That's 170, is that what that is? Amen. 170, I like that one, By the Gentle Waters, I believe is the name of that song. All right, so we're in the last, well, I mean, assuming I can clean this up tonight, which I should be able to, we're in the last of the intro portion talking about music, okay? And we're talking about music generally speaking, but eventually this is gonna be divided into two sections, and that's gonna be music that you listen to personally, and then music that belongs in church. Okay? So, eventually we're going to be splitting that. The Bible has much to say. As a matter of fact, if there's one thing the Bible is absolutely clear about, it's about church music. I mean, it is just very, very clear on many items about church music, but when it comes to how we enjoy music at home as an art form. We have to use different principles, because the Bible doesn't speak to it directly, calling it music. We have to go to principles. And so we'll get into some more of that. And what we're going to cover tonight is we've asked three questions. What is music? Oh, great. I forgot the second one. Just like that. What is music's purpose? And then what does music do is what we're going to look at tonight. What does music do? And I want to remind you, when I think about this, is I know that there is music out there that is the devil's music, okay? I don't want any, in the process of this, I don't want anybody thinking that there's not music out there that we can't look at and say, that's satanic. Well, how do we know that? Because they're talking about the devil. They're talking about worshiping the devil, okay? But it would be a big mistake to assume that the devil only uses one type of music. It would be a huge mistake to think that the devil doesn't know how to find music you like and use that against you. Everybody here? If he's gonna show up as an angel of light, then that also means he's gonna show up as music that doesn't seem that bad and appeals to you. You, you, you, the people right here in this room. If the devil can use music that you like to draw you away from God, it don't matter what label you put on it, it don't matter what genre it has, it don't matter if it's one instrument or a thousand, if it has drums or no drums, The devil will use it if it will affect you and draw you away from Christ. You understand that? That's because music's powerful. That's what we're going to talk about tonight. What does music do? And I've associated this, I've kind of rubbed along this thought through much of what we've already talked about. Mostly because We need to understand the power of music. So many of you know, and I think I've even talked about this, because this is home church. But when my mom was declining, and I remember that last visit. It was the fall. We made a couple visits there in 2019, if you remember. Because we knew mom was going to, mom was, wouldn't be long in this world. And I wanted to be sure to see her before she passed away. And I want to say it was late summer, early fall that we went to Michigan to see her. And I just, and I don't know how much I've said here, but I just, I won't forget that last time leaving her room. She was in a care facility, and we had had a good talk. She had become aware, very aware, and was expressing to me that she had concerns about dad's health. And she was spot on. We did not know how spot on she was, because dad actually had cancer at that point. We just hadn't been discovered. And we had a very good conversation at that point, talking about, it's time for me to go. And I just remember walking out of that room, Seeing my mom in that wheelchair knowing I'd never see her again. At least not in this world. And I made it to the parking lot and I bawled like a baby. And I remembered a piece of music that when I was visiting Brother Daryl's mom. When I was visiting, yeah, I'm sorry, her name just went out the window, but yes, thank you. I was visiting Miss Betty. She was in the hospital up at Gooding. And I was talking to her and trying to be an encouragement to her. And I was trying to be an encouragement to Darryl, because he went through that right before I did. And there was a song I was hunting. There's a preacher friend that I grew up hearing. His name is Billy Kelly. which is, he's quite the character. So if you've ever watched... The movie Sheffy, okay? He's in the movie Sheffy. He's the moonshiner. That's a Christian movie, Sheffy, about the preacher named Sheffy. He's the moonshiner in there. He's also, he was the president of the Bear Hunting Association. He plays violin, sings, but he's an independent Baptist preacher. Great big, tall, bald fella. Pretty good size. Tells a lot of great stories. Best storyteller I ever heard. But I was looking for a song called The Prodigal Son, which I ended up singing here. So while I was looking for that song, I found another song. And I believe I've sang it here. I know I sang it for Darryl. But it's, the song was, the song is called Come Spring. Has anybody ever heard that song by Dottie Rambo, Come Spring? I'll sing a little bit for you. I won't sing the whole thing. But I stood in a lonely room of a mother, old and gray. Her voice was weak, she could hardly speak. I brushed a tear away. She was watching the little snowflakes falling on the windowpane. She breathed a sigh and then replied, I'll be gone to be with Jesus come spring. And of course, it walks through and she passes away and it talks about Well, the last one says, now the roses have bloomed in her garden. And she's gathering flowers in a better land. She's gone where angels sing. Earth's loss is heaven's gain. But we'll meet when God gathers his flowers come spring. And I sent that to Daryl, because it was such a blessing to me, and I thought he needed to see it, because, you know, watching. But then that song came back on me when I started considering my mom. And I tell you, that was a long time. I tried to sing the song. I had to be in my office trying to sing the song. I couldn't do it. I'd just bawl my eyes out. You know what I'm talking about? This is what we