Polemics, Church Music

What I'd like to have us do is on the portion, the 10-page portion that's behind here, this is an appendix from another elective that we did a few years back called God's Intent for the Church. And it was dealing more substantially with worship and music and scripture in the local church. So we include that for you to catch up with if you haven't seen it or take a second look at it if you have. I want to just point out a few things in this area of Christian music. One is in the area of biblical definitions. This is on page two of this appendix section here.

One of the things to highlight for you is that as you look at the different biblical words for worship, There is not one of them that automatically means music. There's not one of them that automatically even implies music. Isn't that interesting? They all have specific meanings. Music isn't directly one of them.

So one of the things to... kind of get across here is that it doesn't mean that music is not a part of worship. It means that worship is much bigger than music. So that's a concept. If you were to read through this, you would pick up that worship can be other things, including, but outside of music.

The other thing on page 4, and we took a look at this when we were going through Ephesians and Colossians, is There are three words that Paul uses for some of the different kinds of music, and the words that he uses describe substantially kind of content. and often applied to the Book of Psalms, but not exclusively. It can be various kinds of songs about God. Hymns, and we have a different definition in our culture, but hymns, as he uses it, are songs directly sung to God. For example, if we were to say, we worship you, oh Lord, and sing a song like that, that would be sung to God. And then finally, spiritual songs. What would be a spiritual song that's different from a song about God or to God?

You mean a sample, an example? Yeah, or at least a description. What would be... God's soul of the world? Okay, but God's soul of the world would be about God. Pardon? turn your eyes on Jesus, which in other words is something more directed to the people.

It might be about spiritual growth. So anyway, we have Psalms that are written about God and often include the book of Psalms, which may include others. So it's kind of a mixed category. Then hymns, which we have a definition that's a little different in our culture, but The word that Paul used there meant songs that were directly to God, praising Him. And then spiritual songs that might talk about our spiritual growth.

You might have spiritual songs that talk about our going through some kind of a tough time and finding the Lord faithful or something of that, where it talks about our experience speaking of something spiritual, and it's valid, it's biblical, but it isn't necessarily about God Himself, and it isn't necessarily to God. Right? So you've got those three categories that Paul says all those are valid things to sing about. Okay?

Let's take a look. We've got the front three pages here I want us to shift over to. We have the top part there. Now let's assume one of the things we pointed out further back, even in Bible backgrounds, we made the statement, culture is what we do without thinking.

So that explains lots of things, right? Yeah, you can say that any time you've done something that you feel is, well, anyway. Oops. Okay. In keeping with that very definition of culture, in that assumptions have been made about Christian music that are transferred from the culture without thinking. Right? It often happens.

Let's look at the... From the culture to the Christian music? Pardon? From the culture to the Christian music? Yes. and you don't notice it's wrong and you'll do it. Yeah, in other words we transfer things often times without thinking or we even get a... we not only get transferred from the culture to Christian music but we also get within kind of the Christian culture some assumptions made.

Let's just think about this one. The Christian music is Christian worship. What would you think about that statement? What's right about it? Christian music is Christian like me. But he didn't have the rest. That's part of it. Christian music today is always Christian. Is there Christian music that is also Christian worship? Yes. Yes. Okay, alright. Is there some that is not? Yes. So here's the thing, the straight equivalence is not necessarily the same.

The other thing is, can you worship and have it not be Christian music? Yes, because worship is bigger than music. In other words, Christian music, worship is certainly appropriate. But it is possible, and that's one of the points in the back section. Well, there's actually a couple of different directions. One is it's possible to have worship in the Christian life that is not defined by music. As a matter of fact, the biblical words are not explicitly music. Can music be, and maybe I'm not sure whether, music certainly can be idolatrous, can it? It could be, yeah.

Think of what's idolatry? Art asks a good question. What's idolatry? Throwing away. Putting something in the place of God. Yeah, putting something in the place of God. In other words, I don't want you, I want this object, or this activity, or this substance. This feeling. Can Christian music also be idolatry? Well, it could be. It could get in the way. It actually could be. If it was, could you call it Christian music?

