Music and The Christian, Part 1- (Doug Batchelor) AmazingFacts ©

I've been doing a series the last few weeks dealing with some very controversial issues and doctrinal specifics something that has been on my heart for many years that I wanted to talk about and quite honestly I've never felt qualified but I've forcing myself is to deal with the subject of music in the Christian a matter of fact as I began to look at all the information that that connects with I thought I won't get this into one message I better spread this out over at least a couple and we'll see how that goes it may go into part three or or more but I hope you'll be praying for me as I do my best to communicate this very important issue dealing with music in the Christian will we all agree that it is a controversial subject okay good we started out on the right foot you may not like me when it's over but I wanted to start on a positive note it's a very personal thing when you you deal with the subject of music and it's a very powerful thing before we go to some of the nuances I'd like to begin with a story in the Bible that helps to illustrate some of these points and use this as something of a springboard please turn in your Bibles to the first book of Samuel first samuel chapter 16 and verse 14 we'll begin with first samuel chapter 16 verse 14 now this takes place just before david then goes to battle against Goliath and you remember King Saul who was initially chosen by the Lord began to rebel and he began to do his own thing and pride began to take over and eclipse his good judgment little by little he was rebelling against the very direct counsel of the Lord until finally it appears he was on the verge of grieving away the Holy Spirit and that's where we get our store in chapter 16 for samuel verse 14 but the Spirit of the Lord departed from soul and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him first of all God does not send evil spirits this is sort of the Old Testament Hebrew way of saying that when you take away light darkness comes in that's just how it works and when God withdraws his spirit then the evil spirits come in and as Saul began to grieve away the Spirit of the Lord and the Lord withdrew his spirit evil spirits began to trouble Saul and he would brood and obviously he struggled with depression and Saul servants said to him surely a distressing spirit from God is troubling you let our master now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp and it shall be that when he will play with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you and you will be well that's interesting that they understood the power of music and we don't know if maybe some of Saul's personal physicians were part of his servants that were recommending this but they they understood the power of music and you notice it doesn't say David will come and sing David did sing but they said even if he would just play music that the right kind of music can help drive away these evil spirits and be refreshing so Saul said to his servants provide me now a man who can play well not any kind of plain but skilful playing so Saul said to his servants provide me now a man then one of his servants verse 18 he answered and he said look I've seen a son of Jesse the Bethel mite who is a skillful player and a mighty man in valor a prudent man in speech in handsome person he's in other words he's capable to sit in the palace he's got the the presence there for Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said send me your son David who is with the Sheep now David must have been something of a prodigy with the harpy had managed to reach the palace and Jesse took a donkey and loaded it with bread and skin of wine when you go to the king you always take a gift and a young goat not only that David was going to now eat at the royal cafeterias or he was helping to offset those expenses and he sent his son David to Saul so David came to Saul and he stood before him and he loved him greatly I mean he was good looking healthy handsome skilful and you know most people did feel that way about David he loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer then Saul sent to Jesse and said please let David stand before me for he's found favor in my sight verse 23 here's the part I want you to remember and so it was whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul in other words when the Lord with Jewish spirit and evil spirit came that David would take a harp and play it with his hand then Saul would become refreshed and well and the distressing spirit would depart from him this spirit of oppression and depression would be driven away not only was he refreshed but he was well it had a healing influence now the reason I'm beginning with this story well there's several points first of all I want you to understand something about the power of music and that David's playing skillfully obviously a certain kind of music drove the evil spirits away would it make sense you you can participate and show me your hands if it's true that the right kind of plane on the right kind of instrument can drive away the evil spirits and the King would feel refreshed and well could it also hold true that the wrong kind of plane maybe by the wrong musician and the wrong instrument could invite evil spirits I think at least as a minimum we'll all agree that music does influence us spiritually music has a very profound spiritual power so I think it's appropriate for us to talk a little bit about the power and the purpose of music music is not just a collection of notes that are neutral some people say our music is neutral doesn't matter you can I mean you could put any kind of words any kind of music and if the words are good it becomes a good music I will submit to you that music really is a secondary language that resonates with every soul it is an international language and in the same way you