Worship From the Word, Part 2

Tim Gruchacz continues teaching about worship from God's Word, focusing on corporate worship and music, including the reasons for singing, how the bible says we should sing, and some practical considerations as we use discernment in choosing songs we listen to. Texts: Colossians 3:16-17, John 4:23-24, Deuteronomy 10:12-13.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
To quickly review, we talked about worship.
What is worship? We defined it most simply as a
right response to revelation. Right?
And each of those things are crucial.
First, there has to be revelation.
There has to be truth from God. Second, I have to respond.
And 3rd, that response has to beright according to what God has

(00:21):
said. We talked about the requirements
for biblical worship. First is regeneration.
You have to be saved. You have to be a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ and belong to the Church of God.
You have to worship, as John 424says, in spirit from within me,

(00:41):
with the right heart, attitude, with love, and with reverence.
And I have to worship in truth, according to His Word, according
to all that He has revealed, to the directions that He has given
us. We talked about from Deuteronomy
chapter 10. What does the right response
look like? And we talked about 5 things
that Deuteronomy 10 shows us. A right response to God involves

(01:05):
in awe of God. It's a reverence for him.
It involves an allegiance to hisways.
It's a life of commitment and submission to him.
It's an affection for God. It's a love because we recognize
that he has loved us, which sucha great love and inexpressible
love. 4th A right response involves activity for God's

(01:25):
worship. It involves service through the
duties that God has given us. And 5th, The right response of
worship requires an adherence toGod's will.
It requires an obedience to the specific commands that He gives.
We talked about last week about how God cares about proper

(01:46):
worship and how Scripture contains many warnings for us to
heed. Scripture warns US against
unauthorized worship, which neglects truth, which neglects
the character of God, and which neglects the directions that He
has given us. And Scripture warns US against
unclean worship, worship that does not have a correct

(02:08):
attitude, with both reverence and love, realizing that He is
holy and He will be treated as holy.
We use Leviticus 10 with the death of the sons of the priest
Aaron as an example. Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel's
offerings. We talked about Acts 5, Ananias

(02:28):
and Sapphira. We talked about what the Lord
says in Psalm 50, warning His people the outward obedience was
not enough, but they needed to have an inward obedience, an
inward commitment and submission.
And we talked about how do we heed these warnings?
What is the way of worship? We talked about we must have

(02:49):
regulated worship, which means it's regulated, it's defined and
controlled by God's Word. And we must have reverent
worship. We have must have worship that
begins from the heart of understanding God's character,
not Kim coming before him in a trivial way, in a thoughtless
way, but a careful way, one thathonors him and fears him as

(03:13):
Scripture repeatedly commands us.
And then we close with talking about Old Testament versus New
Testament worship, right? The outward forms look very
different, Old Testament and NewTestament.
And thankfully we don't have to follow all the laws that were
laid down in the Old Testament. But we talked about how all the

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principles behind Old Testament worship were consistent with
what we do now. We talked about how the
Levitical law, the ceremonial law showed the character and
work of God. It showed the transcendence and
holiness of God while at the same time reminding us He's
gracious. He allows us to come near to His

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presence. It reminds us that we are
separated from God because of our sinfulness and that we need
to be forgiven, We need to be cleansed.
We need our sins atoned for. And we cannot accomplish that,
only God Himself can. The Old Testament taught us that

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God wants His people to be separate and that he has
absolute authority over every area and every detail of life.
When we look at the laws, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy, they set Israel apart and even such thing as
conduct clothing and food to keep them separate from being

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defiled from the by the sins of the world and to keep them
distinct as a people who are possessed by God, who represent
him well. And so we talked about how those
principles are still true for ustoday.
God has the same desires. He has the same intention for
the guidelines that he's given us.

(04:59):
And so as we start tonight, tonight's conversation is going
to be a little more just that a little more free.
We began with all of the the thecommands, right?
We know what God commands in worship.
We know what he requires, what he expects.
And as we move through, we're going to move to wisdom, we're

(05:19):
going to move to principles, we're going to move to the
things that we want to think about as we think about singing
and music, and we'll get there. As we begin, we want to touch
on, of course, worship with the body because we just finished,
remember, last week, everything came to the one point that
remind us worship is life. There's nothing in my life that

(05:41):
is not worship. And so Romans 12/1 says I am to
offer myself. I am the sacrifice.
I am both the priest giving offerings to God for his
pleasure, and I am also the offering that's continually
offered to him for his pleasure.And so there's nothing in my
life that is exempt. There's nothing in my life that
is not dedicated as worship. But with clarity and with common

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sense, we know there's somethingspecial.
There's something that God has commanded here when we meet
together, and that's worship with His body, the church.
You know, the command in Hebrewschapter 10.
In fact, why don't we just turn there briefly, Hebrews 10.
If somebody ever talks to you and they express a reluctance to

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be with the people of God, maybethey cite past difficulties or
past ways that they've been hurtor misled and so they've lost
their trust in the church and the leadership of God of God's
people. This is the first place we have
to take him. It says in verse 23 of Hebrews
chapter 10. Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering forhe who promised this faithful,

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remember, just got done talking about Christ was the atonement.
He completed and fulfilled everything in the Old Testament.
Now you have access to God's presence to the most holy place,
as it were, because of Jesus. He's brought you near.
And so the author of Hebrews is going on to say, let's draw
near. Let's hold fast to our hope

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without wavering, without looking back, without being
weak, because God's faithful anddirectly connected to that in
verse 24, he says, and let us consider how to stimulate one
another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling
together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another in all the Moors. You see the day drawing near.