Well, a part of it may be not just the music itself, but what we do with it. Isn't the music itself more neutral? It's our heart and our attitude. Yes, it's our heart attitude with it rather than just the music itself. Let's take a look. The next one down, a primary consideration in Christian music is how it makes me feel about God.

What do you think about that statement? Brad's shaking his head back there. What? What's the... Why should feeling be the center of the experience? Why does worship all of a sudden make my feelings the pivotal point? The question is, I'm worshiping him and glorifying him, and my feelings, not that they're relevant, but they're not the primary consideration.

They just aren't. Old hymns are best because they have continuity with the past. They're time tested. What do you think? Some of the words aren't always scriptural. Yeah, they may be old. As a matter of fact, we'll be singing something this morning. I dropped out one verse because it's not biblical. The song overall is good, but that one verse isn't. The purpose of the hymn writer may not have been to teach But to make it rhyme or to make it... Yes, sometimes rhyming does kind of pull, you know, the word selection.

You're right. How about another one? New songs are best because they connect with and speak to the present culture. No. It doesn't speak very well. Well, you know, some of them do. Some of the new songs do, but some do not. And again, it comes down to What does it say? Yeah, in other words, it's possible that the words can kind of bow down to the present culture and bend to the present culture rather than communicate truth to the present culture. So in both cases, old and new, discernment always, right? Always discernment. There isn't any place where you can put your brain in neutral and just let her fly. Both cases, discernment always.

That's why we have this elective. As long as the music helps me focus on the Lord, it's got to be a good thing. I see hemming and hawing on that one. You can focus on the Lord without music. Cheryl makes a good point. Did you hear that? You can focus on the Lord without music. So is the music an essential for that? Not an essential. It could be a good medium for doing so though, right?

Yeah, good. I want to move down to this one, follow the money. Christian music, just to bring up the point, has been either one of the top or the top fastest growing category of music sales in the US. The latest number, and I have one here dated from July 19th, this one says it's the top in that particular study.

You're shaking your head? It's kind of a skewed statistic though, because you divide all music up, and you divide it into say, rap, rock, classical, and then they take all the Christian music, whether it's rap, rock, classical, and throw it all in one together. It is music of a supposedly common lyrical category, whereas music is typically separated out by style, right? So that does skew the number.

But nonetheless, the commercial music purveyors have noticed it and have grabbed up portions of it. I think Randy pointed out last week that Christian music has become such a large monetary value that the secular companies have bought up the Christian music companies. So they can get their dime out of it. Here's what's interesting.

Televangelist income is three and a half times that of Christian music. Televangelists really rake it in. And it's not as much work. What should be the Christian's view of the intensive secular interest in Christian music? Should we be concerned that secular companies are getting involved in and buying up Christian music channels? Yes, because they can influence what they say. All right.

There could be an influence. Let me put something out to the flip side, and that is some Christian music artists have switched away from the Christian labels because of the corruption in the so-called Christian recording organizations. Isn't that something? That's sad. It is odd that the ethics at times of the secular outfits are better or exceed those of the so-called Christian outfits. So it's a real anomaly, I suppose. But it makes answering this question a little tougher, doesn't it? Okay, is there evangelistic value in the working with and making an appeal to the secular world with Christian music?

Pardon? Could be. I would say definitely. Okay, Doug says could be, and Brad says definitely. I just knew a handful of kids in high school who came to the Lord at 500 Frenzy concerts. Ah, okay. The musical style definitely even impedes upon the message a lot of the time, but then near the end of most shows they'll wind up doing a little worship set. Just a really simple guitar worship set. There are certain groups that play music styles that would definitely not fit in with what we do here on Sunday mornings, but have a particularly evangelistic focus. It's interesting. Some of it would be really hard on the ears. I'd rather put my head in the vice.

