Thank you for that. All right, Dan and David have a handout. Would you hand me one of those before you get too far away? Thank you. I'm gonna tell you right up front, don't get distracted with the handout yet, please, okay? Don't read through the whole thing in the next five minutes. I wanna say some things before we dive into that. But they're handing those out there. And young men, why don't you pause for just a minute? We're going to open in prayer and we'll continue. Father, we ask your blessing now on our time to come that your Holy Spirit would give understanding, would touch and bless our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, as they're passing that out, you remember last week we considered, as we said, What are some things that if somebody sat you down and they said, well, tell me about your church, you'd say, you know, there's some things you need to know about our church. We love the scriptures. It's the center point of what we are. It defines who we are. It's the answer that we can give. It's so important. It's ultimately important, the foundation. We love scripture, but we value families, too, and it's reflected in our philosophy, and we want to build strong families and understand jurisdictions. And then we mentioned that we love missions. We invest in missions. We want our kids exposed to missions. And if the Lord so inclines to move us to missions, I hope that our heart is there too. But last week we considered that we sing hymns. We sing hymns. We believe that sacred music should be just that. It should be sacred. It should be distinct from music that is born out of an anti-God culture. that should display characteristics that are consistent with being set apart to glorify God. Now tonight, I'm gonna dive more into a number of principles that may be helpful. Maybe you'll begin to understand the music philosophy, which I have developed over time, why I make the decisions that I do. Largely, we're looking for the right diet. I consider associations and direction within the decision making there. Now you may not agree with every application that I make, and I'm not so bothered by that as long as you're not disagreeing with me simply because it violates your tastes, okay? That you're being honest with the scripture and with the Lord and with the Holy Spirit. and you're being surrendered, I trust that you'll understand my desire to steer us toward purity, whether or not one song or other we disagree on. I have to tell you, there's so much to say about music. We really could go into a week-long seminar and teach two hours per night on different aspects of music, and that still maybe wouldn't cover it. There truly is so much to say. We could talk about its nature, its structure, its power, its communication, the various origins of the various styles, the history of music, but let me at the outset tell you what I'm not saying by this message, okay? That may be as important as what I'm saying. What am I not saying with what I'm about to say? I'm not saying that I am the arbiter of truth. that I determine whether any one piece of music is good or evil. I am not the standard, okay? The scripture is the foundation, it is the standard to which we appeal. I'm going to give you the way that I see it and the principles and how they may apply generally. I'm not saying that understanding some of the truth, because I certainly don't understand it all and I look forward to a further study of it, but I'm not saying that understanding some of the truth that I apply it perfectly. Okay? I am not saying that our expression always reaches the bar of excellence that it should. In other words, I'm not setting us up as the ultimate standard that, you know, and don't we do that sometimes, that we are the standard, and so if anybody deviates left or right, up or down from us, well, they're wrong, because we're the standard. I'm not doing that tonight, but I certainly do want to convey an example, though I'm not the standard. I'm not saying that other musicians have no talent, nor am I saying that they're not sincere, okay? But I am saying that music as a self-expression has the capacity of revealing the heart, be it sincerely inclined to worship or whether it be displaying a rebellion against the created order, music does communicate, and it does so powerfully. Now, let me answer first just a few objections. And again, we have to move through this material quickly. People may say, but pastor, people are saved at the concerts. People are saved at those kind of concerts. You may not approve of them, but God's doing a work. Now I have to, number one, express some serious doubt about what is actually happening at concerts when the concept of flesh and worldliness is pumped into people for a prolonged period of time, a short gospel is given, and then they go right back to returning to the music that conveys a completely different message. I personally am highly doubtful that the level of understanding and clarity is there to be really confident in the level of the decisions for Christ that are supposedly made. However, even if someone happens to get saved, happens to understand the gospel, does that sanctify the method? The fact that God works despite our error sometimes, or despite our ignorance, does that sanctify what's being done? No, it doesn't. We still have to search for truth and to do the best we can. Number two, well, music doesn't have that effect on me. People may describe certain effects of certain music, say, well, that's not the way it strikes me. Well, again, in part, Pop music