The Mark of God's Presence in a Church - 2. Spiritual Songs

Good morning, family. It's good to be with you all together. A couple weeks ago, I was sharing about some marks of the presence of God in a church, and I thought I would continue along those lines. And before I do that, though, I wanted to share a little about why I felt the burden to do this. It might seem a little doctrinal or maybe a little advanced even for some of our children, perhaps. But children, I want you to know, if you could listen to me for a minute here, or I hope you listen till I'm done speaking. But just so you know, our goal in sharing, whether it's the longer message, the shorter messages, or even the sharing time, is for what you hear to be understandable, for Jesus to be relatable to every one of us. If you can understand the English language, we want to speak in as simple and plain a way as possible. I remember many years ago, my dad gave me a piece of advice I've never forgotten. This was long before I had any or realized what my gifts were in ministry or anything like that. He said, Santosh, if the Lord ever wants to use you, you'll face two choices, either to impress people or to bless them, one or the other. You can either choose to impress people with your knowledge, your ability to speak, things like that, or bless them. He's shown me a tremendous example in that, that he's always sought to speak in as simple a way as possible, unimpressive to the world, even if necessary, repeating something, a message that's already been preached. Not because there's no fresh revelation, but because there's a connection with God that's not seeking to be even the slightest bit affected by what people think about it. And when we seek to be more filled with the Holy Spirit, we become more, I believe, reverentially in tune with what God's purpose for his church is. And we taste a little bit of the spirit that Frederick Faber had as a Catholic monk in the 1500s, in that last hymn we sang. So we want to speak in as simple a way as possible. And the reason I felt the burden to share about marks, what I see as marks of the presence of God in the church, we talked about prophecy two weeks ago, is because we seek to set that as a path for us as a church as well. And the principles that we talk about, and specifically in this context of these two messages, two weeks ago and today, the principles I talk about in those messages are why we do certain things the way we do in our church, that many others in Christendom may not understand. Certain practices and things we do, not just because it's some nice thing to do, or some human being came up with the tradition, or anything like that. We see the principle in God's word, for example, as it pertains to prophecy, and guidance he's given us in his word pertaining to prophecy. And we seek to obey it, without trying to meander around it. Meander is a big word, without trying to twist our way around it, because the rest of Christendom has twisted its way around it, or large portions of it. We seek to simply obey God's word. And so that's true about prophecy. And quite likely, children for many of you, the Lord will take you somewhere else. And you will have to decide what kind of a church you want to be a part of. Right now, you don't have that choice, like I didn't for 18 years. I went to the church meetings that my parents took me to. That's where I was. At the age of 18, I came here to the United States, and I had to make a choice, what I was going to do, what kind of a church I was going to become a part of. And I wanted a little bit in Christendom, for a few years actually. And ultimately, the Lord planted some seeds, and reminders of things I'd heard, principles I'd heard when I was your age. And that's why I have a burden to plant some of those seeds in your hearts. Because I believe we can plant those seeds in your hearts, not we, but the Holy Spirit can plant those seeds in your hearts through us, even at a very young age, that when you're 21, you'll remember, and reflect on, and hopefully will help you make the decision you need to make about the kind of church you want to be a part of. In my case, I made that decision, I started to make that decision when I was about 27 or so. After 9 years of, I would say, wandering spiritually. As a Christian, but as a religious Christian, inside I was full of dead men's bones, exactly who Jesus described the Pharisees to be. And that journey ultimately brought me here, none of you were here at that time. But I see now why the Lord brought me here, for the work that He's doing in our midst, and extending even outside of this building, quite amazingly. So I have that same burden for my own children, but for every child in this church that God has placed in our care, that quite likely most of you will not still be here 20, 30 years from now. You young girls will marry godly men, maybe some of the boys in this church, I don't know, but the possibility of that, the probability of that is low. But you'll have to be strong in your faith, in the things you heard, the things that you were shown in scripture from a young age, to be able to decide what kind of a boy you want to marry. You boys will grow up, and the Lord may take you somewhere else, as He took me thousands of miles away from where I grew up. And you'll have to decide what you want to do with your life. And I hope, our hope as elders, and I believe it's the hope of all of the adults in this room, that is that you will make the right choices when the time comes. First of all, to commit your life to Jesus, that's the most important choice. Like I said two weeks ago, if you haven't done it yet, why not today? Don't feel pressure, don't do it just to make your parents happy, but do it, sometime, soon. If you're old enough to, and even right now, if you're thinking, yeah, I need to give my life to Jesus, then just do it. Maybe this afternoon, don't forget about it. Parents, if you are listening, and you think you have a child that's, I hope you're discerning enough to sense where they are spiritually, that they're on the cusp, and it could be a crossroads for them, even at a young age. And an opportunity that they pass by now, in the future, and may not come their way again. I don't know. We hope by God's grace, He is long-suffering and patient. But not only that decision, even the decision