Mark and Mike Lowry

up in a building something like this and then had a fireplace and we were supposed to dress up in winter clothes and there would be a fire in the fireplace and we just had an awesome time singing Christmas carols wearing winter clothing and it's 90 degrees outside but we had an awesome time and so I remember that as one of the activities that I looked forward to and so we're going to have Christmas in July this morning let me tell you something how many of you have friends you better all raise your hands right some of you did not you know I'm concerned about that but the friends are very valuable are they not long-term friends are a rarity and lifelong friends or even rarer still and so we have some guests with us this morning Colleen is from Texas Colleen raise your hand Mike and Natasha Lowry Mike raise your hand Natasha raise your hand lifelong friends and his brother Mark uh I think Mark what's your last name yet Mark Mark Lowry and so I asked Mark he's in town and I asked Mark and Mike if they would come sing for us so Mark why don't you make your way forward Mike why don't you come forward why don't we give you these guys a hand for being with us this morning foreign Christmas in July because Mark sings a song called Mary did you know how many of you heard that it has become the a Christmas a Christmas classic a song that I really really really really enjoy and uh and so I asked Mark if he would sing that for us this morning so that we can have Christmas in July what do you think I think it's a great ER all right good it better be it sets an honor to be here at buzz and Karen's church because I have known them my whole life I was I was 17 when I went to the college down the street before it was a real college I mean back when we went there was no air conditioning in the dorms and uh it was but it was an adventure anyway we met them I've known them since I mean they we've known each other since we were young you know and this is my perfect older brother Mike and uh I was looking at the this due remembrance of me table that I was raised in churches that always had that you know and it was so cool to watch this because this church reminds me so much of the churches I sang in from 1980 to 1988 when I graduated from college about 200 concerts a year in little bitty independent Fundamental bible-believing Bible banging foot Stomp and soulwind and door knocking Pew jumping devil Chase and sin hating King James version only Baptist Churches and our preachers weren't always right but they were never in doubt did you know and I loved it and that's what I was thinking of this morning when I was sitting here looking because I would sit my sent my little cassette tape on the Lord's supper table and I'd set up my sound system and I had a foot switch for the Reverb so I could sound like Johnny Mathis when I'm singing and it just brought back a lot of good memories and it's so good to be with you I wrote this song in 1984. I wrote the lyric in 1984 buddy green put music to it in 1991 and it really just comes from questions my mom and I talked about on my whole life what was it like raising God what was it like changing God's diapers what was it like looking down in Jehovah was nursing at your breast what was that like my Liberty professor said that Mary was about 13 when the angel showed up and I've read the Bible through and I've never found that yet but we do know she must have been about 13. because they were dead by 40. back then you know so as soon as they could they better start having babies so the angel shows up and says Mary you've been chosen and then she says but I've never known a man and he explains it to her and then she starts singing The Magnificat I was reading this one day thinking this is no time for a concert you have an angel in the room asking some questions I think I'd have said could you run by my mother's room she's going to need an explanation but Mary just said be it unto me as you say and thank God for that little girl who brought us our savior Mary Did You Know that you're being [Music] on water Mary Did You Know your baby boy will save our sons and daughters did you know that that your baby [Music] cute this child that you delivered will soon deliver you [Music] Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight true a blind man Mary did you know your baby boy will calm the storm with his head did you you that your face when you kiss your little baby you have kissed [Music] good morning the blind will see the death will hear the dead will live again the lane will lead the Dom will speak the Praises of the land [Music] Mary Did You Know for a baby boy he is the Lord of all creation Mary your people will one day rule the Nations did you know your baby boy his Heaven's perfect land this sneaky is the great High [Music] ER yeah Sing Along on this one if you would you know it in fact it's in your hymn though I'm so glad to be in a church that has hymnals if I love a Hymnal sing along with me [Music] Jesus all our sins all our sins and griefs today what a privilege to carry what a privilege to carry everything together oh what peace we often forfeit oh what peace we often for oh what needless pain oh what needless [Music] thank you everything that God [Music] play it Michael [Music] everybody's seen [Music] oh what needless pain oh what needless [Music] all right breathe [Music] prayer and I know all you old people like me out there are glad you didn't have to stand through that song when did we start standing through songs I'm 65 I don't want to stand I've stood enough let's do Victory in Jesus you know this too right how many of you do not know Victory in Jesus I'm so glad these children