is such a pervasive part of our culture that people actually may not know what is going on. They say they prefer it like a, but they prefer it like a fish prefers water because they don't necessarily know the alternative or what effect it may be having on them. Number three, I get a blessing out of it, which is a sanctified way of saying sometimes, pastor, that's what I like. Pastor, that's what I like. Now, are our tastes, are our desires to be the center point of what we do? No, the scripture is supposed to be. Now, our desires, as we delight in the Lord and he gives us the desires of our heart, then our desires will be steered in the right direction. But to simply say, I get a blessing out of it, well, we may be able to get a blessing out of it if we're discerning and we try to scrape the meat off the bones a little bit sometimes. That's not just a wholesale dismissal of every argument that's out there for quality Christian music to say, well, look, you listen to what you want to and I'll listen to what I want to because I get a blessing out of it. That's not the chief concern here. We mentioned last week that about pop culture. and sacred music. The creation of pop culture is a relatively recent phenomenon. It's commercial in interest. It's about what sells. The liability of pop culture, and I would say this is on the light side, the liability of pop culture is the fascination with that which is new especially to the entire disregard, if not disdain, of what is old." In other words, the pop culture is, in this generation, it seems to be one of ever happening, the only generation to not just adopt what's new, but entirely set aside what is old, to reject the entire history and tradition of music that's been passed down for the preference of what is new. Our use of what is perceived as old-fashioned isn't because we can't let go of the past. I hope you'll begin to see tonight that there actually is a well-thought-through philosophy for why we do the things that we do. It's not just, well, I like Southern Gospel. I like bluegrass. I like CCM. Well, I like high church music. Well, I like, and so that's what we're gonna do. No, we have to consider the principles of scripture. Let's consider with the time that we have several principles related to music and the Christian life. Now, note that these aren't specific commands as they pertain to music, but the wise person sees the design or recognizes the truth and sees its force in a broader context than the original. In other words, you see that while God may have told you a truth in this story, you say, whoa, well that tells me something about music that I can apply over here. If you disagree with me, please do not turn me off. Turn me off if you can confidently say that I'm twisting scripture or being irrational. But don't turn me off because you don't want to consider the implications of what I'm saying. All right? I will be appropriate, and I trust that you'll understand some of the more sensitive statements. And you are welcome, I hope you know me well enough to know that you're welcome to clarify with me personally if you feel that I've been nebulous or vague. Again, we're talking about so much here. So much could be said and sometimes I may reference something and you feel like, you know what, that was a pretty off the rocker statement. I just think that's kind of ridiculous and crazy. And there might be a bit of research to back it up, but I don't have time to share it. So I'm not making an appeal to authority. I'm simply trying to cover a lot of information and hope that you'll take it with the best heart, all right? I have a lot more to read and learn. I look forward to refining and fulfilling out my understanding of music and its effect in and on our culture, but there's a lot of information here. And I'm going to tell you up front, you're not going to retain it all, okay? OK, teach me. All right, I'm ready to listen. You're not going to retain all this, and that's where the handout comes in handy. I hope that you'll commit the matter seriously to thinking about it and reviewing the material that's in front of you, even here in the near future. Before we get to the handout, let me mention a couple other things that are kind of foundational to the concept of music. Music is a language. Music is a language, like other languages. Music is interesting, though, and we might say it's the universal language. Another person has said it's an emotional language, or it's the language of the emotions. Well, the question is, if it is the language of the emotions, and it's not difficult to see that it is, then we have to ask as believers, are there emotions or expressions of emotions that are inappropriate, that are not fit ever or in certain places? We could talk about the structure of music. Some argue that music is neutral. That is, music doesn't communicate anything good or bad. It doesn't matter. I can grab any hodgepodge of any music that's out in the world, and I can slap some Christian lyrics to it, and it's fine. As a vehicle to carry the text, it's neutral, okay? But music is a language, and if you think about what our language is made up of, we have sentences, and we cut those up into phrases, and we bring those down to words, and we separate words into letters, don't we? Now, if I took out a letter G, and I said, ah, is that letter G evil, or is it good? Obviously, it's neither. It is an element. It is just a singular building block. But as we begin to put together those building blocks and we construct those phrases and those sentences, can