It's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
And the title of my sermon this morning is The Song of Fools.
Now the first word that comes to my mind when I hear the song of fools
is where the Bible reads in Psalm 14.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
They are corrupt, they've done abominable works, there's nothing they can do with good,
and truly there is no one more foolish than those who believe that there is no God.
And the Bible tells us that we ought not hear the song of fools.
We'd be better off listening to the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.
And this morning you're going to hear the rebuke of the wise.
The Bible says preach the word, be instant in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
And I want to preach to you this morning about the subject of music because it's a vital subject.
Now if you want to turn to 1 John chapter 2,
I'm going to start out with some familiar passages of scripture that you've probably heard before
if you've been in church for any length of time.
And then I'm going to get into some other new material that you are probably not familiar with.
1 John chapter 2 verse 15, we're warned of the song of the fools.
And the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 15,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
And that's a pretty strong statement.
The Bible says verse 16, for all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life
is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world passeth away and the lust thereof,
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
So here we see a very clear dichotomy between things that are of the world
and things that are of the Father.
Today this word worldly or worldliness, it's falling out faster.
You don't hear it very often.
And oftentimes when I preach using the word worldly or worldliness,
people will mock at it and say,
What does that even mean?
And they have no idea what I'm even talking about.
You say, What does it mean to be of the world or to be worldly?
Well, let me give it to you very simply.
The opposite of being of the world is being of the Father.
So basically everything that has nothing to do with the Bible,
nothing to do with the morality that's laid out in the Bible,
nothing to do with the way that God tells us to live our life
and the things that God has told us to do
and the things that God glorifies, that's all worldliness.
That's all of the world.
People who live their life apart from this book
and apart from the teachings of this book
and that live their life according to some other code of conduct
or people who live for other pursuits in their life
rather than to glorify God, to serve God, to win souls to Jesus Christ,
those people are worldly people.
They love money.
They love pleasures, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God, the Bible says.
And the Bible tells us not to love the world
and not to love the things of the world
because they all center around three things,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
The carnal man, the man who is not the spiritual man,
his life centers around fulfilling the lust of his flesh,
the lust of his eyes, or his own pride.
We see many people today who live a hedonistic lifestyle
of gratifying the flesh.
Others that deny the flesh, not for biblical spiritual reasons,
are seeking after their own glorification and pride.
And so these three elements sum up all.
And look, I'm not the one who said all.
The Bible said all that is in the world
is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
That's everything.
That's all there is when you think you're an animal,
when you believe there's no God.
Now go to Romans chapter 12.
So first of all, we want to make sure that our music
is not worldly or of the world, and I'll get back to that.
We want to make sure it's not the song of the fool,
that it's not coming from fools.
Also, look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
The Bible reads,
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service, and watch this,
and be not conformed to this world.
Again, we see the concept of the world.
He's telling us not to be conformed or patterned after the world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Go to Ephesians 5, a few pages to the right in your Bible,
Ephesians chapter 5.
We see there are two kinds of music that we ought to avoid.
Number one, music that's of the world,
and number two, music that's conformed to the world.
Music that's produced by the world,
music that's produced by fools,
produced by ungodly, wicked people,
and music that seeks to imitate and emulate
the music that's put out by ungodly, wicked people.
We went to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,
but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to who?
The Lord.
Now tell me, which of those three things sounds like it's of the world?
Psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs?
None of it. You notice that?
No room for worldly music in the scripture.
Psalms are taken directly from the Word of God.
Hymns are hymns that are sung in praise and honor to God.
When Jesus Christ and his disciples were partaking of the last supper,
before he went into the Garden of Gethsemane,
what did they do before they left?
They sang an hymn.
And we see spiritual songs,
the opposite of which would be carnal songs,
or fleshly songs, or worldly songs.
These three types of music are the types of music
that God's people are commanded to participate and be involved in.
Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Period.
He says next,
giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm going to come back to that concept.
But you know, God is the one who gave us our voices to sing.
God is the one who gave us the intelligence
and the dexterity of our fingers or our mouths
or whatever we use to play a musical instrument.
That is why those talents and skills and abilities,
if we're thankful, if we're grateful to him,
if we're glorified,
it's going to be used to sing praises to him,
not to praise the world.
It's going to be used to praise him
if we're thankful for what he's given us
in the way of talent or abilities
that we may or may not have.
Go to Colossians chapter 3.
You're in Ephesians.
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
Just a few pages to the right of your Bible.
Look at Colossians 3.16.
I'm going to come back to that concept
of giving thanks always for all things unto God.
And remember, that follows right up after he said,
speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Look at Colossians 3.16.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another.
In what?
Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
He's saying here that music should be a tool
to let the word of God dwell in us richly
and to teach us and admonish us with biblical truths,
not to teach us and admonish us of the ways of this world.
Some fool's idea of how we should live our lives
or what love means or of what success means.
No, we need to be taught and admonished
in the ways of the Lord.
Now let me ask you this question.
It's a question that I've often pondered.
Why is it that worldly musicians
are some of the most godless, wicked people that there are?
Why is it?
Think about that for a moment.
Have you noticed that the pop stars
and the rock stars and the country western stars
are some of the most ungodly, wicked,
sick people that there are?
Why is there such an inordinate number of sodomites
amongst musicians that are lauded and lifted up by the world?
Why is there such an inordinate amount of adultery going on?
Why is there such an inordinate amount of every cent?
Drugs?
I mean, everybody thinks of rock and roll,
and what do they think of?
Drugs, a drug lifestyle.
Drinking, drunkenness, fornication.
These are the things that are associated with popular music
because of the fact that it bounds amongst these musicians.
Now doesn't it make you wonder why?
Doesn't it make you wonder, isn't it strange
that if you were to look at all the rock stars
and the popular musicians,
how few of them have been just married to one woman
and just had kids and lived a normal life?
Why are they living such a drunken,
drug-addicted, fornicating, sinful, blasphemous, godless life?
And then when you hear about one that supposedly got saved,
right, then you look at it and it's not salvation,
it's the pride of life.
It's still worldliness because it's like,
oh, I gave up this and I gave up that.
And then you look at their plan of salvation
and it's a turn from your sins salvation.
It's not a faith alone in Jesus Christ's salvation.
If you're looking for these rock stars that got saved,
go look up their testimony.
They don't believe it's by faith alone in Christ.
It's a self-glorifying pride of life salvation.
But why? Why is it?
There's got to be a reason.
Now part of it is what I preached a few weeks ago
about how the prosperity of fools will destroy them.
Yes, success and fame does destroy those who are fools.
But I think it even goes deeper than that.
Go to Romans 1.