can take the words of the alphabet that might seem perfectly harmless by themselves and assemble those words and through the combination of those words you can comfort you can inspire you can enrage you can motivate you can soothe by the arrangement of those letters that are formed in words in the same way music is another language and the arrangement of those notes and the harmony of those notes has all of the same power as words even more because it reaches in with the vibrations of your body and when you combine the power of the word and speech to communicate I mean everything I'm doing right now basically I'm communicating with you by articulating words that you could type out you combine that language with the secondary language of music and you get a double barrel power for communication it is an extremely power powerful medium now principally music is to praise God that's not the only purpose but God gives us this gift of music to praise and when you look at how music is used in heaven it is used almost exclusively to praise the Lord when you go through the psalms of david which are in the middle of the bible about 150 of them one of the most common themes you'll find all through the psalms what do you think the phrase is praise the lord praise the lord praise the lord praise the lord and sometimes it says praise the Lord with the music prates his attributes praise him with the song but it is very clear that one of the primary functions of this language is to praise God well that one is surprised you are told gene music is a secondary language what is our purpose for assistance God created us to bring glory to him and so this gift of music this language of music in the same way is designed to glorify God but there are many other purposes for music I like something Plato said give me the music of a nation and I will change the mind of that nation it's very powerful Confucius we just came from China he said if one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed or if its morals are good or bad the quality of its music will furnish the answer you can tell something about a nation's health by the kind of music the nation is listening to in keeping with that Andrew Fletcher said I knew a very wise man who believed that if a man should be permitted to make all of the ballads the singing ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation if he could control the ballads he can control the minds music is extremely powerful it influences us physically spiritually mentally and emotionally which would be almost one in the same it's something we need to understand and yet there is very little that is communicated about what the purpose of music is you look at the many Psalms I'll just take a few of them and I hope that you'll go home after the message and just start flipping through the Psalms and and it gives you a good context for what the purpose of music is Psalm 71 twenty-two and twenty-three also with the lute I will praise you and your faithfulness oh my god to you I will sing well here he's praising with an instrument and with a voice and with the harp o Holy One of Israel my lips will greatly rejoice when I sing to you and my soul which you have redeemed so one of the principle reasons for us to make music with our voice and with an instrument is what to praise God for our Redemption would you say amen to that that's one of the great purposes for music I know that many times we think it's for the purpose of entertaining and there may be a place for that I'll get to that later but the principle music our purpose for music is to praise God Psalm 57 verse 9 I will praise you O Lord among the peoples I will sing to you among the nations in other words not only do we praise God for the purpose of praising him but we know that others the the nation's the heathen the peoples they will hear us praising God and so it has a witnessing influence it has an evangelistic influence as others hear us extol God in song and through our instruments another one of the primary purposes of music is to teach music teach yeah did you notice in our verse that we just started with Adam was reading for us Colossians chapter 3 go back there again please Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 here Paul is speaking and he says let the Word of God dwell in you it's interesting he's saying let it dwell in you you know if we don't resist it it will abide in us let the word of Christ dwell in you richly that would mean not just the milk but the cream rich thickly in all wisdom now wisdom represents the right use of knowledge so how do we let the Word of God dwell on us richly with wisdom by teaching and admonishing it means encouraging counseling one another how do we let this wisdom and teaching in admonition abide in us in songs in hymns and in spiritual songs one of the primary purposes for music is to communicate truth to teach to admonish to exhort to communicate wisdom now something that I'm going to share with you one of my goals in this whole presentation I'm worried about the direction I'm going to be very vulnerable during this message and kind of let my hair down so to speak laughs but if you take your hymnal and flip through it you don't need to necessarily do this right now and you look at the hymns that are older you'll notice there's more verses matter of fact in the new hymn know if you knew the truth they took verses out of some of the hymns just to make them shorter they may have done that in part to get more hymns in there but the depth of theology in the lyrics is much stronger it was cream and then over time it's gone to milk and then skim milk and then water it so that the messages continue to get more shallow and a lot of the contemporary music that is popular and not just contemporary but contemporary Christian music notice they said a lot not all and I'll talk about that in a minute it's just a lot of very sweet