those are 5 reasons that we sing.

And we ask, what must we sing? And here we start to get a

little bit more specific. OK, we're going to get to it.

We're going to have a discussion about what we sing.

We're going to talk about content.

If you look on the back of your outline, I put some lyrics

there. All right.

So what I enjoy doing when we talk about these things is

saying let's just not talk about this.

Let's analyze. Let's pick apart these songs.

And so we're going to do that tonight and I'm going to ask you

to do that and to evaluate these songs.

But what must be sing Scripture is clear.

You already there, hopefully in Colossians 3/16/17.

This provides guidelines for what we must sing.

At its core, what we must sing is the word.

What we must sing is the truth. It must be biblically based,

scripture filled, doctrinally rich songs.

I've had conversations with people in schools and in other

churches that they'll say, well, the songs you pick are just too

wordy, or not everybody can understand these songs, or

people don't know these songs because they're not on the

radio. So why don't we pick something

that's a little more mainstream, OK?

It's a little more, it's a little more watered down, but we

can serve these people by giving them something they already

know. That's at a base level that

different people from different churches can all agree on.

But that's a compromise. And if you look at Scripture,

you cannot deny that it says sing richly, OK, right here in

verse 16 of Colossians 3, Let the word of Christ richly dwell

within you, OK? So let God's Word be at home

within your heart. Lance has talked about that.

That's what the word dwells mean means that means it's always

here. It's always in my mind.

It's never far away. It's always what I'm thinking

about. It's always in my life.

I'm always thinking about it. I'm always drawn back to

Scripture and it says, let it richly, abundantly, lavishly,

overwhelmingly dwell within you. And then it goes on to say with

wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in

your hearts to God. So connected there is that one

of the major ways that we allow God's Word to richly be at home

in our hearts is through our singing.

And so there are 8 principles in your outline briefly that would

I'd like to illuminate from this verse.

OK, first is we must sing the word richly.

OK, abundantly, let it richly dwell within you.

We must sing the word #2 continually.

It says let it dwell within you. Let it be at home.

Don't stop it. It's got to keep going.

God's Word is always there. So we must sing the Word richly,

continually and wisely, it says, with all wisdom, understanding

the principles and the teaching of Scripture.

OK, there's a depth there, there's a thoughtfulness there.

There's an imparted wisdom from men who have studied God's Word

and given years of thought to it to help us.

It's why important that that we sing songs written by

theologians, not by artists. Richly, continually, wisely,

forth, instructively. We sing instructively.

That's how we learn. That's how we teach and admonish

or correct one another. Fifth, we sing diversely with

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Those are just different types of songs.

Paul says here, and he says the same phrase in Ephesians 5, and

the significance is not in You must sing these three categories

of songs, but the significance is saying there are a variety of

songs that are filled with God's truth that benefit the church,

that you should sing Psalms, who likely refers to songs that are

Scripture, OK? They're the actual words of

Scripture. Hymns are songs that are

structured theologically, OK, So they explain a doctrine.

They use different parts of Scripture and bring it together

so we give a fuller understanding.

And spiritual songs can mean songs of testimony, songs of

response and expression. Although we always need to start

with God's revelation, there is a place for songs that give us

words to say how thankful we are to give us words to say how I'm

yearning for heaven. They give us words to say I

understand my mission now. So that's the significance.

We must sing diversely. Number six, we must sing.

Thankfully it says singing with thankfulness in your hearts to

God. 7th we must sing inwardly. In verse 17 it says whatever you

do in Word or deed, do all. Oh, I'm sorry.

In verse 16, inwardly it says singing with thankfulness in

your hearts to God. So the significance again is

that worship comes from the inside, the spirit, and then it

spills out. It's not only something we do

outside just to perform a task. And in verse 17 #8 is

submissively says whatever you do in Word or deed, do all in

the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to him through God

the Father. So everything is about him.

Everything we sing is it's a mission to his truth and

recognizing everything should be aimed at Him.

