Well, let's continue on in our lectures and prayer, and we should begin these by praying. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. O Lord God, show us great Father, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Let the one who speaks be a sower who sows the Word of God. Let it reign supreme in all that is said and in all that is heard. Father, let your Word fall upon good ground. Let not Satan come and snatch it. Let not the world's cares in the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests enter in and choke it. and cause it to prove fruitless. Let not discouragements and difficulties and trials be as rocks on hard ground, keeping the Word from bearing fruit. O Lord God, plow up the hard ground of our hearts. Let your Word fall upon good soil, sending roots downward, bearing fruit upward. O Lord God, spread written word before us this hour. Let us drink deeply the pure milk of the great doctrines of your word. Make us eat meat, O Lord God, that we might discern between good and evil. O Lord God, we live in a dark and wicked age. Broad is the way, and many are that leads to destruction. There are ways which seem right to men, whose ways are the end of death. Make your word a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path, that we might see that narrow way in which we should walk. As we run in the path of your commandments, O Lord God, enlarge our hearts, that we might love you, and in doing so, obey you. Let not your word go out this hour and return forth. but accomplish that purpose for which You have gathered us here and for which You have sent us. O Lord God, because of our fealty to You, because of our undying love and devotion for Your Son, our Savior, we pledge our complete submission to Your holy, eternal, inerrant written word. and we pledge our unquestioning obedience to its commands. In the name of our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Now we'll turn to worship, or worship in the vernacular in the 21st century church. Before we move on from adoration, We must look at a word which is used as a synonym for adoration, which is worship. Worship actually entails all forms of acknowledgment of God that we worship Him, His Lordship. Specifically, it would entail adoration and thanksgiving, but as it's used in the 21st century church, it's usually used in conjunction with singing. Worship and singing are viewed as synonymous. It's not viewed that way in the Bible. It doesn't make it wrong, because we can worship through song. It is simply that for most churches, if they say, we're going to have a special worship service Sunday night, what many times they mean is a song service. The chancellor choir is going to lead us in worship. What they mean is a song service, don't they? Well, prayer and song. Since in the evangelical church, worship, praise, and song are considered virtually one and the same, we have to address this. A worship service, a praise service, is generally one characterized by singing, isn't it? So, we have to come to grips with some terms. A worship service has come to mean a morning church service combining praise, music, announcements, and a sermon. Isn't that great? Our morning worship service. What does that mean? We're going to spend an hour praising God for His divine attributes. No, it means there's going to be some singing, there's going to be some prayer, there's going to be some announcements made, there's going to be a sermon, some more singing, maybe some more announcements. You know, it's just a worship service. And I have no problem with that, because they're not saying it is a service dedicated to worship. What the word worship and worship service means is God honoring, isn't it? And that's not the technical meaning of worship, but I have no trouble with using worship in the vernacular. It's just like if I asked Pastor Billy, where's your church? Oh, really? So, why aren't you there with them if they're all meeting there today? Well, you knew what I meant, didn't you? We know the church is not the building, it's made up of people, don't we? But, I have no problem if you ask me what church I go to. I don't say, well, the church, I don't actually go to it because the church is made up of people and this church gathers everything. So, you know, go north on I-45, go past the mall that's on the left, you'll see it there. You know, take the 7th Cove exit. I mean, it's very easy, isn't it? And we don't play these word games, do we? We use some biblical terms in the vernacular, and that's not sin as long as we don't begin to confuse the tridoctylamine with the common use of the word. A prairie service has come to mean a hymn fest, or a song service. Used to, in churches they would say, now we're going to have a hymn festival, or we are going to have a song service, or we are the guest choir or a singing group from Chapel Ridge Pentecostal or Chapel Ridge Presbyterian is visiting and they're going to lead us in a time of worship and song. And we pretty much know what to expect, don't we? Well, now all you have to say is a praise service, and people accept. Now, it's not wrong, but neither entails the multifaceted worship and praise of God, which we know is true. It's important, therefore, to address biblical worship through song. What? Is there a biblical basis for praying with song? That would be our first question, wouldn't it? What do we need? Not examples, we would need doctrine, wouldn't