empty platitudes and happy-go-lucky bubblegum kind of Christianity where let's find some happy thought let's say ten times and then they call it a praise song and again I like some of those pretty songs and I think it's appropriate a place for that but there's a trend of getting away from the real purpose of music to praise God and to teach profound biblical truth and I'll tell you it takes a little more energy to write a hymn that will take a doctrine and put it in musical form with the right melodies and harmonies that it will both communicate truth admonish admonish teach inspire and yet still have the music matched the message it could take months to write a good him like that a lot of the praise songs you could write in 10 minutes I could write one for you I won't do it right now maybe I'll do it later but it's not hard I remember one time years ago arlo guthrie some of you know that name I a son of Woody Guthrie who wrote the song this land is your land this land is my land he was on the Johnny Carson show you can tell this dates back a while and Johnny car he had Arlo Guthrie had written a song that was about an hour long called Alice's Restaurant I see some of you nodding don't let other people see you nodding unfortunately I know this is Sabbath but in order to teach you this I need to make some comparisons so bear with me and Johnny Carson said something to the effect what you got an amazing ability to write songs man who could write a song an hour long whatever Alice's Restaurant was it was a long song and he said can you write a song right here he said sure he said well write one he said okay I don't want a pickle I just want to ride my motorcycle and I don't want a nickel I just want to ride my motorcycle and people caught that and they begin to sing that you know what poetry is good poetry I've heard a lot of bad poetry and a lot of people come to me miss a passage I have written a poem I've written some poems and I've read some of them and and every now and then I'll read something I go wow that's pretty good it's it's deep and there's a real gift to write good poetry but so often would you read the poetry and it's almost like roses are red violets are blue that's the depth of it you can always predict what the end of the next line is without even reading it just by a virtue of the previous line everyone always wants to rhyme above with love right and I have finished other people's songs the first time I've heard them because I could tell it was such simple lyrical choices that I knew where they were going I could finish the last line well good poetry surprises you because it still rhymes and it communicates thoughts and there's depth and a little bit of complexity and a lot of the great hymns that you find started out as poems and someone said boy put that to music and you'll really have something and likewise others have found splendid music that was just instrumental music and they've said why you have some words for that now my mother was a songwriter I think a pretty good songwriter and she wrote you know stuff that was recorded by some famous artists and my mother would work with composers that were on Broadway and one of them was a Tony Award winner I don't know if any of you remember hearing there was a play called 1776 this guy named Sherman was a history teacher and he had spent ten years working on a play and the music for the play but he just couldn't get the words and he worked with my mom and they wrote some words and it was just inspiring to watch them work but they work for days on one song but a lot of the common praise songs it just kind of whoop-dee-doo you know and and there's no depth of thought in it the way there was in Bible times you know it will probably so one of the principal reasons for music is to teach and I should also mention at this point I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with some repetition in songs a lot of the praise songs a lot of repetition you've probably heard this story about the farmer that comes home from the city and he says to his wife Mildred he said will Mildred I just came from the city went to church while I was there and I've learned about praise songs and the farmer's wife says well what's a praise song he said well it's different from a hymn and she says well what's the difference he said I don't know if I could explain it he said I guess if I were to try and tell you what the difference is uh if I was going to sing a hymn I would say Oh Mildred the cows are in the corn but if I was going to sing a praise song I would say Oh Mildred Mildred Mildred my Mildred Mildred my Mildred the cows the cows cows they're in the corn the corn the bread calls the black cows they're in the corn the corn the corn so that would be a praise song now it's not quite that bad but a little repetitions okay is there any repetition in the Bible I mean you'll find some of the Psalms where it says over and over in 1 psalm his mercy endures forever his mercy endures forever and even the angels around the throne of God there are knives a at chapter 6 they say holy holy holy so as a rule of thumb if it's more than three times it's repetitious no I can't really say that and isn't it true that sometimes you teach with a little bit of repetition can sometimes teach and you can impress a certain thought by saying it more than once but there's a limit and I guess one of my concerns with some of the shallow contemporary music is that not only can they be overly repetitive I'm talking about some of it you understand but it's almost some like New Age chance that are designed to put somebody in a state of hypnosis and I used to be in the New Age movement before I was a Christian I know what it sounds like Karen and I just came back from China we heard the Buddhist monks chanting and it was like this monotonous omni na naman honed Eden bongo decision and he puts in it's kind of like a