Everything should magnify him. If I'm singing a song and it's

talking about me more than it's talking about Jesus, probably

not a good song. So those 8 principles are in the

text to help us understand and give us principles how we should

sing. In Ephesians chapter 5, verses

Ephesians 5:18–20

18 through 20, it's a parallel passage, but there it uses the

same language except that instead of richly dwelling God's

Word, it says be filled with the Spirit.

There's so much confusion in churches about what does it mean

to be filled and led by the Spirit.

People will teach all kinds of things, like it means talking in

gibberish, or falling on the floor, or convulsions, or this

or that, or receiving a revelation in your mind.

No, in Ephesians 5 all the same things result as in Colossians

3, which means letting God's Word richly dwell within you is

the same as being filled by the Spirit.

Does that make sense? Let's turn there.

Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. Do not get drunk with wine, for

Ephesians 5:18

that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs. All that sounds familiar.

Singing and making melody with your hearts of the Lord.

Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord

Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one

another. So when we let the word of

Christ dwell richly within us, then we sing and we're thankful.

When we let the Spirit fill and lead us, we sing and we're

thankful and we submit. It's the same things.

So it teaches us that when we let God's Word dwell richly

within us, we are being led by God's Spirit because the two

work in tandem. God's Spirit works with his Word

in order to change our lives and to make us like Christ.

So those are some principles from Colossians 3 more quickly

than I had planned. What happens when we sing three

things? Biblical songs exalt?

They exalt God, they lift him up, they put him on display #2

Biblical songs edify, they build up, they teach, and they

strengthen the church #3 biblical songs express.

They express our response to God.

Our emotion and our experience are shaped and sanctified by

God's truth so that we can express in a right way.

And we see all kinds of expressions modelled in

Scripture, uncertainty, but then it's guided by Scripture to a

place of faith. We see despair, but it's guided

by God's revelation to a place of trust.

We see sorrow over circumstances or sin, but we're guided by

God's revelation to a place of confession and of peace and of

trust. And so biblical songs do these

three things. They exalt, they edify, and they

express. This is what should happen when

we sing good songs. Not all kinds of other things.

But we can boil it down to that if we're singing rightly, then

in our church Christ is exalted, the church is built up, it's

edified, and we express a right response to who God is.

And the question then? Is will you then worship?

Will you then worship? Will you lead it in your family?

Will you teach your children about worship?

Not just about singing, but about the fact that worship is

life. That it's submission and

reverence to God. It's a response to Him.

I wanted to spend some time. Talking about issues tonight,

branching out, something a little more informal.

It's funny, you get up here and you don't know how long it's

going to take and then you realize you have enough material

for like 4 weeks. So we're going to.

Simplify a little bit. I really enjoy the conversations

that we have in the young and old Bible study.

It's called Impact, and they meet together every other Sunday

night and they always challenge me with thoughtful questions.

They always challenge me to be prepared.

A couple of years ago we did a study through every section of

theology. So that means we studied who God

is, who Christ is, the Holy Spirit.

We studied what is this, what are the scriptures?

We studied everything from angels to salvation to death to

heaven. We studied all these things and

it was so wonderful. The questions that would form

because right theology, right teaching leads to right living,

because the natural question is, OK, now that I know this, how

does this make an impact in my life?

How does this change and guide me in the way I live?

So we've talked about a lot of theological things and we've

talked about spirit and truth, but we want to boil it down and

I want to talk a little bit tonight about applying that

because it's our responsibility, first of all, to be wise and God

honoring in the way that we participate in church and also

in the music that we listen to, even though singing is just a

small part of it. Singing can become such a

controversy, and there's so many voices and false teachings out

there. When we talk about songs.

In church. There's always the battle,

right? New songs, old songs, familiar

songs, new songs. How do you make those decisions?

When we think through the. Principles that we've drawn from

Scripture. It becomes simple.

The significance of what we sing, either together in this

church or what I sing at home, is not in the style of music.

It's not in the instruments that are used.

The significance is not in the era that it was written.

It's not in the way it sounds. The significance of the songs

that we sing is about their content.

It's about truth. Are the songs that we sing and

we listen to filled with God's truth?