I'll show you why I believe it is.
That musicians in this world, the pop stars, the rock stars,
and the famous musicians,
and look, I know it's on a lot of your radios.
And look, when I was a teenager, when I was a young man,
I had the CDs, I had the tapes, I had the LPs
of all of the world's music
and I'll admit it to you that I had a lot of it
and that I listened to it
and that I listened to the song of fools.
But let me tell you something.
There's a reason why these people are some of the most
wicked, ungodly people that there are.
Look if you would at Romans 1, verse 18.
Now in Romans 1, this is the famous passage
that describes a downward spiral.
How people become very vile, reprobate, sinful, sick people.
Look if you would at verse 18.
Let's start out the downward spiral.
It says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who hold the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which may be known of God
is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse.
So we haven't begun the downward spiral yet.
God's just explaining His anger and His wrath
toward unrighteousness and ungodliness.
The downward spiral begins in verse 21.
What's the first thing on the list?
Because when they knew God, what did they do wrong?
They glorified Him, not as God.
Do you see that that is the first thing
on the downward spiral
of how someone becomes an extremely wicked person,
a reprobate person?
The first thing is that they glorified Him, not as God.
Now what does that mean? Think about this.
How many times in the Bible
does the Bible tell us to glorify God,
and where does it tell us that the most?
In the book of Psalms.
In the music book of the Bible.
I'll just read if you stay in Romans 1.
But David's saying this,
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.
The glory He deserves, it says.
Bring an offering and come before Him.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Give unto the Lord.
I'm not going to give you the references for sake of time,
but I've got to attend this.
Well, I will give you the references.
Psalm 29, too.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 96, 7.
Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people.
Give unto the Lord the glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.
Bring an offering and come unto His courts.
Psalm 22, verse 23.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him.
All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him.
And fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel.
This is all from the Psalm book.
All from Psalms.
And what does it say over and over?
Glorify Him.
Give Him glory.
Glorify Him.
Psalm 50, 15.
Call upon me in the day of trouble.
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Psalm 86, 9.
All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord,
and shall glorify thy name.
I will praise thee, O Lord my God,
with all my heart,
and I will glorify thy name forever.
Psalm 29, 1.
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty.
Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Psalm 115, 1.
And here's the key verse, I think.
Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us,
but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.
So is the purpose of music to glorify self?
No.
He said, I don't want the glory.
He said, not unto us, Lord.
Don't give us the glory.
You take all the glory.
And he said it over, and that's just a sampling.
He said it over and over and over and over again.
And these worldly musicians, you know what the first thing they do is?
They get their musical instrument, they get their singing voice,
and they choose to not glorify God with it.
That's right.
And that's step one.
That's where they take their first step down that staircase
that leads to hell,
that leads to depravity,
that leads to wickedness.
Step one is they have a choice what to do with their music.
Am I going to glorify God or am I going to glorify myself?
Am I going to lift up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
or am I going to lift up myself?
And musicians are self-glorifying
when they're not glorifying God.
Who are they glorifying?
Themself.
That's the only answer.
Music brings glory to someone.
It either brings glory to God or it brings glory to you.
And that's the choice that these musicians have made the wrong choice a long time ago,
and they are way down that downward spiral.
And it all started when they didn't glorify God.
They refused to give him the glory due his name.
They refused to praise the Lord.
Instead, they glorified themselves.
That's where it started.
That's why musicians are so wicked.
You say, what are you talking about?
I remember I was talking to somebody
and this person was a fan of the group The Doors.
Who knows who The Doors are?
You know, one of the most famous rock bands
that's ever been in America.
And this person was a Christian, but they're a fan of The Doors.
You know, because a lot of people that are Christians, they still listen to worldly music.
And I remember this person had seen either a documentary or a drama.
I don't know, but it was some kind of a movie about The Doors,
showing the life story of The Doors.
And this person became angry at the documentary
and angry at the filmmaker saying,
I can't believe that they portray him as this drug addicted, you know, wicked person.
And here's what they said.
There's no way he could have been on that much drugs.
You know, if he got a music degree from UCLA
and if he produced all this great music,
there's no way he could have just been some junkie darelings.
But I've got news for you.
He was way worse than that movie portrayed him.
Way worse.
Because if that movie even came close
to even beginning to show how sick and depraved
and filthy and faggoty and sodomite
and perverse Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors was,
it would not be suitable to be viewed on any screen
anywhere in America under any rating.
It'd be porno, it'd be filth, it'd be smart.
You wouldn't even be able to get an R rating on it.
They had to tone it down so much
just to even put the movie in the theater, my friend.
Because he was such a godless, perverted, queer, wicked person.
And yet today, Christians will live.
I had the CDs when I was a teenager.
You say, what got you off that music?
Learning about the people?
Reading about their lives?
Understanding?
I remember when I first was getting rid of a lot of this bad music,
I would always be tempted to listen to it.
You know what I would do?
To resist the temptation?
I'd go research that person's life.
And it made me so sick, I was like,
I'm never listening to this music again.
You know what was really disturbing?
When I started researching the Christian rock artists,
and the Christian temporary artists,
and reading about what they say about salvation,
reading what they say about their doctrine,
reading what they say about the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it'll make you all of a sudden not like the music anymore.
When you realize where it's coming from.
But ignorance is bliss, isn't it?
Go ahead, just be ignorant.
And I'm not telling you, you shouldn't have to do the research.
Take my word for it, okay folks?
And you can just ask anybody.
You don't have to go that deep into it.
You can just ask anybody,
Hey, was Jimi Hendrix a godly man?
Was Jim Morrison a godly man?
And look, let me, listen to me.
These are some of the most famous and kind of,
and look, the Beatles, the number one most famous rock band or whatever,
they were just as bad,
they were hanging around with all these same people.
Doing the same drugs, they were all,
and look, I'm not going to sit here and try to explain to you
how they produced all this music while they were on so many drugs.
Because I don't know the answer to that.
But I don't have to explain it to you.
It's a historical fact that all of these groups
were highly influenced by drugs.
I mean, they were on an extreme, that's why they all died so young.
Because they were on so many drugs,
the miracles that they lived to be 27 years old.
That's the miracle.
Not that they died young, that they lived that long.
That's the miracle.
Because they were on so many drugs.
And you know, did you know this for example?
Did you know the Jimi Hendrix?
Did you know that he joined the military?
And you know how he got out of the military after only 10 months?
Even though he was enlisted for several years?
You know how?
By telling the psychiatrist that he was a homosexual.
Did you know that?
And by performing sick acts that got him thrown out of the military
because he didn't want to be in the military anymore.
Really godly role model, huh?