hypnotic trance and you know it's interesting virtually every culture of the world has a breed of music like that when we were in Australia a little more than a year ago the Aborigines they blow the what they call a misery booze liberty dudes Africa but they go on huh didgeridoo thank you I knew someone would help me out yeah they blow these things in this long your army only warning you ever heard that before and those are sounds they kind of resonate with your body but they almost put you in in the zoning mode which is something like a state of hypnosis I've heard contemporary Christian praise songs that are of the same genre and it's just like who we try to hypnotize here what's the point the the different kinds of music communicate different things it's probably appropriate to give you a little history music has gone through a revolutionary change in the last three 400 years you go back to the time of Martin Luther because music the power of music was recognized the way it is the churches the people never sing in church there would be a few carefully chosen monks that might chant in Latin during the mass and it was again that kind of almost Buddhist monotonous chant they're making a comeback have some of you heard about some of these monastic chants these they've got albums out and they're making tours and these different months from the Abbey's and monasteries are going around their records are selling like crazy and they're doing their chanting and it almost has a hypnotic effect on people well that was the only music during the time of Luther and it was all in Latin and so people not only were allowed to they weren't allowed to participate they really didn't know the common people what was being said one of the most powerful things that happened with the Reformation was not just the 95 theses but Luther said let's let the people sing and for a while he said if you want to come and sing in Latin you can sing in Latin or you can sing in your native tongue what do you think happened to those that came to sing in Latin that attend those groups diminished very few people wanted to come and sing in Latin the congregations that were allowed to sing in their own tongue they exploded and he realized the need to have some guidance on the music that's a Luther very carefully wrote many songs and others began to write songs all through the Reformation that communicated the truths of the Reformation in song have you read a mighty fortress what number is that someone help me real quick in the hymnal doesn't anyone know that by heart I should know about her mighty fortress is in there right what number is it 506 thank you very much well go there for a second Martin Luther a mighty fortress is our God of bulwark never failing our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing for still our ancient foe deaths seek to work as well as craft and power are great and armed with cool hate on earth is not his equal you don't hear praise songs to talk about hate do you someone named a praise song that talks about hate do you find hate in the songs hating evil yes there's the songs talk about judgment the songs talk about some heavy things read Psalm 127 where 137 or talks about smashing the little ones ha I mean there there's some heavy things in there but you don't find a lot of that in the modern songs because everything's supposed to stay light and fluffy you know the idea of this of the music is to communicate the truth of the Bible whether it's easy or difficult did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing we're not the right man on our side the man of God's own choosing friend of mine took a mighty fortress and he wrote down the guitar chords for me and you change chords about 50 times per stanza virtually every note you have to change chords it's a difficult song to play on the guitar for still our ancient I'm sorry does ask who that might be Christ Jesus it is he the Lord saveth his name from age to age the same where do you find Lord sorry off one place in the Bible they are in the New Testament in James it's also one place in the Old Testament you got to know your Bible to know what's it talking about the Lord of saw do has nothing to do with Sabbath that means the Lord of Hosts it's a deep one little word shall fill him God's truth abideth still his kingdom is forever you notice there's no two verses that are the same it's a sermon in a song it's communicating truth there was a death he wrote scores and scores of songs and not only did he but of course you've got people like Newton and Wesley Charles Wesley and a number of the other great reformers they were writing these hymns that were communicating truth and the message of the Reformation exploded because they were taking the doctrines and putting them to music not only music to praise God the music to teach to admonish oh you know I want to go back and explain that you notice turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 19 two times Paul specifically says Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Ephesians 5:19 he says the same thing he says in Colossians 3:16 and 17 speaking to not one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs when we get together and we have fellowship do we speak to each other in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is your repertoire of music and hymns so great that you only talk in songs or hymns or usually musical psalms spiritual songs we've got some friends up in the hills and we get together with them they've got this game I don't know where it is but it's a game where you're supposed to you can't talk unless you say it in a song now unfortunately it also uses secular songs but it's kind of a fun game in that you can say almost anything if you've got a good repertoire of songs in your head you can communicate a variety of things but how often you hear Christians speaking to each other