In this sermon, Pastor Bruce Foster emphasizes the importance of serving others and sharing the gospel without shame. He commends the congregation for their faithfulness and encourages them to continue spreading the message of love and compassion. Pastor Foster also discusses the impact of music in our lives and suggests committing ourselves to it as a lifelong process. He concludes by highlighting the significance of not only preaching the words of the Bible but also embodying the love, compassion, and joy that it teaches.

The cross upon which Jesus died, is a shelter in which we can hide. And its grace so great is sufficient for me, and deep is its fountain as wide as the sea. There's room at the cross for you. Millions have come, there's still room for one more cross. And have turned from the sins they have sinned. The Savior still waits to open the gates. And there's room at the cross for you. Millions have come, there's still room for one more cross. Yes, there's room at the cross, and the Lord is long to shine. He flows from Calvary to cleanse every step. There's room at the cross for you. There's room at the cross for you. There's still room. Yes, there's room. Yes, there's room. There's room at the cross for you. We were asked to sing for a round-up Sunday. Now that's cowboy, and I grew up in the city. We thought a good start would be to find a Western-type song, and so we picked Shenandoah, beautiful plaintive melody. And said that's a good start, this is pretty good for Midwesterners to sound Western. And we put some words to it, and by the time we got done with it, it was a little acidified. It was homogenized and pasteurized and everything else. But anyhow, we picked Shenandoah because of the beauty of the tune, and also the, I don't know what you call it, the plaintiveness that makes it a rather lonely or haunting melody. And I thought this is like the Christian life, you know, our cousins went West, and it was exciting. The adventure of going to a country that had never been explored and traveling West in a wagon. And I'm sure many of them were thrilled with the prospect of finding their own land and settling a new area at the same time. They also discovered desert sands and lack of water. They discovered unfriendly Indians and unfriendly whites, and unfriendly whites posing as Indians. And breakdowns with the wheels in their wagons and all kinds of troubles, sickness and lack of food. So it was exciting and it was also rather, well I suppose even terrifying could be the word, but unexpected curveballs. That's what we call them, they happen in life. And I said that is a lot like the Christian life. It's filled with the glory of God, but it's filled with all kinds of surprises and things that can catch us off guard. Things that can throw us for a loop. And so anyway, we picked that tune. The original words, you know, I never did figure out what they were all about. We don't know if someone married an Indian chief's daughter or what was going on. The words didn't make much sense, so they'll make better sense whatever they were before. But we call this song Christian's Glory. A life full of exciting things and troublesome things, and there's such a mix of it. Even in times of manifold heaviness, we have joy unspeakable and full of glory. It's such a strange admixture of the things that go on in our life. But my wife's going to accompany me on this. We'll sing this song of Christian's Glory. Whatever happens, we end up in heaven because of the grace of God. I trusted Jesus as my Savior long ago. But ne'er forgotten, He washed me in the crimson fountain safe. And bound to go soon to heaven, such great compassion shown to sinners on Mount Calvary. I saw Him fall of grace and mercy, safe and bound to go soon to heaven. Within God's care is greater than the heart can scarce imagine. Tis better far than all earth's treasure, I'm safe and bound to go to heaven. For every moment in this life of heavenly victory, with hope and cheer, I face each trial safe and bound to go. When the feeble failing breathes its last of earthly sorrows, I'll leave this world with sweetest promise. I'm safe and bound to go at last to heaven. Somebody asked if we would yodel and we haven't. Somebody asked what yodeling was. Someone thought it was singing in tongues. It's not bad. It's definitely a way to express joy. Someone came up and told me one day, they said, you know, Anabaptists yodeled so they could identify each other from long distances while they were hiding from their enemies who were persecuting them. And that was the best explanation that I ever heard. And so whatever it is, you know, I married a German girl. She's all Austrian, German background. She's American, yes, but her family only goes back, I say only goes back 100 years. Mine goes back 300 years or so, 400 years in America, 300 and whatever it is, 372, 62, whatever. 