Knowing and Growing - HHBC Ministries in Music (continued)

So we're continuing with last week's handout. So if you look at it and say, hey, wait a minute, this is what we did last week, yes, you got it right. And the reason is because we only covered less than the first page out of three. Some of the things we talked about was in the area of worship and music, what does much of Christendom tend to think that they're looking for with worship and music time?

Feelings. A lot of it with feelings, yeah. How do you make me feel? Right? Yeah, we've had people who, you know, come in here for a visit and by the, you know, first or second song they're out the door because they're in here for something different than what we have to offer, right? And for a great many it's an entertainment value. There are Christians who actually just kind of go from one church to the next and one church to the next just for entertainment value and they keep changing so it's never boring. So feelings is one of the factors in entertainment. What are some other things we made note of? the Word to match what we believe or what God says. So one of the things we looked at is what's the content, which is ultimately one of the bigger issues. Why does content matter? Why does it matter?

Why don't we just sing for whatever we like? I found that sometimes, in the past, we've gotten a lot of our doctrine from the Psalms, and it could be wrong doctrine. Really, when you go back and you look at some of the songs that we sang, you think, well, this is great, but it was wrong. Some of the things that we've tried to avoid are some of the songs popular in some churches now where you're begging the Holy Spirit to come or to come back, you know, so that's been one.

Yeah? I think one of Hal's peppies was, give up your best to the Master, and I kept selecting it for me sometimes. Yeah, let's ask this question. What's wrong with that song? It's an old one. It's not like, boy, this is one of some recent inventions. It's not our best.

Yeah, it's, you know, we have Give Your Best to the Master. We've got books, Our Utmost for His Highest, you know. So you end up with between one medium and another, we've got different things that are telling us to really put it all out for the Lord, right?

Yeah? Well, in the master-slave terminology of the Bible, you know, it's been my goal most, if not all, of my Christian life to please Jesus Christ. To please God. To do things that are pleasing. I can't give my all. I can't give 100%. But I do what I can to please Him. And I don't think that's wrong. So let's ask this question. You bring up a good point.

And it is one of those things that comes up in our music. Does the Bible ever talk about us pleasing the Lord? Does the Bible talk about us pleasing the Lord in the New Testament letters? I can't think of a place, but I think Paul says it. It in fact does. It in fact does.

So, the question is, what pleases the Lord? So, in other words, we talked about an issue of giving your best to the Master. Is that what pleases the Lord? So I think it's not a matter of saying, well, we're not supposed to go please the Lord, but really being able to ask the question, what pleases the Lord? What does the Lord want? I know He wants to live His life through us. Yeah, in other words, it's not my best efforts, it's not my trying to do things that please the Lord.

Think of some of the different things that Christians can get caught up in. What would Jesus do? I'm copying him. And by the way, there's a lot of things Jesus did that we shouldn't do. Probably shouldn't go to the Temple Mountain in Jerusalem and clear it. That would get you in deep trouble. Yeah, so what would Jesus do? It's interesting, but that was, you know, they'd sell buttons and hats and everything else that went along that line. And the truth is a lot of the things that Jesus did are, biblically, things that we shouldn't try to just simply imitate. And especially not in some wooden fashion, right? So, for example, are you going to go and scold the Pharisees? Is that your job? It's not our job to scold anybody.

Yeah. If you look at it, Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Israel. Do you find Jesus other than the time when he was an infant going very much outside of what was Israel proper. You don't really see that, do you? What are we doing here, right? If copying Jesus was the thing we're supposed to do, then that doesn't do it. How about giving of our best to the Lord? Give your best to the Master, our utmost for His highest? Does that please Him? What is it? What is it? What is what? What is our best? Yeah, that's a good question. What would he want with that?

That strong thing, fully rely on God, that's closer to what we should be doing. I think we should be looking to God. Let's look at it this way. Jesus is telling the disciples at the Last Supper, just after it, Abide in Me and I in you. Is that pleasing the Lord? Yeah. And so when we talk about what pleases the Lord, it's not copying Him. It's not trying to figure out what He wants and then doing it, as if He delegated something like that to us. but abide in me and I in you, that expresses several different things. What are the things that that expresses to us?