in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs what's the difference between Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs one music instructor tried to identify this way psalms are passages from the bible set to music typically from the psalms hymns are songs about God or one of those attributes they could be about the Bible or a theme such as greatest life faithfulness that would be a hymn spiritual songs or more personal songs about an individual's relationship with God and so there's a distinction that even Paul is making different kinds of Christian music but all Christian music and then now going back to the history a little bit I want to talk to you about Thomas Edison think about this for a second if you eat in your Bible in Genesis chapter 4 verse 21 it says Jubal Jubal this is back before the flood Jubal was the father of all those who play the harp and the flute and way back in the beginning I don't know he was sitting under a tree with a piece of bamboo and he blue in it whistled and he elaborated I'm not sure how it happened but he began to develop these instruments a matter of fact the name Jubal means ram's horn so maybe he started out by blowing in Iran's horn and made the first trumpet and then he made a flute and he began to develop these instruments to accompany the voice now the human voice is very complex he can sing a whole variety of notes and if you get a good group of singers where you can go all the way from a high soprano to a low bass and everything in between and they're singing their parts how many of you have heard a good acapella group where you've got five or six people that are singing and they're all singing a different part you don't notice that there aren't instruments it's just beautiful and God made the voice that way but then along came instruments and there's nothing wrong with instruments I'll talk about that different instruments say different things but think about this from the time of Jubal to the time of Thomas Edison if you wanted to hear music what did you do for the first 5859 centuries of the world's history if you wanted to hear music you needed to know somebody grandpa or somebody who could play the fiddle or the accordion or the spoons or the washboard someone had to have a gift right not everybody could afford a harpsichord like Mozart or you might go to the when the town got together and they would sing there might be an organ in the church but that was only during the last six hundred years those kind of big instruments what and after Thomas Edison all of a sudden people could take a song and put it on a roll a disc and one song could be multiplied and if you wanted to hear a song you can hand somebody a song you didn't need the body anymore you didn't need the person anymore and it went from thomas edison with those old reels that they had i think had a picture of the first phonograph up here a second ago and you've probably seen those in museums and then they went to the records i've still got my mother's got a big record collection it's all stored I don't know what I'm going to do with it but I've actually got some cuts she did with Elvis Presley probably worth something yeah but I don't know how to use eBay but you got this big you know the vinyl records that we've used this frisbee before and then they've gone to the CDs and the DVDs and now you can download your music you don't even need to go to the music store anymore and think about what's happened now we're living in an age where in theory you could be listening to music virtually every hour of your day just for my own entertainment every now and then I stop and look at new cars then I look at the sticker and I get the victory but I stopped and just wondered about some of the new Audi's the other day on my way home and I saw that they're all coming now with satellite radio and I really didn't know much about that I'd heard a little about it but I rented a car a few weeks ago that actually came with a satellite radio that they activated another car rental company maybe they're trying to tempt you to buy it when you go home but it had activated satellite radio and I couldn't figure out there were nine hundred stations crystal-clear and then I was a little disturbed when I noticed that some of the stations as I was surfing through were completely uncensored very profane and I thought that's when I realized it was satellite radio because I thought to myself wait until the FCC hears about this you can't do that that's against the law in America but you know satellite radios under different laws because it's not going from a base station in a country it's going from the sky and nobody owns that and they get away with stuff that you can't get away with here on the ground so what am I saying when music became an industry where songs were being sold and when it got to the place where from the time you go to bed at night and you wake up with your radio alarm clock and in the car you've got a hundred different selections on the satellite radio I'm embarrassed to tell you I've got a radio in my shower but I don't listen to music I listen to sermons some people listen to music in their shower used to be a place where that's where you'd compose your music right you'd sing in the shower some of the best music's been composed in the shower in the then you know on their way to work the listening and in some work environments there's background music going on and you go to the supermarket and you got the music plane and it's everywhere you turn either one of two things has happened and you have to pick one either for the first 59 centuries of human history we were we were starved musically or we're living in an age of musical excess you didn't expect me to say that not too many people would have the audacity to say you can have too much music can you ever get we have too many words you hear too much speaking sure then is it