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122. Freedom In The Church - Worship · 4-Freedom Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the For Freedom podcast.
• 0:10
  I found my freedom of you. I found a joy I can't lose.
• 0:19
  Thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
• 0:23
  and heaven broke through from the moment she found me.
• 0:28
  I found my freedom in you. This podcast exists to bring the
• 0:35
  freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
• 0:38
  everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
• 0:42
  Seyffert and Brett Martin. Well, welcome to the For Freedom
• 0:49
  Podcast. Thank you for being with us
• 0:51
  today. We're back in our series Freedom
• 0:54
  in the Church. But before that, we just want to
• 0:57
  welcome you back, James. What's going on in your world
• 1:01
  today? Well, we're back in the hot
• 1:03
  seat, Brett, back in the studio, back in our offices recording.
• 1:07
  And man, it's been a busy week. It's been a good weekend.
• 1:11
  We had our marriage conference this past weekend and ordained A
• 1:16
  Deacon this past Sunday. It's a great time with
• 1:18
  fellowship and just being able to be around God's people.
• 1:22
  It's been a blessing. I've loving going through this
• 1:25
  series of in the church and where we're at and loving
• 1:29
  talking through some of these topics that we have sort of been
• 1:33
  taboo topics or topics that we've been preached or heard one
• 1:36
  way. But it's been great to be able
• 1:39
  to talk through these things and some of the interviews that
• 1:42
  we've got lined up are just phenomenal.
• 1:44
  But yeah, things are going great and still I'm in that phase,
• 1:49
  Brett, where I'm still in that honeymoon phase at the church.
• 1:52
  You know we're we're sort of testing and seeing how things
• 1:55
  are going and throwing things against the wall and seeing if
• 1:58
  they stick and if they don't we pull them back off the wall and
• 2:00
  we go with it. So that's sort of where I'm at
• 2:02
  in that first a couple of months of ministry and it's been
• 2:06
  exciting, it's been good. But at the same time it's it's a
• 2:09
  little nerve wracking, it's nervous, you know, what, am I
• 2:11
  going to make a bad choice or a bad decision?
• 2:13
  And a lot of lot of prayer, a lot of coveting and and
• 2:17
  following the Lord in that prayer and it's been been good.
• 2:21
  So how are things on your end that you're in a possible
• 2:24
  building project here coming up? Yes, we have.
• 2:28
  We decided to enlarge our Fellowship hall, and we had one
• 2:33
  plan, and the deacons had a plan.
• 2:36
  And then we had our committee meeting.
• 2:38
  We formed a committee because we're a good Baptist Church, and
• 2:41
  we we formed a committee to do the building project.
• 2:45
  And then, you know, we we threw that plan out, got a new plan.
• 2:49
  But no, just kidding, We're we're ready to go and we're
• 2:52
  excited about what the future holds for us.
• 2:54
  You said that you're still in your honeymoon phase.
• 2:58
  Well, this is, you know, entering into, you know, two
• 3:01
  years for me, two full years here.
• 3:04
  So honeymoon is over. And, you know, we're we're
• 3:08
  trying some different things. And, you know, I've got a little
• 3:11
  bit of change in my pocket and we're seeing how much we can buy
• 3:14
  with it. And I'm just just like you.
• 3:17
  I'm excited for ministry. I can't believe I get to do what
• 3:21
  I get to do with my life. I am so blessed to get to serve
• 3:26
  God full time so much in my ministry.
• 3:29
  I never thought that I would have the privilege of being a a
• 3:33
  a full time ministry, full time pastor.
• 3:37
  I'm so blessed to get to be able to do this with my life and I'm
• 3:43
  excited about the church that we're at and I'm ready to, I'm
• 3:47
  ready to go. And so that's about it.
• 3:51
  I love it. And you know me and my wife, we
• 3:55
  we try to make it a habit of us and I teach us our church as
• 3:58
  well, that the length of amount of time that you pray for
• 4:01
  something should be the equivalent of the amount of
• 4:04
  length of time that you praise the Lord for that answered
• 4:06
  prayer. So if you pray for something for
• 4:09
  five years, you should praise the Lord for five years, not 5
• 4:12
  seconds that it happened. And so, so we.
• 4:15
  Yeah, we've. I learned that in college from a
• 4:17
  professor of mine and it was just eye opening for me because
• 4:20
  often times we'll pray and pray and pray and God will answer
• 4:22
  that prayer and then we're just like, OK, thank you Lord and we
• 4:25
  forget about it. And so we we've been praying for
• 4:30
  last three years for us to be a senior pastor, be a lead pastor
• 4:34
  of a church. So it's been good these last six
• 4:38
  months just to be able to pray and having that we pray at night
• 4:42
  together and just thank the Lord that we're in that position.
• 4:46
  We're in that role. We're where God wants us to be.
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  You know, it took three years to get there, but it was those time
• 4:53
  of growing, that time of healing, the time of preparing
• 4:56
  us for where we're at. And so it's been good and
• 4:59
  exciting to see God work in in mighty ways.
• 5:02
  It's literally nothing that I could ever do.
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  It's all God's work. And I'm just thankful.
• 5:07
  Just be able to be part of that back in the in the back of the
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  bus and just watching God move and God work and we just get to
• 5:16
  be a part of the rides, you know?
• 5:18
  Amen. So if I'm like it praise.
• 5:20
  The Lord it is. So well, that's sort of the back
• 5:23
  seat of our ministry life there. You probably may have fast
• 5:27
  forwarded the last couple minutes just to get to the
• 5:29
  episode, but before we get to that, we've got a couple of
• 5:32
  things coming up. We've got our meet up in Catoosa
• 5:37
  in November. Hopefully you'll be planning to
• 5:40
  do that the first week into November.
• 5:41
  It's going to be a great time of fellowship down there, hanging
• 5:44
  out with the family, hanging out with those of like minded faith.
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  We'll be going to Indianapolis for the convention and if you're
• 5:53
  going to be there or in that area, let us know.
• 5:56
  Me and Brett have booked our house.
• 5:57
  We're going to be staying in the house there and we'll be at the
• 6:00
  convention every day there. I'll be there Saturday through
• 6:03
  through Thursday, I believe it is and hopefully you'll be able
• 6:07
  to come and hang out with us. I think Brett's going to take me
• 6:09
  on a tour of the Holy Lands, which is the Hiles Anderson
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  Fairgrounds where all the parties happen, the great
• 6:18
  statue. And we're going to pay homage to
• 6:21
  Jack House and and pray at his feet and make the trip to Mecca
• 6:25
  to see the Holy Lands. And so hopefully you'll be there
• 6:29
  in the area and you can come hang out with us.
• 6:31
  But Speaking of the real Holy Lands, Brett, why don't you tell
• 6:33
  us about our trip coming up almost one year from now?
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  Yes, we are going to Israel. Me and James are taking our
• 6:40
  churches and our friends and some close friends.
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  We're going back to Israel. We have it on good authority
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  that by the time next March rolls around, tourism will be
• 6:51
  open. We've got people on the ground
• 6:54
  in Israel who were contacts for us, that are letting us know the
• 6:58
  situation, and we want you to go.
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  If you're a listener of the podcast and you have never been
• 7:05
  to Israel, you will never regret it.
• 7:09
  You'll never regret spending the money.
• 7:12
  You'll never regret going. You'll never regret using the
• 7:15
  vacation days to go. I'm telling you this is planned
• 7:20
  around spring break. So we planned it to where most
• 7:24
  schools are on spring break during the month of March and we
• 7:29
  are going back to Israel and it's going to be a week on the
• 7:32
  ground starting at the the northern part ancestry of
• 7:37
  Philippi in Israel and work on our way all the way down once we
• 7:42
  come back from our summer break. We've got a series planned on
• 7:44
  Israel and that's what I'm looking forward to because I
• 7:48
  love talking about it. There's a pastor, a pastor
• 7:52
  brother Stephen Evans in the he's the pastor of First Baptist
• 7:56
  Church here in the county. When we get in our pastors
• 7:59
  meeting, he's been to Israel several times and when me and
• 8:02
  him get to talking about Israel back and forth, we can take over
• 8:05
  the the the preachers meeting because we just we love talking
• 8:09
  about it so much. But it's something you'll never
• 8:12
  regret doing. And so we want to invite
• 8:14
  everybody that can and want to start saving now.
