Music in Praise and Worship

Mr. Kemp talked about a song that meant something to him and how much the song lyrics meant to him. Listening to music can be one of the most intense emotional experiences for human beings. Because of that, it's also one of the most subjective emotional experiences. Just think about when you turn on the radio and you go across all these different types of music. There's rock, hard rock, soft rock, country, jazz, and classical. When you go across, especially in a big city like Nashville, you turn into their stations, you can have music from six different countries and six different languages. You go across the dial and listen to different music. All of it is different. Of course, they have different effects on people. I know people who think that bagpipes are the most stirring music you can have. They just love bagpipes. It just boils their blood. For a lot of people, bagpipes is like running over cats with a lawnmower. It's just the sound. But some people love bagpipes. I had a friend who loved the accordion. He was actually an excellent musician, played a lot of different instruments, but he loved the accordion. One day we gave him a little...it was from a farsight cartoon. It was supposed to be hell, and Satan is there, and everybody's walking into hell, and he's handing everybody an accordion. That would be some sound. But he loved it! He loved polkas. In certain parts of the country, for instance, from Chicago, when you play a polka at a dance, everybody comes out. Everybody. When I was down in Texas, one of the radio stations I worked for played a lot of Tejano music, and accordion was a part of that. For other people, accordion is a strange-sounding instrument. There's different kinds of music, but it has different effects on different people. What I want to talk about today...one of the music that really affects people is opera, one way or the other. People love opera or hate opera. I always say opera is the only music you can listen to where you're watching it performed and somebody gets stabbed with a sword and they sing about it. There's all kinds of fighting, all kinds of stuff in certain operas, but it can be sung while they do it. Music has profound physiological effects on us. Certain music causes your blood pressure to go up, heart rate to increase. I'll listen to certain music and I can't keep my feet still, and I'll look at my wife and say, you want to dance? And she'll say, no.

She's German, so I think you're playing accordion. She sort of gets into that. But I hear certain music and you're like that, too. That music to other people, it makes them nervous. Some people make them want to dance, other people make them nervous. They hear the exact same song. I always find it interesting. I love to listen to music from different time eras. Kim and I just listened to a college class. We had it on CD on the history of jazz and how that started in the 1800s and developed and all the different kinds of jazz that there is. It was just fascinating. The history of the blues was one of the classes.

We listened to it and the professor would actually sing songs. He had a piano and he would sing songs while he gave the class to show different kinds of music. Other people, the blues are just, why would anybody listen to that? I just can't even understand why anybody would listen to it. Now, other people listen to certain kinds of music because it actually stirs their curiosity.

They're very intellectually involved in it. Some people love classical music because they actually listen to how the different instruments either complement or contrast each other. I knew someone who was a professional musician. We were at the Wisconsin Dells and we had a 105-piece orchestra. And a person in the orchestra came up to him in just a panic and said, All four of the flautists are sick. And this song we're playing today, flutes are very important.

He just shook his head. And then I watched him go down and walk through the orchestra pit, picking up different people's music and changing the music. He just walked through and changed music on these different instruments. And when they played it, it sounded like they were flutes playing. See, intellectually, he listened to music in a way that I do not. And he understood music in a way that I do not.

And of course he loved classical music. Of course, the most important thing is the effect of music on our emotions. Music can make us happy. It's sad, angry. Music can actually make people violent. And two people can be listening to the same piece of music and have a different reaction to it. That's why music can be used for good or evil. Good or evil. And you know, some musicians actually design music to do certain things. I mean, there's martial music, you know, the march, John Philip Sousa, right?

The march was designed to get people stirred up and patriotic. There was a reason for that. If you listen to music that was written in communist Russia during the time of the Soviet Union, it all had this military feel to it. Music could do different things. There's people who write music for different reasons. There's people who write music to try to get people worked up into anger and violence. Or try to create a sense of, you know, produce immorality.

There's songs that are written to produce immorality. Well, today what I want to do is I want to talk about music as part of our Sabbath service. Music is part of our Sabbath service. And we're going to talk about worship and praise. Now, I reverse those for a reason. You know, you'll hear a lot of main steam religious churches will talk about how they have their praise and worship service, praise and worship service.

