Redeeming The Time

Here, people want to make that commitment. We'll gladly do it. In the name of the Lord.

All these churches, sir, are added daily. I think weekly is not too awful. Daily would be better.

Why don't we stand and I'd like to read out of Ephesians, where I've been kind of been led to here lately. Ephesians chapter 5. Stand for the reading of the word. Start in verse 15, down to maybe verse 20.

Ephesians 5, 15 through 20. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

And be ye not drunk with wine or in excess, but be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's do that right now. Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and want to give you thanks.

Thank you for extending our lives, giving us breath this morning. Thank you for a living soul that you've put in everyone. Thank you, Lord, that you have a purpose.

You have predestined us into an eternal purpose to glorify you, be before you in love and without blame, Lord. Thank you for that calling. Thank you for what we consider bad things that happen in our life too.

We give you thanks for all things. We don't understand all things sometimes, but we give you thanks. Thank you for bringing us together like this.

We can look into your Word. We can partake and remember you, Lord. We believe that we're on borrowed time.

And when only a few times, maybe we can do this again, remember your death, maybe this is the last time. But we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity. Thank you that we're not out serving a guy we don't know, trying to appease an angry God or God somewhere.

We know you through Christ Jesus. We bless you. Be with Brother Jerry and Brother Chris and the boys as they share.

I pray you just unbless their time. Give them an option to share the Word that many would be drawn unto you. Also, keep us in the love of Jesus Christ.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, as we've been looking through this book, I think I've shared before that Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that the words that he is writing or he speaks are the commandments of the Lord.

And sometimes I have to remind myself that it's not an inferior Word of God, one part above another, but it's all the Word of God. So we do well to take heed to the whole counsel of God. Last time I think I maybe stretched the lines a bit with the last passage talk.

Then I went into courtship and just gave some examples from other cultures even and things to that nature. And just for a little bit of recap on that, we were looking at especially verse 3 and talked about a clean moral life and not giving occasion to the flesh, not having fellowship with the unproof works of darkness. And in light of more young people growing up, and they're probably, if they're normal, they'll probably pursue courtship at one point in their life if the Lord so orders in their life.

So we just like to lift up that banner of holiness. And just before I forget it, Brother Jerry and I were talking just the other week and he just wants to, I want to reiterate what he shared, that a hands-off policy, I'll just say it like that, has been what he's lifting up and he wants to continue to do that. So we're all together on that.

It's a banner of holiness. And just Friday night, I just want to recap a little bit on this. Friday night we had a family at our house and just a good time of fellowship.

Their daughter, upper 20s, just had started a courtship also recently. And just very bubbly and excited about this all. And I thought it was pretty interesting.

I know a lot of people have questions. Well, what are some practical things as far as different families of different areas, guidelines and so forth. I thought it was pretty interesting what they did.

They just asked both the young lady and the young man, sit down somewhere alone and write down some things that you would see like to happen during this courtship time. Or set a standard of holiness or what you think is right. And that was pretty interesting.

I think it exceeded what the parents were even desiring. Simple things like, of course, no hands off. And when we're sitting together, we have like a foot between us.

We have a Bible, like the Bible. I thought, well, that's pretty good. The Word of God is a good witness.

But that was just their experience. I kind of know their life and their experience, the testimony. You just know that this foundation will likely stand.

And it's probably a marriage that you won't have to go back later then and repair things that wouldn't start it off right. Like someone shared recently, something that's not started correctly, those are the situations you'll be going back years later, trying to get them on the right track again. So that's just a thought on encouragement.

I have been meditating on, I didn't share it last time, but that spirit I felt emanating from this young lady was to protect, to honor him, and also vice versa. Honor that moral integrity. They wanted to honor.

They looked at it as an opportunity to honor instead of what can I get. It's more of a giving. How can I honor? I was really encouraged with that.

And my thoughts went to Genesis, I think chapter 34 or 36, when this was Jacob's daughter. It says that she went out to see the daughters of the land one day in Shechem. I think it was Shechem.

And Josephus, the historian, this is just his thought, he thought that there was a festival, and this young girl wanted to go out to see the daughters of the land. And what happened, someone else saw her, was also looking. And they did not respect and honor each other.

And we know, she probably had no idea that morning when she just very lightly left her father's tent, whatever they lived in, that today, probably no idea, today I'll lose my purity. Today I'll be the occasion of the death of a whole, I don't know, was it a tribe, a village? But that really happened. She did not walk in wisdom.

And the parents, I don't know where they were at with all of this. But later on, Simeon and Levi, two brothers, were very upset about this. They went back with a sword and just wiped out that whole family, village or tribe.

It doesn't say how many men were killed that day. So there is destruction in the path if we don't take the right road of honor. So that's just a little bit of recap.

But as we move ahead into the next verses here in Ephesians 5, verse 15 here it says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. And it's looking back on kind of what we passed, some of these verses, these passages that we passed through already, what we had spoken about. So like a recap, walk, see then, be careful that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.