What's he looking for? Communion. Interaction with us. Oneness. So faith must be one of those things too. Yes. So faith is another thing. Is it faith in me or faith in the Lord? So there is fellowship, there is faith, what else? I think Paul in Ephesians or Philippians also talks about the mindset. on the flesh is death, mindset, and the spirit is life. So we should have our mindset on the spirit and on the things of God. We know what we've learned from the Spirit. It's a mindset. It's a focus.

So this is interesting because our tendency is, okay, here are the things out there we're supposed to do and give it your best shot. you know, do the old college try, when in the end that kind of is pretty superficial. You know, what's on the list of good things to do that you're supposed to do and give it your best, you know, to do those things, instead of what you find is a mindset, you find a fellowship, a communion, you find a dependence upon the Lord, that those are the things that please Him, right? Now, is there anything else? Can I use the word intimacy? Sometimes people get uncomfortable with the word intimacy, but really that's a good word. If I think about it, I can't think of any healthy branch that isn't intimately connected to the vine, right?

So, Abide in Me and I in You, that communicates a lot about what it means to please the Lord. So, pleasing the Lord is actually biblical. You're correct. You can find it even in the letters of Paul. So, this is a fully biblical New Testament saint doctrine.

Philippians 4.4 says, Rejoice in the Lord. Trust the Lord always. Say again, rejoice. Which he wrote while he was under house arrest. Probably tied to a Roman soldier. Chained up to a Roman soldier. It's a whole lot easier to dictate when this guy is jerking you around. So yeah, this is tough duty.

But pleasing the Lord is fully biblical. How that's done and what that means is something for us most certainly to think about. And let's ask this question. Can we sing about that? Can we sing about the differences in pleasing the Lord and what the Lord wants versus our efforts? Yes. So songs like Give of Your Best to the Master takes us way off course. Because it's not I but Christ. That's right. And so it's way off course. Another one I thought was really close but, you know, it's Only One Life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And I just would change one word. I mean, what's done by Christ will last, right?

So in our songs, in our music, we can put in that truth and look carefully, whether by carefully selecting the songs or even, like say, even with that one song where I just change one word, to bring it into what's biblical. But in keeping with that, this is key. It's ultimately, what is the content? What is the content of the music that we're talking about? Because it's teaching. The music is teaching. Let's take a look on the second page of your handout. Page two.

This goes to Colossians 3.16.

Okay, so Colossians 3.16, what does that say? Somebody actually have a Bible? Or have it memorized? Okay, I want you to look it up.

Give us Colossians 3.16. Look that one up. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and polishing one another with all wisdom, singing songs, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart.

So let, does that mean allow? So what's interesting, when I go through and teach through... Sometimes it's a command. Yes, and so here's one of the things I will often teach. There's a few exceptions in the King James Version, but I'll say this repeatedly. Let doesn't mean allow anywhere in the New Testament. Okay? That they will translate it let when in fact it's imperative. Okay, so it's an imperative. So it's not let, but it must. Must what?

The word of Christ, what does that mean? The message of Christ? The message of Christ is ultimately what it's talking about. Not just what Christ says, but let the message of Christ, the truth conveyed in words, happen. What's supposed to happen? What's supposed to happen with the message of Christ? Make sure it's written on a card in your front pocket. Let the word of Christ inhabit your mailbox. What does it mean? Pardon? Okay, so here's the message of Christ. And then what are the words that says dwell in you richly?

Okay, so let's think about this. First of all, that word for dwell, especially with the term richly, is a deep down settled dwelling. It's not a come to visit, passing through. It's a deep down settled dwelling. dwelling. It's one of the things we've pointed out in Acts from time to time. Dr. Luke will differentiate in his words between a dweller who is a long-term dweller in a particular area or city and those who are just visiting. And this is that word.