Because if they are, they will draw a right response from God's

people, from God's people who are ready to worship and are

living a life of worship. They will be ready to respond.

If we listen to or sing songs that are weak, that are vague,

OK, it will, it will help no one.

It's not going to draw anyone to worship.

It's not going to remind us of who God is.

It's not going to remind us of what he's done.

It's not going to remind us of our responsibility.

It's not going to nourish us in our spiritual walk and build us

up. It is not going to glorify God

because God's made it clear He is glorified in specificity, in

teaching, in understanding the fullness of his character.

And so we have to set aside all of the things that we prefer,

and we have to hold on to the one question What pleases God,

What honors God? When I first came to the.

Church music was very different here.

The worship ministry was very different.

It was organized around a choir and a piano and an organ, and

overtime that is all changed. But that's not because I have a

specific preference that changed out of necessity because we have

certain people in this church who play certain instruments and

who are willing to serve. And so because style is not

what's significant, the style musically of our church has

evolved over the years. And yes, I have say in that,

yes, I have leadership in that. And yes, you could say that I'm,

I'm probably biased and I like guitar music.

That's fine, but at the end of the day, my concern is what

honors God, what exalts Him and puts forth His truth, and what's

the best way that we can accomplish that.

And so we do that with the people that we have, that God

has provided, and the skills that they have.

Romans 14 is a really important passage.

We're talking about music because it helps us understand

Christian liberty. What Paul says in the Scripture

teaches in Romans 14 is that you should have convictions, you

should have wise reasons for what you do, and you should hold

fast to those convictions. But if it's not expressly

commanded in Scripture, then you cannot judge other believers.

If they differ, OK, if they prefer a different kind of

music. The examples in Romans 14 are in

eating and in practicing. For example, some people might

still practice the the festivals.

They might go to the to the Jewish festivals and be part of

that. Or some people might eat food

that was first offered to idols. So false worshippers, false

religions would offer food on the altar of their false gods

and then later they would sell it for cheap in the marketplace.

And so Paul is saying if you want to get a deal, it doesn't

matter because false gods and gods are nothing.

And food is food. So he's saying if you have a

conviction on these things and it's not expressly laid out in

scripture, if it's not guided and regulated by Scripture, have

a conviction. Have a wise reason based on

scripture and don't judge someone else if they have a

different conviction on that. But what we do need to have?

A unanimous conviction on is the.

Content is the truth. And tonight I wanted to spend a

couple of minutes talking about false teachers and churches in

music. OK, Basically today, everything

that calls itself Christian music and Christian culture is

not God honoring. It's not guided and regulated by

scripture. It is dictated and designed and

invented by people in there for a lot of it is not helpful and a

lot of. It is downright.

Dangerous. In 2nd Corinthians 11.

Verses 13 Thrift through 15. It says such men, these false

teachers, are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising

themselves as apostles of Christ.

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an Angel of

light. Therefore, it is not surprising

if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of

righteousness whose end will be according to their deeds.

And so tonight I wanted to make you aware of some things that we

need to be careful of. When you look at Christian music

on the radio and the things that are most popular in other

churches, the majority of it centers around a couple false

churches and false teachers. OK, one is Hillsong Prosperity

Church. OK, it's all about making money.

God does this for me. It's man centered idolatry.

God is there to bless me and to give me what I think I need.

And you've seen their music. They don't want to talk about

sin. Hey, they don't want to talk

about that. They talk about God helping

their sense of shame and their weaknesses.

They're not concerned with holiness, but they're concerned

with emotional and material fulfillment.

Another. False church.

False gospel is Elevation Church, Elevation Worship with

Stephen Furtick. OK?

They don't teach anything that's in line with the gospel.

And the danger is they have little snippets of truth.

So you hear a song or you hear a 32nd clip of them teaching and

you think, oh, that's not awful. I thought they were all awful.

But that's how false teachers work.

They just don't dump a bunch of bogus on you.

They have little Nuggets of weak truth, OK, but they fill in the

majority with false teaching. They corrupt the nature of God.

