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INTRODUCTION
This year, we have had the opportunity to be challenged by our Missions theme: In every House.
Tonight, I want to take a moment and examine each of our homes to make sure that we are glorifying God to the utmost!
The topic tonight can be very divisive, and my intention tonight is not to divide; rather, I want to unify us around Christ.
As we discuss this, know I am not doing so to be little, but to help each of us receive the blessings that God intends for our homes.
With that introduction, may I ask: “Does Music Matter?”
Today, a popular Christian position is thta “Music doesn’t matter.”
As a result, it promotes the idea that anything goes mentality.
The argument is “God created and likes all kinds of music.”
This same logic, is often applied erroneously to other subjects like marajuana, or alcohol.
Yet, we would strongly oppose these as well.
A few points to consider as we begin:
This is probably one of the most contentious topics in Christendom today.
Music is a hot button.
But I want you to remember:
My goal is to set aside our pride, and to seek to be well advised on the subject knowing that perhaps we can learn something about music on this brief journey.
2. This is an intensely personal subject.
Music is a “Personal god” in modern culture.
We often see our musical tastes as a subject of personal preference with wich nobody (including God) has the right to meddle.
I ask that you open your heart to what God has to say.
I believe His Word and the principles contained therein are clear.
And since, He owns us, let’s give Him entrance into this subject of our lives.
3. The way music exists and permeates our culture is a relatively new phenomenon.
Over the last 100 years, technology has radically transformed the way our modern culture interacts with music.
For thousands of years, music was primarily created through the human voice.
If you wanted to hear music, it had to be played.
In the last 100 years, it has taken a prominent position in American culture.
In the recent decade, we have seen music become portable.
I can literally listen to anything I want almost wherever I am.
This is a significant change to man-kind and has had a very lasting impact on our social and spiritual condition.
Music is now pervasive in our culture, and we are a generation of experimentation when it comes to modern musical power.
This phenomenon has not only produced new ways of listening to music, but has radically changed the styles of music and the life styles that accompany them as well.
4.
This is an intensely Biblical Matter.
The Bibel has much to say about Music - It’s purpose, it’s power, its priority in our lives.
So many Christians are quick to assume the Bible is silent regarding musical styles, but this simply isn’t the case.
The Bible is filled with principles, not specifics.
But guidelines that should guide our decisions regarding music.
God’s word cuts right to the heart of the topic on music with clear principles that guide us no matter where culture decides to drift.
5.
This is a very broad topic to address in a short time.
We could fill volumes with information, instruction, and documentation about music.
This study is not exhaustive and will not address every question.
6.
You must understand my heart.
Though I lead the music in our church, and I enjoy playing music, it is not my god.
These thoughts are not the overflow of a biased heart with an ax to grind.
In reality, music is more of a hobby for me than a calling.
It is merely one of the many methods of communication that is a part of my spiritual growth and ministry.
There have been times that I have personally wrestled with the power of music and its influence upon my spirit.
God first has had to grow me personally while I sought the heart of God and chose to put him on the throne of my heart regarding music.
During my time as the Youth Pastor, I saw daily the struggles of rebellion that came as a direct result of a student or parent who were deep into the god of music.
As I have counseled and firmly believe, that Music does Matter.
It matters what you listen to, and the style .
It truly affects you whether you admit it or not.
I ask you to allow the Holy Spirit to have control tonight regarding this area of your life.
I. Music Matters.
Illustration: If I were to play a single note tonight on the piano, could you tell me if it was good or bad?
Is it righteous or evil?
Does that note intrinsically carry some moral value?
NO! Random notes are no different than random colors, random threads, or random letters.
They carry no messages by themselves - they are tools of communication.
A. Music in Context
The same is true of Music.
A series of musical notes can be arranged to produce a melody that brings peace and happiness to the listener, or it can be arranged to create the emotion of anger and hostility toward those around them.
A. Music in Context
Yet, you can rearrange colors on a page and create a beautiful work of art, or a sick and evil picture.
You can arrange letters on a page and produce a lovely poem that encourages, or a note that is designed to destroy another with hate.
Obviously, we would agree that these can be good and bad.
The same is true of Music.
A series of musical notes can be arranged to produce a melody that brings peace and happiness to the listener, or it can be arranged to create the emotion of anger and hostility toward those around them.
Saying that music is ‘amoral’ (Without moral value) is true only in its intrinsic raw form - before human creativity comes into the picture.
Raw notes are but the tool box from which the artist creates his message.
Once the human touch has created the message, it’s always either good or bad - ALWAYS.
“Just as art can be vulgar, clothing can be provocative, and words can be corrupt; even so music can communicate and facilitate messages that are wrong or harmful.”
Carry Schmidt
B. Trouble with an evil Spirit
in , we see a vivid picture of the moral qualities of music at work.
In this chapter, King Saul is having significant spiritual struggles.
He’s dealing with anger, bitterness, envy, and rage toward God.
God is clear that this was not merely a suface emotional struggle in Saul’s life.
It was a spiritual struggle in the heart, and music played a massive role in resolving it.
God, in His own Word, shows us an ‘evil spirit’ - a heart-level spiritual battle against the ‘principalities and powers’ of , literally chased away, scared off, departed when the right music was played.
C. Trouble with a Golden Calf ()
Now, Let’s contrast this with another Biblical illustration:
Rewind the story back several hundred years to Exodus.
The children of Israel have been released from bondage in Egypt and miraculously rescued and preserved by God.
For many years they have been enslaved by a pagan nation with pagan rituals and corrupt practices of worship.
Yet, God is calling them unto Himself.
He desires that they separate from the paganism of their past and become fully His.
Moses has gone to Mount Sinai to be with God; Joshua is with him on the journey, and Aaron has been left back at camp to ‘hold down the fort.’
When Moses didn’t return soon enough, the people of Israel became restless and began to pressure Aaron to fashion some new gods.
The people wanted to party in the paganism of their past rather than wait on the Lord.
They fashioned a golden calf, held a feast, and corrupted themselves before God.
These people were being truly godless as they engaged in pagan wickedness form a defiled past.
This was farm more than an innocent feast, and God was very angry with this behaviour.
In their music, the sounded like a war cry!
Why didn’t the “evil Spirits” of paganism flee this scene as they did in Saul’s story?
Why did David’s Harp playing facilitate the departure of Evil, but he Children of Israel’s ‘war-like’ music facilitated an increase in evil?
If music is morally neutral, how could it have any impact for good or evil at all?
Ultimately, sin was the cause, but music was a direct contributor tot he moral circumstances of both stories - a facilitator for both good and evil.
In neither story is music ‘neutral.’
C. When God shows up ()
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