Values of Worship: Making Disciples

Dangerous Music

Ever notice how music changes the atmosphere?

When you are feeling sad, sometimes you put on a sad song to commiserate with. When you are happy there is a happy tune that is played.

At the height of his career fans would swoon over Michael Jackson, who would ignite their senses with his dance and lyrics.

In 1975 Bruce Johnson composed a song so seemingly innocent (he was a Beach Boy) and with the melodic vocals of Barry Manilow dominated their audience with an interesting song “I Write The Songs” Here are some of the lyrics;

I’ve been alive forever

And I wrote the first song

I put words and melodies together

I am music and I write the songs

While some claim these lyrics to have no nefarious intention, there is a chill that should go up your spine the moment you realize the allusion this is making. Here is verse 2:

My home lies deep within you

And Ive got my own place in your soul

Now when I look through your eyes

I am young again, even though I am very old.

In Ezekiel we find it was Lucifer that was put in charge of music, and was responsible for the sounds that move creation. To the point of the song, it states this being wrote the first song… Now I wonder who this being was.

By now it should be clear that songs and music are more than just instruments for our own pleasure and can be used for our betterment or our detriment. The song I referenced made it to a top spot in the US and remains a hit to this day. Regardless of the serious demonic undertones.

What we know is that music is a weapon of warfare, it can change your mood, set the atmosphere, can be used to manipulate your emotions, and is a tool for instruction.

Our voice brings worship to the Lord and is the weapon we wage war with as we make disciples.

2 Chronicles 20:21–22 ESV

And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.” And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.

Fear in the Middle of the War

Jehoshaphat was afraid but confessed in the Lord

v.12 he says “We don’t know what to do but our eyes are on you”

v.13 the entire nation of Judah sought the Lord and then He responded

Word came through the prophet victory was in the Lord’s hands

v.19-20 the worshippers ready themselves and commit to worship

What was their praise song?

v.21 they went ahead declaring the who and what of God

“Give thanks to the Lord for His Hesed (covenental) love endures forever

this hesed was understood to be a covenant which was unbreakable

how could they be defeated if the covenant of God remained?

With their voice they worshipped the Lord, and with their voice they waged war....

Called to Make Disciples not Songs

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Importance of Starting With The Great Commission

Commanded to make disciples

Commanded to immerse them into the Father Son and Holy Spirit

Commanded to teach and observe all that Jesus Commanded

Not told to teach about what we feel

Our songs cannot be filled with dangerous emotional emptiness attempting to manipulate God or His people

Jon Stiengard of Hawk Nelson denies the existence of God

examining his lyrics in some of the groups final album

Live Like You’re Loved

all about me mentions God 1x

Sold Out

Look at me, then look at me some more

Oh yeah uh Im doing this for Jesus (afterthought)

For worship artists such as these who failed to make it as artists and simply wanted to use the worship stage as their platform… there is a falling away

Our Worship is Our Response to His Revelation

If the Israelites were to sing of the emotion what would their song have sounded like

We were slaves but now were free because we are chosen

We walked in the desert an our J’s never wore out, not just shoes but food we had plenty

How great are we that even “God” opened the ocean for us and then crushed all of Pharaohs horsemen how great are we, get out our way or get crushed.

After decades in Egypt they would once again need to learn who God is

Exodus 15:1–5 ESV

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.

this short reading of their song tells a story of

what they went through

How God is the deliverer

These songs of how God has revealed Himself have taught generations including ours of the great power of God

The demand on Pharaoh was “Let My people go so they can worship Me”

These songs then become our prayers...

“ I am surrounded by the arms of the Father… I am Surrounded by Songs of Deliverance… You split the seas so I can walk right through it”

Altar of Worship Over a Filling Station

The continual cycle of worship is one that is focused on a daily life devoted to God… by the time we arrive to the service we are ready to pour out and give to God all that is due to His name

When Moses asks the Lord what the signs will be that God is with him the Lord answers and inquires of him “What is in Your Hands”

Today the Lord asks you to start with what is in your hands…

Psalm 149:1–9 ESV

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly! Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord!

We have in our hands the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God...

our worship cannot be devoid of this as this is what we will teach with

We have the language of music to fulfill the great command…

The filling station lives from service to service hoping to be filled

seasons of rest and being filled

The altar of worship

Gives itself away

self-abandonment

gives it all to see the will of God done.

The psalmist in poetic form is teaching those around him to (a) have a praise that they sing with all their voice and (b) to carry the double edged sword that to contend against those things which oppose the Lord’s will

Moses’ song that he sings early in the OT is later sang in the book of Rev 15:3-4

Revelation 15:3–4 ESV

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Our song is more than music or emotional manipulation brings worship to the Lord for who and what He is, teaches those around us of the same, and is a weapon of our warfare.