Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Why Alexander Pappas Came Back to Church Music
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Hey Alexander, thanks for joining me.
- 0:07Speaker 1: Incredible to be here. Thank you my friend Alexander Pappasa,
- 0:10Speaker 1: who has a new EP.
- 0:11Speaker 2: It's called Sunday. Alexander. Of course, you are a founding
- 0:15Speaker 2: member of the Grammy nominated group Hillsong, Young and Free,
- 0:18Speaker 2: known for many songs that you've written or co written,
- 0:21Speaker 2: including A Live Wake, Real Love Echo, one of my
- 0:24Speaker 2: favorite songs of all time, a great Awakening, you know how.
- 0:27Speaker 2: But a new solo project, of course, tell me the
- 0:30Speaker 2: heart behind this EP, Sunday.
- 0:33Speaker 1: And why did you name it Sunday. Yeah, that's a
- 0:36Speaker 1: good question, and yeah, I mean it really does kind
- 0:40Speaker 1: of start with a little bit of a rewind for me.
- 0:43Speaker 1: As you said, I was a part of Hillsong Young
- 0:45Speaker 1: and Free and making church music with my best friends,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and then there came a time that I wanted to
- 0:52Speaker 1: create some music, you know, on my own, and what
- 0:56Speaker 1: was at that time a side project, and it was
- 0:59Speaker 1: it was Jesus music, but it was what I referred
- 1:02Speaker 1: to as Monday music. It wasn't for church, it wasn't
- 1:05Speaker 1: to be sung in church. It was it was to
- 1:09Speaker 1: minister to people's Mondays, as I referred to it. And
- 1:12Speaker 1: then I sort of went through some personal life stuff
- 1:16Speaker 1: as well as my church is no secret, went through
- 1:19Speaker 1: a number of things as well, you know, and I
- 1:23Speaker 1: won't get too into the details, but yeah, feeling like
- 1:26Speaker 1: I was like, maybe maybe I'm done with ministry, or
- 1:28Speaker 1: maybe ministry is done with me. Maybe yeah, I don't know,
- 1:31Speaker 1: and navigating navigating that emotionally and spiritually, which yeah, led
- 1:37Speaker 1: to a place of feeling very specifically the Lord being like, no,
- 1:42Speaker 1: it's this is what I called you to do. This
- 1:45Speaker 1: is what I made you to do. And I I
- 1:47Speaker 1: could go even deeper in my story of this is
- 1:49Speaker 1: kind of even from sixteen years old, of people people
- 1:53Speaker 1: speaking over me ministry while I was personally, you know,
- 1:58Speaker 1: not entirely like, oh, I don't know. I want to
- 2:00Speaker 1: do ministry, but I don't know if music ministry is
- 2:03Speaker 1: my calling. All that to say this tide, the title
- 2:06Speaker 1: of this project is Sunday as much for me as
- 2:08Speaker 1: it has become for everybody else in what I've figured
- 2:12Speaker 1: out the value and importance of Sunday. And so you know,
- 2:17Speaker 1: this was my re entry, if you will, back into man,
- 2:20Speaker 1: I really feel called to making songs for the church.
- 2:23Speaker 1: And while going through this you know, it's no secret
- 2:26Speaker 1: as well that the world sort of at moments feels
- 2:28Speaker 1: like a bleak place. The Gospel of Jesus isn't necessarily
- 2:32Speaker 1: a popular thing to talk about. We all talk about
- 2:36Speaker 1: spirituality in God, but shy away from the truth of
- 2:40Speaker 1: who Jesus Christ is. And so feeling really inspired and
- 2:45Speaker 1: encourage that there's a great move of God on the way,
- 2:48Speaker 1: and so it makes a songwriter in someone in ministry
- 2:52Speaker 1: like myself, with well, if there's a great move of God,
- 2:54Speaker 1: what part can I play in all of this or
- 2:57Speaker 1: any of this? And you know, if Sundays exist to equip,
- 3:00Speaker 1: empower and stretch the saints, then I pray to write
- 3:04Speaker 1: songs that would do exactly that. I'd pray that I
- 3:07Speaker 1: might write songs that not only equip them on a Sunday,
- 3:10Speaker 1: but they can be a tool for people the other
- 3:12Speaker 1: six days of the week. And so there's no song
- 3:15Speaker 1: called Sunday on this except these are songs to be
- 3:20Speaker 1: that equipping source for people seven days a week.