I reverse that for a reason. We're going to talk about worship and praise. We'll see you in a minute. Worship and praise is part of our service, and music is part of that. By the way, worship and service isn't all music. This is a worship and service, worship and praise service. Worship and praise, as far as music, is just part of it. It's interesting that there are a lot of the Protestant churches that change their music styles and change their entire service into music 15, 20 years ago, who are now having serious problems for the people who grew up in that, because they're finding it shallow.

Or now they want a different style of music. They're a different age now. They did it to keep their 18-year-olds. Now their 18-year-olds are 38, and they don't want to listen to that anymore. But then they find out the 18-year-olds, if they want to keep them in the church, they have to have music for them. That's why you will see churches have their traditional service at 9 o'clock, their modern service at 10 o'clock, their avant-garde service at 11 o'clock.

Because music has become the center of the service, music is part of the service. It's not the center of the service, but it is an important part. And it is part of our worship and praise. It is part of our worship and praise. I covered some of this with the Young Adults and the Young Adult Bible Study here about a year and a half ago.

We talked about a little bit of this. I'm going to actually cover it in more detail today. Worship. In English, the word worship just means prayer or a religious service. But the Hebrew word, and I mentioned this before in a sermon a while back, the Hebrew word for worship is very important. It literally means to bow down.

And it's used in many cases where someone just lays out flat before God. They're just laid out. So worship isn't the idea, oh, I've come to have a strong emotional reaction to music. Now, music can be part of worship. This is what's important. But we have to understand that worship and music aren't the exact same thing. And that's what's happened in culture. Music and services should be an expression of worship. They're not the same thing. In Hebrew, it literally means that you have such awe, such reverence before God. You're overwhelmed with the greatness of God so much you throw yourself down on the ground.

You bow down before God. Many times, even if you're on your knees, you would put your head down on the ground. Which I can't quite do anymore. But anyways, right, Mr. Kemp, you can't get down on your knees and put your head down anymore. It just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. And so, worship means to reverence God. Now, worship is part of music. We'll talk about that in a minute. There's also the word praise.

The word praise in Hebrew, especially. And the Greek means basically the same. But it's so expressive, the way it's written in the Hebrew Bible. Let's go to Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Let's go to verse... Verse 1. Praise to the Lord from creation. That's the title that's given to this psalm. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heaven.

Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all you angels. We actually have a song in our hymn book that's written. The words of this psalm is put into music. Although the way David would have sung it is not anything like what we sing today.

I mean, if we listen to ancient Hebrew music from the time of David, we would not know how to understand it. The way the instruments were used, the type of instruments they used, the way they sang it. So there's different styles. Sometimes we confuse a style with authenticity of worship. Well, you and I would have a hard time finding David singing this as authentic worship because we wouldn't understand it. We wouldn't understand the music, even if we understood the words. Now, that doesn't mean there are certain styles of music that would not be indicative to worship.

They're just not. But there can be different styles of worship music. And each of us in this room have different styles we prefer over others, and they're all different. They're all different. Praise the Lord from the heaven. Praise Him from the heights. Praise Him, all you angels. Praise Him, all you hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all you stars of light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.

Praise is an important part of this song. It would have been recited over and over again as this song was sung. Praise Hillel in Hebrew is where we get the word hallelujah. It can mean to shout or to sing. There is an emotional expressiveness to praise. You can't praise and be passive.

To praise is an expression. And what's really, really important here is like worship. The praise is towards God. If our music of worship and praise is towards us or for us entirely, because I like that, we're missing the point. The point of our music in a Sabbath service is to be an absolute reverence of God and to shout our expression of how great He is. To sing out our expression towards Him. So music is very, very important as long as we understand its purpose in the worship of God and the praising of God.

So it's part of our service, but right now we should be in an attitude of worship. Right now we should be in an attitude of praise as part of the entire service. What we have in song is the opportunity to express that on a very personal level. Whether we are singing it ourselves or we're performing it as part of what we call special music. Music that's not congregational. That term special music goes way back in American religion.

Churches, you know, many churches, and we have special music today, which means non-congregational music. You know, people come into a service for the first time, I think they must think, well, what's special about that? Why is that special music and not the other music special? But it's just a term that's, I don't know, it's a religious term that came in probably in the 1800s.