Righteous role model.
You know all his crazy clothes?
You know why they looked so crazy?
Because they were women's clothing that he was wearing.
Because he was perverted.
Because he was wicked.
Because he worshipped Satan.
Because he said his religion was voodoo, my friend.
And this is the music that we hear today on the radio.
And it's called the classic rock.
And we hear it in the gas station.
We hear it in the grocery store.
And in many cases, we hear it on Christian CD players and tape decks.
We need to stay away from this stuff.
It's ungodly.
You know, some of the pioneers of rock and roll were some of the,
I mean, Little Richard.
Just the most flaming homo.
You know, Tutti Frutti, which is a song about being queer.
That's what the song's about.
That's what the Frutti is referring to, by the way.
And how many times has that song been in a Disney movie?
And how many times has that song been sung?
And everybody in this room has probably heard that song.
A song about being a homo.
And that's out of Little Richard's own mouth saying,
that's what the song's about.
And how he had to change the lyrics in order to make that song get popularity.
Because if he just came out and expressed what the song was really about,
it would have repulsed people.
So he had to change the words of Tutti Frutti
to make it just sound like a silly little song about nothing.
Hey, I don't want to listen to songs about nothing.
I want to sing songs that are about the Lord.
Not just stuff that's about nothing.
Because, you know, it's not about nothing.
It's just about bad stuff.
And then they just don't tell you what it's about.
That's why some of the lyrics to the rock music is so weird.
The lyrics are so weird because there are people that are on drugs.
And people that are on drugs have these strange ramblings.
And that's why you have to look at songs and say,
what is this song about?
What does this even mean?
It's because they were on so many drugs, they don't even know what it means.
And when you're on drugs, you're dealing with sin.
I mean, that's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
And I can go on and on.
I'm not going to sit here and listen.
Look, I shouldn't even have to go into hip-hop music.
I mean, it's just so overtly sinful.
It just comes out and just spells out the blast.
I was driving down the road literally less than two weeks ago.
Somebody had their window down and they were bumping their music really loud.
Their hip-hop music.
And it was flat out blaspheming Jesus.
It brought up Jesus.
It brought up the cross in a derogatory way.
Blaspheming Jesus.
Attacking Jesus and then saying filthy lyrics, followed by that.
Look, the world's music is bad.
I mean, it's the worst.
And the people's lives are worse than the music.
I mean, the music is nothing compared to the people who produce it.
But, if it's coming from a wicked source,
does the fountain send forth at the same place?
Saltwater and bitter?
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries,
either a vine figs?
So can no fountain both yield saltwater and fresh.
Either make the tree good and his fruit good,
or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt.
For the tree is known by his fruits.
You don't get something good from a corrupt source and vice versa.
And even if you look at musicians that may, you know,
I don't know much about this.
I've heard that Elvis may have been saved.
You know, I've heard preachers talk about how they talked to him
and asked him about his salvation.
And he claimed to be a believer.
They believed in Jesus Christ as a young boy in a Baptist church.
But that he just went off on the wrong path and worldly...
I don't know. Is he in heaven? Is he in hell? I don't know.
There's no reason why he couldn't be in heaven.
It's not by your life that you go to heaven.
Obviously, he lived a wicked sinful life.
Maybe he's in heaven if he believed. Maybe he's not.
But let me tell you something.
He did not choose to glorify God.
He chose to glorify himself.
And even if he were saved, and I don't know whether he was or not,
but I'll tell you this, even if he were saved,
his faith was very similar to the unsaved.
Drunkenness and drug overdose, just like they all did.
He still lived a sick and godless life.
And you know what, probably the worst thing about him?
Look who his daughter married.
I mean, what does that tell you?
I mean, look, how could you be more...
OK, let's tie it.
You say, I want a Father's Day sermon. OK.
Let me tie this in.
How could you be a bigger failure as a father
than your daughter grows up and marries Michael Jackson?
I mean, could you be any...
I mean, look, if I could just think of every possible outcome
for my daughter's life,
that would be the scariest, weirdest possible...
I mean, that would be the biggest torture.
That would be just the most horrific nightmare.
Your daughter marries Michael Jackson?
I mean, that is just disgusting.
And by the way, I remember when I was a little kid,
I went to school, you know, I went to Christian school,
and I remember there was this kid on the playground
that used to grab himself inappropriately,
and we were like four or five years old.
He would grab himself inappropriately and say,
when I grow up, I'm going to be Michael Jackson.
OK, and he was like four.
This is when I was in kindergarten.
He was five, I was four, because I went a year early.
And I came home from kindergarten
as a five-year-old boy, and I told my parents,
I said, Mom, I said, this is what this kid is doing
on the playground, and he says,
I want to grow up and be Michael Jackson,
and my parents say, you need to stay away from that kid.
That's a wicked child.
Never talk to him.
Never play with him.
He is perverted, and that's what they taught him.
But notice how this little four-year-old
is already being influenced, or five.
He's already being influenced by him
to make obscene gestures, and he's going around saying,
I want to be Michael Jackson when I grow up.
Your daughter marrying Michael Jackson, Elvis,
I don't care if you think you're the king of rock and roll,
you're the king of dunces.
You're a laughing stock, Elvis.
To me, you're a fool.
You're a joke.
Your life is a joke if your daughter rises up
and marries Michael Jackson.
I'd have more respect for you if you were a pauper,
and poor, and a failure, and everybody hated your music,
and your daughter rose up
and was a godly, righteous young lady
that married an actual man with hair on his legs.
You know, I'd have more respect for you, Elvis.
And right now, I have no respect for Elvis Presley
because he failed at being a father,
and that's way more important than wowing crowds
with his wicked music and his filthy gyrations of his body
and it's obvious to me that he failed in so many ways.
He's not a success, he's a failure.
If that's a success, I want to fail.
Now, are you still in Romans 1?
Look down at Romans 1.
Now remember, they glorified him not as God.
That was step one.
Now, I'm not going to go through the whole downward spiral
for the sake of time.
I've done it many times.
But jump down to the result, the final stage.
Verse 26, for this cause,
God gave them up on the vile affections.
For even their women did change the natural use
into that which is against nature.
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use
of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another,
men with men, working that which is unseemly
and receiving themselves that recompense of their error
which is me.
And even as they did not like to retain God
in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind
to do those things which are not going to be.
Of course, he lists all the other wicked stuff they're into,
all the other attributes.
Look at verse 32, though.
Same crowd, same people,
who knowing the judgment of God,
the day which commit such things are worthy of death,
not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them.
That tells us right there that we should not take pleasure
in those that are in this sodomite, reprobate category
of men with men.