That word circumspectly actually means to be exactly. Make sure that you cross all the, make sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. Do it exactly.

That's what it means to walk circumspectly. Most exact is what the actual meaning was. Diligently and perfectly.

That should be the heart to do the will of God and to live these things out. Another, whenever I think of this term circumspect, and I probably shared this before, but this really made a lot of sense to me living in Africa a couple years with the wildlife around there. Circumspect, the root word is circle.

So someone that is walking circumspectly is aware of his surroundings. He's not, it says we shouldn't be as a fool. A fool doesn't really care.

A fool just does what's right in front of him, not aware of his surroundings and just whatever is pleasing for me right now. That's the path of a fool. We don't have time to go into Proverbs.

There's so much to talk about the fool versus the wise man. There's always a comparison. The wise, the fool.

The wise, the evil and the good and so forth. It says we should walk aware of our surroundings, not as fools but as wise. A wise person will be aware of what's surrounding me.

In our day and age, we need to walk circumspectly more than ever. If ever we need to, we need to do it now. You ever watched any animals in the wild in that landscape with the type of predators? And even here, a deer is always, you know, there's some feeding, some looking around and they're aware of their surroundings.

There's always danger that they need to be aware of. We also have a lion that's around us that's just wanting to get an opportunity, get an advantage. So let's walk circumspectly.

Let's be wise. Verse 16 says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. I'll take verse 17 with that.

Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. I got the picture of someone that is asleep and you wake up. First thing I used to do, I wake up, I look at the time.

The alarm clock is there. And first thing I do is look at the time. So he's saying we should be redeeming the time.

Let's turn to Romans chapter 13. Read a couple of verses there. Verse 11.

Romans 13, 11 says, and that knowing the time that now it is high time to wake out of sleep. Any of you ever heard that term? It's high time. High time to do this.

High time to do that. Maybe your children and I are kind of didn't do something right away. Hey, it's high time you do this.

May the Lord open our hearts to the word of the Lord here. It is high time. Knowing the time.

You look at the alarm clock. It is high time to wake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

You look at the time. What is it saying? What we just read, it says the days are evil. In our spiritual world, we need to have that pressed upon our hearts.

It is high time to wake out of sleep and realize the time says evil days. So in light of that evil day surrounding us, we need to redeem the time. There is work to be done.

The night is far spent, verse 12 in Romans. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

We're done with the dying. We're done with the darkness. It is time to walk in the light.

Imagine going to warfare. There is warfare to be done. The first thing we do is not to put on camouflage so we blend in.

No, we put on an armor of light. We stand out more than ever. Just think about that.

Going to war and put on an armor of light. Hey, this is where I'm at. That's actually the approach of the Christians in this evil world.

Like Brother David shared the other Sunday. Whenever the voice of evil rises up, our voice needs to rise up right with that. Yesterday out on the streets, Brother John was preaching.

Some voices rose up and I heard his voice rise up to match it. Just match that. The evil challenge.

And I think that's what we need to do. But not only on the street. We need to do it wherever we're at.

It might even be in this room sometime. It might be my own heart is first where it needs to start. Evil wants to creep in.

Rise up to the challenge. Put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, but not in strife and envying.

But, put you on. It gives idea. Get out of bed.

Rise up. Look at the time. It's high time.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Get dressed. And make not provision for the flesh.

Fulfill the lusts thereof. There's a passage in Philippians that has for a number of years kind of been my prayer. It's often been my prayer.

Paul writes there to the Philippians. His prayer for them is that they would choose the things which are excellent. And I recently saw this and I thought it's pretty good.

This person was sharing how he, in his work, he often has to fill out questionnaires. And I'm sure we've all had those experiences or have been asked to do a survey as adults. And there it says, my prayer for you is that you would choose the things which are excellent.

So, we have choices. That should be the goal. But, sometimes on a questionnaire you see something like this.

Excellent. Good. What would be the next one? Fair.

What about the next? Averager. He had poor. And this one he had doesn't even apply.

And I'm often challenged when I read that passage. This is God's heart that we aim for that. I think I shared last time about the word sincerity.

Actually, the word sincere means to hold up to the sun's rays, to the light. The Lord is going to have an inspection day someday. And He wants us to start that now.

That we would aim for the excellent. We would inspect it to see if it's sincere. Will it pass the test? Will it hold? Will it hold? It's like a vessel.

Clay vessel. Very common in Jesus' day and Paul's day. So, they had vessels that were sincere.

They had vessels that were insincere. They were inferior in quality. But, the Lord's will is that we aim for the excellent in our life's journey here.

Just be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. I have to think of Abraham. Abraham's testimony.

And I find this, I really honestly find this. People that do this physically have an ordered life. Get up early and are structured.

Their life, you can just see it in their life. They don't even have to tell you if they're early risers or not, generally. I believe it just comes out.

Eventually, just their lifestyle, their whole lifestyle reflects their attitude about getting up. People say, I'm not a morning person. I know there's differences.