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So everything about our salvation leads us to the
church. It leads us to being part of the
body of Christ. Ephesians talks about how we
were all made part of that. If you're saved, you're given
the Holy Spirit and you are madea part of the church, OK, in a
way that cannot be broken, that cannot be taken away.

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And the author of Hebrews gives the command, don't forsake,
don't forsake our assembling together because it's God's
command and it's God's plan. If we look at Romans chapter 12,
if you'll turn there, remember we did, we talked about Romans
12, verse one, offering myself as a living sacrifice.

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Immediately after that, the verynext section is talking about
spiritual gifts. It's talking about being
connected with the people of God.
It's talking about serving when God's people meet together.
So the biblical command and the assumption all throughout
Scripture is that God's people must and they will gather

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together. It's a natural thing, it's a
commanded thing, but naturally, if you're really saved, you will
make a priority the meeting and the Church of God.
So again, we have worship as an individual.
I'm a living sacrifice, and we have worship as a church.
That's something special. God has designed the body of

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Christ to be united and to builditself up through the Word by
the power and gifting of the Holy Spirit.
Now, when I look at worship in my life personally, and I look
at worship with the church, there's going to be a lot of
overlap. There's going to be a lot of
similar things. OK, But that just that

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underlines the fact that we should be the same people during
the week and on Sundays. We should be the same people
with my family or alone that I am.
When I come to church and I meettogether with the body of
Christ, I should have the same heart attitude that leads me to
obedience and service. And Scripture is clear.

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If you love God, you'll love others, beginning with the
people of God. First Corinthians 13 talks about
love, right? That's not about marital love
primarily. The context before that is the
church. It's using spiritual gifts, the
way we serve. And then Paul goes on in First
Corinthians 13 to talk about love guides that love motivates

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that the greatest commandments as Jesus sums up in Matthew 22
or what love the Lord with everything you are and love your
neighbor as yourself. Deuteronomy 6 and 10, it has the
same connection. So our love for God, our worship
of God, of God, will naturally lead us into worship with the

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church and a love for the church.
In First Corinthians 14, right after it talks about love, Paul
is dealing with selfishness in the practice of the church.
The believers were trying to practice tongues in a
counterfeit way because they wanted some recognition.
They wanted to seem cool. They wanted to seem like they

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had something special. But Paul attacks that, he
attacks that attitude, he attacks those motives, and he
points out that everything that we do together is out of love
and to strengthen the church. He says, what is the outcome
then, brethren, when you assemble, you have a Psalm, you

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have a teaching, you have a revelation, you have a tongue,
you have an interpretation. Let all be all things be done
for education. Education, edification.
Sorry, that's a hard word. Edification.
So worship of God leads us into meeting with the church.
When we look at Acts 242, it lists some of the specific

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things that the first church that early believers after
Christ returned to heaven practiced.
It says in Acts 242 they were continually devoting themselves
to the apostles, teaching into fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and a prayer. In verses later, it talks about
giving and meeting needs. It talks about evangelism.

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Christ, of course, speaks of church discipline.
But in all this, there's a consistency from what we're
doing at home, and that leads into something special at
church. And in everything we recognize
that the truth is central. At home we will study the word

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of God. At home we will pray, at home we
can sing. At home we have an attitude of
fear towards God and love. And all those things are true at
church. But God has given us the church
and a special way to serve and to build one another's up.

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And so the Bible commands that we hear the word of the Lord.
The truth is central. The Bible commands that we read
Scripture, that we sing Scripture, that we pray, what
Scripture says, that we give, that we have that same attitude
of reverence. The Bible commands that we
observe baptism and communion, and in every elements the truth

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of God's Word is central, and itdraws us together.
That's why in our church, the preaching is the preeminent part
of the service. Not that nothing else matters,
not that we want to downplay anything else, but the preaching
is the place where you get the deepest expression and study of

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the truth. And so it's the time that is
most devoted to, it's the time that's emphasized in corporate
worship, while having some elements that are unique and
special instructs us in the things that we should be
practicing daily. So we want to see a consistency,
if we're living a life of worship individually and

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personally, that will lead to a life of worship in the church,
that will lead to an energy, to a love, to a service in the
church. And so we draw these lines and
connections to lay a foundation so that we can talk about
singing. All right, I lead worship
ministry. When you think of the word
worship, you think of music for better, for worse.

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And that's not a wrong association, but everything that
I've talked about previously wasto remind us that worship is
broader than that and that it's helpful for us to be careful how
we use the word worship. What are we really talking
about? Are we being confusing or do we
really mean worship, which meansmy whole life devoted to God?
And that means everything that happens here with us together is

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also worship because it hinges around God's Word and it's
dictated about it. In your outline, we're going to
talk about why do we sing? I'm going to go over those
briefly. Some of these are taken from
this book scene Sing. This is written by Keith and
Kristen Getty. They're modern hymn writers of
the church. Everything they write is
wonderful. All their songs biblical.