know it uh how's it started I heard no old story I will save your cane from Glory how we gave his life on Calverton to save a red slot I heard about his groaning I heard about his growth and his Precious Blood and his Precious Blood uh then I repented then I repented of my sin and won the Victor all right stand and sing Oh Victory and cheese us thy savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming he loved me air he loved me air I do and all my love and all my love is to him she plunged me to Victory beneath the cleansing flood I heard about his healing of his cleansing power how he made the lame how we made the lane to walk and cross the Blind and calls the Blind and then I cry dear Jesus and then I cried come and heal my broken Spirit come and heal my bro in spirit and somehow Jesus came and brought to me the big heaven in Jesus my Savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me he loved the air I do ill and all my love is to him he plunged me to Victory beneath the received all right you can be seated you see how I didn't make you stand up through three or four songs that's the way you do it folks [Music] with this one and then you're going to come up and we're going to do a q a by the spirit leads this is a Baptist Church as a spirit ever LED here [Applause] just kidding okay this is another one I love too I love the old hymns you know uh there's a fountain I I have a program online if any of y'all ever want to tune in it's called just whenever because I go live just whenever I feel like it and I sing all the old hymns and I put the words up so everybody can sing along at home and it's just some because so many churches unlike this one don't have hymnals in the back of their Pew and our young precious people won't know Fanny Crosby and Blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of Glory divine oh my goodness or could we within the ocean fill and where the Skies of parchment made where every stalk on earth a quill and every man ascribe by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole those stretch from Sky to Sky ain't nobody writing like that in that and like this too [Music] and sinners plunged [Music] blood lose all their guilty stay sing churches [Music] and sinners plunged and sinners [Music] lose all their guilties day that dying Thief Rejoice to see that fountain is he [Music] wash your sin away say everybody my sin oh [Music] wish [Music] he was sure my sins [Music] be seated thank you question and answer time for Mark or you can hear me preach question so why don't we uh why don't we just take a few moments since Mark and Mike are here do you guys have any questions for them what's that uh children do you have any questions or you want to get out of here they want to get out of here can I go with you yeah bye here bye-bye bye-bye I grew up the question is where did I grow up Mike and I and my little sister who also lives in Virginia over somewhere in the Hills uh I don't even know where it is do you mind what's the name of the city Concord yeah see I live in Houston now but I'm moving up here and um thank you and what we grew up in Houston born and raised in Houston our parents were raised in Houston my grandfather our grandfather could remember when Houston had one stoplight that's how far back we go he could also remember when they invented dirt he's been dead a while anybody else come on guys questions or a sermon you better get busy what Buzz story you might be better than that see I was never allowed to be in any of the singing groups at Liberty I'm not kidding I wasn't allowed to never audition because I went there to study business and the Lord called me into this while I was trying to take a nap one day and uh so that's why I'm here but I don't know all I know is first all I know is when Mark traveled with us you know we traveled all across the country many times overnight trips Mark was up all night as you see him on stage that's how he is in person and we could not get any sleep when Mark was on the bus anyway I'll tell you my favorite my favorite bus story is uh I had just gotten out of a band it was a guitar band and all the way through college and then uh I had graduated and so I was teaching guitar lessons and making big money uh and and uh Buzz and Sarge walk into the music store I can see like yesterday and asked if I wanted to join this group that they headed up called sound Edition which was a bunch of horns and stuff I said I don't want to play with a bunch of horns so anyway they said we'll just come in uh go to the marcucci ranch which is where like a week-long rehearsal and I met Natasha there she was in the singer group and there was a bunch of other girls that looked like her which she is great looking as you can see but uh at 20 she was even greater am I putting my foot in my mouth anyway so yeah I know yeah so anyway uh we hit it off right away and I thought you know I am going to play with these horns and so we we traveled for a year together and we you know have four kids yes sir yeah okay I didn't hear the last part no when I joined the vocal band in 1988 I would do monologues like I did in my concerts you know in churches and stuff I would do a monologue seeing monologue saying that's what because I started out singing and I noticed people listened a lot better when I talked so I thought I better dance with who burned me so so for eight years I honed my crap of telling stories on stage well Bill Gaither would be sitting on the piano while I'm in the middle of a monologue and he'd interrupt me and that's how we got sparring with each other because I didn't know I never had it I'd never been on stage with anyone else I'd never been in a group this