Music can be used both to please God and to displease God. And I want to stress that in music and the services. Our music, whether it's congregational hymn singing or what we call special music, whether it's the choir or whether you come up to perform either with an instrument or to sing, it can be pleasing to God or not pleasing to God. So we need to analyze what is pleasing to God because that's why we do it.

That's why we do it. In San Antonio, we had an enormous music program. And we had a young woman who was the first string violinist in the youth orchestra of San Antonio. So, you know, 10,000 people would come to watch her play. And people would come up to me and say, why can't we clap during services for her? Because she's playing to God. She's playing to God. I'm not saying clapping is wrong all the time in services.

I'm just saying this is the approach we've taken. Let's make this towards God. So we would get to hear her play with the sheer joy of listening her play towards God. That we were worshipping and praising God in this remarkable music that she would play. Let's go to Exodus 15. Here we find the first time that we have really worshipped music mentioned in the Scripture.

Exodus 15. We have a whole song. Songs must be important. The book of Psalms is a book of poetry and song lyrics. So if God takes that much of the Bible and puts song lyrics in them, it must be important. Look at chapter 15, verse 1, And Moses, then Moses, and the children of Israel sang the song to the Lord and spoke, saying, I will sing to the Lord for you, as triumph gloriously the horse and his rider has been thrown into the sea. And of course, this was what Moses wrote and was taught for generations.

In fact, the idea that this song was to be taught over and over and over again, as a reminder, as they sang about the time they came through the Red Sea. And it's the first time you really see a song as part of the worship of God. What's interesting here, too, is in verse 20, Then Miriam, the prophetess, this, of course, is the sister of Moses, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancers. And Miriam said to them, Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider has thrown into the sea. So we had the men singing one song, we had the woman singing another song, everybody was singing to God.

And it's the first time we really see music as a form, not that it didn't exist before, but we had this formal songwriting going on to sing praises to God and to worship God. It's interesting that David, of course, being this musician, one of the things he did was create a formal, permanent group of people that performed at the tabernacle.

Because the temple hadn't been built yet, but still they had a tabernacle where they had the Ark of the Covenant. And there he had professional singers. So how can we please God as we come together and we sing songs? Or is this just something we go through? We have most of them memorized, and we just sort of, you know, sing them. And some of them we don't like, so we just sort of mumble through them.

But who are we singing to? I could have a song I hated. What would you think if God said, I don't care if you hate that song, I like it, sing it to me. Would you sing it? Or would you... No. We are singing to God. So what do we do? How do we please God? Let's go to 2 Chronicles 5. 2 Chronicles 5.

This is now where Solomon has built the temple, the Ark of the Covenant has come into the temple. I want you to notice the importance that music plays here. It came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place, where all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves without keeping to their divisions. No matter whether it was your turn to serve or not, it didn't matter, because the priests were in divisions. Some would serve for a few weeks, then somebody else for a few weeks, but they all became sanctified. They all did what they were supposed to do to appear before God holy. And the Levites, who were the singers, those of Asaph and Hermon and Jedothan, and their sons and their brothers stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals and stringed instruments and harps, and with them 120 priests sounding with trumpets. And it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound, to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, that when they lifted up their voice and the trumpeters and the cymbals and the instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, for He is good for His mercy and doors forever. When this happened, then the house of the Lord was filled with the cloud. That cloud was the presence of God. They all had to leave. They're singing, they're playing instruments, all as one, and this remarkable sound of praise and worship towards God. And what did God do? They visibly saw His presence come down into the temple. That's a powerful worship and praise, singing and playing to God. But I want you to notice a few things here. In verse 11, it says they sanctify themselves. We always encourage you to pray for God's guidance on those who will be speaking, and for your listening. You know, I pray all the time that God help me prepare something that is meaningful, important, and what He wants you to hear. And then I pray that God will help you hear what He wants you to hear. I mean, I can get up here and speak all I want. If God doesn't make that connection that we go into this word, and this word is connected in this speaking, what good is it? What good is it for me to get up and talk? He has to make this connection. He has to do this. You and I aren't that smart. God does this. And so we should pray for God to guide Sabbath services. We all should pray for God to guide our fellowship. And we should pray for God to inspire our music. We should pray for God to inspire our music. That when we sing, we are singing worship, this reverence, and this praise, this hallelujah to God.