also conversely true that you can have too much music Isaiah says in chapter 5 woe unto them to join house to house and life feel the field till there's no place where a man might be alone in the earth God says he speaks to us through a still small voice God says be still and know that I am God you need times for quiet reflection and this this gluttony of music that we have around us can be intoxicating so people here just so much music all the time one of the problems with the radio used to be that you know you could just pick the song you wanted the year's favorite singer would sing your favorite song and you would listen to your song but you don't have that kind of discretion so much with the radio you've got to just take card Blanc what's lifting over the speaker you'll say oh that's really good that's get a good message but then the next one is and what happens is little by little our discretion about what is appropriate in inappropriate music gets absolutely blasted so that you become numb and you just get where I mean after all I've either got to go to the supermarket and plug my ears right you go to the health club you see the kids I saw him yesterday the walking down the street you can't walk down the sidewalk without headphones on now it's like how am I going to make it 15 minutes without listening to some music does that have an influence on us I'd like to suggest that it does you know people used to have to make their own music good or bad and because we're living in the age where music is an industry and music is sold and after a song sells well they've got to get something a little more tantalizing a little more extreme pushing the envelope a little further so that it will attract a fresh audience otherwise it all just starts sounding the same because it's it's a money-making industry you can buy stock in music sure you can buy ownership in the company of your favorite artist it's a business and because it is business driven and they now have these multi-million dollar studios that can actually take a voice that's off-key and correct it it does now with music what the graphic artist could do with a photograph take all the blemishes out and it could just make the timing perfect and it's not even a real drummer anymore it's often a drum machine and a synthesizer that a lot of us that maybe God has given musical skill to we're a little bit inadequate because we think I'm not I better just find my favorite you play music no but I play the radio have you ever heard people say that before when I lived up in the mountains and I was sixteen seventeen years old I'm ashamed to tell you that I have very little official musical training it was required in third grade I remember they handed out recorders and he remember these they now make him translucent and I learned to play called clair de lune anyone you learned that on the piano anyone else learned that somewhere in school then I got what I could do it with - well I forgot to bring two with me but just trust me and so when I was living up in the cave I thought you know I am so lonely up here I had no radio no television no people around I was missing music because I always kind of have in the back where I never thought about never tried to sing it was it was in the house so much and I was surrounded with so many talented musicians I just thought I'll never measure up to their level so I never even tried to do anything musical I just enjoyed other people singing and playing and I finally thought my brother said Doug dad wants to know what to get you for your birthday you're living in a cave he's not sure what to get you and I said get me a recorder I really miss music and Karen will tell you I still have that same recorder it's up in Colville hanging on a nail here by the piano and I still play it big ona recorder about that big and I can I can still play the recorder here I tell you what I'm gonna you name a song someone want to pick a song chasing something huh 289 does that sound like this no that's not it is it no Paul said I will become a fool for Christ didn't he say that one time I know this wasn't - Oh said the Savior is waiting that close enough had I did you know I was going to do that so what happened is I had to learn to play because I was going crazy and I was wanting to get a little music in my life I might pull out another instrument before we're done here today a physical response does music affect us spiritually did we already show you that from the Bible with King David does music affect us physically oh yes where it does psalm 61 verse 8 so I will sing praise to your name forever that I'm a daily perform my vows I will sing that I might perform my vows now how could singing enable you to be more faithful well I've already said your influence spiritually by music singing the right kind of songs can better enable you to fulfill your covenant with God have you ever thought that by choosing to sing the wrong things you can weaken your spiritual resolve but it also affects you physically your body has rhythms first of all even though you don't think about it breathing is a rhythm right and anyone who teaches someone else music and when you play the recorder they teach you to breathe when you play the trumpet when you play the flute and a lot of other wind and there's breathing that's rhythm you've got a heart that is beating and the heartbeat is unique it's not just bum bum bum it's sort of bum bum bum bum bum there's a rhythm they're hearing sound those nerves that go to your brain they have a tendency to coincide with the body and it gets different effects physiologically I don't know if any of you notice it but I was very proud of Stephen when he's saying I tried not to act too proud but I was and anything notice he kind of swayed back and forth he probably never even thought of it is that right Stephen did you notice even you were swaying you yeah I see he wasn't