May the Word of Christ deep down dwell, make its home Make it home in your heart. So let's think about your home. Are you just camping out at your home? What about your home is different that says you're not just camping out? What do you do there that makes your home different from just this is the tent that I happen to have this weekend while I'm camping? Okay, so you lived there. Eat, drink, sleep. So a lot of the daily, regular activities of life happened there. Every day, yeah. So every day. And then what else is true of a home?

It's comfortable. Okay, one, you're comfortable there. Now, so that's interesting. So here's the word of, let the message of Christ dwell in you richly. Alright, so here's a question. Are you dwelling in it, or is it dwelling in you? Yeah, it's dwelling in you.

Isn't that interesting? Okay, so it isn't just, here's my home. and having it come visit me or stay with me, but that's where I dwell. You know, it's interesting when you take a person out of their home and settle in somewhere else, their thoughts are always going back to home. Interesting, huh? Isn't it interesting?

Yeah. You know, Nancy and I will go on various trips, and sometimes they're across the country, and sometimes they're, you know, different parts of the U.S. Sometimes they're in other places around the world, but we're kind of glad to get home, you know? You get homesick after a while. Yeah. And so it's funny. We talk about feelings. It's the place where I feel at home. And it's the place that my heart longs to be. How about you get home, and what is it about home where you want to be there? What is it? Why is home like that?

It's familiar. Yeah, what happened is somebody said, you know, hey look, you used to live here, but we just switched your house, and you're living over here starting tonight. How would you do with that? If they gave you the keys, you're living six blocks away at a different house.

It's not too far away. What's the deal? There's a sense of safety. Am I safe here? I don't know. So it might be that. What else? Ah, memories there. That's a very good point. Memories. What's the deal with memories? Why not just switch houses every night, right? What's the deal with memories? You can walk through your house with your eyes closed and remember where everything is.

It gets to be that that's my orientation. Everything orients with respect to the house. If somebody said, you know, hey, you're going to change houses every night. You're going to go out and go to work or go out shopping. By the time you go shopping, by the time you get home, you're going to go to a different house.

How's that going to feel? It's going to start feeling pretty awkward, right? And there are memories there. Well, if I go to go shopping and I go to a different house, I don't even know if I'm doing the right shopping, right? So, yeah, that's an entirely different feel. So you have memories, you have a history there, you have, okay, the things that I am accustomed to every day, you know. Are they there? Are they the ones I'm used to? I've used an electric shaver for decades.

I go to this other house and they don't have Now they do not have mine, but they don't have any. So for somebody else it's no big deal. So anyway, you've got different things there. By the way, how many of you have just one pair of glasses? Yes, and so a lot of them you have, you know, you've got different things, and so, you know, backup spares, or I've got this for this purpose and this for this other purpose, right? And, well, I don't have this for, you know, I don't have what I need. So, yeah, Jim?

You know, I hate to interrupt the thought here, but I'm, Keep going back to the word let. If the word let is an imperative, how would you translate that to make it an imperative statement? What they're trying to do is be gracious, but I think the better thing is to translate it with the imperative and then explain what imperatives mean. What it would be, conveying the imperative, is not let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, but the word of Christ must dwell in you richly.

But what's the motivation? It's not a legal motivation, it's a grace motivation. Somebody was asking, because I talked from Acts, about we're not under the law, and Paul said in last week's message, You know, the Law of Moses is not going to free you, it won't justify you, right? And so, am I bad-mouthing the Law of Moses? No. The difference is motive and means. The motive is grace. It's a grace-motivated imperative, part one. And part two is the means. The Law of Moses was given with zero means.

You do it, right? Whereas everything, and this goes back to what we were talking about, what pleases the Lord, everything under grace is He wants everything to be done in dependence upon Him, with intimacy with Him, and so everything that's done is done very differently under grace. So the Word of God, the Word of Christ must dwell in you richly as you depend on Him. Yes! And grace motivated and the means as He provides it all. The three E's to use some of Paul's words are enabling, energizing and empowering. enabling, energizing, and empowering that is a ministry of the Holy Spirit.