And he says, they are not glorifying God.
Don't take pleasure in them.
He says, it's wrong to do these things.
It's wrong to do drugs.
It's wrong to fornicate.
It's wrong to be a homo.
But let me tell you something.
It's wrong to take pleasure in them that do them.
And look, when you say, oh, I love the doors.
I love the beatle.
I love Britney Spears.
I love whatever the musician you want to fill in the blank.
You're taking pleasure in ungodly, wicked people
and God is commanding us not to take pleasure.
Somebody said this, love, love.
You've heard the cliche, hate the sin, love the sinner.
And by the way, that's not a verse in the Bible.
But that's a cliche that people quote all the time.
It's a lie.
It's not true, but that's what they say.
Love the sinner, hate the sinner.
Somebody told me this one time.
I reviewed their music and said, you know the guy
you're listening to sing right now is a homo?
And here's what they told me.
Come on, Steve.
Hate the sin, love the music.
Because I said, it's sodomy.
It's horrible.
Yes, the wrong music.
And that leads me into my next point.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9.
1 Corinthians 6, 9.
Leads me to my next point about music.
First of all, we saw that, and I have four points on music
that I want to express to you this morning.
Point number one was the fact that our music should not be of the world.
Basically, then what is worldliness?
Absence of anything to do with God, the Bible.
Number two, I said that the music should not be conformed to this world
or patterned after the world.
That means it shouldn't be an imitation of Little Richard and Elvis
and The Beatles and The Doors and Judy Hendricks
and whatever else you want to list.
And maybe I'm focusing on that genre of rock
because that's the most popular genre, probably, amongst Americans.
That's probably what people are most...
If you're listening to hip-hop or whatever,
I can explain all that too.
It's going to be the same story of drugs and fortification and homos.
It's going to be the same thing.
So number one, it shouldn't be of the world.
Number two, it should not be patterned after the world.
These are people that don't glorify God.
This is where they lead to.
And number three, it should not be effeminate music.
And I want to park it here for a moment.
Now notice, when you don't glorify God,
what do you eventually become at the bottom of Romans 1?
A reprobate, which is what?
A man who likes other men, right?
That's where they ended up at the end of Romans 1.
That's why there's so many homos and sodomites in the music business.
And that's why the music has become effeminate.
The clothing styles...
I alluded to Jimi Hendrix in his women's clothing video.
The clothing styles and the music have become effeminate
because these are Romans 1 musicians.
In the music store, there should be a section called Romans 1.
And actually, I'm in the whole store.
What style of music do you like?
I'm into Romans 1 music.
People that don't glorify God,
and they end up becoming queer in their music.
Okay, well, can you be a little more specific?
Because that's most of the music.
Now obviously, the word effeminate is not to be confused with the word feminine.
Now, feminine is a good word.
It's a positive word.
Feminine is when ladies act like ladies.
Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
When ladies act like ladies, that's good.
That's feminine.
Effeminate is a word that talks about men acting like ladies.
Now, is that a good thing?
No.
Absolutely not.
So don't confuse those two words.
It's not that we're against being feminine.
I'm all for being feminine if you're a woman.
But when you're a man, you ought to be masculine.
And if you're not, you're effeminate.
Now, you say, well, you know, everybody's different,
and people act differently, and not everybody's a macho man.
Not everybody's this bad dude.
You can have a little bit of difference in personality.
Okay, but wait a minute.
God flat out said that it's a sin to be effeminate in 1 Corinthians 6-9.
Now, if you have one of the modern Bible versions,
they'll take this out.
Why?
Because they're produced by effeminate people.
Not because modern-day Christianity's become effeminate.
And they'll take out this word, but it's still,
if you got a King James Bible this morning,
there it is, isn't it?
See it?
It's there, isn't it?
It says in 1 Corinthians 6-9,
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor what?
Effeminate.
Thank God no effeminate men in heaven.
Thank God.
Now, you say, wait a minute.
Are you saying that if somebody acts a little bit effeminate,
they're going to hell?
No, because it also says that no liar will enter heaven.
Obviously, those who believe on Jesus Christ,
their sins are washed away, okay?
That's not the point.
There are going to be people in heaven
who committed adultery in the past,
like, you know, King David committed adultery.
There are going to be drunks in heaven,
people that were drunks, I should say, in the past,
like Noah, who was drunken, okay?
There are going to be people in heaven who committed murder,
like Moses, like David.
People who committed sins in the past will be in heaven,
but they will no longer be a liar when they get to heaven.
They will no longer be a drunk when they're in heaven.
They will no longer be an adulterer in heaven,
and they will dead sure no longer be effeminate
when they get to heaven.
Because why?
We live in the flesh today,
and when our flesh is gone,
when we die a physical death
or when we're transformed at the rapture,
you know, we'll have a brand new body
and we will no longer deal with sin.
You know, there's none of us that's without sin, is there?
The Bible says if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not.
We all have sin.
And when we get to heaven, thank God,
we will no longer sin again.
And I've done many sermons
explaining that doctrinally and biblically.
I'm not going to go into
a long theological dissertation on that.
You can stick around for another sermon on that
some other time.
But honestly, when we get to heaven,
we won't sin anymore, okay?
Now on this earth, we still sin,
only because we're in the flesh
and there's a battle going on
between the flesh and the spirit, right?
So that's why we're in sin.
When you get to heaven,
there will be no effeminate man in heaven.
Every little sissy that was saved, okay?
And I'm not talking about homos, okay?
They're already reprobate.
They've already been turned over to reprobate mine.
But look, we've all made guys
that were not homos, but let's face it,
they were a little lean on manliness.
True or false?
True.
Okay, well guess what?
When they get to heaven,
they're going to get a big dose of manhood right away.
It's going to be like a spiritual puberty
that they go through, you know what I mean?
And they're all of a sudden,
because God doesn't tolerate
effeminate man in his presence.
He said they're not going to inherit.
You think a bunch of effeminate men
are going to be ruling in the kingdom of God?
No.
He said they will not inherit the kingdom of God.
They will not be judging and ruling
in the kingdom of God, okay?
Because he doesn't tolerate that.
That should right there tell you
this is a big sin.
Because look at the list.
He said the fornicators,
is fornication a major sin
or just a minor sin?
That a big deal?
What about idolatry?
Big sin.
What about adultery?
Big, right?
Effeminate.
Look, that's what he's saying
and in the same breath of, okay?
So we're talking about a sin.
Now, if you think about today's music, okay,
and I'm talking about the world's music,
the men who produce it,
and again, we're talking about men, not women.
The men who produce it are both effeminate
in their dress,
in their demeanor,
and in their music.
There's an effeminacy there.