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And so some of these points are from their book.
There are five reasons why you need to sing.
The first one is that we are created to sing.
You were created to sing. No matter what you think of your
musical ability, God made you tosing, MacArthur said.

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This music is the gift of God, acommon grace to the world to
give them a means of expressing their emotions.
Music was made as a tool for people, and we were made from
music. That's why music resonates with
every person. It may in a different way, but
it has a significance to every person and in every culture

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across the world. We're a relational response of
beings. We're designed to respond, to be
worshippers, and to express thatresponse.
You see that in sports. You see that in a response.
When you see a natural wonder, something beautiful in nature,
When we see a feat of strength or ability, or when we receive
exciting or alarming news, we'reresponders.

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That's who God made us to be. And music is an Ave. of response
that God created in US and for us.
When we understand God's creation, it points back to his
nature, right? It underlines the fact that God
delights in beauty, that God creates beauty.

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He doesn't just make things to be functional.
He makes things to be enjoyed and being made in his image.
We enjoy what he enjoys and we we desire to enjoy things as
well to appreciate beauty. It points us to the fact that
beauty is not in the eye of the beholder.

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Beauty is not subjective. And that's kind of a
conversation outside of tonight,outside the scope of tonight.
But I would encourage you to think about that.
God creates beauty. God defines beauty in creation.
What does it say? Everything he made was good.
God made the trees pleasing to the eye and good for food.

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And so we were created to engagein music.
And music is unique because it doesn't just express or or allow
us to feel or enjoy. It carries words with it.
It communicates specifically. And the most thing, the most
important thing that music can communicate, that it can carry

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is truth. And so I would encourage you to
think about the fact that we arecreated to sing OK, someday in
heaven you will sing well, you will sing perfectly, but for
now, God created you to sing second, that we are commanded to
OK, this is the easy one. All throughout the Psalms it

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says or sing to the Lord a new song for he has done wonderful
things. Psalm 33 says sing for joy in
the Lord. O you righteous ones, praise is
becoming to the upright over andover and over.
We are commanded to sing. That's pretty cut and dry,
right? It's a command for us.
It's not arbitrary. We're commanded to sing for our

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good because we were created to 3rd.
We are compelled to sing. We as believers have an inward
response to revelation that causes us to sing.
Colossians 316 and 17, if you want to turn there and we'll
stay. There is a crucial text for

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talking about singing in the NewTestament, and it says that we
sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God.
Believers are compelled to sing because they have received a
great salvation from a great Godand they are overwhelmed by it.
They were overcome by it. A motivation to sing is

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unchanging. We're motivated by the sacrifice
of our Savior and the glory of God.
Now something to distinguish is emotion and volition.
OK, we talked before about a spirit and attitude of worship.
Too often we get confused because we think singing and

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worship music should be about emotions.
But that is not what worship is about because that makes it very
man centered. What worship is about is a
choice, is a response, is an attitude that I bring as a
worshipper to exalt God. And therefore I can always have
that same response regardless ofhow I feel, because how I feel

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is based on my circumstances. But my worship is not about how
I feel. It's about my choice to respond.
It's about me understanding the grace and glory of God and
saying He is worthy. And I cannot help but sing and
respond. John Piper said singing is the

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Christian's way. God is so great that thinking
will not suffice, There must be deep feeling and talking will
not suffice, there must be singing.
So it's not that there's no emotion in worship.
We can fall into one of two camps, thinking that emotional
experience is everything or no emotion.

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I must sing. Intellectually, I wonder which
way our church leans. But the truth is neither of
those extremes. The truth is that worship and
seeing is a response from my heart that's based on knowledge,
knowing God, knowing what he's done, but comes out of a
response that naturally wells upin my heart as I'm thankful for

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what I'm for, what God has done.And when I choose to praise,
when I choose to obey and do what he's commanded by singing
to him, by acknowledging, then my emotions are corralled, my
emotions are corrected. Bob Coughlin, who is one of the
leaders of the Sovereign Grace Ministries, we sing many of

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their songs. He says suppressing or ignoring
your feelings when you sing contradicts what singing is
designed to do. Passionless singing is an
oxymoron. So the trick is, if my emotions,
if my feelings aren't right whenI come to sing, I can't be
deterred by that. I have to choose to sing because

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I choose to respond to the revelation of God in a right
way. And as I sing, as I'm reminded
of who God is, what he's done, as I'm reminded of who I've
become because of his work in mylife, I will sing.
I will be compelled inwardly, not outwardly, but I'll have a
right response. So we sing because we're created

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to, because we're commanded to, we're compelled. 4th We sing
because we're congregated to, because God says sing together,
because there's a significance in the gathering.
In Colossians 316 and 17 it saysthat we teach and admonish one
another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
So part of our instruction and our encouragement and our

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building up one another is singing to one another.
It's singing with one another. We are congregated, we are
gathered to sing, and there's a significance there.
And if we're so focused on ourself and my experience, we
forget. I'm gathered with the people of
God for them. God put me here for them to
benefit them. And of course, I'm corrected and

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convicted and encouraged as well.
But my attitude should be thinking about the people around
me. Years ago when Drew was here in
youth ministry, Pastor Lance's son, before we went off to
Indiana, they had a kind of a joke, a running gag that they
would say in the youth group, right when they talk about the

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meeting of the church together and about singing, they would
say, I just want to be served. I just want to be served, all
right? Because that's the attitude that
most of us come with. We come to church to be served.
We come to church to gain something.
But that that's not our attitude.
That's not a biblical Worshipfulattitude.