There's health. There's some medical things that affect people differently. I'm aware of that.

But, generally speaking, if you have healthy children and you just let them sleep to whatever time, their life will suffer eventually. I believe it will. I really believe that with all my heart.

Abraham faced three difficult things in his life. The first one, well, there's more than that. But, three times, it mentions he got up early.

The first time was when he pleaded with the Lord, interceded for Lot and Sodom. He interceded, interceded. He started at, I don't know what the number was.

He stepped down to, I think five. Five or ten. And, there weren't even that many in all of Sodom.

But, the Lord, the angels finally got a lot out of there. But, it says that early in the morning, Abraham got himself to the place where he stood before the Lord. Probably that spot where he was pleading for Lot.

He came back early in the morning and he saw the smoke. And, it says that God remembered, he remembered Lot. He remembered Abraham and delivered Lot.

So, if you want to be effective in the kingdom, this also is a spiritual application. Not just get out of bed early, but be early about the Father's business. And, in the salvation of souls, delivering of souls.

And, the next one was when he took things in his own hands and had this Ishmael in his life. Picture of the first born man trying to gain righteousness. Trying to do his own thing apart from the true blessing of the Lord.

And, the Lord told him, Ishmael was his son. Imagine, I've thought about that. What if I was asked to take my oldest son, Timothy, probably about that age, and send him away.

We often think Ishmael was the rejected one. Probably wasn't a big deal to Abraham. I think it was a big deal to him.

But, it says, he didn't even falter, hesitate. He got up early and sent him away. Hard, I mean difficult.

If I get up and I know the last time I'm going to see Timothy, I'm going to have to send him away. I don't know if I could do it, but he got up early. And, the other time was when the promised son we had, Isaac, said, now it's time to go sacrifice him.

I want to check your loyalty. You need to die to a vision or the death of a vision. Is the story of this one.

But, then again, when he went to Mount Barai, he got up early, it says. It's all there. Genesis 19, I think 21 and 22, the three accounts.

He got up early. Like, he aroused himself from his sleep. He looked at an alarm clock.

And, the will of the Lord was clear. The evidence. He knew what he needed to do to redeem the time.

And, he didn't hesitate. He just redeemed it. And, obeyed the Lord.

He was aiming for the excellent. I believe the Lord saw that and he told it to the light. Abraham's life excellent in this area.

So, one, he's called the friend of God. Also, the Lord could testify about his posterity and his children. He says, I know he will command them after him.

That faithfulness. That order. That surety was there in Abraham's life.

So, let's wake up. If I can just encourage us all. Let's wake up.

Let's see the time that we're living in. Let's see the alarm clock. The time says evil.

Well, let's not despair. It's a good time to put on the armor of life. When it's dark.

Very good time to put on the armor of life. It's a shame for Christians to make a habit of sleeping in the day time. Talking spiritually.

Jesus said in chapter 9 of John. When he was healing the blind man. He says, I must work.

The work of him who sent me. He says, the night comes when no man can work. So, he recognized there's a window of opportunity.

And, believe me. You have a window of opportunity with your children. Your own life even.

But, especially your children. It can become so easy with not having a vision. Not being focused.

Just kind of one day. Kind of morphing to the next. And then weeks.

And months. And finally years. And children just really never got a clear blessing of ordered life.

Or of direction. Jesus was about doing the Father's will in a very, very practical way. In that instance there.

While he was doing the work to the Father in the day time. He says, this blind man. How did he heal him? I don't want any of the children to know.

How did he heal that blind man? John 9. Any volunteers? Anyone? Without looking. Pardon? Yeah. Yeah.

He spit on the ground. And probably took his finger. I don't know.

Did he get a little sick and made some mud? We probably see. Yuck. Gross.

But, the idea is. For him to be about the Father. The Father's business was very earthy.

Very practical. He got down to the nitty gritties. We think that's maybe not spiritual enough.

But, wake up. Let's wake up. And it's the little things that you can start with.

The little things you need to be faithful with. For him it was. There he was.

Spitting on the ground. Making some mud. And putting on his eyes.

Very, very practical. If we don't wake up in this life. We will wake up in the next.

We really will. We have the choice to do it voluntarily now. Or we're going to have a wake up.

It's according to the scripture. Daniel 12. It says that many will awake.

Basically all of mankind will awake. Will awake. Some to everlasting life.

And some to shame and contempt. So, let's wake up now. So, we don't have to have that experience.

Awake means to start to collect one's faculties. If you want victory over sin, 1 Corinthians 5 says, Awake to righteousness and sin not. Victory over sin.

We need to be awake. We need to be aware. We need to be circumspect.

Aware of our surroundings. We can't be aware of our surroundings if we're sleeping. I just want to take a rest.

I'll stretch a little bit more. Proverbs has very interesting things to say about this lawful man. Stretching like a door on Hinges Creek.