was the first group I ever sang in I've never had anyone else on stage that might possibly interrupt me and so he did and it threw me off and so I'd sass him and we got and finally it just started it just became a thing and he said keep the jokes on me he told me I said well that would be very easy yeah yes so I made fun of his hair that was the obvious Target my favorite one was every time his last wig I'd say his last wig was made out of cat hair every time he scratched his head his rear went up look at that always went over good but he is we talk nearly every day you know Bill and I just because you look when I left the group 13 years after being there and we had created really quite an amazing little thing it was fun too it was a lot of fun and um but I knew it was over I would be on stage and I could feel God's Thumb on my heart and I couldn't hear the music anymore and I couldn't fake the smiles so I called Bill and said I got a car I gotta have a meeting with you and he said What You Gonna Leave Me I said well if you make me tell you on the phone yes and he said well listen we don't need a meeting you said you'd stayed for three years you stayed for 13. let's thank God for 13 wonderful years and that was it of course we and then we're still best friends you know there was no we didn't burn any Bridges you don't want to burn Bridges you might have to cross them again you know but Bill no I left him twice and he was fine with it both times because I came back and uh after a while and so anyway I don't remember what the question was what was the question oh making fun of Bill yeah and so both times it was great but I should never have gone back you know that old saying you can't go back it's true it really is because God had other things for me to be doing but when I I tell you an interesting story when Bill called me and said I'm going to start a super group with David Phelps you Michael English and when I heard Michael English I really was tempted to go back because I I blended with him there's only one other person I ever Blended as well with Michael English is my mother you know family so he called me I said well I gotta go pray about it and uh so I went to my shower where I do my best praying because no one's in there with me bothering me and so anyway I'm in there praying I said Lord do you care if I go back to the Vocal Band and it felt like I walked up to my father and I had a pair of blue sunglasses and I had a pair of red sunglasses and I said Lord do you care if I wear the red sunglasses or the blue ones do you care if I go back to the vocal band or just keep doing solo what do you want it was like he leaned over and said Mark I am busy I'm dealing with Iraq do whatever you want I think some things you just choose and he's okay and he went on to say in my heart God never speaks to me audibly I'm a Baptist I couldn't handle it but he did speak to my heart and say mark it ain't about where you are it's who you are I'm going to use you if you sit on the back porch and talk to the Orkin man wherever you are I'm gonna use you so don't worry about it go with the vocal bet and go keep doing solo have fun whatever are you sure and so that was a lesson that I enjoyed learning but I did I wish I hadn't gone back because it was not right it just wasn't right I don't know why it wasn't bad just wasn't right so anyway next question with who a senior a good one you know I never saw him but a little I mean he well one of the ways God confirmed that he had actually called me because it was a Sunday afternoon Alfred B Smith remember him for God so loved the world and when he'd sit down looked like he had a basketball in his pants remember that gut do you not remember that because he had a big belly anyway so I'll give you Cliff Notes I was studying business I was going to be a businessman it was a Sunday afternoon Alfred Smith was singing a concert last that night at Thomas Road right and I was I was in my dorm no air conditioning it was too hot to get up and I was too tired to get up I was and I was too awake to go to sleep have you ever been that you're too late to go to sleep but you're too tired to get up always pray that'll put you right to sleep that's what I do and I figured that's that's my sedative because when I start praying I sometimes at night I'll fall asleep and I think what healthy father wouldn't love for his children to fall asleep talking to him that's what I think about my papa upstairs up there you know but anyway so I'm on my bed trying to go to sleep and I promise you and looking back I think it really was him the Lord spoke to me and said why won't you do what I want you to do I came to and and started talking to him like this was normal I never talked to him like this before I'd never heard him speak to me like that before but it seemed like oh I know that voice and I just started praying back to him and said I'll do whatever you want me to do and you know it even if it means going to music well you've never mentioned it you've never called me and I said he said well I'm calling I said okay this is your idea you get the word out and so Charles Hughes came up to me that week and said will you be my singer on the road fall well past him in the hallway and said I heard you sing on a TV show in Texas will you sing Sunday and as I was oh and then I put out a fleece that even God couldn't do and that was that um that they would ask me to sing that night in church what Alfred B Smith was doing a concert I was a freshman why would they do that I hadn't sung anywhere on that campus had no intentions of being in any kind of group I had done that as a child I had a recording contract as a child that was something you do