in terms of what you will do with your life. In 1 Corinthians 3, the Bible talks about, the Holy Spirit talks about through Paul, that it's possible to lay a foundation on Jesus Christ. This is not what I intended to speak on, so you can look it up some other time. He talks about it's possible to lay a foundation on Jesus Christ, and yet build something that is completely destroyed at the end. Because it's built from wood, hay, and straw. And everything will be tested through fire. And as you know, wood, hay, and straw will not make it through fire. So, and Paul says, through the Holy Spirit, that that man's life, or that woman's life will be preserved because the foundation was Jesus Christ. So, at least they weren't destroyed, because the foundation was on Jesus Christ. But would you want to be in heaven, that you made it through the fire, but everything that you invested your life in, was burned up because it was wood, hay, and straw. And for many years now, I've made it a goal of my life, that everything I do, is gold, silver, and precious stones. It's for the glory of God alone, not for anything for myself. So, the additional decisions you make, even after you decide to follow Jesus, are also important. Such as, who you will get married to, speaking primarily to children now, and where you will, what kind of a job you will take, where you will live, why you will choose to live in that town, is there local fellowship in that town that you can be a part of, and be a part of God's kingdom. Seek God's kingdom first, children, seek God's kingdom first, and He will take care of everything else that you need in life. So, we want you to understand these things as well, these principles, so that when you then go to another town, because God takes you there for work, or school, or whatever, as a missionary, maybe a few cities down the road, we're all missionaries, and the Lord takes you there, so that you know, based on the principles we have tried to the best of our ability to show you in God's word, you know what gold, and silver, and precious stones look like, looks like. So, prophecy, actually on the topic of prophecy, I want to mention something in passing if I could, and that is, the power of music in prophecy, and prophetic music actually is very important, because perhaps even more than preaching, music has the ability to sway the soul. There is soulish preaching, I've heard, I've listened to, I've heard here and there, bits and pieces of soulish preachers, who use their soul power, their ability to speak. I mean, if you're a gifted speaker, you could do that with atheism. You can move a crowd of atheists to tears with something completely ungodly. There are ungodly movies that people cry in. So, don't be fooled by religious soul power, any more than you would be by worldly soul power. Don't allow either of those to move you, or to influence you. So, there is soulish preaching, and there's a lot of it in Christendom today. Preachers who are, who seem to be moving in the Holy Spirit, and perhaps they themselves think they are, but our guide is this book. Our guide of how Jesus preached. Take some time to see how Jesus preached. Read it. It's there in the Gospels. Take some time to read how Peter and Paul preached, and learn through the Scriptures, and through knowing God by the Holy Spirit, to be able to discern what is soulish, and what is spiritual in Christendom today. Perhaps your greatest enemy, our greatest enemy, is soulishness, more than worldliness. We preach a lot about a high standard. We preach against worldliness. We want to have nothing to do with it. But then the danger can be that we don't know the difference between what's spiritual and soulish. And you know in Hebrews 4, it says that the effect of the Word of God is that it's sharp enough to divide between soul and spirit. See, to divide between worldly and spiritual, I think if you're a relatively new Christian, as a new believer, very quickly the Holy Spirit, your conscience, will tell you that thing you did, that's sinful. So in a sense, the sharpness, let's look at that verse actually, since I'm talking about it. The sharpness of the Word of God is not necessarily needed. Sometimes it's needed simply to discern between black and white, you can say. If it's worldly versus spiritual, you don't need the word to be that sharp, because it's black and white. You don't have to have, let me give you another example, you don't have to have exceptionally good eyesight to discern between black and white. That's just, oh that's black, that's white. Very easy to see. And you don't need the sharpness of the teaching of the Word of God to discern between worldliness and spirituality. What's worldly and what's spiritual. But it says that in Hebrews 4 verse 12, that the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. He's using an example of something that's really sharp on this earth. Think of a surgeon's scalpel. I've heard that that knife is so sharp you could just lightly cut and it would cut deep. You don't have to put a lot of pressure. Extremely sharp knife. And the Word of God must be like that, that you, it has such an effect that one verse just slices through me. Not to hurt me, not for my harm, but for my good. Why? It goes on to say, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit. So it's like saying you need good eyesight to distinguish between white and off-white. To distinguish between white and cream color. My eyesight is getting worse. It's a sign of my aging. I'm starting to not distinguish between white and cream as good as I used to. And spiritually that can happen as well where you listen to a message perhaps or you listen to a song and I just think it sounds spiritual. The words seem good and all that. But that's where the Word of God in its effectiveness and sharpness is the only thing through the Holy Spirit that can guide us to divide between soul and spirit. That's why children we are very keen in this church that you know God's Word. The memory verses will help with that. We picked out memory verses at the beginning of each year that we think will help you in your life. And I'm so blessed that all of you take it seriously to learn and to say your memory verses. So that's soulish. I want to talk about music very briefly because prophetic music can prepare for teaching. I want you to look