Now, here's another point. A lot of churches have gone to, and Nancy and I have had some familiarity with some that have done this, where they've said, you know, we've got people that like the more contemporary stuff, and we've got people that like more hymns and traditional, so we'll have a service for the traditional and a service for the contemporary. Okay.

What's good about that? They get more people and they have something that people like. What's bad about it? One thing is that it does divide up the body by music style preference. How is that likely to divide up age groups? By age, okay. Something else, the biblical pattern is that you have intergenerational transfer. of wisdom and understanding. And what does that do but thwart that purpose? Interesting, huh? More concerned about the music than the message. Yeah, that's an interesting point. Doug said more concerned about the music than the message. Now, we've got to get picky picky picky.

Studies have shown that people tend to be favorably inclined towards attending a church or otherwise within the first 11 minutes of their initial visit. Isn't that interesting? Most people, this isn't all, but you've gotten a majority of the people have decided whether or not they're going to come back within the first 11 minutes. That's usually before the sermon. That's right. Isn't that interesting? Most people have already decided. So it's all on you. Yeah. So that's very interesting.

The sermon is a secondary criteria to what those first 11 minutes are like. And so what typically happens is, how was I greeted? how did I like the initial music and introductory period and that kind of thing. If they don't feel comfortable with that and like that, most people, I'm generalizing, most will say I'm on to the next place. Isn't that interesting? Now... Some of this music at these churches, you don't even have to go in. I mean, you can hear it in the parking lot. You don't say, I don't want to go in there because it's so loud. You go down to the five points area and then stand outside.

Now, here's one of the things that happens. If people have a... If people have a style preference, then what does that do to their decision, I'm going to go here or not? If they have a music style preference, and that's important to them, what's that going to do to whether they're going to attend there or not?

Well, excuse it entirely. I'm only going to choose churches that do differently. Yeah, the first thing they did was a hymn. I'm not into that. I'm out of here. Matter of fact, I may not even stay. Right? Or somebody else comes in and they said, you know, man, hymns are exactly what I want. And they've already said, I think I'll stay.

Lyrical content? Yeah, lyrical content. If it doesn't have lyrical content that is up-building, if it doesn't have lyrical content that is biblical, then, yeah, they've got a problem. So there needs to be that criteria. In order to be building up the body, it needs to be biblical.

Alright, what else? The notion that goes with it is a lot of churches will repeat the same thing over and over. And over and over and over. Yeah, okay. 7-11, yeah. 7 words 11 times. Almost a mantra. And haven't even seen that with hymns. One of the classics that people talk about when they talk about an altar call is Just As I Am. And it's become... When somebody thinks of an altar call, they think 27 choruses of Just As I Am. And that's the same as if they did a 7-Eleven song. By the time they get through, they must think, boy, I guess I'm a yam. By the way, I'm not criticizing the song just as I am. Just the way it's used in that kind of a circumstance.

What is the difference of focus between a public ministry and a public performance? How is that different? It's your focus. Again, it's what's the focus? Does a public performance fall short in some way? Ah, okay. It's what's the direction. The performance looks at the people. The public ministry focuses their attention on the Lord. Very important. It's where am I looking? Where am I looking?

So in that context, do you think we need to reemphasize to them that that applause should be to the glory of God? I mean, when we do applaud, that's... I think that may be a comment worth making. I wouldn't beat people over the head with it, but it may be a comment worth making that ultimately this is to the Lord's glory. Yes. That's such a good point, Gene, because I know here at Holly Hills, people are not sure, gosh, should I applaud or not?

So it really becomes, it's very weak and almost half-hearted, is worse than none. In view of that, it may be very helpful for you to make that point. I think it comes from the fact that people who are doing it the first few times for themselves, daily, it's new them. you want to encourage them. And if they're young, you want to encourage them. And that's where the applause comes from. There is an element of encouragement.

There's nothing to do with that other stuff. There's also a problem with that. What's that? Somebody gets a big applause and somebody else didn't get a big applause. Oh, they don't like what I did. I don't think that has anything to do with it. Yeah, it's one of those things. It's interesting. There's a lot of assumption behind it. There's a lot that can be behind it. And that's, I think, where, Gene, your question is well taken. Some comment to direct this is what this is about or for may be helpful. Because what happens is people otherwise, as we mentioned earlier, we assume, right? Now you're getting personal.