Even he barely can get his hand to his mouth. Just doesn't like to get up. If you're asleep and you're unaware.

My father didn't take a whole lot of naps. I remember one Saturday, I believe it was. I was probably, I don't know.

I just thought about this last night. I started laughing out loud. He's been gone for 30 some years.

He was on the couch taking a nap. He had worked hard. My little sister was just under me.

She didn't dare to do anything. We had this little dart gun, like a little pistol. You push the darts in.

They attach to a smooth surface. I don't know why, but I dared her to go up and shoot him in the nose. He was unaware of his surroundings.

She went right up to him. Let's just say it was probably high time for us to get out of there. A grown man, just a little girl, got the best of him.

He was unaware. His faculties were not engaged. The devil will do a lot worse things than that.

If we're sleeping, we should be awake, spiritually. Okay, I think I'll go into the next verse here. It says, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Here I see a choice. We have a choice. Now, we understand if someone could express or explain intoxication, I believe it's tying up oxygen in the brain, is it not? Is that not one of the main things it does? To be intoxicated, it ties up oxygen in the brain.

It causes people to do funny things. On the other hand, someone that's filled with the Spirit, the Spirit is actually, Holy Spirit is portrayed as, Spirit means pneuma, breath. It's the breath of God.

Instead of taking oxygen away, God puts more of his breath into our being, that we're under his control. We're more aware. We're more energized by his very being.

That's what I believe what it means to be filled with the Spirit. We should choose that. My grandfather was an alcoholic.

I don't really remember. I was a young boy, probably about Ethan's age when he passed away. He had come to freedom in his last days.

He had repented in the last couple of years. I remember my father getting a letter from him when I was just a little tot and asking for forgiveness. He was clearing up.

I know just hearing people talk, growing up, knew there was a stigma in my dad's family. Grandpa was an alcoholic for many, many years. Struggled with that.

He was under the influence, a bad influence, and it affected his faculty. He was not free to provide for his family like he should. Caused a lot of struggles in my dad's home growing up.

There was an influence in the home. Not in his life, it affected those around us. It says we should not go that direction, but we should be filled with the Spirit, with that Holy Spirit, what we heard about, that down payment of the promise.

I'd like to look at this as from verse 18. If we are filled with the Spirit, the natural result will be singing. I think one of the natural results.

The next verse says we should speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I believe this is an overflow of the Holy Spirit. People will start singing.

Someone that is spiritual will be a singing person. I don't think we can separate that. And that in turn will, spiritual life will be the verse 18, to experience verse 19, which singing will result also in verse 20, which is thankfulness.

Thankful heart. I think we'll just take some time to talk about singing a bit. Colossians 3. I try to memorize.

I mean, I recite this about every day. I don't always get it done, but I memorized this years ago. It's been a real blessing.

Colossians 3 and 4, there are so many similarities with those chapters in Ephesians 5 and 6. The parts of it, they almost have the same theme. But there it says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. There it talks about how we can use singing to affect each other, admonish one another.

But here he is saying we should sing to ourselves. Speaking to ourselves. I just want to throw a caution out about all the CDs.

It used to be tapes when I was a young boy. It can become a crutch that we just are listening and we are never doing the speaking part. Hardly ever like we should.

I think we're cheating ourselves in experience with the Lord and exercising our faculties with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit if we're always just listening. There's probably time for that. I'd much rather have godly music surrounding me than a lot of other things.

But here, I've heard of people, and I think it's good occasionally, that go on a musical fast. They just put away all music like that. And honestly, there are churches that say we don't want any part of tape recorders.

And I'm not here to lift that up or argue against anything like that. But I know in my wife's family there is a group that some are a part of and they don't have any of that. And whenever they have a wedding, I just love going to those weddings.

Their singing is anointed. And it's just refreshing. They don't have any of that listening.

Hardly any of it. They're used to singing and singing and singing. I could listen to them sing hours and hours and hours.

It's a relaxed, just you can hear that you're used to singing. And there's a freshness. There's something that admonishes like I just recited.

Admonishes one another. Admonishing means it puts you to remembrance. It just causes you to reflect on the Word of God and so forth.

The expression of a spiritual life, I believe is singing. David, when he passed, just before he passed away, his testimony, I guess his grave, I talked about his four gravestones that he probably maybe saw sometimes. That's just how I think.

The sons that had passed away because of his sin. But I believe on David's gravestone, he probably should have said, is that he was the sweet psalmist of Israel. That's what the Bible testifies of him.

David the son of Jesse. In 2 Samuel, David the son of Jesse said, And the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me. He acknowledged the Lord, the Holy Spirit working his life and what came out was sweet psalms.

The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and His Word was in my tongue. Who can sing this song? Or who can write and sing this song? In Babylon, they couldn't sing it. Psalms 137.

When they were taken captive, they were asked by the people of Babylon, Provide us some mirth. Come on. Let's have some entertainment.

By the way, true singing is not for entertainment. If it's entertainment, it's not in the environment to glorify God. And they were not admonished and encouraged like it was just pure entertainment.