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Because I if I love God, then I love the people that I'm going
to see on Sunday. And I think about how can I help
them? How can I build them up?
How can I encourage them even inthe way that I'm singing when
I'm standing next to them. And 5th, we are commissioned.
Singing is a witness and it's designed by God.
That way there is something powerful when the people of God

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sing together, united in spirit,united in truth, singing with
vigor and with passion and with delight.
Psalm 89.1 says. Psalm 89.1 says I will sing of
the loving kindness of the Lord forever to all generations.
I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth.

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So singing is a witness. It's a call to believers and
it's a call to unbelievers saying this is our God.
This is the one who demands to be worshipped.
So those are 5 reasons that we sing.
And we ask, what must we sing? And here we start to get a
little bit more specific. OK, we're going to get to it.

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We're going to have a discussionabout what we sing.
We're going to talk about content.
If you look on the back of your outline, I put some lyrics
there. All right.
So what I enjoy doing when we talk about these things is
saying let's just not talk aboutthis.
Let's analyze. Let's pick apart these songs.
And so we're going to do that tonight and I'm going to ask you

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to do that and to evaluate thesesongs.
But what must be sing Scripture is clear.
You already there, hopefully in Colossians 3/16/17.
This provides guidelines for what we must sing.
At its core, what we must sing is the word.

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What we must sing is the truth. It must be biblically based,
scripture filled, doctrinally rich songs.
I've had conversations with people in schools and in other
churches that they'll say, well,the songs you pick are just too
wordy, or not everybody can understand these songs, or

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people don't know these songs because they're not on the
radio. So why don't we pick something
that's a little more mainstream,OK?
It's a little more, it's a little more watered down, but we
can serve these people by givingthem something they already
know. That's at a base level that
different people from different churches can all agree on.
But that's a compromise. And if you look at Scripture,

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you cannot deny that it says sing richly, OK, right here in
verse 16 of Colossians 3, Let the word of Christ richly dwell
within you, OK? So let God's Word be at home
within your heart. Lance has talked about that.
That's what the word dwells meanmeans that means it's always
here. It's always in my mind.

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It's never far away. It's always what I'm thinking
about. It's always in my life.
I'm always thinking about it. I'm always drawn back to
Scripture and it says, let it richly, abundantly, lavishly,
overwhelmingly dwell within you.And then it goes on to say with

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wisdom, teaching and admonishingone another with psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in
your hearts to God. So connected there is that one
of the major ways that we allow God's Word to richly be at home
in our hearts is through our singing.
And so there are 8 principles inyour outline briefly that would

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I'd like to illuminate from thisverse.
OK, first is we must sing the word richly.
OK, abundantly, let it richly dwell within you.
We must sing the word #2 continually.
It says let it dwell within you.Let it be at home.
Don't stop it. It's got to keep going.
God's Word is always there. So we must sing the Word richly,

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continually and wisely, it says,with all wisdom, understanding
the principles and the teaching of Scripture.
OK, there's a depth there, there's a thoughtfulness there.
There's an imparted wisdom from men who have studied God's Word
and given years of thought to itto help us.

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It's why important that that we sing songs written by
theologians, not by artists. Richly, continually, wisely,
forth, instructively. We sing instructively.
That's how we learn. That's how we teach and admonish
or correct one another. Fifth, we sing diversely with

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psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Those are just different types of songs.
Paul says here, and he says the same phrase in Ephesians 5, and
the significance is not in You must sing these three categories
of songs, but the significance is saying there are a variety of
songs that are filled with God'struth that benefit the church,

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that you should sing Psalms, wholikely refers to songs that are
Scripture, OK? They're the actual words of
Scripture. Hymns are songs that are
structured theologically, OK, Sothey explain a doctrine.
They use different parts of Scripture and bring it together
so we give a fuller understanding.

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And spiritual songs can mean songs of testimony, songs of
response and expression. Although we always need to start
with God's revelation, there is a place for songs that give us
words to say how thankful we areto give us words to say how I'm
yearning for heaven. They give us words to say I
understand my mission now. So that's the significance.

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We must sing diversely. Number six, we must sing.
Thankfully it says singing with thankfulness in your hearts to
God. 7th we must sing inwardly. In verse 17 it says whatever you
do in Word or deed, do all. Oh, I'm sorry.
In verse 16, inwardly it says singing with thankfulness in
your hearts to God. So the significance again is

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that worship comes from the inside, the spirit, and then it
spills out. It's not only something we do
outside just to perform a task. And in verse 17 #8 is
submissively says whatever you do in Word or deed, do all in
the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to him through God
the Father. So everything is about him.