The range of available styles and content in Christian music offered to Christians and the general public is very broad and still growing. Boy, there's styles I listen to and I think, what is that? But anyway. Given the technologies available, and this is the amazing thing, now with the internet and things of that sort, it's no longer going on by a 45, right?

That's just long, long ago history. Now you download this thing and you can Download them and people sometimes download a little, download a lot. I mean, it's quite a bit. You can carry a whole lot around in a little iPod. Put songs in there, change them around, email them to somebody. You can do lots of things with the technology. Christians have lots and lots of choices.

And so, let's ask some questions here. Is it possible for the believer to biblically listen to and or participate in music styles and content in the local church and then listen to or even participate in the production of music of different style or lyrical content? Sure. Absolutely. Yeah.

Now, it's possible that someone listens to music, maybe even Christian music, that isn't necessarily like what we would use here on Sunday morning. Why would that be? What would the reasons be for that? Maybe they like lots of different styles of music. Okay. Maybe there's a greater variety. Okay.

All right. What else? I don't know if this is directly related to the question, but if someone was say, a carpenter, and they, as their gift of service, helped build or fix up something in the church, you wouldn't relegate them from going and building a business building the next weekend. I mean, there's no reason I'm not going to go out and play hymns in a coffee shop, because it's not necessarily environmentally appropriate.

Okay. You can get away with that anywhere. In other words, one reason might even be occupational. In other words, a person may have an occupation that has them playing something different. Well, and Brad's example is very appropriate because a Christian who is working in the construction field isn't very likely to have the option of playing Christian music. Unless for some bizarre reason he works for a Christian contractor who only allows Christian music, but that's highly unlikely. I know a Christian musician who played in various other contexts, hired to play the organ in different contexts, and was asked to play at an open casket funeral at the recessional.

Hey, look me over. Anyway. I sure wouldn't pick that. I think the thing is, what we look at is what we choose to sing here on Sunday morning is for a particular group and for a particular purpose. And that it would be valid for a Christian to pick music of different styles or kinds and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that.

Also a different perspective too. Give an illustration. We were in Holland. We had lunch and the waiter saw us bow our heads and he came over and said, are you a Christian? I said, yes. Oh, oh, and he ran over to the big nickel loader and he changed the tune and put the Ave Maria on.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So suddenly Ave Maria makes it Christian, right? Yeah. Thank you. That was interesting. Yeah. When we get out, when we get out in the rest of the general culture, sometimes the perceptions can be not what we expect. Yeah. Yeah. When I was in Jerusalem with the group that I went with at the Hyatt Regency where we stayed, you could hear the music over the intercom and all of a sudden you kind of realized that there was a lot of hymns being played.

Coming from the bar area. Yeah, coming from the bar, yeah. Come to find out it was a young Israeli Christian that he's got those in. Because he had to make money for food for his family. So he was playing in this bar, okay, but he was putting in all these pins. It was so neat.

I mean, yeah, the Jewish people didn't know, you know, just nice music. Well, and there have been eras in church history where, as a kind of a part of a revival and then after the revival thing, that hymns got substantially brought into bars. It's very strange, but it was just a cultural phenomenon and a real head-scratcher. But some unusual things can happen with music, yeah.

Now, let's take a look at page three here. Now, a number of people can testify, and I'd be one of those, that music has been somewhat to very helpful to them in remembering biblical truths, or scripture as poetry, or even scripture stories. How many of you can testify that, that music has been some part of that? Yeah. There's no question that believers should exercise discernment about the lyrics of musically delivered messages.

How far should Christians take this memorization phenomenon? Could it be taken too far? Could you say, I'm going to go and use music to memorize things. Could you go too far with that? I don't think so. That's not good stuff you're memorizing. Okay. Any other thoughts on that? It might be a little awkward if you're trying to share the word with someone you haven't written a song. Let me tell you the gospel, all of a sudden you break out in a song. You've got a point there, yes. Is there a best place for use of this memory technique?