69, 100, too hard to add and subtract at this age. But anyway, we put some English words to this German tune too. And I always have assured people this is why as wild as we get, it's not getting any wilder than this, but there's a beautiful song that we heard sung in German. And it was a comforting type of tune and I said that it would be better employed if we spoke about the comfort that God gives us. Comfort from the Bible, comfort of the scriptures, comfort of the Holy Ghost, the comfort that we have one of another. But this is called Comfort in His Word and it's a German yodel song turned English with Alka Liederhosen. My heart shall be troubled no more, and never shall I be afraid, for Jesus has left me His peace, great comfort in all He has said. Yes, Jesus has given His peace, great comfort in all He has said. Who sent from the Father above, doth teach me all things in His Word, to live by and die by. What love, He teaches me all of His words, I will live by and die by His love. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do One of the deceits of the devil is to keep us so busy that we never have time for meditating in the Bible, much less reading it. No time for prayer, no time for thought, and someone wisely said we are human beings, not human doings. We're just supposed to be what we're supposed to be more than we are busy doing, but I don't know if I can remember the last time we were at an hour-long prayer meeting, but nevertheless we have that song, Sweet Hour of Prayer, and prayer certainly is sweet when we know that the Lord hears our prayers, and the answers are sweet too, but we're going to play a harp and harp, a folk harp and a vibra harp duet here, Sweet Hour of Prayer. Well, we'll sing a song about being faithful. We want to hear, of course, the Lord say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. It's good to remember that we need to aim our Christian life at pleasing the Lord, but this was a song that we were given to sing for a preacher's funeral, a faithful man of God, but he died when we were in Colorado, and the funeral was in Dubuque, Iowa, and there was no way we could get there. She said, well, then sing it next year when you come to church, so we did, and she gave us the music, and this is called Faithful Servant. May God help us to be faithful servants. Well done, well done, well done, well done, well done, well done, well done, well done, well done, well done. We have a friend, Pastor Bruce Foster, who is now, he was Evangelist Bruce Foster, who He brought his family to our church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and sang with a deep, rich, baritone voice. And then his daughters harmonized all around him. And then he would preach after that. We always enjoyed it, appreciated it, were blessed by it. We were busy making music at our church and rarely got to sit back and let someone minister to us. And he sang a song that he wrote. And he used to, this is unusual, but he would fall asleep and dream and sing a song in his dream and wake up and write it down. It should come so easy, everything, just go to sleep. Anyway, he wrote this song about heaven. And I said, if you get me the music for this, and his daughter had it somewhere, but he got it for me and said, we'll sing it everywhere we go. And we have children sang it with us and filled in the other parts that Brother Foster's daughter sang. Well, they're gone, so Mrs. Isaac has the older parts at once. But anyhow, we'll sing this song called Heaven. We're going there because the Lord's prepared a place for us. It's just why I long to depart, I'm saved by His grace. Just to look on His face. In heaven, blessed be His heaven, blessed be His glory. And we'll sing another song about the Christian life, I guess. We get saved and we learn to begin to praise the Lord. Live for Him. Die, pass through the valley of the shadow of death. It's just a shadow, sort of thing. And then we go right on praising the Lord, like we were learning down here. Only perfectly. This is a song called Old Glorious Love. Old Glorious Love In my darkness, Jesus found me. In chains that no one had found, He relied. Oh, glorious love of Christ, my Lord divine, That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine. Through all my days and then in heaven's never, I'll worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love, the sinner's prayer. Oh, glorious love of Christ, my Lord divine, That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine. Through all my days and then in heaven's never, My soul will silence never, I'll worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love, My soul will silence never, I'll worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love, And praise Him for His glorious love, And praise Him for His glorious love. We'll see. I did promise I would talk to you about one thing, and that was worship and praise. And so I know I need to go there, and then we'll see what else, if the Lord will direct in something, or maybe we'll have some questions and answers again, and that would be fine with me. But let's pray. We'll talk a little bit about worship and praise and the difference and how they should go together, and maybe bring up a few other things. But dear Father, we're now blessed now, and the time that we have, and we've had time to sing and praise Thee, and wonderful music from the church people. We thank the Lord that we can have such fellowship and such sweetness. Dear Lord, help us to praise Thee. Help us to be a blessing to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us to be a blessing to the lost around us. And so Lord, give us boldness, give us wisdom, to know how to speak things to those