Now, you say, what does it mean to be effeminate?
Well, let me help define effeminacy for you.
What are the attributes of a woman?
If you apply those attributes to a man,
you become effeminate.
Now, one of the major attributes of the Bible
are women in the Bible.
And look, don't get all feminist on me.
Don't get all eff on what I'm saying.
Look, the Bible calls women the weaker vessel.
Does it say that or not?
No.
It says, no.
Does it say we should criticize them for that?
No, it says give honor unto the white
as the weaker vessel.
So when women are weak,
there's no dishonor in that.
That's honorable.
We honor them in that
because God made them not to be this muscle-bound female,
this brawling broad, this muscular...
That's not how God designed women.
Right?
I mean, God designed women to be soft.
Anything wrong with that?
No.
Weak, soft.
These are okay things for a woman to be.
I don't expect a woman to come up here
and beat me in arm wrestling
because I've issued the challenge in many sermons.
One time I had a woman take me up on it,
and she walked down the aisle in the middle of the service
and arm wrestled me,
and actually I've had two women take me up on it now.
One of them did it after the service,
one during the service,
and both of them were defeated.
It would have to be measured in thousandths of a second.
I couldn't even tell you how many seconds
because it would just round down to zero.
So you'd have to have some kind of a precision photo finish
to know.
I mean, there's no contest.
It's not going to happen.
Why?
And it's not because I'm some kind of a bodybuilder
because I'm not.
It's just because men are stronger than women.
It's that simple.
So what I'm saying is that men who are weak
and who glorify weakness,
these are effeminate men.
That's part of it.
Part of it is putting on women's clothing.
That's another part of it.
Part of it is that women,
you know, they're very interested in decorating themselves
and being very beautiful, okay?
And that's part of being effeminate.
Now, here's the thing.
This is the fanciest suit I've ever worn in my life.
This is where I draw the line as far as being decorated up.
Now, it's only because I got this suit as a gift
for Father's Day, my wife,
because this suit needed some alterations.
Now, I bought this suit for $12.50 at a thrift store,
and this is as exotic as I get, okay?
But here's the thing.
It had the tags on it.
It was a really nice suit.
You know, I just feel like I'm going exotic
just because it's a brown suit, you know?
But here's the thing.
Ooh, living dangerous, okay?
This is wild as I get, brother.
You're not going to see me with feathers in my hair.
You're not going to see me wearing tights
and putting on a bunch of gold jewelry like Mr. T.
You're not going to see me with earrings and bracelets
and headbands and all this decoration.
You know, because I'm not that into my appearance,
my friend, because I'm a man.
I'm not trying to be pretty or beautiful.
That's not the look.
Now, look, if you're a woman
and you want to look pretty and beautiful,
hey, you're a woman.
That makes sense.
Men are not supposed to be pretty.
If you call somebody a pretty boy,
that's not a compliment.
If you say that's a pretty girl,
that is a compliment.
If somebody told me I was beautiful,
I'd be like, okay, that's sick.
But if somebody told a woman they're beautiful,
is that positive?
Do they want to hear that?
Do men want to hear that they're beautiful and pretty?
No.
So do you see how there's a difference
between men and women?
So when you've got guys that are pretty and beautiful
and weak and soft,
these men are effeminate men.
Or if they're just acting like women act.
We all know how women act versus men.
They act like women, they're feminine.
They dress like women, they're effeminate.
This is what I'm saying.
We see it today in the music
where these guys are wearing these clothes.
Many of them wear makeup, these musicians.
Or they just spend a lot of time doing their hair.
You know it's true,
that they spend all this time doing their hair,
and it's all about the hairdo,
and it's all about posing.
Any real man doesn't like to stand around posing for pictures.
I mean, we all do it, you know,
when our wife really wants that family photo.
But it's like pulling teeth to get us to do it.
Because we don't just love just,
oh, can you get a picture of me over here?
Oh, how about this?
But all the posing and creaming and crimping
and pampering of your hair and your skin
and just trying to look so perfect in the fashion,
it's feminine.
Let's face it.
And we have a feminine music.
Now, here's what I find interesting.
Go to Psalm 18.
Here's what I find interesting about this.
The worldly musicians of today,
I mean, almost the majority of them
are outright sodomites, number one.
And look, let me just explain to you real quick.
What the Bible defines as a sodomite
is different than what the world defines as a sodomite.
See, for the world to define someone as a sodomite,
they have to say,
I only like men, I don't like women.
That's what the world defines as a sodomite.
That's not what the Bible defines.
The Bible says if a man also lied with mankind,
as he lied with a woman,
even both of them have committed an abomination,
they so surely will be put to death.
So, you know, the world,
when they give you a list of homos in the music business,
they'll just give you the real obvious ones,
Ricky Martin, Elton John.
And by the way, I've been in a preschool daycare
and they were playing Ricky Martin
and playing Elton John.
It's in the Disney movie The Lion King.
Disney's as wicked as hell.
I don't know why people think that.
It just gives a free pass at the worldliness.
Okay, so you got Elton John
singing your kid to sleep at night with the Lion King.
You got Little Richard tutti frutti
in all kinds of kids' movies and so forth.
Now, these are the real obvious ones.
Nobody's going to doubt me and question me when I say,
hey, Little Richard's a homo.
Hey, you know, Elton John is a homo.
Hey, who was the one I just mentioned?
Ricky Martin, you know.
These are just the obvious, or this lead singer of REM
just flat out says, I'm a homo, you know.
Nobody's going to argue with you on those.
But it's a clear fact that all the guys
that are these macho men, you know,
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones has said
that he's been a homo.
Now look, once a homo, you're always going to be a homo.
And if you're doing both, you're a homo.
You're a sodomite.
You're sick.
There's something wrong.
And look, if we use that standard,
if we use the criteria of ever been a homo,
well, then now you're encompassing
a massive amount of the music business.
But see, the world, they want to spin the argument
in a different way.
And so we see the outright sodomites,
but even the ones who were not outright sodomites,
there's a feminacy in worldly music.
Now, I'm going to get into some areas of that.
But I find it interesting that the biggest,
most popular musicians, the number one artist today,
are effeminate men, okay?
And think about this.
There are musicians in the Bible, are there not?
Kora, Asaph, right?
But who's the number one musician in the Bible?
Hands down, 99% of people.
If I walked up to them and said,
who's the most famous musician in the Bible,
what are they going to say?
Aren't they all going to say the same thing?
I mean, yeah, there are other musicians in the Bible,
but the number one most famous musician in the Bible,
99.9% of people are going to instantly reply, David.
Now, did David write every song?
No, but when you think of the book of Psalms,
you think David.