at a story here very quickly in 2 Kings chapter 3. Why do we, for example, you know I was saying how these principles that we're showing you, we're not saying that we're perfect. Please understand that. We're seeing in a mirror darkly, in a glass darkly. But until then we walk in the light that God has given us and we make all of our decisions as elders in the church unanimously, the four of us. If even one of us has a strong feeling that this is not right, we'll wait. We better wait and move forward in unity, especially when it comes to making decisions about the moving forward of the church, matters related to the church. And as long as I've been an elder, that's how it's always been for me. In 2 Kings chapter 3, oh so I was saying that even the things we do in the church, why we do certain things the way we do them in the church has some biblical principle. We don't want to make a law out of it, but we use it as a guide on how we do everything because we want everything to be pleasing to God. My goal is that by the end of my life it will be only gold, silver and precious stones that I'm holding in my hand. I feel like I probably still have some wood, hay and straw, I'll be honest with you. I'm trying to find that and get rid of it. I want there to be nothing that's burned up on that day. I want everything that I invested my life in. There's plenty of things that I've already wasted my life on, can't get them back, but God overlooks them. He's a loving, merciful God. And if you've wasted time in your life already, He's loving and merciful. He welcomes you no matter how long it's been. Today is the day of salvation. But not looking backwards, but looking forwards, I want to check everything that I do, everything that I teach my children, everything that we lead this church in, examine it in the light of God's word. This is the fire as it were for me now. I remember some years ago I got a vision of me standing in front of a conveyor belt like they have at the airports. You know you put your bags on there and they send it through an x-ray machine. I saw the judgment seat of Christ like this conveyor belt where you put everything in your life on that conveyor belt and then yourself as well. And now it's not an x-ray machine, it's a fire. And all of a sudden you're faced with the question, what's going to make it? And you start to look at the stuff that you've been bringing with you your whole life. What is that? What you spent your time on, what you spent your money on, the things you taught your children, the things you thought about during the day, the books you read, the movies you watched, the conversations you had, how you thought about others, whether you were kind and long suffering with others. All of that is going to go through the fire. And I said, Lord you've given me, you've given us the opportunity now to send everything through the fire before that day. That's why we have meetings like this. That's why we have God's Word. That's why we speak about judging ourselves. Why? Never judge others, judge yourself. Why? Because God won't hold you accountable for what somebody else sent through the fire, unless they're in your care or if you taught them wrong. But He'll ask you about your stuff. And I want to be sure that there's nothing that I'm standing in front of that conveyor belt that's not going to make it through. And I have the opportunity now by God's grace to send it through the fire because of the Word of God, because of the Holy Spirit, the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. So test everything that you invest your spiritual energy on in that fire. And one of the reasons that we sing before we have a time of teaching is because we believe that prophetic music can have a way of preparing our hearts to receive God's Word. And the music itself can be prophetic. And that's why we don't sing songs that are very light in words. You know, as you know, sometimes you think, man, there's so many words in all these songs. There's a reason for that. Because the songs we sing, it says singing in Ephesians 5, singing in your psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, not soulish songs, songs that have spiritual content, which means it's not so much about the music and the tune. It's actually not so much about the tune. Now, it's okay to sing about the tune and you could be in Old Covenant. You know, David was a great musician and there were plenty of musicians in his time who were excellent musicians. But in the New Covenant, you don't see as much of an emphasis on the instruments and the harmonization and all that. And I love music. I spend a lot of time with trying to be better at music. But let's not confuse that with what is truly spiritual. Ultimately, I've come to see that one of the best tests for me of a song is if I take out the music and just read the words, just take out the music and read the words on black and white and see if it speaks to your heart. So if you hear a song on the radio, go back and Google it or search for it and look at the words. Because the music will fool you. It'll get your hips swaying and you'll find, why can't this be a good song? And all of a sudden, you won't pay attention to whether what's being sung is actually biblical. Because the music takes over and a lot of times the music nowadays, the words are so faint in the background, you can't even hear it. Perhaps that's intentional. It doesn't matter what it sounds like. And so really, the music ends up sounding like secular music. And sometimes with some Christian songs I've heard, you don't even have to change the words and you could be singing it to a girlfriend or a boyfriend. It was supposedly written to Jesus. But music has a very powerful ability to influence. And so that's why I wanted to mention that. We're very careful about what kind of music we sing and even what kind of music we listen to in our home. But as far as it pertains to the church, the music must have a spiritual value and build up. And we especially like it when it's words that we can meditate and it gives us a greater revelation of God. Even the songs we sang today, for example, I don't pick them. David Lane does. I'm thankful that God leads him in being able to pick out the songs we sing. And I found that often through the working of all of us together, the songs are pertinent to what we plan to share or something like that or guides even what we plan to share. That's how music can be appropriately used. In 2nd Kings 3, you read a story here in verse 9. 