we? Now, some people, and I've seen this a lot in the Baptist churches and in the gospel churches, will go to the temple service where some of the Levites were professional singers, and they will say, We have music ministers, we have professional singers, and we need that in the church. Well, we have a problem with that, don't we? What's our problem for going to the Levitical priests as professional singers and using that to hire a music minister in the church? What's the problem? It's no longer relevant, is it? The priesthood is done away with. I am not saying that there's not a place in the church for a music minister. I'm just saying we don't go to the temple priest to get it. That's two different things, isn't it? So, what do we need? What do we need in order to establish that prayer and singing can be combined? What do we need? Yeah, we need chapter verse. So, let's go to Psalm 42, verse 8, Julie. Pastor Billy, Psalm 69, 30 and 31. And then Tony, Psalm 135, verse 3. Let's hear Psalm 42, 8. Who would like to read that? Who has that one? Psalm 42, 8. Okay? Okay, so what, when it says he's singing, what does this verse say singing is? It's a what? prayer to God. That's exactly right. Psalm 69, 30 and 31. Who has that? So the verbal praising of God with Psalm pleases Him. Psalm 135, 3. Now we are commanded to, actually, we are commanded not to just praise God, but we are commanded to sing praises. Now, songs and songs of worship and praise. There's an important lesson here. Colossians 3.16 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That tells us that our prayers, this is going to be foreshadowing that our prayers need to be word-centered. Let the word of Christ dwell in you wisely, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. So in the context of fellowship, when we teach and admonish one another, that should be word-centric. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. So, mutual edification, worship and prayer through singing, and thanksgiving all must be word-centric, we must say. Well, that's important for us. Most people, when they're a young Christian, think the Psalms are an unending stream of praise to God. The word Psalm and the word praise are not synonymous. And I was surprised, as a young Christian, when I read through Psalms, and I read Psalm 1, and it suddenly occurred to me, this isn't a prayer. Is Psalm 1 a prayer? Take the Psalm 1. It's an instructional Psalm. It's not a prayer at all. And I went on to find many other psalms which were instructional in nature. So, as I was trying to look at the psalms in prayer, I found there were psalms of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession. I also found that there were instructional psalms that taught doctrine, and there were instructional psalms that taught history. There were some psalms, many of them, or combinations of all of these. Well, what can be learned from this? Hymns should not be selected merely as praise psalms, but rather hymns can be multifaceted in purpose. They can teach us doctrine, they can teach us history, they can be opportunities for us to praise God, to thank God, to confess our sins, to call upon God for His blessing. Now, one of the positive things of the modern praise movement in the latter half of the 20th and first half of the 21st century is that it has moved praise of God, adoration, more to the forefront of singing. What's been lost in that movement, however, has been the loss of doctrinal instruction through song. The marketplace, in many ways, is driving the writing of new hymnologies or new praise songs. Now, that's not bad, except for the fact that it's a unique period in the church where people are actually making a very good living writing music. Does that make sense? Used to hymnists had other jobs. Some of the great hymnists were professional musicians, secular musicians. Some of them had music stores. Some of them had secular jobs. Most of them were professional theologians, either in Bible colleges or seminaries or churches. And out of their deep walks with God, they would hymn the occasional hymn. There are some exceptions, like the Wesley Brothers or Martin Luther, the reformer, who penned literally hundreds, or in the case of Francis Crosby, thousands of poetries and music and hymns. Many of these hymnologists, you'll see when you write a hymn, you'll see two names. There will be the tune and the poem. Many of our great hymns were actually poems that people wrote as a form of instruction or worship that somebody else came along and made the music for. The phenomenon of a person who comes up with an exciting tune and puts Christian words to it and then makes a lot of money off that, it's not bad, but it's new. It's relatively new. And so the reason I caution you about this is because words are very important, and right now we live in a market-driven economy in terms of Christian education, both in music and in books. A close friend of mine has a very good book on prayer that he wanted to publish, and it was returned to him by the publisher because it wasn't feminine. At that time, I don't know if it's true, but they told him at that time that over 80% of the customers in a Christian bookstore are women. Now, sometimes they're buying things for men, or it's a church secretary making the purses, but nevertheless, Christian booksellers know that it tends to be a woman with her children who walk through those doors. That's why it's like