The idea of scripture songs and things of that sort. With children, it's an excellent way to get the point across. Why is it especially good with children? Children's ministries. They love music. They're so responsive. Oh yeah. They are very responsive to music. And a lot of them, they just, boy, they catch on to it quick.

What else? It can be repetitive. Pardon? It can be repetitive. It can be repetitive for kids, and they can handle it. For us, we go bonkers after the third time. Yeah? I was going to say, their voices don't matter. And your voice doesn't matter to them either. Uh-huh. That's good to hear. OK. Well, it's true. OK. All right. sing horribly. Only God can love it. But I can sing to my dog or to my children when they were little or hurt. You know, we would rock and I would sing rock about babies and their hurt would go away. Okay. You know, and it was all part of the same thing. It was all needed. Yeah.

Nearly impossible to make children understand, well, in my experience, that they need to memorize something for an abstract reason. Let me think about one thing. One of the things that we've observed is that children are not always able to understand the spiritual truths that we're giving them, but they can memorize the content and it has value later. Have you noticed that?

I grew up in a church situation where my earliest memory is I was two. And I remember being in our first Sunday school in the church building was in the kitchen because we hadn't finished the Sunday school rooms yet. And I remember things in that room and I remember things that were sung in that room. And a lot of the things that were sung and stories that were told are things that come back to me now and I understand the content and the meaning and significance behind it, even though at the time all I was doing was memorizing.

So I think that's one other aspect to this children's ministry thing. Not only do they pick up on it and like the song, but it's got long-term value. It's got longevity to it, because it's truth. It becomes part of their frame of reference. Yes, and what happens is they'll memorize the words, make sure they get the words right, You know how kids get words wrong? I'm trying to think. My mom told stories of several different songs that she had memorized as a kid and she got the words wrong.

Howard be thy name, things like that. Anyway. My grandmother was a missionary down in Fiji Islands and there was a Swedish lady who was there and she would sing while she was doing her laundry. And she'd be washing her laundry and she was Swedish. So she'd be singing, there's room in the corset for me. So anyway, yeah. Yeah. Consecrated cross-eyed bear. Yes, there we go.

Doug? One of the songs that I know we used to use here in the Little Totty Kids, Jesus Loves Me. The kids would sing that. The message is there. That's right. You know, they didn't understand. It's there. They'd come back. That's right. It means something later.

I was two, and I remember those times, too. Listening to the stories and stuff like that. But, you know, it somehow didn't sink in at the time. And I remember going down the street, and what car I was in, and I was in the middle, in the back seat, and all that.

And I remember leaning over and asking my parents, how do I become a Christian? Because I'd been hearing all these things, but how does this all come together? And it was later that night that I woke my mom up, because they told me to wait. And I said, I waited long enough. But a part of it was all these songs that they were singing. Here's all these words and finally it sunk in. I wasn't just singing words. There was something here that I needed to respond to. And that's a part of the principle of giving the truth. Go ahead and let them memorize it. Later on it will mean something to them and the lights will come on.

It's interesting that he and Kate do work with the little ones. They sing with us, but they can't read. A lot of them are from Korea, and they've only been here a year. But they know, like, Jesus loves me, and they know the kids sound English, so it's a way for them to learn English. Ah, okay. It's a language study tool with a spiritual message. Isn't that interesting? Okay. So you've got dual purpose. That's cool. Any other thoughts on this one? Any other funny stories to tell? Okay.

Take a minute to read through the words on this Absalom, Absalom, the lyrics on that. It goes down the left-hand side here. What are your thoughts after seeing those lyrics? I haven't heard the melody or anything, but what do you think from the lyrics? Well, it's a biblical story. Yeah, okay. So think about this. One of the things that it does is it conveys the biblical story, okay? So it helps with that message. What else do you see in it?