- 3:23Speaker 2: I like what you use an illustration on your social media.
- 3:27Speaker 2: You said you compare the importance of Sunday to the
- 3:29Speaker 2: importance of training in a gym or you know, training
- 3:32Speaker 2: for a basketball team, so on and so forth. Explain
- 3:35Speaker 2: what you mean by that and the parallel there and
- 3:38Speaker 2: why why are Sunday is so important to the Body
- 3:40Speaker 2: of Christ.
- 3:42Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I think if anyone's been serving in church
- 3:45Speaker 1: or been in church, or especially worship leaders, there's this
- 3:50Speaker 1: nuance of work. Every believer is called to live a
- 3:53Speaker 1: lifestyle of worship. Right, this is the end all, This
- 3:56Speaker 1: is the thing, This is the thing that we're striving for.
- 3:58Speaker 1: Right And as someone who leads songs, I know that
- 4:03Speaker 1: the singing portion is only only one fraction, one small
- 4:08Speaker 1: fraction of what it is to have a actual lifestyle
- 4:11Speaker 1: of worship. And so you wrestle with this, is this enough?
- 4:15Speaker 2: What are we doing?
- 4:16Speaker 1: And is it enough? And I think the revelation I
- 4:20Speaker 1: have today, and I think anybody who's walked with Jesus
- 4:23Speaker 1: as well, who's listening to this, knows that at certain
- 4:27Speaker 1: stages of your maturity with Jesus, you'll look back and
- 4:30Speaker 1: be like, I feel like I didn't know anything. I
- 4:33Speaker 1: thought I knew everything two years ago, and now I
- 4:36Speaker 1: feel like I knew nothing then. And then I think
- 4:39Speaker 1: that's the beauty of it is. There's so much more
- 4:41Speaker 1: of Jesus that we find, And so I don't say that.
- 4:44Speaker 1: And if you've anyone else has experienced that, don't be
- 4:47Speaker 1: hard on yourself. That's the beauty of Jesus. There's so
- 4:49Speaker 1: much more of them defied. But I feel like I'm
- 4:51Speaker 1: operating in this man like revelation of new of the
- 4:55Speaker 1: point of Sundays, like I said briefly, is too equipped
- 4:58Speaker 1: and power and stretch the same point. But more than that,
- 5:02Speaker 1: I consider like I go deeper. Like you know those
- 5:04Speaker 1: moments in worship when you know a worship leader invites
- 5:09Speaker 1: you to respond, Hey, sing your song in your own way.
- 5:12Speaker 1: If you're a little bit of the more Pentecostal ilk perhaps,
- 5:17Speaker 1: and if you're not, that's okay too. But you know
- 5:20Speaker 1: these motion what's the point of all these? And I've
- 5:24Speaker 1: come to believe it's practice. I've come to this revelation
- 5:30Speaker 1: that when conditions are perfect, when the air conditioning is good,
- 5:35Speaker 1: your children are in the childcare program, and for an
- 5:39Speaker 1: hour and thirty minutes you have set aside time to
- 5:42Speaker 1: be with Jesus. As I was saying, I've come to
- 5:46Speaker 1: this place of yes, first and foremost that twenty minutes,
- 5:50Speaker 1: however much time you have of corporate worship in a service.
- 5:54Speaker 1: While first and foremost it is to give God glory
- 5:56Speaker 1: that he so deserves, it is also God doesn't need
- 6:00Speaker 1: his glory is unchanged by our praise and worship. It
- 6:05Speaker 1: really is. If we sank or didn't sing, his glory
- 6:08Speaker 1: would remain the same. You know, talks about how even
- 6:12Speaker 1: the angels that encircle his throne, every time they go
- 6:16Speaker 1: around and see his face once again, they're overwhelmed by
- 6:20Speaker 1: his glory, by his majesty. And while he doesn't need it,
- 6:25Speaker 1: we do. We actually desperately need that connection. We actually
- 6:29Speaker 1: desperately need to be changed by the presence of God.