it is. So, and I'm going to give you an illustration, you are all going to laugh, so let's get it over with. Why is it, when you go into a Christian bookstore, that they don't sell chainsaws with verses on them, verses on them of the temple builders, and then why is it that you don't see guns, you know, with verses on them, you know, hunting and things like that, and, you know, office supplies and things like that? Why don't you see those things? Yeah, you see, there's nothing spiritual about, you know, a little vase or a little picture frame or, you know, things like that, but they're just feminine, aren't they? When I became a Christian in 1968, I went into a Christian bookstore, and it was a masculine environment that looked very much like an office supply store. Now you're going to a Christian bookstore, and it looks like a floral store or a greeting card store, don�t you? One is not good and the other is bad, but we should recognize that the decision to make that transformation is a market-driven decision. What that means is that when bookstores move from non-profit services carried out by denominations to for-profit What I mean, though, is that for things to keep selling, what do you have to keep having? New things, right? New things. Words are very important in music. Look at Ecclesiastes 5, 1 and 2, if you wouldn't look down at your notes. Pastor Billy, would you read that, please? For they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or in heart, faith and thought, for we are much like the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be peaceful. Yeah, our words as we speak to God should be contemplative. Now, we are not talking here about quietism. I once heard a workshop given by a missionary, and it was being quiet, about being quiet, about reflecting, about quietism. And I remember asking him, you know, you obviously view being soft spoken, being quiet, being reflective, you obviously view that as a virtue. Do you also view being outspoken, being loud, being noisy as a virtue? And he said, no. Well, I wasn't going to, he was late in the workshop, and I've led enough workshops with argumentative ministers in it. I ask him a question, he answers it, I let him go on. But I can match him, word for word, every verse he can give me on being quiet, I can give him one on shouting joyfully to the Lord. Every verse he gives me on being reflective, I can give him a verse on being verbally aggressive, both in worship and in evangelism. Every verse he can give me on being still, I can give him a verse on speaking up. Every verse he can give me on going quietly into a closet by yourself and pray, I can give him a verse on loud, boisterous public worship that's very expressive. So we do not put these things in competition with each other, but we do need to understand that when we are in prayer, We are talking with God, and especially when we are singing, these are prayers. And quite frankly, I'll be singing a hymn, and I'll just stop singing at some point, because I'm not going to say those words to God. No. Stop singing a hymn about the Holy Spirit, and all of a sudden I'm praising the Holy Spirit, and asking Him to fall from heaven, and to fill the building, and to come into my life and see... I'm not going to see that, because it's not true. It's not going to happen. It's not honoring to God. It's not doctrinally true. It's not going to happen, is it? I'm not going to pray that prayer, it's a prayer. If I was in a Catholic or an Anglican prayer service, and we were reading something from one of their prayer books, and I began praying that God would not take His Holy Spirit from me, that I would pledge myself to acts of contrition, and then Holy Mary, Mother of God. If we started down that road, would you just read everything in that prayer book? Would you? If you were given a written prayer that began, Holy Mother Mary of God, Holy Mary, Mother of God, would you pray that prayer? No, and we shouldn't sing prayers that are unscriptural. We shouldn't do it, just because the music sounds good. You see, historically, worship songs were the domain of pastors, theologians, and those who were devoted to the test of time. Groups of theologians put together hymn books, and they sorted them out based on their theological content, not on their ability to sell, knowing that pastors' concern about doctrine and theology would buy the best quality hymn books based on the content of them. That's no longer the case, is it? When I speak of this, when I say, young 20-somethings will say, those are the songs of your generation. Sometimes I'll say, you know, there's a hymn written by Wesley called, Anne Kenneth B., and Anne Kenneth B., that I should gain an interest in my Savior's love, died for me who caused this pain. Then it goes on, and there's one of the verses in there, it's one of my favorite verses in the Ancient of Eden. It says, Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound by sin in nature's night. Mine eye diffused a quickening ray. The desert flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. Now that's great doctrine about depravity, enslavement of sin, God freeing us, isn't it? That's great doctrine. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make us whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's great doctrine, isn't it? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. That's great doctrine, isn't it? When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. That's great doctrine, isn't it? These are some blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of the Spirit, washed in His blood. Great doctrine, isn't it? To God be the glory, great things He has done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son. great doctrine, isn't it? And I'll be quoting those great hymns, and I praise God that I came up with a period of the Church when those great doctrinal hymns were sung over and over again, Sunday after Sunday, not because of their cleverness and musiness, but because of their doctrinal worth, because they're true. Now those doctrines gripped my heart. Wesley said, long after the Church has ceased my brother's doctrines, and that is true. Very few of us can quote anything from a hymn, from a sermon of Wesley, but his brother, who coined the hymns, many of us can quote words from those. And people will say to me, those are hymns from your generation. What's the problem with saying that? Problem is, those hymns are 200 and 300 years old, some of them 400 years old. Just 20 or 30 years separates my generation from you. Those are hymns of my generation. Those are hymns from a generation of Christians who value longevity in doctrine. These hymns reflect a Reformation conviction that worship should be both sober and of a doctrinal orientation. Now, when I say hymns should be sober, don't confuse that term with drab or boring. Many of the old hymns and present-day hymns and worship songs are very rousing in nature. There's nothing wrong with a hymn or song being rousing in nature, which causes you to lift your voice to shout to God. There's nothing wrong with that. The words, however, and the tunes associated on the part of pastors and theologians who selected them. I have a praise tape, and it's got nothing but the blood of Jesus in it, but I skip over it because it's done in a hillbilly rock tune. We just don't get jiggy over the blood of Jesus splashing in the dirt. I mean, I can see people singing that and really get into it, but they're not getting into the doctrine of the redemptive blood of Christ. They're getting into the catchy tune. It's just not appropriate. And what we need to do is begin, just think, what is the tune? What are the words? What is taking place? Are we worshiping God, or are we just getting into the backbeat? This is an orientation from which the evangelical is slowly moving away. That is sobriety in words and selection. Remember, I didn't say sobriety means dull or drab or boring. Sober means not drunk. When the Bible says, do not get drunk with wine, but be drunk with the Spirit, is that what it says? No, it says, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is not being drunk, only spiritually drunk. It's a contrast to drunkenness, isn't it? To being riotous, to revelry. There's nothing wrong with rejoicing in the Lord, but this should never result in riotous revelry, should it? It's different, isn't it? The evangelical church is slowly drifting back to mysticism and the emotionalism of Roman Catholicism, when what was important was the visual, musical, sensual impact of worship, and not the words. That's wrong. If truth be known, music, not worship, is the center of the driving force of the modern praise. Isn't it? If the music does not drive us many times, we will pass it by, won't we? Irrespective of how important and true the words are, won't we? Music was never meant to drive the Psalms. How do we know that? When God the Holy Spirit penned the Psalms, did he include the music? That's because the words are important. He'll leave it up to man to have the music. Now, music is not wrong, but it should be the frame of the picture, shouldn't it? It should not be the center. The concept of a church being led in worship by the spiritual understanding of untrained teenagers and college coeds is unknown in church history for recent days. It's not unusual at all for me to see a church worship service being led by a teenager or twenty-something musical composer. And there's the youth and the young people in the church are learning the words to these hymns. And what we have to understand is that many of these young people are untrained and untried spiritually, aren't they? And then they end up divorced and remarried to country and western singers. Now, that's embarrassing, isn't it? There was a young Christian girl named Beyoncé, she's from Houston, and she had a gospel group. There were four girls. They came through Kenya and Nigeria singing, and they sang in churches in America. Now, just as soon as they could, they made the crossover to secular music, and she is one of the most lascivious It was all just music, wasn't it? And making a living, isn't it? It's more than that, isn't it? You know, I'm a teacher, but I'm not waiting to make a breakthrough into the secular speaking market. Now, there is one. A good public speaker in America, he can command $25,000, $50,000, up to $100,000 per lecture in America with a secular speaker on a topic that's in demand. You know, IG&T, or CompUSA, or some multinational corporation is having a big conference and they want a well-known secular speaker. You can make big money on the speaking circuit. I am not looking to break into that. I'm not just cooling my heels, speaking to Kenyan interns in a little broken down room that needs painting, while I wait to break into the big time. There was a gospel singer named Mahalia