But they said that, their response was, How can we sing the Lord's song in this strange land? So if we're not dwelling in the land of victory, and the land they had been dwelling in was a land that had been possessed by being delivered from Egypt and going to this promised land, the Christian life, but they lost out. When apostasy sets in, the singing will stop. We'll hang our harps on the willow tree.

If we're not living in victory, your harp will be on the willow tree. I just guarantee it. Out of experience.

If we're not in victory, it is hard to sing. If we're not experiencing victory, the song doesn't want to rise up. We can maybe listen to them, but it's not a natural flowing over, bubbling out.

I have memories at home growing up. I have five sisters, and they all could sing. Some could really sing.

And I just have memories of them washing dishes, doing laundry, and song, just song after song. They would just be wailing away one song to the next. And I have such good memories.

And I know, looking at their life, live with them, their hearts were free. The freedom they experienced. They were expressing a spiritual life.

They weren't boasting about a lot of things they were doing in the spirit, but it was just a natural flowing out. But I have, although I'm going to say, I'll say this carefully, I think I shared it last time, when we talked about moral purity and so forth, that one that had struggled a bit with that, tied in with some rebellion, and she had access to some, I think some contemporary Christian music. And it fed, I believe it fed some of that negative part.

She had more of a taste for that against maybe wishes of some input. So I believe there's a big connection. Singing is powerful.

It puts us in, I believe it puts us in the contact of the supernatural. God has created music. God is all for music.

Satan knows it. Everything that God created for good, Satan wants to come in and take it and twist it. Add a little bit of something.

Truth, if you have truth, you add a lie, it is untrue. There's not part true, it's just untrue. Satan has a great interest in singing also.

People that are demon possessed, and you're trying to come to freedom, singing is a powerful tool to help them with when there's resistance. They just can't handle, demons cannot handle, I believe on a long term basis, God, God's good, Godly singing. But now, if there's wrong kinds of music, it will actually invite them.

It's very important in our day and age that we are aware of the different music that is out there. It is not, just because it's termed Christian, does not say that it is God anointed, anointed by the Spirit of God. I say be very careful, be very careful.

Music is powerful and connects us with the supernatural. God has a great interest or an order in music, so does Satan. He likes to bring in some, looks good on the outside, but you start listening to the lyrics.

I remember about 20 years, 25 years ago, I worked for my neighbor for a while, in construction. So often times, some of the, especially commercial jobs, different crews that come from various places to work on their specialty trades, I don't know what it was, was it drywallers, or was it, I think maybe electricians, but I just remember way off, they had a boom box and it was booming as rock and just the lyrics, the lyrics that were pounding out so ungodly. One I remember, and this is so typical of wrong kind of music, it feeds rebellion.

I believe rock music has been the most evil avenue of rebellion to feed our nation. But the lyrics were something like, I don't care anymore what you say about my life, go to hell with your own life, leave me alone. And I was just shocked.

Young boy like that, that's out there, free like, there's no voice against it. So that was 25 years ago, I don't even want to know what's available anymore. I just saw yesterday, the place we were at, passing out tracks, they're going to have a group like that somewhere there.

I think we need to go and confront that via voice. But it's an avenue of rebellion, rock music especially. And the mixture of that good and evil that people tend to be unaware of and ignorant even in the music sector is kind of like, my mother had a picture on the wall when I was still at home.

I don't know where she acquired it, some maybe home interior party, a place like that she had attended and probably felt she had to buy something. And it was this nice picture of a, maybe you've seen it already, it was an angel guarding a little girl as she walked across a bridge. This looked so nice, there's an angel watching over this little child walking along, this child had nice blonde hair.

But someone told us, told mom that, you know what, that picture, Satanist painted that thing was the artist. She just kind of shrugged it off a bit. Then I went right up close to the picture one day and I was very close and in the girl's hair was the outline of a rat.

I think some other things that had an evil connotation. And that got my mother's attention. She didn't hesitate to destroy that thing and I'm glad she did.

So that's a picture in art how what appears good there can be evil intent behind it to bring it inside, to bring it in the door. And it got inside our house and we had some praying time to cleanse that. Socrates was like 400 years before Christ, before the time of Christ.

He was a Greek philosopher there in Athens. Very influential about helping with shape, democracy and the order of that nation back then. That was before the time of Christ.

He made a remark that it doesn't matter so much what laws we write, who writes the laws of the land but the person that is doing the music is actually not in exact words but the content is the person, the people who are doing the music, the music we are singing is what's going to direct our country. And his disciple, student, Plato reiterated his words. Later on, he had a different phrase but he had the same thoughts.

Music is the important thing in our nation. And then his disciple, Aristotle echoed the same words. I don't know how many years that frame was.

They weren't even Christians but they recognized it doesn't matter what we say, what we do but music is so important. Subconsciously, it is charting the course of our Greece here and affecting the Greek thinking of the day. That was from Socrates.