I don't know that I think it would be particularly appropriate for a Christian worship service. Ah, okay. In other words, it isn't necessarily worship music. It isn't something we do here, and yet, is it appropriate? It's appropriate, not necessarily for a worship service. And that addresses one of the questions we asked earlier. Sometimes there are things that we would listen to that are perfectly valid, but not necessarily something that we do in the worship service. Good point. What else do you see? The importance of it really is the responsibility that a person has to the younger people that they influence. Yeah. This responsibility to the next generation along is huge, isn't it?

It's interesting that the lineage of David is full of all sorts of examples of guys that blew it. Here's a David, a man for God's own heart, but how well did he pass it along? Here's Hezekiah, a man who was by and large a godly king. And as we'll see farther down the road in this Isaiah study, had a son who went way off the track.

So this passing it along thing, this underscores that, doesn't it? It's interesting. This is a piece here that is really valuable looking at this intergenerational transfer principle that we talked about. What else do you see? This doesn't seem to mention.

God particularly, does that make it bad? Why is it still okay? Well, he's talking about his dipped in innocent blood to make me clean. He doesn't say what the innocent blood comes from exactly, but I think God's in there. It looks to the cleansing, doesn't it? And it looks to that. In other words, there are spiritual and moral principles in it that are biblical. Even though it doesn't say God or Jesus in it.

This song happens to be useful in a biblical context where you understand the scripture passages in reference. As a listener, if I was a brand new believer small chance that regular believers are familiar with the story of Absalom, listening to the song may just be like, wow, what's this about? But when you've read the scriptural text, you go, wow, I happen to have sent my dad this song. I really like it. The music is very emotional, and it's the guy who sings it, his voice just grabs you. But the power in the song is that it has a scriptural context.

So you can, if you know the biblical story, understand the context of the history of what's going on with David. And it also presents the principle, like Carol was saying, of how you need to be responsible for the way you raise your children. And it also reflects, I think, in this psalm, David's... his heart. David, as a poet, wrote lots of the psalms and various other things, and was very emotional, and yet loved the Lord in what he... in his life.

It's after God's heart, for the most part. How about this next one over, Creating Me a Clean Heart? How many of you have heard this song in various groups? What do you think about that in terms of singing in a church service? Let's think about this. What is the condition of the Christian believer's heart? The believer. Ah, the Christian believer's heart. Okay. It's washed. It's washed. Okay. Cast me not away from thy presence. You may as well say, Lord, please don't turn me into a Christmas turkey. Yeah.

Renew a right spirit within me. What spirit dwells in us? The Holy Spirit indwells us, see? And so the next one, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Is that something we need to plead? No. I know from having had exposure to charismatic churches that there's a tendency to think that the Holy Spirit leaks out between services. And that you have to plead then for the Holy Spirit to come back in every Sunday morning. Right? Please come back. I'm sorry I'm full of leaks. Right? And so, pardon? I see.

I think in the Episcopal prayer book that these words are there. Oh, it's in the Bible. Yeah, if you look at Psalm 5110, and so what you'll find is a lot of churches will use, some of them more so than what you'll find just with this typically, the whole Psalms, and in fact some of them even only do the Psalms. So they would sing this kind of message regularly.

So what I would say is, is this biblical? Yes, for the Jew. The Jew not of this time. So it is not something, even though it is from Scripture, it is not something that I would encourage singing in our worship services, even though it's biblical words and biblical message, it's the message for the Jew.

Take these words and change them to be true for the Christian. And thank you that you won't take your Holy Spirit from me. I'm not saying that rhymes with anything, but I'm just saying that message. So here's an interesting thing. We have on the left hand a set of words that are not necessarily directly biblical, but they're good. Not necessarily for worship service. The one on the right, creating me a clean heart, is not necessarily something that Christians should sing.

Again, it's discernment, even with something that's proposed as a scriptural passage. Discernment is in order. How about this next one? Here's the Ballad of Gideon. This is one I've wanted to do for the last five years, but just haven't found the right context. Read through that there. Okay, I have to say I had to cut it off because I ran out of room.

