In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of maintaining a natural and normal approach to music in worship. He compares the excitement and thrill of extra musical notes to the simplicity and beauty of hymns sung by a group of 16 men. The preacher also reflects on the influence of rock and roll music in promoting a philosophy of freedom and rebellion. He emphasizes the power of God's word and the need to communicate with clarity and flow in our speech. Additionally, the preacher briefly mentions examples of popular music from the 1950s and 2000s to illustrate the changing trends in music over time.

It's good music for people. I know one, maybe two other churches, I know one or two churches that have string music. And that's about it. We go around the U.S. and they're happy if they have a tuner. Anyway, we're going to sing a song called, As a Volunteer. Saved by grace, and then we volunteer to serve the Lord. Who would want to do that? I think it's this one. As a Volunteer. As a Volunteer. We're with each other. And, this song is for all year long. So I told him, we could wait till tonight and maybe we'll sing it again. But you'll recognize the tune right away. And if you haven't heard all the words, or learned all of them, we're going to continue. Where have you left off? And let's turn to Jeremiah 10. Just the first verse. Jeremiah chapter 10. Do I need to put the... I don't know where I put it. There it is. I never know if it's more thrilling to listen to a brass band play or to play in it. But... Let's see. What do I need to do to get it to be on? I don't know when it's... Is it on now? All right. And we've got a little too much volume, I think. It's going to boom. Isaiah. I'm still in Isaiah. And just a phrase you've probably heard before. In Jeremiah 10. Just the phrase. It says, Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen. Learn not the way of the heathen. I need to... Well, let's pray. Dear Father, help us to learn of Thee. And help us to not pick up the ways of this world. Help us to honor Thee as we ought to. Bless this session together now in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Maybe you're aware of these things and maybe not. And we'll see where we shall go with this. I'll probably want this back later. But for now... And I want to talk about the rock revolution. But I want just to line up some things for you. Well, turn with me to Genesis. I guess we're going a little different direction than I thought. With Genesis, we're going to back up from Jeremiah there to Genesis. And we read here in chapter 9 and verse 18. And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah. And of them was the whole earth overspread. Now, I'm not going to take time to discuss the three sons of Noah for right now. But only for us to see. There's three of them. There's Shem and there's Ham and there's Japheth. When Noah landed his boat on Mount Ararat, Shem went east. Shem is the oriental or the easterner. Ham went south from which we get the African tribes. And we simply call them African. Japheth went west. And he is the European, father of the European races. And his music is called western. These are the three races that we find. They have been termed various ways. Did this drop lower? I don't know. I think maybe the back leg fell down. I'm not just sure. Even more. All right. Orientals, depending what text you read, are called Mongoloids. African, Negroids. And the white man, Caucasoids. Am I going to spell it right? Caucasian. Now, just to keep this moving quickly, and it won't if we stop, in the east, the easterner developed their religions, many gods, Shintoism, Brahmanism, all of that business, all of those isms. But their cultures, religion, is mysticism. Not Christianity. China, Japan, all of those in the east. Ham had a religion that there's no other way to describe, except voodoo. That's the witch doctors and all the rest of that. With the drums, which are used in their culture. But not a Christian culture. Japheth, the white man who went west, developed a Christian culture. It was the white man who found the Bible and put it in their own language and printed it on Gutenberg's printing press. Now, I tell you that much, because this deals with the choices that we make in America. Before the rock revolution, and that's where I'm headed with that, but our American society was built on Christian principles. Built on Bible principles. The music that we brought to America from Europe was music that was satisfactory and socially acceptable to a Bible knowledgeable people. Since about 1500 or 1600, every European country has had a Bible translation in their own language. Many before England ever thought to have an English Bible. That's where the English got the idea. It was from the rest of Europe. You have coming out of especially Germany, but you have people like Handel, who wrote the Messiah. You have Bach, who wrote cantatas. His 80th cantata was Ein Festeberg, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Ist unser Gott, I guess, is the rest of the title. But they're using Bible texts. They were using Bible texts and publishing music that was acceptable, again, to a Christian-based people. That's what we started America with. Our hymn books are written in 18th century European rules of harmony. And they do follow rules. But in the 1950s and the 60s, when we had what was called the Rockolution, it was an attempt to change America and make it a non-Christian nation. Those involved in writing the music said this. In singing the music, they said, everything in America in the way of art that has been written has been Puritan, and there's nothing more to write. It's all been written. If we want to write something original, we are going to have to write non-Christian, non-Puritan music with non-Christian philosophies. And that's exactly what they did. And so the Rock Revolution, those that call themselves survivors will admit it, they did something other than live a Bible way. And they said, hey, we survived. Well, I will tell you that many of them did not. The bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, and many of the rockers didn't. They died young, just from the kind of lives that they lived. But the music that came out of Shem was that kind of stuff, you know, and they sing unto their gods, but nothing Christian. What came out of Ham was a lot of African drumming, just a lot of rhythm coupled with voodoo, not Christian. They sang for sex rituals, for all of their various rites and passages through their life, and following their things. They used the drums to call up evil spirits to give them power to defeat their enemies. But they knew that it was an evil power and so forth. And again, nothing Christian came out of that. And these two types of music, Eastern music and African music, do not develop. The music has not done anything. It has not changed. It has not grown. It has not gone much of any other direction. It stayed the same. Japheth's music grew and it changed. And it's really because the light of God's word was shed upon music and God blessed it because often the word of God was in the music. That does not make Japheth better than Ham or Shem. Japheth is the builder. Japheth is the moneymaker. Maybe we'll talk more about this tonight or tomorrow. I'm not really sure. But we built our America on Christian type of harmonies, Christian type of music, things that were suitable, again, for Christians. And when the rock revolution came, they said, we want the drums from the jungle in the music. And we want the elements of mysticism, New Age elements we would call them today. The people who meditate, they call it, in the East, will sit and empty their mind of everything. So if they have a music that just helps them think into nothingness, or don't think at all, I'm not just sure how to describe that, those would be New Age elements. Minimalism is another word that would fit with the New Age elements. And back in the 60s, they brought a lot of those Eastern instruments and the sitar and the koto, and they started to make them popular and put them into popular music so that we would get used to other cultures. Now it's not that we were just ignorant. We did not want to adopt mysticism as our religion. And we did not want to adopt voodooism as our religion for our culture. We had developed a nation that had Christian principles and Christian churches. Again, not all of them are preaching the gospel and weren't even then, but they still held the Bible and held to the confession in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. And they were asking us to take these