we have sentences that convey beauty and majesty? Absolutely. Can we have sentences that display crass, blasphemous things? Yes, we can. It's the same language, but as we put the elements together, they communicate wholly different things. And the concept of neutrality goes out the door because put together, they communicate something very powerful indeed. Music has a communicative value just like any other nonverbal communication. When you walk in the door and your wife's looking at you with her hands on her hips and she's tapping her toe and she's kind of scowling at you like this, are you venturing that this is a neutral message? Or are you starting to gather some information here that maybe the day has not been so well and she's not real pleased with you, right? When we talk to our pets, and you grab your dog and you go, oh, you little mangely flea bitten, waste of money you, and his tail's going. Because he has no clue what you're saying. He's only picking up on the non-verbal cues. He's reading the inflection of what you're saying, your facial expression, even if you're totally denigrating him, okay? Nonverbal communication is communication. It sends a message. And music is and carries such a value that it communicates without a text, without actual words with it, it communicates. And we talk about different styles and it's not, again, it's not difficult to realize that music communicates different things. For instance, why do different people choose different styles? If music is all neutral and it communicates nothing, then why is there any distinction at all? But we like certain things for certain reasons. Why did rock and roll create a revolution? Why did it create such an upheaval and disturbance in society? Because it was communicating something very powerfully and something different than what had been communicated before. Why do we play certain music at funerals and entirely different music at a ball game? If we came to a funeral and they started playing, bum, bum, ba-dum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, dum, boom, boom, boom, the bass drum's going, we would go, what, this is, no, no, it wouldn't seem right because it's communicating something that's totally inappropriate to the environment and to the purpose of why we're there. Okay, now if you went to a ball game and started to hear a funeral dirge, it might depend on what team was playing and why that was playing, but why do nations, why does every nation, I haven't done the study on all 176 or whatever nations there are, but why do nations have anthems? Oh, they put the spirit of their country into an uplifting text that stirs and motivates their people. And you come to an Olympic Games and the winner plays his national anthem. Why? Because music's important and it conveys something. It stirs something in someone. So there's so many questions to ask. Let's look at our handout here. turn to, well I'm going to read for you Psalm 40, if you'll turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now you may hear Psalm 40 in a discussion about music, and I want to give you a little bit of balance on that. Psalm 40 verse 1, the psalmist says, And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." And so he talks about this deliverance that the Lord gave him, and a new song that accompanied it. Now, to be honest with you, And to be balanced, I think, on the passage, we have to understand this was written by a saved man. So he's not necessarily speaking of his salvation experience and the new song reflecting a different nature of music. However, he had a new song, maybe a newly written song, which expressed praise to his God And it certainly would convey something. He says, many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. It will be moving and have a purpose. But there was a new song, at least new in its creation. However, when we come to 2 Corinthians 5, 17, what does it say about believers? Read it with me, would you, out loud? 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. This certainly is talking about the salvation and the transformation that comes with it, that things become new. If all things become new, we are regenerated and we are urged to a newness of mindset, we now have the indwelling of the spirit who will begin to develop the fruits of the spirit in us, would not our self-expression naturally and obviously change because we are different people. And so whatever expresses our heart and our perspective and our view of life, i.e. our speech, our clothing, our self-expression through music, would naturally take a turn. It would change. A new life includes a new song. Our music should reflect a new life in its perspective, priority, and things like that. A new life in Christ. It should be consistent with the design, the character, and the commands of the one who redeemed us. It's at least obvious to say that our music shouldn't be conveying a message which is totally antithetical to who we are, right? Okay, fair enough. Psalm 137, Psalm 137. And the psalmist describes when they are being carried away captive into Babylon. Psalm 137, verse number one. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof, for there, they that carried us away captive required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. And their response? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? What were those songs written for? Why, they were written for the worship of God. They're appropriate in the temple, and they mention our God and the victory and the promises and the glories of our God, and we would sing it now only to be mocked by you. The song of the Lord is not intended for the entertainment of the heathen. It's not an appropriate place. It would open up God to mockery. It would bring what is to be sacred to us into a place that is just a joke. It would be so that you could slap our God in the face and you could torment us by causing us to try to be happy and to sing one of our praise songs when we're obviously under the judgment of God. It's not appropriate. And we might be able to draw from that that the Lord's song is not for the entertainment of the heathen. Are some churches providing some entertainment for the heathen? That's what it seems to be, is that if we can provide for them something that appeals to them and draws them that they as unregenerate or carnal people like, and why would they like it? Because it appeals to the flesh and it expresses a carnal heart. We draw them with what they like, then we can give them the message. Of course that shoots you in the foot because what you get them with is what you're going to keep them with and how do you draw someone with carnal means and then try to encourage them to be spiritual? You're at best creating confusion and working against yourself and giving a dual message. Now Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter five in verse number 18, we referenced this last week I believe, Ephesians chapter five, And verse 18, but notice the context in which we find this mention of music and of song. Ephesians 5 verse 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Be controlled by the Spirit, and as you are, this is what you should be doing, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Proper music is related to being Spirit-controlled. Is that not evident from the text? that in the same sentence, side by side, and conditional to being spirit-filled is speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. So proper music is related to being spirit-controlled. Hold that, just park that thought and we'll move on here to the next one. 1 John 2, 15 and 16. We'll turn quickly there and then over to James. 1 John. chapter 2, verse 15. Now notice the very straightforward command that is given. Love not the world. Does that say, don't love people? That's not what that's saying. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So when he says love not the world, he's not saying don't try to lead people toward the Lord and toward wisdom. No, there must be something else he's talking about. This would be the world system, the way of thinking and expression that emanates from a world that is at variance with God. A world of fallen people who live as they want. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. Now he's talking, kind of helping define it here. And the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away in the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now James chapter four and verse four, I'll read it for you, says, ye adulterers and adulteresses, now believe it or not, he's speaking to believers. Strong terminology. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. As in the Civil War, someone from the South could put on a blue uniform And though being from the South and being part of the Confederate Army could stand in the position of and identify himself as an enemy of his own people and vice versa. As a believer, we can place ourselves in the position of an enemy of God. So it's so serious to me in this passage to say, well, wow, if loving the world is that serious, and if God sees it that way, then I certainly want to understand what the world is so that I don't love it, and I would want to be so careful as not to befriend the philosophy and the expression of the world, which hates my God. Okay? So we at least have to ask the question, what is worldliness? Now the truth be told, a lot of people have brought worldliness down to a list of things. Okay? That's not necessarily the case. Worldliness is a heart attitude, it's an expression, it's a perspective. But how is worldliness expressed in music? How, well, we'd have to ask, well, how does the world express its music and why? It would cause us to look at things like association and purpose. And I say purpose, meaning why was this music created? What's the origin of reggae? Where did rap come from? What's the root of rock music? Do you know what rock and roll is a euphemism for? Then can there be such a thing as Christian rock? Have we stopped to ask ourselves the question? Sound, the agenda, the motivation. We'd have to analyze these things because whatever worldliness in music is, we would want to be alert to it, sensitive to it, and shun it so that our music is pleasing to the Lord. 1 Samuel 16.23. Now a couple of these are really interesting as they're woven into a story. and show us something very powerful about music. 1 Samuel chapter number 16. Saul was in a bad state here. He had acted foolishly. He was not governing well. He wasn't obeying the Lord. And the Bible tells us that an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul. And it's interesting that when it did, notice verse 23, It came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul. Well, actually, I'm not gonna touch that quite yet. I wanna go back and give you the backstory. His servant said, that's how much they understood the issue. His servant said, we need to find some help for Saul. He's in a bad way. This evil spirit from the Lord's on him. What do you think we should do? Now, I'm reading in here and I'm being a little facetious. I don't know, let's make him his favorite supper, right? That would cheer him up. That would have, oh, I know, I know, I know. Let's get him some of that Benadryl mix and whatever that makes him real loopy and happy and he'll forget all his sorrows. I know, I know. Let's see, let's find his favorite TV show. Yeah, let's do that and make him happy. You know what they said? Let us find a musician. That's what they called for. He's under an evil spirit from the Lord, his spirit is not right, he needs help, and so we're gonna call on the work of a musician. So they called David, and notice what verse 23 says. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. Now does it say, and the words of David's songs were a blessing to Saul. Does it say that? It never says that he sang any words at all. It's simply by the skillful playing of an instrument, that Saul was affected, and notice how he was affected. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. What's the difference? I know, he's just trying to really make the point by saying it over again. No, he's not being redundant. It's suggested, and I agree, that we're talking about different aspects of the help that was brought to Saul. That is, Saul was affected physically, And emotionally or mentally and spiritually, that is the evil spirit of the Lord departed from him, he was affected spiritually, he was refreshed, that is physically, and he was well, that is speaking mentally by music. So if the spirit through the writers of scripture encases that story for us, doesn't it communicate something powerful about music that if then it was called upon specifically as a medicinal aid to a spiritual problem, that music is very powerful and can affect us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Now when we begin to adopt that mentality, I think this begins to shift the tables and dramatically affect how we see and how alert we are to music. Music communicates. Music communicates. Now Exodus chapter 32. Exodus 32. Moses has been called up on the mount with the Lord. And Joshua, faithful Joshua, has gone partway up the mountain. He didn't go all the way up with Moses, he wasn't invited, but it's interesting to see that he goes up and he remains partway up the mountain. And in Exodus chapter number 32, let's see here. And I wanna go back in the story, but let me just say verse 17, okay? When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. Oh my, oh no, someone's attacked. They're fighting someone because obviously the noise I hear sounds like people fighting. It sounds like war. And then notice what it says and what Moses' response is to him, verse 18. And he said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, nor is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that, what's the word? Sing, do I hear. Let me ask you a question, what kind of music, or how would we describe a music that when sung sounds like war? What kind of music would convey fighting How would we describe it? Chaotic, right? Raucous, loud, yelling. Is there any music today that exists that sounds anything like the noise of war? Sure there is. Have you ever heard of the mosh pit? Mosh pit happens at rock concerts, at heavy metal rock concerts where people get agitated to such a state it might begin in one group, it might begin in several groups where people just begin to go crazy and collide off of each other. Sometimes people get in a bloody nose or get knocked out and it just becomes a pit of chaos, a noise of war. And then he says, and it came to pass as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, verse 19, that he saw the calf and the dancing And Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made and burned it with the fire and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink thereof. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Talks about the golden calf experience. The Bible says that they had adulterated their worship. In the short time that Moses had gone up to the mount, and they said, oh, I don't know what's happened to Moses. Aaron, make us a golden calf. Now, there's an argument to be made that in the making of the golden calf, they actually didn't think in their minds that they were becoming pagan. They actually called the calves Elohim, which brought us out of Egypt. So they were identifying, it seems like, the calves with their God. However, of course, they were totally violating the commandment and creating a graven image. And the activity that surrounded the worship of the golden calf was wholly different than what they had done. It said the people sat down to eat and rose up to play. They didn't get up to play lawn darts or skip bow, okay? I believe it was an immoral play. And this was a part of the worship? And a music that sounds like the sound of war as a part of the new worship? What had happened? Well, what had happened was their theology had changed, their worship had changed, and along with it, their music had changed. I want you to know that worship and its music can be adulterated. Music can communicate either wholesomeness, order, structure, or it can communicate sensuality, division, tension, chaos, lack of restraint. Why is it that in certain places of ill repute, certain kinds of music are played? because it creates an environment that's consistent with and conducive to a fleshly display, a lack of restraint, an anti-authoritarian view. That's why they do it. So why, then, would we bring that kind of music into a pure worship that seeks to exalt the Lord and be sacred