What do you think about that? Is that a good thing? Does it make you shudder? He's looking at human capability. That's not what it depends on. God is calling him God. He wants to be in it. It portrays what was originally Gideon's response. It's like, hey, you pick somebody else. Kind of like with Moses. Hey, that's a great idea. There's somebody else that can do it, right? Yeah, he's not responding because he's looking at human capability, isn't he? Very much so. Is this something you would have in a worship service? Again, we wouldn't sing it in the main service on Sunday morning. But there is a place for it.

Yeah, Brad. Possibly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Could be. Yeah. If you happen to be teaching through this passage. Oh, it would be perfect, yeah. A perfect way to tell the story, yeah. And that would be another distinction, as a special music, but not necessarily something we sit down and try to get everybody to sing through. Okay.

Other thoughts and observations on that? I think sometimes when you take a story and you put it in a lyrical exaggerated form, obviously some of the lines in there are quite exaggerated to to bring out illustration and really hook things into your brain, it really does help things stick longer. Poetry and metaphor have long influenced the way that humans react to a message. Obviously song is part of that communication form. I think that's sometimes like coming back to children and new believers and just even the word, sometimes this is a fantastic way to introduce people to a story because they might actually hear the song first and that might pique their interest and drive them to the word.

But everybody thinks the Bible is rated G and there's a whole lot of R. Come on, if you look at David sending out on in the scriptures, most people have heard of very small parts of the New Testament and strange parts of the Old Testament, and this may help them understand things in a greater kind. Don't you think the Old Testament is better understood if they knew about Gideon? Yes, I'm not saying that every time. This doesn't tell much about Gideon. Oh, well, this is only a portion of the song. There's a lot more to the song. It's a long song. No, he didn't put the whole thing in. Yeah, that's why I put dot, dot, dot, because it just ran out of room. It's a ballad that has a bunch of verses.

I think the thing is, as you look through here, ultimately, the first measure is what's biblical, right? And then we have to look at, in terms of use in the church, is there a proper context for it? You may have something that is fine for Christians to listen to, and even biblical for Christians to listen to, that isn't necessarily something you would have as a group song. It isn't necessarily something, we just saw an example here, that you would have everybody singing, but it may indeed be something that is appropriate for a special or a special occasion.

And it's a matter of how are you going to judge these things? How are you going to determine what's appropriate? I need to figure that one out. Because you would say, well, this is appropriate for worship, but this isn't. Why would you decide one and not the other? Pardon? It's a fun song. Okay, it's fun. Alright. But what are we going to use to decide? The criteria is still Scripture. Yeah, the criteria is still Scripture.

And notice too, when we talk about a group, what did Paul leave us with? edifying. Is this building up the body of Christ? And that's the measure that's going to be used. Is it such that it's edifying that it is building up the body of Christ? That's what we're going to be using as the measure.

Obviously the lyrics need to be biblical and is the context in which we're using it such that the body is built up. for a group worship situation. I mean, you could have something, if we tried to do the Ballad of Gideon as a group worship, it wouldn't work. It may work as a special. Well, it's kind of sing-songy too. Yeah. Some of the songs have good lyrical content. but the music is not supportive of a group worship. So there are musical aspects of it that have to be considered as to does this build up the body of Christ. Interesting, huh?

And that's something that goes into the culture. We've run out of time. And then some. So let's pray. Lord, as we look at these things, as we look at the words, as we look at the principles, examine things here and we do ask for wisdom as each of us has a part, whether just simple participation in group worship, whether it is our individual listening, whether it is the selection of or some aspect of accompanying music or singing, doing specials, all those things are different aspects of areas of ministry in our lives. And we look to You for wisdom. We ask that You would teach us, Lord, and that we would have indeed good, solid discernment in this area to know what is helpful and know what is building up and what is not. We thank You, Lord, for Your Word and the guidance that You have, Your Holy Spirit, Lord, to lead us into all truth, including truth in this area too. In Jesus' name,