around us and help them to understand. Bless this message and whatever we do with this time that we might honor Thee in it as well, Lord. And we would think of Thy great sacrifice for us, Thy love for us, Thy word which Thou has given to help us along the way, to instruct us. And we ask, Lord, that we would just honor Thee in this time now, as we think of Thee further. In Jesus' name, amen. A few words about worship and praise. I want to direct us, and I think we'll speak of praise first. And you don't need to turn here, but I'm just going to read some psalms. And we'll talk about praise for a moment, and then we'll talk about worship a little bit. And if we go further, maybe we shall, and demonstrate some things. But Psalm 7 and verse 17, you can flip and turn along if you want and read along with me, but it says this, I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Here we have a verse on praising God, and it mentions singing, singing this praise. So it's a sound that is heard. Psalm 9 and verse 2, I will be glad and rejoice in Thee, I will sing praise to Thy name, O Thou Most High. Praise the Lord according to His righteousness and praise His name. Psalm 22 and verse 25, My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation. That's of course when we're assembled together. I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. Others hear our praise. It's vowing to the Lord, I will follow Thee, whatever it is that we're singing, witnessing for us if we're obedient to it, witnessing against us if we're not. But others hear it. Psalm 34 and verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Not just a new song in our heart, but in our mouth. The people that don't sing or are timid and don't like to sing much, they always quote a verse about a song in the heart, but it's in the mouth. So others are supposed to hear it. Psalm 51 and verse 15, O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth, show forth Thy praise. Again, it's vocal. Psalm 57 and verse 7, My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. You know, that's when we're ready really to sing and praise the Lord. When our heart is settled on the Lord, then we're ready to praise Him and we're wanting to praise Him. In a sense, it is also fixed and repaired, but set on the Lord. Settle on the Word. I feel very badly for folks that don't know that they have a Bible if they have it or don't have a Bible or don't believe the Bible they have. What do you do if you cannot trust the Word of God? There is nothing else to trust. And so we rest in what God has said. Psalm 57 and verse 9, I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto Thee among the nations. There's missions. Our music is supposed to go everywhere the Bible goes, everywhere the Gospel goes. Psalm 63 and verse 5, My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips. It's a joy that others can hear. Again, Psalm 66 and verse 2, Sing forth. The sound comes out. Sing forth the honor of His name. Make His praise glorious. There's a way to sing and to play the instruments so that the glory of God is seen and known and heard and felt. And that is what we're supposed to do with our praises to God. Psalm 104 verse 33, I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. We quoted it earlier. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. And then Psalm 106 and verse 1, Praise ye the Lord. That's one of those commands that's not grievous. Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. When we praise the Lord, it is verbal, it is vocal, it is out loud, it is in the company of others. Saved and lost alike. By the way, a song shouldn't change like a chameleon. It should always be of the Lord. But anyway, it's music that is heard. Now, someone can sing the praises of God and not be praising God. And further, they can be singing the praises of God and not be worshiping at all. Praise and worship should go together, but praise and worship are not the same thing. We can move our lips. What did the Lord say? With their lips they praise me, but their heart is far from them. There's a clue, there's a key to the difference between praise and worship. Let's talk about worship for a moment and we'll then take it to some of this teaching further. Exodus 34 and verse 14 says, For thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. We're told to worship no one but God. But what is worship? The term is used very lightly, very flippantly, very loosely today. Psalm 29 and verse 2, Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. We are to regard holy things highly and to understand that when something is holy, then it's truly beautiful. Psalms 96 and verse 9, Oh, worship the Lord again in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth. Notice so far, we're told to worship the Lord, but it's not necessarily an act that someone else has seen. If I fear the Lord, do you see it? Well, yes, there's a result in my life, a result in your life if you fear the Lord, but the actual fear of the Lord is something tucked away in your heart. It's something within you. John 4 and verse 24, What did Jesus tell the woman at the well? God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And then let me read from Matthew about the wise men. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, this is Matthew 2, the first two verses, In the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east of Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. And by the way, when they came to worship him, in verse 11 of that chapter, it says, And they fell down and worshipped him. They presented unto him gifts. That begins to give us a picture of worship. But let me give you another couple verses. In Hebrews 1 and verse 6, the command is in the Bible to worship the Lord. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. I always ask, too, the CCM crowd, where is their dancing there? Are they dancing around the manger? Is anybody dancing? Is the emphasis on the physical important? Does the music have to be so rhythmic that our body wants to gyrate? Is that what happened when the wise men bowed down? We don't find it anywhere. We don't find dancing established in the Jewish religion anywhere in the Old Testament as part of public worship. When it was right and decent at all, it was something optional and in addition to. But it wasn't part of the service. It was something a Christian could do. And by the way, in the New Testament, the Christian church never established dancing anywhere as a doctrine because it isn't one. Often in the Old Testament, it's just a contrast. Thou hast turned my mourning, grieving, mourning into dancing. It's a poetic use of the word. I was grieving and now I'm rejoicing. And yes, when the body dances in the right way, it's a physical expression of an inner joy. But let's turn to 1 Corinthians 14. There's a verse about worship there and it will be the point that we look at and we'll work out from here if we go any further with these things. But 1 Corinthians 14 and 25. 1 Corinthians 14 is a chapter about tongues and by the time we get to verse 7, the Apostle Paul is talking to us about music. And this continues quite a way through the rest of the chapter. But it says in verses 23 through 25, Or one unlearned. He is convinced of all. He is judged of all. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. Now there's an entire message in this chapter but I want you to see the tongues, though they looked a little more fantastic perhaps to those that were saved at that time. The tongues that were sought after to look more spiritual than their brother or sister were not being lifted up in this chapter as being important, as important as prophesying was. Taking the Bible and making it plain to saints and sinners. Yes, saints and sinners. Saints and sinners. And here we have someone, and this happens often, someone comes into church that is not familiar with the Bible, not familiar with the Gospel, unlearned or even unbelievers come in, those that have not trusted the Lord, those that do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe don't even plan to. But they're among us and when they saw the display of tongues they said these people are crazy. Tongues was a selfish gift in a lot of ways. It was for that person and the Corinthians sought after it because it made them look spiritual. Music is a like gift, a similar gift. Some people sing because they think it makes them look more spiritual. Makes them look important in the church, whatever. And that's why the correlation between a spoken tongue and a musical tongue. Music is the universal language. Music talks. But what we see here is when this person comes in, if someone will prophesy and just make the Bible plain, tell how Jesus saves, tell what salvation by grace is, explain that Jesus' death on the cross was all the price that needed to be paid for our sin and it was. And that we repentant need to come to the Lord when He sees He loved us enough to die for us and suffer that terrible, terrible suffering on the cross and all the pains of hell because of our sin, because of my sin. My sin put Him there on the cross. I know He went willingly. But it's as if we prophesy and make those things plain. When these unbelievers come in, when these unlearned come in, they will be convinced that they need to hear the gospel and pay attention to it. They're judged of all. Here's a bunch of people that say we're sinners and we're not ashamed to say that we're sinners, but we're also not ashamed to say that we trusted Jesus Christ because we found out He's the only way out of our sin. The only way to be saved from our sin is found in Jesus Christ. But it says that this man will be so convicted and feel like someone told the preacher about all his sin. And people think that often. My sister told the preacher about me before I got here because God has all of our numbers, doesn't He? And when we preach from the Bible, it hits somebody right between the eyes, right to the depths of the heart and soul and spirit and they can't get away from it. But that's God. That's not something somebody told the preacher. It's what God knows about us because we're sinners. But this man is under conviction. That's the term we would give it. And what happens to him is he falls down on his face and worships God. Remember Cornelius in Acts 10? When he worshipped God, God sent Peter to him to give him the gospel. You cannot be worshipping God truly for very long without hearing the gospel. And of course Cornelius and his band responded to it and they called upon the