Jackson, and she had a sign hung around her, it was a spiritual sign, saying, not for sale, because she was unwilling to make secular music. And I know a missionary who was approached by a multinational corporation and offered a lot of money to come to work for them as a consultant because he was multilingual, he was multicultural, he knew the South American country, that was important, and he said no. And I was offered a position with an oil company to represent them in Nigeria, because they were having trouble dealing with the tribal system, and I know Nigeria, I've been there many times, I have a lot of contacts, I know the Hausa, I know the Yoruba, I know the Igbo, and they just wanted somebody to work as a middleman there, and I said no, I wouldn't do it, I'm not for sale. I'm not just doing this while I work my way into the big time. But unfortunately, many of our young professional Christian stories are for sale, aren't they? I mean, let's just admit it. As soon as they get the opportunity to do what's called crossover, they jump on it, don't they? They do. And so we as pastors, I'm speaking to y'all as a pastor, I wouldn't preach this from the pulpit. But I do say this to Christian ministers, we need to be aware that music is prayer. And we need to look at those words. If somebody says they want to do a praise song, or the ministry wants to learn a new praise song, what did you as a minister, what should you do first? What should you look at? The words. Look at the words. Run the words by you. Make sure they're biblical. And if they're not, What do you say? No, no. One of the things that is positive about the modern praise music is it has got more people singing because it tends to be cutting edge in terms of the music. One of the negatives is, is that it has lost its doctrinal center, especially as it pertains to the blood of Christ and the substitution and sacrifice of Christ. When's the last time you sang a rousing praise song about the suffering of Christ, about the nails in his hands, about the spear in his side, at the cross, at the cross? When is the last time? They're out there, but it's not like, if you turn to a hymn book and you look up topically Easter, or you look up topically blood, or you to look up topically sacrificed, there will be dozens of hymns dealing with those great doctrines, won't there? See, the Charismatic Pentecostal movement, in terms of its singing, has led the Church into a de-emphasis of doctrine and an over-emphasis of emotional experience. Emotion and mystical experiences of worship are seen to be of greater depth than those of the intellect. If the worse of time is over and you feel exalted, that's the objective, isn't it? You feel exalted. The acceptance of the interpretation of unknown tongues between being unknown, not only to the hearer but the speaker, has led to a universal acceptance of an emotional-based evaluation of prayer and worship over that of doctrine. If the prayer and worship time is through, and some people are crying, and some people are laughing, and some people are hugging, irrespective of the words, that's seen as a great time, isn't it? Because of this combination of immaturity and ecstatic mysticism in worship, several errors have crept into worship, and I'd like to address those. First, I call this section the prevalent sins of worship. First is immature or false doctrine. An absence of the blood of Christ, the cross, the call to the church to be a suffering church, that's virtually lost, isn't it? An emphasis on Old Covenant temple worship and Old Covenant relationship with God the fall on this place, Shekinah glory, fill the temple, this is the temple of praise, old covenant, Elijah, Samuel, Solomon, David, isn't it? Out of balance, and a loss of new covenant doctrines which we found in Reformation hymns. An elevation of women in teaching role in the church is a result of this. Not women teaching role as the older women teaching the younger women, or the younger women discipling one another, but praise and worship and leadership in the church being given over to primarily women. It's not unusual for me to go into a church and the praise minister is a woman, most of the choir are women. an evaluation that true worship has taken place when one feels worshipful, as opposed to the doctrinal worshiper, as evaluated by the Word of God. So, false or immature doctrine is a real problem. Can you really say that words bother people? No, they don't. Can you say, however, that if the music isn't appealing, that people will join in with all their hearts? No. Generally not. If the music is not appealing, people won't do it. However, if you've got the band, if you've got the noise, if you've got the backbeat, if people really like the music, they'll say virtually anything and enjoy it and hop around. but simply because it's top-of-the-line music, isn't it? Repetition. Look at Matthew 6, verse 7. Fester Gillings, what does Matthew 6, verse 7 say? And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, but a gentle tune, for they propose that they will be hard on anyone. This is a real concern for me in modern music. I see this in rock bands and stuff like that. They'll have long instrumental periods and people will really get into it and just start moving around. They'll be saying the same words over and over again. I see that in the same thing in modern French. Just kind of getting into it is the place in America. They'll