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Everything we sing is it's a mission to his truth and
recognizing everything should beaimed at Him.
Everything should magnify him. If I'm singing a song and it's
talking about me more than it's talking about Jesus, probably
not a good song. So those 8 principles are in the
text to help us understand and give us principles how we should
sing. In Ephesians chapter 5, verses

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18 through 20, it's a parallel passage, but there it uses the
same language except that instead of richly dwelling God's
Word, it says be filled with theSpirit.
There's so much confusion in churches about what does it mean
to be filled and led by the Spirit.
People will teach all kinds of things, like it means talking in
gibberish, or falling on the floor, or convulsions, or this

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or that, or receiving a revelation in your mind.
No, in Ephesians 5 all the same things result as in Colossians
3, which means letting God's Word richly dwell within you is
the same as being filled by the Spirit.
Does that make sense? Let's turn there.

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Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. Do not get drunk with wine, for
that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.
Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. All that sounds familiar.
Singing and making melody with your hearts of the Lord.
Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord

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Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one
another. So when we let the word of
Christ dwell richly within us, then we sing and we're thankful.
When we let the Spirit fill and lead us, we sing and we're
thankful and we submit. It's the same things.
So it teaches us that when we let God's Word dwell richly

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within us, we are being led by God's Spirit because the two
work in tandem. God's Spirit works with his Word
in order to change our lives andto make us like Christ.
So those are some principles from Colossians 3 more quickly

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than I had planned. What happens when we sing three
things? Biblical songs exalt?
They exalt God, they lift him up, they put him on display #2
Biblical songs edify, they buildup, they teach, and they
strengthen the church #3 biblical songs express.

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They express our response to God.
Our emotion and our experience are shaped and sanctified by
God's truth so that we can express in a right way.
And we see all kinds of expressions modelled in
Scripture, uncertainty, but thenit's guided by Scripture to a

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place of faith. We see despair, but it's guided
by God's revelation to a place of trust.
We see sorrow over circumstancesor sin, but we're guided by
God's revelation to a place of confession and of peace and of
trust. And so biblical songs do these

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three things. They exalt, they edify, and they
express. This is what should happen when
we sing good songs. Not all kinds of other things.
But we can boil it down to that if we're singing rightly, then
in our church Christ is exalted,the church is built up, it's

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edified, and we express a right response to who God is.
And the question then? Is will you then worship?
Will you then worship? Will you lead it in your family?
Will you teach your children about worship?

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Not just about singing, but about the fact that worship is
life. That it's submission and
reverence to God. It's a response to Him.
I wanted to spend some time. Talking about issues tonight,
branching out, something a little more informal.

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It's funny, you get up here and you don't know how long it's
going to take and then you realize you have enough material
for like 4 weeks. So we're going to.
Simplify a little bit. I really enjoy the conversations
that we have in the young and old Bible study.
It's called Impact, and they meet together every other Sunday
night and they always challenge me with thoughtful questions.

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They always challenge me to be prepared.
A couple of years ago we did a study through every section of
theology. So that means we studied who God
is, who Christ is, the Holy Spirit.
We studied what is this, what are the scriptures?
We studied everything from angels to salvation to death to
heaven. We studied all these things and

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it was so wonderful. The questions that would form
because right theology, right teaching leads to right living,
because the natural question is,OK, now that I know this, how
does this make an impact in my life?
How does this change and guide me in the way I live?
So we've talked about a lot of theological things and we've

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talked about spirit and truth, but we want to boil it down and
I want to talk a little bit tonight about applying that
because it's our responsibility,first of all, to be wise and God
honoring in the way that we participate in church and also
in the music that we listen to, even though singing is just a

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small part of it. Singing can become such a
controversy, and there's so manyvoices and false teachings out
there. When we talk about songs.
In church. There's always the battle,
right? New songs, old songs, familiar

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songs, new songs. How do you make those decisions?
When we think through the. Principles that we've drawn from
Scripture. It becomes simple.
The significance of what we sing, either together in this
church or what I sing at home, is not in the style of music.
It's not in the instruments thatare used.

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The significance is not in the era that it was written.
It's not in the way it sounds. The significance of the songs
that we sing is about their content.
It's about truth. Are the songs that we sing and
we listen to filled with God's truth?
Because if they are, they will draw a right response from God's

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people, from God's people who are ready to worship and are
living a life of worship. They will be ready to respond.
If we listen to or sing songs that are weak, that are vague,
OK, it will, it will help no one.
It's not going to draw anyone toworship.

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It's not going to remind us of who God is.
It's not going to remind us of what he's done.
It's not going to remind us of our responsibility.
It's not going to nourish us in our spiritual walk and build us
up. It is not going to glorify God
because God's made it clear He is glorified in specificity, in
teaching, in understanding the fullness of his character.

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And so we have to set aside all of the things that we prefer,
and we have to hold on to the one question What pleases God,
What honors God? When I first came to the.
Church music was very different here.
The worship ministry was very different.