Lord and trusted Him. But this man, as Cornelius was, is a man that fell down on his face when he came face to face, so to speak, with the fact that he was a guilty sinner, undone, unholy, ungodly, without God, without hope in the world and that there was no way he could get to heaven unless God would be merciful to him. But I want you to see this falling down on the face. That is the picture of worship. When I worship the Lord, I'm saying He is worthy, which means I am not worthy. He is all, I am nothing. And so the man prostrates himself, lays down in the dust, total humility, total humility, when I discovered that I was a sinner before the Lord, guilty before God. I did not care any longer what any man thought. I did not care what the boys in the rock and roll band thought and they were my best friends and co-workers for seven or eight years. But I said I don't care what my parents may think. I need to trust the Lord. I'm calling on the Lord Jesus. I need to be saved. I am going to ask Jesus to be my Savior. And I did. We're supposed to have that worshipful attitude when we get saved. We're supposed to keep it. God is everything. I am nothing. The Apostle Paul said I bow the knee. Check your body out every once in a while. That flesh doesn't even want to get down on a knee. I know you don't have to get on your knee to pray, but boy we're so proud sometimes we don't even want to get down on our knees. Did you ever just come before the Lord as before your king and bow down before Him and say Lord what do you want me to do today? What shall I do in this situation now? That humility, that lowliness of spirit is what's really a part of worship. If we'll bow the knee, if we'll prostrate ourselves, if we'll come before the Lord that way, when we read the Bible, it will prick our heart. It will convict us. Thank God for that. How would you like to open the Bible and not have it ever speak anything to you? That would be a terrible day. Terrible days. We need God to deal with us even if it's correction. Thank God He deals with us. When I sinned against my heavenly, my earthly father, He didn't ignore me. He dealt with me. I can laugh now, but He loved me. And so He dealt with me. And I knew I was His. Imagine the contemporary rock Christian musicians with their in-your-face music. Does that look like the picture of the man falling down on his face? Yielding to the Bible, yielding to the Scripture, yielding to the Word of God, yielding to God. No. Their attitudes are that brazen. I don't care if it offends you. I'm not trying to minister to you. You say, how do you know they'll say that? Because I've asked some of them. That's their answer. Your old-fashioned music offends me. That's not the right word. It doesn't offend them. They don't like it. That's their problem. By the way, by the way, how come when people listen to the new music and we're commanded to listen to Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs, how come when they listen to the new music they don't want to listen to any Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs? How come the new music makes them hate the old music? I never sang All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name and it made me hate Standing on the Promises. Think about that for a while, folks. Ooh, boy. And do you know, way back in the 1980s, ancient history for some of you, there was a fellow named Mr. Sweet and he played in a band called Striper, one of the first Christian bands and he wore leopard skin, you know, Christian leopard skin outfits. Anyway, he said, I knew hundreds of hymns. Ooh, he'd been in church singing. He admitted it. I knew hundreds of hymns and I didn't like any one of them. Now, I came out of rock and roll. I know hundreds of them, too. And I haven't found one I don't like. Everyone says something about my Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone teaches me something that I need to know about the Christian life and that I need to know about my Savior. A lot of convicting ones in there. Maybe that's why Mr. Sweet didn't like the songs. What he meant was they got him under conviction. That's good. That's good. He would have gotten closer to worshipping if he had just let the songs convict him. And that's what we want. Worship is an inward thing. It has nothing to do with what we're doing on the outside, initially, anyway. Worship is whether or not my heart is bowed down to the Lord. Worship is whether or not I am submitting myself to the Father of Lights, the Lord. Whether I am willing to let this book judge me or not will determine whether or not I am worshipping. To the extent that I surrender to the Lord in His will, I am worshipping Him in every way that I would honor Him. Now, it will come out in our life, won't it? It will affect where we go and what we do and how we dress and how we speak, what kind of jokes we tell, what we read, what we watch, what we listen to. All of that has to do... Our worship, it's our yielding to the Lord. Now, we rarely see... I had one friend. I had one friend. We rarely ever see this, though. But that's pretty humbling. I mean, nobody looks too cool like that. But he used to pray that way. My friend used to pray that way. And I thought, you know, I was a brand new Christian. I thought, what's that? And I