call a lesson in music philosophy. Because that's the power of music. I can see by just some of you listening to it that you understand the power that that song held for me and for some of you maybe in your own memories of your own mom. There's an instant grasp on your heart in there. And for me, when I listen to this song, I'm telling you, it's like I'm walking out of that room again, seeing my mom for the last time. I mean, I can see it. I can almost smell the smells of the nursing home and see the look on her face. And then, of course, I'm thanking the Lord I get to see her again. And that's the power of music. The power of music. Now, before everyone starts thinking I'm going to present this as all good or all bad, power can be used for good or bad. So the fact that music is powerful is just something I want you to understand. Music is powerful. And by the way, and by the time we're done with this little section, you're going to understand, music is way more powerful than we give it credit for. And we'll talk about that. That's why when we walk back into some of these principles, I want you to remember this very importantly. This thing about that it's powerful. It's very powerful. Okay? So, let's see. In a Newsweek article from February 2017, researchers are quoted as discovering that music, okay, has basically the same effects on the brain that drugs and intimacy do. Okay? Do you hear that? Music has the same effect on the brain that drugs and intimacy do. Same effect. And there's, it's kind of interesting as we get along, but now there's one thing I want you to connect. And I've talked about this before. There's many parts of your brain. I'm only going to talk about three. So follow me through. This is the scientific part, and you need to hear this. Okay? So follow me through. Okay? There's three parts of your brain that we're going to connect with. You have a thalamus, don't ask me where it's at. You have a hypothalamus, well it's somewhere here, right? Hypothalamus and a cerebral cortex. Now I think most people kind of get the idea of what the cerebral cortex is, but let me walk through it anyways. So your thalamus, okay, that handles all the auto stuff, okay? You don't have to think about breathing, you just do it. As a matter of fact, all of you now are going to be messed up because you're stopping to think about your breathing, and you're going to get messed up. No, your thalamus will take care of that, don't worry about it. It takes care of your breathing, it tells your heart to beat, and lots of other things that you just don't think about. Your thalamus just makes that happen. Okay? You don't have to stop there and go, oh no, I stopped telling my heart to beat. You know? No, the thalamus, it's got it going for you. It's got the breathing going for you. So the thalamus takes care of that. Your hypothalamus takes care of semi-autonomous things. Okay? Semi-autonomous. Now what do you mean by that? Okay. Emotional reactions to external stimuli. Okay? Events. emotional reactions to external stimulus. Okay? So if a mouse was to leap off the songbook in front of you and leap into your lap, the responses all across the room Well, there would be responses, but they would be varied. Not every one of you would have the same response. Why? Because it's semi-autonomous. Your brain is going to demand a response, but there's a somewhat connection that every one of you is going to be, depending on how much interaction you've had with mice, depending on what you think about mice, your reaction will be different. Does that make sense to everyone? There will be a reaction, it's just going to be, it's going to be trained to be different. Okay? I remember an event, one of my, it was hilarious. So we were having family camp, I was running, when I was assistant pastor, we ran family camp, so I had run family camp, and preacher wanted all the staff every morning, a family camp, all the staff together, up in the main little camp office, and we had devotions. So husbands and wives, we all gathered together. And at that point, we had fairly large staff. I think we had maybe five, four or five families maybe on staff at that point. And we're all gathered in this little bitty room, maybe 8 by 14, 8 by 12, something like that. And at one end there was like a registration desk that you could walk around. And then there was a couch and a love seat and the door. And then there was a couple of chairs, okay? So we had two doors. There was a door back to the admin bedrooms where I stayed back in there because I was, and then one of the other guys was back in there. Then we had the copy room. And then there was one room that the camp didn't let us go into. It was locked. But there was a hole about, that big underneath the door. So we're all sitting there, and I remember I was doing the devotion, because I was facing this door that had a big crack under it. Well, actually, we all kind of were. We kind of gathered right around it. And I'm doing, I still don't even remember what the devotion was about. I'm doing this devotion and I'm talking about this, you know. And this mouse shot out from under that door, okay. So 10 people, at least 10 to 12 people in this room. I still to this day, it's like all the women somehow wiggled their nose and they were standing on chairs. I never saw them move. It was just sitting comfortably going like this to standing on the chairs and screaming. Okay? I mean, literally, standing on the chair. I was like, how did they do that so fast? You know? And then my pastor was also on a chair. One of the other assistant pastors was up and behind the registration desk at first and then came back around. And me and another guy, because we saw it, because it came right at the couch where all three people were sitting. So the couch just kind of like, you know, part the water. Whoosh. And then so we're standing up and we're looking at trying to figure out where it's at. And we're looking around, how'd you guys get up on the chair so fast? This is like crazy. So then we're reaching down and we're grabbing the couch. We're trying to get