An old bishop, I think it was an old Mennonite bishop once said, beware of the person who does not have a song. I don't want to put people on a guilt trip that, you know, some people say they can't carry a tune but I would still believe though if Jesus really has delivered you and there's never a desire for praise to come out somehow, allow it to start somewhere. Nothing is God's will here.

There's a command to speak yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. I think it would be good if we could have someone that's a good authority on music come in a couple days and just give us some clear history.

This is what this word means. This is throughout history. Just for example, the word acapella means to be without accompaniment, without instruments.

If you look in the dictionary, actually there it says also it adds to that coming from the church or from the chapel which gives the indication for and I've heard this preached before or shared before that that's traditionally been the, I guess, tradition of the church in general, the Christian church in the house of God we sing with our voices. We are, these vocal chords are the strings. I'm not here to argue that.

I know instrumental music can be in the right place which is very restful and I enjoy it too. But I appreciate what we have, how we have it. John Wesley even said, he said, it's okay to have an organ in the church provided you fill it with concrete.

Like he was saying, we just don't do it like that in his state. But I'm not here to argue those points. But I just want to lift up using your voice.

We're so tuned into listening to it's all around us. Even the places we shop at, there's companies that specialize in designing, providing the right kind of music for the kind of store it is to sell items. Might be a different type of music depending where you go.

But there are companies that actually, that is their business to come together to provide, to formulate the right kind of musical atmosphere to sell more products. Godly music, either it builds up or edifies. Or good music will build up or edify.

If it's not that, then it's not good music. Entertaining music, you're more like a spectator. It is not an entertainer.

So bad music, instead of building up, edifying, it can do it very subtly and subconsciously, it can tear down. It can undermine. It can undermine.

So let's be aware of that. And as a form of worship, our entire life should demonstrate that God has the highest priority or is our only priority. And we can express that in singing.

In a spiritual life, we'll express that with the type of songs we sing also. But people that maybe don't know notes or don't know music, as it were, the mechanics, don't let that hinder you. I know of the testimony of a mother that did not do any, read any note, but she just constantly sang and sang and sang.

And in respect to her family, the father actually had the head knowledge about music, but she was actually the one that set the tone in the home because she was constantly singing. They said if mom wasn't singing, she was sick. She was constantly singing.

And that's actually been a lot of my experience growing up. Mom sang a lot, but my sisters sang and sang and sang and sang. And they still are singing.

And I'm thankful for that. To me, it was just an expression. They are free and they are relaxed in Christ and it's just flowing out.

Provided it is edifying songs. I mean, there's people that can sing silly lines and so forth. That is not edifying.

So worship, it's a form of worship and it should, but our entire life should demonstrate that God has the highest priority or is our only priority and that can be so, put a stamp of approval on by the type of singing that comes out of a life like that. I believe that type of life will produce a song. Psalms 89-15 says, Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound.

They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. It seems that the Lord is attracted to the right kind of sound and He shines His light upon them. Nothing really probably encourages me when I'm down or when I'm struggling or had a difficult time is spending time in the Psalms.

The book of Psalms. A lot of songs, they start out, so many of them start out with David experiencing a problem. He has a problem.

He presents a problem and then there's a prayer time. There's a problem to the Lord and it always resolves, usually resolves in praise. Problem, then prayer, then praise.

I think that's such a blessing. Maybe it's so different than a lot of the music that we're surrounded with nowadays. A lot of repetition.

Think about it. A lot of the newer songs, a lot of churches actually don't have hymn books like we do. Let's never get rid of that.

Maybe there's a couple of lines on the board and everyone just repeats and repeats. But it's kind of like going nowhere. But I believe a good song has some resolution.

There's meat, there's content, there's a message, but there's a resolution, there's a rest, something was resolved. And it usually is resolved. It's always resolved in the Lord Jesus.

He was the answer. Godly music will emphasize holiness. And questionable music will minimize holiness.

I'd like to share a little bit. I don't build my life on this, but this is from Bill Gotthard 20-some years ago. I had been involved with this a few times.

I'd just like to read a couple things about music here. Just some highlights if you'll allow me some time. First of all, he brings out, if anyone wants to borrow this stuff, I think this is my wife's old book.

How God created, like in chemistry and language and math and art and music. Then by itself, God created is good. But it is when two elements are mixed together that are not correct, it produces evil.

Like poison. Poison is, you mix certain elements that are fine by themselves, mix them together, you have poison. And language, the same way.

You can write good or you can write bad. And math, the same way. You can add some numbers and have an answer, but you add one more number, it's wrong.

Art. He just really brings it out here. Even in art.

Line by itself, a couple lines in the right way, it's right. But man can make a lewd picture with a couple lines. And then it says music the same way.

God created the melody, the harmony, the rhythm, and so forth. And in the wrong mixture, it becomes evil. And we need to be aware of that.

So I would be for having someone come in sometime and just give us some good, clear teaching on someone that's been in this for years and years in the music world. But I'll just read some highlights here. In closing here.