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It was organized around a choir and a piano and an organ, and
overtime that is all changed. But that's not because I have a
specific preference that changedout of necessity because we have
certain people in this church who play certain instruments and
who are willing to serve. And so because style is not

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what's significant, the style musically of our church has
evolved over the years. And yes, I have say in that,
yes, I have leadership in that. And yes, you could say that I'm,
I'm probably biased and I like guitar music.
That's fine, but at the end of the day, my concern is what
honors God, what exalts Him and puts forth His truth, and what's

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the best way that we can accomplish that.
And so we do that with the people that we have, that God
has provided, and the skills that they have.
Romans 14 is a really important passage.
We're talking about music because it helps us understand
Christian liberty. What Paul says in the Scripture
teaches in Romans 14 is that youshould have convictions, you

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should have wise reasons for what you do, and you should hold
fast to those convictions. But if it's not expressly
commanded in Scripture, then youcannot judge other believers.
If they differ, OK, if they prefer a different kind of
music. The examples in Romans 14 are in
eating and in practicing. For example, some people might

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still practice the the festivals.
They might go to the to the Jewish festivals and be part of
that. Or some people might eat food
that was first offered to idols.So false worshippers, false
religions would offer food on the altar of their false gods
and then later they would sell it for cheap in the marketplace.

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And so Paul is saying if you want to get a deal, it doesn't
matter because false gods and gods are nothing.
And food is food. So he's saying if you have a
conviction on these things and it's not expressly laid out in
scripture, if it's not guided and regulated by Scripture, have
a conviction. Have a wise reason based on
scripture and don't judge someone else if they have a

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different conviction on that. But what we do need to have?
A unanimous conviction on is the.
Content is the truth. And tonight I wanted to spend a
couple of minutes talking about false teachers and churches in
music. OK, Basically today, everything

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that calls itself Christian music and Christian culture is
not God honoring. It's not guided and regulated by
scripture. It is dictated and designed and
invented by people in there for a lot of it is not helpful and a
lot of. It is downright.

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Dangerous. In 2nd Corinthians 11.
Verses 13 Thrift through 15. It says such men, these false
teachers, are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising
themselves as apostles of Christ.
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an Angel of
light. Therefore, it is not surprising
if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of

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righteousness whose end will be according to their deeds.
And so tonight I wanted to make you aware of some things that we
need to be careful of. When you look at Christian music
on the radio and the things thatare most popular in other
churches, the majority of it centers around a couple false
churches and false teachers. OK, one is Hillsong Prosperity

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Church. OK, it's all about making money.
God does this for me. It's man centered idolatry.
God is there to bless me and to give me what I think I need.
And you've seen their music. They don't want to talk about
sin. Hey, they don't want to talk
about that. They talk about God helping
their sense of shame and their weaknesses.
They're not concerned with holiness, but they're concerned

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with emotional and material fulfillment.
Another. False church.
False gospel is Elevation Church, Elevation Worship with
Stephen Furtick. OK?
They don't teach anything that'sin line with the gospel.
And the danger is they have little snippets of truth.
So you hear a song or you hear a32nd clip of them teaching and

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you think, oh, that's not awful.I thought they were all awful.
But that's how false teachers work.
They just don't dump a bunch of bogus on you.
They have little Nuggets of weaktruth, OK, but they fill in the
majority with false teaching. They corrupt the nature of God.

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They corrupt the nature of Christ.
They corrupt the work on the cross.
They don't speak about sin and God's holiness.
Everything is man centered. One of the most dangerous
churches and sources today is Bethel.
They're led, the main church is led by a husband and wife

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couple, pastors Brian and Jen Johnson.
They teach a false gospel, no repentance, and they have an
overt plan for worldly influence.
And I call them a cult because their teachings are so extreme,
OK? And when I study this, it's
scary. It's terrifying that there's

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somebody who claims to be a Church of God and yet teaches
these things. So I wanted to make you aware of
it. They practice mystical,
blatantly occultic practices. OK, they teach and talk about
waking sleeping angels of power.They teach that God always wants
to. Heal and raise the dead.

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They teach that you can receive and.
Reclaim anointings and mantels of power from the graves of dead
people. They claim that gold dust and
Angel feathers appear during their services.
They practice soaking prayer, which means you clear your mind
and you attempt to feel God's presence like a tingling skin or
a hot or cold sensation or a gentle wind blowing through your

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body. Their words.
They have their own translation called the.
Passion translation, which is 50% longer than your Bible
because so much new is inserted regardless of what the original
text says. It is an entirely rewritten and
changed book, they claim. That Christians can.
See into the spiritual realm andbecome Mystics and seers.