be saying the same phrase over and over again. and over, and over, and the music will be bringing you to a crescendo, and over, and over, and people will end up, you know, pretty soon you've got the whole thing, you're going to bring the roof down, aren't you? Well, that has nothing to do with sober worship of God. All it has to do is working people up to a fever pitch. That is not the goal of worship. Rebellious behavior, being riotous, Okay, in Read 1 Kings 18.26. Yeah, riotous behavior, uncontrolled behavior in worship, that really concerns me. Men's hair length. I was trying to raise a conservative young Christian gentleman, and I had these album covers with these guys that all the young people were annihilating, and how come all of the worship leaders in high school and college, how come they all had such long hair? Where did that come from? The Bible says even nature itself teaches us that long hair is an abomination. Why? Why do they do it? Because that's what pagans do, right? Let's be honest. How are they going to cross over if they look like conservative Christian gentlemen? And I look at some of the album covers and how the women are dressed and what they're trying to appeal to, the CD covers, they become, I'm embarrassed. It's very worldly, very sensual. It's characterized by rebellious behavior, isn't it? Rebellious dress, rebellious sewn looks by the musicians, sensuality, a love of God expressed in a sensual and feminine manner that's relatively new in worship. Many of the words of modern worship songs could be easily sung to a human lover as well as to God, couldn't they? Well, you know, those are very sweet, sensual words, but I don't see any great doctrines in there. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the life, and the burden of my soul rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight. Now I enjoy a soul But there are many things which we pass for devotion songs or worship songs that, you know, you look for the word cross, blood, Jesus, God, word, suffering, servant, prayer, you know, they're just not there. It's just an emotion. The dress, God, it's hard on guys for their long hair, but I see the dress of ladies in worship time. In their physical actions, they are obviously imitating secular musicians, aren't they? Well, that shouldn't be it. Where in the Bible is the concept of the professional Christian entertainer? Where is that? Where is that in the Bible? It's one thing for a person to lead the church in worship. It's a relatively new phenomenon for people to come all over, not to hear the word taught, not to hear the word preached, but just to watch a professional performer sing, and they call that worship. When I call passive worship, where did that come from? We pay money just to see people worship for us. What is that? I don't understand that. That's like saying, what I'm going to do is there's a guy who can lead people to Christ, and we're going to pay the washing. No, you don't do that. Pay someone to hear about a conference and then to go there and take notes you're learning professional musicians, and to call that worship is monasticism. There is always a danger of emphasizing any spiritual discipline or gift to the exclusion of a well-rounded walk with God, isn't there? A man with the gift of liberality is not free to neglect prayers. trying to teach him about having a daily five times a week. No, my gift is giving. I don't have quite. A man with the gift of evangelism is not free to neglect Bible study, is he? I was really proud of Mr. Graham, Billy Graham. When he said, if he had his day, he said, what would you do over it if you had your life to do over again? He said, oh, it's very simple. Two things. I would have been a more responsible parent to my children, and I would have spent more time in Bible study. It's because Billy Grant came to realize that just because he had the gift of evangelism didn't mean he could neglect Bible study. A man with the gift of teaching is not free to neglect fellowship. I see this a lot in my profession. I have the gift of teaching. I spend a lot of my time around men who are professional teachers, and a lot of them have very poor social skills. They're best when standing in front of a group of people in an impersonal manner. If you get around them in interpersonal contact, then they have poor social skills. And I have to really work on this. I make sure that when I'm at home, I'm a member of an active congregation. I attend all the home fellowships. I attend all the church parties and all the church social events. I make sure that besides teaching when I'm at home, I'm also someone who sits there. Because, just because I have the gift of teaching doesn't free me from being good at fellowship, does it? A man with the gift of administration is not free from evangelism. I was meeting with a man who's a high administrator in a multi-million dollar Christian organization, and he just said that that's one thing she had to give up to the Lord with his position as evangelism, just because he would never allow Christians because of his position. I really challenged him on that. I said, no, just because you have the gift of administration and are really good at it, that doesn't free you from witnessing to the lost. A man with the gift of faith is not free to neglect the word, fellowship, and witnessing, is he? A man says, that's my gift. My gift is faith. I have a prayer ministry. I spend all