this thing to get out and move, sweep it back in, you know, and the other assistant pastor comes back around. But all the response is totally different. I just saw, I mean my heart jumped like, oh, look at that, a mouse. All the ladies went, boink. You know, preacher, somebody kill it, somebody kill it. That's what I remember a preacher saying. But all the responses were, I mean it wasn't exactly the same all the way through. Not all the ladies screamed. Everything was a little different. It was semi-autonomous. The ladies didn't have to think about what they were going to do. As a matter of fact, they did it so fast, like I say, I never saw them do it. It was just boink. They were seated calmly, and then they were standing on a chair, you know, either screaming or, you know, something. I mean, it was just great. So that's semi-autonomous. So you get the picture. It's, it's, you're, there's going to be a reaction, but it's trained. It's a trained reaction. Does that make sense? You train it. So if you're scared of all things that creepy-crawly, you're going to be standing in the chair. If you're not scared, find it interesting, it still sparks you a little bit. You probably won't move quite as nicely unless it aims right at you, and then you might be stomping. If you're a mouse lover, you're going to go, oh, come here, you know, which I've never seen that, but anyways. So you get the picture. That's kind of the hypothalamus thing. Now, so stay with me, all right? Everybody stay with me. Your cerebral cortex, does everybody know that's the thinking part? That's the part that actually dwells on a matter, thinks it through, decides what's going to happen, and makes the decision and walks on. Right? Okay. Is everybody here? I need to pay the bills today. I'm going to get a cup of coffee before I read my Bible. I need to get up. I don't want to get up. I need to do the chores. I don't really want to do the chores. I think I'm not going to do the chores today. Cerebral cortex. So that is where thinking, consideration, intellect, will, okay, higher reasoning, what is love? You know, to be or not to be. That's cerebral cortex stuff, okay? Now, get this. These right here, okay, right here, your dumbbell flaps, Are you all here tonight? You know Dumbo, right? Okay. The elephant that flies? Okay. Y'all are kind of like, uh-huh. Must have been a long day. I'll tell you, if your day was like mine, I'm sorry, I'll pray for you. Your auditory nerve, so the nerve that comes from these is not hardwired into your reasoning portion of your brain. It's not hardwired into your cerebral cortex. Now doesn't that mess you up? Wouldn't you think that everything you hear, you'd like to think about it? It's not that it doesn't get to your cerebral cortex, it does. It's hardwired into your hypothalamus. In other words, you are going to respond to what you hear. There's going to be a response. And it will happen before you can think about it. Now over time, you can train that response if you're focusing on one little area. And listen, I want you to connect this. This is important. When we start talking about what you're listening to as in music and what you're not listening to, you have to understand that your body and your brain are responding to the music that you listen to before you have a chance to consider whether it's right, wrong, good, bad, or indifferent. You need to connect that, so you have to train that. That's what I'm saying. That's why I went through the whole illustration about the mouse, okay? Because you can train that thing, you can train that response, but it's not like, you know, you just make a decision and it's going to happen tomorrow. It's a long process of work. So in other words, and I think I've kind of mentioned this, before you can reason through whether a song is good, bad, or indifferent, your body is responding for it. Before you can choose the appropriate response, your body is responding. Okay? And body includes the brain. So you understand what I'm saying? Maybe I should use the word flesh, but that's your brain, your heart, your emotions. They're already being told what to do by the hypothalamus. Okay? So you need to understand this part. Now, again, it can be trained, but most people don't spend time to consider whether they even should train their response. I can tell you where, I can tell every one of you, Okay. Does somebody have here a, you're a music, you like music, but there's a group or a performer that you just can't stand? Does everybody know who I'm talking about? Okay. So, when, it could be the best tune in the world. It could be your favorite song. That person gets on and sings that song, the radio goes click. You need to stop and think about it. I ain't listening to that. You know what I'm saying? So you do, you can actually train this. And maybe an actor that you don't like. There's people in books. You know, I read books, and there's always certain characters I like, and then there's other characters I'm like, oh. Okay, now I know some of you are going to be shocked at this, but I've read Pride and Prejudice. I've read the book. Jane Austen, I've read it a couple times. I love, I love the father in that thing. The mother drives me nuts. in the book and on the movie. But I mean, I'd look at that, I'm reading this thing going, I just want to slap this woman. You know? She's going to drive me nuts. So, you know what I'm saying? There's a lot of, you can train these responses, okay? So, the problem is, is most of our responses are already trained. Do you know why the Bible says, and be not conformed to this world? You understand the word? You're being conformed. When you walk out these doors, when you have any interaction with the billboard or the radio, whatever radio station you listen to, talk, country, Christian, what Christian, OK, maybe you don't listen to the conversations you have, the books that you read, the art that you like looking at, the shows that you watch, the YouTube that you watch, the tools that you watch, the things that you tell yourself are true. Has anybody ever, you found somebody