elements that bring their religion, of course, right along with them, and throw it into our Christian music. And we had already built a nation 300 years saying no to the heathen elements and kept those things out of our country. So the birth of rock and roll was we are going to throw off all Bible restraint. And I should probably put 1960 or 70 there, but you know this slogan? They wear it on the t-shirts, no rules. Well, jazz music and rock and roll break rules. That's why rebels like it. They break the rules of harmony. They break rules often of melody. They break the rules of form. They break as many rules as they can. But we have said no, no. The rock revolution didn't happen all in a day. When I was a teenager, the singing became more prevalent, but before I knew much, Elvis Presley was already singing. The girls screamed for Elvis. The girls screamed for the Beatles when they came to America from England. And what they were screaming at was not that these were four or five or six men that were better looking than any man that ever lived on earth. It had nothing to do with that. But Elvis was singing a music. The Beatles were singing a music. Rock and roll musicians were singing a music that said you don't have to let anybody tell you what to do. And of course, I choose to let God tell me what to do. A Christian learns that. Matter of fact, you get a job, listen carefully to your boss. Unless he or she asks you to do something that's unchristian, you would do well to follow the instructions you get from your boss. And so the rock generation was saying we can sing anything we want, we can play anything we want, we can live any way we want, just try to stop me. And that's what people do today too if they don't have the Lord. But we want the Lord to stop us. I don't know if you've figured it out, but think of you at your very worst, the very worst, whatever your worst day or your worst act or your worst thought was, think if that were controlling your life. You should say I don't want that. I want God to keep me clothed and in my right mind. I want God to keep me sane. I want God to make me useful and productive in society. I want God to make me a Christian person, a decent person. I don't want to be left to myself. I don't want to be full of sin. I don't want to be one of those dark and horrible personalities that creates more darkness and sin and trouble and heartache in this world. And that's what we would all do. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. If we're left to ourselves. And so, people that love rock and roll, they love it because they won't let anybody, nobody will let them tell, nobody can tell them what to do. Now, I have some examples here today. And back in the 50s, as I said, anybody could make a hit. Now, these are not Christian songs. We're talking about out in the world. And I'm missing a few examples. So, we're going to jump from 1950 to 2000. And I realize that's a big jump. But let's play example number one on that 50s jump. Can you do one before seven? Yes. We'll do seven too. But this is number one, and I believe, what did I do with my... If I'm right, this is called the Third Man Theme. And this is a 50s popular music piece and we'll at least let part of it play. Hmm. And I think it's mostly mandolins. I don't remember. Go ahead and play it. I lost my little... Oh, that's it. Okay, go ahead and play the first one. Imagine this on the radio station. Turn on the radio, and this is what you get. And it's a little bit out of tune. It's a hit. Do you think the street band played this before they broke into the store? Now, that is what, as a boy, I grew up hearing. You could turn on the radio and you could hear that. I'm not sure what category to put that in. I don't know what it really is. But it's not rock and roll. It's not sensual dance music. I'm not sure you even dance to it. It's called the Third Man Theme. I have no idea who the first man or the second man or the third man was. But Mr. Anthem Karas, K-A-R-A-S, released that in January of 1950. Here's another one. Let's play number seven. This is a man from Milwaukee or Waukesha, Wisconsin. His name was Lester Palfus. And they shortened it to Les Paul. He designed electric guitars. And he could demonstrate them. And he could play them. And he worked with recordings and sped recordings up and slowed them down and did some fantastic things with sound coming out of a guitar. And this is a song called Meet Mr. Callahan. This was on 50s radio. Now this one swings a little bit. 1952. The melody is syncopated. Whoa. Whoa. Oh, I just, yeah. I was just pointing out that. Different effects. Those are guitars. I don't think anybody would even recognize guitars today. That's what an electric guitar is supposed to sound like or can sound like. And he dubbed over in the early days before that was done, he dubbed his guitar playing home. He's playing all the guitar parts himself. But very melodic still. The beat is very light. The syncopation is very light. And you'll probably go around hearing that for months now. It won't be on radio. Let's see if we can find another one. Let's go to number 14. I thought this was unbelievable. It's a jazz piece. And I thought it was for a detective movie. And it ends up being a jazz piece. But let's see, what's the year on this? This was a popular theme in 1953. I was all of three years old. If Mama turns the radio on, we might hear this. More intuitive. Let's have a detective program on it. This was the music. If you turn on the radio in 1953, this is what you can hear. All of a sudden, they moved from that very stern pretty African jazz to honky saxophone. Okay, that's enough of that. So it turned into a dance piece. And you hear the drums just took over the piece. And they changed the whole nature. Let me see if I can find something else in here. Well, let's see. We'd have to put on another. I'm not even sure what those are. Well, let's just leave that for now. I'd have to put on the other. There's two volumes. Anyway, if you can get the the corn piece. In 50 years, about 50 years, I was telling when we turn on radio stations what we find. This is what the bulk of radio stations today are playing after what you heard from the 50s and realize that I lived through all of that and now we hear sounds like this. Wait a minute. I can't hear you yet. But you'll hear a drastic change. What you just heard was music basically before the rock revolution. Even though it was worldly, it wasn't that influence of rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, body, body, body, flesh, flesh, flesh, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. There were a variety of influences. Okay, this is about 2000. I think it's 1998 or something. 99, 5 or 10 years ago. I hear two notes. I still hear two notes. I hear two more notes at the same time. And the drums come in. Can you hum the tune? There isn't much to watch. It's all turned into rhythm. This is what gets played on American Radio. Okay, thank you. That's good. Now, there's a big difference between 1950 and today. You know, what happened is when I was a kid, they started saying it's more important that we do what we want in our body. It's more important that we don't have any rules and restrictions on us than it is to keep sane, thinking man's music with original ideas and original sounds. There is no music to that. And it doesn't matter where you put it on the recording. We could have played it later. It was just more of the same. I don't know what anybody would find interesting about that, especially with an overdriven sound. You heard those other guitars? They actually make a melodic sound, but not in this piece. And it's something by Korn that's a theme from some strange movie, I guess. And I bought that about ten years ago because I had to bring a message and they said, please say something about these latest groups. But the radio still sounds like that today, ten years later. It's a lot of noise. It's a bunch of angry sounds. You know, we're not to keep company with an angry man. And we're to put away anger, wrath, malice. But of the ungodly, it says misery. That sounded like misery. That's what it was picturing. Some hopeless sinner just screaming at life. Misery and destruction are in their ways. The people of this world destroy even what they want to enjoy this world more than we care about enjoying it. We're going to heaven. And they've destroyed anybody's ability to enjoy music or they've destroyed it in the sense that they fill up the airwaves with it and nobody's got a chance to listen to anything that's any good. Now, if we put on the other one the thirteen