think today he was right. Boy, when he prayed, he was not doing that to be seen, but he knew where his place was. And it's only the mercy and grace of God. He didn't think himself anything great. Boy, he just was flat down on the floor with his prayers. And I know we can come boldly to the throne of grace. But what I'm saying is this. If in our heart we're bowed down to the Lord, when we pick up the instruments and when we begin to sing with our voice, we're not going to have a brassy pardon the expression, we're not going to have a brash attitude that comes forth. That humility will still be there. That real humbleness because we know what we are. And that worship will mean it's going to affect the kind of praises that I sing. I'm going to sing them with all of my heart. I'm going to sing them with great joy. I'm going to sing them believing them. And my praise to the Lord will be real because my worship was real. One of the first things we saw, again this is ancient history, but back in the 80's there was a gospel quartet and their name was the Imperials. Very kingly sounding. Our music should be regal, not just the names of our groups. But anyway, the Imperials and they came out with an album and they were popular all over the south especially, but they were a good singing quartet. But I got an album of theirs and their hair was down over their ears. I had just learned. And I learned it an inch at a time folks from my shoulders up to where you see it today. That not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto them. And I fought with that verse and I fought with the verse but I cut it a little bit. And I fought with the verse some more and I cut it a little bit. And I fought with the verse and I cut it a little bit. I finally gave in and said, the Bible is right, I am wrong, I got my hair a right length. And it doesn't bother me anymore. I can quote the verse everyday. It doesn't bother me. How could those men in the quartet wear their hair long year after year and it didn't bother them. And I began to think about it. They are not yielding to what God says in that verse. And then I had another thought. How many other verses are these men though they're singing the gospel how many other verses will they not yield to? And then I thought if I were fighting with God I wouldn't put it on the cover of an album and let everybody see it. I would for sure hide it from everyone. I wouldn't brag about it. And I began to realize everybody that names the name of Christ has not bowed the knee, bowed the heart. They're not all worshipping the Lord. They might praise His name but that doesn't mean that they fear and tremble at the word of God. Thank God for grace. Every one of us has places in our life where we struggle, where we don't measure up. We come short of the glory of God before we're saved and we find out we come short of the glory of God after we're saved. That's how we know we still need His mercy and His grace. But you know what? I don't think there should not be any of us here that are proud of our sin and proud of our failures and we're working for the Lord to strengthen us in those areas so that they don't become any kind of a poor testimony to anyone else. And God is gracious. He cleanses us from our sins. He's patient with us and slow to anger. But we've seen people that seem to flaunt these various things, right? They flaunt it in the Lord's face as if the Bible is not important, as if what God says is not important. That is not worship or a worshipful attitude, whatever you want to call it. And it does not matter how many Bible verses they sing. If there's no worship there, it's not really proper praise either. And you know, when it comes to music, I know some of the ideas seem to be a little more obscure to people than others. But I think we know that we're not to be conformed to this world and we shouldn't be conformed to this world's music either. We know there's music of this world that calls people to riotous living and out to the dance halls and all kinds of devilment and our music shouldn't sound like that. Let me turn to one other verse and maybe we'll just open it up to questions and answers. We want to have a worship within our heart. And then that joyful praise. And that's what I want to say something about. Turn to Romans 10. It's a chapter about getting the gospel out. And so we do in song. We do this in song. But I'm not going to go any further today. There are hundreds of things yet left unsaid. But that's all right. That's all right. In Romans chapter 10, we hear that wonderful discourse on others hearing the gospel and the promise in verse 13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He talks about sending preachers and sending those to take the gospel. And then finally verse 17, So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Look at verse 18. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth. Let's stop right there. Most of the time we say, Yeah, that's the gospel sound. That's the sound of the preacher preaching. But notice there's two phrases there. One says, Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth and their words. There's the preacher preaching from the Bible and their words unto the ends of the world. Our words go all the way around the world and to the ends of the world. And so does the sound that belongs with those words. Now that's not just the music. If I preach and say, For God so loved the world, is that our sound? No. Where's the love? Where's the compassion? Where's the joy? Where's the peace? It's missing. We have a sound that we make even when we speak that's Christian and we recognize whether or not it is. How much more a piece of music, the universal language, talking to people. We have a sound that we make in the songs we sing. How come it is that in a congregation and people react shades of difference but we can listen to lots of music and go that's fine, that's fine, that's fine and all of a sudden we hear one and go that's not fine. It's a different sound. Maybe one we never heard and we have to decide was that the same spirit? Was that the same sound? Was that different? Or was that the same? We could say other things about the sound but just one more verse in Psalm 89. Psalm 89. A fellow named Ray Hart used to sing. Never sang a bad song that I know of. Never preached about it one time but he died rather young and when he died I realized how important his ministry had been and I never caught it. Everything he sang was a godly song with a godly sound. Everything he sang was absolutely unquestionable. Absolutely in praise of the Lord. Ray Hart wrote a song. It was called Oh May I Know The Joyful Sound. We know one thing for sure about the sound that we make that's supposed to go into all the earth along with our words. Psalm 89.15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. Not wondering about it. They know it when they hear it. They go that's it. That's where the amen comes instead of wondering about those other songs. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. By the way, do you want to know what the blessing is? If you're blessed for knowing the joyful sound, if you find that music that keeps you in the fellowship of God and encourages you in the fellowship of God, that music that keeps you walking with God, it says they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. When you know the joyful sound, you'll be walking in the light of God's word and you'll never be satisfied with anything less or anything else. That's the blessing. There's a whole lot of people singing all kinds of stuff but they're not walking in the light of God's countenance. They're not walking carefully enough to even know if they're walking with God. That's why they don't care what their music says. That's why they don't care what the sound of their music is. They're comfortable with a worldly sound, a carnal sound, enough that it doesn't bother them at all. They don't even evidently recognize it as being worldly. If they did, they'd either get right and get rid of it or they'd finally just admit where they're going to stand. I'm not going to ever live like that. I don't want to live like a Christian. I'll just be what I want to be. Well, I'm not going to go any further. Let's just stop here. Dear Father, we thank Thee for the joyful sound. Help us to know it and help us to make use of it, Lord, when we sense that there's music that is working against our communion with Thee, our walk with Thee. Help us, Lord, to shut it out of our life. Help us to be that discriminatory and help us to recognize, help us to have our senses exercised to discern good and evil, Lord. Help us to keep those things out of our life that we might walk in the light of Thy countenance. Help us to be worshiping inwardly first and then praise Thee outwardly with great joy. Help our sound to be a joyful sound. May we take it everywhere we take the gospel and may we take the gospel everywhere. Thank Thee, Lord, for such a life. Keep us busy, employed in Thy service and we'll be grateful. Lead us on. Help us grow. In Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to ask Preacher to come and he can do as he would see fit and if you want to do questions and answers, that would be fine. And if not, we'll pack up and see you again, I hope. What a blessing. What a blessing. Is there any general question that you may have? I won't take a whole lot of time. Anybody have a general question here at all? Any question or specific question? Anything? Okay. I want to be very grateful that they've been able to be with us and I was just thinking, Brother Allen, when I was younger, I used to think that Allen Ives was going to teach me everything about music when he came by and I would try to, we spent a lot of long hours together. As a matter of fact, I think his love language and my love language is long conversations. And so, of course, I'm getting older and he had a heart attack so we both kind of, even last night we worked for an hour to get out of here, I think. But really he and I didn't talk a whole lot because other conversations were going on before that. And, but one of the things I was thinking about, I ended up taking a conductor's course a couple years ago indirectly and in that conductor's course I began to realize that Greek was a whole lot easier than music. There's a lot of stuff in the music, a lot of, it's a whole different, it's a language, like he said, it's a different language, it's a lot to it. And that's why years before I would bring Allen by every year and I was thinking again, we need