- 6:32Speaker 1: We desperately need to be people who are who live
- 6:35Speaker 1: in this right response, this David Like lifestyle of worship,
- 6:40Speaker 1: right response of man after God's own heart, for example.
- 6:43Speaker 1: And so these moments, like I've said, I consider them
- 6:47Speaker 1: practice because then when things actually get tough, right when
- 6:52Speaker 1: you get a bad report, when you get something at work,
- 6:55Speaker 1: when you get a bad doctor's doctor's report, when something's
- 6:59Speaker 1: going on with your kids, I just go thank God
- 7:02Speaker 1: for the moments that we actually practiced worship, the moments
- 7:06Speaker 1: that we actually practiced responding rightly, and so to some extent,
- 7:11Speaker 1: I would say these Sundays that these moments in worship
- 7:14Speaker 1: are like strength training. They are like a physical therapist
- 7:18Speaker 1: and you know, sinking your teeth into songs. It could
- 7:20Speaker 1: be songs, it can be devotionals, whatever you want it
- 7:23Speaker 1: to be, to actually be that physical therapist, to actually
- 7:27Speaker 1: get ready for the big game and my life personally.
- 7:30Speaker 1: I say this as not as a hypothetical or like
- 7:34Speaker 1: or you know, but there's a song on this project
- 7:36Speaker 1: called It is So Sweet, and that song is truly
- 7:39Speaker 1: about the actual, you know, exercise of real life usage
- 7:44Speaker 1: of I won't do this alone. I will this moment
- 7:49Speaker 1: that my part rate is out of control, that my
- 7:52Speaker 1: mind is flooding with thoughts of being overwhelmed. I'm actually
- 7:57Speaker 1: going to choose to walk with Jesus in this. I'm
- 8:00Speaker 1: gonna end this moment of elevated heart rate and losing control.
- 8:04Speaker 1: I'm going to say, Jesus, I need you in this.
- 8:07Speaker 1: I want to walk with you in this. And every
- 8:09Speaker 1: single time I've experienced him show up just in that moment,
- 8:13Speaker 1: my heart rate calm down, rational sense coming back in,
- 8:17Speaker 1: because his yoke is easy, but his burden is light,
- 8:21Speaker 1: meaning the burden is still going to be there. The
- 8:24Speaker 1: burden is still going to be there as soon as
- 8:26Speaker 1: we put on the yoke, but it's much easier. And
- 8:29Speaker 1: so I pray you that songs on this project would
- 8:31Speaker 1: minister to moments such as that.
- 8:34Speaker 2: I got a multi multi part question, I guess coase
- 8:38Speaker 2: for you. I was wondering to take me back at
- 8:40Speaker 2: the beginning of when you sensed a calling into worship
- 8:44Speaker 2: music or you know, making music for the Lord? Did
- 8:47Speaker 2: it parallel your participation with Hillsong, Young and Free? At
- 8:52Speaker 2: what part did those intersect?
- 8:55Speaker 1: Yeah? So I was a I grew up in a
- 8:58Speaker 1: small town in Idaho. I don't know if any of
- 9:00Speaker 1: you's ever heard of Idaho, but it's really it's really nice.