They corrupt the nature of Christ.

They corrupt the work on the cross.

They don't speak about sin and God's holiness.

Everything is man centered. One of the most dangerous

churches and sources today is Bethel.

They're led, the main church is led by a husband and wife

couple, pastors Brian and Jen Johnson.

They teach a false gospel, no repentance, and they have an

overt plan for worldly influence.

And I call them a cult because their teachings are so extreme,

OK? And when I study this, it's

scary. It's terrifying that there's

somebody who claims to be a Church of God and yet teaches

these things. So I wanted to make you aware of

it. They practice mystical,

blatantly occultic practices. OK, they teach and talk about

waking sleeping angels of power. They teach that God always wants

to. Heal and raise the dead.

They teach that you can receive and.

Reclaim anointings and mantels of power from the graves of dead

people. They claim that gold dust and

Angel feathers appear during their services.

They practice soaking prayer, which means you clear your mind

and you attempt to feel God's presence like a tingling skin or

a hot or cold sensation or a gentle wind blowing through your

body. Their words.

They have their own translation called the.

Passion translation, which is 50% longer than your Bible

because so much new is inserted regardless of what the original

text says. It is an entirely rewritten and

changed book, they claim. That Christians can.

See into the spiritual realm and become Mystics and seers.

They've taught that Jesus lost his deity entirely at the

incarnation and that he was incapable of anything on his

own. That he was no longer God, that

he no longer had the attributes of God.

That he received an anointing of magic power at his baptism, and

that you can receive a similar anointing like that if you pray

and you have the right faith. They have a school of

supernatural ministry where in their words, students will learn

how to read, understand, and do the Bible.

OK, how to practice His presence, how to witness, how to

heal the sick, prophecy, preach, pray, cast out demons, and much

more. The controversy in the last

couple years. Is that they encourage their

church to pray for the resurrection of a 2 year old

girl who died who was the daughter of a worship leader.

And they prayed saying if we pray and believe hard enough,

God will resurrect her. So they are people who have

taken the name of Christ and taken all these mystical,

satanic, occultic practices and just mashed them together.

And we need to be aware of this because when you hear one of

their songs, we don't understand all of that.

They'll even take some hymns like it is well and do their own

version and you listen to it and you're like, oh, that's, that's

not awful. They were good singers.

They're good musicians, but they lead you away from the truth and

they are false teachers and they are deceptive and they are

dangerous and the. Unfortunate thing is that.

So much in Christian worship is directly associated with them,

and if people associate with these people, if they spend time

with them and teach with them and sing at their churches and

write songs with them, it shows a lack of discernment, lack of

truth, or possibly a lack of true salvation.

So there's names like Cody Carnes, Brandon Lake, now

Fiddle. Wickham does everything with

Bethel. We know in scripture it.

Says. Who you spend time with, you

will become like them. In First Corinthians, Paul was

dealing with some of the church who associated with false

teachers who denied resurrection at all of the body.

And that he said associating with false teachers always leads

us astray. It leads to a weakening of our

conviction and our commitment to live a holy life.

In 1533 of First Corinthians it says don't be deceived, Bad

company corrupts good morals, become sober minded, become

clear minded, have clarity because you have it from God's

word as you ought and stop sinning for some have no

knowledge of God and I speak this to your shame.

So he's saying have a clear mind, don't be clouded, don't be

confused, don't have a mind that's like it's drunk, like

it's unthinking. Even names like Chris Tomlin

have become questionable because they do so much with churches

like Bethel and Elevation and they sing their songs.

These people come more and more like the people they tour and

write songs with. So this.

Is a key problem. With everything that's called

worship music. OK, it's.

Written by people. Who are not believers, who are

blatantly false teachers. And we're doing it for a profit

and for influence. The worship music industry is

built on entertainment, not edification.

It's built for profit, not for truth.

The temptation is watered down truth.

You sing things that are generic and vague enough that everybody

can sing it and it doesn't bug anybody.

You appeal to this wider on an audience and you make more money

then the. Result is that Christian radio.