That's how the life of Christ gets put into gear in our lives. And so it is very different in how it is implemented both by motive and by means. So that when we look at any imperative, For example, here's love one another. Am I supposed to love one another because I have to do otherwise I won't be loved? We love because He first loved us. Forgive one another or else you won't be forgiven. No, forgive one another as God and Christ has forgiven you. So a very different set of mindsets and motivations.

So when we talk about the word of Christ must dwell in you, that's grace motivated and with God providing the means. So here it's also very good to ask the question, let the word of Christ dwell in you is not the same as let the word of Christ dwell in me. Excuse me, let Christ come into my dwelling. Let the word of Christ do the dwelling in me is what the scripture is telling us here. So let the message of Christ dwell in you, and what's the qualifying word there?

Richly. Why is that word there? Dwell in you richly. Is the dwelling in the believer skimpy? No, we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings. More than we need. Yes. And so if you start looking at it, the words that are used in Scripture to describe, you know, here's Paul, he talks about mercy. He talks about rich in mercy, right? Ephesians 2, 4-7. Rich in mercy. Does it say the love with which he loved us? Or is there one more word in there? the great love with which he loved us. The riches of his grace, plural.

So what you have is dwelling richly carries all those things. God has not done just skimpy. Yeah, these are unfathomable riches, and there are multiple references to riches, which is why we're going to call that elective. Yes, the unfathomable riches. The bottom line is, if it isn't mind-boggling, we don't understand it yet. So he doesn't dole them out one at a time to each person?

Yeah. Ever had backpack food? I mean, you can survive on it, but definitely not the greatest stuff. It's this reconstituted, dehydrated stuff, and you just add water, and it tastes like you just added water. And the texture is about like you just added water. I can remember one backpack trip I was on, and boy, I sure was hungry for something besides the backpack food that they gave us, because it just wasn't enough.

I heard sea rations are about the same. Yeah. So, yeah, sea rations are about the same. Is it food? I guess so. But it's certainly not sumptuous, and it's not like, oh boy, let's dig in. This is sort of like, you know, put it down and... Keeps you alive. Yeah, keeps you alive. And you wonder, did I eat? Yeah, I have to remind myself I did. So that's not ritually, is it?

Instead, let the Word of Christ dwell in you, deep down, settled, full-time occupant, richly. This is the difference between backpack food, and you've really had a meal, and you say, that was good, I really enjoyed that, I feel like I've gotten some good nutrition out of it, instead of backpack food. So, dwell in you richly. And then, so what happens? Dwells in you richly and you just kind of let it sit there. So what does that, what's the outcome from that? So here's an interesting, so it does two things.

What are the two verbs? Teaching and admonishing. What's the difference between those two? So what do I do with teaching? Let's assume that teaching is solid, and of course one of the things we talked about. Okay, so it is new insight and information, good. What else?

Can I have any reminders? Yeah, I may in fact have reminders of what I know also to be true, and that's biblical too. The apostles, including Paul, would often remind... The admonishing is very much a reminder too. Yes, and so the admonishing might be encouragement, the admonishment might be calling people to something, The admonishment might be away from something? Okay, so admonishment tells me what?

What does it do that's different from teaching? It has to do with someone else's evaluation. Okay, so someone else's evaluation, good. Anything else? Admonishing is more like advising. Okay, so in admonishment there's guidance. So guidance would be one thing.

How about I'm at this place right now and I need to go over here. That's like eating meat instead of just drinking milk. Right, and so this isn't just it gets me by and keeps me going. But it actually says that there's progress, and that might be an avoidance of one thing, and it might be a calling towards something else. So here's, for example, Ephesians chapter 5, where the first part of it is this, not this. This, not this. This, not this. So what is he doing? He's admonishing them by giving contrasts. This direction, not that direction. This, not that. See that?