2nd Kings 3 verse 9. Jehoram, the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And they made a circuit of seven days journey. And there was no water for the army, etc. Let's skip down. Verse 10. Then the king of Israel said, Alas for the Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab. But Jehoshaphat said, now Jehoshaphat was a godly man, godly king. The king of Israel was not. That's King Jehoram. And so Jehoshaphat, being a God-fearing king, said, is there not a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him? So Jehoshaphat is kind of finding himself, and it's the second time he ended up in a situation like this, paired up with a king that he probably shouldn't have gone into battle with. The last time was Ahab. And so, I don't remember which one came first, but here he is, he's kind of got stuck. And he's like, what do we do? So he says, let's find a real prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him. And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. Elisha was a true prophet. Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him. Jehoshaphat immediately knew, this man has the word of God with him. He was Elijah's hand washer. Yes, and he's taking over the mantle from Elijah. Okay, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, the king of Edom, went down to him. Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, verse 13, what do I have to do with you? He looked at the ungodly king of Israel and says, what are you doing here? You don't fear God. I know what you do in secret, worshipping your idols. Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. And the king of Israel said to him, no, for the Lord has called these three kings. You know, he's got this religiosity about him. These three kings together to give them into the hand of Moab. Elisha said, verse 14, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, were it not that I regard the presence of, look at the fearless man Elisha is. Just like his predecessor Elijah. He says, I don't care that you're the king. And he tells him in plain words, the only reason I'm going to tell you what the Lord is saying is because I see Jehoshaphat as a God-fearing man. And you're lucky he's here. That's what he's telling him. As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look at you or see you. Imagine telling the president that or the king that. But now he says, but listen, this is what I want you to see. What Elisha says, he's going to listen. He doesn't know. He's caught unawares. They showed up at his house saying, what's the word from the Lord? And he says, get me a musician, bring me a minstrel. And it came about when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha. You see how God, now can you imagine that minstrel mixing in some kind of worldly music and playing some light, fluffy, upbeat music? I'm not against upbeat songs, but something that was not in tune with the Holy Spirit. And it would kill the Spirit right there. I mean, Elisha, this is a matter of life and death for these kings. And Elisha says, Lord, I need a word from you. And God prompts him, just get a musician to start playing. And the minstrel played and the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, thus says the Lord. He got a word from the Lord through it. I thought about this story often in terms of how our times of praise should be. And I wanted to share that. I just thought about it as I was sitting down to start there. Because I ask you, family, to join us who lead singing in that. As you sing, pray with us that the Lord will use that time of prayer not just to sing a nice song and like, oh, it's fun words or reflect on the words, but also say, Lord, you have a purpose. We're not here just to sing and feel good about what we're singing about. You have a prophetic word either through the song itself or through the preaching that's to be influenced through this music. And it could go one way or the other. And we're human. Us elders and other brothers who get up here and speak, we're human. We could be easily, if we're not careful. I'm not so proud as to think that I'll stand and get up here and only speak prophetic words even if the music is soulish. No. And I pray that as long as we're here in this church that we'll value, we'll see the value of music. How it could guide the church one way or the other. And I've seen music lead churches in directions that were not of the Holy Spirit. I've seen it happen over the years. When music became the big thing, all of a sudden that resulted in a celebrity culture and Grammy awards and all these kinds of things. It's very easy to lose the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I never want to judge a single person, but I want to learn from the mistakes of others. You know that saying I've said here often, a foolish man doesn't learn from his own mistakes. A sensible man learns from his own mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. That means he doesn't even have to make the mistake to learn the lesson. That's how we want to be. We don't want to head down a certain path with our music, for example, and five years down the road realize the anointing is gone. The prophetic utterance is gone and music is great, but the presence of the Lord is not there. The word of the Lord is not there. Because the music is the focus. Let's not go down that path. Let's catch it before we get there. I'm not saying we're headed down there. By God's grace we'll be watchful over it, but I see how easy it is. As one who loves music and enjoys it and loves to play instruments and learn new instruments and loves to see children learning instruments and singing, I love to sing. I still recognize music has its place and the devil will use music. He has used it already all over Christendom and he'll continue to do it. So be watchful over that. I want to show you another example of singing while I'm here and that's in the book of Mark. Mark 14. This is a very tender moment, perhaps one of the most tender moments in the Gospels. And that is when they partook of the Lord's table, the Lord's Supper. Mark 14 verse 22. While they were eating, this is Jesus and his disciples, just a small group, a picture of the church, a small group of his disciples, those who had left everything to follow him, committed their lives to him. While they were eating he took some bread and after a blessing he broke it and gave it to them and said, take it, this is my body. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank from it. Now I don't know if, see in this version of this passage, he tells them what, in this version of the story, he tells them what they just drank after they drank it. With the bread he said this is my body and they ate it. And then it says, I'm not trying to make a big point out of this by the way, it says they drank it and then he said to them this is my blood. Imagine if you drank something and then Jesus said this is my blood, their response. But then they understood it. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Imagine Jesus, you know, the agony we read that later on in Gethsemane, he's so much in anguish. See we read these words so lightly and we say that when we break bread together but you know the anguish that was in Jesus' soul at this time. He still hadn't received an answer from the Father on whether this cup could be passed from him. He's passing the cup around but in his heart is still this wrestle, Father if it's possible let this cup pass from me. And in the midst of that anguish, a few minutes later the blood is going to come out of his pores, the sweat is going to come out of his pores like blood. That's the extent of his anguish. It's like he had the heart literally burst from within him. And in the midst of that he's saying, truly I say to you I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And I sense some excitement in Jesus as he says this is all about that day when we'll be in heaven together in the presence of my Father and it will be wonderful. It's going to be a feast. We read about that in the book of Revelation. I hope you're looking forward to that feast. And then it says they sang a hymn. You see the tenderness of that moment. And you see how that, Jesus was about to go to the cross and Jesus was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. There he is. Do you think the devil, when Jesus said hey let's sing a hymn, do you think the devil could have planted a thought in, let's say Matthew, Matthew's ears, hey suggest this song. It's got a nice bubbly feel to it. And then I can use that to see if I can somehow get Jesus to avoid the cross. Oh you don't think he tried it? If he tries it with us he'll try it with, he tried it with Jesus too. I'm quite certain of it. That when Jesus said hey anybody want to suggest a hymn, the devil quickly planted something. And maybe one of them suggested it. A song, a popular Jewish song of their day that's sort of you know borderline. And Jesus because he was a prophet, Jesus because he was so in tune with the Father said no, not that one. Let's sing something else. How about this one? Father not my will but thine. Father I and my cross have taken all to leave and follow thee. How about that one? Because that's the right one to sing in this moment. You see how I believe everything that Jesus did was guided by his Father. And if we are to be the body of Christ today, which we are I believe, an expression of the body of Christ, I pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us these little things that the devil will use to just get us a little bit off track. You know that example that if a compass is off by even one degree, it's just a matter of time before you'll be miles off course. One degree. Now you don't have to increase from one degree to two degree even. If you stay one degree off course and you refuse to budge from that but it's not of the Holy Spirit, you stay on that one degree off course eventually you're going to be miles away from where God wants you to be. And you wake up one morning and realize the Lord's not here. We're talking about marks of the presence of God in the church. I tell you dear brothers and sisters that I observe what's going on in Christendom around me and I see how music is being used by the devil in churches, well-meaning churches, churches that are preaching from the Bible. And it grieves me even this week to find out about horrible sins that are going on in churches. It's in the news. I'm not going to mention it. You know one thing Jesus never did is He didn't expose the Pharisees by name. He just talked about them generally. But anyway I'm not even there. So I don't want to point at anybody but when I look at all that's going on and preachers who have been preachers for years and then things come up that happened ten years ago or two years ago and that was covered up by their church because this is the celebrity pastor. We don't want to lose him because then we lose the money and then we lose the building and then all of a sudden who cares if the Holy Spirit is lost, if Jesus is lost, yeah we can do without Him. And that's the state of Christendom today and the devil is going to come at us the same way. We must be watchful. Let me look at that. Maybe I'll only speak about music today. Ephesians chapter 5. Prophetic music has the effect of preparing for prophetic teaching. Now I say this because I'm sure all of us listen to music, right? Christian music, hopefully not bad music. But even Christian music you can assume that it's good because it's Christian and that's where if you don't know God's Word you're not using it in the sharpness of God's Word. It's not enough just to say I read my Bible. Is the Word of God actually sharp enough that you can listen to a song and immediately know that's soulish? Yeah I know it's not the country song with Jesus words in it. It's a good sounding song that talks about the love of God and what all He'll do for you and He has a plan and all these things but there's soulishness there. That's harder to distinguish. I'm telling you myself. If it's the good old rock and I can catch that pretty quickly. But if it's close, oh I need the sharpness of the Word of God. Ephesians 5 we read in verse 19. Now let's back up. See first of all he says wake sleeper. Remember a few weeks ago I read this chapter. I'm going back to this chapter often because he says wake up sleeper. And the worst part about a sleeper is he doesn't know he's sleeping. You know that when you're sleeping you don't know you're sleeping. That's why when you have a dream it feels real. Because you think you're actually there and that lion is actually chasing you or whatever. And then you wake up and realize oh I was sleeping. But while you're sleeping you don't know you're sleeping. And that's why he says verse 14 for this reason. See verse 13. I need to go back. I don't know how far back to go. Let's start in 11. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but expose them. That's what I'm trying to do today. For it is disgraceful even to speak of these things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. That might happen now where the person gets caught. And the person he was having an affair with decides to go to the press with it. Or he finally fesses up to it or he gets the text messages are found and all this stuff. What's worse is that he only gets caught in the judgment seat of Christ and then there's no more opportunity for repentance. All things become visible when they are exposed by the light. For everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says awake sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Oh what hope. Christ will shine on you. Therefore verse 15 be careful how you walk. You know you say you're a Christian and you're walking with Christ but be careful how you walk. Just because Christ is in you and you believe you're filled with the Holy Spirit don't just walk aimlessly. Do you believe it's possible for somebody who was spirit filled at some point to walk somewhere that he gets his garments soiled? Of course. Otherwise he wouldn't say to spirit filled people to a church that's spiritual be careful how you walk. Be careful how you walk and I would add be careful where you walk. Be careful what you listen to. Be careful what you allow yourself to be exposed to. That old children hymn is so good. Oh be careful little eyes what you see. Oh be careful little ears what you hear for the father up above is looking down not to point a finger at you in love. So be careful. Be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little ears what you hear. Don't be as unwise men but as wise making the most of your time because the days are evil. So then don't be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is and don't get drunk with wine for that is dissipation but be filled with the spirit and in the same sentence he says speaking to one another. Speaking to one another or the literal actually says to yourselves. It could go either way I guess in the original. So it could be speaking to yourselves. I do that. Sometimes I sing to myself and my family has to deal with my singing to myself. Or they join me. That's great too. And we're still trying to figure out how to sing in tune by the way. Working on that part. But we're singing to ourselves or singing to one another and that's what these times of singing should be. In Psalms. Psalms of praise. Psalms could be like Psalms from the book of Psalms even. A lot of songs we sing are taken from the book of Psalms. And hymns. That's why we sing a lot of hymns in this church. And spiritual songs. Now that's our guide. Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. And I've also just maybe give some practical advice here on how I've tried to discern that. Part of it, part of my responsibility applies to the church as well as one who helps lead the scene that to decide whether we can sing a song or not. Whether we should. Sometimes you all suggest some songs and even if it's a good song sometimes it may not be good for congregational singing. Because we don't want to just be singing as a performance. And if it's a song that everybody can sing well together might as well just listen to it. But we try to sing more. And I want to step back before I sound like an expert. I'm not. I tell you brothers and sisters I'm learning. And I still see darkly but I'm seeing a little bit more clearly. And there are songs that we used to sing in this church over the years that we've taken out. Not because they were bad. I don't think we've ever sung a really really bad song in this church. But there are some that I just think man I don't know that that's really a spiritual song. It sounds good and you could argue that it sounds technically right. But there isn't the depth of spirituality in it that we want and to aspire for. And if it's close to the line of gray we'll say that we can live without it. I mean we've got a database of over 300 or 350 songs or something to choose from. So maybe even more. So we can we can afford to cut out some I think. So I don't say it as one who has got here overnight. But over the years I've refined what I see as spiritual songs. And it's involved elimination. Taking out a lot of songs that I don't think are good. Or if the radio Christian radio is on. Just turning it off thinking that's that song is not not going to be edifying. Not going to build me up in the Lord. It may build up my soul. And I think we must be watchful even over allowing our children to listen to those songs. And fathers and mothers you have a responsibility to be watchful over what music you allow your children to listen to. Even if it's Christian music. There's no law. I'm not here to tell you these artists are okay and these songs are okay. We don't have a list. The Holy Spirit has a list for you and your family. And he wants you to come to him and learn from him. He wants you to be in tune with the Holy Spirit so that when you're listening to a song or you notice your children are starting to sing a sing that song you're like you know he can prick your conscience. Oh he wants to do that. Because you're in the Word fathers. I hope you are. That you're in the Word and you're and the Word of God is sharp in your own life that you immediately sense this is soul. I got to cut it. So say children let's not listen to that song. It's nothing bad in it. They may ask you why and they're so young that they may not have the maturity to discern soulish from spiritual. But you cut it off and just say no it's not a good one. We've done that with some songs. So spiritual songs soulish songs stir the emotions. And it could be even good emotions you know and I'm not against emotions but be watchful. If you find that a song stirs your emotions whether it's upbeat emotions or even moves you to tears when you think about what Jesus did and all that it's