and lift us to think grand thoughts of God, and to be pure, and to demonstrate self-control, and wholesomeness, and to build people. There is a style of music and singing that's consistent with idolatry, dancing, nakedness, and even immorality. Music is not neutral. Now, I have in the box down here at the bottom of the page, there's some confirmations, and of course, It just says there's so much more to say, but if you look at its use in certain contexts, as I mentioned before, specific styles create specific moods. They're chosen by various people, businesses, or industries to create a certain environment. You have to consider its origin. What was the culture out of which certain music was born? Well, these people are talented, but they're also sinful. And so when they take the elements of music and they put them together, they're doing it to create some specific sound that communicates a certain value or creates a certain environment. So it'd be healthy for us to consider the origin of music, its structure and its purpose. Look at the effect of music. It's not just preachers that look at the effect of music. There are people who study this, musicologists, musicians, psychologists, maybe sociologists, that have studied and commented on the social effects of music, and it's fascinating to read. Furthermore, you can ask the testimony or listen to the quotes, and I could read them for an hour. quotes of the musicians or the bands or their media guy or whatever, the people related to them, quotes by them about their music and what they intend and what their end goal is. You don't have to believe me. You can believe the words from their own mouth. You can believe the people from unsaved people who are studying sociology, separate from trying to come up with a religious response, and they're describing the effect of various kinds of music. You'd be fascinated. The testimony of those who have studied and used it, the testimony of those who have analyzed it socially, medically, things like that. Couple more. In 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8, Paul writes to Timothy, for bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. Obviously, there's a priority in life, and bodily exercise has its place, and it is profitable, but boy, when you look at the advantages of godliness in this life and the life to come, certainly godliness ought to be the premier pursuit of our lives. Matthew 6, verse 33, but seek ye first, what? The kingdom of God and his righteousness. That ought to be a first priority. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. That'd be a neat study to see what the Bible says to do with all of our heart. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, And verse 27, Paul writes there to the church at Corinth, but I keep under my body. That means it's like I push down, I subjugate my body, and I bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Paul was voicing a real concern that he could preach, and yet if he gave in to the impulses of his body, and what his fleshly desires were, and he let those dominate his life, and he didn't exercise his self-control, and push those down, and keep them in their place, it could actually disqualify him from ministry. And God could put him on a shelf, and he would be a castaway after having had the privilege of preaching the riches of Christ. So there, we could look at the other passages there, The point is that there is life and music are to be balanced and follow a certain order. There ought to be certain priorities. That could go in different directions in the conversation there, but our lives should not be driven by the impulses of the flesh. That should be obvious, nor should our music. Our music shouldn't draw out of us, right, the impulses, the base impulses of our flesh. 1 Corinthians 10.31, do you remember the verse? If not, I want you to circle that on your sheet, maybe commit it to memory. 1 Corinthians 10.31, here it is, and if you know it, say it with me. Would that all include our music? Sure, sure. Any part of our life ought to be consistent with a desire to magnify the Lord and to see that the world would see bigger and clearer thoughts of him. That his name and his reputation would be weighty to them because of what they see in us and our music. should glorify the Lord." Oh, but so Pastor, you're saying that all I can listen to is church music. I can't ever sing Happy Birthday because that's not a church song. Does Happy Birthday glorify the Lord? Nothing structurally wrong with it, doesn't draw out the feelings of the flesh. And you know if I sing it and I rejoice over the birth of my child and it helps me to create a happy home, have I glorified the Lord? Sure. What about a love song to my wife? Does that glorify the Lord? Oh, I wouldn't sing it in church. But as I sang it to my wife, would I communicate to her that I love her? She's an important part of my life. I value her. Would that strengthen our marriage? Would it strengthen our home? Is there a place for an appropriate love song in glorifying the Lord? Sure. So don't think that the only thing that I ever sing is within the two covers of that book over there, okay? There's other music that still glorifies the Lord. There's a balance here. Lastly, Colossians 3.2. I want you to see this, very important. Colossians 3.2. Thank you for your patience and your listening here, your consideration. Colossians 3.2. Paul writes to the Colossian believers, this is a command, set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. Oh, pastor, I can't