• 8:18
  Let us know that you're interested, send us a message
• 8:21
  and because we want everybody to go that wants to go.
• 8:26
  Absolutely. I can't wait to go back, man.
• 8:29
  I can't wait to be there, be with you again and hopefully be
• 8:32
  able to take our brides as well and hang out in a wonderful time
• 8:37
  there. So Brett, we're in the In the
• 8:40
  Church series and we're starting a new topic today.
• 8:43
  We've discussed abuse the last couple of weeks, but today we
• 8:48
  get to jump into the next topic, which is worship.
• 8:53
  Our view of worship sometimes can be skewed by the way we are
• 8:56
  raised or by what we've been taught in the past.
• 8:58
  And so we're wanting to realign our thoughts with scripture,
• 9:02
  realign our thoughts of what worship is and why it's so
• 9:05
  important within our life to worship.
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  And when we say the word worship, immediately, what we
• 9:12
  think of is music. And music is important.
• 9:15
  It's a it's a vital part of our society.
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  It's a vital part of our personal life.
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  God created music for us to use, to specifically worship Him.
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  In the very beginning, we see instruments, we see choirs, we
• 9:29
  see people playing those instruments, singing and using
• 9:32
  their talents to worship and to glorify God.
• 9:35
  But we also can see that it's used as an idol.
• 9:39
  Worship can be an idol and they can be taking us away from God.
• 9:43
  And so as we begin this thought of worship, and we're going to
• 9:46
  go through some specifics of helps that we can have, but then
• 9:50
  also ways that we can worship God, Brett, what is worship in
• 9:55
  our mind? How?
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  How do we define this? And how do we work through this
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  in our thought of Scripture and in our life?
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  I think the first thing we have to understand worship is not
• 10:08
  limited to just church. But at the same time when we
• 10:12
  come to church, we have to understand that we're not coming
• 10:16
  to church just to sit. We're not.
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  We need to get out of this consumerism attitude that we're
• 10:23
  here is to sit, we're here to take in we.
• 10:27
  I preached about this Sunday and that's why it's on my heart is
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  because, you know, we are priests in the church.
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  We belong to a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood, and and when
• 10:38
  we come to church, we have a job to do.
• 10:42
  One of those jobs it described in the Bible is a sacrifice of
• 10:47
  praise. And Hebrews 13 tells us that the
• 10:50
  sacrifice of praise is the fruit of our lips.
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  You know it it it's, it's crazy to come to church and see people
• 10:57
  not sing. We are there to worship God.
• 11:01
  I mean, I'll tell you, music is a big part of my ministry
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  because I was a music director for the first decade and a half
• 11:10
  of my ministry. And when when I left the IFB,
• 11:15
  music was my biggest hurdle. It was my biggest thing that I
• 11:20
  had an issue with because even though I had left the IFBI, left
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  legalism, him only 1950s style piano, only music, I left that
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  there was still, it was still ingrained in me my whole life
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  that certain types of music are wrong, certain beats, certain
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  instruments. And so at this new church that I
• 11:44
  was now pastoring, they had screen music.
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  So they had the computer set up. You might lead a hymn or two,
• 11:52
  but then you would play a couple songs on the screen and I would
• 11:55
  get on the PowerPoint and I would pick the songs and I went
• 11:59
  through. And every worship song I had on
• 12:03
  that computer that had any type of drum beat, I took it and put
• 12:07
  it in its own separate folder. Because I was afraid that, you
• 12:11
  know, that anybody from my old church might come in and hear
• 12:15
  this music and think, Oh well, what's Brett's doing?
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  He's he's went liberal, like because he's playing this this
• 12:21
  hard music. So it was 2 years of some of the
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  most boring music you've ever heard in your life.
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  But it took me a while to kind of warm up to different styles
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  of music. And hymn worship is is not the
• 12:34
  only way to do it. There's several different types
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  of music and we need to embrace more than just the piano, you
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  know, we need to embrace more than that.
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  Listen to all these different instruments that are used in the
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  Bible. In in the Bible we use bells,
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  harps, and it's not the harps like we think today.
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  A lyrist like the guitar of the day, flutes, cymbals, sultry
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  trumpets, pipes, dulcimer, chauffeurs, drums, and that's
• 13:04
  just to name a few. There are many other different
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  types of of of music in the Bible and and James, I don't
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  know if you know this or not, I think it's a well kept secret.
• 13:13
  But did you know that when David worshipped he danced?
• 13:19
  Amen, Man. That's crazy.
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  You know what I mean? Brett, you were sharing a story
• 13:25
  there about your your in ministry there, so in college.
• 13:29
  This is a true story I shared with our church just a couple of
• 13:32
  months ago. In college my wife went to a
• 13:37
  Casting Crowns concert and at the time we were dating.
• 13:42
  And if I'm lying, I'm down right now.
• 13:44
  Brett I told her that I don't know if our relationship would
• 13:49
  last because she was going to a cast and Crowns concert.
• 13:54
  I told her that we may have to break up because I was a
• 13:58
  Southern gospel hymns only like contemporary music and and cast
• 14:03
  And Crowns was was Satan. And it was, it wasn't like
• 14:06
  you're going liberal. It was Satan.
• 14:08
  Like they were worshipping demons up there on stage.
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  They had flashing lights, brah. I mean we we can't have that in
• 14:13
  the church And so I I told her I said I don't know if we're if if
• 14:17
  our if our relationship will last through you going to the
• 14:20
  Casting Crowns. She went and of course we got
• 14:22
  married and this. I mean we we go to winter jam we
• 14:26
  go to extreme winter we take our kids to I think 7th day
• 14:29
  slumber's going to be there this year skillet things like that.
• 14:32
  Like, it's crazy, the other side of that, but we look back on it
• 14:36
  and we laugh because that was such a we.
• 14:40
  We considered that like they're not even worshipping God.
• 14:45
  But yet we have some other instances in scripture where,
• 14:49
  yes, music is used not to worship God.
• 14:52
  We see a specific example of the children of Israel.
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  They were receiving the 10 commandments.
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  They were receiving worship from God.
• 15:00
  They were receiving what they should and shouldn't do.
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  And yet they were tired of waiting.
• 15:06
  And while they were tired of waiting, they began to worship.
• 15:09
  And the Bible says they played foreign music.
• 15:12
  And the the Bible even goes on to say it sounded like war music
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  because they were taking on the music of the enemies and of the
• 15:20
  Pagan gods. And in Exodus chapter 32 we get
• 15:24
  this illustration where it talks about this thought of idols and
• 15:29
  and music being played. And so I'm going to read it.
• 15:31
  Exodus 32, verse 17 and 18. Once I get there, it said.
• 15:40
  And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they were
• 15:43
  shouting, he said to Moses there is a sound of war in the camp.
• 15:48
  But he said, it is not the sound of those who shout for victory,
• 15:52
  nor is it the sound of those who cry because of being overcome.
• 15:55
  But I hear the sound of singing. And as they came near the camp
• 15:59
  they saw a calf and dancing and music.
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  And Moses anger burns. So he threw the tables from his
• 16:06
  hands and shattered them at the bottom of the mountain.
• 16:09
  He took the cap which they had made, and he burned it into the
• 16:11
  fire ground in the powder and scattered in the water and made
• 16:14
  the children visible to drink it.
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  So we see here that yes, music can be used as a tool of good,
• 16:21
  but it can also be used as a tool of bad.
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  And music and worship is so powerful in our life, it affects
• 16:29
  us in a mighty way. Colossians 316 talks about what
• 16:32
  we put in our body. What we put in our life is
• 16:35
  affecting every area of our life and that everything that we
• 16:39
  should do and say and work and and have a part of should be to
• 16:43
  glorify God in everything we do. And often times we get to the
• 16:47
  point where we we are putting things in our body that aren't
• 16:51
  glorifying God, that aren't taking our mind toward God, but
• 16:56
  taking our mind away from God. Let me read that.