examples, I want to play what happened. And it's close, anyway. But what happened before the revolution and what happened to music coming from sometimes the same people after the rock revolution that said the flesh was the most important thing. And so here we have from about 1957 a German folk song. This German family came to America. Their name is the Von Trapps. How many heard their name? That's almost everybody. I want you to know, and you will hear it, this family could sing better than Julie Andrews and the bunch that ever put the Sound of Music together. This is the real Von Trapps family singing. Like I said from about 1957. The family. Alright. Now, this is two generations later. This is a granddaughter, Elizabeth Von Trapps. And this isn't the worst piece in the world, but this is after the rock revolution when rhythm has taken over our music. So here's Elizabeth singing Let It Shine. Country style. There's a star in heaven's sky Always shining bright Just a tear in an angel's eye A gentle guiding light Let it shine on me Let it show the way Let it always be Okay. Now here's a third example. How many of you know the name Tennessee Ernie Ford? Tennessee Ernie Ford. He is some kind of a Methodist Christian, supposed to be. In 1961 or so, we hear him singing a gospel song here. And then we're going to hear him in 1982, some 20 years later. Now this is pre Beatles. Rock and roll had been out for about 10 years, but this is Tennessee Ernie Ford singing Ivory Palaces. My lord has garments so wondrous mine and myrrh their texture fits fragrance reach to this heart of mine with joy my being through only his great eternal light my savior his life had also its sorrows for ever Alright. Now that's certainly before the rock revolution has had any influence on the singing. And people listened to music like this and were blessed by it and their lives were helped by it. No one was worried about being cool, whatever that is. But here's Tennessee Ernie Ford after a word record company said, look, we're not going to sell records like that anymore. This is 1982 and he's singing another gospel song called Operator Get Me Heaven. Operator Operator Information Please hurry If you can Operator Information Please connect me With a man Don't worry about the money I won't pay the charge Just get me on this line Isn't that strange in 20 years from singing only his great eternal love made my savior go to operator connect me with the man He lost something in there, didn't he? The rock revolution said rhythm was more important and that was the boogie and by the way the boogie woogies are has always been the dirty boogie. It's never been anything else. The truth of the Bible sort of get trampled over and destroyed. Dick Anthony was a Christian man who worked with another fellow named Bill Pierce. Bill Pierce played the trombone and anyway Dick Anthony sings a duet here with Bill Pierce day by day. This is 1961 roughly. And you'll notice just like Tennessee Ernie Ford singing Ivory Palaces, the melody and the words are the predominant part of the music. So that we can get the message that we need and be helped by it and strengthened by it. The melody is something we learn to appreciate and the tune is something we can sing and hum later. There's an actual tune that goes with the words that helps us remember them and maybe we'll look in the scriptures about that but once rhythm gets a hold of Dick Anthony and 20 years later or so in 1981 these are his 16 singing men and they're going to sing for us something that happened after the rock revolution. I want to be a better man I want to do the best I can I want to be far better than I ever was before Alright we've got 60 seconds into the song and the Lord's name isn't anywhere to be found yet and we get the idea that they're saying well with the Lord's help I want to be a better person and do the best I can which is nowhere near as clear as day by day I'm seeking the Lord's strength and help to do what? To be the person that we ought to be Do you think in 20 years Dick Anthony became a better man? Especially through the help of that last song I doubt it but definitely a change you have to admit there's a change when rhythm takes over the song you feel different sitting out there some of you get absolutely uncomfortable when the modern versions are put on and some of you I hope not but there might be some of you that go boy that other stuff was so dull I'm glad they finally updated it and then you've got a problem but here's the Haven Arrest about 1967 a wonderful gospel quartet that sang on the radio and had a burden to help people preach the gospel gave the gospel to them out over radio ministry that spanned decades singing a song called Wonderful is leading us to glory oh so wonderful is he who leads us lovingly above wonderful wonderful wonderful is he wonderful is he wonderful Jesus our magic king wonderful and praise which to him we sing wonderful a friend unto whom we cling And of course, one of the amazing and blessed things about music is that we learn to harmonize. There's four men singing like one and following the accompaniment or the accompaniment's following them perfectly. And they're singing about how wonderful the Lord is and certainly wonderful is one of his names. Now, here they are about 12 years later in 1979, they've made a few changes of people in the group. And again, they're a little bit further past the date of the Rock Revolution and it's changed their music. Let's hear them in 1979. Let's keep it simple. Let's make it plain that Jesus died and rose again and soon will come again. Give him the glory. Give him the praise. Okay, just a sustained organ accompaniment, but much different than the earlier song, Wonderful. A lot more rhythm to it. So they changed and really gave in to what the rock revolution was demanding People are listening more with their feet than their brain or their heart and they've got to have more rhythmic music. Here is Dick Anthony, 16, singing Men Again, about 1965, singing something right out of the hymn book, And Can It Be. And can it be that I The teaching, of course, was that when we use our voices we're supposed to sing with a pure tone. The same way we're supposed to have pureness in our life, we work hard to pay attention to details to sing with a pure tone, to live a pure life. It doesn't come automatically because we're sinners. And so we seek the Lord's help and we stay in the Bible and stay in prayer, stay around good Christian fellowship. But notice too, they lingered a long time on those. They weren't hurrying through the song, were they? They took their time singing and our forefathers all did too. They were just wanting to absorb the music and gain spiritual strength from it. Now here's a fellow, very, very talented, very talented. His name is David Maddox. This is from 1992, which is old for some of you even. And he's doing a hymn out of the book, I Sing the Mighty Power of God. But watch what happens to the nature of the piece when the rhythms are highly syncopated. Again, he's going to sing with fairly good quality and with a lot of musicianship behind him, but the style is going to make the hymn come off differently. I Sing the Mighty Power of God by David Maddox. I sing the power of God that made the mountains rise That spread the flowing seas abroad And built the lofty skies I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day The moon shines full at His command And all the stars obey And of course, there is something about I sing the mighty power of God That's not how we speak. You don't go, all hail the power of Jesus Named that angel's prophet Good music uses the natural flow of the text To bring it across as close to normal speech as possible. I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise Rise, whatever the note is. Anyway, and of course, when we syncopate, we're putting accents in the wrong places. It's very, very unnatural. It's like someone asked me one time, why don't we rap the gospel? They wanted to know why we don't rap the gospel. And I said, well, here, let me demonstrate it for you. If I knock on someone's door and go, Hi, I'm from the North Pocono Baptist Church, and I would like to tell you the most important news that you could possibly ever hear. And the guy would say, okay, come on in, make my day. What is this all about? And so I tell him, well, sit down, I gotta get warmed up here, and I begin For God so loved, for God so loved the world, the world, the world That He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth That's not natural, is it? We communicate with sentences. They rise and fall, and there's a flow to them. God is the Word. Do you ever look at some of those sentences in Ephesians and Colossians? They're this long. They're ten verses long. They've got semicolons and all kinds of things we've never even heard of in there. God knows how to put a sentence together, but when we sing, I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus That's a thought, isn't it? Not, I would love to tell you what I think of We don't derail three times in the middle. It's all the way through. For I found in Him a friend so strong and true We call that a musical line. I would tell you how He changed my life completely Not, I would tell you how He changed my life completely Never, never, never. The director flows when he waves his arms. It doesn't, you know. And so we want our music to be as normal and natural as possible. Though what Mr. Maddox did with all those extra notes can be very exciting and thrilling and rhythmically exciting Still, we have to say, is that better than what the 16 singing men were doing when they sang, And Can It Be? There, I had no distractions from the text. It sounded a lot like the hymnal with a little bit of a special arrangement. But let's go back to something again. 