- 9:04Speaker 1: And I wound up in Sydney, Australia to study at
- 9:08Speaker 1: Hillsong's College. And as that was finishing, I felt this
- 9:13Speaker 1: strong poll that I was meant to stay in Australia,
- 9:17Speaker 1: and twenty twenty one year old me goes Hellsong's got
- 9:22Speaker 1: a ton of great worship leaders. In what world do
- 9:25Speaker 1: they need a kid? What is God calling me a
- 9:27Speaker 1: kid from Idaho to stay? I actually will never forget
- 9:32Speaker 1: I received this word by so many people who wouldn't
- 9:37Speaker 1: have known the internal wrestle that was going on of like, yeah,
- 9:40Speaker 1: I feel like God leading me to stay, but I
- 9:42Speaker 1: don't know why. I have all these dreams of my
- 9:45Speaker 1: own and desires, and the word that I received, and
- 9:49Speaker 1: I do believe this word is for everybody is You'll
- 9:52Speaker 1: never come second by putting God first, and any major
- 9:56Speaker 1: decision that I have ever felt, I'm at a crossroads
- 10:00Speaker 1: and feeling like, well, I can honor God and put
- 10:03Speaker 1: him first in this path, and I can honor God
- 10:05Speaker 1: and put him first in this path, and as long
- 10:08Speaker 1: as I'm it's as long as I'm putting him first, anyone,
- 10:11Speaker 1: I can't lose whichever way I choose. And uh, you know,
- 10:14Speaker 1: I felt I felt called to stay. I felt called
- 10:16Speaker 1: to do that, and in doing so, I prayed this
- 10:20Speaker 1: prayer to God. I said, Lord, I've got these dreams
- 10:23Speaker 1: to write songs and would love to travel the world
- 10:25Speaker 1: and get to play them. And should that not be
- 10:28Speaker 1: your will for me? Like Lord, I truly die to self,
- 10:31Speaker 1: like I lay them down before you. I'm not kidding that.
- 10:36Speaker 1: It wasn't days later that I got invited. It's little
- 10:39Speaker 1: but I got invited to play base on a like
- 10:42Speaker 1: college tour to India. Right, it was the farthest thing
- 10:46Speaker 1: from glamorous, but it was just that, you know, that
- 10:49Speaker 1: confirmation from the Lord. He's like, hey, I care, I
- 10:52Speaker 1: care about your dreams too, And so I made a
- 10:54Speaker 1: commitment to stay. I got a job as a youth
- 10:57Speaker 1: creative pastor, and then it wasn't it wasn't weeks later
- 11:02Speaker 1: that you know this the dream from our leadership for
- 11:05Speaker 1: Young and Free to start came to be. And yeah,
- 11:09Speaker 1: in that position, I sort of just started writing songs
- 11:12Speaker 1: thinking at the time in truth, I thought I would
- 11:15Speaker 1: play bass in the band. So even the first I so,
- 11:18Speaker 1: we had written the song Alive, which kind of ended
- 11:21Speaker 1: up being the re catalyst for what Young and Free was.
- 11:25Speaker 1: We had a we had a couple other songs in
- 11:27Speaker 1: the bank that I always say they sounded like United hillsong,
- 11:31Speaker 1: United b Sides, you know, and I had like, you know,
- 11:33Speaker 1: in a harsh way on us, but it's like you
- 11:36Speaker 1: when you grow up on something, you you imitate, You
- 11:40Speaker 1: imitate the things that influenced you. And so that you know,
- 11:44Speaker 1: that's what we were doing. And then Alive really like
- 11:46Speaker 1: clicked us into like this is who we are, but
- 11:49Speaker 1: we probably showed people the week of the recording. It
- 11:53Speaker 1: was like we were recording on a Friday night and
- 11:55Speaker 1: we set the demo off on like a Monday. And yeah, truly,
- 11:59Speaker 1: at that point, I was like, I would be thrilled
- 12:01Speaker 1: if this new ministry, like I got to play basin
- 12:04Speaker 1: Like that would be that would be sick, that would
- 12:06Speaker 1: be like, that would be God answering my prayer. You know,
- 12:09Speaker 1: truly is like I'm writing songs and traveling like to
- 12:13Speaker 1: play music. This is this is the dream. And it
- 12:17Speaker 1: literally like that like Thursday or Friday. I was like, no, no,
- 12:19Speaker 1: You're gonna sing it. And it was just like, oh,
- 12:22Speaker 1: like God, you are the above and beyond God that
- 12:26Speaker 1: I've heard about and not to say in the last
- 12:30Speaker 1: whatever fifteen years that hasn't you know, hasn't had its
- 12:34Speaker 1: mountains and its valleys within it. But yeah, there was
- 12:37Speaker 1: kind of just this intersection of trusting God and knowing
- 12:41Speaker 1: that he knows best.