that has no interaction at all with anybody else and they just believe they have all the truth and they haven't read a book? They don't know history, you know what I'm saying? They don't know history and they're just completely convinced of their own rightness and they're so far wrong that it's ridiculous, but the only person they commune with is themselves. You understand? They're inputting to themselves. Okay? All of that is conforming you. It is. It's constantly putting pressure on you. It's like being a piece of wood and it's like being Pinocchio made out of wood and running through a room full of large blocks wrapped in sandpaper. You are being conformed. When you run through, every time you interact with a song, with a conversation in the world, an advertisement, that is putting pressure on you. It is trying to change your life. Okay? That's why when we get into music, we have to, and all things that we take in, By the way, it's not just the ears where that affects, but we won't talk about that. We won't get beyond that right now. We have to think about our music choices before we get into that. We need to start thinking what I'm going to listen to, what I'm not going to listen to, who I'm going to listen to, who I'm not going to listen to, and why. And do that ahead of time so that we can train that hypothalamus to respond. Okay? Because we are affected by the culture and subculture we grew up in. You know? They just don't play the 20s music on the radio nonstop. And while yes, you can probably hear the 40s music on some station for an hour somewhere, it's not every station. All day long. And listen, I mean, I grew up 70s, 80s, 90s. You can even listen to the 90s for a couple hours on a station. Unless you have serious radio, then you can have it all day long. But you know what I'm saying? Mostly you're going to hear what's today, the music of today. When you walk into a store, There's music playing. When you eat at a restaurant, there's music playing. You ever pause and consider that? You know it happens. Every time you get in an elevator, most of the time, there's music playing. I mean, although I think some of that's been changing of late. I haven't heard it as often. But music is a normal part of life. Every advertisement, there's music playing. Every, I mean, if you watch the Super Bowl, there's music. The whole thing is full of music. Not even talking about the halftime show. I mean, there's music in and out of a play. The only time they're even halfway quiet is literally the moment the ball is snapped, and then everything goes quiet to see what happens. And then the moment the ball is dead, the music starts back up. I mean, it's just amazing. So we are all the time being conformed. I'm going to give this quote a few times, but let me give you a few quotes by people who think about this kind of stuff. So you all know who Plato is, right? Plato, the philosopher, in his book, The Republic, he said this, let me teach music in your society and I will control your destiny and future. But talking about a country. Plato, and by the way, I did look this up, found the page and found, because a lot of times we quote stuff that never did happen. I actually found Plato, I found the book, found it where he said it. Found people who quoted him saying it. Let me teach music in your society and I will control your destiny and future. A man by the name of Jack Wheaton, who has a very extensive music background, but is also a believer. For those of you interested, he had been the president of the US Jazz Association for quite a while. He wrote a book called The Amazing Power of Music and he said this, music triggers emotions before we can control or modify them. Music triggers emotions before we can control or modify them. You all know what it's like to, I think normally this, I think mostly, you have a dream about a person and you wake up mad at them. because they did something in your dream that they shouldn't have done, and they should know better. And then you have a hard time not mistreating them the whole day because in your dream. Does everybody know what I'm talking about? Okay. That happens. Music triggers that emotion the same way. Music triggers emotions that you, there's no reason behind it, but the emotion is there, and it's trying to drive your decision making. Music can do that. Music has the ability to do that. And again, let me remind you, that can be good or bad. By the way, it's never neutral. Never. Music is never neutral. Never. And the only people who have ever said that music is neutral are liberal Christians probably in the last 50 years, and that's it. No one in the world has ever said music's neutral. You're not going to find any rock musician. You're not going to find any classical musician. You're not going to find it out there. Anybody out there that tells you that music is neutral, they all agree it's not neutral. It's very much. has a push. I've used this illustration several times here, so I'm not going to overburden with this one, but I'm going to remind you again about the Great White Shark movie, Jaws, okay? The two-note ostinato, dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun. Literally, seriously, try turning the music off and watch the movie sometime. It's boring. It really is. The music makes the movie. It just does. Matter of fact, the shark was supposed to be in the movie a lot more often. They spent a ton of money on that shark. It's all mechanical. They spent, I mean, a lot of money on this thing. And it was broke down most of the movie. So they had to film most of the movie without the shark, and they wanted it in there more. Well, what made the movie is John Williams, and it's called a two-note ostinato, and the reason they used it is because a two-note ostinato is directly connected with primal fear in humans. Isn't that something? It invokes a primal response, okay? This is from the Boston Globe. from the Boston Globe. It's a newspaper. Drawing comparisons to Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, which is a piece of classical music, by the way, The Rite of