Is garbage OK? Everything that is easy to

listen to is mostly garbage. There are some gems you can pull

out, but the majority of it is awful and there are very few

trustworthy and reliable Christian musician.

And so as we're coming. To an end.

I wish we had more time for this tonight, but I ask you to turn

over your handout. OK?

On this I put 2 songs that are from the top ten of.

CCLICCLI is the organization that handles all the royalties

and the copyrights for basically all songs sung in churches.

So these two songs, Graves in the Gardens and Gratitude are in

the top 10 sung in churches across the world.

OK. And you look at it and at first

glance, I mean, it doesn't look awful.

I mean, there's no blatant heresy in it.

But when you evaluate it, you understand how man centered it

is, how weak it is and how useless it is.

And you understand that it does not honor God because it does

not give an accurate picture of him.

A revelation. Graves into gardens.

OK, I was at a Christian School and they sung this every month

and it just killed me. You look.

At their first verse. I searched the world that

couldn't fill me, and at the end, every desire is now

satisfied here in your love. So we're meeting felt needs, OK?

We're not needing spiritual needs, taking care of sin.

We're singing about our felt needs.

There's nothing better than you. OK, that's vague, but not awful.

I'm not afraid to show you my weaknesses, my failures and

flaws. Lord seen them.

You've seen them all and you still call me friend.

First of all, sin is not weaknesses, failures and flaws.

OK, that's a little bit of a cop out.

OK? Sin is an offence against the

perfect holy God that requires eternal judgement in hell.

And let's not call God our friend.

Let's not Scripture calls God our Father.

It's the. Title of reverence.

And authority. Scripture calls God our master

as slaves. It's the title of reverence and

authority. Not that there's no love, there

is, but the way we relate to God begins with reverence.

It begins with honoring Him and understanding His character.

Can you look through the rest of the song?

There's some vague metaphors. The God of the mountain is the

God of the valley. What does that mean?

It means whatever you want because it's vague and then it

goes into some some. Proclaims God does these things.

You turn graves into gardens. Cool.

Like what? What does that mean?

God's a gardening God. We're going back to Eden.

You turn bones into armies. OK, Probably a reference to

Ezekiel. Dry bones.

You guys have never heard the kids song.

I don't know if you've read that.

Believe it's in Ezekiel. It's Ezekiel in the 30s

someplace. But it talks about God showing

Ezekiel that he's going to bring Israel back and resurrect them

though they were scattered and dead.

OK, But it's just vague. It's just a bunch of things that

God can do for me. OK?

You're saying you, you do these things, God, you're the only one

who can. But the song is really about me.

It's about what God is going to do for me.

When you look at gratitude, my my question is, what are you

grateful for? The name of the song is

gratitude. What are you thankful for?

OK, if you, if I'm going to respond to God, I'm going to,

I'm going to be asking, yes, OK, I know what I'm thankful for.

But it would be helpful if a song I'm singing outlines.

What am I thankful for? What are some things that we're

thankful for? Give me some salvation.

That's great. Yes.

What else? For wife, Life, Wife, wife.

And life, both of those things. Both are great and absolutely

true. Amen.

Yes, there are so many things and there are so many good songs

that talk about giving thanks to God.

We sing to Jesus. Thank you.

The mystery of the cross. I cannot comprehend the agonies

of Calvary. You, the perfect Holy 1,

crushed. Your son who drank.

The bitter cup reserved for me. And you sing that and you're

just like, now I'll sing thank you, now I will.

Because that articulates it in a way that I'm probably not wise

enough to put together by myself.

But it's good and it's true, and I have a response, but this song

says nothing. I'm going to express my

gratitude. And how do I do that?

I throw out my hands. I praise you.

I've got one response. I've just got one move arm.

Stretch ride? Really.

Your one response to God is to do this.

We just spent a whole night talking.

About how your response to God is your whole life and you're

going to sing a song. This is how I respond by

stretching out my arms and look at him.

It's so, it's so shallow. It's so man centered.

I wanted to use the example of the song Christ the Sure and

steady Anchor because it's a metaphor.