1964, the Beatles had just made it to America. They screamed, as I said, not because those guys were handsome but because they were offering a philosophy that said you can do anything you want. You can have as much sex as you want. You can say the filthiest things that you want to say and nobody can stop you and you should have that right and you should have that freedom. One of the fellows in this rock and roll book said if the parents knew what we were saying they'd break all the kids' records. And that's the truth. And it's only gotten worse since I've been acquainted with it from the 60s. But in 1964, the YMCA club in Oshkosh, Wisconsin filled with 10-year-old kids. How many are 10 or under here today? We've got one or two. How many are 15 or under here today? But I want you to hear this. These are little kids singing, most of them younger than you. And this gal was a friend of my wife's. And she is being led, the kids are being led by Miss Virginia Krieger who also led me when I sang in this glee club not too many years before that accompanied by my high school choir director's wife. And Vicki Verhoeven is singing the solo. But as I said, these are 10-year-old kids singing. In 1964. And rock and roll hasn't hit them yet. She's being taught to control her voice and make the tones be beautiful and rich. Easy for an ear to listen to. 10-year-old kid. So, here's a record album. Nine years later, 1973, Bill Gaither made this recording. And Bill had to make a decision. He promoted southern gospel music and when he discovered that the kids are listening to rock he said, do we rock our southern gospel or do we just keep it what it is? And he decided to go with the flow and follow whatever the crowd was doing. And this album is called Sunday School Picnic and the children are going to be singing This Little Light of Mine in 1973. Let it shine till Jesus comes I'm going to let it shine Let it shine till Jesus comes I'm going to let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine This little light of mine Okay, he just went full-fledged. That's 60s rock, okay? He went back 10 years and said, hey, if they're gonna listen to rock, we're gonna sing the gospel and rock it. But remember, rock is that locker room term for sex. He's singing gospel sex music. The girls did not have a nice tone to their voice. It was harsh. It was hard. I'll tell you what, if I had a gal that started to holler at me like those girls sounded, she wouldn't be my wife. I'd never marry a sound like that. No, no, oh, no. You know, it takes some work to develop beautiful music within your being, within your soul, and you have to have some Bible in you to have any sweetness. And those girls, whoever they were, surely didn't have it. If those were Bill's daughters, and they probably were, I went to one Gaither concert in the early 70s, and they sang This Little Light of Mine, and they did it just like that, and they had a long-haired bass player filling in the bass, and the girls were dancing by the end. And he just laughed about it. He said, well, I told them not to dance, but they just can't help it. No, not when you play rock music. Nobody can help it. It's so loud, it insists that your body get up and move. And that freedom, that feeling of freedom, it's not really freedom, but makes a person just want to exuberate without any restraint. So he told his girls don't dance, but they got up to dance anyway, and it was modern dancing, like you'd see at a dance hall, and he never stopped them from doing it. Now, this is probably the worst. Music has gone on to lose most of its melody, which is coupled with the words. That's supposed to be the most important part of music, is the tune. What did the rap singers do? They threw out the rock tune, what little there was of it, and they got rock music with no tune. And we'll, I don't know, maybe do that tonight. We'll look at some Bible definitions of melody, harmony, rhythm, maybe a little bit more at psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, even the definition from the Bible of music. What is, God's sake, music is supposed to be. But now I forgot where I was going with that. Whew, that's not good. I'm 58 and losing it. What were we just talking about? Mrs. Smith, two more, one or two more. I was going somewhere with that thought. I need to back up two thoughts before it. You know what I was talking about? I mentioned. Oh, melody. So the rappers, there we go. I just had to back up to that, to the rappers. So the rappers got rid of even the rock tune. They don't even have a tune, right? And melody is a part of music. When you have no melody, you really don't have music. All that's left is the chords and rhythm. Do you know there's something called trance dancing? And then they have no melody, no words, not even spoken words like the rappers have. And they got no chords. All they got is rhythm. And the people jump up and down and that's it. And we'll see why they don't need any, probably tonight is where we'll go with that. But music is deteriorating. And you say, well, where's it going? Back to the heathen jungles, back to voodooism, back to drugs. And they use them there. And booze, booza is the African word for liquor. B-O-U-Z-A, booza. And they don't care if there's a tune. They don't care if there's any words. They don't care if there's any thought. Like those rock musicians said, the greatest thing we're doing is mindlessness, thoughtlessness. Just make a lot of noise. And so what's happening is people don't know how to sing with a musical line anymore, and they don't care. People don't know how to harmonize anymore, and they don't care. They don't know how to sing with any energy. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. You may not like the sound of my voice, but you know that I'm singing from my heart, and I'm going to be heard, and I'm going to tell somebody whether they want to hear it or not. But we've got a boy here. We just call him the Michigan Boy because I don't know his name. This is for Sirius. It probably cost him thousands of dollars, and he's a Christian that spent too many years listening to rap and rock, and he's made an album. And this was the favorite pick by my friends on the album. They called it Music You Love to Hate, I think is what my friend said it was. But this guy spent thousands of dollars and sent this to his friend in Bible college and said, I made an album. And this song on the album, and it's so sad because he's doing his best, I'm sure. But this is a song about heaven, folks, just in case you don't catch on. And he's pondering, what will it be like when I get to heaven? This is called I Can Only Imagine. Listen to the quality of his voice and the quality of the presentation. The energy. Listen as you can hear joy, peace, strength, exhilaration, anything. I can only imagine what it'd be like when I walk by your side. I can only imagine what my eyes would see when I see your face is before me. I can only imagine, yeah. Good lyrics there, yeah. Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus? And of course, surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus? Oh no, will you be still? Will I stand in your presence? Or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine. I can only imagine. Life is found in the Lord. In him was life. And life was the light of men. And the drums don't help his voice at all, and they bring him in. He's still, like, wheezing. He sounds like he's got a lung problem. Maybe he does, I don't know. But someone said, you know, the worst thing is about it, the way this generation is, that may sell. I can only imagine. Do you realize what he's singing like? I'll be able to speak at all. The Bible says, let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord, will I be able to speak at all? If you're going to have to sing it, sing it. But don't wheeze it. The kid's young, he ought to have a little more energy than that. But he's not spent any time thinking about real music. You can't, you know, I'm amazed. I listen to you play, and you've all learned something. I don't know where you're taking the lessons from. But you can't. Whoa, what did I just do? That is my, no, that's not mine. Where did I get this? It won't work because, there. You cannot play this thing without air. Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord. It doesn't work, right? I mean, that's an exaggeration. You know, every beginner, probably some of you, maybe, you know. And you thought, the more you do this, the more you get thrown out, you know. And after a while you learn, no, it's a steady stream of air that you blow through the arm. And then you make music. You make something that will actually affect a person deep in their spirit and in their soul. And what one voice teacher lady, she always tells them, when you sing, caress the tones. Again, it's, it's, and you don't sing, and crown Him Lord of all. Crown Him Lord of all. Bring forth the, and when you sing a sweet song, you make sweeter tones. We're trying to teach people that there's a God whose word is sweet to our taste. We're trying to teach people there's a God who can give us peace, and we're not all wound up like the world's music sounds. A God who takes away the misery and the strife. A God who takes away the anger. We know a God who fills us with His love instead. So we want to make loving tones. We want to make sounds that are happy. Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. We don't want weighted down, pounding songs that are, that are so heavy. And we do that with our voices and with our instruments. We make sounds that match what we're singing about. And if, if you know comfort from the Lord, when you sing, people ought to be able to hear comfort in your voice. They ought to be able to sense there's a God who, He's saying there's a God who can, can give me comfort. There's a God who will love me. There's a God who will forgive me, and forgive me, and forgive me, and forgive me. And those things have to come out. We're supposed to be a compassionate people. When, when the music is electric, and cold, and hard, we don't sense any compassion in it. There's supposed to be what we beseech you, it says often. We plead with you. There should be a pleading in the sounds that we make. And, and of course this kid is just, like I say, he's, he's sort of only half there. And, you know, maybe he never had any lessons, but he should think about it. Think about it before you make the album. Before you decide that you're some kind of a Christian rock star, you ought to think about if you've got something that other people ought to hear. I don't think he even wrote the songs. He borrowed the song from somebody else. But, you talk about learning the way of the heathen. We've mixed in vocal techniques that are not, what does a preacher do? Ah, let's, oh I don't know the chapter. Lift up thy voice. Ah, thank you. Isaiah 58 verse 1. And you that play instruments, that's, you're prophesying when you do that. But, cry aloud, spare not, don't hold back. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet. Loud and clear. When we sing, he shouldn't be wheezing through that song. And show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins, and so forth. But, we want the message to be clear and plain, like we say. And we want our whole heart. David said, I think that's Psalm 9, at the beginning, near the beginning. With my whole heart will I praise thee. I always tell my wife, never sing. Tell choirs, never sing in automatic. Sing with your whole heart. Play those instruments with your whole heart. Never sing, never play in any other manner, except to say, you know what, this might be my last breath. And if it is, I'm going to make my last breath, praising the Lord. I'm going to sing, or play, or preach the best message I possibly can, right now. For the glory of God. Surely, that kid, somewhere, could have learned the beauty of singing a melody. Do you know what I love to do, when we get to spots in the songs, like the chorus of that, Oh, how I love Him. I don't want to sing, Oh, how, how. It's fun to sing out, Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy! And loudly I cried, Ship ahoy! And we get to the last chorus and sing, Jesus saves. I can't imagine going, Jesus saves. Jesus saves. That's not enjoyable. You don't go to a ball game and go, Get him, sock him, pow, bite him. You don't do that. People scream until they're hoarse, and that's not a good idea if you're a singer. But they get excited, right? They get excited, just for a stupid ball game. Someone's down there bouncing a ball up and down, and throwing it back and forth. Like, you couldn't do that too? And then for Jesus, it's just, Will I be able to speak at all? I would be concerned if I were Him. I'm not sure He's going to do much around the throne when He gets there. But you want to throw your whole heart into it. Both lungs, I always add. Your whole heart, both lungs, and all of your being. When you sing and you play, it's a whole being readiness. Like when a runner's getting down into the starting block and ready to start, his whole body is poised and ready to spring. Just ding! And likewise, a weightlifter, they don't just go, All right, I'm going to pick up 500 pounds. They don't like that. Uh-uh, uh-uh. Everything is just so... And sometimes, even the guys that chop blocks, they've got just the right time and everything. They've got it mentally ready. The same way when you sing and play. You should be mentally ready and ready to throw your whole being into that business. Because everybody needs to know that you're excited about the Lord when you play. When we were kids, they came out with computers, they would fill up a room like this. Sometimes a building with five stories. I don't understand what good a computer was then, but they figured out how to make them smaller and smaller and smaller. They make them so small, my fingers don't clench some of the buttons. But back then, they used to say, Don't forget, Geico. Anybody know what Geico is? G-I-G-E-O, Geico. Garbage in, garbage out. The computer wasn't any good if what you put in it wasn't right. So you could put in wrong information and guess what the computer would do? It would spit out wrong information. In the restaurant, we learned FIFO. Does anybody know what FIFO is? F-I-F-O. It's not a dog. FIFO, my dog. But it was first in, first out. If we had french fries that were in there since yesterday, we had to use them up before the french fries that came in today, which meant we had to reach in there, pull all the french fries out, put the new ones on the bottom and put the old ones on top and use them first so that someone didn't get month-old frostbitten french fries next week. You didn't want that at the store. But with the Christian, it's Bible. Bible in, Bible out. Even those that lifted up the horn in 1 Chronicles 25 had to be the king's seer, David's seer in the words of God so that when they blew the horn, there was a Bible sound that came out. You say, well, tell me exactly what it is. But some are just cold and empty. Seems like there was one more of those that we needed. Bible in, Bible out. And guess what? I forgot where I was again. FIFO, Bible, GEIGO and... Oh! Energy in, energy out. If you put no energy into it, it doesn't come out. If I just say, All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me. All my heart was full of misery and woe. When you sing, when you play, that's one of the things I like about Mr. Rauch. He put the words under all the notes for the clarinet players to play so they knew what they were playing. But you know what? You put some energy, certain kind of energy in every word. All my life was full of sin. I don't like sin. All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me. All my heart was full of misery and woe. I want you to feel the misery for just a moment. Misery and woe. It wasn't any good. Jesus put his strong and loving arm strong. So it's got to be big and strong. Strong and loving arms about me. I'm telling a story and I'm changing the expression word by word by word. And he led me in the way. I'm glad to go God's way. It's narrow but it's sure wonderful. And he led me in the way I ought to go. I'm gonna go. And I put that into the sound of my voice. He led me in the right way. This is a good way. And it's God's way. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. When I sing his name, sing his name like he's the lover of my soul because he is. That's how we make music. I know one thing about rock music and most of them, except the whiny girls for the last 10 years have been singing like he sings. Kind of through the song. But I know what made rock attractive to the kids like me at the beginning. They sang with energy. They played with energy. They weren't apologizing. We surely don't have to apologize for the gospel. We don't have to apologize for our Savior. He's perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. And what are we supposed to do? We boast. We brag on him. Boast on him all the day long. Well, you don't boast like that. You know, I bet my dad can beat up your dad. No, no. When you brag, it's a big deal, isn't it? I can do this. That's the way it is. Well, when we boast about the Lord, it should be that way. And it never is enjoyable if you back off from the singing. If you back away from playing, it won't be rich and strong and beautiful. And people that hear it and people that listen to the gospel, I don't think they mean it. Now, that's not how you play, by the way. I was looking to see if anybody played, you know. And you don't want to do that. When you play, you don't want to do this. The carpet doesn't care what you sound like. You know? Just keep it pretty much perpendicular. Get right out there. And when she picked up that posthorn, she... straight out. You should call them posthorns. Well, they didn't have valves, but the ones that they hang the banners on, you know, and herald the king's coming, they're posthorns, they call them. That's just... I forget what they call that. Aida. A-I-D-A? Herald trumpet, yeah. Yeah, because it heralds the coming of the king. That kind of thing. But you always want to... You say, well, I don't have that kind of confidence in me, but you should have it in the Lord. So you play confidently and let people know this business of the savior is true. This business of heaven waiting the child of God is true. And then you sing it that way and you play it that way and you'll actually enjoy the music and it will be a blessing to you even though you're praying to be a blessing to others. I always tell people I don't have a job and I don't work. I have a ministry and we minister to other people, but it feeds back to me. I sing the songs I like. I don't sing songs I don't like. I sing songs I believe. I don't sing songs I don't believe. I used to do that, but I don't do that anymore. Oh, no. Well, I'm going to think if I went everywhere I wanted to go, I think we're about ready to quit and then we'll see what happens tonight. But we got time for questions right now too? That would be good. If anything comes up, don't feel bad about asking them. Just ask the question. Even if you decide you just want to stump me and you might, but go ahead. I'm willing to be publicly embarrassed too. Any questions or any comments or just something that didn't fit together, doesn't make sense yet? Some of the stuff I didn't explain real well, but maybe tonight. I'm going to try to prime you a little bit too. I started thinking, but as I was going over some things, I thought, have you ever heard of, now you come from this era, I was just a little boy, early 60s, hootenanny. Oh, yeah. What does that mean? That's a goat and an owl get together. You don't need that. I do. It's been a what? They used to say an owl and a goat get together. That's the kind of sounds they make. But a hootenanny was just, it was a way to get, particularly young people, but older people can be involved. It was more associated, at the beginning, with a bunch of people getting around with the guitars and the mandolins and the banjos and singing folk songs. Some places you go in the US, you still can find it. There was a place we went to, they served potato chips and pop, not the best food in the world either, but better than serving liquor. On Friday night, the guys would come in and they'd all take their turn playing hymns and folk songs. The benches were all around the outside. The building was wide open. Nobody's dancing. But they sat around the edge so they could face each other in this big building and then they ate the pop and the chips on the break. They took turns playing all these songs. But the hootenanny was that way. Someone would get up and sing folk songs, usually Michael Rowe, The Boat Ashore, and Kumbaya, and all that stuff. And everybody would join in singing along. Or they'd teach them a new song. So they would bring in a lot of the folk groups and then later on they tried to do this with rock groups and bring them in. But initially it was a folk thing. College, sometimes college. Yeah, country. Country and folk, yeah. Beatniks. Beatniks. Before hippies? How many know the word hippie? Hippies, that was the 60s, druggies, drop in, tune out, or whatever it was they used to say. Strange stuff that they did. It didn't work by the way. All the weird colored bell bottoms and psychedelic colors and strobe lights and black lights and smoke coming out of the coming out of the platforms and so forth. It failed. They thought it was free love and it was expensive sex. But beatniks were before beatniks were before the hippies in the 50s they would go to Greenwich Village which is downtown New York City. Is it? Yes, I know. Downtown New York City. Beatniks originated Really, they're from the Epidemic Circus. Okay. Was a big square because my dad was in New York and he stopped and my dad walked over because it was a big park where anybody was allowed to get up on their sofa and say anything they wanted without any repercussions and you would have way out ministers you would have beatniks you would have people doing their communist I was just going to say about communist leaning I'll just bet. Anybody wanted to say they were allowed to say it there and there was no no repercussions. And a beatnik work was a four letter word to them. They didn't like it. A beatnik work was a four letter word to them. And I'm not advocating TV but back in the early late 50s early 60s we had a TV in our home and the beatnik that they made famous to us was Bob Denver who played the part of Gilligan on Gilligan's Island but he was the beatnik Maynard G. Krebs what does the G stand for? David. And he was always beating his bongos like man that's a hassle like man I'm out of here like man work I'm gone. And he didn't want to go to school he didn't want to learn anything and I don't know if they were all like that but yeah don't bug me man it was that kind of thing you know and so they were he had a little goatee and I think they would have been early advocates of you know growing your hair out longer and just rebelling against society. 50s hippie was a beatnik. I just want to tie that in with some of the history he was given earlier. He touched the voice inflections he was a little bit running through it. That's a big one. We're down in a Mennonite wedding Plain Brethren and Kenniston's church very they have no musical instruments but we're listening to a wedding piece at the one of the daughter's weddings and I'm listening to the same stuff that we would preach against in our own services. So you're going to kind of explain how the voice works that type of stuff? Boy, we could do that too. I started to tell you about those things. We may not know immediately exactly what we want a word to sound like but you know if I say well that was rather harsh. I'm not going to say that was rather harsh. Why not? Because that's not a good picture of what the word harsh is all about. And I might get ahead of myself again but if I say honey, I love you but what did you do with my car keys? Does she think I love her right then? But I said I did. So we know that when we read a sentence, when we are going through a song, there are certain words that are strong words. There are certain words that are sensitive words. If I say I'm not I can't say I'm not afraid of you because it sounds like I'm not but if I say I'm not afraid of you, you don't believe me. The tone changes everything. So we learn to use our voice to make the right kind of tones. When you listen to pop music, this kid singing, I'm able to speak you know, you sense this can't really be for real, can