Spring, the very first piece of music that ever caused a riot in the streets was a piece of classical music. So before you start telling me that classical is better than anything else, the very first piece of music that ever caused riots in the streets was Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and it's a piece of classical music. It's what we would call classical yet today, okay? Drawing comparisons to that, Freeman says that John Williams taps into the audience's primal fears through the use of a two-note ostinato, a repeating musical motif. Thanks to a host of problems, the shark didn't work very well, okay? One of the effects of an ostinato, quote, If it's used a lot, sometimes it can kind of hypnotize you. Sometimes it can hypnotize you and even kind of paralyze you. You know, like the dream where the truck's coming at you and you can't move? That kind of, that's, that's why people, hee, when the, when the shark comes in. It's primitive. It kind of taps into something that we've carried with us in our collective unconscious. Since, in his words, probably the stone age. And we're probably not aware of it anymore. But it stays there, this thing. It's kind of coming after you no matter what you do. And you understand that John Williams knows that. Knows that this is primal fear. Puts that in the movie because what is great white shark? What are they wanting to think about the great white shark? Scared to death. I mean literally. How many of you had, how many of you remember that? Like you had friends that wouldn't get in the swimming pool or the bathtub after that. Because I did. I had friends literally. They didn't want to get in the bathtub. It was really interesting. Okay. For those of you who think that's, you know, too old, you haven't watched that, I'll take you to the movie Up, okay? There's Disney's or Pixar movie Up, that first 10 minutes. That whole thing is designed, and we've talked about that as well. I'm not going to spend too much time there. I've already talked about it. The world knows the power of music. The world is extremely familiar with the power of music. The world is using the power of music every day, all the time. You do not watch a movie where the power of music is not a serious consideration in the movie. And I'm even talking about documentaries. So you watch a Civil War documentary. So you watch, I'm a big fan of Ken Burns documentaries. So if you've never seen any of Ken Burns documentaries, he does absolutely fantastic work. He does one on baseball. It's eight hours long. It's amazing. I've only seen a part of it. I'm still hoping to watch it. He did one or two on the Civil War, just outstanding. And music is a big part of that. As a matter of fact, he, there was a piece of music written for one of his documentaries that most people think came from the Civil War. It's called the Ashokan Farewell, and it didn't. Some of you may have heard it. Everybody thinks, oh, it's a Civil War song. No, it's not. It was written for Ken Burns' documentary. It's the greatest thing. But we all get this, oh, those connections, you know. So, Kerry Schmidt, who is a, he's a Baptist, somewhat like us. He wrote a little booklet called Music Matters. We've had it, I've had it in the office. We'll probably get some more. He gives us a huge quote, a list of quotes. from great people. So Pietro Mascani, an Italian composer who died in 1945 said this, modern music is as dangerous as narcotics. Okay, we're talking about a classical composer. Aristotle, you should know who Aristotle is, philosopher from days gone by. I believe he taught Alexander the Great, if I remember right. Music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young. Plato, again, Plato taught, in order to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or a society, one must mark their music. Paul Kantner. Now if you don't know who that is, in my day it was a group called Jefferson Airplane. I don't know if they're still around or not, but some of the kids in our school listen to Jefferson Airplane. Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane said, the new rock music is intended to broaden the generation gap, alienate parents from their children, and prepare young people for revolution. That's a singer in a rock band. In Jefferson Airplane, they weren't exactly like ACDC or Metallica. Okay, you hear that? Howard Hanson, an authority on music, Dr. Howard Hanson, stated in the American Journal of Psychiatry, music is a curiously subtle art with innumerable varying emotional connotations. It is made up of many ingredients and according to the proportions of those components, it can be soothing or invigorating, ennobling or vulgarizing. It has powers for evil as well as for good. Thoreau. Okay? Henry David Thoreau. That's American lit, I believe, isn't it? Thoreau is American. He's an American author. Music has helped cause the destruction of the Greek and Roman empires, and it will sooner or later destroy America and England. Cheetah Magazine quoted a musician as saying, if the establishment knew what today's popular music is saying, not what the words are saying, but what the music itself is saying, they would just turn their thumb down on it, they'd ban it, they'd smash all the records, and arrest anyone who tried to play it. You hear that? Do you think the world understands the power of what they're doing? The late Neil Postman, okay, he wrote the book Amusing Ourselves to Death, which is a very good read, okay. Amusing Ourselves to Death, which is exactly, it was written for the United States and it's accurate. Neil Postman stated this in his book. And he uses the word technology, it's in the reference of music, okay. To maintain that technology, music, is neutral is stupidity, plain and simple. A guy by the name of Max Shane, Dr. Max Shane, wrote in the Psychology of Music, the medical, psychiatric, and other evidence for the non-neutrality, non-neutrality of music is so overwhelming that it frankly amazes me that anyone should seriously say otherwise. Frank Zappa. Does everybody know the name Frank Zappa? Probably