• 16:58
  Ephesians, Colossians 316. Let the Word of Christ dwell in
• 17:02
  you richly and in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
• 17:05
  another in psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms, singing with
• 17:10
  grace in your hearts to the Lord.
• 17:13
  Ultimately, Brett worship is an act of acknowledging the
• 17:17
  greatness of God, acknowledging who he is and what he's done and
• 17:21
  how we can glorify Him in everything we do.
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  This is our words, our thoughts, our actions, our emotions.
• 17:29
  Everything is turning glory back to God.
• 17:33
  Amen. Amen.
• 17:34
  Absolutely. Psalms and hymns and spiritual
• 17:38
  songs. So you know, there's a couple
• 17:40
  different areas, areas there of different types of music.
• 17:45
  We used to praise God, but like we said it, worship is more is
• 17:49
  more than just music. I have some notes here, Let's
• 17:55
  see here, Romans 12/1. Therefore, I urge you, brethren,
• 17:58
  by the mercies of God, it presents your bodies a living
• 18:01
  and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
• 18:05
  service of worship. So once again, worship is not
• 18:09
  relegated to just music, although music is a big part of
• 18:13
  it. But we're going to, we're going
• 18:15
  to dive into this subject here today.
• 18:19
  So, James, why don't you start us off in our outline here and
• 18:24
  tell us what we've got coming up first.
• 18:26
  Well, I think we've got a few helps here.
• 18:28
  Yeah. So oftentimes we get the
• 18:30
  question asked, Okay, what can and can I do?
• 18:33
  What we've got freedom. We've got we we talk about it
• 18:36
  off in Galatians 5. One for freedom crisis that is
• 18:39
  free not to be under the yoke of bondage but to be under the yoke
• 18:44
  of Christ and and to be able to live in that freedom and what it
• 18:47
  looks like. And so we're not here to tell
• 18:49
  you a bunch of what you can and can't do.
• 18:51
  We just want to give you some guidelines some helps of ways
• 18:55
  that we can worship God in a mighty way.
• 18:58
  And then the the we'll close with Psalms 100 and we're going
• 19:01
  to break it down expository and we're going to give you a four
• 19:05
  different ways that you are able to worship God.
• 19:09
  The first one is this. We must be discerning of what we
• 19:11
  listen to. This is understanding that
• 19:15
  everything that goes in our ears affects the way we think and
• 19:19
  act. All right, so I labeled it like
• 19:22
  this. This is music and or content.
• 19:26
  Music and or content and what I mean by content is podcasts such
• 19:31
  as the probably the greatest podcast ever released before
• 19:34
  Freedom Podcast. These are these are things that
• 19:37
  you listen to. These are areas of your life
• 19:40
  that you are letting come into your life that are going to
• 19:43
  affect you and influence you and and part of that is music but
• 19:47
  other this can be talk radio this can be TV shows this can
• 19:51
  anything that we are allowing to be in front of us.
• 19:54
  This is discerning and allowing ourselves to to put off some of
• 19:59
  these things to put on godliness.
• 20:00
  The Bible says to put on those things.
• 20:03
  Ephesians 518 and 19 says it like this once I just flip a
• 20:09
  page over my bad Ephesians 5/18/19.
• 20:13
  Pray in the spirit always with all kinds of prayer and
• 20:17
  supplication that to the end be alert with all perseverance and
• 20:22
  supplications for the Saints. Pray for me.
• 20:24
  The power may speak, may be given to me, that I may open my
• 20:27
  mouth boldly and may known the mysteries of God, he says.
• 20:30
  To be alert there, to watch out for the things that are around
• 20:33
  us. I was telling Brett when we were
• 20:35
  prepared for this, I said I listen to a couple of political
• 20:38
  podcast every single day of my life almost.
• 20:41
  I like to stay aware of what's going on in the context of the
• 20:44
  world and different political views and know what's culturally
• 20:48
  around me. Not that it affects what I do,
• 20:50
  but often times I will find myself because I love politics,
• 20:54
  I love listening to it, it affecting the way I think or the
• 20:59
  even the way I treat people by listening to some of these
• 21:03
  things that I'm putting in my ears.
• 21:05
  And I said the other day, I said, Brett, I said I sort of
• 21:08
  had to take a quick little sabbatical from listening to
• 21:11
  them. And just when I was because I
• 21:13
  drive more. Now it's 20 minutes drive to the
• 21:15
  church. And so I've got plenty of time
• 21:17
  where I'm driving, I'm listening and I've got things that are
• 21:20
  playing in my car. And I said for a couple of days
• 21:23
  I didn't listen to a podcast. I just turned on worship music
• 21:26
  and I hit play every time I was in the vehicle because I could
• 21:30
  sense in my spirit that I was being transformed, as you said
• 21:37
  in Romans 12, by the things that I was listening to.
• 21:40
  And I wasn't allowing God's Word and God's worship to transform
• 21:44
  me. So.
• 21:45
  So it's been discerning to what we're listening to and allowing
• 21:48
  the music and the things that we listen to, making sure they're
• 21:52
  lifting us up and not tearing us down.
• 21:55
  Exactly. And when we talk about music,
• 21:58
  we're talking about music as a whole, as in the the song at the
• 22:03
  words, the lyrics, the message of the song, Which by the way, I
• 22:08
  would like to just say talk about this just for a second,
• 22:13
  because I've had a lot of pushback from local pastors.
• 22:17
  Of course, you know, you're going to have pushback from IFB
• 22:19
  guys and and different things like that.
• 22:22
  And I want to talk a little bit about music.
• 22:27
  Is it in just like the rhythm, the beat, without the words,
• 22:31
  just music. So I am I would be classified as
• 22:36
  what you would call a musical relativist.
• 22:40
  And and what that means is that music in my view is is amoral.
• 22:46
  So what matters is the words. I mean, worship in itself is a
• 22:52
  matter of the heart, but I still believe that a Christian
• 22:56
  composer has the freedom to use any style and any materials.
• 23:01
  OK, no style should be considered off limits in
• 23:05
  expressing the gospel. So music without words is a
• 23:09
  moral, it's neutral and and when I say that, what I mean by that
• 23:14
  is sound itself cannot express truth, communicate belief or
• 23:21
  proposition truth. I believe that style is neutral,
• 23:24
  ethically and morally. Any chord, any rhythm, any
• 23:29
  instrument should be theoretically acceptable for
• 23:32
  worship. Like like the sound of a
• 23:34
  saxophone is not more or less immoral than the sound of a
• 23:39
  clarinet or violin. I mean, James, there was there
• 23:42
  was years, years ago you couldn't play a saxophone in
• 23:46
  church because it was associated with with sensuality, but but
• 23:50
  that that that's not the case anymore.
• 23:52
  You know a a reggae beat is no more evil than a waltz or a
• 23:57
  March and and people that argue that music and rhythm and beat
• 24:02
  by themselves without the lyrics can either be wrong or immoral
• 24:06
  or immoral Man. They've got a lot of good
• 24:09
  thought out arguments that sound logical and and all the research
• 24:14
  that I've done, they've got no Bible to back it up and any
• 24:18
  Bible they bring into it is is taken out of context.
• 24:23
  However, I will say that depending on the crowd a certain
• 24:26
  type of music may not be appropriate.
• 24:28
  OK, you mentioned earlier 7th day slumber.
• 24:32
  OK. I was just recently introduced
• 24:36
  to them and you know, now, now I listen to all the time and and
• 24:39
  what they do is they take contemporary songs, contemporary
• 24:43
  Christian songs that you might hear at Passion and they put
• 24:46
  them to a rock beat. Now these are Christian songs
• 24:49
  concerted converted to a kind of heavy metal rock beat.