When you think of playing a harp, you think David.
When you think of a musician singing, playing instruments,
it's David that comes to mind.
Now, isn't that an interesting coincidence?
I think not.
That the most famous worldly musicians are effeminate men,
and the number one musician in the Bible
is the manliest guy in the entire Bible.
Why did God choose,
when he wanted to lift up an example of a musician,
why did he choose the baddest dude in the whole Bible,
the toughest guy, the manliest warrior in the whole Bible,
and say, here's an example musician, guys, for you to follow,
for you to pattern yourself after.
Not some queer little sissy, but the man of war, David.
Why did he choose the manliest guy
as the patterned musician in the Bible?
Because God knew that there was a tendency
amongst musicians to be effeminate.
And look, you say, why is that?
Because they're not glorifying God, that's why.
And I already explained that,
how they went down that downward spiral.
And then, even the ones who do want to glorify God,
they pattern it after a man
who's already at the end of Romans 1.
And then when you pattern your music after effeminate music,
your music's going to be effeminate too.
So if you're going down that road to hell of Romans 1,
you're going to get effeminate.
And if you hang around those people and follow those people,
and look, I've always loved music, by the way.
I've played piano since I was a little child.
I've always walked around singing.
I've always loved music.
And you know, when I was in high school,
I wanted to join the music program and the band.
I took one look at the boys in the band, and I said, no.
And I'm not criticizing you if you were in band,
because I mean, there are normal kids in band.
But I looked at band, and I'm not criticizing you.
I'm not saying that maybe in another part of the country
it might have been different.
I'm telling you that in Roseville, California,
I looked at the kids in that band,
and there were open flaming sodomites in that band.
And there were effeminate kids, and I said,
I'm sorry, not my name.
And I loved all the instruments.
I loved it.
I would have loved the training.
I walked away from it for one simple reason.
I thought acting would be cool.
I don't do that in the drama department.
And look, I'm not against music.
I'm not against acting.
But if I'm lying, I'm dying.
You know what that drama department looks like
and what that music department looks like.
And I'm not going to get up here and sugarcoat it for you.
It's the truth.
You know it's true.
That's why God.
And why?
Because most musicians are not glorifying God.
Therefore, most musicians are effeminate.
Therefore, people are patterning it after that
because that's the big names and the stars
that they're looking to.
Now, look at Psalm 18.
I mean, we can look at any Psalm.
We can look at David's whole life.
We can look at David fighting the life
and see the man that he was.
We can look at his power and strength
that is exhibited over and over.
The man after God's own heart was a tough guy.
I mean, yeah, he had David's mighty men,
but guess what?
He was leading them all.
They respected him.
I mean, the guy whose hand claimed to the sword
as he just fought the Philistines
all day and all night.
The man who slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day.
The man who faced a lion-like man of Moab
took his own weapon out of his hand and defeated him with it.
They looked at David and said,
He's my hero.
He's the toughest guy.
They said, You're worth 10 of us.
I mean, the biggest, baddest warriors in Israel
looked at David and said, You are worth 10 of us.
That's a pretty tough guy.
I mean, tell me if this in Psalm 18 34
sounds like a sissified guy.
He teaches my hands to warp
so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.
Does that sound like a weakling?
Can you show me one verse in the Bible
that portrays David as weak and cowardly
and sissy and queer in his dress code
or in his actions? No.
You see, God purposely chose a manly person
to exhibit an example of a musician in the Bible.
He said in verse 37,
And all the psalms are like this.
I mean, I'm just reading one psalm.
They're all alike.
I mean, half of them are like this.
He says in verse 37,
I've pursued mine enemies and overtaken them.
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
I've wounded them that they were not able to rise.
They're fallen under my feet.
For thou hast girded me with strength under the battle.
Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies
that I might destroy them that hate me.
They cried, but there was none to save them,
even unto the Lord, but He answered them not.
Then that I beat them small as the dust before the wind,
I did cast them out of the dirt in the street.
And by the way, God wrote that psalm.
And He chose David to sing it.
This is not a sissified music.
This is not a sissified man.
This is nothing like the music of today.
And you see, this is written by a...
Look, we're talking about the man in the Bible
who coined the phrase,
him that pissed him against the wall.
It was David in 1 Samuel 25, 22.
It's used six times in the Bible, the number of a man,
and guess who used it first?
David.
You think he was a little sissy?
You think he was effeminate?
Because he wasn't.
He was a tough guy.
He was a manly guy.
And let me tell you something.
Effeminate music today is part of why
I'm against contemporary Christian music
above all other genres.
Now, you say, what's wrong with that?
Well, let me explain it to you this way, okay?
If you notice, there's a tendency among musicians
to be effeminate.
I already explained why,
using Romans 1 in the book of Psalms in tandem.
But not only that, there's also a tendency
amongst preachers to be effeminate.
Now, when Hollywood portrays preachers,
they're always weak, they're always soft,
they're always a sissy.
Isn't that the truth?
And whenever any preacher exhibits any kind of strength,
any kind of manliness, any kind of aggressiveness,
here's what they say.
Oh, your preachers aren't supposed to be like that.
You're supposed to be this little queer little sissy
that we tell what to do.
And they're not used to a preacher being a real man.
Why?
Because a lot of preachers are on that same Romans 1 road.
You know that's true.
Preaching a false gospel.
Part of that downward spiral
is changing the truth of God into a lie,
adding to and removing from God's Word.
You see, many false preachers today
are the ones that would fit that Romans 1 bill
that are on that road.
That's why you hear about so many of them
that are molesting and doing all that stuff.
Why?
Because many of them are on that same path that musicians.
Why?
Because, again, self-glorifying.
You get up behind the pulpit,
and you want to glorify not the Bible, not God,
but you want to make yourself look good,
just like Elvis, just like the Beatles,
just like little Richard.
Look at me, everybody.
Look at me.
And preachers want to get up,
and instead of preaching the truth,
which makes people quit the church,
which makes people hate you and revile you
and turn away from you,
they preach what people want to hear,
which glorifies who?
You don't think, hey, look,
I know how to be a public speaker.
You don't think I can get up here
and tell everybody what they want to hear and be popular?
You think it's just impossible for me
to tone down my message?
You think it's just impossible for me to censor my preaching?
You think I'm a fool?
You don't think that I know
that you can leave out the part
about pissing against the wall,
and you can leave out the part about hell,
and you can leave out the part
about being a sissy and a queer,
and you can leave out the part
that rips on public school,
and you can leave out the part
that rips on repent of your sins, false salvation?
You don't think I know what part of the sermon
to cut out to make me popular?
I don't want to be popular.