You know, it's funny. You can see somebody that doesn't have the best voice, and they're putting everything they have into that song. And you know they mean it. And you just can't help but be inspired by it. Even though they may not have a very good voice. Because their attitude is an attitude of worship and praise. In verse 12, it says that the singers and the people who were playing the musical instruments were as one. They came together as one. I've seen throughout the years, music actually caused division in congregations. I've seen all kinds of problems with music at the Feast of Tabernacles. As a coordinator of festival sites in the past, every once in a while you have problems at the Feast because somehow the choir director, the choir don't quite match up. Or there's people in the choir that don't like the songs that's being sung. Well, he's already put that music together. He can't change it. Or there's just all kinds of things that happen. Somebody doesn't like the alto standing next to them. Or, what are we going to do? There's no tenors. And this alto has to sing tenor because it's the other way to work. Or some bass has to try to push his voice to sing tenor. There's all these things that happen in music. And I've sat down with choir directors that were so discouraged and despondent, it was like, this feast has been horrible. I can't make this work. No, you can't. God can. I have that little conversation.

And it's funny, when everybody comes together and sings to God, okay? When the worship and praise is aimed towards God, they all tend to sing as one.

It may not technically be perfect, but they sing to God and something happens. Something happens to them and something happens to those who are listening. And that is, we experience worship and praise to God. When we become so inward in our music, and I've had people say, I don't find this song as sparring. No, but somebody else might. Somebody else might be moved to worship and praise God. By the waters of Babylon, I confess here, it's not moving for me. It makes me depressed. So I gotta sing that one hard, because I'm singing to God. And there's always a benefit from that. So we stay unified in music, even with our different opinions and our different ideas, because of who we are worshiping and who we are praising. And then he also said that they were doing this in praise and thank, thanking God. You know, a big part of praise is thanksgiving. A big part of praise is thanksgiving. Many times we don't reap the benefits of song, of music in our worship and praise of God on the Sabbath, because we're not thanking God. We don't come with an attitude of thanksgiving. What we receive out of Sabbath services, not just music, has to do with, do we come in an attitude of worship? And do we come in an attitude of praise? And a big part of an attitude of praise is thanksgiving. We come with thanksgiving. And so whether we're singing the song or sitting there listening to it, because listening to music and Sabbath services is not a passive experience, is it? I mean, every time I hear the Hallelujah chorus, I can hardly not stand up and sing myself. It's not a passive experience, because we understand that this is a way of approaching God and approaching Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5.

Verse 18.

Let me find Ephesians. That would help. He says, and I want to read the first part of the sentence, because it's all part of what would be one sentence when you translate it into English. Verse 18 says, So the point he's making here is, let's not find other ways to try to fulfill our human needs. Let's be filled with God's Spirit. Let's do it in this relationship with God, this spiritual relationship. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks —see how thanks? Thanksgiving is always part of praise— giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Now, that's all one sentence in English, and it's all tied together. We sing, and in doing so, we affect each other. When we sing together, whether it's the choir or whether we're doing this in congregational singing, when we do it, so we sing and we affect each other. We encourage and inspire others because we sing together. So that's one of the reasons how we can please God, is by singing together, everybody giving their heart to it. And then Colossians 3, 16, he says, He says, We learn through singing. Have you ever been singing a song or hearing a song sung, and suddenly there's a phrase in there that's like, it hits you. There's importance in that phrase because it's being sung. You know the phrase, you know what it means, but somehow in that music, there is an emotional connection to it. We learn through singing. We actually teach each other then through singing, it says. This is why music is part of a worship and praise service. I would hate to think of what it would be like to have a service of no music. I mean, I've been in churches where there's no piano player, there's no song leader, and so you sing a couple songs, everybody trying to follow along, and it's difficult. And you know, it's sort of like, oh wow, this isn't good. But then when you see everybody singing their heart out to God, and everybody's a little bit off because there's no piano, it's like, no, this is good. This is good. Because why? We're worshiping God. We're praising God. That's why. You know, I wonder when visitors come into the congregation, you know, what do they think about our singing? Have we ever thought about that? And I say, well, these are weird hymns. But what do they think about our singing? I tell you, they're not saying, wow, these people are a group of the most beautiful voices ever.