• 24:54
  And listen, I'm going to say that there's, there's nothing
• 24:56
  wrong with that. But, you know, at the same time,
• 24:59
  am I going to allow that for worship on Sunday morning at the
• 25:02
  church where I pastor? No, not because I think it's
• 25:07
  wrong because I know there's going to be people in the
• 25:10
  service that feel that that style of worship is not
• 25:14
  appropriate for church. Now my goal is just like Paul is
• 25:19
  to teach everyone to be strong. That's what Paul was trying to
• 25:22
  do. He was trying to teach everybody
• 25:25
  to be strong and and to accept meat offered to idols.
• 25:29
  I think this goes into the meat offered to idols scripture.
• 25:34
  When when Paul's talking about this he says look, the earth is
• 25:38
  the Lord's and this meat it it comes from the earth.
• 25:41
  Paul said, look, there's nothing wrong with eat the meat that's
• 25:45
  been offered to idols. I mean, we know there's only one
• 25:47
  God, so when you offer the meat to these, you know these fake
• 25:52
  gods. But then he warned us not to be
• 25:55
  a stumbling block to the weak. Because if somebody that has the
• 25:58
  weak conscience sees me eating meat that's been offered to
• 26:02
  idols, well then that's going to be a stumbling block to them,
• 26:05
  even though there's nothing wrong with it.
• 26:08
  So I'm not going to eat that meat in front of them, even if
• 26:10
  there's nothing wrong with it, because I I don't want to be a
• 26:13
  stumbling block. So say you have a church, and I
• 26:16
  say this from a pastor's perspective because I'm a
• 26:19
  pastor. Say you have a church that for
• 26:22
  years only played him music. Well, I, you know, I know as I
• 26:26
  know that there's nothing wrong with the contemporary style of
• 26:28
  worship music. So I'm going to begin to slowly
• 26:32
  introduce the newer music to the church and try to bring them out
• 26:37
  of that, that thinking. And as they get stronger, I'll
• 26:41
  introduce a little more and and and you know you, you've got to
• 26:45
  get to know the crowd and use discretion.
• 26:47
  You want to bring people out of this mindset that the only way
• 26:51
  that it can be done is how my grandparents used to do it in
• 26:54
  the 50s, to a modern day way of thinking where you can be all
• 26:59
  things to all men. That by all means you may reach
• 27:03
  some, you know, set. Yes, we're to be separate from
• 27:06
  the world, but we're to be separate from the sin of the
• 27:09
  world because you know. So that's the only reason why I
• 27:11
  wouldn't play something like 7th Day Slumber on a Sunday morning
• 27:14
  in my church because weaker Christians wouldn't be able to
• 27:17
  handle it. But other than that, I think
• 27:19
  that any music style should be redeemable.
• 27:22
  If somebody does something bad with a style, well, then the
• 27:25
  Christians should be allowed to come in with wisdom and
• 27:29
  associate it with something good.
• 27:33
  I like that. One of the things I'll give a
• 27:36
  personal illustration here. My my brother-in-law, he's a
• 27:40
  black man. My sister made a black guy and I
• 27:42
  was playing something the other day for him, a worship song,
• 27:46
  something that I listen to often.
• 27:48
  I can't remember exactly what it was he told me.
• 27:50
  He said, James, if I listen to this on a regular basis, I would
• 27:54
  go to sleep, he said. It's the most boring thing I've
• 27:57
  ever listened to and so I'm thinking OK well how's this
• 28:01
  boring. Like I'm I'm worried like this
• 28:03
  is, this is, this is my soul, this is awesome.
• 28:06
  But then I I got to think it and you know he he, he was raised a
• 28:10
  different way than I was his his whole way of life.
• 28:14
  I mean, he was on the drumline. He he played drums in the in the
• 28:19
  marching band so that, I mean the after games they would have
• 28:21
  a drum circle and they were going crazy and it was awesome.
• 28:25
  And so I I found some worship music by guys that had that
• 28:28
  style that I wouldn't listen to and I sent it to him and he was
• 28:32
  like, dude, that's some great stuff.
• 28:33
  Like I couldn't even understand the words they were saying
• 28:36
  because they were talking so fast.
• 28:37
  And he was like, dude, those are some of the most powerful words
• 28:39
  I've ever heard. And I'm literally responding.
• 28:42
  Like, I don't understand the words they're saying, but
• 28:45
  because he was raised in that culture, he understood it and it
• 28:49
  was appropriate for him. And I think that's what we're
• 28:52
  getting across here, is discern it.
• 28:54
  We listen to and understand what is appropriate for US. #2 here
• 28:58
  on some few helps for us is guard your heart above all else.
• 29:02
  We have two gates to our heart. We have our eyes and we have our
• 29:06
  ears. What we watch and what we look
• 29:08
  at and what we listen to effects our heart.
• 29:12
  We are to be protectors of our heart.
• 29:15
  We must remember that we control what we have access to in our
• 29:19
  heart. Proverbs 432 Sorry, I'm sorry.
• 29:22
  Proverbs 423 says keep your heart with all diligence, for
• 29:27
  out of it are the issues of life. 11 Reformer says that our
• 29:31
  heart is an idol factory, and what we put into our heart, what
• 29:35
  we put into our eyes, will eventually produce idols for us
• 29:38
  to worship. And so we must make sure that
• 29:41
  what we're putting in will eventually put out the right
• 29:45
  idols for us to worship, which are going to be glorifying God
• 29:48
  and allowing us to grow closer to Him.
• 29:51
  And so if we're putting things in our heart through our mind
• 29:53
  and through our ears, through our eyes and through our ears,
• 29:56
  we eventually will put out the wrong things in our actions as
• 30:00
  well. And so we must understand that
• 30:03
  what we're doing must be guarding our heart, because
• 30:07
  eventually it's going to come out one way or another.
• 30:10
  I agree. You know, the heart is the
• 30:12
  source of our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and actions,
• 30:17
  and it can lead us down a path of righteousness or it can lead
• 30:22
  us down a path of destruction. You know, because we are born
• 30:26
  with a sinful nature and our hearts are predisposed to sin.
• 30:31
  So we have to be so careful what we allow in our heart because
• 30:36
  that will come out of us. It will control our actions.
• 30:41
  One of the things that I've done for years is I've got this app
• 30:45
  on my phone and it's called Pandora, and I know it's no new
• 30:48
  thing. There's a lot of people out
• 30:50
  there that know Pandora radio. But what what I like about it
• 30:54
  is, you know, you can thumbs up a song, hear it more often and
• 30:58
  hear more songs like it. Or if you thumbs down a song you
• 31:03
  know, then you'll never hear that song again.
• 31:06
  Now listen, you know, we we do listen to secular music now.
• 31:10
  We we at the same time we listen to K Love.
• 31:14
  We listen to Christian music, we listen to gospel music, we
• 31:17
  listen to contemporary Christian music.
• 31:19
  One of my favorite stations on my Pandora is the Casting Crowns
• 31:24
  Radio. So I guess, I guess our relate
• 31:27
  we can't have a relationship anymore because I listen to
• 31:30
  Casting Crowns Radio. That's right, that's.
• 31:32
  Right. But listen, we listen to other
• 31:34
  stuff too. We listen to country, which
• 31:37
  listen 90s country is the best country out there.
• 31:40
  There is no better decade for country music than 90s country.
• 31:44
  Should have been a cowboy. I know so.
• 31:49
  But, you know, we listen to rock too.
• 31:50
  But you know, the important thing I think is whatever you
• 31:54
  listen to, listen to the words. I'm very careful about whether
• 31:59
  you know, even know. Christian music can have the
• 32:01
  wrong message. And when we listen to secular
• 32:04
  music, it it can be sinful. So, you know, if there's cussing
• 32:08
  in the song, I'm going to thumbs down, immorality in the song,
• 32:12
  I'm going to thumbs down. I'm not going to listen to it
• 32:14
  anymore. You know, songs about cheating
• 32:16
  and getting drunk, we're not going to listen to any of that.
• 32:20
  So, you know, I, you know, I have a radio station on my phone
• 32:24
  that plays all Creed all the time.
• 32:27
  I mean, I mean higher. I mean come on that's that's, I
• 32:31
  think that's, you know, Christian music Creed.