The goal being to build up? Yeah, the goal is being to build up. So it's interesting when we say build up, that means there's actually a change. We're not just looking for keeping everything the same all the time. Of course that's the goal of teaching also.

Yes, right, so you're putting teaching and admonishing together. Let me ask this, what would happen if you had just admonishing but no teaching? I think people would be less willing to listen and learn from you. Yeah, in other words, if you had just constant admonishment but no teaching. You guys need to do this, you need to stop doing that.

Is that what the apostles did? No. Yeah, so what happens, you're constantly urging people to do this and not do that, and to think this way and not that way, but it's not enough instruction about things like, who am I in Christ? What's my identity? What's the understanding from which I'm being called to do this and do that?

Frankly, that too much admonishment is a temptation toward legalism. I think you made that point. It's a temptation toward legalism. Brad Mastin tells me that there was a prior pastor at the church up there at Fort Collins that he was really big on admonishment. Super big on admonishment, but just really pressing people really hard. But not so much on teaching. For example, he would pound people.

You guys have to triple tithe. That would be one example of the kind of pounding that he would do. You're tithing, you're not doing enough. You need to triple tithe. So he would pound that home. So it's possible to have admonishment be a whole lot about what you're doing and need to stop doing. But now teaching to tell you, you know, who am I? What does the Bible actually just say? What's the content of Scripture? Who God is, and on that basis, then who am I? Right? What has God done?

All those things would be missing. So, here's what you find in Romans. You go, you know, almost a half dozen chapters. before it gives you anything to do. Here is the book of Ephesians, it only has six chapters. He goes four and a half chapters before there's anything to do. Why does he do that? Why that pattern? Because we need to have instruction, teaching, and then admonishment.

And those two go together, don't they? We have to have both. It's interesting that this trial is coming, the trials are really based on, alright, here's the facts, now we'll see what you're going to do with those facts. Yes. There's a trial. Yeah. So isn't it the difference between gnosis and epignosis? Okay, yeah. And here, experiential. Yeah. If we look at it, this is one of these things, this is an important insight. And as we're about to look at here, this is focused on our music and worship.

So our music and worship isn't just about, boy, I sure hope that guy makes me feel good. I need to get pumped up. As a matter of fact, I need the music to get me so pumped up that in between that and what the pastor says, that I'm good to go for the next seven days when I come back and I can fill the tank again.

Is that what a church is supposed to do? Well, not so much. That's why we have Wednesday night services at a lot of churches, right? Because your gas chain gets too low. So here is teaching and admonishing, and then how? How does that happen? The teaching and admonishing is all done by the elders up front.

Well, it's done in wisdom. Okay, what's the wisdom for? Can't I just snip that out of there and be just fine? What's the wisdom for? Wisdom is the practical application of the knowledge. Okay, practical application of the knowledge, alright. Any knowledge? God's knowledge. Knowledge of God. Okay, so this is spiritual knowledge from Scripture, okay. It's the practical application for it.

Can't I just know a lot of stuff and that's good? If I go to seminary, do I want to have it covered? You would hope. Yeah, you would hope. But no, I mean, that doesn't do anything, right? And who is this directed to? Is this directed to seminaries and Bible colleges, or who is it directed to? It's directed to believers. Yeah, this is directed to believers centuries before they had Bible colleges and seminaries. So that isn't somehow the answer. But let's take a look. Here is the slide that's the third one down that's got three ovals.

And it says our music is to teach and admonish in all wisdom. And then it says psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So what it does is it gives three general categories And while we might have some particular association with those words, here are the words intended. One is Psalms, and that word actually means to strum. It's from a word that means to strum, as in a musical instrument. So if you're playing a musical instrument, especially if you're playing strings, hey, you're off on the right track. So here we go.

So often used in reference to the Psalms, but typically songs about God. That's the general reference to this word that's translated Psalms. Songs about God. You think of songs about God. Yeah, so we're talking about God's character, right, with a lot of these. And so we have some that are more historical. A mighty fortress is our God. We talk about God being the creator in various ways, right?