I want to preach the whole Bible,
and there are some people who still want to hear it,
but the key word is some,
and most people want to go to some,
feminine, queer little sissy church down the street.
I'm not up here to glorify myself.
I'm up here to lift up the Word of God,
and if I wanted to glorify myself,
I do like to preach it down the street
and censor my sermon,
and then I'd have people coming up to me saying,
oh, that was such a wonderful sermon.
Oh, you're such a wonderful preacher.
When I finish a sermon like this,
people walk away with their head down
and go, you want to talk to me half the time,
but it's the right sermon that you need to hear
so you can throw away your stupid door CD
and your Jimi Hendrix and your Jim Morrison
and the Beatles and throw away your rock and roll
and throw away the hip hop
and throw it away and change your life today.
You see, my pastor, when I was growing up as a teenager,
you know, he wasn't that popular either.
People didn't like him either,
but it got me to get rid of the bad music.
He got me out soul winning.
He got me to clean up my life.
He got me to stay pure.
He got me to get married as a virgin.
He got me to do what I was supposed to do.
Why?
Because he preached the truth.
He wasn't trying to glorify himself.
He wasn't trying to be a hero.
He even said, I'm not trying to be the next big name preacher.
He just said, I just want to be faithful.
I just want to preach everything the Bible says
and do what I'm supposed to do.
And so preachers can choose the same choice
that musicians have to choose.
Glorify God by preaching every word, popular or not,
or glorify self by,
oh, we just got a new $10 million building.
Look at my Rolls Royce in front.
Look at my Buick.
Look at my Cadillac out there.
Look at my car that's held together with bailing wire.
Go look at it.
I sewed it like a seamstress in the front to keep the bumper on.
Because that's not what it's about, my friend.
It's not about impressing you.
You're not impressed by my car?
You're not impressed by all the throngs
and thousands of people that want to hear me preach, huh?
You're not impressed?
You are not to be impressed.
Go out soul winning and above, the preaching's working.
People are getting saved.
The preaching's working.
People are getting the garbage music out of their life.
The preaching's working.
It's not about me being cool and popular.
It's about people doing what the Bible says
because they heard a leather-long preacher
get up and preach about it.
That's what it's about.
It's not about some fan club.
So we see effeminate preachers, don't we?
We've all seen the sissified,
effeminate, lavender-tie-wearing preachers.
Okay?
Because they are down this same path of Romans 1.
That's why they're like that.
That's why they're sissies.
Don't trust some sissy preacher,
and don't trust sissy musicians.
And if you're a musician or you're a preacher, be a man.
Now, let me go into specifically,
and I know it's late, but you know what?
You need to listen to this sermon.
I need to finish this sermon
because some of you won't be back tonight,
so you need to hear it right now.
It's true.
Now listen to me.
I'm not cutting this one short.
Let me tell you something.
The reason that the music is effeminate,
I explained to you why the musicians get effeminate,
and false religions, they breed effeminacy also.
And that's why this Christian contemporary music
has got to be one of the most effeminate styles of music theory.
I remember when the Backstreet Boys first came out,
and NSYNC came out,
and that was the big craze, the new sound.
Who remembers that time when those bands came out?
The boy bands came on the scene, and that was the new sound?
And my brother Clint told me, he said,
you know, he said, Steve,
he said, the world's all excited about this new style of music,
but he said, it's really not new, because he said,
it's just Christian rock.
He said, we've been listening to this,
he said, we've been hearing this same sound for years and years.
And he said, if you listen to Backstreet Boys and NSYNC,
it's exactly what Christian rock was doing several years ago.
And he said, they think it's a new sound.
We've been listening to this queer, effeminate sound.
It's the same thing.
And when he said that, it's just the life aware.
I'm like, you're right.
It's exactly what it sounds like.
And today, you go to independent fundamental Baptist churches even,
and they're patterning it after the charismatics,
they're patterning it after false religion.
And here's what you hear as music.
Not the type of music that's in the book of Psalms,
and sometimes they'll even take the Psalms
and take part of it and put it to music,
but they never do the whole psalm,
and they never do anything negative.
They always do the parts of the psalm that are only the positive,
so they don't get a balance.
Here's how they'll sing.
This is the style.
And you say, well, Pastor Anderson,
how can you preach against a certain singing style?
Well, let me do so right now.
First of all, three times in the Bible,
the Bible tells us to sing loud.
Right?
Have anybody seen those verses before?
Like, for example, singing to him a new song
skillfully with a loud noise.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth.
Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise.
Did you hear that?
Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise.
Nowhere in the Bible do you see people admonished
to sing quietly.
You see people admonished to sing loud several times.
Now, here's the thing about that.
If you have a PA, and I'm not against amplification,
I'm not against a microphone or an amplifier,
because obviously if you have a really big crowd,
you know, someday I may preach with a sound system.
You're like, no, you won't.
You know what?
Fine.
Let's do it then.
But let me tell you something.
When you see a microphone,
what a microphone allows you to do, though,
it allows you to be very, very soft
and still be heard.
Nothing wrong with a microphone used
to amplify mute instruments or amplify singing.
But what a microphone allows you to do
is to sing very softly,
like you're whispering in someone's ear, right?
Now, everybody knows what it's like
to whisper in someone's ear.
Everybody knows what it's like
to talk very softly, don't they?
Now, in a crowd like this,
if I talked very softly or whispered in your ear
from behind the pulpit, you're not going to hear me,
especially when musical instruments play.
But what microphones and amplifiers
have allowed people to do,
and again, nothing wrong with microphones and amplifiers,
but what they've allowed people to do
is turn the volume way up
and turn the volume of their voice.
And they use what my pastor in California
used to affectionately call the bedroom voice.
And look, this is real, friends.
What I'm saying is real, and you know it's real.
They use a voice that's the type of voice
that would be used between husband and wife
in the bedroom,
and that's the voice that they use to sing,
a very intimate whisper in your ear,
close your eyes.
I mean, we've all seen it, right?
Close your eyes and just whisper into the microphone
like they're talking to their love.
Guess what? I'm not your love, you queer little geek.
I'm not your freak.
I don't want you in my bedroom.
But they bring that bedroom voice,
and they get up, and instead of singing
with a loud voice, as the Bible says,
loud voice, sing it out, loud voice.
He didn't say, sing quiet.
You know, be in love with that microphone.
You know, that's not what he said.
It's not in Scripture.
And I'm not making this stuff up.
It's Bible.
And literally, this is what you hear.
When you come to Faithful Word Baptist Church,
what do you hear?
To God be the glory, great thing.
And then what do you hear in these?
Refiners fight.