• 32:34
  How could you say it's not, But but like I said, it's where I'm
• 32:38
  coming from. It's about the message of the
• 32:39
  song. It's about the lyrics of the
• 32:41
  song. Yes you can listen to worship
• 32:44
  music, but you know you you can with discernment listen to
• 32:48
  secular music too. You don't always have to listen,
• 32:52
  you know. And that's what we were.
• 32:53
  We were brought up thinking, if you didn't have a house Anderson
• 32:57
  Quartet CD in your CD player on repeat, and that was the only
• 33:01
  thing you listen to all the time, then you know you're
• 33:05
  you're sinning and you're wrong. I can't tell you how many times
• 33:09
  I've had to burn CDs after coming home from camps when you
• 33:15
  know, you just use a little bit of discretion.
• 33:18
  There's nothing wrong with secular music as long as there's
• 33:20
  nothing, nothing sinful in it. Brett, you said Creed know how
• 33:24
  to look them up because it's been so long since I've listened
• 33:27
  to Creed. Creed is doing a concert series
• 33:31
  with Three Doors Down. I don't know if you can get a
• 33:34
  better line up than Creed and Three Doors down in a group to
• 33:39
  sing. So, so many millennials are
• 33:42
  going to be at that concert. It's just going to be all
• 33:45
  millennials. They're going out.
• 33:47
  For it. I'm just going to spend, Brett.
• 33:49
  They're doing a line up here. They're going to be in Little
• 33:51
  Rock, AR. They're going to be in Texas.
• 33:55
  I'm not going to be in North Carolina, unfortunately.
• 33:57
  Oh, well, this is, this is incredible.
• 33:59
  This is, this is man, you just brought me back to my my high
• 34:02
  school, middle school year. This is, this is fantastic, man.
• 34:06
  I love it. I'm going to, I'm going to not.
• 34:09
  I'm going to be merciful to our audience and not do my Creed
• 34:12
  impression for them. Almost.
• 34:14
  I'll hey, I'll save that for the Patreon.
• 34:17
  There we go. As soon as we get done with
• 34:18
  this, I'm listening to a Creed and Three Doors Down song.
• 34:21
  All right, Brett, give us #3. What?
• 34:23
  So we're we're discerning what we listen to.
• 34:25
  We're guarding a heart. What?
• 34:26
  What's the next thing? Next thing is remember that
• 34:30
  music can help or hinder your spirit, because listen, music
• 34:36
  has power and you know, think about in the Bible.
• 34:39
  Think back to First Samuel 16 where you had David.
• 34:43
  You know, Saul had an evil spirit on him and David came in
• 34:48
  and played his heart, which like I said earlier, was was not like
• 34:53
  a heart like we think. It was more like a leer, almost
• 34:56
  like a guitar of the day. And and David, David would play
• 35:00
  that and it soothed, saw it soothes that evil spirit and
• 35:05
  brought a good spirit on him. Music has an effect on you.
• 35:09
  There's nothing like, listen, there's nothing like being in a
• 35:14
  service, the man that worship music, just getting a hold of
• 35:18
  you and moving you and you just forget about everything else in
• 35:23
  your life and you forget about your bills.
• 35:27
  You forget about your job. You forget about the doctor's
• 35:31
  appointment you got and all you're thinking about in that
• 35:35
  moment, The only thing in your brain, it is worshipping God.
• 35:40
  And it feels like you're worshiping alone.
• 35:43
  Like, yes, there are other people in that room, but in that
• 35:46
  moment you're so in tune with worshipping God that it feels
• 35:52
  like there's nobody but you and God in that room.
• 35:55
  There's there's nothing like that.
• 35:57
  And what can nothing can bring you in to the presence of God
• 36:02
  faster than than than music. It has that much power.
• 36:08
  Yeah. And and you're so true on that,
• 36:09
  Brett, because there's been times where, you know, I'll just
• 36:13
  be in a funk or in a in a in a style that's just, you know,
• 36:17
  it's not right. And I'll throw them I I've got
• 36:20
  on, I don't listen to Pandora. I I have Apple Music.
• 36:23
  And so they have your station that is just a combination of
• 36:27
  the stones you have downloaded, the stuff that's in your Apple
• 36:29
  Music, all these different things.
• 36:32
  And so for me it's a it's a mix between Southern gospel,
• 36:35
  contemporary country love songs and I'll just hit that, that my
• 36:40
  station and a song will come on, you know, maybe a Getty song
• 36:44
  that that I just hadn't heard in a while.
• 36:46
  And all of a sudden my firm foundation is on the Lord and
• 36:50
  and it just begins to minister to me and changes the my spirit
• 36:54
  in a way that is so powerful. Because music has that effect.
• 36:59
  Worship has that effect. Our lifestyle has that effect.
• 37:02
  You've you've been on a mission trip before where or in your
• 37:06
  community serving, and you go and you help someone you you
• 37:09
  serve them by worshipping and loving with them and you walk
• 37:14
  away blessed more than that person that you just served
• 37:17
  because your actions affect the way your attitude is.
• 37:21
  And and we've got to remember that when we begin to have
• 37:25
  worship, when we begin to fellowship with God, it changes
• 37:29
  every part of our body. Not just our emotions, but it
• 37:32
  changes our actions. It changes who we are and what
• 37:35
  we are designed to do. And which leads us in our next
• 37:38
  part number four for this one. Worship is more than music.
• 37:43
  Worship is more than music. I live like this.
• 37:47
  It's our whole life, Romans 12/1.
• 37:50
  And two, I'm going to flip to it real quick.
• 37:54
  Most of you probably could say it by heart, and I probably
• 37:56
  could too. But I don't want a butcher.
• 37:57
  I want to. I want to read this and maybe
• 37:59
  read a little slower than what we would maybe read it before,
• 38:02
  because this is a summation of what our life should be says.
• 38:07
  Therefore, brothers, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that
• 38:14
  you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
• 38:20
  to God, which is your reasonable service.
• 38:24
  Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
• 38:28
  renewing of your mind that you may prove which is your good and
• 38:32
  acceptable and perfect will of God.
• 38:36
  Because this is, this is our life, It's our whole life to be
• 38:39
  worshipping the Lord. It is a sacrifice of who we are
• 38:43
  and where. It's the sacrifice of saying
• 38:44
  God, if it's my time, you can have it.
• 38:47
  If it's my body, you can have it.
• 38:49
  If it's if it's my actions, you can have it.
• 38:51
  If it's I'm driving to to a store and I see someone and I
• 38:55
  want to help. It's everything that we do is
• 38:57
  part of our worship. It's more than just music, but
• 39:00
  music is a huge part of it. Music is powerful and it's a
• 39:03
  mighty thing in our life, but it's more than that.
• 39:06
  And when we understand that, it's more than that.
• 39:09
  We understand that it is our bodies that we are sacrificing,
• 39:13
  that we are giving God everything that we have.
• 39:17
  You know McDonald's sells more than just hamburgers, right?
• 39:22
  Amazon sells more than just books.
• 39:26
  And so that means that worship is more than just the music
• 39:29
  portion of your service on Sunday morning.
• 39:32
  Music is is so much. In fact, the key elements of
• 39:36
  worship encompass so much more than music.
• 39:40
  Now music certainly is a significant part of it, but
• 39:45
  doing some research, there's about 9 different key elements
• 39:48
  of worship and they are public prayers, vocal and instrumental
• 39:53
  music, public testimonies, financial contributions, public
• 39:58
  scripture, reading, Expos, expositional preaching,
• 40:03
  observing the ordinances, speaking words of spiritual
• 40:08
  encouragement, and confessing faults.
• 40:11
  Listen when you gather as a church.
• 40:14
  To worship God, you should engage in all of these
• 40:17
  activities, and you should do it with an attitude of awe, a heart
• 40:21
  of submission, an expectation to serve And you know and and not
• 40:25
  every worship gathering is going to feature every one of these
• 40:30
  elements. But all of these elements should
• 40:32
  regularly occur in our worship and gatherings to some degree
• 40:38
  with one another. And just like in Romans 12/1, we
• 40:43
  present our bodies. That is, our worship is when you
• 40:47
  present your body to God, when you make a sacrifice to God,
• 40:52
  when, when you when you worship him in any way.