- 12:52Speaker 2: So when we hear I'm asking you this question because
- 12:55Speaker 2: a lot of these groups that have you know, five
- 12:57Speaker 2: or ten members, we don't really know who's singing unless
- 12:59Speaker 2: we're watching it on video, so on tracks like a
- 13:01Speaker 2: live in real love. Is that your voice?
- 13:03Speaker 1: That is?
- 13:04Speaker 2: Yeah, that's your voice? Okay, Well what is it like
- 13:07Speaker 2: for you to cause those are really popular songs that
- 13:10Speaker 2: are played, goodness everywhere in the world. What is it
- 13:13Speaker 2: like for you to go somewhere and hear that song
- 13:16Speaker 2: being played? What was it like the first time?
- 13:20Speaker 1: I mean it's I would truly say it's as humbling
- 13:23Speaker 1: today as it was then. There are endlessly good songs
- 13:28Speaker 1: being written by people who are better than me, or
- 13:32Speaker 1: you know, better than me musically, or better than me
- 13:35Speaker 1: Jesus wise, I don't know, but I've never not humbled truly,
- 13:42Speaker 1: And that sounds a little like I'm fluffing a little bit,
- 13:46Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm just so just so humbled that people
- 13:50Speaker 1: resonate with the songs. And as long as I'm doing this,
- 13:55Speaker 1: my number one goal is it's even you know, rewinding
- 13:58Speaker 1: to this project being called on that I felt the
- 14:01Speaker 1: urge to, you know, emphasize that while this was birthed
- 14:06Speaker 1: out of something I felt called back into, this project
- 14:09Speaker 1: was written. Every time I write it's for the men,
- 14:11Speaker 1: I pray that this just ministers to somebody And you
- 14:15Speaker 1: can't you can't write songs thinking about I hope the
- 14:18Speaker 1: whole globe is going to sing this song, like I
- 14:21Speaker 1: just got to think about, like, man, how would this,
- 14:24Speaker 1: how would this minister to me? How would this minister
- 14:26Speaker 1: the person that is walking through this? And I mean
- 14:30Speaker 1: that including these high energy praise songs, and a number
- 14:33Speaker 1: of these songs were written even then out of like
- 14:36Speaker 1: I don't really like feel like praising or I don't
- 14:39Speaker 1: really feel like There's another song specifically, there was a
- 14:42Speaker 1: young and free song called level let Me Down, and
- 14:45Speaker 1: it was written because I said to my co writer,
- 14:49Speaker 1: my collaborator, I feel unbelievably let down by God at
- 14:54Speaker 1: the moment, and he goes, well, let's write that song.
- 14:57Speaker 1: And he's the producer, and I'm like trying to write
- 14:59Speaker 1: a sad song. I'm on the piano or trying to
- 15:02Speaker 1: write the saddest like, you know, just like a faith statement,
- 15:05Speaker 1: and he's like writing dance beats. I'm like, what are
- 15:08Speaker 1: you doing, dude? But I say all that to say
- 15:11Speaker 1: is is you know these were written out of places
- 15:15Speaker 1: like even I don't even fully believe it, but I'm
- 15:17Speaker 1: gonna sing it until I do. And so that's that's
- 15:20Speaker 1: been my philosophy kind of ever since, to write songs
- 15:23Speaker 1: that would whether you believe it at the moment, but
- 15:26Speaker 1: you know it to be true, something that you'll sing
- 15:28Speaker 1: it until you believe it. You know.
- 15:30Speaker 2: I'm a this is kind of a funny story. I'm
- 15:32Speaker 2: a volunteer DJ for my kids Hi high school private
- 15:36Speaker 2: school basketball team, and so we play some of these songs,
- 15:40Speaker 2: you know, at half time and during during a timeouts
- 15:43Speaker 2: and whatever.