But what do they think? These are people who are here to worship and praise God. And singing's just part of it. It's the attitude. That's the problem when you have, you know, an hour service and 45 minutes of its music. It's not supposed to be that way. But it is supposed to be part of it. Because that attitude of worship and praise opens us up to receive what God wants to give to us. To receive the messages that God brings. Now, can music be displeasing to God? Well, it's displeasing to God when we mix it with idolatry. You think about Moses going to the mountain, and they hear all kinds of noise coming from the camp, of course, because they've created the golden calf. And he comes down, and Joshua being Joshua says, there's war! You know, foom, God, his sword comes, and let's go fight! And Moses said, that's not fighting, Joshua. That's singing. This is not good. They were singing worship songs. Worship songs that we say is towards God, but is done when we, in any conjunction with idolatry, is displeasing to Him. Also, he's displeased when we come and we sing to God in wrong attitudes. Or we come and we sing to God, and we know that our lives, we're not even trying to really be right with God. We're not even trying to really be right with God. And we know that. But we come and we sing and act like, oh, that's okay. Look at Amos 4.

This sermon actually began as a sermon on gifts. And I got to how music is a gift and should be used in the church, and then that took over the entire sermon. So I'll be giving a sermon on spiritual gifts sometime in the future, but I just wanted to zero in on this. Amos 4.15, the prophet says...

We're about here. I wrote down the wrong verse. Oh, 5.15. He says...

And all kinds of ceremonies. They still went to the temple. They still praise God. But they also had all kinds of idolatry. And if you read the prophets, the whole nation, both Judah and Israel, depending on which one's written, writing to, is filled with violence and hatred and greed and, I mean, covetousness and idolatry. And it just... And, you know, sexual sins, the whole country's rotted out. And then just notice what he says in verse 21. I hate, I despise your feast days. I do not save your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings. Now, remember, he's not saying, I hate the fact that you bring offerings to Moloch or Baal. These would have been holy feast days. We could fill in. He's, I hate your Sabbath keeping. I hate your feasts of tabernaes. Why? He says, though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I would not accept them. Nor I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I don't even want you to sing to me. This is displeasing to God. So we say, well, we want our songs to be pleasing to God. How could you displease Him? When we live like the world and then come to Sabbath services and pretend to worship. Now, we all have sins. We all struggle. That's what I'm talking about here. He's talking about people who are just rebelling against God. And when we live lies of rebellion and then come to Sabbath services and sing our songs. He says, don't sing to me. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. He says, get right with me. Get right with me and then sing to me. Remember, we're singing to God. At a Sabbath service or a holy day, we are singing to God. And so we come with hypocrisy. He says, don't come and sing to me. Another way we can displease God in our singing is in 1 Corinthians 14 in the New Testament here.

And this is a large problem that they're having in that church, and this is just part, the tip of an iceberg. Their services were an absolute mess. Different people preaching different things, arguments going on. I mean, they were getting drunk at the Passover service. I mean, it's just the whole thing. This church is an absolute mess. And this one verse here, He says, how is it then, brethren, whenever you come together, each of you has a song, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. And all things be done for edification. One of the problems they had were they'd come to Sabbath services and people would be different singing different songs at the same time. Oh, I don't like that song. I want to sing this song. So you might have a group of people here singing one song, a group of people here singing another song. They're not singing to God. They're singing because they like the song and they're battling each other with their music. Anytime music causes discord in the congregation, it is not pleasing to God. Years ago, George Barna, who is the foremost researcher in religious trends in the United States, years ago, he did research into what he called the worship wars. The fact that the Protestant world was being divided over music and people were choosing their churches by the music they liked. And it literally was tearing churches apart. And that's when churches started having different types of services. So you separated your people. Your people of a certain age, you know, you were over 50, you went to one group. If you were between 30 and 40, you went to another service. And if you were under 30, you went to a different service. And then they might even have a teenage service. They literally split their families apart over music. And churches split over music. His recent research shows that the problems of that, long-term problems of that, was actually partly for the destruction of Christianity going on in our country. Because worship and praise became music, not about God. It became about music that I like, not about God. You know, the fact that human beings create all different kinds of music, I would guess that God likes a lot of different kinds of music. Right? God likes a lot of different kinds of music. It's the attitude in which we breathe. Now, once again, there are some music forms that aren't appropriate for Sabbath services. But we can't let that happen. And it's not that it has happened. I'm just saying we have to be aware of what's happened in the world. In the Protestant world, this is a real problem. If we have problems in the church over music, what we have to do is follow Matthew 18. Now, I gave a sermon here, what? Maybe two, three months ago on Matthew 18. Matthew 18 isn't a suggestion by Jesus Christ. It's a command. This is how my brethren will deal with their problems. If we have a problem with music, we should talk to each other about it. Whether it's the choir or just inside the church. Every once in a while someone will come to me. And they just can't sing a certain song. And I understand that. I had a woman years ago that said, I can't sing all over Christian soldiers. And I said, why? She'd grown up in, I don't know what it was, a Baptist church. And they sang it every week. And she had this emotional attachment to the song that was so subjective that every time she sang it, it made her think of her Baptist church. And she said, what do I do? And I said, well, then don't sing it. You can't sing that song. It's okay. Just stand there. No one's going to notice because everybody else should be singing. So I mean, there are, I understand the subjectivity of music can be very overwhelming.