that, he's had me four years, that's too long. And I was thinking of a music weekend, like this was a good weekend, wasn't it? It wasn't too stressful yesterday, it was nice, and Brother Ives, Curtis Hudson said something one time that was so true. He said he had about 10 or 15 messages that he needed to cover, or 10 or 15 topics he needed to cover every year in his church. And he said by the time he finished the last topic, it was already past time to get back to the other topic. And he just recognized that, so I was thinking, you know, you come out this way about twice a year, and I want you, and I think we've got enough guys around, Lord willing, if the Lord chooses, come. Because maybe we should plan two music weekends a year, kind of like this, one in the fall, when you're out this way sometime, and then maybe you can even send us music ahead and you can help us sing some and conduct a little brass, would you love to do that? So I think that, I was just sitting there thinking, what could we do, we have some others, that sound good? Do you like that? I think it would be a blessing and help us, and help you along the way too, and be a blessing to us. So you've got to figure out the weekend of the fall for us, if you can, out this way, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, if you're out that way, and then sometime out six months later. Because music is a major Bible doctrine. Over 500 passages alone, passages, not dealing with the songs, but 500, using each one of them individually, 500. There's a lot of things about music in the Bible. It's a battle right now, like you'll never believe in this country. And you and I battle it without even recognizing it. We battle it when we go to the restaurants, we battle it when we go to the service station, we're battling it in our subconscious, not even realizing it. The movies, the things we've seen in our life, it has been, it's been inundated, and I think it's a lifelong process of dealing with music, and if it is, then why don't we commit ourselves to that, amen? So, give us time in the fall. Sounds good? You folks, does that sound good? And we'll get together and we'll do some things together like that, and then we'll put one out there. And you can just, until Jesus comes, as far as I'm concerned, as long as I'm around here and they haven't kicked me out yet or anything like that, and some of these others around here haven't kicked them out yet, then you can just do it until you turn 99 years old and look like bro lives. Okay? So, amen? I think that would be a blessing. That was a blessing, and we need it, all of us. It takes a while just to deal with some of these things, and what a blessing. And how many of you enjoyed listening to Sister Ellen and Brother Allen sing? Just a good, clear, clean heart. He does sing one song that Ray Hart used to sing, and I thought Brother Paul would have already asked him for it. You know which one I'm talking about? Ship Ahoy. But that's probably too much for a fellow your age right now, isn't it? It's not too much? Okay. Would y'all like to hear Ship Ahoy as his finale, then we'll stand and pray. That be all right? Ship Ahoy? I didn't tell you. When I asked the Lord if I could go sing and preach, and I didn't get an answer. I was struggling, and it was to come to Pennsylvania, and I said, I don't know if we can go. I don't know if I can travel. And that's what I was full of. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't know. I was off my feet and off the road, and I didn't think I could do it. And I don't know how God answered the prayer. I would like to know how God does these things. I don't understand it because all of a sudden, I found myself kind of just dancing around the kitchen. My wife was, there was just a room away, and I said, we can go. We can go. I know we can go, and I have no way that I can explain it. I didn't have a Bible verse, and I don't like to just go by experience, but I had peace. That's the only way I can describe it. I had peace that it was all right to go back out on the road, and that I could sing, and I could preach, and I could blow the instruments, and I can go to the mountains too, so I'm going back to the mountains. Anyway, we will sing the Old Ship Zion. That's the proper name for that song, but anyway. At least you got it mic'd well over there. So the Lord said yes. That's... piano plays I was drifting away On life's pitiless sea And the angry waves Threatened my ruin to be When away at my side There I dimly aspired A stately old vessel And loudly I cried Ship Oh Ship And loudly I cried Ship T'was the old ship of Zion Thus sailing along All aboard her seemed joyous There And a captain's kind ear Ever ready to hear Caught my whale of distress As I cried out in fear Ship Ahoy Ship ahoy In fear Ship ahoy The good captain Commanded A boat to be loaded And with tender Compassion He took me On board Now I'm happy today All my sins washed away In the blood of my Savior And now I can say Bless the Lord my soul I can say Bless the Lord Mercy less well The strong arm of our captain Is mighty mighty to save Then trust him today And no longer today For the old ship of Zion And shall turn your way Jesus said Jesus said Sing on your way Jesus said Sing on your way Jesus Jesus said Sing on your way Jesus