my time on the grounds of this smoking national multi-million dollar Christian organization praying. No, you don't have that. It is important that evangelism, Bible study, and fellowship are all means of spending time with God. That's very important for us to understand in this real illustration. No one is free to take any spoke or any spiritual gift and use it to the exclusion of a well-rounded Christian life. New covenant doctrine precludes the monastic prayer ministry. The Levitical prayer warriors have been done away with. It is the doctrinal picture for what would one day be possible for all Christians, that we could enter boldly into the presence of Christ, so we don't have to go live in a church or on a compound or in a Christian organization, and that's our ministry to the exclusion. There's no temple, is there? There's no priestly class The Levitical duties have been done away with. So we don't get to say, I'm a professional singer, I'm a professional prayer warrior, that's my ministry, leave me alone. We don't get to do that. 1 Chronicles 9.33, Now these are the singers, heads of fathers' households of the Levites, who lived in the chambers of the temple, free from other servants, for they were engaged in their work not in vain. That class of people no longer exists. free from other service, professional singers and prayers, that no longer exist because there is no temple in which to do it, is there? Under the old covenant system, if you wanted to pray night and day, where did you have to be? In the temple, right? The temple doesn't exist, the sacrifices don't exist, and the priesthood is now universal. The New Covenant gifts and callings know of no class of people who devote themselves solely to the Lord in prayer to the exclusion of other disciplines. It just doesn't exist. The New Covenant knows of no gift or calling associated exclusively with prayer. Prayer is an aspect of the ministry which we express in our daily Christian life. No one is free to only pray. No one is free to only witness. No one is free to only do Bible theory. I had one of my seminary professors, he said, you know, I don't belong to a church really, I don't do evangelism, this is my life. No, that's not true. I think a great theologian, A.W. Pink, one of the most disappointing biographies I ever read was his biography. Early in his life, he founded a parachurch organization by which, so that he could study and publish He never really involved himself in a local church, never really involved himself in evangelism, had very poor social skills, was basically a monastic teacher. Well, that's not God's will. But it's also not God's will for prayer either. It's not God's will for any of us to join a Christian organization and say we have a prayer ministry and we live kind of an excluded reclusive lifestyle. That's not God's way. Now, what are some of the results in the life of the believers to this kind of disjointed, not really twisted in an unstable sense, but a move away from doctrine of purity as it pertains to song and prayer? Well, one thing is integrity of breath. I've seen an almost complete lack of of conscientiousness when it comes to the theft of music to guide and worship, either personal or corporate, and an indifference to honesty when it comes to Christian music. There's something wrong there, isn't there? A movement away from the written word of God to music. I would encourage all of y'all to begin looking closely at the words before, in your student work or in your conferences or anything else, before those words are allowed to be used in worship, I would take a look at the Word. The movement away from understanding of the Word of God. Many people phonetically say words in music, and they don't know what those words or those doctrines mean. The loss of the doctrinal center of worship. What is the purpose of this song, besides being arousing? Do the words really mean anything? Is the word praise and the doctrines associated with the word and everything, is there any kind of cohesive theme throughout it? And the passive participation in the entertainment of worship. I don't understand this at all. I understand it in terms of fleshly enjoyment, but what I don't understand is the movement That was never God's intent that we're professing. I remember I had a friend who was a young Methodist pastor, and the first time he took the offering, he looked down and said, ìDeacon So-and-So, would you bless the offering?î And Deacon So-and-So looked up at him and said, ìThat's what we pay you for.î Well, that was a wake-up call for him, wasn't it? I'll give another wake-up call to you. there's a really good singing group or worship leader in the church, I'll look around, and a lot of people aren't singing. They're enjoying the music. But that's never the purpose, is it? The purpose is for people to worship God, not to enjoy the music. So I would encourage you to help your young disciples think about the words, use the words, and use the words to worship God. So music should be a form of prayer, but never the primary form of prayer. Lord, we thank you for this time together as we move on from adoration. Help us, Lord, help us sort through the issues of mysticism, of asceticism, of music in terms of its worldliness, of a monastic view of prayer. and help us to return, prayer, to the dynamic aspect of our interpersonal relationship with you that you've meant it to be. In Christ's name we pray, amen.