as a child you grow up you go to college you get a degree you do that get wife and kids and support missions is what I thought the plan was and the Lord said why won't you do what I want you to do and I said I will I said but they have to ask me to sing tonight in church I knew that couldn't happen Alfred B Smith was singing so I got through the whole service thinking oh boy that was the devil it wasn't God I put out a fleece and God answered it I didn't sing in church tonight and I was walking out that side door almost out of the building when Dave randlett stopped me said will you sing in Chapel in the morning I thought he didn't even like me I didn't even know he I didn't know he knew I could sing and the Lord said where are you I said I'm in church what just happened there she's saying so I said okay but this is your idea you can get the word out and then Charles Hughes Dave must I mean Chelsea's and Falwell and then that we had that wreck I broke 11 bones Charles and some of you may know that but anyway that well we were Charles would take Charles was the preacher I was the singer David Musselman was the piano player and a man in Michigan had bought us a van that we could travel in and Charles Hughes would take a world map and a yardstick and if it reached he thought we could drive it in a weekend and we were here and here and here for one weekend we were headed to Tioga Center New York got as far as Carlisle Pennsylvania and Dick Bernier our driver was asleep he'd fallen asleep he was kind of weaving a little bit and I came too and said dick wait and he grabbed the wheel and he slammed slam to the guardrail then slammed into them we were finally broadside in the road in an 18-wheeler top the hill crashed and I fell through the cracks in the side of the road of the car the van and Charles was in a coma for two and a half months anyway that was the end of our group but it was the beginning of what I'm have been doing ever since which is this you know talking and singing and and it's just so cool to see because I mean the idea of being in the Gaither Vocal Band I had heard of them I didn't even really care that much about him I love the trio I love Bill Gloria and Danny I love a woman's voice in there men's four men's voices sounds like a mud wall to me I need a woman in there to break it up you know yeah and so that's how my ears work but so I if the Lord had told me on that first day Mark I mean I'm calling you but let me tell you what's going to happen you're gonna break all kinds of Bones you're gonna have to sing baritone in a quartet one day you're going to be a comedian I would have run for the hills I'd have found myself in a belly of a whale but I'm glad he doesn't tell us everything I'm glad that I found out on my own I could be a comedian when I made that word I'm a Storyteller and hopefully there are jokes in the story that kind of hold your attention because Baptist I learned quickly are my people back then they wouldn't clap at the end of a song that's giving glory to men and that's fine I don't need to be clapped for and they wouldn't shout back then because they're afraid someone might think they're doing it in another language but they would laugh that's how I knew they were listening and all I cared about is are they listening if they ain't listening you can't tell them stuff and humor became my way of bringing down walls so I could get people to pay attention and I never knew it was coming dinner conversations well when I I have failed at retirement about five times and one of the times I was trying to retire I thought well I gotta do something so I'll start a podcast and I love to eat and I love to talk and I've had some of the best conversations around the dinner table that I wish to the Lord we had recorded you know so many fascinating discussions about everything in the world with Gloria Bill people that I respect and so I thought let's start let's do a podcast like that so you can Google dinner conversations with Mark Lowry and Andrew Greer is his name he and Andrew Greer was a young man that interviewed me for a CCM magazine and I was so impressed with his questions and I said I'd like to do this with you because you ask good questions excuse me so we have we've had everybody in we quit it because I don't know any more people I've interviewed everybody I know yes ma'am he said I thirst I did I recorded it yet he made the river she wrote a good one he said I thirst yet he made the Seas I thirst said the king of the ages in his great thirst he brought water to me pretty good Mama but she and I both are one-hit wonders we we've done it really good once well this is I hope this has been fun for y'all I want to leave you with something that I if I were to leave you with a sermon and this just popped in me and I've been talking about a lot so my brother and my family has already heard this but I've been thinking a lot about worry how we can tend to worry and how a friend of mine Paul Young Who wrote the book called The Shack if you've never read it you really ought to he wrote an article in his blog called future tripping it's actually how it says when Joy Came To Stay you know how Joy will enter your life and you'll feel it and then as soon as she comes she's out the door you know she's never been a long he talks about that but the thing that caught my attention about all this is that our God is The Great I Am he's not the great I was or the great I will be he is never in the past he is never in the future you can correct me if any of this is wrong but he's never in the future he's only in the present I think that's what he meant by saying I am that I am in the present well no matter what day so I have to deduce