some of the older folks maybe. Frank Zappa said, the loud sounds and bright lights are tremendous indoctrination tools. It is possible to modify the human chemical structure with the right combination of frequencies. If the right kind of beat makes you tap your foot, what kind of beat makes you curl your fist and strike? This is from lost people. This isn't from Christians. This isn't from anybody trying to talk about Christian music. This is just talking about music. Now, here's a Christian author. A Christian author, Tim Fisher, wrote in his book, The Battle for Christian Music, It is almost impossible to overstate the absurdity of the claim that music is neutral, amoral, or void of communication by itself. Those who have looked beyond the current music publications, and he's referencing Christian stuff. Those who have looked beyond the current music publications know that no one has ever taken the position that music is neutral except for Christians in the last 25 years. And that's, he wrote that at a different time. Okay. And then a guy by the name of David Kupelian, In his book, The Marketing of Evil, and again, I don't believe, I'm not sure this is a Christian, okay? Maybe, I'm not sure about this one. He uses this quote from a communications professor at New York University, NYU, to expose the moral decay of today's rock music society. So it's aiming at the rock music society. It's part of the official rock video world view. It's part of the official rock video world view that your parents are creeps, teachers are nerds and idiots, authority figures are laughable, nobody can really understand kids except the corporate sponsor. It sounds funny, but that is extremely accurate. Now, it's not, there's always been a problem, a generational issue, hasn't there? And what this is saying is the music is being used purposefully to drive that wedge and make it deeper. Listen, generation to generation, there are going to be music changes. There is going to be music changes. So before we all start saying, there should never be any music changes, then how come we all aren't singing Gregorian chants? Because music is creativity. God made us as a creative people, right? Hello? Do our buildings look different than they did 200 years ago? Yeah, there's some difference, OK? If you go 400 years ago, they're different. In another 100, couple hundred years, they're going to look different again. Art is different. I mean, we never even would have thought Picasso was anything more than a 13-year-old that was messed up in geometry. Okay? And now he's one of the great artists. That happened after he's dead. And I actually now kind of like Pollock. I like Jackson Pollock. And he would be the premier of the people who were spattering paint on canvases. I like some of his work. I mean, it's actually pretty good. It's not just some guy going, you know. There's some form there. So art has a, art grows and changes. It culturally moves. Art is also dependent upon the culture that we grow up in. You all, your funnies, everybody read the comics in the newspaper? Or look at the latest political cartoon? Okay, that's art. It's a drawing, it's art. And yet it's culturally connected, okay? So you get the picture. So it does, it's not that there's not some that's not, but there's some culturally connected. When you get to music, you have to understand that music does move and change and grow. Some of you, if you've ever listened to radio people, From the 20s almost up into the, I think it would be like the early 50s, they all sounded the same. It's like they all went to school to learn how to talk this certain language. You know, I can't even get that tone, but they all talked exactly the same. I think they called it an international accent is what they called it. And they were trained to have this one accent. Now we don't do that anymore. We don't train people to do that. We still teach them to articulate and talk, but it's funny. Okay. Now. I'm going to talk about MUSAK. And I think I may have mentioned it before, but MUSAK, M-U-Z-A-K, MUSAK, M-U-Z-A-K. You say, what is that? You may not know what it is, but I guarantee you've probably heard it in the last week. You may have heard it today. Muzak is one of the primary companies, since the 1940s, one of the primary companies that supplies music for companies to play in their stores, in their restaurants, in their elevators and all that. Muzak, okay? And they literally have been doing this since the 40s. Their idea was that music can accompany everyday life. Accompany everyday life. And boy, they're right now, aren't we? I mean, hardly, there's music all the time. People got plugs in their ears all the time. Began in the 1940s by providing background music for various settings, like elevators, doctor's offices. Now remember, this was before the MP3 player, okay? Or the digital music. So over the decades, they are one of the primary groups who have studied the power of music, and they've got researchers that just study just music effect on people. An article from the New Yorker magazine in April of 2006 quotes, today, MUSAC estimates that its daily audience, now this is from 2006, okay, its daily audience is roughly 100 million people. in more than a dozen countries, and that it supplies 60% of the commercial background music in the United States. So, not for TV commercials, but used commercially. As in, again, doctors' offices, restaurants, elevators, and those things. When you walk through a lobby of a hotel, okay? They offer a service known as audio architecture. When the people come to your store, what do you want them to do? Do you want them, yeah, do you want them to slow down and spend time in every aisle? Do you want them to come and eat and spend a little bit of time, but then get out so they can fill the table with another family? Do you want the people in your doctor's office, you know, to be hearing Jaws music all the time? Or do you want them to be like, oh, no, I got to go see the dentist. Don't. Put in some calming music. You know what I mean? They study this. MUSAC researches this. They find out