How Great Thou Art is talking about God, and it's doing so, actually, that moves over into another one, which is hymns, but for example, a more modern one, Great is the Lord, So you look at that, that's about God, isn't it? So it can be an older song, it can be a more modern song, but it's talking about God.

So the next one, hymns, refers to songs which are sung in praise directed to God. So we think of hymns, what do we think of? I think of Psalm 139. And what's that? And it's talking to God, isn't it? So it's songs about God. Now can you have something that is about God, Psalms, and to God, hymns?

Yes, and that's why you see a sort of a crossover here? So you can have songs that actually serve both purposes, where we're talking to God, but it's also about God. It's about His character, and what He does, and what He did, and things of that sort. So we can put those together. And then we have the third category, spiritual songs. Songs which are spiritually in content.

You hear about songs that talk about our Christian walk, and maybe I'm struggling with this, or maybe I'm learning this. So you have songs that aren't necessarily directly about God. They aren't necessarily directed to God. although they could be, but songs that talk about biblical principles and spiritual things in a biblical way. So you'll have that category of songs, and so we'll sing songs about that, we'll talk about our Christian walk, we'll talk about some songs we'll have talk about our life together in the Lord, and so we'll have That will be a part of it.

Now here's a question, can you have a song that has all three of those? I think so. You could. And if you look around, you can find songs, and that's why we have these three ovals, and they're crossing over. You'll find songs that cross over between them, and even some that have songs about God, songs sung to God, songs also about different aspects of the Christian life. all three of those in the same song. And sometimes what I'll see is it'll switch from the verse to the chorus into whom it's directed. So you'll have all those, and so what he's saying is all three of those are valid. All three of those are valid. Now, does it say how the song is? Does it say anything about what the accompaniment is? Now, does it say you may not use instruments? Like a saxophone? Yeah. Yeah, so really look at it. It's interesting what it says and what Scripture actually talks about.

And then some of the things that we may have sung it for years and it's not right. Give it your best to the Master, right? It's not right. So we may have sung it for years and it's not correct. On the other hand, we could have different things where we are going along and we say, yeah, that's fully biblical. And we look at, yep, this is a very biblical theme. accurate or leading us astray, they do plant seeds. Yes, so one of the things that we work on in terms of going through the songs is picking very carefully, sometimes dropping out a verse, sometimes modifying some of the words, And sometimes it's a fairly minor modification. In other cases, it's a fairly significant modification.

We have another pattern that we do and still do from time to time, and that is we will write songs that don't address something. That's something we'll talk about next time. Songs that don't address something that ought to be, the scripture addresses. One of the things, for example, we don't find enough songs that talk about our identification with Christ. But also looking at other things that we would like to be singing about that aren't addressed often enough. How about songs that talk about we owe God something?

Yeah, so what you'll find is we try to step aside from those kinds of songs and rewrite something. Even if it might be misunderstood, possibly we'll look at doing that. We have, for example, we'll sing the song Paid It All, and the verses are very good. We've rewritten a line in the chorus, you know, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. While some folks would say, well, the author didn't intend that that way, we don't want to confuse people.

So we change the words just a bit so that we avoid something that might be misunderstood. So we'll go through, we'll change a line, sometimes just change a word. The song Majesty, we'll sing that. But we just change one word. Not kingdom authority, but blessed authority. So we'll change one word, we'll add verses. How deep the Father's love for us. We've added a verse to that. To express identification. We've written whole songs that express identification and gone out looking for them.

So we'll talk about that next time in terms of what we do, what's the outcome from understanding these things that will make our worship here at Holly Hills different in terms of what's biblical and what's a biblical direction for our worship and music. So, next time.

Lord, as we look at this, we do pray that you would hone our thoughts and our minds in this regard. This is something where you have in fact written some concise but very full instruction for us. So as we look at our worship and our music, and even as we go in minutes from now into a worship and music time together, We look for you to teach us, we look for you to admonish us, and as this has it, one another. It's a church body thing, not just an individual thing. And so we look to you in that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.