everything to a bumper sticker so I can understand it he will not wallow with you in your past because it doesn't exist and he will not worry with you about your future because it doesn't exist you play out those scenarios mamas I know you you worry about those children and those grandbabies what if what if what if you're feeling the same emotion as if you're living it your heart's racing your breathing is getting labored and you're staying up all night and it's not even happening but if you do go through it he'll go with you because then it's in the present right he ain't he's not the great I was a greater will be he is the Eternal ever present God and one day we'll be there with him and we'll be in the Everlasting day and I think this now this is my brain running wild but none of this is Bible but listen believe when we get to heaven since we're in the Everlasting Everlasting day the present the great now right now everything all time has been compressed and compacted into now you want to go see the day you were born let's go it's happening you want to go see the resurrection let's go it's happening right now right now maybe amen [Laughter] whenever I whenever I Veer off the trail I close and you want me to follow that I think there are there are two people in my lifetime who I believe really really communicated the message of the Gospel in song really communicated one was my father-in-law yes and the other is Mark I really really believe it he knows how to communicate the message better than preaching I mean it is preaching through song and I am so I'm honored I mean I am honored to call these guys my friends [Applause] you do have one more song right [Applause] [Music] yeah well we'll close now or later um we're just about done we've got about five minutes how long how long is this song five minutes yeah this is what we went through when we were on the road it's all non-stop but I was never on the road you might yeah I never did go on the road with y'all you were on the bus a couple times I know I was because I had a roll of duct tape there was a couple times why don't you do one song and then we'll close in prayer this song was written by Pat Terry and uh and then one of the vocal band records Bill had me do it and I love this song [Music] what happened that's kind of love this has been fun being with y'all thank you for letting us interrupt your services hey Nate there's Nate back there hey Nate look at everybody that's Nate right there stand up let everybody see nay this is our buddy love you Betty these thank you in the wrong okay let's do it again [Music] they say Heaven's pretty living here is two but if they said Mark you'll have to choose between the two I'd go home going home where I belong [Music] sometimes when I'm Dreaming it causes no surprise that if you look you'll see that homesick feeling in my eyes oil I'm going home where I belong but why I'm here outside [Music] I'm here [Music] alone and when I'm feeling lonely lonely when I'm feeling blue blue it's such a joy to know that I am only true I'm going home I'm going home where I belong [Music] I'm here but it won't be long [Music] cause one day I hope I'm sleeping when death knocks on my door I'll awake to find that I'm not homesick anymore I'll be home [Music] where I belong [Music] [Applause] and that's what we have to look forward to amen one day we're going to hear that trumpet sound the dead in Christ are going to rise first then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the air and so we shall ever be with the Lord what an awesome reunion that's going to be you and Doug and your mama and and the food at that last banquet right the great supper that's right the gray supper I wonder what they're going to have what do you think they're going to have implies it and you know you know I've taken other scriptures that oh yeah yeah and so I don't know because I've been telling everybody dogs go to heaven and some people say do cats do and of course cats go to hell somebody yeah his eyes have not seen the ears have not heard yes neither has it entered into the hearts of men what God has prepared for those who love him his standards are so low all you got to do is love him think about that and he's got Spielberg hadn't thought of what's waiting on you because eyes have not seen um yeah yep you know that's what I think in fact I wrote a song called amen amen hey let's stand and close on prayer would you hey let's give a mark and Mike a hand for being with us everybody hey would you like him to come back and do a concert here one night I think I'll be cool wouldn't it we'll we'll book it right when you move back up here yeah let's close in prayer father we're so thankful Lord to be here this morning Father what awesome Fellowship father we had it with each other thank you for Mark and and for Mike and Natasha and for Colleen father being with us here this morning and and just father listening to someone father who believes what they believe in song Father and to hear it the testimony father and and and and the sincerity father that was there father thank you so much Lord I pray that you would challenge us to be ourselves father using the gifts and talents and abilities that you've given us father in the worlds in which you have placed us father to win people to Jesus Christ father thank you for this awesome morning we give you all the praise Lord all the honor and the glory in your precious name we pray and everyone said amen go in his pieces

Channel: Calvary Chapel Smith Mountain Lake

Views: 173,081

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Id: vQmaRI-7Euk

Length: 46min 38sec (2798 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2023