• 40:54
  And that singing, that's prayer, that that's studying the Bible.
• 40:59
  All this is a part of our worship you're giving and and we
• 41:03
  need to not relegate our worship to just music.
• 41:07
  Worship is so much more. Yeah, I'll read one more passage
• 41:11
  of scripts before we get into the psalms here, First
• 41:14
  Corinthians 10/31. It says it like this very
• 41:18
  familiar passage of scripture. Therefore, whether you eat or
• 41:21
  drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.
• 41:28
  And I think when we get to that point in our life where we can
• 41:31
  say everything I'm doing, whether it's walking down the
• 41:34
  street, whether it's sitting down eating a dinner with my
• 41:37
  family, whether it's sitting outside and hanging out and
• 41:41
  lounging on the back porch, whatever I'm doing, it's for the
• 41:45
  glory of God. It's I'm going to give God the
• 41:48
  glory. It's it's looking out and seeing
• 41:49
  the trees and seeing the animals run around the trees.
• 41:52
  And you're saying God, you made that God, God, you made me to be
• 41:57
  in this spot for a specific reason, to see those animals, to
• 42:00
  be a part of this culture, to be a part of this world at this
• 42:03
  specific time so that I can influence this world for this
• 42:07
  specific time. And it's understanding that God
• 42:10
  has created us for that purpose. And we give glory back to God
• 42:13
  and everything we do. And that is what worship is.
• 42:16
  It's every area of our life, not just when we're at church for a
• 42:21
  couple hours, singing and preaching and listening to
• 42:23
  people sing to us. It's more than that.
• 42:25
  It's our whole life. It's giving worship back to God,
• 42:28
  every area of our life. And so Psalms 100 Bret I'm gonna
• 42:32
  have you read that because these are this Psalm is is a fantastic
• 42:36
  Psalm on how we can worship God. Ways we can worship God.
• 42:40
  I, I, I, I preached this simple 4 point out line just the other
• 42:43
  day and I thought it would be helpful for us and so we're not
• 42:45
  going to preach it today. We're just going to give these
• 42:48
  thoughts to you and help you out a little bit.
• 42:50
  So Psalms 100. Brett read it for us.
• 42:53
  Make a joyful noise under the Lord all the earth.
• 42:57
  Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with
• 43:00
  singing. Know that the Lord He is God.
• 43:03
  It is He who has made us, not we ourselves.
• 43:07
  We are His people and the sheep of his pasture.
• 43:10
  Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving, and into his
• 43:13
  courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless His
• 43:17
  name, for the Lord is good, His mercy endures forever, and his
• 43:22
  faithfulness to all generations. That's so good.
• 43:26
  It's such a a powerful song because it begins by starting
• 43:30
  out. This is Psalm of David, who
• 43:32
  begins by saying publicly, everywhere we go we should be
• 43:37
  praising the Lord. We should be making a joyful
• 43:39
  noise unto all the earth. As I was thinking through this
• 43:44
  and even meditating on this as we were preparing for this, the
• 43:47
  thought came to my mind. This is doing, worshipping
• 43:52
  Jesus, making a joyful noise in front of other people.
• 43:55
  This is not just in our private time, this is, and we're going
• 43:59
  to get to that. He gets to it in verse 3, but in
• 44:01
  verse one he starts out by saying this should be public,
• 44:05
  this should be a joyful noise. I've never met someone who goes
• 44:08
  outside and makes a noise and I can't hear them.
• 44:11
  If they're around my house, my kids, they go outside and
• 44:14
  they're playing and they're jumping on the trampoline and
• 44:16
  they're moving dirt around the house and they're making noise.
• 44:19
  And I hear them because they're public.
• 44:21
  They're outside. They're doing things.
• 44:23
  They're they're making things happen.
• 44:25
  They're moving things around. They're getting on each other's
• 44:27
  nerves. And when we are in public, we
• 44:30
  should be making a noise unto the Lord.
• 44:33
  We should be making this thought around what we're doing all
• 44:39
  about Jesus, because Jesus is worth it.
• 44:41
  Jesus is worth it for everything that we do.
• 44:44
  And so we should be making a joyful noise everywhere we go.
• 44:47
  Brett. You know, I remember whenever I
• 44:49
  was a teenager, I was pulling up to a restaurant to pick up my
• 44:53
  buddy. And, you know, I had my windows
• 44:55
  down. It was the summer and I was
• 44:56
  playing a, you know, a a worship song on the radio.
• 45:00
  And, you know, I wasn't trying necessarily to make it to where
• 45:05
  people heard it. It was just a normal thing that
• 45:08
  I do. And I remember stopping, and I
• 45:10
  remember a lady stopping me after I got out of my car and
• 45:13
  said, you know, you encourage me with that song, hearing that
• 45:17
  song come from you, your teenager.
• 45:19
  You're, you know, you're, you're listening to country music or
• 45:21
  not worship music, country music on the brain, but you're
• 45:25
  listening to worship music. And I think that's just a good
• 45:27
  thing. I just want to let you know.
• 45:28
  It was such an encouragement to me.
• 45:31
  And I don't say that to ring my own bell.
• 45:33
  It's that we should be constantly praising God.
• 45:36
  It says make a joyful noise so you don't have to sing well, you
• 45:40
  just have to sing, listen. You shouldn't just give a
• 45:43
  sacrifice of praise on Sunday. Sunday's not the only day you're
• 45:49
  allowed to be happy. See you are.
• 45:52
  We are the church wherever we go, so we should praise God
• 45:56
  outside the walls of the church as well.
• 45:59
  Going down the street, mowing the lawn in line at the grocery
• 46:04
  store. Wherever you're at, regularly
• 46:07
  sing praises to God, just like you quoted Colossians 316.
• 46:12
  We're to admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual
• 46:18
  songs. So I'm so, yes, I'm singing to
• 46:20
  God, but I'm also singing for your benefit.
• 46:23
  I'm singing to admonish you, to encourage you, to remind you of
• 46:27
  the truth. That's our ministry to one
• 46:30
  another. So yes, we definitely need to
• 46:32
  sing publicly. Now.
• 46:35
  The second part, and I'll go into this second part here,
• 46:38
  serve the world with gladness. Come.
• 46:39
  Before his praise was singing. So first publicly and then we
• 46:43
  should praise the Lord. You know, we should praise with
• 46:46
  our family. You know, we equate that to, you
• 46:48
  know, family devotions worship and just do something with your
• 46:54
  family. You know we have family
• 46:56
  devotions. It doesn't have to be the same
• 46:59
  thing every time, but you know, the kids need to see you pray.
• 47:04
  The kids need to see you worship God.
• 47:05
  The kids need to see you read the Bible.
• 47:09
  James, what is your family devotion look like?
• 47:12
  Well Brett, we've done so much variety over the years.
• 47:17
  When this first says serve the Lord, I get this sense of that
• 47:20
  we should be together, serving together.
• 47:23
  We have every night, without fail, as much as humanly
• 47:27
  possible. I pray together with each of my
• 47:30
  kids individually and so we we do AI have a song that I sing
• 47:36
  with them. It's the same song every single
• 47:38
  night. I have a poem that I read to
• 47:39
  them every single night, same thing.
• 47:41
  And then I pray with them. But on top of that and we've
• 47:44
  been busy these last couple of months and so we have failed to
• 47:48
  do some of this. But in the past we have done the
• 47:51
  catechisms. We have done the little pilgrims
• 47:54
  progress. We have done the the Bible
• 47:57
  story, Easter Bible story where you begin and you you begin at
• 48:01
  Christmas and you read the birth of Jesus and you read through
• 48:04
  his life and you end at the resurrection on Easter Sunday.
• 48:09
  And we've done that through the the Bible reading time.
• 48:14
  I I say all that to say we sometimes we'll just be sitting
• 48:16
  there and we'll throw a worship song on TV and we'll just
• 48:18
  worship and we'll just sing and that would be our devotion time.