good. I cry often as you probably see what I'm singing. I can't help it. I'm moved by God's love. Jesus for me and that's perfectly okay. But I also am watchful. I know that I'm at a vulnerable moment. My emotions are high. Especially when I'm really mindful and meditating on what Jesus did for me. Now I know that the devil is trying to get in and get this into a soulish thing. Oh he loves to do that. Something that will cause me to avoid the cross. Will get me thinking that I love Jesus because I cried when I thought about him on the cross. And then when it came to me taking up the cross I didn't do it. The devil is a master at doing that. He's done that in my life in the year in the past. So be watchful over that and just say Lord I want to be you know some of us are more emotional than others. That's perfectly okay. But be watchful if you're susceptible to it. You know vulnerable to recognize the devil will look for an opportunity. Remember Matthew chapter 4. When Jesus was hungry after not eating for 40 days and 40 nights. What was the first thing the devil tested him with? Any children want to tell me? Yes Ati. Yes food. Because of course Jesus is hungry. He's in that place of vulnerability. He's really hungry. I mean you think Jesus was just somehow Superman that he didn't feel hungry after 40 days. Oh no. He was desperately hungry after 40 days of fasting. And the devil said I got to bring a food temptation to him. And when you're desperately hungry and you want to order everything on the menu. Remember what Jesus was tempted with. But I'm making a point here. It says Matthew 4. When Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After he had 40 days, fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He then became hungry. And then the tempter came to him and said hey how about some food. Nothing wrong in it. You have the power to do it. You're hungry. Your time of fasting is over. Do it right. Soulish or spiritual. Would it have been wrong for Jesus to turn the stones to bread. If you're soulish you say no nothing wrong with it. Go ahead. You have the power to do it right. You've already sacrificed so much Jesus. 40 days of fasting. You deserve it. You've given up enough for your father. Now do it. Jesus said no. I haven't heard a word from the Father. That's spiritual. See the sharpness of the Word of God. The Word of the Father in Jesus life. That we must have to the sharpness of God's Word in my life. Lord I sense that this is not right. I shouldn't do this. And I'm not going to err on the side of myself. I'm going to err on the side of denial. Because I recognize how strong my flesh is. And how it wages war against the spirit. And the spirit wages war against the flesh. So Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone. I haven't heard a word from the Father saying eat. And then at the end of it. It says the devil verse 11. He tried three temptations that are recorded. I think there were other temptations. Then the devil left him. And behold angels came and began to minister. It was in Luke. I think Luke 4 where it says. He left him to come back for another opportune time. Another time when he could find the exact temptation for Jesus. Based on what he was going through right then. And that principle. I've seen him do that in my life. He'll get you when you're tired. He'll get you when you're had a bad day at work. And then everything your wife or your children does will just be like irritable. He'll get you when you've got a headache. He'll get you when you're sick in bed. And God will not allow you to be tested more than your ability to bear. That's a principle in God's spiritual universe. 1st Corinthians 10. He will not allow you to be tested more than you're able to bear. But with the temptation will allow will give him a way of escape. So when you're in that and you think man this is the last. The worst possible moment for this to happen. Because everything else is just kind of like all just you know piling on. Cry out to God for grace. Say Lord I believe you will not allow me to be tested more than I'm able to bear. There is a way of escape right here. Show it to me Lord. I want to find that way that Jesus found. What was the way that Jesus found in this situation? The word that came from his father. Man shall not live. He remembered Deuteronomy chapter 8. Oh yeah. Because he was listening to the father. While the devil was pouring in temptation. Jesus was listening to the father. And he had a response for. Do you think you know it's so easy for us to imagine that Jesus was somehow this super spiritual you know heavenly being that wasn't really tempted in all points as we are. Oh he was. And that's what the devil wants you to believe. That it worked for Jesus but don't expect it to work for you. Oh you should expect it to work for you. Absolutely. And what the devil doesn't want is for you to be listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit constantly. Being able to discern between soul and spirit. And the other thing about soulish music is you get go away more impressed with the musician. That's the other thing I do is I imagine a really bad musician like myself with a bad voice singing one of those songs. Now how does it sound? That's kind of okay. Right? Well then it probably wasn't a good song to begin with. If you need to have an expert voice and have really fantastic music frill in between for the song to work then it's probably not a spiritual song. Could you imagine Paul in one of his meetings saying hey who's the best musician around here let me come up here I want you to play really soulfully and just move everybody because you know I've just preached this powerful sermon and I want this music to be just the right pitch and tone all that. You see preachers doing that today. Can you imagine Paul and Peter? Imagine Peter on the day of Pentecost. They said what must we do? They're you know they're peers to the heart and Peter says hey Simon I think you can play the lute right? Come on let's get some music involved. No he says you must repent. There was no music on the day of Pentecost. Well the Holy Spirit fell. There was repentance. There was baptism. And that's the power of God. Now again like I said doesn't mean we throw out the baby with the bathwater. We still have music. There's a place for it. But we're not dependent on it. We