So that's why Matthew 18 has to be applied. Now let's just wrap up some principles here. And then I want to talk about something I want to do here and in Nashville in terms of music. Some of the principles we've looked at here is, an attitude of worship is what a profound respect in all. And to come to this worship service, we need to come in a profound sense of all. I can remember when we had three little kids. You know how hard it was to come to services in a profound sense of all? Using my wife and I felt like we were having a nervous breakdown. And finally, I'll tell this about Kelly. She's not here. When she reached about 15 and she would take her forever to get ready for church. And every once in a while she'd come out and Kim would say, you are not, where did you get a miniskirt? You are not wearing that to church, young lady. You go in here and change clothes. You have six minutes and then I'm leaving without you. And after that, only one time I started to pull out and I started running down the street to get in the car. Okay, well, you can come because you made it at six and a half minutes. Otherwise, that was it because I was already going. You know, that's sort of got that under control. You know, in fact, you actually leave me. Yeah? You're 15. You're grown enough now to know that I have to be there for services. And so you're just going to have to be there for services? Well, no, you need to be there for services. I would not be surprised to see her do the same thing with one of her kids someday. Sorry, we're there to worship God. And if you can't be there to worship God, you're 15, you're 16, you should know better. Goodbye. Because you're not wearing that dress.

You know, though, I look back at my life with Mark kids was, if that's the worst thing that happens to you is that it's been a good. These are good kids. We were very fortunate with our children. Remember, it is our attitude of worship and praise that we bring to Sabbath services that determines the benefit we get from it. Because why? We're tuned into God. We're here to see God. We're here to learn. We're here to fellowship with others who are of like mind.

Fellowship is so important. We don't just come here to have an hour and a half to two-hour service. We're here to fellowship. That fellowship should last throughout the week. That's a whole other sermon that's coming up here. Our need to fellowship with each other. Music and the Sabbath service should praise God and uplift others. We looked at that. And worship music can come in a variety of styles. I mean, I know a minister that he would only allow classical music. If it wasn't by Handel, you can't sing it practically.

Which I love Handel, but, you know, I did like in San Antonio when we had... 40% of the church was Hispanic. And when they had their Spanish guitars and singing in Spanish, it was great. And bongos. It was great music. And very appropriate music. So there's different styles. And sometimes something may not appeal to us, but as long as it's proper... As long as it's proper, and it's right, and it's not offensive, then it's okay.

If it's being sung to God and other people are getting a benefit from it. So, here's what I would like to do to... Here and Nashville. To help us be more worshipable and praising of God in our song service. No, we're not going to have a half hour of music. That's not the point. It's the attitude in which we do things. And first of all, I want to work with our special music. And I've talked to Mr. Fusci about this and Mr.

Fritz about this. And starting in January, Mr. Fritz is going to be publishing a three-month schedule. So that if he has choir practices, you'll know when they are and when you're singing. Okay, that helps the choir. But there's another reason for that. I encourage all of you to think that you can sing, you can play.

Now, sometimes you have people who can't sing and they want to, and that's unfortunate, but if you can sing, I'm great in the shower. I would not get up and sing in front of the congregation. If you can sing and you play an instrument, if there's a schedule... Because here's what happens. I know many of you out there thought, I'm going to participate, and then you don't.