• 48:22
  But everything we're doing we're we're pointing our kids back to
• 48:26
  Jesus. You're going to make a bad grade
• 48:28
  in school. And I pray for them and I say,
• 48:31
  Lord, be with their mind, Help them to to focus more.
• 48:34
  Help them to everything we do. We're trying to bring them back
• 48:38
  into the the reality that we don't do this alone.
• 48:42
  We are here and we are created to come before His presence and
• 48:46
  singing. When I'm taking that test at
• 48:48
  school, I'm in front of God and I'm I'm, I'm in front of His
• 48:52
  presence and I need to glorify him with gladness in that
• 48:55
  moment. And so it's constantly reminding
• 48:57
  our kids everything we can do to bring them back into the
• 49:01
  presence of the Lord. And so for us it's it's it's
• 49:04
  always looking different. We don't.
• 49:06
  I told Aly years ago, my wife, I said I don't want to get into
• 49:10
  the point where every night it's me preaching my Sunday message
• 49:16
  to them and and using them as a test subject.
• 49:20
  I I don't want this to be a Sunday school lesson every night
• 49:24
  before we go to bed because what they're going to do is they're
• 49:26
  going to be getting to resent, that they're going to be resent
• 49:28
  church. I said I want worship to be fun.
• 49:31
  I want worship to be exciting. I want it to be a time where
• 49:34
  they look forward to it. They look forward to me coming
• 49:37
  in their room and it's just me and Jade.
• 49:39
  It's just me and Brody and eventually it'll just be me and
• 49:42
  Hudson where I am just spending that last couple of minutes
• 49:45
  before they go to bed with them. And it's some of my most
• 49:48
  memorable times as a parent. Amen.
• 49:51
  I agree. I think that, you know, mixing
• 49:53
  it up, there's no formula, there's no set way to do it.
• 49:58
  There's nothing that says you have to do it this way.
• 50:00
  You know, Bible reading, worship time, incorporate different
• 50:04
  things. You know, it doesn't have to be
• 50:06
  a cookie cutter thing. And I think variety and you
• 50:10
  know, family, devotion, time is a wise thing.
• 50:14
  The kids will remember it and like you said, they'll look
• 50:16
  forward to it, definitely. Next up we see we we start
• 50:21
  publicly. We we begin to enter into His
• 50:24
  presence with singing family. But then in verse three it says
• 50:28
  this know the Lord begins to be very personal.
• 50:31
  He is God. It is He who has made us
• 50:34
  specifically talking about us and not we ourselves.
• 50:37
  We are His people and the chief of his pastures.
• 50:40
  And so I taught it this way publicly, family, privately.
• 50:45
  This is the the times where we have our own private devotions,
• 50:48
  where maybe it's a song that we're singing and or maybe it's
• 50:52
  a scripture that we read, that we begin to meditate on the
• 50:56
  goodness of God, the greatness of God, who he is and what he's
• 51:00
  done for us. We had Jason Riddle come and do
• 51:04
  a marriage conference for us and he mentioned the the the
• 51:06
  spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude, meditation,
• 51:12
  prayer, tithing, giving of ourselves.
• 51:15
  And and he began to think about these things and me and him were
• 51:19
  this was just me and him talking personally.
• 51:21
  And he said often times the spiritual disciplines we felt we
• 51:26
  failed to do, sorry about that we failed to do because we just
• 51:29
  weren't taught right how to do them.
• 51:31
  And he said often times when we get into a spiritual discipline
• 51:36
  of just meditation where we just focus on a passive scripture and
• 51:39
  we just allow it to turn over and over in our mind, we allow
• 51:43
  it to turn over and over in our hearts.
• 51:45
  It changes the way we act and think because scripture is
• 51:50
  impacting our life. You know we we live in such a
• 51:53
  busy world that silence is, is a taboo topic.
• 51:57
  It's hard for us to sit in silence, but that's what Jesus
• 52:01
  would do. He would get alone on a
• 52:03
  mountain, He would pray, and he would sit in silence because he
• 52:06
  knew he needed it. And it's a lost art that we
• 52:10
  have. And when we need to get back to
• 52:11
  this point where we are able to have private, loving devotion
• 52:16
  with the Lord, where we're meditating, we're praying, we're
• 52:19
  praising, we're we're throwing a song on, we're just worshipping
• 52:23
  the Lord. But it's got to be privately.
• 52:25
  We're going to have time for. It's public with our family, but
• 52:28
  we've got to be times where we're working on ourselves as
• 52:31
  well. You know, Jesus is our ultimate
• 52:34
  example. And how many times do we see in
• 52:37
  the Gospels that he went off by himself alone in the wilderness,
• 52:44
  in nature, getting close to God? You know, I'm reminded of
• 52:48
  Matthew 6/6 here, and even though it's part of it's Matthew
• 52:52
  6/6 is about prayer. You know prayer is an act of
• 52:55
  worship, Matthew 66 says. But you, when you pray, go into
• 53:00
  your inner room, close your door, Pray to your Father, who
• 53:04
  is in secret, And your father, who sees what is done in secret,
• 53:08
  will reward you. Listen, life is busy.
• 53:12
  I mean, the phone is ringing, the TV is blaring, the kids are
• 53:17
  fighting, the dog is yapping. How in the world can we find
• 53:22
  time in this busy world to get along with God and pray and
• 53:26
  worship and read the Bible privately, alone, Go off by
• 53:31
  ourselves? How can we find time to do that?
• 53:34
  Well, we have to make time. Yeah, you have to decide to
• 53:39
  carve out time in your schedule. To worship privately, to pray
• 53:44
  privately, to get alone with God.
• 53:47
  You know, there's an old saying, if you fail to plan, then you
• 53:51
  can plan to fail. You know, you have to plan time.
• 53:55
  You have to schedule that alone time with God and see the thing.
• 54:00
  The thing is, is that, you know, we prioritize things in our
• 54:03
  lives according to how important they are to us.
• 54:08
  You know, it's if something's important enough to you, you
• 54:12
  will find time to do it. We're going to find time to eat
• 54:15
  that supper, you know, we're going to find time to watch our
• 54:18
  favorite show you know, So because those things are
• 54:21
  important to us, well, alone time with God.
• 54:25
  Worshipping privately should be more so important to us.
• 54:29
  And we'll find, if we make it a priority, we'll find time to do
• 54:33
  it. And then we'll go into #4, which
• 54:37
  is corporately. So we've got publicly family,
• 54:40
  we've got privately, And now verse four and five, we're going
• 54:44
  to worship corporately, enter into his gates with
• 54:47
  Thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, be thankful to him
• 54:51
  and bless His name, For the Lord is good and His mercy endures
• 54:55
  forever, His faithfulness to all generations.
• 54:58
  So This Is Us corporately getting together.
• 55:03
  And like I said earlier, you don't have to sing well, you
• 55:07
  just have to sing. But when we get together, and we
• 55:11
  sing corporately together as a church, as the body of Christ,
• 55:15
  that is our opportunity to give our sacrifice of praise as
• 55:21
  priests in his service. And that sacrifice of praise is
• 55:27
  the fruit of our lips. You know, You know, James, you
• 55:32
  know this and I know this when you were in a church and
• 55:37
  everybody that's in that service is singing.
• 55:40
  And I mean everybody and everybody's participating.
• 55:45
  It's just a different vibe. I mean, it can change the whole
• 55:49
  feel of the church. And when visitors come into a
• 55:53
  church like that and everybody's singing loud and they
• 55:57
  automatically think, wow, man, there's there's something
• 56:00
  special about this church. You know, there's something
• 56:03
  special here. The people here are invested.
• 56:06
  They're saying, man, I'm looking around and everybody's singing.
• 56:10
  I've never been a part of a service like this.
• 56:12
  Let me, let me give a little illustration about this.
• 56:16
  Me and you went to Israel. Now, there were some things that
• 56:20
  I knew were going to have an effect on that.
• 56:22
  I didn't know we're going to have an effect on me.