Music is a form of worship. It is corrupted when mixed with carnality. And this was written like, I don't know when this was put together.

1986. They were facing things back then already. Before I forget it, here's a songbook.

I just recently heard someone talk about when this song, 29, since Jesus came into my heart, would be considered a gospel song. The hymns are more a worship, praise. A gospel song is more of someone's experience.

And I think there's place for that. But I think it will be not doing well if we ever remove the hymns from our midst. I think the hymns is what we want to build on.

But some occasional expressions like this. But when this song, since Jesus came into my heart, when it came on the scene, this is copyright 1942. I was told back then the Christian world was shocked.

This one, there's something wrong. But it's, I don't know that it bothers me because I'm probably used to it. It has more of just that since Jesus came into my heart, there's something.

They recognize there's something with the beat, the rhythm that is not in tune, that line didn't rest. I'm not here to condemn it. But I believe there are quality of songs that vary in our hymn books.

Yeah, I was just surprised by that because I think it's a good testimony song. But you start noticing songs and I just honestly challenge you. Some of the songs in our way consider modern, contemporary, how much they really focus on holiness.

Do they? It's often about more of experience with him. And when a group is singing, I've noticed depending on the song, it's kind of easy to start swaying with a bit. I'm not sure who put that all.

But it's interesting. Some songs you just don't do that. It's more the focus is on him instead of me.

Some of these testimony songs I just I'm not putting away I don't have enough knowledge in this but I'm just putting a caution out. If it lifts up myself more than does the Lord Jesus Christ then I think we're singing a little bit of singing on touchy ground. It would be my my understanding.

It says, True worship gives all glory to God. My glory will I not give another. Actually, this is a pretty long section just on music.

It says, It is wrong to use carnal music to present a holy message. It gives the example how David tried to bring the ark of God back with the oxen like the heathens were used to but it did not work for Israel. They were using the world's method.

It just did not work. And the principle of the clean and unclean Haggai God asked them the question If a priest will bear holy flesh in his skirt carry it around and bump into some bread or wine or some other item will it make it holy? And the answer is the priest knows what the answer is. No, holiness like that is not transferable.

It's not contagious. I heard Brother Jerry preach about this already. It is not contagious.

It is not transferable. But then he asked the question If someone that has common contact with a dead body is unclean and he touches something one of those items will it be unclean? They said, It is unclean. So he said like Brother Jerry shared I think it was some years ago maybe that holiness is just not transferable like that.

But unclean is just once to spread. That's why we need to be aware of our surroundings and choose the excellent always. In the music area also.

I wanted to read something here. I thought it was pretty interesting. Since music is the expression of worship Christian music must be distinctly different from the worldly music.

For this reason the song of the redeemed is described in Scripture as a new song. This phrase occurs nine times in Scripture. Each reference relates to an important theme of salvation redemption or deliverance.

Psalms 33 is the first one. It says, Sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise.

Psalms 40 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit and put a new song in my mouth. Psalm 96 O sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Show forth His salvation from day to day. Psalms 98 says O sing unto the Lord a new song. For He hath done marvelous things.

Psalms 144 I will sing a new song unto thee O God. Psalms 149 Praise you the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song.

The Lord will take pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Isaiah I am the Lord.

My glory will I not give to another. Behold the former things are come to pass. New things do I declare.

Sing unto the Lord a new song. His praise from the end of the earth. Then there are two more in Revelation.

The first one in Revelation 5 the theme is redemption and praise to the Lamb. They sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God. And I think that is the song that should be the basis of our singing should be reflecting our redemption, deliverance and praise to the Lamb.

Praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember a song growing up. We would hear it occasionally.

It was like I keep falling in love with Him over and over and over and over again. Basically it was trying to bring Christ down to a romance level. There is nothing about deliverance about holiness.

It is just adding Jesus to what I got already. It makes sense. I think a lot of our music nowadays wants to do that.

It is nothing about holiness and us being delivered from like it says in the Galatians has delivered us from this present evil world. It is just like we are bringing Jesus in and we have got this good relationship going. Let's be careful.

In Revelation 14 the last reference is one that we don't know yet. It is talking about 144 that were redeemed and it says no one can learn it except those. I don't know what that all means.

I believe if there is a new song we will learn yet I would just think it would contain redemption story. Our redemption. As long as it were a new song before the throne which were redeemed from the earth.

To justify communicating the message of the gospel with the world sound so that it will be more palatable to the lost person or the young Christian is essentially to lie. Let's read that again. To justify communicating the message of the gospel with the world sound so that it will be more palatable to the lost person or the young Christian is essentially to lie.

The lie is that this way of life that you are challenged to follow is really not that far removed from your current way of life. That is why I am just sharing. The lie this is the lie this way of life that you are challenged to follow is really not that far removed from your own current way of life.

I believe deliverance still means deliverance in 2019. Deliverance still means deliverance. Okay I want to read this few phrases here.