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They've taught that Jesus lost his deity entirely at the
incarnation and that he was incapable of anything on his
own. That he was no longer God, that
he no longer had the attributes of God.
That he received an anointing ofmagic power at his baptism, and
that you can receive a similar anointing like that if you pray
and you have the right faith. They have a school of

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supernatural ministry where in their words, students will learn
how to read, understand, and do the Bible.
OK, how to practice His presence, how to witness, how to
heal the sick, prophecy, preach,pray, cast out demons, and much
more. The controversy in the last
couple years. Is that they encourage their

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church to pray for the resurrection of a 2 year old
girl who died who was the daughter of a worship leader.
And they prayed saying if we pray and believe hard enough,
God will resurrect her. So they are people who have
taken the name of Christ and taken all these mystical,
satanic, occultic practices and just mashed them together.
And we need to be aware of this because when you hear one of

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their songs, we don't understandall of that.
They'll even take some hymns like it is well and do their own
version and you listen to it andyou're like, oh, that's, that's
not awful. They were good singers.
They're good musicians, but theylead you away from the truth and
they are false teachers and theyare deceptive and they are

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dangerous and the. Unfortunate thing is that.
So much in Christian worship is directly associated with them,
and if people associate with these people, if they spend time
with them and teach with them and sing at their churches and
write songs with them, it shows a lack of discernment, lack of
truth, or possibly a lack of true salvation.
So there's names like Cody Carnes, Brandon Lake, now

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Fiddle. Wickham does everything with
Bethel. We know in scripture it.
Says. Who you spend time with, you
will become like them. In First Corinthians, Paul was
dealing with some of the church who associated with false
teachers who denied resurrectionat all of the body.
And that he said associating with false teachers always leads

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us astray. It leads to a weakening of our
conviction and our commitment tolive a holy life.
In 1533 of First Corinthians it says don't be deceived, Bad
company corrupts good morals, become sober minded, become
clear minded, have clarity because you have it from God's
word as you ought and stop sinning for some have no
knowledge of God and I speak this to your shame.

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So he's saying have a clear mind, don't be clouded, don't be
confused, don't have a mind that's like it's drunk, like
it's unthinking. Even names like Chris Tomlin
have become questionable becausethey do so much with churches
like Bethel and Elevation and they sing their songs.
These people come more and more like the people they tour and

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write songs with. So this.
Is a key problem. With everything that's called
worship music. OK, it's.
Written by people. Who are not believers, who are
blatantly false teachers. And we're doing it for a profit
and for influence. The worship music industry is
built on entertainment, not edification.

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It's built for profit, not for truth.
The temptation is watered down truth.
You sing things that are genericand vague enough that everybody
can sing it and it doesn't bug anybody.
You appeal to this wider on an audience and you make more money
then the. Result is that Christian radio.
Is garbage OK? Everything that is easy to

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listen to is mostly garbage. There are some gems you can pull
out, but the majority of it is awful and there are very few
trustworthy and reliable Christian musician.
And so as we're coming. To an end.
I wish we had more time for thistonight, but I ask you to turn

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over your handout. OK?
On this I put 2 songs that are from the top ten of.
CCLICCLI is the organization that handles all the royalties
and the copyrights for basicallyall songs sung in churches.
So these two songs, Graves in the Gardens and Gratitude are in
the top 10 sung in churches across the world.

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OK. And you look at it and at first
glance, I mean, it doesn't look awful.
I mean, there's no blatant heresy in it.
But when you evaluate it, you understand how man centered it
is, how weak it is and how useless it is.
And you understand that it does not honor God because it does

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not give an accurate picture of him.
A revelation. Graves into gardens.
OK, I was at a Christian School and they sung this every month
and it just killed me. You look.
At their first verse. I searched the world that
couldn't fill me, and at the end, every desire is now

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satisfied here in your love. So we're meeting felt needs, OK?
We're not needing spiritual needs, taking care of sin.
We're singing about our felt needs.
There's nothing better than you.OK, that's vague, but not awful.
I'm not afraid to show you my weaknesses, my failures and
flaws. Lord seen them.
You've seen them all and you still call me friend.

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First of all, sin is not weaknesses, failures and flaws.
OK, that's a little bit of a copout.
OK? Sin is an offence against the
perfect holy God that requires eternal judgement in hell.
And let's not call God our friend.
Let's not Scripture calls God our Father.

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It's the. Title of reverence.
And authority. Scripture calls God our master
as slaves. It's the title of reverence and
authority. Not that there's no love, there
is, but the way we relate to Godbegins with reverence.
It begins with honoring Him and understanding His character.

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Can you look through the rest ofthe song?
There's some vague metaphors. The God of the mountain is the
God of the valley. What does that mean?
It means whatever you want because it's vague and then it
goes into some some. Proclaims God does these things.
You turn graves into gardens. Cool.

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Like what? What does that mean?
God's a gardening God. We're going back to Eden.
You turn bones into armies. OK, Probably a reference to
Ezekiel. Dry bones.
You guys have never heard the kids song.
I don't know if you've read that.
Believe it's in Ezekiel. It's Ezekiel in the 30s
someplace. But it talks about God showing
Ezekiel that he's going to bringIsrael back and resurrect them
though they were scattered and dead.