it? And then if you think it is, it's like a tragedy. This poor kid probably spent $5,000 to make that thing and he can't, his voice can't rise to the occasion. But where would I want to go with that? When we sing, we want, we want what we know of the Lord to come out of our voice. We want the Holy Spirit of God to help us to sing. Let's say I'm angry before I get up to sing. Somebody tripped me on purpose. Why do you guys do that? Somebody tripped me on purpose and I'm upset. I fell over and I broke my glasses and now I gotta sing and so I get up to sing and whatever the song is, I'm still fuming inside. I'm still so mad. I'm clenching my teeth. Now I'm gonna sing for Jesus. I am resolved no longer to linger. Charmed by the world's delight. Or I go to the piano. It can come out of my fingers too. See if you can hear the difference. Besides wrong notes. But you hear a difference in the attitude? How about this one? I hear this in some churches. They're so distracted and hurrying along. What is the point? Are you supposed to play fast music before everybody gets in? And they're rushing and it's like let me get my breath in there. Pianists don't have to breathe. Brass players have to breathe. Singers have to breathe. Piano players need to learn to breathe just like they were a brass player or a singer. And let the phrases be what they ought to be. Don't cut them off. Don't rush. Don't hurry. I like that song, you know, not a blast of hurry. It says our Christian life is not to be hurried. We may be very busy but we're not to be hurried. So whatever is in me, whatever problems I'm having, I need to turn them all over to the Lord and Acts 16, Paul and Silas were in great trouble. They got put feet fast in the stocks. It says, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed. They had trouble. They prayed first. They turned it over to the Lord first. They prayed and sang praises. But they prayed first. And of course then what happened, the jailer heard them. He got saved. He took them to his house, got them out of prison and gave the gospel to the whole family. The whole family got saved. But Paul and Silas knew they had to pray first. And James in the book of James told us the very same thing. Is any afflicted? Are you troubled with anything? We have troubles. This whole life is a life of trouble. It's only the Lord that makes any of it any good. And so is any afflicted? Let him pray, James says. And then is any merry? Let him sing psalms. So my job and your job to minister the word of God is to make sure I'm not angry, I'm not upset, I'm not in a hurry, I'm not distracted, I'm not anything except I want to think about the Lord and I'm going to help everybody else to think about the Lord. And when I sing, Lord, don't let it be anyone but thee. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it is when we sing and when we play. Often times I am a well, I started on the clarinet. I don't get really to play one instrument and practice for years. We keep jumping from place to place and often I find myself, Lord, help me play this the way I need to play it. Help it to sound like it needs to sound. Help people see thee. Help people hear the message while I'm playing. And sometimes especially it's not coming out very well and you have to keep going. Lord, do something to make this work. I'm going to practice this and I'm ready. Lord, bless it or else it might be icy cold. If you're just kind of standoffish or someone just said to you, well, I think you sing because you just like to be seen. And then you got to walk up and sing again right when they say that. You don't feel like singing anyway. And you have to just all the time, Lord, help this to work. My sins, my weaknesses, if I'm short with people and curt, if I'm gruff, if I'm just unkind and unloving, if I have a biting personality. I mean, can you imagine talking to someone and you cut them off with some real sharp words and then you get up to sing for the Lord? Your song is still going to carry that same sharpness and instead of the sweetness of the Lord, they're going to get that flavor of what's in my heart or what's in your heart. And so when you listen to pop singers, they have different sounds, don't they? They have different sin problems in their life. They have different things in their personality and most of them cannot help sounding like they sound. They sound like that because that's what they're all about. That's what they're a part of. And we have to learn as Christians to get out of the way. I've heard, you've heard preachers say it. Lord, help me get out of the way so they see thee. Or, Lord, I'm hiding under the blood. Or, Lord, I'm hiding behind the cross. Or, Lord, hide me behind the cross. You've heard it a dozen different ways probably. And they mean that. What they're saying is, Lord, when they hear the word of God, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm hiding behind hiding behind the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. Or, Lord, I'm the cross. the cross. Or, Lord, I'm Or, Lord, I'm and kids were coming to convention and playing their solos and they were arranged by Paul Roush and I tried to find him in Canada that long ago. He was in Canada. And I didn't find him there and I finally found him in Cleveland and now I hear he's out here. So that is, that's wonderful. But I don't know if I said everything about the voice that you were. Okay. All right, let's see if I can, what can I do? I purposely trained my voice. You keep in mind, I sang rock and roll for seven or eight years and so when I got out, we retrained everything. So I automatically try not to sing like that. I have to think about it sometimes for a while. But if I, let's see, what can I, I need a song that, you got it? But if, I guess we can take I Am Resolved, but surely, you know I, a song of resolution. I am determined, I have resolved to serve the Lord. But if I sort of croon the song, you know what crooning is? It's sort of half singing sort of, but I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have a, I'm doing a couple of, I'm kind of scooping up into the notes, kind of, and that is the, I don't know how many singers do that, but you hear that more in church than you do on the radio, because they're way beyond that. But the crooning came back from the 40s, and in 1937, the New York singing teachers said, people like Bing Crosby and other crooners are destroying the morals of our children. Do you realize that 72 years ago they said that? Because they were not singing, I am resolved, but you know, Bing Crosby's, I am resolved no longer to linger. Just not a right voice. He was trying to attract the ladies with his creamy smooth voice. And Dean Martin did the same. He was trying to imitate Bing. They all were back then for a while. And just to slide up to the notes, sometimes we'll sing, I'll have a blue revival without you. I'll be so blue thinking about you. Not a right kind of tone. There is a sensuality in that, an emotionalism even, that is not quite becoming of a Christian, the Apostle Paul said we use great plainness of speech. We read the verse about crying aloud and lifting up your voice like a trumpet. It's declamatory or declaratory. It's exclamatory. You're giving a definite message that we're not going to compromise on. And so, if you're saying I'm going to follow the Lord, it isn't a I feel pretty good about Jesus right now. It's not like that at all. It's I'm going to serve the Lord. There's no plan B. This is what I'm going to do. With great determination. So, we sing pretty straightforward and with a full voice. Not like that boy who's just wheezing. Even for a 20-year-old, that was not enough voice. There ought to be something there. And he just can't seem to get his voice out. And the reason I can imitate it is because I took, I know how to take about five-sixths of my voice away. And then, just doing, he's just doing that with his voice. I'm able to speak at all. Which is not really any energy at all. Some people growl with their voices, you know. They get other tones in there that are, they're sensual in a different way or they're carnal, at least we'd have to say. I can't think of a song that does that, but any time, you know, you get to a, it isn't a, hey, send so glad and free, oh Jesus. You know, you don't growl at people. That is not what we want to be doing. And those are maybe exaggerations, but not too much lately. People come out with all kinds of sounds. Some whine a lot when they sing, you know. I, I got to find a, I will come, you hear the harshness in that? Come, or whining, come to me, oh yeah, you know. And that's