But in it there is great biblical truth that draws us not

to ourselves but back to Christ. Christ the sure and steady

anchor. OK, it's using the seafaring

imagery. OK, it talks about the fury of

the storm. The the moral of it.

I will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed.

OK, I hold fast to Christ. He will never leave me.

He will never forsake me. I cannot lose my salvation.

So no matter what's happening in my life, I cling to Him, OK,

even in temptation. And I realized in verse 2,

though I justly stand accused, I will hold fast.

Verse 3, lift your eyes to Calvary.

This my ballast of assurance. See, His love forever proved.

My assurance is not based on me, but it's based on the fact that

God's love and His salvation is forever proved and accomplished

by what Jesus did once on the cross.

A ballast if you don't know, in a ship.

Is the weight in the bottom of it?

And so ships nowadays will fill up with water or they'll put

cargo and things down there to bring stability to the ship so

that in a storm it doesn't tip over.

If you have weight in the bottom of the ship, it keeps it stable,

it keeps it upright, it keeps it going.

And so it's using this imagery to saying my steadfastness, even

though I feel like I'm in a storm, is based on Christ and it

speaks of heaven. So those are good truths.

Even though this is a song that is has a little more imagery,

it's a little more of a metaphor rather than articulating

specific theology. There's so much more I.

Would love to talk about. But I would just encourage you

to have. Discernment, and that's the

battle that we need to have in everything.

Have discernment. Be aware of what you're

listening to, what you're feeling you're home with, what

your children are listening to because it matters.

Is the Word of Christ dwelling richly in my mind because of how

I fill my home and because of being in the Word and singing

good songs and thinking about it?

Or am I filling my life with triviality?

Am I filling with my life with things that are not honoring to

the Lord? It's so easy for us to

compromise in the things we listen to because there's so

much garbage out there, but we have to evaluate everything.

My wife both hates and loves the fact I can never just listen to

a song. I can't just enjoy a song.

I'm listening to what it says and always have a comment like

that's so stupid. She's like, why can't you just,

It's not, it's not a worship song.

It's not about Jesus. Can't you just enjoy it?

But I can't help it and we all need to think that way.

Not that I'm great at that, not that I have great discernment,

but God's Word is a perfect guide and it teaches and

instructs everyone of us so that we will be discerning and so

that we can fill our minds and our lives with God's truth.

And it's all the more important, as we have an example in our

church and in our families and with our friends, to not

compromise, OK? To not just settle for wishy

washy, not settle for garbage, and to be careful of where our

music's coming from. To be careful of what we're

singing and what we're listening to.

You don't have to make the same choices as me.

And I would love to speak with you more if you have more

specific questions. I'm sorry I haven't had that

time tonight. But I want to encourage you that

singing is wonderful and singing is valuable and important.

I mean, it's not because I say it.

It's not because I like music. It's because God's Word says so.

And He gave it to you as a gift. He gave it to you as something

beautiful, to express your response to Him, to speak to

Him, and to look forward to heaven where someday we'll sing

perfectly and where we can express perfectly and we'll be

able to worship without any hindrance of distraction or

sinfulness. And so I hope that's an

encouragement to you tonight. And I'd love to talk with you

more tonight, another time at church.

I would love to make myself available, but let's go some

prayer. Lord, we thank you for this

night. Thank you for the clarity in

your word. Thank you for the great depth of

truth that you've given us in your word.

Thank you that you've made us to sing.

And when we do sing your truth, it is so wonderful.

It's something that we enjoy. It's something we want to

continually do. And we pray, Lord, that you

would focus us on heaven, focus us on the mission we have now,

focus us on your Word, God. We pray that it would richly

dwell in US and that you would give us wisdom.

We ask to do the very best we can to fill our entire lives

with it. That it would guide us and shape

us. It would mark us and make us a

people set apart. Thank you that you are in

control of all things and that no matter how we feel about a

situation, you are working through it and you will lead us

faithfully to the end. Thank you for the hope of

heaven, and we thank you for this church that you've put here

that we can serve you in it. We pray these things in your

name, Amen.