Yes carnal music does not exist in a vacuum or it is not neutral. It cannot be neutral. It comes in a package of four things drugs rebellion immorality and rock music.

Each one is related to the others. I know that so rebellion and all these things are part of the same tree the fruit of the same tree of rock music and so forth. Here is a testimony I read this years ago I remember when reading this wow this is a testimony of someone that I can send it in to to Guthard here.

It was in the early 1970s when my sisters arrived in Kalimantan Karat Indonesia where our parents were serving as missionaries. My sisters had brought to the mission field a contemporary Christian record which they said was the in thing back home. This was the early 70s.

I would have been probably seven or eight and I have no idea what kind of music was the in thing back then. Christian music contemporary Christian music. They were playing the record one evening when an older national Christian came to the door.

To my sister's astonishment his immediate question was why are you playing witch doctors music and calling on Satan? This Christian had left the old heathen practices which included calling on evil spirits. He recognized the Christian music quote Christian music as the same kind of music that the witch doctors used. Have you ever been to some of those cultures where some of their and Daniel Candleston was here last summer but he's probably seen more than probably anyone in Ghana.

I remember him talking about taking his sister I believe who was over there visiting they went to a place where they were that is not uncommon having some kind of a festival or some kind probably more of a in the animist world a religious practice or service and usually what happens is they'll start singing the drums the drums are a big thing percussion instruments and drums after a certain amount of drumming someone would be taken by an evil spirit very common someone expects they expect someone is going to be taken called taken by evil spirits they're not themselves anymore usually you're rolling around and weird things they're doing they're calling on the demons that's how music is like I said it puts you under contact with the supernatural and it's powerful and the demons know it now the restful music that Saul David played for Saul was probably harp music something restful and that's the kind of music we want to involve ourselves with something that rests that edifies and builds up but yeah it was quite an experience I think for this young sister to see what happened and it's a very common occurrence it just happens all the time the people that are without God and I think it's so sad like this testimony was that with people arguing that we we can use these methods the world's methods contemporary music to win the world what do you think the devil is doing? I think he's making a lot of headways with that this might stretch us a bit you might not agree and I'm not asking you to I'm just I'm just sharing from other people's experiences and a little what I shared and what I've seen in scripture myself it is very I'd say very very important if we want to sing the new song one day I believe it starts here that song is redemption it's praise to the Lamb so let's open our hearts to the new song and there's another testimony here I don't it's too long I don't think I'll read it but I think we'd be willing to share these if someone's interested in some I'm not saying that this is gospel but I think these people have done a lot of research and I think there's some some good we could learn from I did this years ago and I'd written some notes and I just remember when Bill was going through this I wrote down when God tells us to have a bonfire we better obey he was bringing out evil music like in Ephesus in the book of Deuteronomy also they were not supposed to take in the nations around them their gods their silver their gold they were supposed to burn it and I think I believe that's still God's heart things like that I'm thinking that music is getting worse in the world but I hear very little bonfires my wife was converted about what is it 25 years ago in charity charity was kind of that fledgling church and they were having revivals and they started preaching people were starting becoming converted more people they actually extended the meetings because people were coming to the Lord and they started having fires they had bonfires people would bring clothes they'd bring music all kinds of items that they knew was not pleasing to the Lord and it was like they had to beg the people the Holy Spirit was pleading with people and prevailing I long for that day again that the Holy Spirit has such an openness and we allow Him that opportunity of that cleaning the cleansing of the home the heart probably the car and bedroom and all that books and whatever I don't know what always burns and I believe Satan hates that fire it reminds him of his future if we want if we want victory if we want excitement in the Christian life I would I would vote for that let's have some bonfires sometime I'd be all for that bonfires and baptisms what a way to be excited that's true excitement Satan he might even mock the bonfires I believe he and his people are still trying to get us distracted and he doesn't like it because he knows he'll be burning in one of those fires forever one day so yeah well I don't want to make it too late but I thought it's important that we're just um we're aware of what what's out there and what we involve ourselves with in this area of music let the word of Christ dwell in you richly dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace it's hard to be up there performing a rock artist with grace in his heart I just doesn't mix so let's let's make sure that our heart is we're doing it with grace and we're we're doing it to edify and to build build the body speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord I believe that is an expression of a spiritual life okay let's pray thank you Father for giving us vocal chords that we can honor you in this area I confess Lord I've used listening for quite a crutch already when I should have been singing help me Lord to be faithful help my heart to be clean so just more of a natural song that keeps welling up and increases in intensity Lord I pray that would be the experience of each of us that we would maybe some of us will just need to do a music fast and start singing from our own heart Lord speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns I pray that you would teach us a new song that we would truly know what it is to be redeemed to be set free in every area of our life especially the area of music what you're trying to show us Lord make us a blessing Lord to those around us help us to use your music to be part of the armor of life that we unashamedly go out to face the enemy pray in Jesus name Amen