help it, that's what I like. You put your liker somewhere else. When your kid's like, I don't like broccoli. Well, learn to like it, right? That's healthy for you, it builds you, it's nourishing to your body. You need to learn to like it and eat it, okay? but I like circus peanuts. And you're like, circus peanuts, what are circus peanuts? Yeah, I know, I have some in my drawer and they're about a year old and they always get hard as a brick because, but anyway, they're good, they're good. We love sugar because sugar makes us feel good and it makes us energetic and it's so, so, so, so tasty. But truly it rots us from the inside out, right? If we were to just gorge on sugar, and eat all sugar because that's what we liked. And we can't help it, that's what we like, right? Oh, but we can help it. And if we're going to be healthy as believers and we're going to feed ourselves things that build us and nourish us and make us what the Lord wants us to be, we're gonna have to have a strong, meaty, healthy, musical diet. I want you to understand, tastes and preference are volitional, meaning you choose. So that's not an excuse that I can't help it, that's the kind of music I like. Hey, I'll tell you what, shocker, Pastor Fox likes some carnal worldly rock music too. Doesn't mean I listen to it, but it means when I listen to it, it appeals to my flesh. I don't preach against it because I don't like it. I preach against it because it's wrong. And because there's a diet which we ought to choose. And if you wanna use that illustration of a diet, there's things that are healthy, there's things that are not really healthy but they're tasty, and then there are things that are just poison. And we need to learn to distinguish between them and what amount of our diet should each one consume, okay? Now, if you turn to the last page, You'll see these questions. We might turn these principles into questions. And as we're thinking about music, we could ask ourselves these questions based off of the principles that we've looked at. Does my music evidence a changed life? Has anything changed since I've been saved or has my music remained the same? Because a changed life will show changed music. Is my music different from that of my previous lifestyle or is it new? Could we call it new? Do I listen to my music primarily because it's entertaining or makes me feel good? How does this music affect me physically, mentally, spiritually? Does this music sound like that of the world? Is this music similar to what the world hears in places where they feed the flesh? If someone heard just my music, no words, to what kind of music would they think I'm listening? That'll give you a cue of as far as what your music sounds like. Does my music in its form reflect a holy, righteous God? Is it balanced? Does this music glorify the Lord or does it glorify the performer? I think Dan Lucarini, author of Why I Left the CCM Movement, would tell you that I was in it and I know it glorifies the performer. If we don't want to say so ourselves, I think some of them would say it glorifies the performer, the CCM music I'm talking about. Do I excuse my music by saying that I can't help what I like and dislike? And here's maybe the most important question to open up the heart. Am I willing to change my music diet if the Lord would want me to do so? If you say, you know, I really like what I like and nothing's gonna change my mind. then I'm sorry to hear it. But none of this is going to make any... It doesn't matter how logical, how biblical, how persuasive it is. If you don't want to change, you're not going to. But I hope the heart is in the place to say, I want to learn and I want to grow. But at least you understand some of the mindset that's gone into My thoughts over the years, and as we analyze music and choir music and special music and music that we use, of course we sing out of the hymnal, so that keeps us in a good, solid tradition. But there's such a pull, there's such a pressure. in these days to, oh, but we need more people. How can we get them in the door? I know. And we begin to change stylistically some things and say, oh, music's gone. That's only a symptom. Music is only a symptom of a broader philosophy that says we need to market the church. We need to make us palatable so that we can draw people and have a greater influence. We have to believe, beloved, that there is greater power in purity and obedience than there is in watering things down, corrupting the message, creating confusion, just so that we can draw a few and supposedly have a greater influence. Thank you, and if you have any questions, Please don't hesitate to ask. Let's close in prayer tonight. Father, thank you for the privilege of looking into your word, for considering these thoughts on this so important issue of music. It's powerful. It reaches us on a subliminal level. It affects us maybe in ways we don't even understand. Music can be complex. It's history long. Its origins sometimes are unknown. Lord, help us by your Holy Spirit to know and just discern at the base level to at least start out by saying, Lord, I'm sensitive to your Holy Spirit. I want to sing spiritual songs. I want my music to glorify the Lord. And I pray that you'd teach us, help us to understand, be discerning, and be heartfelt, not necessarily judgmental of people's, of their motivations or of their talent or of the sincerity, but still kindly sharing the truth of why we sing what we sing and why we listen to what we listen to. Father, I pray that you'd help us now to just stay strong