- 15:44Speaker 1: So those songs are used everywhere, not even in the
- 15:46Speaker 1: not even in church, but everywhere in the world. Do
- 15:50Speaker 1: you still have a heart for hyenergy music or I mean,
- 15:52Speaker 1: have your taste changed as you have grown? Do you
- 15:56Speaker 1: know what? If anybody listening to this podcast appreciates this,
- 16:01Speaker 1: there is there is there's something in the church world
- 16:04Speaker 1: that is the up tempo song is quote unquote like
- 16:08Speaker 1: the have a go for the young worship leader, right
- 16:11Speaker 1: like in many like models of leadership of bringing somebody through,
- 16:16Speaker 1: it's kind of like, well, we'll trust you with the
- 16:18Speaker 1: fast song. And I think to some extent, a lot
- 16:22Speaker 1: of churches, and I don't mean this critically, but creaked
- 16:26Speaker 1: you know, the fast song as a warm up, right,
- 16:29Speaker 1: they treat it as that and I've probably lived much
- 16:32Speaker 1: of my you know, young adult life believing I'm like,
- 16:35Speaker 1: oh yeah, like I want to leave the lead the
- 16:37Speaker 1: fast song, but I want people to like get that
- 16:39Speaker 1: I'm deep. I want people to get that I've like
- 16:41Speaker 1: I've got I've got range, like I can I can
- 16:44Speaker 1: sing this song too. And to answer your question, I
- 16:49Speaker 1: have felt in years previously, much like I talked about,
- 16:53Speaker 1: you know, this physical therapist like strength training thing. Man,
- 16:58Speaker 1: I believe in the power of of praise as well
- 17:01Speaker 1: as such an unbelievable strength training tool in that man,
- 17:08Speaker 1: if I can't praise, you know, so many times through
- 17:11Speaker 1: scripture it speaks of praise, not a quiet, soft, internal
- 17:19Speaker 1: reflective response to God, which is a beautiful thing as well,
- 17:24Speaker 1: But breakthrough so often is used with the word of praise,
- 17:27Speaker 1: an outword, outspoken, this physical response to God. And I
- 17:35Speaker 1: just pray. I'm like, I pray that I have not
- 17:37Speaker 1: diminished the power of praise. And so I feel more
- 17:41Speaker 1: than ever that I believe in the eye energy song.
- 17:43Speaker 1: I believe that that unlocks so much more joy, so
- 17:47Speaker 1: much more freedom. And yeah, I feel like until I'm
- 17:51Speaker 1: ninety years old, I intend to be praising. I intend
- 17:54Speaker 1: to be dancing. I intend to offer something to the
- 17:57Speaker 1: Lord that is not just internal for me, but something
- 18:01Speaker 1: that is physical, that is outward for him.
- 18:04Speaker 2: Yeah, because you've been you you wrote many of those
- 18:07Speaker 2: songs years ago, but in recent years you've been involved
- 18:10Speaker 2: in Lakewood Music. They have some Hypergi stuff and you
- 18:13Speaker 2: wrote I think you're a co writer of Echo as well.
- 18:15Speaker 2: I mentioned that earlier with Elevation Worship and Torn Well,
- 18:18Speaker 2: so that you haven't You're still writing songs like that,
- 18:22Speaker 2: is what I'm trying to say here. I guess if
- 18:25Speaker 2: this is if your musical career is like pots on
- 18:29Speaker 2: a stove, it seems like you have lots of lots
- 18:32Speaker 2: of pots on the stove right now. You're involved in
- 18:34Speaker 2: Lakewood Music, you have solo project. How many things are
- 18:36Speaker 2: you involved in right now?
- 18:40Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean high activity would be myself, Lakewood Music,
- 18:47Speaker 1: those guys, in short, they have been really good friends
- 18:50Speaker 1: of mine for about twelve years. They used to come
- 18:54Speaker 1: out to our conferences in Australia or New York and
- 18:58Speaker 1: and have become real lifelong buds. So getting to be
- 19:00Speaker 1: involved and making music with them has been awesome. And
- 19:03Speaker 1: then my home church is still Hillsong church, and so
- 19:06Speaker 1: we've been doing We've just kind of started making Hillsong
- 19:09Speaker 1: worship songs again. We released five songs I think in
- 19:13Speaker 1: February or something. There's one there's one more high energy
- 19:17Speaker 1: prey song in there too, called good News. But yeah,
- 19:21Speaker 1: those would be my irons in the fire right now.