must never be dependent on it. We're dependent on the Holy Spirit alone. And someday if the Holy Spirit says listen today we're not going to sing at all. Or we're going to sing without instruments maybe just a cappella. We're all going to sit here in the chair. Maybe we'll try that sometime. We'll just sing. And it won't sound greatest necessarily. We're not trying to make it sound the greatest. And maybe you know I remember this happening when I was growing up. I heard the story my dad said that one day the music was really really bad. And and then he was wondering. He wasn't helping with the music. But he wondered why. And then at the end of the meeting a visitor came up and introduced themselves to him. And discovered that they both had music degrees. And they were visiting this church to see if this is a church they should join. And immediately my dad knew why the music was so bad that day. Because the music experts were here. It chased them away. They were here for the music. Not to know God. Not to experience the power of the Holy Spirit moving in a church that's alive. The music. And we haven't had that happen yet. But no it might. It causes you to admire the musician. Glorify the musician. Soulish music. Spiritual music will lift up our spirits to worship God. Where sometimes you just stop singing and you're like oh I'm taking up with God. He's given me a revelation of himself. He showed me a little bit more of my nature. And how he's changing me. And he's revealed a little bit more of my selfishness this past week. And and he's he's giving me hope that he's not done changing me. Do those happen to you when you sing? Brothers it does to me. I'll be honest with you. I'm not here to brag. I say because I'm praying Lord do a work in me while we sing. This is not just half an hour before the message. This is Lord I want you to use this time of singing and praise prophetically to build up your church. I believe he'll do that. You know I'll give you an example of a song. There's a song that's popular in Christendom. I just want to pick one for an example. And I can do that because the author is long dead. There's a song that's popular. We don't sing it here called. There is power wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb. About 20% of those lines are correct. There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ. If you want to be freed from your burden of sin. But I believe it goes on to talk about winning the victory over evil. Being freed from your passion and pride. Singing praises. Living daily to sing his praises and do his service. Something like that. Has the blood of Jesus Christ ever helped you do that? It hasn't for me. Because after I was washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and cleansed completely from my sin. I needed the power of the Holy Spirit to sing his praises gladly and to do his service gladly. And I'm just using that song as an example. I'm sure the author had good intention in it. But if we're not careful we can just. Oh that's how the author wrote it. And so do it. But when we go back to the Word of God. We say hold on. We don't read anything about the power of the blood to set me free from the power of sin. That's where grace. Romans 6 14. Sin shall not be master over you. Because not doesn't say anything about the blood of Jesus. That says because you're not under law but under grace. The power of grace. Now so as you probably noticed if you've been here enough. I tend to change the words of these songs. As long as there's no copyright issue with it. And make it more biblical. So that we can sing it. If at least if enough of the song is biblically sound. But if most of it is not biblically sound. Then just what's the point of singing that song. Just because the melody is good and upbeat. There's power in the blood. Yes. There's power in the grace of God. There's power in the name of Jesus. Those are the things we want to think about. So that's an example. There's power in the resurrection. Paul says that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. So what I did some years ago when I read this. And I realized it. I went and searched in the New Testament for where all the word power comes. I found the power of his resurrection. The power. Here's one. 1 Corinthians 1. The power of the word of the cross. The power of the word of the cross. 1 Corinthians 1. Yeah. Verse 18. You know Paul says in Romans, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation. And here he says another thing that is the power of God. That is verse 18. For the word of the cross. Now I believe here he's not just talking about Jesus cross. But the cross that each of us is called to take up. That's why we preach about the way of the cross. We preach the word of the cross in this church. Because it is a power. It's a power that's lacking in many churches. Unfortunately the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. See the power there in the word of the cross. The power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Jesus had already died and shed his blood. And yet he said wait in Jerusalem until you receive power. And if the only song that the disciples knew was there is power power in the blood of the Lamb. There was nothing else to wait for. We already have the power. He says no go and wait for the power. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Jesus Christ himself is the greatest power. So I think I'll end there. I hope what I shared which I didn't intend to share most of that is an encouragement and a challenge for us on how to be discerning. I just use music as an example because I see that that is that is being used in Christendom a lot. It may be something else for you. It may be your business interests. It could be something else that is not necessarily sinful but it's soulish. It takes up your emotions. It takes up your thoughts during the day and you're invested in those things heavily. Be watchful dear brothers and sisters and children. So now you know why we pick the songs we sing. And you too be careful. Anytime you sing a song, a Christian song especially, see if you can find some verses in the Bible that have to do with that song. That's a good test. It's like this song. Let me see if I can find a verse in the Bible that this song is based on. And if you can't find it, maybe don't sing the song.