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OK, But it's just vague. It's just a bunch of things that
God can do for me. OK?
You're saying you, you do these things, God, you're the only one
who can. But the song is really about me.
It's about what God is going to do for me.
When you look at gratitude, my my question is, what are you

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grateful for? The name of the song is
gratitude. What are you thankful for?
OK, if you, if I'm going to respond to God, I'm going to,
I'm going to be asking, yes, OK,I know what I'm thankful for.
But it would be helpful if a song I'm singing outlines.
What am I thankful for? What are some things that we're

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thankful for? Give me some salvation.
That's great. Yes.
What else? For wife, Life, Wife, wife.
And life, both of those things. Both are great and absolutely
true. Amen.
Yes, there are so many things and there are so many good songs

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that talk about giving thanks toGod.
We sing to Jesus. Thank you.
The mystery of the cross. I cannot comprehend the agonies
of Calvary. You, the perfect Holy 1,
crushed. Your son who drank.
The bitter cup reserved for me. And you sing that and you're
just like, now I'll sing thank you, now I will.
Because that articulates it in away that I'm probably not wise

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enough to put together by myself.
But it's good and it's true, andI have a response, but this song
says nothing. I'm going to express my
gratitude. And how do I do that?
I throw out my hands. I praise you.
I've got one response. I've just got one move arm.
Stretch ride? Really.
Your one response to God is to do this.

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We just spent a whole night talking.
About how your response to God is your whole life and you're
going to sing a song. This is how I respond by
stretching out my arms and look at him.
It's so, it's so shallow. It's so man centered.
I wanted to use the example of the song Christ the Sure and
steady Anchor because it's a metaphor.
But in it there is great biblical truth that draws us not

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to ourselves but back to Christ.Christ the sure and steady
anchor. OK, it's using the seafaring
imagery. OK, it talks about the fury of
the storm. The the moral of it.
I will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed.
OK, I hold fast to Christ. He will never leave me.
He will never forsake me. I cannot lose my salvation.
So no matter what's happening inmy life, I cling to Him, OK,

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even in temptation. And I realized in verse 2,
though I justly stand accused, Iwill hold fast.
Verse 3, lift your eyes to Calvary.
This my ballast of assurance. See, His love forever proved.
My assurance is not based on me,but it's based on the fact that
God's love and His salvation is forever proved and accomplished

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by what Jesus did once on the cross.
A ballast if you don't know, in a ship.
Is the weight in the bottom of it?
And so ships nowadays will fill up with water or they'll put
cargo and things down there to bring stability to the ship so
that in a storm it doesn't tip over.
If you have weight in the bottomof the ship, it keeps it stable,

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it keeps it upright, it keeps itgoing.
And so it's using this imagery to saying my steadfastness, even
though I feel like I'm in a storm, is based on Christ and it
speaks of heaven. So those are good truths.
Even though this is a song that is has a little more imagery,
it's a little more of a metaphorrather than articulating

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specific theology. There's so much more I.
Would love to talk about. But I would just encourage you
to have. Discernment, and that's the
battle that we need to have in everything.

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Have discernment. Be aware of what you're
listening to, what you're feeling you're home with, what
your children are listening to because it matters.
Is the Word of Christ dwelling richly in my mind because of how
I fill my home and because of being in the Word and singing
good songs and thinking about it?
Or am I filling my life with triviality?

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Am I filling with my life with things that are not honoring to
the Lord? It's so easy for us to
compromise in the things we listen to because there's so
much garbage out there, but we have to evaluate everything.
My wife both hates and loves thefact I can never just listen to
a song. I can't just enjoy a song.

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I'm listening to what it says and always have a comment like
that's so stupid. She's like, why can't you just,
It's not, it's not a worship song.
It's not about Jesus. Can't you just enjoy it?
But I can't help it and we all need to think that way.
Not that I'm great at that, not that I have great discernment,
but God's Word is a perfect guide and it teaches and

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instructs everyone of us so thatwe will be discerning and so
that we can fill our minds and our lives with God's truth.
And it's all the more important,as we have an example in our
church and in our families and with our friends, to not
compromise, OK? To not just settle for wishy
washy, not settle for garbage, and to be careful of where our

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music's coming from. To be careful of what we're
singing and what we're listeningto.
You don't have to make the same choices as me.
And I would love to speak with you more if you have more
specific questions. I'm sorry I haven't had that
time tonight. But I want to encourage you that
singing is wonderful and singingis valuable and important.
I mean, it's not because I say it.

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It's not because I like music. It's because God's Word says so.
And He gave it to you as a gift.He gave it to you as something
beautiful, to express your response to Him, to speak to
Him, and to look forward to heaven where someday we'll sing
perfectly and where we can express perfectly and we'll be

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able to worship without any hindrance of distraction or
sinfulness. And so I hope that's an
encouragement to you tonight. And I'd love to talk with you
more tonight, another time at church.
I would love to make myself available, but let's go some
prayer. Lord, we thank you for this
night. Thank you for the clarity in
your word. Thank you for the great depth of

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truth that you've given us in your word.
Thank you that you've made us tosing.
And when we do sing your truth, it is so wonderful.
It's something that we enjoy. It's something we want to
continually do. And we pray, Lord, that you
would focus us on heaven, focus us on the mission we have now,
focus us on your Word, God. We pray that it would richly

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dwell in US and that you would give us wisdom.
We ask to do the very best we can to fill our entire lives
with it. That it would guide us and shape
us. It would mark us and make us a
people set apart. Thank you that you are in
control of all things and that no matter how we feel about a
situation, you are working through it and you will lead us
faithfully to the end. Thank you for the hope of

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heaven, and we thank you for this church that you've put here
that we can serve you in it. We pray these things in your
name, Amen.