what it works. So some of their clients. We have two of their clients in twin. Outback Steakhouse, Old Navy. So if you've been in either one, you've heard music. And I guarantee you they're in a whole bunch of other places, maybe even, maybe some here in Jerome. I don't know. So if you've been in the public in recent days and heard music, and what's funny is I'll bet you haven't even noticed sometimes that there's music playing. Because sometimes they have the music playing at such a low frequency that only your subconscious is really connecting that there's music playing. Okay? And we'll talk about that. Musac could not exist if music did not manipulate. Okay? Understand. This company could not exist if music did not manipulate. Because they know that they can affect the behavior of people. This New Yorker article tells us this also. In the 40s, they trademarked a concept called stimulus progression, which held that most workers, okay, so in like a work setting, whether it be factory or a call center or someplace where you're doing office work, most workers, would be more productive if they were exposed to music of gradually increasing intensity in 15-minute cycles. So music that started soft but ended up being kind of upbeat and up-tempo. And cycle that through every 15 minutes. And they said the process is subliminal. Musac, it affected you the way hypnosis did, whether you wanted it to or not. They only used what they call sanitized instrumental arrangements, at that time no voices, because the absence of lyrics or voice made the music less likely to intrude upon conscious thought. It was sometimes said that if these songs in this stimulus progression were played in reverse, played backwards, that people would fall asleep at the end of that first or second 15 minute. Okay? So they just helplessly fall asleep. Are you following me that the world understands this? Okay. And again, understand that they're saying they're designing music that affects you, manipulates your behavior, listen, but does not intrude upon your conscious thought. Do you understand that? Is music powerful? They know that they can do this to you. Very interesting thing. If you ever reach that point in a restaurant, like you spend, you realize you spend too much time, like, it's time to go. I bet you never stopped and paused to consider that the music in the restaurant might have changed. And they're saying, this table's got to leave. Would you change the music over in section? It's possible, okay? The article continues. And I'm not going to keep going, but this is what Muzak said. Muzak's biggest competitor, their biggest competitor, anyone want to take a guess at what their biggest competitor is? Silence. Why? Because if it's silent, you'll think. You can't be manipulated if there's silence. You hear what I'm saying? This again, this is why I encourage people who always have to have something playing. And by the way, even if you're running down YouTube, Instagram, the little short movie, whatever thing, there's always music playing. The enemy is silence. Okay? Not saying the music's bad. So be careful. Remember, music is powerful. Power can be used for good. Power can be used for bad. And frankly, who cares whether they hurry us up to get us out of the restaurant? Big deal. Okay? Who cares? So, but are you getting the message? Do you understand what's happening here? Okay? Muzak's own promotional words say this. Audio architecture is emotion by design. Audio architecture is emotion by design. Our innovation and our inspiration is the integration of music, voice, and sound to create experiences that link customers with companies. Its power lies in its subtlety. It bypasses the, this is still from their website, it bypasses the resistance of the mind and targets the receptiveness of the heart. When people are made to feel good in, say, a store, they feel good about that store. They like it. They remember it. They're going to go back to it. Audio architecture builds a bridge to customer loyalty. And loyalty is what keeps brands alive. This is from their company, okay? And last I checked, the website still says the same thing, okay? So, emotion by design. It bypasses the resistance of the mind and targets the receptiveness of the heart. And Muzak has been around since the 40s and they ain't quit. I imagine they're making millions right now. Is everybody still with me? Okay, stick with me. If Muzak knows, let's draw a line from A to B here, okay? Music is powerful. It affects you without you thinking about it, without you dwelling on it. It can move your behavior. It can move your emotions without you actually connecting the dots that it's doing. So listen, if the world knows that and is going to use it commercially, do you think there's a chance that the devil might use that? I just want us to be honest. Is the devil going to use that? Well, duh. He's not an idiot. The devil is many things. He is not an idiot. Okay? Music is powerful. Powerful. So I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians, and this is kind of where we're going to end on this thing. Okay? You turn to 1 Corinthians in chapter 6. Let me ask you a question. Would you let your kids jump in the car and start driving on the highway without taking some training, some time, somehow, somewhere? Hello? Okay. I'm a gun nut. I know there's some gun nuts here in the room. Are you just going to hand somebody a gun, loaded, safety off, and they've never had one lick of training? and just walk away. No, that's foolishness. Why would you put that power in the hand of someone without giving them some kind of, some caution and training? Listen, do you understand, why don't we think about this when we're talking about music? Not just with our kids, but with ourselves. Why don't we, if we're going to spend so much time talking about the power of a car, the power of alcohol, or the power of the power of weapons and all these different things, and we want to make sure people are trained before they do all this. Why do we pretend like music is just, ah, it'll be fine? Do you understand what I'm saying? It's like handing some 13-year-old boy a Playboy and telling him it's art. It'll be fine. Do you understand what I'm saying? Music is something that's powerful. We don't let them drive like that. We need to consider. We need to consider and pay attention that if the world is using it, the devil is using it, and it can also be used for good. Okay? It's a powerful tool that can also be used for good. We don't just ignore it because it's powerful. It can be used for good. And we're supposed to use it by God's own instruction in church. We're supposed to use music to give honor to God and to help glorify God and to edify and rebuke each other, rebuke and encourage each other. But when we look at the world's music, let's look at 1 Corinthians 6. I should say all music. 