My heart's one desire.
Right?
Basically, it's this crooning, love-valid style,
bedroom style.
And they're not making melody to the Lord with that.
There's sin in their heart, and you know it.
There's self-glorifying in their heart.
There's sensuality.
Where do you get the sensuality?
Well, did you memorize James chapter 3?
This wisdom descenteth not from above,
but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
This devilish, sensual music
that gets right into your comfort zone.
You ever talk to people,
and they get a little too close to you,
and you start backing away?
Right?
But you know what?
When guys are flirting with girls,
guess what that's what they do.
And when girls are flirting with guys,
guess that's what they do.
They get in your comfort zone, don't they?
And it's flirtatious.
And when people do that to you,
you step away and say,
hey, you know, stay out of my space.
Stay out of my comfort zone.
Well, you know, it's an audible
getting in your comfort zone,
whispering in your ear type of a singing,
queer, weak singing.
Now look, if you didn't have a microphone,
you wouldn't even be able to do that weak kind of singing.
And some of these churches,
if you can't control the people,
first of all, you shouldn't even have
these types of people singing.
And by the way,
we don't even have special music.
We only have congregational singing.
Part of it is because guess what?
If there are any queer little sissies
that are trying to sing in their little bedroom voice,
we won't even hear them.
Because I'm going to be right next to them singing.
Praise the Lord!
Glad to be here.
You know, I'm being,
obviously I'm kidding, I'm being extreme.
But I'm going to be singing so loud,
we're going to drown you out
with a man singing.
Now look, obviously women are not in danger
of being effeminate,
but let me tell you something,
women should sing with a loud voice too.
Why?
Because they ought not sing
with a seductive, sensual bedroom voice either.
Everybody needs to sing with a loud voice.
Not this self-glorifying,
and look, I've even been in places
where people were going to sing a song,
and I even said,
hey, I said, hey,
somebody was about to go on stage
at a church and sing,
and I said to this person,
it was somebody that I knew,
and I said, hey, I said,
why don't you hang that self-glorifying voice
and why don't you just sing the song to God
instead of trying to self-glorify?
And the person took the advice and said,
you know what, you're right.
And they went out and they sung the song right.
I mean, how many times have we heard
the Star Spangled Banner?
Not to glorify the nation.
You know, however you feel about that song
or the concept of glorifying the nation,
that song is not usually sung to glorify the nation.
It's sung to glorify the singer.
It's like that instrument that they first invented,
when they first invented the,
what's that thing called?
Theremin.
Yeah, the theremin.
It's like they're turning their voice
into like a theremin or something.
You know.
It's like you're tuning it in or something.
You know, because they won't just sing it.
They have to just look at me.
Look at me.
Wow, everybody see me?
And that's why this isn't Star Search Baptist.
That's why this isn't American Idol Baptist.
That's why we do congregational singing.
Because we're not trying to make certain people shine.
We want the Lord to shine.
We want Jesus to shine.
We want the word of God to shine.
That's why we want everyone singing.
We don't want to just hear one voice.
And you say, well, I sure hear your voice.
OK, show me my microphone.
Show me my sound system.
You know why you hear my voice?
Because I'm singing as loud as I can.
And if all other 75 people that are here
were singing as loud as they could,
you wouldn't hear my voice that loud, would you?
You're hearing it because I'm singing loud.
There's nothing up the sleeve, folks.
I don't have a sound system.
I'm just singing.
This is my sound system.
And it's the same one you've got.
We've all got it.
And I'm not the most powerful singer on the planet
by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm a preacher first, singer 14th.
And let me tell you something.
I can sing loud.
It's just because I want to sing loud.
It's because I'm just praising God.
I'm just putting everything I've got into it.
It's not about me shining or you shining.
And the same thing with the musical instruments.
I like to give everybody a take.
We don't just put the best musicians up here,
the best musicians.
You know what we put up here?
People who want to play the music.
And honestly, when I see someone trying to learn the music,
I want them up here playing the piano, playing the organ.
I don't care if they're the best.
I just want them to praise God.
I just want them to be real.
And that's why you'll see different people on the piano,
different people on the organ.
You say, well, why would you have them play
when so-and-so is better?
You know why?
Because I don't want to glorify so-and-so.
I want everybody to get a chance.
I want everybody to use their talents and abilities
for the Lord.
And to me, I just want to hear a joyful noise.
I just want to hear this skillful playing.
But you know what?
If it's simple, if it's a beginner, if it's a child,
my Seth Solomon was playing the organ.
Sounds great.
Is he the greatest organist on the planet?
You know what?
When God looks down, he thinks so.
And you know what?
Brother Garrett has just started learning on the organ
and working with the organ.
He's done piano in the past.
He's gained some skills on the organ.
You know what?
Sounds great to me hearing Brother Garrett play the organ,
hearing my Seth Solomon play the organ,
hearing Matt Adams on the organ,
hearing anybody on the organ.
Why?
Because they have people who love God.
That's what matters.
And I'm not trying to glorify them.
Ooh, I want to impress visitors
with our astounding musical skill and ability.
No, we're actually just seeing from the heart,
praising God and trying to play skillfully
and praise the Lord on an instrument of 10 strings
is what we're trying to do.
And that's what it always ought to be about.
And I am going to skip my last point
because I got this long, really involved point
on the last point, but I had to get that part in.
All that to say this.
You need to examine yourself on music.
You know, you need to examine yourself.
What kind of music are you spending your life listening to?
And you know what?
In America today, almost everybody has an interest in music.
There's very few people that you meet
that have zero interest in music.
Okay, you're the expert.
But there are very few people that you meet
that don't have an interest in music.
Most people are either listening to music,
playing music, singing, performing music.
You know what?
You ought to stop and say, wait a minute.
Am I singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?
Am I glorifying God?
What is the purpose of learning how to play an instrument?
What is the purpose of me singing?
What is the purpose?
The purpose is to bring glory to God,
and any other purpose is a wrong purpose.
And if you're listening to these ungodly musicians,
they're going to influence you wrongly.
They're going to take you down the wrong path,
and they're going to cause your singing and your music
to start to be patterned after wicked people.
Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, dear God,
and we thank you for the gift of music,
and I love music, and I thank you so much
for giving us people with a musical ability
and giving us, even the least of us, the ability to sing
and the ability to enjoy music.
But Father, please help us to turn around
and be grateful and thankful for that
by using it to honor and glorify you,
not using it to honor and glorify self.
And Father, thank you for all the fathers
that are in the service today
and help them to understand how important their job is
as a father and to guide their children
and bring them up with the nurture and admonition of the Lord
and to guide them musically and to guide them spiritually.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.