thinking of but you know what happens because there was a certain rhythm in the song he inadvertently was doing this and you know what I watched some of you you were tapping and not actually with his song but with some of the other songs during samba school I came out I just did a little experiment and why our song leaders were leading I came out I looked around the corner because I heard this song they were singing a marching song what was it onward Christian soldiers and I said aha and I went around the corner and sure enough people are now when you think about the physical response that you have in song and that's not all bad there's different kinds of physical responses to different kinds of music marching music if if you're going to tell somebody that you're getting ready to parade on your way to battle you want the music like Yankee Doodle or a Sousa March da da da dum dum thumb thumb thumb thumb right it's it's exciting it's inspiring we're going to battle you want to be courageous and and you know what it does it appeals to your extremities this is marching music it's it's the extremities that it's appealing to but there's another kind of music and another kind of rhythm it also makes you want to move but it's a sensual rhythm and it and sometimes we have trouble distinguishing between that which is is sensual and that which is spiritual and sometimes there's some of these songs and they're not appealing to the extremities they're appealing to the torso and to the pelvis why do you think it was the first time Elvis was on The Ed Sullivan Show you know I met Ed Selden one time had a bus stop when I was going to school he didn't talk to me but when the Ed Sullivan Show when Elvis first appeared how many of you remember what the camera had to do they thought it would be scandalous and this is secular television this isn't a Christian Network they thought it would be scandalous to show what was happening from the waist down because he was gyrating his pelvis they used to call him Elvis the pelvis because a lot of the rhythms that he's saying with rock and roll are sexually suggestive and it appeals to that part of your Anatomy so one of the criteria you might jot this down if you wanting to take anything home from the sermon is there anything wrong with singing marching to Zion beautiful beautiful Zion that's what kind of song is that do you sing that song going more changes I on beautiful beautiful now you're laughing because you know that doesn't match does it I know I told you I'm gonna this is communicating something I'm a little embarrassed but I'll get over it you pray for me but you get the point you don't do that with marching to Zion but are there songs have you seen before people in church singing where there yeah and it's and you know these some of these dear folks they don't even realize because everybody's doing it that there might be something that is sexually suggestive about their spiritual song because it's not the right kind of rhythm for church I'm not sure where it goes for the Christian anyway and certain instruments are more appropriate for certain kinds of music for instance if you and and you know one thing I want to make clear is any part of the world we're going to talk a little later about cultural music but music is an international language any part of the world that you go to you'll find that they're marching music appeals to the extremities it doesn't matter whether you're in Russia or you're in India you watch their soldiers marching to the band and they're not going to be playing sexually suggestive rhythms it doesn't match any part of the world you go to when the mother is rocking her baby to sleep do you think she's singing rock and roll what kind of instrument well though the human voice you want something soft now in the Bible it talks about trumpets quite a bit in the house of the Lord matter of fact it's one of the first instruments head I don't know if I need the microphone for this but would you put a baby to sleep no by the way I don't play the trumpet I sort of play it I just haven't played in a long time if you take your baby and you say time for bed and then you start to play when the saints go marching in with that match what do you want when you're gonna put a baby to sleep soothing music is there such a thing as soothing music why because it affects you physically not to mention that the decibels can hurt your ears if and why did they use trumpets in Bible times because it was a loud music they often use them for what you would they praise the Lord in the temple and they also use the trumpet for war it says in 1st Corinthians chapter 14 if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound how shall they prepare for battle during the Civil War you know we know in this country that when they wanted to charge you'd hear right and that what we meant that the cavalry was coming to rescue and when I went to military school at the end of the day we'd always hear over the loudspeaker they had a trumpet playing I go what's that taps in the morning what do you think we heard you knows the difference between those two you don't go to sleep and you don't wake up to now even the military understands the physical response of music you see that that it makes a difference what kind of music you're listening to because it evokes different kinds of physical reactions have you ever heard before about how at a rock concert there was a riot every now and then you'll hear on the news at the concert tonight there was a riot and some people were trampled and you might say well what concert was it Mozart have you ever heard that people went to hear Mozart and there's a big drug bust when you hear about these kind of scandalous things that happen at concerts where there's violence and people are being trampled to death and there's drug busts and someone is raped during the concert that happens is it