- 19:24Speaker 1: I was writing for other artists and it's a real,
- 19:27Speaker 1: a real blessing to get to make music all the time.
- 19:31Speaker 1: Let's circle back to the.
- 19:32Speaker 2: New EP, which is Sunday and when people listening to
- 19:36Speaker 2: the podcast it will have been released. Alexander, what do
- 19:39Speaker 2: you what do you hope people take away from someday
- 19:40Speaker 2: when they're listening to it? Do you what do you
- 19:42Speaker 2: hope people are thinking about us they listen to it?
- 19:45Speaker 1: Well? I put the the project together in many ways
- 19:49Speaker 1: like a I would put together a church set list,
- 19:53Speaker 1: So if you listen to it, it kind of has
- 19:55Speaker 1: that sort of flow. And Yeah, to expand on the
- 19:59Speaker 1: things I I already said, you know, I pray that
- 20:02Speaker 1: it would be an encouragement and equipping in a stretching
- 20:05Speaker 1: tool for them. I think there are things in the
- 20:09Speaker 1: song and messages within the songs that I just I
- 20:13Speaker 1: really pray that those specific messages would would land the
- 20:16Speaker 1: people I've already talked about. I pray people grasp that
- 20:20Speaker 1: Jesus is available to walk with them every day. And
- 20:24Speaker 1: I think one of the big takeaways there's a song
- 20:27Speaker 1: on this project called Always Been Jesus, and this came
- 20:31Speaker 1: out of a revelation of what started with the story
- 20:36Speaker 1: of Abraham and Isaac. The very first time the word
- 20:40Speaker 1: that we use for worship is used in the Bible
- 20:45Speaker 1: is in this story, is when God calls Abraham to
- 20:49Speaker 1: sacrifice his son. It's not the first time worship occurs
- 20:52Speaker 1: in scripture, but it's the first time that this specific yes,
- 20:57Speaker 1: not the first time worship itself had occurred, this word
- 21:00Speaker 1: for worship, excuse me. And so it's this story of
- 21:04Speaker 1: a father sacrificing his son and there being a substitute,
- 21:07Speaker 1: there being We know how it ends, we know there
- 21:09Speaker 1: was a ram in the thicket. But what struck me
- 21:13Speaker 1: so deeply is seeing the parallel of that, the very
- 21:18Speaker 1: thing that this thing that God that Jesus calls us
- 21:21Speaker 1: to do to worship, to live this lifestyle of worship,
- 21:24Speaker 1: like I said, is is something that he is not
- 21:28Speaker 1: a God in heaven demanding this worship. Like I said before,
- 21:32Speaker 1: he is His glory is unchanged by us singing the song,
- 21:36Speaker 1: but we are changed. We need it. It is for
- 21:39Speaker 1: his glory, but it is for our gain. And but
- 21:43Speaker 1: this very first thing that you do would be foreshadowed
- 21:45Speaker 1: by the very thing he would do for us, That
- 21:48Speaker 1: he would send his own son as a sacrifice for it,
- 21:52Speaker 1: that you would take our place, this act of worship,
- 21:55Speaker 1: the weird call is is the thing that he would
- 21:57Speaker 1: do for us first. And so I say that to
- 21:59Speaker 1: be he is such a good God. The plan has
- 22:03Speaker 1: always been Jesus. The plan will always be Jesus. And
- 22:07Speaker 1: there's this line in the song that says, it's not
- 22:09Speaker 1: just the red letters that speak, You're in the whole thing,
- 22:13Speaker 1: meaning it's not just the red letters where we see Jesus.
- 22:16Speaker 1: We see Jesus throughout the entire book. We see these
- 22:20Speaker 1: foreshadowing moments. We see the beauty of scripture, we see
- 22:24Speaker 1: the beauty of Jesus. And so I just pray that
- 22:28Speaker 1: there is a deeper revelation of who Jesus is. And
- 22:31Speaker 1: I pray that there is a deeper trust in who
- 22:34Speaker 1: Jesus is, that he is even better than we thought
- 22:37Speaker 1: he was.
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- 22:58Speaker 3: See you next time.