1 Corinthians 6, look down with me at verse 12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. This is one of the primary reasons why I am against anything that makes me not think rationally. This verse here is one of the primary arguments against things like alcohol, drugs, okay, drugs for recreation purposes. You understand what I'm saying? Submitting yourselves to a hive mind cult systems and all that kind of junk. This is saying, listen, there's only one power that's over me and that's God. And the power that God uses to me is this word right here. It's the power of God's word. It's a powerful word. And he said, I'm not going to be brought into the power of any. Now let me just apply this to music. You are being affected by the music you listen to. You are. You are being affected. Oh, I'm strong enough to handle it. Bologna you are. Bologna. It is, your music that you choose to listen to is telling you what emotions to have, how to think, what to feel. And you know what's funny is, when I suggest this to people in the counseling office, they'll almost laugh. But music has power. I'll tell you, it cracks me up, the people, they say they're so depressed, I'm just depressed, I'm all the time depressed. And I'll tell you, within the first little bit of the conversation, I'm gonna end up being at, after I make sure, how's your Bible reading, how's your prayer, how's your church attendance, what kind of music are you listening to? What does that got to do with anything? Hello? Hello? It has a ton to do with how you're feeling. By the way, it can also have a ton to do with how you get better. Are you hearing me? If you're only over there listening to, I mean, country's kind of an easy target in this, but rock music is full of the same junk, okay? You know, country music. They say, you know, we're going to make trucks so smart. I mean, all these vehicles so smart that eventually there's going to be a country song about a cowboy losing his truck. Is Chuck leaving him? You know, you get the picture? Oh, here tonight? Come on, this is good stuff. This is, music is powerful. It's powerful. We need to be careful that when whatever is going on, and listen, remember where music is. It's not just, it's not just what you're playing on your headphones. It's not just what you're playing on your headphones. Music is every TV show you watch, every movie you watch, every radio program you listen to. I mean, for heaven's sakes, who doesn't, who wouldn't remember the, if you're a talk radio show player, you know, the intro to Dave Ramsey's show for years was that saxophone. We all know it. Why do they choose that music? I wonder. You hear what I'm saying? Think about this. Pay attention to what you're listening to, your music, and watch your spirit. If your spirit is doing things that you don't know why it's doing what it's doing, one of the places you need to be paying attention to is what's coming into these ears in the form of music. I'm telling you, some of you know that you have had days where you are just flat mad or depressed or sick of it all, and you don't even know why. Don't, come on, be honest. I have no idea. I'm not saying music is always the cause. Not at all, there's many different possibilities, but I'm telling you, one of the things you need to aim at, what have you been listening to? Maybe it's time to cut out everything in your life that is not good Christian music, and then examine that and maybe take a step, maybe even more conservative than you would normally, and just listen to that for like 30 days. And then start reintroducing stuff and watch your spirit. See what happens between you and the Lord, or between you and your own heart, and you and your emotions. I'm telling you, you might suddenly discover, man, I really like that song, and now I find out it's messing with me. That song is messing with me. I've had a few girls that I really, really liked until I found out they're messing with me. And I didn't like them anymore. Matter of fact, I didn't like them at all. Does everybody know what I'm saying? Like, I'm talking about before I got married. Do you all understand that? I'm referencing a long time ago, actually. I will not be brought under the power of any. Amen. Pay attention. You watch news on TV, there's music. There's music in, there's music out. Pay attention. Amen. Pay attention. You watch sports, there's music. As a matter of fact, they just introduced a new theme song for football by, guess who? John Williams, the same guy who did dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun. This is crazy. Anyways, music is powerful. It's powerful. It stands to reason, then, that if music is in the believer's life, it needs to be examined and used with care. And we need to be careful that we're not being jerked around We're not putting ourselves under the power of music and its effects that it can have on our life, on our heart, on our attitude, on the behaviors that we have in our life. Amen. So music is powerful. And the lesson is be careful. But next week we'll get a little bit more specificity on some of these principles, Lord willing. Amen. Because let me ask you a question. Does God approve of music? Did he make it? Hello? Okay, so I'm not trying to slam all music. So again, it's powerful. How will we use it? Amen. Father, we thank you.