ever at Beethoven so does the music affect us spiritually but what does that mean when it comes into the church now some of the physical influence of music is not all bad there let me give you an example no I don't want the harmonica yet you understand minor keys are there some sad songs in the Bible does a sad song sound differently from a happy song it's a sad song bad well it could be if you're at a bar in your melancholy then then it might be bad but these are minor keys flee as a bird to your Mountain you.why weary of sin to the clear flowing fountain where you may wash and legally that's mostly miners by the way that's in the hymnal the old em no it's not in the new hymnal spell flea is a burgundy if you remember that yeah some of you remember that minor keys very sad is that a sad song minor-key sad but if I were to do that happy a lot more major keys in there one is a very happy song the others were very sad songs could they both be biblical spiritual songs do you find when you read the Psalms of David that you may have some happy songs and you may have some sad songs it doesn't mean because one is one or the other that it's good or bad here let me give this back so you can see that the different sounds affect us physically someone did a study doctor for years studied the effect of music and he's not a Christian doctor on the human body and one of the things he concluded was the typical sounds of rock-and-roll music not only have an add this an adverse effect on your body but they are actually bad for your heart because they often are emphasizing the opposite beat rhythm and offbeat from what your heart is beating and it's almost like subconsciously your mind is trying to make your heart beat differently because of the music in music does affect us I remember as a kid guys not a Christian I used to go to rock concerts and you could watch as the music began a change come over the group and and I wasn't always the case but in many cases I you just would actually see them get into a frenzy that would be virtually in allistic and I've you know I've had people run up to me a concerts it looked like they had absolutely gone out of their mind and we're basically demon-possessed and they they arrived at the concert in the right mind and through listening to the wrong kind of music the evil spirit came in whereas the music of the Lord performed well can drive the evil spirits away the Bible says Saul was refreshed he was well I would like to have heard David play wouldn't you you know we've got all of David's Psalms here but unfortunately they didn't have the phonograph so we don't know exactly what the music sounded like I can't wait to get to heaven and find out what that's like the book education as our Redeemer leads us to the threshold of the infinite flush with a glory of God we may catch the themes of praise and thanksgiving from the heavenly choir round about the throne and as the echoes of the angel song is awakened in our earthly homes hearts will be drawn closer to the heavenly singers heavens communion begins on earth where we learn here the key note of its praise that's from the book education page 168 now take your hymnals and turn to 425 don't stand up yet I picked this on I like this song because it communicates a message and I don't even know what key this is in Arlene will probably correct me later but there is singing up in heaven such as we have never known where the angels sing the praises of the lamb upon the throne their sweethearts are ever tuneful and their voice is always clear oh that we might be more like them while we serve the master here holy holy is what the angels sing and I expect to help them make the courts of heaven ring but when I sing Redemption story they will fold their wings for angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings aren't those beautiful words you know the message in this and the reason I did that for you so often you stand and start singing and you're thinking about where you're parked and how to get out and I wanted you to hear it and I like it I love song we will Sunday get to sing with the Angels we will have something to sing about that they can't sing about we'll be able to sing about Redemption there then but if we want to be singing with the Angels there we need to know how to sing about Redemption first here don't we oh dear Lord we are so thankful you have given us something to sing about we are so thankful we praise you Lord that we have this hope of everlasting life that we can live in that pure world in a universe where there is no more curse or sin and what a privilege Lord to be able to sing a chorus that even the Angels can't join in to gather around your throne and praise your name Lord I pray that you will bless us give us the Holy Spirit to grant us discretion there is such a cacophony of music in the world some good much bad lord and we know that the devil is using this but it's a power that you can also use for good we need the gift of discernment lord help us to realize that it does make a difference what we listen to and what we sing that it influences us spiritually mentally emotionally physically help us to know how to choose that which is good to dwell on that which is pure and to do all things that will glorify you please bless Lord we do need a revival in this area both in our church and in our homes and I pray that these messages will take root and bear fruit be with us as we go from this place and we pray that the song of salvation will remain in our hearts in Jesus name we ask amen you

Channel: 11:11 Ministries

Views: 101,920

Rating: 4.810101 out of 5

Keywords: Music, and, The, Christian, doug, batchelor, amazing, facts, jesus, god, seventh-day, adventist, sda, church, holy, sabbath, religious, bible, ministry, evangelism, christianity, religion, gospel, lord

Id: hmCYmW4NQE4

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 27 2011