the picture that people get then. And oftentimes, you know, country, people that live in the country and people that feel like they're just down home folks, they'd rather hear someone sing, you know. I will come to thee, I am resolved, go to the Savior, leaving my sin and strife. Now, for the most part, nobody's at Backwoodsy in America any place. I don't think. They've all had opportunity, you know, to get on the other side of the mountain and find out what's there. When my sister-in-law was in, her husband was in the army, they were stationed over in Italy and they had a gal who didn't know what water faucets were back in the 60s. I mean, she just, what does that do? Ah! But I don't think, you know, it's almost a false thing, you know, well now we're going to sing another tune for Jesus. And then we have our little cowboy rendition of things. And we go out west, we go out west, we'll sing a western song before we're done. Not really, but a western tune. But we don't change our voice for them out there. They might rather have it all like we're, you know, eating out of a skillet sitting around a campfire. But probably. Happy, happy trays to you. Da-da, da-da, da-da. Happy trays to you. But I don't know what that really sounds like when they sing it. Da-da, da-da, da-da. Da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da. Happy trays to you till we meet up. He was kind of a cowboy crooner, I think. They all sang pretty straight. They were the straightest, smoothest cowboy singers I ever heard. But, yeah, the cowboys, they would use the, you-da-da-da. Just a light boogie. Very light. Played on a non-electric, well, they electrified them later on, too. But usually on an acoustic guitar. So it wasn't as pronounced. And still, if it's wrong, it's wrong. And the Baptists try to nip it in the bud. There's one of the buds, you know. Just get it right away, right where it begins, and say, we're not going to do that. And that's no different than what the rock singers do, but they amplified it. That's kind of like the difference between cussing soft and cussing loudly. If I cuss softly, fewer people are offended by it. And if I cuss loudly, I'm offended more. But wrong principles are just wrong principles. And so often, we found that with the cowboy music. They would go right from a good song, right into the boogie. We heard the Sons of the Pioneers, and they're really the grandsons of the pioneers now. They're not the. And the last song of the night, I wish I could have recorded it, was an electric guitar playing beautiful chords. And I still don't know what he did. And their high tenor sang, How Great Thou Art. And it was good. It was good. I don't remember what all the other songs were. Someone took us there to hear them. And all I remember is, and I went to see that fellow. I said, is that a performance, or do you know the Lord? Are you going to stand before him, and you know you're saved and washed in the blood? And he said, yes. Now, unfortunately, his life's goal was to be in the Sons of the Pioneers, and he made it. But he said, I'm a born-again Christian. And he said, I want you to know that's the highlight of my night when I get to sing How Great Thou Art. For the crowd of people that came to hear cowboy music. Anyway. I'm trying to pick up on something a little. You got a question? How many of you have a question that you're afraid to ask? How many of you got a question that you're afraid to ask? Brother Mountain and I were talking earlier, and we were saying that when Adeline comes, things go out. But you go, wow, so that's good for us to check through. And some things can be, you know, some things like Just A Closer Walk With Thee. You heard him sing it? Beautiful, nice, right? Some things can be straightened the way they ought to be or put back where they were. But you've heard them, I mean, I heard Blessed Assurance with. Well, I think Jimmy Swaggart, I thought what Elvis was to the rock and roll group, Jimmy Swaggart was to gospel. I just see a correlation there. Now, he has another one. Maybe you should do that one before you put down your guitar. You do a correlation between. You should do that. Yeah, you just spurred a thought from me. When he's talking about Blessed Assurance, we heard, and I got a, now that we got all this computer stuff, I think I can get it on to DVD. We have to learn new words, you know. As long as we're down here, we got to get with this stuff. But this black choir sang Blessed Assurance, just beautifully. Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, I and my Savior. I'm not going to get the words right, but anyway, he said, but that's not how we like to do it. He said, now let's sing it the way we like it. And it was, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. And of course, all of it was just plain honky-tonk piano style, which doesn't make the song any more spiritual. It makes it more physically exciting, but it's the wrong kind of excitement. It's the same kind of excitement that they use in the taverns when they played the nightclub style music. But I think when we were referring to, I heard, at Christmas time, we go to several churches and put Christmas programs together. And so over the years, we heard Johnny Cash, who married into some kind of Bible family, that Carter family. They didn't sing all gospel, but they did sing gospel songs and they twanged awful, but they were, you know, and I think they tried to get Johnny to go right over the years, and I don't think they, Johnny called them the salt of the earth. That's what he said, they were the, them Carters. But we, when we heard him sing, he did not, and many, many popular singers, you'll find that the background groups are ace, A number one singers, and the musicians, they pick the best. And then the singers themselves, they can't hang on to the notes. And Johnny's one of those, Johnny Cash just never hung on to them. So he was singing a Christmas song. I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play. Every note sound like it's work to get it out. Instead of, I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols. Again, the notes are supposed to sustain unless you sing something on purpose, short or separated or staccato. Everything we sing and play is normally legato, like two legs connected, but you don't think about it. We don't walk like this, like Frankenstein. We walk normally, and we don't even think about it. Smooth. We sing connected, smooth, legato. And I never have been able to find out in Italy if it has anything to do with your legs and how they're connected, but it does mean connected in Italian. And of course, Johnny did not. He just kind of grunted every note out, and I thought, is it that much effort to sing and to hang on to? And we always said that would be just like John Wayne. If John Wayne sang, he would sound just like that. Johnny Cash, they're two of a kind. But by the way, speaking of John Wayne, some Texan he is. He was born in Ohio. What was that town, hon? And his name is what? Marion, John Wayne's first name is Marion. Anything but Sue, right? Marion what? Anderson? I don't know what her name was. Marion? Maybe it was a Polish name. So his name's Marion. It wasn't John. And John, by the way, his daughter says he got saved before he died. He was always a true, patriotic, conservative man. A good American, and not afraid to speak his mind about it in every way, but it was pretty much a deathbed conversion. But his daughter got saved, too, and said it was real. My dad got saved, so before he died, he trusted the Lord. So that was good, but Johnny Cash was just one of those that he already was not singing right, but everybody would remember his voice. A lot of the pop singers would put things into their voice so that they were memorable, and almost everything they did with their voices was a detriment to the actual vocal quality. It was not an enhancement or a help, but it marked them as being more of a one-of-a-kind type of singer. And some of them, I think, exaggerated their own. Yeah, Johnny would have, he would have. What is that song? Folsom Prison Blues, he would have sung that, and he was already doing country music with a definite backbeat, and Ring of Fire. It didn't really rock. I can't think of what some of his later hits were, even, but that's a sad thing, too. We learn music, we have learned over the generations, so much music from the people on TV and on radio, and they're not necessarily doing it right. It's just amazing. They'll do all kinds of horrible things that no voice teacher ever taught them, but they did them anyway, and no rules, you know. Amen.