• 56:24
  But then there were things that I knew, yeah, this is going to
• 56:27
  have a big impact on me. One of those was the Garden of
• 56:30
  Gethsemane. But the other thing that I knew
• 56:33
  was going to have an effect on me was the garden tomb.
• 56:37
  And we sat there on those bleachers and she said this is
• 56:41
  Calvary over here. And she pointed to a Cliff.
• 56:45
  It was a bus station down below. It was a Muslim cemetery up top,
• 56:49
  and you could just make out the skull in the side of the Cliff
• 56:54
  face. But we were 30 yards away from
• 56:59
  where Jesus shed his blood. Now it might not be the place,
• 57:02
  but all evidence points to this being the place where Jesus
• 57:06
  died. And then we walked past the wine
• 57:09
  press in the garden where Joseph of Arimathea.
• 57:14
  It was a commercial garden. So they dug down and found the
• 57:17
  wine press, and then we went into the empty tomb.
• 57:22
  You know, it was just, I never in my life thought that I would
• 57:27
  be in that empty tomb. And I almost did not want to
• 57:32
  leave. I took some pictures.
• 57:34
  I took video. They told us not to stay in
• 57:37
  there a long time, but I lingered longer than I should
• 57:40
  because I did not want to leave that tomb.
• 57:43
  And James, you know that after we left that tomb, we went into
• 57:47
  a side room where we would take communion.
• 57:51
  And we, we we took the Lord's Supper and we ate the bread that
• 57:54
  represented his flesh. We drank the wine that
• 57:57
  represented his blood. And then we began to sing.
• 58:01
  Now this is a group of 30 pastors.
• 58:05
  So when we sing, we're all gonna sing just all thirty of us, and
• 58:10
  we're gonna sing loud at the top of our lungs.
• 58:14
  And man, we sang in Christ alone.
• 58:18
  And listen, I've been in bigger worship services before, but
• 58:22
  I've never been in a bigger, more impactful, spirit filled
• 58:28
  service than 30 pastors in one room singing at the top of their
• 58:33
  lungs in Christ alone. Because when we sing, when we,
• 58:38
  when we corporately worship God together, that invites the
• 58:42
  presence of God. And it was so powerful and it
• 58:45
  was so moving. And as we walked out of that
• 58:48
  room, our tour guide was standing at the door.
• 58:52
  He was, he was a lost Jewish man named Amir.
• 58:56
  And this lost Jewish man turned to Marcus, our leader, and said
• 59:01
  man, that was that was powerful, wasn't it?
• 59:05
  So even a lost man could recognize the power that's in a
• 59:10
  service when every Christian that's participating, when they
• 59:16
  give it their all, the engaged, they sing, man, it invites the
• 59:20
  presence of God there. There's nothing like it, you
• 59:24
  know. Once again, I know we've read
• 59:26
  this verse two or three, maybe even five times, but it applies
• 59:29
  so much. Colossians 316 But the Word of
• 59:32
  Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and
• 59:36
  moshing one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing
• 59:40
  with thankfulness in your hearts.
• 59:41
  To God, we're to admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and
• 59:45
  spiritual songs. Encourage.
• 59:47
  Encourage each other. Remind each other of the truth.
• 59:50
  And there's nothing better than corporate worship when
• 59:53
  everybody's participating. Absolutely, Brett.
• 59:57
  Man, that was bringing me back emotionally just now thinking
• 1:00:00
  about that. I've got all that on video.
• 1:00:03
  I'm going to look it up here in a minute and and listen to that
• 1:00:05
  in Christ alone because I recorded all the audio while I
• 1:00:08
  was in there. I want to share two moments with
• 1:00:11
  with you just corporately. So years ago, six years ago, we
• 1:00:15
  went to a called together for the gospel.
• 1:00:17
  It was like 5 or 6000 pastors got together in the Yale
• 1:00:21
  Auditorium there in Kentucky and I was up on the balcony, third
• 1:00:26
  floor I think. And just hearing every all those
• 1:00:30
  men sing together corporately, we're just worshipping the Lord
• 1:00:34
  was like nothing else as well. But I want, I want to share this
• 1:00:38
  one other time because often times we will.
• 1:00:41
  The argument will be why do I need to be in church?
• 1:00:44
  Why? Why do I need to be around
• 1:00:45
  people? Why do I need to worship with
• 1:00:47
  other people? Well, I have the opportunity as
• 1:00:50
  this lead pastor. I know what I'm preaching.
• 1:00:53
  I know where the Lord's leading me.
• 1:00:55
  And so I'll send some songs that that have impacted me as I am
• 1:00:59
  preparing for my message to our music leader.
• 1:01:02
  And I'll say, hey, these are maybe some songs we can
• 1:01:04
  practice. Our choir could sing or we can
• 1:01:05
  sing as a congregational. And it's happened more than once
• 1:01:09
  in the last six months. But I'll send the song and then
• 1:01:12
  I'll be listening to it, preparing my heart, preparing my
• 1:01:14
  mind for the worship and for the word that I'm going to be
• 1:01:17
  preaching. But when we get together as a
• 1:01:20
  church and we sing that song together, it's like the Lord
• 1:01:24
  uses it in a different way. Because I'm hearing these other
• 1:01:27
  voices, not just the professionals on on the
• 1:01:30
  soundtrack, but these other voices that are singing along
• 1:01:33
  with me and we're just worshipping together.
• 1:01:36
  And I'll find myself often times just sort of broken with tears
• 1:01:39
  and not having the words to say because corporately, we're
• 1:01:42
  coming together, we're worshipping the Lord.
• 1:01:44
  And it's just something about that, because God is even in
• 1:01:48
  Psalms 111 one, it says, praise the Lord.
• 1:01:51
  I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, not just part
• 1:01:53
  of it, not just at times when I'm feeling happy, but with all
• 1:01:56
  my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly.
• 1:02:02
  There's just something about coming together, worshiping the
• 1:02:05
  Lord with fellow brothers and sisters who love Jesus, who love
• 1:02:09
  one another, who want to see the gospel move forward.
• 1:02:13
  And ultimately, when we begin to think of worship and music in
• 1:02:17
  our life, it's more than just music.
• 1:02:20
  I want us to understand that because worship is not just
• 1:02:23
  getting together on Sunday morning at 10:00 or 11:00 and
• 1:02:26
  singing a couple of songs. It is every single moment of our
• 1:02:29
  day, every single moment of our life, worshipping the Lord in
• 1:02:34
  psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
• 1:02:36
  And it's an act of service every single day.
• 1:02:40
  Brett, any final words? I just think that this is such a
• 1:02:44
  great subject to talk about. When I came out of legalism, I
• 1:02:48
  was lost. I had no reference.
• 1:02:51
  I didn't really didn't know what was right, what was wrong.
• 1:02:54
  I had to kind of fumble through the dark in this subject to kind
• 1:02:58
  of find my way, do my own research.
• 1:03:01
  And while that was good, it was healthy.
• 1:03:03
  I just wanted a resource to kind of guide me through it.
• 1:03:06
  And so I'm glad we're doing this.
• 1:03:09
  I think that it's a it's a great subject.
• 1:03:12
  Music is important. Worship is more than music.
• 1:03:15
  Although music is a big part of it.
• 1:03:17
  It's a big part of our Christian life.
• 1:03:19
  It's a big part of our church life, our worship life, and I'm
• 1:03:24
  just glad we had this conversation.
• 1:03:27
  Absolutely. And until next time to God.
• 1:03:30
  Not the pastor. Be the glory.
• 1:03:33
  Found my new name, Found that good grace.
• 1:03:37
  Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face
• 1:03:41
  when I from my beginning it has no ending.
• 1:03:45
  From my second chance. From my best friend.
• 1:03:48
  From my forgiveness. From my happiness.
• 1:03:54
  I've been singing ever since I found my freedom.
• 1:03:59
  Me all. Thanks for listening to the For
• 1:04:06
  Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do
• 1:04:09
  us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our
• 1:04:12
  podcast on whichever podcast platform you use.
• 1:04:16
  Be sure to join us next time for the Four Freedom Podcast.