Well, I'm going to do that. Then somebody does something and says, well, I'm going to do that, but you still never do it. If you wish to participate, if you want to play the piano, if you have something you want to sing, you go to Mr. Fritz and you get yourself scheduled. Now, why am I doing that? Because if you're scheduled, guess what you will do? You will practice and you will do it. Otherwise, you'll talk yourself out of not doing it. I'm taking your excuses away. If you've prayed about it and you feel like you should do this, you go to him now.

He will look at your lyrics and make sure the lyrics are okay. And if you're going to get up here and do an Ozzy Osbourne song, no, that's not going to work. So, I mean, there are certain limits. Not that anybody's going to do that. But he will look at it and make sure that it's proper. He may ask you if it's your first time to perform it for him in private, just to make sure, okay, you do know what you're doing.

If you say you're going to play the piano and you can't, okay, well, there's a problem. Oh, no, I just thought I'd play an Escott for a miracle, that I can play the piano. That's probably not going to work. But what we want to do is make sure that we have more people involved in getting up during Sabbath services and doing worship and praise to God in a musical form. There's no reason why we can't have music here every week. There's enough people here that can do that. I know that takes work. There's also a reason for scheduling it. Sometimes we have to set up things.

Now, someone will walk in and say, I'm going to play today, or I'm going to sing today. And the poor sound guys are like, oh, okay. If we have a schedule, they know. There are times when things are spontaneous. I understand. We can't take that away, too. Someone walks in and says, I put this together. It works. Mr. Fritz says, great. Okay, let's throw it together today. That's fine. That happens. But I really would like to see more people say, okay, I will prepare. I will put myself down so that I now am responsible to prepare.

So that we do have some more music. If you are performing special music, pray about it. I'm performing this song because I really like it. That's good that you really like it. But you're bringing it to God and hoping that it will inspire us and teach us. Remember we read those two passages in the New Testament that we inspire and teach each other in music. That God will do that because you can't. You can sing it, you can perform it, you can be perfect. But God does that part. So you have to ask for God to help do that. Pray about your special music. The choir, before you sing together, during the week you should be praying about what you're doing. That God will bless it. You know, it shouldn't be, God, I'm the best bass in the choir and that soprano up there. She can't hit the high notes anymore. Please help her to get laryngitis. That's not what you're supposed to be doing. God, help this to fulfill what you want in your people. We're singing to you for the benefit of everyone. I mean, if all music had to be perfect, I can't imagine a children's choir that was perfect. It would be odd. They can't be, right? You can't put all these kids together and have it perfect. And yet, every time those old children are singing and they're singing to God, we're all inspired, aren't we? We're all inspired. Now, we should bring our best. I'm not saying we should be sloppy on what we do. We should bring our best before God. But you know what we are before God who created music? When you think about this, He created music. We're a little children in a children's choir, even at our best. Even at our best, we are children in the children's choir, to Him. Age is happy to have a sing to it. Now, if you're leading congregational hymns, and I know I used to lead hymns, and I know what it's like, it's like, oh man, we've got to leave in a half hour. And I didn't pick my hymns yet. Kim, which hymns do you like? I'm throwing together... Oh, I know this one. Is this really what's good? I don't know if it's good for the congregation. I just know how to lead it. You and I should be thinking about the hymns that we pick, and we should be praying for the hymn service. If you pray for the speaking, if you pray for the fellowship at church, we all should be praying for that. We should also be praying for the music. We should be praying for it. That we will be led into worship and praise of God, and that will bind us together. It brings us together in that. So I encourage any of you that can participate to think about... Maybe go ask God. If I have a gift, should I participate? That doesn't mean you have to get up here every week. I mean, if you think about it, we had eight people that did something every other month. That means in a four-month period, we'd have special music every other week. Now, we can't... There's weeks we're not going to have special music. We're a small congregation. But it is an important part of what we do. And pray about it. Always pray that our attitude, because that's what this is all about. What we bring to this worship and praise service, which music is just part of, what we bring to this is our attitude before God, our humility before God, our desire to please God and to learn more about Him. And now, you all have an opportunity to sing worship and praise to God.